Human spaceflight – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Human spaceflight (or manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is space travel with humans aboard spacecraft. When a spacecraft is manned, it can be piloted directly, as opposed to machine or robotic space probes controlled remotely by humans or through automatic methods on board the spacecraft.

Humans have been continually present in space for 700113000000000000013years and 700174000000000000074days on the International Space Station. The first manned spaceflight was launched by the Soviet Union on 12 April 1961 as a part of the Vostok program, with cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard.

Currently, only Russia and China maintain human spaceflight capability independent of international cooperation. As of 2013, human spaceflights are only launched by the Soyuz program conducted by the Russian Federal Space Agency and the Shenzhou program conducted by the China National Space Administration. The United States lost human spaceflight launch capability upon retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.

In recent years there has been a gradual movement towards more commercial means of spaceflight. The first private human spaceflight took place on 21 June 2004, when SpaceShipOne conducted a suborbital flight. A number of non-governmental startup companies have sprung up, hoping to create a space tourism industry. NASA has also tried to stimulate private spaceflight through programs such as Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) and Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS). With its 2011 budget proposals released in 2010,[1] the Obama administration moved towards a model where commercial companies would supply NASA with transportation services of both crew and cargo to low Earth orbit. The vehicles used for these services would then serve both NASA and potential commercial customers. NASA intended to spend $6 billion in the coming years to develop commercial crew vehicles, using a model similar to that used under COTS.[2]

The first human spaceflight took place on 12 April 1961, when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made one orbit around the Earth aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft, launched by the Soviet space program. Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space aboard Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. Both spacecraft were launched by Vostok 3KA launch vehicles. Alexei Leonov made the first spacewalk when he left Voskhod 2 on 8 March 1965. Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to do so on 25 July 1984.

The United States became the second nation to achieve manned spaceflight with the suborbital flight of astronaut Alan Shepard aboard Freedom 7 as part of Project Mercury. The spacecraft was launched on 5 May 1961 on a Redstone rocket. The first U.S. orbital flight was that of John Glenn aboard Friendship 7, launched 20 February 1962 on an Atlas rocket. From 1981 to 2011, the U.S. conducted all its human spaceflight missions with reusable space shuttles. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983. Eileen Collins was the first female shuttle pilot, and with shuttle mission STS-93 in 1999 she became the first woman to command a U.S. spacecraft.

China became the third nation to achieve human spaceflight when Yang Liwei launched into space on a Chinese-made vehicle, the Shenzhou 5, on 15 October 2003. The flight also made China the third nation to have launched its own manned spacecraft using its own launcher. The first Chinese woman, Liu Yang, was launched in June 2012 aboard Shenzhou 9. Previous European (Hermes) and Japanese (HOPE-X) domestic manned programs were abandoned after years of development, as was the first Chinese attempt, the Shuguang spacecraft.

The farthest destination for a human spaceflight mission has been the Moon. The only manned missions to the Moon have been those conducted by NASA as part of the Apollo program. The first such mission, Apollo 8, orbited the Moon but did not land. The first Moon landing mission was Apollo 11, during whichon 20 July 1969Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to set foot on the Moon. Six missions landed in total, numbered Apollo 1117, excluding Apollo 13. Altogether 12 men walked on the Moon, the only humans to have been on an extraterrestrial body. The Soviet Union discontinued its program for lunar orbiting and landing of human spaceflight missions in 1974 when Valentin Glushko became General Designer of NPO Energiya.[3]

The longest single human spaceflight is that of Valeriy Polyakov, who left Earth on 8 January 1994, and did not return until 22 March 1995 (a total of 437 days 17 hr. 58 min. 16 sec.). Sergei Krikalyov has spent the most time of anyone in space, 803 days, 9 hours, and 39 seconds altogether. The longest period of continuous human presence in space is 700113000000000000013years and 700174000000000000074days on the International Space Station, exceeding the previous record of almost 10 years (or 3,634 days) held by Mir, spanning the launch of Soyuz TM-8 on 5 September 1989 to the landing of Soyuz TM-29 on 28 August 1999.

For many years beginning in 1961, only two countries, the USSR (later Russia) and the United States, had their own astronauts. Citizens of other nations flew in space, beginning with the flight of Vladimir Remek, a Czech, on a Soviet spacecraft on 2 March 1978. As of 2010[update], citizens from 38 nations (including space tourists) have flown in space aboard Soviet, American, Russian, and Chinese spacecraft.

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Human spaceflight - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Christian Vazquez, Bryce Brentz Among Red Sox Prospects Eyeing 2014 MLB Debut

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The future is rapidly approaching for many of the Red Sox top prospects. Boston is holding its 2014 Rookie Program this week, in which 10 of the organizations top prospects will participate in workouts and seminars focused on easing each players transition to the major league level. Its obviously not a guarantee that any of the players participating in the program will make their way to The Show in 2014, but the camp typically involves players who are believed to be 12- to 18 months away from making the majors.

Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley Jr. two players expected to be in the Red Sox 2014 Opening Day lineup participated in the Rookie Camp last offseason and made their major league debuts in 2013.

The complete list of 2014 Rookie Camp participants can be seen at the link below. But with the program in full swing, this seems like a good time to look at which players in the Red Sox organization could make their MLB debuts in 2014. Lets sort them according to their odds of being called up at some point this year.

(Bogaerts, Rubby De La Rosa, Allen Webster and some others technically can be considered prospects, but lets focus on those who have yet to taste the majors.)

Strong chance of making MLB debut in 2014

Christian Vazquez, C

Christian Vazquezs rocket arm turned heads at spring training last year, and the Red Sox have high hopes for both him and fellow catching prospect Blake Swihart. Swihart is a year or two away from breaking into the majors, but Vazquez is on the cusp of a call-up and could find himself in The Show at any moment. The Red Sox were reluctant to give Jarrod Saltalamacchia or any other catcher a multiyear contract this offseason because they view Vazquez and Swihart as their future catching tandem.

Vazquez spent most of his 2013 season with Double-A Portland, where he threw out a league-best 47 percent of would-be base stealers. The 23-year-old also made strides offensively, hitting .289 with a .376 on-base percentage in 96 Eastern League games. A.J. Pierzynski and David Ross are penciled in as Bostons two major league catchers for 2014, but both are aging veterans and Ross has a concussion history. Vazquez could find himself in the majors if either gets hurt, although the Red Sox would need to clear a spot on the 40-man roster to call him up.

Vazquez is one of this years Rookie Camp participants.

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Christian Vazquez, Bryce Brentz Among Red Sox Prospects Eyeing 2014 MLB Debut

Dress Hybrids: How Julia Roberts, Emma Watson Broke the Red Carpet Mold

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Jan 14, 2014 11:36am

ABC News Taylor Behrendt and Tara Berardi report:

The Golden Globes red carpet was packed with some major fashion show-stoppers, but two unique looks in particular had heads turning and people talking.

The first was Harry Potter starlet Emma Watson, stunning the crowd in a peek-a-boo pant number by Christian Dior.

Cameron Silver, owner of Decades in Los Angeles, notes that Watson has rocked the pants look before and says we should expect to see it even more in the future.

What I loved about Emma Watsons look is that she looked demure from the front, but gave us complete drama in the back, Silver told ABC News, adding this style could be a hint of what might be seen next week in Paris at the couture shows. I think this is a very modern, fresh perspective on how to dress. This was definitely the intention of the look.

RELATED: Inside Julia Roberts Golden Globes Prep

The other hybrid that had tongues wagging was Julia Roberts Dolce and Gabbana number, which was designed just for her. The belted and bejeweled part dress and part blouse ensemble caused a frenzy online.

This year she gave us a new idea and I think a lot of people were surprised, said Silver. But shes a trendsetter in her own non-fashionista way. Shes never a fashion victim. She wears what she likes and Dolce and Gabbana custom-made this look for her and I thought it was really flattering.

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Dress Hybrids: How Julia Roberts, Emma Watson Broke the Red Carpet Mold

OIG: NASA’s Strategic Sourcing Program: NASA’s Strategic Sourcing Efforts Are Disjointed and Incomplete

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NASA Inspector General Paul Martin today released a report that examines NASA's "strategic sourcing" efforts. Overall, the Federal Government spends more than $500 billion annually to buy products and services in a highly decentralized manner, resulting in wasteful spending. As a result, Federal agencies have been directed to practice strategic sourcing and consolidate their spending, either by centralizing their contracting decisions or by using government-wide contracts to lower prices and reduce administrative duplication.

The Office of Inspector General found that despite a 7-year effort, NASA has failed to develop a robust, Agency-wide strategic sourcing program, thereby missing opportunities to maximize savings by aggregating its purchasing power and market position when procuring goods and services, such as office supplies and domestic delivery services. While NASA established a Strategic Sourcing Program as required by a 2005 Office of Management and Budget memorandum, it has never conducted a comprehensive, Agency-wide spend analysis to identify commodities that could benefit from a more strategic procurement approach. Further, although NASA performed limited spend analyses on individual commodities, it has not established requirements regarding how such analyses should be developed, analyzed, and used. While NASA officials said they have realized savings under specific strategic sourcing initiatives, NASA does not track its Agency-wide strategic sourcing efforts and therefore was unable to determine the extent of any efficiencies or cost savings.

The OIG made six recommendations to strengthen NASA's Strategic Sourcing Program and the Agency concurred or partially concurred with four. The Agency disagreed with a recommendation to perform a comprehensive spend analysis of all procurement activities across NASA. However, the OIG continues to believe that NASA would benefit from such an Agency-wide analysis and therefore the recommendation remains unresolved. NASA also disagreed with our recommendation to incorporate into Agency policy the use of strategic sourcing initiatives to the maximum extent possible. Similarly, because we continue to believe that NASA would benefit from adopting policy requiring the use of strategic sourcing initiatives, the recommendation remains unresolved.

The full report can be found on the OIG's website at http://oig.nasa.gov/ under "Reading Room" or at the following link: http://oig.nasa.gov/audits/reports/FY14/IG-14-010.pdf

Excerpts:

Because NASA has failed to develop a robust, Agency-wide strategic sourcing program over the past 7 years, it has missed opportunities to maximize savings by aggregating the Agency's substantial purchasing power and market position when procuring commodities. This resulted from the poor development and implementation of an Agency-wide plan as well as limited Agency-wide communication and senior-level management commitment. While NASA established a plan to manage its strategic sourcing program as required by OMB's 2005 memorandum, the Agency never conducted a comprehensive Agency-wide "spend analysis" to identify additional commodities that could benefit from a more strategic approach to procurement. Further, while NASA performed limited spend analyses on several individual commodities, the Agency did not establish requirements regarding how the analysis should be developed, analyzed, and used. While NASA officials informed us that they have realized savings with regard to specific strategic sourcing initiatives, the Agency does not track Agency-wide strategic sourcing efforts to maximize potential cost savings. As a result, NASA was unable to demonstrate the extent of efficiency or cost savings achieved through its Strategic Sourcing Program.

According to Headquarters Procurement guidance, the primary goal of NASA's Strategic Sourcing Program is "to establish a process that enables NASA to strategically acquire products and services common across the Agency, Centers, or organizations to support the Agency's mission in a more effective and efficient manner."12However, poor development of an Agency-wide plan, coupled with the insufficient implementation of key aspects of that plan, has significantly impaired NASA's Strategic Sourcing Program. NASA developed the Program plan to begin with the analysis of the Agency's procurement activities (spend analysis), carry through contract award and management, and end with measurement of performance results. However, NASA failed to follow critical elements of its plan - specifically, the spend analysis and performance measurement. In addition, limited direction to and communication with its decentralized procurement community regarding strategic sourcing initiatives, coupled with a historic culture of autonomy among the Centers, has resulted in the insufficient implementation of strategic sourcing across NASA.

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OIG: NASA's Strategic Sourcing Program: NASA's Strategic Sourcing Efforts Are Disjointed and Incomplete

NASA TV News Conference, Media Availability with Next Space Station Crew

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The next International Space Station crew, which includes NASA astronaut Steve Swanson, will take part in a NASA Television news conference and then be available for media interviews Wednesday, Jan. 22, at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Swanson and cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian Federal Space Agency will launch to the space station aboard a Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft March 25 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as part of Expedition 39. Swanson will serve as commander for Expedition 40 beginning in May. They are scheduled to return to Earth in September.

The news conference with the crew members will be carried live on NASA TV at 1 p.m. CST. B-roll video of the crew will air beginning at 12:30 p.m. Reporters who wish to participate by telephone should call Johnson's newsroom at 281-483-5111 no later than 12:45 p.m. Those following the briefing on social media can ask questions using the hashtag #askNASA.

After the news conference, interview opportunities are available in person, by phone or through the Internet. To request credentials to attend in person or to reserve an interview opportunity, media must contact Johnson's newsroom by 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17. The deadline for international journalists to attend in person has passed.

Swanson was born in Syracuse, N.Y., and grew up in Steamboat Springs, Colo. He holds degrees from University of Colorado, Florida Atlantic University and Texas A&M University. Swanson worked as a NASA systems engineer and flight engineer for the Shuttle Training Aircraft before being selected as an astronaut in 1998. Since then, he has flown on two space shuttle missions, STS-117 and STS-119, to the space station and conducted four spacewalks. Swanson's hobbies include backpacking, camping, trail running and mountain biking.

The Expedition 39-40 crew members will be the first to share their final weeks of mission preparations and their flight experiences on Instagram. Those interested can follow along at:

http://instagram.com/internationalspacestation

For Swanson's full biography, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/1bEdIAJ

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NASA TV News Conference, Media Availability with Next Space Station Crew

NASA Sets Coverage Schedule for TDRS-L/Atlas V Launch Events

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NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-L (TDRS-L) is scheduled to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket Thursday, Jan. 23, from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The 40-minute launch window extends from 9:05 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. EST.

Prelaunch media briefings and launch commentary coverage will be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

The TDRS-L spacecraft is the second of three new satellites designed to ensure vital operational continuity for NASA by expanding the lifespan of the fleet, which consists of eight satellites in geosynchronous orbit. The spacecraft provide tracking, telemetry, command and high bandwidth data return services for numerous science and human exploration missions orbiting Earth. These include NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station. TDRS-L has a high-performance solar panel designed for more spacecraft power to meet the growing S-band communications requirements.

NASA will host a number of prelaunch activities at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Tuesday, Jan. 21

-- 1 p.m.: Prelaunch news conference on NASA TV at the Kennedy Press Site

Wednesday, Jan. 22

-- 9 a.m.: Transportation to Atlas V launch vehicle rollout departs the Kennedy Press Site parking lot (not on NASA TV)

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NASA Sets Coverage Schedule for TDRS-L/Atlas V Launch Events

NASA Global Hawk ready for atmospheric chemistry study

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3 hours ago NASA Global Hawk 872 carries the Hawkeye sensors on wing-mounted pylons during a checkout flight of ATTREX instruments. Credit: NASA / Tom Miller

A NASA Global Hawk recently completed a checkout flight of science instruments in preparation for a study of the moisture and chemical composition of the stratosphere over the western Pacific Ocean.

In December, Global Hawk 872 flew more than six hours in restricted airspace during the checkout flight near Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The flight was the first for a Global Hawk to carry instruments in pods hung on wing-mounted pylons. The pods carried the Hawkeye cloud particle probe instrument. Hawkeye is one of 13 sensors installed in the unmanned Global Hawk for the Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment (ATTREX) mission that begins later this month from a base on Guam.

The Dec. 20 checkout flight was the 29th Global Hawk project flight for 2013, bringing the yearly total of flight hours to 476. Last year also saw a number of firsts for NASA's Global Hawk project including flying new sensors, initial operation of a ground control station at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, the deployment of both Global Hawks to Wallops, flying over a foreign country (Canada) and carrying an instrument in wing-mounted pods.

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Starting this month, NASA will send a remotely piloted research aircraft as high as 65,000 feet over the tropical Pacific Ocean to probe unexplored regions of the upper atmosphere for answers to how a warming climate is changing ...

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NASA Global Hawk ready for atmospheric chemistry study

NASA’s Commercial Crew Partners Aim to Capitalize, Expand on 2013 Successes in 2014

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Several companies, working closely with NASA, ended 2013 with an impressive string of achievements to build on in 2014 as the American aerospace industry continues to develop and demonstrate commercial human spaceflight capabilities with the potential to support both commercial and government customers.

The year will be pivotal for NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP) as the agency looks to announce one or more awards by August for Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts that would lead to operational crewed flights to the International Space Station. NASA intends to use new commercial systems to fly U.S. astronauts to and from the station within the next three years.

NASA's industry partners are pursuing ambitious milestones this year as CCP moves forward. The partners are Blue Origin of Kent, Wash.; The Boeing Company of Houston; Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) of Sparks, Nev.; and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif.

Milestones planned by the companies include sophisticated software demonstrations, a free flight to evaluate a vehicle in a simulated space environment and launches to test the first of a new generation of launch abort systems. The goal of CCP is to develop a new generation of U.S. human transportation systems capable of delivering humans to low-Earth orbit from American soil.

"Our partners have steadily moved pieces from the drawing boards and computer screens to factory floors and test stands across the country," said Kathy Lueders, acting manager of CCP. "The new year offers exciting opportunities for these companies to demonstrate the reach and potential of their hard-earned innovations."

Blue Origin test-fired its BE-3 engine in 2013. It plans this year to review its assembly of a sub-scale propellant tank and conduct a review of the space vehicle's subsystems design.

With the completion of a detailed design review in 2013, Boeing continued to develop its spacecraft, the CST-100, confirming in this review the service module propulsion system was ready to move into the next phases: production and integration with the CST-100 spacecraft.

Boeing's certification plan for the CST-100 detailed several aspects of its development and operation, including plans for testing components and systems along with the spacecraft as a whole -- a plan that takes the spacecraft through development to the launch pad and on to mission operations.

"Boeing's goal is to develop a safe and reliable commercial space transportation system and these reviews are vital to meet that goal," said Gennaro Caliendo, NASA's Integration Team lead for Boeing. "They help ensure that the spacecraft and its myriad systems will work together to accomplish challenging missions, which require the utmost attention to detail."

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Researchers Made An Edible Battery Out Of Ink

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A team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon have developed a biodegradable battery derived from cuttlefish ink.

The Carnegie Mellon team has developed the battery and tested its power storage capacities, but no one has taken the big swallow yet. "I'm thinking about doing it at some point," said Professor Christopher Bettinger, one of the researchers.

The team's findings were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (paywall).

The battery could be used to make new medicine delivery systems for drugs that are currently administered as shots. "One of the first applications that we think is going to be interesting is in controlled release," said Bettinger. "Delivering drugs through the oral route can overcome a lot of the challenges that people have with injections."

The biodegradable battery could be used to create controlled release devices that can be swallowed like a pill, but would be able to release medicine after passing through the stomach. Many drugs cannot be taken orally, because they would be destroyed before they could be useful.

Now that the prototype battery has been created, the team is working on delivery systems for specific medical applications. The batteries could power devices that are able to sense where they are in the digestive tract, and deliver things like vaccines or arthritis drugs.

Bettinger explains that these batteries aren't optimized for power density or the ability to be recharged, but rather for bio-compatibility. The sodium-ion batteries are made from melanin and manganese oxide, which break down into nontoxic components. The melanin is derived from cuttlefish ink.The Carnegie Mellon team was interested in using naturally occurring melanin thanks to its "disordered, semi-conducting" nano structure. They found that natural melanin, which is also found in the human body in lower concentrations, has a higher charge storage capacity than lab-made melanin.

Although this battery is made from bio-compatible materials, it may pass through the digestive system without breaking down because the battery doesn't deteriorate particularly quickly. "It's on the order of weeks or months," said Bettinger.

The biodegradable battery makes edible electronics safer for use in the body than conventional batteries. "If it gets stuck in the body, it's not a big deal," he said.

The team is also continuing to research melanin's electro-conductive properties. "If we can understand that process with a higher degree of certainty, then maybe we can engineer new materials that have more interesting properties."

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Researchers Made An Edible Battery Out Of Ink

Indian-American named member of Chinese Academy of Sciences

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Washington, Jan 15:

An eminent Indian-American scientist and President of the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University in the US has been named a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Subra Suresh has been recognised for his scientific contributions in materials science and engineering, including his work connecting nano-mechanical cell structure to disease states, the university said in a statement.

Membership in the Chinese Academy of Sciences is the highest academic honour offered for science and technology in China. Only nine foreign members were inducted this year.

Suresh was also honoured for his leadership in building a worldwide scientific and engineering research dialogue through the Global Research Council, which he helped to found as Director of the US National Science Foundation.

The council will have its annual meeting in Beijing in May 2014.

He will be recognised during the Chinese Academys General Assembly scheduled for June in Beijing, it said.

Suresh is CMUs second faculty member to be recognised with the title. The late Herbert Simon was elected to it in 1994.

(This article was published on January 15, 2014)

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Indian-American named member of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Research Advancements Made in Diabetes-Induced Blindness

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Newswise LOS ANGELES (January 15, 2014) Investigators at the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute have identified new molecular abnormalities in the diabetic cornea that could contribute to eye problems in affected patients. With this new knowledge, investigators aim to accelerate the process of healing and repair in damaged corneas to ultimately reverse the effects of diabetes-induced eye complications.

We observed small but significant changes in the gene expressions between normal and diabetic corneas, said Mehrnoosh Saghizadeh Ghiam, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical sciences and neurosurgery, a researcher in the Regenerative Medicine Institute Eye Program and the lead author of the study published in the journal PLOS ONE. These slight alterations may contribute to disease progression and cause cascading effects on the cellular functions that prevent wound healing and eventually contribute to vision impairment.

Diabetes is a systemic disease affecting all parts of the body, including the eye and may lead to vision loss. Roughly 50 to 70 percent of diabetic patients suffer from corneal complications that include alterations in vital corneal stem cells, causing lasting defects and eventually, vision impairment.

Investigators identified gene expression regulators, microRNAs, in normal and diabetic human corneas. They then successfully confirmed that several of these regulators were expressed differently in the diabetic corneas. These differently expressed microRNAs may contribute to stem cell and epithelial (tissue cells) abnormalities in diabetic corneas. Researchers are working on the manipulation of these microRNAs by gene therapy to normalize these corneas.

No previous studies have addressed the role of microRNAs in the corneas of patients with diabetes, said Alexander Ljubimov, PhD, director of the Eye Program at the Regenerative Medicine Institute and co-author of the paper. This first-of-a-kind study will allow researchers to better understand the roles of microRNAs in corneal diseases.

The study was conducted by a team of Cedars-Sinai researchers including Saghizadeh Ghiam, Ljubimov, Vincent Funari, PhD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Genomics Core in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, and research associates Michael Winkler and Jordan Brown.

The research was supported by the following National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants: NIH R21 EY022771 and R01 EY13431, as well as the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute.

# # #

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Research Advancements Made in Diabetes-Induced Blindness

6 Tips for Exposing Your Demo Reel

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By Garrett O. Thomas | Posted Jan. 14, 2014, 10 a.m.

An actors demo reel is very important;it displays an their range and shows the variety of characters an they can portray. To many casting directors, it is the first impression you leave them before auditioning.

Here are some tips to keep in mind as you build and promote your demo reel.

1. Upload your documents to Google Drive. Between your day-to-day responsibilities and scrambling to auditions, its always good to have a Google Drive account set up to keep your documents easily accessible. It intertwines synonymously with your gmail account. If anyone needs a copy of your demo reel, theres a link option that allows you to share the document directly with the contact through your phone or any other internet connected device.

2. Put your contact information at the end of the reel. You may think its overkill to include your email and contact on every single document you have, but its better to have it too much than too little. Some clients have placed a quick email in the first or last frame of the reel, and some have even placed a small footer throughout the reel. I havent heard anyone complain one way or the other, just as long as your information there.

3. Dont forget about thumbnails. A very overlooked detailbe sure to select an appealing thumbnail for your video. You want to make sure that youre visible in the reel. If the thumbnail automatically selects an image and its not of you, it may get confusing.

4. Keep it short. Every expert will tell you to put your best acting footage in the front of the reel and to keep the reel short. YouTube has a video upload limit of 2GB and you want to make sure your video can have the highest resolution possible, so sacrificing those last few seconds and keeping the reel tight may actually come in handy.

5. Disable comments. If you post your video on YouTube, disable the comments. The last thing you want is someone leaving inappropriate comments while a casting director navigates your YouTube page.

6. Post your reel on IMDb. IMDb has become the universal site to look up an actors credits. The IMDbPro account gives you the option to post your demo reel and polish your acting profile. Also, other IMDbPro account usersindustry professionalswill be able to access your agent information as well, and hopefully want to talk to you about a project!

Garrett O. Thomashas been working in public relations for several years. He lived in Tucson, Arizona where he focused on restaurant publicity, combating restaurant foreclosures during the economic recession in 2008.

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6 Tips for Exposing Your Demo Reel

RoboEarth: Creating A World Wide Web For Robots

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January 15, 2014

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Scientists have created a network called RoboEarth for robots to pass on information they learn to one another, essentially creating a collective cloud mind.

The team behind RobotEarth said on Monday that they will be providing a final demonstration of the robot network on Thursday at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. This demonstration will include four robots collaboratively working together to help patients in a hospital.

The robots use RobotEarth similar to how humans use the Internet. This network provides a knowledge base, communication medium, and computational resource to help offload some of the robots heavy computation.

At its core, RoboEarth is a World Wide Web for robots: a giant network and database repository where robots can share information and learn from each other about their behavior and their environment, the RoboEarth developers wrote on their website. Bringing a new meaning to the phrase experience is the best teacher, the goal of RoboEarth is to allow robotic systems to benefit from the experience of other robots, paving the way for rapid advances in machine cognition and behavior, and ultimately, for more subtle and sophisticated human-machine interaction.

Eventually, the scientists hope that both robots and humans will be able to upload information to the database. For example, a robot could navigate and map out its way around an environment and then upload this map to RoboEarth so that another robot entering the room for the first time would already know its way around.

The aim of RoboEarth is to use the Internet to create a giant open source network database that can be accessed and continually updated by robots around the world. With knowledge shared via the cloud on such a vast scale, and with businesses and academics contributing independently on a common language platform, RoboEarth has the potential to provide a powerful feed forward to any robots 3D sensing, acting and learning capabilities, the creators behind RobotEarth wrote.

The researchers hope that the RobotEarth database can be used as a launch pad for further research and development, which could eventually lead to standardization, common language protocols and a more modular design of cloud robotics systems.

While RoboEarth could be a huge step in attempting to merge robots with society, some see it as a stepping stone to a future where robots become our overlords.

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RoboEarth: Creating A World Wide Web For Robots

Your views: Tesco’s plans for Tolworth development

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Your views: Tesco's plans for Tolworth supermarket, flats and hotel development

10:45am Wednesday 15th January 2014 in News By Natalie Gil

Tolworth Broadway is split down the middle on Tescos plans for a massive new development.

You can add your vote in our poll at the bottom of this article

The Surrey Comet asked 50 people in Tolworth what they thought of the chains plans to build a new supermarket, hotel, and flats on the old Toby Jug site near Charrington Bowl.

There were 24 people in favour, 21 against, and five undecided.

Below is what some of them said.

The plans are up for discussion at tonights south of the borough committee meeting at 7.30pm, at Southborough High School.

Kingston Councils development control committee will have the final say on the proposal at a meeting on Friday, February 7 at the Guildhall.

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Your views: Tesco's plans for Tolworth development