NASA Agrees to Pay Russians $70 Million Per Astronaut

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By Rich Smith | More Articles May 4, 2013 |

NASA will be hitching rides on Russian rockets for at least three more years.

Last week, NASA announced the signing of a $424 million extension of its contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency, also known as Roscosmos, hiring the latter to transport U.S., Canadian, European, and Japanese astronauts to the International Space Station through 2016. The contract also extends a deal for Roscosmos to bring said astronauts back from the ISS through June 2017.

NASA hopes to bring U.S. domestic space transport back on line by 2017, with private contractors including Boeing (NYSE: BA) , Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) , Sierra Nevada, and SpaceX all vying to provide a "space taxi" service to ISS for the USA. Until then, however, NASA must piggyback on Russian rockets and ride in Soyuz space capsules.

Its latest contract with Roscosmos fixes prices for astronaut training, preparation, and transport to and from the ISS for six astronauts at approximately $70.7 million a head.

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NASA Agrees to Pay Russians $70 Million Per Astronaut

NASA High School STEM Challenge Announces Winning Team, Invites Students to Present Ideas at NASA Goddard

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The NASA RealWorld-InWorld Engineering Design Challenge, an integrated science, technology, engineering and mathematics program focused on NASA's forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope, has named the 2012-2013 first place team. The team, which consisted of high school juniors and seniors participating in the NASA INSPIRES program, included: Abigail Radford of Ashville, N.C.; Joshua Dijamco of Jackson, N.J.; Jonathan Hernandez of Elizabeth, N.J.; Katherine Denner of Horsham, Penn.; and Jim Gerard of Merritt Island, Fla.

The team will travel to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., May 6 for a daylong VIP event. They will present their winning engineering design concept to Dr. John Mather, senior project scientist for the Webb telescope mission and 2006 Nobel Prize winner, and other engineers and scientists working on the mission.

"The RealWorld-InWorld Engineering Design Challenge is an amazing way to connect students with real NASA engineers and scientists, which allows them to study a real NASA engineering project in an immersive way," said Maggie Masetti of the NASA Webb telescope education and public outreach team at Goddard. "I was able to watch some of the students present their final projects, and it was rewarding to see what they'd learned, especially about how to coordinate a team (whose members were often separated by great physical distance) to achieve a goal."

The team was evaluated by graduate engineering students and professionals of various relevant disciplines and selected among a group of five finalist teams. Evaluators included a professor of engineering from the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, K-12 STEM educators, graduate students from engineering and multiple related disciplines, as well as past RWIW team leaders.

Students on the team, all high school sophomores or juniors, collaborated virtually from their respective locations. The team was led by Marco Balducci, a graduate research assistant at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who currently works in the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research.

This marked the third year of the NASA RWIW Engineering Design Challenge. For the 2012-2013 run, the program asked grade 8-12 students to develop engineering design solutions to one of two real-world NASA Webb telescope challenges. Students chose to either re-design a shield to keep Webb telescope cold enough to "detect infrared light from faint sources such as distant galaxies and extrasolar planets" or to re-design a mirror assembly so that Webb telescope may produce images that are "sufficiently bright and sharp to look back in time to when galaxies were young."

RWIW earns its name due to the two phases of the program. Phase one, "RealWorld," requires "paper and pencil," and guides students through the design process inside participating classrooms or other formal and informal learning environments. Phase two, "InWorld," takes place within a digital universe created within the Activeworlds, 3-D multiuser, PC-based system. There, students from across the United States interact with peers and university-student mentors, using interactive collaborative tools and professional-level modeling and simulation software to develop engineering design solutions.

The program is a collaboration between the James Webb Space Telescope education and public outreach group, NASA Goddard, NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.,USA TODAY Education and the National Institute of Aerospace.

For more information about the NASA RealWorld-InWorld Engineering Design Challenge, visit:

http://www.NASArealworldinworld.org

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NASA High School STEM Challenge Announces Winning Team, Invites Students to Present Ideas at NASA Goddard

Timothytrespas:FACE in the sky? Am I the only one who sees this? Nanotechnology Chemtrails NYC – Video

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Strategies for Enhancing Nanotechnology Standards Activities Discussed at ANSI-NSP Meeting

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Strategies for Enhancing Nanotechnology Standards Activities Discussed at ANSI-NSP Meeting New York May 3, 2013

Dr. Altaf Carim of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President delivered a presentation on the federal governments perspective on nanotechnology and standards. Providing a cross-sector view, ANSI senior vice president and COO Fran Schrotter gave attendees an introduction to ANSIs varied standards collaboratives, such as the ANSI-NSP and the new ANSI Energy Efficiency Standardization Coordination Collaborative (EESCC), and how they address national priorities.

Following the presentations, interactive panel discussions were moderated by Dr. Celia Merzbacher, formerly of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President and now with the Semiconductor Research Corporation, and Dr. Clayton Teague, former Director of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office and former ANSI-NSP Chair, respectively. Panelists discussed the ways in which current nanotechnology standards activities are meeting real world needs, and key areas of priority that still need to be addressed. Participants agreed that greater visibility is needed for nanotechnology standards that are already published and available for utilization. To meet this need, ANSI is currently developing an online database of relevant standards activities.

Also discussed were the reasons individuals are motivated to participate in nanotechnology standards development and the advantages participation brings to their organizations. Some of the key benefits mentioned include enhanced knowledge about state-of-the-art technology, increased development of professional relationships, as well as the opportunity to influence the technical content of documents. Participants agreed that mechanisms for promoting support for individuals and organizations actively working in standards development processes would be beneficial, and ANSI's Standards Boost Business initiative could be used as a role model.

The full meeting report is available here.

Formed in 2004, ANSI-NSP serves as the cross-sector coordinating body for the facilitation of standards development in the area of nanotechnology. Shaun Clancy, Ph.D., the director of product regulatory services for the Evonik Degussa Corporation, and Ajit Jilavenkatesa, Ph.D., the senior standards policy advisor for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC), serve as the ANSI-NSPs co-chairs.

For more information, visit the ANSI-NSP webpage or contact Heather Benko (hbenko@ansi.org), ANSI senior manager, nanotechnology standardization activities.

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Strategies for Enhancing Nanotechnology Standards Activities Discussed at ANSI-NSP Meeting

SAGE and AOSSM launch the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine

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Public release date: 3-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Camille Gamboa camille.gamboa@sagepub.com 805-410-7441 American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine

Los Angeles, CA - SAGE today announces the launch of a new international open access journal, the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine (OJSM). This journal was developed by the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) in collaboration with professional sports medicine organizations from around the world as a global, peer-reviewed open access journal that will publish content for both researchers and practitioners studying orthopeadic sports medicine, arthroscopy, and knee arthroplasty.

OJSM publishes quality, peer-reviewed research, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses from leading authors around the world. Topics include orthopaedic sports medicine, (including surgical and non-surgical treatment of sports injuries), arthroscopic surgery of the shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, ankle, and foot, sports traumatology and epidemiology, knee arthroplasty, and relevant translational research.

An open access journal, OJSM promotes unrestricted, international readership of the content it publishes. Accepted articles will be published on a continuous basis, allowing for rapid dissemination of findings.

"The Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine offers an intriguing publishing alternative for researchers and practitioners studying orthopaedic sports medicine and appeals to a truly international constituency of authors and readers," stated Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Bruce Reider and Associate Editors Drs. Allen F. Anderson and Mark E. Steiner. "While the journal publishes articles that are free and open to this global readership, they are thoroughly peer-reviewed and reflect the same standard of scientific rigor demonstrated by all AOSSM journals. As editors, our goal is to create a publication that is the most respected, authoritative, and widely accessed journal in the field."

"SAGE is pleased to expand our portfolio of open access journals to include the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, and further partner with the AOSSM with this addition to their highly reputable journals, The American Journal of Sports Medicine and Sports Health," stated Bob Howard, SAGE's Vice President of Journals. "With editorial board members from more than 30 different countries on 6 continents, the articles presented in this open access journal are truly global in nature, reflect the most current international innovations, and appeal to an unlimited audience around the world."

The first three published articles now available at http://www.ojsm.org include:

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For more information, visit http://ojs.sagepub.com/. If you are interested in partnering with the AOSSM or would like to submit a manuscript, please contact Colleen O'Keefe at colleen@ojsm.org

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SAGE and AOSSM launch the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine

Medical School Pathology, 2013 Season, Session #1: Introduction and Orientation – Video

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Liberty Insurance expected to replace Guinness as hurling sponsors

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Guinness will remain as a proud partner of the GAA and Croke Park stadium. Photograph: Ross Land/Getty Images

Guinness has ended its 18-year association with the All-Ireland Hurling Championship but will remain a proud partner of the GAA.

A new deal with American company Liberty Insurance is expected to be announced in the coming weeks to add to the deals already in place with Etihad and Centra under in the multi-sponsor model adopted by the GAA.

Liberty Insurance took over the existing business remaining from the sale of Quinn Insurance and have invested heavily in marketing and advertising in the Irish market, including sponsoring The Late Late Show.

Liberty were mentioned as a possible sponsor of Cork GAA before the Rebels agreed a deal with Chill Insurance.

The GAA announced that Guinness will become proud partner to both the GAA and Croke Park Stadium, where they hold the pouring rights for the venues bars and restaurants.

Commenting on the new agreement, GAA commercial and stadium director Peter McKenna said: There is no doubt that the GAA has benefited enormously from the marketing expertise of one of the worlds most creative companies. We appreciate that all sponsorship has a natural time span, and we are pleased to be taking our association with Guinness in a new direction.

The end to the Guinness sponsorship of the All-Ireland Hurling Championship comes against the backdrop of a proposed ban on drinks companies sponsoring sporting events.

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Liberty Insurance expected to replace Guinness as hurling sponsors

STARNES: Religious liberty under threat in military, admiral says

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By Todd Starnes

A high-ranking Coast Guard official said at a National Day of Prayer gathering that religious liberty in the U.S. military is being threatened and that service members are being told to hide their faith in Christ, according to a videotape obtained by Fox News.

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As one general so aptly put it they expect us to check our religion in at the door dont bring that here, Rear Admiral William Lee told a National Day of Prayer gathering. Leaders like myself are feeling the constraints of rules and regulations and guidance issued by lawyers that put us in a tighter and tighter box regarding our constitutional right to express our religious faith.

The crowd of religious leaders and lawmakers cheered for nearly a minute when Lee vowed to defy any attempt to curtail religious liberty within the Armed Forces.

I am coming out today to tell you I am not going to run from my religious beliefs, from my right under the Constitution to tell a young man there is hope, he declared in remarks first reported by World Magazine.

Lee told the audience he had set aside his prepared remarks and instead chose to speak from the heart about the challenges facing Christian service members.

The problem that men and women like me face in uniform who are in senior leadership positions is that the higher you are the more vulnerable you are to being taken down, he said. You get in the crosshairs of those people who lay in wait outside the gate waiting to take us to task for expressing our faith.

In recent days, the Pentagon has been accused of infringing on the religious liberty of Christian service members.

Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen said in a statement the Department of Defense has never and will never single out a particular religious group for persecution or prosecution.

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STARNES: Religious liberty under threat in military, admiral says

For Liberty players, it's more than just volleyball

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They're the three Vs of Liberty Hurricanes volleyball: Virtue, Valor and Victory. Each player receives a five-page "code of honor" detailing the meaning of the three Vs and their relevance. Every player gets an 'Ammary's Army' T-shirt with a military chevron of the three Vs.

And, during a "cult-like" meeting at their coach's home, each player signs an oath attached to the code of honor that they "strive to uphold the three Vs in all aspects of life."

Liberty coach Neiad Ammary is focusing on more than digs, passes and spikes during practices at his alma mater. With an assist from his girlfriend, Julie Sterrett, the leadership education director at Lehigh University, Ammary is teaching his Hurricanes about leadership development and it isn't a crash course, either.

The Liberty players major in it.

"I've been doing a lot of this stuff for the nine years I've been the coach," Ammary said, "but it's been intensified by some of the materials and curriculum made available by Julie. It's information and it's experiences that can transform the students personally and socially off the court, and also make them more competitive and successful as athletes on the court."

The coach, who at 29 years old enjoyed an outstanding volleyball career at Liberty High, the University of Delaware and still competes nationally, estimates his players dedicate more than 100 hours in the offseason to the leadership development program.

Seniors Dan Bucchin, Zach Gallagher, Adam Hann, Johnson Hypolite and Ryan Holzer, and juniors Gilberto Figueroa and Steven Hughes have gone all-in with Ammary's expectations. They read literature, write essays and discuss in open forums information that relates to self-improvement and team-building. They also take camping and hiking trips together, and train under adverse conditions.

"We meet each Friday after school in the offseason. While others are starting their weekends, we're in the classroom learning about character and leadership and how it relates to life in general," Ammary said.

"I think our training definitely carries over onto the court. One thing I've seen is our players respond to adversity very well. For example, in our [five-set] win over Emmaus, each time we lost a set we came back to win the next one. We fell behind again in the fifth set but we rallied again to take the match.

"We don't really judge or success on wins and losses. We judge it on how well we respond to adversity."

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For Liberty players, it's more than just volleyball