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Southern Red Heads Irish Setters, Naples FL We dont …

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Our mission is to promote the Irish Setter breed and to enrich others with the unconditional love only dogs can give.We dont sell dogs, we help build families. We emphasize quality over quantity. We only have a limited number of litters each year. Our dogs are well socialized and receive a lot of love and attention. We believe in a natural holistic approach to breeding.

Irish Setters are an excellent addition for any family! They are known for their enthusiasm, love, and compassion. They are an excellent breed for small children. Irish Setters thrive on constant human companionship, respond swiftly to positive training and are highly intelligent. If youve owned an Irish Setter before, youre familiar with how much love and joy they can bring to a household. If youve never owned one before, but are interested in owning one, were certain youll be come as addicted to this incredible breed as we are.

Please take a look at our photo gallery to see some of our dogs. If youd like to ask us a question, feel free to use the form or click here!

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Southern Red Heads Irish Setters, Naples FL We dont ...

Long live beautiful redheads – Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Australia's Courier Mail reported a while back that redheads will sooner or later become nonexistent. This is disturbing to me as my mother, brother, sister, wife and I were all born redheads. My three children also have red hair.

Other news outlets and blogs picked up the story, claiming that the Scotland Genetic Center, which was supposedly made up of some of the worlds top genetic scientists, had predicted there will be very few redheads walking the face of the earth in 2050. Additional media picked up the story and reported that by the year 2800, redheads will be extinct. National Geographic magazine reported that less than 2 percent of the world population is red-haired now and global warming may be causing the loss of this trait in humans.

Many scientists have since raised suspicions about the redhead extermination theory, whichmost likely stems from a misunderstanding about a mutation that causes a recessive gene and natural selection. A mutation is a change in a gene that causes changes significant enough to make a change in an organism (like red hair). Natural selection occurs when only the organisms best adapted to their environment survive and transmit their genetic characteristics to succeeding generations. Mutations can cause natural selection but mutations could have a positive, negative or neutral effect. Mutations occur all the time, in every species.

According to legend, redheads have quick tempers. (This really ticks me off!) Some people think that redheads should respond to nicknames like "Red" or "Carrot Top." In some cultures, the term "redhead" is synonymous with stubbornness or even intellectual impairment.

Red hair was produced by a genetic mutation in the northern part of Europe thousands of years ago. The gene had the positive effect of enhancing the bodys capacity for coping with reduced sunlight in the area and helped people to produce more vitamin D in the decreased sunlight. Unfortunately, redheads are also more likely to get skin cancer and they are more susceptible to heat- and cold-related pain. Yes, redheads, like comic book heroes, are mutants, except without the superpowers.

Since the Courier Mail's report in 2007, speculation about natural red hair disappearing has thrived. Personally, I don't think it's true. I'm sure that people with natural red, auburn and copper-colored hair will be born well into the future. Redheads can be produced from a single red-haired parent, or no red-haired parents.

In the United States, it is approximated that 2 to 6 percent of the populace has red hair. This would give the U.S. the biggest population of redheads in the world, 6 to 18 million. Scotland has roughly 650,000 redheads and Ireland has about 420,000.

Having red hair has not always been easy. Over the centuries, civilizations have acted in a brutal manner toward red-haired people, from deeming them unlucky and sacrificing them to stop the bad luck, to condemning them as witches and setting them on fire. In my youth, bright red hair and freckles made children the target of school yard bullying. I can't write what specifically was once said to me, because this is a family newspaper, but it involved my mother and a rusty pipe.

Red hair is rare, but I'm guessing that there is no real basis to the claim that redheads are going the way of dinosaurs. Which is great, because, whether you have red hair or not, the tones of red, auburn and burnt orange are beautiful to see.

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Long live beautiful redheads - Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

NASA: Pictures, Videos, Breaking News

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

The Green News Report is also available via... ...

Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded. And the chances of Donald Trump's family and fortune surviving climate change are s...

I teach at Dartmouth College, famous among other things for having provided a home to the author Theodore Geisel (aka "Dr. Seuss") during his formativ...

Dan Rockmore

William H. Neukom '64 Professor of Computational Science, Director of the Neukom Institute for Computational Science, Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, at Dartmouth College, Santa Fe Institute External Faculty

Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded. And the chances of Donald Trump's family and fortune surviving climate change are s...

This article was originally posted on Inverse. ...

The Green News Report is also available via... ...

If we want our planet to be able to house 10 billion people and also want to preserve biodiversity in the future, then we need to leverage the new technologies associated with "big data" and artificial intelligence.

Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded. And the chances of Donald Trump's family and fortune surviving climate change are s...

The last twelve months have been monumental for astronomers, physicists, and fellow enthusiasts of the cosmos. From the most powerful supernova record...

Nikhil Reddy

YouTuber, Developer, UC Berkeley EECS Student (@bignikhilreddy)

So, as some assert their desire to make America "great" again by reverting to a time long past and gone, Hidden Figures pulls back the curtain and reminds us of how oppressive those days were for everyone.

Gary Bailey M.S.W., A.C.S.W.

Professor of Practice, Simmons College School of Social Work, SocialWork@Simmons, and Simmons College School of Nursing and Health Sciences

Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded. And the chances of Donald Trump's family and fortune surviving climate change are s...

When I saw Hidden Figures, two thoughts entered my mind. I experienced gratitude, and I felt shock. To further explain, Hidden Figures is receiving ma...

Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded. And the chances of Donald Trump's family and fortune surviving climate change are s...

Here are the things you need to know going into the new year.

Outspeak

Empowering a new generation of digital voices

Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded. And the chances of Donald Trump's family and fortune surviving climate change are s...

NASA: Pictures, Videos, Breaking News

NASA Begins Tornado Recovery at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans – Space.com

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

NASA has begun recovery efforts at its Michoud Assembly Facility after a tornado hit the New Orleans location yesterday.

The twister, which NASA captured on camera, hit at 11:25 a.m. local time (12:25 p.m. EST/1725 GMT) Tuesday (Feb. 7). All of the facility's 3,500 employees survived, but five suffered minor injuries from the weather event, NASA officials said in a statement yesterday.

"Our hearts go out to our employees and the people in New Orleans who have suffered from this serious storm," Keith Hefner, Michoud's director,said in the statement. "The safety of our team is always our main concern, and we are pleased to report that we've identified only minor injuries." [In Photos: Tornado Damage at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility]

Roof and equipment damage was sustained at NASAs Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La., when a tornado touched down at the facility at 11:25 a.m. CST (1725 GMT) Tuesday, Feb. 7.

The facility is closed today, and everyone not involved in the recovery has been evacuated while emergency personnel assess the damage. As of yesterday, damage had been identified in a few buildings, including roof damage in Building 103, which is the facility's main manufacturing building. Approximately 200 parked cars were damaged as well.

"Michoud has a comprehensive emergency plan that we activated today to ensure the safety of our people and to secure our facilities," Hefner said. "I am proud of our dedicated team on-site who are successfully implementing that plan."

Recovery efforts are underway at NASAs Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La., where several facilities suffered damage by a tornado at 11:25 a.m. CST (1725 GMT) Tuesday, Feb. 7.

The core stage of the enormous next-generation Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the system's main propulsion system and manufacturing structures for its corresponding crewed spacecraft, Orion, are slated to be built at the Michoud facility.

NASA officials confirmed that hardware for the rocket and spacecraft is secure and that no damage has been identified. Furthermore, no damage has been found on NASA's historic Pegasus barge, which transported space shuttle components from New Orleans to the launch site in Florida and is being refurbishedto transport SLS components.

Debris, fence and building damage are seen at NASAs Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La., after a tornado touched down at 11:25 a.m. CST (1725 GMT) on Tuesday, Feb. 7.

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her@SarahExplains.Follow us@Spacedotcom,FacebookandGoogle+. Original article onSpace.com.

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NASA Begins Tornado Recovery at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans - Space.com

NASA’s future deep space rocket gets critical endorsement from commercial space group – The Verge

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Yesterday, NASAs Space Launch System the giant, expensive rocket the space agency is building to take astronauts into deep space and onto Mars someday got a crucial endorsement from an unlikely ally: the commercial space industry.

Alan Stern, the chairman of the board of directors for the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF), publicly announced the organizations support for the rocket at a conference in DC. The CSF is an association representing more than 70 businesses and organizations in the realm of commercial space, including major players like SpaceX and Blue Origin. Getting the seal of approval from CSF marks a significant attitude shift for the private sector, which has been home to some of the strongest opponents of the Space Launch System, or SLS.

We see many potential benefits in the development of NASA's Space Launch System.

CSF and its members believe strongly in the exploration of space of all kinds, including commercial purposes, Stern said Tuesday in a speech at the FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference, according to a CSF spokesperson. To that end, CSF announced today that we see many potential benefits in the development of NASA's Space Launch System. There are bright futures across the spectrum of commercial space. The SLS can be a resource that benefits commercial spaceflight and makes our future even brighter.

NASA is currently developing the SLS to get the vehicle ready for its debut flight, slated for fall of 2018. When complete, the rocket will be capable of carrying 70 metric tons, or more than 150,000 pounds, to lower Earth orbit. And thats just the expected capability of the first iteration of the rocket, known as Block 1. NASA is planning on building multiple variants of SLS, which will increase the rockets lift capacity and make it one of the most powerful vehicles thats ever been built. The next evolution of SLS is called Block 1B, which will include a more powerful upper stage that can loft 105 metric tons, or more than 230,000 pounds, into lower Earth orbit. And the final version of SLS, Block 2, will have even more powerful boosters attached to it during launch, giving it a lift capacity of 130 metric tons, or close to 290,000 pounds.

While the rockets stats may seem impressive, the SLS has suffered a lot of criticism since it was first announced in 2011. It represents an old way of doing business at NASA, where the space agency heavily oversees the design and development of the rocket. But the main issue has always been the rockets costs. Initially, NASA estimated that developing SLS would cost $18 billion through 2017. And in 2014, the space agency estimated that it would cost $7 billion just to develop the SLS from February of that year through the rockets first launch in 2018. Many early opponents, including the Space Frontier Foundation, called for the cancellation of the program, arguing that the vehicles development would suck up a sizable portion of NASAs already limited budget. That would leave very little money leftover for other projects at NASA, including new, innovative partnerships with the private sector.

Another critique was that commercial companies are developing new, heavy-lift rockets that could be just as capable as the SLS but would be potentially much cheaper. For instance, SpaceX is currently developing a heavy-lift version of its Falcon 9 rocket called the Falcon Heavy. It has yet to fly, though, and SpaceX claims it will be able to lift 54 metric tons, or more than 119,000 pounds less capability than what NASA promises for SLS. However, SpaceX says the starting cost of the Falcon Heavy is $90 million, whereas one launch of the SLS is estimated to be $1 billion, according to Bill Gerstenmaier, the associate administrator for NASAs human exploration and operations, who spoke at the FAA conference yesterday.

Stern wanted to get this perception off the table that the CSF is strongly against the vehicle

However, Stern says that the extra capability of SLS will enable missions and partnerships with the private sector that cannot be achieved on commercial heavy-lift vehicles that are currently in development. Because of this, he wanted to get this perception off the table that the Commercial Spaceflight Federation is strongly against the vehicle when the organization is actually in favor of it. Stern sees the potential of the SLS being used to put something like a commercial lunar outpost on the surface of the Moon (that is if NASA sets its sights on returning to the Moon again).

Its a crucial affirmation from the private sector, since public-private partnerships are poised to be a major focus of NASA moving forward. Under the Obama administration, the space agency experimented with new models of doing business with the commercial spaceflight industry, by doing a more hands-off approach when working with the private sector; instead of intense oversight of vehicle design, NASA has tried purchasing spaceflight services from private companies with less scrutiny on how the vehicles are made. Some of President Trumps space advisors have heralded this new way of partnering with spaceflight companies, so its something we could see more of in the future.

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NASA's future deep space rocket gets critical endorsement from commercial space group - The Verge

NASA tests next-generation air traffic software in Washington state’s skies – GeekWire

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

A tablet computer displays air traffic data during ATD-1 flight simulations. (NASA Photo / David C. Bowman)

Landing planes at busy airports can be a challenging work of aerial ballet, and this week, NASA is testing a computerized choreographer to handle the job in the skies over Washington state.

The tests, supervised by NASAs Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, are part of a series of flights known as Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration, or ATD-1.

Three research airplanes have been outfitted with NASA-developed software that keeps track of the speed and position of the airplanes as they approach an airport.

The flight deck interval management software automatically calculates how fast the planes should be traveling to maintain the proper spacingbetween them, and displays that information on a tablet in the planes cockpits.

The software can predict the moment when an airplane touches down within a few seconds. That information should help pilots and ground controllers plot the planes routes more easily and efficiently. The payoff comes in the form of fuel savings, noise and pollution reduction and fewer flight delays.

NASAs Langley Research Center in Virginia and Ames Research Center in California played key roles in developing the software, but the Pacific Northwest provides more open space for trying out the system under real-world conditions.

A Honeywell Dassault Falcon business jet is taking onthe role of prima ballerina for this weeks tests. It broadcasts speed and position data to a Honeywell Boeing 757 based out of Seattles Boeing Field, and to a United Airlines Boeing 737 based out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

During each test flight, the three jets conduct the aviation equivalent of a pas de trois with Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, Wash., serving asthe primarystage.

Its a very simple follow the leader operation that is easy to execute by the flight crew, Sheri Brown, ATD-1 project manager at Langley Research Center, said in NASAs preview of the tests.

Performances are taking place all this week, but NASA says the initial ATD-1 flights were already very successful. Heres a Twitter recap of todays test:

Stay tuned for more about ATD-1 as the test flights continue. And stay tuned for the sequel as well: NASA researchers already have started putting ATD-2 through its paces in a 360-degree airport simulator at Ames Research Center.

For more about the ATD-1 flights, check out the report onBoeing Fields Centerline blog and NASAs media advisory.

NASA tests next-generation air traffic software in Washington state's skies - GeekWire

The Bizarre Case of NASA’s ‘Stolen’ Moon Rocks – Atlas Obscura

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Buzz Aldrin on the moon. NASA/Public Domain

A versionof this storyoriginally appearedonMuckrock.com.

Through FOIA, Motherboards Jason Koebler managed to receive a handful of investigatory reports from NASA regarding missing property, covering cases as weird as satellite parts ending up on eBay or a wheelbarrow full of sensitive documents ending up in a off-site dumpster. However, no case is stranger - or sadder - than the stolen moon rocks.

Back in 2014, NASA received a tip from a woman, name redacted, that her now-dead step-father had received a moon rock as a gift while working at Texas A&M. She claimed that this moon rock was the size of a large apple and weighed a little over a pound. The most conservative estimate would put the value around $2.5 million - at an estimated $275,000 per gram (the 1973 valuation adjusted for inflation), that would put the rocks total value in the range of $125 million dollars.

So of course her step-dad made necklaces with it.

The informant gave said necklace - which, for maximum emotional value we must assume was a heartfelt gift - to NASA for analysis. Whereupon they quickly determined it was not, in fact, a moon rock, but a terrestrial rock - also known as a rock.

Which NASA then FedExd back to its sender, with all participants sadder and wiser for the experience.

So, what happened - did somebody at Texas A&M prank the unsuspecting step-father with an authentic moon rock, or was it his own private in-joke? While well likely never know, at least the lesson here is clear enough: never look a gift moon rock necklace in the laser-induced breakdown spectrometer.

The full list of NASA investigation reports is embedded below:

The rest is here:

The Bizarre Case of NASA's 'Stolen' Moon Rocks - Atlas Obscura

According To NASA An Asteroid Nearly Struck The Earth In January [Infographic] – Forbes

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

According To NASA An Asteroid Nearly Struck The Earth In January [Infographic]
Forbes
On Jan 30^th a small asteroid came close to hitting the Earth. Close in space terms means about 40,000 miles, and small in asteroid terms means 15-32 feet wide. This will be the closest an asteroid has come to hitting the Earth since September 6, 2016.

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According To NASA An Asteroid Nearly Struck The Earth In January [Infographic] - Forbes

NASA Official Highlights Risk of Manned-Spacecraft Efforts – Wall Street Journal

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Wall Street Journal

NASA Official Highlights Risk of Manned-Spacecraft Efforts
Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTONWith the U.S. developing a handful of new rockets and spacecraft intended to transport astronauts into space, NASA's top human exploration official issued a somber warning Tuesday about potentially fatal risks associated with the programs.

and more »

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NASA Official Highlights Risk of Manned-Spacecraft Efforts - Wall Street Journal

Tornado Hits NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans – Space.com

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Editor's Note:NASA has begun the recovery efforts after this tornado. You can read the full storyhere.

A tornado impacted NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans Tuesday (Feb. 7), according to a statement released by the agency.

"At this time, only minor injuries have been reported and NASA employees and other tenants are being accounted for," NASA officials said in the statement. The tornado hit the facility at 11:25 a.m. CST (12:25 p.m. EST/1725 GMT), they added. [In Photos: Tornado Damage at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility]

NASA posted a video to YouTube that shows cell phone footage of the tornado (taken from afar), as well as footage of the facility after the impact.

"That thing is an awesome thing to look at," one spectator said in the video, referring to the massive grey funnel on the horizon.

@weatherchannel @CNN @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/im2iSxWi7n

"Hopefully, everybody's okay, but it is real bad," said a person taking footage of the facility after the tornado had passed. The video seemed to show damage to buildings and a car flipped over in a parking lot.

"There is still a threat of severe weather in the area and emergency officials are continuing to monitor the situation to ensure the safety of onsite personnel," the statement said. "The onsite Michoud emergency response team is also conducting damage assessments of buildings and facilities."

Currently,the Michoud Assembly Facilityis responsible for manufacturing and assembling the core stage of NASA's next-generation heavy-lift rocket,the Space Launch System (SLS), which is built by Boeing, according to NASA's website. Michoud will also assemble and integrate the SLS main propulsion system, including the RS-25 engines, built by Aerojet Rocketdyne. The facility is also involved in manufacturing large structures and composites for the Orion crew vehicle. Previously, NASA used the facility to assemble the external propulsion tanks for the space shuttle program,as well as Saturn V moon rocket stages.

News outletsare reportingthat perhaps as many as seven tornadoeshave struck Louisiana today. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has declared a state of emergency.

Follow Calla Cofield@callacofield.Follow us@Spacedotcom,FacebookandGoogle+. Original article onSpace.com.

Tornado Hits NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans - Space.com

Why is NASA renting out its huge astronaut pool? To keep the lights turned on – Ars Technica

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Enlarge / Neat painted mural on one of the pool bulkheads at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab.

Lee Hutchinson

On a recent February afternoon, I strolled up to a fat, brightly painted yellow line and peered down into a clear, seemingly bottomless pool. Like the mythical sirens of the Homeric Age, the water called to me. As if he read my mind, Kurt Otten hurriedly called out to me. Please dont jump in, because this would be the last day on my job."

Theres one very good reason why the pool was built so bigit had to accommodate segments of the International Space Station during assembly. Before astronauts flew to the station aboard the shuttle, crews would spend exhausting runs inside the pool, wearing a combination of weights and flotation devices to simulate the weightlessness of orbit. Then they would practice whatever aspects of station construction there were to do in space.

Looking north: Integrated Truss Structure is at left, and at front right is the S3 Truss component w/ELC4 visible.

Looking northwest: S3 Truss in foreground.

Lee Hutchinson

Looking north: The upper floor control rooms and deck-level diving control stations.

Lee Hutchinson

Walking north.

Lee Hutchinson

Diver gear, laid out and ready for use.

Lee Hutchinson

Expensive tanks! (Or are they minions in disguise?)

Lee Hutchinson

More gear, ready for use.

Lee Hutchinson

Looking west from midway across the deck: In foreground is Node 2/with PMA2 and JEM attached.

Lee Hutchinson

North end of pool looking West: P3 located to the left with commercial area to the right.

Lee Hutchinson

Looking south: Integrated Truss Structure is visible near center. To the right of the truss is HTV and HTV EP6-MP Battery Carrier.

Lee Hutchinson

Just visible from one of the upstairs control room are the rock boxes used during asteroid return mission training.

Lee Hutchinson

Looking southwest and down from the second floor at the Integrated Truss Structure: Extending down and left from the S0 Truss is USLAB and Node 2.

Lee Hutchinson

NASA completed construction of the space station about seven years ago. And while astronauts still conduct periodic spacewalks to repair or perform other minor work on the station, the primary focus of astronauts in space now lies inside the station, on scientific experiments in microgravity and learning about the human health effects of long-duration spaceflight.

NASA still needs the pool for these training runs, but it doesnt need all of the massive pool, nor does it need it all of the time. So even before the space shuttle's retirement in 2011, the space agency and the pools contractor, Raytheon, began experimenting with allowing private companies to use the pool.

Ars recently visited the pool insoutheast Houston, not far from Johnson Space Center, to see how this particular public-private partnership was working out. We came less than a month after the massive facility had celebrated its 20th anniversary. One question loomed foremost in our mind: Could the giant pool diversify enough to survive another 20 years?

NASA conducted the first training exercise for the NBL on January 7, 1997 as astronauts prepared for the second mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Although astronauts feel the weight of their suits in the water and the water acts as a drag on motion, neutral buoyancy offers the best available analog to working in space. Like the real thing, too, it offers astronauts a grueling, six-hour workout. John Grunsfeld, who visited Hubble three times, once told me that his body ached for days after a run in the NBL.

Raytheon began offering commercial access to the pool in 2010, and has since worked with a number of oil and gas companies. Some have tested robotic equipment for subsea activities with offshore rigs, while others have trained rig employees in safe egress from helicopters transporting them to and from offshore locations.

Kurt Otten (left), Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory Operations Manager, Randal Lindner, a senior Raytheon manager, and the story's author (right) in the South High Bay.

Lee Hutchinson

Lindner, with the S0 Truss in background.

Lee Hutchinson

Standing next to the S0 Truss segment for scale.

Lee Hutchinson

Berger experiences the NBL in virtual reality. (It felt deep, man.)

Lee Hutchinson

Helicopter emergency egress trainer sits on the north deck. This is used by one of the commercial partners.

Joint EVA NBL Orion Mockup model sits on the floor of the North High Bay. It is used for EVA evaluations in a weightless environment.

Lee Hutchinson

An Oceaneering ROV also sits in the North High Bay, being worked on by NBL techs.

Kurt Otten turns on the screens in TC-A to give us a peek inside the pool.

Lee Hutchinson

The sealed carrier in which the James Webb Space Telescope will be transported once it's completed.

Lee Hutchinson

The carrier can be filled with inert nitrogen to keep JWST sterile and safe. Just don't poke your head in here.

Lee Hutchinson

I smile every time I see this tug. Go Speed Racer, go!

Lee Hutchinson

In this space north of the NBL, modules undergo refurbishment.

Lee Hutchinson

The wall of the South High Bay is thick with patches and memorabilia. It features a large portrait of astronaut Sonny Carter, in whose honor the facility is named.

Lee Hutchinson

Huge NBL logo on the floor.

Lee Hutchinson

It turns out these companies arent so much interested in the impressive size and depth of the pool, said Randal Lindner, a senior Raytheon manager, but rather its capabilities. The pool is well instrumented, with multiple cameras, underwater communications, dive gear, and several on-site control rooms. The facility has 40 professional divers to support operations.

At present, NASA uses the facility for about three dive runs a week, and the pools commercial end is used about three days. But there remains considerably more capacity for private activity, and NASA has asked Raytheon to do additional marketing to bring in more customers. Every commercial dollar allows the space agency to offset the multimillion-dollar annual expense of the NBL. Johnson Space Center isn't alone in this, of course. Private companies like SpaceX have taken over launch pads at Kennedy Space Center. Movies are now made at NASA's rocket factory in Michoud, Louisiana. And so on.

For this massive pool, the time to find new users is now. Otherwise, it's not clear what will happen to the NBL in a decade or so. As it looks to expand human activity into deep space, NASA has indicatedthat it will end its participation in the space station program in 2024, or likely 2028 at the latest. The space agency plans to build a deep space habitat for testing near the Moon, but that facility will certainly be much smaller than the space station. NASA wont need such a large pool.

Will customers come to usethe pool and its myriad capabilities? So far, Lindner said the NBL has been able to accommodate all the varied requests of those with interest in using the pool. Lights can be turned out to simulate nighttime conditions. The pool can be drained 18 inches to provide modest, one-foot waves. Just dont come for frivolityor think about jumping in during a visit.

We have not had anything yet that weve had to reject, Lindner said. But theres a certain amount of prestige with this facility. Its a NASA facility where serious work gets done. Were not going to have an underwater wedding or anything like that.

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Why is NASA renting out its huge astronaut pool? To keep the lights turned on - Ars Technica

Priest River checkerboard forestry vivid in NASA photo – The Spokesman-Review (blog)

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

TUESDAY, FEB. 7, 2017, 4:27 P.M.

PUBLIC LANDS -- The checkerboard forestry management on Idaho state lands just south of Priest Lake stands out in a winter photo from NASA.

"An astronaut aboard the International Space Station observed this distinctive checkerboard pattern alongside the Priest River in northern Idaho," says NASA's Earth Observatory blog. "The photograph was taken just before sunset, so some mountainsides glow while others are covered in long shadows because of the low Sun angle."

Some inaccuracies cropped up in the full NASA post, but here's some more info:

"The white patches reflect areas with younger, smaller trees, where winter snow cover shows up brightly to the astronauts. Dark green-brown squares are parcels of denser, intact forest....

"The Priest River, winding through the scene from top to bottom, is bordered on both sides by a forest buffer that can serve as a natural filtration system to protect water quality. For nearly a century, the river was used to transport logs....

"Whitetail Butte has historically been used by state and federal land managers as a lookout point for forest fires.

Here's the Google Earth satellite image of the same landscape (without snow):

Astronaut photograph ISS050-E-28519 was acquired on January 4, 2017, with a Nikon D4 digital camera using an 1150 millimeter lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 50 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.

Original post:

Priest River checkerboard forestry vivid in NASA photo - The Spokesman-Review (blog)

Nano-CRISPR Packages Attain 90% Delivery Rate with Engineered Cas9 – Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Neither the cell membrane nor the cytoplasm nor the nuclear membrane stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. These couriers are nanoparticles that carry Cas9-ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes into the cytoplasm and nucleus of target cells, and do so with uncommon efficiency.

Newly developed by scientists in Vincent Rotello's laboratory at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the nanoparticles are significant because they could enhance the effectiveness of the already powerful CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing tool, which holds enormous promise for treating genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, and hemophilia. To work well, however, CRISPR/Cas9 must be delivered safely across the cell membrane and into its nucleus, a difficult process that can trigger the cell's defenses. These defenses can "trap" CRISPR/Cas9, greatly reducing its treatment potential.

Details about the new delivery system recently appeared in the journal ACS Nano, in an article entitled, Direct Cytosolic Delivery of CRISPR/Cas9-Ribonucleoprotein for Efficient Gene Editing. The article describes how the new delivery method depends on an engineered version of the Cas9 protein, named Cas9En, and carrier nanoparticles that have been designed to be compatible with CasEn.

Here, we report a remarkably highly efficient (90%) direct cytoplasmic/nuclear delivery of Cas9 protein complexed with a [single] guide RNA (sgRNA) through the coengineering of Cas9 protein and carrier nanoparticles, wrote the articles authors. This construct provides effective (30%) gene editing efficiency and opens up opportunities in studying genome dynamics.

The Rotello laboratory's experiment leader, Rubul Mout, Ph.D., pointed out that since CRISPR's potential was first discovered in 2012, gene editing or genome engineering has quickly become an intense research topic in biology and medicine. The goal is to treat otherwise incurable genetic diseases by manipulating diseased genes. "However, to achieve this, noted Dr. Mout, biotech and pharmaceutical companies are constantly searching for more efficient CRISPR delivery methods."

"CRISPR has two components: a scissor-like protein called Cas9, and an RNA molecule called sgRNA that guides Cas9 to its target gene, he explained. Once the Cas9-sgRNA pair gets to the destination gene in the nucleus, it can interrogate its genetic mistakes and correct them with the help of the host cell's repair machinery."

But the direct and efficient delivery of Cas9-RNP into the cytosol followed by translocation to the nucleus has remained a challenge.

"By finely tuning the interactions between engineered Cas9En protein and nanoparticles, we were able to construct these delivery vectors, said Dr. Mout. The vectors carrying the Cas9 protein and sgRNA come into contact with the cell membrane, fuse, and release the Cas9-sgRNA directly into the cell cytoplasm.

"Cas9 protein also has a nuclear guiding sequence that ushers the complex into the destination nucleus. The key is to tweak the Cas9 protein," he continued. "We have delivered this Cas9 protein and sgRNA pair into the cell nucleus without getting it trapped on its way. We have watched the delivery process live in real time using sophisticated microscopy."

90% cytosolic/nuclear delivery is a huge improvement compared to others methods, the researchers pointed out. The researchers also indicated that the Cas9En they developed may also serve as a platform for delivery of a variety of other materials such as polymers, lipid nanoparticles, or self-assembling peptides.

"Now that we have achieved efficient gene editing in cultured cells, we are aiming to edit genes in pre-clinical animal models, Vincent Rotello, Ph.D., remarked. We are also interested in gene editing for adoptive therapies, where a diseased cell is isolated from a patient, corrected by CRISPR in the lab, and delivered back to the patient."

Apart from gene editing, the new delivery method may have other uses. For example, another important issue in biology and medicine is tracking DNA and RNA inside cells. Recently, CRISPR has been used to aid in this research. Moumita Ray, Ph.D., another researcher in the Rotello laboratory, added, "Our method allows the precise monitoring of Cas9 protein movement inside a cell, opening new opportunities in genomic research."

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Nano-CRISPR Packages Attain 90% Delivery Rate with Engineered Cas9 - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

Spinoff company is all in the CU Boulder family – CU Boulder News & Events

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

(L-R) Professor Alan Weimer, CU Boulder alum Karen Buechler, CU Boulder alum Mike Masterson and ProfessorSteve George are at ALD NanoSolutions in Broomfield, Colorado.

In 1997, Professor Alan Weimer of chemical and biological engineering heard a campus talk by Professor Steven George of chemistry about a novel process of coating surfaces with the thinnest of materials possible, known as atomic layer deposition (ALD).

One of the things Steve talked about was putting an extremely thin film coating on a flat piece of metal as part of a research project for the U.S. Navy looking for ways to better protect the hulls of ships, explains Weimer, an expert in fine particle processing. We talked afterward and eventually decided to team up on the research.

The thickness, or lack thereof, of ALD is breathtaking. Each layer of the coatings the researchers lay down is generally the thickness of a single atomabout a million times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. The team also can control the number of atomic layers, changing up the chemistry depending on the project.

Within a few years Weimer and George had filed a number of patents on the technology, gaining exclusive rights to a wide range of intellectual property. When the CU Technology Transfer Office strongly hinted it would be a good move to start a spin-off company, Weimer and George sought out CU Boulder postdoctoral researcher Karen Buechler, who was working in Weimers lab at the time.

They told me they knew I was looking for a job, and they needed someone who has the energy to pursue this outside of the university, she recalls. So I said I would do it. But we still needed someone who had experience running a business, which none of us had.

No problem. Weimer called Mike Masterson, his former graduate school office mate at CU Boulder in chemical engineering. Masterson, who was embarking on a career in Boston as a venture capitalist, became the first and only CEO of ALD NanoSolutions (ALD Nano).

In a weak moment I said Sure, Ill do that, Masterson recalls with a laugh. ALD Nano was now officially rolling with its four CU Boulder co-founders.

When you start a company, there are a lot of things you cant control, and there is a lot of luck involved, says Masterson, who has started eight high-tech companies. You really cant control the markets and you cant control the global economic environment. But one thing you can control is who you get into business with. With Al, Steve and Karen, I knew I was going to be working with honest, smart and very dedicated people.

Daniel Higgs (left) and Rob Hall (right), both doctoral graduates of Steve George's lab, now are researchers for ALD Nano.

In all, the Weimer and George labs have received roughly $18 million over nearly 20 years to support their ALD research. Most of the resulting intellectual property has been exclusively licensed to ALD Nano. This has created an ongoing, productive relationship between the university and its spin-off company, explains Weimer.

So what exactly do the scientists and engineers do at ALD Nano, which is based in Broomfield, Colorado? The way I describe it to my grandmother is we put down really thin coatings on particles and plastics that makes them better, said Buechler. What each particular film does can be very different depending on the application.

The advanced materials ALD Nano is creating are helping to transform industries like lighting, energy storage, consumer electronics and water purification.We unlock the potential of these materials to impact the performance of new and existing products, said Masterson, noting ALD Nano now has customers in the United States, Europe and Asia, including many Fortune 500 companies.

"One of the hot areas for ALD today is improving lithium-ion batteries,"said George. Using atomic layer deposition, the researchers have shown they can improve the performance, extend the life cycle and enhance the safety of batteries in consumer electronics like cell phones and laptops, as well as in electric vehicles and grid storage.

Every time you charge and discharge these batteries, they get a little weaker, and after a couple of years they have about half the power than when they were newsomething known as capacity fade, George explains. We have shown that ALD coatings on the battery electrodes or the particles that comprise the electrodes can reduce capacity fade significantly.

Whats next for ALD Nano? One of the exciting things about this is that many of the applications for our technology have not been discovered yet, says Weimer.

Of the 15 people who now work at ALD Nano, almost all are CU Boulder graduates, said Buechler. We joke that its not a requirement to be an alum in order to work here, even if it seems that way.

This company has executed with focus and pragmatism since we formed it, and now we are moving into high gear commercially, says Weimer. And we have what I call a lot of high-end ethics within the company, which is very important to all of us. That is one reason we are all still together after all these years.

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Spinoff company is all in the CU Boulder family - CU Boulder News & Events

Unwinding Moore’s Law from Genomics with Co-Design – The Next Platform

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

February 8, 2017 Nicole Hemsoth

More than almost any other market or research segment, genomics is vastly outpacing Moores Law.

The continued march of new sequencing and other instruments has created a flood of data and development of the DNA analysis software stack has created a tsunami. For some, high performance genomic research can only move at the pace of innovation with custom hardware and software, co-designed and tuned for the task.

We have described efforts to build custom ASICs for sequence alignment, as well as using reprogrammable hardware for genomics research, but for centers that have defined workloads and are limited by performance constraints (with an eye on energy efficiency), the push is still on to find novel architectures to fit the bill. In most cases, efforts are focused on one aspect of DNA analysis. For instance, de novo assembly exclusively. Having hardware that is tuned (and tunable) that can match the needs of multiple genomics workloads (whole genome alignments, homology searches, etc.) is ideal.

With these requirements in mind, a research team at Stanford, led by computing pioneer, Bill Daly, has taken aim at both the hardware and software inefficiencies inherent to genomics via the creation of a new hardware acceleration framework that they say can offer between a 125X and 15.6X speedup over the state-of-the-art software counterparts for reference-guided and de novo assembly of third generation (long) sequencing reads, respectively. The team also reports significant efficiency improvements on pairwise sequence alignments (39,000X more energy efficient than software alone).

Over 1,300 CPU hours are required to align reads from a 54X coverage of the human genome to a reference and over 15,600 CPU hours to assemble the reads de novoToday, it is possible to sequence genomes on rack-size, high-throughput machines at nearly 50 human genomes per day, or on portable USB-stick size sequences that require several days per human genome.

The Stanford-based hardware accelerated framework for genomic analysis, called Darwin, has several elements that go far beyond the creation or configuring of custom or reprogrammable hardware. At the heart of the effort is the Genome Alignment using Constant Memory Trace-back (GACT), which is an algorithm focused on long reads (more data/compute intensive to handle but provide more comprehensive results) that uses constant memory to make the compute-heavy part of the workload more efficient.

The use of this algorithmic approach has a profound hardware design implication, the team explains, because all previous hardware accelerators for genomic sequence alignment have assumed an upper-bound on the length of sequences they align or have left the trace-back step in alignment to software, thus undermining the benefits of hardware acceleration. Also critical to the effort is a filtering algorithm that cuts down on the search space for dynamic programming, called D-SOFT, which can be tuned for sensitivity.

To put this in context, keep in mind that long sequence reads are improve the quality of genome assembly and can be very useful in personalized medicine because it is possible to identify variances and mutations. However, this capability comes at a pricethe team notes that mean error rates can be as high as 40% in some cases and while this error can be corrected, it takes time to do so, thus cutting down on the performance and efficiency of the process. The tunable nature of Darwin helps correct for this and is fit to the hardware to speed for more accuracy faster, and with less power consumption.

Layout of one of the GACT processing elements. A 64 processing element array (minus the TB of memory) requires 0.27 square mm area with additional space for control, trace-back logic, and storage blocks. A single GATC array consumes 137mW of power.

On the hardware side, the team has already fully prototyped the concept on FPGA and performed ASIC synthesis for the GACT framework on a 45nm TSMC device. In that prototyping effort, they found pairwise alignment for sequences had a 763X jump on software-only approaches and was over 39,000X more energy efficient. The parameters of D-SOFT can be set to make it very specific event for noisy sequences at high sensitivity and the hardware acceleration of GACT results in 762X speedup over software.

Although D-SOFT is one of the critical elements that creates the tunability that is required for both accuracy and efficiency, it is also the bottleneck in the hardware/software design, eating up 80% of the overall runtime. The problem is not memory capacity, but access patterns, which the team expects they might address by speeding the random memory access using an approach like e-DRAM. Removing this barrier would allow the team to scale Darwins performance. Unlike other custom designs, for once, memory capacity is not a bottleneck as it uses only 120 MB for two arrays, which means far more can fit on a single chip.

Darwin handles and provides high speedup versus hand-optimized software for two distinct applications: reference-guided and de novo assembly of reads, and can work with reads with very different error rates, the team concludes, noting that Darwin is the first hardware-accelerated framework to demonstrate speedup in more than one class of applications, and in the future, it can extend to alignment applications even beyond read assembly.

Categories: Analyze

Tags: DNA, Genomics, Life Sciences

The Case For IBM Buying Nvidia, Xilinx, And Mellanox Putting ARM-Based Microservers Through The Paces

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Unwinding Moore's Law from Genomics with Co-Design - The Next Platform

Startup Spotlight: Seeking to improve the $999 genome for consumers – STAT

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

ust under a year ago, Veritas Genetics announced it would be launching the firstwhole genome sequencing test with a price tag under $1,000. Now, the company isbringing on board a new vice president of clinical affairs to help lower the cost of that sequencing and improve the process of interpreting the results.

Birgit Funke has worked extensively on the genetic underpinnings of inherited heart diseases, including cardiomyopathies, and has also written about the racial disparities in genetic testing and research. As of February 1, Funke hassplit her time between theDanvers, Mass.-based spinoff of the non-profit Personal Genome Project and her work as an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and a researcher at Partners Personalized Medicines Laboratory of Molecular Medicine.

This is a STAT Plus article and is only available to STAT Plus subscribers. To read the full story, subscribe to STAT Plus or log in to your account. Good news: your first 30 days are on us.

Kate Sheridan can be reached at kate.sheridan@statnews.com Follow Kate on Twitter @sheridan_kate

Startup Spotlight: Seeking to improve the $999 genome for consumers - STAT

New archive developed by UNM doctor to advance precision medicine and drug development – UNM Daily Lobo

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

According to a UNM Health Sciences Centerrelease,Tudor Oprea, a professor of Internal Medicine and chief of UNMs Translational Informatics Division, and a teamcollaborators, have pulled back the curtain onan open-source archive for drug discovery, development and safety that is 20 years in the making.

According to the release, the group recently published their work in the journal "Nature Reviews Drug Discovery."

This is a landmark paper, David Schade, a distinguished professor in the UNM School of Medicine who oversees clinical research in the Department of Internal Medicine, was quoted as saying in the release. Diseases that were not treatable 10 years ago are now treatable thats because of new medications that have been developed and approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

While new drugs have saved lives, they can also complicate treatment. According to the release,doctors often use a combination of drugs to treat diabetes, for example, but they must make sure those drugs compliment one another and no dangerous side appear when combined.

What we want to do, Schade is quoted as saying in the release, is hit multiple targets that are causing the disease.

According to the release, Opreas archive will help doctors to do just that. Olivier Rixe, who oversees all clinical research at the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center, agrees and plans to use Opreas archive to speed the process of drug discovery and development.

Oprea, now a professor at thecenter, started the drug database 20 years ago when he was a drug developer, according to the release. He archived drug targetsmolecules that drugs act on to make the cell change its behaviorlater expanded his list to include properties of the drugs themselves along with any information about how they acted on their targets.

According to the release, in order to develop the information, Oprea and his international collaborators had to mine data from all over the world, then correctly map the drugs molecular structures and search for data on the diseases the drugs helped to treat.

They collected data on the drugs effects on humans and animals and listed what scientists had learned about how the drugs reacted with the proteins in cells, according to the release.

In total, they cataloged 893 drug targets linked to their mode of action, a term that describes how drugs exert their therapeutic effect at the molecular level, along with 1,578 drugs approved by the FDA.

According to the release, the information is now publicly available through DrugCentral, a system that Opreas research team at UNM developed. DrugCentral resides at UNM and Oprea is building his team to be experts in drug discovery.

This type of expertise is rare, Oprea is quoted as saying in the release. We are one of the teams that has it.

Matthew Reisen is the news editor at theDaily Lobo. He can bereached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @MReisen88.

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New archive developed by UNM doctor to advance precision medicine and drug development - UNM Daily Lobo

AACC Partners with NEJM Group to Launch AACC Learning Lab – PR Newswire (press release)

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Drawing on this wealth of content, NEJM Knowledge+ adapts to the learner's goals, pace, and knowledge gaps to deliver precisely the information s/he needs. This smart technology has already succeeded with physicians, and uses research-proven methods to accelerate proficiency, continuously sharpen skills, and promote true lifelong learning.

"Laboratory medicine professionals play a critical role in healthcare by ensuring that the right medical tests are ordered and that the results are interpreted correctly so that patients get effective care," said AACC CEO Janet B. Kreizman. "We are excited to partner with NEJM Group and Area9 to provide lab professionals with the educational content they need to grow in their careers and positively impact patient outcomes."

"Area9 Learning is thrilled to be a part of this unique alliance between three authorities: NEJM Group, AACCthe leading authority in laboratory medicine, and Area 9which has been spearheading adaptive learning for the past 10 years," said Dr. Ulrik Christensen, Chairman of the Board, Area9 Learning.

"NEJM Group is pleased to embark on this endeavor and work with AACC to support self-assessment, learning, and board certification for laboratory medicine professionals," said Chris Lynch, Vice President of Publishing, NEJM Group.

About AACCDedicated to achieving better health through laboratory medicine, AACC brings together more than 50,000 clinical laboratory professionals, physicians, research scientists, and business leaders from around the world focused on clinical chemistry, molecular diagnostics, mass spectrometry, translational medicine, lab management, and other areas of progressing laboratory science. Since 1948, AACC has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing programs that advance scientific collaboration, knowledge, expertise, and innovation. For more information, visit http://www.aacc.org.

Christine DeLong AACC Manager, Communications & PR (p) 202.835.8722 cdelong@aacc.org

Molly Polen AACC Senior Director, Communications & PR (p) 202.420.7612 (c) 703.598.0472 mpolen@aacc.org

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aacc-partners-with-nejm-group-to-launch-aacc-learning-lab-300404328.html

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AACC Partners with NEJM Group to Launch AACC Learning Lab - PR Newswire (press release)

The fastest way to win (or lose) business on LinkedIn – Charlotte Business Journal

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Charlotte Business Journal

The fastest way to win (or lose) business on LinkedIn
Charlotte Business Journal
Although, it should be said, if you upload the wrong type of photo on LinkedIn, you can do more harm to your personal and professional brand than if you'd had no photo at all. With all that in mind, I want to spend the rest of this article ensuring ...

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The fastest way to win (or lose) business on LinkedIn - Charlotte Business Journal

Does Your Vision for Your Life Cause You to Look Up…or Down? – Huffington Post

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

"A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a Cathedral." ~ Antone de Saint-Exupery

Several years ago, while in Barcelona, Spain, I had the opportunity to visit Catalan architect, Antonio Gaudi's, one-of-a kind, "Sagrada Famlia." While not officially a "cathedral" because it is not yet the seat of a Bishop, it is often thought of as such because it stands as high or higher than many ancient cathedrals. What is unique about the structure is that, while Gothic in design, it is also very "Art Nouveau" and unlike any other cathedral ever built; it is one-of-a-kind, in a class of its own. If you have ever seen pictures of it you'll understand why I call it one of a kind. I encourage you to Google "Sagrada Famlia" and see for yourself--you'll be rather stunned.

Gaudi designed and took over the construction of the project in 1883 and, the amazing thing is, to this day, it is still a work in progress. It stands higher than many skyscrapers; scaffolding and huge mechanical cranes loom in the skyline. The completion of the project is tentatively set for 2026, the centennial of Gaudi's passing. It is said that he devoted the best of his years to the project, and at the time of his death at age 73 in 1926, less than a quarter of the project was complete. Can you imagine holding such a grand vision and not living to see it come to full fruition?

One-hundred and twenty-eight years after his vision was cast, I humbly stood at the base of this monolithic structure and gazed skyward wondering how much more had to be done to complete his vision. My mind raced back to the year 1883 when there was little more than barren land and rocks in that spot and I imagined him standing there, looking up, seeing his masterpiece in its completed form. That's what visionaries do--they see their dream in its completed form long before it is realized in the material world. The transformation of concrete and rocks into a cathedral happened before Gaudi's workers ever broke ground...and the fact that they are still working on the manifestation of it proves it was a very big vision.

Do you have a vision for your life and, if so, how big is it? Can you see yourself living that life now, even if the outer manifestation of it isn't yet visible? While many say you have to see it to believe it, others are saying, you have to believe it to see it. Which are you? This is where and when the foundation for a life worth living is established. The practice is to contemplate your life as Gaudi contemplated his cathedral--as a completed idea in the creative Mind of a Universe that knows no limitations. In other words, the sky really is the limit; the only caveat is that this creative Mind is waiting for you to upload the design blueprints known as your belief system. What is your vision for your life? Are you looking up, or looking down? Be mindful of where your predominate thoughts go because, whether you are aware of it or not, that is the design plan you are uploading.

Clearly, Gaudi believed in his vision, so much so that it had no alternative but to become a reality, even years after his passing. That is a powerful vision when it takes on a life of its own. Turning a pile of rocks into a cathedral isn't difficult once you have the vision--the Universe conspires to support you in your vision if you are willing to stand in it, own it and act on it. We are all visionaries--that is to say, we each hold in our mind a vision for our life; what it can or can't be, might or might not be, or, will or won't be. So the question really isn't, do you have a vision for your life--if you are alive you have a vision. The real question is, what is your vision? Are you looking down at the rocks or up to the sky? Remember, the Universe is listening and it is already uploading your blueprints.

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Your Redefining Moments: Becoming Who You Were Born to Be

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The Art of Uncertainty: How to Live in the Mystery of Life and Love It

by Dennis Merritt Jones

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Does Your Vision for Your Life Cause You to Look Up...or Down? - Huffington Post

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