Space Launch System (3)

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SPACE WATCH

J-2X Powerpack on A-2 Test Stand
NASA – Stennis Space Center engineers and technicians watch as the J-2X powerpack is hoisted into place in the A-1 test stand Dec. 5. Image credit: NASA/SSC

 

J-2X Powerpack on the A-1 Test Stand
The J-2X powerpack is installed and ready for testing in the A-1 test stand at the Stennis Space Center. Image credit: NASA/SSC

 

 

J-2X Powerpack on the A-1 Test Stand
Stennis Space Center engineers and technicians install the J-2X powerpack into the A-1 test stand in preparation for testing Dec. 5. Image credit: NASA/SSC

 

Final J-2X Engine Test for 2011
On Dec. 14, NASA engineers conducted their final J-2X engine test for 2011 — the 10th in a series — at the A-2 test stand at the Stennis Space Center. The upper stage engine is a key component of the Space Launch System, a new heavy-lift launch vehicle capable of missions beyond low-Earth orbit. Image credit: NASA/SSC

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Time for Obama to End Timidity on US Tech Manufacturing Jobs

By George Leopold – The titans of Silicon Valley have made it perfectly clear that all those manufacturing jobs shipped to Asia aren’t coming back. That’s precisely what Apple’s Steve Jobs told President Obama during a dinner in California last year before his death, according to a sobering account published by The New York Times, “How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work.”

The reason those jobs manufacturing consumer devices are gone for good, the NYT reports, is that the US manufacturing base has failed to evolve; the Asian supply chain for electronics is superior to ours; and American workers are unwilling to pull 12-hour shifts and live in company dorms. more> http://is.gd/f5YJEj

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The Future of Retail

By Greg Satell – At the beginning of the dot com boom, many assumed that e-commerce would become an instant success. Eager VC’s threw money at just about any business plan that promised to end the drudgery of shopping with a few clicks of a mouse.

It didn’t work out all that well.

With all the huffing and puffing, e-commerce has a very small impact on total revenues. So how do you inject digital technology into the shopping experience?

The answer lies in what Daniel Rigby calls the “Omnichannel Organization.” more> http://is.gd/KsV7rD

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Ocean acidification study reveals effects of carbon dioxide

R&D Mag – A University of California Santa Barbara marine scientist and a team of 18 other researchers have reported results of the broadest worldwide study of ocean acidification to date. Acidification is known to be a direct result of the increasing amount of greenhouse gas emissions. The scientists used sensors developed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California San Diego to measure the acidity of 15 ocean locations, including seawater in the Antarctic, and in temperate and tropical waters.

“We were able to illustrate how parts of the world’s oceans currently have different pH, and thus how they might respond to climate changes in the future,” said Gretchen E. Hofmann, an eco-physiologist and professor at UCSB. “The sensors allowed us to capture that.” more> http://is.gd/yGlfXa

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When Will Housing Hit Bottom?

By Megan McArdle – Let’s ask the question: what if housing doesn’t recover? Can the economy recover without it?

There are a lot of reasons to think that it can’t. Underwater houses constrain consumer spending; they make people feel poorer; they depress labor mobility, because people who can’t sell can’t move elsewhere to look for a job. Since new businesses are often funded with personal credit–or even loans against the house–it probably depresses firm formation, and the resulting innovation. And of course, construction is normally a substantial component of GDP. more> http://is.gd/kfmcrK

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