Lifeboat Foundation

So we are on month 3 of COVID19 here in Asia. We have had some time to figure out how to keep ourselves from going stir crazy. Playing some boardgames with the kids is a better alternative to youtube or xbox all day long.

I know that being stuck in side can be challenging. Going outside with your kids may not be a possibility if you live in a high density population area. So what do you do with your kids when they are stuck at home, getting stressed out or spending too much time online? Answer: Spend time with them.

Scholastic, the company that is known for educational fun books for kids, said that there many benefits for playing games as a family. If you bring out board games, the kid turn off the screen. You can have special time with your kids and allowing you to teach them about teamwork, patience, and how to win and lose gracefully. Board games can help benefit kids’ brains and language development.

• Board games offer math skills like probability… but don’t tell them that.
• They boost their language skills as they read cards and ask what words mean.
• They sharpen your child’s focus by getting them interested in reading rules, looking at the play board and figuring out how to win.
• They teach the value of teamwork. All for yourself doesn’t work very often in games. Kids learn that if they play dirty, other people adjust their strategy, and usually form alliances to counter a cutthroat player.
• Strategy games are useful developing thinking skills. Working through problems, adjusting strategy to account for twists and turns is helpful.
• Take your mind off things and easy anxiety. Looking at the news full time isn’t healthy. Especially kids don’t need to be exposed to all of the serious problems outside. Let them focus at home with you.
• Show kids how to be a good loser (and winner). Winning is great. Playing in a way that everyone has fun is better. Kids will learn that is okay to fail in a game, because they can always play again and do better next time.
• Unplug. Unplug. Unplug. To much screen time isn’t good for anyone. Let the eyes have a rest and let your and your kids brain unwind.
• Set an example. Put down the phone and have a conversation with your kids. They will talk with you so much more when playing a game.

Here are a few games that we played during our first 3 months of being at home.

“Depending on when we launch they’re going to be up there for probably two to three months.”

NASA Administrator Bridenstine

The next launch to the Space Station is planned for April 9^th and is only a few days away. Preparations for the launch have been complicated with illness and coronavirus complications. AS OF NOW, the launch is still on track to rocket American astronaut Chris Cassidy and his two Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. Originally, Ivanishin and Vagner were backup for expedition 63. Due to a temporary health condition, Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner were moved forward onto the prime crew. Because of delays in the US Commercial Crew Program, the crew on the ISS may be lower that normal.

Boeing and SpaceX delays put ISS operations at Risk

Since delays to the US Commercial Crew Program might leave Cassidy as the only crew member on the USOS for an extended period of time, Anatoli Ivanishin has been training on US EMU spacesuits. Cassidy has completed multiple EVAs in the past, including an unscheduled EVA. In the unlikely event that an unscheduled EVA is required before additional USOS crew members arrive on the station, then Ivanishin can support Cassidy. Should Ivanishin participate in EVA in the EMU he would be the first Russian cosmonaut to use an EMU since 2007 where Yuri Malenchenko performed the EVA with NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson. Vagner has been to training on operation the USOS Robotic Arm (Canadarm 2) should there be a need to robotically support any EVA carried out by Cassidy and Ivanishin.

The three astronauts are scheduled to be in space until October 2020 by which time a SpaceX Crew Dragon should be able to rotate a new crew onto the ISS.

During expedition 63, NASA and SpaceX hope to accomplish the first humans launched to the ISS from American soil since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission is a flight test with crew. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will take the Crew Dragon for a “Test drive” on the Demo-2 mission. NASA hopes to certify all of the systems operational for future crewed missions to the International Space Station.

In the stillness and noise of the M.R.I., I picture what the magnet is doing to my brain. I imagine hydrogen protons aligning along and against the direction of its field. Bursts of radio waves challenge their orientation, generating signals that are rendered into images. Other than the sting of the contrast agent, the momentary changes in nuclear spin feel like nothing. “Twenty-five more minutes,” the radiologist says through the plastic headphones. Usually, I fall asleep.

I’ve had more than 50 scans since 2005, when I received a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, and I now possess thousands of images of my brain and spine. Sometimes I open the files to count the spinal-cord lesions that are slowly but aggressively taking away my ability to walk. On days my right leg can clear the ground, it feels as if a corkscrew is twisting into my femur. I take halting steps, like a hapless robot, until it’s impossible to move forward. “Maybe in 10 years there will be a pill, or a treatment,” a doctor told me.

For now, even a sustained low fever could cause permanent disability, and medications that treat the disease have left me immunosuppressed, making fevers more likely. I quarantined before it was indicated, and what I miss most now, sheltering in place, are walks through my neighborhood park in Los Angeles with my dog, who gleefully chases the latest bouncy ball I’m hurtling against the concrete. Her current favorite is the Waboba Moon Ball, which comes in highlighter fluorescent yellow and Smurf blue, among other colors. Technically Moon Balls are spherical polyhedrons. They sport radically dimpled surfaces, as if Buckminster Fuller had storyboarded an early pitch for “Space Jam.” Moon Balls are goofy, but they bounce 100 feet.

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In these troubled times, enforced home-working is producing remarkable results for physicists and astronomers.

Yes, that’s right. The classic NASA “worm” logo is back! An image of the revived NASA worm logo was released on Twitter by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine as well as press release on the NASA.gov website.

NASA explained that original NASA insignia is an iconic symbol widely recognized in the world. The NASA “meatball” logo as many know it by represented patriotic American colors. A red chevron wing piercing a blue sphere(Planet) with white stars, and an spacecraft orbiting. This “meatball” logo was not easy to reproduce with 1970’s technology so the Federal Design Improvement Program introduced in 1975 a new logo, the “worm.”

Some History about the logo

By the beginning of World War I, the United States lagged behind Europe in airplane technology. On March 3, 1915, Congress founded NACA as an independent government agency in response to the perception that the United States was falling behind in aeronautical technology. NACA would report directly to the President with the purpose to catch up. But technology had evolved, and once again the US was falling behind in technology. Russia launched Sputnik. The space race was being lost.

Following the launch of Sputnik, the United States created NASA to catch up in the space race and pull ahead. In order to help spur on a wave of national enthusiasm in support of the nation’s aeronautical, a logo would be needed. The new agency set out to design a new logo and came up with various options for consideration.

Defining our “New Normal” in the Age of Coronavirus — Amanda Christensen, ideaXme (http://radioideaxme.com/) guest interviewer, interviews Ben Hammersley, one of the world’s leading futurists to answer questions about how we are going to work, live, thrive, and innovate in the coming years — #Ideaxme #BenHammersley #Innovation #Futurist #Futurism #Covid19 #Coronavirus #Science #Longevity #Health #Medicine #Environment #Space #Oceans #Literature #Music #Food #Future #Entertainment #Sports #Fashion Awesome Foundation European University Institute United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) UNAOC Fellowship Program Goldsmiths, University of London WIRED UK The Brookings Institution European Commission.

Amanda Christensen, ideaXme guest interviewer, interviews Ben Hammersley, one of the world’s leading futurists and founder of international Strategic Foresight agency Hammersley Futures.

Continue reading “Ben Hammersley Futurist, Defines our New Normal in the Age of Coronavirus” »

Using NASA’s Fermi and Swift spacecraft, astronomers have investigated SGR J1935+2154, the most recurring transient magnetar known to date. The new research sheds more light on the burst properties of this object. The study is detailed in a paper published March 23 on the arXiv pre-print repository.

Magnetars are neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields, more than 1 quadrillion times stronger than the magnetic field of Earth. Decay of magnetic fields in magnetars powers the emission of high-energy electromagnetic radiation, for instance, in the form of X-rays or radio waves.

Discovered in 2014, SGR J1935+2154 has a spin period of 3.24 seconds, spin-down rate of 14.3 picoseconds/second, and a dipole-magnetic field with a strength at a level of approximately 220 trillion G, what confirms its magnetar nature. Since its detection, the source experienced more than 100 bursts, occurring almost annually.

With quantum radar, you can map the cosmos with 3D modeling and dwave quantum computer.

A telescope in Arizona will undertake the task after being retrofitted with a high-tech sensor.