There’s a small, icy object floating at the outer edge of our Solar System, in the messy Kuiper belt. Or it could be two objects, astronomers are not sure.
But NASA is on track to find out more, as that object has been chosen as the next flyby target for the New Horizons spacecraft – the same probe that gave us incredible photos of Pluto in 2015. And now they want your help to give that target a catchy name.
Currently, the enigmatic Kuiper belt object is designated 2014 MU69, but that’s just the provisional string of letters and numbers any newly discovered object gets.
“Yes, we’re going to give 2014 MU69 a real name, rather than just the “license plate” designator it has now,” New Horizons’ principal investigator Alan Stern wrote in a blog post earlier this year.
“The details of how we’ll name it are still being worked out, but NASA announced a few weeks back that it will involve a public naming contest.”
And now, folks, our time to shine has arrived.
NASA has finally extended an invitation for people to submit their ideas for a name, although they note this is not going to be the officially-official name just yet, but rather a nickname to be used until the flyby happens.
The team at New Horizons already have a bunch of ideas prepared, which now form the basis of the naming campaign, and anyone can already vote for those.
Amongst current choices put forward by the team are Z’ha’dum – a fictional planet from the TV series Babylon 5; Camalor – a fictional city actually located in the Kuiper belt according to Robert L. Forward’s novel Camelot 30K; and Mjölnir – the name of Norse thunder god Thor’s epic hammer.
One of the most interesting aspects of MU69 is that we’re not even sure whether the object is one body or two – telescope observations have hinted it could actually be two similarly-sized bodies either in close mutual orbit, or even stuck together.
Read more. NASA Wants Your Help to Name a Space Object, What Could Go Wrong
There’s a small, icy object floating at the outer edge of our Solar System, in the messy Kuiper belt. Or it could be two objects, astronomers are not sure. But NASA is on track to find out more, as that object has been chosen as the next flyby target for the New Horizons spacecraft – the […]
There’s a small, icy object floating at the outer edge of our Solar System, in the messy Kuiper belt. Or it could be two objects, astronomers are not sure.
But NASA is on track to find out more, as that object has been chosen as the next flyby target for the New Horizons spacecraft – the same probe that gave us incredible photos of Pluto in 2015. And now they want your help to give that target a catchy name.
Currently, the enigmatic Kuiper belt object is designated 2014 MU69, but that’s just the provisional string of letters and numbers any newly discovered object gets.
“Yes, we’re going to give 2014 MU69 a real name, rather than just the “license plate” designator it has now,” New Horizons’ principal investigator Alan Stern wrote in a blog post earlier this year.
“The details of how we’ll name it are still being worked out, but NASA announced a few weeks back that it will involve a public naming contest.”
And now, folks, our time to shine has arrived.
NASA has finally extended an invitation for people to submit their ideas for a name, although they note this is not going to be the officially-official name just yet, but rather a nickname to be used until the flyby happens.
The team at New Horizons already have a bunch of ideas prepared, which now form the basis of the naming campaign, and anyone can already vote for those.
Amongst current choices put forward by the team are Z’ha’dum – a fictional planet from the TV series Babylon 5; Camalor – a fictional city actually located in the Kuiper belt according to Robert L. Forward’s novel Camelot 30K; and Mjölnir – the name of Norse thunder god Thor’s epic hammer.
One of the most interesting aspects of MU69 is that we’re not even sure whether the object is one body or two – telescope observations have hinted it could actually be two similarly-sized bodies either in close mutual orbit, or even stuck together.
Read more. 
Applied Technology Institute (ATICourses) provides a variety of technical training courses on 
Jim Jenkins and Ed McCarthy (and families) from ATIcourses.com went fishing on May 24, 2017. They left from Chesapeake Beach, Maryland .
It was a clear, sunny day. The fishing was great. Bunch of rockfish (also known as striped bass) were caught in about 6 hours.
The striped bass, named the official fish of the State of Maryland in 1965, gets its name from the seven or eight dark stripes that run from head to tail. The fish has an olive green back, fading to light silver on its sides, with a white underside. Known for its size and ability to put up a good fight, the striped bass is considered by many to be the premier sport fish on the Bay. It is also mighty tasty.
Tom Logsdon
“Hi diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed,
To see such fun,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.”
My mother taught me that playful English nursery rhyme when I was about nine years old..
Notice how the poet who wrote it couldn’t think of anything more fanciful than having a living,
breathing creature ending up in the vicinity of the moon!
It took 300,000 of us a full decade of very hard work, but we did it! We sent two dozen
astronauts on the adventure of a lifetime and we brought all of them back alive. In 1961
President John F. Kennedy, youthful and exuberant and brimming over with confidence,
announced to the world that America’s scientists and engineers would—within a single decade
—land a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth. No cows need apply. But
potential human astronauts were bigly and hugely enthusiastic about their new opportunity
to fly through space to a different world.
By using the math and physics we had learned in school, we covered hundreds of pages with
with cryptic mathematical symbols to work out the details down to a gnat’s eyebrow.
We ended up hurling 24 American astronauts into the vicinity of the moon!. 12 of them
“kangaroo hopped“ on its surface.
Earlier this month, when the moon grew to its maximum apparent size, we were all reminded of
the excitement we felt during Project Apollo. Of course, the size of the moon did not actually
change, it merely moved up to its point of closest approach.
Systematic perturbations on the moon’s orbit coupled with rhythmic variations in its distance
from the Earth as it traveled around its elliptical orbit resulted in surprisingly large variations
in its apparent size and its brightness as seen from the Earth.
These distance variations, in turn, cause its observed diameter and its brightness to vary by as
much as 15 and 30 percent, respectively. When the moon approaches its maximum apparent
size and brightness, it is characterized as a supermoon. The biggest and brightest supermoons
are spaced out several decades apart.
My son, Chad, who participates in Special Olympics, used his cellphone camera to create the
two photographs that accompany this blog. He took the first picture at the crack of dawn
when the moon reached its maximum diameter at the edge of the parking lot at the Embassy
Suites Hotel in Lexington, Kentucky (population 360,000). He made the second photograph
12 hours later in my hometown of Springfield, Kentucky, ((population 2900). That second
picture was made on a small roadside hill beside the Bardstown Road above the IGA
Supermarket within sight of the yellow blinker light at the edge of town.
Author and short-course instructor, Tom Logsdon, who wrote this article, teaches the Launch
and Orbital Mechanics short course for The Applied Technology Institute. 
Dr. Peter Zipfel
James Jenkins, Riva, MD.jpg)
Matt Moran, Windsor, Ontario, Canada.jpg)
How to Promote Your ATI Course in Social Media
LinkedIn for ATI Rocket Scientists
Did you know that for 52% of professionals and executives, their LinkedIn profile is the #1 or #2 search result when someone searches on their name?
For ATI instructors, that number is substantially lower – just 17%. One reason is that about 25% of ATI instructors do not have a LinkedIn profile. Others have done so little with their profile that it isn’t included in the first page of search results.
If you are not using your LinkedIn profile, you are missing a huge opportunity. When people google you, your LinkedIn profile is likely the first place they go to learn about you. You have little control over what other information might be available on the web about you. But you have complete control over your LinkedIn profile. You can use your profile to tell your story – to give people the exact information you want them to have about your expertise and accomplishments.
Why not take advantage of that to promote your company, your services, and your course?
Here are some simple ways to promote your course using LinkedIn…
On Your LinkedIn Profile
Let’s start by talking about how to include your course on your LinkedIn profile so it is visible anytime someone googles you or visits your profile.
1. Add your role as an instructor.
Let people know that this course is one of the ways you share your knowledge. You can include your role as an instructor in several places on your profile:
3. Upload course materials.
You can upload course materials to help people better understand the content you cover. You could include PowerPoint presentations (from this course or other training), course handouts (PDFs), videos or graphics. They can be added to your Summary, Experience or Project. You can see an example of an upload above, in Tom Logsdon’s profile.
4. Add skills related to your course.
LinkedIn allows you to include up to 50 skills on your profile. If your current list of skills doesn’t include the topics you cover in your course, you might want to add them.
Go to the Skills & Endorsements section on your Edit Profile page, then click on Add skill. Start typing and let LinkedIn auto-complete your topic. If your exact topic isn’t included in the suggestions, you can add it.
5. Ask students for recommendations.
Are you still in touch with former students who were particularly appreciative of the training you provided in your course? You might want to ask them for a recommendation that you can include on your profile. Here are some tips on 
Applied Technology Institute (ATI Courses)
Last week when a customer had questions I talked with Tom Logsdon about the 6 methods of training used in his
Creativity & Innovation course. The six methods are spelled out in his book Six Simple Creative Solutions that
Shook the World. Tom is a mathematician and rocket scientist by training (and he teaches courses on GPS and
Orbital & Launch Mechanics in his spare time) who teaches creativity paired with discipline.
Yesterday, my husband called to alert me to a minor crisis at home. Our 2 year old gas stove, both burners and
oven, had ceased to heat. It was fine at breakfast and not at lunch. Although fueled by gas it has electric igniters.
During the phone call we took a scientific approach.
Six Simple Creative Solutions that Shook the World #1: Break your problem apart & put it back together:
we concluded that since the burners could be started with a lighter that the problem was not in the gas
feed. Additionally, the digital clock didn’t work. Everything pointed to something electric. However, the
circuit breaker was fine.
Later, when I came home we pulled the stove out and
6SCStStW #2: Take a fresh look at the interfaces. The electric connection appeared secure on both ends
and it didn’t work with an alternate outlet.
By this time -in a too-crowded kitchen with a malfunctioning appliance- the (wall) clock was ticking, no food was
being prepared and my husband and mother were chomping at the bit. I reached for the iPod, plugged it in to the
speaker and turned on some vintage Eric Clapton Unplugged….and nothing…..happened. Zero sound. Then the
Eureka moment occurred! Or
6SCStStW #6. Happy Serendipity. Believe me, I needed those mellow acoustic notes. That is when I
realized that the outlet circuit had tripped. I hit the reset button and Voila! Eric Clapton strummed the
guitar and Chuck Leavell dazzled on the piano.
Electricity was restored to the stove and dinner was prepared and served. Thank you Tom Logsdon & Eric Clapton!
Note: Tom Logsdon’s Creativity & Innovation course is available for training at your facility. 
This morning when you awoke, you probably quieted the growls of your hungry belly by eating breakfast. Most likely, as your stomach quieted, so did your thoughts of food.
One of ATI’s training partners TrainingEtc has a community service program that ATIcourses wants to publicize. TrainingEtc teams with ATIcourses to offer both open enrollment and on-site Project Management and Computer courses. You can read more about their volunteer program at
One of ATI’s training partners TrainingEtc has a community service program that ATIcourses wants to publicize. TrainingEtc teams with ATIcourses to offer both open enrollment and on-site Project Management and Computer courses. You can read more about their volunteer program at 
Since 1982, Habitat for Humanity the Chesapeake (HFHC) has been fighting against poverty by rebuilding and serving more than 950 low-income families to obtain affordable houses. Located around the Baltimore area, this nonprofit Christian housing ministry has built more than 340 homes. HFHC believes that every man, woman and child should have a decent, safe and affordable place to live and therefore HFHC focuses on turning blocks of vacant houses into safe and healthy homes.
HFHC runs simply by the assistance of volunteers and donations. Volunteers play an innumerable role in the rehabilitation of these homes by being the hands and the muscles of the labor. Volunteers may be involved in (but are not limited to) responsibilities such as roofing, siding, plumbing, flooring, window replacement, painting, and many more. As we plugged away for eight hours, not only did we feel that our labor was serving others, but as a whole, HFHC truly served us. The HFHC crew was very helpful and interactive with /training/etc’s team. Not only did they teach how to use each piece of equipment, but also tricks of the trade that can be used for our own future projects. This experience allowed each individual to grow in new ways, and /training/etc is very grateful for the passion and the dedication that this organization puts forth every day.
This was an incredible experience and we hope to work with HFHC annually. The volunteers who joined /training/ etc enjoyed the day so much, they are already inquiring about the next opportunity!!!!
On Thursday, July 3, through the steady downpour of morning rain and the 95 degree muggy afternoon heat, nine /training/etc employees and our friends and family spent the day serving
The Samaritan Women (TSW) in Baltimore, MD. Our committed group spent the day tilling the soil, pulling weeds, harvesting produce, and moving heavy pavers and rocks. Although it was tiring and challenging, we felt privileged to be able to serve this worthy organization.
TSW’s mission is to promote health, healing, and hope for women who have been impacted by domestic human trafficking. As a Christian nonprofit organization, TSW fulfills their mission through four primary efforts.
Operating a transitional residence program that emphasizes life-rebuilding and reconciliation for women recovering from trauma and trafficking – TSW’s
objective through the residence program is to transform broken women into thriving members of society. They serve women of trauma and trafficking by encouraging relational, social, and spiritual development and teaching them how to care for themselves and achieve academically and vocationally, all while providing a clean and safe temporary home for them.
Offering a vocational program focusing on culinary arts and entrepreneurism – The Culinary Arts program at TSW teaches women safe food handling, food and equipment identification, nutrition, menu-planning, and basic kitchen support. The women learn many of the skills through guided instruction as they prepare meals for the residents of the program.
Managing a large urban farm that grows produce to support their vocational program – Women in the program participate in planting, growing, harvesting, preparing, serving, and enjoying the food. They even learn about composting what’s left! TSW utilizes the “seed to table” concept, meaning that the culinary arts program is fully integrated with their urban farm.
Leading a state-wide social justice initiative against human trafficking (the Maryland Rescue and Restore Coalition) – The Maryland Rescue and Restore Coalition began in 2009 as a ministry extension of TSW. In 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services renamed it The Maryland Rescue and Restore Coalition and expanded their scope to include public awareness, care-giver training, and collaboration with law enforcement on prevention and intervention.
Although it was a wet, hot, and physically tiring day, we felt mentally recharged and invigorated by day’s end. We enjoyed getting to know the staff at TSW and hearing the fascinating history behind the property and buildings. We also look forward to further opportunities to serve TSW – to assist them in helping women impacted by domestic human trafficking.
The Washington Post had an article on June 30, 2013 titled 
Astronauts in space have decided to interact with millions of humans on Earth and have decided to hold a Google Hangouts session.
On February 22, 2013, NASA scientists aboard the International Space Station (ISS) that is presently orbiting 240 miles over the Earth, will hold the first live Google Hangout session. The session will be conducted with Kevin Ford and Tom Marshburn who are astronauts aboard the ISS. Canadian Space Agency’s Chris Hadfield will also be a part of the conference.
Interested people can send their queries in advance to the space station. People can submit a video query through YouTube. The query needs to not more than 30 seconds and must have the tag #AskAstro so NASA ground people can sift through and select the appropriate videos. Interested people should also provide their name and inform their location in their video.
Real-time questions will also be answered by the astronauts. As the live hangout can support just upto 10 people at a max, the hangout can be viewed LIVE by millions across the world on Google or YouTube. Questions posted on their Facebook page will also be answered.
This is not the first time NASA is conducting such activities and using the social media platform to connect with astronomy enthusiasts. However this is the first time the space expert is using a Social Media platform of Google Plus to address enthusiasts.