Understanding Iridium Flares

Understanding Iridium Flares Our night skies are packed full of stars and planets to observe on a dark night. However, there are more objects closer to home that observers plan on seeing every so often. These include the International Space Station (ISS) and numerous satellites. The ISS appears as a slow-moving high-altitude craft during its crossings. Many people often mistake it for a very high-flying jet. Most satellites look like dimmer points of light moving against the backdrop of stars. Some satellites appear to move east to west, while others are in polar orbits (moving nearly north-south). They generally take a little longer to cross the sky than the ISS does. A pair of Iridium satellites flaring. Jupiter is to the right and the bright star Arcturus is to the lower left. Jud McCranie, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0. There are thousands of artificial satellites around Earth, in addition to thousands of other objects such as rockets, reactor cores, and pieces of space debris (sometimes referred to as space junk). Not all of them can be seen with the naked eye. Theres a whole collection of objects called Iridium satellites that can look very bright during certain times of day and night. Glints of sunlight bouncing from them are referred to as Iridium flares and for years they have been observed fairly easily. Many people probably have seen an iridium flare and simply not known what they were looking at. It also turns out that other satellites can show these glints, although most are not as bright as the iridium flares. Whats Iridium? Satellite phone or pager users are major users of the Iridium satellite constellation. The constellation is a set of 66 orbiting stations that provide global telecommunications coverage. They follow highly inclined orbits, which means that their paths around the planet are close to (but not quite) from pole to pole. Their orbits are roughly 100 minutes long and each satellite can link to three others in the constellation. The first  Iridium  satellites were planned to be launched as a set of 77. The name Iridium comes from the element iridium, which is number 77 in the periodic table of the elements. It turns out that 77 were not needed. Today, the constellation is used largely by the military, as well as other clients in the airline and air traffic control communities. Each  Iridium  satellite has a spacecraft bus, solar panels, and a set of antennae. The first generations of these satellites go around Earth in roughly 100-minute orbits at a speed of 27,000 kilometers per ho ur. The History of Iridium Satellites Satellites have been orbiting Earth since the late 1950s when  Sputnik 1  was launched. It soon became obvious that having telecommunication stations in low-Earth orbit would make long-distance communications much easier and so countries began launching their own satellites in the 1960s. Eventually, companies got involved, including the Iridium Communications corporation. Its founders came up with the idea of a constellation of stations in orbit in the 1990s. After the company struggled to find customers and eventually went bankrupt, the constellation is still in operation today and its current owners are planning a new generation of satellites to replacing the aging fleet. Some of the new satellites, called Iridium NEXT, have already been launched aboard SpaceX rockets and more will be sent to space to orbits that will likely not produce as many flares as the older generation has. What Is an Iridium Flare?   As each Iridium satellite orbits the planet, it has a chance to reflect sunlight toward Earth from its triad of antennae. That flash of light as seen from Earth is called an Iridium flare. It looks very much like a meteor flashing through the air very rapidly. These brilliant events can happen up to four times a night and can get as bright as -8 magnitude. At that brightness, they can be spotted in the daytime, although its much easier to see them at night or in twilight. Observers can often spot the satellites themselves crossing the sky, just as they would any other satellite. Looking for an Iridium Flare It turns out that Iridium flares can be predicted. This is because the satellite orbits are well known. The best way to find out when to see one to use a site called  Heavens Above, which keeps track of many known bright satellites, including the Iridium constellation. Simply enter your location and get a feel for when you might see a flare and where to look for it in the sky. The website will give the time, brightness, location in the sky, and length of the flare for as long as they continue to occur. Saying Goodbye to Iridium Flares Over the next few years, many of the low-orbiting Iridium satellites that have been reliably producing flares will be decommissioned. The next generation of satellites wont be producing such flares as reliably as the old ones did due to their orbital configurations. So, it may be that Iridium flares could become a thing of the past. Fast Facts Iridium flares are caused by sunlight glinting from the surfades of low-orbiting Iridium satellites.Such flares can be very bright and last only a few seconds.As new generations of Iridium satellites are being put into higher orbits, Iridium flares may become a thing of the past.

Profile of Author Lois Lowry, Newbery Medal Winner

Profile of Author Lois Lowry, Newbery Medal Winner Author Lois Lowry is best known for The Giver, her dark, thought-provoking, and controversial fantasy, which is a young adult novel, and for Number the Stars, a childrens novel about the Holocaust. Lois Lowry received the prestigious Newbery Medal for each of these books. However, what many people dont know is that Lowry has written more than thirty books for children and young teens, including several series. Dates: March 20, 1937 - Also Known As:  Lois Ann Hammersberg   Personal Life Although Lois Lowry grew up with an older sister and a younger brother, she reports, I was a solitary child who lived in the world of books and my own vivid imagination. She was born in Hawaii on March 20, 1937. Lowrys father was in the military, and the family moved a lot, spending time in various states and in Japan. After two years at Brown University, Lowry married. Like her father, her husband was in the military and they moved a good deal, finally settling in Cambridge, Massachusetts when he entered law school. They had four children, two boys and two girls (tragically, one of their sons, an Air Force pilot, died in a plane crash in 1995). The family lived in Maine while the children were growing up. Lowry received her degree from the University of Southern Maine, went to graduate school, and began writing professionally. After her divorce in 1977, she returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts where she still lives; she also spends time at her home in Maine. Books and Accomplishment Lois Lowrys first book, A Summer to Die, which was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1977, was awarded the International Reading Association’s Children’s Book Award. According to Lois Lowry, after hearing from young readers about the book, I began to feel, and I think this is true, that that audience that youre writing for, when you write for kids, you are writing for people who can still be affected by what you write in ways that might change them. Lois Lowry has written more than thirty books for young people, from 2 year-olds to teens, and has received numerous honors. Lowry received the prestigious John Newbery Medal for two of her books: Number the Stars and The Giver. Other honors include the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award. Some of Lowrys books, like the Anastasia Krupnik and Sam Krupnik series, provide a humorous look at daily life and are geared for readers in grades 4-6 (8 to 12-year-olds). Others, while targeting the same age level, are more serious, such as Number the Stars, a story about the Holocaust. One of her series, which she is planning to expand, the Gooney Bird Greene series, targets even younger children, those in grades 3-5 (7 to 10-year-olds). Many of Lois Lowrys most serious, and highly-regarded, books are considered young adult books. They are written for children in grades 7 and up (12-years-old and up). They include A Summer to Die, and The Giver fantasy trilogy, which became a quartet in fall 2012 with the publication of Lowrys Son. In discussing her books, Lois Lowry explained, My books have varied in content and style. Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the importance of human connections. A Summer to Die, my first book, was a highly fictionalized retelling of the early death of my sister, and of the effect of such a loss on a family. Number the Stars, set in a different culture and era, tells the same story: that of the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings.   Censorship and The Giver The Giver is 23rd on the American Library Associations list of the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009. To learn more, see In Their Own Words: Authors Talk About Censorship, in which Lowry discusses reactions to The Giver and states, Submitting to censorship is to enter the seductive world of The Giver: the world where there are no bad words and no bad deeds. But it is also the world where choice has been taken away and reality distorted. And that is the most dangerous world of all. Website and Social Media Presence Lois Lowrys official website has been redesigned and the new, improved website debuted in September 2011. It is divided into five main sections: New Stuff, Blog, About, Collections and Videos. Lois Lowry also provides her email address and a schedule of appearances. The New Stuff area contains information about new books. Lowry uses her blog to describe her daily life and share interesting stories. Both adults and young fans will enjoy her blog. The About area of the site contains three sections: Biography, Awards, and F.A.Q. The Biography section consists of a first-person account of Lois Lowrys life, written for her readers. It contains lots of links to family photos, many of which are from Lois childhood. There are also photos of Lois as a bride and photos of her children and grandchildren. The Awards section provides a good bit of information about the John Newbery Medal (Lowry has two) and a long list of all of the other awards she has received. In the entertaining F.A.Q. section, she answers specific, and sometimes amusing, questions that readers have asked her. According to Lowry, the most frequently asked question is, How do you get your ideas? There are also such serious questions as A parent from my school wants to ban The Giver. What do you think about that? The Collections area includes Books Speeches and Pictures. In the Books section, there is information on all of the books in her Anastasia Krupnik series, Sam Krupnik series, her books about the Tates,  The Giver  trilogy, and her Gooney Bird books, as well as her other books, including her first Newbery Medal winner, Number the Stars. The Speeches section of the Collections area, the only area specifically directed to adults, includes more than a half-dozen speeches, each available in PDF format. My favorite is her 1994 Newbery Medal acceptance speech because of all of the information she gives about how specific life experiences influenced her writing of The Giver. The Pictures section includes photos of Lois Lowrys home, her family, her travels and her friends. Sources: Lois Lowrys website, Lois Lowrys Reading Rockets interview, American Library Association, Random House

Capital investment appraisal within an organisation looks at the Essay

Capital investment appraisal within an organisation looks at the acquisition of fixed assets so as to generate wealth for the organisation - Essay Example Capital investment appraisal, which is also called capital budgeting, is the process to use funds to acquire operational assets (Khamees et al. 2010). These investment decisions obtain their guidance and source from the outcomes or results, which are provided by the source of capital investment appraisal. If the outcomes of capital investment appraisal are positive and encouraging, and these outcomes show that a particular investment, if taken, would bring wealth and additional inflows to the organisation, then investment or fund managers do not delay or waste a single minute to give a green signal for the investment project. Additionally, that investment project must ensure that after a certain number of years, the investment project would bring some additional inflows which would be more than the initial cost invested into that investment project. Four investment techniques are the different methods: Payback period, discounted payback period, net present value (NPV) and internal ra te of return (IRR). These four investment techniques are the basic tools used by the investment managers to carry out the process of investment appraisal. Each investment technique is different and is used differently by the fund or investment managers. Payback period is simply takes into account the number of years. Payback period informs that how many years a particular investment project would take to recover the initial cost of investment. The discounted payback period is a bit different to payback period. The discounted payback period uses a firm’s cost of capital for the purpose of evaluating the expected future cash flows from an investment project.... The discounted payback period uses a firm’s cost of capital for the purpose of evaluating the expected future cash flows from an investment project. In the discounted payback period, without using the cost of capital, the application of discounted payback period would not be possible and applicable for the purpose of conducting an investment appraisal. Net present value (NPV) is considered to be a more effective and reliable investment appraisal tool in comparison with other tools of investment appraisal. The main reason for its more recognition and more application among the different fund and investment managers is that net present value heavily relies on the technique of time-value of money concepts. The internal rate of return (IRR) is a discount rate. This discount rate is used by many fund and investment managers for the purpose of evaluating the future cash inflows. The only and most important function of the internal rate of return is to give a figure of cost of capita l; and this figure is used and applied on the different available cash flows to determine their present value. Capital Investment Appraisal For the financial and investment managers, the activity of capital investment appraisal brings a huge amount of responsibility for them. The capital investment appraisal requires purchasing a long term asset with a life of many years. This means, in case that fixed asset is purchased, the company becomes locked in for the duration of the asset’s life. Also, since the purchase of a fixed asset would directly increase the current level of business operations, and the contribution of the fixed asset would also increase in the activities of sales, costs and so on, it becomes necessary for the investment and fund

Business Ethics in the Business World Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Business Ethics in the Business World - Essay Example Interest in trade ethics accelerated noticeably in the course of the 1980s as well as 1990s, both in major companies and within academia. For instance, at present most main corporations endorse their obligation to non-economic worth under captions like ethics codes along with social accountability charters. In essence, people of equivalent trade hardly ever meet collectively, even for cheerfulness and amusement, but the discussion ends in a scheme against the public, or plot to elevate prices. Governments apply laws as well as regulations to position business conduct in what is seen to be valuable directions. Principles implicitly control areas in addition to details of deeds that lie past governmental direction. The surfacing of large companies with restricted relationships and understanding to the societies in which they function accelerated the expansion of prescribed ethics administrations. Business Ethics in the Business World Business ethical models reproduce the standards of e ach chronological period. As time elapses norms develop, causing established behaviors to become obnoxious. Commercial ethics as well as the resulting conduct evolved also. Business was caught up in slavery, colonialism, in addition to the cold war. The expression business ethics developed into universal use in America in the beginning of 1970s. Firms began highlighting their moral stature in the last parts of 1980s as well as early 1990s, perhaps trying to separate themselves from the industry scandals of the moment, for instance the savings in addition to loan disaster. The proposal of trade ethics caught the notice of academics, media in addition to corporations by the conclusion of the Cold War. Nevertheless, legitimate disapproval of business applications was attacked for disobeying the autonomy of entrepreneurs as well as critics was accused of sustaining communists. This scuttled the discussion of business morals both in media as well as academia. Business ethics ponders the theory of business, a philosophy whose aspiration is to agree on the fundamental principles of a corporation. If a company's rule is to exploit shareholder proceeds, then forfeiting profits to other apprehensions is an infringement of its fiduciary liability. Corporate units are legally measured as individuals in USA as well as in several nations. The company persons' are lawfully permitted to the rights in addition to responsibilities (Ferrell et al, 2012). Corporate managers' responsibility normally will be to create more money as likely while kowtowing their essential rules to the public, both those personified in law along with those personified in moral custom. Additionally, the only units that can have duties are persons, a firm cannot have liabilities (Shaw, 2010). At the same time, there is neither a disconnect ethics of commerce nor is one desirable meaning that codes of personal morals cover all company situations. Nevertheless, it has been observed that the eventual respo nsibility of corporation administrators is not to damage. Another perception of commerce is that it ought to display corporate social responsibility (CSR): a holistic term signifying that a moral business should act as a dutiful citizen of the societies in which it functions even at the expense of profits or other purposes. In America and majority of other

A Short Story Essay Example for Free

A Short Story Essay During Maytag’s final surrender to Whirlpool, appliance parts are now in surplus. As a result, the warehouse has been shipped an overabundance of parts. The likes of which we rarely see. Because the market has gone down in flames, the demand for appliance parts is sky-high. Thus we have a beautiful supply and demand ratio between our suppliers and our customers. Since no one has the capital to go out and purchase a brand new washing machine or refrigerator, in spite of Obama’s Energy Star credit stimulus, more and more appliances are being serviced. This allows servicers to keep in business and increase profits. Their increase in business requires that they purchase more parts from us, of which we are consistently replenishing due to the business deals made by our suppliers. Thus the servicer is never thrown into hysteria over a lack of parts. Thus we keep in business. Thus we keep our jobs. We even manage to allocate overtime on occasion. I know all this because the warehouse hides nothing from me. The warehouse needs me. The warehouse is me. Or else I’d like to think. By the end of the shift we are all manifesting the last of the packages that are to be shipped out via UPS and FedEx. The trailers are closed. The semis drive off. The workers go home. I stay to close shop. I print the manifest reports and shut down the computers. I record our shipping quantities and turn out the lights. The doors are locked, the security enabled. I shut the last door before I stroll to the bus stop. The driver sees my monthly pass purchased online at the warehouse’s very own computer, addressed to my own PO box. The driver lets me on. There are a couple of folks onboard. One works at Chili Works not too far from the warehouse. The other is a Wal-Mart employee. We are all considered workers of the underclass. The only difference is that I have approximately ten grand in my savings. Most people are ten grand in dept. Of course, not too many take microeconomics as seriously either. When my girlfriend cheated on me and insurrected herself from our apartment, I decided to take control of my cash. I realized that I was spending nearly six thousand dollars a year in rent money. When the lease was up, I took the capital gained from the security deposit, including the five dollar interest they were required to give, and invested in a bicycle. Of course, I invested in the bicycle after I totaled my Pontiac grand prix. I did this because for the next year I would have to spend three thousand dollars in car payments and two-thousand dollars in gasoline. The insurance forked me four grand. At this point I was a bit of an alcoholic anyway so I decided that the car was an opportunity cost. If I wanted to continue to go to the bars each night and have my juicy burger and tray full of cigarette butts, I would need to sacrifice the Pontiac. This capital was generally inadequate when compared to my personal entrepreneurship. My taverns, my coffee and reading clubs, my model-crafting. I’m getting to the point at which I can sell World War II naval ship recreations for a profit. No one would know my storage cell housed the Battle of Midway. Then there are my books that I buy and sell later to used book stores. It may be cheaper to go to a library, but the city doesn’t give cards to homeless folk. Still, I manage. The only real resources I depend on is my own personal entrepreneurship, my labor, and the permanence of the land. The capital built up over the years is strictly a luxury. Since my supply of bar beverages is at a constant growth, the supply of such beverages usually comes at a low cost. More and more I see laid off engineers and factory machinists come night after night, drowning their miseries away. Winter approaches, so the construction jockeys are hitting Bourbon Street like an army from hell. Meanwhile, the bars are ordering more and more of their stock. More than probably necessary, as I feel they have built a surplus. Everyday I see trucks stocked with Miller products and Coors make dock. By Tuesday night the bartenders are giving drinks away, they have so much. If their bands of laid-off workers don’t make a buck soon, the bars will start to run into a massive deficit without having a stable consumer base. An unemployed man can only spend for so long. Still, I reap the benefits. And if ever there is a time when someone may ask me why it is I chose my life without shelter; perhaps an intrigued lady aroused by such mystery or a confused little boy who was always taught to work with what they got; I shall tell them both that I live in the market of the free. My entire essence is dedicated to what I want and how accessible it is to make such an acquisition. Everything else is simply an unnecessary expenditure.

The Cask Of The Amontillado - Revenge :: essays research papers

A Tale of Revenge in The Cask of the Amontillado "The Cask of Amontillado" is a powerful tale of revenge. Montresor, the sinister narrator of this tale, pledges revenge upon Fortunato for an insult. Montresor intends to seek vengeance in support of his family motto: "Nemo me impune lacessit."("No one assails me with impunity.") On the coat of arms, which bears this motto, appears " [a] huge human foot d'or, in a field of azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are embedded in the heel." It is important for Montresor to have his victim know what is happening to him. Montresor will derive pleasure from the fact that "...as Fortunato slowly dies, the thought of his rejected opportunities of escape will sting him with unbearable regret, and as he sobers with terror, the final blow will come from the equalization that his craving for the wine has led him to his doom. "The Cask of Amontillado" is about one man's family revenge on another family. In structure, there can be no doubt, that both Montresor's plan of revenge and Poe's story are carefully crafted to create the desired effect. Poe writes this story from the perspective of Montresor who vows revenge against Fortunato in an effort to support his time-honored family motto: "Nemo me impune lacessit" or "No one assails me with impunity." (No one can attack me without being punished.) Poe does not intend for the reader to sympathize with Montresor because Fortunato has wronged him, but rather to judge him. Telling the story from Montresor's point of view, intensifies the effect of moral shock and horror. Once again, the reader is invited to delve into the inner workings of a sinister mind. This part of the story is very disturbing and emotionally unstable. Fortunato undergoes a change from laughter and thinking a practical joke is being played on him to a groaning realization that he is a dead man. This is the place where we chose to make our project. Although several characters are mentioned in this story, the true focus lies upon Montresor, the diabolical narrator of this tale of horror, who pledges revenge upon Fortunato for an insult.

Nummi

As we compare to Japanese and American culture we can more or less comment on why GM was having difficulties while learning from the ANNUM experience. The GM plant in Fremont, California was opened in 1963 and closed down in 1982 due to bottom ranked in productivity among GM plants and the reputation of the worst quality cars in the entire GM system. The major problem was heavily relying on mistrust and fairness between management and union.Whereas Toyota at Annum showed the importance of using all means available to establish a climate of fairness such as flat organization, fewer levels of management, no exclusive bonuses and no distinctions between managers and team members such as using the same cafeteria for lunch or no dress differences. The core values were customer satisfaction by means of high quality and low cost, dignity, trust, teamwork, consistency, continual improvement. This sort of approaches was quite different from happily American manufacturing culture as well as it s culture itself.Japanese already discovered that in order to maintain waste free and high quality production they have to work well with people work on the line and provide them to the same privilege as white collar employees. Employees In most Japanese companies stay In the companies from low position to higher position and they generally work In the companies for their whole career. In the U. S. Companies often go through massive reorganization, therefore employees will be promoted or laid off.