Daily Archives: July 16, 2012

Physics for Fun and Profit

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In modest amounts, at least.

There’s an opening in the research and conspiracy consortium to which I belong. There’s an announcement at the GS-12 level, and one at the GS-13 level of duties and compensation.

This position is located in the Time Service Department, Clock Development Division, U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO), Washington, DC. The United States Naval Observatory is responsible for Department of Defense standards for time, and for the establishment of the Department of Defense precise time and time interval (PTTI) requirements for operations and research on time and time interval, and for the coordination of Department of Defense activities in these fields.

The official duties listed are what we all do, translated into HR-speak. We play with physics toys in the area of atomic physics, but, like the private sector, we expect results.

A B C meets 3,2,1

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Help NASA Find the Alphabet… From Space

Adam Voiland of NASA’s Earth Observatory found the photo above that looks like a huge, cloudy “V.” He’s even speculated about which font it may be. I think this looks like a “Z,” but Voiland clearly spends more time looking at satellite imagery than I do, so we’ll defer to him for now.
But what about the rest of the alphabet? Voiland would like to assemble the entire alphabet from space, so if you’ve seen a letter, let us know and perhaps your contribution will be featured by NASA or Wired.