Memorial Day

Why Do Runners Still Race 

With Paper Pinned to Their Shirts?

Racing bibs have tags that help track and identify runners. But they are also a good place for sponsors’ names.

Bibs, and four safety pins, are ubiquitous at track meets everywhere. Even at the Olympics.

By Nell Gallogly in The New York Times

Trayvon Bromell had a problem. There was a stadium of fans awaiting him and he wasn’t ready to race. He needed a few safety pins.

“All I wanted to be thinking about is the race,” he recalled of the 2021 U.S. Olympic track and field trials. Instead, he found himself frantically searching for four safety pins to pin his bib onto his jersey before a race that would send him to the Tokyo Olympics. “Something as small as a piece of paper can be the biggest distraction,” he said.

Racing bibs, which help track and identify runners, are a cornerstone of a runner’s race-day kit and a source of race day revenue through sponsorships. But many professional runners are questioning why they are still being weighed down by a large piece of paper attached to their high tech race day outfits.

Precisely measuring a runner’s time is a basic — and critical — aspect of a race. Bromell would go on to win the 100-meter race by five hundredths of a second. The difference between an Olympic qualifier and fourth place was decided by three hundredths of a second.

A roughly 10-gram tag that uses ultrawide-band Bluetooth technology attaches onto the athlete’s paper bib, allowing centimeter-scale precision tracking of runners. It can also measure the distance between athletes on the track, their speed and even their heart rate. That is in addition to photo-finish cameras that determine the order and times of athletes as they cross the finish line.

Image

Trayvon Bromell holding his race bib, the safety pins still attached to his singlet, after winning the men’s 100 at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in 2021. 

But the tags don’t absolutely have to be placed on the bib. They could be placed on a wristband or directly onto the athlete’s clothing, said Cody Branch, the director of elite events for PrimeTime Timing, the organization that manages race technology for U.S.A.T.F. meets. That change would require “a concerted effort from track meet organizers and apparel companies,” Branch said, but he thought it was feasible.

Tyler Noble, a senior manager of sport science and data analytics at U.S.A.T.F., agreed the bibs weren’t necessary. “Could you in theory have an event without bibs? Absolutely,” Noble said. But, he added, “race bibs are part of the sport.”

From Turkey-Trots to professional races, bibs play a familiar role in a runner’s race-day ritual. After a race, many runners — even the elites — take their bibs home as a souvenir.

“I like collecting my bibs,” said Nell Rojas, a professional long-distance runner. She also likes that they help spectators cheer runners on by name, as the last name of professional runners is often plastered across their bibs.

In marathon racing, bibs are a matter of practicality. When thousands or tens of thousands of runners are competing in a race, there is a need for a standardized disposable tracking system like RFID tags. The technology signals the runners’ location along a course when they cross over mats placed throughout the race.

Still, Rojas thinks the bibs, and their size, could use a redesign. “Bibs keep getting bigger and bigger,” she said. “They surpass the sports bra.”

When an athlete is trying to focus on performing at their best, the bibs are a distraction, said Michael Johnson, the four-time Olympic gold medalist. He also felt the bibs signaled a lack of professionalism at the highest level of the sport: “the fastest, most efficient athletes in the world are competing with a piece of paper safety-pinned on,” Johnson said. “It just reeks of amateurism.” Even replacing the safety pins with an adhesive material would be a step in the right direction, he added.

But the stubborn staying power of bibs may be rooted in their monetary value to meet organizers. “The bib is real estate,” said Cooper Knowlton, a founder of the racing organization Trials of Miles. “No brand is getting their name on a bib without paying for it.”

In some cases, athletes will even be asked to wear bibs outside of the race. “I was asked to wear a bib number when I went on to receive my award at a world championship,” Johnson said. In the recent Doha Diamond League track and field event, some athletes wore bibs to the news conference.

While athletes may receive some compensation from meet organizers through appearance fees, they are unlikely to receive a portion of the revenue from the sponsors they wear on their bibs.

Bromell, the Olympic sprinter, thinks athletes deserve to see a direct portion of the cut. “I am repping sponsors I am not being paid for,” he said.

Plus, wearing other sponsors can feel uncomfortable, Rojas said. “It’s awkward at the Boston Marathon when I’m a Nike sponsored athlete, but I have Adidas all over me because that’s what my bib says.” Rojas decided not to post some photos from the race on social media because of her bib.

The sentiment around bibs is not universal, Rojas said. But, there’s one thing nearly all runners seemed to agree on: The safety pins have got to go.

Artemis 2 astronauts flying to the moon could phone home with ham radio

By Elizabeth Howell published 20 days ago in  Space.com

When astronaut Owen Garriott, W5LFL (sk), keyed down his 2 meter transceiver aboard the space shuttle Columbia on December 1, 1983, he became the first person to use Ham radio from space. 

It's been 40 years since the first astronaut called an amateur radio operator on Earth. Now the moon is in the community's sights.

Most of the astronauts aboard the Artemis 2 mission, which will send a quartet of people around the moon in late 2024, are certified ham radio (amateur radio) operators. There's high hopes in the community that the astronauts may call home from deep space, the president of Radio Amateurs of Canada told Space.com.

"We feel it's important that anyone, especially kids as they determine what they want to do with their life, have that opportunity" to talk with astronauts, Phil A. McBride said in a recent interview. After four decades of communication with low Earth orbit, he added, the hope is ham radio will reach further out with the moon.

The first ham radio operator in space was NASA astronaut Owen Garriott (W5LFL), who on Dec. 1, 1983 called Lance Collister (WA1JXN) in Frenchtown, Montana. A ham radio was even aboard the Russian space station Mir, according to NASA, during the shuttle-Mir program that saw NASA astronauts visit the orbiting complex.

Today's ham operators communicate with astronauts through Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS), largely aiming to let students directly talk with spaceflyers, according to documentation from the group. As of 2022, NASA reports that more than 100 crew members have connected with 250,000 participants on the ground via ARISS.

It's unclear if ham radio equipment will be onboard Artemis 2 as the mission manifest is not yet decided, Space.com confirmed with Chief Astronaut Joe Acaba and two of the crew members (NASA's Reid Wiseman and the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen) in interviews last month. In theory, though, the main requirements would be adequate power and storage space for radio equipment, spare time for the crew to devote to the radio during their 10-day mission and a line of sight with Earth.

Three of the four Artemis 2 astronauts are certified hams, however, with call signs for Wiseman (KF5LKT), Hansen (KF5LKU) and NASA astronaut Victor Glover (KI5BKC). The other crew member, NASA astronaut Christina Koch, was studying for a 2019 amateur license exam when her record-setting one-year flight was abruptly rescheduled six months earlier than expected, according to the National Association for Amateur Radio. Koch delayed the certification in favor of completing the mission training for her 328-day sojourn that ended on Feb. 10, 2020.

Participating in the ham community requires precious resources: Time to study for the required exams, equipment space to accommodate chatting with others and money to buy said equipment and obtain certification. Costs vary considerably by region. U.S. operators must pay around $35 to get their ham radio license from the Federal Communications Commission, according to Hamtronics.com. Equipment costs can range from $30 handheld devices to more professional units that start at $400 and climb quickly into the thousands.

The community is an international collective that McBride says is quite welcoming of people from all ages, genders, backgrounds and all countries, to the extent that operators will often donate old equipment to those in need. That said, the barriers of cost and time do tend to favor males worldwide; detailed statistics on diversity are not easily available. Diversity and inclusion were the stated priorities of the American Radio Relay League in a December 2022 communique from its CEO, David Minster.

The ham community is starting to think past the apparent conclusion of the ISS program in 2030, to a time when commercial space stations are expected to begin. McBride said conversations are ongoing about bringing hams onto these commercial venues, although the planning for the outposts are still in early stages.

Speaking to his own experience, McBride said ham radio tends to inculcate valuable cross-disciplinary skills in the community. Math skills are a definite must, along with comfort with technology. McBride, 43, said as an example that his interest in ham radio had him studying algebra ahead of his schoolmates around ages 13 and 14.

"It encourages innovation," McBride said of ham radio, which was estimated to have three million participants worldwide in 2015. The previous decade before that, based on U.S. statistics, appeared to show that number is growing.

The current ARISS collaboration involves all the major partners: NASA, the European Space Agency, Roscosmos and the Canadian Space Agency. Artemis will have a similarly international approach for its crews, so presumably, if ham radio is brought on board those missions several countries will be involved.

The astronauts themselves have said how much ham radio means to them. "I get choked up every time I read a report about a ham radio contact," NASA astronaut Sunita Williams said in 2015.

"You go through the questions and it sounds like only 10 kids, then you read a report about how many people were at that event and how much preparation and time the kids took. It is nice to know it makes such a huge impact."

Historic Invention – Pentium Processor

30 years ago, today - 1993 - Intel's new Pentium processor is unveiled.  Semiconductor Pioneer and CEO of Intel Andrew Grove introduced the first Pentium processor in 1993, replacing Intel's 80486 microprocessor. It soon emerged as the microprocessor of choice for personal computers (PCs).

Intel Pentium: Thirty years later

Intel's Pentium line of microprocessors has been around for almost 30 years. Today, these processors power many kinds of devices, including laptops, convertibles, desktops and mini-PCs. Pentium-powered devices support a range of operating systems, including Windows, Chrome and Linux.

Between 2017 and 2022, Intel released numerous editions of Intel Pentium Gold processors in a variety of form factors. Computers with Gold processors can perform quick processing, do light photo editing, video editing and multitasking. Most Gold processors have two cores, although processors with five cores, also called multicore processors, are available.

Intel Pentium Silver processors are meant for entry-level PCs, devices used by students and educators. Systems powered by Pentium Silver chips provide excellent application and graphics performance, video conferencing abilities and faster wireless connectivity. All Silver chips have four cores, 4 MB cache, and Intel UHD Graphics or UHD Graphics 605 capability.

Physics pioneer leads to the

First Color Photograph     

James Clerk Maxwell's portrayal of electromagnetic forces as “fields” revolutionized physics in the 19th century. Maxwell took the work of Michael Faraday and created a mathematical formula that linked magnetism and electricity. His work created a basis for modern electrical engineering and paved the way for x-rays and radar.

James Clerk Maxwell's other achievements included work on color including producing what was probably the first color photograph on this date in 1861. He also produced ground-breaking work on the kinetic theory of gases, and on the nature of Saturn’s rings.

Albert Einstein said Maxwell's work was the "most profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton", and that his theory of relativity owed its origins to Maxwell's calculations.

The foundation of all practical color processes, the three-color method was first suggested in an 1855 paper by Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, with the first color photograph produced by Thomas Sutton for a Maxwell lecture in 1861.

Three-color processes

Portrait of painter Albert Bierstadt, made by his brother Edward Bierstadt. This collotype print was sent in 1895 to Elbridge T. Gerry. It may be the oldest surviving color portrait photograph.

The three-color method, which is the foundation of virtually all practical color processes whether chemical or electronic, was first suggested in an 1855 paper on color vision by Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell.

In his studies of color vision, Maxwell showed, by using a rotating disk with which he could alter the proportions, that any visible hue or gray tone could be made by mixing only three pure colors of light – red, green and blue – in proportions that would stimulate the three types of cells to the same degrees under particular lighting conditions.  To emphasize that each type of cell by itself did not actually see color but was simply more or less stimulated, he drew an analogy to black-and-white photography: if three colorless photographs of the same scene were taken through red, green and blue filters, and transparencies ("slides") made from them were projected through the same filters and superimposed on a screen, the result would be an image reproducing not only red, green and blue, but all of the colors in the original scene.

The first color photograph made according to Maxwell's prescription, a set of three monochrome "color separations", was taken by Thomas Sutton in 1861 for use in illustrating a lecture on color by Maxwell, where it was shown in color by the triple projection method. The test subject was a bow made of ribbon with stripes of various colors, apparently including red and green. During the lecture, which was about physics and physiology, not photography, Maxwell commented on the inadequacy of the results and the need for a photographic material more sensitive to red and green light. 

Color photography has been the dominant form of photography since the 1970s, with monochrome photography mostly relegated to niche markets such as art photography.

 Net Topic Questions

1. Do you remember the early desktops PC’s and how there was a progression upwards in power; 386 to 486 and then to Pentium?

2. Color Photography – are you a photographer?

• Have you ever done any photography LAB WORK? Darkroom, etc.?

Bobby Orr Scores OT Goal – Stanley Cup Win

53 Years ago – May 10, 1970 

1970 Stanley Cup Final, Boston Garden, Boston, MA: Bobby Orr scores famous OT winner as Boston beats St. Louis Blues, 4-3 for 4-0 series sweep; Bruins its first title since 1941.

Boston Bruins vs. St. Louis Blues

Boston faced the winner of the Western Division, the St. Louis Blues, making its 3rd straight Stanley Cup final appearance. The Blues had been swept by the Montreal Canadiens in both their previous appearances in the Finals. St. Louis defeated the Minnesota North Stars and Pittsburgh Penguins to reach the Finals. The series opened at the St. Louis Arena, and the Bruins had no problems at all in their first two games, defeating the Blues by scores of 6–1 and 6–2 to take a 2–0 series lead. The series shifted to Boston for the next two games, and the Bruins dominated game 3, winning 4–1. St. Louis forced the 4th game into sudden death; however the Bruins, on an overtime goal by Bobby Orr, won 4–3, thus winning an NHL record 10th straight playoff game and their first Stanley Cup since 1941. The still photo of Orr flying through the air after scoring "The Goal" — he had been tripped in the act of shooting by Blues defenseman Noel Picard — became one of the most iconic images of hockey history, and was the basis of a bronze sculpture of the event outside the TD Garden's main entrance in 2010, the date of the event's 40th anniversary.

Do you remember that moment in time?

• If yes, where were you?

Public Radio Day 

Public Radio Day is observed on Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023

What is Public Radio?

When you hear the term 'public radio', you probably think of your local public radio station. Or you can think of state-run radio stations that are the norm in many countries around the world. Despite the growing popularity of television and the Internet, many people still rely on radio as a source of news and entertainment.

In the United States, public radio refers to non-commercial broadcasts funded through a combination of listeners and government support.  Although public radio is funded in part through grants from federal and local governments, public radio stations and content producers in the United States operate independently of the influence of the United States.

History of Public Radio Day

Like many technological advances, including the Internet, wireless technology was mostly used for governmental, military, and academic purposes before being made widely available to the general public. As we know, radio started to develop in the early 1900s, and the first regular, non-commercial, non-governmental radio was made by a station at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. This station, 9XM (now known as WHA), began broadcasting in 1916. These broadcasts were not what we hear today; instead, they are essentially Morse code signals.

In 1917, NGO radio broadcasts of all kinds were halted due to the outbreak of World War I, and after the war ended, radio technology had evolved and changed enough to transmit voice and music. In the 1920s, most radio stations came out of colleges and universities. In the 1940s, the lower digital band in the FM band was reserved for educational and non-commercial purposes, arguably the beginning of the definition that set public radio apart from other types of radio.

In 1967, President Johnson published the Public Broadcasting Act which contributed for the founding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). CPB is a nonprofit organization funded by the federal government and its activities include public radio and television. The formation of CPB helped formalize the association between public radio stations, and this association eventually led to the creation of National Public Radio (NPR). NPR has grown since its founding in 1970 into a major media organization that produces and delivers informational and educational content across the country.

How to celebrate Public Radio Day

If you would like to know about public radio at present, you should think of NPR. The current structure of the public radio station is more complex than that of ordinary observers. National Public Radio is an organization that creates content for distribution to affiliates. Most places in the United States - from rural South Carolina to Seattle - have a local NPR branch. Affiliates decide what will be broadcast when. NPR itself does not necessarily have control over the content broadcast by local affiliates. Also, not all public radio stations are NPR member stations.           More Information

Net Discussion Questions

Eastern Massachusetts has 28 NPR public radio stations:

1. Do you listen to any public radio or NPR radio?

2. Musical Birthday trifecta

• Everybody likes music…favorite hit from each artist!
  
  

3. Kentucky Derby

• Do you watch the Derby? 

• Any traditions or wagering?

Amtrak, formally National Railroad Passenger Corporation, federally supported corporation that operates nearly all intercity passenger trains in the United States. It was established by the U.S. Congress in 1970 and assumed control of passenger service from the country’s private rail companies the following year. Virtually all railways, with the exception of a small handful, signed contracts with Amtrak. The corporation pays the railroads to run their passenger trains and also compensates them for the use of certain facilities, including tracks and terminals. It bears all administrative costs, such as those incurred for the purchase of new equipment, and manages scheduling, route planning, and the sale of tickets.

Amtrak train: farmland

Amtrak was founded to relieve American railroads of the financial burden of providing passenger service and to improve the quality of that service. Since about the early 1960s, the railroads had lost millions of dollars annually on their passenger lines as a result of a steady decline in their ridership and increases in their operating costs. In order to avert further losses, many of the companies dropped their unprofitable routes. In 1950 there were approximately 9,000 passenger trains in service, which carried just under 50 percent of all intercity traffic. By 1970, however, there were only about 450 trains still in operation, with a total share of the passenger traffic amounting to a mere 7 percent.

The creation of Amtrak marked the first time that rail passenger service received any form of direct financial assistance from the U.S. government (although land grants had been given to railroads to spur completion of a transcontinental line in the 19th century). Congress provided Amtrak with an initial grant of $40 million and authorized an additional $100 million in government-guaranteed loans. Amtrak received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds annually to cover operating losses throughout the remainder of the 20th century. Although the corporation derived income from ticket sales and from its mail-carrying service, its revenues were not enough to offset its expenditures. Facing a decline in federal funding in the mid-1990s, Amtrak reorganized its corporate structure, initiated changes in service, and sought alternative financing, including subsidies from state governments.

Amtrak

Amtrak’s passenger ridership increased steadily after 2000. Notable was the inauguration late that year of the Acela Express in the heavily traveled Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C., and Boston, a high-speed electrified train that could cruise at some 125 miles (200 km) per hour and reach top speeds of about 150 miles (240 km) per hour. Amtrak also explored the possibility of opening other high-speed lines, including between Chicago and St. Louis and in the San Joaquin Valley of central California. However, the corporation continued to operate at a deficit each year, and its federal subsidies consistently exceeded a billion dollars beginning in 2002. Debate over those subsidies continued in Congress, and 18 states were subsidizing shorter-distance routes within their respective boundaries by 2013. In addition, Amtrak received some $1.3 billion for improvements to the system’s infrastructure as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009).

Source: Britanica.com

Empire State Building, steel-framed skyscraper rising 102 stories that was completed in New York City in 1931 and was the tallest building in the world until 1971. The Empire State Building is located in Midtown Manhattan, on Fifth Avenue at 34th Street. It remains one of the most distinctive and famous buildings in the United States and is one of the best examples of Modernist Art Deco design.

At the time of its construction, there was fierce competition to win the title of tallest building in the world. The Chrysler Building claimed the title in 1929, and the Empire State Building seized it in 1931, its height being 1,250 feet (381 metres) courtesy of its iconic spire, which was originally intended to serve as a mooring station for airships. A 222-foot (68-metre) antenna was added in 1950, increasing the building’s total height to 1,472 feet (449 metres), but the height was reduced to 1,454 feet (443 metres) in 1985 when the antenna was replaced. (By that time One World Trade Center, officially opened in 1972, had become the tallest building in the world.)Britannica Quiz

The primary duo behind the construction of the Empire State Building was John J. Raskob and Al Smith. Raskob, a self-made business mogul and onetime chairman of the General Motors Corporation finance committee, together with Smith, who was a former Democratic governor of New York, seemed like a strange pair on paper. In all likelihood, their lasting friendship was built on mutual recognition of their similar origin stories as children born to struggling immigrant Roman Catholic families. Raskob and Smith could appreciate the tactful hustling each had to do before vaulting into the public eye of America. Prior to setting forth plans for the Empire State Building in 1929, Smith enlisted Raskob to serve as chairman for the Democratic National Committee and as his own campaign manager for his second run at the presidency, in the 1928 U.S. presidential election. His defeat, at the hands of Republican candidate Herbert Hoover, affirmed that the country was reluctant to risk the economic prosperity of the 1920s by electing a Democrat; it also indicated that voters were unwilling to elect a Roman Catholic who would potentially undermine majority Protestant values.

Following the loss of the 1928 election and his governorship in order to run for the presidency, Smith was left without a job. It is impossible to know whether to credit Raskob or Smith for the initial idea to build the skyscraper on the former site of the original Waldorf Astoria Hotel, but the two came to the conclusion that it would make for a simultaneously sensible and sensational joint project at the midpoint of their lives. Raskob would be a critical financier also tasked with recruiting other investors, and Smith was an affable public-facing, familiar figure to head the project. With the foundation of the Empire State Building Corporation and his new role as its president, Smith announced the plans for the record-breaking building on August 29, 1929. Its architects, Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates, designed a building that would surpass 100 stories.

Construction began 200 days later on March 17, 1930. Between the time that Smith made the announcement in August and construction began in March, however, the stock market crashed, in October of 1929, and the Great Depression began to take hold. Nevertheless, construction continued and proved an important source of jobs in New York City. The Empire State Building formally opened on May 1, 1931. Construction of the immense skyscraper took less time than anyone could have anticipated, concluding after only 410 days. Despite the publicity surrounding the Empire State Building, its opening was still heavily affected by the coinciding Great Depression; much of the office space remained unrented, to such an extent that the building was called “The Empty State Building.” It took almost 20 years for the building to become profitable.

In spite of its slow beginnings and eventual dethronement from the world record it was built to capture, the Empire State Building has become an enduring icon of New York City to the world and New Yorkers themselves. Observatories are located on the 86th and 102nd floors, and a small viewing platform is found on what some refer to as the 103rd floor. The observatories receive millions of visitors each year, and, beginning in 1994, an annual contest offered couples an opportunity to win an exclusive wedding ceremony on Valentine’s Day at the 86th-floor observatory.

Source: Britanica.com

On April 24, 1980, an ill-fated military operation to rescue the 52 American hostages held in Tehran ends with eight U.S. servicemen dead and no hostages rescued.

With the Iran Hostage Crisis stretching into its sixth month and all diplomatic appeals to the Iranian government ending in failure, President Jimmy Carter ordered the military mission as a last ditch attempt to save the hostages. During the operation, three of eight helicopters failed, crippling the crucial airborne plans. The mission was then canceled at the staging area in Iran, but during the withdrawal one of the retreating helicopters collided with one of six C-130 transport planes, killing eight service members and injuring five. The next day, a somber Jimmy Carter gave a press conference in which he took full responsibility for the tragedy. The hostages were not released for another 270 days.

Iran Hostage Crisis

On November 4, 1979, the crisis began when militant Iranian students, outraged that the U.S. government had allowed the ousted shah of Iran to travel to the U.S. for medical treatment, seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s political and religious leader, took over the hostage situation and agreed to release non-U.S. captives and female and minority Americans, citing these groups as among the people oppressed by the U.S. government. The remaining 52 captives remained at the mercy of the Ayatollah for the next 14 months.

President Carter was unable to diplomatically resolve the crisis, and the April 1980 hostage attempt ended in disaster. Three months later, the former shah died of cancer in Egypt, but the crisis continued. In November, Carter lost the presidential election to Republican Ronald Reagan, and soon after, with the assistance of Algerian intermediaries, successful negotiations began between the United States and Iran. On the day of Reagan’s inauguration, January 20, 1981, the United States freed almost $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets, and the 52 hostages were released after 444 days. The next day, Jimmy Carter flew to West Germany to greet the Americans on their way home.

President Harry S. Truman learns the full details of the Manhattan Project, in which scientists are attempting to create the first atomic bomb, on April 24, 1945. The information thrust upon Truman a momentous decision: whether or not to use the world’s first weapon of mass destruction.

America’s secret development of the atomic bomb began in 1939 with then-President Franklin Roosevelt’s support. The project was so secret that FDR did not even inform his fourth-term vice president, Truman, that it existed. (In fact, when Truman’s 1943 senatorial investigations into war-production expenditures led him to ask questions about a suspicious plant in Minneapolis, which was secretly connected with the Manhattan Project, Truman received a stern phone call from FDR’s secretary of war, Harry Stimson, warning him not to inquire further.)

When President Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, Truman was immediately sworn in and, soon after, was informed by Stimson of a new and terrible weapon being developed by physicists in New Mexico. In his diary that night, Truman noted that he had been informed that the U.S. was perfecting an explosive great enough to destroy the whole world. Bombs?

On April 24, Stimson and the army general in charge of the project, Leslie Groves, brought Truman a file full of reports and details on the Manhattan Project. They told Truman that although the U.S. was the only country with the resources to develop the bomb–eliminating fears that Germany was close to developing the weapon–the Russians could possibly have atomic weapons within four years. They discussed if, and with which allies, they should share the information and how the new weapon would affect U.S. foreign-policy decisions. Truman authorized the continuation of the project and agreed to form an interim committee that would advise the president on using the weapon.

Although the war in Europe ended in May 1945, Stimson advised Truman that the bomb might be useful in intimidating Soviet leader Joseph Stalin into curtailing post-war communist expansion into Eastern Europe. On July 16, the team of scientists at the Alamogordo, New Mexico, research station successfully exploded the first atomic bomb. Truman gave Stimson the handwritten order to release when ready but not sooner than August 2 on July 31, 1945.

The first bomb was exploded over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and a second was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9. The Japanese quickly surrendered. Although other nations have developed atomic weapons and nuclear technology since 1945, Truman remains the only world leader to have ever used an atomic bomb against an enemy.

United States Population Growth 2020 Census and Population Movement. 

Where is our Population center? 

Based on the 2020 census data, The Census Bureau said U.S. population growth had slowed to its lowest rate since the Great Depression, .01 %.  The year 2021 is the first time since 1937 that the U.S. population grew by fewer than one million people, and the lowest numeric gain in total population since at least 1900, when the Census Bureau first began annual population estimates.  The Census Bureau attributes the historically low population increase to lower international migration, a decrease in birth rates, rising mortality rates due to the aging of the nation’s population, and an increase in mortality due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Apart from the last few years, the slowest rate of growth in the 20th century was from 1918-1919 amid the Spanish Influenza pandemic and World War I.

Between 2020 and 2023 the US population grew to 339,996,563.  An increase of 4,054,560 million.

• The current population of U.S. in 2023 is 339,996,563, a 0.5% increase from 2022.

• The population of U.S. in 2022 was 338,289,857, a 0.38% increase from 2021.

• The population of U.S. in 2021 was 336,997,624, a 0.31% increase from 2020.

• The population of U.S. in 2020 was 335,942,003, a 0.49% increase from 2019.

Americans continued their march to the South and West, as Texas and Florida added enough population to gain congressional seats while New York and Ohio saw slow growth and lost political muscle. 

NOAA began commemorating the national centers of population with geodetic survey marks in 1960, and five towns in Missouri have been designated as centers of population since 1980. The centers form a kind of informal trail that illustrates the changing dynamics of the country. 

The mean center of population is determined as the place where an imaginary, flat, weightless, and rigid map of the United States would balance perfectly if all residents were of identical weight.

Year

Center of Population

Location

1790

Kent County, Maryland

23 miles east of Baltimore

2020

Wright County, Missouri

14.6 miles northeast of Hartville 

1790: Each decade, after it tabulates the decennial (every ten years) census, the Census Bureau calculates the center of population. Historically, it has followed a trail that reflects the sweep of the nation's brush stroke across America's population canvas—the settling of the frontier, waves of immigration and the migration west and south. Since 1790, the location has moved in a westerly, then a more southerly pattern.

2020: The center moved in the most southerly direction ever. The distance moved—11.8 miles—is the shortest distance since 1920 and second shortest distance moved ever. This southerly drift and shorter distance can be attributed to a strong pull on the center by continued population growth in the Southeast, especially Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas, the Southwest, and Texas.

NEAR FEST XXXIII - 2023

EDUCATIONAL FORUMS 

FRIDAY

11:00 - HINTS AND TOOLS FOR BOAT ANCHOR RESTORATION
Chuck Hurley K1TLI:  Chuck will demonstrate the tools he uses which make restoration easier, along with paint recommendations, polishing recommendations, and aesthetics. Details will be provided about component removal and replacement tools. Finally, he will look at how far is too far when restoring equipment.

12:00 - ARRL FORUM
Fred Kemmerer AB1OC, ARRL New England Division Director:  Fred will provide an update on ARRL activities and the work that the New England Division Team is doing.

1:00 - BE THE BEST OPERATOR YOU CAN BE
Mitch Stern W1SJ:  Are you successful breaking those pileups and working the juicy DX? Would you have a clue what to do on the radio if a REAL emergency takes place? Mitch addresses these and many other concerns as he provides you with the tools to be the best operator on the block!

2:00 - GETTING THE MOST OUT OF WIRE ANTENNAS
Bob Glorioso W1IS and Bob Rose KC1DSQ:  Bob and Bob have written several articles and a book "Wire Antennas 160 meters to 70 cm: Concepts, Construction and On the Air", about wire antennas and will present details on capacitive loading of off center fed and end fed wire antennas and will also talk about building wire beams.

3:00 - THE HISTORY AND CURRENT VALUES OF TELEGRAPH KEYS
Tom Perera W1TP:  In the past 180 years, Telegraph Keys have gone through many changes, and some have become valuable collectors’ items worth over $20,000. Tom will trace these changes, show you these keys and help you to recognize very valuable keys.

SATURDAY

9:00 - RFI TRAINING
Rob Leiden K1UI:  Learn the details on how to detect and find RF incursions from non-ham equipment into the ham bands. This is a pre-registered class, but visitors are welcome to sit in

11:00 - HOME SOLAR POWER AND HAM RADIO
Tony Brock-Fisher K1KP:  Tony will present a talk which elaborates on the topic of potential interference to ham radio equipment from home solar power systems. 

Net Discussion Questions

US Population growth and movement

1. If you were to move, where would you go?

2. Why?

NEARFest 2023

1. Are you going?

2. Do you attend any educational forums?

3. Which one(s) might you attend?

Of all of the technological advancements of the 20th century, arguably the one that has gone on to have the biggest cultural impact has been the invention of the mobile phone. 

It caused a shift in the communications industry away from the place towards the person and, more significantly, fundamentally changed the way humans talk to each other.

While there are many players in the story of how cellular telephony came into being, the person who would ultimately go on to make the first historic call on a mobile phone was Martin Cooper. 

To use a term from the current vernacular, the call itself, made on the sidewalks of New York on April 3 1973, could also be described as the one of the best examples of an epic troll.

Having gained a Master’s degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1950 Chicago-born electrical engineer Cooper served as a submarine officer during the Korean War, before beginning work with Motorola in 1957. 

He soon began to make his mark on the world of communications on the move, helping the firm develop a cellular-like portable handheld radio system for the Chicago police department in 1967.

By the early 1970s, Cooper was heading up Motorola's communications systems division and it was during this period that he conceived his game-changing “personal telephone”, spending the best part of a decade working to bring it to market.

The concept of cellular technology had already been created by Motorola's rival, AT&T, whose Bell Labs introduced a system allowing calls to be moved from one cell to another while remaining on the same channel. However, AT&T was focusing this technology on the car phone, a device that was now becoming commonplace in vehicles across American cities.

Cooper recognised that this was too narrow a vision for on-the-go communications and that the future lay in a fully portable device that offered the freedom of anytime, anywhere telephony. 

"People want to talk to other people - not a house, or an office, or a car. Given a choice, people will demand the freedom to communicate wherever they are, unfettered by the infamous copper wire. It is that freedom we sought to vividly demonstrate in 1973," recalled Cooper in a recent interview.

In At&T, Cooper was taking on one of biggest companies in the world, while Motorola at this point were a relatively small company in Chicago. “They considered us to be a flea on an elephant”, Martin explained to the BBC.

Despite the David versus Goliath scenario, Martin’s team began designing a prototype in November 1972, and just five months later they had what appeared to be a near-working prototype.

Costing the equivalent of $1m (£650,000) in today's money to produce and weighing a hefty 2.5 pounds, the 11inch tall, brick-like device called the DynaTAC was ready to be demonstrated to the public.

Motorola called a press conference at the Hilton Midtown Hotel in New York on the afternoon of April 3 1973 to unveil the project. However, prior to the event, Cooper decided to dazzle one particularly sceptical journalist by showing the portable handset in action on the streets of Manhattan.

The reporter watched in astonishment as Cooper dialled the number of his chief competitor Dr. Joel S. Engel, the then head of Bell Labs. 

Recounting in a 2011 interview the history making chat, Martin told the BBC: "I said 'Joel, this is Marty. I'm calling you from a cellphone, a real, handheld, portable cellphone.' There was a silence at the other end. I suspect he was grinding his teeth"

Despite the significance of the call, Martin has admitted he never considered how historic it would be:  "You never know when you do something like that, that it was the momentous occasion which it turned out to be. 

“The issue at the time wasn't about creating a revolution, although that was what happened. It was about stopping At&T."

The DynaTAC made the front cover of the next edition of Popular Science and went on to kick-start a communications revolution. More than 40 years after Martin’s call earned him significant bragging rights, we now live in a world where there are more mobile handsets than there are people.

At 86, Cooper remains involved in the wireless industry and serves as a member of the Federal Communications Commission's Technical Advisory Council.

Smartphones now dominate the world of technology and mark a huge progression from the DynaTAC, but for Martin, they’re not smart enough. 

"The future of cellular telephony is to make people's lives better - the most important way, in my view, will be the opportunity to revolutionise healthcare," he told the BBC in 2010.

"The cellphone in the long range is going to be embedded under your skin behind your ear along with a very powerful computer who is in effect your slave".

U.S. Patent System Forms

April 10, 1790

Love it or hate it, the United States patent system formed on April 10, 1790 when President George Washington signed a bill that gave inventors rights to their creations.

The law gave the patent board members the absolute power to grant a patent. The first board members included Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State, who was considered the first administrator of the American patent system and the first patent examiner; Henry Knox, Secretary of War; and Edmund Randolph, Attorney General.

The Department of State had the responsibility for administering the patent laws, and fees for a patent were between $4 and $5, with the board deciding on the duration of each patent, not to exceed 14 years.

The bill defined the subject matter of a US patent as “any useful art, manufacture, engine, machine, or device, or any improvement thereon not before known or used.”

Applicants were to provide a patent specification, a drawing, and, if possible, a model. After examining the application, the board members would issue a patent if they deemed the invention or discovery “sufficiently useful and important.”

On July 31, 1790, Samuel Hopkins of Philadelphia, received the first US patent for an improvement in “the making of pot ash and pearl ash by a new apparatus and process.”

Although Jefferson was on the patent board, he criticized the 1790 Patent Act as too restrictive and requiring an unreasonable amount of time. In part because of his urging, laws were revised in 1793 so that inventions no longer needed to be deemed as “sufficiently useful and important” to be granted a patent, which significantly reduced the examination process.

Engineers tend to have two different views on patents: While sought after by some, they are considered a plague on innovation by others.

The US Patent and Trademark Office issued the 10 millionth patent on June 19, 2018 and redesigned the patent cover for the occasion (see below). Patent no. 10,000,000 went to inventor Joseph Marron for “Coherent LADAR using intra-pixel quadrature detection.”

Hostage captain freed after US firefight with Somali pirates - 2009 

14 years ago today, the captain of a US cargo vessel who had been held captive by Somali pirates for 5 days has been freed during an operation in which three of the pirates were killed and one was captured.

Richard Phillips had been held hostage on a lifeboat after pirates tried to seize his ship, the Maersk Alabama. The ship's crew of 20 quickly regained control of the vessel, but Phillips, a 53-year-old former taxi driver, offered himself to the pirates as a hostage in order to safeguard his crew.

The unarmed crew attempted to fend off the attack, firing flares and spraying fire hoses. However, two Somali pirates were able to board the ship.

The incident marked the first time in about two hundred years that pirates set foot on a ship sailing under the U.S. flag. The hijackers managed to take down the Alabama Ship and largely retreated to the fortified rudder room.

However, Phillips and several others were arrested on the bridge. Around that time, the remaining two pirates also boarded the ship. A prisoner was ordered below deck to retrieve his comrades. But he didn't come back.

One of the pirates then accompanied the rest of the crew to search for them. However, during the search, the hijacker was taken hostage by the crew of the ship in hiding. After negotiating the hostage exchange, they were willing to release the captives.

But the hijackers took Captain Phillips hostage. With their own boat previously overturned, the hijackers forced Captain Phillips to move to a sealed lifeboat and demanded a ransom of 2 million U.S. dollars.

On April 9, the USS Bainbridge made its way to Maersk Alabama. Maersk Alabama was ordered to continue sailing to Kenya and moved immediately after being given security details by a team of armed sailors.

On April 10, Phillips jumped into the sea. But he was quickly recaptured. As negotiations with the pirates stalled, Navy SEAL Team 6 was dispatched from Virginia and arrived at Bainbridge on April 11.

Later that day, pirates allowed a U.S. ship to attach a crane to a lifeboat that ran out of fuel. The ship's journey was slowly shortened until the lifeboat was at close range with a Navy SEAL sniper aboard Fantail Bainbridge.

Phillips is widely portrayed as a hero. But Maersk Alabama's crew instead accused Phillips of failing.

Phillips was judged not to have heeded the warnings and instead set the ship in a direction that endangered them. The crew then sued the owner of the Danish cargo ship Maersk Line.

The lawsuit was later settled with an undisclosed amount of money. After the hijacking, many cargo ships began hiring security and the number of pirate attacks in Somali waters decreased.

US officials said Captain Phillips, was uninjured and in good condition and following "a swift firefight" had been taken aboard the USS Bainbridge, one of three US naval warships which had been tracking the lifeboat.