… Boeing Heat Shield, Beer is Good for You and MORE!

Not Starring Cillian Murphy**
Boeing has completed a prototype heat shield for NASA spacecraft Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV).

According to Aviation Week:

The heat shield is made from Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) material, which was used successfully on NASA’s Stardust spacecraft heat shield. PICA was developed as part of the Block 2 thermal protection system (TPS) for Orion. Five teams worked on Phase I of the Block 2 effort, but Boeing was the only team chosen to move into Phase II.

The Lockheed Martin-built CEV — for the space agency’s planned mission to send human explorers back to the moon, and then onward to Mars and other destinations in the solar system — is designed to protect the vehicle and its future astronauts from extreme heat during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere following lunar and low-Earth orbit missions.

** See: Sunshine

Lift Truck Safety Fun
Lift truck supplier Yale Materials Handling‘s Web site now features a free online video game that allows players to select a lift truck and move product on pallets through a virtual warehouse.

At the end of the game, For the Long Run, players are offered the chance to order a free safety poster of lift truck “Do’s and Don’t's.”

Credit: Modern Materials Handling

OK, so it may not be Halo 3 or Frogger or whatever kids are playing these days, but play it once and you’ll find your entire morning is long gone.

Color-Changing Paint for Vehicles
New technology is being touted as a revolution in automobile design. A car is coated in a special way by iron (Ferrum) oxide before it is painted, then it is processed with electricity in a certain way, creating special crystals at the surface that can change their color.

DailyTech reports:

Nissan hopes to give car buyers the ability to choose whatever color they like for their vehicle — at any time. Nissan has developed what it calls a “paramagnetic” paint coating — a unique polymer layer which features iron oxide particles is applied to the vehicle body. When an electric current is applied to the polymer layer, the crystals in the polymer are then interpreted by the human eye as different colors.

Ford Motor Co. has offered a similar paint option for a couple of its vehicles, on which the car appeared to be either green or purple depending on the viewing angle.

Nissan hopes to have its paramagnetic paint on production vehicles by 2010.

High School Removes “Chrysler” from Name
The class of 2011 will be the last to graduate from New Castle Chrysler High School in Indiana, as the school’s board has decided to take “Chrysler” out of its name.

The school was named Walter P. Chrysler Memorial High School in honor of the company’s founder when it opened in 1958. The school’s name changed to New Castle High School in 1979, then was renamed New Castle Chrysler High School a month later, according to The Associated Press.

About four years ago, Chrysler — the longtime center of the city’s manufacturing economy — sold its New Castle Machining and Forge plant to Japan-based Metaldyne.

So will “Toyota” be included in the new school name?

Interview Questions that Cross the Line
A recent survey from Development Dimensions International (DDI) and Monster.com asked job seekers and hiring managers to share some inappropriate questions they’ve been asked during a job interview. DDI divided them into three categories, as noted by Time:

Crossing the Line … Illegal and Inappropriate

• Would you join a church to get a job?
• Are you single? Why not?
• Why are you not yet married?

Offensive and Outrageous

• Would you be available from time to time to watch my children?
• Are you willing to further this interview over dinner and do you mind me bringing my daughter along?
• Would you be willing to stay overnight with a client if they request it?

Being Thorough vs. Getting Too Personal

• Do you intend to have children?
• Are you happy in your relationship?
• Is that your natural hair color?

“Is that your natural hair color?” How dare they!

Beer is Good for You, Pt. 3,728
A new study finds beer re-hydrates body better than water after exercise.

UK’s Daily Mail reports:

Researchers have demonstrated that a glass of beer re-hydrates the body more effectively than water following physical exercise, the London Daily Mail reports. The findings emerged from a study by researchers at Granada University in Spain… .

The researchers found that re-hydration levels of 25 participants given beer were “slightly better” than the levels among participants who received only water, possibly because the carbon dioxide in beer helps “quench the thirst more quickly”; the carbohydrates in beer may also help replace calories expended during exercise, according to the lead researcher.

Beer benefits (besides taste, relaxation and social lubrication): Researchers suspect that the sugars, salts and bubbles in a pint may help people absorb fluids more quickly.

In light of the findings, the researchers recommend drinking beer (in moderation) — “as part of an athlete’s diet.”

By the way, in Live Science’s Top 10 Bad Things That are Good for You, yup, beer made the list.

Beer is Good for You, Pt. 3,729
In other alcohol-science-related news, pregnant women can binge-drink without doing any harm to their unborn child, reports Science Daily.

A number of studies have linked heavy drinking on a regular basis during pregnancy to stunted growth, birth defects and brain development problems. But researchers from Oxford University and the University of Aarhus reviewed fetal effects of prenatal binge drinking by examining more than 3,500 papers on the subject.

And in their report, published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, the researchers said there was not enough evidence linking alcohol to fetal problems.

OK, but binge drinking still can’t be all that great for the expectant mother. If nothing else — you know, besides alcohol poisoning, death, promiscuity — they raise their risk of bladder rupture.

Take Your Meetings Outside
Meetings may often be monotonous and even completely useless, but if you absolutely must have one, consider taking it outside — with the Conference Bike.

This freak of engineering is a tricycle that allows seven people to sit in a circle and pedal while one of them steers.

Credit: TopBike Salzbourg

And I kinda want one.

Amsterdam-based artist Eric Staller’s Conference Bike Web site includes a video and a photo gallery of Village People-like converts.

Cheers.