San Francisco Transit Strike Temporarily Ends for a Month

• AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
• In this Monday, July 1, 2013 file photo, Bay Area Rapid Transit trains are parked at the station in Millbrae, Calif. Commuter rail service is resuming Friday, July 5, 2013 in the San Francisco Bay area after unions called off a strike, agreeing with the transit agency to extend a labor contract for a month while they continue bargaining.

Commuter rail service will resume Friday in the San Francisco Bay area after unions called off a strike, agreeing with the transit agency to extend a labor contract for a month while they continue bargaining.

BART, the nation's fifth-largest rail system, will begin operating trains by 3 p.m. PDT Friday, ending a four-day strike that crippled commutes across the Bay Area, California Labor Secretary Marty Morgenstern announced late Thursday.

The current contract between BART and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 1021 and the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), Local 1555, will be extended for 30 days after expiring earlier this week.

BART General Manager Grace Crunican said there is a wide gap of disagreements between the two sides.

"Unfortunately, the issues that brought us to this point remain unresolved," Crunican said. "Despite lots of hard work, BART and its unions have failed to come to an agreement on contract issues that matter to all of us today and into the future."

BART to resume service, no deal reached with union:

Link >>> http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/bart-to-resume-service-no-deal-reached-with-union/Content?oid=2498780

Bay Area commute is light ahead of BART resuming service:

Link >>> http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/bay-area-commute-is-light-ahead-of-bart-resuming-service/Content?oid=2499543

BART strike partially comes down to dispute over $17.53 million:

Link >>> http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/bart-strike-partially-comes-down-to-dispute-over-1753-million/Content?oid=2498582 

 

Sources:  San Francisco Examiner, Associated Press News Wire Service.

 

 Related Blog Post ---

 

San Francisco BART Rapid Transit Strike Continues (2013 July 4):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2013/07/san-francisco-bart-rapid-transit-strike.html

 

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Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://friendsofthezeiss.org >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
About the Editor/Author: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#GAW >
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Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
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* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
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* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
  < http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
  < http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >

Rocket Failure Sets Back Russian Space Program

Any launch vehicle that flies as often as Russia’s Proton is bound to have its share of mishaps. The venerable heavy-lifter has flown 388 missions since its first in 1965, 45 of which have been deemed total or partial failures.

But the Proton M/Block DM-03 that veered off course and destroyed three Russian Glonass M navigation satellites in a fiery explosion near its Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad July 2 comes at a particularly vulnerable moment for Russia’s space program, which has suffered a spate of launch vehicle failures in recent years, including five in the past 30 months.

Russia’s apparent nosedive in the quality of its space efforts has so far not affected launch vehicles serving the International Space Station (ISS). However, Proton quality control could have implications for Reston, Va.-based International Launch Services (ILS), which annually launches half of the world’s largest commercial telecommunications satellites atop Proton.

More - Link >>> http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/awx_07_03_2013_p0-593916.xml

Source: Aviation Week and Space Technology Magazine.

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Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://friendsofthezeiss.org >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
About the Editor/Author: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#GAW >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
Facebook: < http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpaceWatchtower/238017839577841?sk=wall >
Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
  < http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
  < http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
  < http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >

Singapore: Free Subway Fares For Early Birds

Singapore skyline viewed from Chinatown at sunset. (Image Source: Wikipedia.org )

By Glenn A. Walsh
Reporting for SpaceWatchtower 

The congested subway system of Singapore is offering free rides to weekday commuters, who arrive Downtown on a train by 7:45 a.m.

Due to immigration, the population of this Asian island city-state, located at the southern  tip of the Malay Peninsula, has swelled nearly thirty percent over the last decade to a 2012 population of 5,312,400.

This has overloaded the Singapore subway system. Hence, to try to reduce subway demand during rush-hours, and make the demand more even during the morning, the government-affiliated transit system is conducting a one-year trial period with the early-morning free subway fares.

Some Singapore businesses are now considering instituting flex-time, so  their employees can take advantage of the free fares.

More: Video - Link >>> http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/newsline/201307032112.html

More about Singapore: Link >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore

More about the Singapore transportation system: Link >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore#Transport

Sources: NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation; Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower, a project of Friends of the Zeiss.

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gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://friendsofthezeiss.org >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
About the Editor/Author: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#GAW >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
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Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
  < http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
  < http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
  < http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >

San Francisco BART Rapid Transit Strike Continues

• AP Photo/The Contra Costa Times, Dan Rosenstrauch
• Commuters work their way down California Boulevard to a line of buses waiting to take them to San Francisco on the second day of the BART strike in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Tuesday, July 2, 2013.

Bay Area transit officials warned commuters late Wednesday to make alternate transit plans on the July Fourth holiday as rail workers are expected to continue their strike.

BART said there was no indication that its two largest labor unions would return to work Thursday.

Negotiators and both sides were still working late into the evening Wednesday after beginning talks about 1 p.m.

Key issues involve salaries, pensions, health care and safety.

The strike is in its third day. Heavy morning rush-hour traffic lightened considerably by midday as the holiday approached.

Josie Mooney, a chief negotiator with Service Employees International Union Local 1021, said she was hopeful the latest round of talks could end the three-day strike that has slowed commutes across the San Francisco Bay Area.

Mooney appeared optimistic after an overnight bargaining session Tuesday that lasted nearly nine hours.

"We made some progress. We've worked very hard," Mooney said. She declined further comment, saying a mediator had asked the parties not to speak to the media.

Key issues in the labor dispute involving the nation's fifth-largest rail system include salaries, pensions, health care and safety.

More - Link >>> http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/no-deal-reached-in-bart-transit-talks/Content?oid=2496873

Sources: San Francisco Examiner, Associated Press News Wire Service.

More on San Francisco's two rapid transit systems --
Bay Area Rapid Transit: Link >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BART
San Francisco Municipal Railway:
Link >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Municipal_Railway

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gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://friendsofthezeiss.org >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
About the Editor/Author: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#GAW >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
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Twitter: < https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
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Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
  < http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
  < http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
  < http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >

Pluto's Smallest Moons Receive Official Names

The names of Pluto's two smallest known moons, previously referred to as "P4" and “P5,” have been formally approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). P4 has been named Kerberos, after the three-headed dog of Greek mythology. P5 has been named Styx, after the mythological river that separates the world of the living from the realm of the dead. They join Pluto's previously known moons Charon, Nix and Hydra. According to IAU rules, Pluto's moons are named for characters associated with the Underworld of Greek and Roman mythology.

Mark Showalter, senior research scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., led the team of astronomers that discovered Kerberos and Styx. Both were first seen in lengthy exposures of the Pluto system obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope. Kerberos was discovered in 2011 and Styx in 2012. The images were obtained in support of NASA's New Horizons mission, which will fly past Pluto in July 2015.

More - Link >>> http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/20130702.php

Sources NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

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gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://friendsofthezeiss.org >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
About the Editor/Author: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#GAW >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
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Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
  < http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
  < http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
  < http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >

Scientists Search for Lost Lunar Spacecraft

Locating the former Soviet Union’s Luna 9 would be a major historical find. It was the first spacecraft to achieve a lunar soft landing and to transmit photographic data to Earth. After landing in the Ocean of Storms on February 3, 1966, the four petals, which formed the spacecraft, opened outward and stabilized the spacecraft on the lunar surface. Image: NASA/GSFC/NSSDC

By Leonard David and SPACE.com

The moon is the final resting ground for scads of landed and crashed spacecraft, many of which have been pinpointed recently by sleuthing scientists.

Using observations by NASA's sharp-eyed Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, for example, researchers have located and imaged Apollo moon landing leftovers, old Soviet-era spacecraft and, more recently, the impact locales of NASA's twin Grail spacecraft that were deliberately driven into a mountain near the moon's north pole.

Scientists hope to find several other lost lunar spacecraft, including NASA's Surveyor 4. Controllers lost contact with this unmanned probe during its descent to the moon on July 14, 1967.

More - Link >>> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=scientists-search-moon-for-probes&WT.mc_id=SA_DD_20130701

Sources: Scientific American Magazine, Space.com .

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gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://friendsofthezeiss.org >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
About the Editor/Author: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#GAW >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
Facebook: < http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpaceWatchtower/238017839577841?sk=wall >
Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
  < http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
  < http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
  < http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >

Astronomical Calendar: 2013 July

"The rockets red glare" over Point State Park in Downtown Pittsburgh's "Golden Triangle," at the
confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers forming the Ohio River, for the annual 
Independence Day fireworks display on July 4. (Image Source: WTAE-TV 4)

Astronomical Calendar for 2013 July:

Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium4.tripod.com/astrocalendar/2013.html#jul

The current month's Astronomical Calendar can also be found on the cover page of the History of The Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science, Pittsburgh web site at this link:

Link >>> http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#astrocal

Source: Friends of the Zeiss. 


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gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://friendsofthezeiss.org >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
About the Editor/Author: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#GAW >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < https://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
Facebook: < http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpaceWatchtower/238017839577841?sk=wall >
Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
  < http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
  < http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
  < http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >