April 2011 Archives

Quilts say something about the quilter's personality -- in today's At Work Q&A.

Everyone is a hoarder. Just ask a veteran of public storage auctions. -- in today's Business Casual column.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk made that prediction in a recent interview.

Musk talks about Tesla and finally discusses Hawthorne-base SpaceX at about the 800-second mark.

He even sheepishly talks about his messy divorce. (poor guy)

On Monday, Toyota announced the 500 finalists of its 100 Cars for Good Program.
The Japanese automaker, with its U.S. sales and marketing headquarters in Torrance, will give away 100 vehicles to 100 nonprofit groups.

Each day for 100 days starting May 9, anyone with access to a computer will be able to vote on which of five possible nonprofits will get a new car.

People will be able to vote at Toyota's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/toyota.
Here's a Business Casual column on the give-away.

Will the Fresh & Easy grocery chain ever get out of red ink? That's the question I pose in this week's Business Casual column.
It's a question many are asking as the company struggles to make a profit.

Here's how I started the column:

For Earth Day, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market hopes consumers will think of it as environmentally friendly.

The El Segundo-based grocery chain keeps announcing new "green" initiatives from eco-friendly cleaning and paper products to a roof filled with solar panels at its distribution center to a design contest for reusable grocery bags.

The company also wants to remind - or perhaps convince - people that it's not going away.

Read more about Fresh & Easy.

A Q&A on Tiffany Ramirez, who manages Jersey Mike's Subs in Torrance.
Here's how the profile starts:

Tiffany Ramirez dreams of becoming a homicide detective, which can be a sometimes bloody, gruesome job.

Until that day, the Torrance resident keeps busy butchering meat to make sandwiches.

Read more about Jersey Mike's Subs.

China is known for its low prices for consumer products, construction materials, etc. But rockets?
Well, it seems that Hawthorne-based SpaceX has China beat on the price of rocket launches.

(Wired) China would like to warm the space trade between the two countries, but officials with the China Aerospace and Space Technology Corporation (CAST) recently admitted they won't be able to match the prices of California based upstart SpaceX.

Read more on SpaceX and China.

Northrop's move is another loss of corporate status for LA, but you can't argue with geography. Northrop wants to be closer to its main customer, the Pentagon.

(WashPost) Northrop Grumman has taken the first steps to opening its Falls Church headquarters later this year, hiring key executives and putting its insignia on the new building.

With less than 50 percent of its Los Angeles-based corporate staff planning to move, the company expects about half of its roughly 300-person corporate office to be new hires, according to Northrop spokesman Randy Belote.

Read more on Northrop Grumman.

This is interesting on many levels, not just because it involved a Boeing engineer. Also, Hawthorne-based rocket developer SpaceX hopes to have launches to Mars some day.

EVERETT, Wash. (AP) -- Fifteen days of isolation, infrequent showers and a broken toilet didn't diminish Kavya Manyapu's enthusiasm for outer space.

The Boeing Co. engineer just returned from a research trip to Mars -- Mars as replicated in the Utah desert.

Read more on Mars.

Some more good news for Hawthorne-based SpaceX, the rocket company.

(Space News) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The three biggest U.S. government satellite-buying agencies have concluded a memorandum of agreement to establish rules permitting startup launch-services provider Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to launch U.S. Air Force and other national security satellites, a U.S. Air Force official said April 14.

Read more about SpaceX.

The Northrop-built laser, developed in Redondo Beach and tested recently by the Navy, could help protect ships against pirates, according to a naval research officer.

Here's the original article (with video) of the successful laser test.

Last week, we ran a story on a Northrop laser that the Navy used to hit a boat in a test off the California coast.
Here's a link to the story.
Also here's a v ideo of the test.

This seems like a standard government review, but because it involves Toyota, people are going to remember the massive recalls of last year and late 2009. It'll take years for consumers to forget about those giant recalls.

(Detroit News) Detroit-- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has agreed to review a petition claiming the frontal airbag of a 2008 Toyota Corolla failed to deploy during a crash.

The agency said in a statement on its website that it received a petition that "the frontal air bags in their MY 2008 Corolla failed to deploy during a 55-mph frontal impact with a large animal (a deer). During this crash, neither the driver nor front passenger was seriously injured in the incident."

Read more on Toyota.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk will make an announcement Friday from Washington DC. In a nutshell, he says "Something Big Is Coming."

Here's a video preview of that announcement from SpaceX.