miami dolphins
April 14, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
Following the prediction that Miami will use their first round pick on Sergio Kindle, second rounder on Arrelious Benn, and third round pick on Major Wright, it is now time to explore the possibilities that the Dolphins have when making their late round draft choices.
Miami will be hoping for an extra pick somewhere in the draft from the Justin Smiley trade, and that will likely be in the fourth round. However, as of yet there has been very little development on the subject of his trade, so one must assume that Miami could still have just one fourth round pick.
The Dolphins traded away their fifth round pick to sign Tyler Thigpen last year, but do have two extra picks in the sixth round. Kansas traded their sixth round pick to Miami for Andy Alleman and Ikechuku Ndukwe, and Washington gave the 174th pick of the draft to Miami when they traded for Jason Taylor.
Miami also has two extra seventh round picks, courtesy of Kansas’ trading for Miami’s seventh round pick in last year’s draft, and a compensatory pick.
So, how will Miami approach the later rounds if they have already drafted an outside linebacker, wide receiver, and free safety?
4th Round – 110th Pick
Miami still needs a nose tackle, and here is where they will draft one. Unfortunately, Linval Joseph’s stock is rising fast. He would be a prime candidate for Miami’s selection in the fourth round, but some believe he will now be drafted as early as the second round.
With Cam Thomas and Torrell Troup also likely off the board, Miami might have to look towards a project at nose tackle. After all, Jason Ferguson is seen as a leader in Miami, and when he returns following his eight game suspension, he may well slot right back in as starting nose tackle.
Two names now stand out for Miami should the aforementioned players have already found homes: Arthur Jones from Syracuse, and Jeff Owens from Georgia.
Jones performed exceptionally in his first year, and posted 30 bench reps on his pro day despite coming off a pectoral injury. He was even listed as the second defensive tackle in the 2009 draft, but did not enter due to a knee injury, and his draft stock has fallen ever since.
He has suffered a couple of injuries, and this will prevent him from breaking into the first two rounds, though he could be selected late in the third.
He has strong hands, and is good against the pass and rush, despite recording very few sacks (often due to double teams and lack of speed). Miami would also be impressed with his positive attitude and excellent leadership skills.
Jeff Owens will definitely still be on the board when Miami pick here. He possesses the same impressive leadership skills as Jones, and similarly has excellent strength, once benching an incredible 535 pounds.
However, Owens does not possess the same agility as Jones, and struggles to redirect against the run. He is an excellent tackler when he gets his hands on the ball carrier though, and is rarely evaded once he reaches his man.
Despite this, he can be inconsistent when rushing the passer, and is regarded by many to be a two-down player. These concerns will most likely mean that Arthur Jones gets the Dolphins’ vote and is chosen to solve the nose tackle issue.
obama nasa
April 14, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
Obama revives capsule from defunct moon programU.S. President Barack Obama is reviving the NASA crew capsule project that he cancelled with the rest of the moon program earlier this year, in a move that will mean more jobs and less reliance on the Russians, officials said Tuesday.
The space capsule, called Orion, still won’t go to the moon. It will go unmanned to the International Space Station to stand by as an emergency vehicle to return astronauts home, officials said.
Administration officials also said NASA will speed up development of a massive rocket. It would have the power to blast crew and cargo far from Earth, although no destination has been chosen yet.
The rocket would be ready to launch several years earlier than under the old moon plan.
The two moves are being announced before a Thursday visit to Cape Canaveral, Fla., by Obama. They are designed to counter criticism of the Obama administration’s space plans as being low on detail, physical hardware and local jobs.
The president killed former president George W. Bush’s moon mission, called Constellation, as being unsustainable.
In a major shift, the Obama space plan relies on private companies to fly to the space station. But it also extends the space station’s life by five years and puts billions into research to eventually develop new government rocket ships for future missions to a nearby asteroid, the moon, Martian moons or other points in space.
Those stops would be stepping stones for an eventual mission to Mars.
Moon man upset
Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, other veteran Apollo astronauts and former senior NASA managers have been attacking the Obama plan — before the latest revision — as the death of U.S. leadership in space.
Armstrong, in an email to The Associated Press, said he had “substantial reservations,” and more than two dozen Apollo-era veterans signed a letter calling the plan a “misguided proposal that forces NASA out of human space operations for the foreseeable future.”
Even with the revival of the Orion crew capsule, the overall moon return mission initiated by Bush — which involved a base camp — remains dead. And the revived Orion, slimmed down from earlier versions, won’t be used as originally intended, to land on the moon.
The capsule will be developed and launched — unmanned — on an existing rocket to the space station, said a senior NASA official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Orion would remain at the space station and be used as an emergency escape ship back to Earth. That means NASA wouldn’t have to rely on the Russian Soyuz capsule to return astronauts to Earth.
Launching Orion on unmanned existing rockets — such as Atlas or Deltas — would save money and time.
The Obama plan also will speed up development of a larger, “heavy-lift” rocket that would take cargo and crew away from Earth orbit to the moon, asteroids and other places.
Originally, Obama was proposing just spending billions of dollars on various research programs to develop breakthroughs that would make such trips cheaper and faster. Critics said that plan was too vague.
Now the president is committed to choosing a single heavy-lift rocket design by 2015 and then starting its construction, officials said.
This shift by Obama means NASA would launch a heavy rocket years before it was supposed to under the old Constellation plan, the NASA official said. However, it will be different from the Apollo-like Ares V rocket that the Constellation plan would have used.
Instead, it will incorporate newer concepts such as refuelling in orbit or using inflatable habitats, officials said.
Overall, the Obama program will mean 2,500 more Florida jobs than the old Bush program, a senior White House official said. In addition, the commercial space industry on Tuesday released a study that said the president’s plan for private ships to fly astronauts to and from the space station would result in 11,800 jobs.
NASA Launches World’s new Tallest rocket
October 28, 2009 by Trend PK
Filed under Breaking News
NASA launched Wednesday a new rocket it hopes will one day return astronauts to the Moon on a two-minute test flight.
The Ares I-X rocket blasted off at 11:30 am (1530 GMT) from Cape Canaveral in Florida after a series of delays due to poor weather conditions.
Standing 327 feet (100 meters) tall, the Ares I-X is the longest rocket ever built, and it was the first spacecraft the Kennedy Space Center has launched other than a shuttle in 30 years.
The Ares I-X is a prototype of the Ares I, which along with a new exploration vehicle called the Orion is intended to replace NASA’s aging shuttle fleet that is due to be retired in 2010.
NASA aims to gather data from more than 700 sensors placed along the rocket to enable engineers to fine-tune their design.
Ares and Orion are part of Constellation, NASA’s grand program to send astronauts back to the Moon by 2020, and then on to Mars and other destinations.
The test flight is crucial as the White House is considering a report ordered by President Barack Obama’s administration that raises concerns about Ares and the whole Constellation project.
