This segment provides the viewer / reader with news they might have missed and focuses on key issues related to current and past events. These articles are provided courtesy of our many contributing sources. We ask that you enjoy these stories and continue your support of beenetworknews.com, our contributing sources and publishers.

Saturday Space Sight: The Polar Ring of Arp 230

SOURCE:  Department of Defense Armed with Science

Arp 230 is a galaxy of an uncommon or peculiar shape, and is therefore part of the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies produced by Halton Arp. Its irregular shape is thought to be the result of a violent collision with another galaxy sometime in the past. The collision could also be held responsible for the formation of the galaxy’s polar ring.

The outer ring surrounding the galaxy consists of gas and stars and rotates over the poles of the galaxy. It is thought that the orbit of the smaller of the two galaxies that created Arp 230 was perpendicular to the disk of the second, larger galaxy when they collided.

In the process of merging the smaller galaxy would have been ripped apart and may have formed the polar ring structure astronomers can observe today.

Arp 230 is quite small for a lenticular galaxy, so the two original galaxies forming it must both have been smaller than the Milky Way.  A lenticular galaxy is a galaxy with a prominent central bulge and a disk, but no clear spiral arms.  They are classified as intermediate between an elliptical galaxy and a spiral galaxy.

ASSIGNMENTS / APPOINTMENTS / ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Volkswagen Group starts the year with a slight increase in

Deliveries of 0.7 percent

Group Board Member for Sales Christian Klingler: “We made a stable start to another challenging year”

SOURCE: Volkswagen Group of America

Wolfsburg – The Volkswagen Group began the year with a slight increase in deliveries of 0.7 percent. The Company with its twelve brands delivered 817,600 (January 2014: 811,500) vehicles worldwide. “The Volkswagen Group made a stable start to the year. Our premium brands Audi and Porsche, along with ŠKODA and SEAT, put in a particularly strong performance”, Group Board Member for Sales Christian Klingler said in Wolfsburg on Friday. “Looking ahead to the full year we can expect the global uncertainties to continue – and 2015 will be another challenging year”, Klingler added.

Including the figures for heavy commercial vehicles, Group brands delivered a total of 287,400 (279,400; +2.9 percent) vehicles to customers on the overall European market in the first month of the year. 152,200 (149,300; +1.9 percent) customers took possession of a new vehicle in Western Europe (excluding Germany). 89,300 (84,200; +6.1 percent) units were delivered in the home market of Germany. The Group handed over 45,900 vehicles to customers in Central and Eastern Europe, matching the figure for January of last year. 13,800 (16,600; -16.9 percent) units were delivered in Russia.

The Company delivered 63,200 (58,000; +9.0 percent) vehicles in the North America region in January, of which 39,200 (36,900; +6.1 percent) were handed over to customers in the United States. The Volkswagen Group delivered 53,900 (67,900; -20.7 percent) vehicles in the South America region during the same period, of which 38,500 (48,500; -20.7 percent) were handed over to customers in Brazil.

381,300 (375,000; +1.7 percent) vehicles were delivered to customers in the Asia-Pacific region in the first month of the year, of which 351,400 (344,500; +2.0 percent) were handed over in China (incl. Hong Kong), the Group’s largest single market.

Outline of developments at Group brands

The Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand delivered 507,100 (521,600; -2.8 percent) vehicles to customers worldwide in January 2015.

The premium brand Audi handed over 137,700 (124,900) vehicles in the first month of the year, a substantial rise of 10.3 percent.

The sports car manufacturer Porsche delivered a total of 16,000 (12,200) vehicles, representing an increase of 31.2 percent compared with the previous year.

The Czech brand ŠKODA delivered 87,000 (80,900) vehicles in January, an increase of 7.5 percent.

SEAT handed over 27,700 (26,000; +6.4 percent) vehicles to customers during the first month of the year.

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles delivered 30,600 (31,600; -3.3 percent) vehicles during the same period.

The MAN commercial vehicles brand delivered 5,600 (7,800; -29.0 percent) units in the first month of the year.

The Swedish brand Scania delivered 5,000 (5,600; -9,7 percent) heavy trucks and buses to customers in January.

 

SBA PROMOTES INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

WITH NATIONAL ROAD TOUR

SOURCE:  Small Business Administration

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) will launch an 18 state road tour, joined by 11 fellow federal agencies in the SBA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.

The SBIR Road Tour “Seeding America’s Future Innovations,” is a nationally focused outreach initiative targeting advanced technology communities, including women-owned and minority-owned small businesses in states that have underutilized funding opportunities through these programs. Today, the agency is launching information on the tour through www.sbir.gov  and will also launch a blog that will be active up through the end of the tour in late August.

“The SBA oversees America’s largest seed fund for small businesses in the STEM fields.  The SBIR and the STTR programs—allocates $2.5 billion a year to small innovators. By reserving a specific percentage of federal R&D funds for smaller firms, Uncle Sam encourages domestic small businesses to engage in high-growth priorities and build a strong national economy.  SBIR recipients have created breakthroughs in nanotechnology, robotics, mobile communications, genetic therapies, clean energy and space,” said Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet.

“The President’s 2015 budget embodies the Administration’s ongoing commitment to investments in job creation and economic growth, specifically through targeted investments in science, technology and innovation. Through this tour, we will educate more small business innovators on how to take advantage of these programs, so that their entrepreneurial spirit and our investment drives the next new big technological breakthrough.,” said Contreras-Sweet.

SBIR and STTR programs bring together several federal agencies to promote innovation and research around many different areas of priority. For example, current awards support the Administration’s commitment to Alzheimer’s disease and other neuroscience priorities and Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative

Each SBIR Road Tour stop will be hosted by a local organization committed to supporting technology-based entrepreneurship, and will provide attendees with a face-to-face opportunity to talk directly to federal agency program managers and decision makers.

The first series will take place the week of March 23rd with stops in Louisville, Kentucky, Nashville, Tennessee, Atlanta, Georgia, and Columbia, South Carolina.The next stops in the tour during the week of April 27th are Long Beach, Mississippi, Ruston, Louisiana, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Wichita, Kansas and Columbia, Missouri.  Additional tours will hit the north central and northwest regions.  Small technology firms, innovators, scientists or researchers seeking more information on the SBIR Road Tour, including a listing of all states to be visited, should go to:  www.sbir.gov.

The highly competitive SBIR/STTR programs provide the needed impetus for many advanced technology firms to move from ideation to commercialization and support this nation’s innovation driven economy.  Since the programs’ inception, there have been over 150,000 awards totaling about $40 billion that have helped this nation’s innovators de-risk technology and keep the nation competitive. The SBIR/STTR programs have provided seed funding to companies including Qualcomm, iRobot, Symantec and Genzyme.

 

PHOTO(s) OF THE DAY

SOURCE:  Department of Defense /Defense News Lead Photo

18-YEAR OLD FAST FOOD WORKER MAKES BLACK HISTORY — PUBLISHES NEW GUIDE ON CUSTOMER SERVICE

SOURCE:  Blacknews.com

Columbus, OH (BlackNews.com) — Using his first-hand experiences as a fast food worker, Sherron A. Stevens, an 18-year old African-American college student from Columbus, Ohio, has made a unique contribution to the world of business and customer service. He has authored Undercover Customer: 100 Ways To Fix Your Broken Customer Service – a powerful new guide for employees, managers, executives and CEOs on how to implement exceptional customer service.

In Undercover Customer, Sherron unleashes 100 super simple, but also super effective customer service tips from an associates perspective. Remember that most of these types of books are written from the manager’s perspective or even from the corporate office. But Sherron’s book is straight from the trenches!

Sherron is currently working for Chick-fil-A, but has also worked for Donatos Pizza (a popular chain in Ohio) in the past. He says people should listen to him because he works directly with the customers every single day! “Most CEOs and corporate executives never deal directly with the customers,” he says. “So how can they know how to properly train their employees?”

Sherron’s ideas and suggestions are more than just talk! His accomplishments have gained him a lot of attention and notoriety in the workplace – from manager referrals, to tons of verbal and written customer compliments, to being personally invited to meet with the CEO of one of the largest pizza chains in Ohio.

In his book, he lists the following four reasons why he says customer service is critical to any business:

#1 – 68% of customers say they won’t return to a place of business if they have experienced bad customer service.

#2 – 7 in 10 Americans say that they are willing to spend more money with companies that they believe provide excellent customer service.

#3 – It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative customer experience.

#4 – It is 6-7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep a current one.

So why write a book?

“I wrote Undercover Customer because I wanted to share my expertise on customer service with other associates, managers and corporate executives around the world. But also I want to establish myself as a future leader in the customer service industry,” Sherron comments.

He adds, “Right now, I’m in college and I’m still working at the bottom level. But I’m very passionate about customer service, and I would love the opportunity to work in customer service at a higher managerial level and even one day start my own customer service training and evaluation company.”

He says he chose the title Undercover Customer because the book gives a unique perspective on customer service from the vantage point of a customer in disguise who is really a customer service expert.