Pictures from the USS Leo, Utah Valley's 9th Simulator. Warp Speed is Possible. The Imaginarium

Hello Troops,
     And a happy Tuesday to all you Troubadours, where ever you may be.
     I battled a fierce headwind on my cycling trek home from Renaissance this evening.  My legs pushed me forward three lengths and the wind pushed me back two.  I can't complain; I'm told the exercise will help make me less of a pudgy wind catching sail and more of a streamlined work of human art, aeronautically sculpted to slice through headwinds like a hot knife through butter.
     I'm sure I make an interesting sight on the road with my bike, helmet and BYU backpack.  I'll confess and tell you that riding roadside makes me nervous.  I imagine the day will come when one of my 6th grade students will see me, reach over, grab the steering wheel away from his parent and set a collision course with me, my bike and destiny.

Mr. W.
   
The USS Leo.  A Picture Update.      

     Casey Voeks, CEO of DSim, sent me a few new pictures of the USS Leo currently under construction at Lakeview Academy in Saratoga Shores.  The Leo is scheduled to open next week.  That will make it Utah Valley's 9th simulator.

I believe this is the entry into the Leo.  Notice the cool blue ceiling lights

The Bridge of the USS Leo.  The desks are patterned after the CMSEC's Magellan.
I like the lighting inset into the ceiling border

At work on the Leo Bridge installing the computer stations.

The Leo's main viewer waiting to be installed.

An update on the USS Leo by BJ Warner, Director of the Lakeview Academy Center.

     Well, my precious friends. It's time for me to poke my face out once again and say hello to you all! An update on our newest member of the fleet, the UCS Leo. The ship is white. Very white, and it looks good. I'll try to post some pictures soon as we install the black plastic, which should be happening sometime today. The lighting channels are a bit of a mess.. someone from the HVAC company installed the air conditioning unit in the middle of the room.. off center.. if our current idea of framing and boxing the unit into the center doesn't work we're going to have to get creative. Don't be surprised if you come one day and there are lights running down the walls.  The desk designs are pretty amazing, I must say. Cudos to Brandon Wright for his amazing attention to detail and his ability to take a great idea and bring it to life. Not all, but a majority of the work in the ship was, if not constructed, designed by Brandon. 

     Missions are being written, tacticals are being made, symbols and school calendars are being fabricated. It's coming along.

     We hope to be done with construction by Wednesday (cross your fingers). Friday at the LATEST. New controls are scheduled to be dropped in on the 7th and our first field test of the new set will be next Monday. Our very own Casey Voeks will be the honored first flight director of the Leo. Appropriate I must say. After that, the reigns will be handed to me during the day and back to him and a few others to run our after school program. We've got high expectations for these folks and I have no doubt they will exceed every one of them.

     You all are amazing. Don't loose sight of why we are here doing what we do. It's for the children. To expand their minds and re-write their definition of the word 'impossible'. When things get rough, think of them. Think of who you were before the center and work to make the change in our campers

                   The universe awaits!

BJ

Space and Science News

From Quarks to Quasars

In 1994, physicist Miguel Alcubierre proposed a new kind of technology that would allow us to travel 10 times faster than the speed of light, without actually breaking the speed of light. Sound confusing? Well, the Alcubierre drive does not actually propel the ship to speeds exceeding light; instead, it uses the deformation of spacetime permitted by General Relativity to warp the universe around the vessel. Essentially, when the drive is activated the spacetime behind expands, while in the front it contracts. In this respect, the path taken becomes a time-like free-fall. The ship hums along in a little bubble of space, and neither the passengers nor the vessel encounter inertial effects.  Read More

The Imaginarium
Taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary - kind of like what I do for bicycling!