Dwight

• The world's premier international leadership exchange organization, Eisenhower Fellowships (EF) will host its 70th Anniversary World Forum at the Fairmont Hotel from October 12 to 14, 2023.
• Previous Eisenhower Medal winners include late U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; General Colin L. Powell; U.S.
• Since its founding in 1953, more than 2,500 mid-career leaders from 119 countries have benefited from the unique, customized experience of an Eisenhower Fellowship.
• News organizations interesting in covering the EF World Forum and the Eisenhower Medal presentation to Ms. French Gates can contact:

• Eliot’s The Hollow Men (1925), concludes:
  This is the way the world ends
  Not with a bang but a whimper.
• This is the way the world ends
  Not with a bang but a whimper.
• Indeed, Nevil Shute’s classic novel of nuclear annihilation, On the Beach, published in June 1957, used Eliot’s famous lines as an epigraph.

‘Australia’s most important novel’

• Journalist Gideon Haigh calls On the Beach “arguably Australia’s most important novel – important in the sense of confronting a mass international audience with the defining issue of the age”.
• In this last of meeting places
  We grope together
  And avoid speech
  Gathered on this beach of the tumid river.
• This comes to the fore in the following passage, which focuses on a dinner party hosted by Lieutenant Commander Peter Holmes of the Royal Australian Navy.
• The atmosphere is both claustrophobic and delirious:
  For three hours they danced and drank together, sedulously avoiding any serious topic of conversation.
• The reason why the guests at Peter’s party are so keen to avoid serious talk is both simple and depressing.
• This is the way Shute’s novel of nuclear extinction ends: not with a bang but with a whimper.
• Released at the height of the Cold War, On the Beach struck a chord with millions of concerned readers.

Usefully entertaining

• A copy had found its way to the desk of John F. Kennedy, the next president of the United States.
• Shute famously detested the movie, which received decidedly mixed reviews.
• Her husband’s reply is revealing:
  ‘I don’t know […] Some kinds of silliness you just can’t stop,’ he said.
• While the science in the novel was somewhat flawed, Shute’s cautionary tale undoubtedly spoke to the collective zeitgeist.
• Read more:
  Friday essay: if growing US-China rivalry leads to 'the worst war ever', what should Australia do?

Enduring influence

• The influence of Shute’s novel, which was remade in 2000 as a film for Australian television, can be observed in various post-apocalyptic works, including George Miller’s Mad Max franchise and the late Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.
• It seems increasingly likely the world as we know it is coming to an end – if it hasn’t already.
• On The Beach runs at the Sydney Theatre Company 24 July to 12 August 2023, with previews 18–21 July.

• The Systems Engineering Advanced Services II ( SEAS II ) contract has a five-year period of performance with a total value of $300 million.
• SEAS II supports NASA's Mission Engineering and Systems Analysis Division and related Applied Engineering and Technology Directorate organizations.
• This critical task seeks to integrate and improve end-to-end development processes between the space, ground, science, and operations segments of a mission.
• Additionally, KBR has been supporting GSFC for many decades and has extensive experience in all phases of mission engineering and space flight instrument development, including design, analysis, manufacturing, assembly, and testing.

• HOUSTON, May 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- KBR (NYSE: KBR) is proud to announce the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) awarded KBR's Science and Space division the Dwight D. Eisenhower Award for Excellence in research and development.
• This prestigious award recognizes large prime contractors that have excelled in their utilization of small businesses as suppliers and subcontractors.
• The award highlights excellence in how a company manages its small business program, small business utilization, and execution of small business reporting requirements.
• KBR promotes a robust culture that is committed to the success of our small business program, the small business community, and historically underutilized businesses.