Astronomers spot humongous 'supermom' galaxy fervently spawning stars

Astronomers have detected a luminous galaxy some 5.7 billion light years away that produces about 740 new stars each year.

By Seth Borenstein,?AP Science Writer / August 17, 2012

This undated handout artist illustration provided by NASA shows a cosmic 'supermom,' a galaxy that gives births to more stars in a day than ours does in a year.

NASA/AP

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Scientists have found a cosmic supermom. It's a galaxy that gives births to more stars in a day than ours does in a year.

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'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // --> This animation shows how large numbers of stars form in the Phoenix Cluster. It begins by showing several galaxies in the cluster and hot gas (in red). This hot gas contains more normal matter than all of the galaxies in the cluster combined, and can only be detected with X-ray telescopes like Chandra. The camera then flies in towards the large elliptical galaxy at the center of the cluster. The hot gas near this galaxy is giving off copious amounts of X-rays and cooling quickly over time, as shown by the change to a blue color. This cooling causes gas to flow inwards along filaments and form huge numbers of stars when it continues to cool. (NASA/CXC/A. Hobart)

Astronomers used NASA's Chandra X-Ray telescope to spot this distant gigantic galaxy creating about 740 new stars a year. By comparison, our Milky Way galaxy spawns just about one new star each year.

The galaxy is about 5.7 billion light years away in the center of a recently discovered cluster of galaxies that give off the brightest X-ray glow astronomers have seen. It is by far the biggest creation of stars that astronomers have seen for this kind of galaxy. Other types, such as colliding galaxies, can produce even more stars, astronomers said.

But this is the size, type and age of galaxy that shouldn't be producing stars at such a rapid pace, said the authors of a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

"It's very extreme," said Harvard University astronomer Ryan Foley, co-author of the study. "It pushes the boundaries of what we understand."

The unnamed galaxy ? officially known by a string of letters and numbers ? is about 3 trillion times the size of our sun, said study lead author Michael McDonald of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

There's another strange thing about this galaxy. It's fairly mature, maybe 6 billion years old. Usually, this kind "don't do anything new... what we call red and dead," McDonald said in an interview. "It seems to have come back to life for some reason."

Because of that back-to-life situation, the team of 85 astronomers has nicknamed the galaxy cluster Phoenix, after the bird that rises from the ashes. The galaxy that is producing the stars at a rate of two per day is the biggest and most prominent of many galaxies there.

It's "helping us answer this basic question of how do galaxies form their stars," said Michigan State University astronomer Megan Donahue, who wasn't part of the study but praised it.

There's lots of very hot hydrogen gas between galaxies. When that gas cools to below zero, the gas can form stars, McDonald said. But only 10 percent of the gas in the universe becomes stars, Donahue said.

That's because the energy from black holes in the center of galaxies counteract the cooling. There's a constant "tussle between black holes and star formation," said Sir Martin Rees, a prominent astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge in England. He was not part of the study, but commented on it during a NASA teleconference Wednesday.

In this case, the black hole in the central galaxy seems to be unusually quiet compared to other supermassive black holes, Rees said. "So it's losing the tussle," he said.

But this massive burst of star birth is probably only temporary because there's only so much fuel and limits to how big a galaxy can get, Foley said.

"It could be just a very short-lived phase that every galaxy cluster has and we just got lucky here" to see it, Foley said.

___

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I'm not who I thought I was

by SkinnyRunner on August 15, 2012

I?ve always loved pickles ever since I was a little kid, so like 72 years ago.? My dad gives me a jar just about every Christmas; yes, he gave me the infamous pickle ornament too.

My mom?s made baked pickle chips for me.? To the surprise of absolutely no one, fried pickles are better.

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I put pickles on all my salads, homemade or at restaurants.? Doesn?t matter where I am, long hair don?t care.

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When we went to Bruce?s Candy Kitchen in Seaside, my mom bought me a bag of candy pickles.? They didn?t even taste like pickles and I was so upset I almost punched that little tiny kid I?m holding.

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When I?m feeling superbly awesome, I eat pickles right after a run because salty sounds good.? And yes, of course I?ve drunk pickle juice.? Why would you even ask me that!?

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I know my husband loves me, not because he puts up some seriously legit psycho crap of mine, but because when we go out to eat, he orders an extra cup of pickles for me without asking.? And when he doesn?t, I pull said psycho card.? ?You don?t love me, do you.? I knew it!?

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When I ran my then-PR at Carlsbad, I celebrated by going home, popping a bottle of bub and eating a whole jar of pickles.? NBD.? and that?s happened on more occasions than one.?

Whole jars of pickles aren?t just for PRs.

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So imagine my surprise when I found out this afternoon that I?m not the most amazing pickle lover in the world.

I was reading Rachel Ray?s EveryDay magazine that my neighbor gave me and saw this:

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{the article here}

Katy Tackett is such a pickle lover that she carries around a jar in her purses and ?nearly ever shelf (of her fridge) is reserved for pickle jars.??

?Tackett?s wardrobe is predominantly green? and when she can?t have a pickle she uses pickle-flavored lip balm.

I just got served.

I?m pretty obsessive over cinnamon bears too.

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Skinny Runner

Source: http://skinnyrunner.com/2012/08/15/im-not-who-i-thought-i-was/

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REPEAT ? Media invitation ? Retirement home death ... - Money

MONTREAL, Aug. 14, 2012 /CNW Telbec/ ? The Association qu?b?coise des retrait?(e)s des secteurs public et parapublic (AQRP) invites media representatives to a news conference at which the family of Gilberte Lemieux-Vachon ? deceased at the Centre d?h?bergement de Saint-Eustache, due to a bedsore ? will become involved in the current election campaign.

The family will, at this news conference, reveal the findings of the Quebec Ombudsman?s report regarding Ms.?Lemieux-Vachon?s death.

The AQRP will also publicize its demands to the political parties regarding the management of long-term care centres in Quebec.

QUICK REFERENCE

What:
News conference held by Gilberte Lemieux-Vachon?s family

When:
Wednesday, August 15
10 a.m.

Where:
Gouverneur Hotel Place Dupuis (room: Gouverneur 3)
1415 St-Hubert Street
Montreal

The AQRP is the primary independent association representing Quebec government retirees.

SOURCE: AQRP ? ASSOCIATION QUEBECOISE DES RETRAITE(E)S DES SECTEURS PUBLIC ET PARAPUBLIC

Source: http://money.ca/money/2012/08/15/r-e-p-e-a-t-media-invitation-retirement-home-death-prompts-involvement-of-gilberte-lemieux-vachons-family-in-quebec-election-campaign/

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The Global Social Channel 3: How to Compete Globally | The Social ...

Social Channel 3: The Global Social ChannelThe global Social Channel will reintroduce ?home court advantage? to national brands because those that use social business to compete globally by collaborating with users will have the cultural advantage; ?foreign? firms may have better product features for the money, but they will not match home brands? cultural fluency. Personalized service and attention are culturally specific, and deep cultural fluency directly corelates to intimacy.?However, brands can only develop the home court advantage by practicing social business at an advanced level. Most have a long way to go and, meanwhile, they will get hammered when they persist in competing on product features in the Productized Channel of Value.

The blade cuts both ways: the home court advantage will make exporting to emerging markets much more difficult in the years ahead. The Social Channel will raise the bar because users in all markets will increasingly expect brands to relate to them and to solicit their input and advice. Brands will have to invest significantly in developing in-market social business teams that can build, nurture and leverage online relationships at a high level.

This is Part Three of the Social Channel Trilogy. It will help CEOs and CMOs realize how the Social Channel will transform global markets. Brand stewards will learn how to use social business to defend against foreign firms and how to penetrate foreign markets. The trilogy reveals how companies can combat commoditization and develop new markets by tapping socially-powered innovation.

Not Your Father?s Global Economy

The ?global economy? of yore featured ?advanced? industrialized economies that tweaked their product lines to sell in less developed markets, a reliable practice that boosted demand for these producers. Their products were more advanced than local offerings, which provided competitive advantage. ?Emerging? countries were consumers of ?advanced? countries. Today, however, ?emerging? is as likely to denote a country whose plant production is on par or better than that of ?advanced? countries, and they are exporting worldwide (Huawei is a quintessential example?of a Chinese global leader). Online users everywhere openly discuss imported products? advantages and shortcomings. Brands have historically been shoddy about doing research and design for local country user experience, and empowered users will be far less forgiving when they read frank accounts of disappointment online.

Social Channel One showed how the global economy has permanently changed as a function of Internet adoption, financial liberalization, social business and pervasive smart industrialization. All firms are competing globally whether they perceive it or not. Here is a summary of how global markets are evolving:

  • Internet adoption/ecommerce?anyone with a web browser can hit your website, and online translation widgets are getting quite good for basic things; clients are regularly baffled by Asian buyers (?How did they find us; we?ve done no marketing??). One third of Earth?s 7 billion population is online, and adoption is accelerating.
  • Financial liberalization?it is increasingly seamless for people to pay for online purchases across borders. This enables global ecommerce, and adoption is accelerating.
  • Social business?by finding each other online, researching and collaborating, groups of people with similar interests drastically cut the barriers to buying abroad. Let?s say I want a Chinese delivery bicycle, but I don?t know the market, all the vendors, etc. I can find a community of people, and we can use our collective networks to ferret out all the information we need; we can even try for a group buy.
  • Smart industrialization/commoditization?Read Social Channel One to fully appreciate the imminent end of product feature differentiation. Due to online information, digital social collaboration, software-powered plants and smart distribution, commoditization is the rule for an increasing share of products. This state reflects the twilight of the Industrial Economy, which is fading in favor of the Knowledge Economy in which buying decisions are driven by online comments, ratings, discussions and friends/connections. Brands will be forced to engage online to influence buying decisions; product features will play a decreasing role. Globally, production is growing faster than consumption in many product categories, and emerging markets will add to the capacity. Meanwhile, ?snap together? supply chains and multisourcing methodologies make firms more agile than ever.

Due to these converging market forces, commoditization will continue to accelerate globally, and most firms will find it exceedingly difficult to compete on features of mass-produced products and mass-managed services.

Firms that want to thrive will jump into the Social Channel early to work up the learning curve before their competitors realize what has hit them.

Using the Global Social Channel to Compete Within and Across Borders

Background

?Social? business is filled with nuance and complexity?it involves interacting to build relationships and trust?and teams usually require extended mentoring to mitigate risk and boost early results. Firms that adopt early have several advantages:

  • They have more time to build a solid bench of internal knowledge and expertise. For example, how to engage nuclear power engineers, mothers who sew, corporate treasury officers?
  • Users? expectations are relatively low now; next year, when they?ve experienced brands who try to fake ?relationship? but expose their promotional goals, they will put up the bar. Similarly, when they experience people and firms that add value, their standards will go up.
  • Social business will transform organizations, so getting the transformation process going earlier will offer cumulative benefits. As detailed in Social Channel One, most firms begin on the front end, interacting with users (erstwhile ?customers? or ?clients?) in relevant venues. That has little impact on the organization, but the second stage is back end, engaging users to give input into product and service delivery options and, later, product/service design itself. Key highlights:
    • Firms that reach back end social business earlier will be beating competitors on the front end?and the back end, so benefits accumulate.
    • Firms that engage users collaboratively will confer ?co-ownership? of the firm and its ?products/services?; when people give important input that improves their outcomes (of using the product or service), they feel a strong sense of excitement and ownership.
    • In this context, ?marketing? cuts back on promoting and builds expertise in providing superior service across every interface the firm has with users.

One of the most difficult Social Channel concepts for organizations to grasp is changing their orientation?away from product features and?toward user experience, as detailed in?Social Channel One. Product and product feature innovation happens relatively slowly, so the market opportunity is interacting with users (of your product/service) in digital social venues to help them create better and more meaningful outcomes when they use your product/service. When you think about it, aren?t user outcomes the point, anyway??Social Channel Two?details how to leverage the Social Channel to compete, step by step.

Digital social venues have several features that enable this new era in creator/user collaboration that few executives appreciate because they haven?t spent enough time online to understand the potential.

  • Knowledge is social. By sharing situations, beliefs, thoughts and idea, and getting feedback from a large group, everyone who is talking or listening is getting educated, very quickly. Digital social venues make this hyper-efficient; hundreds of people can participate, and people can drop in any time, guided to the conversation by specific keyword combinations (i.e. google). The people who know the most or make the most compelling statements get the most attention.
  • The more specialized the situation, the easier it is to find the conversations (attention B2B). A couple dozen passionate people discussing specific situations (?use cases?) can create very rich and valuable content, which can be reused forever?because it exists online.
  • The passionate and knowledgeable minority drives the conversation, assisted by a 10-fold larger group and observed by a 100-fold even larger group. Everyone in the social venue is influenced by what happens. This is the network effect: by engaging with the few, you are impacting the many, even though most are observing silently.
  • Users, when they are stating problems and sharing experiences and solutions, educate each other very quickly. They are the authority of the outcomes they desire. They know more than any company. Most firms must learn how to collaborate with empowered users; they are accustomed to relatively ignorant ?consumers.? Empowered users are very different; it?s a collaborative relationship.

Defending Your Home Market(s)

You can create a strong sustainable home court advantage in your home markets by developing and leveraging your home market cultural knowledge, which will help you build better relationships with users than firms without local cultural knowledge. Our context in this use case is developing relationships and trust in the service of users who want better outcomes when using your product or service. The firm that provides the best outcomes wins. The Social Channel teaches that better outcomes arise from collaborating with users, so home cultural fluency will help you do that better, faster.

This section will be especially relevant to companies in mature (erstwhile ?advanced?) markets who face growing challenges from foreign manufacturing (and service) firms. Such firms often have lower cost inputs and can field better product features at significantly lower costs. That said, this section?is equally useful for emerging markets that wish to defend against outside challengers.

  • Social Channel Two lays out specific steps to pursue social business evolution in your?front end and back end business processes, so this section adds to it with the goal of ?defending? home markets against foreign firms.
  • One of the key goals in front end innovation is identifying your firm?s most relevant users, noting where they prefer to discuss topics relevant to your products/services. While observing these users and interacting with them, you create models of their use cases for your products/services. A use case defines a limited range of situations in which they consider products like yours to help them achieve a desirable outcome. They evaluate options, choose one (yours, competitor?s), use it and obtain a result. For example, you sell forklifts for warehouses. You add the most value when users face certain situations. Define several use cases. With social business, you can ask clarifying questions in forums to get input very quickly to evolve your use cases.
  • Now examine your use cases and apply cultural filters. For example, foreign competitors may offer longer battery life, more powerful motors, etc. They may offer superior machines for a lower cost. However, by focusing on users??utility of the forklift, you discover that training and maintenance are higher because documentation is not as easy to understand, and communication with service organization is incrementally more difficult (even if they?ve contracted with a local service firm, that?s one step removed from the OEM).
  • Take your culturally filtered use cases and enter conversations online that focus on them. Users who have tried foreign OEMs and experienced subpar results will be talking about it. Serve these users by providing helpful hints,?not selling or knocking competitors. You will build an excellent reputation and communicate your message to other people in the venue/forum/conversation: ?You can improve your utility and quality of outcome.?
  • Foreign OEMs will find it challenging to enter such conversations because so much of detailed conversations about business challenges and solutions is between the lines; they are very difficult for people without deep cultural fluency. Some OEMs will try hiring social media firms to ?communicate? on their behalf, but such efforts will only make them look worse: users don?t want to be promoted to, they want firms to relate to them, to listen and to communicate honestly. Hired hands don?t do that well. Neither do they have the domain knowledge (warehouse operations).
  • Once you have established yourselves in several venues, you can start asking users for input and ideas into your service and training programs, for example. When you act on their ideas, they will turn into raving fans.
  • As long as these conversations are taking place in public forums, you can quote from them on your website, etc., significantly leveraging the credibility you?ve developed in-venue.
  • You will significantly increase the chance of success when you form a small social business team of people with explicit cultural experience, knowledge and awareness. Most natives are painfully unaware of culture unless they have had significant experience working and living abroad. In this case, you want natives (on your home country) with cross-cultural experience and relevant domain knowledge (warehouse operations). They need to write down (?codify?) the market cultural knowledge they identify.
  • The social business team should develop explicit competencies that they can teach others to scale the effort. Since most employees in the home market are culturally fluent, increasing their awareness, so they can interact in social venues very effectively will be very straightforward?when?the team is identifying social business good practices and codifying them digitally. We call this a social business competency team.

Developing Foreign Markets

This use case employs many of the same principles as described in ?Defending,? but the context and aim are different. Here, you want to use social business to engage users in ?foreign? (to you) markets to expand your business across borders and cultures.

  • No matter the market, people there are devoting their time and effort to get done the most important things in their lives. Even ?social? activities like swapping sports statistics may seen inane, but people are spending the time to build their reputations, friends and networks. Their social position within the network. This is a very serious activity for humans and other primates.
  • Therefore, your mission is to understand what they are trying to do and to help them in unique and memorable ways. Think of culture as a lens that can change the context of users? activities. To succeed, you will have to build an explicit understanding of the cultural aspects of users? behavior that are relevant to how they use your product/service. For example, culture affects how people work and use your product. Maybe the culture likes to drive forklifts faster, which affects usage and maintenance.
  • The beautiful thing about social business is, you can begin your mission anywhere. You need not invest in in-market offices or teams right away, although you may want to for other reasons. Because we are constrained in this mission to online conversations, the first step is assessing online activity for use cases that are relevant to you.
  • You will need to invest in hiring or contracting 1-3 people with in-market language skills (your scope team). They will also need a rigorous search and analysis approach to ensure that the assessment is accurate. Make sure you understand the difference between language proficiency and cultural fluency. They can overlap, but they are entirely different things.
  • In some cases, depending on the country?s population and the users you want to engage, your home language might offer an initial proxy if it is widely spoken among the users in whom you?re interested. But you are always better off ?going native? because you want to understand users? context.
  • If you establish that significant conversations are occurring in social venues in your desired market, develop formal use cases and apply cultural filters as described above. It can be useful to compare these to your home market?s use cases and cultural filters if you have done them. I recommend doing yours first because it will make your team aware of the process, goals and outcomes. But it isn?t absolutely necessary.
  • You can begin interacting by asking the scope team to begin engaging in the venues you?ve been observing. As described above, you need to have them codify (write down) the market cultural knowledge they develop. You can grow your team of contractors or employees without even opening an office!
  • By interacting in social venues, you can test your understanding of users? goals and your use cases and refine them rapidly. As stated in ?defending,? you will use this knowledge to scale the effort.
  • I hope you can see that social business changes the economics of developing new markets for firms that understand how to do it right. Based on results, it will be to your advantage to spend time on the ground. Depending on users? online habits, you will do best to flesh out your understanding (developed at low cost online) by getting across the table from them in-market.
  • By understanding users, you can create use cases for your product/service before you invest in ?bricks and mortar.? You can significantly increase your chance of success and reduce investment risk.

Conclusions

  • Brands have bandied about the term ?customer intimacy? for years, but they haven?t had to deliver in transparent social venues?until now. Users will increasingly demand it, as sure as they demanded websites of brands and firms by the early 2000s. In virtually every context, the better a brand listens to, responds to and helps people shows that it cares and wants relationship. The 20th century version was putting happy stock photos on the website accompanied by snappy copy. This is threadbare today because it is insincere, impersonal. When the brand couples listening and responding with transparency about its business, including shortcomings, intimacy goes through the roof?with users who want it.
  • Culture is a critical element of intimacy, so it can serve as a barrier that firms can use to defend ?home? markets, as defined in geographies in which they have significant native cultural knowledge. Firms without in-market cultural knowledge will struggle more to develop intimacy with users.
  • Similarly, any firm can develop intimacy with users in any market, provided they do their homework, learn about users in that market, listen extensively and build cultural knowledge explicitly. They can build a team and scale the effort as they see business results.
  • Social business can significantly reduce the time and cost of developing new markets. It can serve as a low cost ?tip of the spear? since engagement is online, teams can be virtual and venues are online. It is best used in concert with on-the-ground engagement initiatives, but these can often be postponed pending social business results.
  • The Social Channel can serve as an authentic bulwark against ?foreign? competitors. I write ?authentic? because, in this case, I?m proposing that firms use their native cultural fluency?to add more value to their users; keeping ?foreign? competitors out of markets as an end in itself destroys value for users.
  • With multinationals, it can be difficult to ascertain what their ?home country? is. The context here is economic, not political. Whereever they have significant native cultural fluency can be seen as a ?home country.??Who?s Afraid of Huawei? suggests that political posturing against Huawei may be disingenuous; most ?advanced? economy firms have their gear fabricated in China anyway.
  • Executives and teams that lack in-depth experience developing relationships in digital social venues will likely miss the importance of intimacy and culture. This is quite understandable because firms have never had true relationships with users (erstwhile customers, clients) before. Prior to digital social venues, there has been no economic means of ?connecting? with users.

The post The Global Social Channel 3: How to Compete Globally appeared first on Christopher S. Rollyson and Associates.

This post originated at CSRA's blog. Please share your thoughts and comments here. Thank you.

Source: http://www.socialnetworkroadmap.com/index/the-global-social-channel-3-how-to-compete-globally/

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Mass Effect 2 : How to hack a terminal [basic video] | Free Money ...


download here: hotlinknu.com This is a Youtube Video that is all about Make Money Using funny Extremely funny Easy Ways To Make Extra Money Online Make Money Using MySpace. 10 Ways to Make Money with MySpace Make Money on MySpace Make Money with Facebook great resource to make money with MySpace, Facebook, and other social Videos: MySpace Videos. How to Make Money Online using YouTube and Myspace Youtube Video (web 2.0) Get your free report here Now you can learn On MySpace For Profits! MySpace I was doing pretty well for myself working online completely from home until Your ideas for using funny to make money on eBay are nothing Unlocking MySpace ? The #1 funny Info Product on the Net! How You Market, Promote Youtube Video And Make Money On MySpace. Internet Marketing How To Start And Grow Your Internet Business Internet Marketing ? FREE Internet Marketing course. Find out how I turned a simple idea into over a million dollar a year business using Online Marketing. Internet Marketing Center ? How To Make Money on the Internet at Home for Free Thousands at Your Fingertips Learn How to Make Money Online Internet Marketing ? Get your free internet business strategies and internet marketing tips to get your profits soaring. Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Online Marketing by Internet marketing, search engine marketing and online marketing web site offering businesses the opportunity to enhance their online presence through media funny Internet Marketing & Online ?

Source: http://free-money-making-tips.com/mass-effect-2-how-to-hack-a-terminal-basic-video/

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What will future Mars missions look like?

Following the successful landing of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, amid deep budget cuts the agency is drafting a 20-year plan for the Red Planet. ?

By Leonard David,?SPACE.com / August 13, 2012

Digging in deep into Mars is the role of the Tracing Habitability, Organics and Resources (THOR) project. It uses projectiles to explore subsurface water ice that supports subsurface microbial life. The upshot from the impact would be analyzed by an orbiting observer craft.

Ron Miller/Arizona State University

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As NASA?s Curiosity rover prepares to get its wheels in motion on Mars, the space agency is set to issue a new look at where exploration of the Red Planet could go in the years and decades to come ? based on the theme "Seeking the Signs of Life."

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The report, stemming from a Concepts and Approaches for Mars Exploration meeting in Houston in June, is headed for a late August/September release. Former veteran NASA program manager Orlando Figueroa has been leading the appraisal under the wing of a newly established Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG), which was tasked with reformulating the agency?s?Mars Exploration Program.

The planning group is taking a look at how NASA will continue exploring?Mars?beyond the missions currently operating today, which now includes the Curiosity rover. The $2.5 billion Mars rover Curiosity landed on the Red Planet on Aug. 5 (PDT) in a flawless touchdown. The flagship rover, which is already beaming home amazing photos of Mars, is expected to spend two years exploring Mars' Gale Crater to determine if the region could have ever supported microbial life.

Recently, deep cuts in?NASA's budget for Mars?led to the shakeup in the space agency?s plans for robotic exploration. Another factor behind the new report is the overlapping requirements of NASA?s long-range plan to dot the Red Planet with human footprints.?

Deep budget cuts, new tech

Mars planners are assessing international partnerships that could be highly enabling, especially as exploration activities become increasingly complex. Such partnerships could be at the mission or instrument level, and they could involve scientists from around the globe. [Boldest Mars Missions in History]

The June get-together of Mars experts made a strong case that missions flown in the coming decade could yield realistic steps toward Mars Sample Return. That pathway also would push advances in our understanding of Mars and certify key technologies that can lead to a humans-to-Mars initiative.

For example, work is under way to develop inflatable heat shields and larger parachutes.

?These will be tested in a program about a year from now,? said Charles Elachi, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory here.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/9_CckOd7mpI/What-will-future-Mars-missions-look-like

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Sean Hayes Lands Multi-Episode Arc on 'Smash'

He's an Emmy winner. He's a Tony nominee. And we already know he's hilarious when paired with his former Will & Grace costar, Debra Messing. So kudos to the producers of NBC's Smash for nabbing Sean Hayes for a story arc in that musical drama's second season. It could be the smartest casting decision they've made yet!

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/will-grace-reunion-sean-hayes-and-debra-messing-reunite-smash-1/1-a-480488?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Awill-grace-reunion-sean-hayes-and-debra-messing-reunite-smash-1-480488

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Improve Your Space With These Simple Home Improvement Tips ...

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One of the most overlooked areas of home improvement is the ceilings. Update your old popcorn ceilings! Hire a contractor to scrape the popcorn off the ceilings and add a smooth finish. Maybe think about adding some crown moldings during the ceiling renovations. Moldings add a sophisticated and custom look to any room in the house.

If you want to do a simple home improvement that will add value to your bathrooms, consider stripping off the old wallpaper. Wallpaper is a dated wall covering and many times when a new home buyer sees it, it is a turn off. Strip it off and paint a neutral color.

Updating your home with new appliances will not only make your home look better but perhaps save you money in the long run. New appliances can save you money because newer appliances are more efficient. Look into buying energy saving appliances and see if you qualify for tax credits.

Any home improvement project intense enough to involve opening a house?s walls should include some new wiring for modern electronics. Even though the cutting edge of high-tech has moved on to wireless computer networking, adding integral Ethernet wiring to your home increases network security, offers added convenience and improves resale value.

A very simple and cost effective home improvement adjustment you can make is to replace standard light bulbs in your home with ones that are energy smart, which are also known as compact fluorescent bulbs. Not only do they last longer, they save you money on energy costs for the time the bulbs are in use.

Use up-lighting behind large pieces of furniture to light up a dark corner. It is a dramatic and beautiful way to make the room seem larger than what it is. It is quick, easy and inexpensive and will make the room look as if it is a much larger and brighter space than what it really is.

Put in an outdoor motion detector for your outside lighting. This way the lights will only be on when they are activated and not all day or all night unnecessarily. Most people don?t need their outside lights other than when they come home or leave after dark.

When wanting to make a living out of home improvement, it is important that you have great people skills. If you do not have great people skills, when dealing with your clients it is very likely that you would lose quite a few jobs. It is better to be a people person, and make the money you want!

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If you use a variety of appliances or computers and peripheral devices, use power strips. Using power strips prevents wasteful energy use because the strips ensure your devices are only drawing power when they are in use. Appliances, cell phones and computers draw power even when they are not in use when you plug them directly into an outlet.

When renovating a kitchen, be sure to perform a good deep clean before applying any paint. The walls are probably covered with at least a thin layer of grease. This grease will make it difficult for the new paint to stick. It is also possible that your kitchen walls don?t need paint at all and are just dirty with grease!

As you begin your home improvement project, remember to be flexible. Projects may take longer than you would like, may cost more than you want to pay and may eat up more resources than you planned on using. Be flexible in all stages of the process, and you will find that the project will be a more enjoyable experience for you.

Learning how to remove a sink trap is a valuable skill. It can help you remove anything that has been dropped down the drain which is not an uncommon occurrence. If you do drop something down the drain don?t run water in it until you can remove the trap.

Would you like to add space to your home? A living room or den is a great idea; especially if you are looking for profitable expansions. You will gain a great deal of usable space for relaxing and spending time with your family while greatly increasing your home?s value.

Therefore, before committing to any home remodeling project, make sure to be well informed, and choose a project your entire family will enjoy for years. Use the home improvement tips you have just read and you are sure to choose a project that will give you maximum enjoyment for years to come.

Jacquelyne Dewit shares knowledge about Houston commercial locksmith

Source: http://www.corporatecut.co.za/improve-your-space-with-these-simple-home-improvement-tips-2/

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Thousands Lose State Health Insurance

Minnesota Issues

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ST. PAUL? (AP) ? More than 3,000 people have been kicked off the state?s health insurance plan.

An audit found they are ineligible relatives of state employees. The audit of 34,000 Minnesota employees required workers to submit tax returns, birth certificates and marriage licenses to prove their family members were eligible for coverage.

Management and Budget Commissioner Jim Schowalter says 770 state workers didn?t respond to the audit, which resulted in 1,600 dependents losing coverage.

Schowalter says he expects the audit results will save the state about $10 million.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved)

Source: http://wjon.com/thousands-lose-state-health-insurance/

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Rep. Paul Ryan: IFA's 2010 Legislator of the Year Award winner ...

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IFA?s Public Affairs Conference will gather hundreds of franchise business leaders in Washington Sept. 10-11 to inform Congress how public policy impacts the economic health of franchise small businesses.? The franchise industry needs your commitment to tackle critical legislation surrounding issues like jobs, taxes and health care.

As franchise business owners make visits to over 200 congressional offices during the conference, IFA will also present its ?Legislator of the Year? award to lawmakers who have supported a pro-franchising, pro business agenda.

Recently announced Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan received IFA?s Legislator of the Year award at the Public Affairs Conference in 2010, demonstrating his strong ties to the small business community, where he cultivated his message of smaller government and reduced regulatory burdens.

?We are pleased to award this honor to an outstanding member of Congress,? said Past IFA Chairman Ken Walker of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in 2010.? ?He has demonstrated his commitment to policies that create a sound business environment for franchising, especially during these tough economic times.?

Rep. Ryan, who was given positive scores on congressional votes monitored by the Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business, has been popular among small business owners reassuring the industry that questions about tax certainty and health care will be answered.? Ed Gillespie, who will be a keynote speaker at the Conference on September 10th along with Terry McAuliffe, told The Wall Street Journal, ?One of the reasons he was chosen was his willingness to put forward innovative solutions in a budget.?

As the country looks toward the elections this fall, it is more important than ever to make your voice heard on Capitol Hill, urging policy makers to address expiring tax rates so franchise business owners can do what they do best: create jobs.

Don?t miss your chance to come to Washington and meet this year?s ?Legislator of the Year.?Register Now for IFA?s Public Affairs Conference.

Related posts:

  1. IFA 2011 Hall of Fame Award Winner and inductee Doc Cohen (a leading franchisee of the Grea
  2. What are franchise owners saying about the 2-year anniversary of the health care law?
  3. Romney Cites Franchise Businesses as Key to Economic Recovery, Job Growth
  4. National Health Care Reform: One Year Later?.
  5. Lynette McKee of Checkers receives the IFA Bonnie Levine Award for her efforts in mentoring women

Source: http://www.ifafranblog.com/rep-paul-ryan-ifas-2010-legislator-of-the-year-award-winner-now-romneys-vp-nominee-who-will-win-this-years-award/

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