Just in case you thought Samsung didn't offer enough variety in its tablet range, its gone ahead and launched yet another. This 7-inch Galaxy Tab 3 is brand new and, um, like virtually every other Samsung tablet that's gone before it.
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Air shows cancelled: Automatic sequester budget cuts mean an end to the 2013 season for the Navy's Blue Angels and the Air Force's Thunderbirds. The real losers may be local economies benefitting from air shows.
The U.S. Navy Blue Angels perform at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland last year. The Navy has cancelled the remaining 2013 performances of its Flight Demonstration Squadron. The Air Force Thunderbirds have cancelled the rest of their shows for the year as well.
Stelios Varias/REUTERS
EnlargeTravelers across the US are pleased that furloughs for air traffic controllers have been cancelled. Aside from the usual delays for weather and maintenance problems, that means fewer hours trapped on the tarmac or looking for places to charge smart phones in airport terminals.
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But there?s another group of frequent flyers who?ve been grounded by across-the-board budget cuts due to the sequester: Navy and Air Force flight demonstration teams, those aerial hotshots whose main purpose is to enhance public relations, attract new recruits, and reflect patriotism with what?s been bumper-stickered as ?The Sound of Freedom.?
There are plenty of other air shows around the country, such as the ?Vidalia Onion Festival Air Show? in Georgia and the ?Take to the Skies AirFest? in Durant, Okla. They just won?t feature the Air Force Thunderbirds or the Navy Blue Angels flying genuine fighter jets. Or the Army?s Golden Knights parachute team.
All three have cancelled their season.
John Cudahy. president of the International Council of Air Shows tells the Associated Press that about 200 of the nation's 300 air shows have been affected by the federal budget cuts and 60 have already been cancelled. He said more cancellations are expected, and some shows may never come back.
"The worst case is that they either cancel and go out of business, or they don't cancel and they have such poor attendance and they go out of business," he said. Economic impact studies indicate the shows are worth $1 billion to $2 billion nationwide, Cudahy estimates.
"Having the Thunderbirds or the Blue Angels is like having the Super Bowl, it's a household name," Bill Walkup, manager of the Martinsburg, W.V. airport told the AP.
When the Thunderbirds performed there in 2010, the show drew 88,000 people. Without a jet team, the show typically draws 15,000 or fewer. When they learned there?d be no Thunderbirds, organizers cancelled this year?s show.
Thunderbirds spokesman Maj. Darrick Lee said a typical season averages about $9.75 million and the Air Force needs to focus its resources now on its mission in Afghanistan. Team members are still doing local public appearances that have little or no cost, including autograph-signing sessions at schools and other venues.
"Would we prefer to be flying? Of course," Maj. Lee said. But, he added, "We encourage folks to go and have a good time with or without us."
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FILE - In this file photo of Jan. 2, 2013, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo gestures during a news conference in the at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. On Monday, April 29, 2013, Cuomo said on public radio's "Capitol Pressroom" that he's not talking about running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016 and he's not waiting to see if Hillary Clinton runs. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)
FILE - In this file photo of Jan. 2, 2013, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo gestures during a news conference in the at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. On Monday, April 29, 2013, Cuomo said on public radio's "Capitol Pressroom" that he's not talking about running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016 and he's not waiting to see if Hillary Clinton runs. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Andrew Cuomo, the popular governor and a possible presidential contender in 2016, has a book deal.
HarperCollins told The Associated Press on Monday that Cuomo will write "a full and frank account" about his private life and the "profound moments" of his first term in office, including signing gay-marriage legislation. Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
Cuomo, a Democrat who hasn't declared his plans for 2016, was represented by a man with much experience in handling presidents and presidential contenders, Washington attorney Robert Barnett, whose clients include President Barack Obama and another possible 2016 candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The Cuomo book is scheduled for next year, when Clinton also has a book expected.
Earlier Monday, Cuomo dismissed reports that he would not seek the presidency should Clinton run, saying that he was focused on being governor.
Cuomo's deal may complicate plans for a biography on the governor signed up by HarperCollins last year. HarperCollins spokeswoman Tina Andreadis said Monday that the book, by New York Post reporter and state editor Fredric Dicker, was still under contract. The Post and HarperCollins are part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
Cuomo, 55, was secretary of Housing and Urban Development during President Bill Clinton's administration and served four years as New York's attorney general before being elected governor in 2010. He has signed legislation allowing gay couples to marry in the state, helped secure financial aid for victims of Superstorm Sandy and signed tough gun control legislation into law after the deadly Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting.
In the book, Cuomo will write about being the father to three girls, his role in establishing housing for the homeless and the legacy of his father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo.
Monday's announcement did not mention Cuomo's marriage to Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and their bitter divorce in 2005. The publisher declined to comment on whether Cuomo would write about Kennedy, the mother of his children.
Cuomo now lives with Food Network star Sandra Lee.
___
AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? With the simplest of sentences, NBA veteran Jason Collins set aside years of worry and silence to become the first active player in one of four major U.S. professional sports leagues to come out as gay.
In a first-person article posted Monday on Sports Illustrated's website, Collins begins: "I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay."
Collins has played for six teams in 12 seasons, most recently as a reserve with the Washington Wizards after a midseason trade from the Boston Celtics. He is now a free agent and wants to keep playing in the NBA.
"I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, 'I'm different,'" Collins writes. "If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I'm raising my hand."
Saying he had "endured years of misery and gone to enormous lengths to live a lie," Collins immediately drew support for his announcement from the White House ? President Barack Obama called him ? along with former President Bill Clinton, the NBA, current and former teammates, a sponsor, and athletes in other sports.
Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant tweeted that he was proud of Collins, writing: "Don't suffocate who u r because of the ignorance of others," followed by the words "courage" and "support."
"We've got to get rid of the shame. That's the main thing. And Jason's going to help that. He's going to help give people courage to come out," said Billie Jean King, a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame who confirmed she was gay after being outed in the early 1980s.
"I guarantee you he's going to feel much lighter, much freer. The truth does set you free, there's no question. It doesn't mean it's easy. But it sets you free," King said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
The Wizards, whose season ended April 17, issued a statement from President Ernie Grunfeld: "We are extremely proud of Jason and support his decision to live his life proudly and openly. He has been a leader on and off the court and an outstanding teammate throughout his NBA career. Those qualities will continue to serve him both as a player and as a positive role model for others of all sexual orientation."
Collins' coach with the Celtics, Doc Rivers, drew a comparison between Monday's announcement and Jackie Robinson's role when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball.
"I am extremely happy and proud of Jason Collins. He's a pro's pro. He is the consummate professional and he is one of my favorite 'team' players I have ever coached," Rivers said. "If you have learned anything from Jackie Robinson, it is that teammates are always the first to accept. It will be society who has to learn tolerance."
Collins says he quietly made a statement for gay rights even while keeping his sexual orientation a secret. He wore No. 98 with the Celtics and Wizards ? 1998 was year that Matthew Shepard, a gay college student in Wyoming, was killed, and the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization, was founded.
According to the General Social Survey, the public has grown increasingly accepting of gay relationships since the late 1980s. That survey found in 1987 that 76 percent of Americans thought sexual relations between adults of the same sex was morally wrong. That fell to 43 percent by 2012.
"I'm glad I'm coming out in 2013 rather than 2003. The climate has shifted; public opinion has shifted," Collins writes. "And yet we still have so much farther to go. Everyone is terrified of the unknown, but most of us don't want to return to a time when minorities were openly discriminated against."
While some gay athletes have talked in the past about concerns that coming out would hurt their earning potential, 12-time Grand Slam singles champion King said she thinks Collins' openness could have the opposite effect.
"I have a feeling he's got a whole new career," King said. "I have a feeling he's going to make more in endorsements than he's ever made in his life."
Sports equipment maker Nike released a statement Monday saying: "We admire Jason's courage and are proud that he is a Nike athlete. Nike believes in a level playing field where an athlete's sexual orientation is not a consideration."
On Monday evening, hours after his story appeared on the web, Collins wrote on Twitter: "All the support I have received today is truly inspirational. I knew that I was choosing the road less traveled but I'm not walking it alone."
Momentum has been building toward this sort of announcement from a pro athlete in a top league in the United States. NFL players Brendan Ayanbadejo and Chris Kluwe were outspoken in support of state gay-marriage amendments during last year's elections. Obama spoke about his support for gay marriage during his re-election campaign.
The topic made waves during Super Bowl week when one player, San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver, said he wouldn't welcome a gay member of his team. At the time, Ayanbadejo estimated that at least half of the NFL's players would agree with what Culliver said, at least privately.
Scott Fujita, who recently retired after an 11-year NFL career, said: "I'm pleased to see such an overwhelmingly positive reaction to this news, because it just shows that we're becoming more accepting every day. But more than anything else, I'm happy for Jason. I'm not a gay, closeted athlete, so I can't pretend to know what that must have felt like for him. But I imagine this is freeing for him, and hopefully he's encouraged by the millions of people who are voicing their support. ... It's not a reaction to some rumor and it's not some unwanted outing. It's his message, and it was delivered under his control and on his terms."
On Monday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memo to teams reiterating the league's anti-discrimination policy about sexuality. It includes a section on questions teams cannot ask prospective draft picks and free agents. After the NFL combine in February, three players said officials posed questions about sexual orientation.
Earlier this month, the NHL and its players' union partnered with an advocacy organization fighting homophobia in sports, and Commissioner Gary Bettman said the You Can Play Project underlines that "the official policy of the NHL is one of inclusion on the ice, in our locker rooms and in the stands."
"I would say the NHL has been a force to kind of obviously embrace and encourage. ... What (Collins) did, I think it's definitely (good) for basketball, and the same for hockey, too. It's going to be encouraging for more guys to step up and just be open about themselves," Washington Capitals forward Joel Ward said.
Living in the nation's capital last month while the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments about same-sex marriage had an effect on Collins, who says "the strain of hiding my sexuality became almost unbearable" at that time.
"Less than three miles from my apartment, nine jurists argued about my happiness and my future. Here was my chance to be heard, and I couldn't say a thing," he writes. "I didn't want to answer questions and draw attention to myself."
After being a first-round draft pick in 2001, Collins has averaged 3.6 points and 3.8 rebounds for the New Jersey Nets, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Celtics and Wizards.
In his SI piece, he jokes self-effacingly about his journeyman career and a parlor game known as "Three Degrees of Jason Collins."
"If you're in the league, and I haven't been your teammate, I surely have been one of your teammates' teammates. Or one of your teammates' teammates' teammates," he writes.
Never a star, he acknowledges, "I take charges and I foul ? that's been my forte. ... I set picks with my 7-foot, 255-pound body to get guys like Jason Kidd, John Wall and Paul Pierce open. I sacrifice myself for other players."
He continues: "I go against the gay stereotype, which is why I think a lot of players will be shocked: That guy is gay? But I've always been an aggressive player, even in high school. Am I so physical to prove that being gay doesn't make you soft? Who knows? That's something for a psychologist to unravel."
As for what response other NBA players will have to his revelation, Collins writes: "The simple answer is, I have no idea."
"Openness may not completely disarm prejudice, but it's a good place to start. It all comes down to education. I'll sit down with any player who's uneasy about my coming out," he says in his account, adding: "Still, if I'm up against an intolerant player, I'll set a pretty hard pick on him. And then move on."
On Monday, there was an outpouring of positive sentiments.
In texts to the AP, Wizards guard Garrett Temple wrote, "I was surprised. I didn't know and I was right next to him in the locker room. It definitely took a lot of courage for him to come out. He was a great teammate," and rookie Bradley Beal said: "I didn't know about it! I don't think anyone did! I am proud of his decision to come out and express the way he feels and I'm supportive of that!!"
Former teammate Jerry Stackhouse, now with the Brooklyn Nets, wrote in a text: "I hope Jason is received well by our NBA family. Jason is a friend and a former teammate that I've enjoyed many laughs and conversations with and his sexual orientation won't change that with me. I've already reached out to him personally to show support and will encourage more guys to do the same."
NBA Commissioner David Stern said in a statement: "Jason has been a widely respected player and teammate throughout his career and we are proud he has assumed the leadership mantle on this very important issue."
While Collins is the first male athlete in a major North American professional league to come out while intending to keep playing, several have previously spoken after they retired about being gay, including the NBA's John Amaechi, the NFL's Esera Tuaolo and Major League Baseball's Billy Bean.
"I think he is immensely brave. I think it's a shame in this day and age he has to be immensely brave, but he is," Amaechi told the AP. "He's going to be a remarkable and eloquent spokesperson for what it is to be a decent, authentic human being ? never mind just for gay people."
Rick Welts, president and chief operating officer of the NBA's Golden State Warriors, is openly gay.
"He probably knows what he signed up for. There'll be a whole bunch more television reporters and cameras than he's probably had in the past. ... There had been a long of speculation about when, who, how. I think that speculation has been put to rest now," Welts said, "and we'll always remember that Jason Collins was the first man to do this."
Collins says that if he remains in the NBA, he could face uncomfortable reactions from spectators.
"I don't mind if they heckle me. I've been booed before. There have been times when I've wanted to boo myself. But a lot of ill feelings can be cured by winning," he writes.
He adds: "I hope fans will respect me for raising my hand. And I hope teammates will remember that I've never been an in-your-face kind of guy. All you need to know is that I'm single. I see no need to delve into specifics."
In February, former U.S. soccer national team player Robbie Rogers said he was gay ? and retired at the same time. Rogers is just 25, and others have urged him to resume his career.
"I feel a movement coming," he tweeted after word of Collins' news broke.
Female athletes have found more acceptance in coming out; Brittney Griner, a top college basketball player now headed to the WNBA, caused few ripples when she said this month she is a lesbian. Tennis great Martina Navratilova, who came out decades ago, tweeted Monday that Collins is "a brave man."
"1981 was the year for me ? 2013 is the year for you," her post added.
Sports leagues in Britain and elsewhere in Europe have been trying to combat anti-gay bias. But the taboo remains particularly strong in soccer, where there are no openly gay players in Europe's top leagues. Homophobic chants are still heard at some games.
Soccer "is not going to change," said Amaechi, who is English and now lives in Manchester. "If it wanted to change, it would change. It has the resources to do so. It doesn't want to change."
Justin Fashanu is the only significant British soccer player to have come out publicly, doing so in 1990. The former Nottingham Forest and Norwich City striker was found hanged in a London garage in 1998 at age 37. According to an inquest, Fashanu left a note saying that, because he was gay, he feared he wouldn't get a fair trial in the United States on sexual assault charges. Maryland police were seeking him on charges that he sexually assaulted a 17-year-old boy.
Among other athletes outside the U.S. to come out was Gareth Thomas, a Welsh rugby star who attracted widespread media attention in 2009 when he announced he was gay. He continued playing until retirement in 2011.
Orlando Cruz of Puerto Rico came out in October as the first openly gay professional male boxer. Canadian swimmer Mark Tewksbury came out six years after winning a gold medal in the backstroke at the 1992 Barcelona Games. Four-time Olympic diving gold medalist Greg Louganis of the U.S. revealed he was gay in 1994, a year before announcing he was also HIV-positive. Former Olympic skiing gold medalist Anja Paerson of Sweden announced last year, after retiring, that she was in a long-term relationship with a woman.
White House spokesman Jay Carney called Collins' decision courageous and said the administration views it as another example of progress and evolution in the U.S. as Americans grow more accepting of gay rights and same-sex marriage.
Former President Clinton said: "Jason's announcement today is an important moment for professional sports and in the history of the LGBT community. It is also the straightforward statement of a good man who wants no more than what so many of us seek: to be able to be who we are; to do our work; to build families and to contribute to our communities. For so many members of the LGBT community, these simple goals remain elusive."
Collins attended Stanford with Clinton's daughter Chelsea and played in a Final Four while at the school. His twin brother, Jarron, was also a longtime NBA center who last played in the league in the 2010-11 season. Collins says he told his brother he was gay last summer.
"He was downright astounded. He never suspected. So much for twin telepathy," Collins writes in SI. "But by dinner that night, he was full of brotherly love. For the first time in our lives, he wanted to step in and protect me."
Advocacy organization GLAAD released a statement from Aaron McQuade, the head of its sports program.
"Courage' and 'inspiration' are words that get thrown around a lot in sports, but Jason Collins has given both ideas a brand new context," he said. "We hope that his future team will welcome him, and that fans of the NBA and sports in general will applaud him. We know that the NBA will proudly support him, and that countless young LGBT athletes now have a new hero."
At Stanford, Collins was a college roommate of Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass. In his account, Collins writes that he realized he needed to go public when the congressman walked in Boston's gay pride parade last year ? and Collins decided he couldn't join him.
"For as long as I've known Jason Collins he has been defined by three things: his passion for the sport he loves, his unwavering integrity, and the biggest heart you will ever find. Without question or hesitation, he gives everything he's got to those of us lucky enough to be in his life. I'm proud to stand with him today and proud to call him a friend," Kennedy said in a statement.
In Monday's story, Collins writes that the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15 "reinforced the notion that I shouldn't wait for the circumstances of my coming out to be perfect. Things can change in an instant, so why not live truthfully?"
And now, Collins says, he will be in Boston on June 8, marching alongside Kennedy at the city's 2013 gay rights parade.
"Some people insist they've never met a gay person. But Three Degrees of Jason Collins dictates that no NBA player can claim that anymore. Pro basketball is a family. And pretty much every family I know has a brother, sister or cousin who's gay," Collins concludes. "In the brotherhood of the NBA, I just happen to be the one who's out."
___
AP Sports Writers Joseph White, Nancy Armour, Larry Lage, Brian Mahoney, Antonio Gonzalez, Rachel Cohen, Paul Newberry, Jimmy Golen, Howard Ulman, Rob Harris, Steve Wilson, Richard Rosenblatt and Tom Withers, and Associated Press Writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Cara Rubinsky, Jennifer Agiesta and Josh Lederman contributed to this report.
___
Howard Fendrich is on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nba-veteran-center-jason-collins-comes-gay-192405945.html
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NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (AP) ? FBI agents investigating the Boston Marathon bombings have visited the Rhode Island home of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's (TAM'-ehr-luhn tsahr-NEYE'-ehv) in-laws and carried away several bags.
FBI spokesman Jason Pack confirms agents went to the North Kingstown home of Katherine Russell's parents Monday. Russell, Tsarnaev's widow, has been staying there.
Russell did not speak to reporters as she left her attorneys' office in Providence later in the day. Attorney Amato DeLuca says she's doing everything she can to assist with the investigation.
Attorneys have previously said Russell and her family were in shock when they learned of the allegations against her husband and brother-in-law, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (joh-HAHR' tsahr-NEYE'-ehv).
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a gun battle with police. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fbi-visits-home-wife-dead-bombing-suspect-191157369.html
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By Ruma Paul and Serajul Quadir
DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladeshi lawyers and protesters chanted "hang him, hang him" on Monday as the owner of a factory building that collapsed last week killing nearly 400 people was led into court dressed in a helmet and bullet-proof jacket, witnesses said.
The drama came as rescue officials said they were unlikely to find more survivors in the rubble of the building that collapsed on Wednesday, burying hundreds of garment workers in the country's worst industrial accident.
Heavy cranes were being used to lift huge concrete blocks from the wreckage of Rana Plaza, where 385 people are now confirmed to have been killed. The building housed factories making clothes for Western brands.
Eight people have been arrested - four factory bosses, two engineers, building owner Mohammed Sohel Rana and his father, Abdul Khalek. Police are looking for a fifth factory boss, David Mayor, who they said was a Spanish citizen.
Rana, a local leader of the ruling Awami League's youth front, was shown on television being brought to Dhaka in handcuffs after he was seized in the border town of Benapole by the elite Rapid Action Battalion following a four-day manhunt.
Rana was arrested by police commandos on Sunday, apparently trying to flee to India.
"Put the killer on the gallows, he is not worth of any mercy or lenient penalty," one onlooker outside the court shouted.
The court ordered that Rana be held for 15 days "on remand" for interrogation.
Khalek, who officials said was named in documents as a legal owner of the building, was arrested in Dhaka on Monday. Those being held face charges of faulty construction and causing unlawful death.
Bangladesh does carry out the death penalty for murder and for most serious categories of manslaughter.
Hundreds of the mostly female workers who are thought to have been inside the building when it caved in remain unaccounted for. A fire overnight further hampered the last desperate efforts to find survivors.
"We are giving the highest priority to saving people, but there is little hope of finding anyone alive," army spokesman Shahinul Islam told reporters at the site.
About 2,500 people have been rescued from the wrecked building in the commercial suburb of Savar, about 30 km (20 miles) from the capital, Dhaka.
Late on Sunday, sparks from rescuers' cutting equipment started a fire in the debris as they raced to save a woman who may have been the last survivor in the rubble. Her body was recovered on Monday afternoon.
"We could not save her, even though we heard her voice this morning," a tearful rescue worker told reporters at the scene.
Officials said the eight-storey complex had been built on swampy ground without the correct permits, and more than 3,000 workers - most of them young women - entered the building on Wednesday morning despite warnings that it was structurally unsafe.
A bank and shops in the same building closed after a jolt was felt and cracks were noticed on some pillars on Tuesday.
The collapse was the third major industrial incident in five months in Bangladesh, the second-largest exporter of garments in the world behind China. In November, a fire at the Tazreen Fashion factory in a suburb of Dhaka killed 112 people.
Such incidents have raised serious questions about worker safety and low wages in the poor South Asian country, which relies on garments for 80 percent of its exports. The industry employs about 3.6 million people, most of them women, some of whom earn as little as $38 a month.
In a development that may raise questions about the authorities' handling of the rescue operation, a spokesman at the British High Commission on Monday confirmed that an offer of technical assistance from Britain had been declined.
Anger over the disaster has sparked days of protests and clashes, and paramilitary troops were deployed in the industrial hub of Gazipur as garment workers took to the streets again on Monday, smashing cars and setting fire to an ambulance.
The unrest forced authorities to shut down many factories, which had reopened on Monday after two days of closures. Police fired teargas to disperse protesters.
The main opposition has called for a national strike on May 2 in protest over the incident.
Emdadul Islam, chief engineer of the state-run Capital Development Authority, said last that week that Rana had not received the proper construction consent for the building, and had illegally added three storeys to the original five.
(Writing by Alex Richardson and Nick Macfie)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/little-hope-more-survivors-bangladesh-toll-nears-400-080033210.html
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Most Android users are familiar with Swype's signature input method of dragging a finger over keys instead of tapping them, a feature that has been baked into several phones. The Swype app, now available on Google Play for 99 cents (limited time price), brings this familiar feature to any Android device, but also adds a slew of other clever input methods like dictation and handwriting. It also provides smart suggestions as you write, letting you quickly finish words and sentences.
With cloud-syncing dictionaries, support for more than 60 languages, and the ability to learn from your writing and social media, Swype is a powerful app that totally changes how you type.
Writing With Swype
The main way to interact with Swype is by "Swyping"?where you drag you finger from letter to letter to spell out words. Once you complete a word, it appears in place in the text. When you next begin swiping, the app automatically adds a space between the words (this can be toggled on and off in the settings).
The word the app believes you swiped is displayed on a ribbon above the keyboard on the far left. Other words which the app believes you may have been attempting to swipe or type appear to the right. The list is extensive, and can be explored by dragging the ribbon left and right.
Typing works as you expect. With each tap of a letter, the suggestions across the top change. Let's say I'm typing the word "best." By the time I'm through "be," the word "be" is on the left as the top suggestion. "Best" is the third suggestion, so I could just tap the word and keep typing.
Like SwiftKey, Swype also displays three suggested words above the keyboard before you begin Swyping or typing. For instance, after writing "I am enjoying the hams of my ancestors" several times, Swype suggested "enjoying," "the," and "hams" after I typed "I am." This makes spitting out frequently used phrases even faster. In other words, it's content-aware, so you could simply tap the suggestions to dash through sentences.
Suggested words are a smart feature, but sometimes Swype spits out strange utterances. During my testing, I tapped the middle of the three suggestions repeatedly and the app wrote "Is it possible to have a good time for the holidays [sic]," a question I am sure many of us have asked before. In general, SwiftKey does a better job of identifying the phrases I use a lot and was more consistent with its suggestions.
Moving between all three modes of text input makes for fast, accurate typing and is the best way to use the app. However, it's hard to get used to looking at suggestions instead of the keyboard while writing. Obviously there's a learning curve before you can take full advantage of everything the app has to offer.
Dead-On Dictation
Nuance Communication, the developer behind Swype, is also responsible for Dragon Dictate for Mac and Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12 Premium (Windows), desktop speech-to-text software that picked up our Editors' Choice award. It's not surprising that the company chose to include a dictation capability in Swype, which it calls Dragon. To activate this feature, simply tap the small flame-like logo on the bottom left of the Swype keyboard. Speak your sentence and then tap "done" when you're finished, although you can allow the app to end dictations automatically from the settings menu.
I was immediately impressed with Dragon on Swype, which requires no tedious set up or training. Out of the box it did a pretty good job transcribing my utterances, even when another speaker was close by.? It's definitely better suited for composing shorter messages, and I also noticed it took longer than expected to process the speech to text, which requires a data connection. The Google Now search bar on my Nexus 7 transcribed my speech much faster, but a little less accurately.
With dictation more than other aspects of Swype, you'll probably end up having to correct the app a fair amount which is thankfully simple. Just tap a word and Swype's suggestions will appear on the ribbon again.
Handwriting Recognition
I thought handwriting recognition fell out of favor around the time of the Newton, but Swype has a toggle-able option to let you write with your fingertip. As you shape letters?either in upper or lower case?the lines vanish quickly as Swype collects them. You can enter text letter by letter or in entire words.
Because English is my first language, my impulse was to move left to right as I wrote. This works fine, but you'll quickly run out of space for longer words. I found the app worked just as well when I wrote the letters over each other slowly.
Annoyingly, to handwrite numbers, you have to switch between letter and number entry modes. Between that and the time it takes to write letters out, it's obvious why this isn't a central feature of the app. In fact, it's not even enabled by default.
Surprisingly, handwriting input shines for entering long strings of numbers?like a phone number.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/yHDB0fDKGH0/0,2817,2418217,00.asp
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KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) ? An official with Ethiopian Airlines says one of the company's Dreamliners is scheduled to fly from Ethiopia to Kenya's capital, the first commercial flight since air safety authorities grounded the passenger jets after incidents with smoldering batteries on two different planes in January.
The Boeing 787 passenger jet was scheduled to arrive in Nairobi from Addis Ababa on Saturday afternoon.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has approved Boeing's redesigned battery system, which the company says sharply reduces the risk of fire.
A Boeing engineer told reporters in Nairobi this week that all potential causes of battery fire have been eliminated with the new system.
There are 50 Dreamliners in service around the world. Boeing said Wednesday that deliveries of the 787 should resume in early May.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/787-dreamliner-flies-kenya-ethiopia-103257857.html
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BAGHDAD (AP) ? Iraqi authorities are suspending the operating licenses of pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera along with nine other satellite channels on allegations they are promoting a sectarian agenda.
The move, effective immediately on Sunday, comes as Baghdad tries to quell rising unrest in the country following clashes at a protest camp last week.
More than 180 people have been killed in gunbattles with security forces and other attacks since the unrest began Tuesday. The violence follows more than four months of largely peaceful protests by Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority against the Shiite-dominated government.
The Communications and Media Commission says the other channels whose licenses are being revoked are al-Sharqiya and al-Sharqiya News, Salahuddin, Fallujah, Taghyeer, Baghdad, Babiliya, Anwar 2 and al-Gharbiya.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iraq-pulls-jazeera-other-tv-licenses-amid-unrest-095619284.html
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BOSTON (AP) ? His work has immersed him in events that read like a roster of recent catastrophes, from 9/11 to the Gulf oil spill. Now, Kenneth Feinberg is adding the Boston Marathon bombings to that list.
The Massachusetts native and attorney is managing the payouts from The One Fund, which was established to help victims of the explosions that killed three and injured 260.
Feinberg is experienced dealing with people facing profound loss, but he doesn't seek the work.
"I must tell you every time I do one, you say to yourself, 'God I hope this is the last one," he said.
Feinberg handled victims' compensation after 9/11, the BP oil spill, the Virginia Tech shootings and the Colorado movie theater shootings, among other calamities.
He's now advising a panel distributing money after the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., and mediating Penn State's settlement discussions with the sex abuse victims of former football coach Jerry Sandusky.
The experiences are wrenching, he said. And recipients invariably resent him, thinking he's trying to put a price on the priceless things they've lost.
"Don't expect thanks or appreciation or gratitude, none of that," Feinberg said. "We have very emotional victims and you're offering them money instead of a limb, instead of the return of a family member. This is a no-win situation."
He keeps saying yes in the same spirit of those who donate, he said.
"Look at the amount of money that pours in from private people, private citizens," he said. "How do you say no if the governor calls, the mayor?"
The 67-year-old Feinberg is a native of Brockton, about 20 miles south of Boston, and his Washington D.C. firm specializes in mediation and dispute resolution. In 1984, a judge appointed him to distribute money from a $180 million settlement for veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange. His work on that project got notice from President George W. Bush's administration, which asked him to manage the 9/11 victims' compensation fund.
Since then, the calls have come regularly.
Most of his work is pro bono, including the Boston Marathon job. But Feinberg is being paid for the Penn State job and was paid by BP after the oil spill ? a job that saw Feinberg absorb significant abuse. In his 2012 book, "Who Gets What," he said he became a "human pinata." Residents complained about the speed and distribution of the payouts, and insults flew at public meetings. "You are such a lying piece of (garbage)," one person told him.
Lawyers, meanwhile, scoffed at his vigorous declarations of independence from BP, which he still makes.
"The spin was that he was independent, but he was working for BP, that's just the way it is," said attorney Anthony Tarricone, now of the Boston firm Kreindler & Kreindler, who represented both BP and 9/11 families.
But Tarricone called Feinberg the perfect person to manage the Boston fund, citing both his legal skills and his respectful manner with the 9/11 families.
"He was fair, he listened to the families, the families felt as if they were being listened to, and that he was understanding what they were going through," Tarricone said.
Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who appointed Feinberg to handle the 9/11 fund, said Feinberg balances compassion with vigilance in managing the money.
"I can't say exactly how he handles it emotionally and psychologically. I just know that he does it professionally," Ashcroft said. "I don't think the world would keep going back, knocking on his door, saying, 'Ken, we need you again,' if they were displeased."
The One Fund had notched more than $26 million by Saturday. Its eventual total will determine exactly who can be helped. For instance, compensation for deaths is the top priority, followed by compensation for physical injuries. Payment for psychological damages comes only if there's money left, Feinberg said.
In Boston, Feinberg will be dealing with complex injuries, such as numerous amputations, including cases where victims lost both legs. Feinberg hopes to be ready to meet with families by June 15 and get checks out by June 30.
By then, he'll have immersed himself in Boston's stories, and all the senseless pain and loss. The classical music aficionado will also likely have relied on the refuge offered in the music of composers he cherishes.
"During the day, I'm working on a project that shows you how uncivilized some people can be and how they willy-nilly, at random, kill and maim people," he said. "And at night you turn on Mozart, and it's the height of civilization."
It helps him recognize, he said, "that mankind isn't all bad."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/overseer-us-victim-funds-says-wrenching-070532658.html
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ABOARD THE HIGH SPEED VESSEL SWIFT (AP) ? Drug smugglers who race across the Caribbean in speedboats will typically jettison their cargo when spotted by surveillance aircraft, hoping any chance of prosecuting them will vanish with the drugs sinking to the bottom of the sea.
That may be a less winning tactic in the future. The U.S. Navy on Friday began testing two new aerial tools, borrowed from the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, that officials say will make it easier to detect, track and videotape drug smugglers in action.
One of the devices on display aboard the High Speed Vessel Swift is a large, white balloon-like craft known as an aerostat, which is tethered up to 2,000 feet (600 meters) above the ship's stern. The other tool on board for tests in the Florida Straits is a type of drone that can be launched by hand from the deck.
Together, they expand the ability of Navy and Coast Guard personnel to see what's beyond their horizon, according to officials from both military branches and the contractors hoping to sell the devices to the U.S. government.
The devices should allow authorities to detect and monitor suspected drug shipments from afar for longer sustained periods, giving them a better chance of stopping the smugglers. They also should allow them to make continuous videotapes that can be used in prosecutions.
"Being able to see them and watch what they are doing even before we get there is going to give us an edge," said Chief Chris Sinclair, assistant officer in charge of a law enforcement detachment on board the Swift, a private vessel leased to the Navy that is about to begin a monthlong deployment to the southwestern Caribbean, tracking the busy smuggling routes off Colombia and Honduras.
Crews practiced launching and operating both systems before a small contingent of news media on board the Swift, managing to bring back video of vessels participating in a mock surveillance mission as well as radar and video images of the fishing charters and sailboats that dot the choppy seas separating Cuba from the U.S. mainland.
The drone, officially a Puma All Environment unmanned aircraft system from Aerovironment Inc. of Simi Valley, California, splashed into the water on one landing and had to be retrieved. On the second round, it clacked noisily but intact on the shifting deck of the 321-foot ship. Rear Adm. Sinclair Harris, commander of the Navy's 4th Fleet, said the devices are necessary at a time when the service is making a transition to smaller, faster ships amid budget cuts.
The aerostat, formally the Aerostar TIF-25K and made by a division of Raven Industries Inc. of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is filled with helium. It's an old technology, models of which have been used for decades, but it's packed with cameras and sensors that expand the ship's radar capability from about 5 miles (8 kilometers) to about 50 miles. That can help teams in an on-board control center to identify larger ships, which now would appear as just dots on the horizon, from as far as 15 miles (25 kilometers) away.
The Puma, meanwhile, can be sent out to inspect a vessel flagged by the larger aerostat and give a "God's eye view," of what's happening on board, a job usually handled by a plane or helicopter, said Craig Benson, director of business development for the company.
Both the aerostat and the drone have been used widely by the U.S. government for overseas actions, but Harris and others aboard the Swift said neither has been used before by the Navy to conduct counter-drug operations.
Unmanned aerial devices, however, are not new to the drug fight. U.S. Customs and Border Protection operates 10 Predator drones, including two based in Cape Canaveral, Florida, that patrol a wide swathe of the Caribbean through the Bahamas and down to south of Puerto Rico. It deployed one to the Dominican Republic last year for six weeks and has considered using one in Honduras. The others are used along the northern and southern borders of the United States.
The U.S. military has long been deeply involved in counter-drug operations in the Southern Hemisphere, coordinated by a multi-agency task force based in Key West, Florida. Navy ships and Air Force jets use their radar to track and run down smugglers, though for legal reasons the actual arrests are carried out by the Coast Guard, civilian agencies or officials from other countries.
In March, the military said it would reduce patrols and sorties in Latin America and the Caribbean because of the automatic spending cuts imposed by Congress, another argument for increased use of aerial surveillance devices like the aerostat and drone, officials said.
Representatives on the Swift from both contractors declined to say what their systems cost. But they said each can be run at a fraction of the cost of the fixed-wing planes or helicopters usually dispatched to check out suspected smugglers.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-tries-aerial-tools-caribbean-drug-fight-114421954.html
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At UFC 159 on Saturday night, Phil Davis showed off the best striking of his career. The NCAA Division-I champion wrestler clearly dominated Vinny Magalhaes in all three rounds on the way to a unanimous decision win. However, one of the judges thought Magalhaes won one round, and the score was 30-27, 30-27, 29-28.
It was a surprising score. It didn't take anything away from Davis' win, but it was odd enough that Magalhaes spoke up about it.
One insane judge gave me a round... I lost all 3 fair and square...
? Vinny Magalhaes (@VinnyMMA) April 28, 2013
Davis and Magalhaes talked trash to each other for months before their bout. Magalhaes left the bad blood in the cage, and was able to give himself an honest assessment moments after the loss.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) ? A national group of prominent GOP donors that supports gay marriage is pouring new money into lobbying efforts to get Republican lawmakers to vote to make it legal.
American Unity PAC was formed last year to lend financial support to Republicans who bucked the party's longstanding opposition to gay marriage. Its founders are launching a new lobbying organization, American Unity Fund, and already have spent more than $250,000 in Minnesota, where the Legislature could vote on the issue as early as next week.
The group has spent $500,000 on lobbying since last month, including efforts in Rhode Island, Delaware, Indiana, West Virginia and Utah.
Billionaire hedge fund manager and Republican donor Paul Singer launched American Unity PAC. The lobbying effort is the next phase as the push for gay marriage spreads to more states, spokesman Jeff Cook-McCormac told The Associated Press.
"What you have is this network of influential Republicans who really want to see the party embrace the freedom to marry, and believe it's not only the right thing for the country but also good politics," Cook-McCormac said.
In Minnesota, the money has gone to state groups that are lobbying Republican lawmakers and for polling on gay marriage in a handful of suburban districts held by Republicans. So far, only one Minnesota Republican lawmaker has committed to voting to legalize gay marriage: Sen. Branden Petersen, of Andover.
"I think there will be some more. There are legislators out there that are struggling with this," said Carl Kuhl, a former political aide to former GOP Sen. Norm Coleman and Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer. Kuhl's public affairs firm is contracted by Minnesotans United, the lead lobby group for gay marriage in Minnesota and main recipient of American Unity's Minnesota spending.
Gay marriage's fate in Minnesota may rest with the House, where support is seen as shakier than in the Senate. A handful of votes from Republicans could put it over the top. Nearly two dozen House Republicans represent more socially moderate suburbs and might be candidates to vote yes.
House Speaker Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, said he has encouraged advocates of the marriage bill to round up Republican votes, if nothing else than to send a message to Minnesota residents that it's not a partisan proposition. But that will be politically risky; the main opposition group to same-sex marriage, Minnesota for Marriage, has said it will seek consequences for Republicans who stray on gay marriage.
Part of American Unity PAC's original mission was to spend money on behalf of Republican gay marriage supporters. Many GOP lawmakers have faced primary challenges funded in part by anti-gay marriage groups such as the National Organization for Marriage, which argue that the lawmakers had betrayed the party's core principles.
Since forming the lobby group last month, American Unity also spent money to win over Republican lawmakers in Rhode Island, where last week all five Republicans in the state Senate jumped on the gay marriage bandwagon. Rhode Island is on track to legalize gay marriage by next week, which would make it the 11th U.S. state where gay marriage is legal.
There are also plans to lobby federal lawmakers on gay rights issues.
"We intend to work on this effort until every American citizen is treated equally under the law," Cook-McCormac said. Other wealthy, traditionally Republican donors giving money to the group include Seth Klarman, David Herro and Cliff Asness.
Though only one current GOP officeholder in Minnesota is on record supporting gay marriage, a handful of prominent Republicans have spoken out in favor of it. They include former state auditor Pat Anderson and Brian McClung, who was spokesman for former Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Prominent Republican donors including former politician Wheelock Whitney and businesswoman Marilyn Carlson Nelson have also lent support and donated money.
Since it first formed to campaign against last fall's gay marriage ban and then shifted to pushing for its legalization at the Capitol, Minnesotans United has been building Republican alliances, hiring multiple lobbyists with Republican ties.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/conservative-lobbying-push-gay-marriage-050802280.html
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) ? The fishing trip off the rugged north coast of St. Lucia was supposed to last all day, but about four hours into the journey, the boat's electric system crackled and popped.
Dan Suski, a 30-year-old business owner and information technology expert from San Francisco, had been wrestling a 200-pound marlin in rough seas with help from his sister, Kate Suski, a 39-year-old architect from Seattle. It was around noon April 21.
He was still trying to reel in the fish when water rushed into the cabin and flooded the engine room, prompting the captain to radio for help as he yelled out their coordinates.
It would be nearly 14 hours and a long, long swim before what was supposed to be a highlight of their sunny vacation would come to an end.
As the waves pounded the boat they had chartered from the local company "Reel Irie," more water flooded in. The captain threw life jackets to the Suskis.
"He said, 'Jump out! Jump out!'" Kate Suski recalled in a telephone interview Thursday with The Associated Press.
The Suskis obeyed and jumped into the water with the captain and first mate. Less than five minutes later, the boat sank.
The group was at least eight miles (13 kilometers) from shore, and waves more than twice their size tossed them.
"The captain was telling us to stay together, and that help was on its way and that we needed to wait," Kate Suski said.
The group waited for about an hour, but no one came.
"I was saying, 'Let's swim, let's swim. If they're coming, they will find us. We can't just stay here,'" she recalled.
As they began to swim, the Suskis lost sight of the captain and first mate amid the burgeoning swells. Soon after, they also lost sight of land amid the rain.
"We would just see swells and gray," Dan Suski said.
A plane and a helicopter appeared in the distance and hovered over the area, but no one spotted the siblings.
Several hours went by, and the sun began to set.
"There's this very real understanding that the situation is dire," Kate Suski said. "You come face-to-face with understanding your own mortality ... We both processed the possible ways we might die. Would we drown? Be eaten by a shark?"
"Hypothermia?" Dan Suski asked.
"Would our legs cramp up and make it impossible to swim?" the sister continued.
They swam for 12 to 14 hours, talking as they pushed and shivered their way through the ocean. Dan Suski tried to ignore images of the movie "Open Water" that kept popping into his head and its story of a scuba-diving couple left behind by their group and attacked by sharks. His sister said she also couldn't stop thinking about sharks.
"I thought I was going to vomit I was so scared," she said.
When they finally came within 30 feet (9 meters) of land, they realized they couldn't get out of the water.
"There were sheer cliffs coming into the ocean," she said. "We knew we would get crushed."
Dan Suski thought they should try to reach the rocks, which they could see in the moonlight, but his sister disagreed.
"We won't survive that," she told him.
They swam until they noticed a spit of sand nearby. When they got to land, they collapsed, barely able to walk. It was past midnight, and they didn't notice any homes in the area.
"Dan said the first priority was to stay warm," she recalled.
They hiked inland and lay side by side, pulling up grass and brush to cover themselves and stay warm. Kate Suski had only her bikini on, having shed her sundress to swim better. Dan Suski had gotten rid of his shorts, having recalled a saying when he was a kid that "the best-dressed corpses wear cotton."
They heard a stream nearby but decided to wait until daylight to determine whether the water was safe to drink.
As the sun came up, they began to hike through thick brush, picking up bitter mangoes along the way and stopping to eat green bananas.
"It was probably the best and worst banana I've ever had," Dan Suski recalled.
Some three hours later, they spotted a young farm worker walking with his white dog. He fed them crackers, gave them water and waited until police arrived, the Suskis said.
"We asked if he knew anything about the captain and mate," Kate Suski said. "He said he had seen the news the night before and they hadn't been found at that time. I think we felt a sense of tragedy that we weren't prepared for."
The Suskis were hospitalized and received IV fluids, with doctors concerned they couldn't draw blood from Kate Suski's arm because she was so dehydrated. They also learned that the captain and mate were rescued after spending nearly 23 hours in the water, noting that their relatives called and took care of them after the ordeal.
St. Lucia's tourism minister called it a miracle, and the island's maritime affairs unit is investigating exactly what caused the boat to sink. Marine Police Sgt. Finley Leonce said they have already interviewed the captain, and that police did not suspect foul play or any criminal activity in the sinking of the ship.
A man who answered the phone Thursday at the "Reel Irie" company declined to comment except to say that he's grateful everyone is safe. He said both the captain and first mate were standing next to him but that they weren't ready to talk about the incident.
The brother and sister said they don't blame anyone for the shipwreck.
"We are so grateful to be alive right now," Kate Suski said. "Nothing can sort of puncture that bubble."
Upon returning to their hotel in St. Lucia earlier this week, the Suskis were upgraded to a suite as they recover from cuts on their feet, severe tendonitis in their ankles from swimming and abrasions from the lifejackets.
"It's really been amazing," Dan Suski said. "It's a moving experience for me."
On Saturday, they plan to fly back to the U.S. to meet their father in Miami.
Once a night owl, Kate Suski no longer minds getting up early for flights, or for any other reason.
"Since this ordeal, I've been waking up at dawn every morning," she said. "I've never looked forward to the sunrise so much in my life."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-tourists-swim-14-hours-boat-sinks-011652250.html
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Like musicians in an orchestra who have the same musical score but start and finish playing at different intervals, cells with the same genes start and finish transcribing them at different points in the genome. For the first time, researchers at EMBL have described the striking diversity of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) that such start and end variation produces, even from the simple genome of yeast cells. Their findings, published today in Nature, shed new light on the importance of mRNA boundaries in determining the functional potential of genes.
Hundreds of thousands of unique mRNA transcripts are generated from a genome of only about 8000 genes, even with the same genome sequence and environmental condition. "We knew that transcription could lead to a certain amount of diversity, but we were not expecting it to be so vast," explains Lars Steinmetz, who led the project. "Based on this diversity, we would expect that no yeast cell has the same set of messenger RNA molecules as its neighbour."
The traditional understanding of transcription was that mRNA boundaries were relatively fixed. While it has long been known that certain parts of mRNAs can be selectively 'spliced' out, this phenomenon is very rare in baker's yeast, meaning that the textbook one gene - one mRNA transcript relationship should hold. Recent studies have suggested that things aren't quite that simple, inspiring the EMBL scientists to create a new technique to capture both the start and end points of single mRNA molecules. They now discovered that each gene could be transcribed into dozens or even hundreds of unique mRNA molecules, each with different boundaries.
This suggests that not only transcript abundance, but also transcript boundaries should be considered when assessing gene function. Altering the boundaries of mRNA molecules can affect how long they stay intact, cause them to produce different proteins, or direct them or their protein products to different locations, which can have a profound biological impact. Diversifying mRNA transcript boundaries within a group of cells, therefore, could equip them to adapt to different external challenges.
The researchers expect that such an extent of boundary variation will also be found in more complex organisms, including humans, where some examples are already known to affect key biological functions. The technology to measure these variations across the entire genome as well as a catalogue of boundaries in a well-studied organism are a good starting point for further research. "Now that we are aware of how much diversity there is, we can start to figure out what factors control it," points out Vicent Pelechano, who performed the study with Wu Wei. Wei adds: "Our technique also exposed new mRNAs that other techniques could not distinguish. It will be exciting to investigate how these and general variation in transcript boundaries actually extend the functional capacity of a genome."
###
European Molecular Biology Laboratory: http://www.embl.org
Thanks to European Molecular Biology Laboratory for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127960/Pushing_the_boundaries_of_transcription
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An international team of researchers have spotted the most fuel-efficient galaxy yet, which converts nearly 100 percent of its hydrogen gas into stars.
The tiny red spot in this image is one of the most efficient star-making galaxies ever observed, converting gas into stars at the maximum possible rate. Visible-light observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (inset) reveal that the starlight in this galaxy is extraordinarily compact, with most of the light emitted by a region just a fraction of the size of the Milky Way galaxy.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/IRAM
EnlargeSix billion or so light years from here, there's a galaxy that seems to take seriously the old Lakota maxim about using the whole buffalo.
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Except by "use" we mean "form stars out of" and by "buffalo" we mean "interstellar hydrogen gas."?
Hydrogen gas is the fuel that galaxies use to make new stars, and most galaxies are the equivalent of a Hummer with a broken oxygen sensor, four flat tires, and a buffalo carcass strapped to the roof. Most of the gas meant to transport you gets wasted. But a new study has spotted a galaxy that is converting gas into stars at a rate hundreds of times that of our galaxy with almost 100 percent efficiency.
An international team of scientists looked at data from?NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and spotted a galaxy that was just blazing with infrared radiation, equivalent, they say, to a trillion suns. Observations from the Hubble telescope confirmed that the galaxy, which is affectionately known as?SDSSJ1506+54, is extremely compact, with most of the infrared light pouring from an area that is a fraction of the size of our own Milky Way.?
The researchers then used data from the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer in the French Alps to detect the presence of carbon monoxide, which indicates the presence of hydrogen. By combining the gas measurements with the rate of star formation, the scientists found that the galaxy was forming stars out of the gas at a rate that is close to the theoretical maximum. Their paper, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Astrophysical Letters, calls it "star formation at its most extreme."
A NASA press release explains just how this galaxy is achieving such efficiency:
In regions of galaxies where new stars are forming, parts of gas clouds are collapsing due to gravity. When the gas is dense enough to squeeze atoms together and ignite nuclear fusion, a star is born. But this process can be halted by other newborn stars, as their winds and radiation blow the gas outward. The point at which this occurs sets the theoretical maximum for star formation. The galaxy SDSSJ1506+54 was found to be making stars right at this point, just before the gas clouds would otherwise be blown apart.
"We see some gas outflowing from this galaxy at millions of miles per hour, and this gas may have been blown away by the powerful radiation from the newly formed stars," said Ryan Hickox, an astrophysicist at Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., and a co-author on the study.
Why is this galaxy so efficient at converting hydrogen into stars while all the others are such slouches? It actually comes down to timing. We just happen to be witnessing the time period, six billion years ago, when this galaxy produces lots of stars. The researchers speculate that this period could have been triggered by the merging of two galaxies into one.?
In any case, it's a bright spot in our sky. As Discovery News's Ian O'Neill points out those living on a planet on the outskirts of this prolific star factory will have a "night" sky that is actually brighter than daylight.
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By Katharina Bart
ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse
Just over 75 percent of votes were cast in favor of the plan at an investor meeting on Friday, despite a recommendation to reject it from shareholder advisory group ISS.
Banker pay and bonuses have become hot-topics across Europe since the financial crisis, when a string of major banks including Switzerland's UBS
Julius Baer
On Thursday, British bank Barclays
Generally, though, most institutional shareholders continue to vote through remuneration plans, arguing that banks must pay to attract the best talent.
Prior to the Credit Suisse vote, more than 1,700 largely retail shareholders pressed Chairman Urs Rohner, Chief Executive Brady Dougan and other top executives on pay.
"Would you leave Credit Suisse if you only earned 700,000 Swiss francs a year, or would the quality of your work suffer?" shareholder and politician David Roth asked Dougan.
Dougan, who didn't respond to Roth publicly, received 7.8 million Swiss francs ($8.2 million) for 2012.
Most shareholders criticizing pay referred to a Swiss vote last month that will impose some of the strictest controls on executive pay and force companies to hold a binding shareholder vote on compensation.
"Credit Suisse's top management still doesn't want to believe it, even after the Minder initiative passed," retail shareholder Beda Dueggelin said, referring to the new rule.
"Next year, they will feel it when a non-binding vote is no longer enough."
Credit Suisse's general pay plan was approved by almost 88 percent of voting shareholders.
For some, the new pay curbs don't go far enough. The center-left Social Democrats, which Roth represents, are already pushing for another referendum on even tougher restrictions on executive pay - they want to limit the annual compensation of top managers to 12 times that of their lowest-paid worker.
Roughly a dozen Young Social Democrat activists campaigned for the 1:12 initiative at the shareholder meeting by knocking down a pyramid of barrels with an oversized ball, the top barrel emblazoned with Dougan's picture.
Swiss activist investor groups Ethos and Actares had asked shareholders to vote down Credit Suisse's pay plan, while ISS backed it. Instead, ISS asked shareholders to vote down the plan to issue new shares to pay bonuses to staff, some of whom have volunteered to receive bonuses in stock rather than cash as part of measures to bolster capital.
($1 = 0.9474 Swiss francs)
(Editing by Emma Farge and Mark Potter)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/credit-suisse-shareholders-overwhelmingly-back-2012-pay-plan-113621506.html
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In the midst of the frantic "doomsday" buzz that swept the United States right before the Mayan calendar reached the end of its 5,000-year cycle in December 2012, I was approached by a person after I had given a presentation at New York?s Hayden Planetarium. They asked:
"If there is no basis to the Mayan prophecy, then how do you explain the sun?s alignment with the center of our galaxy that is predicted to occur on Dec. 21?"?
Putting as earnest a look on my face as possible, I replied, "You?re absolutely correct ? the sun will indeed be aligned with the center of our galaxy on Dec. 21." I then quickly added, "But of course that happens every year on Dec. 21." [End of the World? Top Doomsday Fears]
The look on my inquisitor?s face was priceless. "Really? But how can that be?"
The sun's annual path
As the Earth moves around the sun, we see the sun change its position against the background stars ? a full 360-degree circle around the sky during the course of a year. That apparent path is known to astronomers as the ecliptic, the extension of the plane of Earth?s orbit out toward the sky.
As it turns out, the moon and the seven other planets that comprise the solar system also move in orbits whose planes don?t vary too greatly from that of Earth?s orbit.? As a result, the moon and the other planets also appear to stay relatively close to the ecliptic.
The sun never deviates from the ecliptic and so as Earth travels around it, from our perspective, it will always take the exact same path against the same background stars every year.
Since when we?re looking toward Sagittarius we?re also looking toward the center of the Milky Way, when the sun reaches that same point on the ecliptic in Sagittarius on Dec. 21 every year, the sun and the galaxy?s center are indeed aligned.?
The ecliptic is a very important feature because it marks "the pathway," so to speak, for the sun, moon and planets as they move across the sky. Most sky charts plot the position of the ecliptic for this reason, for it provides sky watchers with a clue as to where one or more of these objects will appear.?
Because they?re not located exactly in the same orbital plane as Earth, the moon and planets usually are not found exactly on the ecliptic line, but rather within several degrees of it. Thus, instead of a line, we find the moon and planets wandering along the sky within a band that encompasses the entire sky, which we call the zodiac.
The ecliptic runs exactly along the middle of that zodiacal band.
The 'classic 12'
The word "zodiac" is derived from the Greek, meaning "animal circle."? A sort of "celestial zoo."
And with the sole exception of one of the "classic 12" constellations that belong to the zodiac, all of the zodiac members refer to living things. Many of these constellations are named for animals, such as Leo, the Lion, Taurus, the Bull and Cancer, the Crab, just to name a few.?
The sole inanimate member is Libra, the Scales.?
All of these names can be readily identified on sky charts and are familiar to millions of horoscope users (who ? ironically ? would be hard pressed to find them in the actual sky.) [Best Beginner Astrophotography Telescopes]
If we could see the stars in the daytime, we would see the sun slowly wander from one constellation of the zodiac to the next, making one complete circle around the sky in one year.?
Ancient astrologers were able to figure out where the sun was on the zodiac by noting the last zodiacal constellation to rise ahead of the sun, or the first to set after it.? Obviously, the sun had to be somewhere in between.
Each month a specific constellation was conferred the title, "house of the sun," and in this manner each month-long period of the year was given its "sign of the zodiac."
Some discrepancies
A couple of years ago, a board member of the Minnesota Planetarium Society caused quite a stir when he pointed out that the zodiacal sign that had been assigned for a given month in the newspaper horoscope is not where the sun actually is for that month.
He pointed out that, in reality, today?s astrologers continue to adhere to star positions that are out of date by at least a millennium. For instance, according to astrology, you?re a Leo if you were born between July 23 and Aug. 22 because that?s the time of year where the sun supposedly is in the zodiac.?
That might have been true 1,000 years ago, but no longer.? In fact, on July 23, the sun is not in Leo, but in Cancer. This discrepancy is due to the "wobble" of the Earth?s axis (known as precession).?
As a consequence, there then came the revelation (even though it has been known by astronomers for a long time) that astrologers continue to adhere to star positions that for all intents and purposes are out of date by 10 centuries or more.
Outcasts of the zodiac
One thing that I have never been able to understand is why astrologers fail to recognize Ophiuchus, the serpent holder. He certainly should be considered as a card-carrying member of the zodiacal fraternity since the sun spends more time traversing through Ophiuchus than Scorpius.
It officially resides in Scorpius for less than a week: from Nov. 23 to 29. It then moves into Ophiuchus on Nov. 30 and remains within its boundaries for more than two weeks ? until Dec. 17.? And yet, the serpent holder is not considered a member of the Zodiac.
In addition, because the moon and planets are often positioned either just to the north or south of the ecliptic, they sometimes appear within the boundaries of several other non-zodiacal star patterns.?
The revered Belgian astronomical calculator Jean Meeus has pointed out that there are actually 22 zodiacal constellations in which the moon and some of the planets from Mercury to Neptune can occasionally enter.
In addition to the 12 classical zodiacal signs and Ophiuchus, we can also add: Auriga, the charioteer; Cetus, the whale; Corvus, the crow; Crater, the cup; Hydra, the water snake; Orion, the hunter; Pegasus, the flying horse; Scutum, the shield; and Sextans, the sextant.
And in case you?re interested, in the upcoming month, the moon will be in Orion on May 13, Sextans on May 19 and Ophiuchus on May 26.?
I guess you can say that so far as the celestial zoo is concerned, these three constellations are on the outside of the cage looking in.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for the New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook?and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/look-spot-celestial-zoo-night-sky-213649151.html
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