The helix in new colors

Thursday, January 19, 2012

ESO's VISTA telescope, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, has captured a striking new image of the Helix Nebula. This picture, taken in infrared light, reveals strands of cold nebular gas that are invisible in images taken in visible light, as well as bringing to light a rich background of stars and galaxies.

The Helix Nebula is one of the closest and most remarkable examples of a planetary nebula. It lies in the constellation of Aquarius (The Water Bearer), about 700 light-years away from Earth. This strange object formed when a star like the Sun was in the final stages of its life. Unable to hold onto its outer layers, the star slowly shed shells of gas that became the nebula. It is evolving to become a white dwarf star and appears as the tiny blue dot seen at the centre of the image.

The nebula itself is a complex object composed of dust, ionised material as well as molecular gas, arrayed in a beautiful and intricate flower-like pattern and glowing in the fierce glare of ultraviolet light from the central hot star.

The main ring of the Helix is about two light-years across, roughly half the distance between the Sun and the nearest star. However, material from the nebula spreads out from the star to at least four light-years. This is particularly clear in this infrared view since red molecular gas can be seen across much of the image.

While hard to see visually, the glow from the thinly spread gas is easily captured by VISTA's special detectors, which are very sensitive to infrared light. The 4.1-metre telescope is also able to detect an impressive array of background stars and galaxies.

The powerful vision of ESO's VISTA telescope also reveals fine structure in the nebula's rings. The infrared light picks out how the cooler, molecular gas is organised. The material clumps into filaments that radiate out from the centre and the whole view resembles a celestial firework display.

Even though they look tiny, these strands of molecular hydrogen, known as cometary knots, are about the size of our Solar System. The molecules in them are able to survive the high-energy radiation that emanates from the dying star precisely because they clump into these knots, which in turn are shielded by dust and molecular gas. It is currently unclear how the cometary knots may have originated.

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ESO: http://www.eso.org

Thanks to ESO for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116855/The_helix_in_new_colors

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In wake of Web blackout, SOPA support weakens

Sen. Marco Rubio's statement on his Facebook page.

By Suzanne Choney

Updated at 9 p.m. ET

As websites from Wikipedia to Wired went dark Wednesday to protest anti-piracy bills, some co-sponsors of the legislation in Congress said they're withdrawing their support for the bills.

Pulling out were: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), who was a co-sponsor of the Protect IP Act in the Senate, as well as Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Roy Blunt (R-Missouri), John Boozman (R-Arkansas) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), according to the AP; and Reps. Lee Terry (R-Nebraska), Ben Quayle (R-Arizona) and Rep. Rick Larsen, (D-Washington), who said they had been in support of a similar measure in the House, the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Speaker of the House? John Boehner said Wednesday it was "pretty clear to many of us that there is a lack of consensus at this point."

Bloomberg News also reported that Senator Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) is withdrawing his support of PIPA, as is Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Florida) for SOPA and Rep. Rick Larsen, (D-Washington). Larsen said he heard from many constituents and come to the conclusion that the House and Senate bills "create unacceptable threats to free speech and free access to the Internet," the AP reported.

Meanwhile, Sen. Rubio of Florida, shared his changed stance on his Facebook page:

"I have been a co-sponsor of the Protect IP Act because I believe it?s important to protect American ingenuity, ideas and jobs from being stolen through Internet piracy, much of it occurring overseas through rogue websites in China," Rubio said on Facebook.

Since the bill was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, "we've heard legitimate concerns about the impact the bill could have on access to the Internet and about a potentially unreasonable expansion of the federal government's power to impact the Internet," Rubio said. "Congress should listen and avoid rushing through a bill that could have many unintended consequences."

In withdrawing his support, Rubio said he is urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) "to abandon his plan to rush the bill to the floor" in the coming weeks. "Instead, we should take more time to address the concerns raised by all sides, and come up with new legislation that addresses Internet piracy while protecting free and open access to the Internet."

The senators' withdrawal is important, although it doesn't by any means quash the legislation, aimed at stopping illegal downloading and streaming of movies and TV shows. Many in the tech world ? including giants Google and Facebook ? say the legislation would let federal authorities shut down portions of the Internet without due process, and fundamentally alter the Internet's ability to provide a platform for free speech. Wednesday's blackout by many sites is symbolic of the concern and opposition.

Rep. Terry's reasoning for pulling back from SOPA was simple: "After waves of negative sentiment toward the bill from free speech and civil rights groups, technology companies and others, the congressman "has concluded that SOPA, as currently drafted, isn't the solution," a spokesman said on the congressman's website.

(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and Comcast/NBC Universal. Microsoft publicly opposes SOPA in its current form, while?Comcast/NBC Universal is listed as a supporter of SOPA?on the House Judiciary Committee website.)

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related stories:

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on?Facebook,?and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/18/10183167-in-wake-of-web-blackout-sopa-support-weakens

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Activists: Ethiopia clears people off land for foreigners

By msnbc.com staff and news services

The Ethiopian government is forcing an tens of thousands of people off their land so it can be leased to foreign investors,? Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released Tuesday.

The Horn of Africa state has already leased 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres)? to foreign farm businesses and the U.S.-based rights group said that the government had plans to lease another 2.1 million hectares (5.2 million acres), Reuters reported.

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HRW said that 1.5 million Ethiopians would eventually be forced from their land and highlighted what it said was the latest case of forced relocation in its report "Ethiopia: Forced Relocations Bring Hunger, Hardship."

"My father was beaten for refusing to go along [to the new village] with some other elders," HRW quoted a former villager as saying.? "He said, 'I was born here -- my children were born here -- I am too old to move so I will stay.'? He was beaten by the army with sticks and the butt of a gun. He had to be taken to hospital. He died because of the beating -- he just became weaker and weaker."

The United Nations has increasingly voiced concern that countries such as China and Gulf Arab states are buying swathes of land in Africa and Asia to secure their own food supplies, often at the expense of local people.

"The Ethiopian government under its "villagization" program is forcibly relocating approximately 70,000 indigenous people from the western Gambella region to new villages that lack adequate food, farmland, health care, and educational facilities," HRW said, adding it had interviewed more than 100 people for the report.

"The first round of forced relocations occurred at the worst possible time of year -- the beginning of the harvest. Government failure to provide food assistance for relocated people has caused endemic hunger and cases of starvation," it said.

Government denial
Government officials deny the charge and say the affected plots of land are largely uninhabited and under-used, while it has also launched a program to settle tens of thousands from the remote province in more fertile areas of the country.

"Human Rights Watch has wrongly alleged the villagization program to be unpopular and problematic," government spokesman Bereket Simon told Reuters.

"There is no evidence to back the claim. This program is taking place with the full preparation and participation of regional authorities, the government and residents," he said.

Ethiopia says its prime intention in leasing large chunks of land is technology transfer and to boost production in a country that has been ravaged by droughts over the past few decades.

Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/17/10172091-rights-group-ethiopia-forcing-tens-of-thousands-off-land-to-make-room-for-investors

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Super PACs Pour Money Into Truth-Twisting S.C. Ads (ABC News)

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Dos nuevos stills de Bel Ami

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Source: brandheroin.livejournal.com --- Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Os mostramos DoS nuevos stills de Robert en su nueva pelicula, Bel Ami. Gracias a pattinsonlife | Rplife | gossip-dance Posteado por: Marypiper ...

Source: http://brandheroin.livejournal.com/3096376.html

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TD Ameritrade fiscal 1Q profit up 5 percent

FILE - In this Fe. 16, 2011 file photo, TD Ameritrade's President and CEO Fred Tomczyk, discusses with shareholders the online brokerage's performance at the company's annual meeting in Omaha, Neb. TD Ameritrade said Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, its fiscal first-quarter net income grew 5 percent despite last fall?s economic concerns, but the online brokerage?s revenue slipped as trading activity slowed. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

FILE - In this Fe. 16, 2011 file photo, TD Ameritrade's President and CEO Fred Tomczyk, discusses with shareholders the online brokerage's performance at the company's annual meeting in Omaha, Neb. TD Ameritrade said Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, its fiscal first-quarter net income grew 5 percent despite last fall?s economic concerns, but the online brokerage?s revenue slipped as trading activity slowed. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) ? TD Ameritrade said Tuesday that its fiscal first-quarter net income grew 5 percent and its revenue was almost unchanged as the online brokerage's trading activity slowed amid worries about the economy.

The Omaha-based company posted $152 million in net income, or about 27 cents per share, in the October-December quarter. That's up from $145 million, or 25 cents per share, in the same quarter in 2010, and topped the 26 cents per share profit that analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting.

But revenue fell less than 1 percent to $653.4 million from $656.2 million. Analysts expected revenue to grow to $671.5 million.

One of the key drivers of Ameritrade's revenue is the fees it charges for transactions it handles, but trading slipped during the last three months of 2011 due to growing worries about the European debt crisis. The average number of trades per day dipped to 367,479 from 371,916 in the same period a year earlier. In the July-September quarter, there was an average of 415,739 trades per day.

And average commissions and transaction fees per trade fell to $11.90 during the quarter from $12.39 in the last three months of 2010.

"While volumes have improved over December, clients continue to hesitate in their trading and investing in the face of all of the uncertainty in the markets right now," said Fred Tomczyk, Ameritrade's president and CEO. He said that while there are signs the U.S. economy is improving, it will be a slow recovery, and there remains a "cloud of uncertainty" for Europe.

Tomczyk said he thinks trading will improve once the situation in Europe stabilizes and the market starts to move consistently, either up or down.

Ameritrade also makes money from fees based on clients' assets, but the current low interest rates are limiting what TD Ameritrade earns on its clients' deposit accounts and other investment products.

Ameritrade said its net new assets grew 11 percent to $10.2 billion from $9.7 billion. The total client assets Ameritrade holds grew 7 percent to $406.3 billion at the end of the quarter from $386.4 billion.

Severance costs for laying off 145 people were $7 million from October through December. But the company also benefited from a lower-than-expected tax rate, so there was a net gain of one cent per share from those two factors.

Ameritrade said it spent about $107 million during the quarter to repurchase 6.7 million shares of its own stock, and plans to pay a dividend of 6 cents per share in February.

Ameritrade's stock declined 25 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $16.05 in morning trading, while broader markets were higher. The Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 1 percent.

___

Online:

TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.: http://www.amtd.com

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-17-Earns-TD%20Ameritrade/id-3f0e8e66e10043508f54ce2abca81f5e

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