Oh, the tales FCC employees could tell -- if they were allowed to discuss them. A Nokia device, known only as the RM-877, has passed the agency's approval process. This mystery unit contains AT&T-compatible LTE bands (2, 4, 5 and 17, to be specific), pentaband HSPA+ / WCDMA (though AWS appears to be disabled in this particular variant) and quad-band GSM / EDGE. Additionally, it also sports NFC, Bluetooth and dual-band WiFi. According to the above diagram, the handset measures 130.35mm tall and 71.4mm wide, which makes it a millimeter taller and wider than the Lumia 925. We're still combing the documents for any more clues, but we've already seen reports that appear to match this model number with the EOS that we're expecting to see on July 11th.
Update: As we continue to look through the documents, we've noticed mention of the device being tested with a "camera grip" (model PD-95G). It definitely gives us more reason to believe this is the EOS. Additionally, we've also noticed that a wireless charging cover was involved in testing, which means it's likely optional, much like the Lumia 925.
Hassan Rowhani won by a landslide. Now the question is whether he can make substantive changes in Iran
Over the weekend, Hassan Rowhani, 64, won a decisive victory in Iran's presidential election. While Ayatollah Ali Khamenei still holds ultimate authority, the world is watching to see in which direction Rowhani will take the country after assuming control from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in August. Already the speculation is under way about how the moderate cleric and one-time nuclear negotiator will lead Iran.
Here, a look at the most telling details about the soon-to-be president:
1. He has a reputation as a moderate Rowhani, also transliterated as "Rouhani," might not be the activist reformers were hoping for, but he was the most moderate candidate of the six picked by the ayatollah-controlled Guardian Council. At campaign rallies, he has said that he wants to pursue "constructive interaction with the world" and a "policy of reconciliation and peace" ? a far cry from the "resistance" to the West preached by conservative candidates like Saeed Jalili.
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Still, Rowhani is no reformer. He has been part of Iran's political establishment since the Islamic Revolution.
"In an Iranian context, being a moderate means you don't pick fights with the ruling class and, at the same time, you pander to popular grievances people have about the ruling class," Hussein Banai, co-author of Becoming Enemies: U.S.-Iran Relations and the Iran-Iraq War, told NBC News.
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Still, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough called his election "a potentially hopeful sign," especially after dealing with the increasingly combative Ahmadinejad for the past eight years.
2. Rowhani is a Shiite cleric Ahmadinejad was the first non-cleric to become president of Iran ? which, ultimately, led to some friction with the Supreme Leader. With Rowhani, Ayatollah Khamenei finally has a religious leader back in power.
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Rowhani, however, isn't a hard-liner, at least compared to some in Iran's religious establishment. His thesis while getting his doctorate at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland: "The flexibility of Sharia; Islamic law."
3. He is known as a talented diplomat Over the years, Rowhani has earned the nickname "the diplomat sheik," a nod to his skills as a negotiator. Not only will he have to smooth over relations between Iranian reformists and the ayatollah, he will also have to convince the U.N. to lift the economic sanctions ? put in place in response to Iran's nuclear activity ? that are killing Iran's economy. In 2012, Iran's oil revenues were cut in half, and inflation is currently at its highest level in 18 years.
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4. He backs Iran's nuclear program Despite his reputation as a moderate, Iran's future president has indicated that he has no plans to halt Iran's nuclear program. Rowhani, who previously served as the chief nuclear negotiator under reformist president Mohammad Khatami, has insisted that the country is enriching uranium for energy purposes only ? something the international community has long been skeptical of.
He has said, however, that Iran will be more open about its nuclear program, telling reporters: "We are ready to show greater transparency and make clear that the Islamic Republic of Iran's actions are totally within international frameworks."
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While that language might sound encouraging to some, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to point out that Khamenei is still the one in control of Iran's nuclear program:
The international community must not become caught up in wishful thinking and be tempted to relax the pressure on Iran to stop its nuclear program.
We need to remember that the Iranian ruler [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] at the outset disqualified candidates who were not in line with his extreme worldview, and from among those whom he did allow, the one seen as least identified with the regime was elected. But we are still speaking about someone who calls Israel the 'great Zionist Satan.' [Jerusalem Post]
So how will Rowhani lead? Perhaps only he ? or he and the ayatollah ? knows for sure.
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You could hardly be blamed for thinking that with the popularity of Instagram, competing camera apps would have shriveled and died. It's true that the filter-and-share app dominates, but an army of others soldier on. Koloid (99 cents, iOS), is unique in that you have to spread "developer" fluid across your image by moving your phone. The results are unique, and unlike anything you can get with other camera apps.
Just about every app has the same photo-taking experience: point, shoot, add filters, share. Sometimes, you might import an older photo from your camera roll. Koloid is different, demanding as the aptly named developer (pun?) "19TH CENTURY APPS SP Z O O" suggests, a more 19th century approach.
A Developing Story The first screen you arrive on is the viewfinder, which resembles a plate-glass negative from back in the day. The view is locked in portrait orientation, so don't try flipping your iPhone on its side for a wider photo. However, you can switch to a more Instagram-compliant square format from the settings menu.
Take a photo by tapping the camera button at the bottom of the screen. Fans of using the volume button to take a photo are out of luck. Next, select how much virtual collodion developer fluid you want to use. Less fluid covers less space and can leave a ghostly effect on photos. More fluid develops faster, but can overdevelop some areas and even burn the image black.
Shake your phone to deploy the fluid, and then move the collodion around the screen by tilting the phone. This may seem dumb and gimmicky (it?s at the very least gimmicky), but you can get some neat effects that aren't really possible in apps like Hipstamatic and Instagram that are based solely on filters. You can burn out some areas or leave sections undeveloped. It's tricky, made all the trickier by the lugubrious movement of the collodion.
When you?re done, press the Ready button and you'll be presented with the final version of your photo. All the streaks and burns are present in the black-and-white image, but I was disappointed that the image seemed clearer and had more contrast than the one I had been developing. Perhaps that's the result of a digital dip in water to get the collodion off, but it still seems odd. The app sticks very true to its gimmick, sorry, concept, in most other ways?like not allowing you to re-edit pictures?that I wish the final image was exactly the one I developed.
Sharing and Storing Koloid has its own little gallery built right into the app, though it will save to your camera roll, too. Note that unlike Instagram, it doesn't save a copy of the raw, un-developed image.
You can share directly to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, and Instagram from within Koloid. You can also export images directly from Koloid via email and text message. Unlike Flickr and Instagram, Koloid is just a camera toy; there's no website or larger social service backing it up.
Ready to Develop? Koloid is fun, and I'm already looking forward to my Instagram friends asking me how I got the effects on my images. It doesn't have a lot of depth, but it delivers on what it promises and the price is reasonable.
I would like to see Koloid loosen up a bit and allow me to import photos from my camera roll, and allow landscape-oriented photos. Just because we're playing at the 1890s, doesn't mean we can't do better.
Koloid needs a little more time to develop (definitely a pun), but it's a fun, cheap addition to your digital camera bag.
ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (Reuters) - The United States and the European Union launched negotiations for the world's most ambitious free-trade deal on Monday, promising thousands of new jobs and accelerated growth on both sides of the Atlantic.
Trade between Europe and the United States is worth almost $3 billion a day and a pact could boost both the EU and U.S. economies by more than $100 billion a year each - an attractive prospect after the devastating impact of Europe's debt crisis.
"This is a once in a generation prize and we are determined to seize it," said British Prime Minister David Cameron, flanked by U.S. President Barack Obama and the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council.
The first round of negotiations will take place in Washington in July, Obama said, speaking at the Group of Eight summit near the Northern Irish town of Enniskillen.
First considered three decades ago but knocked down by France in the 1990s, the idea of an EU-U.S. free-trade deal has gathered momentum as Brussels and Washington look to generate growth and China's rise prompts deeper Western integration.
The United States and the European Commission, the executive body of the 27-country European Union, hope for a free-trade deal by the end of 2014 - a tight deadline in complex international trade talks that usually take many years.
The European Union and the United States already account for about half the world's economic output and nearly a third of world trade, and bringing down the final barriers to trade could unleash billions of dollars in transatlantic business.
But France threatened to block the start of talks until the other 26 EU governments accepted on Friday its demand to shield movies and online entertainment from the might of Hollywood and Silicon Valley.
That kept Paris on board, but EU and U.S. officials have said that excluding any sector from the talks threatens the scope of comprehensive deal and could limit the economic gains.
Obama hinted at that in his remarks. "It is important that we get it right and that means resisting the temptation to downsize our ambitions or avoid tough issues just for the sake of getting a deal," he said.
The London-based Centre for Economic Policy Research estimates a pact - to be known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership - could boost the EU economy by 119 billion euros ($159 billion) a year, and the U.S. economy by 95 billion euros.
However, a report commissioned by Germany's non-profit Bertelsmann Foundation and published on Monday, said the United States may benefit more than Europe. A deal could increase GDP per capita in the United States by 13 percent over the long term but by only 5 percent on average for the European Union, the study found.
Businesses on both sides would like an agreement in which a car tested for safety in the United States would not have to be tested again in Europe, and a drug deemed safe by Brussels would not have to be approved as well by the U.S. government.
Following the collapse of global trade talks in 2008, both the United States and Europe have sought to strike as many free-trade agreements as possible, and Brussels alone is negotiating with more than 80 countries.
(Writing by Robin Emmott; editing by Rex Merrifield)
A supporter of Iranian presidential candidate Hasan Rowhani holds up his poster at a celebration gathering, in Tehran, late Saturday.
By Ali Arouzi, Correspondent, NBC News
Jubilant Iranians took to the streets of Tehran to celebrate late into the night Saturday after reformist Hassan Rohani was elected president, sweeping to victory with over 50 per cent of the vote.
In euphoric mood, people in the streets were chanting, ?Bye bye Ahmadi, bye bye Ahmadi? in a reference to outgoing president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In an ironic twist those same people were making the same chants four years ago before the results came in those elections, which were followed by a bloody crackdown. Not so on Saturday night.
Everything went by very peacefully, showing how much difference four years in Iranian politics can make.
Saturday?s vote also showed a split in opinion amongst Iranian voters.
People take to the streets of Tehran after Hassan Rohani was elected the next president of Iran. NBC's Ali Arouzi reports.
Results show a divide in opinion in the country with almost a fifty-fifty split between conservatives and reformists.
About 35 million people went to the polls with Hassan Rohani getting just over 18 million votes, while the combined vote for the five conservative candidates was just under 18 million.
That does not mean some sort of Arab Spring is on the horizon - far from it - but it shows how Iranians want the country managed in a different way and how they want the country perceived overseas.
Hassan Rohani is a pragmatic man.
During his time as? chief nuclear negotiator he got along very well with Western diplomats. While he held that position, Iran suspended uranium enrichment. They restarted it when Ahmadinejad became president.
Now Iranians will wait to see if Rohani can deliver tangible policy changes or if this is just going to be a softening in tone rather than substance.
Study: Context crucial when it comes to mutations in genetic evolutionPublic release date: 13-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jay Storz jstorz2@unl.edu 402-450-9057 University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Whether a given mutation is good or bad is often determined by other mutations associated with it, research shows
With mutations, it turns out that context can be everything in determining whether or not they are beneficial to their evolutionary fate.
According to the traditional view among biologists, a central tenet of evolutionary biology has been that the evolutionary fates of new mutations depend on whether their effects are good, bad or inconsequential with respect to reproductive success. Central to this view is that "good" mutations are always good and lead to reproductive success, while "bad" mutations are always bad and will be quickly weeded out of the gene pool.
However, new research led by evolutionary biologist Jay Storz of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has found that whether a given mutation is good or bad is often determined by other mutations associated with it. In other words, genetic evolution is context-dependent.
In a study to be published in the June 14 issue of Science, Storz and colleagues at UNL and Aarhus University in Denmark report that an individual mutation can be beneficial if it occurs in combination with certain other mutations, but the same mutation can detrimental to the organism if it occurs in other combinations.
The researchers studied mutations that alter the function of hemoglobin, the protein in charge of transporting oxygen in the blood. Physiologists have long known that many high-altitude animals have evolved hemoglobins with high affinities for oxygen, which can enhance oxygen uptake in thin air. Earlier research by Storz's group on populations of North American deer mice that are native to high and low altitudes had found that the high-altitude mice had evolved hemoglobins with an increased oxygen-binding affinity -- and that this difference is attributable to the combined effects of genetic mutations at 12 different sites in the hemoglobin protein.
For the discovery reported in Science, the researchers used a technique called "protein engineering" to synthesize hemoglobin proteins that contained each of the naturally occurring mutations in all possible multi-site combinations.
"By measuring the oxygen-binding properties of these engineered hemoglobins, we discovered that the same individual mutations produced an increased oxygen-affinity in some combinations and they produced a decreased oxygen-affinity in other combinations. Their effects are completely context-dependent," said Storz, an associate professor of biological sciences.
"One of the important implications is that if there are interactions between mutations, then some mutational pathways of evolution may be more accessible than others. The evolutionary fate of a new mutation will depend critically on which other mutations have already occurred. The order in which mutations occur can determine whether evolution is more likely to follow some pathways rather than others. Evolution may follow certain pathways just because certain interactions may be negative, other interactions may be positive. These kinds of interaction effects determine what mutational pathways are open and available for evolution."
###
Storz's collaborators on the Science paper include three researchers in his UNL lab, postdoctoral researchers Hideaki Moriyama and Chandrasekhar Natarajan, and graduate student Noriko Inoguchi; and Roy E. Weber and Angela Fago of Aarhus.
The research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health-National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Science Foundation in the United States, and the Science Faculty, Aarhus University, in Denmark.
It's the fifth time in five years that Storz's research has been published one of the major international interdisciplinary journals. Science is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Study: Context crucial when it comes to mutations in genetic evolutionPublic release date: 13-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jay Storz jstorz2@unl.edu 402-450-9057 University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Whether a given mutation is good or bad is often determined by other mutations associated with it, research shows
With mutations, it turns out that context can be everything in determining whether or not they are beneficial to their evolutionary fate.
According to the traditional view among biologists, a central tenet of evolutionary biology has been that the evolutionary fates of new mutations depend on whether their effects are good, bad or inconsequential with respect to reproductive success. Central to this view is that "good" mutations are always good and lead to reproductive success, while "bad" mutations are always bad and will be quickly weeded out of the gene pool.
However, new research led by evolutionary biologist Jay Storz of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has found that whether a given mutation is good or bad is often determined by other mutations associated with it. In other words, genetic evolution is context-dependent.
In a study to be published in the June 14 issue of Science, Storz and colleagues at UNL and Aarhus University in Denmark report that an individual mutation can be beneficial if it occurs in combination with certain other mutations, but the same mutation can detrimental to the organism if it occurs in other combinations.
The researchers studied mutations that alter the function of hemoglobin, the protein in charge of transporting oxygen in the blood. Physiologists have long known that many high-altitude animals have evolved hemoglobins with high affinities for oxygen, which can enhance oxygen uptake in thin air. Earlier research by Storz's group on populations of North American deer mice that are native to high and low altitudes had found that the high-altitude mice had evolved hemoglobins with an increased oxygen-binding affinity -- and that this difference is attributable to the combined effects of genetic mutations at 12 different sites in the hemoglobin protein.
For the discovery reported in Science, the researchers used a technique called "protein engineering" to synthesize hemoglobin proteins that contained each of the naturally occurring mutations in all possible multi-site combinations.
"By measuring the oxygen-binding properties of these engineered hemoglobins, we discovered that the same individual mutations produced an increased oxygen-affinity in some combinations and they produced a decreased oxygen-affinity in other combinations. Their effects are completely context-dependent," said Storz, an associate professor of biological sciences.
"One of the important implications is that if there are interactions between mutations, then some mutational pathways of evolution may be more accessible than others. The evolutionary fate of a new mutation will depend critically on which other mutations have already occurred. The order in which mutations occur can determine whether evolution is more likely to follow some pathways rather than others. Evolution may follow certain pathways just because certain interactions may be negative, other interactions may be positive. These kinds of interaction effects determine what mutational pathways are open and available for evolution."
###
Storz's collaborators on the Science paper include three researchers in his UNL lab, postdoctoral researchers Hideaki Moriyama and Chandrasekhar Natarajan, and graduate student Noriko Inoguchi; and Roy E. Weber and Angela Fago of Aarhus.
The research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health-National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Science Foundation in the United States, and the Science Faculty, Aarhus University, in Denmark.
It's the fifth time in five years that Storz's research has been published one of the major international interdisciplinary journals. Science is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
CAIRO (AP) ? A senior official in Egypt's presidency said Thursday that Egyptians are free to join the fight in Syria and will not be prosecuted upon return amid increasingly public calls by leading clerics for Sunni Muslims to back the rebels there with firepower.
In a response to an Associated Press question about the government's stance on citizens going to fight alongside Syrian rebels, Khaled al-Qazzaz said that "the right of travel or freedom of travel is open for all Egyptians," adding that the state was taking no measures against anyone who goes to fight in Syria. He underlined that Egypt seeks a political solution to Syria's conflict and warned of the danger of it becoming a "regional war."
The comments by al-Qazzaz, a foreign affairs adviser to Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, come at a time when clerics have stepped up calls for Sunnis in the Arab world to go to Syria to fight the regime in response to the Lebanese Shiite guerrilla group Hezbollah's overt intervention backing the Syrian military against rebels.
The calls have hiked fears that Syria's civil war will slide deeper into sectarian conflict and that foreign jihadis will take an even greater role in the rebellion. The presence of non-Syrian extremists, some with al-Qaida links, among the rebels has made the U.S. and its allies reluctant to send weapons to the rebellion.
Speaking in a meeting with foreign journalists, al-Qazzaz dismissed worries that Egyptians who fight in Syria could return home as hardened jihadis, even as extremists in the northern Sinai Peninsula continue to wage assassinations and attacks against the police and military there.
"We don't consider them a threat," al-Qazzaz said. "We have a controllable situation in Sinai ... We do not have a situation of returning jihadists."
He said that after the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat and U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak, Egypt no longer takes part in the CIA's "extraordinary renditions" program, in which Mubarak's government helped detain suspected Islamic militants as part of the U.S.'s war on terror. The program raised allegations of illegal kidnappings and torture of suspects.
"We are no longer a center for rendition, or punishing Egyptians for what they do in other countries," he said.
It is not known how many Egyptians have gone to fight in Syria ? and al-Qazzaz said he did not have figures. But organizations from Egypt's ultraconservative Salafi movement are believed to help organize movements for Egyptians who want to join the fight. Islamist websites have reported that up to several dozen Egyptians have been killed while fighting in Syria the past two years, though the number has not been independently confirmed.
The conflict, now in its third year, has killed nearly 93,000 people, according to new figures released by the United Nations.
Earlier this month, influential Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, urged Sunnis everywhere to join the fight against Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"Everyone who has the ability and has training to kill ... is required to go," said al-Qaradawi, a popular television cleric who is based in Qatar. "We cannot ask our brothers to be killed while we watch."
A group of Muslim clerics, including al-Qaradawi, met in Cairo on Thursday and said it was a religious duty to back the rebels through whatever means possible.
The meeting underlined "the duty of jihad to support our brothers in Syria, with spirit, money and weapons, and all forms of jihad aimed at rescuing the Syrian people from the crimes and killings by the sectarian regime ... everyone according to his ability," hard-line Egyptian cleric Mohammed Hassan said, reading a statement from the group. He said Iran and Hezbollah's support for Assad "against our people in Syria is considered a declaration of war on Muslims in general."
A delegation of clerics then met with Morsi at the presidential palace on Thursday. The Egyptian president plans to attend a large rally in support of the Syrian opposition at Cairo's stadium on Saturday, which has been organized by the senior clerics.
The Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails, is also calling on people to aid Syrians.
"We call on Arab and Islamic people to stand by their Syrian brothers ? those who remain in the country or were forced to flee to other neighboring countries. We should not be unjust, surrender them or let them down. Religion, manhood and chivalry require that we be by their side and support them financially and morally," the group's statement said.
Among the most well-known Egyptians to have died in Syria is a 27 year-old named Yusif Mehrez, who was killed in the western city of Aleppo. Local media carried pictures of him kissing his mother's hand at the airport before flying to Syria to help fight alongside the rebels. A number of videos have also appeared online, purporting to show Egyptian men fighting in Syria. In one video an Egyptian man carrying a rocket-propelled grenade swung over his shoulder is shot by Assad's soldiers during a battle.
The fighting in Syria has turned increasingly sectarian and the largely Sunni Muslim rebels appear to be outgunned by Assad's military, which is backed by Shiite Iran and Russia. It has escalated from a local uprising into a civil war. The rebels, backed by Sunni states Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, are fighting against a regime that relies on support from Assad's Alawite community, as well as Shiites aided by Iran and Hezbollah.
International efforts to forge a round of peace talks have stalled, including an attempt by Egypt's president to find a solution to the crisis through a so-called Islamic Quartet that includes Egypt, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Al-Qazzaz said that Egypt is looking for a regional solution backed by the international community, and that a political solution is needed. He described what is happening there as "an act against humanity."
"The more we fuel this conflict with weaponry and soldiers, it turns into a regional war," he said.
The hard-line Salafi Nour Party also says Egyptians should be free to help Syrians in combat.
"Egypt, after the revolution, cannot stop anyone doing that because they are not going to upend the legitimacy of a government or carry out terrorist attacks. This is a revolution," said Amr el-Mekky, assistant to the party's chairperson for foreign affairs. But he underlined that any fighters who return home must respect Egyptian law.
Stacking up a clearer picture of the universePublic release date: 13-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kirsten Gottschalk kirsten.gottschalk@icrar.org 61-438-361-876 International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research
Researchers from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have proven a new technique that will provide a clearer picture of the Universe's history and be used with the next generation of radio telescopes such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
In research published today in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, ICRAR PhD Candidate Jacinta Delhaize has studied distant galaxies en masse to determine one of their important properties how much hydrogen they contain by 'stacking' their signals.
As astronomers use telescopes to peer into space, they get a glimpse at what the Universe was like in the past, often billions of years ago. This allows them to compare the present state of the Universe to its history and map how it's changed over time, giving clues to its origins and future.
"Distant, younger, galaxies look very different to nearby galaxies, which means that they've changed, or evolved, over time," said Delhaize. "The challenge is to try and figure out what physical properties within the galaxy have changed, and how and why this has happened."
Delhaize said that one of the pieces of the puzzle is hydrogen gas and how much of it galaxies contained through the history of the Universe.
"Hydrogen is the building block of the Universe, it's what stars form from and what keeps a galaxy 'alive'," said Delhaize.
"Galaxies in the past formed stars at a much faster rate than galaxies now. We think that past galaxies had more hydrogen, and that might be why their star formation rate is higher.
Delhaize and her supervisors set out to observe how much hydrogen was in far away galaxies, but the faint radio signals of this distant hydrogen gas are almost impossible to detect directly. This is where the new stacking technique comes in.
To gather enough data for her research, Delhaize combined weak signals from thousands of individual galaxies, stacking them to produce a strong averaged signal that is easier to study.
"What we are trying to achieve with stacking is sort of like detecting a faint whisper in a room full of people shouting," said Delhaize. "When you combine together thousands of whispers, you get a shout that you can hear above a noisy room, just like combining the radio light from thousands of galaxies to detect them above the background."
The research used CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope to survey a large section of the sky for 87 hours, collecting signals from hydrogen over an unmatched volume of space and up to two billion years back in time.
"The Parkes telescope views a big section of the sky at once, so it was quick to survey the large field we chose for our study," said ICRAR Deputy Director and Jacinta's supervisor, Professor Lister Staveley-Smith.
Delhaize said observing such a large volume of space meant that she could accurately calculate the average amount of hydrogen in galaxies at a certain distance from Earth, corresponding to a particular period in the Universe's history. This provides information that can be used in simulations of the Universe's evolution and clues to how galaxies formed and changed over time.
Next generation telescopes like the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and CSIRO's Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) will be able to observe even larger volumes of the Universe with higher resolution.
"That makes them fast, accurate and perfect for studying the distant Universe. We can use the stacking technique to get every last piece of valuable information out of their observations," said Delhaize. "Bring on ASKAP and the SKA!"
###
Jacinta Delhaize was the 2008 Western Australian Science Student of the Year and will complete her PhD at The University of Western Australia node of ICRAR later this year. ICRAR is a joint venture between Curtin University and The University of Western Australia providing research excellence in the field of radio astronomy.
The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society are published by Oxford University Press.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Stacking up a clearer picture of the universePublic release date: 13-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kirsten Gottschalk kirsten.gottschalk@icrar.org 61-438-361-876 International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research
Researchers from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have proven a new technique that will provide a clearer picture of the Universe's history and be used with the next generation of radio telescopes such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
In research published today in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, ICRAR PhD Candidate Jacinta Delhaize has studied distant galaxies en masse to determine one of their important properties how much hydrogen they contain by 'stacking' their signals.
As astronomers use telescopes to peer into space, they get a glimpse at what the Universe was like in the past, often billions of years ago. This allows them to compare the present state of the Universe to its history and map how it's changed over time, giving clues to its origins and future.
"Distant, younger, galaxies look very different to nearby galaxies, which means that they've changed, or evolved, over time," said Delhaize. "The challenge is to try and figure out what physical properties within the galaxy have changed, and how and why this has happened."
Delhaize said that one of the pieces of the puzzle is hydrogen gas and how much of it galaxies contained through the history of the Universe.
"Hydrogen is the building block of the Universe, it's what stars form from and what keeps a galaxy 'alive'," said Delhaize.
"Galaxies in the past formed stars at a much faster rate than galaxies now. We think that past galaxies had more hydrogen, and that might be why their star formation rate is higher.
Delhaize and her supervisors set out to observe how much hydrogen was in far away galaxies, but the faint radio signals of this distant hydrogen gas are almost impossible to detect directly. This is where the new stacking technique comes in.
To gather enough data for her research, Delhaize combined weak signals from thousands of individual galaxies, stacking them to produce a strong averaged signal that is easier to study.
"What we are trying to achieve with stacking is sort of like detecting a faint whisper in a room full of people shouting," said Delhaize. "When you combine together thousands of whispers, you get a shout that you can hear above a noisy room, just like combining the radio light from thousands of galaxies to detect them above the background."
The research used CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope to survey a large section of the sky for 87 hours, collecting signals from hydrogen over an unmatched volume of space and up to two billion years back in time.
"The Parkes telescope views a big section of the sky at once, so it was quick to survey the large field we chose for our study," said ICRAR Deputy Director and Jacinta's supervisor, Professor Lister Staveley-Smith.
Delhaize said observing such a large volume of space meant that she could accurately calculate the average amount of hydrogen in galaxies at a certain distance from Earth, corresponding to a particular period in the Universe's history. This provides information that can be used in simulations of the Universe's evolution and clues to how galaxies formed and changed over time.
Next generation telescopes like the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and CSIRO's Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) will be able to observe even larger volumes of the Universe with higher resolution.
"That makes them fast, accurate and perfect for studying the distant Universe. We can use the stacking technique to get every last piece of valuable information out of their observations," said Delhaize. "Bring on ASKAP and the SKA!"
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Jacinta Delhaize was the 2008 Western Australian Science Student of the Year and will complete her PhD at The University of Western Australia node of ICRAR later this year. ICRAR is a joint venture between Curtin University and The University of Western Australia providing research excellence in the field of radio astronomy.
The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society are published by Oxford University Press.
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It's all but guaranteed that the most hair-raising drives you'll have will be immediately after you fill the trunk with groceries, plants, and anything else you don't want to topple. But with these $13 Stayhold trunk dividers, you can hand your keys to a Hollywood stuntman and not have to worry about the bread being crushed by a jug of milk.
Actor John Stamos has a new show in the works, and the title alone -- "Losing Your Virginity With John Stamos" -- is enough to ensure fans of the former "Full House" star will tune in.
But lest those fans get the wrong idea, Stamos stopped by TODAY Wednesday morning and explained the real story about his upcoming Yahoo! web series.
As it turns out, "Losing Your Virginity" will see Stamos interviewing other stars about their first-time stories.
"It's not dirty, and it's not detail-oriented," he assured. "It's sort of about how you felt at that time -- the emotional part."
And given the inherent awkwardness of first-time encounters, the emotional part can also be the funny part.
"There's a lot of humor," he said of the confessions. "We're going to recreate some of the activity with puppets or dolls or something -- animated possibly. We'll also talk to the person -- the other person -- (and) get their side of the story."
That's right! The show won't be shy about digging for details in the celebrity du jour's past. And Stamos? Why he's not even shy about trying to get similar details from a TODAY show anchor.
"How old were you?" Stamos asked after joking that Matt Lauer would be his first guest.
"There's no way!" Lauer insisted.
But Stamos wanted to know, "16? 17?" When all he got in response was an insincere "31 years old," the actor switched angles. "Was it in a cornfield? Poison oak patch?"
Here's hoping Stamos has better luck getting details from the stars on the show.
"Losing Your Virginity With John Stamos" premieres online later this year, but fans of the actor won't have to wait long to see him on the other small screen. Stamos will play the CEO of a sports and talent agency on the upcoming season of "Necessary Roughness." He describes his character as "duplicitous," but promises his true nature will keep viewers guessing.
His 10-episode arc on "Necessary Roughness" kicks off Wednesday night at 10 p.m. on USA.
A day after The Washington Post and Guardianpublished bombshell revelations that America's biggest tech companies are allowing the US government to constantly monitor highly personal data contained in their servers, the facts remain fuzzy and somewhat fluid--and the statements of the parties involved don't add up.
All the tech companies have issued denials, saying they haven't given the government "direct" access or a "back door" to their servers under a surveillance program called PRISM, as the Post and Guardian stories claim.
Google's Larry Page repeated his company's denials in a blog post today: "First, we have not joined any program that would give the US government--or any other government--direct access to our servers. Indeed, the US government does not have direct access or a 'back door' to the information stored in our data centers."
The National Security Administration is saying the news stories are "full of inaccuracies," but isn't saying what the inaccuracies are. However, the NSA isn't denying the claims made in the stories. It hasn't said it's not working with Google, Facebook, Apple and all the other companies who've denied PRISM cooperation. If anything, the NSA is stressing that the PRISM program was never meant to spy on Americans.
So how do we square this disconnect? On one side, we have Silicon Valley saying it's not working with government spooks. On the other side, we have an NSA slide that lists exactly which big tech companies are working with PRISM, even noting their start dates.
For its part, The Washington Post, which first broke the story yesterday, is making a slight modification today. This might explain some of the disconnect between its story and the staunch denials of the tech companies:
"It is possible that the conflict between the PRISM slides and the company spokesmen is the result of imprecision on the part of the NSA author. In another classified report obtained by The Post, the arrangement is described as allowing ?collection managers [to send] content tasking instructions directly to equipment installed at company-controlled locations,' rather than directly to company servers."
Is it possible that everyone's telling the truth? Possibly, yes. But only if you allow for a wide breadth of interpretation and license in how you parse the words from everyone involved.
"If you read the denials coming from the tech companies, they are carefully worded and really amount to non-denials," EFF staff attorney Nate Cardozo told TechHive Thursday afternoon. "They all are saying that they didn't provide direct access to the servers, but what they are probably doing is providing access to the data via an API, which would be indirect."
Such an application programming interface (API) would have given the NSA a web-based window to certain data elements within the servers of the tech companies.
When I described the API method of availing the data in the servers to USC law professor and privacy expert Jack Lerner, he said it sounded very "direct" to him. However, Lerner said there are other ways the tech companies may have provided "indirect" access to the NSA.
"They could have meant ?indirect' to say ?You can look at our data, but you can't use our interface to do it, you'll have to build your own.'" Lerner said.
And here's another way the conflicting stories might square: The tech companies may have hinged their denials on the places where the NSA was tapping into the data from their servers. For example, the NSA may have been tapping in via a path somewhere in the Internet backbone that connects to the servers. "It's conceivable that the NSA could have tapped into a major cable or fiber optic line through which the data was passing," Lerner said. The update from The Post today seems to support this possibility.
FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) ? Army Pfc. Bradley Manning's court-martial for giving hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents to WikiLeaks entered its second week Monday in a fresh spotlight cast by a brand-new leak by another low-level intelligence employee.
Like Manning, Edward Snowden could find himself hauled into court by the U.S. government after he unmasked himself Sunday as the leaker who exposed the nation's secret phone and Internet surveillance programs to reporters.
Legal experts closely following both cases said they were shocked to find out young, low-ranking people had such access to powerful government secrets. Manning was 22 when he turned over the military and diplomatic cables about three years ago; Snowden is 29.
"In that respect, these cases suggest we should be much more careful about who is given security clearances," said David J.R. Frakt, a former military prosecutor and defense lawyer who has taught at several law schools.
At the same time, legal experts saw differences between the two cases, namely that Manning's secret-spilling was more scattershot, while Snowden appeared more selective.
"I'm not awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom here," Eugene R. Fidell, who teaches military law at Yale Law School, said of Snowden. "I'm just saying you could say it is something more akin to educating the American public about sensitive surveillance issues that have some level of First Amendment concern attached to them."
As for how Snowden's revelation will affect the Manning case, Fidell said it probably won't influence the military judge, who is hearing the case without a jury, but "it ratchets up the entire subject in the public eye." Fidell said it could spur outrage about government secrecy in general, but could also underscore the dangers of leaks ? and that, he said, won't help Manning.
"It's a reminder that if what Manning did and what Snowden did is OK, then it's basically every man for himself," Fidell said, adding that national security would end up with "more holes than cheese."
Manning is charged under federal espionage and computer fraud laws. The most serious charge against him is aiding the enemy, which carries a potential life sentence.
As the trial opened last week, prosecutors said they would show that some of the secrets fell into the hands of Osama bin Laden himself. Manning's attorney said he was young and naive, but a good-intentioned soldier who wanted to make the world a better place by exposing the way the U.S. government was conducting itself.
Snowden said his motives were similar but told The Guardian newspaper of London: "I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest."
Manning never publicly acknowledged his actions until more than two years after his arrest. He was seized only after an informant turned him in. Snowden is hiding out in Hong Kong, perhaps eventually hoping for asylum somewhere.
Testimony in the Manning case on Monday focused on when the soldier first started searching for the secret-spilling website WikiLeaks on his work computer in Iraq and when he downloaded some of the classified information he leaked, including more than 700 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment reports.
Inside the court-martial, Manning's supporters mostly cheered the Snowden leak.
"We're all complicit in the crimes that these wonderful, brave young people told us about," said Kathy Boylan, a charity worker in Washington.
NEW YORK (AP) ? Despite being set up to shine, "The Voice" is limping to its finish.
NBC's most popular show, approaching its season finale next week, had 11.3 million viewers for its Monday edition last week and 10.9 million on Tuesday. Both were enough to rank them within the Nielsen company's top six shows for the week.
Still, the two editions were below their averages for the season, even more among younger viewers. The show peaked at more than 14 million viewers in mid-April.
It's not as if NBC's rivals offered elite competition. CBS aired reruns both nights. Fox showed its fading summer franchise "So You Think You Can Dance" and Charlie Sheen's "Anger Management," which had cable-like numbers (1.7 million viewers on Monday). ABC offered its popular "The Bachelorette" on Monday and a weight loss show the next night.
So why isn't "The Voice" doing better? With warm weather, television viewership typically declines. The early part of "The Voice" season, with the blind auditions, is popular and is the gimmick that sets it apart from others in the genre.
NBC surely doesn't want to contemplate another possible explanation: that the series has peaked and viewers are tiring of it.
The network did win one important competition last week: An original episode of "Revolution" had 6.2 million viewers, while the debut of ABC's "Mistresses" in the same time slot had 4.4 million.
ABC won the week in prime time, averaging 6 million viewers behind the strength of the first two games of the NBA Finals. CBS was a close second, with 5.9 million viewers, NBC had 5.6 million, Fox had 3.27 million, Univision had 3.26 million, Telemundo had 1.7 million, ION Television had 1.4 million and the CW had 750,000.
TNT was the week's most popular cable network, averaging 2.9 million viewers in prime time. USA had 2.8 million, the Disney Channel had 2.3 million, History had 2.1 million and Fox News Channel had 1.9 million.
NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 7.5 million viewers. ABC's "World News" was second with 7 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 5.7 million viewers.
For the week of June 3-9, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NBA Finals: San Antonio vs. Miami (Sunday), ABC, 14.57 million; NBA Finals: San Antonio vs. Miami (Thursday), ABC, 14.24 million; NBA Playoffs: Indiana vs. Miami (Monday), TNT, 11.57 million; "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 11.29 million; "America's Got Talent" (Tuesday), NBC, 11.22 million; "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 10.87 million; "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 9.4 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 9.3 million; "NCIS," CBS, 8.94 million; NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 7.88 million.
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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox is a unit of News Corp. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks.
Marine Le Pen of the National Front is vocally opposed to letting foreigners into France. But she says her country should welcome 'courageous' American whistleblower Edward Snowden.
By Sara Miller Llana,?Staff writer / June 11, 2013
Marine Le Pen, political party leader of France's anti-immigrant National Front, greets her party's rally in Paris last month on May Day. Ms. Le Pen has called on France to roll out the welcome mat for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Charles Platiau/Reuters
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In the last election in France, the leader of the far right rose in polls on an anti-immigration platform, which included promises to restrict the number of refugees that the country allows into the country.
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Europe Bureau Chief
Sara Miller Llana?moved to Paris in April 2013 to become the Monitor's Europe Bureau?Chief. Previously she was the?paper's?Latin America Bureau Chief, based in Mexico City, from 2006 to 2013.
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In fact, Marine Le Pen, of the National Front, pledged on the 2012 campaign trail to reduce the number by 80 percent within five years, according to France 24.?
Now she is calling for France to roll out the welcome mat: for Edward Snowden, the American defense contractor who leaked classified documents concerning US government surveillance and is being both hailed a hero or condemned as a traitor.
In a statement on her party?s webpage, Ms. Le Pen appeals to French President Francois Hollande to, ?in the name of France, give exile to this young man, who had the courage? to reveal to humanity a very grave threat to democracy and public liberties.?
Ms. Le Pen landed in third place in 2012 elections, on an anti-immigration platform that promised to resist the ?Islamization? of France.
She provoked controversy in 2011 when she visited the Italian island of Lampedusa, where some 8,500 migrants had landed since the revolution in Tunisia. On that visit, she was quoted as telling two immigrants at a detention center: "I have a lot of compassion for you but Europe can't welcome you," she said. "We don't have the financial means."
But it apparently does have such means for Mr. Snowden, who leaked information about National Security Agency surveillance because, he said, he didn?t want to live in a world in which no email or phone conversation is private. "I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things ? I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under," he told the Guardian newspaper.
Snowden sought refuge in Hong Kong, apparently to avoid extradition to the US if it requested it. He has since, reportedly, checked out of his hotel there, and it is unclear whether he is still in Hong Kong or attempted to leave for another country where he could seek asylum.
While Ms. Le Pen?s offer may seem out of line with her general stance on asylum, the choice of France perhaps is not. As a Slate article points out in an ?explainer? about where Snowden would have his best shot at avoiding extradition to the US:
Consider France. Although France does have an extradition treaty with the United States, it also has a history of reluctance to send people into the US criminal justice system. France has?refused to extradite?filmmaker Roman Polanski, a French citizen, back to the United States, where he faces charges for the 1977 rape of a 13-year-old girl. More recently, a French court?decided not to extradite?Michael and Linda Mastro, who were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of bankruptcy fraud and money laundering, unless American authorities would promise not to imprison them. If France can be a sanctuary for them, perhaps there would be some hope for a whistle-blower (and, according to some, a human rights hero) such as Snowden.
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Just moments after baiting Microsoft with the PlayStation 4's less restrictive DRM policies, Sony announced that existing PlayStation Plus memberships will apply to all Sony gaming devices for no additional fee. "Members will have access to all the benefits across PlayStation 3, Vita and PlayStation 4 for one price," Tretton explained, sweetening the deal by outing a few of the free titles subscribers could expect to see in the coming year: Don't Starve, Outlast and Secret Ponchos. Naturally, Tretton summed up the PS Plus' major services as a steal at $5 a month -- just remember to buy in bulk, kids.
Follow all of our E3 2013 coverage at our event hub.
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Public release date: 13-Jun-2013
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