Rabu, 20 Juli 2011

"Dance Of Death" Stars Found - Can Help Prove Einstein Right


A pair of aging stars have discovered 3,000 light-years is enclosed in a "dance" of death, a marriage that ends your collision and a possible supernova, astronomers say.

The binary star system consists of two white dwarfs, the burned out soul stars like the Sun. White dwarfs are gradually spiral toward each other at breakneck speed of 370 miles (595 kilometers) a second, and they are to merge in 900,000 years.


However, astronomers hope that before the collision, the stars spinning help scientists test the general theory of relativity of Einstein, and even reveal the source of a whole class of supernovae. 

"What is so amazing that this is a pair of Earth and Neptune size exotic stars that orbit each other, only one third of the Earth-Moon distance, circle around each other every 12 minutes," says research director Warren Brown, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"And because there is no interaction or material streaming out of them, we can have a unique stellar laboratory here to search the effects of general relativity and probe the extreme gravity."

Star System offers rare look at the gravity of space

Found the dancing stars of the extent of the white dwarf pair with a 6.5 meter telescope on Mount Hopkins as a mirror in Arizona. Astronomers have measured the relative movements of the stars, looking at the light signatures, or spectra, from the stars and the other in Eclipse.

White dwarfs have densities, only a tablespoon of roads in the area of ​​these objects weighing as much as a car.

When two such massive objects whirling around each other, they raise the space-time fabric that creates ripples like those made by a stone thrown into a pond. As these ripples called gravitational waves that are produced, the couple loses a star of its energy, causing their orbits to shrink slowly.

But the newly discovered star pair is unique in that they do not swap fabrics as they spin, allowing a "clean clock" to measure the effect of gravitational waves, said Mr Brown.

"There are many pairs of stars in the universe but interact and exchange of materials among themselves because they are so close."

That "complicates their interpretation, as they rarely see a star, except for the light from the material that comes and goes between the stars."

With a pair of non-interacting, astronomers can precisely measure the variation of the orbital period of stars in the spiral toward each other.

Astrophysics, Gijs Nelemans, Radboud University in Holland and, adding that the new white dwarf is likely to be a strong source of gravitational waves, which will soon be able to detect gravitational waves space satellite named Lisa, who may begin around 2020.

"The most exciting is that the change of orbital period, it emits gravitational waves can be effectively measured," said Neleman, who was not involved in the search for new ones.

"This means not only an indirect test of general relativity, but also to directly measure gravitational waves predicted, which has never been done before," he said.

"Such a mission should really open a new way to study the universe."

Couple found can illuminate Star Evolution, Death

The discovery could also help astronomers understand the evolution of star and death. It has long been speculated, for example, the white dwarf collisions produce Type Ia supernovae, believed to be caused when matter from a companion star is spilled on a white dwarf, lifting the mass dwarfs beyond a certain physical limit and ignite a thermonuclear explosion.

When the two stars merge, existing models found, the result can be a super-massive white dwarf, or unusually weak stellar explosion, called supernova underluminous.

"If that is the ancestor of these subclasses of the few supernovae, we expect to find these exotic pairs on the same frequency as a supernova. We'll have to wait and see what happens with our investigation," Brown responsible the study said.

Initial measurements were made in March, but now the binary system was moving almost directly behind the sun from our perspective on Earth, making the pair are currently invisible to telescopes.

As a result, Brown and his team will have to wait until autumn to measure the expected shortening of the orbital period.

"Stars of merger in less than a million years is really the blink of an eye in cosmic time scales," said Brown. "Just the fact that we found something, and it is interesting to astronomers."

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Selasa, 19 Juli 2011

Wasps Old Dinosaurs Perched Rotten Eggs?


Wasps may have once perched inside the rotten dinosaur eggs, an idea proposed by the discovery of exceptionally well-preserved fossils of insects in cocoons.

Scientists have recently agreed to explore around the eggs Titanosaurus 70 million years, located in the region of Patagonia Argentina.

Titanosaur belonged to a group of giant plant eaters that included the largest creatures ever to walk the earth. Titanosaur eggs were also high to about 8 inches (20 centimeters) long.

Inside, a sulfur from fossil eggs from Argentina, researchers have found eight small, sausage-shaped structures about an inch (2-3 cm) long and about half an inch (just over an inch) wide .

The strange structure appears to be fossilized insect cocoons are similar in size and shape of cocoons belonging to a range of modern species of wasps.

Key mistakes to clean up the nests of Dino

The authors of the study suggest that the old egg was slightly ajar until hatched. Scavengers such as locusts could be fed egg yolk, and spiders later dined on scavengers.

Wasps may have attacked either the initial or carrion spiders, their eggs in the bodies of these creatures. The wasp offspring then spun their cocoons inside rotten eggs.

The finding could be the first evidence of invertebrates such as crickets in eggs of dinosaur exploration because it is "the first time [wasp] blossoms are associated with a dinosaur egg," said co-author Jorge Genise, an entomologist at the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences.

While Bugs benefited from the death of the egg, the creatures were probably essential to keep the nest clean all titanosaur added co-author Laura Sarzetti, another entomologist at the museum.

Devouring rotten things, washing insects established in the nest of potentially dangerous microbes.

Fossil cocoons found described in the July issue of the journal Paleontology.

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Questioning Begins In The British Scandal Hacking


LONDON - Sir Paul Stephenson, the outgoing head of Scotland Yard, appeared before a panel of lawmakers Tuesday that the scandal involving hacking phone the police, politicians and media elites expanded and some of the most powerful people in British public life including media mogul Rupert Murdoch, ready to be interviewed.

Sir Paul, who has handed in his resignation on Sunday, he appeared in his dark uniform, and the Commissioner quoted from Shakespeare to explain that when he decided to resign: "It 'was the best of it was done quickly."

It was intended to answer questions about his relationship with a new manager Murdoch. Later that day, Mr. Murdoch, his son James and former editor of The New World, Rebecca Brooks, were to testify before another panel.

The scandal has penetrated into the biggest crisis of the Prime Minister, David Cameron, who has cut short-African trade tour to return home, a range of refreshing change to the final showdown before the summer break, work with the opposition Party leader Ed Miliband on the occasion of the special session of the whole House on Wednesday.

Two days of hearings, a certificate of spin and reflect the magnitude of the scandal that repentance can spread in two short, tumultuous weeks because of reports indicate that the tabloid News of the World broke the answering machine and 13 years of school girl kidnapped in 2002.

Tuesday, two committee rooms dull side of the House of Commons, near the Thames at Westminster area of ​​central London, ride in the series, to appear powerful and in particular the first two police officers at Scotland Yard, who all two left Mr Murdoch and his son James, and Ms. Brooks, the former head of operations Murdoch press in Britain.

The Murdoch is to appear before the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which starts at 2:30 London time, in Wilson Hall of Portcullis House. Ms. Brooks, who was editor of the tabloid News of the World at the time of piracy, and has denied knowledge of it, is to appear in the same room an hour later.

The review began when Sir Paul, the former commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, commonly known as the Met or the garden in Scotland, appeared in the Grimond Room in the building before the Home Affairs Committee. It was followed by John Yates, former deputy commissioner of the force. Sir Paul M. Yates resigned on Sunday and then a day later, both deny any wrongdoing in its dealings with Neil Wallis, former deputy director of the New World that ended up working as media consultant for the police.

Mr. Yates, in particular, will be questioned on why he refused to reopen an earlier case study of telephone hacking The New World after a police investigation in 2009. As the scandal continues to shake up its ranks, Scotland Yard said Tuesday that the police controller, known as the Independent Police Complaints Commission has been asked to investigate the relationship between Fedorcio Dick, the Metropolitan Police director of communications, and Wallis .

At the next hearing, because in a hurry, and interviews with Rupert and James Murdoch and Ms. Brooks, 10 lawmakers in the House of Commons, which are derived from the three political parties in Parliament, is likely to ask questions that have agreed in advance. Process could take place very quickly, because there is little time to cover ground so much tied to what the trio knew as well as hacking attempts and the next nearest to avoid parliamentary scrutiny, the press, the police and the public.

A prominent member of the committee, said the group should focus their questions about the office culture Murdoch's newspaper when the phone started piracy was involved, who tried to cover up the scandal, and why James Murdoch settlement payments authorized before the scandal of the well-known people, including voice messages are known to have been hacked.

Senior Member of the Committee said that the group will focus on issues of culture Murdoch's newspapers, newsrooms, when I started hacking the phone, who was involved, who were trying to cover up a scandal, and because James Murdoch, the report entitled scandal known of people whose voice was known to have been violated.

Invoice Gateway can accommodate only 50 spectators, but the procedure has created a huge public interest and will be broadcast live. The British Parliament during the hearings, witnesses do not testify under oath. Instead, they must respond to the "glory". The committees have no power to punish them in the questions, but nothing has been proved misbehavior could deepen the shame associated with those related to the scandal.

At the political level, the focus of the hearings of the opportunity they offer to the Parliament to assert authority weakened in recent years by a scandal over the expense accounts of legislators. " It could push the balance of power to the legislators. Cookies can choose not to answer - in American terms, the fifth claim - if they find their comments could be self-incriminating.

All three are likely to appear with their lawyers, who can seek advice quietly. Committee members to see - Members of Parliament more aggressively denounced piracy in the past - including Labour members Paul Farrelly and Tom Watson and President, John Whittingdale, a Conservative.

Employees Committee has been a series of specific questions - are members of the first green leaves - but most combative interlocutors are likely to go off script.

"The trick of this committee becomes a comment on the record," said Brian Cathcart, a former journalist who worked as an advisor to the committee in the past. "They do not expect to convict and lock up your man, but to make people say things to expect."

Hearing of Ms. Brooks will probably be limited by the fact that it is a subject of police investigation of piracy. But she is sure to face questions about a comment she told the committee in 2003 that his newspaper had paid police for information - a comment she later retracted. Ms. Brooks has been invited to appear before the committee at the hearing in 2009, but refused to do so in person and instead submitted written testimony.

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Senin, 18 Juli 2011

Kermode Bear


In a rainy autumn morning on the coast of British Columbia, a dark wood figure of the coast. A black bear came to eat. This is the spawning season. Eggs heavy abundance of fish in streams Gribbell Island, a small portion of the Great Bear Rainforest in Canada, one of the largest coastal temperate forests of the world. The bear stopped in a patch of seaweed algae to sniff the air. Rain and fog can not hide the funky putrefaction. The bodies of pink salmon and chum salmon are caught in the strands of linguine wave sedges. The bear moves like a silhouette in the landscape, its mixture of black hair with dark woods and dark stones.

Marven Robinson points bear, but away, indifferent. "We could have a better chance upstream" he said. Robinson, 43, robust and wrapped in rain gear, is a guide to wildlife and member of the Gitga'at First Nation whose traditional territory includes Gribbell Island. This bear is not what you want. It is after a most revered and rare creature called Gitga'at mooksgm'ol, Spirit of the Bear, a contradiction, a walking black polar bear.

Neither an albino polar bear and the spirit of the bear (also known as the Kermode Bear) is a variant of the white North American black bear, and was found almost exclusively here in the Great Bear Rainforest. At 25 000 square miles and a half times the size of Switzerland, passes through the area at a depth of 250 km on the west coast of Canada and includes a vast network of mist-shrouded fjords, forested islands, glacier-capped mountains and . Grizzly bears, blacks, wolves, wolverines, humpback and killer whales thrive along the coast that is home to First Nations as Gitga'at hundreds of generations. It is a scary, wild, mysterious place: there are wolves here in the fish. Deer that swim. Western Red Cedar trees have lasted 1000 years or more. And black bear, which is white.

As his boots making a wet track full of ferns and devil's club, Robinson looks for movement. There is no door. He sees a white patch of hair that hangs from a branch of alder. "They are here again," he said. Emphasis is placed on the bark chewed. "They like to bite the tree bears only say, I'm here with the river."

An hour passes. Robinson, waiting patiently for the Moss-patched boulder. Then he saw a rustle in the bush. "Here," he says.

White Bear lateral distance from the trees on the Rock Stream. Faced with a dark palette of tropical forests will unfairly bear fur radiation. Not pure white, exactly. More than a vanilla-colored carpets need steam cleaning. The bear's head swings from side to side, peering into the vortex of salmon. Before he can hit one, black bear suddenly out of the forest and passes through the polar bear off its perch, even if the "end" might be a bit 'strong. All the bears did not seem to take place in slow motion, as if they were trying to save every last calorie in the coming winter. White Bear lumbers into the bushes and disappear.

Robinson watches. He spent 15 years with the Spirit Bear. However, he nailed. "The polar bear is very particular subject," he said. "Sometimes it happens to me. I'm protective. I once saw an old polar bear attacked by a young black bear. I was about jump in and spray with black pepper. instinct was strong in me. But then the white reared and threw him out. "Robinson smiled, as if to admit the absurdity of a man jumping into a battle of bears. But in his eyes there is a hint that he might have done.

Robinson is not alone. The same protective instinct is strong in all the jungle of the Great Bear. This is one of the factors that have kept alive the spirit of giving.

"Our people have never hunted the polar bear," said Helen Clifton, who is sitting in her kitchen in Hartley Bay, a small fishing village dominated by tendrils of wood smoke and crows echo invocation. With voice and mind, Clifton 86 years is a matriarch of the clan of Gitga'at, one of 14 bands that constitute the Tsimshian people of the northwest coast of British Columbia. Bear Meat was rarely a staple food, she said. But First Nations hunters went after the black bear in a more European merchants established when the fur trade in British Columbia during the late 18 century. Even in those days but take a polar bear was a taboo subject, a tradition that continued for many generations. "We never spoke of the Spirit Bear at the table," said Clifton.

This tight-lipped the custom would have been an early form of environmental protection. Speaking of a bear, not to mention hunting, Gitga'at and adjacent frequency bands will never be the creature word reaches the ears, fur traders. Today Gitga'at and Kitasoo / Xai 'xais people keep an eye on their door during the hunting season. "It's no good to come when the black bear in our region," says Robinson. "You never know. We are able to shoot the bears back."

This attitude makes all the difference. For decades, the presence of poachers and trophy hunters, as well as mills and canning factory-built Great Bear Grizzlies rare and nervous. Industries have disappeared, as hunting grizzlies in some parts of the rainforest. The bear reacts. "In my first year was really something to see a grizzly bear," said Doug Stewart. As the patrol fishing agreement, Stewart followed the fish runs in Big Bear for over 35 years. "Now you see all the time. I can come through the five Grizzlies in one morning. "

They are so good, in fact, that some wonder if the return of the grizzly bear is not growing black and some white, against the best seasons for fishing in rivers. "When you see a Griz, you can not see a black bear or white," says Doug Neasloss a Kitasoo / Xai 'xais wildlife guide. "Black has Griz give much space."

This leads to an interesting possibility: Maybe the Griz had a hand in focus in the gene Kermode Gribbell Princess Royal and the islands. "Grizzlies and black bears live everywhere except on small islands," said Thomas Reimchen, a biologist at the University of Victoria. "There is not enough habitat for grizzly bears in these small islands. They need large estuaries grass, alpine habitat, and a wide range of home, including the islands do not."

The islands offer something else: human eyes watching over them. "I tell young people," said Helen Clifton, "When you see a bear spirit, not in the VHF and television. If you tell someone, say they saw mooksgm'ol. I know what you mean. And it will keep the door securely. "

Scientists know how black bears are born white. They just do not know why. This phenomenon, known as Kermodism is caused by a recessive mutation in the MC1R gene, the same gene are associated with red hair and fair skin in humans. Being born white, then a bear will inherit the mutation from both parents. The parents themselves should not be white. They just need to carry the recessive mutation. So it is not uncommon for polar bears to be born to black parents.

White fur occurs in one of every 40-100 bears blacks is the coast of British Columbia, but the section is particularly pronounced in some islands of the Great Bear Rainforest. Are the Princess Royal Island, one in ten blacks bears are white. And 'Gribbell Island, north of the Princess Royal, is one of the three. Biologist Wayne McCrory is Valhalla Wilderness Society, called Gribbell, "the mother of the 'island of white bears."

It is unclear how these features arose. A theory was "Bear Glacier" assumption that an adjustment residual Kermodism the last great ice age that ended 11,000 years ago. At that time, most of British Columbia today was still frozen and a white coat may have provided camouflage. But the theory of wear glacial raised a question: Why not the white coat features die when the glaciers retreated?

For more information, Neasloss Doug and I will find bears on Princess Royal Island. "Hey, bear," said Neasloss as jumping from a boat near the mouth of a small river. It is as if he had been a friend named Bear, but there are no animals in sight. "I'm not scared," said the guide 28, who works in the traditional territory of xais Kitasoo / Xai. A can of pepper spray grizzly force is based on a holster on his hip. Barnacle encrusted rocks through the clear parts and Neasloss the curtain of rain forest. Under the canopy as it rotates smoothly and silently. Lichen drops of hemlock, cedar, yew branches. His rubber boots leave no mark on the spongy soil, which is so green it seems that the sky dropped a foam snow.

Neasloss claiming a place under a tree, hemlock and pulls his hood tight against the incessant rain. He saw a polar bear near here recently, he said, but there is no guarantee it will reemerge. In just over three, he noted in the River. A white bear waddles down the bank. This bear is larger and safer than the bear Grip Bell Island. Fat rolls her belly. It seems to be a coat two sizes too big. It is perched on a small pool, slots, and with both feet and find a companion three-foot salmon chubby.

Researchers have recently shown that the spirit bear white coat gives you an advantage when fishing. Although polar bears and black tend to have the same success rate at night when the Bears make a lot of fishing and scientific Reimchen Dan Klink University of Victoria has noticed a difference in the day. The polar bear catch salmon in their third attempts. The only time blacks have achieved room. "Salmon are less concerned about a white object, seen from below the surface," speculates Reimchen. In part, this may answer the question of why white skin continues to grow today. If the salmon is a coastal bear primary fat source of protein and a successful woman can enjoy the salmon to store more fat for the winter, which could increase the number of puppies they can produce.

As the rain continues to fall Princess Royal Island, and I feel the spirit Neasloss bear eating salmon goodness. When the gains are so good, the Bears can turn a fussy eater. Some people only eat the fish head. Others may cut the belly and sucks cock. Some people are greedy. "Once I saw the spirit of the 80 bear eating salmon in one sitting," says Neasloss. This bear wants to dine privately. Rotate the teeth and the salmon runs straight uphill, hidden somewhere unseen. Twenty minutes later, the return of the bear, fish NABS seconds, and brings them into the woods. This goes for hours, until the daylight fades from the sky.

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Photoshop Tricks; SEMI-TRANSPARENT RIBBONS


ONE OF THE best ways to add dimensionality to your web layouts is to include 3D effects like drop shadows, beveled edges, and layered transparency. In this exercise, you learn how to draw overlapping bubbles and ribbons of color with the Ellipse and Pen tools and then modify the blending mode and transparency of each to create dynamic 3D effects for your layouts.

STEP 1 Select File>New to open the New document dialog box. Under Preset choose Web, set the width to 960, the height to 768, and click OK.

STEP 2 Select the Pen tool and use the Shape Layers setting on the Control bar to ensure that you’ll be drawing closed shapes with editable color fi lls. Using the Pen tool, draw a ribbon-like closed shape, like the one shown in Figure 4-1. Don’t worry too much about being perfect as you draw; you can always adjust the curves and anchor points using the Direct Selection tool (A) aft er closing the shape. With a shape layer, you can easily adjust the color of your new shape through the Layers panel.


INTERNET HINT: Need to brush up on your Pen tool skills? Try this resource: http://psdfan.com/tutorials/drawing/become-a-master-of-the-pen-tool-inunder-30-minutes/
.

STEP 3 Next, draw a second, similar shape slightly overlapping the fi rst one. To see how this second shape interacts with the fi rst one, adjust the second shape’s opacity down to about 80%, as illustrated in Figure 4-2.

STEP 4 To create the 3D overlapping soft shadow effect, apply the Inner Glow Layer Style to the second shape using the Layer Style button at the bottom of the Layers panel. When the Layer Style dialog box opens, change the blending mode color to a dark gray, adjust the opacity down to about 50%, and set the blending mode to Multiply. To deepen the shadow effect, adjust the choke and size to your liking. For instance, you might set the choke to 23% and the size to 10 px.

STEP 5 To add further defi nition, give your shape a 1–2 px light gray stroke and add a gradient overlay using the Screen blending mode with an opacity set to about 40%. If desired, adjust the angle to set the direction of the gradient to your liking. Click OK to save these settings. Your image should now look something like the example shown in Figure 4-3.

STEP 6 Next, copy this layer’s style by right+clicking/+clicking on the layer’s Layer Style icon and selecting Copy Layer Style from the layer’s context menu. To paste this layer style onto your first shape, select the first shape’s layer and choose the Paste Layer Style option from the layer’s context menu.

STEP 7 Continue creating additional ribbon shapes as needed following this same method as well as circular shapes using the Ellipse tool, changing the color, blending mode, opacity, and other settings as desired, as illustrated in Figure 4-4. Feel free to improvise and don’t be afraid to speed things along by duplicating any existing shape layer and then adjusting the new layer’s attributes through the Layers panel.

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