Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/07/so-you-think-you-can-dance-results-whos-out/
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Friday, July 5, 2013
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Thanks to clouds, some 60 billion planets are habitable in Milky Way
New research that factors in the influence of cloud cover on alien climate has extended the habitable zone around red dwarf stars to include twice as many planets.
This photo taken in June 2013 shows the Milky Way galaxy over Gem Island, on the east coast of Malaysia.
Vincent Thian/AP
Enlarge?Life would be dull if we had to look up at a cloudless monotony all day,? writes Gavin Pretor-Pinney in the Cloudspotter?s Guide.
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That, and life would be more difficult to find.
New research that factors in cloud cover and its influence on alien climate has extended the habitable zone around red dwarf stars to include double the number of planets in that life-supporting region. That means that some 60 billion habitable planets could be orbiting red dwarf stars in the Milky Way galaxy alone.
Scientists had previously believed that each red dwarf had just one Earth-sized planet in its habitable zone ? the sweet spot just far enough from the sun that the planet?s water doesn?t turn to vapor in the overwhelming heat, and just close enough that water doesn?t freeze without the reassuring warmth of the sun?s glow.
But now that habitable zone, once thought to be fairly small around the eponymously named red dwarfs ? the stars are small and faint, relative to our sun ? has been expanded. That?s because the formula for calculating the habitable zone of far-flung planets had not previously included how cloud cover might mitigate the star?s influence planets.?
"Clouds cause warming, and they cause cooling on Earth," said Dorian Abbot, an assistant professor in geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago. "They reflect sunlight to cool things off, and they absorb infrared radiation from the surface to make a greenhouse effect. That's part of what keeps the planet warm enough to sustain life."
Building 3D computer models that simulate how clouds behave on alien planets, researchers at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University found that where there is surface water there are also water clouds. On planets close to their sun, those clouds exert a significant cooling effect, which allows those planets to retain their water, despite their closeness to the dwarf star?s heat. That means that the habitable zone has been extended inward, closer to the star, than had been imagined to be possible.
The researchers plan to test their findings, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, with the James Webb Telescope, which will go into orbit into 2018, taking the temperature of those alien planets during their days and nights to measure cloud cover.
But the big question is, when an alien looks up at that planet?s clouds, what strange shapes, what foreign animals or objects or ideas, does he or she see?
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Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Snowden seeks asylum in Russia even as Obama, Putin play down crisis
The FBI and Russia?s FSB security agency are in talks ordered by Obama and Putin to try to find a way to end the standoff over Edward Snowden, a Russian news agency reported.
Passengers walk to board the Aeroflot flight SU150 from Moscow to Havana, at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow Sunday, June 30. As US and Russian security agencies reportedly try to reach a deal on Edward Snowden's fate, the passport-less leaker of secret US documents remains 'marooned' in Moscow's international airport.
Sergei Grits/AP
EnlargeUS and Russian leaders offered comments Monday suggesting once again that they have no interest in allowing self-proclaimed whistleblower Edward Snowden to derail relations between their two countries.
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And even as President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin uttered words indicating that bilateral interests are likely to trump Mr. Snowden?s case, rumors swirled of attempts by American and Russian officials to resolve the week-old standoff over the former National Security Agency contractor?s status.
As US and Russian security agencies reportedly try to reach a deal on Snowden?s fate, the passport-less leaker of secret US documents remains ?marooned? in Moscow?s international airport, in the words of Wikileaks founder and Snowden defender Julian Assange.
The FBI and Russia?s FSB, the Russian state security agency, are in talks ordered by the two countries? presidents to try to find a way to end the Snowden standoff, Russia?s RIA news agency reported Monday.
The report followed comments by Mr. Putin earlier Monday that Snowden, who arrived at the Moscow airport eight days ago on a flight from Hong Kong, is free to remain in Russia on the condition that he stop divulging information that is ?damaging our American partners.?
Adding that he doubted the information freedom advocate would accept such a condition, Putin advised Snowden to decide what country he wants to go to and to ?move there.?
Putin?s comments followed reports, later confirmed by Russian officials, that Snowden applied for political asylum in Russia Sunday night. Putin repeated Monday that Russia will not extradite Snowden to the US, but Russia experts interpreted the Russian leader?s ?move out? advice to Snowden either as a signal to the US that he won?t be allowed to stay or as an attempt to provide Russia with cover from American displeasure should Snowden accept and back off on his leaking activities ? something Mr. Assange says won?t happen ? in order to stay.
Obama, in Tanzania on the last leg of a seven-day Africa tour, confirmed Monday that ?high level? discussions continue between the two countries concerning Snowden?s fate. Playing down any sense of a crisis between the two powers, Obama said only that Russia could resolve the standoff by adhering to ?normal? procedures between countries concerning fugitives from justice.
?We are hopeful that the Russian government makes decisions based on the normal procedures regarding international travel and the normal interactions that law enforcement [agencies] have,? Obama said.
Snowden has been charged with espionage and theft of government records. His passport was revoked by the US government when he was still in Hong Kong. The US has no extradition treaty with Russia.
Snowden on Monday handed Russian officials a list of 15 countries where he claimed to be applying for asylum, reportedly with the assistance of Wikileaks. One Russian official called the list a ?desperate measure,? according to the Los Angeles Times, after Ecuador?s President Rafael Correa appeared to shut the door Sunday on Snowden receiving asylum in his country.
It was President Correa?s apparent change-of-heart on Snowden that led Mr. Assange to describe the leaker as ?marooned? ? a term US officials said Monday is not accurate.
?You?ve heard Mr.?Assange?say earlier that he?s sort of marooned in Russia.??That?s not true,? said State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell Monday. Saying the US is prepared to issue Snowden ?one-way travel documents,? Mr. Ventrell added, ?He?s still a US citizen.?He still enjoys the rights of his US citizenship, which include the right to a free and fair trial for the crimes he?s been accused of.?
On Monday a group of prominent US actors, academics, and former whistleblowers and intelligence officials disclosed a letter they sent to Mr. Correa pleading with him to grant Snowden asylum.
The letter, signed by Hollywood activists Oliver Stone and Danny Glover, as well as Iraq war whistleblower Joe Wilson, was attached to a petition to Correa that the organization Just Foreign Policy claims carries 23,000 signatures.
The letter and petition reached Correa two days after Vice-President Joe Biden telephoned the Ecuadoran president to ask that Snowden be denied asylum.
But Just Foreign Policy believes Correa can and should still grant Snowden asylum.??
?Unprecedented government secrecy and an unprecedented crackdown on whistleblowers are threatening the ability of Americans to control their government,? said the organization?s policy director, Robert Naiman. ?If President Correa grants asylum to Snowden,? he said, ?all Americans who love freedom will be in his debt."
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Open letter to Minister of Sport and Recreation ~ South Africa
I?m writing this letter as a concern South African citizen regarding the state of our soccer national teams. It saddens me to watch other countries participating on global events without South Africa being represented. Soccer is the most widely played sport in South Africa, with its traditional support base in the black community? For many South Africans, the country's proudest sporting moment came when we won the African Nations Cup on home turf in 1996. One of the first gifts that democracy brought South Africa was its first truly representative national soccer team. In 1992, two years before the country's first democratic election, the united South African team came into being, playing Cameroon in its first match in Durban on 9 July ?? it was a triumphant occasion for the side that came to be known as Bafana Bafana ? "The Boys" ? as they edged the West African powerhouse by a goal to nil. However, the win concealed the negative effect that apartheid-enforced isolation had had on local soccer. This lack of international experience showed as South Africa lost four matches in a row ? to Cameroon, Zambia, Nigeria and Zambia ? in failing to qualify for the 1994 African Nations Cup. When South Africa hosted the 1996 African Nations Cup, however, South Africa proved they belonged in the finals by defeating Tunisia 2-0 in the final. It was during the team's run to the title that its nickname, "Bafana Bafana", became known around the world. Unlike other sporting codes such as swimming, boxing and hockey just to name a few who struggle to get sponsors I remember government had to sponsor the swimming team to Barcelona a team that brought a number of medals from the London Olympic team Below is an illustration of the money that has been pumped up by corporate sponsors to (South African Football Association and Premier Soccer League). In June 2007, the Premier Soccer League (PSL) pulled off an astounding coup when it signed a R1.6-billion broadcast deal with SuperSport International. In August 2007, corporate heavyweights South African Breweries (SAB) and Absa Bank announced a joint sponsorship of more than R500-million over the next five years for South African football. SAB is behind Bafana Bafana, while Absa sponsors the PSL's Premier Division. In February 2008, Nedbank announced that it would be putting up R20-million in prize money for the Nedbank Cup knockout competition as part of a five-year, R400- million sponsorship of the local game. And in August 2008, cellular giant MTN committed the same amount ? R400- million over five years ? to the local game, while taking over the title sponsorship of the Top 8 knockout tournament. These deals combined have made South Africa's Premier Soccer League the seventh biggest earner of sponsorship revenue among football leagues worldwide There is much to despair at the state of South Africa?s soccer. Bafana Bafana hasn?t lived up to the nation?s expectations and the controlling body, the South African Football Association (SAFA), please help we love our national team The National Sports Plan of the Department of Sports and Recreation South Africa and the SAFA Technical Master Plan emphasise the importance of youth development as one of the key priorities to achieve success and competitiveness Key challenges honourable minister There are management, administration, financial and sport science support gaps in the development of young football players in structured youth football programmes. ????????? That there are poor levels of investment in youth football development leading to a lack of a clear and regulated system.
At the point of writing this letter honourable minister I?m aware that the is a F?d?ration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) under-20 World Cup that is taking place in Turkey as usual South Africa has no representative at this prestige event and I?m also made aware that in the up and coming FIFA under 17 world cup in November South Africa will not have a representative (this is certainly not a?razzmatazz?for South African football).
It is alarming to hear the inadequate ratio of qualified youth coaches to players in South Africa compared to some of the giants of international soccer, especially Spain. The shortage of such coaches, along with the absence of a coherent development plan at the national level, is harming the game at all levels and has contributed to the malaise of the men?s national team, Bafana Bafana.
Why are we not using the class of 1996 in our youth structures?
Source: http://diskibafana.blogspot.com/2013/07/open-letter-to-minister-of-sport-and.html
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Analysis: Investors buy into software-defined networks, will customers follow?
By Sayantani Ghosh
(Reuters) - As Superstorm Sandy bore down on the East coast last year, companies with data centers in its path needed another location fast. But moving computer servers is tricky, and usually planned over days or weeks.
Enter a new technology: software-defined networking, or SDN. Such urgent data moves could now be done within a few hours.
Investors, including some of the world's biggest technology companies, are buying into the start-ups behind SDN, a technology that allows users to substitute some of the most complex hardware functions in server switches with software.
SDN is still relatively small, generating around $300 million in annual business in a $30 billion networking industry. Customers are not yet sure how to make the most of its flexibility.
But established operators such as IBM Corp, Cisco Systems Inc and Microsoft Corp are starting to pursue a technology that market research firm IDC says could generate annual revenue of $3.7 billion within just three years.
Cloud software maker VMware Inc made its move last July, snapping up Nicira Inc for $1.05 billion. Cisco, Oracle Corp and Juniper Networks Inc have also bought SDN companies in the last year.
Private-equity firms have backed companies such as Embrane and Plexxi, while Intel Corp and Goldman Sachs have invested in Big Switch Networks.
SDN allows the control functions of data-center switches to be run separately from the servers they manage, allowing much more flexibility in the control of computer networks.
"For 30 years we've sold the physical box and the software, and the vendors don't allow you to buy one without the other," said John Vrionis, partner at venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners, which is backing Embrane and Plexxi and is a former investor in Nicira.
With SDN only coming of age in the last two to three years, standards vary between vendors, holding back large customers who don't want to be tied to one supplier. But the entry of the big players has brought a determined drive for a common standard.
Cisco is most tied to hardware networking equipment, putting its business most at risk from SDN, but analysts say it is keen to dominate this technology too.
"There will be other vendors, but I think Cisco will be the main beneficiary for the next couple of years," said Justin White, an investment analyst at T. Rowe Price. The firm is Cisco's sixth-largest shareholder.
"For enterprises, the most logical approach is probably to stick with someone like Cisco."
CALLING MOM
SDN is expected to allow companies to build networks that need less human intervention and are easier to modify and update.
"People want to automate their solutions," said Lauren Cooney, Cisco's senior director of software strategy.
"They want to automate the ability to create, for example, policy for different sets of users so that they don't have to go back in and be running around and setting that manually."
Mother's Day is an example cited by Gartner analyst Akshay Sharma to describe the benefits of SDN.
Currently, phone carriers have to deploy equipment that sits idle most of the year to handle spikes such as the one day a year when everyone wants to call their Mom.
"What if you could elastically tune the network that prioritizes all those voice calls?" said Sharma.
Using SDN, that capacity can be more easily redeployed to other uses on less heavy call days.
Experts agree that SDN has yet to take off. Sharma sees it passing a tipping point by 2015, and most agree the next 12 months are crucial as the industry works on common standards.
Cisco, IBM and some other companies, including Juniper Networks and Citrix Systems Inc, have come together to form a standards consortium called OpenDayLight.
CONFUSION FACTOR
"One of the main challenges that enterprises have in being able to adopt software-defined networking more fully is that they are confused," said Embrane Chief Executive Dante Malagrino.
Malagrino said his firm, rather than supporting a wider standard, was working with each customer to meet its needs without disrupting existing technology.
Malagrino, an ex-Cisco employee, set up Embrane in 2009 and has raised $27 million from two rounds of fundraising. He said the company was receiving a lot of venture capital interest and would possibly raise more funds in the next 12 months.
The competing SDN systems mean that some investors have held back, waiting to see which players come out on top.
"It definitely looks like SDN is interesting, but it's a few years away from being mature enough for corporations to adopt it," said Rich Parower, manager of the Columbia Seligman Global Technology Fund.
Customers, too, are still unsure how to capture SDN's benefits. A third of participants in a recent Cisco survey said that "they've seen an actual SDN deployment as often as they've seen Bigfoot, Elvis or the Loch Ness Monster".
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-investors-buy-software-defined-networks-customers-150615740.html
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Tuesday, July 2, 2013
A walk in Wendy Davis? shoes
The Fine Print
Before state Sen. Wendy Davis began filibustering a restrictive abortion bill in the Texas Capitol last week, she grabbed her pink running shoes. She may need to lace them up again, because another special session of the Texas legislature is underway again this week.
?I thought maybe I might need something with a little more support, so I grabbed these on the way out the door,? Davis tells The Fine Print during an interview at her father?s small theater in Fort Worth, Texas, where she once waited tables.
?These are actually my running shoes.? They're dusty from the trail around Ladybird Lake,? she says, pointing to her Mizuno running shoes sitting on the table. Davis, a Harvard-educated attorney and single mother, wore the shoes as she stood for 11 hours and successfully blocked the passage of a bill that calls for banning abortions in Texas after 20 weeks into a pregnancy. Davis smiled when asked whether she used a catheter to avoid leaving the Senate floor, saying: ?I came prepared.?
Since the filibuster, Davis has gained national acclaim among Democrats.
?I never could have predicted the enthusiasm, the energy, the courage of people in Texas who showed up at the Capitol on Tuesday to exercise their voices in this very important conversation,? Davis says.
But she also gained some political enemies?the most prominent being Texas' Republican governor, Rick Perry, who got personal in his criticism of Davis, who became a young mother when she was 18.
"It's just unfortunate that she hasn't learned from her own example that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential and that every life matters," Perry said, alluding to Davis in a speech before a national Right to Life conference last Thursday. Perry has also called for a special session to reconsider the bill that Davis blocked, and the bill is expected to pass then.
Asked to respond to Perry?s comment, Davis says ?it's very unfortunate and sad that people's personal health and safety are at risk for his political purposes.?
?It's Rick Perry and his political aspirations, and I think [Texas voters are] growing weary of being used as a pawn in that game,? she says, referring to Texas voters.
For more of the interview with Davis, including the story of her personal journey from being a young single mother to becoming a Harvard Law trained attorney and politician, check out this episode of The Fine Print.
ABC's Arlette Saenz,?Eric Wray, Ron Ladd, Ken Collins and Dale Hancock contributed to this episode.
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