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Sunday, December 30, 2012
Saturday, December 29, 2012
BLU Products' unlocked Vivo 4.65 HD available in January for $300
Arguably the straight to DVD release of the smartphone world, BLU Product's Vivo 4.3 is getting a second act in the form of the Vivo 4.65 HD. Aside from the 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED display it's named after, this up-and-comer ships with Android 4.0, a 1.2GHz A9 dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera. If you can get past less than stellar specs -- and resist waiting for the Nexus 4 to be back in stock -- BLU's future flagship can be yours outright for $300 sometime in January.
Continue reading BLU Products' unlocked Vivo 4.65 HD available in January for $300
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/YE2GmlfZxA0/
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Texas Tech rallies to beat Minnesota 34-31
HOUSTON (AP) ? D.J. Johnson returned an interception 39 yards and Ryan Bustin made a 28-yard field goal as time expired to give Texas Tech a 34-31 comeback victory over Minnesota on Friday night in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.
Seth Doege found Eric Ward on a short pass, and he outran a defender for a 35-yard scoring play to pull the Red Raiders even at 31 with just more than a minute remaining.
Michael Carter intercepted two of Doege's passes in the fourth quarter before the tying score, but Minnesota couldn't convert either of the turnovers into points.
The Red Raiders (8-5) got their third straight bowl win to wrap up a month that began with coach Tommy Tuberville's abrupt departure for the job at Cincinnati. Texas Tech has hired Kliff Kingsbury to replace him, but interim coach Chris Thomsen led the team against Minnesota (6-7). Kingsbury was at the game, watching from a suite.
Doege threw for 271 yards and a touchdown and ran for another score in front of a crowd that included 1977 Heisman Trophy winner Earl Campbell and former Tech coach Spike Dykes.
Philip Nelson threw for 138 yards and two scores for the Gophers, who were in a bowl game for the first time since 2009.
The Red Raiders returned to a bowl after having their 18-season bowl streak snapped last year.
A 1-yard touchdown pass from Nelson to Drew Goodger gave Minnesota a 31-24 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Texas Tech led 24-17 at halftime, but couldn't do anything offensively in the second half until the last couple of minutes. It was an ugly game for the Red Raiders, who had 13 penalties for 135 yards and lost the tight end Jace Amaro when he was ejected for throwing a punch.
Jakeem Grant ran for what was initially ruled a touchdown for Tech late in the third quarter. Amaro threw a punch at Derrick Wells in the end zone on the play and was ejected.
After the penalty, the play was reviewed and overturned. Doege threw an incomplete pass before Tech made a 32-yard field goal. But the Red Raiders had a false start penalty on the play and had to kick again and this time the Gophers blocked it.
Nelson threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Devin Crawford-Tufts, who was left uncovered in the end zone, to tie it at 24 early in the third quarter.
Donnell Kirkwood scored on a 3-yard run to leave Minnesota up 17-14 early in the second quarter.
Texas Tech had a first-and-goal at the Minnesota 2 after a pass-interference call on the Gophers. But Texas Tech had to settle for a field goal after a rush for a 3-yard loss and two penalties.
Minnesota's next drive started out well before turning ugly. The Gophers had made two first downs before Gray was sacked for a loss of seven yards. Kirkwood ran for 17 yards on the next play, but Minnesota received two 15-yard penalties on the play, one for a personal foul on lineman Zac Epping, to make it second-and-42. Epping received a second personal foul penalty on the next play to bring up third-and-49.
Christian Eldred shanked the punt, giving Texas Tech the ball at the Minnesota 42.
The Red Raiders capitalized on their great field position when Doege spun away from a defender in the backfield and leaped over another Gopher near the goal line on a 4-yard touchdown run. Tech converted a fourth-and-6 play on that drive, and led 24-17 at halftime.
Minnesota's Rodrick Williams Jr. scored on a 2-yard run to give the Gophers a 10-7 lead in the first quarter.
Doege lost his helmet on a 5-yard scramble on Tech's next drive and had to go out for one play. He was replaced by Michael Brewer, who found Derreck Edwards for a 13-yard touchdown pass to give the Red Raiders a 14-10 lead.
Minnesota's Troy Stoudermire returned the opening kickoff 26 yards to break the NCAA record for career kickoff return yards. He finished the game with 111 yards to push his total to 3,615.
The Gophers ended that drive with a 41-yard field goal to make it 3-0.
Texas Tech's Grant returned the ensuing kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown to put Texas Tech up 7-3.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-tech-rallies-beat-minnesota-34-31-060522585--spt.html
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Win a $10 Google Play Gift Card because it's Dec. 28!
So we're kind of starting to wind down this contest a little bit. We say "kind of" because we're actually a week or so behind, and we're going to make up for that before the end of the year.
Anyway, here we are again, with another $10 Google Play Gift Card to give away. It's one of 31 that we're awarding, and remember that all 31 winners -- one for each day in December -- will be entered to win a new Nexus 4, which is sitting here on our desk, unopened, waiting for a good home.
What hoop shall we have you jump through today? Hows about this: Name, in reverse chronological order, the last three smartphones you owned. If you've owned less than that, it's cool. Hell, we envy you a little bit. Just tell us what you've had. We'll pick a winner at random and bestow upon you $10 worth of free apps, music, movies, magazines or TV shows.
Good luck!
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/8qre9Bb_3Ts/story01.htm
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2012 iMore editors choice awards
iMore honors the very best iOS devices and features, news and events, apps and accessories of 2012
They're what change the way you have fun and get things done. What make you replace what's in your pocket, in your lap, on your Home screen, in your workflow, and on your mind. What challenges your preconceptions, has you instantly forget what came before, and make it impossible to imagine how you'd do without them. They're the devices, events, apps, and games that affected us the most, and they're our 2012 editors choice award winners.
Device of the year: iPhone 5
The iPhone 5 was rebuilt from casing to processor. With an all-new, aluminum unibody, a 4-inch in-cell display, international LTE, and Apple's first custom designed system-on-a-chip, the Apple A6, it's not only the best phone of 2012, it's the best phone ever made.
Story of the year: Tim Cook's Apple
Some years it's one single event, one person, one thing, that stands out from all the rest. Other years it's an overarching theme that ties many disparate threads together, and that what stands out. This year is one of those years. From stock price to hirings and firings, from an unprecedented amount of new products to huge black eye from new mapping data, from winning billions from Samsung in the U.S. to losing dignity from the courts in the U.K, it's Apple in its first year under Tim Cook that's our story of 2012.
- Tim Cook's Apple
- The normalization of Apple
- The past, present, and future of Apple
- Tim Cook writes open letter to customers concerning iOS 6 Maps
Failure of the year: Apple online services
It would be easy to point the finger at iOS 6 Maps as being the single biggest point of failure for Apple this year. But they're merely a symptom of a much larger problem -- Apple's online services. Unlike Apple's hardware and software, which have been relentlessly improved over the years, there's little outward evidence that their services architecture has received anywhere near the same level of attention. Indeed, repeated Siri, iMessage, Game Center, and iCloud failures suggest the opposite. As Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and other competitors continue to roll out more and better cloud features, moving to a modern, extensible, scalable online system is increasingly critical for Apple.
- The future of Siri and Apple's services
- No skin in the Game Center
- Why iOS 6 is more about Apple than new user features
iPhone social app of the year: Twitterrific 5
Twitterrific predates the App Store, and has gone through several major revisions over the years, re-inventing itself several times. Twitterrific 5 is no exception. With a modern design as blacked-out as the iPhone 5, delightful Ollie-to-refresh animation, and shocking speed, renewed focus on core features, and remarkable perseverance in the face of Twitter's growing client-app hostility, Twitterrific 5 and the Iconfactory showed that even the oldest of birds can learn new tricks.
- Twitterrific 5 review
- Iterate 35: Gedeon Maheux, David Lanham and Twitterrific 5
- $2.99 on sale - Download now
iPad social app of the year: Tweetglass
Tweetglass, n?e Quip, is a decidedly conversational twist on on the Twitter timeline. It shows the advantage Twitter gains by exposing an API for developers to build just exactly these kinds of speciality clients, something you don't see with Facebook or Google+ apps. Or at least it did, since Twitter is now intent on ending just exactly these kinds of speciality clients. We'll likely see innovation move to app.net, but sadly not at the same scale, at least not for a long while.
iPhone utility of the year: Launch Center Pro
"Launch actions not apps" is what App Cubby's Launch Center Pro promises and -- within the confines of Apple's no-intents, no-contracts, no-nothing-but-URL-schemes restrictions -- is exactly what it delivers. With a tap, Launch Center Pro not only allows you to get to your most-used apps, but to specific things within those apps, like new events or messages. Coordinating all the URL schemes with other developers can't have been easy, but from concept to execution, especially after Apple pulled URL schemes from Settings, Launch Center Pro makes it feel easy. Launch Center Pro has made its way onto many a geek Dock this year, and deservedly so.
iPad utility of the year: 1Password 4
As good as 1Password is for keeping all your secrets accessible and secure on your iPhone, as tablets take over more and more of our casual computing time, it's become just as important on the iPad. And since the new version, 1Password 4, is a universal app, and supports seamless integration with Dropbox and iCloud, the whole is now even better than the sum of the parts. With a new, simplified design, support for favorites and folders, and a fully-featured, tabbed browser, 1Password has become all but indispensable.
- 1Password for iOS preview
- Debug 4: Dave Teare and 1Password
- $7.99 on sale - Download now
iPhone productivity app of the year: Fantastical for iPhone
If you need evidence that Apple execs don't keep their own schedules, simply launch a built-in Calendar app and the case is closed. Rather than simply bemoan that fact, however, Flexibits chose to reverse-Sherlock Apple and release Fantastical. With natural language input and slick, bi-directional scrolling for lookup, Fantastical lets you get your events and appointments into, and out of, your iPhone calendar more quickly and easily than ever before.
iPad productivity app of the year: Diet Coda
Panic's Coda is a powerhouse on the Mac, combining code editing, preview, FTP, and more into one, integrated, web development app. Diet Coda is a brilliant distillation that, through tough choices, brings as much of that functionality to the iPad as possible. You probably won't be able to create your web presence on Diet Coda, but for quick fingered bug fixes on-the-go, or for Bluetooth keyboard-power code sprints on the road, Diet Coda is damn near perfect.
Reading app of the year: The Magazine
Surprise, surprise. It took an indie iOS developer -- albeit it a brilliant one in Marco Arment -- to show traditional media companies how to make a great Newsstand app. A universal app, it supports both iPhone and iPad, and unlike many of those traditional apps, The Magazine actually works just as well, if not better, on the go and on the smaller screen. With a fortnightly release schedule, highly efficient format, elegant design, and beyond professional content, The Magazine serves as a blueprint for digital authenticity and modern publishing alike.
Education app of the year: Wonders of the Universe
Wonders of the universe is a phenomenal educational tool that has the perfect mix of video, images, text, and hands-on interaction. On the surface you have Professor Brian Cox -- a particle physicist, Royal Society research fellow, and professor at the University of Manchester -- taking you on a guided tour of the cosmos. Beneath the surface you have some incredibly clever coding and an amazing presentation engine that makes you feel like you're gliding across space, staring across the stars.
- Hold the Solar System in your hands with Brian Cox's Wonders of the Universe for iPad
- $5.99 - Download now
Music app of the year: Figure
Not quite a musical instrument and not quite a toy, Propellerhead Software's Figure occupies a magical sweet spot in-between. Experienced musicians will appreciate the relative depth of options, but anyone can pick up Figure and create something listenable in minutes. With its gorgeous UI, abstracted away from the skeuomorphic knobs and dials that plague so many iOS music apps, Propellerhead seems to have a vision for the future of music that begins with empowering and encouraging everyone to create.
- $0.99 - Download now
Photography app of the year: Camera+
Camera+ has always been an exceptional photography app, but with this year's release of Camera+ 3, it got even better. With an improved interface, focus and exposure locks, improved sharing, improved performance, and much more, Camera+ helps you become the awesome mobile photographer you're meant to be. And if you use both an iPhone and iPad, you photos will sync between your devices over iCloud so that you can take your photos on your iPhone then edit on your iPad. Camera+ is how iOS photography was meant to be done.
$0.99 - iPhone - Download now
$0.99 - iPad - Download now
Kids app of the year: Little Fox Music Box
Little Fox Music Box is a interactive music and sing-along app for kids that includes three songs: London Bridge, Evening Song, and Old Mac Donald. With each song, there is a scene that's related to the theme of the song. Each of these scenes is filled with artwork and animations that your child can interact with. There are very little things on the screen that don't react to touch making Little Fox Music Box a toddler's dream app. It's also great for parents to interact with their child at the same time by identifying objects and animals and prompting their child to tap specific things.
Puzzle game of the year: Letterpress
Providing proof positive that talented indie devs can code circles around even the biggest, best software houses on the planet, Loren Brichter's Letterpress instantly made every other word game on every platform look outdated and inelegant by comparison. From it's clean, crisp look and delightful animations, to it's simple, engaging audio, to its Game Center-toppling friend-vs-friend gaming dynamic, Letterpress is perfect from pixel to bit.
Action game of the year: Dead Trigger
Dead Trigger, as run-and-gun zombie-genre first person shooters go, is unabashedly cheesy, chock-full of snappy one-liners, and over-the-top non-player characters. The graphics are the real showstopper though - you will be hard-pressed to find more disgusting walking dead anywhere else on a phone or tablet. The graphics are awesome. Lighting is rich and dynamic, 3D models are stunning, and there are plenty of graphical effects like water droplets complete with visual distortion, lens flare, and fog. It's the kind of game you show off almost as much as you play.
RPG of the year: Battleloot Adventure
While the classic RPG mechanics are a familiar sight, there are a few real-time twists on the turn-based combat that keeps players on their toes. The cardboard cutout art style is definitive and unique - the big bobble-heads, as goofy as they are, really grow on you. Between weapons, armor, equipment, talent, and hero selection, the amount of customization is absolutely great. All in all, Battleloot Adventures provides a fine mix of old mechanics and new twists; lighthearted art style and deep gameplay.
- Battleloot Adventure for iPhone and iPad review
- $0.99 - iPhone - Download for iPhone
- $0.99 - iPad - Download for iPad
Racing game of the year: Super Hexagon
Super Hexagon is an intense and obscenely difficult abstract puzzle game with an awesome 8-bit soundtrack. By tapping and holding left and right sides of the screen, you move a small triangle around a stationary hexagon to avoid getting squished by lines and shapes that drift inwards. Sounds easy right? Well, the speed, randomness, and continually shifting colors, perspectives, and shapes may give you more than you bargained for.
- $0.99 - Download Now
Strategy game of the year: Devil's Attorney
Devil's Attorney revolves around a skeezy lawyer in the '70s called Max McMann. With twists logic and befuddling charisma, he dismantles lawsuits against shady characters, earns a profit, and decks out his apartment in the gaudiest things you could imagine. The game has a cartoony, colorful art style, and excellent voice acting that fully conveys McMann's sleaze and depravity. The game mechanics are also solid. Every round in the court room, action points are spent on abilities like "Reverse Psychology" to reduce the credibility of evidence, lawyers, and witnesses. Home decor enhances materialism, decadence and vanity scores to unlock new abilities.
- $2.99 - Download Now
Readers choice awards
How did your picks vary from ours? Check out iMore's 2012 readers choice awards and find out!
Leanna Lofte, Simon Sage, and Dave Wiskus contributed picks and write-ups for this article.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/ZGL9rmrx0Q0/story01.htm
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Netflix CEO gets pay bump after 2012 cut
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Netflix CEO Reed Hastings' pay will double to $4 million next year, after he took a pay cut due to management missteps this year.
Hastings' annual salary will rise to $2 million in 2013 and he will get $2 million in stock options, according to a securities filing Friday.
That's up from a salary of $500,000 and $1.5 million in stock options for 2012.
Hastings' total pay for 2012 was down 43 percent from $3.5 million in 2011, when some controversial decisions, including a steep price hike on subscriptions, sent the stock spiraling. It fell from a high above $300 to a low below $70 per share.
This year, shares are up 29 percent, closing Friday at $89.33. Recovering from the missteps, the company expects to add around 5 million U.S. subscribers, to between 26.4 million and 27.1 million by the end of the year.
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Charles Durning: 1923-2012
Charles Durning, the real-life war hero and dependable character actor who appeared in The Sting, Tootsie and most recently as Denis Leary's father on the firefighter drama Rescue Me, died Monday in his New York City home. He was 89.
Judith Moss, Durning's friend and agent of more than three decades, said that?the actor died of natural causes on Christmas Eve.
In a rare feat, Durning earned back-to-back supporting actor Oscar nominations in 1983-84. After being signaled out for playing a comically corrupt governor in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, he received another nom for his work as?a blundering?Nazi colonel in To Be or Not to Be, starring Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft.
His other memorable movie roles included playing Dustin Hoffman?s surprised suitor in Sydney Pollack's classic comedy Tootsie (1982). He was a frazzled police lieutenant in Dog Day Afternoon (1975), the U.S. president in Twilight?s Last Gleaming (1977) and a formidable monsignor in Mass Appeal (1984).
He also appeared in two Coen brothers films: The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000).
Long active on the stage, Durning won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Big Daddy in the Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1990.
Also that year, he captured a Golden Globe for his role as ?Honey Fitz? Fitzgerald in the miniseries The Kennedys of Massachusetts, based on the book by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
He was nominated for nine Emmys, most recently for outstanding guest actor in a drama series for FX's Rescue Me.
Durning served as a regular on the?Linda Bloodworth-Thomason sitcom Evening Shade, having previously played with that series' star, Burt Reynolds, in the films Starting Over (1979) and Best Little Whorehouse. The show ran 1990-94 on CBS. He also did voice work for Family Guy and had a recurring role as a priest on Everybody Loves Raymond.
Resembling what one might envision as a grizzled cop, Durning excelled in congenial everyman roles and was a familiar character actor, if not a household name. With his stocky frame, he played Santa Claus five times in TV movies, often invigorating the ?ho-ho? hum character with a curt edge.
He had a role in?Scavenger Killers, a crime thriller scheduled to open next year starring Eric Roberts?and?Robert Loggia.
The second youngest of five children,?Durning was born Feb. 28, 1923, in Highland Falls, N.Y. The son of an Army officer, he took classical dance lessons as a youth. Following high school, he served in the Army?s 1st Infantry Division during World War II. Durning took part in the Normandy invasion of France on?D-Day, winning the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts.
After his military discharge, he held several jobs: elevator operator, ironworker, cab driver, dance instructor, boxer. He fought on the same card as another future actor, Jack Warden, in New York's Madison Square Garden.?
While working as an usher in a burlesque joint, Durning was hired to replace a drunken actor onstage. He plowed into his new calling, performing in roughly 50 Brooklyn stock company productions and in various off-Broadway plays.
He attracted the attention of Joseph Papp: Beginning in 1962, Durning appeared in 35 plays as part of the New York Shakespeare Festival. During this period, he segued into TV, notching a stint as a police chief on the NBC soap opera Another World.
Durning made his film debut in 1965, playing in Harvey Middleman, Fireman. He also appeared in Brian De Palma?s Hi, Mom! (1971), credited as Charles Durnham.
In 1972, director George Roy Hill, impressed by his performance in the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning That Championship Season, offered Durning a role in The Sting. In the Oscar best picture winner starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, Durning won distinction as a crooked cop.
His other film credits include Dick Tracy (1990) and V.I. Warshawski (1991).
On TV, Durning brought a beatific countenance to a number of exalted roles, including playing the pope in the 1987 telefilm I Would be Called John: Pope John XXIII. He starred as the title officer in the 1975-76 series The Cop and the Kid, played the title character?s dad in the 1979 miniseries Studs Lonigan and was a private eye in the 1985 series Eye to Eye.
Durning also shined as a domineering industrialist in the 1989 telefilm Dinner at Eight, a role made famous by Wallace Beery in the 1933 film. He starred as a postman opposite lonely widow Maureen Stapleton in the wonderful Queen of the Stardust Ballroom in 1975 and played a baseball legend in 1981's Casey Stengel.
Among Durning's many other acclaimed Broadway performances were as Weller Martin in The Gin Game opposite Julie Harris, as Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit the Wind with George C. Scott and as ex-President Arthur Hockstader in Gore Vidal?s The Best Man.
In 2008, the Screen Actors Guild gave Durning its Life Achievement Award, and he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, right next to one for his idol, James Cagney.
Survivors include his daughters Michele and Jeanine and a son, Douglas, all of New York.?A private family service will be held and burial will be at Arlington National Cemetery.
The family invites friends and family to contribute to the Wounded Warrior Project, whose mission is to raise awareness and enlist the public's aid for the needs of injured service members; to help injured service members aid and assist each other; and to provide programs and services to meet the needs of injured service members. Durning was a regular supporter.
Mike Barnes contributed to this report.
? ? ?Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1926555/news/1926555/
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Community College Funding Shrinks, For-Profit Enrollment Grows: Treasury Report
A report released this month by the U.S. Treasury Department shows a correlation between state budget cuts to community colleges over the past decade and a growth in enrollment at for-profit colleges.
The report, titled "The Economics of Higher Education," examined both employment and income characteristics of Americans who attain some form of a post-secondary education alongside funding and tuition costs at public and private colleges.
The report notes that more high school students are graduating and going on to colleges and universities. Most attend public schools, many with shrinking state funding, which puts added pressure on community colleges:
Community colleges are highly dependent on state funding since, unlike four-year, public schools, they do not have diversified revenue sources such as hospitals, endowments, or research grants. While enrollments have been increasing, state support per student has remained relatively flat. In 2009, community colleges received approximately $6,450 per FTE (full-time equivalent) student, only slightly higher than the $6,210 in 1999,
According to the report, the funding decline for public colleges and universities bottomed out in 2005, then slightly increased before dropping again in 2008.
Because of the budget squeeze, community colleges are pushed to either raise tuition or or to limit class size, and often choose the latter, leading to a correlating spike in for-profit college enrollment. According to the report, community colleges are "more likely to serve low-income and first-generation student populations than four-year schools, and these students now constitute the bulk of the student population at for-profit schools."
For their part, for-profit colleges are targeting these low-income students in their marketing and recruitment efforts, court documents revealed earlier this year.
At the for-profits, students are more likely to default on their student loans and struggle to find work, compared to their counterparts at public colleges. The average graduation rate at for-profit colleges is unimpressive, often falling below 30 percent, compared to public and private non-profits with graduation rates above 65 percent.
Despite these dismal figures, the number of students attending for-profit colleges grew from 200,000 students in the late 1980s to nearly 2 million students today, representing 9 percent of all higher education enrollment, the report found.
The continued success of for-profits could be because the "college wage gap" is as wide as ever, since it was first estimated in 1915. The report notes college graduates in 2012 are statistically fully employed and make 64 percent more than those with just a high school diploma. Without a college degree, children born to families at the lowest income level have a 45 percent chance of remaining at that level, but they are more likely to earn more with a greater degree of education.
From the report:
Also on HuffPost:
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/26/community-college-for-profit_n_2340958.html
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Doing the Lindy for fun and exercise in Moscow
A forbidden cultural import during the cold war, American swing dance and rock 'n' roll are now seeing a jump in popularity among Russians who embrace the retro Americana.
Pavel Sotnikov (r.) and his teammates take to the dance floor at an informal Friday night dance competition in Moscow.
Ann T?rnkvist
EnlargeAs teenagers during the Soviet era, Sergey and Lyudmila Gubarev used to copy American-inspired songs onto cassette tapes that then made the rounds among their friends. The music on the tapes, spanning from the 1940s onward, offered them a peek through the Iron Curtain that closed off Western cultural imports.
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Today, they still love the same American tunes, but it is not such a clandestine affair.
Sergey and Lyudmila, now both 40, dance swing and the Lindy Hop to keep ?young and fit.? And they?re far from alone. Dance instructor Olga Moiseeva says she has seen a tenfold hike in the number of Muscovites wanting to twist and shake. Ten years ago, only three pupils would show up to one of her classes. Nowadays she arranges Lindy-Hop parties that draw hundreds of dancers.
"The Lindy Hop is about freedom," Ms. Moiseeva says. "And the music is fantastic. But it's about more than the dance, it's about taking classes, competing and, for some, about the cars and the fashion." A burgundy skirt, discrete pumps, and a champagne-colored rose in her wavy hair sets the glamorous Moiseeva apart from her students during a weeknight beginners' class. But once dancers are ready to compete, they ramp it up in the style stakes.
Muscovites going retro
It's Friday night. The air smells of hairspray. Gym bags line the room ? a rehearsal space on the second floor of an anonymous theater just outside Moscow's city center ? where about 50 dancers are getting ready. A group of women apply fake eyelashes by a floor-to-ceiling mirror while a young man adjusts a white tie over his black shirt. "A lot of people are inspired by American '40s and '50s culture and want to express that," says the evening's emcee, Nasdiya Murashko, clad in a navy-blue sailor dress with a wide A-line skirt.
Upstairs, in the dance hall, Pavel Sotnikov is getting ready to compete in a getup of tight jeans and a checkered shirt. His passion is early rock 'n' roll, but tonight it is all about the boogie-woogie. "This music wasn't very popular before, but there are more and more people discovering it, and there's more of a general interest in retro culture than five years ago," Mr. Sotnikov says.
A few competitors have already performed when Sotnikov and his three partners enter the dance floor. The music starts, and the quartet doesn't have a single step out of beat. The audience rewards them with thunderous cheers as the music wraps up, and the dancers throw kisses in the air in all directions.
"Sure, we might win," says a sweaty and elated Sotnikov, "but it doesn't matter. These people are my friends, I want to feel that sense of community with the audience."
Act follows act as the competition continues, mixing high and low, but mostly the competitors stick to the swing and Lindy Hop.
Taking it on the road
As the evening draws to a close, Sotnikov and his teammates are crowned winners. Yet their sights are already set on the next target ? dance camps abroad.
"I'm in the habit of taking two weeks off every year to dance, usually a week in Sweden and the second week somewhere else. That's when I get to meet people from all over the world, which is the best thing about this scene," says Sotnikov.
He won't be going alone. The tiny town of Herr?ng in central Sweden is legendary in retro dance circles for its annual festival. "At this point we?re almost famous in Herr?ng," says one dancer, Oleg Rusakov. Like most middle-aged dancers in attendance, his fascination for Western pop culture began with furtive tape exchanges in the Soviet Union.
Roman Molkhanov, 24, is of another generation. He and his group of young dancers have traveled to Moscow from Tula, 120 miles south of the capital. Their eyes are also set on the Swedish dance camp. "We really want to go to Herr?ng. We don't have a lot of money but we're working hard to save up money to go."
Lindy-Hop instructor Moiseeva says Herr?ng is a nice change for Russian dancers. "It's a surprise for them, because we don't really have a dance culture in Russia ? we sit and sing more than we get up and dance ? so Herr?ng is light-hearted and fun for us. I try to copy Herr?ng here at my dance studio."
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/zQodjuxPS7U/Doing-the-Lindy-for-fun-and-exercise-in-Moscow
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Asus G75VW-DH72
Gaming prowess rarely comes cheap, but that doesn't mean it can't at least be affordable. The Asus G75VW-DH72 gaming laptop may offer pricing and performance well below what tricked out systems like the Eurocom Scorpius can offer, but when stacked against mid-range gaming systems like the Alienware M17x R4, it still holds its own, getting you on the gaming grid for under two grand.
Design and Features
While previous incarnations of Asus' Republic of Gamers line have emulated stealth fighter jets and naval vessels, the G75VW's design is a little more conservative, especially for a gaming machine. It's not as slim as the Razer Blade (2012), by any means. The laptop is still large, measuring 2.0 by 16.3 by 12.6 inches (HWD), but has changed up the look a bit, adding metal accents around the keyboard and across the speaker grille, which break up the imposing all-matte-black look seen in designs past. The result is a gaming rig that looks almost professional. Now, don't misunderstand, at 8.7 pounds (10.9 with the power brick) you won't be lugging this laptop to and from work, but it wouldn't look completely out of place in an office environment.
Despite the conservative look, the gaming DNA is still there. The back end of the G75VW is dominated by large cooling vents, and Asus' designs are tweaked to keep the system cool but quiet, grouping the heat generating components toward the back of the system. The chiclet keyboard sits at a slight slope, but is otherwise competent, providing a shallow but firm key movement. The touchpad is the same high-quality touchpad found on the Asus G75VW-DS71, but with the shift to Windows 8, Asus has also added some gesture support for Windows 8-specific controls. A swipe from the right edge of the touchpad pulls up the Charms Bar, while a three-fingered swipe down cycles through open apps. Pinch and zoom and two-finger scrolling aren't new additions, but they take on new importance in the absence of a touchscreen.
You may not be touching the screen, but the 17.3-inch display is still bright and sharp, with 1920-by-1080 resolution providing 1080p whether you're playing Skyrim or watching The Dark Knight on Blu-ray. The sound is also pretty good (as tested with the new trailer for The Man of Steel), staying clear at high volumes and providing a fair amount of bass thanks to an integrated subwoofer.
In addition to a Blu-ray/DVD combo drive, the Asus G75VW is outfitted with four USB 3.0 ports (one with power for charging devices), Gigabit Ethernet, a 3-in-1 card reader (SDHC, MMC, MS), and jacks for headphone and microphone. You also get several options for video connectivity, with HDMI, VGA, and mini DisplayPort outputs. Wireless connections provide 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
The G75VW-DH72 pairs a 750GB spinning hard drive with a separate 256GB solid-state drive (SSD), letting you shift bulk data storage to the hard drive while keeping programs on the SSD for optimum performance. Included on the drive are Microsoft Office Starter 2010, a 60-day trial of Trend Micro Antivirus, Adobe Reader X, and Asus' Application Suite, which includes 3GB of free cloud backup with Asus WebStorage. Asus covers the G75VW-DH72 with a two-year warranty, but also includes a full-year of additional accidental damage coverage, 24/7 tech support, and 30-day "Zero Bright Dot" warranty on the display panel.
Performance
The Asus G75VW-DH72 is outfitted with a 2.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-3630QM processor with 16GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 670M with 3GB of dedicated VRAM. The combination is potent?in Cinebench R11.5, the processor scored 6.44 points, outperforming both the Alienware M17x R4 (6.19 points) and the MSI GT70 0NE-276US (6.23 points), but falling behind both the Razer Blade (6.86) and the Eurocom Scorpius (7.29). The Asus G75VW-DH72 also made short work of our multimedia tests, completing our Handbrake video encoding test in 36 seconds, and Photoshop CS6 in 3 minutes 32 seconds.
Perhaps more important than general performance is how the G75VW-DH72 does with games. In Aliens vs. Predator, it racked up a respectable 55 frames per second (fps) at medium detail settings and 1,366-by-768 resolution, but dropped to a less than playable 18 fps when resolution was dialed up to 1,920-by-1,080. When tested with Heaven, however, it scored 70 fps at medium settings and a nearly playable 28 fps at 1080p. While you won't be able to go all out with the detail settings on high-end games, you will still see excellent performance on even the most demanding games, provided you back off on the eye-candy a bit.
The Asus G75VW-DH72 also did well in battery tests, lasting 3 hours and two minutes in our battery rundown test. While not even long enough to make it through a screening of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, it's still pretty decent performance for a gaming laptop. Few laptops pass the three hour mark, with one of the few exceptions being the portability minded Razer Blade, which still only lasted 3 hours 53 minutes when tested with MobileMark 2006, our previous battery test.
As a decently priced mid-range gaming laptop, the Asus G75VW-DH72 offers great performance at an affordable price, letting you enjoy top of the line games (albeit with middle of the road graphics performance) for far less than a tricked out high-end system. It's an affordable option to the Alienware M17X R4, and as such, replaces it for our Editors' Choice mid-range gaming laptop.
BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:
COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Asus G75VW-DH72 with several other laptops side by side.
More laptop reviews:
??? Asus G75VW-DH72
??? Toshiba Satellite U845W-S430
??? Panasonic Toughbook CF-53
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/ntFL6jQla60/0,2817,2413469,00.asp
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Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Wis. man's Little Free Library copied worldwide
HUDSON, Wis. (AP) ? It started as a simple tribute to his mother, a teacher and bibliophile. Todd Bol put up a miniature version of a one-room schoolhouse on a post outside his home in this western Wisconsin city, filled it with books and invited his neighbors to borrow them.
They loved it, and began dropping by so often that his lawn became a gathering spot. Then a friend in Madison put out some similar boxes and got the same reaction. More home-crafted libraries began popping up around Wisconsin's capital.
Three years later, the whimsical boxes are a global sensation. They number in the thousands and have spread to at least 36 countries, in a testimonial to the power of a good idea, the simple allure of a book and the wildfire of the internet.
"It's weird to be an international phenomenon," said Bol, a former international business consultant who finds himself at the head of what has become the Little Free Libraries organization. The book-sharing boxes are being adopted by a growing number of groups as a way of promoting literacy in inner cities and underdeveloped countries.
Bol, his Madison friend Rick Brooks, and helpers run the project from a funky workshop with a weathered wood facade in an otherwise nondescript concrete industrial building outside Hudson, a riverside community of 12,000 about 20 miles east of downtown St. Paul, Minn. They build wooden book boxes in a variety of styles, ranging from basic to a miniature British-style phone booth, and offer them for sale on the group's website, which also offers plans for building your own. Sizes vary. The essential traits are that they are eye-catching and protect the books from the weather.
Each little library invites passersby to "take a book, return a book."
Educators in particular have seized on the potential of something so simple and self-sustaining.
In Minneapolis, school officials are aiming to put up about 100 in neighborhoods where many kids don't have books at home. A box at district headquarters goes through 40 books a day, serving children whose parents come to register them and adults who come to prepare for high school equivalency tests.
"I absolutely love them," said Melanie Sanco, the district's point person on the effort. "It sparks the imagination. You see them around and you want one. ... They're cute and adorable." Kids who have books stay in school longer, she said.
Bol and Brooks, who runs outreach programs at the University of Wisconsin, see the potential for a lot more growth. At one point, they set a goal of 2,510 boxes ? surpassing the number of public libraries built by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. They passed that mark this summer.
The Rotary Club plans to use the book boxes in its literacy efforts in the west African nation of Ghana. Books for Africa, a Minnesota-based group that has sent over 27 million books to 48 countries since 1988, recently decided to ship books and little libraries to Ghana, too.
The groups are working with Antoinette Ashong, a pro-literacy activist and headmistress of a girls' school in the capital of Accra. "I want to spread reading in Africa, which is a problem because in Africa it is very, very difficult to get books to read," Ashong said in a Skype interview. She has already put up 45 boxes in poor neighborhoods.
Most of the nonprofit's money comes from sale of pre-built little libraries, which cost from $250 to $600, and a $25 fee to register a library on the organization's web site. The AARP Foundation has also provided a $70,000 grant as part of a new program to provide book boxes for seniors and kids to read to them.
Bol and Brooks recently began drawing paychecks after several years of work as volunteers. Bol, the full-time executive director, said he hopes to earn $60,000 a year eventually, but added, "we're not there yet." The group will remain a nonprofit, Bol said, but they want to develop stable revenue streams and management systems so it can continue to grow.
"We are working very hard to get close to making it financially viable, but it will be a while," Brooks said. "What's encouraging is that every day people call us and they have the most clever, interesting and sometimes moving ideas."
Sage Holben, who put up a Little Free Library in her tough neighborhood near downtown St. Paul, said she thinks it has made a positive difference. Although crime and violence are common on the block, no one has vandalized the box or stolen the books, and she routinely sees kids exploring the contents. She said she asked one 8-year-old neighbor if she really intended to read a romance novel she had taken.
The girl told her no, Holben said, but ran her finger over the words as if following the text.
"I do this and I feel like I'm smart," the girl said.
___
Online:
Little Free Libraries: http://www.littlefreelibrary.org
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wis-mans-little-free-library-copied-worldwide-181702969.html
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Saturday, December 22, 2012
i want to be a boxer
imano? Threads: 10
Posts: 40
Joined: Feb 19, 12 ??? ?Yesterday, 17:26 ? ? #
i have had dreams of being a boxer since i was like 12. but i'm not sure if i can succeed in Poland. is this a big sport in here?
it can start as amateur, cause now i study but who knows, maybe it'll be the most successful thing for me.
i like fighting (not like violence and being a jerk) for sport and boxing has been my dream, but i don't know how to start this in Poland...Wroclaw ;)
if this helps. i'm 187cm and weigh 86kg :D. good features i guess. but i have no fighting experience, i just have this feeling i can beat anybody,
ever those drug-induced-muscular guys i see in town. haha..joking. but all i'm trying to say is i love this sport and i'm not afraid ;)
any ideas?
This silly african is gonna get himself battered lol.
I wish I was in Poland for a few hours.
Posts: 40
Joined: Feb 19, 12 ??? Edited by: imano ?Yesterday, 18:01 ? ? #
thanks a lot @gumishu ;)
Maybe? Threads: 7
Posts: 351
Joined: Dec 16, 08 ??? ?Yesterday, 18:32 ? ? #
imano:
i just have this feeling i can beat anybodyAh..youth....
imano? Threads: 10
Posts: 40
Joined: Feb 19, 12 ??? ?Yesterday, 18:47 ? ? #
it's called "confidence" which some people lack ;). hehe...i'm not afraid ;)...get it?
?Yesterday, 19:28 ? ? #
imano:
but i have no fighting experienceimano:
i just have this feeling i can beat anybody,imano:
it's called "confidenceIts called stupidity. You are from Ghana, where the average iq is 68.
Figures.
Posts: 2,960
Joined: May 20, 10 ??? Edited by: zetigrek ?Yesterday, 19:35 ? ? #
I heard that one of Klitchko brothers was training in Poland in the 80s I believe.
Edit.
Yup, Witalij, for a year, in 1988 to be exact. But he was training kick boxing back then.
Posts: 40
Joined: Feb 19, 12 ??? ?Yesterday, 19:49 ? ? #
i heard much about that Klitchko guy...he must be really good. a legend, just like we have Azumah in Africa from Ghana. Ali and all the others. they inspire me so much!
zetigrek? Threads: 65
Posts: 2,960
Joined: May 20, 10 ??? ?Yesterday, 19:50 ? ? #
imano:
i heard much about that Klitchko guyActually there is two of them.
imano:
hehe...i'm not afraidthen youre gonna get knocked out.
are you going to learn Polish in a month too?
Posts: 40
Joined: Feb 19, 12 ??? ?Yesterday, 19:58 ? ? #
well if i get knocked-out, the most important thing for me is getting back up the day after to continue :))
i know basic polish. general speaking polish is not a problem for me ;)
Posts: 663
Joined: Dec 28, 07 ???
imano:
i heard much about that Klitchko guy...he must be really good.oh you heard about the Klitchko? you must be really into boxing then...
Looks like you keep getting picked for beaing black and want to solve the problem with the fists... bad idea.
Posts: 478
Joined: Mar 26, 09 ???
Wulkan:
Looks like you keep getting picked for beaing black and want to solve the problem with the fistsNot that some people wouldnt deserve it.
imano? Threads: 10
Posts: 40
Joined: Feb 19, 12 ???
why are there so many filthy uncivilized racists here? cowards who hide behind forums and make noise. hahaa. but you guys are not worth my time ;). peace, i'm out!
Grzegorz_? Threads: 92
Posts: 6,684
Joined: Nov 16, 06 ???
Bye...
Random: Polish lessons for English conversations (English native person)
Only registered and logged-in users may post here. Please log in on the main page or register.
Source: http://www.polishforums.com/sports-recreation-15/want-boxer-63755/
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Liver mitochondria improve, increase after chronic alcohol feeding in mice
Dec. 20, 2012 ? Scientists at the Keck School of Medicine of USC have found evidence that liver mitochondria in mice adapt to become better metabolizers of alcohol and increase in number after chronic exposure, which may raise the potential for free radical damage associated with aging and cancer over time.
The liver is a vital organ, playing a major role in metabolism and detoxification in the body. Overconsumption of alcohol has long been tied to liver diseases such as fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis, but how the substance damages the organ is not fully understood. USC research published in the Dec. 7, 2012, issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, suggests that mitochondria play an important role in the liver's response to the metabolic stress caused by alcohol intake. If scientists observe the same results in human mitochondria, it could help pinpoint targets for therapy.
"The liver has to adapt quickly to various toxins and drugs to meet the demands we place on the body," said Derick Han, Ph.D., assistant professor of research medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and first author of the study. "We've found that mitochondrial plasticity -- the mitochondria's ability to change -- is probably central to the liver's response to alcohol intake. This gives us a better understanding of how the liver works and how it adapts to stress."
Mitochondria are cellular organelles that generate most of the cell's energy; they have been implicated in certain neurological disorders and have been tied to aging. The metabolism of oxygen by the mitochondria normally generates reactive oxygen species, or free radicals, which in excess can be highly damaging to cells.
"In the short term, it looks like mitochondria adapt to metabolize alcohol better, but as they increase in number and use more oxygen to help metabolize that alcohol, it could be harmful to the body," Han said.
Han and his team of scientists fed alcohol to mice over four weeks, isolated the liver mitochondria and measured levels of respiration and changes in the mitochondrial structure. They found significant increases in oxygen consumption by mice fed the alcohol in comparison to control mitochondria as early as one week after feeding. Changes were greater and more extensive with higher alcohol intake.
USC co-authors include Maria Ybanez, Heather Johnson, Jeniece McDonald, Lusine Mesropyan, Harsh Sancheti, Lily Dara and Enrique Cadenas. The study's senior investigators include Hidekazu Tsukamoto, director of the Southern California Research Center for Alcoholic Liver and Pancreatic Diseases (ALPD) and Cirrhosis, and Neil Kaplowitz, director of the USC Research Center for Liver Diseases. The study was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health (grants AA016911, AA14428, and AA011999).
A team led by Kaplowitz is set to launch a four-year clinical trial in 2013 to study two potential new treatments for alcoholic hepatitis. Han hopes to collect data from that trial to further examine mitochondrial function in human livers exposed to alcohol.
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Southern California - Health Sciences. The original article was written by Alison Trinidad.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- D. Han, M. D. Ybanez, H. S. Johnson, J. N. McDonald, L. Mesropyan, H. Sancheti, G. Martin, A. Martin, A. M. Lim, L. Dara, E. Cadenas, H. Tsukamoto, N. Kaplowitz. Dynamic Adaptation of Liver Mitochondria to Chronic Alcohol Feeding in Mice: Biogenesis, Remodeling, and Functional Alterations. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2012; 287 (50): 42165 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M112.377374
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/YAC30c5QFVE/121221114112.htm
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Shelving expectations for blessings beyond imagination : Buckner ...
By Lauren Hollon Sturdy
When Jason and Nikki Waligura first took the plunge into adoption, they had no idea what lay at the end of their long journey.
After a difficult first pregnancy, the Waliguras wanted more kids, but didn?t want to relive the physical risks of conceiving and carrying a child. So when their son, Landon, was 5, they began researching adoption with the intention of adding another boy to the family. At the end of 2008, they filled out paperwork, completed a home study and prayed ? a lot.
?When we started, we were focused on adoption only,? Nikki said. ?We were very scared of foster care ? afraid of the possibility of getting attached to a child and having to let them go.?
They waited and waited, and felt God leading them toward foster care, no matter how much they resisted. Finally, they opened their hearts and home to foster placements. Their first placement came in the summer of 2009 ? a little girl, which they didn?t expect. But they trusted God?s plan.
?She ended up going home to her mother after eight months, and we were absolutely devastated,? Nikki said. ?But then two days after she left, while we were still grieving over it, Child Protective Services called and said that the child?s biological mom wanted to ask if we?d be open to babysitting her on weekends.
?For six months straight, we got to babysit her Friday through Sunday. We became close with the mom, and we even got to share Jesus with her. Still, to this day, we talk to her occasionally. It?s things like that that make it all worth it.?
Their second placement was a set of half sisters. The girls also returned to their birth family, and Nikki said the pain of letting go didn?t get any easier the second time around.
?Foster parents give and give and give and sometimes don?t get a lot in return,? said Whitney Floyd, Buckner case manager for the Waligura family. ?You need to have that unconditional love. Those two girls came to the Waligura family scarred and angry, but left their home healthy, happy and secure, knowing that they had been deeply loved and cared for by Jason and Nikki. They truly are amazing foster parents.?
The losses weren?t easy for Landon, now 8, either, but Nikki said they talk about the girls all the time, and Landon prays for them before bedtime, asking God to keep them happy.
In January, two brothers ? Dakota, 2, and Corbin, 3 ? came to live with the Waliguras.
?When they first came into care, the boys didn?t seem to be aware of their surroundings,? Floyd said. ?They were reserved, didn?t make eye contact and didn?t make a sound. They didn?t have much personality. In the last 10 months, the change has been drastic. Now I?m starting to see some of that develop. The older brother is an entertainer. When they go out to eat, he?ll have the whole restaurant looking at him. He loves to get people to laugh and smile. The younger brother is talking more, and now when I do home visits, he?ll come and interact with me for the first time.?
Their other placement is a 6-year-old girl named Dixie who was abused by relatives. She is in therapy to work through what she experienced, and she?s a happy little girl.
?In her time with the Waliguras, Dixie has really blossomed,? Floyd said. ?She?s doing well in school. She?s very social. They?ve gotten her involved in music lessons, soccer, swimming and gymnastics.?
Making it permanent
The Waligura family is looking forward to celebrating National Adoption Day Nov. 16, when they will finalize their adoption of Dixie, Corbin and Dakota and become a ?forever family? of six.
?I can?t put into words how incredibly blessed by God we?ll be when we finalize the adoptions,? Nikki said. ?This is something we could never have imagined to be so good. It hasn?t always been easy, and it still isn?t, but it?s been the biggest blessing of our lives.?
In fact, the couple has been so blessed by their experience they are planning to start a foster care and adoption ministry out of their home to help and encourage others who are considering it or who are in the process.
?We?re planning to start after the new year,? Nikki said. ?We live pretty far out, and we didn?t know anyone else in our community who had gone through this when we first started. But over the months and years, so many people have approached us and asked us about fostering and adoption, so that?s what prompted us to start this ministry.?
When asked what it takes to be a good foster parent, Nikki didn?t hesitate.
?Commitment,? she said. ?We were fully committed to being parents to these kids. We do whatever it takes to make sure their needs are met. We?re the kids? biggest advocate. It takes commitment and willingness to love. We love them so much they are ours.?
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Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Exploding star missing from formation of solar system
Dec. 16, 2012 ? A new study published by University of Chicago researchers challenges the notion that the force of an exploding star forced the formation of the solar system.
In this study, published online last month in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, authors Haolan Tang and Nicolas Dauphas found the radioactive isotope iron 60 -- the telltale sign of an exploding star -- low in abundance and well mixed in solar system material. As cosmochemists, they look for remnants of stellar explosions in meteorites to help determine the conditions under which the solar system formed.
Some remnants are radioactive isotopes: unstable, energetic atoms that decay over time. Scientists in the past decade have found high amounts of the radioactive isotope iron 60 in early solar system materials. "If you have iron 60 in high abundance in the solar system, that's a 'smoking gun' -- evidence for the presence of a supernova," said Dauphas, professor in geophysical sciences.
Iron 60 can only originate from a supernova, so scientists have tried to explain this apparent abundance by suggesting that a supernova occurred nearby, spreading the isotope through the explosion.
But Tang and Dauphas' results were different from previous work: They discovered that levels of iron 60 were uniform and low in early solar system material. They arrived at these conclusions by testing meteorite samples. To measure iron 60's abundance, they looked at the same materials that previous researchers had worked on, but used a different, more precise approach that yielded evidence of very low iron 60.
Previous methods kept the meteorite samples intact and did not remove impurities completely, which may have led to greater errors in measurement. Tang and Dauphas' approach, however, required that they "digest" their meteorite samples into solution before measurement, which allowed them to thoroughly remove the impurities.
This process ultimately produced results with much smaller errors. "Haolan has dedicated five years of very hard work to reach these conclusions, so we did not make those claims lightly. We've been extremely careful to reach a point where we're ready to go public on those measurements," Dauphas said.
To address whether iron 60 was widely distributed, Tang and Dauphas looked at another isotope of iron, iron 58. Supernovae produce both isotopes by the same processes, so they were able to trace the distribution of iron 60 by measuring the distribution of iron 58.
"The two isotopes act like inseparable twins: Once we knew where iron 58 was, we knew iron 60 couldn't be very far away," Dauphas explained.
They found little variation of iron 58 in their measurements of various meteorite samples, which confirmed their conclusion that iron 60 was uniformly distributed. To account for their unprecedented findings, Tang and Dauphas suggest that the low levels of iron 60 probably came from the long-term accumulation of iron 60 in the interstellar medium from the ashes of countless stars past, instead of a nearby cataclysmic event like a supernova.
If this is true, Dauphas said, there is then "no need to invoke any nearby star to make iron 60." However, it is more difficult to account for the high abundance of aluminum 26, which implies the presence of a nearby star.
Instead of explaining this abundance by supernova, Tang and Dauphas propose that a massive star (perhaps more than 20 times the mass of the sun) sheds its gaseous outer layers through winds, spreading aluminum 26 and contaminating the material that would eventually form the solar system, while iron 60 remained locked inside the massive star's interior. If the solar system formed from this material, this alternate scenario would account for the abundances of both isotopes.
"In the future, this study must be considered when people build their story about solar system origin and formation," Tang said.
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Chicago. The original article was written by Chelsea Leu.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Haolan Tang, Nicolas Dauphas. Abundance, distribution, and origin of 60Fe in the solar protoplanetary disk. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2012; 359-360: 248 DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2012.10.011
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/plRwYZjQr60/121217091017.htm
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