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Saturday 27 April 2013
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Entire galaxies feel the heat from newborn stars: Bursts of star birth can curtail future galaxy growth
Apr. 25, 2013 ? When galaxies form new stars, they sometimes do so in frantic episodes of activity known as starbursts. These events were commonplace in the early Universe, but are rarer in nearby galaxies.
During these bursts, hundreds of millions of stars are born, and their combined effect can drive a powerful wind that travels out of the galaxy. These winds were known to affect their host galaxy -- but this new research now shows that they have a significantly greater effect than previously thought.
An international team of astronomers observed 20 nearby galaxies, some of which were known to be undergoing a starburst. They found that the winds accompanying these star formation processes were capable of ionising [1] gas up to 650 000 light-years from the galactic centre -- around twenty times further out than the visible size of the galaxy. This is the first direct observational evidence of local starbursts impacting the bulk of the gas around their host galaxy, and has important consequences for how that galaxy continues to evolve and form stars.
"The extended material around galaxies is hard to study, as it's so faint," says team member Vivienne Wild of the University of St. Andrews. "But it's important -- these envelopes of cool gas hold vital clues about how galaxies grow, process mass and energy, and finally die. We're exploring a new frontier in galaxy evolution!"
The team used the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) instrument [2] on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to analyse light from a mixed sample of starburst and control galaxies. They were able to probe these faint envelopes by exploiting even more distant objects -- quasars, the intensely luminous centres of distant galaxies powered by huge black holes. By analysing the light from these quasars after it passed through the foreground galaxies, the team could probe the galaxies themselves.
"Hubble is the only observatory that can carry out the observations necessary for a study like this," says lead author Sanchayeeta Borthakur, of Johns Hopkins University. "We needed a space-based telescope to probe the hot gas, and the only instrument capable of measuring the extended envelopes of galaxies is COS."
The starburst galaxies within the sample were seen to have large amounts of highly ionised gas in their halos -- but the galaxies that were not undergoing a starburst did not. The team found that this ionisation was caused by the energetic winds created alongside newly forming stars.
This has consequences for the future of the galaxies hosting the starbursts. Galaxies grow by accreting gas from the space surrounding them, and converting this gas into stars. As these winds ionise the future fuel reservoir of gas in the galaxy's envelope, the availability of cool gas falls -- regulating any future star formation.
"Starbursts are important phenomena -- they not only dictate the future evolution of a single galaxy, but also influence the cycle of matter and energy in the Universe as a whole," says team member Timothy Heckman, of Johns Hopkins University. "The envelopes of galaxies are the interface between galaxies and the rest of the Universe -- and we're just beginning to fully explore the processes at work within them."
The team's results will appear in the 1 May 2013 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
Notes
[1] A gas is said to be ionised when its atoms have lost one or more electrons -- in this case by energetic winds exciting galactic gas and knocking electrons out of the atoms within.
[2] Spectrographs are instruments that break light into its constituent colours and measure the intensity of each colour, revealing information about the object emitting the light -- such as its chemical composition, temperature, density, or velocity.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by ESA/Hubble Information Centre.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Sanchayeeta Borthakur, Timothy Heckman, David Strickland, Vivienne Wild, David Schiminovich. THE IMPACT OF STARBURSTS ON THE CIRCUMGALACTIC MEDIUM. The Astrophysical Journal, 2013; 768 (1): 18 DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/768/1/18
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/~3/3ypRbNu_Qzk/130425103312.htm
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U.S. suspects Syria used chemical weapons, wants proof
By Phil Stewart and David Alexander
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad had probably used chemical weapons on a small scale in the country's civil war, but insisted that President Barack Obama needed definitive proof before he would take action.
The disclosure created a quandary for Obama, who has set the use of chemical weapons as a "red line" that Assad must not cross. It triggered calls from some hawkish Washington lawmakers for a U.S. military response, which the president has resisted.
In a shift from a White House assessment just days earlier, U.S. officials said the intelligence community believed with "varying degrees of confidence" that the chemical nerve agent sarin was used by Assad's forces against rebel fighters. But it noted that "the chain of custody is not clear."
While Obama has declared that the deployment of chemical weapons would be a game-changer and has threatened unspecified consequences if it happened, his administration is moving carefully - saying it is mindful of the lessons of the start of the Iraq war more than a decade ago.
Then, the George W. Bush administration used inaccurate intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq in pursuit of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons that turned out not to exist.
"Given the stakes involved and what we have learned from our own recent experiences, intelligence assessments alone are not sufficient - only credible and corroborated facts that provide us with some degree of certainty will guide our decision-making," Miguel Rodriguez, White House director of the office of legislative affairs, said in a letter to lawmakers.
One senior U.S. defense official told reporters, "We have seen very bad movies before," where intelligence was perceived to have driven policy decisions that later, in the cold light of day, were proven wrong.
The term "varying degrees of confidence" used to describe the assessment of possible chemical weapons use in Syria usually suggests debate within the U.S. intelligence community about the conclusion, the defense official noted.
The White House said the evaluation that Syria probably used chemical weapons was based in part on "physiological" samples. But a White House official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, repeatedly declined to say what that evidence was. Nor is it clear who supplied it.
Chemical weapons experts say sarin, a nerve agent, can be detected in human tissue, blood, urine and hair samples, or in nearby soil or even leaves. But the chemical can dissipate within days or weeks, depending on ambient heat, wind and other factors.
Iraq is said to have used sarin 25 years ago in an attack on the Kurdish city of Halabja during the Iran-Iraq war. More recently, the agent was used in the 1994 attack by a religious cult on riders of the Tokyo subway system.
In Syria, U.S. officials said the scale of the use of sarin appeared limited. Nobody is "seeing any mass casualties" from the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria, one U.S. intelligence official noted.
The United States has resisted being dragged militarily into Syria's conflict and is providing only non-lethal aid to rebels trying to overthrow Assad. Washington is worried that weapons supplied to the rebels could end up in the hands of al Qaeda-linked fighters.
But acknowledgement of the U.S. intelligence assessment appeared to move the United States closer - at least rhetorically - to some sort of action in Syria, military or otherwise.
A White House official told reporters that "all options are on the table in terms of our response" and said the United States, which has been criticized for not doing enough to halt the bloodshed, would consult with its allies.
The official said the U.S. military was preparing for a range of "different contingencies," but declined to give specifics. Options available to Obama could include everything from air strikes to commando raids to setting up a Libya-style "no-fly" zone, either unilaterally or in cooperation with allies.
SURPRISE ANNOUNCEMENT
But Obama appeared intent on deflecting pressure for swift action by stressing the need for a comprehensive U.N. investigation on the ground in Syria - something Assad has blocked from going forward.
Syria's deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, in an interview with Reuters, dismissed Western and Israeli claims that government forces had used chemical weapons and said it was a "big lie" that Syria was preventing the U.N. probe.
Assad has clung to power despite repeated U.S. calls for him to step down. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the revolt against his family's decades-long autocratic rule. A military stalemate has set in, but Assad has still been able to rely on support from Russia and Iran.
"The reality is that as a country we can't declare red lines and then do nothing when they are crossed. Eventually we have to do something," said Ariel Ratner, a former Middle East adviser in the State Department and now a fellow at the Truman National Security Project.
The Obama administration's sudden disclosure caught many off guard. It came just two days after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and other U.S. officials appeared to play down an Israeli assessment that there had been repeated use of chemical weapons in Syria.
France and Britain have also concluded that evidence suggests chemical arms have been used in Syria's conflict.
"The intelligence community has been assessing information for some time on this issue and the decision to reach this conclusion was made within the past 24 hours," Hagel said.
The White House said it wanted to provide a "prompt response" to a query on Wednesday from lawmakers about whether Syria had used chemical weapons. The legislators' letter to Obama cited the assessments by Israel, France and Britain.
Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, one of the leading advocates of deeper U.S. involvement in the Syrian conflict, said the intelligence assessment demanded a response.
"The president of the United States said that if Bashar Assad used chemical weapons, it would be a game-changer, that it would cross a red line," he said. "I think it's pretty obvious that red line has been crossed."
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, voiced concern that the public acknowledgement of the U.S. intelligence assessment could embolden Assad and may prompt him to calculate "he has nothing more to lose."
"Syria has the ability to kill tens of thousands with its chemical weapons. The world must come together to prevent this by unified action," she said.
In Brussels, the NATO alliance was "concerned by reports of the possible use of chemical weapons," an official said.
"As NATO has said in the past, any use of these weapons would be completely unacceptable and a clear breach of international law, and if any side uses these weapons we would expect a reaction from the international community," the official said.
Patriot missile interceptors that NATO has sent to Turkey, a member of the alliance which borders Syria, would "help ensure the protection of Turkey against any missile attack, whether the missiles carry chemical weapons or not," the official added.
(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Roberta Rampton, Patricia Zengerle and Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by Warren Strobel and Peter Cooney)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-suspects-syria-used-chemical-weapons-wants-proof-034431157.html
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Wednesday 10 April 2013
Friendships go south on Facebook as people get ruder: survey
Facebook 
1 hour ago
NBC News file
LONDON ? Rudeness and throwing insults are cutting online friendships short, with a survey showing people are getting ruder on social media and two in five users have ended contact after a virtual altercation.
As social media usage surges, the survey found so has incivility with 78 percent of 2,698 people reporting an increase in rudeness online with people having no qualms about being less polite virtually than in person.
One in five people have reduced their face-to-face contact with someone they know in real life after an online run-in.
Joseph Grenny, co-chairman of corporate training firm VitalSmarts that conducted the survey, released Wednesday, said online rows now often spill into real life with 19 percent of people blocking, unsubscribing or "unfriending" someone over a virtual argument.
"The world has changed and a significant proportion of relationships happen online but manners haven't caught up with technology," Grenny told Reuters.
"What really is surprising is that so many people disapprove of this behavior but people are still doing it. Why would you name call online but never to that person's face?"
Figures from the Pew Research Center show that 67 percent of online adults in the United States now use social networking sites with Facebook being the most popular, while the latest figures show over half of the British population has Facebook accounts.
The survey, conducted over three weeks in February, follows a spate of highly publicized run-ins between people who came to virtual blows online.
British football player Joey Barton, who plays for Olympique de Marseille, was summoned by the French soccer federation's ethics committee after calling Paris St Germain's defender Thiago Silva an "overweight ladyboy" on Twitter.
Boxer Curtis Woodhouse was widely praised after he tracked down a tweeter who branded him a "complete disgrace" and "joke" after a loss, going to his tormenter's house for an apology.
Grenny said survey respondents had their own stories such as a family not talking for two years after an online row when one man posted an embarrassing photo of his sister and refused to remove it, instead blasting it to all his contacts.
Workplace tensions are also often tracked back to conversations in chat forums when workers talked negatively about another colleague.
"People seem aware that these kinds of crucial conversations should not take place on social media yet there seems to be a compulsion to resolve emotions right now and via the convenience of these channels," said Grenny.
Grenny suggested peer-to-peer pressure was needed to enforce appropriate behavior online with people told if out of line.
He said three rules that could improve conversations online were to avoid monologues, replace lazy, judgmental words, and cut personal attacks particularly when emotions were high.
"When reading a response to your post and you feel the conversation is getting too emotional for an online exchange, you're right! Stop. Take it offline. Or better yet, face-to-face," he said.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.
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Mark Wahlberg Channels His Past For 'Pain & Gain': 'I've Robbed People'
'They don't have that criminal mentality like me,' actor says during Sneak Peek Week Q&A, leading up to Sunday's MTV Movie Awards.
By Todd Gilchrist, with reporting by Josh Horowitz
Mark Wahlberg
Photo: MTV News
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1705300/mark-wahlberg-pain-gain-criminal.jhtml
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Gas prices falls to $3 a gallon in some markets
If your wallet is still hurting from the painfully high fuel prices much of the country experienced over the winter there?s some good news next time you head to the pump.
The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas has dipped to just $3.58, a three-cent dip since late last week, 15 cents from a month ago, and 36 cents off of what the typical American motorist was spending this time in 2012.
That?s a sharp turnaround from February when some states saw gas surge to near or all-time records, particularly along the West Coast.
The Detroit Bureau: Are Wagons Ready for Revival?
Buyers are still paying an average $4.359 in Hawaii and $4.027 in Washington, D.C., but California is back under the $4 mark, at $3.998, according to GasBuddy.com, a fuel price tracking service. And it?s down to $3.286 in Montana ? where motorists are paying just $3.261 in Billings.
Some reports indicate that the price has dropped below the $3 mark in a few Rocky Mountain communities near major refineries. And GasBuddy is forecasting still ?more markets? will dip under that break point in the coming days.
The Detroit Bureau: Fisker Fiasco Worsens
While crude prices posted some gains in early Monday trading, petroleum futures have been in sharp decline for several weeks. One key reason, reports the federal Energy Information Administration is that the country?s inventories are now at a 22-year peak.
The U.S. has been rapidly ramping up oil production for several years and is expected to actually be a larger producer than Saudi Arabia and other OPEC providers by mid-decade. That doesn't necessarily translate into lower prices, as petroleum is traded as a global commodity. But despite concerns about Mideast instability ? notably reductions in production in war-torn Syria ? there appears to be a good supply, if not a glut of the black gold now available around the world.
The Detroit Bureau: Germans May Give UAW Breakthrough Chance to Unionize VW "Transplant"
According to Tom Kloza, chief analyst with the Oil Price Information Service, only a major ?disruption in the Mideast? would likely provoke a sharp spike in fuel prices around the world.
That said, analysts warn that Americans can?t be complacent. Traders continue trying to push up the price of crude. And as U.S. motorists have been seeing, regional spikes are becoming more common. That can follow the changeover from summer to winter fuel blends designed to reduce regional air pollution problems. It can also result from maintenance and other issues, such as those that affected large swaths of the Midwest and Pacific Coast over the last year.
Even in areas where prices top the national charts today, the figures are significantly down from year-ago levels ? when California stood at $4.28 a gallon, for example.
The Detroit Bureau: Ford Reveals Alternatives for F-150
The sudden decline in gas prices may be fueling a shift in the U.S. new car market, meanwhile. Sales of pickups, in particular, surged during March and light trucks outsold passenger cars on the whole, despite recent trends moving in the opposite direction.
Copyright ? 2009-2013, The Detroit Bureau
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Serbia rejects EU-brokered Kosovo deal
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) ? Serbia rejected on Monday a European Union-brokered deal for reconciliation with its former province of Kosovo ? a defiant move that could jeopardize the Balkan country's EU membership aspirations and fuel tensions in the region.
The EU had given Serbia until Tuesday to say whether it would relinquish its effective control over northern Kosovo in exchange for the start of Serbia's EU membership negotiations.
Even before the government rejection, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic ? Serbia's most powerful governing party leader who also serves as the defense minister ? said the plan is unacceptable because it does not give more autonomy to minority ethnic Serbs in Kosovo who together with Serbia reject Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence.
"The Serbian government cannot accept the proposed principles ... because they do not guarantee full security, survival and protection of human rights for the Serbs in Kosovo," Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said. "Such an agreement could not be implemented and would not lead to a lasting and sustainable solution."
Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, said after the eighth round of talks between Serbian and Kosovo officials last week in Brussels that she wanted a response from both sides and that the bloc's mediation was over.
Despite warnings that there will be no more EU-sponsored mediation, Vucic and the government called for more talks with the rival ethnic Albanians leaders of Kosovo.
"If there is a negative answer from (the EU), that would be bad news for Serbia, Kosovo and the EU," Vucic said. "If that happens, we would have to start thinking of what to do next.
"We don't want Serbia isolated from the world, but we have to protect our interests. It is highly important that we reach an agreement."
The EU said it will respond once it receives an official Serb reply.
"The only thing I can say right now is that we are waiting for the official decision, which needs to be communicated to us, and then we will take it from there," EU spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said.
The rejection of the proposal could be a severe blow for Serbia's EU membership aspirations ? including millions of dollars of promised accession funds ? and would lead to more tensions in the Balkans, which is still reeling from the bloody wars of the 1990s when Serbia tried to prevent the breakup of the former Yugoslav federation by force.
While some 90 countries ? including the United States and most EU nations ? have recognized Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence, it has been rejected by Serbia and ally Russia.
The most contentious issue in the talks was the status of northern Kosovo, where ethnic Serbs dominate the population and refuse to accept the authority of the ethnic Albanian-controlled government in Kosovo's capital, Pristina.
Germany has made giving up control of Kosovo's north the key condition for the start of Serbia's EU accession negotiations.
The stumbling block in the talks was a Serbian demand that ethnic Serbs, who represent about 10 percent of Kosovo's 2 million people, have their own judiciary and police force. But Kosovo officials have rejected that, saying it would be tantamount to a division of Kosovo into two separate entities.
In Serbia, there are increasing calls among nationalists that Serbia should turn to its ally Russia instead of becoming an EU member. There also are suggestions from hardliners that Serbia should use force to reoccupy Kosovo, which it surrendered after a three-month NATO bombing campaign that pushed out its troops in 1999.
Vucic, a former ultranationalist turned moderate, said a military solution is out of the question.
"I'm hearing some 'heroes' who were never brave who are giving us lessons on how we should stroll into Pristina," he said. "They should not tell us what our decisions should be."
Several hundred far-right supporters demonstrated in front of the government headquarters in Belgrade during the Cabinet session, demanding that no deal is signed with the EU and Kosovo's leaders.
___
Associated Press writer Jovana Gec contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/serbia-rejects-eu-brokered-kosovo-deal-155216716.html
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Why is it hard to give away free health insurance? | KPLU News for ...
You might imagine everyone without health insurance will gladly sign up for free or subsidized coverage once it?s available this fall, under the Affordable Care Act.
However, it hasn't worked out that way for children. A high-profile effort to cover all the uninsured kids in Washington has stalled.
Back in 2005, newly-elected Gov. Chris Gregoire said one of her top priorities was to make sure every child in Washington has health insurance. By 2007, the Legislature expanded the state?s free and subsidized insurance program, re-branding it as ?Apple Health for Kids.?
At the time, about 70,000 children had no insurance.?
Today, there are still more than 70,000?possibly as many as 100,000?without insurance.
?What's important? is, we want our families insured. If people are eligible, we want them to get it,? says MaryAnne Lindeblad, director of the Washington Health Care Authority, which oversees Medicaid and other low-income insurance programs.
Lindeblad says the economic recession is partly to blame. The state scaled back its enrollment efforts and funding in 2010. Still, tens of thousands of children who are eligible for free or subsidized insurance are not getting it.
"Maybe they think because they are not eligible for any coverage [as adults], their children aren't either." Liz Winders of HealthPoint
?We have definitely? increased our focus on why aren?t these kids getting signed up,? says Liz Winders, who oversees outreach for HealthPoint community health centers in King County. She works with parents to help them find free and low-cost insurance.
Many reasons parents don?t sign up
?People just simply aren?t aware that there's coverage available. Maybe they think because they are not eligible for any coverage [as adults], their children aren?t either,? says Winders.
In other cases, the parents are illegal immigrants and don?t want to be in a database, she says.
State officials also see awareness as a problem, which is why they keep funding marketing campaigns, including one that?s running this spring. Advertisements and flyers highlight ?no co-pays or deductibles? and ?it?s easy to apply.?
Another effort this spring is targeting low-income parents in Pierce County, by holding health fairs with bouncy rides to attract families.? It?s sponsored by a group of five health insurance companies that have contracts with the state to run the Medicaid program. Organizers admit they?ve struggled to get much interest.?
Implications for Obamacare
All of this is like a dress rehearsal for next fall when the new federal health care program opens for business. That whole project depends on getting hundreds of thousands of people to sign-up for insurance. In Switzerland and the Netherlands, they discovered they had to figure out "why people eligible for coverage don?t enroll and to craft responses that will overcome enrollment barriers," according to a new study published in Health Affairs.
By re-energizing their efforts with kids now, Washington's health officials have a head start.
One lesson they?ve learned from the struggle to enroll children: Simplify the paperwork.
?It can be a very personal thing, I think, applying for insurance, and having to go through your income and circumstances with a stranger,? says Winders.
What if you work part-time jobs and your hours keep changing? You have to report it to the state, and your eligibility might go away. The current Medicaid program also requires parents to re-enroll every year.
Those enrollment obstacles are supposed to go away with the new health insurance exchange, which will sign-up uninsured adults and families this fall. That creates a single portal for all types of subsidized programs, and streamlines the enrollment process.
Source: http://www.kplu.org/post/why-it-hard-give-away-free-health-insurance
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