Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/kate-middleton-baby-bump-attend-wedding-in-switzerland/
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Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Gravitational telescope creates space invader mirage
Mar. 5, 2013 ? The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is one of the most powerful available to astronomers, but sometimes it too needs a helping hand. This comes in the form of Einstein's general theory of relativity, which makes galaxy clusters act as natural lenses, amplifying the light coming from very distant galaxies.
Abell 68, pictured here in infrared light, is one of these galaxy clusters, and it greatly boosts the power of Hubble, extending the telescope's ability to observe distant and faint objects [1]. The fuzzy collection of blobs in the middle and upper left of the image is a swarm of galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars and vast amounts of dark matter.
The effect of this huge concentration of matter is to deform the fabric of spacetime, which in turn distorts the path that light takes when it travels through the cluster. For galaxies that are even further away than the cluster -- which is already at the impressive distance of two billion light-years -- and which are aligned just right, the effect is to turn galaxies that might otherwise be invisible into ones that can be observed with relative ease.
Although the resulting images projected to us of these distant galaxies are typically heavily deformed, this process, called gravitational lensing, is a hugely valuable tool in cosmology, the branch of astronomy which deals with the origins and evolution of the Universe.
These distorted images of distant galaxies are a particularly fine example of this phenomenon. In the middle of the image are a large number of galaxies stretched out into almost straight streaks of light that look like shooting stars. Meanwhile, just above and to the right of the large, bright elliptical galaxy in the upper left of the image is a spiral galaxy whose apparent shape has been stretched and mirror-morphed into the shape of an alien from the classic 1970s computer game Space Invaders! A second, less distorted image of the same galaxy appears to the left of the elliptical galaxy.
Another striking feature of the image, albeit one unrelated to gravitational lensing, is the galaxy in the top right corner of the image. What appears to be purple liquid dripping from the galaxy is a phenomenon called ram pressure stripping. The gas clouds within the galaxy are being stripped out and heated up as the galaxy passes through a region of denser intergalactic gas.
This image comes from the infrared channel of Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, combined with near-infrared observations from the Advanced Camera for Surveys. This offers a modest taster of the kind of images that will come from the forthcoming NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled for launch in 2018.
Infrared images are particularly useful for studying very distant objects whose light is redshifted into the infrared by the expansion of the Universe, as well as for peering through dust clouds which are opaque to visible light. The Webb telescope will produce images which are sharper than Hubble's infrared images, but more importantly, it will be much more sensitive, thanks to its advanced sensors and larger primary mirror.
The image is based in part on data spotted by Nick Rose in the Hubble's Hidden Treasures image processing competition (http://www.spacetelescope.org/projects/hiddentreasures/).
Note:
[1] Hubble's ability to see distant objects will be enhanced with the start of Frontier Fields in the near future, an observing campaign that aims to combine the power of Hubble with the natural gravitational telescopes of high-magnification clusters of galaxies -- as seen here with Abell 68. This will enable Hubble to see objects that would ordinarily be too distant or faint for it to see. Frontier Fields will study six different galaxy clusters to give us a sneak preview of the very earliest stars and galaxies, before the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by ESA/Hubble Information Centre.
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Monday, March 4, 2013
Former Wichita chiropractor finds new niche in e-commerce | Wichita ...
For Tracy Norris, the e-commerce business is bread and butter.
?When I made my first website in 1997, I had no Internet or computer training whatsoever,? Norris said. ?I did buy a book for dummies.?
A chiropractor by trade, Norris practiced in Wichita for about 20 years before selling his practice and working full time on his Internet companies in 2007.
What started in a room in the back of his practice grew into Norris E-Commerce Management, which manages several Internet companies, most notably PainReliever.com and iFurn.com.
Pain Reliever sells a variety of medical products directly to consumers as well as to businesses.
Norris said he thinks his background has helped him market his products.
?It?s given me the ability to understand conditions and understand what patients and customers need for those conditions,? he said. ?It allows me to express that through our website and give a little authority to it.?
IFurn.com, which sells home and office furniture, was started in 1998 and had more than $12.5 million in sales in 2012, Norris said. Pain Reliever did about $2.5 million in sales last year, Norris said.
Both companies have been named to Inc?s 5,000 fastest-growing companies list: iFurn.com in 2008 and Pain Reliever in 2010.
In 2011, the company moved to the old Circuit City building, 8405 E. Kellogg, where it housed medical supplies in a 10,000-square-foot warehouse.
Last year, however, Norris decided to change the business model and drop-ship Pain Reliever?s products. That means products are shipped to customers from the manufacturer, instead of from a warehouse in Wichita.
The drop-ship model has made logistics more complicated, Norris said, but the benefit is lower overhead with fewer employees and building costs. The company currently has 19 employees.
?We had $1 million in inventory, and we found that the costs of inventory and products like that and having space and staff and warehouse to support it wasn?t supporting the business model we needed,? Norris said. ?In furniture, we never stocked anything. It?s all been drop-ship model because it?s heavy and big and bulky. The switch to drop-ship model in Pain Reliever turned out quite successful.?
Norris, who thinks most people in the area don?t know much about the company, says they don?t sell many goods within Kansas. The biggest markets are in more heavily populated areas of California, New York and Florida, he said.
?We?re still a homegrown business, a small business atmosphere fulfilling big business needs,? said Erica Woods, director of sales and marketing.
What?s next
Despite having flat growth for the past couple of years because of the economy, Norris said he thinks the company is poised for growth.
?When people don?t build and buy new houses to furnish and businesses don?t open new offices, that slows everything down, but we?ve maintained all the growth that we?ve had,? he said.
?The products for the elderly are really popular now, but I believe it?s just the beginning because all the people who are in their 60s, 70s and 80s right now aren?t necessarily that Internet-savvy. So it?s mostly their children that are online buying for them.
?But within the next 10 to 15 years when people like me reach that age, they?re going to be Internet-savvy, so we?re trying to be well positioned in the market so when that group who buys online and are used to it all their lives will buy from us.?
Norris said he also thinks they are in the position to help other companies get into e-commerce.
?We can multiply the success we have and knowledge in marketing to most any product line we want,? he said.
?There?s a lot of people that want to get into e-commerce but don?t quite know how, a lot of retailers. We could partner with them, create websites for them and handle their sales.?
Most Internet companies have been waiting for years for the hammer to come down on tax-free sales.
Many bricks-and-mortar retailers argue that online businesses have an unfair advantage in the marketplace because most don?t charge sales tax on most of their sales.
?Hopefully that tax doesn?t start being charged,? Norris said. ?I hear it?s coming. It?s been a big benefit for Internet companies for a long time.?
Web marketing
In an effort to reach more customers online, Norris? companies have set up niche websites to drive Web traffic.
?We have PainReliever.com for anybody looking for things like ice packs or pillows, but we also have a site Pillowmart.com set up where we specifically focus on a person looking for a pillow,? Woods said.
?It helps up the conversion rate and is a more targeted marketing strategy, lessening the visibility of all the products on the website so people don?t get distracted.?
Pain Reliever has about a dozen niche sites and iFurn has 15 to 20, said John Kenemer, vice president for marketing.
The company also actively uses search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to increase Web traffic
The next initiative is to start targeting mobile shoppers by creating sites with different layouts for smartphones, making them easier to navigate.
?I think within the industry itself, the crystal ball is toward mobile,? Kenemer said.
Reach Kelsey Ryan at 316-269-6752 or kryan@wichitaeagle.com.
Source: http://www.kansas.com/2013/03/03/2698017/former-wichita-chiropracter-finds.html
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Can This iPhone 5 Case Really Boost Your Wi-Fi Reception?
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Arduous Iditarod demands mushers' tactics, tricks
Arduous Iditarod demands mushers' tactics, tricks
By RACHEL D'OROBy RACHEL D'ORO, Associated Press?
?A dog waits to run in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Sunday, March 3, 2013, in Willow, Alaska. 65 teams will be making their way through punishing wilderness toward the finish line in Nome on Alaska's western coast 1,000 miles away. (AP Photo/Rachel D'Oro)
A dog waits to run in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Sunday, March 3, 2013, in Willow, Alaska. 65 teams will be making their way through punishing wilderness toward the finish line in Nome on Alaska's western coast 1,000 miles away. (AP Photo/Rachel D'Oro)
Katherine Keith puts booties on one of John Baker?s sled dogs before the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Sunday, March 3, 2013, in Willow, Alaska. 65 teams will be making their way through punishing wilderness toward the finish line in Nome on Alaska's western coast 1,000 miles away. (AP Photo/The Anchorage Daily News, Bob Hallinen) LOCAL TV OUT (KTUU-TV, KTVA-TV) LOCAL PRINT OUT (THE ANCHORAGE PRESS, THE ALASKA DISPATCH)
A musher drives their dog team down the start chute across Willow Lake during the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Sunday, March 3, 2013, in Willow, Alaska. 65 teams will be making their way through punishing wilderness toward the finish line in Nome on Alaska's western coast 1,000 miles away. (AP Photo/The Anchorage Daily News, Bill Roth) LOCAL TV OUT (KTUU-TV, KTVA-TV) LOCAL PRINT OUT (THE ANCHORAGE PRESS, THE ALASKA DISPATCH)
Three mushers cross Vera Lake during the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Sunday, March 3, 2013, in Willow, Alaska. 65 teams will be making their way through punishing wilderness toward the finish line in Nome on Alaska's western coast 1,000 miles away. (AP Photo/The Anchorage Daily News, Bill Roth) LOCAL TV OUT (KTUU-TV, KTVA-TV) LOCAL PRINT OUT (THE ANCHORAGE PRESS, THE ALASKA DISPATCH)
Coworkers of musher Kelley Maixner, from Aesthetic Family Dentistry, have a party on the lake as musher Jessica Hendricks passes by during the start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Sunday, March 3, 2013, in Willow, Alaska. 65 teams will be making their way through punishing wilderness toward the finish line in Nome on Alaska's western coast 1,000 miles away. (AP Photo/The Anchorage Daily News, Bob Hallinen) LOCAL TV OUT (KTUU-TV, KTVA-TV) LOCAL PRINT OUT (THE ANCHORAGE PRESS, THE ALASKA DISPATCH)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) ? Here's one proven way to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race: Let others take the early lead in the 1,000-mile trek to Alaska's wind-scoured western coast.
That approach might seem counterintuitive to the novice fan of the famous race. Running the Iditarod is as simple as hitching 16 dogs in front of a sled and bolting off into the snowy horizon, right?
Uh, no. Just ask some top mushers. Lagging behind to let dogs conserve their energy is among strategies employed by top mushers. But holding back can also backfire for various reasons, if the timing is miscalculated, for example, or a fierce blizzard strikes at the wrong time.
Four-time champion Martin Buser maintains his lead Monday, after resting for just two minutes at the Rainy Pass checkpoint.
Associated Press
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Expectant parents die in NY crash; infant survives
Members of the Satmar Orthodox Jewish community congregate for the funeral of two expectant parents who were killed in a car accident, Sunday, March 3, 2013, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. A driver struck the car the couple were riding in early Sunday morning, killing both parents while their baby, who was born prematurely, survived and is in critical condition. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Members of the Satmar Orthodox Jewish community congregate for the funeral of two expectant parents who were killed in a car accident, Sunday, March 3, 2013, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. A driver struck the car the couple were riding in early Sunday morning, killing both parents while their baby, who was born prematurely, survived and is in critical condition. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
A man walks past debris from a fatal accident that claimed the lives of two expectant parents on their way to the hospital early, Sunday, March 3, 2013, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. A driver struck the car the couple were riding in early Sunday morning, killing both parents while their baby, who?was born prematurely, survived?and is?in critical condition. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Members of the Satmar Orthodox Jewish community carry caskets to the funeral of two expectant parents who were killed in a car accident, Sunday, March 3, 2013, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. A driver struck the car the couple were riding in early Sunday morning, killing both parents while their baby, who was born prematurely, survived and is in critical condition. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
In this photo provided by VosIzNeias.com, a police officer works at the scene of a car accident that took the lives of an expectant couple in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood, Sunday, March 3, 2013, in New York. The young couple who had taken a car service to a hospital for the birth of their first child were killed en route by the driver of a BMW who fled the scene, but the couple's baby boy survived, born prematurely, authorities and a neighbor said. Their infant son was in serious condition at a hospital, and the driver of car that was hit was in stable condition. (AP Photo/VosIzNeias.com, Shimon Gifter)
Members of the Satmar Orthodox Jewish community grieve at the funeral of two expectant parents who were killed in a car accident, Sunday, March 3, 2013, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. A driver struck the car early Sunday morning, killing both parents while their baby, who was born prematurely, survived and is in critical condition. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
NEW YORK (AP) ? A pregnant young woman who was feeling ill was headed to the hospital with her husband early Sunday when the car they were riding in was struck in a hit and run, killing them both, but their baby boy survived and was born prematurely, authorities and a relative said.
The driver of a BMW slammed into the livery car carrying Nachman and Raizy Glauber, both 21, at an intersection in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, said Isaac Abraham, a neighbor of Raizy Glauber's parents who lives two blocks from the scene of the crash.
The engine of the livery car ended up in the backseat, where the pregnant woman was sitting before she was ejected, Abraham said. Her body landed under a parked tractor-trailer, said witnesses who came to the scene after the crash. Nachman Glauber was pinned in the car, and emergency workers had to cut off the roof to get him out, witnesses said.
Both of the Glaubers were pronounced dead at hospitals, where doctors performed a cesarean section on the mother to deliver the baby. Both parents died of blunt-force trauma, the medical examiner said.
Their son was in serious condition, Abraham said. Neighbors and friends said the boy weighed only about 4 pounds. The hospital did not return calls about the infant. The Glaubers' livery cab driver was treated for minor injuries at the hospital and was later released. Both the driver of the BMW and a passenger fled and were being sought, police said.
On Saturday, Raizy Glauber "was not feeling well, so they decided to go" to the hospital, said Sara Glauber, Nachman Glauber's cousin. Abraham said the Glaubers called a car service because they didn't own a car, which is common for New Yorkers.
The Glaubers were married about a year ago and had begun a life together in Williamsburg, where Raizy Glauber grew up in a prominent Orthodox Jewish rabbinical family, Sara Glauber said.
Raised north of New York City in Monsey, N.Y., and part of a family that founded a line of clothing for Orthodox Jews, Nachman Glauber was studying at a rabbinical college nearby, said his cousin.
Brooklyn is home to the largest community of ultra-Orthodox Jews outside Israel, more than 250,000. The community has strict rules governing clothing, social customs and interaction with the outside world. Men wear dark clothing that includes a long coat and a fedora-type hat and often have long beards and ear locks.
Jewish law calls for burial of the dead as soon as possible, and hours after their deaths, the Glaubers were mourned by at least 1,000 people at a funeral outside the Congregation Yetev Lev D'Satmar synagogue. Men in black hats gathered around the coffins in the middle of the street, while women in bright headscarves stood on the sidewalk, in accordance with the Orthodox Jewish tradition of separating the sexes at religious services.
The sound of wailing filled the air as two coffins covered in black velvet with a silver trim were carried from a vehicle. A succession of men and women delivered eulogies in Yiddish, sobbing as they spoke into a microphone about the young couple. "I will never forget you, my daughter!" said Yitzchok Silberstein, Raizy Glauber's father.
Afterward, the cars carrying the bodies left and headed to Monsey, where another service was planned in Nachman Glauber's hometown.
"You don't meet anyone better than him," said his cousin. "He was always doing favors for everyone."
She said Nachman's mother herself just delivered a baby two weeks ago.
"I've never seen a mother-son relationship like this," Sara Glauber said. "He called her every day to make sure everything was OK. He was the sweetest, most charming human being, always with a smile on his face."
She added that, of him and his bride, "if one had to go, the other had to go too because they really were one soul."
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Sunday, March 3, 2013
Boko Haram leader denies peace talks with Nigeria
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) ? The leader of the radical Islamic terrorist network Boko Haram has denied in a video that his group is taking part in any peace talks with Nigeria's government, as fighters linked to the group attacked a military base Sunday, leaving at least 20 people dead.
The attack in the village of Monguno, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the city of Maiduguri, punctuated the statement by Abubakar Shekau that said Nigeria will remain under attack by the group until the multiethnic nation is ruled under Islamic law. Shekau also threatened the man who in recent months claimed to be a leader of Boko Haram and said that the group wanted to agree to a cease-fire with Nigeria's security forces.
The attack Sunday, coupled with the recent kidnappings of foreigners claimed by Boko Haram and its affiliates, offered fresh doubts about the ability of Nigeria's weak central government to stop the bloodshed, despite its deployment of more security forces in the region.
"Whoever kills any of our members should await a grave retaliation from us," Shekau says in the video in the Hausa language of Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north. "We will continue waging war against them until we succeeded in establishing an Islamic state in Nigeria."
The attack on Monguno saw fighters arrive in SUVs and kill a local village leader, witnesses who spoke to The Associated Press said. The fighters later attacked a barracks at Monguno with gunfire and explosives, witnesses said.
In a statement, military spokesman Lt. Col. Sagir Musa said that 20 "Boko Haram terrorists" were killed, without acknowledging that at least one civilian had been killed. Musa also did not say if any soldiers had been wounded or killed in the attack. Nigeria's military routinely downplays civilian and soldier casualty figures.
Another security official, who requested anonymity as he could not speak to journalists, confirmed the attack occurred, but acknowledged details remained sketchy about the incident. An AP journalist could not immediately reach the village Sunday.
The attack Sunday comes after the release of the new Shekau video. A journalist in northeast Nigeria received the video Friday from men he said he didn't know. The journalist began sharing the video with colleagues late Saturday. While the AP could not immediately independently verify the authenticity of the video Sunday, the man on the video looked like Shekau and spoke like the Boko Haram's leader.
The video carried no date, but Shekau directly referenced the activities and claims of a man who has identified himself as Sheikh Mohammed Abdulaziz, a self-proclaimed second-in-command in Boko Haram. In November, a man with a similar voice as Abdulaziz told journalists in a telephone conference call that Boko Haram was willing to enter into peace talks if they were held in Saudi Arabia and involved former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari. However, Buhari refused to take part and no such talks took place as attacks continued.
In January, Abdulaziz told journalists in Maiduguri that a cease-fire would soon emerge that never did.
In the video, Shekau denies knowing Abdulaziz. In the past, Nigeria security forces have used so-called Boko Haram members in sting operations and to sow discord in the group.
"I swear by Allah that Abdulaziz or whatever he is calls himself did not get any authority from me to represent me in any capacity. I do not know him," Shekau says. "And if we per adventure encounter Abdulaziz and his group, I swear by Allah we are going to mete them with the grave judgment that Allah has prescribed for their likes in the holy book."
In the video, Shekau also says the group has had difficulty putting its messages online and blamed government interference for having to now rely on couriers to reach the public. The last Shekau video seen was posted to the Internet in late November.
Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege," has conducted a guerrilla campaign of bombings and shootings across Nigeria's north over the last two years. Boko Haram is blamed for at least 792 killings last year alone, according to an AP count. The group's command-and-control structure remains unclear, though it appears to have sparked several splinter groups.
A group of men claiming to belong to Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of seven French tourists from northern Cameroon late February ? a first for the group. Meanwhile, a Boko Haram splinter group known as Ansaru has claimed the recent kidnappings in north Nigeria of a British citizen, a Greek, an Italian, three Lebanese and one Filipino, all employees of a Lebanese construction company called Setraco.
Despite the deployment of more soldiers and police to northern Nigeria, the nation's weak central government has been unable to stop the killings. Meanwhile, human rights groups and local citizens blame both Boko Haram and security forces for committing violent atrocities against the local civilian population, fueling rage in the region.
___
Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boko-haram-leader-denies-peace-talks-nigeria-100847270.html
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