Solar splashdown provide new insights into how young stars grow by sucking up nearby gas

June 20, 2013 ? On June 7, 2011, our Sun erupted, blasting tons of hot plasma into space. Some of that plasma splashed back down onto the Sun's surface, sparking bright flashes of ultraviolet light. This dramatic event may provide new insights into how young stars grow by sucking up nearby gas.

The eruption and subsequent splashdown were observed in spectacular detail by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. This spacecraft watches the Sun 24 hours a day, providing images with better-than-HD resolution. Its Atmospheric Imaging Assembly instrument was designed and developed by researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).

"We're getting beautiful observations of the Sun. And we get such high spatial resolution and high cadence that we can see things that weren't obvious before," says CfA astronomer Paola Testa.

Movies of the June 7th eruption show dark filaments of gas blasting outward from the Sun's lower right. Although the solar plasma appears dark against the Sun's bright surface, it actually glows at a temperature of about 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit. When the blobs of plasma hit the Sun's surface again, they heat up by a factor of 100 to a temperature of almost 2 million degrees F. As a result, those spots brighten in the ultraviolet by a factor of 2 -- 5 over just a few minutes.

The tremendous energy release occurs because the in falling blobs are traveling at high speeds, up to 900,000 miles per hour (400 km/sec). Those speeds are similar to the speeds reached by material falling onto young stars as they grow via accretion. Therefore, observations of this solar eruption provide an "up close" view of what happens on distant stars.

"We often study young stars to learn about our Sun when it was an 'infant.' Now we're doing the reverse and studying our Sun to better understand distant stars," notes Testa.

These new observations, combined with computer modeling, have helped resolve a decade-long argument over how to measure the accretion rates of growing stars. Astronomers calculate how fast a young star is gathering material by observing its brightness at various wavelengths of light, and how that brightness changes over time. However, they got higher estimates from optical and ultraviolet light than from X-rays.

The team discovered that the ultraviolet flashes they observed came from the in falling material itself, not the surrounding solar atmosphere. If the same is true for distant, young stars, then by analyzing the ultraviolet light they emit, we can learn about the material they are accreting.

"By seeing the dark spots on the Sun, we can learn about how young stars accrete material and grow." explains Testa.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/0ZGlUd7zKoI/130620162838.htm

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Spendthrift elite signals equity slide, behavioral experts warn

By Atul Prakash

LONDON (Reuters) - Record prices at art auctions in recent weeks and oversubscribed holidays by private jet are among signals that a stock market slump is approaching, if followers of behavioral finance are to be believed.

They insist social mood governs human action, including investment on stock markets, and their theories are gaining ground as tools for financial analysis.

To gauge the mood and the likely impact on markets, behavioral analysts look at traditional measures such as investment polls and options but also at social media, including Twitter and Facebook, and even at developments in art and sport.

The theory goes that people make bad decisions at moments of extreme fear or optimism and that studying their behavior could provide clues to where equities are headed.

Now may be just such a moment.

"Markets either have topped or will soon top, based on the behaviors I see outside of the markets, especially in art, automobiles and residential real estate," Peter Atwater, president and chief executive of Financial Insyghts, a firm based in Mendenhall, Pennsylvania, that advises on how social mood affects decision making, said.

Atwater cited an Aston Martin car fetching a record $4.85 million at auction in May, a New York sale of Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art setting 37 records last month, and holiday firm Abercrombie & Kent adding a second departure to its 19-day tour of Africa by private jet after the first sold out.

Behavioral analysts term the 140 percent rise in major indexes since 2009 the "rich man's rally", and say the behavior of the uber-rich reflects peak-of-the-market sentiment.

Their views are in sharp contrast with many traditional analysts, who bet an improving global economic outlook, along with better company fundamentals, will take indexes to new highs in coming months despite recent "healthy" corrections.

One non-traditional expert who accurately predicted 2007's stocks bust and the recovery in 2009 is Robert Prechter, whose Socionomic Theory of Finance suggests social mood causes economic and political events instead of the other way round.

"Two dozen stock market sentiment indicators show record or near-record optimism, suggesting the stock market is a lot closer to a top than a bottom," said Prechter, founder of the U.S.-based Socionomics Institute.

To measure mood, Prechter looks at investor polls, buying in stock option contracts and polls of feelings of well-being.

"In the past century at least, optimism this extreme has occurred only twice before, in 2000 and 2007," said Prechter, whose theories have influenced many others.

The S&P 500 index slid 50 percent in two years from August 2000 after the dot-com bubble burst and sank 55 percent in 17 months from late 2007 as the financial crisis took hold. It surged 33 percent in a year to hit a record high last month.

CLOSE TO A TURN

Terry Burnham, author of "Mean Markets and Lizard Brains" and associate professor of finance at Chapman University in Orange, California, is a recent convert. He initially held the traditional notion that economic fundamentals led market moves.

"Twenty five years later, I have come to the opposite view. Prices move first and fundamentals adjust later. My sense is that we are pretty close to a turn in equity markets and people will be given no gentle opportunity to sell stocks," he said.

Experts like Burnham, HSBC's head of technical analysis Murray Gunn and others have been influenced by socionomics, which has gained ground since the 2000 dot-com bust, though some seeing it another tool rather than the only one.

"Prechter's theory is complementary to technical analysis. We incorporate it into our analysis by identifying mood trends," Gunn said.

Others base their strategies on these ideas. Richard Peterson, managing partner of behavioral economics consultancy MarketPsych, said he ran his fund on his model for two years during the financial crisis and beat the S&P 500 by 24 percent.

A fund at Derwent Capital, launched by Paul Hawtin in 2011, used only Twitter to take investment decisions and returned 1.9 percent in its first month as global equity markets sank, but was then forced to close having failed to raise enough capital.

Hawtin, who now uses Twitter analysis as his principal investment strategy to manage private accounts at his new company Cayman Atlantic, said his systems were flagging up an increasing chance of a bubble in the market.

Several top global banks have been less keen to take up the trend, saying it was hard to lay down strict rules on behavioral finance and results were subject to wide interpretations.

Some quantitative analysts reject the idea markets are either driven purely by mood or purely by traditional factors, seeing the two in a symbiotic relationship.

"I find the term 'socionomics' a bit pompous. However, I subscribe to the idea that social moods may govern events," said Julien Turc, Societe Generale's head of cross-asset quantitative strategy. "I believe both things are the product of each other."

Behavioral finance analysts said although socionomics will continue to gain in popularity, its counter-intuitive nature challenges the way most investors think.

"While I expect that it will be a while before investors intuitively think "sociologically", those who do will be at a strong advantage to those who just follow the herd," Atwater said.

(Editing by Nigel Stephenson and Philippa Fletcher)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spendthrift-elite-signals-equity-slide-behavioral-experts-warn-084320810.html

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Calif. wildfire burns 10-mile path to Pacific

Firefighters from Glendale, Calif., and Pasadena, Calif., stand watch as bulldozers clear a firebreak near a wildfire burning along a hillside near homes in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Thursday, May 2, 2013. A Ventura County Fire Department spokeswoman said the blaze that broke out Thursday morning near Camarillo and Thousand Oaks, 50 miles west of Los Angeles, had spread to over 6,500 acres, forcing evacuations of nearby neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Firefighters from Glendale, Calif., and Pasadena, Calif., stand watch as bulldozers clear a firebreak near a wildfire burning along a hillside near homes in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Thursday, May 2, 2013. A Ventura County Fire Department spokeswoman said the blaze that broke out Thursday morning near Camarillo and Thousand Oaks, 50 miles west of Los Angeles, had spread to over 6,500 acres, forcing evacuations of nearby neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Farmers keep working as a wildfire on a hill burns in the background in Camarillo, Calif., Thursday, May 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

A helicopter makes a water drop on flames as earth movers clear brush along a hillside in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Thursday, May 2, 2013. A Ventura County Fire Department spokeswoman said the wildfire that broke out Thursday morning near Camarillo and Thousand Oaks, 50 miles west of Los Angeles, had spread to over 6,500 acres ? more than 10 square miles - forcing evacuations of nearby neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Smoke billows from a brush fire near Camarillo Spring Road in Camarillo, Calif., Thuesday May 2, 2013. (AP Photo/The Ventura County Star, Ray Meese) LOS ANGELES TIMES OUT, LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS OUT

Smoke billows over along U.S. 101 near Thousand Oaks, Calif. on Thursday, May 2, 2013. Authorities have ordered evacuations of a neighborhood and a university about 50 miles west of Los Angeles where a wildfire is raging close to subdivisions. The blaze on the fringes of Camarillo and Thousand Oaks broke out Thursday morning and was quickly spread by gusty Santa Ana winds. Evacuation orders include California State University, Channel Islands. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A wildfire burned across a Southern California region, flaring up amid strong winds in the morning and cutting a 10-mile path to the Pacific by nightfall.

By the time it reached Pacific Coast Highway late Thursday, the blaze had burned about 8,000 acres ? or 12? square miles ? and had forced the evacuation of a university and hundreds of homes, officials said.

The blaze was 10 percent contained, but the work of more than 900 firefighters and deputies was just beginning, Ventura County fire Capt. Bill Nash said.

"This fire is a long way from out," Nash said. "It is still growing."

Nash said gusts of nearly 30 mph were still being reported near the coast late Thursday, and the National Weather Service said strong Santa Ana winds and extreme fire danger would remain in the region through Friday.

Some 2,000 homes were threatened. Despite the fire's size and proximity to populated areas, no houses had been destroyed, though 15 were damaged and a cluster of RVs in a parking lot was destroyed by flames.

There were no reports of injuries.

After reaching the highway, the fire began burning along the seaside roadway south toward Malibu. Planes and helicopters dropped water and retardant until they were grounded by darkness.

The day began with a staggering drop in humidity, a plunge from 80 percent to single digits in less than an hour caused by withering winds out of the northeast and temperatures in the 90s.

The fire erupted during morning rush hour along U.S. 101 in the Camarillo area about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles, and winds pushed it down slopes toward subdivisions, soon forcing evacuations of residents in Camarillo and Thousand Oaks.

Marie Turner, 45, was among the displaced at an evacuation center in Thousand Oaks as flames skirted the home her family moved into from Texas less than a year ago. She said in a phone interview she had given little thought to wildfires and worried about an entirely different kind of California threat.

"I'd always heard about earthquakes, it was a big fear of mine before we moved here," said Turner.

She said she was frightened but didn't regret the move.

"I'm very positive about being here, and we're trying to make the most of it," said Turner.

The smoke-choked campus of California State University, Channel Islands was evacuated, and classes were canceled for Thursday and Friday. The school has about 5,000 students, though only a fraction live on campus.

About 100 miles to the east in Riverside County, two homes were destroyed, two more were damaged and 11 vehicles were destroyed in a 12-acre fire that fire officials suspect was started Thursday by a discarded cigarette.

Elsewhere in the county, a 4?-square-mile blaze that destroyed a home burned for a second day in mountains north of Banning. It was 55 percent contained.

Crews for a second day took on a 4?-square-mile fire burning in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains north of Banning, Riverside County fire spokeswoman Jody Hagemann said. The fire, which burned a home Wednesday, was 55 percent contained.

In Northern California, fire in Tehama County continued to grow, consuming 10,000 remote acres north of the town of Butte Meadows. No homes were threatened and it was 10 percent contained.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Raquel Maria Dillon in Banning, and Robert Jablon and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-03-California%20Wildfires/id-be20db3fc7ce4212ab343337f7888c69

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SD tribe faces ultimatum on sale of massacre site

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) ? A small patch of prairie sits largely unnoticed off a desolate road in southwestern South Dakota, tucked amid gently rolling hills and surrounded by dilapidated structures and hundreds of gravesites ? many belonging to Native Americans massacred more than a century earlier.

The assessed value of the property: less than $14,000. The seller's asking price: $4.9 million.

Tribal members say the man who owns a piece of the Wounded Knee National Historic Landmark on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is trying to profit from their suffering. It was there, on Dec. 29, 1890, that 300 Native American men, women and children were killed by the 7th Cavalry in the final battle of the American Indian Wars.

James Czywczynski, whose family has owned the property since 1968, is trying to sell the 40-acre fraction of the historic landmark and another 40-acre parcel for $4.9 million. He had given the Oglala Sioux Tribe until Wednesday to agree to the price, after which he said he'd open it up to outside investors.

Oglala Sioux tribal president Bryan Brewer told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the tribe does not have the money to buy the land and that, even if it did, tribal members shouldn't have to buy back something that is theirs.

"We are hoping no one will buy this land. And I'd like to tell investors that if someone thinks they can go down there and commercialize this, it will never happen. We will not allow it," he said.

Czywczynski did not return repeated calls from The Associated Press by Wednesday evening to see whether outside investors are now able to bid for the land. Earlier this month he told the AP he had three offers from West Coast-based investment groups interested in buying the land for the original asking price.

The ultimatum has caused anger among many tribal members and descendants of the massacre victims.

"I know we are at the 11th hour, but selling this massacre site and using the victims as a selling pitch is, for lack of a better word, it's grotesque," said Nathan Blindman, 56, whose grandfather was 10 when he survived the massacre. "To use the murdered children, the murdered teenagers, the unborn, women screaming and running for their lives, using that as a selling pitch ... that has got to be the most barbaric thing ever to use as a selling pitch."

Czywczynski acknowledges the historical significance adds value to each parcel of land, which have each been appraised at less than $7,000 apiece, according to records reviewed by the AP.

Besides its proximity to the burial grounds, the land includes the site of a former trading post burned down during the 1973 Wounded Knee uprising, in which hundreds of American Indian Movement protesters occupied the town built at the massacre site. The 71-day standoff that left two tribal members dead and a federal agent seriously wounded is credited with raising awareness about Native American struggles and giving rise to a wider protest movement that lasted the rest of the decade.

The land sits on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home to the Oglala Sioux Tribe, but many of the descendants of the massacre victims and survivors are members of several different Lakota tribes, said Joseph Brings Plenty, a former chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and a traditional chief.

Brings Plenty said the tribes are not in a position to pay millions of dollars for the land. Although tribal members are not opposed to development that would preserve, beautify or better educate the public about the land and its history, they are opposed to commercialization, he said.

"You don't go and dance on grandma and grandpa's grave to turn a hefty dollar sign," he said.

Tribal members and descendants have reached out to President Barack Obama to make the site a National Monument, which would better guard it against development and commercialization, Brings Plenty said.

But even if an outside investor buys the land with intent to develop, there will be obstacles, said Craig Dillon, an Oglala Sioux Tribal Council member. The tribe could pass new laws preventing the buyer from actually building at the site.

"Whoever buys that is still going to have to deal with the tribe," Dillon said. "Access is going to be an issue. Development is going to be an issue. I'm not threatening anybody, but my tone is be aware you have to deal with the tribe if you purchase it."

There are nearly 2,500 national historic landmarks across the country, with the vast majority of them owned by private landowners, said Don Stevens, chief of the History and National Register Program in the Midwest Region for the National Park Service.

"We advocate for preservation and we always express concern about potential harm for their care," Stevens said, adding that the NPS does not have any legal authority.

Still, a site can lose its designation if it does not retain its physical integrity, he said. One example is Soldier Field in Chicago, which lost the designation when it was remodeled a decade ago because it changed its physical character.

As for the Wounded Knee site, Stevens said any development could potentially affect the Historic Landmark designation.

"Certainly you would hear a hue and cry about that type of thing," he said. "And certainly if we saw something going up, we'd express our concern, even if we don't have a legal jurisdiction to intercede, we'd express our concern."

___

Follow Kristi Eaton on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kristieaton.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sd-tribe-faces-ultimatum-sale-massacre-070615402.html

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Mozambique trims 2013 growth forecast to 7 pct

May 1 (Reuters) - Post position for Saturday's 139th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs after Wednesday's draw (listed as barrier, HORSE, jockey, trainer) 1. BLACK ONYX, Joe Bravo, Kelly Breen 2. OXBOW, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas 3. REVOLUTIONARY, Calvin Borel, Todd Pletcher 4. GOLDEN SOUL, Robby Albarado, Dallas Stewart 5. NORMANDY INVASION, Javier Castellano, Chad Brown 6. MYLUTE, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss 7. GIANT FINISH, Jose Espinoza, Tony Dutrow 8. GOLDENCENTS, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill 9. OVERANALYZE, Rafael Bejarano, Todd Pletcher 10. PALACE MALICE, Mike Smith, Todd Pletcher 11. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mozambique-trims-2013-growth-forecast-7-pct-145952784.html

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Neuroscientists Weigh In on Obama's BRAIN Initiative

See Inside

Shortcomings include the focus on just one type of cell and on activity rather than neuronal network architecture

Clockwise from top left: Rafael Yuste, Partha Mitra and R. Douglas Fields Image: COURTESY OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY; COURTESY OF PARTHA MITRA; OURTESY OF R. DOUGLAS FIELDS

In February, President Barack Obama hinted that the White House would soon announce a large-scale initiative aimed at mapping the activity in the brain at the cellular level. Several scientists confirmed the project would probably be based on the Brain Activity Map proposal outlined in Neuron in June 2012. Scientific American Mind asked a few top neuroscientists what they think.

Rafael Yuste, a neuroscientist at Columbia University and an adviser for the White House's initiative: The Brain Activity Map could advance our knowledge by providing an unprecedented view into the large-scale activity of different parts of the brain of experimental animals?and hopefully also humans. These data could reveal how the brain works at the level of small- and large-scale circuits, something we currently cannot see. Just as it is very difficult to see an image on a television screen if you can see only one or a few pixels at a time, current neuroscience tools that can record the activity of only one or a few neurons at a time make it difficult to see the bigger picture. The Brain Activity Map could provide the tools to enable researchers and clinicians to ?see the whole screen.?

Partha Mitra, a neuroscientist and theoretical biologist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: We do need tools to record from many neurons. But simply increasing the number of neurons that are providing the recording won't solve the problems neuroscience faces today: a broader approach is needed. Anatomical network structure and neuronal physiology together determine the laws that underlie the many ways neurons communicate and influence one another, so these areas need to be pursued with equal emphasis, despite the proposal's recommendation to focus solely on brain activity. Arguably, a map of neuronal network architecture?not an activity map?is the closest analogue of the human genome for the brain.

R. Douglas Fields, a neuroscientist and senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health: Mapping out the anatomy of neuronal connections in the brain is an important and necessary step. Schizophrenia, autism and drug abuse probably involve neurons that work fine but are operating in suboptimal or dysfunctional networks. But there is one major oversight, apparently, in this initiative. From what I have heard, the project will not map glia. Glia regulate neuronal network communication in many ways, yet we have only the most rudimentary understanding of glia in comparison with what is known about neurons. If the goal of this funding initiative is to map the connections in the brain, I think we should connect all the parts into the map, not just one cell type.

This article was originally published with the title A Push to Map All the Brain's Neurons.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=6a8179edb5fb01ab5ed34fe6a55fae96

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Ashton Kutcher's A-Grade Fund Raising At $100 Million Valuation

Today at TechCrunch Disrupt NY, Ashton Kutcher took the stage with Guy Oseary to talk about their A-Grade fund. Arrington started right away about a rumor that the fund is raising money at a $100 million valuation. The two partners confirm the rumors, saying that they are raising “enough money.” It means that financial institutions and companies will invest a certain amount of money in exchange for equity in the A-Grade fund, valuing the existing investments and activities at $100 million. With three partners (Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary and Ron Burkle), the fund has been investing for about two and a half years. Until today, the three partners only invested personal money. It is still unclear how much money they put into the fund to date. Among its portfolio companies, the A-Grade fund has invested in Spotify, Uber, Shazam, Soundcloud, Fab and Airbnb. It mainly takes part in seed and Series A rounds. When asked whether it is bundling current investments or creating a new fund, Ashton Kutcher answered that it is doing both. “We’re just somewhat formalizing what we’ve been doing,” Kutcher said. The new fund will keep the A-Grade name. While the new funding is not official yet, Kutcher and Oseary said that it’s mostly a one-time investment. “We are pretty well filled up,” Kutcher said. The partners will make an announcement when the deal finalizes.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/nO7y3noGMWA/

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