Accommodation In Santa Clarita - Astronomers Discover Most Distant Known Galaxy

Source      - http://www.latimes.com/
By             - Monte Morin
Category   - Accommodation In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Accommodation In Santa Clarita

Just 700 million years after the big bang, our most distant known galaxy was a cauldron of star production, churning out new suns hundreds of times faster than our own Milky Way galaxy, scientists say.

But it was only this spring, roughly 13 billion years later, that astronomers first glimpsed evidence of this ferocious activity and confirmed the distance and age of the galaxy now designated as z8_GND_5296.

In a paper published Tuesday in the journal Nature, researchers said discovery of the galaxy suggested our early universe was capable of far more star production than previously believed.

"Such a galaxy is unexpected," wrote lead study author Steven Finkelstein, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin. "The early universe may harbor a larger number of intense sites of star formation than expected."

Radiant energy, including visible light, travels no faster than 186,000 miles per second. Since it took that energy almost 13 billion years to travel from z8_GND_5296 to the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, researchers can only study the galaxy as it was in its infancy.

It would appear very different if we were to glimpse its form in real time, scientists say.

"Such a galaxy would be very massive today and, having exhausted its supply of gas, would not be able to form many stars at the current time," said study coauthor Naveen Reddy, an assistant professor of astronomy and physics at UC Riverside.

In order to determine the galaxy's age and distance from Earth, scientists study its so-called redshift, or the lengthening wavelengths of energy emitted by its stars over great distances. The higher the redshift, the greater the distance.

It's only recently, however, that technology has advanced to the point that high redshifts can be studied. In the case of z8_GND_5296, scientists used Keck's MOSFIRE, the Multi-Object Spectrometer for Infra-Red Exploration, for this purpose.

Dominik Riechers, an assistant professor of astronomy at Cornell University who was not involved in the galaxy study, said that the discovery of z8_GND_5296 may presage a new era of research into very distant galaxies.

In an accompanying News & Views, Riechers noted that the James Webb Space Telescope will be able to detect similar galaxies with relative ease after its launch toward the end of the decade.

It's likely then that further galaxies will be observed.

Riechers notes that astronomers have confirmed the explosion of a massive and more distant star 70 million years earlier. However, due to the difficulty of detecting high redshift energy emissions, scientists have yet to link a galaxy with that tumultuous event.

The value of studying such distant galaxies, scientists say, is that it provides a window into the conditions of the early universe.

In particular, scientists said it could illuminate the period after the so-called cosmic dark ages, when the first stars and galaxies were formed and the neutral hydrogen that pervaded the universe became ionized.

"Astronomy is a little bit like archeology ... as we dig deeper into the 

sand, we are probing earlier periods in history," Reddy said.

Accommodation In Santa Clarita - Earth Has At Least 1.75 Billion Years To Go, Scientists Say

Source       - http://www.csmonitor.com/
By             -  Elizabeth Barber
Category   - Accommodation In Santa Clarita
Posted By  - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Accommodation In Santa Clarita

Earth has at least 1.75 billion years left, scientists have found. That means that Homo sapiens, in the unlikely event that the species will persist all that time, have used up about 0.01142857142 percent of their time on Earth so far.

A team of British researchers has developed a model for determining how long a planet can expect to be within its sun’s habitable zone – the sweet spot just far enough to the sun so that the planet’s water doesn’t sizzle into vapor but just close enough to the sun so that it doesn’t freeze.

The model, reported in the journal Astrobiology aimed at assessing which planets outside our solar system, called exoplanets, might be in that comfortable zone long enough for intelligent life to make its gradual appearance there. In doing so, it also offers a prediction for Earth’s remaining time.

Most exoplanet research is underpinned by one all-important question: “Is this planet habitable?” To answer that question, scientists often begin by asking if that planet falls within the star’s habitable zone, where liquid water, an ingredient thought to be critical for life, could be available.

But just how the bounds of the habitable zone are calculated and plotted has been the subject of much debate in recent years, as exoplanet research now includes not just hunting those planets, but also classifying them.

Researchers, for example, have debated what effect cloud cover might have on the range in which a planet might be habitable. Perhaps, clouds might keep a planet close to the sun cooler than it otherwise would have been, protecting its surface water reserves from evaporation, researchers have proposed.

Still, as the latest paper’s authors note, what is not controversial is that the habitable zone, however it is defined, fluctuates over time. Over billions of years, a star’s brightness increases, and planets once in that sweet spot begin to broil.

“Toward the end of a planet’s [habitable zone] lifetime, steadily increasing stellar luminosity is likely to result in a runaway greenhouse event, which would represent a catastrophic and terminal extinction event for any surface biosphere present on the planet,” write the authors, in the paper.

So, in the hunt for extraterrestrial life, the question, “is it habitable?” is not meaningful without also answering, “for how long is it habitable?”

That’s because life takes a long time to develop – or at least so it seems based on our experience here on Earth. Here, on this planet formed about 4.5 billion years ago, we didn’t get single-celled organisms, called prokaryotes, until about 3.6 billion years ago, and bacteria that could photosynthesize didn’t pop up until 2 million years after that. Fish then turned up about 500 millions of years ago, then insects about 200 million years ago, and then dinosaurs about 200 million years ago.

Humans, following up on the evolution of mammals, birds, and flowers, have spent just 200,000 years on this planet. We are, essentially, the scrubby, ultra-thin tip of an eraser, topping a long pencil of time that precedes us.

All this suggests that good candidates for life outside our solar system must have enough time in their star’s sweet spot – more than 4.5 billion years, it seems – for that life to burgeon.

In search of those planets on which Earth’s life-hunting resources are best spent, the team modeled the expected habitable zone lifetime for seven confirmed exoplanets and 27 of the Kepler telescope’s exoplanet candidates, as well as the lifetime for Earth.

Accommodation In Santa Clarita - Are Young Drivers Unsafe In Their Older Cars

Source        - http://www.theautochannel.com/
By               - Press Release
Category     - Accommodation In Santa Clarita
Posted By   - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Accommodation In Santa Clarita

Getting behind the wheel of your first car is a memorable event, especially for younger people. Yet inexperience brings higher risk, so new teen drivers need all the safety advantages they can get, and the latest poll from PEMCO Insurance shows that newly licensed teens often drive older vehicles short of safety features that lessen injuries in a crash.

PEMCO set out to explore the premise that when teens get their first car, those vehicles often tend to be older models, which are more affordable, and smaller models, which get better mileage and cost less to fuel. That's a concern because older cars lack safety improvements, and the laws of physics prove that smaller cars suffer most when they collide with larger vehicles.

According to the PEMCO Insurance Northwest Poll, about one-third of respondents under age 55 said their first car was more than 10 years old when they became drivers. Respondents of all ages in Portland, Ore., and Western Washington said their first cars were about 8 years old, and Eastern Washington drivers reported an average first-car age of nine years.

About two-thirds of respondents in Washington and Portland report that their parents owned the first car they drove and more than half said their parents paid for the insurance on their teens' first car.

"While older cars are often more affordable for parents and teens, our poll confirms the trend we suspected – parents opt for older and sometimes smaller cars for their teens when a newer car would be a safer option," said PEMCO spokesperson Jon Osterberg.

The poll shows that just 4 percent of drivers between 35 and 54 said their first car included a safety feature critical by today's standards – driver-side front airbags. Airbags didn't become standard in a majority of new models until 1994, according to Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) data.

Baby-boomer drivers were more likely to say their first cars were newer – more than half of those 55 and older said their first car was less than 10 years old, and almost one in three said their first car was less than 5 years old, the poll revealed.

However, those drivers may also remember that their first car lacked important safety features for their passengers. While front-seat lap and shoulder belts became a federal standard in 1968, backseat lap and shoulder seatbelts weren't standard in vehicles until 1990. According to PEMCO's poll, 36 percent of drivers 55 and older said their first car had lap seatbelts without shoulder harnesses, and very few – just 3 percent – said their first car offered shoulder harnesses in addition to lap belts.

While there's no doubt automakers have made significant advances in safety over the decades, chances are even a 10-year-old vehicle today would lack newer recommended safety features such as electronic stability control and driver head-protecting side airbags.

In 2003, less than 25 percent of vehicles offered side airbags as a standard feature, and electronic stability control wasn't available in more than 60 percent of vehicle models, according to data from IIHS.

Beyond a vehicle's age, the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) reports that the size of car driven by teens is one of the most significant contributors to their likelihood to crash, when compared to the auto-accident rates of older drivers.

The HLDI study indicates that while small cars tend to be popular among teen drivers, they're also more dangerous than larger vehicles because a shorter wheelbase can be less forgiving with driving mistakes. Still, nearly 30 percent of teens in the U.S. drive one of the three types of vehicles – small two-door cars, and mini and small four-door cars – that have the highest claim frequency among all drivers, according to HLDI.

HLDI's report also shows that teens are two times more likely to crash a small car than their adult counterparts.

According to the PEMCO poll, the most popular first cars among Washington and Portland drivers have been American made, with more than half of the poll's 55-and-older drivers saying they drove a Ford or Chevrolet as their first vehicle as a teen.

"Among those who told us the make of their first car, Chevys were far and away the most common," Osterberg said. "About a third of those who recalled the make of their first car drove a Chevy, with Impalas and Bel Airs – combined – taking the top spot."

But through the years, Toyotas and Hondas have increased in popularity among younger drivers at the expense of Chevrolet, in particular. About 17 percent of drivers under 35 said they drove a Toyota and another 13 percent said their first car was a Honda, while about 10 percent of those younger drivers opted for a Chevrolet.

"There are many resources for teens and parents to help you choose a first car that's safe, reliable, and affordable," Osterberg added. "Websites that compare crash-test results and safety ratings across makes and models are often a great place to start. Check out IIHS's crash-test results or 5-Star Safety Ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration."

Accommodation In Santa Clarita - Here’s Why Apple’s iPad Sales Are Falling

Source - http://wallstcheatsheet.com/
By - Nathanael Arnold
Category - Accommodation In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

 

Accommodation In Santa Clarita

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) saw a decline in iPad sales for the first time according to its recently released third-quarter results. The Cupertino, California-based company sold 14.6 million iPads during the June quarter, 2.4 million less than the amount it sold in the same quarter last year.

Although this statistic alarmed some Apple watchers, the year-over-year decline in iPad sales is hardly surprising considering the fact that Apple released a new iteration of its tablet in March 2012. In this sense, comparing iPad sales figures from the June quarter in 2012 to the same quarter in 2013 is like comparing apples to oranges.

However, it should also be noted that the majority of the iPad sales drop is directly attributable to a “1.9 million unit channel inventory swing,” as stated by Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer during the third-quarter results conference call, Yahoo Finance reports. “We built 1.2 million units of iPad channel inventory in the June quarter last year whereas we reduced channel inventory by 700,000 units in the June quarter this year.”

The days of paying for costly software upgrades are numbered. The PC will soon be obsolete. And BusinessWeek reports 70% of Americans are already using the technology that will replace it. Merrill Lynch calls it "a $160 billion opportunity." Computing giants including IBM, Yahoo!, and Amazon are racing to be the first to cash in on this PC-killing revolution. Yet, a small group of little-known companies have a huge head start. Get the full details on these companies, and the technology that is destroying the PC, in a free video from The Motley Fool. Enter your email address below to view this stunning video.

Accommodation In Santa Clarita - Tax Bite Curbs U.S. Growth Along With Consumer Spending

Source - http://www.bloomberg.com/
By - Shobhana Chandra
Category - Accommodation In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Accommodation In Santa Clarita

Growth in the world’s largest economy was less than originally estimated in the first quarter as an increase in the U.S. payroll tax took a bigger bite out of consumer spending than previously calculated.

Gross domestic product grew at a 1.8 percent annualized rate from January through March, down from a prior reading of 2.4 percent, Commerce Department data showed today in Washington. Household purchases were trimmed to a 2.6 percent advance -- still the fastest in two years -- from the 3.4 percent gain estimated last month.

Americans cut back on services from vacations to legal advice as the two percentage-point increase in the payroll tax caused incomes to drop by the most in more than four years. At the same time, an improving labor market and rising home prices are underpinning consumer confidence, one reason economists project growth will pick up in the second half of the year.

“You’re not seeing a big pullback in consumer spending, it is just weaker than previously estimated,” said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. “The housing recovery will continue to push forward. Overall growth is going to be stronger in the second half.”

Stocks and Treasury securities rallied on speculation the weaker-than-projected growth reading will prompt Federal Reserve policy makers to delay reducing bond purchases. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 1 percent to 1,603.26 at the close in New York. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note fell to 2.54 percent from 2.61 percent late yesterday.
Financial System

Elsewhere, the Bank of England today said lenders are vulnerable to an abrupt increase in long-term interest rates as it warned confidence in the financial system remains fragile. The central bank ordered a review of banks’ exposure to interest-rate risk, which it said is not properly understood.

The U.S. government’s GDP estimate is the third and final one for the quarter. The 0.6 percentage-point reduction was the biggest for a final reading of GDP since the figure for the third quarter of 2009, which was lowered by the same amount.

The median forecast of 82 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 2.4 percent rise in first-quarter GDP, the same as the Commerce Department previously estimated. The economy grew at a 0.4 percent pace in the last three months of 2012.

The downward revision was centered in consumer spending on services, with the updated figures showing a 1.7 percent gain compared with a prior estimate of 3.1 percent. Outlays in the category that includes tourism, legal help and personal care items such as haircuts, dropped in the first quarter from the previous three months. Spending on health-care services grew at a slower pace than previously projected.

Accommodation In Santa Clarita - Oil Prices Decline After Weak China Data

Source - http://www.marketwatch.com/
By - Carla Mozee
Category - Accommodation In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Accommodation In Santa Clarita

Crude for July delivery CLN3 -0.30%  fell 16 cents, or 0.2%, to $91.81 a barrel, with some pressure on the dollar-denominated commodity coming from strengthening U.S. dollar.

The ICE dollar index DXY -0.11%  , which measures the greenback against six other global currencies, rose to 83.237 from 82.294 on Friday. The index finished May higher by nearly 2%.

 On Monday, the final version of HSBC’s China manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index showed activity in the sector contracted in May. The index fell to 49.2 from a preliminary reading of 49.6. The latest reading was also more than a point off from April’s 50.4. A result below 50 signals contraction.

China is a key consumer of oil, and the reported contraction in the country’s manufacturing sector came at a time of general concern about a slowdown in China and its impact on energy demand.

HSBC’s report contrasted with China’s official PMI, released Saturday, which rose to 50.8 in May from 50.6 in April.

Monday’s slip in oil prices added to the 1.8% drop on Friday, when news about record-high European unemployment and a decline in U.S. consumer spending in April dented energy-demand prospects.

The oil market later Monday is due to receive May PMI reports for Germany, France, Italy, and the overall euro zone.

Ahead of the reports, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said Monday that the euro area’s economic situation “remains challenging,” and the ECB doesn’t expect much of an improvement before the end of this year.

 The ECB on Thursday is expected to yet again downwardly revise its economic-activity forecast for this year. It currently expects a contraction of 0.5%.

But industry and investor worries about lackluster energy demand didn’t sway OPEC on Friday from sticking to its current oil-production target.

OPEC oil ministers at a summit in Vienna agreed, as expected, to keep the output target at 30 million barrels a day for the rest of the year, with many members expressing satisfaction with current price levels of about $100 a barrel for Brent crude.

But OPEC’s current target “has no teeth because there are no individual country allocations within the quota,” Simmons & Company International head of research Jeff Dietert wrote Friday. “Our view is that all nations, aside from Saudi Arabia, are essentially producing at max capacity anyway.”

July futures for benchmark Brent crude oil UK:LCON3 -0.36%  on Monday fell 16 cents, or 0.2%, to $100.23 a barrel. Brent ended May with a loss of 1.6%.

Accommodation In Santa Clarita - SKorea Plans $15 bln Extra Budget To Boost Economy

Source - http://www.boston.com/
By - YOUKYUNG LEE
Category - Accommodation In Santa Clarita
Posted By - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The South Korean government proposed a $15.3 billion stimulus Tuesday to boost slowing growth in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

The stimulus would be South Korea’s third-largest supplemental budget ever, exceeded only by those approved after the 1998 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 global financial turmoil.

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said the budget will be used to cover a tax revenue shortfall, aid small and medium firms, create jobs and boost the stagnant real estate market. The statement said the ministry will submit the 17.3 trillion won ($15.3 billion) plan to parliament on Thursday.

It estimated a tax revenue shortfall of 6 trillion won due to the slower-than-expected economic recovery and another 6 trillion won shortfall from the delay in selling stakes in state-owned banks. The remaining 5.3 trillion won will be a net increase in the government’s budget.

In addition to the extra budget requiring a parliamentary approval, the ministry will also use 2 trillion won in state funds that do not need to go through the assembly to stimulate the economy.

The stimulus plan comes after the ministry sharply revised down its growth forecast of South Korea’s economy last month.

It said South Korea’s economy will expand 2.3 percent this year, instead of 3 percent it had predicted three months earlier, citing the yen’s slide that is hurting South Korean exporters, weak consumer sentiment and sluggish capital investment.

The stimulus move underlines how the government is seeking a quick fix to the slowdown. South Korea’s economy expanded 2 percent in 2012, the slowest rate in three years, as weak global recovery and trade.

The extra budget will stimulate growth by 0.3 percentage point this year and add 40,000 new jobs, it said.

Despite the government’s calls for all-out efforts to boost the economy, South Korea’s central bank resisted calls to lower borrowing costs.

Last week, Bank of Korea kept its key interest rate unchanged at 2.75 percent for a sixth month. Gov. Kim Choong-soo said the economy is on track to a slow recovery and the monetary policy is ‘‘accommodative’’ to encourage borrowing and spending.end of story marker

Accommodation In Santa Clarita - Apple Apologizes In China After Service Criticism

Source - http://abcnews.go.com/
By - CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
Posted By - Accommodation In Santa Clarita
Category - Hampton Inn Santa Clarita

Accommodation In Santa Clarita

Apple apologized to Chinese consumers after government media attacked its repair policies for two weeks in a campaign that reeked of economic nationalism.

A statement Apple posted in Chinese on its website Monday said the complaints had prompted "deep reflection" and persuaded the company of the need to revamp its repair policies, boost communication with Chinese consumers and strengthen oversight of authorized resellers.

State broadcaster CCTV and the ruling Communist Party's flagship newspaper, People's Daily, had led the charge against the American company. They accused Apple Inc. of arrogance, greed and "throwing its weight around" and portrayed it as just the latest Western company to exploit the Chinese consumer.

The attacks quickly backfired, though, and were mocked by the increasingly sophisticated Chinese consumers who revere Apple and its products. State-run media also inadvertently revived complaints over shoddy service by Chinese companies.

Nonetheless, Apple responded with an apology from CEO Tim Cook.

"We've come to understand through this process that because of our poor communication, some have come to feel that Apple's attitude is arrogant and that we don't care about or value feedback from the consumer," Cook's Chinese statement said, as translated by The Associated Press. "For the concerns and misunderstandings passed on to the consumer, we express our sincere apologies."

 Although Apple enjoys strong support from Chinese consumers, the vehemence of the attacks and the importance of the Chinese market appeared to have persuaded the company to appear contrite.

The People's Daily newspaper ran an editorial last Wednesday headlined "Strike down Apple's incomparable arrogance."

"Here we have the Western person's sense of superiority making mischief," the newspaper wrote. "If there's no risk in offending the Chinese consumer, and it also makes for lower overheads, then why not?"

Chinese observers accused People's Daily of gross hypocrisy and pointed out that the newspaper had maintained a stony silence when Chinese companies were implicated over food safety, pollution and other scandals. Meanwhile, CCTV was shamed when it emerged that celebrities had been recruited to blast Apple on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, in what had been billed as a grassroots campaign.

"The public responded in two ways to this incident," popular commentator Shi Shusi wrote on his Weibo account. "One group supports this criticism but quite a number of people felt that there are state monopolies which have severely violated customer's rights, but which are not being exposed."

Popular business magazine Caijing said its readers identified a long list of abusers, including state banks that lend to those with political connections while stiffing ordinary savers with low rates on deposits; a government oil company that sets gas prices and other rates as it sees fit; and state telecom providers notorious for their lack of customer service.

"If media is going to go after Apple, let's hope they spare some thought for those big Chinese communications companies and other monopolies, the ones that enrich special interests in the name of being publicly owned," Cai Tongqi, a lawyer from the eastern province of Jiangsu, wrote on Weibo.

Consumers seem unfazed by the state media's attacks on Apple.