GIGLIO, Italy (Reuters) ? The wreck of the cruise ship Costa Concordia could remain where it lies near the Italian island of Giglio until the end of the year or longer before it can be broken up or salvaged, the official in charge of the recovery operation said on Sunday.
Divers searching for bodies in the hulk, which lies half submerged a few meters from the shore, suspended work on Sunday after heavy seas and strong winds caused the vessel to shift noticeably, authorities said.
Bad weather had already delayed plans to begin removing the 2,300 tonnes of diesel fuel in the ship's tanks, an operation expected to take from three weeks to a month once it gets under way, probably by the middle of next week.
Civil Protection agency chief Franco Gabrielli, who is in charge of the operation, said removing the massive wreck from its position outside the port could take up to a year.
"We already knew that this was a very long, drawn out case but I think it's important that everyone is very aware that it will have a very significant timeframe," he told reporters.
Salvaging or moving the ship cannot begin until the fuel and lubricating oil is removed and the risk of an environmental disaster is averted. Even after that, other preliminary work must be done before a company is awarded the salvage contract.
"Just for that, we'll need not less than two months. From that date, we'll move to the operational phase, which will last from 7-10 months," Gabrielli said.
The delay could have a dramatic effect on tourism on the island, a popular holiday spot in a marine reserve off the mainland coast of Tuscany.
"I really fear a drastic fall in arrivals next summer, also because of the problems the ferries have getting into port," said local hotel owner Paolo Fanciulli.
The mayor of Giglio, Sergio Ortelli said the island would seek government help of the delay in moving the ship proved significant and he expressed some annoyance at the forecast.
"It would have been better to wait before talking about the timeframe until there is a firm project in place," he said.
VERY UPSET
The disaster struck more than two weeks ago when the 114,500-tonne Costa Concordia hit a rock which gashed its hull after it sailed to within 150 meters of the shore to perform a display manoeuvre known as a "salute."
Its captain, Francesco Schettino, faces charges of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship before the evacuation of more than 4,200 passengers and crew was complete.
"The captain is well, he's reflecting on what happened and he is profoundly upset," his lawyer Bruno Leporatti said after meeting his client, who is under house arrest near Naples.
Divers found a 17th victim on Saturday, the body of a woman identified as a member of the crew, leaving 15 people still missing after the disaster on January 13.
The search was halted on Sunday after measuring instruments placed on board the 290 metre long ship showed about 3.5 centimetres of movement in six hours, compared with a normal movement of one or two millimetres.
Officials have said it is stable and faces little immediate risk of sliding from its resting place in about 20 meters of water into deeper waters.
But even the slight movements posed a risk to divers exploring the ship's dark interior, which is filled with floating debris, including furniture, bedding, curtains and the personal effects of passengers and crew.
An extended legal battle is now in prospect after lawyers in the United States and Italy launched class action and individual suits against the ship's owner Costa Cruises, a unit of Carnival Corp, the world's biggest cruise operator.
Schettino has said he accepts his share of responsibility for the accident but says he was in constant touch with Costa Cruises during evacuation operations which have been widely criticised as slow and uncoordinated.
"What hurts the most is that there would have been time to save everybody of the order to evacuate had been given more quickly and not an hour and a half after the impact," said Maria Cristina Meduri, a passenger who escaped from the wreck.
She returned with her husband to Giglio on Sunday to thank local people who helped with shelter and warm clothing in the aftermath. However, she was bitterly critical of Costa, which is offering 11,000 euros in compensation - and will reimburse the ticket and other travel costs - in return for an agreement to drop any legal action.
"No, we will not accept it, it's nothing at all," she said. "I left objects with inestimable sentimental value on the ship, like the diamond engagement ring my husband gave me. We're not going to accept this."
(Additional reporting by Laura Viggiano in Naples; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Alison Williams/David Stamp)
NEW YORK ? Oil prices are down on concerns that the U.S. economy could slow and investors' worries eased about supply disruptions in the Persian Gulf.
Benchmark crude fell by 34 cents to $99.22 per barrel in New York on Monday. Brent crude, which is used to price foreign oils that are imported by U.S. refineries, lost 28 cents at $111.18 per barrel in London.
The Commerce Department said Americans kept a tighter grip on their wallets in December. Consumer spending was flat, even though incomes rose by the most in nine months. The economy relies heavily on consumer spending, and analysts say the economic recovery could stall and energy demand may stay weak if spending doesn't pick up.
Meanwhile, Iran welcomed international weapons experts into the country in hopes of refuting claims that it is building a nuclear weapon. That eased concerns about possible military action in the region. Still, Europe plans to embargo Iranian oil this summer to pressure Iran about its nuclear program. If that happens, Iran says it could retaliate by blocking passage through the Persian Gulf, where tankers carry one-sixth of the world's oil exports.
The U.S. is ready to implement sanctions on Iran's central bank that will make it harder for Iran to sell oil.
Gasoline pump prices rose by a penny on Monday to $3.43 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular is 15.3 cents higher than it was a month ago and 33 cents higher than it was last year.
In other energy trading, heating oil was flat at $3.07 per gallon and gasoline futures fell 5 cents to $2.88 per gallon. Natural gas futures fell by 1 cent to $2.75 per 1,000 cubic feet.
A team of biologists at the University of York has made an important advance in our understanding of the way cholera attacks the body. The discovery could help scientists target treatments for the globally significant intestinal disease which kills more than 100,000 people every year.
The disease is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, which is able to colonise the intestine usually after consumption of contaminated water or food. Once infection is established, the bacterium secretes a toxin that causes watery diarrhoea and ultimately death if not treated rapidly. Colonisation of the intestine is difficult for incoming bacteria as they have to be highly competitive to gain a foothold among the trillions of other bacteria already in situ.
Scientists at York, led by Dr. Gavin Thomas in the University's Department of Biology, have investigated one of the important routes that V. cholerae uses to gain this foothold. To be able to grow in the intestine the bacterium harvests and then eats a sugar, called sialic acid, that is present on the surface of our gut cells.
Collaborators of the York group at the University of Delaware, USA, led by Professor Fidelma Boyd, had shown previously that eating sialic acid was important for the survival of V. cholerae in animal models, but the mechanism by which the bacteria recognise and take up the sialic was unknown.
The York research, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), demonstrates that the pathogen uses a particular kind of transporter called a TRAP transporter to recognise sialic acid and take it up into the cell. The transporter has particular properties that are suited to scavenging the small amount of available sialic acid. The research also provided some important basic information about how TRAP transporters work in general.
The leader of the research in York, Dr. Gavin Thomas, said: "This work continues our discoveries of how bacteria that grow in our body exploit sialic acid for their survival and help us to take forward our efforts to design chemicals to inhibit these processes in different bacterial pathogens."
The research is published in the latest issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and was primarily the work of Dr Christopher Mulligan, a postdoctoral fellow in the Dr Thomas's laboratory.
###
University of York: http://www.york.ac.uk
Thanks to University of York for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
WASHINGTON ? The federal government's plan to expand computer security protections into critical parts of private industry is raising concerns that the move will threaten Americans' civil liberties.
In a report for release Friday, The Constitution Project warns that as the Obama administration partners more with the energy, financial, communications and health care industries to monitor and protect networks, sensitive personal information of people who work for or communicate with those companies could be improperly or inadvertently disclosed.
While the government may have good intentions, it "runs the risk of establishing a program akin to wiretapping all network users' communications," the nonpartisan legal think tank says. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report in advance.
Cybersecurity has become a rapidly expanding priority for the government as federal agencies, private companies and everyday people come under persistent and increasingly sophisticated computer attacks. The threat is diverse, ranging from computer hackers going after banking and financial accounts to terrorists or other nations breaching government networks to steal sensitive data or sabotage critical systems such as the electrical grid, nuclear plants or Wall Street.
Privacy has been a hotly debated issue, particularly as the Pentagon broadens its pilot program to help defense contractors protect their networks and systems. Several companies, including critical jet fighter and drone programs, have been attacked, although the Pentagon has said that no classified information was lost.
And there are plans for the Homeland Security Department to use the defense program as a model to prevent hackers and hostile nations from breaching critical infrastructure. Officials have suggested that Congress needs to craft legislation that would protect companies from certain privacy and other laws in order to share information with the government for cybersecurity purposes.
DHS spokesman Matt Chandler said the legislative proposals reflect the administration's commitment to privacy protections and contain standards to minimize contact with personal information while dealing with cybersecurity threats. "DHS builds strong privacy protections into the core of all cybersecurity programs and initiatives," Chandler said, adding that the agency realizes that providing assistance to private companies is a sensitive task that requires "trust and strict confidentiality."
The Constitution Project report recommends that officials limit the amount and nature of personal information shared between the public and private sectors. And it calls for strict oversight of the cyber programs by Congress and independent audits, to ensure that privacy rights have not been violated.
"The government should not be permitted to conduct an end-run around Fourth Amendment safeguards by relying upon private companies to monitor networks," it said.
In addition, the report raised concerns about the ongoing development of the Einstein 3 program, a government network monitoring system that would both detect and take action against cyberattacks on federal systems. DHS officials have said that extensive privacy protections are in place.
But the report expressed concerns that as DHS and the secretive National Security Agency share information about potential computer-based threats, the NSA could review communications from U.S. individuals without setting up privacy safeguards.
"With more and more people needing to share sensitive personal and financial data over the Internet, it is absolutely vital that, while we are looking to protect our networks against cyberattack, we also preserve our constitutionally guaranteed rights to privacy," said Constitution Project committee member Asa Hutchinson, a former DHS undersecretary who also served as a GOP congressman from Arkansas.
Lawmakers who have been wrestling with these issues over the past several years have several bills in the works, and most include some privacy provisions.
At this point in his career, it's safe to put John Earner in the "names as destiny" category. Following a hugely successful run with Playfish, he's leaving the social game developer today to start as an entrepreneur in residence at Accel, according to?sources. A former naval officer, he joined as the company in 2008 as its first game producer, where he shepherded the development of its first big simulation game, Pet Society. Having figured out how to monetize virtual goods with it, he went on to launch the company's next big hit, Restaurant City.
MILAN - Robinho, Clarence Seedorf and Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored as AC Milan rallied to beat Lazio 3-1 Thursday night and advanced to the Italian Cup semifinals.
Djibril Cisse put visiting Lazio ahead in the fifth minute, but Robinho tied it in the 15th and Seedorf put the Rossoneri ahead three minutes later. Ibrahimovic entered in the 70th and scored in the 84th.
Aiming for its sixth title in the competition, Milan plays Serie A leader Juventus in the semifinals, while Napoli meets Siena.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
advertisement
More newsChristopher Pasatieri / Getty Images
'She wants the best for me'
U.S. defender Tim Ream cancels his honeymoon in Tahiti and heads east after being contated by English Premier League club Bolton.
Solo out?
Hope Solo has an ailing leg, the result of some extra work she was putting in to get back into playing shape after "Dancing With the Stars."
With the rise of numerous accelerator programs in Europe one cannot help but wonder whether jumping through the application process hoops, sweating through the mentoring sessions and flirting with investors at demo days are all worth a founders? time. When I attended the recent Startup Sauna demo day in Helsinki in December 2011, I met teams not only from Finland but also from Russia, Poland and the Baltic Rim. I was amazed how young many of the participating entrepreneurs were. So when the performance stats from Startup Sauna hit my mailbox I was curious to learn what actually happens to all those startups after they complete the seven-weeks-long coaching program in the startup co-working space Aalto Venture Garage.
DNA sequencing has identified difficult-to-diagnose diseases in humans ? the first time the technology has been used in a clinic.
The technique, which decodes thousands of genes simultaneously, has been used in laboratories to uncover genes related to diseases since 2009.
Now it has successfully moved to the clinic, where patients do not know what is wrong with them and may not know their family history of disease, and clinicians have few clues about which genes might be causing the problem.
Mitochondrial diseases, which affect the way the body produces energy, are notoriously difficult to diagnose. Found in at least one in every 5000 people, the diseases often involve many genes, and symptoms vary across organs. For example, common manifestations can include blindness, seizures, slow digestion and muscle pain.
Currently, diagnosing such disorders can take months or even years, and involves an invasive muscle biopsy. DNA sequencing technology may help to speed things up.
Diagnostic data
Elena Tucker and colleagues from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Sydney, Australia, along with Vamsi Mootha from Harvard Medical School, sequenced the genomes of 42 children who had traits that suggested they carry a mitochondrial disorder. To work out exactly which disorder each child carries, the team looked both at the DNA in their mitochondria and at the 100 or so genes within their nuclear DNA that have already been linked to mitochondrial diseases. They also looked at a further 1000 nuclear genes that play a part in mitochondrial biology.
To distinguish between harmless genetic variations and those that might cause a disease, the team compared the patients' genomes with databases of genetic variation recorded in the general population.
Ten of the children had mutations in genes previously linked to mitochondrial diseases, and so could be given a precise diagnosis. Mutations not previously associated with any disease were found in another 13 children. Tucker says that these patients can expect a full diagnosis once studies confirm the function of these genes.
"We are quite excited," says Tucker. "Most of these diagnoses were in children whose [illnesses] could not easily be diagnosed using traditional methods."
Needle in a haystack
Michael Ryan, a biochemist at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, who was not involved in the work, says the diagnosis rate "will improve" within the next couple of years as the list of genes known to be linked to mitochondrial diseases grows, and it becomes clearer how mutations combine to cause diseases.
"It's a fantastic study," says Matthew McKenzie at Monash University in Melbourne. Finding genetic mutations in mitochondrial patients is "like searching for a needle in a haystack", he says. "I think it was a very good result to transfer to a clinical setting."
If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.
Have your say
Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.
Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article
Subscribe now to comment.
All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.
If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) ? When children have high cholesterol or blood pressure, their parents may have increased risks of diabetes and heart disease down the road, a new study finds.
The study, of 519 Ohio families, found that a 12-year-old's weight, cholesterol and blood pressure helped predict the odds of a parent developing heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes over the next three decades.
Researchers say the findings suggest that screening kids could have the "bonus" of spotting at-risk parents.
"Pediatric risk factors -- cholesterol, triglycerides, high blood pressure -- identified families where parents were at increased risk," said Dr. Charles J. Glueck of Jewish Hospital of Cincinnati, one of the researchers on the study.
One reason that's important, he told Reuters Health, is that many parents may not get check-ups themselves, but will regularly take their kids to the doctor.
However, not everyone agrees that children should have numerous screening tests.
It's standard for children to have their weight and blood pressure measured at "well-child" visits to the pediatrician. But only recently did experts start recommending cholesterol checks.
In November, the U.S. National Institutes of Health issued new guidelines saying children should have their cholesterol measured between the ages of 9 and 11, and again between the ages of 17 and 21. The American Academy of Pediatrics also endorsed the recommendation.
That was a shift from what experts had traditionally recommended -- namely, screening cholesterol only in certain at-risk kids, like those with diabetes or a family history of early heart disease.
And some critics questioned the new guidelines, pointing out that there's no hard data showing that screening kids' cholesterol helps their heart health in the long run.
In 2007, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) -- an expert panel with federal support -- said there was "insufficient" evidence to recommend for or against routine cholesterol tests for children and teenagers.
"There is still a lot of debate going on," Glueck said.
But he thinks the current study, plus another recent analysis of the same group, give some needed information. "Our findings provide some hard data: If you know children's risk factors, what does that tell you? It tells you a lot," Glueck said.
HEART DISEASE, STROKE, DIABETES
The study, reported in the Journal of Pediatrics, included 852 school students who, at an average age of 12, had their cholesterol, blood pressure, triglycerides and weight measured. They were reassessed 26 years later -- as were their parents, who were 66 years old, on average.
In nearly half of the families -- 47 percent -- a parent had suffered a heart attack, stroke or needed a procedure to clear blocked heart arteries by the end of the study period. In 37 percent, a parent had developed diabetes.
Overall, Glueck's team found, parents were about twice as likely to suffer early heart disease or stroke (age 60 or younger) when their child had had high blood pressure at age 12.
Parents' odds of cardiovascular problems at any age were also higher when their child had had high levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol or triglycerides.
And when children were overweight, their parents' odds of developing diabetes or high blood pressure doubled.
In an earlier study, Glueck's team had found that childhood test results also predicted the kids' own risks of developing heart problems, diabetes and high blood pressure by their late-30s.
All of that suggests that childhood screenings can help predict future risks -- in kids and parents. But there is no hard evidence that screening children actually cuts their odds of diabetes or cardiovascular disease in the long run.
STUDY UNLIKELY
To pin that down, Glueck noted, researchers would have to follow a large group of screened children for decades into adulthood, and compare them to a group who'd been randomly assigned to forgo screening as kids.
"It's very unlikely a study like that would ever be done," Glueck said.
There's also a question of expense, since the cost of screening all children for high cholesterol adds up, for an uncertain benefit. And if a child were to be put on a cholesterol-lowering statin, no one is sure what the potential side effects of early and long-term use might be.
That's one reason the USPSTF did not come down on the side of universal screening.
According to Glueck, most children with high cholesterol could be treated with a healthier diet. It's estimated that about 15 to 20 children out of every 300 U.S. kids may have high cholesterol that's related to diet and lifestyle.
A smaller proportion -- about one in every 300 to 500 children -- have an inherited form of high cholesterol called familial hypercholesterolemia. That causes high LDL levels starting early in life, and often leads to heart disease by the time a person is in his 40s or 50s.
Those kids may be placed on statins.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/xAS18e Journal of Pediatrics, online January 12, 2012.
INDIANAPOLIS ? WellPoint Inc.'s fourth-quarter net income sank 39 percent as medical claims increased, mostly because of a $50 million hit from the health insurer's Medicare Advantage business. But the company forecast earnings growth in 2012.
The performance led to a rare miss of Wall Street expectations, and WellPoint's full-year earnings outlook also fell short of analyst forecasts. The Indianapolis company's stock, which had mostly climbed so far in 2012, fell Wednesday.
Investors are used to managed-care companies beating expectations handily, so WellPoint's performance will not sit well, Jefferies analyst David Windley said in a research note.
WellPoint, which operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states, said medical claims climbed nearly 10 percent in the quarter to $12.43 billion. In contrast, that expense fell 5 percent in the 2010 quarter. Medical claims are the insurer's largest expense.
WellPoint said the change was driven largely by expenses tied to its Medicare Advantage coverage.
Medicare Advantage plans are privately run, government-subsidized versions of the government's Medicare program for the elderly. WellPoint said it lost $50 million in the quarter and $150 million in 2011 due to a Northern California plan that attracted more customers with a higher risk profile than the insurer expected, because a competitor left the market. Those customers generated more in claims than they provided in premiums.
WellPoint discontinued that plan as of Jan. 1.
"This actually should not repeat at all in 2012," Chief Financial Officer Wayne DeVeydt said.
Overall, WellPoint earned $335.3 million, or 96 cents per share, in the three months that ended Dec. 31. That's down from $548.8 million, or $1.40 per share, in the final quarter of 2010. Adjusted net income, which excludes investment gains, was 99 cents per share.
Operating revenue, which also excludes investment gains, climbed 5.5 percent to $15.18 billion.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected, on average, earnings of $1.12 per share on $15.46 billion in revenue.
WellPoint spokeswoman Kristin Binns also said the insurer faced a tough comparison with its performance in the final quarter of 2010. In that quarter, it recorded a benefit of $315 million because claims left over from previous quarters came in lower than expected. It had no gain like that in the 2011 quarter.
Managed care companies have been buoyed the past few quarters by health care use that has grown at lower-than-expected rates. This trend, which many say is driven by a pullback in consumer spending, has helped companies consistently beat analyst expectations. Analysts have said they expect this trend to continue into 2012.
DeVeydt said health care use did rise in the fourth quarter, but it remained lower than normal, and trends were affected more by the cost of care than the number of people receiving it. In other words, the insurer saw bigger hospital bills rather than more people heading to the hospital.
WellPoint competitor UnitedHealth Group Inc. said last week it expects health care use to increase steadily throughout the new year. UnitedHealth reported a 21 percent increase in fourth-quarter earnings, to $1.26 billion, or $1.17 per share.
For 2012, WellPoint expects to earn at least $7.60 per share on about $62.1 billion in operating revenue. Analysts expect earnings of $7.76 per share on $63 billion in revenue. Windley said he expects WellPoint's initial outlook to increase during the year.
WellPoint also said Wednesday that its board approved an increase in its quarterly dividend from 25 cents per share to 28.7 cents. The dividend will be paid in March.
WellPoint shares fell $3.30, or 4.8 percent, to close at $66.10 Wednesday.
CHICAGO (Reuters) ? U.S. workers suffered many more job losses during the 2007-2009 Great Recession than in downturns over the past 30 years, and fewer than half got another position within six months of the recession's official end, researchers said on Tuesday.
More than 15.4 million American workers aged 20 or over lost their jobs, or 11 out of 100 adult workers, during the three-year period from 2007 through 2009, according to the Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies, in Boston, who analyzed U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics.
"It was the most workers ever found to be displaced, the highest displacement rate, and the lowest re-employment rate" in the 30-year history that the Bureau of Labor has kept statistics on job losses, said the school's Joseph McLaughlin, one of the authors of the report, sponsored in part by the Alternative Schools Network in Chicago.
The 18-month downturn dubbed the Great Recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, but the subsequent economic recovery has been sluggish and particularly slow to produce the positions needed to get people back to work and absorb new workers.
Teenaged workers, whether it was students seeking summer jobs or school dropouts and graduates looking for full-time work, were particularly hard-hit by joblessness. Only one in four U.S. teenagers held a job in 2011, the smallest percentage in decades and half what it was in 1999-2000.
A weak job market hurts teenagers most, McLaughlin said, because employers need not hire inexperienced and younger workers because there are plenty of adults seeking work.
"We find that early work experience really helps prepare them for full-time work. It also boosts their earnings later on," he said of teenaged workers.
The issue of youth employment entered the Republican presidential campaign debate when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested school-age children be employed sweeping up schools to gain experience and earn some money.
"I give him credit for identifying the problem -- just not the way he tried to solve it," McLaughlin said.
SLUGGISH RECOVERY
During the full years 2007 to 2009, the average number of newly "dislocated workers" -- defined as jobs lost because the company closed or moved, or there was insufficient work, or the position or job shift was eliminated -- was 5.14 million, compared to the next-highest yearly level of 3.8 million workers who lost jobs during the 2001-2003 period.
"The numbers are nearly double to what we've had before. It's not even close to what we've seen in the past," McLaughlin said.
Of those who lost jobs during the three-year period, 49 percent had gotten a new one by January 2010, the lowest rate of re-employment since the Bureau has compiled statistics.
Overall, workers who got new jobs earned 7 percent less than they did before, according to the report.
Education provided some protection from job loss during the three-year period from 2007 to 2009, the report found. Among high school dropouts, 15 percent suffered job "dislocation," compared to 13 percent of high school graduates, 8.5 percent of those with college degrees, and 6 percent of those with Master's degrees.
Job losses hit hardest in the construction and manufacturing, according to the report, with roughly one in five workers in those industries losing jobs. One in 10 financial service workers were let go, and one in 20 in education and healthcare lost jobs.
Verizon has released their Q4 2011 financial results and they seem to have done fairly well for themselves -- 18.3 billion in gross profits, up 7.7%. Wireless revenue was up 13% with data revenue up 19.2%. (That's why carriers want iPhones on their network.)
Ron Paul left campaigning in South Carolina so he could vote to oppose Congress raising the debt limit. The resolution has no chance of passing, but for Paul it is a core issue.
Where is Ron Paul?
Skip to next paragraph
On the eve of the final debate of the South Carolina primary, Congressman Paul wasn?t barnstorming the state, like his rivals in the Republican presidential primary. ?
Instead, he headed back to Washington to lend his voice to a resolution certain to have no impact ? not the first lost cause for a lawmaker known in the House for his lone dissenting votes.
It?s all but impossible for the GOP-controlled House to block President Obama?s request for a??$1.2 trillion hike in the national debt limit. Paul said as much when he took to the floor on Wednesday to back a resolution of disapproval.
?We?re here today to try to prevent the national debt from going up another $1.2 trillion, but in a way it?s a formality, because most people know that the national debt is going up $1.2 trillion,? he said, in the same measured tone he has used to admonish his colleagues on limited government since coming to the House in 1976.
In effect, this battle was lost on Aug. 1, when 174 Republicans joined Democrats in backing the Budget Control Act, which laid out a path to take the nation back from the brink of the first-ever default on the national debt. It allows the president to raise the debt limit $1.2 trillion on his own, unless Congress passes a resolution of disapproval with veto-proof two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate. If Congress fails to pass a motion of disapproval, the debt ceiling will increase on Jan. 27.
But for Paul, this vote ? and the GOP presidential race ? is also an opportunity to make a case for less government and, over time, build support for a more limited view of government.
?The crisis we?re in has been building for a long period of time, and it?s very bipartisan,? Paul said. ?We used to be able to get away with it, but now we?re nonproductive. The good jobs are overseas and the spending is increasing exponentially.?
?We need to stop the spending,? he added. ?I believe we?re in denial here in the Congress. If we had the vaguest idea how serious this crisis is financially for us and the rest of the world, we would stop the spending.?
Democrats called the resolution a charade, a pretense and a sham. ?This legislation is to pay bills that we?ve already incurred,? said House minority whip Steny Hoyer (D) of Maryland on the floor of the House. ?Whether it was incurred with your votes or our votes, we have incurred those expenses.?
Rep. Jeff Flake (R) of Arizona, who, like Paul, often breaks with Democrats and his own party on spending issues, conceded on the floor that even the controversial budget proposed by House Budget Chair Paul Ryan, which House Republicans passed in 2011, would have required hikes in the national debt limit to avoid default.
The resolution of disapproval "is a charade," he said during Wednesday's floor debate. "But at least we had a discussion."
The measure of disapproval passed the House on a near party line vote, 239 to 176 ? well short of the two-thirds majority needed to overcome a presidential veto. The Senate takes up the measure next week, where it is expected to fail.
A new wave of European entrepreneurs are about to start revolutionizing how we use our phones. Today, the Twilio voice API becomes available in Austria, Denmark, France, Ireland, Poland, and Portugal. Additionally, Twilio's SMS API now supports UK phone numbers. These APIs allow developers to build apps that can programatically send and receive calls and texts.
PYONGYANG, North Korea ? A senior North Korean party official dismissed concerns about Kim Jong Un's readiness to lead, saying he spent years working closely with his late father and helped him make key policy decisions on economic and military affairs.
In the first interview with foreign journalists by a high-level North Korean official since Kim Jong Il's Dec. 17 death, Politburo member and Kim family confidante Yang Hyong Sop told The Associated Press that North Koreans were in good hands with their young new leader. He emphasized an unbroken continuity from father to son that suggests a continuation of Kim Jong Il's key policies.
"We suffered the greatest loss in the history of our nation as a result of the sudden, unexpected and tragic loss of the great leader Kim Jong Il," he said in the interview Monday at Mansudae Assembly Hall, seat of the North Korean legislative body.
"But still, we are not worried a bit," he added, "because we know that we are being led by comrade Kim Jong Un, who is fully prepared to carry on the heritage created by the great Gen. Kim Jong Il."
Daily life in this cold, somber capital has begun to return to normal one month after Kim's death, reportedly from a heart attack while riding on his private train.
The white mourning bouquets and massive portraits of the departed leader have been cleared from Pyongyang's main buildings and monuments. People are busy getting back to daily life, with children whizzing down icy slopes on wooden sleds and workers running to catch morning buses and trams as the Kim Jong Un ode "Footsteps" blares over loudspeakers.
Vast Kim Il Sung Square, where a sea of mourners converged after Kim's death, was ghostly quiet except for a few people who scurried quickly across the frigid plaza.
In recent weeks, as North Koreans filled the capital's streets with their emotive mourning and the government staged elaborate funeral proceedings, party and military officials moved quickly to install Kim's son as "supreme leader" of the people, party and military.
Kim Jong Un had been kept out of the public eye for most of his life before suddenly emerging as his father's heir only in September 2010. Though still in his 20s, he was quickly promoted to four-star general and named a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea.
But the new ruler's youth and quick ascension to power have raised questions in foreign capitals about how ready he is to inherit rule over this nation of 24 million with a nuclear program as well chronic trouble feeding all its people.
Yang said he had no concerns about Kim's ability to lead.
"The respected comrade Kim Jong Un had long assisted the great Gen. Kim Jong Il," he told AP. "It's not a secret that he has helped the great general in many different aspects ? not only in military affairs but also the economy and other areas as well."
Yang, a soft-spoken octogenarian, is vice president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly and a standing member of the powerful Political Bureau of the Communist party's Central Committee. He has long-standing ties with the Kim family that stretch back to his close alliance with the nation's founder, Kim Il Sung.
During a 2010 interview with Associated Press Television News in Pyongyang, he provided the first confirmation by a government official that Kim Jong Un would eventually become the nation's next leader.
"He knows what the exact intention of the great Gen. Kim Jong Il was," he said Monday.
His comments this week indicated there would be little change to major policies laid out by Kim Jong Un's father in the three years before his death. Yang said the new leader was focused on a "knowledge-based" economy and looking at economic reforms enacted by other nations, including China.
The North has increasingly looked to China for guidance on how to revitalize its moribund economy, particularly as South Korea, Japan and other nations have frozen trade and aid to the North amid concerns about its nuclear ambitions.
Little is known about Kim Jong Un's background and experience, though North Koreans have been told he studied at Kim Il Sung Military University and was involved in military operations such as the November 2010 artillery attack on a South Korean island that killed four South Koreans.
Earlier this month, North Korea's state-run broadcaster aired a documentary about the new leader that began filling in some blanks from before his public debut.
The footage shows him observing the April 2009 launch of a long-range rocket and quotes him threatening to wage war against any nation attempting to intercept the rocket, which North Korea claimed was carrying a communications satellite but the United States, South Korea and Japan say was really a test of its long-range missile technology.
It was the first indication of his involvement in that controversial launch.
A documentary Tuesday about Kim Jong Il's last field inspections showed Kim Jong Un was far more involved and active in those visits than previously revealed. And the website of the state-run Korean Central News Agency now contains a new section: Kim Jong Un's Activities.
Yet if Kim Jong Un was playing a prominent behind-the-scenes role prior to 2010, his training period would have been much shorter than that of his Kim Jong Il, who spent 20 years working under his own father, Kim Il Sung. Even after his father's death, Kim Jong Il observed a three-year mourning period before formally assuming leadership.
___
Follow AP's Korea Bureau Chief Jean H. Lee at twitter.com/newsjean and Chief Asia Photographer David Guttenfelder at twitter.com/dguttenfelder.
BEIJING ? Two road accidents in China have killed 14 people in one day.
The official Xinhua News Agency says seven people were killed and another five injured when the bus they were traveling in crashed with a trailer in eastern Anhui province. The accident happened Saturday in a rural area.
Later on Saturday, seven people were killed when the van they were in fell off a cliff in southwest Yunnan province. Xinhua said Sunday that the vehicle had been hit from behind by another van.
Serious traffic accidents are common in China due to often overloaded vehicles and poorly trained drivers who often ignore traffic laws.
OLATHE, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ:GRMN), the global leader in satellite navigation, today announced Garmin? Approach? G6 GPS golf device ? a sleek, slim glove-friendly device weighing just over three ounces that comes preloaded with over 25,000 worldwide courses and is equipped with an internal rechargeable battery giving golfers the opportunity for an entire weekend worth of play on one charge. The Approach G6 is the ultimate instrument for the serious player and was announced in preparation for the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, NV (January 10-13) and the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, FL (January 25-28, 2012) where it will be prominently displayed at Garmin booths in each location.
?It?s small enough to fit in a golfer?s shirt pocket and golfers who travel the world now have access to worldwide courses without hidden fees or subscriptions. The Approach G6 was designed to take golfers? games to the next level.?
?With its new features, the Approach G6 becomes a must-have tool for every serious golfer,? said Dan Bartel, Garmin?s vice president of worldwide sales. ?It?s small enough to fit in a golfer?s shirt pocket and golfers who travel the world now have access to worldwide courses without hidden fees or subscriptions. The Approach G6 was designed to take golfers? games to the next level.?
With the Approach G6, Garmin continues to re-write the rules for golf course availability by offering over 25,000 worldwide courses (and growing). Golfers headed to Scotland to play a round on one of the sport?s first courses, or those who are headed to Australia to soak up some sun during their swings will have many of their favorite courses right out of the box. Garmin offers free course updates throughout the year that add new courses and make minor edits to the current lineup that ensure accuracy. Just as courses change, so do the pin placements - the flag can be adjusted for the current day?s pin placement with the simple touch of the screen and the large yardage number gives golfers the distance to the pin while the other two numbers give them distance to the front and back.
Fitting in the palm of a user?s hand, the Approach G6?s 2.6? sunlight readable display provides large, bright, high-contrast graphics and numbering so that it does not slow down the game. The Approach G6 even offers layup arcs that are drawn on the map and offer at-a-glance references to 100, 150, 200 and (when applicable) 250 yards for layup decisions. Golfers can even touch the place on the layout map that they want to measure, judge layups or zero in on hazards or obstacles that may affect their shot, and zoom in for an even closer look at the landing area. Even with its enhanced graphics and robust features, the Approach G6?s internal rechargeable battery lasts up to 15 hours in typical use, giving golfers an additional piece of mind when out on the links.
Keeping track of a player?s stats throughout the round like fairways hit, Greens in Regulation (GIR) and putts per round just became a whole lot easier with the Approach G6. Golfers can review these stats right on the device, or download and access a printable version on their computer. From an easy to reach menu option, users can select their club, and then measure the exact yardage of each shot they take. The stat tracking feature will calculate the average distance golfers hit with every club. With the new digital scorecard, Approach G6 allows users to keep track of strokes for up to four golfers using any of the new scoring options which include Stroke Play, Stableford, Skins and Match Play with adjustable handicaps.
The new Approach G6 is expected to be available in February 2012 and will have a suggested retail price of $299.99. Approach G6 is the latest solution from Garmin?s growing outdoor segment, which focuses on developing technologies and innovations to enhance users? outdoor experiences. Whether it?s Golfing, Hiking, Hunting or Geocaching, Garmin outdoor devices are becoming essential tools for outdoor enthusiast of all levels.?For more information about Garmin?s other outdoor products and services, go to http://www.garmin.com/us/products/onthetrail/, www.garmin.blogs.com and http://twitter.com/garmin.
About Garmin International Inc.
Garmin International Inc. is a subsidiary of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ:GRMN), the global leader in satellite navigation. Since 1989, this group of companies has designed, manufactured, marketed and sold navigation, communication and information devices and applications ? most of which are enabled by GPS technology. Garmin?s products serve automotive, mobile, wireless, outdoor recreation, marine, aviation, and OEM applications. Garmin Ltd. is incorporated in Switzerland, and its principal subsidiaries are located in the United States, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit Garmin's virtual pressroom at www.garmin.com/pressroom or contact the Media Relations department at 913-397-8200. Garmin and Approach are registered trademarks of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries.
Notice on Forward-Looking Statements:
This release includes forward-looking statements regarding Garmin Ltd. and its business. Such statements are based on management?s current expectations. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and actual results could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting Garmin, including, but not limited to, the risk factors listed in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 25, 2010, filed by Garmin with the Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission file number 0-31983). A copy of such Form 10-K is available at www.garmin.com/aboutGarmin/invRelations/finReports.html. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and Garmin undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
University of Colorado-led study pinpoints farthest developing galaxy cluster ever foundPublic release date: 10-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michele Trenti Michele.Trenti@colorado.edu 011-443-527-9780 University of Colorado at Boulder
Galaxy cluster construction zone is about 13.1 billion light-years away
A team of researchers led by the University of Colorado Boulder has used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to uncover a cluster of galaxies in the initial stages of construction -- the most distant such grouping ever observed in the early universe.
In a random sky survey made in near-infrared light, Hubble spied five small galaxies clustered together 13.1 billion light-years away. They are among the brightest galaxies at that epoch and very young, living just 600 million years after the universe's birth in the Big Bang. One light-year is about 6 trillion miles.
Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the universe, comprising hundreds to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. The developing cluster, or protocluster, presumably will grow into one of today's massive galactic "cities" comparable to the nearby Virgo cluster, a collection of more than 2,000 galaxies.
"These galaxies formed during the earliest stages of galaxy assembly, when galaxies had just started to cluster together," says the study's leader, Michele Trenti, a research associate at CU-Boulder's Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy and a newly appointed scientist at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. "The result confirms our theoretical understanding of the buildup of galaxy clusters. And Hubble is just powerful enough to find the first examples of them at this distance."
Trenti will present his results Jan. 10 at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin, Texas. The study will appear in the Feb. 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.
Most galaxies in the universe live in groups and clusters, and astronomers have probed many mature "galactic cities" in detail as far as 11 billion light-years away. But finding clusters in the early phases of construction has been challenging because they are rare, dim and widely scattered across the sky.
"Records are always exciting, and this is the earliest and the most distant developing galaxy cluster that has ever been seen," said CU-Boulder Professor Michael Shull of the astrophysical and planetary sciences department, a member of the observing team. "We have seen individual galaxies this old and far away, but we have not seen groups of them in the construction process before."
Last year, a group of astronomers uncovered one distant developing cluster. Led by Peter L. Capak of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, the astronomers discovered a galactic grouping 12.6 billion light-years away with a variety of telescopes, including Hubble. Spectroscopic observations were made with the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to confirm the cluster's distance by measuring how much its light has been stretched by the expansion of space.
Trenti's team used the sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3 to hunt for the elusive catch. "We need to look in many different areas because the odds of finding something this rare are very small," Trenti said. "It's like playing a game of Battleship: The search is hit and miss. Typically a region has nothing, but if we hit the right spot we can find multiple galaxies."
Because these distant, fledgling clusters are so dim, the team hunted for the systems' brightest galaxies. These bright lights act as billboards, advertising cluster construction zones, according to the team. Galaxies at early epochs don't live alone. From simulations, the astronomers expect galaxies to be clustered together.
Because brightness correlates with mass, the most luminous galaxies pinpoint the location of developing clusters. These powerful light beacons live in deep wells of dark matter, which form the underlying structure in which galaxy clusters form, Trenti said. The team expects many fainter galaxies that were not seen in these observations to inhabit the same neighborhood.
The five bright galaxies spotted by Hubble are about one-half to one-tenth the size of our Milky Way, yet are comparable in brightness. The galaxies are bright and massive because they are being fed lots of gas through mergers with other galaxies, Trenti said. The team's simulations show that the galaxies will eventually merge and form the brightest central galaxy in the cluster, a giant elliptical similar to the Virgo Cluster's M87.
The observations demonstrate the progressive buildup of galaxies and provide further support for the hierarchical model of galaxy assembly, in which small objects accrete mass, or merge, to form bigger objects over a smooth and steady but dramatic process of collision and agglomeration. Astronomers have likened the process to streams merging into tributaries, then into rivers and to a bay.
Hubble looked in near-infrared light because ultraviolet and visible light from distant objects have been stretched into near-infrared wavelengths by the expansion of space in these extremely distant galaxies. The observations are part of the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies or BoRG survey, which is using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 to search for the brightest galaxies around 13 billion years ago, when light from the first stars burned off a fog of cold hydrogen in a process called reionization.
The team estimated the distance to the newly spied galaxies based on their colors, but the astronomers plan to follow up with spectroscopic observations to confirm their distance.
Without spectroscopic observations, it's not clear whether the observed galaxies are gravitationally bound yet. The average distance between them is likely comparable to that of the galaxies in the Local Group, consisting of two large spiral galaxies, the Milky Way and Andromeda, and a few dozen small dwarf galaxies.
These observations are pushing Hubble to the limit of its ability. This region, however, will be prime country for future telescopes such as NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared observatory scheduled to launch later this decade. Webb will see farther into the infrared, allowing it to hunt for even earlier stages of galaxy assembly within 300 million years of the Big Bang.
Shull, also a faculty member at CU-Boulder's Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, said the research team will receive an additional 260 orbits of observation time on Hubble to continue the search for more of the fledgling galaxy clusters as part of the BoRG survey. "There is high interest right now in learning if Earth is unique in the universe in its ability to host life," he said. "Similarly, we are interested to see if these ancient, forming galaxy clusters we have identified are unique, or if there are others out there. I expect that we may find a few more."
###
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute, or STScI, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc., in Washington, D.C.
For more information on the galaxies visit the news center at http://hubblesite.org/. For more information on CU-Boulder's CASA visit http://casa.colorado.edu/.
Contact:
Michele Trenti
Michele.Trenti@colorado.edu
Michael Shull, 303-492-7827
Michael.Shull@colorado.edu
Ray Villard, STScI media relations, 410-338-4514
villard@stsci.edu
Jim Scott, CU-Boulder media relations, 303-492-3114
Jim.Scott@colorado.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
University of Colorado-led study pinpoints farthest developing galaxy cluster ever foundPublic release date: 10-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michele Trenti Michele.Trenti@colorado.edu 011-443-527-9780 University of Colorado at Boulder
Galaxy cluster construction zone is about 13.1 billion light-years away
A team of researchers led by the University of Colorado Boulder has used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to uncover a cluster of galaxies in the initial stages of construction -- the most distant such grouping ever observed in the early universe.
In a random sky survey made in near-infrared light, Hubble spied five small galaxies clustered together 13.1 billion light-years away. They are among the brightest galaxies at that epoch and very young, living just 600 million years after the universe's birth in the Big Bang. One light-year is about 6 trillion miles.
Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the universe, comprising hundreds to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. The developing cluster, or protocluster, presumably will grow into one of today's massive galactic "cities" comparable to the nearby Virgo cluster, a collection of more than 2,000 galaxies.
"These galaxies formed during the earliest stages of galaxy assembly, when galaxies had just started to cluster together," says the study's leader, Michele Trenti, a research associate at CU-Boulder's Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy and a newly appointed scientist at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. "The result confirms our theoretical understanding of the buildup of galaxy clusters. And Hubble is just powerful enough to find the first examples of them at this distance."
Trenti will present his results Jan. 10 at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin, Texas. The study will appear in the Feb. 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.
Most galaxies in the universe live in groups and clusters, and astronomers have probed many mature "galactic cities" in detail as far as 11 billion light-years away. But finding clusters in the early phases of construction has been challenging because they are rare, dim and widely scattered across the sky.
"Records are always exciting, and this is the earliest and the most distant developing galaxy cluster that has ever been seen," said CU-Boulder Professor Michael Shull of the astrophysical and planetary sciences department, a member of the observing team. "We have seen individual galaxies this old and far away, but we have not seen groups of them in the construction process before."
Last year, a group of astronomers uncovered one distant developing cluster. Led by Peter L. Capak of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, the astronomers discovered a galactic grouping 12.6 billion light-years away with a variety of telescopes, including Hubble. Spectroscopic observations were made with the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to confirm the cluster's distance by measuring how much its light has been stretched by the expansion of space.
Trenti's team used the sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3 to hunt for the elusive catch. "We need to look in many different areas because the odds of finding something this rare are very small," Trenti said. "It's like playing a game of Battleship: The search is hit and miss. Typically a region has nothing, but if we hit the right spot we can find multiple galaxies."
Because these distant, fledgling clusters are so dim, the team hunted for the systems' brightest galaxies. These bright lights act as billboards, advertising cluster construction zones, according to the team. Galaxies at early epochs don't live alone. From simulations, the astronomers expect galaxies to be clustered together.
Because brightness correlates with mass, the most luminous galaxies pinpoint the location of developing clusters. These powerful light beacons live in deep wells of dark matter, which form the underlying structure in which galaxy clusters form, Trenti said. The team expects many fainter galaxies that were not seen in these observations to inhabit the same neighborhood.
The five bright galaxies spotted by Hubble are about one-half to one-tenth the size of our Milky Way, yet are comparable in brightness. The galaxies are bright and massive because they are being fed lots of gas through mergers with other galaxies, Trenti said. The team's simulations show that the galaxies will eventually merge and form the brightest central galaxy in the cluster, a giant elliptical similar to the Virgo Cluster's M87.
The observations demonstrate the progressive buildup of galaxies and provide further support for the hierarchical model of galaxy assembly, in which small objects accrete mass, or merge, to form bigger objects over a smooth and steady but dramatic process of collision and agglomeration. Astronomers have likened the process to streams merging into tributaries, then into rivers and to a bay.
Hubble looked in near-infrared light because ultraviolet and visible light from distant objects have been stretched into near-infrared wavelengths by the expansion of space in these extremely distant galaxies. The observations are part of the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies or BoRG survey, which is using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 to search for the brightest galaxies around 13 billion years ago, when light from the first stars burned off a fog of cold hydrogen in a process called reionization.
The team estimated the distance to the newly spied galaxies based on their colors, but the astronomers plan to follow up with spectroscopic observations to confirm their distance.
Without spectroscopic observations, it's not clear whether the observed galaxies are gravitationally bound yet. The average distance between them is likely comparable to that of the galaxies in the Local Group, consisting of two large spiral galaxies, the Milky Way and Andromeda, and a few dozen small dwarf galaxies.
These observations are pushing Hubble to the limit of its ability. This region, however, will be prime country for future telescopes such as NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared observatory scheduled to launch later this decade. Webb will see farther into the infrared, allowing it to hunt for even earlier stages of galaxy assembly within 300 million years of the Big Bang.
Shull, also a faculty member at CU-Boulder's Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, said the research team will receive an additional 260 orbits of observation time on Hubble to continue the search for more of the fledgling galaxy clusters as part of the BoRG survey. "There is high interest right now in learning if Earth is unique in the universe in its ability to host life," he said. "Similarly, we are interested to see if these ancient, forming galaxy clusters we have identified are unique, or if there are others out there. I expect that we may find a few more."
###
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute, or STScI, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc., in Washington, D.C.
For more information on the galaxies visit the news center at http://hubblesite.org/. For more information on CU-Boulder's CASA visit http://casa.colorado.edu/.
Contact:
Michele Trenti
Michele.Trenti@colorado.edu
Michael Shull, 303-492-7827
Michael.Shull@colorado.edu
Ray Villard, STScI media relations, 410-338-4514
villard@stsci.edu
Jim Scott, CU-Boulder media relations, 303-492-3114
Jim.Scott@colorado.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
At this point in his career, it's safe to put 
With the rise of numerous accelerator programs in Europe one cannot help but wonder whether jumping through the application process hoops, sweating through the mentoring sessions and flirting with investors at demo days are all worth a founders? time. When I attended the recent 
A new wave of European entrepreneurs are about to start revolutionizing how we use our phones. Today, the ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 10-Jan-2012
Share ]