Measuring the universe more accurately than ever before

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Astronomers survey the scale of the Universe by first measuring the distances to close-by objects and then using them as standard candles to pin down distances further and further out into the cosmos. But this chain is only as accurate as its weakest link. Up to now finding an accurate distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one of the nearest galaxies to the Milky Way, has proved elusive. As stars in this galaxy are used to fix the distance scale for more remote galaxies, it is crucially important.

But careful observations of a rare class of double star have now allowed a team of astronomers to deduce a much more precise value for the LMC distance: 163 000 light-years.

"I am very excited because astronomers have been trying for a hundred years to accurately measure the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud, and it has proved to be extremely difficult," says Wolfgang Gieren (Universidad de Concepci?n, Chile) and one of the leaders of the team. "Now we have solved this problem by demonstrably having a result accurate to 2%."

The improvement in the measurement of the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud also gives better distances for many Cepheid variable stars. These bright pulsating stars are used as standard candles to measure distances out to more remote galaxies and to determine the expansion rate of the Universe ? the Hubble Constant. This in turn is the basis for surveying the Universe out to the most distant galaxies that can be seen with current telescopes. So the more accurate distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud immediately reduces the inaccuracy in current measurements of cosmological distances.

The astronomers worked out the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud by observing rare close pairs of stars, known as eclipsing binaries. As these stars orbit each other they pass in front of each other. When this happens, as seen from Earth, the total brightness drops, both when one star passes in front of the other and, by a different amount, when it passes behind.

By tracking these changes in brightness very carefully, and also measuring the stars' orbital speeds, it is possible to work out how big the stars are, their masses and other information about their orbits. When this is combined with careful measurements of the total brightness and colours of the stars remarkably accurate distances can be found.

This method has been used before, but with hot stars. However, certain assumptions have to be made in this case and such distances are not as accurate as is desirable. But now, for the first time, eight extremely rare eclipsing binaries where both stars are cooler red giant stars have been identified. These stars have been studied very carefully and yield much more accurate distance values ? accurate to about 2%.

"ESO provided the perfect suite of telescopes and instruments for the observations needed for this project: HARPS for extremely accurate radial velocities of relatively faint stars, and SOFI for precise measurements of how bright the stars appeared in the infrared," adds Grzegorz Pietrzy?ski (Universidad de Concepci?n, Chile and Warsaw University Observatory, Poland), lead author of the new paper in Nature.

"We are working to improve our method still further and hope to have a 1% LMC distance in a very few years from now. This has far-reaching consequences not only for cosmology, but for many fields of astrophysics," concludes Dariusz Graczyk, the second author on the new Nature paper.

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This research was presented in a paper "An eclipsing binary distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud accurate to 2 per cent", by G. Pietrzy?ski et al., to appear in the 7 March 2013 issue of the journal Nature.

ESO: http://www.eso.org

Thanks to ESO for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127180/Measuring_the_universe_more_accurately_than_ever_before

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James O'Keefe Settles on $100,000 Payment to Smeared ACORN Employee (Little green footballs)

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Exclusive: Goldman finds new way to do buyouts in face of Volcker

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc is trying to find ways to keep investing in the profitable, albeit risky, business of buying and selling companies without crossing a rule that will restrict private equity investing, three sources familiar with the new business said over the past week.

The Volcker rule - named for former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law - is expected to limit bank investments in private equity funds, but not necessarily private equity-style investments outside of a formal fund structure. The rule's main goal is to prevent federally insured banks from gambling in the markets or taking on too much risk with hedge funds and private-equity funds.

In a bid to pool money for deals without raising a private equity fund, the Wall Street bank has been lining up clients who are willing to put money into accounts set up to invest in private equity-style deals, the sources said. Goldman would also set aside some of its own money and partner capital into separate accounts for the same purpose, they said.

Under the new plan, Goldman would then make investments in a syndicate fashion, contributing investor money, along with its own capital and partner dollars, the sources said.

That would be different from a traditional private equity fund, where money from various investors has already been pooled together in a formal fund structure.

"It is the same pitch as before, 'We are putting a lot of our own money in this,'" said a person familiar with Goldman's marketing of the new business. "They are saying, 'We are still in this business.'"

The details of the new structure, including whether Goldman would still get fees for managing client money and how profits would be taxed, could not be learned.

Goldman spokeswoman Andrea Raphael said on Monday that the firm is merely taking a strategy used in other investment businesses and applying it to private equity.

"We believe these investments will continue to be important to our clients and the economy, more broadly," Raphael said. "We will, of course, comply with all aspects of the Volcker rule as it is finalized."

At a conference last year, Goldman President and Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn said the bank has been managing its existing private-equity investments to comply with Volcker, and "will continue to source and pursue attractive investments on behalf of our clients."

VOLCKER RULE

The Volcker rule aims to limit banks' exposure to these kinds of investments. The rule, which has not been implemented yet, will allow firms to place up to 3 percent of their Tier 1 capital into private equity funds. It will also prevent them from contributing more than 3 percent of any new private equity funds they raise.

A draft version of the rule appears to allow banks to continue making private equity investments, as long as the investments do not reside in a fund structure.

"It's not a model of statute writing," said Dwight Smith, an attorney at Morrison & Foerster who focuses on bank regulation. "In terms of merchant banking and direct investments in portfolio companies as opposed to investing in funds, those are fine and not subject to Volcker at all."

Some major banks such as Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc have been pulling back from private equity investments ahead of the rule. But others, including Goldman and Wells Fargo & Co, are betting that workarounds will help them retain at least some lines of business.

Returns from private equity investments can be high. But they are also risky. The largest leveraged buyout, the $45 billion takeover of Texas utility TXU in 2007, has turned into one of the most spectacular failures of the last decade's buyout boom. Goldman was part of the private equity consortium that took TXU private. The company is now known as Energy Future Holdings.

Since the financial reform law passed in 2010, Goldman has shut down its proprietary trading desks and outlined plans to gradually wind down its stakes in hedge funds each quarter to prepare for Volcker rule.

But it also gathered a team of lawyers, lobbyists and strategists to devise arguments that would protect as much of its proprietary investing business as possible, sources said.

The central argument that emerged from their effort was that activities like merchant banking and debt investing through credit funds should be exempt from the rule - or parts of it - because they are akin to making loans, the sources said.

PARTNER MONEY

Goldman has a long history of successfully raising private equity funds that mix its own capital with money from employees and clients. GS Capital Partners VI, the largest such fund Goldman raised, closed in 2007 with $20.3 billion in assets, 45 percent of which came from the firm and its partners.

Goldman's private equity assets represented 19 percent of its Tier 1 capital at year-end, though it is not clear how much of those assets are tied up in funds.

Goldman partner capital is also invested in other types of investment vehicles, such as credit funds, and the firm has been trying to make sure they are exempt from Volcker restrictions as well.

In a February 2012 meeting with the Federal Reserve, for example, Goldman executives argued that credit funds should not be subject to Volcker restrictions because investors typically require a 5 percent "skin in the game" from sponsors.

Goldman's private equity and merchant banking businesses are large and lucrative, and hold a sizable portion of the personal wealth of senior Goldman executives, including Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, one of the sources said.

Goldman is betting that its investments not tied up in funds will be protected from Volcker rule.

Members of Goldman's regulatory reform group - overseen by Harvey Schwartz, who is now chief financial officer, and John Rogers, who is chief of staff - have given presentations to regulators about potential pitfalls of Volcker, and tried to educate the Fed and other regulators on the best way to write the rule, sources have said.

One source who attended meetings with regulators said that officials seemed receptive to Goldman's arguments, but cautioned that they worried about banks becoming overexposed to risks in private equity investing.

NEW PRIVATE EQUITY

It is unclear when the final Volcker rule, which had been scheduled for July 2012, will be unveiled. It may not be fully implemented for years to come.

In the meantime, a group of Goldman bankers, in the merchant banking division headed by Richard Friedman, have been pitching clients on the new way of co-investing in private equity deals with the firm.

Tanya Barnes, a newly minted managing director, is one person working on the project, sources said. Barnes has a background in distressed debt investments and previously worked in Goldman's Special Situations Group.

The firm has been upping its marketing game to persuade clients that the deals are worth their time, even though they are not in a traditional fund, one of the sources said.

Smith, the attorney, said banks may still be required to reduce exposure to the merchant banking business.

"The Federal Reserve has this inherent authority to tell banks not to do things even though it's technically legal for them to do so," he said. "The Fed could look at a bank's array of merchant banking activities and just say, 'Look, that's too much, even though you haven't triggered the Tier 1 capital limitation.'"

(Reporting By Lauren Tara LaCapra and Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Paritosh Bansal, David Gregorio and Tim Dobbyn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-goldman-eyes-volcker-workaround-buyouts-183416369--sector.html

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Search engine optimization and marketing for vacation rentals website

TASK ORDER Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The objective of the assignment is to provide the Search Engine Optimization and related services for the website of the Adirondack Rent-A-Cabin ("ADK") Web Project aimed at attaining placement in Google Top 10, Yahoo Top 5, Bing Top 5 and AOL Top 3 as a result of organic search, based on a set of pre-determined keywords and keyword combinations/phrases.

Adirondack Rent-A-Cabin LLC intends to establish a strategic relationship with the selected Contractor, subject to satisfactory performance by the latter, Interested bidders are encouraged to build their quotes with long-term partnership in mind.

Background:

The website is intended to facilitate the search, review and booking of vacation lodging in the Adirondack Park of New York State, USA. The website (www.adirondackrentacabin.com) is currently under construction with a scheduled go-live date of 15 March 2013.

Timeline

The initial SEO shall be completed before the site goes live, with attainment of required search engine rankings by no later than 1 June 2013. An ongoing support is expected to be provided afterwards in order to maintain the requisite rank of the website.

Deliverables:

1). Keyword research
? Initial SEO analysis based on available online tools (including but not limited to: Google's Search-based Keyword Tool, Keyword Spy, WordTracker, etc.);
? Initial competitors analysis (including but not limited to: Adkbyowner.com, Adirondack.net, Adirondacks.com, Adkrealty.com, Adkpp.com, Adirondackestates.com, Visitadirondacks.com, Adirondacklakes.com, Adirondackexperience.com, Lakeplacid.com, Lakegeorge.com, Goremountain.com, inandaroundtheadirondackpark.com, Flipkey.com/Adirondacks, Homeaway.com/Adirondacks, vrbo.com/Adirondacks, vacationrentals.com/Adirondacks, NYvacationrentals.com/Adirondacks, cybberrentals.com/Adirondacks, greatrentals.com/Adirondacks, vamoose.com/Adirondacks, Vacationrentals.trovit.com/Adirondacks etc.).
? Estimate competition for same keywords on search engines;
? Quantified analysis of top keywords/key phrases to be targeted;
? SEO Campaign Strategic Planning: Deliverables per Search Engine, Milestones, Continuity Plan;
? Campaign optimization and piloting.

2). On-site optimization

? Optimization of titles and meta tags;
? Image, hyperlink and header tag optimization;
? Robots.txt optimization;
? W3C validation;
? HTML source code optimization;
? XML sitemap creation for Google/Bing/Yahoo/AOL;
? Canonicalization / 301 redirect URLs;
? Linking to social profiles;
? Google, Yahoo, Bing, AOL webmaster tool configuration;

3). Build online authority

? Global search engine submissions (including but not limited to: Google, Bing, Yahoo, AOL etc.);
? Local search engine submissions (including but not limited to: Google Places, Bing Local Listing etc.);
? Updating pages and hCard integration;
? Directory submissions (including but not limited to: DMOZ, Yahoo, business.com etc.);
? Press releases optimization;
? Social bookmarking;
? Cross-referencing among high ranked and relevant web resources;
? Article submission and bookmarking;
? Promotion of exceptional content for linkbaiting;
? Additional one-way links;
? Business promotional pages (i.e. including but not limited to: Hubpages, Squidoo, etc.);
? Creation of external blogs (i.e. including but not limited to: Wordpress, etc.);
? Affiliate website research and inclusion.

4). Maintenance and reporting

? Usability and conversion monitoring;
? Tracking number of indexed pages and incoming links for the website;
? Keyword ranking reports to monitor position on search engines;
? Daily, weekly and monthly organic traffic reports;
? ROI analysis;
? Social reputation monitoring and brand protection;
? SEO tools.

Note: Please provide cost breakdown per deliverable.

There are no clarification questions.

Source: http://www.peopleperhour.com/job/search-engine-optimization-and-marketing-for-vacation-rental-224165

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Monitor Your Pet's Weight Like a Vet with this Handy Chart

Pets are like family members, and we want them to stay as fit and healthy as possible. To keep their weight in check, you can use the same classification system as vets.

Vets categorize cat and dog weight on a scale of 1-9, where 1 is very thin, 9 is very obese, and 5 is just right. Different breeds of dogs and cats obviously vary widely in size, so weighing them on a scale isn't always as helpful as looking at their body shape. The chart includes illustrations and descriptions to help you identify where your pet falls on the scale, and it's simple enough for anyone to use.

If your pet isn't at or near a 5 on the scale, you can talk to your vet about adjusting her diet and exercise habits. Click through the source link for the interactive chart and printable PDF files to get you started.

Pet Obesity: It's a Huge and Growing Problem | Purina

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/YY54e6c0KPU/monitor-your-pets-weight-like-a-vet-with-this-handy-chart

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Obama, congressional leaders fail to reach deal on sequester (Washington Post)

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Court denies Apple's motion to reduce damages in VirnetX lawsuit

(Reuters) - VirnetX Holding Corp, which holds internet security patents, said a federal court has upheld a ruling against Apple Inc in a patent infringement lawsuit and denied the iPhone maker's motion to reduce the $368 million in damages.

VirnetX shares rose 6 percent to $35.91 in morning trading on the American Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

The court ordered Apple to pay $33,561 in daily interest and $330,201 in daily damages up to the final judgment, VirnetX said on Wednesday.

VirnetX was awarded the damages in November after a federal jury said Apple's use of the Nevada-based company's virtual-private-network technology in the FaceTime video-calling application in iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Mac computers had infringed the company's patents.

VirnetX, which has a market capitalization of $1.74 billion, accused Apple of infringing four patents.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, denied VirnetX's request for a permanent injunction and ordered the companies to negotiate a license in the next 45 days.

"We look forward to negotiating a license with Apple that includes an ongoing royalty agreement," VirnetX Chief Executive Kendall Larsen said in a statement.

(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/court-denies-apples-motion-reduce-damages-against-virnetx-134841876--sector.html

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