Ashley Judd Weighs Senate Bid as McConnell Does Harlem Shake

Actress Ashley Judd is "seriously considering" running for Senate, according to Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear.

Beshear, a Democrat, spoke with Judd on the phone last week about her potential Senate bid which would pit her again Republican rival and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

"I talked to her again the other day, she called me and we had a good conversation," Beshear said at a press conference with local reporters on Tuesday.

Though the governor did not go into specifics about their chat, he did say that Judd is "seriously considering a race for the United States Senate and the Democratic primary."

Beshear told local reporters that the actress would be an "effective and formidable opponent" against McConnell in a general election.

Beshear is not the only Kentuckian convinced that Judd might take a stab at politics. Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth, a big supporter of Judd, told ABC News, "I would be surprised if she doesn't run at this point."

SLIDESHOW: Ashley Judd reveals molestation in memoir

"My impression is this is something she wants to do, and she is now taking the time to make the contacts she needs to make throughout the state to try and generate commitments of support and in some cases fundraising," Yarmuth said. "She is certainly acting like a candidate, a potential candidate.

Though Judd has neither confirmed nor denied a run in the 2014 Senate cycle, the actress has already received criticism from Republican opponents. Just last month, she was subject of an attack video posted online by a conservative super PAC, American Crossroads who called her an "Obama-following, radical Hollywood liberal."

The Hollywood starlet has captured the attention of young Kentuckians but it seems as if now Senator McConnell is trying to do the same. Today, McConnell's campaign team released a "Harlem Shake" video on YouTube.

Though McConnell does not appear in the video himself, a giant McConnell head is dancing aside a slew of patriotically dressed Harlem Shakers at Churchill Downs, the thoroughbred racetrack known as the Home of the Kentucky Derby.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ashley-judd-seriously-considering-senate-bid-161806555--abc-news-politics.html

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US cardinals seek answers on Vatican dysfunction

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, cardinals attend a meeting, at the Vatican, Monday, March 4, 2013. Cardinals from around the world have gathered inside the Vatican for their first round of meetings before the conclave to elect the next pope, amid scandals inside and out of the Vatican and the continued reverberations of Benedict XVI's decision to retire. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, cardinals attend a meeting, at the Vatican, Monday, March 4, 2013. Cardinals from around the world have gathered inside the Vatican for their first round of meetings before the conclave to elect the next pope, amid scandals inside and out of the Vatican and the continued reverberations of Benedict XVI's decision to retire. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, cardinals attend a meeting, at the Vatican, Monday, March 4, 2013. Cardinals from around the world have gathered inside the Vatican for their first round of meetings before the conclave to elect the next pope, amid scandals inside and out of the Vatican and the continued reverberations of Benedict XVI's decision to retire. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)

Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer, of Brazil, center, is followed by compatriot Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo, left, as they arrive for a meeting, at the Vatican, Monday, March 4, 2013. Cardinals from around the world have gathered inside the Vatican for their first round of meetings before the conclave to elect the next pope, amid scandals inside and out of the Vatican and the continued reverberations of Benedict XVI's decision to retire. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn smiles as he arrives for a meeting, at the Vatican, Monday, March 4, 2013. Cardinals from around the world have gathered inside the Vatican for their first round of meetings before the conclave to elect the next pope, amid scandals inside and out of the Vatican and the continued reverberations of Benedict XVI's decision to retire. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Italian Cardinal Renato Martino waves to reporters as he arrives for a meeting, at the Vatican, Monday, March 4, 2013. Cardinals from around the world have gathered inside the Vatican for their first round of meetings before the conclave to elect the next pope, amid scandals inside and out of the Vatican and the continued reverberations of Benedict XVI's decision to retire. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Cardinals said Monday they want to talk to Vatican managers about allegations of corruption and cronyism within the top levels of the Catholic Church before they elect the next pope, evidence that a scandal over leaked papal documents is casting a shadow over the conclave and setting up one of the most unpredictable papal elections in recent times.

The Vatican said 107 of the 115 voting-age cardinals attended the first day of pre-conclave meetings, at which cardinals organize the election, discuss the problems of the church and get to know one another before voting.

The red-capped "princes" of the church took an oath of secrecy and decided to pen a letter of "greeting and gratitude" to Benedict XVI, whose resignation has thrown the church into turmoil amid a torrent of scandals inside and out of the Vatican.

"I would imagine that as we move along there will be questioning of cardinals involved in the governing of the Curia to see what they think has to be changed, and in that context anything can come up," said U.S. Cardinal Francis George.

The Holy See's administrative shortcomings were thrust into stark relief last year with the publication of documents stolen from Benedict's desk that exposed the petty infighting, turf battles and allegations of corruption, nepotism and cronyism in the highest echelons of the Catholic Church.

The pope's butler was convicted of stealing the papers and leaking them to a journalist; he eventually received a papal pardon.

The emeritus pope, meanwhile, remained holed up at the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo, his temporary retirement home while the discussions on picking his successor kick into gear in Rome.

No date has been set yet for the conclave and one may not be decided on officially for a few more days; the dean of the College of Cardinals has said a date won't be finalized until all the cardinals have arrived.

Eight voting-age cardinals are still en route to Rome; some had previously scheduled speaking engagements, others were due in over the coming days, the Vatican said. Their absence, however, didn't otherwise delay the conclave's preparations.

Speculation has mounted that the conclave might begin around March 11, with the aim of having a new pope installed by March 17, the Sunday before Palm Sunday and the start of Holy Week.

With 115 electors, 77 votes are needed to reach the two-thirds majority to be elected pope.

Those who were in Rome prayed together Monday, chatted over coffee and took an oath to maintain "rigorous secrecy with regard to all matters in any way related to the election of the Roman Pontiff."

The core agenda item is to set the date for the conclave and put in place the procedures to prepare for it, including closing the Sistine Chapel to visitors and getting the Vatican hotel cleared out and swept for bugs or other electronic monitoring devices, lest anyone try to listen in on the cardinals' secret conversations.

Yet the first day of discussion was rocked by new revelations of scandal after Scottish Cardinal Keith O'Brien admitted that his "sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal."

O'Brien last week resigned as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh and said he wouldn't participate in the conclave after four men came forward with allegations that he had acted inappropriately with them ? the first time a cardinal has stayed away from a conclave because of personal scandal.

The Vatican on Monday refused to confirm whether it was investigating O'Brien, even though the Scottish church's press office said the allegations had been forwarded to the Vatican and that it expected Rome would pursue the case.

Pressed to respond to reports of a fifth accuser who reportedly approached the Vatican directly in October with accusations, a Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Thomas Rosica, read O'Brien's statement admitting to sexual misconduct and said the Vatican would say no more.

The Vatican and cardinals attending the session said the O'Brien case didn't come up during formal or informal conversations.

"It's a tragic moment for him," George said.

At a briefing discussing the priorities for the future pontificate, George said the next pope will have to follow canon law and keep priests who molested children out of parishes.

"He obviously has to accept the universal code of the church which is zero tolerance for anyone who has ever abused a minor child and therefore may not remain in public ministry in the church," George said. "That has to be accepted. I don't think that will be a problem."

Separately, the Vatican is still reeling from the fallout of the scandal over leaked papal documents, and the investigation by three cardinals into who was behind it.

American cardinals seem particularly keen to get to the bottom of the Vatican dysfunction, and they have had access to a very knowledgeable tutor, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the Vatican's ambassador to Washington.

Vigano's letters to the pope were the most explosive leaks of documents last year; in them, Vigano pleaded with Benedict not to be transferred after exposing alleged corruption in the awarding of Vatican contracts that cost the Holy See millions of euros (dollars).

Vigano was named the Vatican's ambassador to Washington, and as such has been able to give U.S. cardinals a clear-eyed view of the true state of the Vatican, said Corriere della Sera commentator Massimo Franco.

"They have appreciated him very much because he doesn't read the Vatican situation with a rosy lens, a rosy view," Franco said in an interview.

In his new book "The Crisis of the Vatican Empire," Franco paints a portrait of a Vatican completely falling apart, with financial scandals at its bank, backstabbing among its ruling class and the sex abuse scandal discrediting the church on the global stage.

"If we think of the pope, in a way the pope decided to sacrifice himself because he couldn't change anything," Franco said.

Coupled with the upheaval of Benedict's resignation, the scandals have contributed to create one of the most unclear papal elections in recent times.

"It will be a very open conclave with a very unpredictable outcome," Franco said.

In one of his last audiences before resigning, Benedict gave the three cardinals who investigated the leaks the go-ahead to answer their colleagues' questions about the results of their investigation.

"There are members of the College of Cardinals who are interested in having information that has to do with the situation in the Curia and the church in general and will ask to be informed by their colleagues," the Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said.

___

Trisha Thomas and Rachel Zoll contributed to this report.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-04-Vatican-Pope/id-b31434f0a7c24858a93adbce2c29c7c9

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New evidence that comets could have seeded life on Earth

Mar. 5, 2013 ? t's among the most ancient of questions: What are the origins of life on Earth?

A new experiment simulating conditions in deep space reveals that the complex building blocks of life could have been created on icy interplanetary dust and then carried to Earth, jump-starting life.

Chemists from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Hawaii, Manoa, showed that conditions in space are capable of creating complex dipeptides -- linked pairs of amino acids -- that are essential building blocks shared by all living things. The discovery opens the door to the possibility that these molecules were brought to Earth aboard a comet or possibly meteorites, catalyzing the formation of proteins (polypeptides), enzymes and even more complex molecules, such as sugars, that are necessary for life.

"It is fascinating to consider that the most basic biochemical building blocks that led to life on Earth may well have had an extraterrestrial origin," said UC Berkeley chemist Richard Mathies, coauthor of a paper published online last week and scheduled for the March 10 print issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

While scientists have discovered basic organic molecules, such as amino acids, in numerous meteorites that have fallen to Earth, they have been unable to find the more complex molecular structures that are prerequisites for our planet's biology. As a result, scientists have always assumed that the really complicated chemistry of life must have originated in Earth's early oceans.

In an ultra-high vacuum chamber chilled to 10 degrees above absolute zero (10 Kelvin), Seol Kim and Ralf Kaiser of the Hawaiian team simulated an icy snowball in space including carbon dioxide, ammonia and various hydrocarbons such as methane, ethane and propane. When zapped with high-energy electrons to simulate the cosmic rays in space, the chemicals reacted to form complex, organic compounds, specifically dipeptides, essential to life.

At UC Berkeley, Mathies and Amanda Stockton then analyzed the organic residues through the Mars Organic Analyzer, an instrument that Mathies designed for ultrasensitive detection and identification of small organic molecules in the solar system. The analysis revealed the presence of complex molecules -- nine different amino acids and at least two dipeptides -- capable of catalyzing biological evolution on earth.

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Mathies Royalty Fund at UC Berkeley.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Berkeley.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. R. I. Kaiser, A. M. Stockton, Y. S. Kim, E. C. Jensen, R. A. Mathies. ON THE FORMATION OF DIPEPTIDES IN INTERSTELLAR MODEL ICES. The Astrophysical Journal, 2013; 765 (2): 111 DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/765/2/111

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/nasa/~3/K5cJrx_Y3No/130305131412.htm

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10 People That Used Their Pets As Pretend Machine Guns ...

Spend enough time trolling YouTube and you're bound to find that no idea, no matter how obscure or inane, is unique. No matter the video, there will be at least half a dozen others paying homage or simply recreating the subject matter purely spontaneously. You ever think about how there are only so many combinations of humans out there and thus some of us tend to look alike? YouTube is kind of like that, but unlike with humans, the combinations that go horribly wrong don't disappear. They persist, and spur other strange souls to create their own. With that, I'd like to present a survey of one strange subset of YouTubers: the people who pretend their pets are machine guns. Onward!

This is what I believe to be the definitive video in the genre. The dude's shirtlessness is perfectly representative of the action movie genre; that it's shot on a cell phone in what appears to be a kitchen is perfectly representative of YouTube.

This is actually my favorite of the cat machine gun videos. It's short, uses the right sound effects, and the slow-mo replay is priceless. Great work.

This guy has a banner from a wedding in the background, which either means that A) married life is so boring that it inspires you to make a video like this or B) this guy collects banners from other people's weddings.?

Another shirtless guy, this time with an assortment of bracelets you're sure to associate with someone you've only been willing to hang out with because they were pretty loose about sharing their reefer. Who filmed this?

This guy bills this video as "not just another cat machine gun video" which is only true in the sense that, unlike other cat videos, it's really long (a whole minute?) and has a metric fuckton of special effects. Look at the cat writhing to escape its own murderous reality. Imagine if this was your dad though.

I understand the people that think Earth Liberation Front is full of a bunch of assholes, but then you see something like this and wonder why we aren't all torching Hummers and turning the suburbs into gulags in order to let the kitties run free.

This dude, on the other hand, is just chilling with his kitten and having a real goof. It's the "aww" at the end that sold me.

I mean, I guess this is a fairly stereotypical ferret person (too "weird" for a lamestream cat) but who the hell has a tanning bed on their living room floor?

Yeah, another shirtless guy. But what's really odd about these shirtless guy videos is that they have other people filming them. How does a situation like this play out? "Hey dude, we should hella film one of those cat machine gun videos." "Yeah! Hey, I'll film because you've got better ab definition."

This video has one upvote and one downvote and a non sequitur comment about hernias. What is it about pet that inspire people to treat them as combat weapons? Perhaps brain-controlling parasites? Or is just that, when offered a platform to share their funniest home videos that doesn't involve that psychopath Bob Saget, people default to pretending to kill their loved ones with the least-suspicious prop possible?

@derektmead

SPECIAL BONUS: A pet that's actually kind of like a machine gun, with a nu-metal soundtrack!

Source: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/10-people-that-used-their-pets-as-pretend-machine-guns

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Getting to know Baccarat University

(EMAILWIRE.COM, March 05, 2013 ) Bryngwyn, UK -- Readers are taught how to play a sophisticated game of Baccarat and are also able to indulge in the games? fascinating history. Baccarat University offers an innovative and fun exercise in which readers can acquire diplomas in Baccarat strategies and etiquette.

Learning how to play Baccarat is just one of the many opportunities offered at Baccarat University: A remarkable history of the game and where it came from follows after the section where the diplomas are offered. Because the primary idea of Baccarat University is to ?learn through correspondence?, they enjoy engaging with their readers there is a section named ?About us?, which gives the reader an idea of their ideals and what they would like readers to get out of the experience. There is also a ?Contact us? section where students who would like to know more about Baccarat or if they have any queries, they can contact Baccarat University.

Of course this is not a real University, but the ideas of how important it is to learn a game before playing it and also that students deserve to learn from high quality information so that they have all the facts and know exactly what is expected from players when playing Baccarat. Having this important information gives students a great deal of confidence when playing:
?Providing a valuable education in the game of Baccarat, will give our students the upper hand and hopefully increase their chances of making their money go further and increasing their profits. Baccarat, if played correctly and with the best knowledge behind you, can be a game that provides you with a means to make money, whilst having the time of your life. ?

Baccarat University breaks the game into bits and pieces and slowly puts the game back together again so that students obtain a well-rounded knowledge of the game. It is a game often regarded as belonging to the upper classes of society - only because it was preferable to place large bets on the table - which wealthy people could afford to do. Times have changed a lot since then and anyone with any kind of bet can play. This has opened up the game to anyone who has an interest and who would like to be part of this not only intellectual, but legendary game.

About Baccarat University:
Baccarat University is an established information forum about the game Baccarat. We offer only the best quality information to our readers and hope to make the experience of learning Baccarat, a pleasant one. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have regarding Baccarat. Email info@baccaratuniversity.com or visit www.baccaratuniversity.com for more information.

Source: http://emailwire.com/release/115550-Getting-to-know-Baccarat-University.html

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Platinum: An Attractive Alternative to Gold and Silver

While it is clear that bank measures around the world have been devaluing national currencies, it has also identified a long-term uptrend in precious metals.

Silver has been out-performing gold for the last little while and the trend could continue for the next few years. While gold and silver are certainly the most discussed precious metals, let?s not overlook platinum. A rarer metal than gold and silver, platinum has several industrial applications apart from being an investment metal.

Platinum has been in shorter supply recently due to the South African mining strikes. The high demand for the metal coupled with the supply constraint will drive the price up, making platinum a must buy for near term growth. Timing the investment is critical and currently it is a good time to be diversifying into platinum.

Platinum tends to trade higher than gold, generally around 1.5 ? 2 times higher than gold. Currently while platinum is trading slightly higher than gold, the usage of the metal signifies an opportunity to ascend towards $2000 per ounce. All precious metals stand to gain ground, but adding platinum to your portfolio is definitely recommended.

As you review your portfolio and look for ways to invest in the precious metal arena, understand there are a variety of ways you can invest. Like gold and silver, platinum allows investing in physical bullion and coins, ETFs that can track the price of platinum, as well as individual mining stocks.

Investing in Physical Platinum: Bullion & Coins:

1. Like gold and silver, one can purchase physical platinum bullion and coins. While the metal is rare, few reputable and established dealers do carry platinum bullion and coins. As is true with buying physical gold and silver, particularly coins, ensure that you invest in purest forms of platinum coins.

2. It would be wise to hunt down a local dealer to avoid paying shipping and handling charges. These ancillary charges do cut into the returns.

3. Investing through your IRA is another viable option. There is no physical delivery necessary although it is a good idea to take physical possession of the metal to ensure safety of the investment.

Investing in Platinum ETFs:

1. For Gold, SPDR Gold Trust?or Sprott Physical Gold?is quite popular amongst precious metals ETF investors.

2. For Silver, iShares Silver Trust? or Sprott Physical Silver? offers good exposure to silver.

3. Platinum investors can look at ETFS Physical Platinum Shares as well as Sprott Physical Platinum and Palladium Trust. Sprott is a CEF. Unlike an ETF, a CEF can trade at discounts to net asset values because the number of outstanding shares is always constant. An ETF, however, can create new shares immediately keeping the price very close to the net asset value.

Investing in Platinum Miners:

One way to get precious metals exposure is to invest in precious metals miners. Of course this is an indirect method and carries more risk than simply investing in physical precious metals. Normally platinum miners are classified as platinum group miners which include mining platinum, palladium, and rhodium. A couple of platinum group miners have recently gained popularity:

1. Stillwater Mining?mines at its Stillwater mine in Montana, US. They also have some exposure to Canadian and Argentinean mining properties. The miner has proven ore reserves in excess of 42.5 million tons in the Montana region and nearly 91 million tons in Canada.

Stillwater stock tumbled slightly after releasing mixed 2012 Q3 earnings reports and issuing a $300 million debt facility. They had missed earnings expectations. However, the stock rebounded strongly after renewed demand expectations for the platinum group metals.

2. North American Palladium? focuses on exploration, mining, and production of precious metals. While PAL focuses on mining platinum group metals, they also to some degree mine gold and silver. Its primary property, Lac Des Iles mine, is in Canada by Thunder Bay, Ontario. For 2012, Lac Des Iles produced nearly 160,000 ounces of palladium, exceeding management expectations. While PAL is not a platinum-only miner, it does mine platinum as well as other platinum group metals.

PAL operates under moderate debt levels and has the ability to fund exploratory activities. PAL is still a growing and an expanding miner. The stock is great for investors with some risk appetite.
Precious metal prices are set for increases over the long term. With growing demand, continued global tensions, and inflation concerns investors may want to consider diversifying into platinum and other platinum group metals. Platinum investors should definitely keep a close eye at global demand expectations of platinum group metals.

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Source: http://www.tradepreciousmetals.com/platinum-an-attractive-alternative-to-gold-and-silver/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=platinum-an-attractive-alternative-to-gold-and-silver

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Getting around the uncertainty principle: Physicists make first direct measurements of polarization states of light

Mar. 3, 2013 ? Researchers at the University of Rochester and the University of Ottawa have applied a recently developed technique to directly measure for the first time the polarization states of light. Their work both overcomes some important challenges of Heisenberg's famous Uncertainty Principle and also is applicable to qubits, the building blocks of quantum information theory.

They report their results in a paper published this week in Nature Photonics.

The direct measurement technique was first developed in 2011 by scientists at the National Research Council, Canada, to measure the wavefunction -- a way of determining the state of a quantum system.

Such direct measurements of the wavefunction had long seemed impossible because of a key tenet of the uncertainty principle -- the idea that certain properties of a quantum system could be known only poorly if certain other related properties were known with precision. The ability to make these measurements directly challenges the idea that full understanding of a quantum system could never come from direct observation.

The Rochester/Ottawa researchers, led by Robert Boyd, who has appointments at both universities, measured the polarization states of light -- the directions in which the electric and magnetic fields of the light oscillate. Their key result, like that of the team that pioneered direct measurement, is that it is possible to measure key related variables, known as "conjugate" variables, of a quantum particle or state directly. The polarization states of light can be used to encode information, which is why they can be the basis of qubits in quantum information applications.

"The ability to perform direct measurement of the quantum wavefunction has important future implications for quantum information science," explained Boyd, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Quantum Nonlinear Optics at the University of Ottawa and Professor of Optics and Physics at the University of Rochester. "Ongoing work in our group involves applying this technique to other systems, for example, measuring the form of a "mixed" (as opposed to a pure) quantum state."

Previously, a technique called quantum tomography has allowed researchers to measure the information contained in these quantum states, but only indirectly. Quantum tomography requires intensive post-processing of the data, and this is a time-consuming process that is not required in the direct measurement technique. Thus, in principle, the new technique provides the same information as quantum tomography but in significantly less time.

"The key to characterizing any quantum system is gathering information about conjugate variables," said co-author Jonathan Leach, who is now a lecturer at Heriot-Watt University, UK. "The reason it wasn't thought possible to measure two conjugate variables directly was because measuring one would destroy the wavefunction before the other one could be measured."

The direct measurement technique employs a "trick" to measure the first property in such a way that the system is not disturbed significantly and information about the second property can still be obtained. This careful measurement relies on the "weak measurement" of the first property followed by a "strong measurement" of the second property.

First described 25 years ago, weak measurement requires that the coupling between the system and what is used to measure it be, as its name suggests, "weak," which means that the system is barely disturbed in the measurement process. The downside of this type of measurement is that a single measurement only provides a small amount of information, and to get an accurate readout, the process has to be repeated multiple times and the average taken.

Boyd and his colleagues used the position and momentum of the light as the indicator of the polarization state. To couple the polarization to the spatial degree of freedom they used birefringent crystals: when light goes through such a crystal, there is a spatial separation introduced for different polarizations. For example, if light is made of a combination of horizontally and vertically polarized component, the positions of the individual components will spread out when it goes through the crystal according to its polarization. The thickness of the crystal can control the strength of the measurement, weak or strong, and determine the degree of separation, correspondingly small or large.

In this experiment, Boyd and his colleagues passed polarized light through two crystals of differing thicknesses: the first, a very thin crystal that "weakly" measures the horizontal and vertical polarization state; the second, a much thicker crystal that "strongly" measures the diagonal and anti-diagonal polarization state. As the first measurement was performed weakly, the system is not significantly disturbed, and therefore, information gained from the second measurement was still valid. This process is repeated several times to build up accurate statistics. Putting all of this together gives a full, direct characterization of the polarization states of the light.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Rochester.

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Journal Reference:

1. Jeff Z. Salvail, Megan Agnew, Allan S. Johnson, Eliot Bolduc, Jonathan Leach, Robert W. Boyd. Full characterization of polarization states of light via direct measurement. Nature Photonics, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2013.24

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/gnTyWqxqd1s/130303154958.htm

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Accused Scottish cardinal admits sexual failings

LONDON (AP) ? A Scottish cardinal on Sunday acknowledged having engaged in unspecified sexual misbehavior, apologized for his actions, and promised to stay out of the church's public life in a statement that comes at an awkward time for the Vatican.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien had been Britain's highest-ranking Catholic leader until he resigned Monday from his position as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, a departure prompted by a newspaper report about unnamed priests' allegations that he acted inappropriately toward them.

O'Brien initially rejected the claims, saying he was resigning because he did not want to distract from the upcoming conclave of cardinals that is due to pick a successor to Benedict XVI, who resigned the papacy Thursday. O'Brien also became the first cardinal to recuse himself from the conclave because of personal scandal; other voting-age cardinals have in the past stayed home because of infirmity or because they were prevented by their governments from participating.

On Sunday, the Catholic church in Scotland issued a statement quoting O'Brien as saying that there had been times "that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal."

"To those I have offended, I apologize and ask forgiveness," the statement continued. "To the Catholic church and people of Scotland, I also apologize. I will now spend the rest of my life in retirement. I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic church in Scotland."

O'Brien gave no clue as to what exactly his sexual misbehavior consisted of, but his statement is nonetheless another reminder of the church's struggle shake off a litany of sex scandals, including those involving pedophile priests.

The claims against O'Brien were first reported by The Observer newspaper.

In its Feb. 24 edition, the British newspaper reported that O'Brien was alleged to have made what it described as "an inappropriate approach" to a seminarian after night prayers.

The paper also said another priest had reported "inappropriate contact" with O'Brien following a visit to his parish, a second priest had reported "unwanted behavior" by the archbishop following a late-night drinking session, and that a third had reported being taken advantage of when he went to the archbishop for counseling.

All four, the paper said, had sent letter of complaint to nuncio Antonio Mennini, the Vatican's ambassador to Britain, early last month.

The paper did not cite a source for its reporting last week, but in this Sunday's edition it quoted the still-unnamed former seminarian as saying that the church had failed to respond quickly and appropriately to his complaint.

O'Brien has at times had a rocky tenure as a cardinal.

In 2003, as a condition of assuming that rank, he was forced to issue a public pledge to defend church teaching on homosexuality, celibacy and contraception. He was pressured to make the pledge after he had called for a "full and open discussion" on such matters.

At the time, O'Brien said he had been misunderstood and wanted to clarify his position. But statements made last week, before the scandal over his behavior broke, suggested he never really changed his mind.

In an interview with the BBC, O'Brien said celibacy should be reconsidered because it's not based on doctrine but rather church tradition and "is not of divine origin."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/accused-scottish-cardinal-admits-sexual-failings-175431595.html

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Grambling State finishes regular season 0-27

GRAMBLING, La. (AP) ? Grambling State closed out a winless regular season with a 74-62 loss to Alabama State on Saturday night.

The Tigers head into the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament 0-27 and 0-18 in SWAC play. Two seasons ago, Grambing State played in the conference title game.

Phillip Crawford and Shawntez Patterson scored 20 points apiece for Alabama State.

Alabama State (10-21, 8-10) beat Grambling 69-56 on Jan. 4. This time, the Hornets took a 31-25 halftime lead, then outscored the Tigers 43-37 in the second half.

Crawford's 20 points came on 10-of-14 shooting from the field. Patterson made 6 of 12 field goal attempts, including three 3-pointers. Denzel McDaniel added 10 points.

Terry Rose, Grambling State's leading scorer, scored 19 points. He hit 8 of 14 shots from the floor.

Demetri Wheeler added 11 points and Peter Roberson 10.

Alabama State shot 45.6 percent (26 of 57) to Grambling State's 36.5 percent (23 of 63). The Hornets made 17 of 27 foul shots, the Tigers 12 of 22.

Associated Press

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Women In India Use Smartphones To Map Perverts In Real Time

Let's be real here, most of the time smartphones get used for a lot of nothing. But in India women are using their smartphones to protect themselves by tracking local incidents of harassment and violence. More »

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Julian's blog ? Blog Archive ? Web Marketing - Stick to chaussures ...

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National Book Critics Circle Awards go to 'Billy Lynn,' 'Far From the Tree'

The National Book Critics Circle honored works such as 'Far From the Tree' by Andrew Solomon and 'The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson' by Robert Caro during their 2012 awards ceremony.

By Molly Driscoll,?Staff Writer / March 1, 2013

'Far From the Tree' by Andrew Solomon and 'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' by Ben Fountain won the NBCC nonfiction and fiction prizes, respectively.

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The National Book Critics Circle awarded its top prizes for 2012 to already well-received works such as ?Billy Lynn?s Long Halftime Walk? by Ben Fountain and ?The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson? by Robert Caro.

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Fountain?s novel won the fiction award for the NBCC, while Caro?s work picked up the biography prize and Andrew Solomon?s book ?Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity.?

The NBCC's 2012 poetry award went to D.A. Powell?s work ?Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys.? The criticism award went to author Marina Warner for her book ?Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights.? ?Swimming Studies? by Leanne Shapton won the autobiography prize.

Monitor fiction critic Yvonne Zipp called ?Billy Lynn? an ?absurdist portrait of the war and modern society painted with brush strokes laid as precisely and as viciously as a whip.?

?Having been away for months, Lynn returns to his own homeland as a stranger, and the dissonance is both uncomfortable and revealing,? Zipp notes.

?The Passage of Power,? meanwhile, demonstrates that ?Caro long ago mastered his subject ? Johnson and power,? according to Monitor reviewer Erik Spanberg.

?With characteristic detail and precision, Caro frames the assassination from Johnson?s vantage point, providing a horrifying, pulse-pounding account of what it was like for a humbled man ? even one as ambitious and power-hungry as LBJ ? to shoulder the grief and burden of an entire nation,? Spanberg wrote.

William Deresiewicz, critic, blogger, and author of "A Jane Austen Education," was awarded the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, while the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award went to Susan Gubar and Sandra Gilbert.

The prizes were given out in the Tishman Auditorium at New York?s New School.

The nonfiction prize for last year went to Maya Jasanoff?s work ?Liberty?s Exiles,? while the fiction award was given to Edith Pearlman?s short story collection ?Binocular Vision.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/lQSa9Ktv2JI/National-Book-Critics-Circle-Awards-go-to-Billy-Lynn-Far-From-the-Tree

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100% 56 Up

All Critics (52) | Top Critics (20) | Fresh (52) | Rotten (0)

What ultimately is so compelling about 56 Up is the universality of the experiences. We were all once children. And we all will die. And in between, there is everything else.

We feel good, refreshed and depressed in watching these people get older, also embarrassed in moments and cautioned about the passage of time.

Apted, himself now in his early 70s, says he hopes to continue the series further. Long may it live.

Watching "56 Up" gives you the wonderful feeling of seeing a sociological experiment blossom into something novelistically rich and humane.

Time has been neither kind nor cruel to the 13 men and women profiled in "56 UP." It has just been time, which is what this groundbreaking series is about.

We are all older now, and this series proves it in a most deeply moving way.

What started as a crafty way of looking at the U.K.'s rigid class structure has grown into a portrait of melancholy middle age, with its heartbreaks and minor-key triumphs.

Those British kids are now 56

Watching the eighth film is intriguing but, in a way, disappointing. At this point in the game, it feels as if all the characters have determined their lots in life and are simply plodding through their interviews.

Quite simply one of the great documentary projects in the history of cinema, an engrossing sociological experiment on film; and though this mostly mellow installment isn't as revelatory as some earlier ones, it's still a remarkable document.

... feels like a retrospective and summation of the whole series, with ample quotation from the previous films, an approach that makes it interesting even for viewers who haven't seen the previous installments.

A completely unique and remarkable documentary project.

Apted skillfully weaves old footage with the new, and we become poignantly aware of another factor shaping their lives (and our own): biology, as the we watch the once-cute kids grow gray and heavy.

Perhaps the boldest and probably longest running sociological experiment on film.

I think the best thing about this movie (and the entire series) is that it forces the viewer to think about their own lives. It's kind of an awakening experience.

Once again, Apted assembles a captivating documentary that's profoundly educational, essential viewing to aid the understanding of the human experience.

"56 Up" is well worth seeing.

56 Up is still moving and philosophic, though not as exciting as earlier episodes, which had more drama.

The running time is over two hours, but the lives here are richly revealed and vastly rewarding.

No quotes approved yet for 56 Up. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/56_up/

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Gridlock: No budging at the budget-cuts deadline

President Barack Obama speaks to reporters in the White House briefing room in Washington, Friday, March 1, 2013, following his meeting with congressional leaders regarding the automatic spending cuts. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama speaks to reporters in the White House briefing room in Washington, Friday, March 1, 2013, following his meeting with congressional leaders regarding the automatic spending cuts. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio speaks to reporters outside the White House in Washington, Friday, March 1, 2013, following a meeting with President Barack Obama and Congressional leaders regarding the automatic spending cuts. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama pause as he speaks to reporters in the White House briefing room in Washington, Friday, March 1, 2013, following a meeting with congressional leaders regarding the automatic spending cuts. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, March 1, 2013, after a meeting at the White House between President Barack Obama and Congressional leaders before billions of dollars in mandatory budget cuts were to start. The meeting ? lasting less than an hour ? yielded no immediate results. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio talks to reporters outside the White House in Washington, Friday, March 1, 2013, following a meeting with President Barack Obama and Congressional leaders regarding the automatic spending cuts. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Gridlocked once more, President Barack Obama and Republican congressional leaders refused to budge in their budget standoff Friday as $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts bore down on individual Americans and the nation's still-recovering economy. "None of this is necessary," said the president after a sterile White House meeting that portended a long standoff.

Obama formally enacted the reductions a few hours before the midnight deadline required by law. Yet their impact had been felt thousands of miles away well before then. In Seattle, the King County Housing Authority announced it had stopped issuing housing vouchers under a federal program that benefits "elderly or disabled households, veterans, and families with children."

The president met with top lawmakers for less than an hour at the White House, then sought repeatedly to fix the blame on Republicans for the broad spending reductions and any damage that they inflict. "They've allowed these cuts to happen because they refuse to budge on closing a single wasteful loophole to help reduce the deficit," he said, renewing his demand for a comprehensive deficit-cutting deal that includes higher taxes.

Republicans said they wanted deficit cuts, too, but not tax increases. "The president got his tax hikes on Jan. 1," House Speaker John Boehner told reporters, a reference to a $600 billion increase on higher wage earners that cleared Congress on the first day of the year. Now, he said after the meeting, it is time take on "the spending problem here in Washington."

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was equally emphatic. " I will not be part of any back-room deal, and I will absolutely not agree to increase taxes," he vowed in a written statement.

At the same time they clashed, Obama and Republicans appeared determined to contain their disagreement.

Boehner said the House will pass legislation next week to extend routine funding for government agencies beyond the current March 27 expiration. "I'm hopeful that we won't have to deal with the threat of a government shutdown while we're dealing with the sequester at the same time," he said, referring to the new cuts by their Washington-speak name.

Obama said he, too, wanted to keep the two issues separate.

Under the law, Obama had until midnight to formally order the cuts. Barring a quick deal in the next week or so to call them off, the impact eventually is likely to be felt in all reaches of the country.

The Pentagon will absorb half of the $85 billion required to be sliced between now and the end of the budget year on Sept 30, exposing civilian workers to furloughs and defense contractors to possible cancellations. Said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, only a few days on the job: "We will continue to ensure America's security" despite the challenge posed by an "unnecessary budget crisis."

The administration also has warned of long lines at airports as security personnel are furloughed, of teacher layoffs in some classrooms and adverse impacts on maintenance at the nation's parks.

The announcement by the housing agency in Seattle was an early indication of what is likely to hit as the cuts take effect. It said it was taking the action "to cope with the impending reduction in federal funding," adding that it normally issues 45 to 50 vouchers per month.

After days of dire warnings by administration officials, the president told reporters the effects of the cuts would be felt only gradually.

"The longer these cuts remain in place, the greater the damage to our economy ? a slow grind that will intensify with each passing day," he said. Much of the budget savings will come through unpaid furloughs for government workers, and those won't begin taking effect until next month.

Obama declined to say if he bore any of the responsibility for the coming cuts, and expressed bemusement at any suggestion he had the ability to force Republicans to agree with him.

"I am not a dictator. I'm the president," he said. "So, ultimately, if Mitch McConnell or John Boehner say we need to go to catch a plane, I can't have Secret Service block the doorway, right?" He also declared he couldn't perform a "Jedi mind meld" to sway opponents, mixing Star Wars and Star Trek as he reached for a science fiction metaphor.

Neither the president nor Republicans claimed to like what was about to happen. Obama called the cuts "dumb," and GOP lawmakers have long said they were his idea in the first place.

Ironically, they derive from a budget dispute they were supposed to help resolve back in the fall of 2011. At the time, a congressional Supercommittee was charged with identifying at least $1.2 trillion in deficit savings over a decade as part of an attempt to avoid a first-ever government default. The president and Republicans agreed to create a fallback of that much in across-the-board cuts, designed to be so unpalatable that it would virtually assure the panel struck a deal.

The Supercommittee dissolved in disagreement, though. And while Obama and Republicans agreed to a two-month delay last January, there was no bipartisan negotiation in recent days to prevent the first installment of the cuts from taking effect.

It isn't clear how long they will last.

Of particular concern to lawmakers in both parties is a lack of flexibility in the allocation of cuts due to take effect over the next few months. That problem will ease beginning with the new budget year on Oct. 1, when Congress and the White House will be able to negotiate changes in the way the reductions are made.

For his part, Obama suggested he was content to leave them in place until Republicans change their minds about raising taxes by closing loopholes.

"If Congress comes to its senses a week from now, a month from now, three months from now, then there's a lot of open running room there for us to grow our economy much more quickly and to advance the agenda of the American people dramatically," he said.

"So this is a temporary stop on what I believe is the long-term, outstanding prospect for American growth and greatness."

But Republicans say they are on solid political ground. At a retreat in January in Williamsburg, Va., GOP House members reversed course and decided to approve a debt limit increase without demanding cuts. They also agreed not to provoke a government shutdown, another traditional pressure point, as leverage to force Obama and Democrats to accept savings in benefit programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Obama has said repeatedly he's willing to include benefit programs in deficit-cutting legislation ? as long as more tax revenue is part of the deal.

"I am prepared to do hard things and to push my Democratic friends to do hard things," he said at the White House on Friday.

Republicans speak dismissively of such pledges, saying that in earlier negotiations, the president has never been willing to close a deal with the type of changes he often says he will accept.

___

Associated Press writers Robert Burns, Andrew Taylor, Jim Kuhnhenn and Darlene Superville in Washington and Manuel Valdes in Seattle contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Conan Knows What You're Really Using That iPad For

Apple's new iPad commercial that aired during the Oscars would have you believe that there's a lot of film-making going on with that device, and maybe there is. But there's a lot more watching, and Conan's gotten to the bottom of exactly what's being watched. There's no denying it: an iPad is a great for all your film buffs out there. All you lonely, lonely "film buffs." [YouTube] More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/L6Y89cosh4g/conan-knows-what-youre-really-using-that-ipad-for

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Should Your Retail Sales Training Be In-House or Online? -

The long-held belief for getting your retail sales team on the same page has been that in-person retail sales training is the only way to do it.

Bring in managers, assistant-managers, team-leaders, training-staff or some combination thereof and tell them to bring back your training to their staff.

That is the way that it?s done; that?s the way it has been done.

Which was fine.

For awhile.

But this strategy was inherently flawed. If you?re telling your top sellers what they need to know then you have got to appreciate that they will take their own spin for how they think your instructions should be interpreted.

That was a flawed fact that before now was just the reality of in-person training; all this in an age before online retail sales training.

What does online retail sales training give you that this tried-not-necessarily-true method doesn?t?

Two larger things really; accountable knowledge transfer and a strategy to turn this information into action.

Information

This is key; no facts get lost from person to person. With just in-person training, it could be like the?momma?bird feeding her biggest baby birds first then the smaller ones then the smaller ones. There is a reason the runt baby birds often don?t survive.

What you get in my online retail sales training is you get to put that worm right into every baby bird?s mouth.You?re welcome for the visual.

Here?s what else you receive:

• Ability to track the uptake and effectiveness of your programs down to region, district and store levels.
• Employees can send questions and receive real-time answers.
• Actionable, impactful videos designed for today?s learner.
• All content taught by top retail sales trainers.
• Certificate of completion to ensure they know their stuff.
• Engaging, entertaining user-friendly interfaces that focus the learner.
• Everyone from your newest part-timer to seasoned veteran learn the exact same information at their own pace.

For your managers there are added tools to bring the online training onto your salesfloor:

• Courses just for managers so they can make the retail sales training stick.
• Instant access to a suite of measurable features and tools to track how your employees are doing for reward or counsel.
• One-on-one training delivered to your units anywhere in the world.
• Scorecards to see how your employees are progressing.

Strategy

Another bonus of this virtual training is giving your employees a strategy to use the information they?ve been given; so that the result is consistent across your brand. Your associates will learn how to:

• Be genuine, know how to approach, engage and sell the customer.
• Be more human in an increasingly inhuman world.
• Build rapport.
• Get customers to return.
• Get your merchandise out the door.
• Make every stage of a sale meaningful.
• Meet a customer?s needs.
• Move through every step of a sale.
• Open a sale, present your merchandise, handle objections, add-on and get the customers to say ?Thank you? instead of beat them-up for a discount.
• Sell from confidence.

The true magic happens when your managers can have the bulk of the program taught one-on-one online so they can inspect what is expected on the sales floor. ?It doesn?t have to be either online retail sales training or in-person training, they should be both be used to grow your sales and help present an exceptional experience for each customer that also moves your merchandise.

Related posts:

Posted by Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor on February 28, 2013.

Source: http://www.retaildoc.com/blog/should-your-retail-sales-training-be-in-house-or-online/

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Telescope spots formation of alien planet

In the first discovery of its kind, a telescope in Chile has detected a baby gas giant forming in the dust cloud around a nearby star.

By Clara Moskowitz,?SPACE.com / February 28, 2013

This artist?s impression shows the formation of a gas giant planet in the ring of dust around the young star HD 100546. This system is also suspected to contain another large planet orbiting closer to the star.

ESO/L. Cal?ada

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Astronomers have captured what may be the first-ever direct photograph of an alien planet in the process of forming around a nearby star.

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The picture, which captured a giant alien planet as it is coming together, was snapped by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile. It shows a faint blob embedded in a thick disk of gas and dust around the young star HD 100546. The object appears to be a baby gas giant planet, similar to?Jupiter, forming from the disk's material, scientists say.

"So far, planet formation has mostly been a topic tackled by computer simulations," astronomer Sascha Quanz of ETH Zurich in Switzerland, leader of the research team, said in a statement. "If our discovery is indeed a forming planet, then for the first time scientists will be able to study the?planet formation process?and the interaction of a forming planet and its natal environment empirically at a very early stage."

The star HD 100546, which lies 335 light-years from Earth, was already thought to host another giant planet that orbits it about six times farther out than the Earth is from the sun. The new potential planet lies even farther, about 10 times the distance of its sibling, at roughly 70 times the stretch between the Earth and sun. [Giant Planet In the Making Spotted? (Video)]

The possible planet seems to fit the picture scientists are building of how worlds form. Stars themselves are born in clouds of gas and dust, and after the form, a disk of leftover material often orbits them. From this disk,?baby planets?can take shape. That's what appears to be happening here.

For example, the new photo reveals structures in the disk surrounding the star that could be caused by interactions between its material and the forming planet. Furthermore, the data suggest the material around the planet-blob has been heated up, which is consistent with the planet-forming hypothesis.

The observations were made possible by the NACO adaptive optics instrument?on the Very Large Telescope, which compensates for the blurring caused by Earth's atmosphere. The instrument also uses a special coronagraph that observes in near-infrared wavelengths to block out the bright light from the star, so as to see its surroundings better.

"Exoplanet research is one of the most exciting new frontiers in astronomy, and direct imaging of planets is still a new field, greatly benefiting from recent improvements in instruments and data analysis methods," said Adam Amara, another member of the team. "In this research we used data analysis techniques developed for cosmological research, showing that cross-fertilization of ideas between fields can lead to extraordinary progress."

The findings are detailed in a paper to appear online in today's (Feb. 28) issue of?Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Follow Clara Moskowitz on Twitter?@ClaraMoskowitz?or SPACE.com?@Spacedotcom. We're also onFacebook?&?Google+.?

Copyright 2013?SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Y6ClprMyC5E/Telescope-spots-formation-of-alien-planet

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