Shadow Fire: 10 Fantastic Photos of Sunday's Annular Solar Eclipse

Features | Space

Professional astronomers and amateurs tapped their creativity to capture the first annular eclipse visible in the U.S. since 1994


Annular solar eclipse Image: Naoki Nakashima/Flickr/Creative Commons

Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...

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Sunday lived up to its name this past weekend, as countless skywatchers in the western U.S. took in a rare annular solar eclipse. An annular eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly in front of the sun but its apparent size, from Earth's perspective, is too small to completely cover the solar disk. During the May 20 eclipse, the moon covered as much as 94 percent of the sun, leaving a narrow "ring of fire" in the sky. (The apparent diameters of the sun and moon change over time; this is especially true for the moon, because its distance to Earth varies significantly over the course of its monthly elliptical orbit.)

The eclipse was visible in a narrow stripe crossing several western states, from Oregon to Texas, as well as in parts of Asia. A partial eclipse was visible from many more locations. Some observers documented the event using professional-quality astrophotography rigs complete with solar filters; some used binoculars to project the eclipse onto a screen for safe viewing. (Viewing the eclipse directly through binoculars could cause severe eye damage.) Other enthusiasts used makeshift pinhole devices?a colander, a clenched hand?whereas many relied on the natural pinhole-filtering effect of sunlight streaming between tree branches and leaves. We chose 10 photos of the eclipse?captured by professionals, by amateurs and by one Earth-orbiting spacecraft?that represent the myriad views different people had of the same event.

View a slide show of Sunday?s annular solar eclipse.

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Hard times for Hometown Hardware

In a recovering economy, many aspiring entrepreneurs have found their opening to start a business. Some savvy boomerpreneurs, like Bill and Donna, are starting their own companies for the promise in new enterprise. Launching a small business later in life, however, comes with its own set of challenges.

Before opening their store, Hometown Hardware, Bill served as an executive at a large supermarket chain and Donna was a preschool teacher. A working knowledge of traditional marketing, loyal customers and a lot of perseverance has kept this small hardware store afloat, but with their savings now exhausted, Bill and Donna are turning to other opportunities to save their store.

The couple recently partnered with Josh Deutsch, the owner of a Cincinnati-based printing company, to develop a new logo and advertising. Taking cues from Remake America?s social media guru, Adam Broitman, Hometown Hardware launched a Facebook page focused on building content, conversation and engagement with their local community.

Bill updated financial expert Farnoosh Torabi on Hometown Hardware's progress. What have you done to push your business into the 21st century?

Please share your solutions, personal stories, and honest opinions. Please do not add personal attacks, vulgar language, or other offensive comments; they'll be removed.

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Join Chicago photographers

My son recently joined a group of?chicago wedding photographers?and started taking pictures marriage ceremonys for a dwelling. ?He always sought after to be a photographer and attempted more than a few fields of photography. ?i believe he?s found his marok regardless that within the wedding industake a look at because he?s very gifted and a real other people person. ?He loves his new found gig and has made guyy nerking linoks. ?His subsequent step will probably be developing his own company and hiring his personal photographers to go with his taste. ?it is a crowded maroket however they say there?s always room for anyone who?s just right.

20 May 2012 | Media Arts Entertainment

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Facebook likes Karma app, buys the whole darn thing

Facebook likes Karma app, buys the whole darn thingWhat does one do after generating billions from an initial public stock offering? Go shopping, of course. After falling short of expectations following its somewhat helter-skelter IPO debut, Facebook simply shook off the whole thing and acquired itself some good Karma. No, we're not talking about that Karma. Instead, Facebook purchased the startup responsible for the Karma social gifting app. The move was apparently made to bolster Facebook's mobile chops -- an area the company considers ripe for opportunity. Just recently, Facebook also acquired mobile stalwart Instagram and the Lightbox team, for example. As for its newest purchase, Karma will be allowed to "continue to operate in full force" despite its recent status change, according to a blog post by co-founders Lee Linden and Ben Lewis. Details weren't disclosed about how much the deal was worth but judging from celebratory nature of their post, it doesn't look like Linden and Lewis will "Unlike" the agreement any time soon.

Facebook likes Karma app, buys the whole darn thing originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 May 2012 16:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is your HDTV underperforming? Here' s a really quick fix

22 hrs.

Every TV has one: a button that zooms in on the picture, or changes the aspect ratio. Sometimes called View Mode, Format, Size, Zoom, or something similar, these modes have a variety of names, but all have the same purpose.

In reality, most of the time there is only one ?correct? mode, the other modes offering less resolution, possible artifacts, and in a few limited cases, a better picture.

Overscan
One of the primary reasons why these controls exist is a ?feature? called Overscan. In the olden days, TV makers had a lot of wiggle room in defining the edges of the image. So two TVs, of the same size, might show slightly more or less of the broadcast image. At the edges of the image, there was frequently a lot of noise (some of which was part of the image, some not).

Even in the early days of HD, many stations broadcast a few pixels of noise, so a TV was better off showing, let?s say, 1900 x 1060 of the original signal, than blowing it up to fill the 1920 x 1080 screen.

And that ?blowing up? is the problem.

Scaling
Every pixel on your TV is active, regardless of the resolution of the source. With DVDs, the TV upconverts (aka scales) the image to fill the screen. It is creating information that is not in the original source, in order to have data for every pixel.

To a lesser extent, the same is happening when you view an HDTV with any amount of overscan active, or when in one of the modes listed earlier. The TV is zooming in slightly on the original image, which requires it to modify every pixel in the image to fit. Look at it this way, if you?re watching a Blu-ray, or a 1080i image from cable/satellite, that image has a specific pixel for every one of the actual pixels on your TV. A 1:1 map, if you will. If the TV has overscan active, or is zooming in slightly, now it?s more like a 1:0.9 map. The TV has to scale the image.

Regardless of how good the scaler is in the TV, this is going to increase noise and artifacts, and potentially reduce resolution (if it can?t scale the image well).

Find this control on your TV, and for the best picture, set it to Just Scan, 1:1, Full, Native, Dot-by-Dot and so on. You?ll be able to tell which is the right one, as when you?re watching a 1080i or 1080p image, it will appear to zoom out slightly, and you?ll see more of the picture?s edges.

A few exceptions
Occasionally, you?ll find a channel or program that has some weird, non-picture data on the edge of the screen, usually only a few pixels wide. If this bothers you, well, now you know where the control is to zoom in and clip it off. But this is pretty rare these days.

One other use for this control is zooming in on a 16x9 image that resides in a 4x3 window. For example, on my AT&T U-verse, BBC America is available only?in standard definition (thanks a lot AT&T). So if I want to watch the 16x9 "Top Gear" it?s only viewable with black bars on the sides (SD is 4x3) and on the top and bottom (because it?s 16x9 within the 4x3). Obviously I don?t, I buy the show in HD on iTunes, but you get my point. In this case, you could zoom in on the image, to better fill the screen with the tiny program. Keep in mind, this will likely look like crap.

However, and this is a HUGE deal, you should only be doing this rarely and for the few channels not available in HD. If you are doing this a lot, especially with network shows, you are likely not set up correctly for HD. (Check out my article on How to Set Aspect Ratio on Your TV.)

If you?re black-bar-ophobic, there are often modes that stretch the entire 4x3 standard definition image to fill the screen, or the more, uh, clever of these modes that keep the center of the image at?the correct aspect ratio, and only stretch the edges. It?s worth noting that using either of these modes is quite possibly the worst your TV will ever look, and should be avoided if at all possible.

This is almost always the default setting for TVs in hotels, which is one of the main reasons hotel TVs look so terrible.

Source boxes
All cable/satellite boxes and Blu-ray players have aspect ratio settings, ?too. The wrong setting will provide a distorted, lower resolution image. Most on-screen menus ask you to select your TV aspect ratio. For all current HDTVs this would be 16:9. If set to 4:3, the image will be badly distorted. Make sure your source box is set to the 16:9 image setting.

Most boxes also?will ask for an output resolution setting. Choices will? include 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i. With 1080p TVs (most current models), this control should be set to 1080i (some cable/satellite boxes also allow 1080p output, but it only applies to pay per view movies).

Blu-ray players should be set to 1080p. Many offer a 1080p/24 setting, though not all TVs can do anything with this frame?rate. Most Blu-ray players will have a test mode to verify that your TV can accept the resolution prior to making the final setting.

If you have a 720p TV, you can set the cablebox to either 720p or 1080i, though the latter is probably better. If you choose 720p, the signal will be ideal for 720p content such as ABC and Fox but 1080i content (used by CBS, NBC, HBO and others) will be down converted in the box. It?s likely your TV will do a better job de-interlacing and downconverting 1080i content than your cablebox, so choosing 1080i output is likely better. Also, most non-1080p TVs these days are actually 1,024 x 768, slightly more vertical resolution than 720p. So you may squeeze a few extra lines of resolution when watching 1080i content by choosing the 1080i output.

Conclusion
The short version? Ideally you?d watch all HD content set to fill the screen, with no overscan. Check your settings, there may be aspect ratio controls, and separate overscan controls.

?While most Blu-ray players will auto-detect the correct aspect ratio (nearly always 16x9), DVD players and cable/satellite boxes do not. Check the settings of these as well to make sure they?re sending your TV the correct aspect ratio (and resolution!). I always watch TV with the overscan off and in a 1:1 pixel mapping mode, and it has been years since I?ve seen noise on the edges of the screen. Check both controls, your TV may look better?? for free!

Reach Geoff Morrison on Twitter at?@TechWriterGeoff.?Have a question for the HD Guru? Send an?email.

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summer weight loss? bikini body? | Health and Fitness

Question by happyfeetlife: summer weight loss? bikini body?
this summer ive decided to get into shape and lose weight. ive been wanting to all year. i am 5?3? tall, and i weigh 122 pounds. my goal is to weigh 100 pounds (from losing fat) and to tone myself up.

my plan is:

monday: 1 hour class of kickboxing

tuesday: a 1 hour ?keep fit? class

(description: ?Keep Fit is Aerobics Workout. It is an exercise that helps you use oxygen more efficiently. May be one of the best exercises that can keep you active and increase your fitness leve. Its benefits includes improve cardio-vascular health, increase body?s level of HDL (good cholesterol), particularly helpful for weight control, release stress, just to name some.?)

wednesday: 1 hour kickboxing class

thursday: a break from workouts.. just do my abs workout (situps, crunches)

friday: a one hour total body conditioning class

?A combination of athletic moves that targets the waist, hip, abdominals, buttocks, thighs and arms at enhancing the body?s adaptability to improve strength, flexibility and endurance?

as well as a 1 hour hip hop dance class

if i am eating healthily (no junk food, and loads of veggies and lean protiens) how long will it take for me to lose 20 pounds? thanks in advance! 10 points for best answer!
okay.. i wanted people to TELL ME HOW LONG IT WOULD TAKE TO LOSE 20 POUNDS!!! i dont want to get a link to some dumb scam for diet pills? gosh!

REAL ANSWERS PLEASE!

Best answer:

Answer by Avrumi
wow ? at that rate? if! you stick to what you are doing then i would say aproximatly a 2 months ? at a rate of about 2-3.5 pounds a week ? good luck!

Give your answer to this question below!


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Strategies for producing natural and non-natural chemicals by microorganisms

Friday, May 18, 2012

In our everyday life, we use gasoline, diesel, plastics, rubbers, and numerous chemicals that are derived from fossil oil through petrochemical refinery processes. Fossil resources are limited and not sustainable. Our world is facing problems associated with climate change and other environmental problems resulted from lavish consumption of fossil fuels. One solution to address these problems is to use renewable, non-food biomass for the production of chemicals, fuels, and materials through biorefineries.

In their paper published online in Nature Chemical Biology on May 17th, Professor Sang Yup Lee and his colleagues at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), newly present general strategies for systems metabolic engineering to develop microorganisms for the production of natural and non-natural chemicals from renewable biomass.

Microorganisms are used as biocatalysts to convert biomass into the products of interest. When microorganisms are isolated from nature, however, their efficiency of producing desired chemicals and materials is rather low. Metabolic engineering is performed to improve cellular characteristics to desired levels.

Over the last decade, great advances have been made in systems biology that allows system-wide characterization of cellular networks, both qualitatively and quantitatively, followed by whole-cell level engineering based on these findings. Furthermore, rapid advances in synthetic biology allow design and synthesis of fine controlled metabolic and gene regulatory circuits. The strategies and methods of systems biology and synthetic biology are rapidly integrated with metabolic engineering, thus resulting in "systems metabolic engineering."

According to the paper, the researchers classified the chemicals to be produced into four categories based on whether they have been identified thus far to exist in nature (natural vs. non-natural) and they can be produced by inherent pathways of microorganisms (inherent, noninherent, or created): natural-inherent, natural-noninherent, non-natural-noninherent, and non-natural-created ones.

General strategies for systems metabolic engineering of microorganisms for the production of these chemicals using various tools and methods based on omics, genome-scale metabolic modeling and simulation, evolutionary engineering, and synthetic biology are suggested with relevant examples. For the production of non-natural chemicals, strategies for the construction of synthetic metabolic pathways are also suggested. Having collected diverse tools and methods for systems metabolic engineering, the authors also suggest how to use them and their possible limitations.

Professor Sang Yup Lee said, "It is expected that increasing number of chemicals and materials will be produced through biorefineries. We are now equipped with new strategies for developing microbial strains that can produce our desired products at very high efficiencies, thus allowing cost competitiveness to those produced by petrochemical refineries."

###

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST): http://www.kaist.edu/english/

Thanks to The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) 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.

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RIM patent application shines a light on unseen filth, might make forensics mobile

Image

CSI: Waterloo? We're not sure how compelling that spin-off would be (inexplicable popularity of the David Caruso-headlined Miami version aside). So, you'll excuse us for scratching our collective tech head over this recently surfaced patent application filed by RIM in November of 2010. The claims of this bizarre USPTO doc describe an apparatus containing some form of a "display element" attached to a portable electronic device that would generate light on nearby objects, snap photographs and then display results indicating potential contamination. Sounds a lot like those UV wands forensics researchers use on crime scenes, non? Well, whatever it is Heins and co. may have brewing in their Canadian R&D labs, we just pray this isn't BB 10's killer feature. Hit up the source below to peruse the legalese for yourself.

RIM patent application shines a light on unseen filth, might make forensics mobile originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 May 2012 17:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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