Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/296634600?client_source=feed&format=rss
Friday, April 5, 2013
UW offers first online-offer bachelor's degree program | The Daily
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Source: http://dailyuw.com/archive/2013/04/03/news/uw-offers-first-online-offer-bachelors-degree-program
Climate Change Future Suggested by Looking Back 4 Million Years
The last time the Earth enjoyed greenhouse gas levels like those of today was roughly 4 million years ago, during an era known as the Pliocene. The extra heat of average temperatures as much as 4 degrees Celsius warmer turned the tropical oceans into a nice warm pool of bathwater, as noted by new research published in Nature on April 4.
By analyzing the ratio of magnesium and calcium in the shells of microscopic animals found in long cores of mud from the deep ocean, the researchers confirmed this massive oceanic warm pool. At about 28 degrees C, the surface sea temperatures were not much warmer than today's tropical oceans, but these warm waters covered much more of the global ocean surface. Although such warm water might sound nice, such warm pools of water have profound weather effects; think of El Nino events in the present and the torrential rains this climate pattern creates in some areas. And a Pliocene-like reduction in temperature differences between polar and mid-latitude regions would have similarly profound effects on everything from the number of tropical cyclones in the Pacific Ocean to which areas are covered by desert in Africa, Australia and North America. The warm water conditions of the Pliocene held steady for more than one million years. In fact, scientists do not understand completely what caused these conditions to change, though a decrease in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations of roughly 100 parts-per-million, to around 300 ppm probably helped. In the last few hundred years, that's about how much humanity has raised greenhouse gas concentrations through the burning of fossil fuels, the cutting down of forests and other activities. Today's concentration is about 394 ppm. Although we cannot be sure that a similarly sized decrease in greenhouse gas concentrations ushered in the present era of ice ages singlehandedly, we can be sure that greenhouse gases change climate. And, unless we want to go back to the Pliocene when our distant ancestors split from chimpanzees, we might want to temper climate change by emitting less CO2, methane and other greenhouse gases. Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.? 2013 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/climate-change-future-suggested-looking-back-4-million-173300533.html
Hubble breaks record in search for farthest supernova
Apr. 4, 2013 ? NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has found the farthest supernova so far of the type used to measure cosmic distances. Supernova UDS10Wil, nicknamed SN Wilson after American President Woodrow Wilson, exploded more than 10 billion years ago.
SN Wilson belongs to a special class called Type Ia supernovae. These bright beacons are prized by astronomers because they provide a consistent level of brightness that can be used to measure the expansion of space. They also yield clues to the nature of dark energy, the mysterious force accelerating the rate of expansion.
"This new distance record holder opens a window into the early universe, offering important new insights into how these stars explode," said David O. Jones of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., an astronomer and lead author on the paper detailing the discovery. "We can test theories about how reliable these detonations are for understanding the evolution of the universe and its expansion."
The discovery was part of a three-year Hubble program, begun in 2010, to survey faraway Type Ia supernovae and determine whether they have changed during the 13.8 billion years since the explosive birth of the universe. Astronomers took advantage of the sharpness and versatility of Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 to search for supernovae in near-infrared light and verify their distance with spectroscopy. Leading the work is Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., and Johns Hopkins University.
Finding remote supernovae provides a powerful method to measure the universe's accelerating expansion. So far, Riess's team has uncovered more than 100 supernovae of all types and distances, looking back in time from 2.4 billion years to more than 10 billion years. Of those new discoveries, the team has identified eight Type Ia supernovae, including SN Wilson, that exploded more than 9 billion years ago.
"The Type Ia supernovae give us the most precise yardstick ever built, but we're not quite sure if it always measures exactly a yard," said team member Steve Rodney of Johns Hopkins University. "The more we understand these supernovae, the more precise our cosmic yardstick will become."
Although SN Wilson is only 4 percent more distant than the previous record holder, it pushes roughly 350 million years farther back in time. A separate team led by David Rubin of the U.S. Energy Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California announced the previous record just three months ago.
Astronomers still have much to learn about the nature of dark energy and how Type Ia supernovae explode.
By finding Type Ia supernovae so early in the universe, astronomers can distinguish between two competing explosion models. In one model the explosion is caused by a merger between two white dwarfs. In another model, a white dwarf gradually feeds off its partner, a normal star, and explodes when it accretes too much mass.
The team's preliminary evidence shows a sharp decline in the rate of Type Ia supernova blasts between roughly 7.5 billion years ago and more than 10 billion years ago. The steep drop-off favors the merger of two white dwarfs because it predicts that most stars in the early universe are too young to become Type Ia supernovae.
"If supernovae were popcorn, the question is how long before they start popping?" Riess said. "You may have different theories about what is going on in the kernel. If you see when the first kernels popped and how often they popped, it tells you something important about the process of popping corn."
Knowing the type of trigger for Type Ia supernovae also will show how quickly the universe enriched itself with heavier elements such as iron. These exploding stars produce about half of the iron in the universe, the raw material for building planets, and life.
The team's results have been accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md., conducts Hubble science operations. The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc., in Washington operates STScI.
For images and more information about SN Wilson, visit: http://hubblesite.org/news/2013/11
For more information about NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/hubble
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/cl-Ju-mhiy0/130404104543.htm
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Thursday, April 4, 2013
94% Room 237
All Critics (83) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (79) | Rotten (5) | DVD (1)
As amusing as the movie is, I think in the end that Ascher misses the labyrinth for the trees.
The theories proposed in the doc "Room 237" aren't eye-opening. They're laughable.
A beautifully edited, deeply strange compendium of what different people have read into a single film.
A thrilling testament to the fact that art is - and should be - open to interpretation.
This movie about a labyrinth with a monster at its center is itself a labyrinth, [Ascher] tells us; better leave a trail of breadcrumbs behind you if you hope to get out.
Part of what makes "Room 237" fascinating to watch and think about (beyond other people's loopiness) is that it shows how works of art become encrusted with their reception.
Would it be hypocritical to say that I loved "Room 237," even thought I felt like 75 percent of what was said in it was completely hooey?
a journey down a rabbit hole worth taking, as the film immerses us in alternately fascinating, compelling, absurd, and frightening theories about what, exactly, The Shining is (or might be) about
Room 237 is both an ode to the subversive nature of the movies and a fascinating insight into clashing obsessions in its most lurid form, even when its stylistic choices seek to destroy the experience.
I can't buy into the notion of Stanley Kubrick faking Apollo 11's moon landing but he definitely helped Shelley Duvall fake a movie career.
"Anything you say, Lloyd. Anything you say."
"Room 237" is movie so chunky and sweet you can eat it with a spoon.
This documentary will entertain everyone from film junkies to conspiracy theorists and those who like to debunk them as Ascher spreads his net to include everything from the most provocative ideas to blatant bunkum.
This geek gossip is made even more captivating by the fact that nobody will likely ever know whether any of it is true.
Hilarious, bizarre and provocative. You'll never look at The Shining the same way again
The beauty of Room 237, however, doesn't lie in the validity of any one of the commentators' thoughtful (and occasionally well-informed) speculations, but instead in that mysterious grey zone between an artist's intentions and audience interpretation.
Unique and at times profound, Room 237 is a reminder of how much Kubrick left for us to appreciate in his work, and how the greatest films always leave something more to be discovered with each viewing.
A strange and enduring testament to Kubrick's cinematic legacy, as well as a fun way to look at a horror classic in a whole new way.
Like any great puzzle, The Shining is a lot of fun to try and solve.
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