Mystery 'noise' could be an Earth-like world: Strange signals suggest habitable planet exists 22 light years away -

Mystery 'noise' could be an Earth-like world: Strange signals suggest habitable planet exists 22 light years away - 

Astronomers believe mysterious signals - previously dismissed as stellar bursts - are coming from an Earth-like planet.
The Gliese 581d planet has conditions that could support life, and is likely to be a rocky world, twice the size of Earth.
Signals from the planet were initially discovered in 2010, but last year dismissed as noise from distant stars.

Now, a further study claims that the 2014 research was based on 'inadequate analyses of the data' and that Gliese 581d does exist.

The planet was initially discovered in 2010. It was the first Earth-like planet found in the 'Goldilocks'-zone around another star.
But soon after the discovery, a group of scientists said the signals thought to be from a planet were in fact simply magnetic bursts from stars.
The latest study claims that the stellar bursts research was based on 'inadequate analyses of the data'. 
They said the method is suitable for large planets, but the technique is unable to find small planets like GJ 581d.
Last year, Pennsylvania State University researchers said Gliese 581d - and its companion Gliese 581g - were simply a trick of the light caused by magnetic bursts from a local star 22 light-years away. 
The new British research, however, argues the method uses by the Pennsylvania team was only suitable for large planets, and that it could miss small ones like GJ 581d.
The study, by Queen Mary University, London and the University of Hertfordshire, claims to use a more accurate model on the existing data.
'The existence (or not) of GJ 581d is significant because it was the first Earth-like planet discovered in the 'Goldilocks'-zone around another star and it is a benchmark case for the Doppler technique,' said lead author, Dr Guillem Anglada-Escudé.

Read more - 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2983202/Alien-noise-Earth-like-world-Mystery-signals-suggest-habitable-planet-exists-22-light-years-away.html

Lockheed demos new high-power laser weapon - disabled a vehicle engine from a distance of more than one mile -

Lockheed demos new high-power laser weapon - disabled a vehicle engine from a distance of more than one mile - 

A 30-kilowatt fiber laser weapon system from Lockheed Martin successfully disabled a vehicle engine from a distance of more than one mile.

In the test -- said to represent the highest power ever documented by a laser weapon of its type -- the beam from the Advanced Test High Energy Asset, or ATHENA, quickly burned through the engine manifold of a truck mounted and running on a test platform, Lockheed Martin said.

"Fiber-optic lasers are revolutionizing directed energy systems," said Keoki Jackson, Lockheed Martin chief technology officer. "We are investing in every component of the system -- from the optics and beam control to the laser itself -- to drive size, weight and power efficiencies.

"This test represents the next step to providing lightweight and rugged laser weapon systems for military aircraft, helicopters, ships and trucks."

The single-mode fiber laser weapon system prototype uses a technique called spectral beam combining -- multiple fiber laser modules form a single, powerful, high-quality beam.

Lockheed Martin said ATHENA is based on its Area Defense Anti-Munitions laser weapon system , which was developed by Lockheed Martin and successfully demonstrated against small airborne and sea-based targets.

Read more - 

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Lockheed_demos_new_high-power_laser_weapon_999.html

Mark Cuban Warns: This Bubble Is Far Worse Than The Tech Bubble Of 2000 -

Mark Cuban Warns: This Bubble Is Far Worse Than The Tech Bubble Of 2000 - 

Just over a year ago, we warned that while the world of speculative capital is focused intently on the Twitter and Facebook #Ref/0 fundamental valuations in the publicly-traded equity markets, the real dot-com 2.0 bubble is occurring in the private markets. Few paid attention, prefering the head in the sand "well the music is still playing" meme; but one (or two) billionaires noticed, and with all eyes intently focused on Nasdaq 5,000 (as some indicator that we made it back to Nirvana), Mark Cuban unleashes uncontestible exposition why is this bubble far worse than the tech bubble of 2000.

It is different this time... and, as Mark Cuban explains, far worse...

Ah the good old days.  Stocks up $25, $50, $100 more in a single day.  Day trading was all the rage.  Anyone and everyone you talked to had a story about how they had made a ton of money on such and such a stock. In an hour.  Stock trading millionaires were being minted by the week, if not sooner.

You couldn’t go anywhere without people talking about the stock market.  Everyone was in or new someone who was in. There were hundreds of companies that were coming public and could easily be bought and sold.  You just pick a stock and buy it. Then you pray it goes up. Which most days it did.

Then it ended. Slowly by surely the air came out of the bubble and the stock markets declined and declined till the air was completely gone.  The good news was that some people were able to see it coming and get out. The bad is that others were able to get out, but at significant losses.

If we thought it was stupid to invest in public internet websites that had no chance of succeeding back then, it’s worse today.

In a bubble there is always someone with a “great” idea pitching an investor the dream of a billion dollar payout with a comparison to an existing success story.  In the tech bubble it was Broadcast.com, AOL, Netscape, etc.  Today its, Uber, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

To the investor, its the hope of a huge payout.  But there is one critical difference.  Back then the companies  the general public was investing in were public companies. They may have been horrible companies, but being public meant that investors had liquidity to sell their stocks.

The bubble today comes from private investors who are investing in apps and small tech companies.

Just like back then there were always people telling you their idea for a new website or about the public website they invested in, today people always have what essentially boils down to an app that they want you to invest in.  But unlike back then when the dream of riches was from a public company, now its from a private company.  And there in lies the rub.

People we used to call individual or small investors, are now called Angels.  Angels. Why do they call them Angels ? Maybe because they grant wishes ?

According to some data I found, there are 225k Angels in the US. Like the crazy days of the internet boom,  I wonder how many realize what they have gotten into ?

But they are not alone.

For those who can’t figure out how to be Angels. You can sign up to be part of the new excitement called Equity Crowd Funding. Equity Crowd Funding allows you to join the masses to chase investments with as little as 5k dollars.  Oh the possibilities !!

I have absolutely not doubt in my mind that most of these individual Angels and crowd funders are currently under water in their investments. Absolutely none. I say most. The percentage could be higher

Why ?

Because there is ZERO liquidity for any of those investments. None. Zero. Zip. 

All those Angel investments in all those apps and startups.  All that crowdfunded equity. All in search of their unicorn because the only real salvation right now is an exit or cash pay out from operations.  The SEC made sure that there is no market for any of these companies to go public and create liquidity for their Angels.  The market for sub 25mm dollar raises is effectively dead. DOA . Gone. Thanks SEC. And with the new Equity CrowdFunding rules yet to be finalized, there is no reason to believe that the SEC will be smart enough to create some form of liquidity for all those widows and orphans who will put their $5k into the dream only to realize they can’t get any cash back when they need money to fix their car

So why is this bubble far worse than the tech bubble of 2000 ?

Because the only thing worse than a market with collapsing valuations is a market with no valuations and no liquidity.

If stock in a company is worth what somebody will pay for it, what is the stock of a company worth when there is no place to sell it ?
*  *  *

Of course, tomorrow's mainstream business media channels will trot out various asset-gatherers and commssion-takers who will denigrate Mr. Cuban's clarifications - just as they did Janet Yellen's Biotech warnings last year - but the question is: who do you believe? The billionaire with no ax to grind or the market maven "TV personality" with vested interests up the wazoo?

If examples are needed, see below...



Read more - 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-04/mark-cuban-warns-bubble-far-worse-tech-bubble-2000

For The First Time Ever, US Consumers Spent More On Food In Restaurants Than In Grocery Stores -

For The First Time Ever, US Consumers Spent More On Food In Restaurants Than In Grocery Stores - 

Over the weekend, we mocked the WSJ for glorifying the US "wage recovery" by focusing on the "scarcity" of waiter and bartender jobs ("there is fierce competition" for restaurant workers the WSJ said), a concept well-explored on these pages: we have shown repeatedly that soaring number of waiters and bartenders have been the "backbone", so to say, of the US job recovery in recent years (alongside energy workers but that ship has now sailed). As it turns out the joke's on us.

As Mark Perry of the AEI shows, for the first time ever, the spending patterns of US consumers are so skewed, that Americans, or at least a small fraction of them, spent more on restaurants and bars, than what Americans, the much larger fraction, spent on grocery stores to prepare food for themselves.

In other words, when it comes to food, either the bulk of Americans have forgotten how to cook and are hemmorghaning money to overpay for restaurant prepared dinners, or a small fraction of society - i.e., the 1% leisure class - now outspends the majority of the nation, those who can't afford to eat out no matter the amount of subsidies or handouts by the government, on food.



What is casuing this historic inversion is unclear, but what is clear is that it is full steam ahead fo the "waiter and bartender recovery" until all those Ivy League grads who can no longer finds a job on Wall Street are serving you a burger at your favorite fast food, and recently IPOed, burger place.

Read more -

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-04/history-made-first-time-ever-us-consumers-spent-more-food-restaurants-grocery-stores

2015 Mighty Ford F-750 Tonka is the Dump Truck of your childhood dreams -

2015 Mighty Ford F-750 Tonka is the Dump Truck of your childhood dreams - 

Do you have a big sandbox behind your house? Like Sahara Desert big? If so, Ford may have just the thing for you.

The automaker has teamed up with Tonka on a custom dump truck to promote its new 2016 F-650/F-750 medium duty lineup.

The Mighty Ford F-750 Tonka that debuted Wednesday at the National Truck Equipment Association Work Truck Show in Indianapolis features a Truck Tech engineers dump truck body and is finished in Tonka’s iconic yellow paint with a black grille and decals touting that the toy brand has been “getting dirty since 1947,” which happens to be one year before the Ford F-Series debuted.

The F-750 it’s based on will be built in house by Ford, has a 33,000 gross vehicle weight rating, and in this configuration can haul up to 17,000 pounds. It’s powered by a version of the 6.7-liter diesel V8 offered in Ford’s super duty pickups, here with up to 330 hp and 725 lb-ft of torque.

And while Ford can’t match Tonka’s lifetime warranty, it comes pretty close. The engine has a five-year, 250,000-mile warranty. Unfortunately for those with young hearts and big backyards, the Mighty Ford F-750 Tonka is a one-off show car, but you can always just buy one in yellow and pretend.

Read more - 

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2015/03/04/mighty-ford-f-750-tonka-is-dump-truck-your-childhood-dreams/?intcmp=trending

Forget Coffins – Organic Burial Pods Will Turn Your Loved Ones Into Trees -

Forget Coffins – Organic Burial Pods Will Turn Your Loved Ones Into Trees - 

The idea of coming full circle and returning whence we came from is one that appeals to many of us, regardless of our faith (or lack thereof), and this is an idea captured perfectly by this beautiful new burial method developed in Italy. The Capsula Mundi project by designers Anna Citelli and Raoul Bretzel has developed an organic, biodegradable burial capsule that will turn the deceased’s body into nutrients for a tree that will grow out of their remains.
After being encapsulated in the fetal position, the deceased is buried and either a tree or tree seed is planted above their capsule. The project’s site already has a number of trees to choose from.
The project is currently only a concept because Italian law forbids such burials. If it were allowed to proceed, however, the project’s aim would be to create entire memorial parks full of trees instead of tombstones. And instead of destroying and burying wood for wooden coffins, we would, at the end of our lives, provide sustenance for new trees instead. And indeed, the idea that our loved ones and descendants could visit our tree, care for it and rest in its shade is truly a comforting one.

Read more- 

http://www.boredpanda.com/biodegradable-burial-pod-memory-forest-capsula-mundi/

Bill Clinton’s portrait for the National Portrait Gallery has a Monica Lewinsky reference slipped into the painting -

Bill Clinton’s portrait for the National Portrait Gallery has a Monica Lewinsky reference slipped into the painting - 

The artist who painted Bill Clinton’s portrait for the National Portrait Gallery claims that he slipped in a Monica Lewinsky reference into the painting.
Nelson Shanks told the Philadelphia Daily News that he “subtly” incorporated Lewinsky’s infamous blue dress into the 2006 portrait.
“The reality is he’s probably the most famous liar of all time. He and his administration did some very good things, of course, but I could never get this Monica thing completely out of my mind and it is subtly incorporated in the painting,” Shanks said.
He explained that he put a shadow of the blue dress into the painting.
“If you look at the left-hand side of it there’s a mantle in the Oval Office and I put a shadow coming into the painting and it does two things,” Shanks told the Daily News. “It actually literally represents a shadow from a blue dress that I had on a mannequin, that I had there while I was painting it, but not when he was there. It is also a bit of a metaphor in that it represents a shadow on the office he held, or on him.”
Shanks claims that that Clintons want the portrait removed from the gallery.
“And so the Clintons hate the portrait. They want it removed from the National Portrait gallery,” he told the Daily News. “They’re putting a lot of pressure on them.”
The National Portrait Gallery denied the claim to the Daily News.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the former president’s wife, Hillary Clinton, will likely enter the presidential race in April.

Read more - 

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2015/03/02/artist-claims-he-included-lewinskys-blue-dress-in-clinton-portrait/

Prisons Increase Profits by Replacing In-Person Family Visits with Video Screens -

Prisons Increase Profits by Replacing In-Person Family Visits with Video Screens - 

Those in charge of the nation’s jails and prisons have found a way to make some money off the backs of those who can often least afford it—the families of inmates.

Telecommunications companies, last seen making huge profits off phone service for inmates, have had to find a new revenue stream since the Federal Communications Commission capped most jail phone rates. Now they’re installing video visitation systems at jails and prisons across the country, charging huge fees for their use and splitting the profits with the facility.

The new systems are touted as more user-friendly for families and better at restricting the flow of contraband into correctional facilities. But they come at the cost of high charges—up to $1.50 a minute—for remote video visiting.

“Seventy three percent of the people in our jail have not been convicted--that means they are innocent until proven guilty,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins told NBC News. “And 100% of their family, their spouses and their children are innocent, who are the people who end up paying for this.”

Prisons often don’t start getting their share of the loot until the chat system has been paid for or until a certain level of calls are made each month.

Prisons have no incentive to make the charges affordable for families and some officials show a complete disregard for the cost. The purchasing manager for St. Clair County, Illinois, Tom Maziarz, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “A dollar a minute strikes me as a fair price. I guess it depends what viewpoint you’re coming from. The way I look at it, we’ve got a captive audience. If they don’t like (the rates), I guess they should not have got in trouble to begin with.”

In some cases, a limited number of video chats are free but must be done at a central facility. One company, Securus, requires that jails and prisons that install its systems curtail in-person visits by all except attorneys and clergy. However, that often disincentivizes the use of such systems. A study by the Prison Policy Initiative reports that when traditional through-the-glass visits are retained, there is an average of 23 minutes of offsite video chats per month. When in-person visits are eliminated, that number falls to 13 minutes per month.

Whether done at a central site or remotely, video and sound quality of the chats are often poor, causing much of a pre-scheduled video conference to be wasted.

The systems also eliminate the personal contact between families and inmates that is credited with reducing behavior problems while incarcerated and recidivism after release. “It just seems so impersonal,” Ashika Coleman-Carter, whose husband was jailed in Travis County, Texas, told NBC News. “The old visits, even though you couldn’t touch behind the glass, at least you could go into an actual visiting room and see someone’s face. Now you can’t get close to the person at all.”

The video chats also provide less privacy for visitors with picture and sound being recorded and often reviewed by jail officials. In-person visits were usually in a separate room, but the video chats often take place in the dayroom of a jail. Sometimes family members watch while fights break out behind their loved one.

Attorneys are also troubled by the lack of privacy. “When I need to discuss with them issues germane to their defense or what a witness said…anything with substance, I’m not going to do it over the computer, because I don’t trust them,” Marci Kratter, a Phoenix defense attorney, told Al Jazeera America. “I’m a bit of a cynic, so I have concerns about whether what’s discussed over the Internet is actually privileged and that there’s not some way that they are recording it.”

She’s right to be concerned. Prisons in several jurisdictions have been sued by defense attorneys, charging their conversations with clients have been illegally monitored.

Read more -

http://www.allgov.com/news/where-is-the-money-going/prisons-increase-profits-by-replacing-in-person-family-visits-with-video-screens-150302?news=855820

Too much Facebook leads to Envy and Depression -

Too much Facebook leads to Envy and Depression - 

Constantly checking Facebook to see what your friends are doing could lead to some serious depression.
A recent study conducted by researchers at Nanyang Technological University, Bradley University and the University of Missouri Columbia found that heavy Facebook (FB, Tech30) users can experience envy -- which can ultimately lead to extreme sadness.

The researchers surveyed 736 college students and found that, basically, if you quietly stalk your friends on Facebook and then realize that your life doesn't measure up to theirs, you feel bad about yourself.
"If Facebook is used to see how well an acquaintance is doing financially or how happy an old friend is in his relationship -- things that cause envy among users -- use of the site can lead to feelings of depression," said Margaret Duffy, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
This isn't just a college phenomenon. I am nearing middle age and I can relate.
Facebook is a huge part of my life. Like most Facebook users, I have the app on my phone. I check it at work. I check it at home. I check it when I am out. If I am in a subway station with Wi-Fi, I check it there too.
I am up to date on all my friends, their kids and whatever they are reading at that moment. Unfortunately, it's an addiction that I can't quit.
Facebook has allowed me a little window into my friends' lives back home. They have babies -- well some of them have teenagers. They have lovely homes. And the dinners -- oh the dinners they serve! There are food presentations that look like something out of a Martha Stewart magazine. I watch all the videos of their kids saying the darndest things. I click on their pictures of vacations in exotic places.
I have come to the conclusion that Facebook is a lifestyle magazine featuring my friends, who are doing it better than me.
I peruse Facebook from computer on my coffee table, because I am not grown up enough to buy a desk for myself. My coffee table is my all-purpose table. I eat there too -- usually hunks of cheese with a knife and no crackers. That's right no crackers, because I am too lazy to run out to the bodega.
My only consolation is sometimes my friends confuse "there," "their" and "they're" in their posts about their lovely vacations and darling children. Then suddenly, I feel a little bit better about myself.

Read more - 

http://money.cnn.com/2015/03/02/technology/facebook-envy/index.html

North Carolina just made it legal for lobbying firms to purchase prostitutes to service politicians -

North Carolina just made it legal for lobbying firms to purchase prostitutes to service politicians - 

North Carolina’s State Ethics Committee has just opened up a major problem for their state — they just made it legal for lobbying firms to purchase prostitutes to service politicians. The Committee’s determination that sex had no value and that sex between a lobbyist and politician was nothing to report or in any way questionable means that a major loophole has opened up for lobbying firms. Now lobbying firms can hire people with the explicit goal to seduce and fornicate with politicians in order to garner favor.

In other terms, lobbying firms can hire people who can offer sexual services for politicians, and they don’t even need to register. now, before it is said that it is being misinterpreted, here is the actual letter from the Ethics Committee, titled “Sexual Favors or Sexual Acts as a Gift or ‘Thing of Value.'” In it, they declared that these relations have no monetary value, so do not need to be reported. In addition, they declared that if the person is not registered as a lobbyist, there was never any point of concern, even if the service was paid for by a third-party. In other words, lobbyists can hire people expressly for a politician to use in a carnal manner, even if the politician asks for or otherwise indicates their desire for such a service.

Even more disturbing are the long-term implications. Let us say a politician does partake, yet the person who paid for the night of temptation was a less than honest broker. A few hidden cameras, some veiled threat that did not cross the line into blackmail territory, a night of infidelity could put a politician into a less honorable group’s pocket without major cost, and all now rendered perfectly legal by the Ethics Committee of North Carolina.

Lobbying is a practice which needs to end for the good of the republic. When our founders agreed that the people have the right to redress grievances and to petition the government, that did not mean corporations or trade groups being granted superior access to the people themselves. Money is not speech, liberty is not anarchy — freedom for all, not just for the elite.

Read more - 

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/02/27/gifts-for-politicians/