The Early Cosmos

SPACE WATCH
NASA – Stars are forming in Henize 2-10, a dwarf starburst galaxy located about 30 million light years from Earth, at a prodigious rate, giving the star clusters in this galaxy their blue appearance. This combination of a burst of star formation and a massive black hole is analogous to conditions in the early Universe. Since Henize 2-10 does not contain a significant bulge of stars in its center, these results show that supermassive black hole growth may precede the growth of bulges in galaxies. This differs from the relatively nearby universe where the growth of galaxy bulges and supermassive black holes appears to occur in parallel.

The combined observations from multiple telescopes has provided astronomers with a detailed new look at how galaxy and black hole formation may have occurred in the early universe. This image shows optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope in red, green and blue, X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory in purple, and radio data from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array in yellow. A compact X-ray source at the center of the galaxy coincides with a radio source, giving evidence for an actively growing supermassive black hole with a mass of about one million times that of the sun. more> http://tinyurl.com/4esgmp3

Image Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/Virginia/A.Reines et al); Radio (NRAO/AUI/NSF); Optical (NASA/STScI)

Financial crisis was ‘avoidable’, says FCIC report

By Dominic Rushe – The 545-page Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) report reads like a financial thriller in which there are very few heroes. One chapter on the boom and bust fiasco is entitled “The Madness”.

The commission concludes that the crisis was avoidable and was caused by:

• Widespread failures in financial regulation, including the Federal Reserve’s failure to stem the “tide of toxic mortgages”.
• Dramatic breakdowns in corporate governance, with too many firms acting recklessly and taking on too much risk.
• An explosive mix of excessive borrowing and risk by households and Wall Street.
• Policymakers who were ill-prepared for the crisis and lacked a “full understanding of the financial system they oversaw”.
• Systemic breaches of accountability and ethics at all levels. Mortgage-holders took out loans they never intended to pay; lenders made loans they knew the borrowers could not afford.

“As this report goes to print, there are 26 million Americans who are out of work … Nearly $11tn in household wealth has vanished … The collateral damage of this crisis has been real people and real communities. The impacts of this crisis are likely to be felt for a generation.” more> http://tinyurl.com/6bmqrum

related>

• Financial crisis was avoidable: FCIC, Ben Rooney, CNN http://tinyurl.com/4vu4blb
• Government blames both regulators and financial institutions for economic collapse, Zachary A. Goldfarb and Brady Dennis, Washington Post http://tinyurl.com/45r9poz
• FCIC final report: ‘Financial crisis was avoidable’, Ezra Klein, Washington Post http://tinyurl.com/6fgz2e9
• Panel says financial crisis avoidable, Dave Clarke, Reuters http://tinyurl.com/4o4xhwv
• FCIC report: So why did U.S. have a financial crisis? James Pethokoukis, Reuters http://tinyurl.com/6dvve89
• Split US crisis panel blames Greenspan, Wall St, Dave Clarke and Kevin Drawbaugh, Reuters http://tinyurl.com/6dvve89
• GOP report cites 10 causes for financial crisis, Kevin Drawbaugh and Dave Clarke, Reuters http://tinyurl.com/47vbm32
• Crisis Panel Report Blames Wall Street, Washington; Robert Schmidt and Phil Mattingly, Bloomberg http://tinyurl.com/5vzey29
• Infighting, Investigations Overshadow FCIC Report, Robert Schmidt and Phil Mattingly, Bloomberg http://tinyurl.com/4o3khcw
• U.S. federal inquiry concludes financial crisis was “avoidable”, Daniel Hofmann, Zurich Financial Services http://tinyurl.com/6ao6kzs

Staying Safe on Social Network Sites

US-CERT – [Cyber Security Tip ST06-003] Social networking sites, sometimes referred to as “friend-of-a-friend” sites, build upon the concept of traditional social networks where you are connected to new people through people you already know. The purpose of some networking sites may be purely social, allowing users to establish friendships or romantic relationships, while others may focus on establishing business connections.

While the majority of people using these sites do not pose a threat, malicious people may be drawn to them because of the accessibility and amount of personal information that’s available. The more information malicious people have about you, the easier it is for them to take advantage of you.

How can you protect yourself?

• Limit the amount of personal information you post – Do not post information that would make you vulnerable, such as your address or information about your schedule or routine. If your connections post information about you, make sure the combined information is not more than you would be comfortable with strangers knowing. Also be considerate when posting information, including photos, about your connections.
• Remember that the internet is a public resource – Only post information you are comfortable with anyone seeing. This includes information and photos in your profile and in blogs and other forums. Also, once you post information online, you can’t retract it. Even if you remove the information from a site, saved or cached versions may still exist on other people’s machines (see Guidelines for Publishing Information Online for more information).
• Be wary of strangers – The internet makes it easy for people to misrepresent their identities and motives (see Using Instant Messaging and Chat Rooms Safely for more information). Consider limiting the people who are allowed to contact you on these sites. If you interact with people you do not know, be cautious about the amount of information you reveal or agreeing to meet them in person.
• Be skeptical – Don’t believe everything you read online. People may post false or misleading information about various topics, including their own identities. This is not necessarily done with malicious intent; it could be unintentional, an exaggeration, or a joke. Take appropriate precautions, though, and try to verify the authenticity of any information before taking any action.
• Evaluate your settings – Take advantage of a site’s privacy settings. The default settings for some sites may allow anyone to see your profile, but you can customize your settings to restrict access to only certain people. There is still a risk that private information could be exposed despite these restrictions, so don’t post anything that you wouldn’t want the public to see. Sites may change their options periodically, so review your security and privacy settings regularly to make sure that your choices are still appropriate.
• Be wary of third-party applications – Third-party applications may provide entertainment or functionality, but use caution when deciding which applications to enable. Avoid applications that seem suspicious, and modify your settings to limit the amount of information the applications can access.
• Use strong passwords – Protect your account with passwords that cannot easily be guessed (see Choosing and Protecting Passwords for more information). If your password is compromised, someone else may be able to access your account and pretend to be you.
• Check privacy policies – Some sites may share information such as email addresses or user preferences with other companies. This may lead to an increase in spam (see Reducing Spam for more information). Also, try to locate the policy for handling referrals to make sure that you do not unintentionally sign your friends up for spam. Some sites will continue to send email messages to anyone you refer until they join.
• Keep software, particularly your web browser, up to date – Install software updates so that attackers cannot take advantage of known problems or vulnerabilities (see Understanding Patches for more information). Many operating systems offer automatic updates. If this option is available, you should enable it.
• Use and maintain anti-virus software – Anti-virus software helps protect your computer against known viruses, so you may be able to detect and remove the virus before it can do any damage (see Understanding Anti-Virus Software for more information). Because attackers are continually writing new viruses, it is important to keep your definitions up to date.

more> http://tinyurl.com/df9f2d

Start/Stop ‘Wave Is Coming,’ Says Supplier

Design News – “The wave is coming,” noted Robert Martin, director of engine electrical engineering at Denso International America. “Using start/stop, we can boost fuel economy by three to five percent, and that’s what the manufacturers want.”

Start/stop, which involves stopping a car’s engine at traffic lights as a means of saving fuel, is being viewed as a key technology in the North American automotive market because of pending 35-mpg fuel economy requirements, which must be met by 2016. Moreover, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that Americans annually burn about 3 billion gallons of gas while sitting idly in traffic, which wastes money and adds CO2 to the environment. Start/stop can help solve those problems. more> http://tinyurl.com/4gf6hca

related>

• Automakers Finding New Ways to Boost Efficiency, Charles J. Murray, Design News http://tinyurl.com/4o5e6jx

Is the euro crisis about olive-growing States?

BlogActiv – The disapproving idea behind the epithet PIGS, that some Mediterranean countries are somehow genetically or geographically inferior, is a nonsense.

Spain and Portugal are not too warm for innovation and industrial prowess in the twenty-first century. Why then is Portugal not the equal to those on the same climate zone like California’s Silicon Valley to the West or Israel’s vibrant technological wonder to the East? Portugal has the advantage of a bigger internal market than the USA. This incongruity is even more apparent to the Mediterranean natives who migrate this latitude to the East or the West. They will tell you: ‘There is something wrong at home.‘

Is it then a matter of Europe’s geography? Not at all. Europe’s most southern State is doing rather well and has not had problems in attracting long term finance. What then makes Malta superior to Greece and Portugal at the moment? Clearly Europe’s problems have nothing to do with whether the State is south or produces olive oil or not. more> http://tinyurl.com/4t3p6mn