Galactic Views (39)

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SPACE WATCH

The Milky Way‘s 100 Billion Planets
NASA – This artist’s illustration gives an impression of how common planets are around the stars in the Milky Way. The planets, their orbits and their host stars are all vastly magnified compared to their real separations. A six-year search that surveyed millions of stars using the microlensing technique concluded that planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception. The average number of planets per star is greater than one. This means that there is likely to be a minimum of 1,500 planets within just 50 light-years of Earth.

The results are based on observations taken over six years by the PLANET (Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork) collaboration, which was founded in 1995. The study concludes that there are far more Earth-sized planets than bloated Jupiter-sized worlds. This is based on calibrating a planetary mass function that shows the number of planets increases for lower mass worlds. A rough estimate from this survey would point to the existence of more than 10 billion terrestrial planets across our galaxy.

The results were published in the Jan. 12, 2012, issue of the British science journal Nature. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Kornmesser (ESO)

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Twitter becomes a key real-time tool for campaigns

By Karen Tumulty – The six-year-old microblogging site came into its own this presidential cycle, but the past few weeks have demonstrated how clearly it has become the tool of choice for getting something into the political bloodstream, from manufacturing a battle over who can be called a working mom to building a movement around a piece of legislation.

And the fact that the president is now incorporating hashtags into his speeches shows how Twitter is redefining the means by which politicians shape, distribute and refine their messages. Campaigning in 140 characters or less provides almost instant feedback, which campaigns use to figure out what is working and what isn’t, even before it hits the blogs, much less the traditional media outlets. more> http:/d//is.ghljJhF

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In Praise Of Stretch Goals

BOOK REVIEW

Betterness: Economics for Humans (Kindle Single), Author: Umair Haque.

By Steve Denning – In an article  entitled The Folly of Stretch Goals, Daniel Markovitz writes, “Let’s dispense, once and for all, with the managerial absurdity known as ‘stretch goals.’”

Well, no! Instead, let’s celebrate stretch goals.

Markovitz’s article shies away from stretch goals for several reasons:

• “Stretch goals can be terribly demotivating, overwhelming and unattainable”
• “Stretch goals foster unethical behavior”
• “Stretch goals can also — tragically — lead to excessive risk taking.”

Stretch goals need to be about human excellence, not about financial targets. Financial goals bring out the selfish gene that lurks in all of us. Instead, stretch goals need to appeal to what is best in us. more> http://is.gd/lMczMu

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Overachievers of the insect world

NSF – [VIDEO 2:28] Leaf cutter ants could be called the overachievers of the insect world. They are farmers, medicine makers, and green energy producers. With support from the National Science Foundation, bacteriologist Cameron Currie studies the complex evolutionary relationships between the ants, the fungi they cultivate and eat, and the bacteria that influence this symbiosis. more> http://is.gd/q5tWSi

Sustainability Indicator: $5 Trillion

Bloomberg – Today’s sustainability indicator, $5 trillion, is the global investment needed by 2020 in renewable power and energy efficiency to contain climate change, according to the International Energy Agency.

• $409 billion: worldwide government subsidies given to the fossil-fuel industry in 2010.
• $66 billion: global subsidies for renewable energy in 2010.
• $90 billion: wealth of the richest 70 members of China’s National People’s Congress.
• $7.5 billion: wealth of all 660 top officials in the three branches of U.S. government.
• 61 percent: amount of Spain’s electricity demand that was met by wind power on April 16.
• 396.53 parts per million: carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as of April 14.
• 82%: decline in solar panel prices since August 2009.

more> bloomberg.com/sustainability/

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