NASA dialed in to smartphone satellites

NASA engineers are chipping away at how best to lower the cost of their satellites ? and one off-the-shelf answer is by using smartphone electronics.

Dialing in on the idea has resulted in the PhoneSat Project, a technology demonstration mission using a trio of tiny CubeSat satellites to be launched next year.

The PhoneSat nanosatellites ? each weighing in at just three pounds (1.4 kilograms) ? will be ejected into Earth orbit during the maiden flight of Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket. The rocket will launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport , located at NASA?s Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia.

Out-of-the-box
Quite literally out-of-the-box smartphones are imbued with capabilities comparable to a spacecraft's, such as fast processors, multipurpose operating systems, miniature sensors, high-resolution cameras, GPS receivers and several radios.

The three PhoneSats ? Alexander, Graham and Bell ? will be simultaneously deployed from a rocket-mounted dispenser. The latter two are PhoneSat 1.0s; they are battery-powered and make use of Nexus One smartphone technology from HTC Corp. and Google?s Android operating system.

A beta version of PhoneSat 2.0, Alexander is built around an updated Nexus S smartphone made by Samsung Electronics that runs Google?s Android operating system to provide a faster core processor, avionics and gyroscopes. It has solar cells for energy.

The attractive thing about PhoneSat is that it may make people more comfortable with the idea of using something almost directly off the shelf for a space mission, said Andrew Petro, program executive for the Small Spacecraft Technology Program within NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist. ?I?m excited about the potential here,? Petro told Space.com.

Nontraditional
PhoneSat is one of nine space technology programs in the Office of the Chief Technologist, according to Bruce Yost at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.

Ames is home for a small tiger team of engineers that conceived of, constructed and tested PhoneSat, working on the project since early 2011, Yost told Space.com. "We?re exploring the use of nontraditional hardware and systems providers," trolling for technology beyond the traditional aerospace industry, said Yost, who is manager of the Small Spacecraft Technology Program.

PhoneSat engineers kept the total cost of the components to $3,500 for each of the three prototype satellites in the PhoneSat Project. They used only commercial, off-the-shelf hardware and established minimum design and mission objectives for the first flight.

The deployment mechanism is of a size tagged "3U" volume, said Jim Cockrell, PhoneSat 1.0 Project manager, "so it holds three CubeSats ? all three stacked up into the dispenser." (Each PhoneSats is built to standard dimensions? of 10x10x11 centimeters, about 4 inches cubed, or 1U ? for unit, he said.)

Citizen exploration
Once in Earth orbit, the PhoneSat Project comes alive. Amateur ground stations will receive health and status information as well as images, uploading packets of data onto amateur-run websites.

An early leader in the PhoneSat concept was Jasper Wolfe, technical lead of attitude determination and control, launch vehicle, at NASA Ames. He underscores multiple benefits in the project ? for one, leveraging hardware and software from the non-aerospace industry.

"I see PhoneSat as inspiring a new area of people to get involved in space," Wolfe said. "The actual building of a satellite is something we?re trying to develop and demonstrate as a really cheap and easy thing to do."

The battery-powered PhoneSats will orbit for 10 days or two weeks before re-entering the Earth?s atmosphere, while the solar-paneled PhoneSat 2.0 will have a longer stay in space, said Alberto Guillen Salas, technical lead of communications and electrical design of the PhoneSat Project.

The mission will demonstrate use of small satellites for space commerce, educational activities and citizen exploration ? all well within the reach of ordinary Americans because of the lower-cost, commercially available components involved, said Michael Gazarik, director of NASA?s Space Technology Program at NASA headquarters in Washington.

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Oriol Tintore Gazulla, technical lead of software and mechanical design for the PhoneSat Project at Ames, said next year?s mission is likely to be a forerunner of things to come. "This is a first step. Maybe in the future we could think of going farther ? going to the moon."

Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is a winner of last year's National Space Club Press Award and a past editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines. He has written for Space.com since 1999.

? 2012 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50026977/ns/technology_and_science-space/

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Most Common SEO Mistake for Realtors | Real Estate and Rental ...

When I take on a real estate agent as a client for my SEO services, there are three things I fix before I even think about social media or any other strategy.

I realize that some posts may be too advanced if you don?t have SEO basics down on your own real estate related website, but here are some places to start.

1. Page titles tend to be too long, and often include a Realtor?s name.

I?m not picking on Realtors in particular, but it seems that they are the most guilty of having long titles, and I know why. They want to capture many different areas. But that?s what your inner-pages are for! Your front page title should be short and focused. I recommend a state-wide approach, even if you live in a large state and only service a small area. That will really bring more attention to your inner pages about a particular city.

This week, I took a look at Ginny Gorman?s site, a real estate agent from Rhode Island. This is my quick ten-minute consultation of her WordPress site.

Ginny?s title is currently about 15 characters too long. It?s currently reads:

Rhode Island Real Estate ? Waterfront Homes in RI, Oceanfront Homes in Rhode Island

It?s too long for Google and for people too. In the search engine results, it is cut off at the word ?Oceanfront.?

In addition, I found that people don?t really search for ?oceanfront homes? often enough to be a front page term. (We will still capture people who search for oceanfront homes, but we?ll do it from an inner-page that is very focused on that topic.)

The homepage needs to be generalized. I recommend that Ginny changes her title to something like this:

Rhode Island Real Estate Agent | Licensed Realtor in Rhode Island

That?s actually perfect. Google will read the whole thing and it?s not particularly keyword stuffed. It?s also 65 characters, which is also perfect.

Please notice that I did not list every city in Rhode Island, the Realtor?s name, or a telephone number.

2. Descriptions that are way too long, not at all a sentence, or sometimes missing altogether.

Your description should be 155 characters, or as close as you can get without going over. There is absolutely no point in having a very long page description. Google isn?t indexing your super-long description anyway, so you might as well pack it in tight.

This would be a good description for a real estate agent in Rhode Island- or any Realtor for that matter, just change the state name! This is what I recommend for Ginny:

Rhode Island real estate agent and licensed RI Realtor, Ginny Gorman, helps with home listings and waterfront property in Rhode Island. Call XXX-XXX-XXXX.

We make sure Google knows that she is a real estate agent and Realtor in the state of Rhode Island. We make it very clear. I also threw in the word ?waterfront? since that is her specialty. I included her telephone number, because I do know that some people will dial right from the Google results. The description is crystal clear and at only 154 characters, it is just about perfect.

3. Improper use of heading tags on the home page.

A perfectly optimized website uses heading tags. Not only does it help organize the content for humans, but it helps search engines to understand what your page is about in a common sense fashion.

Make sure you only have one <h1> tag on your website. Make sure it?s at the top of the page, and make sure it?s an overview of what you do. For Ginny, a good heading tag would look something like this:

Rhode Island Real Estate Agent Specializing In Waterfront Property

?

Beneath that you can have <h2> tags to focus in on particular areas, or types of homes. But make sure they are used in a common sense fashion and that they are nested like an outline.

<h1>Main Topic and the Only H1 Tag on the Page</h1>

Add about three hundred characters here, discussing your main topic (real estate in your state) and then drill down from here.

<h2>City Name</h2>

<h3>Schools</h3>

<h3>Things to Do</h3>

<h2>Another City Name</h2>

<h3>Schools</h3>

?and so on and so on.

Get it? The heading tags should be used like an outline, nested. Google loves this.

I highly recommend you look at your front page right now to check if you have more than one <h1> tag or if you have an <h1> tag at all. At minimum, your page should have one <h1> tag.

If you want to go full deluxe, you?ll use the headings in a detailed outline-style manner, as I did above- but you will still only have one <h1> tag.

Take a look at your website and be sure to avoid these common SEO mistakes.

Thanks to Ginny Gorman for participating!

Source: http://www.zillow.com/blog/pro/2012-11-30/most-common-seo-mistake-for-realtors/

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21 House Committees ? and Now One Chairwoman

Check the box! There will be a Republican woman who will be chairing a full House committee next session, after all.

Rep. Candice Miller of Michigan earlier this week lost out to Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, for the coveted Homeland Security gavel, a decision made by a GOP steering committee controlled by Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

But on Friday, Boehner announced that Miller will chair the House Administration Committee, which may not be as desirable a post but includes among its jurisdiction oversight of the federal election process. Miller becomes the fourth Michigander leading a full committee, joining Reps. Fred Upton on Energy and Commerce, Dave Camp on Ways and Means, and Mike Rogers on Intelligence.

Miller?s losing bid earlier this week in the contest for Homeland Security had caused a stir, because it signaled there might not be any women among the 113th Congress?s 21 House committee chairs. But yet to be announced were still two of the 21 total chairs, for Administration and Ethics. (Republicans have at least picked several women for posts in House GOP conference leadership, topped by Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington as conference chairwoman.)

But the prospect of no women heading full committees was even more puzzling given all the talk among Republicans that they needed to project a more diverse image ? and given that women voted Democratic by double-digit margins in the presidential contest and generic congressional ballots on Nov. 6.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., has been serving as a committee chairwoman, on Foreign Affairs. But she isn?t keeping that committee?s gavel next year because she is term-limited.

It is uncertain whether now giving Miller the top seat on the Committee on House Administration may soften the negative perceptions of a white-male-dominated roster of Republican House committee chairmen, particularly when contrasted with what will be a more diverse roster in terms of gender and race among Democratic ranking members.

The House Administration Committee has jurisdiction over the federal election procedures, and also is charged with managing the budget authorizations for House committees and members? offices and overseeing traditional franking and more modern ways for members to engage with constituents. It works closely with Capitol Police as an overseer of security on the House side of the Capitol.

In a statement on Friday, Miller said, ?I am both humbled and honored by the confidence Speaker Boehner has shown in me to take on the Chairmanship of the Committee on House Administration.?

?This committee has the responsibility to ensure that the House runs in an effective and efficient manner, which is vital as we work to meet the many challenges facing this great nation,? she said. ?Most importantly, this committee has jurisdiction over the federal election process, and I am absolutely committed to making certain that we enact rules to ensure this nation continues to have open, free, and fair elections.?

There was still no word as of Friday afternoon on who will lead the Ethics Committee ? a post that many lawmakers do not want given its role in investigating colleagues? activities.

?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/21-house-committees-now-one-chairwoman-162518491--politics.html

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Oceanic crust breakthrough: Solving a magma mystery

Friday, November 30, 2012

Oceanic crust covers two-thirds of the Earth's solid surface, but scientists still don't entirely understand the process by which it is made. Analysis of more than 600 samples of oceanic crust by a team including Carnegie's Frances Jenner reveals a systemic pattern that alters long-held beliefs about how this process works, explaining a crucial step in understanding Earth's geological deep processes. Their work is published in Nature on November 29.

Magmas generated by melting of the Earth's mantle rise up below the oceanic crust and erupt on the Earth's surface at mid-ocean ridge systems, the longest mountain ranges in the world. When the magma cools it forms basalt, the planet's most-common rock and the basis for oceanic crust.

It has long been assumed that the composition of magmas erupting out of mid-ocean ridges is altered when minerals that form during cooling sink out of the remaining liquid, a process called fractional crystallization. In theory, trace elements that are not included in the crystallizing minerals should be little affected by this process, and their ratios should be the same in the erupting magma as they were in the original magma before cooling.

If this is true, trace element ratios in magmas erupting at mid-ocean ridges should represent those of the original parental magma that formed deep in the Earth's mantle. However, this process doesn't account for the high abundance of trace elements found in samples of basalt from mid-ocean ridges around the world, so the reality of the situation is obviously more complicated than previous theories indicated.

Using the extensive array of samples and advanced modeling, Jenner and her research partner Hugh O'Neill of the Australian National University demonstrated that the concentration of trace elements is due to the process by which the magma is cycled through the oceanic crust prior to being erupted on the sea floor at the mid-ocean ridges.

Magma collects under the Earth's surface in a pool of liquid rock called a magma chamber. Each chamber is frequently flushed with new magma, which mixes with the old magma that was already there, and then this blended magma erupts out onto the ocean floor. Following the influx of new magma and eruption, the remaining magma undergoes fractional crystallization. This means that minerals are separated out from the magma as it cools. However, these minerals contain only minor amounts of the trace elements. As a result, trace elements build up in the magma over time, as the magma chamber is continually replenished by new magma coming in to the system.

"It's a simple idea, but it fits remarkably well," Jenner said. "These new findings will permit us to explore the conditions of mantle melting and production of the Earth's most-common rock."

###

Carnegie Institution: http://www.ciw.edu

Thanks to Carnegie Institution 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.

This press release has been viewed 17 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125605/Oceanic_crust_breakthrough__Solving_a_magma_mystery

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Congressman turns to Reddit, gets savaged

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1 day

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Celebrity gossip site TMZ found itself on the other side of the rumor mill Tuesday morning, after a story claimed it?applied for a surveill... Read more

18 hrs.

Devin Coldewey , NBC News

During the election, President Barack?Obama crashed servers when he appeared in an impromptu "Ask Me Anything" post on Reddit.?Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican from California,?decided to do the same ? "Together, we can make Washington take a break from messing w/ the Internet" his post said in part. But?the response wasn't quite as positive as he might have hoped.

Issa's post, seeking?discussion of a two-year ban on legislation that would affect the Internet, was submitted to?the popular social news site?Tuesday evening. Shortly afterwards, it reached the front page and questions started rolling in. By Wednesday morning,?the time Issa had set for answering questions, the queries?had turned into something of a dogpile.

By far the most popular question the one?posed by user The_Milkman: "Hey Darrell, why did you vote for CISPA?"?Indeed, Issa's sponsorship of CISPA???the controversial?Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act that was approved by the House, but has yet to be approved or vetoed by the president ????was the topic of many questions and much ire.

Issa's?attachment to the controversial piece of legislation?? which would expand?government agencies' ability to access data from sites like Facebook and Twitter???seemed to poison his attempt to solicit Reddit's help?from the start.

Regardless of the unfriendly atmosphere, Issa answered dozens of questions, including some openly hostile ones (his post record can be found here). And like the president, he included a picture of himself answering questions for authenticity's sake. Both the grilling Issa received and his responses could easily be considered more thorough than the president's, who answered questions some?commentators?characterized as softballs.

But regardless of the tone of the conversation, the goal of procuring constructive input on the proposed legislation (the "Internet American Moratorium Act" or IAMA)?seems to have been achieved. A number of comments and suggested changes have been submitted at the site set up for this purpose, and various issues have been raised in the comment threads that may help improve the bill. And the high positive vote count on the AMA itself indicates that the community is at least interested in discussing the topic.

There's a lesson to be learned for politicians and other?public figures who are considering this kind of open discussion on a site like Reddit: It's not always going to be a love-in, as it was with the president. You may end up like Issa, with a front-page post and 2,500 comments calling you everything from an opportunistic hypocrite to a crony of big business.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC?News Digital. His personal website is?coldewey.cc.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/congressman-turns-reddit-gets-savaged-1C7340386

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FreedomWorks and Pennsylvania Small Business Owners to Hold ...

Warminster, PA- FreedomWorks and a group of local small business owners in the Bucks County area will hold a press conference to express concerns over the economic damage at risk if President Obama raises taxes on America?s small businesses.

Speakers will include:? Vice President of the Iron League Dan Beisel, President of the PA Chamber of Business and Industry Gene Barr, FreedomWorks PA State Director Ana Puig, President of American Bar Products Inc. William Marsh, Executive Director of PA Manufacturers? Association David Taylor and PA State Director of the National Federation of Independent Business Kevin Shivers.

WHEN: Friday November 30, 2012 from 2-2:30pm ET.
?? ?
WHERE: American Bar Products, 971 Mearns Road, Warminster, PA 18974.

WHY:? The purpose of the press conference is to raise awareness of the current state of manufacturing in Pennsylvania due to over-taxation and over-regulation, and how the economic policy coming out of the fiscal cliff negotiations will affect the ability of small businesses to create jobs.

FreedomWorks and its Pennsylvania membership urge Congress and the White House to extend the current tax rates, make the promised $1.2 trillion in spending cuts and to put responsible solutions on the table for fundamental tax and entitlement reform. For more information about FreedomWorks, please visit www.FreedomWorks.org.

Source: http://www.freedomworks.org/press-releases/freedomworks-and-pennsylvania-small-business-owner

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NSAID use linked to reduced hepatocellular carcinoma risk and mortality due to chronic liver disease

ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2012) ? Researchers found that aspirin use is associated with a decreased risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma and death from chronic liver disease (CLD), according to a study published November 28 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of primary liver cancer, occurs mainly among patients with CLD. Previous reports have linked chronic inflammation due to CLD to cellular processes that could promote carcinogenesis. Because of their anti-inflammatory properties and widespread use to prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) including aspirin and nonaspirin NSAIDs are being investigated as cancer chemopreventive agents. NSAIDs have been shown to have a beneficial effect in observational studies and clinical trials on risk of some cancers. However, the relationship between NSAID use and risk of HCC and death from CLD is unclear.

To investigate this relationship, Vikrant V. Sahasrabuddhe, M.B.B.S., Dr.P.H, from the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute, and colleagues, performed an observational study of 300,504 men and women aged 50 to 71 years enrolled in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study who reported their aspirin and nonaspirin NSAID use and were followed-up for 10-12 years. The researchers linked the self-reported use of aspirin and nonaspirin NSAIDs to registry data on diagnoses of 250 cases of HCC and 428 deaths due to CLD to perform their study.

The researchers found that the use of NSAIDs was associated with a reduced risk of HCC and a reduced risk of death from CLD compared to non-users. Study participants who used aspirin had a 41% reduced risk of HCC and a 45% reduced risk of death from CLD, whereas those who used non-aspirin NSAIDs experienced a 26% reduced risk of CLD mortality but no reduced risk of HCC. The authors conclude that "these associations are prominent with the use of aspirin, and if confirmed, might open new vistas for chemoprevention of HCC and CLD."

In an accompanying editorial, Isra G. Levy, M.B., BCh., MSc., and Carolyn P. Pim, M.D., both from the Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine at the University of Ottawa in Canada discuss how the known causes of chronic liver disease and primary liver cancer are hepatitis B and C virus infections, alcohol use, and a link between obesity and diabetes has been suggested. "We already have cheap, readily available interventions," such as vaccines for hepatitis B and C virus but "effective strategies for reduction of HBV and HCV are not always available or fully applied." Also, alcohol abuse and obesity are complex and multifactorial challenges that require interventions at the individual and system levels." They conclude that although we should study the potential of new chemopreventive strategies such as NSAID use, we should also continue to focus on improving the established practices and interventions.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Journal of the National Cancer Institute, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Vikrant V. Sahasrabuddhe, Munira Z. Gunja, Barry I. Graubard, Britton Trabert, Lauren M. Schwartz, Yikyung Park, Albert R. Hollenbeck, Neal D. Freedman, and Katherine A. McGlynn. Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drug Use, Chronic Liver Disease, and Hepatocellular Carcinoma. J Natl Cancer Inst, November 28, 2012 DOI: 10.1093/jnci/djs452

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/GJB3VUroGZs/121128162201.htm

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