The Kalashnikov is one of the most well-known and widely-used weapons in history. More than 75 million of the Russian assault rifles have been produced since it entered service in 1949. And while AK's are renowned for their simplicity and durability, the 64 year old line is long overdue for a design update. But can modern materials and production techniques really build a better AK?
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Apr. 30, 2013 ? Scientists have used Chandra to make a detailed study of an enormous cloud of hot gas enveloping two large, colliding galaxies. This unusually large reservoir of gas contains as much mass as 10 billion Suns, spans about 300,000 light years, and radiates at a temperature of more than 7 million degrees.
This giant gas cloud, which scientists call a "halo," is located in the system called NGC 6240. Astronomers have long known that NGC 6240 is the site of the merger of two large spiral galaxies similar in size to our own Milky Way. Each galaxy contains a supermassive black hole at its center. The black holes are spiraling toward one another, and may eventually merge to form a larger black hole.
Another consequence of the collision between the galaxies is that the gas contained in each individual galaxy has been violently stirred up. This caused a baby boom of new stars that has lasted for at least 200 million years. During this burst of stellar birth, some of the most massive stars raced through their evolution and exploded relatively quickly as supernovas.
The scientists involved with this study argue that this rush of supernova explosions dispersed relatively high amounts of important elements such as oxygen, neon, magnesium, and silicon into the hot gas of the newly combined galaxies. According to the researchers, the data suggest that this enriched gas has slowly expanded into and mixed with cooler gas that was already there.
During the extended baby boom, shorter bursts of star formation have occurred. For example, the most recent burst of star formation lasted for about five million years and occurred about 20 million years ago in Earth's timeframe. However, the authors do not think that the hot gas was produced just by this shorter burst.
What does the future hold for observations of NGC 6240? Most likely the two spiral galaxies will form one young elliptical galaxy over the course of millions of years. It is unclear, however, how much of the hot gas can be retained by this newly formed galaxy, rather than lost to surrounding space. Regardless, the collision offers the opportunity to witness a relatively nearby version of an event that was common in the early Universe when galaxies were much closer together and merged more often.
In this new composite image of NGC 6240, the X-rays from Chandra that reveal the hot gas cloud are colored purple. These data have been combined with optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope, which shows long tidal tails from the merging galaxies, extending to the right and bottom of the image.
A paper describing these new results on NGC 6240 is available online and appeared in the March 10, 2013 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. The authors in this study were Emanuele Nardini (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, or CfA, Cambridge, MA and currently at Keele University, UK), Junfeng Wang (CfA and currently at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL), Pepi Fabbiano (CfA), Martin Elvis (CfA), Silvia Pellegrini (University of Bologna, Italy), Guido Risalti (INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Italy and CfA), Margarita Karovska (CfA), and Andreas Zezas (University of Crete, Greece and CfA).
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/astronomy/~3/e1pM4S1vtDI/130430151549.htm
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Public release date: 1-May-2013
Share ] Contact: Francis Reddy
Francis.j.reddy@nasa.gov
301-286-4453
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA scientists don't often learn that their spacecraft is at risk of crashing into another satellite. But when Julie McEnery, the project scientist for NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, checked her email on March 29, 2012, she found herself facing this precise situation.
While Fermi is in fine shape today, continuing its mission to map the highest-energy light in the universe, the story of how it sidestepped a potential disaster offers a glimpse at an underappreciated aspect of managing a space mission: orbital traffic control.
As McEnery worked through her inbox, an automatically generated report arrived from NASA's Robotic Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA) team based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. On scanning the document, she discovered that Fermi was just one week away from an unusually close encounter with Cosmos 1805, a defunct spy satellite dating back to the Cold War.
The two objects, speeding around Earth at thousands of miles an hour in nearly perpendicular orbits, were expected to miss each other by a mere 700 feet.
"My immediate reaction was, 'Whoa, this is different from anything we've seen before!'" McEnery recalled.
Although the forecast indicated a close call, satellite operators have learned the hard way that they can't be too careful. The uncertainties in predicting spacecraft positions a week into the future can be much larger than the distances forecast for their closest approach.
This was most dramatically demonstrated on Feb. 10, 2009, when a study revealed that Cosmos 2251, a dead Russian communications satellite, would pass about 1,900 feet from the functioning Iridium 33 communications satellite later in the day. At the predicted time of closest approach, all contact with Iridium 33 was lost. Radar revealed clouds of debris traveling along the orbits of both spacecraft, confirming the first known satellite-to-satellite collision.
That crash generated thousands of fragments large enough to be tracked and many smaller pieces that evade detection. Much of the wreckage remains a hazard to operating spacecraft because only about 20 percent of the trackable pieces have reentered the atmosphere.
With a speed relative to Fermi of 27,000 mph, a direct hit by the 3,100-pound Cosmos 1805 would release as much energy as two and a half tons of high explosives, destroying both spacecraft.
Despite the apparent crowding in Earth orbit, there's usually a vast amount of space between individual objects. Close approaches -- also known as conjunctions -- with fragments, rocket bodies and active payloads remain infrequent events. Moreover, few of the potential conjunctions identified a week into the future will actually materialize.
"It's similar to forecasting rain at a specific time and place a week in advance," said Goddard's Eric Stoneking, the attitude control lead engineer for Fermi. "As the date approaches, uncertainties in the prediction decrease and the initial picture may change dramatically."
Twice before, the Fermi team had been alerted to potential conjunctions, and on both occasions the threats evaporated. It was possible the Cosmos 1805 encounter would vanish as well, and the spacecraft's observations could continue without interruption.
But the update on Friday, March 30, indicated otherwise. The satellites would occupy the same point in space within 30 milliseconds of each other.
"It was clear we had to be ready to move Fermi out of the way, and that's when I alerted our Flight Dynamics Team that we were planning a maneuver," McEnery said.
The only way to accomplish this was by firing thrusters designed to ensure that Fermi would never pose a threat to another satellite. Intended for use at the end of Fermi's operating life, the thrusters were designed to take it out of orbit and allow it burn up in the atmosphere.
Because a failure of this system, such as a propellant leak or an explosion, could have ended Fermi's mission prematurely, the thrusters had never been tested, adding a new source of anxiety for McEnery.
"You can't help but be nervous thinking about highly flammable fluids heading down pipes they'd never flowed down before," she said. "But having done this, we now know the system works as designed, and it gives us confidence should we need to maneuver again in the future."
The Goddard CARA team determined how big a push Fermi would need to mitigate the threat. Working with the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, CARA scientists also checked that the projected new orbit wouldn't put Fermi on course for a conjunction with another object. The Flight Operations Team selected possible times for the primary maneuver and, just in case, up to three additional ones.
Over the weekend, the radar and optical sensors of the U.S. Space Surveillance Network continued keeping tabs on Cosmos 1805 and every other artificial object larger than 4 inches across in Earth orbit. Of the 17,000 objects currently tracked, only about 7 percent are active satellites.
Once each day, JSpOC analyzes the updated orbits, looks for possible conjunctions a week or more into the future, and notifies the Goddard CARA team of any events involving NASA's robotic missions. Another group at NASA's Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston performs the same function for all spacecraft carrying astronauts, including the International Space Station.
By Tuesday, April 3, the threat still had not receded and all plans were in place for firing Fermi's thrusters.
Shortly after noon EDT, the spacecraft stopped scanning the sky and oriented itself along its direction of travel. It then parked its solar panels and tucked away its high-gain antenna to protect them from the thruster exhaust.
"The maneuver, which was performed by the spacecraft itself based on procedures we developed a long time ago, was very simple, just firing all thrusters for one second," Stoneking explained. "There was a lot of suspense and tension leading up to it, but once it was over, we just sighed with relief that it all went well."
By 1 p.m., Fermi was back to doing science. A few hours later, the various teams met to evaluate the results of the maneuver and determine if another would be required. When the two spacecraft reached their long-awaited conjunction the following day, they would miss by a comfortable margin of 6 miles, with no further actions needed.
"A huge weight was lifted," McEnery said. "I felt like I'd lost 20 pounds."
Last year, the Goddard CARA team participated in collision-avoidance maneuvers for seven other missions. A month before the Fermi conjunction came to light, Landsat 7 dodged pieces of Fengyun-1C, a Chinese weather satellite deliberately destroyed in 2007 as part of a military test. And in May and October, respectively, NASA's Aura and CALIPSO Earth-observing satellites took steps to avoid fragments from Cosmos 2251.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 1-May-2013 Share ] Contact: Francis Reddy
Francis.j.reddy@nasa.gov
301-286-4453
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA scientists don't often learn that their spacecraft is at risk of crashing into another satellite. But when Julie McEnery, the project scientist for NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, checked her email on March 29, 2012, she found herself facing this precise situation.
While Fermi is in fine shape today, continuing its mission to map the highest-energy light in the universe, the story of how it sidestepped a potential disaster offers a glimpse at an underappreciated aspect of managing a space mission: orbital traffic control.
As McEnery worked through her inbox, an automatically generated report arrived from NASA's Robotic Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA) team based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. On scanning the document, she discovered that Fermi was just one week away from an unusually close encounter with Cosmos 1805, a defunct spy satellite dating back to the Cold War.
The two objects, speeding around Earth at thousands of miles an hour in nearly perpendicular orbits, were expected to miss each other by a mere 700 feet.
"My immediate reaction was, 'Whoa, this is different from anything we've seen before!'" McEnery recalled.
Although the forecast indicated a close call, satellite operators have learned the hard way that they can't be too careful. The uncertainties in predicting spacecraft positions a week into the future can be much larger than the distances forecast for their closest approach.
This was most dramatically demonstrated on Feb. 10, 2009, when a study revealed that Cosmos 2251, a dead Russian communications satellite, would pass about 1,900 feet from the functioning Iridium 33 communications satellite later in the day. At the predicted time of closest approach, all contact with Iridium 33 was lost. Radar revealed clouds of debris traveling along the orbits of both spacecraft, confirming the first known satellite-to-satellite collision.
That crash generated thousands of fragments large enough to be tracked and many smaller pieces that evade detection. Much of the wreckage remains a hazard to operating spacecraft because only about 20 percent of the trackable pieces have reentered the atmosphere.
With a speed relative to Fermi of 27,000 mph, a direct hit by the 3,100-pound Cosmos 1805 would release as much energy as two and a half tons of high explosives, destroying both spacecraft.
Despite the apparent crowding in Earth orbit, there's usually a vast amount of space between individual objects. Close approaches -- also known as conjunctions -- with fragments, rocket bodies and active payloads remain infrequent events. Moreover, few of the potential conjunctions identified a week into the future will actually materialize.
"It's similar to forecasting rain at a specific time and place a week in advance," said Goddard's Eric Stoneking, the attitude control lead engineer for Fermi. "As the date approaches, uncertainties in the prediction decrease and the initial picture may change dramatically."
Twice before, the Fermi team had been alerted to potential conjunctions, and on both occasions the threats evaporated. It was possible the Cosmos 1805 encounter would vanish as well, and the spacecraft's observations could continue without interruption.
But the update on Friday, March 30, indicated otherwise. The satellites would occupy the same point in space within 30 milliseconds of each other.
"It was clear we had to be ready to move Fermi out of the way, and that's when I alerted our Flight Dynamics Team that we were planning a maneuver," McEnery said.
The only way to accomplish this was by firing thrusters designed to ensure that Fermi would never pose a threat to another satellite. Intended for use at the end of Fermi's operating life, the thrusters were designed to take it out of orbit and allow it burn up in the atmosphere.
Because a failure of this system, such as a propellant leak or an explosion, could have ended Fermi's mission prematurely, the thrusters had never been tested, adding a new source of anxiety for McEnery.
"You can't help but be nervous thinking about highly flammable fluids heading down pipes they'd never flowed down before," she said. "But having done this, we now know the system works as designed, and it gives us confidence should we need to maneuver again in the future."
The Goddard CARA team determined how big a push Fermi would need to mitigate the threat. Working with the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, CARA scientists also checked that the projected new orbit wouldn't put Fermi on course for a conjunction with another object. The Flight Operations Team selected possible times for the primary maneuver and, just in case, up to three additional ones.
Over the weekend, the radar and optical sensors of the U.S. Space Surveillance Network continued keeping tabs on Cosmos 1805 and every other artificial object larger than 4 inches across in Earth orbit. Of the 17,000 objects currently tracked, only about 7 percent are active satellites.
Once each day, JSpOC analyzes the updated orbits, looks for possible conjunctions a week or more into the future, and notifies the Goddard CARA team of any events involving NASA's robotic missions. Another group at NASA's Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston performs the same function for all spacecraft carrying astronauts, including the International Space Station.
By Tuesday, April 3, the threat still had not receded and all plans were in place for firing Fermi's thrusters.
Shortly after noon EDT, the spacecraft stopped scanning the sky and oriented itself along its direction of travel. It then parked its solar panels and tucked away its high-gain antenna to protect them from the thruster exhaust.
"The maneuver, which was performed by the spacecraft itself based on procedures we developed a long time ago, was very simple, just firing all thrusters for one second," Stoneking explained. "There was a lot of suspense and tension leading up to it, but once it was over, we just sighed with relief that it all went well."
By 1 p.m., Fermi was back to doing science. A few hours later, the various teams met to evaluate the results of the maneuver and determine if another would be required. When the two spacecraft reached their long-awaited conjunction the following day, they would miss by a comfortable margin of 6 miles, with no further actions needed.
"A huge weight was lifted," McEnery said. "I felt like I'd lost 20 pounds."
Last year, the Goddard CARA team participated in collision-avoidance maneuvers for seven other missions. A month before the Fermi conjunction came to light, Landsat 7 dodged pieces of Fengyun-1C, a Chinese weather satellite deliberately destroyed in 2007 as part of a military test. And in May and October, respectively, NASA's Aura and CALIPSO Earth-observing satellites took steps to avoid fragments from Cosmos 2251.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/nsfc-tdn043013.php
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Public release date: 30-Apr-2013 Share ] Contact: Sue Ducat
sducat@projecthope.org
301-841-9962
Health Affairs
Bethesda, MD -- In its April issue, Health Affairs examines how all high-income countries are struggling to achieve the so-called "Triple Aim" - better health and better health care at lower cost. The articles in this issue find that the United States and other high-income countries have much to learn with the "trade" in strategies and tactics likely to flow both ways.
Support for the April issue was made possible by The Commonwealth Fund, Britain's Nuffield Trust, and the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London.
DRUG PAYMENT AND PRICING--HOW DO U.S. PRACTICES COMPARE WITH OTHER COUNTRIES?
A featured study by Panos Kanavos of the London School of Economics and Political Science and coauthors compared prescription drug prices among selected countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2005, 2007, and 2010. Depending on how prices were adjusted for the volume of drugs consumed in the various countries, drug prices in the United States were between 5 percent and nearly 200 percent higher than in the other nations studied. A key contributing factor is that the United States takes up use of new and more expensive prescription drugs faster than other countries. The authors recommend that the United States institute new procedures that would require pharmaceutical manufacturers to provide more evidence about the value of new drugs in relation to the cost before use of such drugs is reimbursed.
In a related article, Joshua Cohen of the Center for the Study of Drug Development at Tufts University and coauthors compared regulatory and reimbursement decisions about cancer drugs approved between 2000 and 2011 in the United States and four European countries. They found that in Europe, the evidence-based approach used by the countries' health authorities affords lower prices for patients and payers when medications are considered cost-effective, although fewer of the new drugs were available to patients. In contrast, although US consumers had access to more oncology drugs, there is no systematic approach in the United States to evaluating these drugs' cost-effectiveness. The lack of any such approach makes it very difficult for the United States to control escalating drug costs, drive improvements in health outcomes, and reduce inequities in access to care among those who can and can't pay, the authors write.
Other articles comparing payment and pricing practices for prescription drugs and medical devices include the following:
ADDITIONAL LESSONS FOR THE UNITED STATES, INCLUDING PREVENTING A "TRIPLE FAIL"
Geraint Lewis, chief data officer of England's National Health Service, and coauthors maintain that when countries implement Triple Aim goals across a country's population, it is also critical to identify certain subgroups as at risk of "triple failures"--instances when all three goals of better health, better care, and lower cost are not met. By stratifying populations according to risk and anticipated response to an intervention, the authors argue, health systems could more effectively put in place measures to forestall such failures. They describe in their article how to plan and operationalize such approaches.
LAUNCHING INSURANCE EXCHANGES: OTHER COUNTRIES' EXPERIENCES
As the United States prepares for the launch of new health insurance exchanges, Ewout van Ginneken of the Berlin University of Technology in Germany and coauthors evaluate similar insurance market reforms in Switzerland (1996) and the Netherlands (2006) and offer five specific recommendations for the US exchanges. Both countries created managed competition in their health insurance markets and successfully addressed the multiple unforeseen issues arising during the implementation period. The lessons for the United States include the need to update risk-adjustment mechanisms and to address enrollment barriers, among others.
HOSPITAL PAYMENT AND GOVERNANCE ABROAD
A study by Wilm Quentin of Berlin University of Technology and co-authors analyzed hospital payment systems in five European countries (England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden) and compared them to those in the United States. Similar to the US Medicare program, these European hospital payment systems are also based on diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) and prospective payment. However, European countries have substantially altered, and arguably improved upon, the original US formula that they adopted. The authors identify a variety of payment design options from Europe and suggest that these potential innovations could be used to reform DRG-based hospital payments in the United States.
Another study comparing hospitals, by Ashish Jha and Arnold Epstein of Harvard School of Public Health, surveyed the chairs of British hospitals, and compared the results to their 2010 study of US hospital board chairs. They found that English board chairs had more expertise in quality-of-care issues and spent a greater proportion of their time on quality of care than their US counterparts. However, they also found that like their American counterparts, many English board chairs overestimated the quality performance of their hospitals, suggesting that there is room for improving board expertise in both countries.
###
ABOUT HEALTH AFFAIRS Health Affairs is the leading journal at the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Published by Project HOPE, the peer-reviewed journal appears each month in print, with additional Web First papers published periodically at http://www.healthaffairs.org. The full text of each Health Affairs Web First paper is available free of charge to all website visitors for a two-week period following posting, after which it switches to pay-per-view for nonsubscribers. Web First papers are supported in part by a grant from The Commonwealth Fund. You can also find the journal on Facebook and Twitter. Read daily perspectives on Health Affairs Blog. Download our podcasts, including monthly Narrative Matters essays, on iTunes. Tap into Health Affairs content with the new iPad app.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 30-Apr-2013 Share ] Contact: Sue Ducat
sducat@projecthope.org
301-841-9962
Health Affairs
Bethesda, MD -- In its April issue, Health Affairs examines how all high-income countries are struggling to achieve the so-called "Triple Aim" - better health and better health care at lower cost. The articles in this issue find that the United States and other high-income countries have much to learn with the "trade" in strategies and tactics likely to flow both ways.
Support for the April issue was made possible by The Commonwealth Fund, Britain's Nuffield Trust, and the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London.
DRUG PAYMENT AND PRICING--HOW DO U.S. PRACTICES COMPARE WITH OTHER COUNTRIES?
A featured study by Panos Kanavos of the London School of Economics and Political Science and coauthors compared prescription drug prices among selected countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2005, 2007, and 2010. Depending on how prices were adjusted for the volume of drugs consumed in the various countries, drug prices in the United States were between 5 percent and nearly 200 percent higher than in the other nations studied. A key contributing factor is that the United States takes up use of new and more expensive prescription drugs faster than other countries. The authors recommend that the United States institute new procedures that would require pharmaceutical manufacturers to provide more evidence about the value of new drugs in relation to the cost before use of such drugs is reimbursed.
In a related article, Joshua Cohen of the Center for the Study of Drug Development at Tufts University and coauthors compared regulatory and reimbursement decisions about cancer drugs approved between 2000 and 2011 in the United States and four European countries. They found that in Europe, the evidence-based approach used by the countries' health authorities affords lower prices for patients and payers when medications are considered cost-effective, although fewer of the new drugs were available to patients. In contrast, although US consumers had access to more oncology drugs, there is no systematic approach in the United States to evaluating these drugs' cost-effectiveness. The lack of any such approach makes it very difficult for the United States to control escalating drug costs, drive improvements in health outcomes, and reduce inequities in access to care among those who can and can't pay, the authors write.
Other articles comparing payment and pricing practices for prescription drugs and medical devices include the following:
ADDITIONAL LESSONS FOR THE UNITED STATES, INCLUDING PREVENTING A "TRIPLE FAIL"
Geraint Lewis, chief data officer of England's National Health Service, and coauthors maintain that when countries implement Triple Aim goals across a country's population, it is also critical to identify certain subgroups as at risk of "triple failures"--instances when all three goals of better health, better care, and lower cost are not met. By stratifying populations according to risk and anticipated response to an intervention, the authors argue, health systems could more effectively put in place measures to forestall such failures. They describe in their article how to plan and operationalize such approaches.
LAUNCHING INSURANCE EXCHANGES: OTHER COUNTRIES' EXPERIENCES
As the United States prepares for the launch of new health insurance exchanges, Ewout van Ginneken of the Berlin University of Technology in Germany and coauthors evaluate similar insurance market reforms in Switzerland (1996) and the Netherlands (2006) and offer five specific recommendations for the US exchanges. Both countries created managed competition in their health insurance markets and successfully addressed the multiple unforeseen issues arising during the implementation period. The lessons for the United States include the need to update risk-adjustment mechanisms and to address enrollment barriers, among others.
HOSPITAL PAYMENT AND GOVERNANCE ABROAD
A study by Wilm Quentin of Berlin University of Technology and co-authors analyzed hospital payment systems in five European countries (England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden) and compared them to those in the United States. Similar to the US Medicare program, these European hospital payment systems are also based on diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) and prospective payment. However, European countries have substantially altered, and arguably improved upon, the original US formula that they adopted. The authors identify a variety of payment design options from Europe and suggest that these potential innovations could be used to reform DRG-based hospital payments in the United States.
Another study comparing hospitals, by Ashish Jha and Arnold Epstein of Harvard School of Public Health, surveyed the chairs of British hospitals, and compared the results to their 2010 study of US hospital board chairs. They found that English board chairs had more expertise in quality-of-care issues and spent a greater proportion of their time on quality of care than their US counterparts. However, they also found that like their American counterparts, many English board chairs overestimated the quality performance of their hospitals, suggesting that there is room for improving board expertise in both countries.
###
ABOUT HEALTH AFFAIRS Health Affairs is the leading journal at the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Published by Project HOPE, the peer-reviewed journal appears each month in print, with additional Web First papers published periodically at http://www.healthaffairs.org. The full text of each Health Affairs Web First paper is available free of charge to all website visitors for a two-week period following posting, after which it switches to pay-per-view for nonsubscribers. Web First papers are supported in part by a grant from The Commonwealth Fund. You can also find the journal on Facebook and Twitter. Read daily perspectives on Health Affairs Blog. Download our podcasts, including monthly Narrative Matters essays, on iTunes. Tap into Health Affairs content with the new iPad app.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/ha-hae043013.php
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We're closing the month out on a solid note: this week's giveaway involves a fourth-generation 32GB iPad. It's made possible by AnchorFree, which is celebrating its Hotspot Shield app for iOS. The VPN client aims to keep your information secure, ensure that your identity is safe and gives you the ability to access blocked sites. If iOS isn't your thing, it's also available on Android, Mac and PC. So take a few seconds and turn in your entry for a chance to win, and good luck!
Note: Please enter using the widget below, as comments are no longer valid methods of entry. The widget only requires your name and email address so we know how to get in touch with you if you win (your information is not given out to third parties), but you will have an option to receive an additional entry by following us on Twitter if you so desire.
Filed under: Announcements, HD, Mobile, Alt
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'You don't feel like you're watching something from a different era,' he tells MTV News of Jay-Z's hip-hop-infused soundtrack.
By Todd Gilchrist, with reporting by Josh Horowitz
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1706568/great-gatsby-leonardo-dicaprio-jay-z-soundtrack.jhtml
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20 hours ago
There are seven remaining pairs on "Dancing With the Stars" and only three more elimination nights before the finals. So, barring any surprise double eliminations, there will be four couples -- not the traditional three -- competing in the finale on May 20.
ABC
?It?s good for that fourth couple who?ll get paid an extra couple of bucks,? pro Val Chmerkovskiy shrugged to reporters in Monday night?s post-show press line.
Derek Hough thinks it?s a good idea too.
"Honestly, it means more dances for the finals," the three-time mirror-ball champion said. ?It?s more entertainment for the viewers at home, and that?s what it?s all about.?
Hough has said in the past that it?s best to come in either fourth or first, since exiting right after the semifinals means a dancer doesn?t have to come up with two more routines for a finale that he or she may or may not win.
?I think differently about that now,? he said. ?When I said that, I might have been thinking I didn?t want to do all that hard work. But I?m of the frame of mind that it?s an absolute pleasure and joy to be able to do any dance number on the show -- every time, even for results shows.?
Recap: 'Dancing With the Stars' judges take the ballroom to the bathroom
While anything can happen between now and the finals, it seems likely that three of the four finalists will be the competition's consistently high-scoring duos: Kellie Pickler and Hough, Zendaya and Chmerkovskiy, and Jacoby Jones and Karina Smirnoff. The fourth slot is up for grabs.
But the only sure thing right now is that Hough and Pickler won?t be going home on Tuesday night. They scored enough points on Monday to earn immunity.
Related:? Andy on how he's ranked on 'Dancing': 'It's not fair'
But while Hough and Pickler are safe for now, the pro feels that writing off low-scorer Andy Dick before the end just might be a mistake, given the show?s passionate fan base.
?I hope the judges did Andy a favor with their (strong) comments,? Hough offered. ?If you feel that (your favorite) is being picked on, then you?re going to say to yourself, ?I?m going to vote for him!??
Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/dancing-stars-final-four-finale-could-see-shakeup-6C9676198
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