Quadrantids create year's first meteor shower

Jan. 2, 2013 ? A little-known meteor shower named after an extinct constellation, the Quadrantids will present an excellent chance for hardy souls to start the year off with some late-night meteor watching. Peaking in the wee morning hours of Jan. 3, the Quadrantids have a maximum rate of about 80 per hour, varying between 60-200. Unfortunately, light from a waning gibbous moon will wash out many Quadrantids, cutting down on the number of meteors seen by skywatchers.

Unlike the more famous Perseid and Geminid meteor showers, the Quadrantids only last a few hours, so it's the morning of Jan. 3 or nothing. Given the location of the radiant -- northern tip of Bootes the Herdsman -- only observers at latitudes north of 51 degrees south will be able to see Quadrantids.

Watch the Quadrantids! Live Ustream Feed

A live Ustream feed of the Quadrantid shower will be embedded below on the nights of Jan. 2-4 (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc). The camera is mounted at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. During the day you will see either pre-recorded footage or a blank box -- the camera is light-activated and turns on at dusk (approx. 6 p.m. EST). ? Convert to your local time: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tc.cgi

Do You Have Some Great Quadrantid Images?

If you have some great images of the Quadrantid meteor shower, please consider adding them to the Quadrantid Meteors photo group in Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/groups/quadrantids/). Who knows -- your images may attract interest from the media and receive international exposure.

More About the Quadrantids

The Quadrantids derive their name from the constellation of Quadrans Muralis (mural quadrant), which was created by the French astronomer Jerome Lalande in 1795. Located between the constellations of Bootes and Draco, Quadrans represents an early astronomical instrument used to observe and plot stars. Even though the constellation is no longer recognized by astronomers, it was around long enough to give the meteor shower -- first seen in 1825 -- its name.

Like the Geminids, the Quadrantids originate from an asteroid, called 2003 EH1. Dynamical studies suggest that this body could very well be a piece of a comet which broke apart several centuries ago, and that the meteors you will see before dawn on Jan. 3 are the small debris from this fragmentation. After hundreds of years orbiting the sun, they will enter our atmosphere at 90,000 mph, burning up 50 miles above Earth's surface -- a fiery end to a long journey!

Editor's note, Jan. 2, 10:45 a.m. EST: Tonight is the peak of the 2013 Quadrantid meteor shower. Best viewing will be in the northern hemisphere, but the shower can be seen at latitudes north of 51 degrees south. Meteor rates increase after midnight and peak between 3 a.m. and dawn, your local time. To view Quadrantids, go outside and allow your eyes 30-45 minutes to adjust to the dark. Look straight up, allowing your eyes to take in as much of the sky as possible. You will need cloudless, dark skies away from city lights to see the shower. The maximum rate will be about 120/hour. However, light from the waning gibbous moon will wash out fainter meteors, so don't expect to see this many. The peak rate of the Quadrantids has varied between 60-200, so its peak is not as consistent as other showers.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/0tMbonAFf2M/130102124016.htm

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93% Amour

All Critics (94) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (87) | Rotten (7)

Haneke ("Funny Games," "Cache," "The Piano Teacher," "White Ribbon") has tackled a difficult subject that is unpleasant to watch, more unpleasant to think about. But the 70 year-old filmmaker has done it with taste, discretion and sympathy.

Amour might seem hardly the stuff of entertainment, yet the reason it has been acclaimed isn't mysterious. Confronting death, it studies life, closely and lovingly.

Because of its subject matter, and because of the actors, it's impossible to watch this film without being moved. But a martinet is running the show.

A compassionate, rigorously unsentimental masterwork from a director who doesn't normally truck in emotions like the one named in the title.

This is an unforgettable love story set at the close of day, as tragic and beautiful in its way as "Tristan und Isolde," and a portrait of the impossible beauty and fragility of life that will yield new experiences to every viewer and every viewing.

The film's power stems from the way Haneke avoids milking the viewer's sympathy.

Amour is just as likely to put someone to sleep as it is to win high-brow praise.

Intimate, admirable and elegant, it's, nevertheless, demanding, deliberate and depressing - about facing our own mortality.

A film so honest in dealing with end-of-life issues that its purity is a positive rebuke to all the maudlin movies on the subject.

Gains its power from grounding its characters' pain in something humanistic.

Profoundly moving, unflinchingly honest and tender with brave, emotionally raw performances by Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva.

Mundanely horrifying and extremely powerful.

The story behind the central tableau ... starts off completely mundane, shifts into a tale of pain and sadness, and ends on a note of horror mixed with tortured understanding.

If Haneke has any real interest in keeping art cinema alive, he should take some notes from the Queensbridge rapper Nas.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/771307454/

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Outright Plus

Several years ago, a couple of young men left Intuit to start their own business. They struggled with the organization of their new company's financial data because it was spread out all over in places like online bank accounts, spreadsheets and PayPal. Outright Plus ($9.95 per month) grew out of that frustration. Kevin Reeth and Ben Curren didn't set out to create an application that would compete with QuickBooks. Rather than trying to build a financial solution that would provide A-Z accounting tools, they wanted to address one very challenging situation: taxes. Specifically, quarterly and annual income taxes and sales taxes for sole proprietors, freelancers and other small businesses.

Today, the collection of tools that used to be called Outright is instead Outright Plus, and it now costs $9.95 per month to subscribe?a reasonable charge considering its scope (you can still use the site's income- and expense-tracking tools for free). The company has done a great job of selecting integrated partner sites that their audience might be likely to frequent and use for related financial functions, solutions like PayPal and FreshBooks, eBay, and Etsy.

A Smart Shell
Outright Plus itself is really just a framework that manages your core financial functions. It imports, categorizes, stores and reports on transactions from other sources so that your sales- and income tax-tracking require exponentially less data entry and time. It also maximizes accuracy, since you never have to re-key the same transaction twice.

Setup is simple. The first thing you'll do is add the accounts that contain financial transactions that you'll want to import and keep updated. This process works similarly in all of the sites reviewed here. You click, "Add an Account," and then either type in the name of the institution or select it from the list provided. Enter the user ID and password you use to sign in to its website, and Outright Plus establishes a connection, then downloads your first group of transactions (you can update these whenever you want to). Clicking on the Income and Expenses tabs opens the checkbook-like registers that contain your activity.

If Outright Plus recognizes the name of the company that you exchanged funds with, it assigns it to a category. If not, you can select one yourself from the list provided, and indicate whether you want Outright Plus to always assign that category to that particular source. You can also enter income and expenses manually.

Getting Ready for Taxes
There are four types of categories: income, expense, non-business expense and non-business income. The first two are the most important, as they're linked to specific areas on the IRS Schedule C. For example, "Sales" links to "Gross Receipts or Sales." The Non-Business Income and Expense categories are used for personal transactions, credit card payments, estimated and income tax payments, etc.

You can add and edit categories, but you shouldn't alter any category related to taxes. The founders were reticent at first to even allow this capability because it can affect the accuracy of your Schedule C.

There are two special categories that are not true income or expenses, because you're simply passing along money you collect that belongs to the state: Sales Tax Collected and Sales Tax Submitted. Some imported deposits, like those coming from eBay, will have already separated sales tax from the other money collected from sales and categorized it correctly. You can also enter sales taxes collected manually and run a report that displays sales by state.

Fulfilling Your Obligations
Lest you worry about all of these financial transactions flying into Outright Plus, there are a couple of things you should know. First, Outright Plus uses bank-level security. There are actually security professionals standing guard in the facilities that house the remote servers. And second, no one can compromise your accounts and transfer funds elsewhere. You can't even do that. Outright Plus simply houses and categorizes your transactions.

All of this account updating and careful categorization pays off when taxes are due to states or the federal government. Click the Taxes tab, and a page opens with four subtabs. The first, Annual taxes, displays the happy number that is your current net profit, as well as your total income and expenses. Under each of the latter two, Outright Plus supplies the dollar figures that will appear on specific lines of the Schedule C. Click on a line, and you can view or edit the individual transactions that contributed to the total.

If you're self-employed, you know how difficult it is to determine how much to submit each quarter in estimated taxes. Outright Plus does that for you, providing a number that should be reasonably accurate, assuming that you've imported and recorded every related transaction. So when it's time to pony up. click the Quarterly Taxes tab. Outright Plus displays the amount you should pay and lets you record the payment on that same page (unfortunately, you'll have to submit the payment yourself ? Outright Plus doesn't do that). Sales taxes are handled similarly. Outright Plus tells you how much you've collected and should pay, and provides a field to record your payment.

If you've received a 1099-K form, you'll get help understanding this new IRS requirement and finding related data within Outright Plus.

Pulling It All Together
Outright Plus' dashboard ("Overview") does a nice job of consolidating your most critical financial information on one page. The left vertical pane displays links to new sales and uncategorized transactions; account totals for money you have and owe; and current calculated tax obligation totals. Two big charts on the right show you your profit and loss totals (with a link to a detailed table) and your expense category breakdown.

Outright Plus is representative of the future of small business accounting. We're very slowly moving toward cloud-based procedures, a la carte financial management. Today's smartest people in the field tell us that years from now, companies will be able to select individual solutions from different vendors that meet their needs in areas like bill-paying, invoicing, payroll, inventory management, reports, etc. They'll be built to easily integrate with each other.

Small business accounting vendors have long been partnering with companies that make complementary solutions, applications that add more sophisticated features to traditional software. The QuickBooks desktop family is the best example of this; there are hundreds of add-ons in its App Center. But financial management has begun a long, slow evolution away from the desktop and into the cloud.

Today, Outright Plus has a fairly small group of solid add-on partners. But its founders had the right idea. It'd be a good choice for you if you're a sole proprietor or very small business that simply wants a way to track income and expenses by importing financial transactions, invoice customers (by integrating with FreshBooks), track and record sales tax obligations, and have your quarterly taxes estimated and your Schedule C business data automatically calculated and categorized. If you want a more comprehensive, traditional solution online, QuickBooks Online is your best choice today.

More Accounting and Tax Software Reviews:
??? Outright Plus
??? Less Accounting
??? Kashoo
??? QuickBooks Online Plus
??? Wave Accounting
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/7BS2XICHa-0/0,2817,2413702,00.asp

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Bomb kills two, injures 50 in Pakistani city of Karachi

KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) - A bomb exploded in a crowded area of Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi on Tuesday, killing at least two people and wounding 50, police said.

Two of the injured were in a critical condition, police spokesman Imran Shaukat said. The bomb appeared to have been planted on a motorbike.

It was not immediately clear who or what was the target of the blast in the Aisha Manzil area of Karachi, although a political rally was happening nearby. The explosion was heard several kilometers (miles) away.

Karachi, home to 18 million people, is the financial capital of Pakistan but has been plagued by Islamic militancy as well as violent crime.

(Reporting By Katharine Houreld; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bomb-explodes-crowded-area-pakistani-city-karachi-150340220.html

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koijemala: Self Improvement Times: Time Management Tips - 3 ...

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Pentagon debuts float in Rose parade to honor vets

Korean War veteran James McEachin, 82, poses in front of the Rose Parade float ?Freedom Is Not Free? by the Korean War Commemoration Committee, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012, in Pasadena, Calif. McEachin is scheduled to ride the float in the Rose Parade on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Korean War veteran James McEachin, 82, poses in front of the Rose Parade float ?Freedom Is Not Free? by the Korean War Commemoration Committee, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012, in Pasadena, Calif. McEachin is scheduled to ride the float in the Rose Parade on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Korean War veteran James McEachin, 82, poses in front of the Rose Parade float ?Freedom Is Not Free? by the Korean War Commemoration Committee, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012, in Pasadena, Calif. McEachin is scheduled to ride the float in the Rose Parade on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

The Rose Parade float ?Freedom Is Not Free? by the Korean War Commemoration Committee is seen in Pasadena during the final judging of floats on Monday, Dec 31, 2012 prior to the kick off of the 124th Rose Parade on New Year's Day. The Defense Department for the first time will put a float in Pasadena's Tournament of Roses, one of the most watched parades, to commemorate the veterans from a conflict that still casts a shadow over the world. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

SAN DIEGO (AP) ? It's been almost 60 years since James McEachin returned home with a bullet still lodged in his chest, finding an America indifferent toward the troops who fought in Korea. Now he will get the homecoming parade he had expected.

The Defense Department for the first time will put a float in Pasadena's Tournament of Roses ? one of the most watched parades ? to commemorate the veterans from a conflict that still casts a shadow over the world.

"I think it's a magnificent gesture and it cures a lot of ills," said McEachin, who will be among six veterans who will ride on the float Tuesday. The 82-year-old author and actor starred in Perry Mason TV movies, among other things.

The $247,000 flower-covered float will be a replica of the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The Pentagon's debut comes ahead of events marking the 60th anniversary of the July 1953 armistice that halted the bloodshed but did not declare peace.

Col. David Clark said the Pentagon decided to seize the opportunity to sponsor one of the 42 floats in the 124-year-old New Year's Day parade to raise awareness about what has been called "The Forgotten War."

It has taken decades for the success of the war's efforts to be recognized, and the department wanted to remind Americans about the sacrifices that were made by the veterans, most of whom are now in their 80s, Clark said.

The war resulted in South Korea developing into a thriving democratic ally in sharp contrast to its bitterly poor, communist neighbor that is seen as a global threat.

"As a nation, this may be our last opportunity to say 'thank you' to them and honor their service," said Clark, director of the department's 60th Anniversary of the Korean War Commemoration Committee.

The war began when North Korea invaded the South to try to reunify the nation, a liberated Japanese colony sliced in two in 1945 by the U.S. and Soviet victors of World War II.

North Korea had the upper hand at first, almost pushing a weak South Korean-U.S. force off the peninsula, but then U.S. reinforcements poured in and pushed them back.

Then, in late 1950, communist China stepped in and the Americans and South Koreans were forced back to the peninsula's midsection. The two sides battled there for two years before ending with a stalemate.

"We didn't march home in victory. We did what we were supposed to do, which is stop this aggressive force called communism," said McEachin, a Silver Star recipient.

Edward Chang, director of the Young Oak Kim Center for Korean American Studies at the University of California, Riverside, said U.S. intervention gave South Korea the opportunity to become one of the world's major economies.

"Most Americans simply are not aware of what is happening in Korea and how it happened," he said.

More than 36,000 U.S. service members were killed in the conflict, and millions overall.

The government did not talk to troops at the time about how pivotal the war was in stopping communism. After the victory in World War II, the Korean conflict seemed to almost provoke shame for Americans, McEachin said.

The American public also felt no connection to the fighting in a faraway Asian country unlike during World War II when airwaves filled with patriotic fight songs, he said.

McEachin not only returned to indifference but discrimination as an African American soldier.

After the plane carrying returning troops was delayed in Montana by snow, he was turned away from a hotel where his fellow white soldiers were staying.

Korea was the first conflict in which all U.S. military units were integrated racially. Clark said the float's veterans reflect that important historical milestone.

Clark said it's important Americans learn the war's history because the problem is ever present, a point driven home by the heavily mined armistice line, a 4-kilometer-wide (2.5-mile-wide) demilitarized strip stretching 220 kilometers (135 miles) across the peninsula.

"This serves as a reminder that there is unfinished business on the Korean peninsula," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-31-Korean%20War-Rose%20Parade/id-4b2e15d111be4c8dbe35642e1586aae1

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'Revolutionary' banana slicer target of snarky Amazon reviews

seabeetow4u/Amazon

"I tried using the slicer as an ornament as suggested, but unfortunately it didn't stay on the tree long," writes Amazon user seabeetow4u.

By Helen A.S. Popkin

With 635 five-star reviews on its Amazon product page (out of more than 1,200 reviews ... and growing), it seems obvious that the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer is the one gift you can buy yourself that will make up for all that thoughtless junk you've already re-gifted to friends and loved ones. Those who apparently did receive this "revolutionary" product over the holiday season are burning up the Amazon reviews as 2012 draws to a close.?

Just read what these satisfied reviewers have to say over this demarcated banana shape that is "dishwasher safe" and "faster, safer than using a knife."

"No more winning for you, Mr. Banana!" declares the review voted "most helpful" by other Amazon's users. "For decades I have been trying to come up with an ideal way to slice a banana," writes Amazon reviewer SW3K. "'Use a knife!' ?they say. Well ... my parole officer won't allow me to be around knives. 'Shoot it with a gun!' Background check ... HELLO! I had to resort to carefully attempt to slice those bananas with my bare hands. 99.9 percent of the time, I would get so frustrated that I just ended up squishing the fruit in my hands and throwing it against the wall in anger. Then, after a fit of banana-induced rage, my parole officer introduced me to this kitchen marvel and my life was changed."?

RELATED:?Top Internet memes of 2012

But it's not just felons who find the?Hutzler 571?indispensable.

Amazon

The Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer.

"Saved my marriage," raves Mrs. Toledo.?"What can I say about the 571B Banana Slicer that hasn't already been said about the wheel, penicillin or the iPhone..."

In "a military endorsement," Happy Hubby writes, "I have served in the U.S. Army for over 12 years. I can say that there is technology being used by the military that is rarely seen in the civilian sector." He does, however, caution, "this is a CIVILIAN model and not designed for field use!"

There are those who do not agree with the raves, however.?

"Angle is wrong," writes?J. Anderson in one of the 91 two-star reviews. "As shown in the picture, the slicer is curved from left to right. All of my bananas are bent the other way."?

Another reviewer points out that taking one's country of residence into account is important before making this purchase. "I?live in Australia and need a Region 4 slicer," writes Paul Anthony F. Brown. "I now have a whole bunch of bananas sitting on my kitchen counter that I can't slice and a life slightly more woeful and abject than it was before I received the slicer."

Still not sure??Check out the informative Customer Questions to find answers as to whether buying the warranty for the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer is a wise move, if the product comes in metric and how well it might work on hot dogs.

With its first glowing review posted in 2007, it seems the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer is enjoying a fresh surge of popularity in December, with new reviews piling up daily. This must be one seriously useful product ? either that or Internet culture blogger types have just (re)discovered yet another example of satirical Amazon reviews in the proud vein of Three Wolf Moon and the BIC's for Her Ballpoint Pen.?

But at the bargain price of $2.51?

??h/t Mark Preston, this guy I know from Facebook, who also notes "Patriot Products CSV-3100B 10 HP Briggs & Stratton Gas-Powered Wood Chipper/Leaf Shredder."?

Helen A.S. Popkin?goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on?Twitter?and/or?Facebook.?Also,?Google+

WATCH:?81-year-old skydiver, dancing twins, among the top viral video stars of 2012

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Source: http://digitallife.today.com/_news/2012/12/31/16269025-revolutionary-banana-slicer-is-newest-target-of-snarky-amazon-reviews?lite

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