LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) ? The International Baseball Federation has formally approved a merger with softball's governing body in a joint bid to return to the Olympics.
IBAF says the creation of a single international federation received unanimous approval in a mail-in vote of its members.
The International Softball Federation approved the move in October.
IBAF President Riccardo Fraccari says "this is another critical step in the long-term prosperity and development of softball and baseball worldwide. We look forward to presenting an exceptional value proposal to the Olympic movement for 2020 and beyond."
Baseball and softball are bidding jointly to win a spot on the program for the 2020 Games.
The IOC will vote in September. Karate, roller sports, squash, sport climbing, wakeboard and wushu also are competing.
Baseball and softball, voted out by the IOC in 2005, were last played at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The Federal Reserve is keeping its foot hard on the economy?s accelerator amid persistent high unemployment that may be sapping the confidence of consumers and businesses.
The nation's central bank announced Thursday that it would purchase longer-term Treasury securities to the tune of $45 billion per month to maintain a drive to help accelerate the sluggish economy and boost employment.
It also, for the first time, set a specific target for how long interest rates would remain at historic lows near zero percent: as long as the unemployment rate, now at around 7.9 percent, remains above 6.5 percent.
"Although the unemployment rate has declined somewhat since the summer, it remains elevated," the Fed said in a statement released after a two-day meeting of its policy setting Federal Open Market Committee.
LIVE VIDEO: Ben Bernanke holds press briefing on current economic projections?
Consumers and businesses also?have turned gloomy as Congress and the White House remain deadlocked on a budget deal. Until a compromise is reached by year-end, a half trillion-dollar package of tax hikes and spending cut will kick in, producing a major drag on economic growth.
The mood of American consumers ? who account for more than two third of economic activity ? turned markedly sour this month, according to a survey released last week. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's preliminary reading of its index of consumer sentiment plunged to the lowest level since August.
Small business managers are also feeling downbeat. Sentiment tumbled to its lowest level in more than 2-1/2 years in November, according to the National Federation of Independent Business. The group?s monthly optimism index plummeted to its weakest reading since March 2010.
The extension of the central bank?s bond buying program, known as ?Operation Twist,? was widely expected and has helped prop up stock markets over the past few sessions. The plan involves buying Treasury debt in the open market, which helps create more demand and drive interest rates lower. Record low mortgage rates have helped revive the housing market and lowered monthly payment for millions of homeowners, freeing up more money for consumer spending.
The vote was nearly unanimous, with one dissenting vote from Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.?
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Do we live in a computer simulation? Researchers say idea can be testedPublic release date: 10-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vince Stricherz vinces@uw.edu 206-543-2580 University of Washington
A decade ago, a British philosopher put forth the notion that the universe we live in might in fact be a computer simulation run by our descendants. While that seems far-fetched, perhaps even incomprehensible, a team of physicists at the University of Washington has come up with a potential test to see if the idea holds water.
The concept that current humanity could possibly be living in a computer simulation comes from a 2003 paper published in Philosophical Quarterly by Nick Bostrom, a philosophy professor at the University of Oxford. In the paper, he argued that at least one of three possibilities is true:
The human species is likely to go extinct before reaching a "posthuman" stage.
Any posthuman civilization is very unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of its evolutionary history.
We are almost certainly living in a computer simulation.
He also held that "the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation."
With current limitations and trends in computing, it will be decades before researchers will be able to run even primitive simulations of the universe. But the UW team has suggested tests that can be performed now, or in the near future, that are sensitive to constraints imposed on future simulations by limited resources.
Currently, supercomputers using a technique called lattice quantum chromodynamics and starting from the fundamental physical laws that govern the universe can simulate only a very small portion of the universe, on the scale of one 100-trillionth of a meter, a little larger than the nucleus of an atom, said Martin Savage, a UW physics professor.
Eventually, more powerful simulations will be able to model on the scale of a molecule, then a cell and even a human being. But it will take many generations of growth in computing power to be able to simulate a large enough chunk of the universe to understand the constraints on physical processes that would indicate we are living in a computer model.
However, Savage said, there are signatures of resource constraints in present-day simulations that are likely to exist as well in simulations in the distant future, including the imprint of an underlying lattice if one is used to model the space-time continuum.
The supercomputers performing lattice quantum chromodynamics calculations essentially divide space-time into a four-dimensional grid. That allows researchers to examine what is called the strong force, one of the four fundamental forces of nature and the one that binds subatomic particles called quarks and gluons together into neutrons and protons at the core of atoms.
"If you make the simulations big enough, something like our universe should emerge," Savage said. Then it would be a matter of looking for a "signature" in our universe that has an analog in the current small-scale simulations.
Savage and colleagues Silas Beane of the University of New Hampshire, who collaborated while at the UW's Institute for Nuclear Theory, and Zohreh Davoudi, a UW physics graduate student, suggest that the signature could show up as a limitation in the energy of cosmic rays.
In a paper they have posted on arXiv, an online archive for preprints of scientific papers in a number of fields, including physics, they say that the highest-energy cosmic rays would not travel along the edges of the lattice in the model but would travel diagonally, and they would not interact equally in all directions as they otherwise would be expected to do.
"This is the first testable signature of such an idea," Savage said.
If such a concept turned out to be reality, it would raise other possibilities as well. For example, Davoudi suggests that if our universe is a simulation, then those running it could be running other simulations as well, essentially creating other universes parallel to our own.
"Then the question is, 'Can you communicate with those other universes if they are running on the same platform?'" she said.
###
For more information, contact Savage at 206-543-7481 or mjs5@uw.edu; or Davoudi at 206-543-9310 or davoudi@uw.edu.
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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.
Do we live in a computer simulation? Researchers say idea can be testedPublic release date: 10-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vince Stricherz vinces@uw.edu 206-543-2580 University of Washington
A decade ago, a British philosopher put forth the notion that the universe we live in might in fact be a computer simulation run by our descendants. While that seems far-fetched, perhaps even incomprehensible, a team of physicists at the University of Washington has come up with a potential test to see if the idea holds water.
The concept that current humanity could possibly be living in a computer simulation comes from a 2003 paper published in Philosophical Quarterly by Nick Bostrom, a philosophy professor at the University of Oxford. In the paper, he argued that at least one of three possibilities is true:
The human species is likely to go extinct before reaching a "posthuman" stage.
Any posthuman civilization is very unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of its evolutionary history.
We are almost certainly living in a computer simulation.
He also held that "the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation."
With current limitations and trends in computing, it will be decades before researchers will be able to run even primitive simulations of the universe. But the UW team has suggested tests that can be performed now, or in the near future, that are sensitive to constraints imposed on future simulations by limited resources.
Currently, supercomputers using a technique called lattice quantum chromodynamics and starting from the fundamental physical laws that govern the universe can simulate only a very small portion of the universe, on the scale of one 100-trillionth of a meter, a little larger than the nucleus of an atom, said Martin Savage, a UW physics professor.
Eventually, more powerful simulations will be able to model on the scale of a molecule, then a cell and even a human being. But it will take many generations of growth in computing power to be able to simulate a large enough chunk of the universe to understand the constraints on physical processes that would indicate we are living in a computer model.
However, Savage said, there are signatures of resource constraints in present-day simulations that are likely to exist as well in simulations in the distant future, including the imprint of an underlying lattice if one is used to model the space-time continuum.
The supercomputers performing lattice quantum chromodynamics calculations essentially divide space-time into a four-dimensional grid. That allows researchers to examine what is called the strong force, one of the four fundamental forces of nature and the one that binds subatomic particles called quarks and gluons together into neutrons and protons at the core of atoms.
"If you make the simulations big enough, something like our universe should emerge," Savage said. Then it would be a matter of looking for a "signature" in our universe that has an analog in the current small-scale simulations.
Savage and colleagues Silas Beane of the University of New Hampshire, who collaborated while at the UW's Institute for Nuclear Theory, and Zohreh Davoudi, a UW physics graduate student, suggest that the signature could show up as a limitation in the energy of cosmic rays.
In a paper they have posted on arXiv, an online archive for preprints of scientific papers in a number of fields, including physics, they say that the highest-energy cosmic rays would not travel along the edges of the lattice in the model but would travel diagonally, and they would not interact equally in all directions as they otherwise would be expected to do.
"This is the first testable signature of such an idea," Savage said.
If such a concept turned out to be reality, it would raise other possibilities as well. For example, Davoudi suggests that if our universe is a simulation, then those running it could be running other simulations as well, essentially creating other universes parallel to our own.
"Then the question is, 'Can you communicate with those other universes if they are running on the same platform?'" she said.
###
For more information, contact Savage at 206-543-7481 or mjs5@uw.edu; or Davoudi at 206-543-9310 or davoudi@uw.edu.
[ | 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.
As technology advances, it tends to shrink. From cell phones to laptops?powered by increasingly faster and tinier processors?everything is getting thinner and sleeker. And now light beams are getting smaller, too.
Engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have created a device that can focus light into a point just a few nanometers (billionths of a meter) across?an achievement they say may lead to next-generation applications in computing, communications, and imaging.
Because light can carry greater amounts of data more efficiently than electrical signals traveling through copper wires, today's technology is increasingly based on optics. The world is already connected by thousands of miles of optical-fiber cables that deliver email, images, and the latest video gone viral to your laptop.
As we all produce and consume more data, computers and communication networks must be able to handle the deluge of information. Focusing light into tinier spaces can squeeze more data through optical fibers and increase bandwidth. Moreover, by being able to control light at such small scales, optical devices can also be made more compact, requiring less energy to power them.
But focusing light to such minute scales is inherently difficult. Once you reach sizes smaller than the wavelength of light?a few hundred nanometers in the case of visible light?you reach what's called the diffraction limit, and it's physically impossible to focus the light any further.
But now the Caltech researchers, co-led by assistant professor of electrical engineering Hyuck Choo, have built a new kind of waveguide?a tunnellike device that channels light?that gets around this natural limit. The waveguide, which is described in a recent issue of the journalNature Photonics, is made of amorphous silicon dioxide?which is similar to common glass?and is covered in a thin layer of gold. Just under two microns long, the device is a rectangular box that tapers to a point at one end.
As light is sent through the waveguide, the photons interact with electrons at the interface between the gold and the silicon dioxide. Those electrons oscillate, and the oscillations propagate along the device as waves?similarly to how vibrations of air molecules travel as sound waves. Because the electron oscillations are directly coupled with the light, they carry the same information and properties?and they therefore serve as a proxy for the light.
Instead of focusing the light alone?which is impossible due to the diffraction limit?the new device focuses these coupled electron oscillations, called surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). The SPPs travel through the waveguide and are focused as they go through the pointy end.
Because the new device is built on a semiconductor chip with standard nanofabrication techniques, says Choo, the co-lead and the co-corresponding author of the paper, it is easy integrate with today's technology
Previous on-chip nanofocusing devices were only able to focus light into a narrow line. They also were inefficient, typically focusing only a few percent of the incident photons, with the majority absorbed and scattered as they traveled through the devices.
With the new device, light can ultimately be focused in three dimensions, producing a point a few nanometers across, and using half of the light that's sent through, Choo says. (Focusing the light into a slightly bigger spot, 14 by 80 nanometers in size, boosts the efficiency to 70 percent). The key feature behind the device's focusing ability and efficiency, he says, is its unique design and shape.
"Our new device is based on fundamental research, but we hope it's a good building block for many potentially revolutionary engineering applications," says Myung-Ki Kim, a postdoctoral scholar and the other lead author of the paper.
For example, one application is to turn this nanofocusing device into an efficient, high-resolution biological-imaging instrument, Kim says. A biologist can dye specific molecules in a cell with fluorescent proteins that glow when struck by light. Using the new device, a scientist can focus light into the cell, causing the fluorescent proteins to shine. Because the device concentrates light into such a small point, it can create a high-resolution map of those dyed molecules. Light can also travel in the reverse direction through the nanofocuser: by collecting light through the narrow point, the device turns into a high-resolution microscope.
The device can also lead to computer hard drives that hold more memory via heat-assisted magnetic recording. Normal hard drives consist of rows of tiny magnets whose north and south poles lay end to end. Data is recorded by applying a magnetic field to switch the polarity of the magnets.
Smaller magnets would allow more memory to be squeezed into a disc of a given size. But the polarities of smaller magnets made of current materials are unstable at room temperature, causing the magnetic poles to spontaneously flip?and for data to be lost. Instead, more stable materials can be used?but those require heat to record data. The heat makes the magnets more susceptible to polarity reversals. Therefore, to write data, a laser is needed to heat the individual magnets, allowing a surrounding magnetic field to flip their polarities.
Today's technology, however, can't focus a laser into a beam that is narrow enough to individually heat such tiny magnets. Indeed, current lasers can only concentrate a beam to an area 300 nanometers wide, which would heat the target magnet as well as adjacent ones?possibly spoiling other recorded data.
Because the new device can focus light down to such small scales, it can heat smaller magnets individually, making it possible for hard drives to pack more magnets and therefore more memory. With current technology, discs can't hold more than 1 terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) per square inch. A nanofocusing device, Choo says, can bump that to 50 terabytes per square inch.
Then there's the myriad of data-transfer and communication applications, the researchers say. As computing becomes increasingly reliant on optics, devices that concentrate and control data-carrying light at the nanoscale will be essential?and ubiquitous, says Choo, who is a member of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech. "Don't be surprised if you see a similar kind of device inside a computer you may someday buy."
The next step is to optimize the design and to begin building imaging instruments and sensors, Choo says. The device is versatile enough that relatively simple modifications could allow it to be used for imaging, computing, or communication.
###
California Institute of Technology: http://www.caltech.edu
Thanks to California Institute of Technology for this article.
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When it comes to the body, physical fitness is more than simply seeking healthier and well developed. Your standard of living and durability can also be a vital thing to consider. Make exercise and a healthy diet plan permanent changes in your way of life. This assortment of health and fitness advice will light the way for you as you get health and fitness on your own.
Pick a fitness program that you take pleasure in, and are comfortable you may maintain. Pick something you want to do, which means you will look ahead to your regimen.
Weight lifting is not really one and only thing that enters into physical fitness. These half a dozen work outs are everything required for any whole muscle mass workout: pull-ups, press-ups, squats, lower body boosts, bridges, and handstand drive-ups.
Buy coordinating work out garments, and when they need cleaned place them in one location. Experiencing mainly simple clothes makes it simple to locate an attire very quickly. Then you can scrub them at the same time and also be finished with it.
A great way to improve your health and fitness is usually to work with your abdominal muscles. You can do this by performing sit-ups in the morning without or with weight load. Stomach muscles prepare your body?s core and will help make you more flexible. This can help make your weight picking up more productive.
Numerous exercise and community centres offer specific classes, and you could check close to on the internet to locate specialised regimens. Check around about the very best treatments medical clinic that gives physical fitness programs for people who have impairments.
If conditions makes it possible for, exercising outside. Discover anything exciting, for example taking a hike or actively playing volleyball. The options are really endless. Getting outside the house can improve focus and offer tension reduction.
m For many people, a young day exercising period seems wonderful. It?s actually performing it that?s hard part. Awakening a couple of minutes early on every day and beginning with a delicate exercising will get you comfortable with getting up previous in the morning. This can lay the building blocks for starting up the day with an exhilarating exercise, plus your routines can develop with time.
If you wish to reinforce your legs, consider undertaking wall surface sits. Begin with finding a wide open wall with enough space for the body to match from it. Eighteen inches is a great extended distance out of the wall structure. Bend the knees, like you are squatting lower, and put your back again versus the wall surface You must then flex the knee joints till the legs along with the floor are parallel plus your system is in a sitting situation. Carry this stance till you can?t remain it any longer.
Go outside to complete your workouts whenever possible. You can find fresh air by obtaining outside the house for your personal work out by having a nature hike, operating in the beach, actively playing tennis or possessing a wonderful pick-up bet on some sort or other with good friends. This will make you feel fantastic about working out. Becoming exterior helps you to boost thinking and lowers levels of stress.
Suitable type when walking is vital to minimize damage when hitting the gym. Move erect along with your shoulder area sq and lifted. Bend your elbows in a 90 education direction. You must golf swing your arms inside a beat complete opposite that relating to your entrance foot. When moving, the hindfoot need to strike the earth just before the remainder in the feet cash inside an ahead movements.
People depend upon leads to travel their inspiration. As an alternative to weighing your self consistently, try using restricted-fitted garments to help give enthusiasm. You will be aware how much you will be transforming if one makes a habit of attempting these clothing on every now and then.
When determination for the workouts are waning, a new report of workout apparel, like a radiant work out go well with, may possibly boost your passion. Even a single new post of clothes will give you something to fashion to your good friends and possibly motivate a brand new journey to the gym.
You can create the struggle of getting suit enjoyable. Start using these suggestions to complete your physical fitness prepare. Make physical fitness as a good deal of day-to-day to-do as showering and laundry washing. The greater number of often you physical exercise, the higher the development in the direction of your fitness goals.
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Energy for heating and cooling our homes accounts for more than 50% of the energy used in the average American household. Inadequate or poorly installed insulation and air leakage are some of the leading causes of energy waste in most homes. Proper insulation can save you money and make your home more comfortable. The right amount of insulation will help your home maintain a uniform temperature in every room, and will keep your walls and floors warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.
Why and Where Should I Insulate My Home?
If your home has little or no insulation at all, heat will evaporate faster causing your heating system to work harder and less efficiently. Properly installing the right amount of insulation will allow you to use your heating and cooling system less, keeping your house more energy-efficient. Areas of your home like attics (if your home has one) and windows and doors can all be a factor in heat loss. Any area of the house located near doorways to the outside should be carefully inspected for air leaks or improper insulation. Sealing off any gaps, cracks or holes by windows and doorways will insure your home?s insulation is working at its optimum level.
If your home happens to have a basement or crawlspace, you should check to see if the ceiling of that area is insulated, which will insulate the above floor. Insulating these areas of your home is paramount in helping to maintain a more comfortable temperature throughout the rest of your home. Even if there is carpeting on the floor above, cold air can still seep into other areas of the home. This insulation will act almost like a barrier, effectively keeping the cold air from rising.
It?s Just Air, What Harm Can It Do?
Homeowners may also encounter a more serious concern if their home is not properly insulated; moisture and condensation accumulation. These problems will occur when warm air hits cold surfaces, turning the vapor into a liquid form. Moisture can cause a variety of other problems like mold and mildew that could lead to potentially hazardous health risks for you and your family. Moisture and condensation could also lead to serious damages to the home?s foundation, thus weakening its structural integrity.
It?s not uncommon for your energy savings to more than cover the cost of the insulation within the first year, which is important as utility rates go up. Dr. Energy Saver Solutions is an authorized Dr. Energy Saver dealer offering the best in energy saving opportunities. Their highly trained team will complete a home energy audit to find any possible areas where air or heat may be seeping out. Once the audit is finished, you will have a personalized plan to save you money and keep your home as energy efficient as possible. Contact Dr. Energy Saver Solutions today for a free estimate for insulation or another service and enjoy a healthier, more comfortable home this winter.
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Public release date: 10-Dec-2012
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