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NASA Cassini Image: Seeing the Difference
With Saturn's terminator as a backdrop, this view of the unlit face of the rings makes it easy to distinguish between areas that are actual gaps, where light passes through essentially unimpeded, and areas where the rings block or scatter light. The gaps are regions in which the brightness varies strongly from left to right as the background goes from bright to dark. Parts of the image are saturated at left. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on July 24, 2006 at a distance of approximately 577,000 kilometers (359,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 101 degrees. Image scale is 31 kilometers (19 miles) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.
'The Pittsburgh guys'
"The Pittsburgh guys, we're a tight group, and we're all proud to be from Pittsburgh and play for Penn State," Posluszny said. "Think about it. A.Q. Shipley (Moon), who's going to be our starting center, is a Pittsburgh guy, giving the ball on every play to Anthony Morelli, a Pittsburgh guy. Justin's going to be a key guy, too. There is something about it, coming from Pittsburgh, coming from Western Pennsylvania and playing for Penn State." Posluszny is the veteran of the group, a senior who was a consensus All-American last year, winning both the Bednarik and Butkus awards. He's in his second season as a team captain, an honor last accorded at Penn State nearly four decades ago. .
Sports Psychology: Triathletes are now in transition!
Michelle is starting a sports psychology Q and A on the Runner's Web. Submit your questions to Michelle at: SportsMindedMC@aol.com and we will post her answers on the Runner's Web. A friend trained a full year to do an Ironman triathlon. At the conclusion of her event she had a conversation with me about her depression, weight gain, irritability, and lack of energy. My friend spent a lot of time with her team and now doesnt. She spent hours every day training and now doesnt. She put in an enormous amount of energy, training and learning about the sport; all things that werent ordinary to her life and now doesnt. Unconsciously she gave up everything in her life during that time and when the event was over she had no resources to deal with the aftermath. She had a job, a daughter, a house, and friends but she had put those things on the back burner for an entire year so she could train for her Ironman and trying to figure out how to get her life back was a real struggle.
High-tech gear comes loaded with usefulness
The annual back-to-school ritual for families is shaping up to be a high-tech shopping spree, but it's not just desktop and laptop computers that are getting a lot of attention. There's also a great deal of interest in the latest cell phones, educational tools and portable gaming devices. Here are a few that caught my eye: -- Preteen cell phone: Wherifone ($99.95 plus a $19.99 monthly service fee) Should parents get their preteen children a cell phone? For most parents, getting one is OK if it helps them keep track of their children, but it shouldn't be frivolous or too expensive. Check out the Wherifone from Redwood City's Wherify, which goes on sale next month. The GPS-enabled phone allows parents to track their kids to within a few feet under optimal conditions.
Growth, interest-rate uncertainty clip euro's wings
NEW YORK, Aug 31 (Reuters) - If ever there were a time for the euro to leave the dollar in the dust, this seems to be it. But neither a clutch of soft U.S. economic data nor signs that euro-zone growth is accelerating have helped the euro extend the gains that have lifted it some 8 percent against the dollar this year. Many forecasters are confounded. "The market is clearly reluctant to take the commentators' advice," said Joseph Trevisani, chief market analyst at FX Solutions in Saddle River, New Jersey. The paralysis, Trevisani said, reflects lingering uncertainty about several key factors: the strength of the euro-zone recovery, the magnitude of a U.S. slowdown and the future path of interest rates in both economies. The 12-country euro-zone economy grew 2.4 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, and interest rates have climbed 100 basis points since December 2005.
Sage Software — Abra Payroll
Sage Software's Sage Abra HRMS (Human Resources Management System) is a workhorse application designed to provide support for payroll, HR, employee self-service, benefits enrollment, training, recruiting and various compliance tasks, making it much more than a payroll alternative for accounting professionals. Sage Abra is primarily geared toward in-house use by companies, but since it offers the ability to set up multiple companies and subsidiaries, it is also an excellent match for professional firms who wish to provide their business clients with full HR and payroll services. This review will focus primarily on the features of the system's payroll module, which allows for any number of clients and employees with multiple pay rates and deductions, as well as multiple banks, with support for direct deposit.
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