Spectacular Photos: 1st Meteor Shower of 2012 Amazes Skywatchers (SPACE.com)

A dazzling display of "shooting stars" kicked off the 2012 skywatching season early Wednesday (Jan. 4), thrilling amateur astronomers around the world with views of the Quadrantid meteor shower.

Usually one of the most dependable meteor displays of the year, the Quadrantid meteor shower peaked at about 2:30 a.m. EST (0730 GMT) in a brief, but eye-catching, light show. Quadrantid meteors are the leftover crumbs of a shattered comet that broke apart centuries ago, NASA scientists say.

To mark the meteor shower, SPACE.com invited readers to send in their photos of the event, and you answered in spades. From light-polluted cities to remote islands, skywatchers reported spotting some dazzling views of Quadrantid meteors.

Veterinary surgeon Roberto Porto photographed the meteor shower from the island of Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands. The view, he said, was stupendous. [Amazing 2012 Quadrantid Meteor Shower Photos]

On Tenerife, the Quadrantids display peaked close to sunrise (local time), "so the peak was [awash in] twilight," Porto told SPACE.com in an email. "Also, the weather predictions were for high clouds this night, [but] we managed to capture a couple of genuine meteors."

Tenerife is a volcanic island and home to Tiede, the highest mountain in Spain. Porto's photos show Quadrantid meteors streaking over Tiede and other peaks, with dark rock formations setting the scene.

According to the skywatching website Spaceweather.com and the International Meteor Organization, this year's Quadrantid display peaked at about 80 meteors an hour.

This reporter spotted three meteors within a 20-minute period of observing from West Orange, N.J., before the frigid winter night forced a retreat back inside. In Florida, skywatcher Richard Hay was more resilient.

"My wife and I ventured out into the frigid 26-degree Florida night this morning to catch the shower with our own eyes and were rewarded with about 20 or so bright Quadrantids over a 90-minute period," Hay wrote in a blog post.

In Ozark, Arkansas, skywatcher Brian Emfinger reported seeing several meteors that ? while not especially bright ? were still impressive.

"I caught one nice Quadrantid Earthgrazer that shot across much of the sky, but it wasn't super-bright," Emfinger told SPACE.com in an email. "It did leave a trail that was visible for about 15 minutes." Earthgrazers are meteors that occur low on the horizon, and can sometimes light up in dazzling fireball displays.

Unlike some of the more well-known annual meteor showers, such as the Perseid and Geminid displays late in the year, the Quadrantid meteor shower's peak lasts only a few hours. The Quadrantids and Geminids originate from the asteroid 2003 EH1, which astronomers suspect was once part of a larger comet that broke into pieces several hundred years ago.

The small space rocks that become Quadrantid meteors hit the atmosphere at speeds of about 90,000 mph and burn up about 50 miles above the Earth, creating dazzling fireballs.

The Quadrantid meteor shower is named for the constellation Quadrans Murals (or Mural Quadrant, which was an early astronomy tool for observing stars), a pattern first observed in 1795 by the French astronomer Jerome Lalande. The Quadrans Murals is located between the better-known constellations of Bootes the Hersdman and Draco the Dragon.

Editor's note: If you snapped an amazing photo the Quadrantid meteor shower or any other skywatching sight and would like to share it with SPACE.com, contact managing editor Tariq Malik at?tmalik@space.com.

You can follow Tariq Malik on Twitter?@tariqjmalik.?Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter?@Spacedotcom?and on?Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20120104/sc_space/spectacularphotos1stmeteorshowerof2012amazesskywatchers

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Messi scores double after quick recovery from flu

Associated Press Sports

updated 6:04 p.m. ET Jan. 4, 2012

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) -After having been ruled out with the flu, Lionel Messi showed no signs of illness when he netted a pair of second-half goals in Barcelona's 4-0 win over Osasuna in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday.

Barcelona had announced earlier in the day that Messi would miss the game because of flulike symptoms, but minutes before the start of the round-of-16 game the club said its star "had responded positively to treatment and is better."

Messi went on after halftime and had little trouble taking his season scoring tally to 31 goals while giving Barcelona a sizable advantage in the knockout series.

The Argentina forward headed in a cross from Cesc Fabregas in the 72nd minute and fired in a left-footer from the edge of the area in stoppage time.

"I hadn't vomited and didn't have a temperature, it was just a stomach ache, nothing else," Messi said after the game. "That's why I didn't practice in the morning, but later I felt better and was good to play."

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola insisted after the game that the club had acted correctly in originally ruling Messi unfit for the match since he hadn't been able to take part in morning training.

"This morning (Messi) had stomach pains and shakes, he didn't feel well, and since (Victor) Valdes had the flu we thought Messi had it too, so I sent him home," Guardiola said after the game. "Later in the afternoon he called and said he was better, and I decided I preferred to have him on the bench as opposed to the stands."

Goalkeeper Valdes did miss the game because of the flu, according to the club.

Backup goalkeeper Jose Pinto was already set to start for last year's runner-up, meaning reserve team goalkeeper Oier Olazabal took Valdes' spot on the bench.

The two Spanish teams will play the second leg in Pamplona next week.

If Barcelona eliminates Osasuna, it faces a possible meeting with defending champion Real Madrid in the quarterfinals.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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More newsPaul Ellis / AFP - Getty Images

Howard scores for Everton

??Tim Howard became the fourth goalkeeper to score in the Premier League when the American put in a wind-blown clearance from about 100 yards during Everton's 2-1 loss to Bolton on Wednesday night.

Man U routed

??Manchester United lost its second straight Premier League game, a 3-0 defeat to Newcastle on Wednesday night that left Manchester City with a three-point lead.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45354014/ns/sports-soccer/

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Exxon Mobil: $908 M awarded in Venezuela dispute

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? An international arbitration body has awarded Exxon Mobil Corp. nearly $908 million in a dispute with Venezuela over compensation for the nationalization of its assets, the company said Sunday.

Exxon Mobil sought arbitration after President Hugo Chavez's government nationalized an oil project in the country in 2007.

The decision by the International Chamber of Commerce confirmed that state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA "does have a contractual liability to Exxon Mobil," company spokesman Patrick McGinn said in an email. He said the award is for $907,588,000.

Venezuelan government officials did not respond to messages on Sunday seeking comment.

"The dispute is not over Venezuela's power to expropriate assets, but rather the failure of PDVSA to comply with contractual provisions to compensate Exxon Mobil," McGinn said.

The Irving, Texas-based oil company has not publicly released figures on how much it was seeking in compensation. McGinn said the company received the decision on Friday and was still reviewing its more than 400 pages.

According to the ICC's arbitration rules, decisions are binding.

Exxon Mobil still has another arbitration case pending against Venezuela before the World Bank-affiliated International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, or ICSID. More than a dozen other arbitration cases involving Venezuela are also pending as companies have sought billions of dollars in compensation in response to nationalizations by Chavez's leftist government.

The Caracas-based consulting firm Ecoanalitica estimated recently, before the latest Exxon Mobil decision, that the bulk of the government's nationalizations involved more than $33.7 billion in assets, including about $23 billion in outstanding obligations.

Venezuela has reached negotiated settlements on payments to some other companies.

Last month, Mexican cement company Cemex SAB said Venezuela agreed to pay $600 million for the 2008 takeover of the company's operations in the country.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-01-LT-Venezuela-Exxon-Mobil/id-3a816e6750554f8ea84745f899c6768b

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NCAA Men's Basketball: Baldwin-Wallace 89, Alma College 81

BEREA, Ohio - The Alma College men's basketball team was edged by Baldwin-Wallace on Friday, falling by a score of 89-81.

The Scots (4-7) were tied at 41-41 at halftime, but were unable to rally for the victory in the second half against Baldwin-Wallace (8-3).

Tommy Erickson had 19 points and six rebounds to lead the Scots while Brandon Krause added 16 points.

Kyle Payne led Baldwin-Wallace as he had 25 points.

The Scots return to action on Wednesday as they host Hope College at 8 p.m.

Source: http://themorningsun.com/articles/2011/12/31/sports/doc4efef0d3c96f6785268028.txt

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Alex Dos Santos Faria is watching X-Men: First Class

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Source: http://getglue.com/conversation/alex_dos_santos_faria/2012-01-01T19%3A49%3A06Z

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China moving to more convertible yuan: Zhou (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? China's central bank governor argued in comments published on Saturday that Beijing does not control the yuan's flow across borders as tightly as some think and that it is natural for the currency's trading band to be widened over time.

Zhou Xiaochuan said in an interview with Chinese magazine Caixin that China did not fare badly on an International Monetary Fund measure of currencies' convertibility under the capital account.

But he stopped short of calling for a fully convertible currency.

"If the highest standard of measurement is to have wholly unrestricted convertibility, then so many developed countries have not achieved 100 percent full convertibility," Zhou told the magazine.

Investors increasingly expect that China will give them more freedom to trade the tightly controlled yuan.

While the currency is already convertible under China's current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, the capital account, which measures inflows and outflows of different types of capital, is still closely managed by Beijing as it worries about capital flight and hot money inflows.

Countries with convertible currencies under their capital account let their currencies trade with few restrictions for investment purposes.

Zhou noted China must regulate levels of foreign debt incurred by private and public sectors to reduce currency risks, monitor cross-border deals to guard against illegal activities such as money laundering, and combat speculative capital flows.

"Excluding the above three factors and judging from the 40 sub-items set by the IMF, you may find that actually China is not that far from capital account convertibility," Zhou said.

Still, he said Beijing would keep improving the exchange rate regime to make it more flexible, adding it is natural for the currency to fluctuate in a bigger trading band in future.

"The yuan's trading band will be widened," he said.

China currently lets the yuan trade in a 0.5 percent range, and moves to increase that band would show Beijing is gradually relaxing its control over the currency.

"Compared with international markets, you may know that the 0.5 percent (daily trading band) is quite a small floating band," Zhou said.

INFLATION CONCERNS WANING

Investors had speculated earlier this year when China was fighting three-year high inflation that Beijing would widen the yuan's trading band to accelerate its rise and combat price pressures.

Instead, Beijing raised interest rates three times, moves that have produced some tentative success: Inflation eased to 4.2 percent in November, down from a 6.5 percent high in July.

Zhou acknowledged that price pressures are easing and that the job of fighting inflation is not as urgent as before. But he warned against complacency.

"Inflationary pressure is easing, and curbing inflation is not as urgent as in 2011," he said. "But we should not lower our guard against inflation and must appropriately manage inflation expectations."

He said that it is difficult for China to achieve the government's annual inflation ceiling of 4 percent this year and he expects inflation to be around 5 percent this year.

"China has been always having relatively big scope to adjust its monetary policy," Zhou said when asked whether a drop in China's foreign exchange purchases in recent months has given the central bank more room to adjust monetary policy.

President Hu Jintao in his televised New Year's address on Saturday, said the government would continue to maintain relatively fast economic growth and manage inflationary expectations in the year ahead.

But he also warned that "uncertainty about the global economic recovery is on the rise."

The yuan closed at a record high against the dollar on Friday, passing through resistance at 6.30 and ending 2011 with an appreciation of 4.7 percent, with traders citing signs of central bank intervention to push the yuan up at the end of the year.

The yuan's gains for the year are in line with the 4 to 5 percent traders in the onshore market had expected at the start of the year.

Traders still see the yuan appreciating in 2012 as China faces U.S. pressure to do more to rebalance bilateral and world trade, while it continues to record trade surpluses.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard and Fang Yan; Editing by Edward Lane and Hugh Lawson)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111231/bs_nm/us_china_economy_inflation

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'Real Housewives' Star Kim Richards Leaves Rehab

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kim Richards is back from rehab and back on the wagon.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/real-housewives-beverly-hills-star-kim-richards-leaves-rehab/1-a-414478?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Areal-housewives-beverly-hills-star-kim-richards-leaves-rehab-414478

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