A mystery of the universe unfolds in space

GENEVA (AP) ? A $2 billion cosmic ray detector on the International Space Station has found the first significant hint of dark matter, the mysterious substance that is believed to hold the cosmos together but has never been directly observed, scientists say.

The first results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which was sent into space two years ago, show evidence of a new physics phenomena that could be the strange and unknown matter, an international team at the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva announced Wednesday.

Nobel-winning physicist Samuel Ting, who leads the team, said he expects a more conclusive answer within months.

The data is being collected and analyzed at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, along the Swiss-French border.

The findings Wednesday are based on seeing an excess of positrons ? positively charged subatomic particles. Since the 7-ton AMS magnetic detector began studying cosmic ray particles in space, it found about 400,000 positrons whose surging energies indicate they might have been created when particles of dark matter collided and destroyed each other.

The first results from the detector are significant, because dark matter is thought to make up about a quarter of all the matter in the universe. Unraveling the mystery of dark matter could help scientists better understand the composition of our universe and, more particularly, what holds galaxies together.

"This is an 80-year-old detective story and we are getting close to the end," said University of Chicago physicist Michael Turner, one of the giants in the field of dark matter. "This is a tantalizing clue and further results from AMS could finish the story."

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Science writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report from Washington.

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Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer: http://www.ams02.org/

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-hint-dark-matter-cosmos-150157072.html

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Video: PFT Live: Romo deal hinged on timing

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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/21134540/vp/51394432#51394432

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Singaporean Sushi Bar Acquires Tech Firm, Turns Founders Into Sushi Chefs

A Singaporean sushi chain has acquired a game psychology company in what looks like an acquisition of the latter’s four founders. Standing Sushi Bar, which runs three outlets in Singapore and another in Jakarta, said it bought Gametize for an eight-digit sum. Gametize has a platform called GameMaki that gives clients a way to work challenges into their customer-facing services. It’s been working with Standing Sushi Bar since 2011, when the sushi restaurant started listing weekly “challenges” at its outlets in exchange for points to be redeemed for discounts. While Gametize’s CEO, Keith Ng, will become the sushi bar’s technology head and CTO, Damon Widjaja, will manage Indonesia’s technology office, it seems Standing Sushi Bar wants them for more than their technology prowess. Both Ng and Widjaja are set to undergo formal training as sushi chefs. Gametize’s two other founders, Jesslyn Teo and Brenda Nicole Tan, will run a new fusion sushi concept bar to be opened in Singapore called Sushitize. Standing Sushi Bar’s CEO is Howard Lo, a former long-time Microsoft employee. PS: It’s April 1, guys.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/BHXquk4O5xM/

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5 Tips to Getting Facebook to Work For You | GIFTE

Facebook has become a staple of most of our lives. With more than 1 billion (with a B!) users worldwide, it?s become a go-to source for connection and information for a huge number of people. Did you know the average person checks their Facebook news feed
about 7 times per day? With all of this happening, it?s become pretty much imperative
for your business to have a presence on Facebook somehow.

Like most travel professionals, I spent quite a bit of time confused and frustrated by Facebook and was starting to wonder if it was even worth the effort. Every email I sent to clients said ?like us on Facebook? at the bottom and I spent all this time posting to my agency page but not only were the number of likes not growing, but the people who had liked the page weren?t interacting with it at all. Sound familiar?

When I made a commitment to seriously growing my business, I decided that Facebook was one of the vehicles I would use to make that happen so I devoted myself to finding a way to make it work for me. It was very clearly working for many other brands, so why couldn?t I do the same? Fast forward 24 months and Facebook is a major source of business for Magical Memories Travel. On an average week we typically book between 3 and 7 vacations for people who say they found us through Facebook.

Here are a few tips to help you establish your business presence on Facebook:

1. Stop using your personal Facebook profile to market your business.
This is probably one of the most common questions I hear from travel professionals looking to use Facebook for marketing. Should I be using my personal profile or my business page? The answer is always a business page. In fact, Facebook terms of use prohibit you from doing business on your personal profile. Here?s the thing, just because your personal friends ?like? things you post about your business doesn?t mean they are going to do business with you. They are your friends and family ? they love you but most of us learned very early in this business that friends and family are typically our worst clients, right? Stop kidding yourself that the likes and comments on your personal page are going to generate real, significant revenue and bring everything over to a business page where Facebook will give you the tools to measure how effective your marketing efforts really are.

2. Social media is all about connection. Stop selling and start connecting!
Even with using a business page, it?s still about connection with the people you?ve attracted to your page. Remember people do business with those they know, like and trust. Let them get to know you! Share some of your life with them. Post information relevant to them other than your services. Post travel info without saying ?contact me for a free quote? on every post. You are building a connection with them and still reminding them that you are the ?go-to girl? when it comes to your travel niche. Social media is never the place for a hard sell.

3. Show your face!!!
People connect with people, not with logos. Unless your agency?s Facebook page is well established as the brand already, you will want to use your photo as your profile image. Seeing your face associated with your posts helps to build that know, like and trust connection. Posts made with a profile photo that is a headshot image where your face is clearly visible typically generate more engagement than those with a logo. In fact, you may want to consider having your business name display as either your name or your name and your business name. Many of your clients probably know you by name more readily than they do by your agency name. Remember, the name of the game is connection and people are on social media to connect with PEOPLE, not businesses.

4. Be consistent
This applies both to your message and ?voice? and to your posting schedule/routine. You want to make sure that you are putting forth the same image everywhere your clients can find you. On your web site, your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google Plus and in face to face meetings. If you have mixed messages, people will sense that you are not being genuine and authentic and nothing destroys trust faster than that! You also want to be consistent in your posting. Showing up regularly in front of your ?fans? increases that connection and will encourage them to interact with your page.

5. Don?t forget to be SOCIAL!
Post often and be sure to come back and interact with your fans when they comment. Don?t just like their comments and move on, speak to them! Ask a follow up question, thank them for commenting, respond to something they?ve said. Be friendly. Use their first name when you reply to them. A big mistake a lot of travel professionals make is to schedule all of their posts in advance and never go back to read what their fans are saying in reply. The more you interact, the stronger the connection!

Facebook can be a great tool for building your business, but just like everything else you work at it! If you?ve been struggling to make Facebook work for your business, make sure to join us on the tomorrow?s GIFTE ?Proof Facebook Works? webinar. I?ll be sharing lots of tips from my experience using Facebook to generate new leads and travel bookings in my business.

Source: http://www.travelbusinessu.com/5-tips-to-getting-facebook-to-work-for-you

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NKorea's parliament meets amid nuclear tension

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? After weeks of war-like rhetoric, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gathered legislators Monday for an annual spring parliamentary session taking place one day after top party officials adopted a statement declaring building nuclear weapons and the economy the nation's top priorities.

The meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly follows near-daily threats from Pyongyang, including vows of nuclear strikes on South Korea and the U.S.

Pyongyang has reacted with anger over routine U.S.-South Korean military drills and a new round of U.N. and U.S. sanctions that followed its Feb. 12 underground nuclear test, the country's third. Analysts see a full-scale North Korean attack as unlikely and say the threats are more likely efforts to provoke softer policies toward Pyongyang from a new government in Seoul, to win diplomatic talks with Washington and to solidify the young North Korean leader's military credentials at home.

On Sunday, Kim and top party officials adopted a declaration calling nuclear weapons the "the nation's life" and an important component of its defense, an asset that wouldn't be traded even for "billions of dollars." Pyongyang cites the U.S. military presence in South Korea as a main reason behind its drive to build missiles and atomic weapons. The U.S. has stationed tens of thousands of troops in South Korea since the Korean War ended in a truce in 1953.

North Korea also has threatened in recent days to shut down a jointly run factory complex in the North ? the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean rapprochement. But officials in Seoul say hundreds of workers traveled as usual across the heavily armed border to the North Korean factory Monday as they have throughout the rising tensions.

"I have no idea about what it will be like when I go to the North Korean side. It seems OK to be here, but we will be living there in a tense situation for a week," Kim Won-soo, a South Korean manager working in Kaesong, said before his departure Monday from Paju, South Korea.

While analysts call North Korea's threats largely brinkmanship, there is some fear that a localized skirmish might escalate. Seoul has vowed to respond harshly should North Korea provoke its military. Naval skirmishes in disputed Yellow Sea waters off the Korean coast have led to bloody battles several times over the years. Attacks blamed on Pyongyang in 2010 killed 50 South Koreans.

South Korea's new president, Park Geun-hye, is pursuing a policy that seeks to re-engage North Korea with dialogue and aid after five years of standoff. But she told her military Monday to set aside political considerations and respond strongly should North Korea attack.

Meanwhile, deputies to North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly gathered in Pyongyang. The SPA schedule Monday was unclear.

Under late leader Kim Jong Il, North Korea had typically held a parliamentary meeting once a year. But Kim Jong Un held an unusual second session last September in a sign that he is trying to run the country differently from his father, who died in late 2011.

Parliament sessions, which usually are held to approve personnel changes and budget and fiscal plans, are scrutinized by the outside world for signs of key changes in policy and leadership.

At a session last April, Kim was made first chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission, the body's top post.

On Sunday, Kim presided over a separate plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party, which set a "new strategic line" calling for building both a stronger economy and nuclear arsenal.

North Korea's nuclear weapons are a "treasure of a reunified country" not to be traded for "billions of dollars," according to a statement issued by state media after the meeting. North Korea's "nuclear armed forces represent the nation's life, which can never be abandoned as long as the imperialists and nuclear threats exist on earth."

Sunday marked the first time for Kim to preside over the committee meeting, a top decision-making body tasked with organizing and guiding the party's major projects. The last plenary session was held in 2010, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry, and before that in 1993.

The plenary statement also called for strengthening the moribund economy, which Kim has put an emphasis on in his public statements since taking power. The U.N. says two-thirds of the country's 24 million people face regular food shortages.

The North also named former Prime Minister Pak Pong Ju as a member of the party central committee's powerful Political Bureau, a sign that he could again play a key role in the North's economic policymaking process. Pak reportedly was sacked as premier in 2007 after proposing a wage system seen as too similar to U.S.-style capitalism.

Pak is reform-minded and his promotion sets him up for further advancement and "for him to take the lead in the North's economic policies," said Cheong Seong-jang at South Korea's Sejong Institute.

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Follow Foster Klug at www.twitter.com/APKlug.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nkoreas-parliament-meets-amid-nuclear-tension-045319187.html

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MetroPCS promotes T-Mobile deal after advisers pan it

(Reuters) - MetroPCS Communications Inc urged shareholders to support its proposed merger with Deutsche Telekom AG's unit T-Mobile USA after two proxy advisory firms recommended that shareholders vote against it.

Proxy advisers Glass Lewis and ISS have backed efforts by two key activist investors to block the deal by recommending that shareholders vote against it at a special meeting on April 12.

MetroPCS said in a letter to shareholders on Monday there could be no assurance it would be able to deliver better shareholder value as a stand-alone wireless company.

But the company's shares closed up 1 percent on Monday as at least some investors bet that the advisory firm's recommendations could lead to a better deal.

Glass Lewis said late Thursday that the deal undervalued MetroPCS's contribution to the combined company. ISS said MetroPCS could thrive as a stand-alone company.

Madison Dearborn Partners, the second-largest shareholder, has thrown its weight behind the deal.

But Paulson & Co, the biggest MetroPCS shareholder, has said it would vote against the deal and P. Schoenfeld Asset Management, an owner of about 2.5 percent of MetroPCS shares, is leading a proxy battle against the transaction.

Another set of funds run by Westchester Capital Management, filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court Thursday seeking an injunction to halt the planned shareholder vote. Westchester funds own over 3 percent of MetroPCS shares.

Roy Behren, a portfolio manager at the firm, said that Deutsche Telekom would need to adjust the terms of its offer, including the proposed $21 billion debt level of the combined company, to win over shareholders.

"They would need to adjust the equity participation split. We would prefer less debt and we certainly would want a lower rate for the inter-company debt," Behren said.

"If the terms were to be modified, Deutsche Telekom would be able to get a lot of the larger shareholders back on board," he added.

Under the terms of the reverse merger announced in October, Deutsche Telekom would end up with 74 percent of the combined company, and MetroPCS would declare a 1-for-2 reverse stock split and pay $1.5 billion in cash to its shareholders.

T-Mobile USA, the No. 4 mobile provider in the United States, and MetroPCS want to pool their spectrum resources and networks in order to better compete with larger rivals Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc and Sprint Nextel Corp.

If the MetroPCS deal collapses, it would be a huge blow for Deutsche Telekom, since in 2011 it had to abandon its plan to sell T-Mobile USA to AT&T for $39 billion because of opposition from U.S. regulators.

MetroPCS shares closed up 15 cents or more than 1 percent at $11.05 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.

(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore, Sinead Carew in New York; Editing by Maju Samuel, Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Leslie Gevirtz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/metropcs-urges-shareholders-vote-t-mobile-deal-121325061--finance.html

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NY gov postpones budget trip to Buffalo, Rochester

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo has postponed his trip to western New York to sign the state budget that was passed by the Legislature last week.

Cuomo's office says Monday morning that weather conditions have forced the postponement of the trip.

The governor was scheduled to hold ceremonial signings of the spending plan at noon Monday at the University of Buffalo's South Campus and at 2:15 p.m. at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center. There's no immediate word on when the trip will be rescheduled.

Lawmakers completed passage of the $135 billion budget late Thursday night, three days before the March 31 deadline. That gave the state its third-consecutive on-time budget.

Cuomo and legislative leaders call the spending plan a family-friendly, business-friendly and middle-class-friendly budget.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ny-gov-postpones-budget-trip-152245184.html

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