Moody's cuts credit ratings for Slovenia (AP)

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the credit ratings for Slovenia, saying the country's government faces risks from the eurozone debt crisis and the potential that it may need to step in and provide financial support to banks.

The ratings firm on Thursday lowered the nation's local and foreign currency government bond ratings by one notch to "A1" from "Aa3." It has a negative outlook on the ratings.

The move comes amid growing uncertainty over the prospects for eurozone countries to contain the region's debt crisis.

Moody's said the eurozone debt and funding crisis has exposed significant vulnerabilities in the largest financial institutions in Slovenia. The firm noted that, since the outset of the crisis, Slovenian banks have needed the government to provide debt guarantees and capital.

Slovenia will have to provide much more support to its banks in the future, because the lenders' assets, profitability and funding needs are expected to continue, Moody's said.

Under one scenario studied by the firm, Slovenia would potentially need to provide between 2 percent and 8 percent of gross domestic product in coming years to support its largest banks.

Moody's also sees greater risks that the Slovenian economy will not grow in the medium-term as companies, people and sectors of the government roll back spending.

Another concern is the volatile funding conditions of eurozone bond markets, which represents a risk to Slovenia, should the its financing needs exceed original estimates.

Moody's downgrades Slovenia's credit ratings to A1, negative outlook

Last week, Fitch Ratings placed the ratings for all eurozone nations, including Slovenia, under review for a possible downgrade. Fitch said it expects to complete the review by the end of January.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111223/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_slovenia_ratings

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Obama campaign, DNC return Corzine contributions (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama's re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee have returned more than $70,000 in contributions from former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine following the collapse of MF Global, Corzine's financial firm, officials said Friday.

Obama's campaign and the DNC returned contributions of $35,800 from Corzine and his wife, Sharon Elghanayan, said Democratic officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. They were not authorized to speak publicly.

Corzine was among Obama's top fundraisers, raising at least $500,000 for Obama's re-election campaign since April, according to records released by the campaign. The former Goldman Sachs chief held a fundraiser for the president last April and was considered a main Obama emissary to Wall Street.

One of the Democratic officials said the campaign and DNC would evaluate whether to return donations from other MF Global employees on a case-by-case basis.

A spokesman for Corzine declined to comment.

MF Global filed for bankruptcy protection on Oct. 31 after a disastrous bet on European debt sparked fear among investors and trading partners. It was the eighth-largest U.S. bankruptcy and the largest on Wall Street since the 2008 collapse of Lehman Bros.

About $1.2 billion was found to be missing from client accounts when the securities firm failed, with much of the missing money belonging to farmers, ranchers and other business owners who used MF Global to reduce their risks from fluctuating prices of commodities such as corn and wheat. The FBI and federal regulators are investigating MF Global.

Corzine, who also is a former U.S. senator, told congressional panels earlier this month that he didn't know any customer money was missing until the day before MF Global collapsed.

Bloomberg News was first to report the returned campaign contributions.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111224/ap_on_el_pr/us_obama_corzine

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4 personal finance technology trends for 2012 (AP)

NEW YORK ? If you're one of the holdouts still paying bills with checks, tracking your accounts with pen and paper or clipping coupons from the newspaper, 2012 could be the year you take the digital plunge.

A host of budding personal finance services and applications are poised to go mainstream in the new year, and together, they will likely have a big impact on the way Americans bank, shop, and track their finances. Some of the services are web-based, but many take advantage of the proliferation of smartphones, which are now carried by one-third of U.S. adults ? with more likely to join that crowd in the next few days after receiving the gadgets as holiday gifts.

Whether online or mobile, here are some personal finance technologies to watch in 2012:

? Mobile money

The September launch of Google Wallet was just one high-profile move toward the use of smartphones for payments, replacing credit or debit cards. The technology allows users to wave their phones in front of payment terminals and have transactions deducted from linked bank accounts or credit cards. Expect more options for electronic payments from mobile service providers and card networks next year, and wider adoption of the terminals by retailers, mass transit systems and more.

Another innovation that is already being heavily promoted is person-to-person payments. American Express Co., MasterCard Inc., Visa Inc. and PayPal all offer ways for their customers to send and receive money using links to various accounts and cards. As the TV commercials depict, if this technology takes off there will be no more fumbling for cash when it's time to split the check at a restaurant, and sending money across town or across borders will be easier, faster and less expensive.

? Non-bank money management

Mint.com, the popular personal finance site, was only the beginning. A raft of new money management tools are now available that can help users keep track of bills, investments and other aspects of their financial lives.

Among the standouts is Manilla.com, which not only pulls together household bills and financial accounts, but also helps users keep track of details like travel rewards points and magazine subscriptions. The service provides reminders for when bills are due and has features that make it easy to pay bills or set up auto payments. Since the company's goal is to help its customers eliminate paper clutter, there's even a way to store electronic account statements. And it has a smartphone app for accessing all these functions on the go.

Other non-bank options include Pageonce, an app that automatically tracks bills and enables users to make payments on their phone; savvymoney.com, a site that offers debt-management help; and Betterment.com, a site designed to simplify investing.

? Targeted deals

The combination of geo-location technology that can track your movements when you're carrying your smartphone, and QR codes, those weird squares appearing more and more often in advertising, is enabling companies to offer personalized discounts and on-the-spot deals to customers willing to opt into their programs.

Mall shoppers have already started getting texts and emails designed to lure them into certain stores, and the technology can also be used to encourage customers to enter contests, demonstrate new apps or products and even contact customer service.

? Social commerce

Javelin Strategy & Research, a financial services research firm, is using this term to identify the trend toward the combination of commerce and social networking on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

While these sites are moving toward making it easier to shop without navigating toward a link, that's just one step toward social commerce.

The concept of financial social networking is also being expanded by companies like Weemba.com, whose site allows individuals to search for a loan by posting nontraditional details like a description of the need for the money ? debt consolidation, a mortgage refinance, or a kitchen makeover complete with the designer's plans, for instance. The details posted add depth to the usual credit score and financial information that banks and other funders may review, and the site opens the lending request to a wider audience.

Other examples of the use or concept of social networking include Kickstarter.com, where creative types can seek funding for their artistic endeavors and those willing to provide seed money can choose to provide all or part of the needed funds to get the project off the ground.

Saveup.com is a game aimed at helping individuals pay down debt and build savings, and Bundle.com uses data tracking and spending information to produce lists of popular restaurants and stores in selected cities, helping users find the right spot at the right price.

Banks are also experimenting with ways to make use of social networking to interact with customers, with some success. Even Bank of America Corp., a recurring target for gripes large and small about the financial system this year, has nearly 365,000 "likes" on its official Facebook page, which it uses for efforts like supporting community causes and advertising opportunities like its Student Leader program, which offers paid internships to high schoolers who work at charitable organizations.

Customers can expect more on these fronts from startups and big financial institutions in the next 12 months.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personalfinance/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111223/ap_on_hi_te/us_personal_finance_tech_trends

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Obesity rise prompts Wash. ferry capacity change (AP)

SEATTLE ? The Washington state ferry service isn't going to start turning away hefty passengers, but it has had to reduce the capacity of the nation's largest ferry system because people have been packing on the pounds.

Coast Guard vessel stability rules that took effect nationwide Dec. 1 raised the estimated weight of the average adult passenger to 185 pounds from the previous 160 pounds, based on population information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

During the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States and about one-third of American adults are now considered obese, the CDC says on its website.

The state ferry system has complied with the new stability rules by simply reducing the listed capacity of its vessels, Coast Guard Lt. Eric Young said Wednesday.

"That has effectively reduced the amount of passengers by about 250 passengers or so depending on the particular ferry," said Young, who is based in Seattle. "They generally carry about 2,000, so it's down to 1,750 now."

With that many passengers, the ferry wouldn't tip over even if everyone ran to the side at the same time to look at a pod of killer whales, he said.

The state operates 23 white and green vessels on 10 routes across Puget Sound and through the San Juan Islands to British Columbia. Carrying more than 22 million passengers a year, it's the biggest ferry system in the United States and one of the four largest in the world, said system spokeswoman Marta Coursey.

The ferries themselves could be contributing to passenger girth. The galleys cater to customers looking for fast food they can eat while looking out the windows at the scenery and seagulls. Calorie counters typically aren't buying the hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken strips.

"We do serve light beer," said Peggy Wilkes who has worked 20 years for the food concessionaire, Olympic Cascade Services, which serves food and drinks on 12 of the state ferries.

News reports of overloaded ferries sinking in other parts of the world are sometimes a topic of discussion, she said.

"I think it's cool the Coast Guard is keeping up on that," she said. "Not that we overload them. A couple of times, like for a Seahawks game, we've had to cut off passengers and had to leave them at the dock."

Carol Johnston, who has been riding the state ferries since 1972, said she found the rule change perplexing.

"The ferries are not listing, they are not sinking," said Johnston, who was onboard a Seattle-bound ferry from Bainbridge Island Wednesday afternoon. "How are you going to establish how much weight there is on the ferry?"

Johnston worried about the potential loss in revenue, which could cause ferry fares to increase further. And she joked she may alter her eating habits.

"That means I will not have popcorn with my wine," Johnston said.

The reduced passenger capacity is unlikely to have much practical effect on the spacious ferries, said Coursey, the system spokeswoman. The ferries often fill up with vehicles, but the number of passengers, especially walk-ons, is seldom a problem, she said.

The new stability rules may have a bigger impact on the smaller charter fishing boats, such as those that take anglers fishing out of the Pacific Ocean ports of Westport and Ilwaco, Young said. Any vessel that carries more than six paying customers has to be inspected and certified by the Coast Guard as a passenger vessel.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111222/ap_on_re_us/us_ferry_weight

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Amplifier helps diamond spy on atoms

ScienceDaily (Dec. 20, 2011) ? An 'amplifier' molecule placed on the tip of a diamond could help scientists locate and identify individual atoms, Oxford University and Singapore scientists believe.

The idea builds on ongoing work towards creating a diamond nanocrystal that can be used to detect an atom's incredibly weak magnetic field. Defects within the diamond hold electrons that act rather like a compass, lining up with even the very weak magnetic field emanating from the core of an atom.

Crucially this diamond compass can be 'read' by shining a pulse of laser light into the crystal giving information about the location and type of atom -- for instance telling the difference between a carbon and hydrogen atom and giving their exact location within a structure such as a virus or new material.

'The problem with this approach is that the 'compass' only behaves well if it is buried within the diamond: this makes it very difficult to get it close enough to a structure to detect an individual atom's magnetic field,' said Dr Simon Benjamin of Oxford University's Department of Materials and National University of Singapore. 'It's a bit like trying to grasp one particular marble out of a bucket of marbles whilst wearing an oven glove.

'The new research, which the team recently report in Physical Review Letters, calculates that by attaching another 'compass' -- the amplifier molecule -- to the tip of the diamond this will pass the information about an atom along to the compass inside the diamond that can then be read.

'Our calculations show for the first time how such an amplifier could be used to make a diamond probe sensitive enough to pinpoint and identify individual atomic cores,' said Dr Benjamin. 'If this can be made to work, the additional information we would gain would be rather like moving from black and white photographs of atoms to full colour.

'Dr Erik Gauger of Oxford University's Department of Materials and National University of Singapore, an author of the paper with Dr Benjamin, said: 'The device that we propose may well represent the limit of what is possible in terms of magnetic field sensitivity and resolution; if, as we hope, it allows direct identification of atoms by their core signatures, then it will be a revolutionary tool in chemistry, biology and medicine.'

The team believe that it may only be a couple of years before diamond probes are created that will reveal the world of the atom in unprecedented detail but that the small step of adding an amplifier could make such systems many times more powerful.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Marcus Schaffry, Erik Gauger, John Morton, Simon Benjamin. Proposed Spin Amplification for Magnetic Sensors Employing Crystal Defects. Physical Review Letters, 2011; 107 (20) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.207210

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/ihX5rLnGcjI/111220204454.htm

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US stocks drop; BofA and other big banks fall hard (AP)

NEW YORK ? The stock market took a late afternoon fall after European finance ministers failed to come up with the full amount of money pledged for a bailout fund.

Banks led the way down. Morgan Stanley dropped more than 5 percent and Bank of America Corp. sank 4 percent, the biggest fall in the Dow Jones Industrial average.

The Dow lost 100 points, or 0.8 percent to close at 11,766.

The S&P 500 index fell 14 points, or 1.2 percent, to 1,205. The Nasdaq composite index fell 32 points, or 1.3 percent, to 2,523.

Cautious comments from the head of the European Central Bank also helped push stocks lower.

Nearly four stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. Trading volume was very light at 3.5 billion.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111219/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/wall_street

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Video: Disaster Du Jour & Sunshine Stock: CVC & VRX

CNBC's Mandy Drury shares the details of one stock to avoid and another to watch: cable provider Cablevision and Valeant Pharmaceuticals.

Related Links:

Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/45701144/

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Indian Charlie Loses Battle with Cancer | BloodHorse.com

Updated: Friday, December 16, 2011 2:16 PM
Posted: Thursday, December 15, 2011 8:45 PM

Indian Charlie Loses Battle with Cancer

Photo: Tony Leonard/Courtesy Airdrie Stud

Indian Charlie

Airdrie Stud confirmed that its top stallion Indian Charlie??was euthanized at about 9:30 a.m. EST Dec. 15. The 16-year-old son of In Excess had been battling cancer.

"Losing Indian Charlie after a challenging battle with Hemangiosarcoma and its complications has been a shock to us all," Airdrie wrote?in a press release.?"He was dearly loved by everyone that cared for him on a daily basis. 'Charlie' has been a shining star at Airdrie for many years now. His personality, toughness, and utter determination remained with him throughout treatment.

"He won many hearts at Hagyard?s, and received an endless supply of much deserved carrots and peppermints while there. Our thanks go out to everyone involved with this fine stallion, and to our shareholders and breeders who faithfully supported Indian Charlie over the years.

"We would sincerely like to thank Dr. Nathan Slovis and his team at McGee Medical Center for their unrelenting efforts to try and save our stallion."

As a racehorse Indian Charlie only made five starts, but won four times for trainer Bob Baffert and owners Hal Earnhardt III and John R. Gaines Racing Stable. His victory over the Baffert-trained Real Quiet in the 1998 Santa Anita Derby (gr. I) sent him to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby (gr. I) as the early favorite.

Sent off at 5-2 in the 15-horse field, Indian Charlie finished third to Real Quiet in what would be his last start. Given some time off after the Derby, he was in training to return in?the Buick Haskell Invitational Handicap (gr. I) but was retired after pulling a suspensory in a workout at Del Mar.

Earnhardt not only bred Indian?Charlie in California, but raced his mare, Soviet Sojourn, as well.

"He was as homegrown as you could get, and that's why we were so emotional when we found out," said Earnhardt, who bred and raced his horses with his wife, Patti. "It hits home, especially because he was one we bred and raised, and had a champion out of him. Its very difficult.

?More than anything, he brought our family together. My family all got to experience the Derby for the first time with him, which are some great memories. Unfortunately, that was his last time out, but?he will?go down as one of the greats, not only as a racehorse but as a prolific sire. He was the whole package, which is hard to get sometimes.

"Airdrie did a great job with him over the years.?He got the best care in the world and I?have nothing?but praise for them."

Indian Charlie?is the sire of three North American champions headed by 2010 champion 2-year-old male Uncle Mo??. Winner of the Grey Goose Breeders? Cup Juvenile (gr. I) and Champagne Stakes (gr. I) last year, Uncle Mo was a leading contender for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) until a liver ailment sidelined him the week of the Derby.

Returned to training, Uncle Mo was beaten a nose in the Foxwoods King?s Bishop Stakes (gr. I), then won the Kelso Handicap (gr. II) before running unplaced in the?Breeders? Cup Classic (gr. I).

Uncle Mo will stand his first year at stud at Ashford Stud near Versailles, Ky., for a fee of $35,000.

"It's obviously very sad news. He was an incredible sire and will be missed," said Mike Repole, who raced Uncle Mo.?"I bought two Indian Charlie yearlings last year and one the year before. Hopefully the current and future sons of Indian Charlie will be able to carry on his legacy.?

Indian Charlie was also the sire of champions Indian Blessing and Fleet Indian. Indian Blessing, who like Indian Charlie was bred-owned by Earnhardt and trained by Baffert, was named champion 2-year-old filly in 2007 on the strength of her victory in the Breeders? Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I), then returned the following year to land the female sprinter Eclipse Award.

Fleet Indian was named champion older female of 2006 after stringing together eight consecutive victories dating back to 2005. During the streak she won two grade I races, the Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga and the Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park.
??
Indian Charlie began his stud career in 1999 at Vinery Kentucky and stood his first four seasons there for a fee of $10,000. He moved to Airdrie Stud near Midway, Ky.,?for the 2003 breeding season.

His success at stud saw his fee rise for six consecutive years, to $12,500 in 2004, $15,000 in 2005, $25,000 in 2006, $40,000 in 2007, $50,000 in 2008, and $75,000 in 2009. Market conditions prompted a reduced fee of $70,000 in 2010-11, and he was slated to stand for $75,000 in 2012.
?

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Source: http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/66607/indian-charlie-loses-battle-with-cancer

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Pope heads into busy Christmas season tired, weak (AP)

VATICAN CITY ? Pope Benedict XVI seems worn out.

People who have spent time with him recently say they found him weaker than they'd ever seen him, seemingly too tired to engage with what they were saying. He no longer meets individually with visiting bishops. A few weeks ago he started using a moving platform to spare him the long walk down St. Peter's Basilica.

Benedict turns 85 in the new year, so a slowdown is only natural. Expected. And given his age and continued rigorous work schedule, it's remarkable he does as much as he does and is in such good health overall: Just this past week he confirmed he would travel to Mexico and Cuba next spring.

But a decline has been noted as Benedict prepares for next weekend's grueling Christmas celebrations, which kick off two weeks of intense public appearances. And that raises questions about the future of the papacy given that Benedict himself has said popes should resign if they can't do the job.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi has said no medical condition prompted the decision to use the moving platform in St. Peter's, and that it's merely designed to spare the pontiff the fatigue of the 100-meter (-yard) walk to and from the main altar.

And Benedict rallied during his three-day trip to Benin in west Africa last month, braving temperatures of 32 Celsius (90F) and high humidity to deliver a strong message about the future of the Catholic Church in Africa.

Wiping sweat from his brow, he kissed babies who were handed up to him, delivered a tough speech on the need for Africa's political leaders to clean up their act, and visited one of the continent's most important seminaries.

Back at home, however, it seems the daily grind of being pope ? the audiences with visiting heads of state, the weekly public catechism lessons, the sessions with visiting bishops ? has taken its toll. A spark is gone. He doesn't elaborate off-the-cuff much anymore, and some days he just seems wiped out.

Take for example his recent visit to Assisi, where he traveled by train with dozens of religious leaders from around the world for a daylong peace pilgrimage. For anyone participating it was a tough, long day; for the aging pope it was even more so.

"Indeed I was struck by what appeared to me as the decline in Benedict's strength and health over the last half year," said Rabbi David Rosen, who had a place of honor next to the pope at the Assisi event as head of interfaith relations at the American Jewish Committee.

"He looks thinner and weaker ... which made the effort he put into the Assisi shindig with the extraordinary degree of personal attention to the attendees (especially the next day in Rome) all the more remarkable," Rosen said in an email.

That Benedict is tired would be a perfectly normal diagnosis for an 84-year-old, even someone with no known health ailments and a still-agile mind. He has acknowledged having suffered a hemorrhagic stroke in 1991 that temporarily affected his vision. And his older brother, who has a pacemaker for an irregular heartbeat, has expressed concern about Benedict's own heart.

But Benedict is not a normal 84-year-old, both in what he is called to do and the implications if he were to stop.

Popes are allowed to resign; church law specifies only that the resignation be "freely made and properly manifested."

Only a handful have done so, however. The last one was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism among competing papal claimants.

There's good reason why others haven't followed suit: Might the existence of two popes ? even when one has stepped down ? lead to divisions and instability in the church? Might a new resignation precedent lead to pressures on future popes to quit at the slightest hint of infirmity?

Yet Benedict himself raised the possibility of resigning if he were simply too old or sick to continue on, when he was interviewed for the book "Light of the World," which was released in November 2010.

"If a pope clearly realizes that he is no longer physically, psychologically and spiritually capable of handling the duties of his office, then he has a right, and under some circumstances, also an obligation to resign," Benedict said.

The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had an intimate view as Pope John Paul II, with whom he had worked closely for nearly a quarter-century, suffered through the debilitating end of his papacy. After John Paul's death at age 84, it was revealed that he had written a letter of resignation to be invoked if he became terminally ill or incapable of continuing on.

And it should be recalled that at the time Benedict was elected pope at age 78 ? already the oldest pope elected in nearly 300 years ? he had been planning to retire as the Vatican's chief orthodoxy watchdog to spend his final years writing in the "peace and quiet" of his native Bavaria.

It is there that his elder brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, still lives. Ratzinger, who turns 88 next month, is nearly blind. Benedict has said his brother has helped him accept old age with courage.

Benedict said in "Light of the World" that he knew his own strength was diminishing ? steps are difficult for him and his aides regularly hold his elbows as he climbs up or down. But at the same time Benedict insisted that he had no intention of resigning to avoid dealing with the problems of the church, such as the sex abuse scandal.

"One can resign at a peaceful moment or when one simply cannot go on. But one must not run away from danger and say that someone else should do it," he said.

As a result, a papal resignation anytime soon seems unlikely.

And Benedict is maintaining a hectic agenda. His planned trip to Cuba and Mexico next spring will fall shortly before he turns 85 on April 16. He has also said he'd like to make it to Rio de Janeiro in 2013 for the next World Youth Day.

Sometime in the New Year he will presumably preside over a new consistory to name the new cardinals who will elect his successor. And he has lots of unfinished business close to his heart: Bringing back breakaway traditionalists under Rome's wing, the fate of the sex abuse-scarred Irish church, tensions with China.

And he still cuts a robust figure in public given his age, walking briskly, speaking clearly and emphasizing key points. But his public engagements have been trimmed back; he had far fewer speeches in Benin than during his September visit to his native Germany or the United Kingdom last fall.

And behind closed doors, during audiences without the glare of TV cameras or throngs of the faithful encouraging him on, he has begun to show his age, acquaintances say.

The Rev. Joseph Fessio, Benedict's U.S. publisher and onetime student, sees the pope every so often, including during the summer when Benedict gathers his former theology students for an informal academic seminar at the papal summer retreat in Castel Gandolfo.

Fessio recalled a day in the 2010 edition that remains with him: "In the Saturday morning session, the pope looked older and weaker than I had ever seen him before. In fact I remarked to someone that it's the first time I've seen him look like the old man that he is. He was speaking in softer tones than even his normally soft speaking voice. His head was bowed. He was pale. He just looked frail."

But then, after lunch and an apparent rest, Benedict returned for the afternoon session. "It was a complete transformation. He was lively, vigorous, attentive, and with his usual good humor," Fessio said.

Clearly, at his age Benedict has good days and bad, even good half-days and bad.

Yet he's never called in sick. In fact as pope, he has only had one significant known medical incident: He broke his right wrist when he tripped on the leg of his bed and fell while on vacation in the Alps in 2009.

Lombardi says the pope realizes the limitations of his strength, and that's why the recent trip to Benin was a one-stop-only affair.

"I think it's an example of the great willingness and wisdom of the Holy Father to continue doing these trips, even those that are difficult or far away," Lombardi said. He said the pope "measures well what his strengths are, and the possibility of doing the trips well."

"When I'm 84 I think I'll have been buried for many years," he added.

But he refused to give any kind of medical updates on the pope.

"I'm not a doctor. I don't give medical bulletins," Lombardi said. He paused, then added quietly: "In this phase. At this moment."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111217/ap_on_re_eu/eu_vatican_tired_pope

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Cosmic Autopsy Reveals Youngest Supernova's Origins (SPACE.com)

Astronomers have found the first direct evidence that some star explosions are triggered by compact stars called white dwarfs.

Scientists studying the youngest type of Ia supernova ever found worked backward to pinpoint its explosion time with unparalleled accuracy. In doing so, they confirmed that a white dwarf was the source of the blast, and gleaned insights into the nature of the dwarf's companion star.

The discovery occurred in August, when astronomer Peter Nugent spotted a surprising object while poring over data from the Palomar Transit Survey's robotic telescope at Palomar Observatory in Southern California. The object was quickly confirmed to be a type Ia supernova. High-resolution follow-up observations were made within hours by the Keck telescope in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, identifying the elements that burst from the blast.

The speedy response allowed Nugent and his team to follow the evolution of the supernova, called SN 2011fe. [Amazing Photos of Supernova Explosions]

Tracing backward

As the light of the explosion reached the brightness of 2.5 billion suns, then slowly faded, the team worked backward to determine exactly when the supernova occurred. Located only 21 million light-years from Earth in the Pinwheel Galaxy, the supernova is the closest one to our planet in 25 years. (A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles, or 10 trillion kilometers.)

"We were able to pinpoint the explosion time very accurately, to an uncertainty of just twenty minutes," Nugent, of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, told SPACE.com.

Knowing how much energy the supernova put out allowed the researchers to, in effect, rewind the stellar explosion to see how it began. Measurements of elements such as nickel enabled them to put a lower limit on the size of the source.

The astronomers also found large clumps of fast-moving carbon and oxygen that disappeared within hours.

"The early observations helped us to constrain the explosion really accurately," Nugent said.

With their results, the team was able to conclude that the cause of the supernova was an extremely compact star known as a white dwarf.

White dwarfs are small, dense stars whose Earth-like radius encompasses a sun-like mass. The core of a white dwarf is too cool to undergo fusion, so its energy slowly dissipates into space.

Astronomers have long suspected that these remnants of dead stars were the source of type Ia supernovae, but SN 2011fe provides the first direct evidence.

Searching for the second

A firsthand examination of the light from the supernova also revealed information about the celestial body that once orbited the white dwarf.

In a type 1a supernova, material flowing from a second star onto the white dwarf overloads the compact relic and triggers the blast.? The companion could be anything from a large red giant star to another white dwarf.

When stars explode, a shockwave rushes outward. Collisions with material around it cause the region to flare brightly. By studying the light from SN 2011fe, Nugent's team was able to rule out specific types of stars as the companion.

The neighbor star could not have been a red giant, Nugent explained, because collisions between the debris and a large, massive star would have been very obvious. The resulting light would have been several magnitudes brighter than what was detected.

Similarly, a white dwarf companion would have been ripped apart, leaving a debris field for the shockwave to collide with, causing an impact that wasn't seen in the data.

"The only thing we were left with was a star not too different from our sun as the companion," Nugent said.

Another tack

In an accompanying paper, Weidong Li of the University of California at Berkeley also sought information about the companion.

"There were some very deep images from the Hubble Space Telescope prior to the discovery of this supernova," Li told SPACE.com.

Li and his team examined more than a decade's worth of data from NASA's space-based telescope in search of the second star in the pair.

But no star was detected, allowing them to place an upper limit on the size of the companion. A red giant, for instance, would have been visible in the images.

Ultimately, Li and his team concluded that the companion could be a main sequence or subgiant star, or even another white dwarf.

Combined with Nugent's data, this narrows down the identity of the companion star.

"A low mass main sequence star is the object most likely, given the two different ways we went about trying to constrain the progenitor," Nugent said.

Both papers were published in the Dec. 15 issue of the journal Nature.

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20111214/sc_space/cosmicautopsyrevealsyoungestsupernovasorigins

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