Author Archives: Guest Post

Mortgage Defaults at Lowest Levels in Five Years

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Default risk on home loans fell once again this quarter to its lowest level in more than five years, says a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Dennis Capozza, professor of finance and real estate and the Dykema Professor of Business Administration, says that under current economic conditions, investors and lenders should expect defaults on loans currently being originated to be just slightly higher than mortgage defaults in early 2005. (more…)

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NSF/NASA Scientific Balloon Launches From Antarctica

This season’s annual scientific balloon campaign, which is held by NSF and NASA, will conduct varied experiments using ultra-sophisticated instrumentation.

NASA and the National Science Foundation launched a scientific balloon on Monday, December 20, Eastern Standard time, to study the effects of cosmic rays on Earth. It was the first of five scientific balloons scheduled to launch from Antarctica in December.

The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM VI) experiment was designed and built at the University of Maryland. CREAM is investigating high-energy cosmic-ray particles that originated from distant supernovae explosions in the Milky Way and reached Earth. Currently, CREAM VI is floating 126,000 ft above Antarctica with nominal science operations. (more…)

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Ocean Acidification Changes Nitrogen Cycling in World Seas

*New results indicate potential to reduce certain greenhouse gas emissions from oceans to atmosphere*  

Increasing acidity in the sea’s waters may fundamentally change how nitrogen is cycled in them, say marine scientists who published their findings in this week’s issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).  

Nitrogen is one of the most important nutrients in the oceans. All organisms, from tiny microbes to blue whales, use nitrogen to make proteins and other important compounds.  (more…)

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Global Rivers Emit Three Times IPCC Estimates of Greenhouse Gas Nitrous Oxide

*Waterways receiving nitrogen from human activities are significant source*

What goes in must come out, a truism that now may be applied to global river networks.

Human-caused nitrogen loading to river networks is a potentially important source of nitrous oxide emission to the atmosphere. Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change and stratospheric ozone destruction. (more…)

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Windows Phone 7 Sales Off to a Promising Start, First Step in a New Era of Mobile

*Achim Berg, Microsoft’s vice president of business and marketing for Windows Phones, discusses the momentum, strengths and challenges of the company’s newly launched Windows Phone 7.*

REDMOND, Wash. – Dec. 21, 2010 – There is one phrase that Achim Berg uses repeatedly to describe the new Windows Phone 7.

“It’s a different kind of phone, fast and easy,” says Berg, vice president of business and marketing for Windows Phones. It’s a sentence he relates with enthusiasm daily, whether he’s giving a Windows Phone 7 demonstration to a large crowd, or showing off his phone to someone he’s just met. (more…)

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