Epson PowerLite 1965 XGA 3LCD Projector

Epson puts the PowerLite 1965 XGA 3LCD Projector ($1,899 direct), on its list of projectors for small rooms. Given its 5,000 lumen rating however?enough to throw a 185-inch diagonal XGA image in a room with moderate ambient light?it's much more appropriate for a mid- to large-size conference room or classroom. Factor in the near-excellent data image quality and above par video quality for a data projector, and it can be an excellent fit. All this makes it an Editors' Choice for XGA projectors.

In many ways, the 1965 is similar to two other Epson projectors, which are also both built around an LCD-based, XGA (1024 by 768) engine and are also both Editors' Choices: the Epson PowerLite 1835 XGA 3LCD Projector ($1,099 direct, 4 stars) and the Epson PowerLite 1880 MultiMedia Projector. In fact, the most significant difference between the three is their brightness, with the 1835 rated at 3,500 lumens and the 1880 rated at 4,000 lumens.

Connections, Setup, and Brightness
The PowerLite 1965 is reasonably light at 8.5 pounds, but it's a little too big to carry around easily, which means it's best limited to permanent installation or room-to-room portability on a cart. Setup is absolutely typical, with a manual focus, a manual 1.6x zoom lens, and a back panel that offers a wide variety of ports.

The connection choices include HDMI 1.3; the usual VGA and composite video inputs; a USB Type B connector for sending data over a USB connection or controlling your PC's mouse pointer from the projector's remote, and a LAN port as well as Wi-Fi for both controlling the projector and sending data.

There are also two USB A connectors, with one for a document camera and the other for reading files directly from a USB memory key. Somewhat surprisingly, there's no connector for S-video, but there is one for DisplayPort.

For my tests, I set up the projector with a 78-inch wide (98-inch diagonal) image. As you might expect from the high brightness rating, the image was easily bright enough to stand up to the ambient light in a typical classroom or conference room. As one point of reference, the SMPTE (The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) recommendations peg 5000 lumens as appropriate for roughly a 300-inch diagonal screen size in theater dark lighting.

Data and Video Image Quality
The PowerLite 1965's data image quality is just short of excellent, with bright, vibrant colors in all modes. However, our standard suite of DisplayMate tests turned up some minor color balance issues. With most of the presets, most shades of gray where suitably neutral, but the brightest shades approaching white were just a touch yellow or yellow green. No modes were fully neutral at all levels from black to white, including the Dicom Sim mode, which is meant to simulate the standards defined for medical images. Unless you have a critical need for color to be just so, however, these issues shouldn't be problems.

Far more important for most data images is that the PowerLite 1965 does an excellent job with detail. Both black text on white and white text on black were crisp, clean, and highly readable at sizes as small as 6.8 points. In addition, images that tend to cause pixel jitter were rock solid even with an analog connection.

The video quality is also notable for being above par for a data projector, with image quality that's good enough to be watchable for a full length movie. With XGA (1024 by 768) resolution, high definition video loses detail when it's scaled to fit in the 1965's available pixels, but in my tests the projector delivered reasonably good color for video and did a good job with skin tones. And because it's an LCD projector, it can't show rainbow artifacts, which are always a potential problem for DLP projectors.

I saw a hint of posterization (shading changing suddenly where it should change gradually) and a slight loss of shadow detail (details based on shading in dark areas), but to a much lesser extent than with most data projectors and only in scenes that tend to cause these problems.

Also worth mention is the 1965's sound system, with a 10-watt mono speaker that's loud enough to easily fill a mid-size room. I heard a slight bottom-of-the-barrel echo effect, but it was noticeable only with quietly spoken dialog. Unless you need stereo or top tier audio quality you shouldn't need an external sound system.

As should be obvious, the Epson PowerLite 1965 XGA 3LCD Projector offers lots of strong points and no real weaknesses. It delivers near excellent data image quality, above par video for a data projector, all the connectors you're likely to need, and an audio system with reasonably good sound quality and enough volume to be useful. If you're looking for an XGA projector that's bright enough to throw a big image in large conference room or classroom, the Epson PowerLite 1965 XGA 3LCD Projector is easily up to the task, and an easy pick for Editors' Choice.

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Analysis: S&P paper trail may lead nowhere in government case

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In early 2007, as signs of distress began appearing in securities backed by residential mortgages, executives at Standard & Poor's began advising analysts responsible for rating mortgage bonds that they should put the phrase "privileged and confidential" on emails to one another.

Analysts working for the McGraw Hill Cos division also were discouraged from doodling on notepads and official documents during meetings to discuss pending deals and existing ratings, several former S&P employees said.

That was not the first time S&P had tried to caution employees about paper trails. In 2005, a full two years before the housing market began to melt down, several top S&P managers attended an off-site meeting at hotel in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, to discuss ways to increase the fees it collected from Wall Street banks for rating mortgage bonds. A former S&P executive said that after the meeting, employees were instructed to discard any notes they had taken from the meeting.

As it turns out, S&P employees didn't fully heed such warnings. The U.S. government's civil fraud lawsuit against S&P relies heavily on emails in which employees voiced doubts about the integrity of the agency's ratings.

But S&P may still come out on top. Legal and business experts, and even some critics of the role of the rating agencies in vouching for bonds during the financial crisis, aren't impressed with the prosecution's handiwork. Most legal experts interviewed said they expect S&P to prevail at trial, if there isn't a settlement before then for considerably less than the $5 billion the government is seeking in the lawsuit.

While a few lawyers said the government's case is a strong one, a dozen securities lawyers interviewed by Reuters saw significant weaknesses in the fraud claim.

The lawsuit suffers from many of the same problems that have plagued dozens of other unsuccessful cases against the rating agencies in recent years.

It will be hard for prosecutors to argue that S&P alone was privy to a unique window into the shaky state of the U.S. housing market in early 2007, which the Wall Street banks churning out the securities, or even the U.S. Federal Reserve, didn't have. Other lawyers point out that S&P's ratings on residential mortgage bonds in early 2007 weren't much different from those of Moody's Investors Service , a rival rating agency the government hasn't sued.

"It is a crappy case. It's a hammer to get a settlement and all of the settlements we have seen so far have been a mere slap on the wrist," said Janet Tavakoli, a derivatives and structured finance consultant who has written a number of books about complex securities. She said the case "re-enforces the narrative that bank officers have put forward, which is they couldn't have known about how bad the subprime crisis would be."

A spokesman for the Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment to discuss the lawsuit, which does not name any individuals as defendants. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in statement announcing the lawsuit's filing, "this alleged conduct is egregious - and it goes to the very heart of the recent financial crisis."

Legal experts said the U.S. government's case appears to suffer specifically from a lack of available witnesses to make a compelling argument that S&P intentionally defrauded banks and two federal credit unions by slapping investment grade ratings on dozens of mortgage bond deals that quickly went bust.

They also anticipate S&P arguing that the two credit unions cast as victims by prosecutors were sophisticated investors who were criticized by a federal government overseer for failing to appreciate the risk of buying bonds backed mostly by subprime mortgages. A similar argument could be raised against Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp , which prosecutors argue lost money because of mortgage bond deals that S&P rated for those institutions.

One defense S&P can raise is to say that its ratings were based in large part on information about mortgage loan data provided by the Wall Street banks backing these bonds, said Joseph Mason, a business professor at Louisiana State University.

"The banks signed off that this was good data," Mason said, citing a number of lawsuits that say just that.

To be fair, the 119-page civil complaint filed by the Justice Department on February 4 cites emails that appear to show that some analysts charged with monitoring the performance of mortgage securities were seeing evidence of a rapidly deteriorating housing market.

The complaint also provides detail about the desire of S&P officials to continue rating mortgage bond deals, especially CDOs, which had emerged as one of the rating agency's most lucrative products ever.

The government contends S&P compromised its work to chase after the rich fees for rating these deals - up to $150,000 for every subprime mortgage bond and $500,000 for the typical CDO, a security cobbled together from a wide array of mortgage bonds.

"I've been litigating financing and bank related financing cases for years, and this seems like one of the strongest," said Richard Greenfield of Greenfield & Goodman, who was part of a suit against Moody's with a settlement last year that included governance reforms and a $4.95 million payment by the credit rating agency.

S&P has said "hindsight is no basis to take legal action against the good-faith opinions of professionals." The firm, which has until next month to file its first formal response to the lawsuit, said it intends to fight the government's claim.

PROBLEM OF FINDING WITNESSES

A federal prosecutor who is not involved with the S&P case but has been party to a number of securities fraud prosecutions said cases that rest mainly on emails are "just not successful."

The best way for U.S. prosecutors to use emails effectively is to bring forward witnesses who can explain how they reflected a deliberate intent to deceive the investing public.

But many of the emails were written by current S&P employees, who legal experts say will have a strong incentive to provide the most innocent explanation for their communications if asked to testify.

A Reuters review of the complaint found that at least a quarter of the 40 or so people referred to in the Justice Department complaint are still employed by S&P.

For instance, there is Shannon Mooney, still an analyst in S&P's structured finance division. The author of one of the more colorful instant messages cited in the complaint, Mooney wrote in 2007 the agency would rate deals "structured by cows."

S&P has said messages such as these are examples of prosecutors cherry-picking unflattering comments. The agency said Mooney's comment wasn't even discussing the rating of residential mortgage-backed securities or CDOs.

Mooney declined to comment.

Another current S&P employee who would appear to be a potentially strong witness for the prosecution is Ernestine Warner, who in 2007 was the head of residential mortgage bond surveillance for S&P and frequently voiced concern about the faltering housing market and its impact on mortgage bonds the agency had rated.

Identified in the lawsuit as Executive F, she wrote in an email to a colleague in 2007: "Wow, these deals are in huge trouble." In another email, she complained that S&P's bond surveillance was "really falling behind."

But former colleagues said Warner, now a senior director in S&P's investor relations division, is reluctant to testify. She declined to comment.

Some potentially favorable witnesses to the prosecution's side appear out of reach. Several former employees who were critical of S&P's procedures during the waning days of the housing boom told Reuters they have no desire to testify.

The government also may be hard-pressed to force witnesses to appear in court in California where the case was filed. In a civil case, federal prosecutors can only subpoena witnesses to give depositions, but they cannot compel them to testify at trial, as can be done in a criminal matter.

S&P is headquartered in New York.

THE VICTIMS

The Justice Department is using the Federal Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act, a tough civil fraud law passed in the wake of the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s, to pursue its fraud claim against S&P.

The main advantage of FIRREA is its longer, 10-year statute of limitation, which allows authorities to pursue lawsuits that might normally be barred by the typical five-year statute of limitations for fraud cases, and the ability to go for larger than normal damages.

But some experts said there are problems with using FIRREA.

They said the act requires the government to identify federally insured institutions that were affected by S&P's actions: in this case two credit unions in California and Florida that lost hundreds of millions of dollars on complex mortgage investments, as well as Citigroup and Bank of America.

Critics say those credit unions, Western Financial Corporate Credit Union of California (WesCorp) and Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union (EFFCU), which both collapsed in 2009, are hardly blameless themselves.

The federal officials who examined the demise of WesCorp and EFFCU pointed the finger at a different culprit: the management teams at both institutions. WesCorp's supervisor sued five former top executives in 2010 for their role in aggressively expanding investments into risky mortgage products.

"The government has to show that the alleged misconduct was a proximate cause of the loss," said Douglas Baruch, a litigation partner at Fried Frank. "If they can't establish that connection, there are no damages."

(Reporting By Luciana Lopez, Peter Rudegeair and Matthew Goldstein; Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Paritosh Bansal and Claudia Parsons)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-p-paper-trail-may-lead-nowhere-government-053657054--sector.html

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Astronomers conduct first remote reconnaissance of another planetary system

Mar. 11, 2013 ? Researchers have conducted a remote reconnaissance of a distant planetary system with a new telescope imaging system that sifts through the blinding light of stars. Using a suite of high-tech instrumentation and software called Project 1640, the scientists collected the first chemical fingerprints, or spectra, of this system's four red exoplanets, which orbit a star 128 light years away from Earth.

A detailed description of the planets -- showing how drastically different they are from the known worlds in the universe -- was accepted Friday for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

"An image is worth a thousand words, but a spectrum is worth a million," said lead author Ben R. Oppenheimer, associate curator and chair of the Astrophysics Department at the American Museum of Natural History.

Oppenheimer is the principal investigator for Project 1640, which uses the Hale telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California. The project involves researchers from the California Institute of Technology, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Cambridge University, New York University, and the Space Telescope Science Institute, in addition to Oppenheimer's team at the Museum.

The planets surrounding the star of this study, HR 8799, have been imaged in the past. But except for a partial measurement of the outermost planet in the system, the star's bright light overwhelmed previous attempts to study the planets with spectroscopy, a technique that splits the light from an object into its component colors -- as a prism spreads sunlight into a rainbow. Because every chemical, such as carbon dioxide, methane, or water, has a unique light signature in the spectrum, this technique is able to reveal the chemical composition of a planet's atmosphere.

"In the 19th century it was thought impossible to know the composition of stars, but the invention of astronomical spectroscopy has revealed detailed information about nearby stars and distant galaxies," said Charles Beichman, executive director of the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology. "Now, with Project 1640, we are beginning to turn this tool to the investigation of neighboring exoplanets to learn about the composition, temperature, and other characteristics of their atmospheres."

With this system, the researchers are the first to determine the spectra of all four planets surrounding HR 8799. "It's fantastic to nab the spectra of four planets in a single observation," said co-author Gautam Vasisht, an astronomer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The results are "quite strange," Oppenheimer said. "These warm, red planets are unlike any other known object in our universe. All four planets have different spectra, and all four are peculiar. The theorists have a lot of work to do now."

One of the most striking abnormalities is an apparent chemical imbalance. Basic chemistry predicts that ammonia and methane should naturally coexist in varying quantities unless they are in extremely cold or hot environments. Yet the spectra of the HR 8799 planets, all of which have "lukewarm" temperatures of about 1000 Kelvin (1340 degrees Fahrenheit), either have methane or ammonia, with little or no signs of their chemical partners. Other chemicals such as acetylene, previously undiscovered on any exoplanet, and carbon dioxide may be present as well.

The planets also are "redder," meaning that they emit longer wavelengths of light, than celestial objects with similar temperatures. This could be explained by significant but patchy cloud cover on the planets, the authors say.

With 1.6 times the mass and five times the brightness, HR 8799 itself is very different from our Sun. The brightness of the star can vary by as much as 8 percent over a period of two days and produces about 1,000 times more ultraviolet light than the Sun. All of these factors could impact the spectral fingerprints of the planets, possibly inducing complex weather and sooty hazes that could be revealed by periodic changes in the spectra. More data is needed to further explore this planetary system's unusual characteristics.

"The spectra of these four worlds clearly show that they are far too toxic and hot to sustain life as we know it," said co-author Ian Parry, a senior lecturer at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University. "But the really exciting thing is that one day, the techniques we've developed will give us our first secure evidence of the existence of life on a planet outside our solar system."

In addition to revealing unique planets, the research debuts a new capability to observe and rapidly characterize exosolar systems in a routine manner, something that has eluded astronomers until now because the light that stars emit is tens of millions to billions of times brighter than the light given off by planets. This makes directly imaging and analyzing exoplanets extremely difficult: as Oppenheimer says, "It's like taking a single picture of the Empire State Building from an airplane that reveals the height of the building as well as taking a picture of a bump on the sidewalk next to it that is as high as a couple of bacteria."

Project 1640 helps scientists clear this hurdle by sharpening and darkening a star's light. This technical advance involves the coordinated operation of four major instruments: the world's most advanced adaptive optics system, which can make millions of tiny adjustments to the device's two 6-inch mirrors every second; a coronagraph that optically dims the star but not other celestial objects in the field of view; an imaging spectrograph that records 30 images in a rainbow of colors simultaneously; and a specialized wave front sensor that distinguishes between residual starlight that sneaks through the coronagraph and the light from planets, allowing scientists to filter out background starlight more effectively.

Altogether, the project has produced images of celestial objects 1 million to 10 million times fainter than the star at the center of the image, with only an hour of observations. It is also capable of measuring orbital motion of objects.

"Astronomers are now able to monitor cloudy skies on extrasolar planets, and for the first time, they have made such observations for four planets at once," said Maria Womack, program director for the Division of Astronomical Sciences at the National Science Foundation. "This new ability enables astronomers to now make comparisons as they track the atmospheres, and maybe even weather patterns, on the planets."

Researchers are already collecting more data on this system to look for changes in the planets over time, as well as surveying other young stars. During its three-year survey at Palomar, which started in June 2012, Project 1640 aims to survey 200 stars within about 150 light years of our solar system.

"The variation in the spectra of the four planets is really intriguing," said Didier Saumon, an astronomer at Los Alamos National Laboratory who was not involved in this study. "Perhaps this shouldn't be too surprising, given that the four gaseous planets of the solar system are all different. The hundreds of known exoplanets have forced us to broaden our thinking, and this new data keeps pushing that envelope."

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/KTHAn9Mumes/130311173756.htm

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PFT: Ellerbe, Ravens still talking as deadline nears

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Darrelle Revis and Richard Sherman recently squabbled regarding the question of which of them is the best cornerback in football.

Nobody checked with Joe Haden.

Haden, Browns cornerback and top-five pick in 2010, shared his assessment on Friday?s Pro Football Talk.

?I would say honestly and this is just me being real 100%, I would say Darrelle Revis,? Haden said.? ?I studied tape on guys and I try to look and see what I can do to get my game to be on their levels [and] I feel like I?m honestly the number two cornerback in the league, that?s just my opinion personally.

?I studied all the good guys, all the great guys that are in the league now but Darrelle Revis he just stands out cause he?s just complete.? He tackles, he can play off, he can play press, and he?s just very, very, very patient and he?s just hard to deal with off the line.? His footwork on the line is amazing and that?s just the one thing I feel like I need to get to his level is just press so I feel that?s why he?s the No. 1 cornerback now.?

Haden also made a case for leaving Sherman out of the top two.

?Not to take anything away from him, I mean he?s a really good player on a talented team,? Haden said.? ?They get seen a lot, their defense is, their secondary is amazing with him,? Earl [Thomas], you got [Kam] Chancellor, I mean their other corner too they have just their whole secondary, they get recognition, their team wins, they get seen a lot more but he?s a really, really good player but it would be Revis and then myself.?

So, basically, Haden very politely said to Sherman the stuff Sherman said to Skip Bayless.

Let?s see what Sherman has to say in response.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/08/dannell-ellerbe-ravens-still-talking-with-free-agency-approaching/related/

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Shares, dollar gain on outlook for central bank action

LONDON (Reuters) - European shares edged higher and the euro hovered near three-month lows against the dollar on Thursday on expectations the European Central Bank could point to future policy easing after its rate-setting meeting later.

The British pound was also weaker against the dollar, touching a fresh 2-1/2-year low of $1.4965, with markets expecting the Bank of England to announce more monetary stimulus when its policy meeting ends at 1200 GMT.

Looser policy prospects from two major world central banks, along with signs Japan is about to step up aggressive monetary easing, is contrasting with changes in the outlook for the U.S. Federal Reserve, as signs of economic recovery grow.

"The reality is that the Fed is still pumping in $85 billion a month at the moment, whereas the ECB and the BoE aren't," said Daragh Maher, currency strategist at HSBC.

"But the data has forced the idea that the U.S. economy is improving and therefore, going forward, the direction of policy could change."

The dollar is close to its highest level in 6-1/2 months against a basket of major currencies <.dxy> as jobs data this week has pointed to a recovery in the labor market, a key condition for the Fed to wind up its massive stimulus program.

With market players focused on the strength of the U.S. economy, the dollar was seen drawing further support from signs Congress is about to pass a measure to keep funding government spending until the end of September.

Meanwhile, the expected support from the ECB helped lift the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 share index <.fteu3> 0.1 percent to 1,187.61 points in early trade, near the 4-1/2 year intraday high of 1,193.35 points hit on Wednesday.

Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi>, London's FTSE 100 <.ftse> and Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> were between 0.2 and 0.4 percent higher.

The euro was slightly firmer in early European business at around $1.3010, after sliding to $1.2994 earlier, within sight of its December trough of $1.2876.

In the bond market attention was on a Spanish debt auction for up to 5 billion euros of new debt, which was expected to find decent demand despite worries among investors about the impact of the political deadlock in Italy.

German Bund futures were little changed on the day at 145.14, but the contract could gain if ECB President Mario Draghi turns out to be more downbeat on the euro zone's prospects than expected.

(Reporting by Richard Hubbard; Editing by Will Waterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-shares-retreat-rally-central-bank-meetings-focus-044827164--finance.html

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Enchanted Homeschooling Mom: Free Easter Printable Pack for ...

I have something fun to share with everyone today.?You will find my brand new Easter Pack?that?I made exclusively for Free Homeschool Deals.?Make sure to leave a comment, say hello, and look around at this fantastic site for all sorts of goodies!

Periodically I will be releasing themed activity packs for Free Homeschool Deals. So be sure to follow along with Free Homeschool Deals!

Make it a magical homeschooling day,

Source: http://www.enchantedhomeschoolingmom.net/2013/03/free-easter-printable-pack-for-prek-2nd.html

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