Star-studded sendoff for Heavy D (AP)

MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. ? Heavy D was remembered with laughter and tears Friday during a star-studded funeral service that included Jay-Z and Will Smith, humorous anecdotes from longtime friend Diddy, and words of encouragement for his young daughter, delivered in a letter from President Barack Obama.

"We extend our heartfelt condolences at this difficult time. He will be remembered for his infectious optimism and many contributions to American music. Please know that you and your family will be in our thoughts and prayers," read the Obama note, according to the Rev. Al Sharpton, who quoted from it during the service.

Xea Myers, Heavy D's 11-year-old daughter, also spoke briefly, telling the audience that her father was "still here, not in the flesh, but in the spirit."

Grace Baptist Church was filled to capacity for the two-and-half-hour service, which was also streamed live on the Web. It was so crowded, an overflow area was set up. Among those in attendance were Usher, Queen Latifah, Don King, Q-Tip, John Legend and Rosie Perez.

A large photo of Heavy D sat next to his closed casket.

Heavy D died last week in Los Angeles at the age of 44. His family said the death was due to complications from pneumonia.

The self-proclaimed "Overweight Lover" was born in Jamaica but reared in Mount Vernon, which he dubbed "Money Earnin' Mount Vernon." It was also the home of Sean "Diddy" Combs. Diddy talked about how Heavy D helped give him his start in the music industry, and how their decades-long friendship continued up until Heavy D's death.

"He became my friend. He became my brother. And I'm not talking about friend-brother like we cavalierly use the word, I'm talking about a real friend, a real brother," Diddy said. "Somebody I shared my dreams and my secrets with, somebody that's been for me at my lowest point, my darkest hour when nobody wanted to be beside me."

But he also told jokes as he recounted his "bromance" with the rapper, including a recent visit to Miami that was supposed to last for three days, but "turned into three weeks." He added that Heavy D got to know his chef "very well."

Sharpton also drew laughter when he noted that James Brown "us black and proud; he (Heavy D) made us fat and proud."

But singer Johnny Gill was tearful when he approached the altar, saying: "Just want to say to Heavy: job well done." He later gave a powerful rendition the gospel hit "Never Would Have Made It." The rappers nieces were also teary-eyed as they sang the gospel standard "His Eye on the Sparrow."

Heavy D, whose real name was Dwight Myers, was influential in the development of rap as it grew into a phenomenon in the late 1980s and 1990s. His hits included "Now That We've Found Love" and "Nuttin' But Love"; much of his music marked the "New Jack Swing" era in urban music, and he stood out from the pack with his rhymes, typified by a positive vibe and a lightheartedness that endeared him to so many.

A fund has been set up to financially aid Heavy D's daughter; details were available on the website rememberheavyd.com.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111118/ap_on_en_mu/us_heavy_d_funeral

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TV broadcasters hope to dominate the second screen with ConnecTV

No one has quite figured it out yet, but there seems to be little doubt that tablet devices have their place on the couch to serve as a second screen while American's enjoy their favorite past time -- watching TV. In addition to many independent startups we've discussed in the past, the old guard, that already owns most of broadcast TV stateside, has a startup of its own called ConnecTV. In development for two years already, ConnecTV is currently in beta and has the hopes to go live in January. The idea is of course to put what you might want to see on your second screen while you watch the main action on the big screen. This includes sports scores, statistics, as well as what your friends may or may-not be saying on Twitter or Facebook -- and of course advertising. We'd be shocked if most tablet owners weren't already using their slate in front of the TV and can imagine how many more might if there was a great app that brought it all together.

TV broadcasters hope to dominate the second screen with ConnecTV originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Nov 2011 05:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Deutsche Boerse, NYSE tackle merger objections (AP)

BERLIN ? Deutsche Boerse AG and NYSE Euronext are offering concessions on their derivatives businesses in a bid to overcome objections to their planned merger from the European Union's competition watchdog.

The two companies said Friday that they have sent a proposal to the EU agency that aims at "eliminating the existing overlap in European single equity derivatives and ensures continued competition in European interest rate and equity index derivatives."

Deutsche Boerse, which operates the Frankfurt stock exchange, said in February that it would buy NYSE Euronext for $10 billion, creating the world's largest exchange operator. NYSE Euronext owns bourses in Paris, Lisbon, Brussels and Amsterdam, in addition to New York.

The EU raised issues last month with the plans. The biggest point of contention is the combined company's strong position in the trading of derivatives, a very lucrative business for exchanges.

Derivatives are complicated financial products that allow investors to bet on developments in things like commodity prices or interest rates.

Trading of commodities has grown exponentially over the past decade and both Deutsche Boerse with its Eurex trading platform and NYSE's Liffe have carved out big slices of that market. Once combined, they would be by far the largest derivatives exchange in Europe.

The two companies said that, under the new proposal that was submitted Thursday, NYSE Euronext would divest its pan-European single equity derivatives business, except for the options businesses in its home markets ? where Deutsche Boerse would sell its single equity derivatives business.

"With respect to European interest rate and equity index derivatives, Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext propose to grant unprecedented third-party access to Eurex Clearing for derivatives product innovations taking advantage of the merged entities clearing services," the companies' statement said.

They insisted that the merger won't hurt competition but will help it by setting up "a regulated, stable and transparent European counterweight to established market centers in America and Asia." The new proposals aim to preserve "the compelling industrial logic of the transaction," they added.

Deutsche Boerse shares were down 2 percent at euro40.57 ($54.67) in early Frankfurt trading, underperforming a 0.8 percent decline in the DAX index of blue-chip stocks.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111118/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_deutsche_boerse_nyse

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Spectacular New Image Exposes Nebula's Cool Clouds (SPACE.com)

A stunning new image of the Carina nebula reveals cold, dusty cosmic clouds where violent and dynamic star formation is taking place.

These clouds of dust and gas play host to some of the most massive and luminous stars in our galaxy, which make them scintillating test beds for studying the interactions between these young stars and their parent molecular clouds.

The new observations were made with the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope, which is located about 16,700 feet (5,100 meters) above sea level at the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory in the Atacama desert in northern Chile.

A team of astronomers led by Thomas Preibisch, from the University Observatory Munich in Germany, captured images of the star-forming region in the Carina nebula in submillimeter light. At this wavelength, most of the light that can be seen is the weak heat glow from grains of cosmic dust, the researchers said.

As a result, the image reveals the clouds of dust and molecular gas from which new stars may form. Since the grains of dust are very cold, the faint light they emit can only be seen at submillimeter wavelengths. So, being able to observe the submillimeter light from these cold, dusty clouds is critical to studying how stars form and how they interact with their parent clouds, the astronomers explained.

A window into the Carina nebula

In this image, observations from the APEX telescope are shown in orange tones, cobbled together with a visible light image from the Curtis Schmidt telescope at the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in Chile. [Spectacular Photos of Nebulas in Deep Space]

The resulting picture is a dramatic, wide-field shot that provides a jaw-dropping view of the Carina nebula's star-forming regions.

The Carina nebula is located about 7,500 light-years away in the constellation of Carina, or The Keel. It is one of the brightest nebulas in the sky because of its large population of massive stars. The nebula is about 150 light-years wide, which makes it several times larger than the well-known Orion nebula.

In fact, even though it is several times more distant than the Orion nebula, its apparent size on the sky is roughly the same, making it also one of the largest known nebulas. The Carina nebula's pillar-like mountains of gas took center stage in a famous photo from the Hubble Space Telescope that was released in April 2010 to mark the 20th anniversary of the prolific telescope.

The Carina nebula contains stars with a total mass equivalent to more than 25,000 suns. The mass of the gas and dust clouds in the bustling nebula is equal to about 140,000 suns, the astronomers said.

But despite such staggering figures, only a fraction of the gas in the Carina nebula is found in clouds that are sufficiently dense to collapse and create new stars within the next million years ? what astronomers refer to as the immediate future.

Explosions in space

Massive stars live for only a few million years at most, which is relatively short in astronomical terms. But, during their lives, they greatly influence the environment around them. As youngsters, these stars emit strong winds and radiation that shape the clouds around them, perhaps even compressing them enough to generate new stars, the researchers said.

When these high-mass stars run out of fuel and reach the end of their lives, they typically explode in violent supernova blasts that unleash stellar material into space.

Eta Carinae, a bright yellowish star that can be seen at the center of the image on the upper left, is one of the most luminous known stars. Within the next million years or so, Eta Carinae will explode as a supernova, followed by yet more supernovas from other massive stars nearby in the region, the astronomers said.

These violent cosmic explosions rock the surrounding molecular gas clouds. But, once the shockwaves travel more than about 10 light-years, they become weaker and could instead compress clouds that are a little further away, which would trigger the formation of a new generation of stars.

The supernovas may also produce short-lived radioactive atoms that are picked up by the collapsing clouds, the researchers explained. Astronomers have found strong evidence that similar radioactive atoms were incorporated into the cloud that collapsed to eventually form our sun and planets. As a result, the activity in the Carina nebula could also provide additional insights into the creation of our solar system, the researchers said.

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/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20111116/sc_space/spectacularnewimageexposesnebulascoolclouds

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San Jose council seeks way to save camp (San Jose Mercury News)

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Obama to renew, strengthen ties in Australia (AP)

HONOLULU ? President Barack Obama turns from economic to security concerns in the Asia-Pacific region as he travels to Australia, finally making a long-delayed visit to the longtime and increasingly important U.S. ally.

Obama twice last year canceled visits to Australia, once to stay in town to lobby for passage of his health-care bill, and again in the wake of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The third time's the charm as Obama was setting out for the capital of Canberra Tuesday morning from Hawaii, where he's spent the last several days hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

Because Air Force One has to cross the international date line, Obama won't arrive in Australia until mid-afternoon local time Wednesday for a one-and-a-half-day visit.

Kim Beazley, Australia's ambassador to the U.S., said Obama's mere appearance was "enormously important" to Australians. And for the U.S., Australia's geographic location in the burgeoning Asia-Pacific region makes the longtime ally an increasingly important one as China's might grows.

After arriving Wednesday afternoon, Obama will meet with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the two will hold a joint news conference. On Thursday, Obama addresses the Australian Parliament before traveling to Darwin, on Australia's remote northern coast, where U.S. and Australian forces were killed in a Japanese attack during World War II. Obama will pay respects at a memorial to the dead and visit a military base in Darwin, where he'll speak to Australian troops and U.S. Marines.

The visit comes as the U.S. and Australia mark 60 years as defense treaty partners, and Obama is expected to announce plans to expand that relationship, including positioning U.S. military equipment in Australia, increasing access to bases and conducting more joint exercises and training.

The moves would effectively counter an increasingly aggressively China, which claims dominion over vast areas of the Pacific that the U.S. considers international waters. China has alarmed smaller Asian neighbors by reigniting old territorial disputes, including confrontations over the South China Sea. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the goal is to signal that the U.S. and Australia will stick together in face of any threats.

From Australia, Obama will head to Indonesia for a security summit with Asian nations before finishing his nine-day trip and returning to Washington on Nov. 20.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111115/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama

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