Mountain Views News          Saturday, November 2, 2013

B3

The World Around Us

 Mountain Views News Saturday, November 2, 2013 


THE FARTHEST PLACE: 

Astronomers Discover 
Universe’s Most Distant 
Galaxy

Researchers from Texas A&M University and the 
University of Texas at Austin teamed up to detect 
the most distant galaxy ever found—one created 
only 700 million years after the Big Bang. Their 
research is published in the Oct. 24 edition of the 
journal Nature.

The galaxy, known by its catalog name z8_
GND_5296, was observed as it was 13 billion years 
ago. That’s the time it took for the galaxy’s light 
to travel to Earth. Because the universe has been 
expanding all that time, the researchers estimate 
the galaxy’s present distance to be roughly 30 
billion light-years from Earth.

“Because of its distance, we get a glimpse of 
conditions when the universe was only about 700 
million years old—only 5 percent of its current age 
of 13.8 billion years,” said Texas A&M astrophysicist 
Casey Papovich, who is second author of the paper.

He explains that researchers are able to accurately 
gauge the distances of galaxies by measuring a 
feature from the ubiquitous element hydrogen 
called the Lyman alpha transition, which emits 
brightly in distant galaxies. It’s detected in nearly 
all galaxies that are seen from a time more than 
one billion years from the Big Bang, but getting 
closer than that, the hydrogen emission line, for 
some reason, becomes increasingly difficult to see.

“We were thrilled to see this galaxy,” said lead 
author is Steven Finkelstein, an assistant professor 
at the University of Texas at Austin “And then our 
next thought was, ‘Why did we not see anything 
else? We’re using the best instrument on the best 
telescope with the best galaxy sample. We had the 
best weather—it was gorgeous. And still, we only 
saw this emission line from one of our sample of 43 
observed galaxies, when we expected to see around 
six. What’s going on?”

The researchers suspect they may have zeroed in on 
the era when the universe made its transition from 
an opaque state in which most of the hydrogen 
is neutral to a translucent state in which most of 
the hydrogen is ionized. So it’s not necessarily that 
the distant galaxies aren’t there—it could be that 
they’re hidden from detection behind a wall of 
neutral hydrogen fog, which blocks the hydrogen 
emission signal.

The Nature paper grew out of raw data gleaned 
from a powerful Hubble Space Telescope imaging 
survey of the distant universe Using that data, the 
team was armed with 43 potential distant galaxies 
and set out to confirm their distances.

On a crisp, clear April night, team members sat 
behind a panel of computers in the control room 
of the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is perched 
atop the 14,000-foot summit of Hawaii’s dormant 
Mauna Kea volcano and houses the two largest 
optical and infrared telescopes in the world, each 
standing eight stories tall, weighing 300 tons and 
equipped with 10-meter-wide mirrors.

They detected only one galaxy during their two 
nights of observation at Keck, but it turned out 
to be the most distant ever confirmed. It had a 
redshift of 7.51—indicating that it was created 
about 13 billion years ago. Because the universe 
is expanding, the space between galaxies also is 
increasing. And as objects move away from an 
observer, their light becomes redder. In essence, 
the higher the “redshift,” the farther away the 
object. Only five other galaxies have ever been 
confirmed to have a redshift greater than 7, with 
the previous high being 7.215.


You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@MtnViewsNews.com. 

BUSINESS NEWS & TRENDS


CREATE A COMFORT ZONE


PINTEREST: HOW TO INSTALL THE “PIN IT” 
BUTTON TO YOUR BROWSER

Pinterest is one of the more popular photo sharing sites on the web and it is the 
fastest growing social media platform. The value of Pinterest to a business is that it creates backlinks 
to your web site. Backlinks are outside links that lead people to your web site: they are important 
because search engines base their page rankings on how many of these links there are for your web 
site. 

The easiest way to make sure that you are pinning images with a backlink is to use the Pint It Button 
when you are sharing images from your web site on Pinterest. Follow these steps to install the Pin 
It Button to your browser:

• Go to http://about.pinterest.com/
• Select “Goodies” in the navigation menu on top right
• Find the “The Pin It Button”
• Select “Download Now”
• Drag it to your into your browser 


Once you have the Pin It Button installed on your browser, go to a page on your web site that has 
images you want to share on Pinterest. Select the Pin It button and it will pull up all the images you 
can add to your Pinterest account and automatically provide the back link to your site.

About MJ: MJ and her brother David own HUTdogs, a creative services business that specializes in 
Internet Marketing strategies and Social Media. They offer social media management services and 
help their clients build a strong on-line presence. “Like” them on Facebook for trending news in 
social media, internet marketing and other helpful tips, www.facebook.com/hutdogs.

Sign up for their upcoming classes and presentations at: www.hutdogs.com/workshops/schedule 

 While experts may debate the value of holding an open house, your home may be a good candidate 
for this marketing tool. If your agent offers to show off your home on a Sunday afternoon, apply some 
elbow grease and take advantage of the opportunity.

Obviously, get things tidy inside and out. Give all of your countertops a spacious feel by hiding your 
toiletries under the sink in the bathroom, and by stashing your kitchen appliances in the cabinets. 
Clean and clear make a great impression. 

 Also remove photographs, appointment cards, school artwork, etc. from the refrigerator and other 
areas of the house. Yes, it’s your home, but you want buyers to picture it as their home, so don’t intrude 
on the fantasy!

 You can encourage buyers to linger by simply putting out refreshments, like fresh baked cookies (the 
aroma can be a powerful intoxicant!), and a pitcher of iced tea or minis of bottled water - anything to 
make them pause and take a closer look around.

 The one thing that shouldn’t be in the home during an open house is… you. No offense meant, but 
buyers are there to see the home, not the owner, and they may feel uncomfortable asking probing 
questions if you are within earshot. Make your visitors feel at ease, and trust your agent to take care 
of the rest!

BUSINESS TODAY

The latest on Business News, Trends and Techniques


By La Quetta M. Shamblee, MBA


UPDATE YOUR PRODUCT LINE 
& UP YOUR SALES

Taking an assessment of your line of products and 
services will lay the groundwork for greater business 
success and increased profits. A series of simple 
questions can help any entrepreneur determine if 
the current inventory of offerings is a good fit. It is 
imperative for a business to offer the mix of inventory or 
services that actually sells. After all, you’re in business 
to make a profit and as the saying goes, “If I don’t make 
money, it don’t make sense!”

Actual sales data must be used to answer the first 
two questions below. Each question is followed by 
recommendations that may be applied:

Question #1: What are my best sellers and why? 

If you have evidence to indicate that sales of certain 
items will continue, obviously you will continue to 
carry these items. Next, determine if there are related 
items that present an opportunity to increase sales. For 
example, if you’re selling potted plants it may be feasible 
to offer garden tools or a special set of seed packets as 
a limited-time promotion or as something available 
on an ongoing basis. A follow-up question is “What 
new items should I add and why?” When you update 
your line of products and services, it gives customers 
a reason for repeat visits and increases the likelihood 
they will eventually make a purchase of something from 
you. After all, they have some interest in what you offer, 
which is why they’re browsing in the first place, so be 
sure to keep your inventory “fresh” to give them reason 
to return.

Question #2: What has sold the least and why?

Items displayed in your store, on your website or 
languishing in your stock room that haven’t sold within 
a reasonable amount of time, are taking up space that 
needs to be cleared for things that can generate profits. 
First you may want to try alternative displays or pricing 
of the items and if the items still don’t sell, it’s time to 
have a special promotion, clearance sale or to donate 
them to a local charitable organization to make room 
for things that will sell. You also have online options 
like Ebay and Craigs List where you can post your 
clearance items.

Question #3: How does the presentation of my products 
and service rank?

Whether your business is primarily a physical location, 
an online store or a combination, neatness and 
cleanliness is of utmost importance. 

The first recommendation is to take interior and 
exterior photos of your business location. Then, ask a 
trusted friend or colleague to look at each photo and 
rate it on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being Unacceptable and 10 
being Outstanding) in the following areas:

1. Cleanliness (does business appear well-maintained), 
2. Organized (is layout of store/website organized and 
appealing?), 3. Attractive Displays (is merchandise 
easy to see or cluttered?), 4. Attractive and informative 
marketing materials (if applicable) and 5. Signage 
(are exterior and interior signs of professional quality, 
legible and easy to understand?). Be open to making 
changes based on the feedback from someone who 
actually cares enough about you to tell you what they 
really think. Consider that you may never hear what 
you really need to know from potential customers who 
have been turned off by something that they will never 
share with you.

It may also be helpful to invest time visiting locations 
of your most successful competitors. The purpose is to 
pay attention to how they display merchandise, signage 
used on the exterior and interior of the store, availability 
and quality of marketing materials and anything else 
readily visible to a consumer.

Finally, being attentive to what is selling and what is 
not, then applying an objective assessment process will 
ensure that consumers will recognize your business as 
one that is worth visiting and patronizing. They will 
be assured that you will always have something new 
to offer, and very likely something they will need to 
purchase.