Consequences of Living On the Credit Card

We live in uncertain times, and stressful situations can catch us financially off guard. High medical bills without sufficient health insurance, loss of employment, a poor year of farming or ranching, a divorce, natural disasters, deployment in the military, or higher than expected college costs can force us into debt. We’re not alone. Household debt across the country increased more than 9% in 2002. This was the largest rate of increase since 1989, according to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan

Thriving in Today’s Times: When Prices Rise—Living on Your Income

An increase in the price of goods and services can be traumatic. When you have to pay more for things like gasoline, food, and health care, other difficulties may arise, especially if you are retired and/or are living on a fixed income. It can be alarming to realize that, even in covering just the basics, your income does not go as far as it used to. Overall price increases are often due to an increase in the price of one essential product. An increase in the price of that essential product may trigger an increase in the price of other products and services. For example, an increase in the price of a barrel of oil may result in an increase in the price of gas at the pump, which, in turn, may help to increase both transportation and heating and cooling costs. As price increases continue, it doesn’t take long until you personally feel the effects, perhaps even to the extent that you have little or no discretionary funds and/or you strain to pay all your bills

Thriving in Today’s Times: Finding Money to Save and Spend

No matter what resources we have and no matter what tradeoffs we’re willing to make, we all like to have more money if we can. We might spend it all for something we want right now, pay off bills, or save some or all of it for an item or service we want in the future. How do you “find” more money to save and spend? There might be ways to save money you haven’t thought of before. The following list by topic gives ideas that have worked for others. You can put an “x” beside the things you already do and a “√“ next to things you might want to try

ESTATE PLANNING IN NORTH DAKOTA: THE BASICS Part 1: Getting Started

Formerly published under the HE seriesFE-551 (Revised

ESTATE PLANNING IN NORTH DAKOTA: THE BASICS Part 4: Trusts

Formerly published under the HE seriesFE-554 (Revised

Training Educators and Community Collaborators Using a Satellite Videoconference Format

Financial security is the ability to meet future needs while keeping pace with day-to-day obligations. The Cooperative Extension National initiative Financial Security in Later Life seeks to a) help people improve personal finance behaviors leading to financial security in later life, b) enhance the capacity of local educators and their partners to deliver effective programs, and c) increase economic vitality and quality of life for families and communities. A satellite videoconference designed to increase the capacity of educators and community partners to deliver effective programs was held in December 2003. On-line evaluations indicate this capacity-building opportunity clearly met objectives

All-sky LIGO Search for Periodic Gravitational Waves in the Early S5 Data

We report on an all-sky search with the LIGO detectors for periodic gravitational waves in the frequency range 50--1100 Hz and with the frequency's time derivative in the range -5.0E-9 Hz/s to zero. Data from the first eight months of the fifth LIGO science run (S5) have been used in this search, which is based on a semi-coherent method (PowerFlux) of summing strain power. Observing no evidence of periodic gravitational radiation, we report 95% confidence-level upper limits on radiation emitted by any unknown isolated rotating neutron stars within the search range. Strain limits below 1.E-24 are obtained over a 200-Hz band, and the sensitivity improvement over previous searches increases the spatial volume sampled by an average factor of about 100 over the entire search band. For a neutron star with nominal equatorial ellipticity of 1.0E-6, the search is sensitive to distances as great as 500 pc--a range that could encompass many undiscovered neutron stars, albeit only a tiny fraction of which would likely be rotating fast enough to be accessible to LIGO. This ellipticity is at the upper range thought to be sustainable by conventional neutron stars and well below the maximum sustainable by a strange quark star.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur

Search for Gravitational Wave Bursts from Soft Gamma Repeaters

We present the results of a LIGO search for short-duration gravitational waves (GWs) associated with Soft Gamma Repeater (SGR) bursts. This is the first search sensitive to neutron star f-modes, usually considered the most efficient GW emitting modes. We find no evidence of GWs associated with any SGR burst in a sample consisting of the 27 Dec. 2004 giant flare from SGR 1806-20 and 190 lesser events from SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14 which occurred during the first year of LIGO's fifth science run. GW strain upper limits and model-dependent GW emission energy upper limits are estimated for individual bursts using a variety of simulated waveforms. The unprecedented sensitivity of the detectors allows us to set the most stringent limits on transient GW amplitudes published to date. We find upper limit estimates on the model-dependent isotropic GW emission energies (at a nominal distance of 10 kpc) between 3x10^45 and 9x10^52 erg depending on waveform type, detector antenna factors and noise characteristics at the time of the burst. These upper limits are within the theoretically predicted range of some SGR models.Comment: 6 pages, 1 Postscript figur

Quantum state preparation and macroscopic entanglement in gravitational-wave detectors

Long-baseline laser-interferometer gravitational-wave detectors are operating at a factor of 10 (in amplitude) above the standard quantum limit (SQL) within a broad frequency band. Such a low classical noise budget has already allowed the creation of a controlled 2.7 kg macroscopic oscillator with an effective eigenfrequency of 150 Hz and an occupation number of 200. This result, along with the prospect for further improvements, heralds the new possibility of experimentally probing macroscopic quantum mechanics (MQM) - quantum mechanical behavior of objects in the realm of everyday experience - using gravitational-wave detectors. In this paper, we provide the mathematical foundation for the first step of a MQM experiment: the preparation of a macroscopic test mass into a nearly minimum-Heisenberg-limited Gaussian quantum state, which is possible if the interferometer's classical noise beats the SQL in a broad frequency band. Our formalism, based on Wiener filtering, allows a straightforward conversion from the classical noise budget of a laser interferometer, in terms of noise spectra, into the strategy for quantum state preparation, and the quality of the prepared state. Using this formalism, we consider how Gaussian entanglement can be built among two macroscopic test masses, and the performance of the planned Advanced LIGO interferometers in quantum-state preparation

First LIGO search for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic (super)strings

We report on a matched-filter search for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic string cusps using LIGO data from the fourth science run (S4) which took place in February and March 2005. No gravitational waves were detected in 14.9 days of data from times when all three LIGO detectors were operating. We interpret the result in terms of a frequentist upper limit on the rate of gravitational wave bursts and use the limits on the rate to constrain the parameter space (string tension, reconnection probability, and loop sizes) of cosmic string models.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures. Replaced with version submitted to PR