Understanding How Earth's Biological Systems Respond to and Influence Its Physical and Chemical Conditions


As a result of global climate change, Earth and its systems are undergoing rapid alterations. To adapt to changes happening at unprecedented rates, according to scientists, we must study how the interrelated geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere interact with each other.

In the 21st century, we will make the choices that affect the most basic relationships between humans and the planet on which we live, say James Collins, National Science Foundation (NSF) assistant director for biological sciences, and Tim Killeen, NSF assistant director for geosciences.

How will we accommodate our needs, while maintaining the functions of the natural systems on which the future of the globe, and with it our existence, depend?

The challenge will be met, in large part, through basic research, Collins and Killeen state.

To further our understanding of Earth's biogeochemical cycles, including the water cycle, and to develop environmental models that link local, regional and global scales, NSF's directorates for biological sciences (BIO) and geosciences (GEO) have announced a focus on interdisciplinary research that bridges the biological sciences and geosciences.

The directorates have issued Dear Colleague letters to the scientific community encouraging increased research in the areas of multi-scale modeling and emerging topics in biogeochemical cycles.

Especially sought are projects, to be jointly supported by core programs in BIO and GEO, that focus on the interactions and thresholds in climate, ecological and/or hydrologic systems.

"The goal is to increase our understanding of how biological systems respond to changing physical and chemical conditions," says Collins, "and how biological systems influence the physical and chemical characteristics of soils and sediments, air and water."

Adds Killeen, "These emerging and challenging problems require integration of concepts and observations across diverse fields. Projects funded via these Dear Colleague letters have the potential to dramatically improve our understanding of how small- and large-scale processes lead to 'tipping points,' such as those in Earth's climate system."

Projects will develop theoretical foundations for the modeling and simulation of existing data, and data collected by the new and envisioned NSF environmental observatories, such as the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), EarthScope, Critical Zone Observatories and others.

The information will be used to predict what will happen on Earth in the years and decades ahead.

In order to adapt to a changing world, and to mitigate changes that have already occurred, such knowledge, say Killeen and Collins, is critical.

Five Things About Kepler

Here are some quick facts about the Kepler mission, scheduled to launch March 6, 2009:

-- Kepler is the world's first mission with the ability to find true Earth analogs -- planets that orbit stars like our sun in the "habitable zone." The habitable zone is the region around a star where the temperature is just right for water -- an essential ingredient for life as we know it -- to pool on a planet's surface.

-- By the end of Kepler's three-and-one-half-year mission, it will give us a good idea of how common or rare other Earths are in our Milky Way galaxy. This will be an important step in answering the age-old question: Are we alone?

-- Kepler detects planets by looking for periodic dips in the brightness of stars. Some planets pass in front of their stars as seen from our point of view on Earth; when they do, they cause their stars to dim slightly, an event Kepler can see.

-- Kepler has the largest camera ever launched into space, a 95-megapixel array of charge-coupled devices, or CCDs, like those in everyday digital cameras.

-- Kepler's telescope is so powerful that, from its view up in space, it could detect one person in a small town turning off a porch light at night.

Display Monitor

Most display monitors today are capable of displaying images in various screen resolutions, all of which are suitable for viewing passport and visa images. These monitors also display images in a wide variety of colors. However, an image can look quite different when viewed on various display monitors, in terms of both screen resolution and image quality. For this reason, it is important to set the monitor''s settings to the manufacturer''s default values to view the image in the most appropriate manner. For more accurate color-matching, check that the calibration of your monitor is correct. If necessary, use the monitor''s control panel to fine-tune its color adjustments; for instance, to set the monitor''s color temperature to 6500 ºK to approximate daylight. For even greater color accuracy, the stored image can be converted to and displayed in a device-independent color space by using standard image display software. This removes the color bias of the specific display monitor and will more accurately represent the way the image should actually appear.

Sears Holdings Chairman Edward Lampert releases 15-page letter to shareholders

Quarterly profit down 55% percent; analysts say annual piece is short on details to turn around retailer

Most annual letters to shareholders are dry and perfunctory. A few, like those from investment oracle Warren Buffett, are revered for their wisdom. And then there are the writings of Edward Lampert, the one-of-kind chairman of Sears Holdings Corp.

Sears' business has been in trouble for years, and investors are eager to know how Lampert plans to fix it. In his 15-page letter released Thursday, he has plenty to say but sheds little light on Sears' strategy.

The hedge fund manager with the Goldman Sachs pedigree expounds for 8,500 words (about the length of a New Yorker article) on topics as far-flung as the government's missteps trying to contain the financial meltdown, short-selling rules, civil liberties, the writings of free-market Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek and the notion, repeated in past letters, that the credit rating agencies are unfairly rating Sears' debt junk.

"As for enlightening investors with specifics about his merchandising strategy and fiscal 2009 outlook, we guess he ran out of room," Carol Levenson, co-founder of Chicago-based Gimme Credit, said in a report.

Lampert, the majority shareholder and chairman of Sears, has no investor relations department and rarely speaks publicly, making his yearly letter a rare opportunity for investors to get a glimpse into his thinking.

Among the quirkier sections of Lampert's 15-page letter is a call for job candidates with turnaround experience.

"We encourage those who think they are up to the challenge to reach out to us to discuss opportunities at Sears Holdings," he wrote. Sears has been has been looking for a permanent chief executive to run the retail giant for more than a year. W. Bruce Johnson, a Kmart executive, has been interim CEO since Aylwin Lewis left in January 2008.

Lampert's reputation as a hands-on chairman has raised doubts as to how much freedom a CEO would have in attempting to turn around the ailing retail chain.

Lampert also said Sears has "begun exploring alternative ways to create value" from the Kenmore appliance, Craftsman tools and DieHard battery brands. In last year's letter, he raised the possibility of selling Sears' exclusive brands to other retail outlets.

The best shareholder letters—like those from Buffett or investor Martin Whitman—attract big followings because they are transparent, easy to understand and provide insight into what is working and not working at their firm, said Karen Dolan, director of fund analysis at Morningstar Inc. in Chicago.

"Not only do you not have to be a financial whiz to understand it, those that are successful are straightforward and honest and give information about what they're going to accomplish," said Dolan.

Morningstar equities strategist Paul Larson lauds Lampert's letter for "an above average frankness."

But, Credit Suisse analyst Gary Balter advises reading Lampert's letter only "if one wants to read an interesting analysis of the financial problems that the previous administration created and that continue to impact the world economy."

If it is "a well positioned retailer that we believe will be a winner on the other side of this recovery," look elsewhere, Balter said in a Thursday report.

Lampert's letter came as Sears announced that fiscal fourth-quarter profit fell 55 percent on weak holiday sales and a write-down of the value of its Orchard Supply Hardware unit.

Net income for the three months ended Jan. 31 was $190 million, or $1.55 a share, down from $426 million, or $3.17, a year earlier, the company said. Excluding charges for Orchard and other items, Sears earned $360 million, or $2.94 a share.

Revenue declined 12 percent, to $13.3 billion. Sales at stores open at least one year, a key measure of retail health, fell 8.3 percent in the quarter. Same-store sales fell 11 percent at Sears stores and dropped 5 percent at Kmart.

Sears also said it plans to close 24 stores in addition to the eight already announced.

Source chicagotribune.com/business/chi-fri-sears-lampert-letter-feb27,0,3146067.story

The Heicheng Ruins Tourism District

Located in Ejina Banner of Alxa League as an important constitutive part of the Juyan culture covering a total area of 180,000 square meters, the district is the most complete and still existing ancient city ruins left over from Xixia State (1038-1227). It was then an important agriculture and livestock husbandry base and frontier stronghold of Xixia as well as an important relay station in the Hexi Corridor in the Yuan dynasty. With large amount of unearthed cultural relics, it is a famous scenic tourism spot.

International Research Fellowship Program (IRFP)

The objective of the International Research Fellowship Program (IRFP) is to introduce scientists and engineers in the early stages of their careers to international collaborative research opportunities, thereby furthering their research capacity and global perspective and forging long-term relationships with scientists, technologists and engineers abroad. These awards are available in any field of science and engineering research and education supported by NSF.

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY

This program provides educational opportunities for Postdoctoral Fellows .

Cyber-safety plan

The internet is an essential tool for all Australians, including children. It is an integral part of our economic and social activities, and a vast resource of information, education and entertainment.

The ability to use online tools effectively provides both a skill for life and the means to acquire new skills.

While the internet has created substantial benefits for children, it has also exposed them to a number of dangers, including exposure to illegal and prohibited content. Parents rightly expect the Australian Government to play its part in helping protect children online.

The protection of e.g. software, computer games, film and music is increased

Intellectual property rightholders to e.g. music, film, literature, computer games and software will be given better possibilities to act against illegal file sharing on the Internet. This is proposed in a bill adopted by the Government and delivered to the Parliament today.

- If the creators of computer games, movies or music lack the possibility of making money on their products, they will not be able to afford hiring the people they need in order for their companies to grow. This Bill gives the creative industry the possibility to grow, says Minister for Justice Beatrice Ask.

Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights applies to all types of intellectual property rights, such as copyright, patent, trademark and so forth, in the physical as well as the digital environment.

The Swedish legislation already complies with most of the provisions in the Directive. However, in order to reach full compliance, some amendments needs to be done. Among other things, Sweden has to introduce provisions that give rightholders a right to information on the origin and distribution networks of the goods or services which infringe an intellectual property right. In respect to the enforcement of copyright, the European Court of Justice has stated that the Member States have a certain room for manoeuvre, but the result must be an effective protection also on the Internet. Therefore, it is up to each Member State to decide if rightholders shall be given a possibility to get access to information about the identity of an individual behind an IP-address on the Internet, or if the effective protection should be accomplished in a different way.

In the area of intellectual property rights, the main rule has for a long time been that these rights should first and foremost be upheld by the rightholders themselves, through civil remedies (e.g. damages). Infringements of intellectual property rights can also result in criminal sanctions such as fines or imprisonment, but this is more of a complement to the civil remedies. However, when it comes to infringements on the Internet, it has often been almost impossible for rightholders to make use of the civil remedies. The reason for this is that all you can see on the Internet is an anonymous IP-address. Today, rightholders cannot obtain information about the identity of the person behind the IP-address.

The proposal put forward by the Government will make it possible for a Swedish court, in the same way as in many other countries, to order an Internet Service Provider to give the rightholder information about the identity of the individual behind an IP-address. The information will only be disclosed after a court order. Such an order may be issued if the rightholder has presented sufficient evidence (probable course) that an infringement has been committed from the IP-address in question. The court has to respect principle of proportionality and has to balance the rightholders interest of receiving the information against other interests, such as the integrity of the individual behind the IP-address. This means that the infringement must be of a certain degree in order for the rightholder to obtain the information. This is generally the case when e.g. one movie or one piece of music is made available to the public - e.g. via file sharing - on the Internet, since this typically results in considerable damage for the rightholder. This is also the case when it is a question of more frequent downloading. In such cases, the rightholder will normally get access to the information. However, if it is only a matter of downloading a few works, the interest of integrity will normally prevail. In such cases, the information will not be disclosed. If the person behind an IP-address is disclosed, he will receive information about this after a certain time.

This legislation will, contrary to what is normally the case concerning this kind of provisions, only apply to infringements that have been committed after the legislation has entered into force.

Furthermore, the Government will immediately initiate an evaluation concerning the application of this legislation. The evaluation shall, among other things, include a follow-up on the question whether or not the legislation primarily is used to act against more serious infringements.

The proposal does not - as claimed by some people during the debate in media - give rightholders the authority to act as policemen. It is only a question of creating a real possibility for rightholders to use the civil remedies that already exist in the legislation.

Nor does this mean that the person that holds the subscription behind the IP-address in question automatically will be responsible for illegal activities, e.g. illegal file sharing, carried out by someone via his connection to the Internet. But it will give rightholders a possibility to contact the subscriber and a possibility for the subscriber to prevent further infringements via his connection. If the rightholder wants to go further and obtain a court order obliging a person to pay damages, he has to initiate a proceeding against that person and in this proceeding prove that the defendant has caused the rightholder the damages claimed.

Maldives participates in human rights reviews of Sri Lanka and Tonga

15 May: Permanent Representative of the Maldives to the United Nations office at Geneva, H.E. Mr. Abdul Ghafoor Mohamed has this week participated in the Universal Periodic Reviews (UPR) of Sri Lanka and Tonga at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. The Universal Periodic Review is an important new mechanism under which the human rights records of all UN Member States are assessed by their peers in the international community. During the interactive debate on the National Report of Sri Lanka, Ambassador Ghafoor expressed the Maldives’ strong support for the efforts of the Government of Sri Lanka to strengthen human rights promotion and protection under very difficult security circumstances: “As a close neighbor and friend, having extensively rich and varied historical cultural and social ties that extend over centuries past, Maldives is only too aware of the many challenges faced by the Government of Sri Lanka as it tries to balance its national security needs and ensuring the protection and promotion of its human rights obligations to all its citizen, while combating one of the most ruthless and deadliest terrorist organizations in the world. This situation was further exacerbated by the terrible devastation and destruction caused by the tsunami of December 2004, from which the country is still recovering. Maldives takes note of the many commitments made, and efforts underway, by the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure the continued protection and promotion of human rights of its people. Sri Lanka has taken a number of important steps to better guarantee its human rights obligations, and identified key priority areas of action for the future. It is evident that Sri Lanka will need the continued understanding, empathy, support and assistance of the international community as it tries to achieve the goals it has set forth for itself. My delegation hopes and it confident that the international community will be forthcoming in its response. Maldives especially welcomes the Sri Lankan Government’s commitment to pluralism and notes the recently initiated targeted recruitment of policemen and women from a minority community. We recommend that Sri Lanka pursue this initiative and move to greater integration of all communities in the public and security services. Maldives would like to take this opportunity to wish the Government and people of Sri Lanka an early and everlasting peaceful solution to the deadly conflict that has brought so much misery and suffering to its people, and hindered the realization of the country’s full developmental potential for many years”, concluded the Ambassador. Maldives’ participation in the review of Tonga reflects the common challenges faced by the two countries as Small Island Developing States with limited human and technical resources. Tonga’s Review is the first of a Small Island State. Maldives will be reviewed in late 2010.Ambassador Ghafoor said“ As the Government of Tonga makes clear throughout the report, two of the key challenges it faces are to strengthen human rights protection while respecting and promoting its proud cultural heritage; and secondly to take such steps in the face of extreme human and technical resource constraints. Indeed, such challenges are common to many Small Island States and we urge Members of the Council to be sensitive to this fact when conducting today’s Review. Considering the resource constraints faced by Small Island States such as Tonga, it is vital that relevant international organizations and donor states engage positively and constructively to help the country undertake the reforms that it itself identifies as imperative in its own National Report. In the human rights field, there are considerable resources that can be made available to Tonga in order to strengthen national policy, institutions and practice. For example, United Nations Special Reporters can offer invaluable, impartial expert advice in areas such as press freedom, judicial independence, and women’s rights. Likewise, human rights Treaty Body recommendations can act as a catalyst and guide to encourage international donors and agencies, including the OHCHR, to engage and extend much-needed financial and technical assistance”.

BLACK WALNUT - Juglans nigra, Linn

WALNUT IS UNQUETIONABLY the finest wood in the world. Our forefathers sought it out and used it lavishly in their homes, barns and fences. The warm brown wood finishes beautifully. It is easy to work, yet durable. It shrinks and swells less than any other wood, which makes it valuable to cabinet makers and gunsmiths alike.

Practically everyone recognizes a walnut tree when the nuts are on it. Their distinct shape, pattern and smell are hard to miss. The stain the hulls leave on your skin when you hull walnuts is hard to get off; pioneers used this to dye their cloth. There are other distinctive characteristics to identify the tree in other seasons and at ages when it is too young to bear fruit. A sure method is to cut through a twig at an angle and check the pith. This pith is chambered--somewhat like a honeycomb. Only black walnut and butternut--a close relative--have pith like this. Walnut pith is brown and butternut is buff colored. The rather large, horse-faced leaf scars on the twigs, the large naked buds (no scales cover the embryonic leaves), and the smell of the bark and twigs are other easy ways to identify it.

Missouri has been the leading state in the nation in the production of walnut logs and lumber for 50 years. Today large quantities of walnut logs are shipped to Japan, Germany, and Italy. Always in demand, prices for walnut trees now are higher than ever.

High quality logs are made into veneer. Slices of wood 1/28th of an inch thick are glued to cheaper woods to make it economically possible for all of us to buy walnut furniture and paneling. Demand far exceeds supply. We use both veneered and solid in our finest furniture. Its strength, stability and beauty make it unexcelled for gunstocks, too. Hickories and pecans are first cousins (botanically) to walnut.

Walnut grows throughout Missouri in a variety of soils. However, it grows best on the deep, well-drained soils of north Missouri and on alluvial soils in the south. Usually it occurs as scattered trees or in small groves. Strangely, walnut roots transmit a growth-inhibiting chemical which keeps many other trees and plants and even its own kind from growing near it. Blue grass, however, thrives in the light shade of walnut.

Every farm in the state should have a few walnuts. Work should start early to grow high quality trees which the market demands. Young trees two to four inches in diameter should be pruned and formed. Inferior trees crowding the walnuts should be removed.

It should be enough to have a tree with superb wood. Walnut has a double value, though, over a million dollars is paid each year for the nuts. The richly flavored nut meats are used by bakers, candy and ice cream makers. The uses go even further. The hard shells are used as ornaments, and pulverized, they ares used to drill oil wells, clean jet engines and to make activated carbon (a type of industrial charcoal used in a variety of ways). During World War II, gas mask filters were made from this activated carbon. Wildlife loves the walnut, too.

Get to know walnut. Plant it. Care for it. It is Missouri's most valuable tree.

Iron's Safety: Taking a Closer Look

Iron-fortified foods such as breakfast cereals don't pose a special health risk to most people. That includes the one out of every 10 Americans who has one normal and one altered form of a gene linked to iron overload.Men and women volunteers with that genetic makeup did not absorb significantly more iron from their foods in comparison to volunteers with two normal genes for iron absorption, researchers have found.

Scientists at the ARS Grand Forks (N.D.) Human Nutrition Research Center worked with data from volunteers—100 healthy men and women in this study—and presented their findings in a 2004 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.Certain foods are iron-fortified to ensure that we get the recommended daily amount of this essential mineral.

Kara cratert

Kara is a meteor crater in the Yugorsky Peninsula, Nenetsia, Russia.It is 65 km in diameter and the age is estimated to be 70.3 ± 2.2 million years old (Upper Cretaceous). Impactite outcrops located on the Baydarata Gulf shore north-east of the crater imply that the original size of the crater, now greatly eroded, was 120 km in diameter . The crater is not exposed to the surface.

The Kara crater lies in the southeastern end of the Yugorsky Peninsula, while the Ust-Kara site lies offshore, 15 km east of the small Kara or Karskaya Guba inlet. It was formerly believed that these two sites were two separate craters and that they formed a twin impact structure from a large-scale meteorite hit in the late cretaceous. However, it seems that the Ust-Kara site does not exist as a separate site. Apparently, the Suevite outcrops of the Ust-Kara impact structure are only a part of the Kara impact structure. (Hodge 1994 and NASA 1988)

Rough Diamond Importation Procedures under the Kimberley Process

The Clean Diamond Trade Act (the “Act”; Public Law 108-19) was signed into law on July 29, 2003. The Act prohibits the “importation into, or exportation from, the United States on or after July 30, 2003, of any rough diamond, from whatever source, unless the rough diamond has been controlled through the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS)”.

The Census Bureau is responsible for collecting, compiling and publishing import and export statistics for the U.S. under the provisions of Title 13 and Title 15 U.S.C. The Act requires the Census Bureau to maintain statistics on imports and exports of rough diamonds under subheadings 7102.10, 7102.21, and 7102.31 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.All importers of rough diamonds must fax a copy of their KPC certificates to the Census Bureau upon making entry with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Chihnan National Forest Recreation Area

Chihnan National Forest Recreation Area spreads out from both sides of Liyutan (Carp Lake) in Hualien County. It has been generously endowed by nature, with plenty of mountains, rivers and lakes to enjoy. The area is also of historical note as a former center of Taiwan's logging industry. Rail tracks and other remnants continue to recall those early days when steam engines shuttled timber from Muguashan Forest. An 1,400-meter section remains from a timber hauling cableway that once went all the way to Muguashan.In addition to the rich forest ecology, a mixture of natural and planted broadleaf species, the recreation area is surrounded by mountains that reflect picturesquely on the surface of Liyutan. There are several forest trails to choose from here. One leads up to the 601-meter-high Liyutan where visitors can take in the scenic sights of the East Rift Valley and Coastal Range.

Safe Deposit Boxes

The contents of a safe deposit box are not insured by the FDIC. (Make sure you read the contract you signed with the bank when you rented the safe deposit box in the event that some type of insurance is provided; some banks may make a very limited payment if the box or contents are damaged or destroyed, depending on the circumstances.) If you are concerned about the safety, or replacement, of items you have put in a safe deposit box, you may wish to consider purchasing fire and theft insurance. Separate insurance for these perils may be available; consult your insurance agent. Usually such insurance is part of a homeowner's or tenant's insurance policy for a residence and its contents. Again, consult your insurance agent for more information.

In the event of a bank failure, in most cases an acquiring institution would take over the failed bank's offices, including locations with safe deposit boxes. If no acquirer can be found the FDIC would send boxholders instructions for removing the contents of their boxes.

The Truth About Foreign Direct Investment in Emerging Markets

In their zeal to attract foreign investment, governments in emerging markets offer tax breaks and subsidies that can cost those millions. Simultaneously, they enforce rules to protect inefficient domestic companies and to ensure that local economies benefit from the new business. The article finds that these incentives and restrictions are unnecessary, ineffective, and, in some cases, counterproductive. Foreign investment benefits the local economy in almost all cases. Moreover, foreign investors say that government funds would be better used to improve the local infrastructure than to provide investment incentives.

AQUARIUM

With over 800 km of coastline and a vast expanse of sea extending from Fraserburgh in the East, right out to Duncansby Head, by John o’ Groats, in the North, the Moray Firth has an amazing wealth of marine habitats – from sheltered estuaries and exposed rocky shores out to kelp reefs and the muddy sea floor.

The Moray Firth is a haven for wildlife and at Macduff Marine Aquarium you will come face to face with all kinds of sea creatures that live beneath the steely blue Moray Firth waters.The aquarium’s exhibits lead you from the coast, where you can explore the estuaries and the rocky shores, and then to the underwater world of the kelp reef. At the sea lab and touch pools you can get a feel for seashore life, before heading out to the deep reef and the seafloor.

Global crisis can be overcome in 18 months: APEC

Pacific Rim nations assured the world that the global financial crisis can be quelled in 18 months, but provided few details of how they expect that to happen - or how their governments can help.The 21 economies, which represent more than half of the world's productive power, also pledged during a two-day summit not to erect new protectionist barriers for the next year, and to jump-start stalled World Trade Organization talks.The main accomplishment of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum was a widening of support for the Washington Declaration made last weekend by major economies that pledged to maintain free trade despite pressures to protect domestic industries.

The leaders voiced confidence that the crisis could be resolved by mid-2010, though they did not go much beyond the steps outlined in the Group of 20 summit in Washington.

"We are convinced that we can overcome this crisis in a period of 18 months," the leaders said in a statement. "We have already taken urgent and extraordinary steps to stabilize our financial sectors and strengthen economic growth."The reassuring words were added early Sunday to a declaration the leaders had signed off on the previous day. Delegates from several countries said the changes were made overnight at the request of the summit's host, Peruvian President Alan Garcia."We have agreed that this meeting produce a clear and firm statement that breaks the vicious cycle of anguish and uncertainty," Garcia said Sunday. "We - united as the world's peoples, governments and businesses - are going to beat the crisis."

The 18-month timeline fits with a calculation by the International Monetary Fund, which forecast developed economies would grow barely 0.1 per cent in 2009, and that the world would emerge from the crisis the following year.

But some delegates and analysts were skeptical that the timetable was much more than wishful thinking, and some leaders distanced themselves from the language. Mexican President Felipe Calderon described the date as more of an estimate than a prediction.Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper went a step further."I think it would be speculative to commit to that kind of timeline," he said.And Dan Price, an aide to George W. Bush, said the US president thinks the global economy can be fixed even faster.

"That particular sentence was added by the president of Peru as the chair," Price said aboard Air Force One. "Certainly, some in the region may think that recovery may take 18 months. President Bush...

Ramsey Cascades

Ramsey Cascades is the tallest waterfall in the park and one of the most spectacular. Water drops 100 feet over rock outcroppings and collects in a small pool where numerous well-camouflaged salamanders can be found.

The trail to the waterfall gains over 2,000' in elevation over its 4 mile course and the 8-mile roundtrip hike is considered strenuous in difficulty. It follows rushing rivers and streams for much of its length. The last 2 miles pass through old-growth cove hardwood forest with large tuliptrees, basswoods, silverbells, and yellow birches.Do not attempt to climb to the top of the falls. Several people have been killed trying to do so.

Access Trail: Ramsey Cascades Trail (Tennessee)Trailhead: Drive six miles east of Gatlinburg on Highway 321 and turn at the Greenbrier entrance to the park. Follow the signs 4.7 miles to the trailhead.

Ulcerative Colitis

Also called: Colitis, Distal colitis, Pancolitis, Ulcerative proctitis
Ulcerative colitis is a disease that causes ulcers in the lining of the rectum and colon. It is one of a group of diseases called inflammatory bowel disease. Ulcers form where inflammation has killed the cells that usually line the colon.

Ulcerative colitis can happen at any age, but it usually starts between the ages of 15 and 30. It tends to run in families. The most common symptoms are pain in the abdomen and bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include anemia, severe tiredness, weight loss, loss of appetite, bleeding from the rectum, sores on the skin and joint pain. Children with the disease may have growth problems.

About half of people with ulcerative colitis have mild symptoms. Several types of drugs can help control ulcerative colitis. Some people have long periods of remission, when they are free of symptoms. In severe cases, doctors must remove the colon.

Ficus

Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemi epiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The so-called Common Fig (F. carica) is a temperate species from the Middle East and eastern Europe (mostly Ukraine), which has been widely cultivated from ancient times for its fruit, also referred to as figs.Figs occupy a wide variety of ecological niches. Take, for example, the Common Fig, a small temperate deciduous tree whose fingered fig leaf is well-known in art and iconography; or the Weeping Fig (F. benjamina) a hemi-epiphyte with thin tough leaves on pendulous stalks adapted to its rain forest habitat; or the rough-leaved sandpaper figs from Australia; or the Creeping Fig (F. pumila), a vine whose small, hard leaves form a dense carpet of foliage over rocks or garden walls. Moreover, figs with different plant habits have undergone adaptive radiation in different biogeographic regions, often leading to very high levels of alpha diversity. In the tropics, it is quite common to find that Ficus is the most species-rich plant genus in a particular forest. In Asia as many as 70 or more species can co-exist.

A fig "fruit" is derived from a specially adapted type of inflorescence (an arrangement of multiple flowers). In this case, it is an involuted, nearly closed receptacle with many small flowers arranged on the inner surface. Thus the actual flowers of the fig are unseen unless the fig is cut open.In Bengali, where the Common Fig is called dumur, it is referenced in a proverb: tumi jeno dumurer phool hoe gele ("You have become [invisible like] the dumur flower").

The syconium often has a bulbous shape with a small opening (the ostiole) at the outward end that allows access to pollinators. The flowers are pollinated by very small wasps that crawl through the opening in search of a suitable place to lay eggs. Without this pollinator service fig trees cannot reproduce by seed. In turn, the flowers provide a safe haven and nourishment for the next generation of wasps. This accounts for the frequent presence of wasp larvae in the fruit. Technically, a fig fruit proper would be one of the many tiny mature, seed-bearing flowers found inside one fig - if you cut open a fresh fig, the flowers will appear as fleshy "threads", each bearing a single seed inside.

The fig plants can be monoecious (hermaphrodite) or dioecious (hermaphrodite and female).

'Hamilton has just got to use his brain'

The Formula One world championship is poised for a thrilling climax with three drivers in with a chance of winning with two races to go.

Lewis Hamilton of McLaren heads into Sunday's race in China with a five-point championship lead over Ferrari's Felipe Massa, with BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica a further seven adrift.

On paper, Hamilton should be a strong favourite, and Kubica - whose car is off the pace of the Ferrari and McLaren - should have no chance.

But the Englishman's position is not as strong as it might at first appear.

And after a season of topsy-turvy results and high-profile errors, it is clear anything could happen - especially when Hamilton appears to have more enemies out on the track than he does in the title battle.

We assess the positions of each of the three contenders.

Houston

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States of America and the largest city within the state of Texas. As of the 2006 U.S. Census estimate, the city has a population of 2.2 million within an area of 600 square miles (1,600 km²). Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area—the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. with a population of around 5.6 million.

Houston was founded on August 30, 1836 by brothers Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen on land near the banks of Buffalo Bayou. The city was incorporated on June 5, 1837 and named after then-President of the Republic of Texas—former General Sam Houston—who had commanded at the Battle of San Jacinto, which took place 25 miles (40 km) east of where the city was established. The burgeoning port and railroad industry, combined with oil discovery in 1901, has induced continual surges in the city's population. In the mid-twentieth century, Houston became the home of the Texas Medical Center—the world's largest concentration of healthcare and research institutions—and NASA's Johnson Space Center, where the Mission Control Center is located.

Houston's economy has a broad industrial base in the energy, manufacturing, aeronautics, transportation, and health care sectors; only New York City is home to more Fortune 500 headquarters in the city limits. Commercially, Houston is ranked as a gamma world city, and the area is a leading center for building oilfield equipment. The Port of Houston ranks first in the United States in international waterborne tonnage handled and second in total cargo tonnage handled. The city has a multicultural population with a large and growing international community. It is home to many cultural institutions and exhibits—attracting more than 7 million visitors a year to the Houston Museum District. Houston has an active visual and performing arts scene in the Theater District and is one of few U.S. cities that offer year-round resident companies in all major performing arts

Indian National Bird

The Indian peacock, Pavo cristatus, the national bird of India, is a colourful, swan-sized bird, with a fan-shaped crest of feathers, a white patch under the eye and a long, slender neck. The male of the species is more colourful than the female, with a glistening blue breast and neck and a spectacular bronze-green train of around 200 elongated feathers. The female is brownish, slightly smaller than the male and lacks the train. The elaborate courtship dance of the male, fanning out the tail and preening its feathers is a gorgeous sight.

Our Oceans Are In Trouble:

What is the state of the ocean today?

It's actually very bad. It's probably worse in many ways than the state of conservation on land, but we don't think about it because we don't live in it.

Basically it comes down to what we put into the atmosphere and ocean and what we take out of the ocean. What we put into the atmosphere is carbon dioxide, which makes the ocean hotter. And when it dissolves in the oceans themselves, it makes them more acidic. From the land, you're getting all this runoff into the oceans—vast amounts of nutrients associated with excess fertilizer, pesticides, industrial waste, waste from cars and city streets. There's a lot of stuff that fertilizes the ocean and causes bacteria and other slimy stuff to proliferate, plus things that actually poison the ocean.

We also have the massive scale of fisheries. We're pulling out the tops of the food chain. Most of the big fish in the ocean are already gone. We've also strip-mined the bottom of the sea floor with trawls.We've basically created a massive disturbance to the ocean, which is resulting in collapsing ecosystems, failing fisheries, toxic blooms.

When did scientists realize the damage we're causing the ocean?

In the last 50 years, things have really deteriorated. People have had some impact for a long time, but the ocean can suffer a certain amount of assault from human activity and not have a major problem with it. Now everything is increasing. Carbon dioxide is increasing dramatically. Industrial fisheries, since about the 1950s, have increased dramatically.

BBC plans to double its output made in Wales

THE BBC last night announced ambitious plans to double the proportion of network productions made in Wales, with Crimewatch coming to Cardiff in 2011 and Casualty likely to follow a year later.Coming just a week after ITV’s decision to slash programme making in Wales, the news is a welcome boost for the broadcasting industry.

In a speech to the Royal Television Society last night, BBC executive Jana Bennett also announced that, for the very first time, a network commissioning executive will be based in Cardiff to help build on the success of the independent production sector.The shifting of resources to Wales ties in with the BBC’s commitment to better reflect the diversity of creative talent around the UK.

In 2006 and 2007 the proportion of spend outside London increased by 15%. Last year the BBC, affectionately known as Auntie, spent £300m outside London.Ms Bennett’s announcement was said to represent the corporation’s determination to build a large-scale, sustainable production centre in Wales, focused on drama, factual and music content.It would enable BBC Wales and its partners in the independent sector to build on the success of existing network programmes such as Doctor Who and Torchwood.

NASA Space Probe to Fly Over Mercury, Closest Planet to Sun:


A U.S. spacecraft will fly over Mercury next week to photograph the planet closest to the sun, in the second of three passes, NASA said.

The Messenger probe will take more than 1,200 pictures and collect data from the smallest planet in the solar system when it swings 125 miles (200 kilometers) above Mercury's cratered surface on Oct. 6, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said a statement on its Web site yesterday.

The 2,442-pound (1,107 kilogram) probe is due to pass the planet three times before settling into orbit in March 2011, NASA said. Messenger was launched in August 2004 at a cost of $286 million. It first flew past in January and will make its final pass in September 2009.

``The results from Messenger's first flyby of Mercury resolved debates that are more than 30 years old,'' Sean Solomon, the mission's principle investigator from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said in the statement. ``The second encounter will uncover even more information about the planet.''

The spacecraft is more than halfway through a 4.9 billion- mile journey that includes more than 15 trips around the sun before entering orbit around Mercury, NASA said. The probe is designed to improve scientists' understanding of how Earth, Venus and Mars were formed, and their interactions with the sun.

The January flyby showed that volcanic eruptions produced many of Mercury's plains and that its magnetic field appears to be generated in a molten iron core, according to the space agency.

The second flyby may bring more information about the particles located around the planet's magnetic field, according to NASA, which said the probe will also chart Mercury's topography.

has a diameter of about 3,000 miles, less than half the diameter of Earth and is 36 million miles from the sun.

Before Messenger, the only other craft to visit Mercury was Mariner 10, which passed the planet three times in 1974 and 1975.

Cash drive launched so delicate mummy can finally see the light

A public appeal is to be launched in March so that Hull's Egyptian mummy, which recently starred in a TV programme, can come out from the dark. The 2,700 year old mummy belonging to Hull Museums is so fragile that it cannot be put on display and has been kept in storage for 60 years.

But because of the huge interest shown in Channel 5's programme entitled 'The True Curse of the Mummy', museum officials want Hull people to have a chance to come face to face with the preserved remains, now thought to be the inspiration behind a whole genre of horror stories.

But they need people to dig into their pockets. Money is needed to pay for cleaning and conserving the mummy and another one in Hull's collection, so they can be exhibited without causing their condition to deteriorate further.

Anaerobic biodegradation of pollutants

Anaerobic microbial mineralization of recalcitrant organic pollutants is of great environmental significance and involves intriguing novel biochemical reactions. In particular, hydrocarbons and halogenated compounds have long been doubted to be degradable in the absence of oxygen, but the isolation of hitherto unknown anaerobic hydrocarbon-degrading and reductively dehalogenating bacteria during the last decades provided ultimate proof for these processes in nature. Many novel biochemical reactions were discovered enabling the respective metabolic pathways, but progress in the molecular understanding of these bacteria was rather slow, since genetic systems are not readily applicable for most of them. However, with the increasing application of genomics in the field of environmental microbiology, a new and promising perspective is now at hand to obtain molecular insights into these new metabolic properties. Several complete genome sequences were determined during the last few years from bacteria capable of anaerobic organic pollutant degradation. The ~4.7 Mb genome of the facultative denitrifying Aromatoleum aromaticum strain EbN1 was the first to be determined for an anaerobic hydrocarbon degrader (using toluene or ethylbenzene as substrates). The genome sequence revealed about two dozen gene clusters (including several paralogs) coding for a complex catabolic network for anaerobic and aerobic degradation of aromatic compounds.

Nootropic
Nootropics, popularly referred to as "smart drugs", "smart nutrients", "cognitive enhancers" and "brain enhancers", are a class of drugs that improve impaired human cognitive abilities (the functions and capacities of the brain). The term covers a broad range of substances including drugs, nutrients and herbs that have purported cognitive enhancing effects.

The word nootropic was coined in 1964 by the Romanian Dr. Corneliu E. Giurgea, derived from the Greek words noos, or "mind," and tropein meaning "to bend/turn". Typically, nootropics are alleged to work by altering the availability of the brain's supply of neurochemicals (neurotransmitters, enzymes, and hormones), by improving the brain's oxygen supply, or by stimulating nerve growth. However the efficacy of alleged nootropic substances in most cases has not been conclusively determined. This is complicated by the difficulty of defining and quantifying cognition and intelligence.

Biotechnology

Biotechnology is technology based on biology, especially when used in agriculture, food science, and medicine. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity defines biotechnology as:
Any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use.

Biotechnology is often used to refer to genetic engineering technology of the 21st century, however the term encompasses a wider range and history of procedures for modifying biological organisms according to the needs of humanity, going back to the initial modifications of native plants into improved food crops through artificial selection and hybridization. Bioengineering is the science upon which all biotechnological applications are based. With the development of new approaches and modern techniques, traditional biotechnology industries are also acquiring new horizons enabling them to improve the quality of their products and increase the productivity of their systems.

Strapdown systems

Lightweight digital computers permit the system to eliminate the gimbals, creating "strapdown" systems, so called because their sensors are simply strapped to the vehicle. This reduces the cost, eliminates gimbal lock, removes the need for some calibrations, and increases the reliability by eliminating some of the moving parts. Angular rate sensors called "rate gyros" measure how the angular velocity of the vehicle changes.

A strapdown system has a dynamic measurement range several hundred times that required by a gimbaled system. That is, it must integrate the vehicle's attitude changes in pitch, roll and yaw, as well as gross movements. Gimballed systems could usually do well with update rates of 50 to 60 updates per second. However, strapdown systems normally update about 2000 times per second. The higher rate is needed to keep the maximum angular measurement within a practical range for real rate gyros: about 4 milliradians. Most rate gyros are now laser interferometers.

The data updating algorithms ("direction cosines" or "quaternions") involved are too complex to be accurately performed except by digital electronics. However, digital computers are now so inexpensive and fast that rate gyro systems can now be practically used and mass-produced. The Apollo lunar module used a strapdown system in its backup Abort Guidance System (AGS).

Strapdown systems are nowadays commonly used in commercial and tactical applications (arcraft, missiles, etc). However they are still not widespread in applications where superb accuracy is required (like submarine navigation or strategic ICBM guidance).

Implicit Web

The Implicit Web is a concept coined in 2007 to denote web sites which specialize in the synthesis of personal information gleaned from the Internet into a single, coherent picture of user behavior. Implicit data may include clickstream information, media consumption habits, location tracking or any data generated without "explicit" input from a user. Presumed advantages of implicit data include accuracy, ease of input and comprehensiveness.

The term Implicit Web was popularized by the technology investors Josh Kopelman, Fred Wilson, and Brad Feld.

Google Earth Plus

Google Earth can be upgraded to a Plus edition for a $20 annual subscription fee. Google Earth Plus is an individual-oriented paid subscription upgrade to Google Earth and adds the following features:

* GPS integration: read tracks and waypoints from a GPS device. A variety of third party applications have been created which provide this functionality using the basic version of Google Earth by generating KML or KMZ files based on user-specified or user-recorded waypoints. However, Google Earth Plus provides direct support for the Magellan and Garmin product lines, which together hold a large share of the GPS market. The Linux version of the Google Earth Plus application does not include any GPS functionality.
* Higher resolution printing.
* Customer support via email.
* Data importer: read address points from CSV files; limited to 100 points/addresses. A feature allowing path and polygon annotations, which can be exported to KML, was formerly only available to Plus users, but was made free in version 4.0.2416.
* Higher data download speeds

Network telescope

A network telescope (also known as a darknet, internet motion sensor or black hole) is an internet system that allows one to observe different large-scale events taking place on the Internet. The basic idea is to observe traffic targeting the dark (unused) address-space of the network. Since all traffic to these addresses is suspicious, one can gain information about possible network attacks (random scanning worms, and DDoS backscatter) as well as other misconfigurations by observing it.

The resolution of the Internet telescope is dependent on the number of dark addresses it monitors. For example, a large Internet telescope that monitors traffic to 16,777,216 addresses (a /8 Internet telescope in IPv4), has a higher probability of observing a relatively small event than a smaller telescope that monitors 65,536 addresses (a /16 Internet telescope).

A variant of a network telescope is a sparse darknet, or greynet, consisting of a region of IP address space that is sparsely populated with 'darknet' addresses interspersed with active (or 'lit') IP addresses.

Object-relational database

An object-relational database (ORD) or object-relational database management system (ORDBMS) is a database management system (DBMS) similar to a relational database, but with an object-oriented database model: objects, classes and inheritance are directly supported in database schemas and in the query language. In addition, it supports extension of the data model with custom data-types and methods.

One aim for this type of system is to bridge the gap between conceptual data modeling techniques such as Entity-relationship diagram (ERD) and object-relational mapping (ORM), which often use classes and inheritance, and relational databases, which do not directly support them.

Another, related, aim is to bridge the gap between relational databases and the object-oriented modeling techniques used in programming languages such as Java (programming language), C++ or C#. However, a more popular alternative for achieving such a bridge is to use a standard relational database systems with some form of ORM software.

Software transactional memory
In computer science, software transactional memory (STM) is a concurrency control mechanism analogous to database transactions for controlling access to shared memory in concurrent computing. It functions as an alternative to lock-based synchronization, and is typically implemented in a lock-free way. A transaction in this context is a piece of code that executes a series of reads and writes to shared memory. These reads and writes logically occur at a single instant in time; intermediate states are not visible to other (successful) transactions. The idea of providing hardware support for transactions originated in a 1986 paper and patent by Tom Knight. The idea was popularized by Maurice Herlihy and J. Eliot B. Moss. In 1995 Nir Shavit and Dan Touitou extended this idea to software-only transactional memory (STM). STM has recently been the focus of intense research and support for practical implementations is growing.

Optimization

Optimization or optimality is a term that may refer to:

* Optimization (mathematics), trying to find maxima and minima of a function
* Optimization (computer science), improving a system to reduce runtime, bandwidth, memory requirements, or other property of a system; in particular
o Compiler optimization, improving the performance or efficiency of compiled code
* Search engine optimization, in internet marketing, methodologies aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings
* Process optimization, in business and engineering, methodologies for improving the efficiency of a production process
* Product optimization, in business and marketing, methodologies for improving the quality and desirability of the current product or a product concept
* Optimality theory in linguistics.
* Optimal classification, a process which arranges classification element attributes in an order which minimizes the number of queries necessary to identify any particular element.

Blacklisting

Attempts to stop spam by blacklisting sender's IP addresses still allows a small percentage through. Most IP addresses are dynamic, i.e. they are frequently changing. An ISP, or any organization directly connected to the Internet, gets a block of real Internet addresses when they register in the DNS. Within that block, they assign individual addresses to customers as needed. A dial-up customer may get a new IP address each time they connect. By the time that address appears on blacklists all over the world, the spammer will have new addresses for the next run. There are 4 billion possible IPv4 addresses on the Internet. The game of keeping up with these rapidly changing IP addresses has been facetiously called "whack-a-mole".

So called policy lists are black lists that contain IP addresses on a preventive basis. An IP address can be listed therein even if no spam has ever been sent from it, because it has been variously classified as a dial-up address, end-user address, or residential address, with no formal definition of such classification schemes. Not requiring evidence of spam for each enlisted address, these lists can collect a greater number of addresses and thus block more spam. However, the policies devised are not authoritative, since they have not been issued by the legitimate user of an IP address, and the resulting lists are therefore not universally accepted.

Spyware

Spyware is computer software that is installed surreptitiously on a personal computer to intercept or take partial control over the user's interaction with the computer, without the user's informed consent.

While the term spyware suggests software that secretly monitors the user's behavior, the functions of spyware extend well beyond simple monitoring. Spyware programs can collect various types of personal information, such as Internet surfing habit, sites that have been visited, but can also interfere with user control of the computer in other ways, such as installing additional software, redirecting Web browser activity, accessing websites blindly that will cause more harmful viruses, or diverting advertising revenue to a third party. Spyware can even change computer settings, resulting in slow connection speeds, different home pages, and loss of Internet or other programs. In an attempt to increase the understanding of spyware, a more formal classification of its included software types is captured under the term privacy-invasive software.

Types of spam

Spam has several definitions, varying by the source.

* Unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE)—unsolicited e-mail, sent in large quantities.
* Unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE)—this more restrictive definition is used by regulators whose mandate is to regulate commerce, such as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
* Any email message that is fraudulent.
* Any email message where the sender’s identity is forged, or messages sent though unprotected SMTP servers, unauthorized proxies, or botnets (see Theft of service below).

Cybernetics

Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of complex systems, especially communication processes, control mechanisms and feedback principles. Cybernetics is closely related to control theory and systems theory.

Example of cybernetic thinking. On the one hand a company is approached as a system in an environment. On the other hand cybernetic factory can be modeled as a control system.

Example of cybernetic thinking. On the one hand a company is approached as a system in an environment. On the other hand cybernetic factory can be modeled as a control system.

Contemporary cybernetics began as an interdisciplinary study connecting the fields of control systems, electrical network theory, mechanical engineering, logic modeling, evolutionary biology and neuroscience in the 1940s.

Other fields of study which have influenced or been influenced by cybernetics include game theory, system theory (a mathematical counterpart to cybernetics), psychology (especially neuropsychology, behavioral psychology, cognitive psychology), philosophy, and architecture.

Cellular automaton

A cellular automaton (plural: cellular automata) is a discrete model studied in computability theory, mathematics, theoretical biology and microstructure modeling. It consists of a regular grid of cells, each in one of a finite number of states. The grid can be in any finite number of dimensions. Time is also discrete, and the state of a cell at time t is a function of the states of a finite number of cells (called its neighborhood) at time t − 1. These neighbors are a selection of cells relative to the specified cell, and do not change (though the cell itself may be in its neighborhood, it is not usually considered a neighbor). Every cell has the same rule for updating, based on the values in this neighbourhood. Each time the rules are applied to the whole grid a new generation is created.

Conceptual system
A conceptual system is simply a model. There is no limitations on this kind of model whatsoever except those of human imagination. If there is an experimentally verified correspondence between a conceptual system and a physical system then that conceptual system models the physical system. "values, ideas, and beliefs that make up every persons view of the world": that is a model of the world; a conceptual system that is a model of a physical system (the world). The person who has that model is a physical system.

In psychology and social work, when they talk about a conceptual system, they are referring to some person's model of the world, but if they try to understand that model, they end up making a model of that model, which is just a model of the person's behavior. In any case, this is exactly the purpose of the general term "conceptual systems".

Systems engineering

Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering, that focuses on the development and organization of complex artificial systems. Systems engineering is defined by INCOSE as "a branch of engineering whose responsibility is creating and executing an interdisciplinary process to ensure that customer and stakeholder's needs are satisfied in a high quality, trustworthy, cost efficient and schedule compliant manner throughout a system's entire life cycle, from development to operation to disposal. This process is usually comprised of the following seven tasks: State the problem, Investigate alternatives, Model the system, Integrate, Launch the system, Assess performance, and Re-evaluate. The systems engineering process is not sequential: the tasks are performed in a parallel and iterative manner."

Concurrent Versions System

In the field of software development, the Concurrent Versions System (CVS), also known as the Concurrent Versioning System, provides a version control system based on open-source code. Version control system software keeps track of all work and all changes in a set of files, and allows several developers (potentially widely separated in space and/or time) to collaborate. Dick Grune developed CVS in the 1980s. CVS has become popular in the open source software world and is released under the GNU General Public License.

Solutrean hypothesis

The Solutrean hypothesis proposes that stone tool technology of the Solutrean culture in prehistoric Europe may have later influenced the development of the Clovis tool-making culture in the Americas, and that peoples from Europe may have been among the earliest settlers in the Americas. First proposed in 1998, its key proponents include Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian Institution and Bruce Bradley of the University of Exeter.

In this hypothesis, peoples associated with the Solutrean culture migrated from Ice Age Europe to North America, bringing their methods of making stone tools with them and providing the basis for later Clovis technology found throughout North America. The hypothesis rests upon particular similarities in Solutrean and Clovis technology that have no known counterparts in Eastern Asia, Siberia or Beringia, areas from which or through which early Americans are known to have migrated.

Green travel

Green travel is a method for people to travel while reducing their impact on the environment.

Some forms of green travel include:

* Use of walking, cycling, and public transport instead of car use, when possible.

* Use of biodiesel fuels.

* Taking advantage of ridesharing and carpools

* Booking travel through a green website like Green Travel by RezHub.com . They not only offers bookings with green travel suppliers (hotels, hybrid car rentals, carbon offstting), they also donate a portion of all revenue to a green organization.

* Stay at a green hotel or lodge.

Transformation of culture

Transformation of culture, or cultural change, refers to the dynamic process whereby the living cultures of the world are changing and adapting to external or internal forces. This process is occurring within Western culture as well as non-Western and indigenous culture of the world. Forces which contribute to the cultural change described in this article include: colonization, globalization, advances in communication, transportation and infrastructure improvements, and military expansion.

Transformation of culture

Transformation of culture, or cultural change, refers to the dynamic process whereby the living cultures of the world are changing and adapting to external or internal forces. This process is occurring within Western culture as well as non-Western and indigenous culture of the world. Forces which contribute to the cultural change described in this article include: colonization, globalization, advances in communication, transportation and infrastructure improvements, and military expansion.

Evolutionary prototyping

Evolutionary Prototyping (also known as breadboard prototyping) is quite different from Throwaway Prototyping. The main goal when using Evolutionary Prototyping is to build a very robust prototype in a structured manner and constantly refine it. "The reason for this is that the Evolutionary prototype, when built, forms the heart of the new system, and the improvements and further requirements will be built

When developing a system using Evolutionary Prototyping, the system is continually refined and rebuilt.

"…evolutionary prototyping acknowledges that we do not understand all the requirements and builds only those that are well understood."

Life cycle of a relational database

The life cycle of a relational database is the cycle of development and changes that a database goes through during the course of its life. The cycle typically consists of several stages. There is possibility that the database designer/developer can go back to any of the previous stages. This represents an admission that a full understanding of a problem and its solution is likely to evolve as the various stages of design and implementation proceed. The typical eleven stages involved in the life cycle of a relational database are as follows:

BE AWARE THIS IS ONLY ONE VERSION, MULTIPLE DIFFERING VERSIONS EXIST

1. The designer must try to obtain as complete as possible an understanding of the real world problem that is going to be helped by the introduction of a database. This understanding of the nature of the problem and the constraints and outline feasible solutions is often performed using some systems analysis methodology.
2. The entity relationship diagram is drawn, and this diagram in its modified form serves as an essential part of the logical schema. Attributes of the entity types so produced are then added. Primary and foreign keys are specified.
3. Normalization is used to check the entity-relationship model. Some splitting and even recombination of entity types may result from normalization and the entity relationship model will have to be updated accordingly. The entity relationship model and the table definitions resulting from normalization should be consistent.
4. Set of Table(s) definition for the required schema is finalized.
5. The database tables are created. Primary, Foreign keys, database constraints and database integrity rules are specified at this stage.
6. At this stage, the file organization is performed. File organization is the way the database relations are to be stored on the storage medium. The file organization is decided on the basis of maximum speed of access, the type of access required and storage space considerations. There are two factors to consider; firstly how the records are to be physically mapped onto the storage medium, and secondly which indexes are to be used and if so, which fields (attributes, columns) are to be indexed. Indexes are designed to increase the speed of access to required records. Views can also be defined at this stage. Views are used to limit access to parts of database only, when used in conjunction with access privileges. Views also make programming simpler.
7. The designer will be able to design the required queries at this stage. The designer should have a good idea of the main types of query and reports the database will have to accommodate.
8. At this stage, application screens are designed. The application screens are used to capture the input information that will be kept in the database. Screen design is partially determined by the data items that must be input and output by particular applications and partially in human-computer interface terms. When designing screens, special consideration is given to the suggestions given by the application end users. There are published standards which can be exactly followed for screens design or organization can develop their own screen design standards as per their requirements.
9. Report design is another area where input from users is paramount. They will specify what they want to see on the reports and the format of the reports and in the case of regular reports, when they should be produced. Now-a-days most of the application design tools provide easy to use friendly tools for quick reports development. e.g. report builder in Oracle, Crystal Reports, R&R Report Writer etc.
10. Testing is performed at this stage. Application screens, various functions offered by the application screens, data validations through screens and reports are tested and it serves as the ultimate test of the correctness of the database schema and the viability of the system as a whole. It is recommended to create a test database separate of the production database. The test database will be useful for testing any schema changes and new and modified application before applying the changes to the production (live) database. Careful testing of the system before handover will minimize the expense of later modifications to the schema and major applications.
11. The final stage is Handover. This is the stage where the users receive the finished database and applications and begin data entry. In practice, it is likely that the core of the system will be handed over to users and later extensions to the system will be implemented.

4th Dimension (Software)


4th Dimension (or 4D, or Silver Surfer, as it was known during early development) is a relational database management system and IDE developed by Laurent Ribardière in 1984. In 1993, 4D Server, the client/server version of 4th Dimension was introduced and since 1995, 4D has supported both the Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh operating systems.

The 4D product line has since expanded to an SQL front-end, integrated compiler and several productivity plug-ins and interfaces. Some of the more useful plug-ins include 4D Write (a word processor), 4D Draw (to draw shapes), 4D View (somewhat like a spreadsheet, but with extra functionality) and 4D Internet Commands (which let you add all sorts of Internet related functionality to a database). There are also over 100 third-party plugins, free and commercial.

Application-level gateway

In the context of computer networking, an application-level gateway [1] (also known as ALG or application layer gateway) consists of a security component that augments a firewall or NAT employed in a computer network. It allows customized NAT traversal filters to be plugged into the gateway to support address and port translation for certain application layer "control/data" protocols such as FTP, BitTorrent, SIP, RTSP, file transfer in IM applications etc. In order for these protocols to work through NAT or a firewall, either the application has to know about an address/port number combination that allows incoming packets, or the NAT has to monitor the control traffic and open up port mappings (firewall pinhole) dynamically as required. Legitimate application data can thus be passed through the security checks of the firewall or NAT that would have otherwise restricted the traffic for not meeting its limited filter criteria.

Waterfall model
The waterfall model is a sequential software development model (a process for the creation of software) in which development is seen as flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through the phases of requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing (validation), integration, and maintenance. The origin of the term "waterfall" is often cited to be an article published in 1970 by Winston W. Royce (1929–1995),[1] although Royce did not use the term "waterfall" in this article. Ironically, Royce was actually presenting this model as an example of a flawed, non-working model (Royce 1970).

Field emission display (FED)

A field emission display (FED) is a type of flat panel display using field emitting cathodes to bombard phosphor coatings as the light emissive medium.

Field emission displays are very similar to cathode ray tubes, however they are only a few millimeters thick. Instead of a single electron gun, a field emission display (FED) uses a large array of fine metal tips or carbon nanotubes (which are the most efficient electron emitters known), with many positioned behind each phosphor dot, to emit electrons through a process known as field emission. Because of emitter redundancy, FEDs do not display dead pixels like LCDs even if 20% of the emitters fail. Sony is researching FED because it is the flat-panel technology that comes closest to matching the picture of a CRT.

Methods for solids

Computational chemical methods can be applied to solid state physics problems. The electronic structure of a crystal is in general described by a band structure, which defines the energies of electron orbitals for each point in the Brillouin zone. Ab initio and semi-empirical calculations yield orbital energies, therefore they can be applied to band structure calculations. Since it is time-consuming to calculate the energy for a molecule, it is even more time-consuming to calculate them for the entire list of points in the Brillouin zone.

Satur

Saturn (pronounced /'sæt?n/) is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Along with the planets Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune it is classify as a gas giant (also known as a Jovian planet, after the planet Jupiter). It was named after the Roman god Saturnus, equate to the Greek Kronos (the Titan father of Zeus) and the Babylonian Ninurta. Saturn's sign represents the god's sickle (Unicode: ?), The day in the week Saturday gets its name from the planet.

The planet Saturn is calm of hydrogen, with small proportions of helium and trace elements. The interior consists of a small core of rock and ice, bounded by a thick layer of metallic hydrogen and a gaseous outer layer. The outer atmosphere is normally bland in appearance, although long-lived features can appear. Wind speeds on Saturn can reach 1,800 km/h, considerably faster than those on Jupiter. Saturn has a planetary magnetic field intermediate in strength among that of Earth and the more powerful field around Jupiter.

Pineapple

The pineapple (Ananas comosus) is a tropical plant and fruit (multiple), inhabitant to Uruguay, Brazil, Puerto Rico, or Paraguay. It is a medium tall (1–1.5 m) herbaceous perennial plant with 30 or more trough-shaped and pointed leaves 30–100 cm long, nearby a thick stem. The pineapple is an illustration of a multiple fruit: multiple, spirally-arranged flowers along the axis each make a fleshy fruit that becomes pressed against the fruits of adjacent flowers, forming what appears to be a single fleshy fruit. The leaves of the cultivar 'Smooth Cayenne' mostly lack spines apart from at the leaf tip, but the cultivars 'Spanish' and 'Queen' have large spines along the leaf margins. Pineapples are the only bromeliad fruit in extensive cultivation. It is one of the most commercially important plants which take out Crassulacean acid metabolism, or CAM photosynthesis.

Fixed asset

Fixed asset also familiar as property, plant, and equipment (PP&E), is a term used in accountancy for assets and goods which cannot easily be converted into cash. This can be differing with current assets such as cash or bank accounts, which are describe as liquid assets. In most cases, only tangible assets are also called as fixed.

It usually includes items such as land and buildings, motor vehicles, furniture, office tools, computers, fixtures and fittings, and plant and machinery. These frequently receive favorable tax treatment (deprecation allowance) over short-term assets because they depreciate in excess of time.

Soil

Soil, comprising the pedosphere, is located at the border of the lithosphere with the biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. It consists of mineral, organic matter, as well as living organisms. Soil formation, or pedogenesis, is the combined effect of physical, chemical, biological, and anthropogenic process on soil parent material ensuing in the configuration of soil horizons.
Soil is our most important natural resources because of its position in the landscape and its dynamic, physical, chemical, and biologic functions. While the general concept of soil is well recognized, the definition of soil varies, according to the viewpoint of the discipline or occupation by means of soil as a resource.

Inkjet printer


Inkjet printers activate by propelling various size (mostly tiny) droplets of liquid or molten material (ink) onto almost any media. They are the most common type of computer printer for the wide-ranging consumer [citation needed] due to their low cost, high quality of output, capability of printing in vivid color, and ease of use.

Forest

A forest is a region with a high thickness of trees (or, historically, a wooded area set aside for hunting). There are many definitions of a forest, based on a variety of criteria. These plant communities cover large areas of the globe and function as animal habitats, hydrologic flow modulators, and soil conservers, comprise one of the most important aspects of the Earth's biosphere. Although often thought of as carbon dioxide sinks, mature forests are approximately carbon neutral with only disturbed and young forests acting as carbon sinks. Nonetheless mature forests do play a significant role in the global carbon cycle as stable carbon pools, and clearance of forests leads to an increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
Forests can be found in all regions talented of sustaining tree growth, at altitudes up to the tree-line, except where natural fire frequency is too high, or where the environment has been impaired by natural processes or by human activities.

Batsman

A batsman in the sport of cricket is, depending on context: Any players will perform for batting. A player whose expert in the game is batting. During the play of a cricket match, two members of the batting team are on the field, although their team-mates wait off the field. Those two players are the existing batsmen. Each batsman stands near one of the two wickets also end of the cricket pitch near the centre of the ground.

The two batsmen have different roles:

The striker stands in front of the wicket nearest him and attempts to protect it from balls bowled by the opposing bowler from the other wicket. The non-striker stands stopped near the bowler's wicket. While protecting his wicket, the striker may also hit the ball into the field and attempt to run to the opposite wicket, exchanging places with the non-striker. This score a run, the two batsmen may continue to exchange places, scoring additional runs, until members of the fielding team gather and return the ball to either wicket.

Membrane Filtration

A well-arranged process conduction which infact work without the addition of chemicals. Membrane technology is a generic term for separation processes. With membrane filters, filtration mainly occurs on the filter surface. Particles, which are larger than the normal pore size, remain on the filter, smaller particles pass through it unless other interactions get retained in them.

They are used to separate colloids, Suspended particles and molecules from liquids. Thus feed flow is divided into two streams a filtrate stream, and a highly concentrate stream.
Membrane systems with its filtration can be managed in either dead-end flow or cross-flow. The purpose of the optimization of the membrane techniques is the achievement, which is of the highest possible production for a long period of time, with acceptable pollution levels.

Polymer

Polymer is a substance collected of molecules with large molecular mass collected of repeating structural units, or monomers, connected by covalent chemical bonds. The word is resulting from the Greek, πολυ, polu, "many"; and μέρος, meros, "part". Well known examples of polymers contain plastics, DNA and proteins.

While the term polymer in popular usage suggests "plastic", polymers consist of a large class of natural and synthetic materials with a variety of properties and purposes. Natural polymer materials such as shellac and amber have been in utilize for centuries. Biopolymers such as proteins (for example hair, skin and division of the bone structure) and nucleic acids take part in crucial roles in biological processes. A variety of other natural polymers survive, such as cellulose, which is the major constituent of wood and paper.

Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster

The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster is the rocket that provides 83% of liftoff thrust for the Space Shuttle. It is the largest and most powerful solid rocket ever flown, and the most powerful rocket motor of any type ever flown. Each SRB produces 1.8 times the liftoff thrust of the F-1 engine used in the Saturn V moon rocket.

The two reusable SRBs provide the main thrust to lift the Space Shuttle off the pad and up to an altitude of about 150,000 feet . In addition, the two SRBs carry the entire weight of the external tank and orbiter and transmit the weight load through their structure to the mobile launcher platform. Each booster has a liftoff thrust of approximately 2,800,000 lbf at launch. They are ignited after the three space shuttle main engines' thrust level is verified. The two SRBs provide 83 % of the thrust at lift-off. Seventy five seconds after SRB separation, SRB apogee occurs at an altitude of approximately 220,000 feet , after which they land on parachutes; impact occurs in the ocean approximately 122 nautical miles downrange, after which the two are recovered.

Capital market

The capital market is the market for securities, where companies and the government can heave long-term funds. It includes the stock market and the bond market. Financial regulators, such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, oversee the capital markets in their selected countries to make certain that investors are protected against fraud. The capital markets consist of the primary market, where new issues are spread to investors, and the secondary market, where existing securities are traded.

Art of Loving

According to Erich From, love is the most excellent reaction to the problem of human being. Love is the most satisfying accomplishment of humanity’s most powerful objective the desire of interpersonal union. Having a capability of grave thinking and self-awareness, humans realize their aloneness and separateness, their individuality and their short life span. The aspiration for interpersonal combination is the most powerful motivated in man. It is the most basic excitement; it is the force which keeps the human race together family, clan, society, nation, and world. As mentioned above, love, turns out to be the most fulfilling of all approach to go beyond limits of individual life. All forms of orgiastic unions are controlling and even violent; they are temporary and periodical. It is a union in which the individual self disappears to a large amount and where the aim is to belong to the group. There is orgiastic condition, which may have the form of sexual orgasm, alcohol, drugs and etc. Regrettably, equality today means similarity, rather that oneness. Orgiastic unions result in a rising sense of separateness. People try to be equal by performing tasks and feelings agreed by the system and trying to follow the similar rules, the same model of life from the age three or four. Union by consistency is calm and it is permanent.

A Civil Role Model

The word civil carries a lot of power. The usage needs to be carefully considered when it's entered into a sentence or an expression. Civil means a wide difference of things. It can be defined as a way to be attentive of the forms required for good reproduction. It can also be a means to the needs and affairs of the common public. However, the latter of the two definitions can also be extended to include a definition of the private rights and the remedy sought by action or costume. The point is that the word civil has a greater significance that has been embraced by our American legal traditions. It is the premise that law is there to provide the people and the lawyers are nothing more than mere guardians of law.
These are thoughts that were measured during the class viewing of A Civil Action. In the events of the case, there were many concerns that were brought up about our permissible culture.

Urban-suburban

Urban-suburban bus line is usually categorized as public transit, particularly for large metropolitan transit networks. Usually these routes cover a moderately long distance compared to most transit bus routes, but still short — frequently 40 miles in one direction. An urban-suburban bus line normally connects a suburban area to the downtown core.
The bus can be amazing as easy as a mere refitted school bus (which sometimes already have overhead storage racks), or a standard transit bus customized to have some of the functionality of an interstate coach. The example shown here has the same extent as a standard transit bus, but with one door and air conditioning. It provides accommodations for the disabled (through a lift at the front), and thus have a few high-back seats, usually in the front, that can be folded up for wheelchairs. The rest of the seats are recline upholstered seats and have person lights and overhead storage bins. Because it is a traveler bus, it has some (but not much) standing rooms, stop-request devices, and a farebox. This model also has a bike rack at the front to house two bicycles. Some lines use a full-size throughway coach with on board toilet, such as the "TrainBus" service of West Coast Express.

Waka

In the Maori language, waka are Maori watercraft, usually canoes. Similar craft are encounter in Polynesia, with connected names such as vaka. Waka range is from small, lightweight canoes, such as waka tiwai used for fishing individuals, during very large waka taua, manned by up to eighty paddlers and up to fourty mtrs in length, large double-hulled canoes for oceanic voyaging.

Many waka are single-hulled vessels locate from hollowed tree trunks. Small waka consist of an only piece as large waka typically consist of some pieces jointed and lashed together. Some waka, mainly in the Chatham Islands, were not usual canoes but were constructed from raupo stalks. Ocean waka, Paddled could be in any size, but were usually propelled by sail. Waka taua are paddled to put across their mana.Small efficient waka are commonly plain and simple. Superior canoes waka taua in testing are extremely carved. Waka taua are no longer used in fighting but frequently for official purposes.

A long lasting comedy

In the world everyone expose toward comedy. We see comedy in a different ways. These ways include: cinema, acting, situational comedies on small screen, and stand up comedians. However, there is something very different about the classic comedy today compared to the play the significance of person Earnest written by Oscar Wilde. The modern comedy generally uses characters that are humorous or actors that are known to be great comedians. What I mean by this is the characters are not generally serious or doing something of the serious personality. In The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde uses impossibility, joke, and paralleled irony to make characters that are in a serious type surroundings become comic.
Most commonly, when we think of impossibility, we think of a statement that is conflicting or far fetched but someway is true and it also different.

Computer printer

A computer printer, or more usually just a printer, is a device that produces a hard copy (permanent human-readable text and/or graphics) of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are primarily used as computer peripherals, and are permanently attached by a printer cable to a computer which serves as a text source. Other printers, commonly known as network printers, have built-in network interfaces (typically wireless or Ethernet), and can serve as a hardcopy device for any user on the network.
In addition, many modern printers can directly border to electronic media such as memory sticks or memory cards, or to image capture devices such as digital cameras, scanners; some printers are combined with a scanners and/or fax machines in a single unit.

A Need for Welfare

There is an old joke that asked where you find a welfare recipient’s check under his work boots of course. For a long time now, since the expert formation of a stable government, the U.S government has had the programs and passed laws that either dealt with issues of or influenced family. Many of these family programs and laws currently in place today are often and usually debated. One of the most debated and most labored over family programs or laws are welfare.
This is because there is now a smallest amount of income so the poor no longer have the need to go out and commit crimes to attain such money.