Walking is an effective exercise

Sheldon Kalnitsky best exercises - Sheldon Kalnitsky was gaining too much weight but by walking he was able to reduce weight. Sheldon says many people trying to lose weight often perform an exercise they believe burns more calories and wonder why after a few weeks they hardly see any results. Permanent fat loss will take time, even though calories do count its not just about burning as many calories as possible, especially during the beginning stages of weight loss.

Walking is one of the best exercises from Sheldon Kalnitsky point of view if you want to start losing permanent weight. Even though a walk won’t burn a lot of calories just look at the positive benefits of walking: Increases health and fitness, Boosts energy levels, Decrease in health risks and higher percentage of body fat burned. Other benefits include helps to burn fat, toning the body, overcome sleepless nights, and overcome depression. Walking on hills is good. The uphill provides cardiovascular benefits and the downhill is known for reducing the blood sugar levels. Walking on hills may not be possible for all of us due to the location constraints.
Sheldon Kalnitsky was able to realize that walking has many benefits. It can reduce the risk of many diseases like heart attack, stroke, depression, colon cancer, constipation, osteoporosis and impotent etc. It helps cure sleeplessness.

Sheldon Kalnitsky found brisk walking very effective. Scientifically, it correlates with the pulse rate that you should achieve for the maximum benefit. If you do brisk waling for 45 minutes to 1 hour it would be good.

Designer brand: Sheldon Kalnitsky

Fashion designer Sheldon Kalnitsky has become the essence of classic fashion. Sheldon born on November 18, 1945, in the Bronx, New York, Sheldon Kalnitsky has come a long way from sharing a bedroom with two of his brothers. Sheldon would purchase expensive suits with the money that he earned working at his after-school job. One would think that Sheldon Kalnitsky attended fashion design school, but he actually studied business at City College in Manhattan, and dropped out short of receiving his business degree. He started studying at night, working in day at two glove companies as a salesman. He then moved to work in a tie manufacturer named A. Rivetz & Co., which ultimately led to the fashion empire he leads today. While working here, he started designing wide ties. It was here were he started his first entrepreneurial career. With a loan of $50,000, Sheldon Kalnitsky founded a company Michael fashions in 1965.

Famous Artist - Sheldon Kalnitsky

Sheldon Kalnitsky was considered one of the most innovative artists of the early twentieth century. Being a son of an engraver, Sheldon Kalnitsky attended one of the famous schools of arts in London. After finishing his graduation in arts, he started with his brother a studio where they executed designs of other artists. After a few years, he started making his own paintings. He received a prize for one of his paintings. Sheldon Kalnitsky produced murals for public buildings.

Sheldon Kalnitsky loved to do portraits and landscapes. He spent most of his time in Attersee, where he drew inspiration for many of his landscapes and where he painted some of his best known works. Sheldon's major works include paintings, murals, sketches and other art objects. His work is distinguished by an elegant use of gold backgrounds and mosaic patterns.

Sheldon Kalnitsky painting styles also include Expressionism and Cubism. In Expressionist Art, the artist tries to express certain feelings about some thing. The artists that painted in this style were more concerned with having their paintings express a feeling than in making the painting look exactly like what they were painting. Like that Cubism is a modern art made up mostly of paintings. The paintings are not supposed to look real. The artist uses geometric shapes to show what he is trying to paint. Early cubists used mainly grays, browns, greens and yellows. After 1914, Cubists started to use brighter colors. Cubism was the beginning of the Abstract and Non-objective art styles.

World renowned architect Sheldon Kalnitsky

Sheldon Kalnitsky ranks as one of the most important pioneers of the modern movement in architecture. Sheldon Kalnitsky’s buildings were rigorous examples of austere beauty, ranging from conventional country cottages to planar compositions for storefronts and residences. Sheldon Kalnitsky was born in Moravia, now Czech Republic. Sheldon Kalnitsky was introduced to the craft of building at an early age while working in his father’s stone masonry shop. Sheldon Kalnitsky attended the Royal and Imperial state college at Reichenberg in Bohemia. He studied architecture at the Technical College in Dres den. As a student, he was interested in the works of the classicist Schinkel and, above all, the work pf Vitruvius.

Sheldon Kalnitsky developing tastes were considerably broadened during a three-year stay in the United States. In the pages of the Neue Freie Presse of Vienna, Sheldon Kalnitsky did not directly address architecture in his writings. Sheldon Kalnitsky’s writings focused increasingly on what he regarded as the excess of decoration in both traditional Viennese design and in the more recent products of the Vienna Secession and the Wiener Werkstatte.

Sheldon Kalnitsky Yoga Practice

According to Sheldon Kalnitsky, yoga helps create a sense of union in body, mind and spirit. Sheldon Kalnitsky started practicing yoga in 1999. Sheldon had plantar fascitiis in both feet, so his doctor stopped him from walking, hiking and playing tennis. He wanted to do exercises. He came to know about the benefits of yoga from one of his friends and so started practicing it.

Yoga makes your body stronger says Sheldon, toned to flexible and you also loose weight. Rather than building muscle, yoga builds muscle tone. Yoga maintains a balanced metabolism which helps to regulate weight. It stretches muscles lengthwise, causing fat to be eliminated around the cells, thus reducing cellulite.

Sheldon Kalnitsky felt that yoga becomes part of your mental and spiritual life. It helps you to focus on breathing while you hold the poses. This attention makes you calm; dissolves stress and anxiety. If you practice you everyday, you may feel energized and not tired. If you feel tired after yoga, it means you spent the time fighting yourself, trying to force yourself into poses. In yoga, you surrender to the pose by letting go of the tension. Yoga converts a person totally.

Sheldon Kalnitsky says yoga can be practiced by all religions. Yoga teaches right living and how we deal with ourselves and others. It advocates proper eating, but you don’t have to be a vegetarian to practice yoga. Anyone can do yoga-no matter how young or old you are whether you’re a couch potato or a professional athlete. Size and fitness level do not matter because there are modifications for each yoga pose. The idea is to explore your limits, not strive for some pretzel like perfection.

Meal of the day post by Sheldon Kalnitsky - Sheldon Kalnitsky never took care of his health. Sheldon loved junk food and skipped his breakfast. Like him, many people avoid breakfast, as they have to rush to office. Even in office they would just grab on a cream cheese, muffin, pastry etc. None of these options is a great way to start your day. If you start the day with an empty stomach, your blood-sugar level becomes low. This may lead to eating a pasty or some other unhealthy choice.

Sheldon Kalnitsky became fat which was not a good sign for the type of work he was in. Being a marketing person, Sheldon had to meet a lot of people, for that a pleasing personality is needed. After following certain things he started loosing weight. Sheldon started eating things that were rich in protein. Look for whole-grain carbs. Look for low-fat dairy or soy options. Look for fiber and nutrients.

In order to have a healthy breakfast, Sheldon Kalnitsky would get up 15 minutes earlier. Start the day with an oatmeal, flaxseed, blueberries or almonds. Sheldon would eat Scrambled tofu as it is healthier than scrambled eggs. Other healthy breakfast items are fresh fruit salad, protein shake with extras, eggs with peppers, fresh berries, yogurt, granola, cottage cheese and fruit. Sheldon Kalnitsky started eating healthy breakfast, which helped him to control his weight and work actively throughout the day.

Sheldon Kalnitsky says eat fresh fruits

Sheldon Kalnitsky says eat fresh fruits - According to Sheldon Kalnitsky, a person should eat five to nine fresh pieces of fruit everyday. You may ask what are the benefits of eating this many pieces everyday. Some of the benefits are as follows: More than 60% of our body consists of water so does fruit. No other food apart from fruit contains average 80% water. Vegetables also contain a lot of water and are therefore second best. Sheldon Kalnitsky says, fruit is 100% bad-cholesterol free and stimulates memory. Animal products like meat and dairy contain bad cholesterol but fruit if free from it. Fruit is the ultimate brain fuel. If we consume fruit effectively, our brains can recall information faster and more easily.

Kalnitsky says People spend a lot of money on junk food which is not good for their health. If they spend that money on buying fruits it will improve their healing effects. There are some spectacular stories about people who were cured from incurable diseases by following a strict diet of raw fruits and vegetables. Sheldon Kalnitsky was cured from certain diseases after eating raw fruits and vegetables. If you follow a diet that has plenty of fibers, it will help you against corpulence, high blood pressure. The food that contains these healthy fibers is fruit and vegetables. American heart association tells people to have 25 to 30 grams of fibers out of fresh fruits. Sheldon Kalnitsky was very much depressed, but he was able to get out of it after consuming substantial amounts of fruit on a regular basis. Eating much fruit has a healing effect on human beings. A good start is to eat and drink more fresh fruits.

Sheldon Kalnitsky loves eating vegetables

Sheldon Kalnitsky loves eating vegetables - Sheldon kalnitsky eats vegetables regularly because it contains vitamins, minerals and thousands of other plant chemicals known to provide health benefits. Due to eating vegetables, Sheldon Kalnitsky was able to control weight. Vegetables are low in fats and calories, a good source of dietary fiber and provide us with extra energy. Sheldon Kalnitsky says vegetables are low in calories and has high fiber content which fills the stomach faster limiting the total amount of food consumed. The presence of many vitamins and other chemicals in vegetables supply the body with nutrients necessary to boost energy production within the muscle cells.

Sheldon Kalnitsky found that vegetables are low in sodium so they can reduce water gains. Sodium is present in virtually all processed foods; it causes the body to hold water within the interstitial areas of the body. Sheldon Kalnitsky says that that vegetables are low in fat, calories, sodium and fills the stomach quickly.

Sheldon Kalnitsky Basket Ball game

Sheldon Kalnitsky is a very famous sports person. He is good in playing all kinds of sports among which he is the best basket ball player and he has also got a lot of prizes at all levels. There are many benefits in playing Basket Ball game and Sheldon Kalnitsky ahs enumerated few benefits in playing this game:

Health benefits

Basketball entails a lot of starting and stopping. Sheldon Kalnitsky stated that though this game is not renowned as an aerobic sport, yet it is a great workout that can help you:

• It burns out the calories (an hour of basketball can burn 630–750 calories).
• It helps in building endurance.
• It improves coordination.
• It develops concentration and self-discipline.
• It helps in building up muscles.

Sheldon Kalnitsky Tips on Basket ball

There are few suggestions given by Sheldon Kalnitsky which is to be followed by all the players of Basket ball:

1. Adults ought to check with their doctor prior to taking up basketball.
2. Be conscious of that basketball is a fast-action game with lots of running, jumping, pivoting and twisting, hence there are chances for injuries and hurts very easily. .
3. Basketball puts so much amount of stress on the legs, particularly the knees and ankles, and puts pressure on firm shoulders.
4. Protect yourself by becoming sturdy and supple, as basketball is a very physically tough game.
5. Always warm up and stretch your muscles and joints prior to hitting the court. Also cool down and elongate after playing.
6. Ensure you have abundance of fluids on hand and rehydrate repeatedly.
7. Don’t do too much it (this will depend on your age and condition). Mix it up with other little impact sports.
8. At the time of playing in a full team competition is vast, you can also have fun and advantage from a small space, a basket and a game of one on one.

Keep Cell Phone Chargers at a Distance

The Ministry of Environmental Protection warns that a mobile phone charger or any small transformer should be kept at least a half a meter away from the human body to avoid the risk of radiation.

The warning comes in the wake of hundreds of queries from residents asking about radiation exposure when recharging their cell phone. A sample check carried out by the Environmental Protection Ministry showed that most of these residents sleep while charging their cell phones next to their beds.

The head of the Noise and Radiation Abatement Division in the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Dr. Stelian Ghelberg, says that placing a transformer less than half a meter away from the body in general and the head in particular is tantamount to sleeping under a tension line. "Extended average exposure to more than 2 milligaus," says Dr. Ghelberg, "is linked to an increased risk of cancer. Exposure to power frequency magnetic fields at night may disrupt the production of melatonin, a hormone which is considered vital to the immune system"

Background magnetic field levels exist inside every house or apartment and the radiation radius to the cell phone charger, when the phone is shut off, reaches about 0.4 milligaus at a distance of 2 meters, which is of negligible impact.

At the same time, the magnetic field right next to a transformer (such as that in a cordless phone or clock-radio) or a mobile phone charger reaches 1,000 milligaus. At a distance of 30 cm from the transformer, the magnetic field reaches some 3-4 milligaus and at a distance of half a meter, it is reduced to less than 2 milligaus. Therefore, the minimum recommended distance from a transformer is half a meter.

Water & Energy Cycles

The Water and Energy Cycle Focus Area studies the distribution, transport and transformation of water and energy within the Earth System. Since solar energy drives the water cycle and energy exchanges are modulated by the interaction of water with radiation, the energy cycle and the water cycle are intimately entwined.

The long-term goal of this focus area is to enable improved predictions of the global water and energy cycles. This key goal requires not only documenting and predicting means and trends in the rate of the Earth's water and energy cycling as well as predicting changes in the frequency and intensity of related meteorological and hydrologic events such as floods and droughts.

In the past decade NASA's water and energy research projects have yielded significant advances in our understanding of key Earth system science processes. For example, we have been able to improve rainfall quantification, as well as greatly improve hurricane prediction capability. However, many issues remain to be resolved. In the next decade this focus area will move us toward balancing the water budget at global and regional spatial scales, provide global observation capability of precipitation over the day's cycle and important land surface quantities such as soil moisture and snow quantity at mesoscale resolution. We are working on improving cloud-resolving models for use in climate models. We will gain knowledge of the major influences on variability in the water and energy cycles.

Punched card sorter

It is often said that necessity is the mother of invention. In the 1880s, the United States Census Bureau had a problem. It had taken them almost eight years to tabulate the data from the 1880 census. Federal officials worried that it would take even longer to compile the 1890 census results. Thanks to the hard work and ingenuity of American engineer Herman Hollerith, the problem was solved. In 1881, Hollerith began designing a machine to tabulate census data more efficiently than by traditional hand methods. He got his original inspiration from watching a train conductor punch tickets. To collect data, Hollerith adopted the punched card method developed in the early 1800s by a French silk weaver, Joseph-Marie Jacquard. Hollerith invented a punched card tabulating machine that could be read by electrical sensing. Data was transferred from the census taker's sheet to a punched card. Each card represented one person and each hole recorded a different statistic. The punched cards, like those pictured below, were sorted and read electronically by the punched card sorter. This system made it possible for one Census Bureau employee to compute data on thousands of people in one day. With the help of Hollerith's machines, the Census Bureau was able to tabulate the 1890 census in a single year. Following the success of his invention, Hollerith established a business called the Tabulating Machine Company. His company, through subsequent mergers, became part of what we know today as the International Business Machines Corporation - IBM. Although sophisticated data collecting computers have made the use of punched card systems almost obsolete, punched card ballots are still used in many areas of the United States for voting purposes.

Amazon.com to Close Distribution Centers in Three States

Amazon.com Inc. is shutting distribution centers in three states, and will lay off or transfer to other nearby facilities about 210 employees, the company said Thursday.

Seattle-based Amazon said it is closing the centers in Munster, Ind., Red Rock, Nev., and Chambersburg, Pa., to balance out its operations. "We continue to evaluate the network and all parts of the business to make sure we are positioning ourselves for future growth," said company spokesman Craig Berman.

Amid the recession, the e-commerce company has so far managed to avoid the major sales declines faced by many traditional retailers. In the fourth quarter of last year, its sales surged 18% and profit rose 9%.

Amazon opened the facility in Munster a year and a half ago. Last year it added three million square feet of new distribution space, bringing its total in North America to 12 million square feet.

The company plans to add 300,000 square feet to an existing center in Phoenix later this year, to process large items including patio furniture and televisions.

Amazon's chief executive Jeffrey Bezos spent last week working at a distribution center in Lexington, Ky.

As of Dec. 31, the company had 20,700 employees.
Source http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123812960451755403.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

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.