NEWS AND INFORMATION

Insight21 - an Alternative News Project

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:24:00 +0000

Earth Vision has launched a new project entitled Insight21 - answers for the 21st Century. The website presents various topics that entail front-runners in the need for answers for social and environmental issues. Some of these treatments include Waldorf Education, Biodynamic gardening, Anthroposophical Medicine, as well as various wisdom-centered perspectives form the deep pool of anthroposophical material and the lectures of Rudolf Steiner.

For the past year, Earth Vision has been active with its mandate to reach beyond environmentalism by presenting nature in the light of spiritual ecology. Now the time has ripened to broaden the mandate. By virtue of an overview, it becomes possible to address issues that otherwise get bogged down in such reductionist approaches as mainstream science and sociology tend to suffer from. It becomes increasingly difficult to ascertain the real nature of an issue once the blindfold of reductionist analyses and materialist perspectives become the only resource.

The Insight21 project is designed to reach forward with its resolutions. And it is also geared to encourage the input of those who can embrace an overview of any particular issue. Peruse the Insight21 website to see where you as an individual can become involved.

Hydrogen Gas Generators

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 12:22:00 +0000

Hydrogen gas generators are handy add-ons to automobiles for reducing the fuel consumption and decreasing the level of emissions from vehicles. These devices have been becoming increasingly popular over the last decade. Generally, the public is more attracted to the device because of its ability to reduce fuel consumption. However, these devices are environmentally- friendly as they reduce the toxic gas emissions from automobiles.

More than 90% of vehicles at present, run on fossil fuels such as petrol, diesel, and gas. The main component of these vehicles is an internal combustion engine, which burns the fossil fuels to generate energy for running the vehicle. The engine also generates byproducts during the process, such as carbon dioxide. These byproducts, which are emitted through the exhaust valve of the vehicle, are environmentally toxic in nature. The main environmental concern is the stability of the ozone layer, which protects the earth's atmosphere from harmful rays from sunlight.

Vehicle manufacturers utilize several modern technologies to reduce the level of emissions, and government agencies have created stricter regulations regarding these emissions. Still, the level of emissions of automobile pollutants is on the rise. This is because of the exponential increase in the number of vehicles on the road today. Therefore, new products for increasing the fuel efficiency and reducing the level of emissions are much sought after in the automobile market. The Hydrogen generator for automobiles is one of the premium products in this mix.

How does a hydrogen gas generator work? These are pretty simple devices making use of one of the most popular chemical reactions - that is, the electrolysis of water. For the benefit of those who cannot remember their high school chemistry lessons, it is the splitting of water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen with the help of electricity. These devices contain two electrodes and a storage unit in which to keep water. The hydrogen atoms generated through electrolysis are injected into the fuel supply system to the internal combustion engine. The hydrogen atoms act as regulators of the fossil fuel by displacing part it. As a result, a lesser quantity of fuel will be consumed and, consequently, less toxic gas will be emitted from the vehicle.

There are several types of hydrogen gas generators. There are some systems that draw electrical energy from the electrical system of the vehicle to split the water molecule. Several analysts argue that this is counter productive as there are chances of spending more energy than what the process saves. Therefore, it is better to have an external energy source to power the device. It can be a normal chemical battery or other non-conventional types such as solar cells or wind energy storage cells.

There is another type of hydrogen gas generator that works efficiently which basically store hydrogen. Hydrogen molecules are generated externally and stored in these devices which then inject hydrogen into the fuel supply system.

Catch up with the latest Hollywood celebrity news

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:22:00 +0000

Hollywood celebrity news can really be as entertaining and sizzling as Hollywood movies are. Quench your thirst for knowing what your favourite star is now up to. Catch up with the latest Hollywood celebrity news and get closer to your star in action.

Kanye West writing a book:

Kanye West, the popular pop artist has decided to pen his thoughts in a book to be published by a New York publisher. The book will feature his highly successful 'Glow in the Dark Tour', with some behind the scenes photograph and his own commentary. The book, which comes along with a CD, will be released in October.

Angelina Jolie no longer keen to act:

Angelina Jolie has decided to retreat slowly from the arc lights. The mother of six children ranks acting as fourth in her list of priorities. She said "I don't plan to keep acting for very long. I will take a break for a year. And then one film a year, one film every three years, one film every six years. I'll just fade away and wait to be a grandma one day. I have it all planned."

Her first three priorities are being a mother to her children, being a woman to Brad was second and her charity work came third.

Hank Azaria to become a dad

Hank Azaria and his girlfriend Katie Wright are looking forward to have their first child. The 44 year old actor is expecting a boy. The two have been dating for two years. Hank's forth coming movie is 'Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian'

Madonna's new move

After her split from husband Guy Ritchie, Madonna has been romantically linked to Alex. However, it is reported, that Alex is not fully committed to her. So, she has taken a greater liking for a 22year old youngster named Jesus. According to a newspaper, Alex is furious with Madonna with her latest moves.

Wild Life group ropes in Ashley Judd

Ashley Judd has stepped in to support the fight of an animal rights group to stop the practice of killing bears and wolves from airplanes in Alaska. In an internet video appearance for Defenders of Wildlife, she targets not only the predator control program of the state but also one of the campaigns chief supporters, Gov. Sarah Palin.

Shakira's gifts school to hometown

Shakira, the famous pop star, has donated $6 million to build a school in La Playa, her home district in the Caribbean coast. The 140, 000 square foot school will cater to 1800 students.

Other latest celebrity scoops in Hollywood:

• Jennifer Hudson is getting married • Britney's son uncertain for tour • Sarah Jessica Parker fears, a divorce may leave her penniless. • Angelina Jolie dislikes watching her own movies • Co-stars of 'Fringe" tie the knot

Legal or Illegal Pharmacist?

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:20:00 +0000

I had to play "pharmacist" this morning. That is what I like to jokingly say to my husband when I have to sit down and open all of the days of the week on the two week's worth of week day kits I sort out for him. He's too young to have to take two high blood pressure pills, thyroid, cholesterol, sinus, etc. but the Dr. said he was a walking heart attack!

I just heard about a crook that was playing a bit of that game also, only there is a twist to it! This was no ordinary robber! He was a very, very sly one that just happened to be a little forgetful is all! He was so good that the cops were simply clueless! This thief was a career criminal! As a matter-of-fact, he was just let out on bail last week in Philly for a car theft.

Well, it just so happens that he accidentally left his keys hanging out of the back of the car! It was just sitting there for a couple of days. A neighbor was a bit puzzled, so she phoned the cops to check it out. Well, low and behold, guess what they found? A couple of bags full of RX drugs! That is not even the jest of it, the bags were labeled with the bandit's address! That led them right to the bad guy! That was a big oopsie on his part for having been such a smart crook. The street value of the prescription drugs that they recovered was about $400,000. He had everything all sorted into baggies and separated neatly to give to dealers on the street.

It turns out that he would get in through the ceiling and DISABLED the alarm system! He'd snip the wires, phone included, and would wait to see if the police would show up. Now if this drug store would've had a HIDDEN camera, it would have all been caught on film! An "Exit sign hidden camera with built-in DVR" is a wise choice!

The built in DVR feature is perfect because there's no trail of wires going into a recording device, it's all disguised inside. You simply pop out the 8 GB SD card and put it into your computer. It's also motion activated so it only records when there is motion. Another great camera is a wall clock hidden camera with built in DVR.

Buy Salvia Divinorum While You Still Ca

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:20:00 +0000

Salvia Divinorum, Could it be the Next Cannabis?

We all know the story of how Hemp was used in the colonization of the America and then outright made illegal into a schedual one drug.

It looks like Salvia Divinorum could soon be experiencing the same rate. Law makers in 50 states want to see the herb banned for it's mind-altering effects.

What type of mind altering effects might cause a herb like Salvia Divinorum to be outlawed? Well how about those comparable to LSD, Acid, or Mushrooms. The truth is, pound of pound (or microne, for microne) Salvia Divinorum is the most potent entheogen known to man. And speaking from personal experience, let me say buy salvia, salvia divinorum is powerful.

The primary difference is the Saliva experience is extremely short - perhaps 15 minutes. The body metabolizes the active ingredient remarkably fast. Thus, it gets in, gets the job done and is out again before the end of your commercial break... well not that fast but you get the idea.

So here's where the legal status stands:

(Illegal, Schedual ONE)
Delaware
Florida
Illinois
Kansas
Mississippi
Missouri
North Dakota
Ohio (beginning April 5, 2009)
Oklahoma
Virginia
Only Legal When Not Intended for Human Consumption
Louisiana
Tennessee

Legal for Adults, but Illegal To Sell to Minors
California
Maine (possession by minors also illegal)

Illegal to Possess or Sell
Australia
Belgium
Denmark
Germany
Italy
Japan
Lithuania
South Korea
Sweden

Illegal to Sell, but Legal to Possess
Spain

Treated as a Medicinal Herb that Requires a Doctor's Prescription
Estonia
Finland
Iceland
Norway

...As you can see, time is running out and the locations where Salvia is still legal are dropping like flies. Time is running out to make any last minute purchases...

Headlines And Shoemanship Go Hand In Hand

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:18:00 +0000

Being made to pass through metal detectors so as to be certain nobody is hiding a gun, or other lethal weapon, is one thing, but things are rapidly changing. Carry bags may be taken off you, in order to ensure you are not lugging any rotting tomatoes, eggs or fruit. It may not be long before you will see rows upon rows of shoes lined up at the entrance of buildings, as outside a mosque, if the shoe-throwing fad becomes any more unruly. People will need to begin carrying an extra pair of shoes with them, or else you will find a lot of one-shoed people stumbling home after attending public meetings. Either way, shoe manufacturers will stand to gain a terrific profit.

When Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Prime Minister, was speaking at Cambridge University in England, he was called a dictator, as a zealous protester hurled his shoe at the guest. "How can the university prostitute itself with this dictator"? was screamed from the rear of the crowd. The shoe-thrower was arrested on suspicion of a public order offense. While the Chinese government officially objected saying it was a deplorable act, Mr Wen described the incident as 'despicable'.

This follows close on the heels the episode of the extremely irate Iraqi journalist who threw a shoe at American's President George W. Bush. Mr Bush made jokes about the incident, while the journalist is facing charges of aggression against a foreign head of state. If convicted of the charges he could face up to 15 years in jail.

Protesters clubbed together outside the White House on the last day of President Bush's administration. The hundred or so demonstrators were armed with bags of shoes. "Don't hit me", laughed one of the guards on duty behind the White House fence, as shoes rained down around him. Thousands of others chose to join the demonstrators and took time out to toss a shoe over the fence. "It's not that we hate Bush, we just hate what he has done to the country", one demonstrator said. Many felt it was the healthy way to get the Bush period out of their system. A small truck was needed to haul all the shoes away.

This is not a new phenomena. Shoetime was begun by Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev, in 1956, when he pounded the podium with his shoe, stating that capitalism would be buried by the US economy. Was he being prophetic?

Krushchev followed this with another explosion at the United Nations when he reacted angrily to the Philippine delegation saying they were nothing more than a US stooge.

In spite of how you look at these incidents, being a shoe manufacturer could be your once in a lifetime Blue Moon Opportunity.

Taking A Look At The Government of Japan

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 12:17:00 +0000

If you are not familiar with the government of Japan, then the thought of having a ceremonial figurehead that is the great symbol, may seem a little different. This is the role that the Japanese Emperor holds, as he holds no true power but is there for ceremonial purposes. The Japanese government does have a Prime Minister, who is an appointed official.

The Prime Minister is the one with the true power and rules along with the officials elected by the people. While having an Emperor who has no real power may seem strange to many, he is a huge symbol to the Japanese people. The line of the Emperor is an age old tradition that lives on in Japanese society.

The legislative body of government in Japan is known as the "National Diet." This is a group of Representatives who are voted in by the Japanese people for a four year period. The House of Representatives contains 480 open seats. The head of this government body and others in the government are headed by the Prime Minister.

This office is not an elected position. The Prime Minister's position is one that is appointed by the Emperor of Japan, but must first be designated and approved by Japan's National Diet. The individual is chosen from the House of Representative members and needs remain in the confidence of the "Diet" to continue to hold the office.

The judicial system of Japan is not all its own, as when forming the leadership roles the civil law practices of Germany, France and Europe were studied and the Japanese system was then based largely upon these systems. Of course, many rules and regulations that are traditionally Japanese are used and implemented within this system.

It should be said that taking information from other government systems is not a new idea in Japan. The legal system in this country evolved over time and was heavily influenced throughout history by the laws of China.

One of the aspects of the Japanese government that makes it different from other governments is that it has an Emperor as a figurehead. While the Emperor doesn't hold any real "government office" in Japan, he is seen as a symbol and is used for ceremonial purposes. The government of Japan has changed a lot over the years and it has taken a lot of its ways of ruling from other governments, such as from the Chinese government and the government of Britain.

Wireless Electricity Is Here (Seriously)

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 11:33:00 +0000

I'm standing next to a Croatian-born American genius in a half-empty office in Watertown, Massachusetts, and I'm about to be fried to a crisp. Or I'm about to witness the greatest advance in electrical science in a hundred years. Maybe both.

Either way, all I can think of is my electrician, Billy Sullivan. Sullivan has 11 tattoos and a voice marinated in Jack Daniels. During my recent home renovation, he roared at me when I got too close to his open electrical panel: "I'm the Juice Man!" he shouted. "Stay the hell away from my juice!"

He was right. Only gods mess with electrons. Only a fool would shoot them into the air. And yet, I'm in a conference room with a scientist who is going to let 120 volts fly out of the wall, on purpose.

"Don't worry," says the MIT assistant professor and a 2008 MacArthur genius-grant winner, Marin Soljacic (pronounced SOLE-ya-cheech), who designed the box he's about to turn on. "You will be okay."

We both shift our gaze to an unplugged Toshiba television set sitting 5 feet away on a folding table. He's got to be kidding: There is no power cord attached to it. It's off. Dark. Silent. "You ready?" he asks.

If Soljacic is correct -- if his free-range electrons can power up this untethered TV from across a room -- he will have performed a feat of physics so subtle and so profound it could change the world. It could also make him a billionaire. I hold my breath and cover my crotch. Soljacic flips the switch.

Soljacic isn't the first man to try to power distant electronic devices by sending electrons through the air. He isn't even the first man from the Balkans to try. Most agree that Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla, who went on to father many of the inventions that define the modern electronic era, was the first to let electrons off their leash, in 1890.

Tesla based his wireless electricity idea on a concept known as electromagnetic induction, which was discovered by Michael Faraday in 1831 and holds that electric current flowing through one wire can induce current to flow in another wire, nearby. To illustrate that principle, Tesla built two huge "World Power" towers that would broadcast current into the American air, to be received remotely by electrical devices around the globe.

Few believed it could work. And to be fair to the doubters, it didn't, exactly. When Tesla first switched on his 200-foot-tall, 1,000,000-volt Colorado Springs tower, 130-foot-long bolts of electricity shot out of it, sparks leaped up at the toes of passersby, and the grass around the lab glowed blue. It was too much, too soon.

But strap on your rubber boots; Tesla's dream has come true. After more than 100 years of dashed hopes, several companies are coming to market with technologies that can safely transmit power through the air -- a breakthrough that portends the literal and figurative untethering of our electronic age. Until this development, after all, the phrase "mobile electronics" has been a lie: How portable is your laptop if it has to feed every four hours, like an embryo, through a cord? How mobile is your phone if it shuts down after too long away from a plug? And how flexible is your business if your production area can't shift because you can't move the ceiling lights?

The world is about to be cured of its attachment disorder.

WIRELESS JUICE: A PRIMER

TECH 1: Inductive Coupling
Availability: April

>> THE FIRST WIRELESS POWERING SYSTEM to market is an inductive device, much like the one Tesla saw in his dreams, but a lot smaller. It looks like a mouse pad and can send power through the air, over a distance of up to a few inches. A powered coil inside that pad creates a magnetic field, which as Faraday predicted, induces current to flow through a small secondary coil that's built into any portable device, such as a flashlight, a phone, or a BlackBerry. The electrical current that then flows in that secondary coil charges the device's onboard rechargeable battery. (That iPhone in your pocket has yet to be outfitted with this tiny coil, but, as we'll see, a number of companies are about to introduce products that are.)

The practical benefit of this approach is huge. You can drop any number of devices on the charging pad, and they will recharge -- wirelessly. No more tangle of power cables or jumble of charging stations. What's more, because you are invisible to the magnetic fields created by the system, no electricity will flow into you if you stray between device and pad. Nor are there any exposed "hot" metal connections. And the pads are smart: Their built-in coils are driven by integrated circuits, which know if the device sitting on them is authorized to receive power, or if it needs power at all. So you won't charge your car keys. Or overcharge your flashlight.

The dominant player in this technology for the moment seems to be Michigan-based Fulton Innovation, which unveiled its first set of wirelessly charged consumer products at the Consumer Electronics Show early this year. Come April, Fulton's new pad-based eCoupled system will be available to police, fire-and-rescue, and contractor fleets -- an initial market of as many as 700,000 vehicles annually. The system is being integrated into a truck console designed and produced by Leggett & Platt, a $4.3 billion commercial shelving giant; it allows users to charge anything from a compatible rechargeable flashlight to a PDA. The tools and other devices now in the pipeline at companies such as Bosch, Energizer, and others will look just like their conventional ancestors. Companies such as Philips Electronics, Olympus, and Logitech will create a standard for products, from flashlights to drills to cell phones to TV remotes, by the end of this year.

TECH 2: Radio-frequency Harvesting
Availability: April

>> THE INDUCTION SYSTEMS are only the beginning. Some of the most visually arresting examples of wireless electricity are based on what's known as radio frequency, or RF. While less efficient, they work across distances of up to 85 feet. In these systems, electricity is transformed into radio waves, which are transmitted across a room, then received by so-called power harvesters and translated back into low-voltage direct current. Imagine smoke detectors or clocks that never need their batteries replaced. Sound trivial? Consider: Last November, to save on labor costs, General Motors canceled the regularly scheduled battery replacement in the 562 wall clocks at its Milford Proving Ground headquarters. This technology is already being used by the Department of Defense. This year, it will be available to consumers in the form of a few small appliances and wireless sensors; down the road, it will appear in wireless boxes into which you can toss any and all of your electronics for recharging.

TECH 3: Magnetically Coupled Resonance
Availability: 12-18 months

>> INVENTED BY MIT'S SOLJACIC (who has dubbed it WiTricity), the technique can power an entire room, assuming the room is filled with enabled devices. Though WiTricity uses two coils -- one powered, one not, just like eCoupled's system -- it differs radically in the following way: Soljacic's coils don't have to be close to each other to transfer energy. Instead, they depend on so-called magnetic resonance. Like acoustical resonance, which allows an opera singer to break a glass across the room by vibrating it with the correct frequency of her voice's sound waves, magnetic resonance can launch an energetic response in something far away. In this case, the response is the flow of electricity out of the receiving coil and into the device to which it's connected. The only caveat is that receiving coil must be properly "tuned" to match the powered coil, in the way that plucking a D string on any tuned piano will set all the D strings to vibrating, but leave all other notes still and silent. (This explains why Soljacic considers the machinery that create these frequencies, and the shape of the coils, top secret.)

Importantly, then, WiTricity doesn't depend on line-of-sight. A powered coil in your basement could power the rest of the house, wirelessly. Will the cat be okay? "Biological organisms are invisible to, and unaffected by, a magnetic field," Soljacic says. While I am mulling that statement, he tells me the company will not yet reveal the name of its partners because those partnerships haven't been formalized, but they include major consumer electronics brands and some U.S. defense customers.

As has been the tradition since Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison angrily parted ways in 1885, the enormous consumer demand for wireless electricity is begetting intense competition. Last November, a consortium of manufacturers coalesced around Fulton's eCoupled system. But Fulton and WiTricity aren't the only companies fighting to bring wireless electricity to market. WiPower, in Altamonte Springs, Florida, has also created an induction system and says it, too, is close to announcing partnerships. And Pittsburgh-based Powercast, an RF system, sells wireless Christmas ornaments and is testing industrial sensors for release this summer.

Just as Tesla derided his doubters as "nothing more than microbes of a nasty disease," some name-calling is inevitable in this increasingly heated battle. WiPower, for example, insists that the eCoupled technology approach has several problems. "Their system is very sensitive to alignment, and I've heard there's a heating issue," says CEO Ryan Tseng. "Our system is more elegant, much less expensive, and easier for manufacturers to integrate." Meanwhile, Powercast calls Dave Baarman, Fulton Innovation's director of advanced technologies, "irresponsible" for wondering aloud whether RF power solutions could be dangerous around pacemakers and powered wheelchairs. "It's competitive drivel," says Steve Day, Powercast's VP of marketing and strategic planning. "Baarman has been saying this for a couple of years, because what we do will eventually replace what he does."

But as I stand, covering myself, in that featureless suburban conference room, such bickering fades to background noise. Because with Tesla's 100-foot-long lightning bolts and blue grass vivid in my mind, I have a big question: Will Soljacic, the MacArthur Foundation fellow, be able to turn on that Toshiba TV from across the room? Or will I be bathed in a magnetic field so intense my molecules all align to face true north?

After he flips the switch, the little television, 5 feet away, springs to life. Wirelessly. The DVD player inside spins up to a low whine. Colors flicker on the moving screen. And Soljacic's eyes dance with the reflected light of the image.

Paul Hochman is the gear and tech editor for Today on NBC and host of MSN.com's GearDaddy.

Scholarships S2 & S3 Depkominfo For Foreign Affairs 2009

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:36:00 +0000

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Depkominfo) opportunities and provide educational scholarships foreign S2 and S3 in 2009 for civil servants in the government's environmental agency, the employee / worker at the institution pendidikandan industry information and communication technology (TIK), and the general public.

Terms & S2 Beasiswa S3 Depkominfo:

1. Graduates S1 and S2 for a graduate education degree education S3 to S2.

2. Have a minimum GPA 2.75 (scale of 4)

3. Have a value Institutional TOEFL (ITP) at least 550 or IELTS minimum 6.5

4. Have a value Academic Potential Test (TPA) at least 550

5. Get a recommendation from the authorized officer

6. Precedence:

a. Having work experience minimum of 2 years

b. Maximum age of 35 years for education and 40 years S2 to S3 education.

c. Not have a degree and are not receiving other scholarships and / or education programs are the S2 (Applicants for the program S2) or S3 (Applicants for the program S3)

7. Registration file and the scholarship application at the latest date of 18 February 2009.

Terms and Scholars scholarship application form S2 & S3 Depkominfo can be downloaded below:

Registration Form
Scholarship Information Requirements
Scholarships Appendix 1
Scholarshttp Appendix 2
Appendix 3 Scholarships

Centre for Russian, Central and East European Studies (CRCEES) Scholarship 2009

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:31:00 +0000

Centre for Russian, Central and East European Studies (CRCEES) present you 2009 Master Scholarships University of Glasgow. CRCEES aims to create a world-class cadre of researchers who will enhance the UK’s understanding of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. A consortium of the Universities of Glasgow, Nottingham, St Andrews, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Strathclyde, and the West of Scotland.

Suitably qualified applicants from any branch of the Social Sciences and Humanities are invited to apply for Masters studentships and Postgraduate language diplomas for study in the 2009-10 academic year.
Applications are invited for the one-year MSc in Russian and East European Studies, University of Glasgow and for intensive one-year Postgraduate diplomas (PgDip) in Russian, Polish, Czech Serbian/Croatian and Slovene language.
Applications should send a covering letter, CV and two references to Ann Mulholland, CRCEES Administrator at the address below by 27th February 2009.

Click here on how to apply Centre for Russian, Central and East European Studies (CRCEES) Scholarship 2009

Centre for Russian, Central and East European Studies (CRCEES)
University of Glasgow
8-9 Lilybank Gardens
Glasgow
G12 8RZ
Tel No: 0141 330 8539
Email: A.Mulholland@lbss.gla.ac.uk

Information Technology ( From Wikipedia )

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:12:00 +0000

nformation technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware." IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information.

Today, the term information technology has ballooned to encompass many aspects of computing and technology, and the term has become very recognizable. The information technology umbrella can be quite large, covering many fields. IT professionals perform a variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as well as the management and administration of entire systems.

When computer and communications technologies are combined, the result is information technology, or "infotech". Information Technology (IT) is a general term that describes any technology that helps to produce, manipulate, store, communicate, and/or disseminate information. Presumably, when speaking of Information Technology (IT) as a whole, it is noted that the use of computers and information are associated.

The term Information Technology (IT) was coined by Jim Domsic of Michigan in November 1981.^{[citation needed]} Domsic created the term to modernize the outdated phrase "data processing". Domsic at the time worked as a computer manager for an automotive related industry.

In recent years ABET and the ACM have collaborated to form accreditation and curriculum standards for degrees in Information Technology as a distinct field of study separate from both Computer Science and Information Systems. SIGITE is the ACM working group for defining these standards.

Prehistoric 'monster snake' remains discovered

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:06:00 +0000

(CNN) -- Scientists in Colombia have unearthed the remains of a true prehistoric monster believed to be the biggest snake ever to have lived on Earth.

Named Titanoboa cerrejonensis, the snake would have weighed 1,140 kilograms (2,500 pounds) and measured 13 meters (42.7 feet) nose to tail tip -- dwarfing the largest modern pythons and anacondas which can grow to 6 meters (19.5 feet).

Scientists believe it slithered around the planet between 58 and 60 million years ago.

Geologist David Polly, who identified the position of the fossil vertebrae which made a size estimate possible, said in a statement Wednesday: "At its greatest width, the snake would have come up to about your hips. The size is pretty amazing.

"But our team went a step further and asked, how warm would the Earth have to be to support a body of this size?"

Titanoboa's fossilized remains were discovered at a coal mine in the tropical Cerrejon region of northern Colombia by an international team of scientists.

"Truly enormous snakes really spark people's imagination, but reality has exceeded the fantasies of Hollywood," paleontologist Jonathan Bloch, who co-led the expedition, told reporters.

"The snake that tried to eat Jennifer Lopez in the movie 'Anaconda' was not as big as the one we found."

Based on the snake's size, the team was able to calculate that the mean annual temperature in equatorial South America 60 million years ago would have been about 91 degrees Fahrenheit, about 10 degrees warmer than today, Bloch said.

"Tropical ecosystems of South America were surprisingly different 60 million years ago," said Bloch. "It was a rainforest, like today, but it was even hotter and the cold-blooded reptiles were all substantially larger.

"The result was, among other things, the largest snakes the world has ever seen...and hopefully ever will."

According to Nature.com, snakes are poikilotherms (cold-blooded) that, unlike humans, need heat from their environment to power their metabolism. Therefore research suggests that at the time the region would have had to be no less than 86 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit for the snake to have survived.

Most large snakes today live in the tropical regions of South America and south-east Asia, where the high temperatures allow them to grow to impressive sizes.

Meanwhile, Carlos Jaramillo -- who was also part of the expedition -- said the tropical rainforest at Cerrejon appeared to have thrived at these temperatures.

"This data challenges the view that tropical vegetation lives near its climatic optimum, and it has profound implications in understanding the effect of current global warming on tropical plants," he said.
monster snake discovered

Air traffic tapes of Hudson plane crash released

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:50:00 +0000

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Minutes before ditching in the Hudson River, the pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 reported hitting birds and said he had lost power in both engines, according to a recording released Thursday by the Federal Aviation Administration.

"Hit birds, we lost thrust in both engines, we're turning back towards LaGuardia," the pilot, Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, said at 3:27 p.m. on January 15, about a minute and a half after the flight took off from LaGuardia International Airport.

A controller at New York Tracon -- a radar facility on Long Island that handles flights after they depart from LaGuardia or Teterboro airports -- responded to the pilot, saying "OK, yeah, you need to return to LaGuardia."

The controller then alerted LaGuardia's air traffic control tower: "Tower, stop your departures, we got an emergency returning."

Minutes later, the pilot of Flight 1549 said the plane might not make it back to LaGuardia. "We're unable, we may end up in the Hudson," he said. Read transcript of pilot's communication with controllers

Sullenberger ditched the crippled jet in the river. All 155 people aboard survived in what New York Gov. David Paterson dubbed a "miracle on the Hudson."

Selling their home to keep their small businesses alive

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:47:00 +0000

(CNN) -- Vanessa Cooreman Smith dreamed of running her own boutique since college, and she's not letting anything -- not even the dismal economy -- stop her.

Cooreman Smith, 27, and her husband are selling their spacious, two-story, lakefront home in South Bend, Indiana, to keep her business alive.

"We've learned to live on less," she says. "It's my calling and I feel best when I'm doing what I love."

The couple, along with their 3-year-old son, plan to move to a smaller home, one of many cuts they have made to make ends meet. The family will cut their mortgage in half.

"It's worth every sacrifice we've had to make," says her husband, Steve Smith, 26, a self-employed Realtor.

As companies continue to lay off tens of thousands of employees each day, the Smiths aren't worried about getting a pink slip. But running their own businesses brings no less anxiety. Tell us how you're surviving

During tough economic times, small businesses are vulnerable to a drop in customers and sales. Furthermore, they face the increasingly problematic tightened credit markets and frozen lenders. Sixty-six percent of businesses survive past the first two years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Cooreman Smith's shop, Flourish Boutique, which sells women's designer clothing, accessories and artwork, is no exception. While she says her store is still gaining market share in her town, she has noticed sluggish sales since October.

"There was a point when the phones stopped ringing," she says.

A troubled economy wasn't on Cooreman Smith's mind when she opened her boutique in early 2008. She says she didn't expect things to head south so drastically, and she had already been saving and planning for her store for nearly four years.

Cooreman Smith says she had to embrace the one concept that would help her business weather the economy: change. The troubled market forced her to react quickly, she says, describing her business skills as "chameleon-like." She abandoned some of the store's couture clothing that was selling for around $500 a dress and stocked more affordable luxury items priced around $200. This gave customers the value they wanted and they returned, she says.

She also began cutting print and radio advertising expenses. She opted to hold trunk shows in women's homes and at parties. iReport.com: Scrambling to make a profit

"It was a great way to expose our store without the high cost," she says. "That also meant I was working longer hours and practically moving my store into other people's homes for a day."

Flourish Boutique is a small business that employs two other people. To avoid layoffs at her store, Cooreman Smith is saving in small ways, like taking the store's trash home to avoid paying for garbage service. She attends fashion shows in nearby Chicago, Illinois, a two-hour drive away. A year ago, she spent hundreds of dollars on flights and hotel rooms for business trips to New York and California. She also has expanded her shop's Web site to get more sales.

Experts tracking small businesses say stores like Cooreman Smith's can survive if the owners make the right operational cuts and can figure out what their penny-pinching customers want.

Meanwhile, Steven Smith, once named a top five Realtor in his county, no longer closes on homes weekly. He works solely off commission in a tanking real estate market.

Smith says that in 2005, when he helped sell townhomes near the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, his business was profitable. "They were selling like crazy," he says.

But by autumn, some of the builders he worked with had declared bankruptcy. He says developers have defaulted on payments and owe him nearly $30,000.

Because he is his own boss, Smith says he has to work twice as hard to make up for the shortfall.

"It's almost like being unemployed, but you still work every day," says Smith, whose inventory has shrunk from an average of 25 new spec homes to three. Interested buyers are rare. "You work just as hard."

He made cuts in advertising and laid off his part-time employee.

As the market continued to look sour, the Smiths knew they had to make personal cuts, too. In addition to selling their home, they laid off their son's nanny and enrolled him in day care. Last Christmas, they drove to visit family members in Savannah, Georgia, instead of flying. Vacation trips this year are unlikely, they say.

The couple no longer eats at the chic restaurants downtown or hires a baby sitter for their son on weekends so they can go out with friends.

Despite the hardships, the couple has found a silver lining in the way they manage their money.

"You get to the point where you think 'Why wouldn't you save the $2?' " Cooreman Smith says. "I wish this wasn't happening, but I think a part of me will be changed forever."

U.N. chief: Special commission to investigate Bhutto killing

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:09:00 +0000

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to create a special commission to investigate the killing of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a United Nations spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Ban, who was in Pakistan for his first official visit, "intends to establish an independent commission of inquiry," said spokeswoman Marie Okabe.

The decision came after "extensive consultations" with the Pakistani government and members of the U.N. Security Council, Okabe said. The U.N. announced Ban's intention to pursue such a commission in December, on the one-year anniversary of Bhutto's death.

Bhutto, 54, was heading the opposition to then-President Pervez Musharraf when she was assassinated December 27, 2007, during a campaign rally in Rawalpindi ahead of parliamentary elections. She died after a bomb blast slammed her head into her SUV -- in which she was standing through an open roof, waving at supporters.

The Pakistani government and CIA officials said Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Taliban in Pakistan, was responsible for her death. In December, a Gallup Poll showed that almost half of Pakistanis believed Musharraf's government had something to do with the killing.

Bhutto had told supporters that if she was killed, Musharraf would be responsible. She sent Musharraf a letter during the campaign that said that four people in the government were plotting to kill her, an official in her party said.

Musharraf's party was trounced in the February 2008 elections and the new parliament elected Yousaf Raza Gilani, a longtime aide to Bhutto, as the new prime minister. Musharraf -- who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999 and who had been accused of corruption, violating Pakistan's constitution and mismanaging the economy -- resigned as president in August.

He was replaced by Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari.

Ban met with Gilani and President Zardari on Wednesday.

He has sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council informing them of his plans for the three-member commission, Okabe said.

Will volcano blow? Expert waits, watches, ready to warn

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 10:04:00 +0000

Anchorage, Alaska (CNN) -- It's 3 degrees and snowing outside the Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage, but inside the operations center, things are heating up.

"This is kind of the nerve center, if you will," says geologist Michelle Coombs, who is at the helm of a bank of video monitors showing readouts from sensors on Mount Redoubt, a volcano about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage.

The sensors measure seismic activity on the volcano's summit. Scientists at the observatory combine that information with data gathered from daily airplane flights to the volcano to measure gases and try to figure out if and when Redoubt is going to blow.

"We're seeing lots of little earthquakes right now," says Coombs. "As that magma rises, it breaks rock as it gets to the surface, and it also it gives off gases, and that leads to the seismic activities were seeing now."

When the magma, or molten rock, makes it to the surface, the volcano will erupt.

A siren goes off, and one of the video monitors goes haywire. Is the mountain erupting?
Learn more about Mount Redoubt »

"That's just a little alarm. There was just a little bit of increased seismic activity," Coombs says reassuringly. "It's a special kind of earthquake particular to volcanoes called a long-period earthquake. It has more to do with fluid and gases than with breaking rock."
Watch Coombs keeping an eye on Redoubt »

Since the monitors first showed increased activity on January 23, the observatory has been staffed 24 hours a day. Scientists here are calling in reinforcements; several geologists from the Lower 48 have been making their way north to help.

Coombs thinks Redoubt will erupt within days or weeks. No one lives near the mountain, which sits on the Cook Inlet and is largely surrounded by glacier ice. That means there is no direct danger from lava flows, but huge clouds of ash could spread throughout Alaska.

When Redoubt last erupted in 1989, it spread ash across Alaska for five months.

"Geologists like to use the past as a key to the future, and previous historical eruptions of Redoubt have produced ash clouds of up to 40,000 feet above see level," says Coombs. She notes that at current weather conditions, "it would take about three hours for that ash to leave the volcano and arrive in Anchorage."

The ash is composed largely of silica, which is similar to tiny fragments of glass. Down on the ground, the ash can be dangerous to breath in and can damage cars as their engines draw the ash into their engines. But it is usually a nuisance.

However, in the sky, the ash clouds can create very dangerous flying conditions for jets.

"For jet aviation, it's a very severe hazard because jet engines run at a very high temperature. And once that silica-rich ash gets ingested into the engine, it can remelt and coat the insides of the engines and freeze up those engines," says Coombs. "That's really the major thing we are trying to avoid here."

The day after the 1989 eruption of Redoubt, a 747 flew into an ash cloud near Anchorage and all four engines stalled. The pilot was able to get two of the engines restarted, and the plane landed safely. Coombs says airspace around the volcano and Anchorage may be closed if Redoubt erupts.

When the alarms aren't blaring, Coombs sends out the official Twitter feeds from the observatory and tries to stay warm. She is eight months' pregnant.

"People have been joking, 'Are you going to name him redoubt?' " she says with a laugh, then shakes her head and gets back to her monitors.

Suspected militants destroy bridge in Pakistan

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 10:02:00 +0000

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Suspected Taliban militants blew up a bridge early Tuesday in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, suspending NATO supply lines.

The blast occurred about 6 a.m. Tuesday in the Khata Kushta area of Jamrod in the Khyber Agency in Pakistan Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The bridge connected Landi Kotal and Jamrod. Transport has been suspended, and authorities are assessing damages.

Engineers also are on location and work is under way to open a temporary route. Details were unclear on the size of the blast, but most of the iron bridge was destroyed, local officials said.

No deaths or injuries were immediately reported.

Authorities are looking for alternate supply routes for NATO supply trucks and traffic going from Pakistan to Afghanistan, because the route is the main one between the two countries. All vehicles must cross the bridge when going from Peshawar toward the crossing point into Afghanistan.

On Monday, at least 35 suspected militants were killed as part of ongoing operations in the Swat Valley, the Pakistan military confirmed to CNN.

Government security forces engaged 70 to 80 suspected militants with artillery and attack helicopters about 11 p.m., after observing their movements in the Khwaza Khela District of the Swat Valley, the military said.

Though only 35 militants were confirmed dead, many more were injured in the attack and the death toll was expected to rise, the military said.

Also on Monday, a Taliban FM radio sermon announced that militants had killed 16 Pakistan army soldiers in the Swat Valley. Officials at the Swat media center said that report was false.

Heaviest UK snow in 18 years hits international flights

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 09:09:00 +0000

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The worst snowstorm to hit Britain in 18 years forced the cancellation of more than 650 flights at London's Heathrow airport Monday and shut down the city's bus network, partially paralyzing the British capital.

Heathrow, one of the busiest transport hubs in the world, closed both its runways for more than two hours Monday morning and operated with just one for the rest of the morning, according to BAA, the company which runs it.

London City airport is also closed, while the British capital's other two airports, Stansted and Gatwick, were operating with severe delays, BAA said.

British Airways canceled all flights out of Heathrow until 5 p.m. except for Edinburgh and Lisbon routes. Send your iReport videos, stories

One of the city's largest cab companies was in such high demand it stopped taking cash and credit card bookings, serving only customers with accounts, it said.

Dial-a-Cab, which has a fleet of over 2,500 vehicles, served mainly blue-chip companies trying to get employees into work, said Keith Cain a Control Room manager for the company. Customers waited up to an hour and a half for a cab early in the morning, he said.
See gallery of UK under snow »

Jochen Jaeger, 36, found himself stranded at Heathrow, unable to fly home to Zurich or to get back into the apartment he rented in London.

"I will stay here at the airport," he told CNN. "There is no other option. I may have to spend the night here."

American businessman Ken Plunkett, 60, from St. Paul, Minnesota, was trying to fly out from Heathrow Airport but found himself caught in the weather chaos. "I know England does not have the infrastructure to remove snow like we do in Minnesota," he said.
Watch passenger stranded by snow »

Jenny Leslie, a shop worker at Heathrow's Terminal 2, said it was so quiet at the airport "you can hear a pin drop."

Southampton Airport, southwest of London, was also closed for several hours Monday morning, but re-opened by 1200 GMT.

But many people in the city were delighted by the unusual weather.

"Londoners of all ages are childishly happy to be making snowmen and having snowball fights. Bankers of all ages are throwing snowballs in the middle of the residential streets," Monica Majumdar told CNN in an iReport.

She lived in New York before moving to London four years ago, and was surprised by how little snow it took to bring the British capital to a standstill.

"I have seen snow like this. But somehow, it's more beautiful here. It's partly due to the fact that even Londoners are amazed by the snow -- so there is a general air of surrealism," she said via e-mail. " I do feel like I'm in a Christmas snowglobe, with all the iconic London monuments blanketed by the powdered snow."

London's famous red buses were pulled off the roads on Sunday night as the snow got deeper.

It was the first time "in living memory" that all city bus service had been suspended, including when London was being bombed during World War II, a spokesman for the city's transit agency, Transport for London, said.

"Bus services were suspended throughout London last night on the grounds of passenger safety due to the unsafe road conditions resulting in a large number of traffic incidents across London," the agency said in a statement Monday morning. Watch London grind to a halt »

About six million people ride London buses each day, said the spokesman, who asked not to be named.

Some bus service had been restored by lunchtime on Monday.

London Mayor Boris Johnson suspended the £8 ($11.30) daily congestion charge drivers normally pay to enter central London, the city transport authority said. Some bus service had been restored by lunchtime on Monday.

The city's subway system was also experiencing severe delays, leaving normally bustling central London something of a ghost town.

On a regular weekday, London's transit system handles more than three million passenger journeys.

The Federation of Small Businesses estimated that at least one in five workers nationwide -- about 6.4 million employees -- failed to make it into work Monday morning.

But the figure was estimated to be far higher -- around two in five -- in London and southeast England, which is home to around a fifth of all British businesses.

Monday's disruptions are likely to cost businesses £1.2 billion ($1.7 billion), FSB spokesman Stephen Alambritis told CNN.

Britain's national weather service, the Met Office, issued severe weather warnings for all of England and much of Scotland and Wales for both Monday and Tuesday.

It reported 20cm of snow in Balham, south London, and 15cm at Canary Wharf in east London.

The last time such widespread snowfall affected Britain was in February 1991, the Met Office said. Watch iReport on snowy Stonehenge.

The snow meant a break from school for the region's children as classes gave way to snowball fights.

In the southern English seaside resort of Brighton there was a carnival atmosphere as dozens of people who were unable to get to work threw snowballs and built snowmen on the beach.

Mother-of-three Fiona Robbins, 45, added: "Everyone is very excited to be able to show their children proper snow for the first time."

Tuesday's forecast is expected to bring some relief, with the snow expected to stop and temperatures to rise above freezing.

Two climbers were found dead Monday morning on Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales, after being reported missing Sunday night, North Wales Police said. It was not clear if their deaths were related to the storm.

Bucking tradition, Clinton to head for Asia

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 09:00:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Bucking tradition, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will bypass Europe and travel to Asia on her maiden voyage overseas, diplomats familiar with the planning said Tuesday.

Clinton is expected to visit China, Japan and South Korea on her first trip overseas. The diplomats said she may also add other stops, including one in Southeast Asia.

The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because Clinton's schedule was still being finalized. The State Department has not commented on her travel plans.

Making Asia Clinton's first overseas destination illustrates the Obama administration's desire for a broader partnership with China and its commitment to resolving the North Korean nuclear issue, as well as strengthening ties with Tokyo and Seoul, the diplomats said.

The White House said President Barack Obama told Chinese President Hu Jintao in a Friday phone call that he looked forward to "to early contacts and exchanges between senior officials of our two countries."

Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month she hoped to make an early trip to Southeast Asia, in particular Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation where Obama spent part of his childhood. Clinton said she wanted to restart Peace Corps programs there, which were suspended in the 1960s.

Traditionally U.S. secretaries of state make Europe or the Middle East their first official trip overseas. But given that Vice President Joseph Biden is headed to Europe this week for a security conference in Germany, and special envoy George Mitchell is currently in the Middle East, Clinton is free to break with tradition.

However British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and German Foreign Secretary Walter Steinmeier will be Clinton's first foreign guests to the State Department on Tuesday.

Clinton was sworn in as America's 67th secretary of state on Monday -- for a second time. Watch Clinton being sworn in »

Biden administered the oath to Clinton in a ceremonial star-studded gathering at the State Department, with actor Chevy Chase and designer Oscar de la Renta among those on hand.

"It is an overwhelming honor ... to assume this position," Clinton said. "We have a lot of work to do [to ensure that] America's future can be even brighter than our storied past."

Chavez doubts U.S. can shake oil needs

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:55:00 +0000

CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he supported U.S. President Barack Obama's efforts to find alternative energy sources but doesn't believe the United States can do it.

"I don't know how he will achieve what he said he would," Chavez said in an exclusive 30-minute interview with CNN en Espanol's Patricia Janiot Monday night. "It's very difficult for the United States to diminish its use of oil."

The United States, a major Venezuelan oil consumer, needed petroleum "like air, like oxygen to live, to survive," Chavez said.

"We employ thousands of workers in the United States," Chavez said. "We give aid to hundreds of thousands of poor families in the United States with our heating oil program."

Chavez added that also isn't worried about the falling price of crude oil because there is such worldwide hunger for petroleum.

"The world will need to sustain its industrial rhythm," he said.

Chavez certainly hopes that's the case. Oil revenues account for about 90 percent of Venezuela's export earnings, about half of federal budget revenues and some 30 percent of gross domestic product, according to the CIA Factbook.

Chavez, who once called former President George W. Bush "the devil," welcomed talks with Obama, saying, "I wish we could restore relations to the same level we had with President Clinton," referring to the 1993-2001 years.

But improved relations depended on the United States, Chavez said.

"We won't accept disrespect from anyone," he said, adding that respect from the United States must include all of Latin America.

On the domestic front, Chavez said he expected to win the February 15 referendum to amend the constitution so he can run for a third six-year term in 2012. But he's willing to accept any outcome, Chavez said.

"If we lose, we lose," he said, but declined to rule out calling for another referendum if he does not succeed this time.

Venezuelans narrowly rejected a similar measure in a December 2007 referendum.

Chavez has been campaigning hard in favor of the referendum, which he called for in November, a week after candidates he backed won a majority of seats in local elections seen as a test of his influence.

Chavez was elected president in 1998, six years after a failed coup attempt to depose then-President Carlos Andres Perez. Chavez was sworn in on February 2, 1999.

He was re-elected in a special election in July 2000 after a new constitution was adopted and again in 2006.

The current constitution limits him to two consecutive six-year terms.

Although Venezuela has been hit particularly hard by the recent drop in oil prices, Chavez said social programs he has instituted will continue.

"I have told those who oppose me: Put the price of petroleum at zero and I won't do away with social programs."

Chavez noted that when he took over, there were 20 doctors for every 100,000 Venezuelans. Now, he said, there are 65 physicians for every 100,000 people.

Likewise, free health coverage was available to 95 percent of Venezuelans, he said. Ten years ago, it was available to only 25 percent of the population, he said.

Chavez made his comments on a particularly busy day in which Latin American leaders assembled in Caracas to mark the 10th anniversary of his rise to power, a period described by state-run television as "a decade of successes."

Earlier Monday, Chavez and representatives of the leftist group Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our Americas, or ALBA, walked through the National Pantheon, which holds the sarcophagus of Simon Bolivar. Chavez credits him as "the father of the revolution."

In 1819, Bolivar founded Gran Colombia, a federation of what is now Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Ecuador.

In attendance were presidents Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Jose Manuel Zelaya of Honduras and Evo Morales of Bolivia; Roosevelt Skerrit, prime minister of Dominica; and Cuba's first vice president, Jose Ramon Machado Ventura.

Absent was Chavez's friend and mentor, former Cuban President Fidel Castro, who has been sick. But that didn't stop Chavez from addressing him.

"Fidel, from here I salute you," he said. "Revolutionary father, from here we, your sons and daughters, salute you!"

U.S. helping Afghan farmers give up opium for wheat

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:39:00 +0000

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Toiling in what once was the opium capital of the world, farmers in southern Afghanistan are swapping out their poppy plants for wheat crops.

The farmers are participating in programs sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is offering seeds, fertilizers and improved irrigation to the region in an effort to stop poppy crops and, ultimately, the production of opium and heroin.

Observers have noticed a significant decline in the opium trade in Afghanistan, with the number of poppy-free provinces increasing from 13 in 2007 to 18 in 2008, according to a U.N. report released last year.

Opium cultivation in the country, which has 34 provinces, dropped by about 20 percent in a year, the U.N. reported in August.

"It's a challenge to deliver assistance in a war zone -- you can hear fighter jets flying above us right now," said Rory Donohoe, a USAID development officer.

"At the end of the day, what we found is successful is that we work in areas that we can work," he told CNN in a recent interview in Helmand province.

"We come to places like this demonstration farm where Afghans can come here to a safe environment, get training, pick up seeds and fertilizer, then go back to districts of their own."

Many of Afghanistan's northern and eastern provinces have already benefited from USAID alternative farming programs, which have doled out more than $22 million to nearly 210,000 Afghans to build or repair 435 miles (700 kilometers) of roads and some 2,050 miles (3,300 kilometers) of irrigation and drainage canals.

Giving Afghan farmers improved access to markets and improved irrigation is successfully weaning them away from poppy production, according to officials at USAID.

Over the years, opium and heroin -- both derivatives of the poppy -- have served as a major source of revenue for the Taliban, the insurgent Sunni movement that once ruled Afghanistan.

"If you can just help the people of Afghanistan in this way, the fighting will go away," said Abdul Qadir, a farmer in Lashkar Gah.

"The Taliban and other enemies of the country will also disappear."

Beckham included in Milan's UEFA Cup squad

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:31:00 +0000

(CNN) -- AC Milan have included David Beckham in their squad for the UEFA Cup, increasing speculation that the former England captain may remain at the San Siro past the intended date of his return to Los Angeles Galaxy.

Beckham, 33, has been in superb form since joining the Serie A giants from MLS side Galaxy on loan until March 9.

And those impressive performances have prompted Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti to include the former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder in his UEFA Cup squad, despite Beckham only being eligible to play in two matches in that competition prior to his return to Los Angeles.

"Beckham is becoming an indispensable player for us and he deserves credit for the intelligent way he is playing," Ancelotti told Milan's official Web site.

"We want to take advantage of his form for the two matches against Werder Bremen."

Beckham initially moved to Milan for two months during the MLS off-season in order to keep up his fitness levels and to remain in England coach Fabio Capello's thought's for this month's friendly international against Spain.

However, his form has been so impressive for Milan that rumors are rife he may remain at the San Siro on a permanent basis.

Keane completes sensational Spurs return

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:28:00 +0000

(CNN) -- Republic of Ireland striker Robbie Keane has completed a sensational return to Tottenham Hotspur on transfer deadline day, just six months after leaving the club for Premier League rivals Liverpool.

Keane joined Liverpool, the club he supported as a boy, for £20m ($28.5m) in July after six successful seasons with Tottenham.

However, while Liverpool have been challenging for the title, Keane has been a marginal figure at Anfield, falling out of favor with manager Rafael Benitez who has preferred to play Steven Gerrard in a more attacking role alongside Fernando Torres.

Keane regularly cut a forlorn figure on the Liverpool substitutes' bench and his departure looked a certainty when he failed to even make Benitez's squad for Sunday's 2-0 victory over Chelsea.

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp is believed to have paid in the region of £15m (£21.4m) to secure the 28-year-old Keane's signature -- meaning he becomes the third player to return to White Hart Lane after former Spurs favorites Jermain Defoe (Portsmouth) and Pascal Chimbonda (Sunderland) also re-signed for the club during the transfer window.

"It was a difficult decision to leave Tottenham in the summer. It proved not to be the right move for me," Keane told the official Tottenham Web site.

"I know some Spurs fans will feel I let them down by leaving but I can assure them I shall be giving my all for this club -- this club has terrific fans and I want to repay them for all their support. We've got to get on and fight our way up that league table."

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy added: "We never wanted Robbie to leave in the summer. We acknowledged the six years dedicated service he gave this club and reluctantly let him go.

"I am delighted that he has chosen to return to us. We can all recall the passion and fight he displayed during his previous seasons with us. I know he is determined to give us his full commitment."

Elsewhere, business was light on the final day of the window.

Newcastle were one of the busiest clubs, with long-serving goalkeeper Shay Given eventually completing his move away from St James' Park to join Manchester City while French winger Charles N'Zogbia has moved to Wigan Athletic with Ryan Raylor moving in the opposite direction.

As Given joined City, one player leaving the club is striker Jo, who has failed to impress since joining from CSKA Moscow in the summer for £18m ($25.6m). The Brazilian has joined Everton on loan for the remainder of the season.

Premier League strugglers Portsmouth have swooped for two Greek internationals. Experienced midfielder Angelos Basinas has joined on an 18-month contract from AEK Athens while striker Theofanis Gekas has joined on loan from Bayer Leverkusen.

Meanwhile, former French international midfielder Olivier Dacourt has also returned to the Premier League. Dacourt had successful spells with Leeds and Everton and has joined Fulham on loan from Inter Milan for the rest of the season.

'The day the music died'? Hardly

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:24:00 +0000

(CNN) -- The facts are these: Just after 1 a.m. February 3, 1959, a three-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza went down about five miles northwest of Mason City Municipal Airport, near Clear Lake, Iowa. The plane crash took the lives of the pilot, Roger Peterson, and three musicians: Charles Hardin Holley, better known as Buddy Holly, 22; Ritchie Valens (originally Valenzuela), 17; and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, 28.

It has become famous, in Don McLean's "American Pie" formulation, as "the day the music died."

The event has echoed through rock 'n' roll history for 50 years, representing, if not the end of rock 'n' roll itself, the close of an era, the end of the first bloom of rock anarchy and innovation.

"It was like a curtain coming down," said Terry Stewart, president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, which is co-hosting a series of events in Clear Lake for the anniversary, including classes putting the event in historical context.

As they have for decades, visitors have been making the pilgrimage to the resort town about 110 miles north of Des Moines. On Monday night, the 50th anniversary of the trio's deaths, the city's Surf Ballroom and Museum will host a huge concert in conjunction with the Rock Hall.

Expected are luminaries including Graham Nash, whose 1960s British band was named for Holly; the Smithereens' Pat DiNizio, who wrote the song "Maria Elena" for Holly's widow; Los Lobos, who followed in the Hispanic-rock tradition begun by Valens; Texans Delbert McClinton and Joe Ely; and Tommy Allsup, who was a Holly sideman at the show 50 years ago.
iReport: Do you remember this era of rock? Share your memories

"The vision [for the Monday show] has always been that we go back to the roots," said Laurie Lietz, the Surf's executive director. "There were so many who were influenced by [the trio]. So the tribute concert is really a tribute to each individual."

The Surf, which was refurbished in 1995 by a local family (it's now run by a foundation), includes the original stage, the telephone where Holly and Valens placed their last calls, guitars, photographs and a green room with hundreds of autographs.

They all pay tribute to the last show for three men.

Holly, Valens and Richardson were part of the Winter Dance Party, a ramshackle tour that had started in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and headed to small cities in Minnesota and Iowa.

The tour, which also included Dion and the Belmonts and members of Holly's backing band, had lumbered along in subfreezing temperatures in unheated buses; two days earlier, one bus had stalled out on a lonely Wisconsin road. By the time the group reached Clear Lake, Holly in particular was ready to bolt.

"Buddy was very determined when he wanted something," said his widow, Maria Elena Holly, of her "otherwise laid-back" husband of six months. Listen to Maria Elena talk about Buddy Holly »

He booked the plane to fly to Fargo, North Dakota, where he planned to rest up and do laundry in advance of the group's next concert in Moorhead, Minnesota, across the state line.

Fargo native Bobby Vee, who remembers the tragedy vividly, acknowledges that he owes his career to the event. The then-high school sophomore named Robert Velline had come home for lunch and heard a local DJ talking about the Moorhead show.

"I had a ticket for the show. I was a huge Buddy Holly fan and a huge rock 'n' roll fan," he recalled, adding that a major rock 'n' roll concert in the area was a rarity. "As I got closer into the kitchen ... [my mother and brother] were talking about this plane crash that had taken place. I couldn't put it all together."

But the promoter had decided to go on with the show and invited local bands to participate. Vee was in a garage band, and a friend suggested that they participate. The band, so loose it didn't even have a name, got on the bill. At the end of the night, a local booking agent approached them, and the Shadows (a name Vee came up with as they waited offstage) entered the music business.

Vee's hits eventually included 1961's "Take Good Care of My Baby" and 1967's "Come Back When You Grow Up."

"It changed my life," Vee said. "I was a 15-year-old. I'd never experienced that kind of tragedy. I wasn't there to start a career -- I didn't know what a career was -- I was just there to help out, because that's what people do when there's a problem."

Rock critic Dave Marsh also remembers hearing about the crash.

"I went to the door of our little house in Pontiac, Michigan, and I picked up the newspaper, and ... it was the first thing I saw: Three rock 'n' roll guys dying in a plane crash," he says. "I was 9, but I had an aunt who was just seven years older than me and a mother who was an Elvis fan and who watched 'American Bandstand' every day. So I was aware. ... It was something to deal with, people that young dying."

But, indicating the lack of esteem for rock 'n' roll at the time, it wasn't a major national news story. The New York Times put a plane crash on its February 4 front page, but it was an American Airlines flight that had crashed near LaGuardia Airport. The Clear Lake tragedy was on page 66. The same was true for other major newspapers.
iReport.com: How teens paid tribute to the trio

"[Holly] really wasn't known to the older generation," said "Austin City Limits" executive producer and Holly aficionado Terry Lickona. "Even in his hometown [of Lubbock, Texas], they were embarrassed by him."

The trio's deaths coincided with a period of dark events in rock 'n' roll history, including Elvis Presley's induction into the Army, Jerry Lee Lewis' blacklisting, the record industry payola scandals and Chuck Berry's Mann Act conviction, not to mention the rise of manufactured teen idols such as Frankie Avalon and Fabian.

Partly thanks to McLean's lingering phrase, the ensuing years have been painted as a rock Dark Ages, rescued only by the Beatles' arrival in 1964 at the vanguard of the British Invasion. McLean: Buddy Holly was a genius

Marsh says that canard, which he has refuted in "The Book of Rock Lists" and "The Heart of Rock and Soul," should be laid to rest once and for all.

"I think what happened was that people weren't paying attention themselves and assumed no one else was, either," he said. "I think it's also a way that glorifies the lack of stars [compared to rock's early days]. That was missing. ... I don't think Roy Orbison had quite the same stature."

Which doesn't mean that the music of Orbison, Phil Spector, early Motown or Gary U.S. Bonds deserves to be overlooked, he added: "The quality of the music is undeniable."
iReport.com: 'Buddy Holly' performs as final tour re-created

What would have happened to the trio in that era is, of course, impossible to know. Valens, celebrated in the movie "La Bamba," was just starting his career and may have produced more hits; Richardson, a former DJ and radio program director who shot some rudimentary music videos, had shrewd entrepreneurial instincts.

And then there's Holly, with his songwriting talent, his arranging abilities (he did the strings on "It Doesn't Matter Anymore," his last single) and sheer knowledge of music.

Maria Elena Holly, who watches over his legacy, says Buddy had big plans: He wanted to do albums with Ray Charles and Mahalia Jackson; he wanted to try film music; he wanted to do music publishing.

"He was a multitasker in every way," she said.
iReport.com: Musician discovered Buddy Holly through the Beatles

Monday, he and the others will simply be remembered at the ballroom where it's always February 2, 1959, and they're putting on another great show.

"When I come to these things, I don't think about [that] this is the last time I talked to him was from here. I think, I'm meeting the fans who have kept his memory alive," said Maria Elena Holly, who admits to getting "a little bit teary" when she hears "True Love Ways."

"And that's really what Buddy wanted to happen with his music: He wanted people to enjoy the music, to listen to it and make them happy," she said. "And when I think of it that way, I think at least his dream came true."

Plotting the long road to one million electric cars

noreply@blogger.com (TomaT) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:19:00 +0000

(CNET) -- Meeting the Obama Administration's goal of putting 1 million plug-in electric vehicles on the road by 2015 will only happen with a coordinated set of policies and technology advances, according to an electric vehicle association.

The Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) on Tuesday is expected to release a set of policy recommendations for ushering in what auto industry executives call a major technological shift away from gas-only cars to electrics.

EDTA members include auto manufacturers, battery companies, a number of electric utilities, and other industry associations.

The group is lobbying for policies to boost domestic manufacturing industry, fund technology research, and launch wide-scale testing of electric vehicles. It said tax incentives, which currently give consumers up to a $7,500 rebate depending on battery size, should be extended to a higher number of cars and private fleet purchases.

On the technology side, batteries remain the biggest hurdle. The EDTA said the Department of Energy should fund to develop and test energy storage and fuel cells systems.

"Energy storage capability is the key to the success of the vehicles and also is the enabling technology for using renewable power as a transportation fuel," according to the EDTA's policy recommendation report.

In an indication how of important battery technology is, General Motors decided to manufacture the battery pack for the Chevy Volt and other electric-gas cars itself, rather than purchase the packs from a supplier. The battery cells will be supplied by LG Chem.

In addition to technology progress, battery and auto company executives say that establishing a supply chain of electric vehicle components will require collaboration among different companies.

Fourteen U.S. companies have established an alliance to lobby the U.S. government for $1 billion in federal aid to build up U.S. battery manufacturing, according to a Wall Street Journal report published last December.

Car manufacturers will need to provide warranties on batteries which have not yet had years of testing among consumers, the EDTA said. Some automakers have considered leasing batteries, which will allow consumers to upgrade to newer batteries.

The EDTA also argues that new business models are required to prompt consumers to purchase electric vehicles, even though they promise a jump in fuel efficiency.

The group recommends setting up an infrastructure for charging stations, coordinating with utilities and companies that test fleets of plug-in electric vehicles, including government agencies.

"By helping public and private entities to build coherent alternative vehicle and infrastructure solutions, the federal government can help the industry to move beyond the 'chicken vs. egg' question," according to the report.