How the US President is elected

The election to the world's most powerful job isn't based on the popular vote. It's a bit more complicated than in India.

This is how it works:

Basically, the ballots have Obama, McCain's names although elections are also held for the Congress simultaneously sometimes.But votes cast for Obama or McCain don't go to them directly but to the Electoral College which consists of 538 popularly elected representatives who formally select the President.

At this point it's all or nothing.

The size of the Electoral College is equal to the total membership of both Houses of Congress (435 Representatives and 100 Senators plus the three electors allocated to Washington, D.C.), totaling 538 electors.

Each state is allocated as many electors as it has Representatives and Senators in the United States Congress. Since the most populous states have the most seats in the House of Representatives, they also have the most electors.

The six states with the most electors are California (55), Texas (34), New York (31), Florida (27), Illinois (21) and Pennsylvania (21).

Ballots have Obama, McCain's names

But votes cast go to the Electoral College

Whoever wins most votes in a state, wins all Electoral votes

Whoever gets 270 Electors (out of 538), wins

Whichever Presidential candidate wins the most votes in a state, wins all the Electoral votes, even if the popular vote was split 51-49 percent.And whoever gets 270 Electors (out of 538), wins the US Presidential election.

Abrams Falls

Although Abrams Falls is only 20 feet high, the large volume of water rushing over falls more than makes up for its lack of height. The long, deep pool at its base is very picturesque. The waterfall and creek are named for Cherokee Chief Abram or Abraham whose village once stood several miles downstream.

The trail to the falls traverses pine-oak forest on the ridges and hemlock and rhododendron forest along the creek. The hike is 5 miles roundtrip and considered moderate in difficulty.Due to strong currents and an undertow, swimming in the pool at the base of the falls is extremely dangerous.

Access trail: Abrams Falls
Trailhead: The turnoff for the trailhead is located past stop #10 on the Cades Cove Loop Road. The turnoff is signed.

Scars

Also called: Cicatrix, Keloid scar
A scar is a permanent patch of skin that grows over a wound. It forms when your body heals itself after a cut, scrape, burn or sore. You can also get scars from surgery that cuts through the skin, from infections like chickenpox, or skin conditions like acne. Scars are often thicker, as well as pinker, redder or shinier, than the rest of your skin.

How your scar looks depends on
* How big and deep your wound is

* Where it is

* How long it takes to heal

* Your age

* Your inherited tendency to scar

Scars usually fade over time but never go away completely. If the way a scar looks bothers you, various treatments might minimize it. These include surgical revision, dermabrasion, laser treatments, injections, chemical peels and cream.

Aggregate fruit

An aggregate fruit, or etaerio, develops from a flower with numerous simple pistils. An example is the raspberry, whose simple fruits are termed drupelets because each is like a small drupe attached to the receptacle. In some bramble fruits (such as blackberry) the receptacle is elongated and part of the ripe fruit, making the blackberry an aggregate-accessory fruit. The strawberry is also an aggregate-accessory fruit, only one in which the seeds are contained in achenes.In all these examples, the fruit develops from a single flower with numerous pistils. Some kinds of aggregate fruits are called berries, yet in the botanical sense they are not.

Candidate John McCain seemed to have it all.

Few in America did not know about his decades of service, his breath-taking heroism as a war hero in Vietnam, his foreign policy expertise and his ability to reach across the Congressional aisle.

Mr McCain's opponent was largely untested, inexperienced and, initially at least, unknown; his race only added to his challenge.

If there is such a thing as a perfect political storm though, John McCain found himself caught in the middle of it. In a leaky boat. With limited fuel.

Hopes dashed

This was another aspect of the McCain strategy that seemed to backfire. Although Mr McCain ran only 10% more purely negative adverts than his rival, according to media monitoring groups, they were more deeply personal attacks - accusing Mr Obama of having a close relationship with a "domestic terrorist", for example.Such ads created a backlash from independent voters, according to the polls, and Mr McCain was forced to change his tone.

In fact, he could never quite find a narrative that worked. He went from being war hero, to the voice of experience, to maverick, to tax-cutter, but he never found a way to lift himself in the polls.His team hoped the three presidential debates would finally reveal their candidate to be best qualified for the job. But in the "town hall" setting Mr McCain favoured, he wandered around the stage and forgot that what may work in a real town hall doesn't necessarily work with a TV audience.In other debates he tried confronting Mr Obama, but was never able to shake the younger man's almost unnatural cool. At times, Mr McCain seemed to be trying to keep a simmering rage under control, which brought more negative coverage.

When the credit crisis erupted and the economy stalled, it seemed a damning indictment of an era of Republican deregulation and "trickle-down" economics.Mr McCain's past quotes about the fundamentals of the economy being strong came back to haunt him. His tax plan - which seemed to favour the wealthy - rang hollow with people facing foreclosure and job losses.His abrupt suspension of his campaign to return to Washington and "fix the problem" seemed erratic and was ultimately ineffectual.In the end, he projected an image as a man from America's past, who had been through much and served his country well.

But in a disgruntled nation, deeply disenchanted with Republicanism, he couldn't match the appeal of his younger opponent and his message of change.

GPS

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a U.S. space-based radionavigation system that provides reliable positioning, navigation, and timing services to civilian users on a continuous worldwide basis -- freely available to all. For anyone with a GPS receiver, the system will provide location and time. GPS provides accurate location and time information for an unlimited number of people in all weather, day and night, anywhere in the world.

The GPS is made up of three parts: satellites orbiting the Earth; control and monitoring stations on Earth; and the GPS receivers owned by users. GPS satellites broadcast signals from space that are picked up and identified by GPS receivers. Each GPS receiver then provides three-dimensional location (latitude, longitude, and altitude) plus the time.

Individuals may purchase GPS handsets that are readily available through commercial retailers. Equipped with these GPS receivers, users can accurately locate where they are and easily navigate to where they want to go, whether walking, driving, flying, or boating. GPS has become a mainstay of transportation systems worldwide, providing navigation for aviation, ground, and maritime operations. Disaster relief and emergency services depend upon GPS for location and timing capabilities in their life-saving missions. Everyday activities such as banking, mobile phone operations, and even the control of power grids, are facilitated by the accurate timing provided by GPS. Farmers, surveyors, geologists and countless others perform their work more efficiently, safely, economically, and accurately using the free and open GPS signals.

Indian Finance

Finance Department largely performs the function of advising the Government on all financial matters. The formulation of the Budget is one of its most important functions. Finance department is also entrusted with the responsibility of framing rules regulating pay, emoluments and other service conditions of all Government employees. It has administrative control over the departments of Local Fund Audit, Directorates of National Savings, Lotteries, Insurance and Treasuries.

Regulatory Function of the department is the most important. It is the nodal center for monitoring all financial transactions of the Country. It performs all the important function of budget preparation as well as monitoring the receipts and expenditure incurred during the year. Another important task of the department is to monitor the reappropriation of funds. Preparation of Rules relating to financial matters and its interpretation sought by the departments is also an important function.

Scientists: Earth May Exist in Giant Cosmic Bubble

Earth may be trapped in an abnormal bubble of space-time that is particularly devoid of matter.Scientists say this condition could account for the apparent acceleration of the universe's expansion, for which dark energy currently is the leading explanation.

Dark energy is the name given to the hypothetical force that could be drawing all the stuff in the universe outward at an ever-increasing rate.Current thinking is that 74 percent of the universe could be made up of this exotic dark energy, with another 21 percent being dark matter, and normal matter comprising the remaining 5 percent.

Broadband Speed Tests Questioned

Virgin Media has criticised some broadband speed tests, saying they rely on "dirty data".

It said current tests were often inaccurate.It is concerned that tests for 50Mbps (megabits per second) services, which are starting to launch, will be even more inaccurate.More people are using broadband speed tests to find out whether the speed they are actually getting comes close to what service providers promise.

Error margin

Most broadband consumers in the UK are currently using a service which offers speeds of up to 8Mbps but there are wide variations in the actual speeds they receive.Virgin Media has been testing the testers and has pinpointed some issues with such services.Online speed tests generally work by sending a file to a computer and timing how long it takes. This so-called payload is often too small, according to Virgin, to give an accurate result.The error margin is amplified when speeds get up to 50Mbps, it said.It is also concerned by the way web-based speed tests measure only how fast data is able to travel from one part of the internet to another, which is subject to bottlenecks and delays.Other factors that affect results include the number of people using the test at any given time and the processing power of individual computers.

Too costly

Michael Phillips, head of broadbandchoices.co.uk, said some of the issues raised by Virgin were fair.He said he would be putting some caveats on his site's speed test.But he believes that for the majority of users on lower broadband speeds, such tests remained an important barometer of services.He said that the costs involved in creating an accurate test for faster speeds may be too high for those sites that make no money from the tests and simply offer them as an additional service to consumers."It is very costly. If you host a server you have to pay for a feed to the internet and to get one that is reliable could prove prohibitive," he said.Virgin Media pledged to work with speed test providers to improve accuracy.

Overall performance

It recommended tests such as that devised by broadband comparison site SamKnows that uses hardware directly attached to customers' modems.The SamKnows kit has been adopted by Ofcom and attracted thousands of triallists keen to test out the system.It came about because the founders of SamKnows were themselves unhappy with the accuracy of other broadband speed tests.

"We wanted to make it much more comprehensive, not so much about speed as overall performance," said Sam Crawford, the founder of SamKnows.

Andrew Ferguson, head of broadband comparison site ThinkBroadband is happy his speed tester is accurate."We are confident that our speed tester is in a position to handle 50Mbps and faster broadband connections," he said.At the beginning of September 2008 the site adjusted the amount of data used during the tests to ensure reliable results were provided for fast connections."As we test ever-faster connections, we will evolve the testing procedures," he said.According to analyst firm Forrester only 12% of UK users have used a such a speed test.Despite its concerns Virgin Media appears to be performing well in such tests.

Latest figures from independent broadband comparison site Point Topic put Virgin Media at the top of the league for delivering on its speed promises.

Outsourcing Advantages

Software Outsourcing has long passed the fad or buzzword stage. It is here to stay as an IT trend which has evolved, grown, matured and is living up to and outgrowing its potential. Especially with companies that wish to cut costs while gaining access to world-class software engineers, it is no more an option but a smart decision. One of the strongest factors that attracts most of the Fortune 500 companies worldwide to the outsourcing industry is the significant savings attached to an software outsourcing project. On an average, companies report 40% to 60% increase in net savings with the help of Offshore IT Outsourcing.

Half of all the fortune 500 companies today target offshore software development in India. The core reason for preferring India, as an offshore development partner, to other competing destinations in offshore IT Outsourcing business is a vast pool of educated human resource combined with world-class quality offerings and ever encouraging Government policies for the IT sectors.

Samsung Sticking to Microchip Investment Plans

Despite a slump in the global semiconductor market, Samsung Electronics will stick a plan to invest W7 trillion in computer chips in the second half of this year( US$1=W1,149). Kwon Oh-hyun, the head of Samsung's semiconductor division, confirmed this at the launch of the new growing industry forum held in the National Assembly on Tuesday. This contrasts starkly with other global semiconductor companies like Hynix, Elpida and Power Chip who have decided to cut production this year due to oversupply and the recession. In March, Hynix cut investment plans for the second half of this year from W1.7 trillion to W700 billion.

But Kwon said while the semiconductor industry is in its most serious slump ever, “the crisis offers new opportunities. We won’t be shaken by short-term factors and will stick to our original plan again next year with a long-term outlook.”

Kwon also revealed that takeover negotiations for U.S.-based memory chip maker SanDisk are still in progress. “We are still negotiating the price, and we have finished the legal review to see if we would violate antitrust laws if we acquire SanDisk,” he said. Samsung Electronics last Wednesday officially offered to buy SanDisk for $26 per share, or $5.85 billion in total, but the SanDisk board rejected the offer.

Human Genome Project

The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with a primary goal to determine the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA and to identify the approximately 25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional standpoint.

The project began in 1990 initially headed by James D. Watson at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. A working draft of the genome was released in 2000 and a complete one in 2003, with further analysis still being published. A parallel project was conducted by the private company Celera Genomics. Most of the sequencing was performed in universities and research centers from the United States, Canada and Britain. The mapping of human genes is an important step in the development of medicines and other aspects of health care.

While the objective of the Human Genome Project is to understand the genetic makeup of the human species, the project also has focused on several other nonhuman organisms such as E. coli, the fruit fly, and the laboratory mouse. It remains one of the largest single investigational projects in modern science.

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.

Thermodynamics

As all catalysts, enzymes do not alter the position of the chemical equilibrium of the reaction. Usually, in the presence of an enzyme, the reaction runs in the same direction as it would without the enzyme, just more quickly. However, in the absence of the enzyme, other possible uncatalyzed, "spontaneous" reactions might lead to different products, because in those conditions this different product is formed faster.

Furthermore, enzymes can couple two or more reactions, so that a thermodynamically favorable reaction can be used to "drive" a thermodynamically unfavorable one. For example, the hydrolysis of ATP is often used to drive other chemical reactions.Enzymes catalyze the forward and backward reactions equally. They do not alter the equilibrium itself, but only the speed at which it is reached. For example, carbonic anhydrase catalyzes its reaction in either direction depending on the concentration of its reactants.

Nevertheless, if the equilibrium is greatly displaced in one direction, that is, in a very exergonic reaction, the reaction is effectively irreversible. Under these conditions the enzyme will, in fact, only catalyze the reaction in the thermodynamically allowed direction.

Geography Markup Language

The Geography Markup Language (GML) is the XML grammar defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) to express geographical features. GML serves as a modeling language for geographic systems as well as an open interchange format for geographic transactions on the Internet. Note that the concept of feature in GML is a very general one and includes not only conventional "vector" or discrete objects, but also coverages (see also GMLJP2) and sensor data. The ability to integrate all forms of geographic information is key to the utility of GML.

Data stream

Data stream is about the more general meaning of the term "data stream". For the UK-specific DSL technology called "Datastream", also see the IP Stream article.

In telecommunications and computing, a data stream is a sequence of digitally encoded coherent signals (packets of data or datapackets) used to transmit or receive information that is in transmission.

In electronics and computer architecture, a data stream determines for which time which data item is scheduled to enter or leave which port of a systolic array, a Reconfigurable Data Path Array or similar pipe network, or other processing unit or block. Often the data stream is seen as the counterpart of an instruction stream, since the von Neumann machine is instruction-stream-driven, whereas its counterpart, the Anti machine is data-stream-driven.

Double-checked locking

In software engineering, double-checked locking is a software design pattern also known as "double-checked locking optimization". The pattern is designed to reduce the overhead of acquiring a lock by first testing the locking criterion (the 'lock hint') in an unsafe manner; only if that succeeds does the actual lock proceed.

The pattern, when implemented in some language/hardware combinations, can be unsafe. It can therefore sometimes be considered to be an anti-pattern.

It is typically used to reduce locking overhead when implementing "lazy initialization" in a multi-threaded environment, especially as part of the Singleton pattern. Lazy initialization avoids initializing a value until the first time it is accessed.

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.

Data hierarchy

Data Hierarchy refers to the systematic organization of data, often in a hierarchical form. Data organization involves fields, records, files and so on.

A data field holds a single fact. Consider a date field, e.g. "September 19, 2004". This can be treated as a single date field (eg birthdate), or 3 fields, namely, month, day of month and year.

A record is a collection of related fields. An Employee record may contain a name field(s), address fields, birthdate field and so on.

A file is a collection of related records. If there are 100 employees, then each employee would have a record (e.g. called Employee Personal Details record) and the collection of 100 such records would constitute a file (in this case, called Employee Personal Details file).

Files are integrated into a database. This is done using a Database Management System. If there are other facets of employee data that we wish to capture, then other files such as Employee Training History file and Employee Work History file could be created as well.

Relational model

The relational model for database management is a database model based on first-order predicate logic, first formulated and proposed in 1969 by Edgar Codd.

Its core idea is to describe a database as a collection of predicates over a finite set of predicate variables, describing constraints on the possible values and combinations of values. The content of the database at any given time is a finite model (logic) of the database, i.e. a set of relations, one per predicate variable, such that all predicates are satisfied. A request for information from the database (a database query) is also a predicate.

The purpose of the relational model is to provide a declarative method for specifying data and queries: we directly state what information the database contains and what information we want from it, and let the database management system software take care of describing data structures for storing the data and retrieval procedures for getting queries answered.

Information ecology

In the context of an evolving information society, the term information ecology was coined by various persons in the 1980s and 1990s. It marks a connection between ecological ideas with the dynamics and properties of the increasingly dense, complex and important digital informational environment and has been gaining progressively wider acceptance in a growing number of disciplines. "Information ecology" often is used as metaphor, viewing the informational space as an ecosystem.

Malware

Malware is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent. The term is a portmanteau of the words malicious and software. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code.

Many normal computer users are however still unfamiliar with the term, and most never use it. Instead, "computer virus" is incorrectly used in common parlance and even in the media to describe all kinds of malware, though not all malware are viruses.

Software is considered malware based on the perceived intent of the creator rather than any particular features. Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, most rootkits, spyware, dishonest adware, and other malicious and unwanted software. In law, malware is sometimes known as a computer contaminant, for instance in the legal codes of California, West Virginia, and several other American states.

Virus removal

One possibility on Windows Me, Windows XP and Windows Vista is a tool known as System Restore, which restores the registry and critical system files to a previous checkpoint. Often a virus will cause a system to hang, and a subsequent hard reboot will render a system restore point from the same day corrupt. Restore points from previous days should work provided the virus is not designed to corrupt the restore files. Some viruses, however, disable system restore and other important tools such as Task Manager and Command Prompt. An example of a virus that does this is CiaDoor.

Administrators have the option to disable such tools from limited users for various reasons. The virus modifies the registry to do the same, except, when the Administrator is controlling the computer, it blocks all users from accessing the tools. When an infected tool activates it gives the message "Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator.", even if the user trying to open the program is the administrator.

Users running a Microsoft operating system can go to Microsoft's website to run a free scan, if they have their 20-digit registration number.

E-mail client

An e-mail client, aka Mail User Agent (MUA), aka email reader is a frontend computer program used to manage email.

Sometimes, the term e-mail client is also used to refer to any agent acting as a client toward an e-mail server, independently of it being a real MUA, a relaying server, or a human typing directly on a telnet terminal. In addition, a web application providing the relevant functionality is sometimes considered an email client.

Robot software

Robot software is the coded commands that tell a mechanical device (known as a robot) what tasks to perform and control its actions. Robot software is used to perform tasks and automate tasks to be performed. Programming robots is a non-trivial task. Many software systems and frameworks have been proposed to make programming robots easier.

Some robot software aims at developing intelligent mechanical devices. Though common in science fiction stories, such programs are yet to become common-place in reality and much development is yet required in the field of artificial intelligence before they even begin to approach the science fiction possibilities. Pre-programmed hardware may include feedback loops such that it can interact with its environment, but does not display actual intelligence.

Currently, malicious programming of robots is of some concern, particularly in large industrial robots. The power and size of industrial robots mean they are capable of inflicting severe injury if programmed incorrectly or used in an unsafe manner. One such incident occurred on 21 July 1984 when a man was crushed to death by an industrial robot. That incident was an accident, but shows the potential risks of working with robots. In science fiction, the Three Laws of Robotics were developed for robots to obey and avoid malicious actions.

Behavior-based robotics

Behavior-based robotics or behavioral robotics or behavioural robotics is the branch of robotics that incorporates modular or behavior based AI (BBAI).

The school of behavior-based robots owes much to work undertaken in the 1980s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Professor Rodney Brooks, who with students and colleagues built a series of wheeled and legged robots utilising the subsumption architecture. Brooks' papers, often written with lighthearted titles such as "Planning is just a way of avoiding figuring out what to do next", the anthropomorphic qualities of his robots, and the relatively low cost of developing such robots, popularised the behavior-based approach.

Brooks' work builds - whether by accident or not - on two prior milestones in the behavior-based approach. In the 1950s, W. Grey Walter, an English scientist with a background in neurological research, built a pair of vacuum tube-based robots that were exhibited at the 1951 Festival of Britain, and which have simple but effective behavior-based control systems.

The second milestone is Valentino Braitenberg's 1984 book, "Vehicles - Experiments in Synthetic Psychology" (MIT Press). He describes a series of thought experiments demonstrating how simply wired sensor/motor connections can result in some complex-appearing behaviors such as fear and love.

Ergonomics

Ergonomics, also called "Engineering psychology" or "human factors", is the application of scientific information concerning objects, systems and environment for human use (definition adopted by the International Ergonomics Association in 2007). Ergonomics is commonly thought of as how companies design tasks and work areas to maximize the efficiency and quality of their employees’ work. However, ergonomics comes into everything which involves people. Work systems, sports and leisure, health and safety should all embody ergonomics principles if well designed.

It is the applied science of equipment design intended to maximize productivity by reducing operator fatigue and discomfort. The field is also called biotechnology, human engineering, and human factors engineering. Ergonomic research is primarily performed by ergonomists who study human capabilities in relationship to their work demands. Information derived from ergonomists contributes to the design and evaluation of tasks, jobs, products, environments and systems in order to make them compatible with the needs, abilities and limitations of people.

Robot kit

A robot kit is a special construction kit for building robots, especially autonomous mobile robots.

Toy robot kits are also supplied by several companies. They are mostly made of plastics elements like Lego Mindstorms and the Robotis Bioloid, or aluminium elements like Lynxmotion's Servo Erector Set and the qfix kit.

The kits can consist of: structural elements, mechanical elements, motors (or other actuators), sensors and a controller board to control the inputs and outputs of the robot. In some cases, the kits can be available without electronics as well, to provide the user the opportunity to use his or her own.

Software Process Innovation

Software process innovation can take the form of the development of new techniques, tools or methods for software development, as for example with extreme programming (XP) or SCRUM. It can concentrate on one phase of a more traditional development process, such as requirements elicitation - introducing more creative or imaginative techniques or tools. Software process innovations can be user-led , where expert users collaborate in the writing of software which meets their own needs (for example the Linux community). Process innovation can also focus on market analysis:where the demand for new software products lies. Common to many software process innovations is a focus on productive work, and the avoidance of thrashing – unfocused work which is neither productive nor generating new ideas. A more modern pre-occupation is with ‘flow’ , (Csíkszentmihályi’s description of a mental state characterized by high energy and focus) in a software team

The relationship between software process innovation and innovative software products is a complex one. At the moment there is no particular evidence that innovative software processes necessarily result in innovative software products. Some forms of innovative software products may be best developed using traditional methods .

National Transportation Research Center (NRTC)

The National Transportation Research Center (NRTC) is an institution, located in Knoxville, Tennessee, that conducts research and development aimed at increasing the efficiency and safety of transportation systems and reducing their energy utilization and effects on the environment.

It is operated as a partnership between the United States Department of Energy, the University of Tennessee, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and is located approximately half-way between the university campus and the ORNL site in Oak Ridge.

Islamic Golden Age

The Islamic Golden Age, also sometimes known as the Islamic Renaissance, is traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century, though some have extended it to the 15th or 16th centuries. During this period, engineers, scholars and traders in the Islamic world contributed to the arts, agriculture, economics, industry, law, literature, navigation, philosophy, sciences, and technology, both by preserving and building upon earlier traditions and by adding inventions and innovations of their own. Howard R. Turner writes: "Muslim artists and scientists, princes and laborers together created a unique culture that has directly and indirectly influenced societies on every continent."

Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange has been one of the most significant events in the history of world ecology, agriculture, and culture. The term is used to describe the enormous widespread exchange of plants, animals, foods, human populations (including slaves), communicable diseases, and ideas between the Eastern and Western hemispheres that occurred after 1492. Many new and different goods were exchanged between the two hemispheres of the Earth, and it began a new revolution in the Americas and in Europe. In 1492, Christopher Columbus' first voyage launched an era of large-scale contact between the Old and the New World that resulted in this ecological revolution: hence the name "Columbian" Exchange.

Entity-relationship model

An Entity-relationship model is an abstract conceptual representation of structured data. Entity-relationship modeling is a relational schema database modeling method, used in software engineering to produce a type of conceptual data model (or semantic data model) of a system, often a relational database, and its requirements in a top-down fashion. Diagrams created using this process are called entity-relationship diagrams, or ER diagrams for short. Originally proposed in 1976 by Dr. Pin-Shan (Peter) Chen many variants of the process have subsequently been devised.

HSQLDB

HSQLDB is a relational database management system written in Java. It is based on Thomas Mueller's discontinued Hypersonic SQL Project.[1] He later developed H2 as a complete rewrite.

HSQLDB is available under a BSD license.

It has a JDBC driver and supports a rich subset of SQL-92, SQL-99, and SQL:2003 standards. It offers a fast, small (less than 100k in one version, around 600k in the standard version) database engine which offers both in-memory and disk-based tables. Embedded and server modes are available.

Relational model

The relational model for database management is a database model based on predicate logic and set theory. It was first formulated and proposed in 1969 by Edgar Codd with aims that included avoiding, without loss of completeness, the need to write computer programs to express database queries and enforce database integrity constraints. "Relation" is a mathematical term for "table", and thus "relational" roughly means "based on tables". It did not originally refer to the links or "keys" between tables, contrary to popular interpretation of the name.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

In computing, the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a network protocol used to transfer data from one computer to another through a network, such as over the Internet.

FTP is a commonly used protocol for exchanging files over any TCP/IP based network to manipulate files on another computer on that network regardless of which operating systems are involved (if the computers permit FTP access). There are many existing FTP client and server programs. FTP servers can be set up anywhere between game servers, voice servers, internet hosts, and other physical servers.

Systems design

If the broader topic of product development "blends the perspective of marketing, design, and manufacturing into a single approach to product development, then design is the act of taking the marketing information and creating the design of the product to be manufactured. Systems design is therefore the process of defining and developing a systems to satisfy specified requirements of the market or customer. Until the 1990s systems design had a crucial and respected role in the data processing industry. In the 1990s standardization of hardware and software resulted in the ability to build modular systems. The increasing importance of software running on generic platforms has enhanced the discipline of software engineering.

Object-oriented analysis and design methods are becoming the most widely used methods for computer system design. The UML has become the standard language used in Object-oriented analysis and design. It is widely used for modeling software systems and is increasingly used for designing non-software systems and organizations.

HDTV blur

HDTV blur is a common term used to describe a number of different artifacts on consumer modern high definition television sets:
The following factors are generally the primary or secondary causes of HDTV blur; in some cases more than one of these factors may be in play at the studio or receiver end of the transmission chain.
• Pixel response time on LCD displays (blur in the color response of the active pixel)
• Slower camera Shutter speeds common in hollywood production films (blur in the HDV content of the film)
• Blur from eye tracking fast moving objects on sample-and-hold LCD, Plasma, or Microdisplay.
• Resolution resampling (blur due to resizing image to fit the native resolution of the HDTV)
• Blur due to 3:2 pulldown and/or motion-speed irregularities in framerate conversions from film to video
• Computer generated motion blur introduced by video games

Pharmacognosy

Pharmacognosy is the study of medicines derived from natural sources. The American Society of Pharmacognosy defines pharmacognosy as "the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical and biological properties of drugs, drug substances or potential drugs or drug substances of natural origin as well as the search for new drugs from natural sources."

Organic light-emitting diode

An organic light-emitting diode (OLED), also Light Emitting Polymer (LEP) and Organic Electro-Luminescence (OEL), is any light-emitting diode (LED) whose emissive electroluminescent layer is composed of a film of organic compounds. The layer usually contains a polymer substance that allows suitable organic compounds to be deposited. They are deposited in rows and columns onto a flat carrier by a simple "printing" process. The resulting matrix of pixels can emit light of different colors.

Neptune

Neptune (pronounced /'n?ptju? n/[8]) is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. It is the fourth largest planet by diameter, and the third major by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is somewhat more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 Earth masses and less dense. The planet is named following the Roman god of the sea. Its astronomical symbol is a stylized story of Poseidon's trident.

Discovered on September 23, 1846, Neptune was the first planet found by mathematical prediction quite than regular observation. Unexpected changes in the orbit of Uranus led astronomers to realize the gravitational perturbation of an unknown planet. Neptune was found within a degree of the predict position. The moon Triton was found shortly thereafter, but none of the planet's other 12 moons were discovered preceding to the twentieth century. Neptune has been visit by only one spacecraft, Voyager 2, which flew by the planet on August 25, 1989.

Mosasaurs

Mosasaurs (from Latin Mosa meaning the 'Meuse river' in the Netherlands, and Greek sauros meaning 'lizard') were serpentine marine reptiles. The first fossil remains were discovered in a limestone quarry at Maastricht on the Meuse about 1780. These ferocious marine predators are now considered to be the closest relatives of snakes, due to cladistic analysis of symptomatic similarities in jaw and skull anatomies.Mosasaurs were not dinosaurs but lepidosaurs, reptiles with overlapping scales.

These predators evolved from semi-aquatic squamates known as the aigialosaurs, close relatives of modern-day monitor lizards, in the Early Cretaceous Period. During the last 20 million years of the Cretaceous Period (Turonian-Maastrichtian), with the extinction of the ichthyosaurs and pliosaurs, mosasaurs became the dominant marine predators.

Synthetic biology

The term synthetic biology has long been used to describe an approach to biology that attempts to integrate (or "synthesize") different areas of research in order to create a more holistic understanding of life. More recently the term has been used in a different way, signaling a new area of research that combines science and engineering in order to design and build ("synthesize") novel biological functions and systems. The present article discusses the term in this latter meaning.

Cybernetics

Cybernetics is the study of feedback and derived concepts such as communication and control in living organisms, machines and organisations. Its focus is how anything (digital, mechanical or biological) processes information, reacts to information, and changes or can be changed to better accomplish the first two tasks.

The terms "systems theory" and "cybernetics" have been widely used as synonyms. Some authors use the term cybernetic systems to denote a proper subset of the class of general systems, namely those systems that include feedback loops. However Gordon Pask's differences of eternal interacting actor loops (that produce finite products) makes general systems a proper subset of cybernetics. According to Jackson (2000), Bertalanffy promoted an embryonic form of general system theory (GST) as early as the 1920s and 1930s but it was not until the early 1950s it became more widely known in scientific circles.

Trotskyism

Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself a Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party. He considered himself an advocate of orthodox Marxism. His politics differed sharply from those of Stalin or Mao, most importantly in declaring the need for an international "permanent revolution". Numerous groups around the world continue to describe themselves as Trotskyist and see themselves as standing in this tradition, although they have diverse interpretations of the conclusions to be drawn from this.

Trotsky advocated proletarian revolution as set out in his theory of "permanent revolution", and he argued that in countries where the bourgeois-democratic revolution had not triumphed already (in other words, in places that had not yet implemented a capitalist democracy, such as Russia before 1917), it was necessary that the proletariat make it permanent by carrying out the tasks of the social revolution (the "socialist" or "communist" revolution) at the same time, in an uninterrupted process.

Neuropsychology

Neuropsychology is an interdisciplinary branch of psychology and neuroscience that aims to understand how the structure and function of the brain relate to specific psychological processes and overt behaviors. The term neuropsychology has been applied to both lesion studies of humans and animals and efforts to record electrical activity from individual cells (or groups of cells) in higher primates.

It is scientific in its approach and shares an information processing view of the mind with cognitive psychology and cognitive science.

Clinical psychology

Clinical psychology includes the study and application of psychology for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development. Central to its practice are psychological assessment and psychotherapy, although clinical psychologists may also engage in research, teaching, consultation, forensic testimony, and program development and administration. Some clinical psychologists may focus on the clinical management of patients with brain injury—this area is known as clinical neuropsychology. In many countries clinical psychology is a regulated mental health profession.

Anti-realism

In philosophy, the term anti-realism is used to describe any position involving either the denial of an objective reality of entities of a certain type or the denial that verification-transcendent statements about a type of entity are either true or false. This latter construal is sometimes expressed by saying "there is no fact of the matter as to whether or not P." Thus, we may speak of anti-realism with respect to other minds, the past, the future, universals, mathematical entities (such as natural numbers), moral categories, the material world, or even thought. The two construals are clearly distinct and often confused.

KHR-1

The KHR-1 is a programmable, bipedal humanoid robot introduced in June 2004 by a Japanese company Kondo Kagaku. At the time of its introduction it was one of the least expensive programmable bipedal robots (prices averaging around $1,600 in the United States and ¥128,000 in Japan). The robot is 34cm high and has 17 degrees of freedom (each joint is powered by individual servomotor). It is capable of a wide range of motions, including quick kung-fu-style fighting moves.

The KHR-1 can be controlled via RF remote control and modified receiver; however, these units do not come with the robot and must be purchased separately. Other accessories/modifications include additional degrees of freedom (waist and leg motion), a high performance motion processor microcontroller capable of real-time master/slave operation, gyros and multi-axis accelerometers, larger foot/sole plates.

Wireless networks

A wireless network is basically the same as a LAN or a WAN but there are no wires between hosts and servers. The data is transferred over sets of radio transceivers. These types of networks are beneficial when it is too costly or inconvenient to run the necessary cables. For more information, see Wireless LAN and Wireless wide area network. The media access protocols for LANs come from the IEEE.

The most common IEEE 802.11 WLANs cover, depending on antennas, ranges from hundreds of meters to low kilometers. For larger areas, either communications satellites of various types, cellular radio, or wireless local loop (IEEE 802.16) all have advantages and disadvantages. Depending on the type of mobility needed, the relevant standards may come from the IETF or the ITU.

List of nanotechnology applications

Although there has been much hype about the potential applications of nanotechnology, most current commercialized applications are limited to the use of "first generation" passive nanomaterials. These include titanium dioxide nanoparticles in sunscreen, cosmetics and some food products; silver nanoparticles in food packaging, clothing, disinfectants and household appliances; zinc oxide nanoparticles in sunscreens and cosmetics, surface coatings, paints and outdoor furniture varnishes; and cerium oxide nanoparticles as a fuel catalyst. The Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars' Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies hosts an inventory of consumer products which now contain nanomaterials.

However further applications which require actual manipulation or arrangement of nanoscale components await further research. Though technologies currently branded with the term 'nano' are sometimes little related to and fall far short of the most ambitious and transformative technological goals of the sort in molecular manufacturing proposals, the term still connotes such ideas. Thus there may be a danger that a "nano bubble" will form, or is forming already, from the use of the term by scientists and entrepreneurs to garner funding, regardless of interest in the transformative possibilities of more ambitious and far-sighted work.

wireless LAN

A wireless LAN or WLAN is a wireless local area network, which is the linking of two or more computers without using wires. WLAN utilizes spread-spectrum or OFDM modulation technology based on radio waves to enable communication between devices in a limited area, also known as the basic service set. This gives users the mobility to move around within a broad coverage area and still be connected to the network.

For the home user, wireless has become popular due to ease of installation, and location freedom with the gaining popularity of laptops. Public businesses such as coffee shops or malls have begun to offer wireless access to their customers; some are even provided as a free service. Large wireless network projects are being put up in many major cities. Google is even providing a free service to Mountain View, California and has entered a bid to do the same for San Francisco. New York City has also begun a pilot program to cover all five boroughs of the city with wireless Internet access.

What is Dynamic compilation in Java?

Dynamic compilation is a method used by some programming language implementations to increase performance during program execution. The best-known language that makes use of this technique is Java. The dynamic compiling is originated in self. It permits optimizations to be made that can only be well-known at runtime. The Runtime environments by dynamic compilation characteristically have programs run slowly for the first few minutes, and then after that, nearly all of the compilation and recompilation is done and it runs fast. Because of this initial performance lag, dynamic compilation is undesirable in some cases. In most implementations of the dynamic compilation, few optimizations that could be done at the initial compile time are delayed until further compilation at runtime, causing additional unnecessary slowdowns. Just-in-time compilation is a type of dynamic compilation in java.

Destructor in C++

A destructor is a class associate function that has the same name as the constructor (and the class) but with a ~ (tilde) in front. It is declared as like this in a program
~Circle() ;
When an object goes out of extent or more rarely is explicitly destroyed, its destructor is called. For example if the object has dynamic variables, like pointers then that require to be freed and the destructor is the proper place. Unlike constructors, the destructors can and should be made virtual if you have derived classes.

The use of the destructor is to release or relinquish all resources for example memory, close any open files etc when an object of this class is destroyed. Normally such resources will have been acquired by the class constructor.

Supercar-Development of the regulations

The V8 Supercar is the most important motor racing series in Australia. A V8 Supercar is a five-liter V8 powered sedan, and the races are held in all states of Australia and New Zealand and also China.

To the disappointment of a greater part of fans who had watched a long history of Ford-Holden battles in Australian touring the car categories since 1960s, international touring car regulations seemed destined to stop the Australian-built Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon in the early 90s. But, this was avoided with V8 only regulations being drafted, in partnership the Ford and Holden, to showcase their big Australian made cars.

What do you mean by Training Effect?

The Training Effect is a physical phenomenon identified to athletes. When a person exercises at an assured level for certain duration more than a certain number of weeks, their body will lift up its metabolism to an upper level - it will maintain at this level as long as a certain amount of exercise is performed all couple of days. This outcome was discovered by Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper of United States Air Force in the late 1960s. Dr. Cooper coined the term "Training Effect".

The considered effects were that muscles of respiration were strengthened, the heart was strengthened, the blood pressure was sometimes lowered and the whole amount of blood and number of red blood cells rises, making the blood a more competent carrier of oxygen. The VO2 Max was raises.

The exercise essential can be accomplished by any aerobic exercise in an extensive variety of schedules - Dr. Cooper found it is the finest to award "points" for all amount of exercise and necessitate 30 points a week to keep the Training Effect.

Freeway and its Design features

A freeway (is also superhighway, expressway or motorway as further explained below) is a multi-lane public road or highway planned for high-speed travel by great numbers of vehicles, and having no traffic lights, stop signs, or other regulations requiring vehicles to stop for cross-traffic.

Freeways have high speed limits and multiple lanes for travel in every direction. The number of lanes may differ from four or six in rural areas to as high as sixteen or eighteen in definite global cities. Freeway entrances and exits are restricted in number, and are intended with special onramps and off ramps, so as to make sure that vehicles do not disrupt the most important flow of traffic as they enter or leave the freeway. In few countries, the exits are numbered. Exit numbering may perhaps be by mile or kilometer, or in a simple sequential fashion. Where freeways cross, engineers give interchanges with elaborate ramp systems that permit for smooth, uninterrupted transitions connecting all through routes (as funds permit).

For the reason that the high speeds lessen decision time, freeways generally have more traffic signs than the equivalent signs on most highways and roads; the signs are time and again also larger. In most important cities, mainly on freeways six lanes in width or wider, guide signs are mounted on overpasses or overhead gantries so that drivers can see where each lane goes. Another ordinary problem with freeways is that it is almost impossible to keep away from wrong-way drivers, and the subsequent head-on collisions are often fatal. For that reason, special signage and lane markings are used to discourage drivers from going the wrong way. Freeways do not generally have traffic lights, but expressways may, in places where this distinction is made.

A general view on Glasses

The Glasses, spectacles, or eyeglasses are frames manner lenses worn in front of the human eyes, sometimes for just aesthetic reasons but in general for vision correction or eye protection. The Special glasses are used for viewing the three-dimensional images or experiencing virtual reality.

The Modern glasses are typically supported by pads on the bridge of the nose and by temples placed over the ears. The Historical types consist of the pince nez, monocle, and lorgnette. The Glasses are more often called eyeglasses in North American English, rarely spectacles in British English, and (rarely) frames or lenses. The Spectacles are often shortened to specs. In hipster jargon they are cheaters.

The Glasses were initially made from glass, but many are now made from plastic (often polycarbonate) because of the danger of breakage and the greater weight of glass lenses. Some plastics also have more beneficial optical properties than glass, like better transmission of visible light and better absorption of ultraviolet light. Some plastics have a greater index of refraction than the majority types of glass, allowing thinner lenses for a given prescription. Scratch-resistant coatings can be applied to most plastic lenses charitable them similar scratch resistance to glass. Hydrophobic coatings intended to ease cleaning are also obtainable, as are anti-reflective coatings designed to improve night vision and make the wearer's eyes more visible.

The Corrective spectacles have lenses created to correct vision abnormalities, like myopia. The Safety glasses are a type of eye protection against flying debris or noticeable and near visible light or radiation. The Sunglasses care for against high levels of visible and ultraviolet light.

The real facts about Jupiter

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and by distant the largest. Jupiter is above twice as huge as all the additional planets combined. Jupiter is about 90% hydrogen and 10% helium (by numbers of atoms, 75/25% by mass) with traces of methane, water, ammonia and "rock". This is very near to the composition of the primordial Solar Nebula from which the full solar system was formed. Saturn has a related composition, but Uranus and Neptune have much fewer hydrogen and helium.

Jupiter is the fourth shinning object in the sky (after the Sun, the Moon and Venus). It has been recognized since prehistoric times as a bright "wandering star". However in 1610 when Galileo first pointed a telescope at the sky he revealed Jupiter’s four large moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto (currently known as the Galilean moons) and recorded their motions back and forth just about Jupiter. This was the first finding of a center of motion not it seems that centered on the Earth. It was a most important point in favor of Copernicus's heliocentric theory of the motions of the planets (along with other new facts from his telescope: the phases of Venus and the mountains on the Moon). Galileo's outspoken support of the Copernican theory got him in mess with the Inquisition. Today anyone can replicate Galileo's observations (without fear of retribution :-) using binoculars or a cheap telescope.

Jupiter and the added gas planets have high velocity winds which are confined in broad bands of latitude. The winds blow in reverse directions in adjacent bands. Slight chemical and temperature differences between these bands are in charge for the colored bands that govern the planet's appearance. The brightness colored bands are called zones; the dark ones belts. The bands have been identified for some time on Jupiter, but the complex vortices in the boundary regions between the bands were first seen by Voyager. The data from the Galileo probe specify that the winds are even faster than expected (more than 400 mph) and make bigger down into as far as the probe was able to view; they may extend down thousands of kilometers into the center. Jupiter's atmosphere was also found to be pretty turbulent. This indicates that Jupiter's winds are determined in large part by its internal heat fairly than from solar input as on Earth.

Are Human Rights Asian

As Kevin Tan, senior professor at the National University of Singapore remarks understatedly, the debate on Asian values and human rights has become something of a cottage industry since its setting up at the UN world Conference on Human Rights in 1994. Both regional papers from the Middle East and Asia challenge the universality of human rights, e Bangkok announcement has since become a manifesto, a kind of declaration of independence from what has been considered the forward moralism of the West.

A brief summary of the positions spoken at the UN conference and afterwards indicate the divide. Asian government represented by statesmen Mahathir and Lee Kwan Yew claim that human rights may have a universal dimension but this is restricted by its Western genesis. The Bangkok declaration itself best speaks here while human rights are common in nature, they must be considered in the context of a dynamic and evolving process of global norm-setting, bearing in mind the significance of national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds.

Adam Smith

He was born in 1723 in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland, fatherless. The accurate date of his birth is unidentified. He was baptized June 5, 1723. At the age of fifteen, he begins his school at Glasgow and Oxford. In 1751, after he finished school, he was obtained a job at Glasgow University where he became the new Professor of judgment. There he lectured on beliefs, expression, jurisprudence and the political economy.

Just eight years after his training career began; he published his work. The Theory of ethical Sentiments. This show that he could write and he recognized himself in the world. In 1776, a query into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations was published. Immediately the book was a success. It had a remarkable effect on how people attention. Although it took him ten years to write, he became a very rich man from it.

Blazer

A blazer or boating jacket is a type of jacket, generally double-breasted even though single-breasted blazers have become more general in current times. A blazer looks like a suit jacket except for that it generally has patch pockets with no flaps, and metal shank buttons. A blazer's cloth is usually of a resilient nature as it is used in schools and was used for sport. They frequently form part of the uniform dress of bodies, such as airlines, schools, yacht or rowing clubs, and private security organizations. As sporting dress has become more modified to the activity, the blazer has become limited to clubs' social meetings. Generally, blazers are navy blue, but nearly every color and mixture of colors has been used, particularly by schools and sporting organizations.

Internet marketing

Internet marketing is the use of the Internet to advertise and sell goods and services. Internet Marketing includes pay per click advertising, banner ads, e-mail marketing, affiliate marketing, blog marketing, article marketing, etc. Some of the benefits associated with Internet marketing include the availability of information. Consumers can log onto the Internet and learn about products, as well as purchase them, at any hour.

Water abstraction

Water abstraction, or water extraction, is the process of taking water from any source, either temporarily or everlastingly. Most water is used for irrigation or treatment to produce drinking water. Depending on the environmental legislation in the relevant country, controls may be located on abstraction to limit the amount of water that can be removed. Over abstraction can lead to rivers drying up or the level of groundwater aquifers reducing unacceptably. The science of hydrogeology is used to assess safe abstraction levels.

Jerkin


A jerkin is a man's short close-fitting jacket, prepared typically of light-colored leather, and without sleeves, worn over the doublet in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Leather jerkins of the sixteenth century were repeatedly slashed and punched, both for adornment and to improve the fit.
Jerkins were worn bunged at the neck and hanging open over the peascod-bellied fashion of doublet (as worn by Martin Frobisher). During the Normandy disgusting, American troops had little reasons to feel under provisioned compared to the Brits and Canadians, but the lack of leather jerkins was one major deficit.
During the post war period, a much less idiosyncratic PVC version was introduced to the armed forces. WD excess leather jerkins swamped the UK during the 1950s and 1960s and were a common sight on manual workmen across the country.

Chess strategy


Chess strategy is concerned with the evaluation of chess positions and with setting up goals and long-term tactics for upcoming play. During the evaluation, a player must take into account the value of pieces on the board, pawn structure, king safety, positioning, and control of key squares and groups of squares.

The most basic is to count the total value of pieces on both sides. The point values used for this purpose are based on familiarity. Usually pawns are considered worth one point, knights and bishops three points each, rooks five points, and queens nine points. The fighting value of the king in the endgame is equivalent to four points. These basic values are modified by other factors such as position of the piece, coordination between pieces or type of position.

Pocket timepieces


The earliest need for portability in timekeeping was navigation and mapping in the 15th century. The autonomy could be measured by looking at the stars, but the only way a ship could measure its longitude was by comparing the midday time of the local longitude to that of a European meridian—a time kept on a shipboard clock. However, the process was dishonestly unreliable until the introduction of John Harrison's marine chronometer. For that reason, most maps from the 15th century through the 19th century have precise latitudes but indistinct longitudes.

Abstract art

Abstract art is now usually understood to mean art that does not depict objects in the natural world, but instead uses color and form in a non-representational way. In the very early 20th century, the term was more often used to describe art, such as Cubist and Futurist art, which depicts real forms in a simplified or rather reduced way—keeping only an allusion of the original natural subject. Such paintings were often claimed to capture amazing of the depicted objects' immutable intrinsic qualities rather than its external appearance. The more precise terms, "non-figurative art," "non-objective art," and "non-representational art" avoid any possible ambiguity.

Vegetable

Vegetable is a culinary term which usually refers to an edible part of a plant. The definition is traditional rather than scientific and is somewhat capricious and subjective. All parts of herbaceous plants eaten as food by humans, entire or in part, are normally considered vegetables. Mushrooms, though belonging to the biological realm fungi, are also commonly considered vegetables. In general, vegetables are thought of as being savory, and not sweet, even though there are many exceptions. Nuts, grains, herbs, spices and culinary fruits (see below) are usually not considered vegetables.

Management information system

Management Information Systems (MIS) is a general name for the educational discipline casing the application of people, technologies, and procedures —together called information systems — to solve business problems. MIS are distinctive from normal information systems in that they are used to evaluate other information systems applied in operational activities in the organization. Rationally, the term is commonly used to refer to the group of information management methods attached to the automation or support of human decision making, e.g. Decision Support Systems, Expert systems, and Executive information system.

Pollarding


Pollarding is a woodland management method of hopeful lateral branches by cutting off a tree stem or minor branches two metres or so above ground level. The tree is given a year to regrow, after the first cutting, but once begun, pollarding requires annual maintenance by pruning. This will ultimately result in somewhat expanded (or swollen) nodes topping the tree trunk with multiple new side and top shoots growing from it.A tree that has been pollarded is known as a pollard. A tree which has not been pollarded is called a maiden or maiden tree; which also refers to the fact that pollarding is usually first undertaken when the tree is quite young. Pollarding older trees typically result in the death of the tree. Pollarding is sometimes abused in attempts to curb the growth of older or taller trees. However, when performed properly it is useful in the practice of arboriculture for tree management.

Business

In economic business is the social science of managing people to systematize and maintain collective productivity toward accomplishing particular imaginative and productive goals, usually to make profit.The etymology of "business" refers to the state of being busy, in the circumstance of the individual as well as the community or society. In other words, to be busy is to be doing commercially viable and profitable work.

The term "business" has at least three usages, depending on the scope — the general usage (above), the particular usage to refer to a particular company or corporation, and the comprehensive usage to refer to a particular market sector, such as "the record business," "the computer business," or "the business community" -- the community of suppliers of goods and services.

The singular "business" can be a legally-recognized entity within an economically free society, wherein individuals systematize based on expertise and skill bring about social and technological expansion.

However, the exact definition of business is disputable as is business philosophy; for example, most Marxist use "means of production" as a rough synonym for "business." Socialist advocate either government, public, or worker ownership of most sizable businesses.

Whale

The term whale is ambiguous: it can refer to all cetaceans, to just the larger ones, or only to members of particular families within the order Cetacea. The last definition is the one followed here. Whales are those cetaceans which are neither dolphins nor porpoises. This can lead to some confusion because Orcas ("Killer Whales") and Pilot whales have "whale" in their name, but they are dolphins for the purpose of classification.

Exploration

Exploration is the act of searching or traveling for the purpose of discovery, e.g. of unknown regions, including space, for oil, gas, coal, ores, caves, water (Mineral exploration or prospecting), or information.The term can also be used to describe the first incursions of peoples from one culture into the geographical and cultural environment of others. Although exploration has existed as long as human beings, its peak is seen as being during the Age of Discovery when European navigators travelled around the world discovering new worlds and cultures. In scientific research, exploration is one of three purposes of research.Exploration is the attempt to develop an initial, rough understanding of some phenomenon.

USB Drives


USB drives mean Universal Serial Bus. USB flash drives also known as USB drives, key drives, pen drives or thumb drives. USB drives are NAND-type flash memory data storage devices incorporated with a USB interface. They are typically small, lightweight, detachable and rewritable. As of April 2007, memory capacities for USB Flash Drives currently are sold from 32 megabytes up to 64 gigabytes .Capacity is limited only by current flash memory densities, although cost per megabyte may increase quickly at higher capacities due to the expensive components.

USB flash drives offer possible advantages over other portable storage devices, particularly the floppy disk. They are more compact, generally faster, hold more data, and are more consistent than floppy disks. These types of drives use the USB mass storage standard, supported natively by recent operating systems such as Linux, Mac OS X, UNIX, and Windows.

Prawn


Prawns are shrimp-like crustaceans, belonging to the sub-order Dendrobranchiata .Prawns are illustrious from the superficially similar shrimp by the gill structure which is branching in prawns, but is lamellar in shrimp. The sister taxon to Dendrobranchiata is Pleocyemata, which contains all the true shrimp, crabs, lobsters, etc.
In various forms of English, the name "prawn" is often applied to shrimp as well, generally the larger species, such as Leander serratus. In the United States, according to the 1911 Encyclopedia, the word "prawn" usually indicates a freshwater shrimp or prawn. In Middle English, the word "prawn" is recorded as prayne or prane; no cognate form can be found in any other language. It has often been connected to the Latin perna, a ham-shaped shellfish, but this is due to an old scholarly error that linked perna and parnocchie with prawne-fishes or shrimps. In fact, the Old Italian perna and pernocchia meant a shellfish that yielded nacre, or mother-of-pearl.

Motorola

Most of Motorola's products have been radio-related, starting with a battery eliminator for radios, through the first walkie-talkie in the world, defense electronics, cellular infrastructure apparatus, and mobile phone manufacturing. The company was also strong in semiconductor technology, including integrated circuits used in computers. Motorola has been the main supplier for the microprocessors used in Commodore Amiga, Apple Macintosh and Power Macintosh personal computers. The chip used in the latter computers, the PowerPC family, was developed with IBM and in a partnership with Apple. Motorola also has a diverse line of communication products, including satellite systems, digital cable boxes and modems.

Battery isolator

A battery isolator is a one-way electrical valve, allowing DC current to flow in one direction, but not flow in reverse. They are commonly used on vehicles where multiple batteries or battery banks are used, including recreational vehicles, boats, utility vehicles, airplanes, and large trucks. The primary purpose for their use is to insure that a failure of a single battery or battery bank, will not wipe out an entire battery network.

Several technologies have been used to achieve control of DC current in this manner: silicon rectifier packages, Schotkey rectifier packages, MOSFET rectifier packages, and conventional mechanical relays.

Purposes of worms

Many early communicable programs, including the Internet Worm and a number of MS-DOS viruses, were written as experiments or mischief generally intended to be harmless or merely annoying rather than to cause serious damage. Young programmers learning about viruses and the techniques used to write them might write one to prove that they can do it, or to see how far it could spread. As late as 1999, extensive viruses such as the Melissa virus appear to have been written chiefly as pranks.

A slightly more antagonistic intent can be found in programs designed to vandalize or cause data loss. Many DOS viruses, and the Windows Explore Zip worm, were designed to destroy files on a hard disk, or to corrupt the file system by writing junk data. Network-borne worms such as the 2001 Code Red worm or the Ramen worm fall into the same group. Designed to vandalize web pages, these worms may seem like the online equivalent to graffiti tagging, with the author's alias or similarity group appearing everywhere the worm goes.

Mod chip

Xenium Mod Chip attached to an Xbox. The 2x6 header interfaces the chip with the LPC bus, while the red soldered wire overrides the original BIOS's D0 line. A Mod chip, a portmanteau of 'Modification microchip', is a device used to get around the digital rights management of many popular game consoles, including those made by Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo for the purposes of playing backup, imported, pirated, or homebrew games and/or applications. They are used mostly on systems that are CD/DVD-based due to the availability and low cost of blank media such as CD-R s and DVD+/-R s.

Almost all modern console gaming systems have hardware-based schemes which ensure that only officially authorized games may be used with the system and implement regional lockout similar to the scheme used in DVD movies. The specific technical nature of these DRM systems varies by system, and may include cryptographic signing, intentionally unreadable sectors, custom optical media, or some combination thereof. Mod chips are available also for some DVD players, to defeat region code enforcement and user.

Robotics

Robotics is the science and technology of robots, their design, manufacture, and application.Robotics requires a functioning knowledge of electronics, mechanics, and software. A person working in the field is a roboticist. The word robotics was first used in publish by Isaac Asimov, in his science fiction short story "Runaround" (1941).

Although the exterior and capabilities of robots fluctuate enormously, all robots share the features of a mechanical, movable structure under some form of control. The chain is warped of links ,actuators and joints which can allow one or more degrees of freedom. Most contemporary robots use open serial chains in which each link connects the one before to the one after it. These robots are called serial robots and often resemble the human arm. A few robots, such as the Stewart platform, exploit closed parallel kinematic chains. Other structures, such as those that mimic the mechanical structure of humans, different animals and insects, are comparatively rare. However, the development and use of such structures in robots is an dynamic area of research. Robots used as manipulators have an end effector mounted on the last link. This end effector can be anything from a welding mechanism to a mechanical hand used to manipulate the environment.

Biography



Biography (from the Greek words bios meaning "life", and graph in meaning "write") is a type of literature and further forms of media such as film, based on the written accounts of individual lives. While a biography may focus on a subject of fiction or non-fiction, the term is frequently in reference to non-fiction. Pat Shipman however, says "I think a good biographer has to write fiction some of the time to make apparent a significant event in someone's life." This is sometimes debated. As opposed to a profile or curriculum vitae, a biography develops a complex analysis of personality, highlighting different aspects of it and including intimate details of experiences. A biography is more than a list of distant facts like birth, education, work, relationships and death. It also delves into the emotions of experiencing such events.

Ancient Greeks developed the biographical tradition which we have inherited, although until the 5th century AD, when the word 'biographic' first appears, in Damascus' Life of Isodorus, biographical pieces were called simply "lives" ("bioi"). It is quite likely that the Greeks were drawing on a pre-existing eastern tradition; certainly Herodotus' Histories contains more exhaustive biographical information on Persian kings and subjects than on anyone else, implying he had a Persian source for it.

Groundwater


100 Groundwater is water flowing within aquifers below the water table. Within aquifers, the water flows through the pore spaces in unconsolidated sediments and the fractures of rocks. Groundwater is recharged from, and ultimately flows to, the surface naturally; natural discharge often occurs at springs and seeps and can form oases or swamps. Groundwater is also often withdrawn for agricultural, municipal and industrial use through man-made wells. The study of the giving out and movement of groundwater is hydrogeology.


Relative groundwater travel times, click to view full size Groundwater can be a long-term 'reservoir' of the natural water cycle, as opposed to short-term water reservoirs like the atmosphere and fresh surface water. The figure shows how deep groundwater can take a very long time to complete its natural cycle. Groundwater is naturally replenished by surface water from precipitation, streams, and rivers when this recharge reaches the water table. It is estimated that the volume of groundwater is fifty times that of surface freshwater; the icecaps and glaciers are the only larger reservoir of fresh water on earth.

Usable groundwater is contained in aquifers, which are subterranean areas of permeable material that channel the groundwater's flow. Aquifers can be confined or unconfined. If a confined aquifer follows a downward grade from a recharge zone, groundwater can become pressurized as it flows. This can create artesian wells that flow freely without the need of a pump. The top of the upper unconfined aquifer is called the water table or paretic surface, where water pressure is equal to atmospheric pressure.

Mobile phone


A mobile phone or cell phone is an electronic telecommunications device. Most current mobile phones connect in its place to the network using a wireless radio wave transmission technology. These mobile phones communicate via a cellular network of base stations, which is in turn connected to the conventional telephone network. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the car phone was the only mobile phone available.In addition to the standard voice function of a telephone, a mobile phone can support many additional services such as SMS for text messaging, packet switching for access to the Internet, and MMS for sending and receiving photos and video.Some of the world's largest mobile phone manufacturers include Alcatel, Audiovox, Fujitsu, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Panasonic, Philips, Sagem, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Siemens, SK Teletech, Sony Ericsson, and Toshiba.There are also specialist communication systems linked to, but distinct from mobile phones, such as satellite phones and Professional Mobile Radio. Mobile phones are also separate from cordless telephones, which generally operate only within a limited range of a specific base station.

Freeway

A freeway is a multi-lane highway designed for high-speed travel by large numbers of vehicles, and having no traffic lights, stop signs, nor other regulations requiring vehicles to stop for cross-traffic.
In general Design features
Freeways have high speed limits and multiple lanes for travel in each direction. The number of lanes may vary from four or six in rural areas to as high as sixteen or eighteen in certain global cities.
A median or central reservation separates the lanes traveling in opposite directions. Partition may be achieved through distance or through the use of high crash barriers like cable barriers and Jersey barriers.
Crossroads are bypassed by grade division using underpasses and overpasses. In addition to the sidewalks attached to roads that go over or under a freeway, nearly all countries also supply specialized pedestrian bridges and underground tunnels. Such structures enable pedestrians and cyclists to cross the freeway without having to make a long detour to the nearest road for which a grade separation has been provided.
Freeway entrances and exits are limited in number, and are designed with special onramps and off ramps, so as to ensure that vehicles do not disrupt the main flow of traffic as they enter or leave the freeway. In some countries, the exits are numbered. Exit numbering may be by mile or kilometer, or in a simple chronological fashion.

Lighting rod


A lightning rod is a metal narrow piece or rod, typically of copper or similar conductive material, used as part of lightning security to guard tall or isolated structures from lightning damage. Its formal name is lightning finial. Sometimes, the system is informally referred to as:

A lightning conductor,
A lightning arrester, or
A lightning discharger.
However, these terms really refer to lightning guard systems in general or specific mechanism within them.

Lightning rod dissipaters make a structure less nice-looking by which charges can flow to the air around it. This then reduces the voltage between the point and the storm cloud, making a strike less likely. The most common charge dissipaters appear as slightly-blunted metal spikes sticking out in all information from a metal ball. These are mounted on short metal arms at the very top of a radio antenna or tower, the area by far most likely to be struck. These devices diminish, but do not eradicate, the risk of lightning strikes.

Arrestors
A lightning arrestor is a mechanism that shunts or diverts the huge voltage and electrical current of a lightning hit to an earthed ground. Electrical equipment can be protected from lightning by an arrester, a device that contains one or more gas-filled spark gaps between the equipment's cables and earth. An arrester is designed to handle much higher jolts of electricity than a surge protector, which cannot handle a direct strike at all.
When lightning exceeds the arrestor's breakdown voltage, the currents arcs to the ground and prevents arcing around inside sensitive electronic equipment joined further down line. The glimmer gap may be filled with a noble gas, or with air. Other types may work by overcrowding normal irregular current, but allowing the direct current from a lightning discharge.
Lightning arrestors are normally installed on electric power broadcast lines, and on radio tower feed lines between the radio antenna and spreader. Smaller ones can also be installed on the mains electricity service coming into a building, just before the circuit breaker panel. Telephone wires also have fusible links sometimes where they enter a building, joined by carbon which will vaporize with very high current.

Sun

100 The Sun is the VIP at the centre of our Solar system. It is infrequently referred to as Sol to distinguish it from other "suns". Planet Earth orbits the Sun, as do a lot of other bodies, including other planets, asteroids, meteoroids, comets and dust. Its heat and light support almost all life on Earth.

The Sun has a mass of about 2×1030kg, which is not at all higher than that of an average star. About 74% of its mass is hydrogen, with 25% helium and the respite made up of trace quantities of heavier rudiments. It is thought that the Sun is about 5 billion years old, and is about half way through its key sequence evolution, during which nuclear fusion reactions in its core fuse hydrogen into helium. In about 5 billion years time the Sun will turn into a planetary nebula.

Although it is the bordering star to Earth and has been intensively studied by scientists, many questions about the Sun remain unanswered, such as why its outer atmosphere has a temperature of over 106 K when its able to be seen surface has a temperature of just 6,000 K.

Cellular

A cellular network is a radio network made up of a number of radio cells (or just cells) each served by a fixed transmitter, normally known as a (base station). These cells are used to cover dissimilar areas in order to provide radio coverage over a wider area than the area of one cell. Cellular networks are naturally asymmetric with a set of fixed main transceivers each serving a cell and a set of distributed transceivers which provide services to the network's users.
Cellular networks offer a number of advantages over alternative solutions,
increased capacity
reduced power usage
better coverage
A good (and simple) example of a cellular system is an old taxi driver's radio system where a city will have some transmitters based around a city. We'll use that as an example and assume that each transmitter is handled independently by a different operator.

View camera

The view camera is a type of camera with a very long history, but they are still used today by professional and amateur photographers who want full control of their images. The view camera is essentially a light-tight assembly comprised of a flexible mid-section, or bellows, attached to a device that holds a film sheet, photo plate or digital imager at one end (the rear standard) and a similar one that holds the lens at the other end (the front standard). The front and rear standards are not fixed relative to each other (unlike most cameras). Movement of the front and rear standards allows the photographer to move the lens and film plane separately for precise control of the image's focus, depth of field and perspective.

Eye color

Eye color is a polygenic trait and is determined mainly by the amount and type of pigments present in the eye's iris. Humans and animals have many phenotypic variations in eye color. In humans, these variations in color are credited to varying ratios of eumelanin produced by melanocytes in the iris.The brightly colored eyes of many bird species are mostly determined by other pigments, such as pteridines, purines, and carotenoids.
Three main elements within the iris add to its color: the melanin content of the iris pigment epithelium, the melanin content within the iris stroma, and the cellular density of the iris stroma.In eyes of all colors, the iris pigment epithelium contains the black pigment, eumelanin.Color variations among different irises are normally attributed to the melanin content within the iris stroma.The density of cells within the stroma affects how much light is absorbed by the underlying pigment epithelium.

Tourism in Kerala

Kerala is a state on the tropical Malabar Coast of southwestern India. Nicknamed as one of the "10 paradises of the world" by the National Geographic traveller Kerala is famous particularly for its ecotourism initiatives. Its unique culture and traditions, joined with its varied demography, has made it one of the the majority popular tourist destinations in India. Growing at a rate of 13.31%, the tourism industry considerably contributes to the state's economy. The Kerala Tourism Development Corporation, the government agency that oversees the tourism prospects of the state, has adopted the brand God's Own Country for its campaigns. The slogan holds global Superbrand status.Popularly visited attractions in the state include the beaches at Kovalam, Cherai and Varkala, the hill stations of Munnar, Nelliampathi, and Ponmudi, and national parks and wildlife sanctuaries such as Periyar and Eravikulam National Park. The "backwaters" region — an extensive network of interlocking rivers, lakes, and canals that center on Alleppey, Kumarakom, and Punnamada — also see heavy tourist traffic. Examples of Keralite architecture, such as the Padmanabhapuram Palace, Padmanabhapuram, are also visited. Kochi, the commercial capital of the state, is known as the "Queen of the Arabian Sea". Alappuzha, the first planned town in Kerala, is called the "Venice of the East".

Deafness

The word deaf is used in a different way in different contexts, and there is some controversy over its meaning and implications. In scientific and medical terms, deafness normally refers to a physical condition characterized by lack of sensitivity to sound. Notated as deaf with a lowercase d, this refers to the audiological experience of someone who is partly or wholly lacking hearing In legal terms, deafness is defined by degree of hearing loss. These degrees include profound or total deafness (90 dB - 120 dB or more of hearing loss), severe (60 dB - 90 dB), moderate (30 dB - 60 dB), and mild deafness(10 dB - 30 dB of hearing loss). Both severe and moderate deafness can be referred to as partial deafness or as hard of hearing, while mild deafness is usually called hard of hearing.
Within the Deaf community, the term "Deaf" is often capitalized when written, and it refers to a tight-knit cultural group of people whose primary language is signed, and who practice social & cultural norms which are different from those of the surrounding hearing community. This community does not mechanically include all those who are clinically or legally deaf, nor does it exclude every hearing person. According to Baker & Padden, it includes any person or persons who "identifies him/herself as a member of the Deaf community, and other members accept that person as a part of the community"

spear

A spear is an ancient weapon used for hunting and war, consisting of a shaft, generally of wood, with a sharpened head. The head may be just the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be of one more material fastened to the shaft. The most common design is of a metal spearhead, shaped somewhat like a dagger.
Spears were arguably one of the most general personal weapons from the late Bronze Age until the advent of firearms. They may be seen as the ancestor of such weapons as the lance, the halberd, the naginata and the pike. One of the initial weapons fashioned by human beings and their ancestors, it is still used for hunting and fishing, and its influences can still be seen in contemporary military arsenals as the rifle mounted bayonet.
Spears can be used as both melee and ballistic weapons. Spears used mainly for thrusting tend to have heavier and sturdier designs than those intended exclusively for throwing. Two of the most well-known throwing spears are the javelin thrown by the ancient Greeks and the pilum used by the Romans.

Journalism is a concrete, professionally oriented major that involves gathering, interpreting, distilling, and other reporting information to the general audiences through a variety of media means. Journalism majors learn about every possible kind of Journalism (including magazine, newspaper, online journalism, photojournalism, broadcast journalism, and public relations).
That's not all, though. In addition to dedicated training in writing, editing, and reporting, Journalism wants a working knowledge of history, culture, and current events. You'll more than likely be required to take up a broad range of courses that runs the range from statistics to the hard sciences to economics to history. There would also be a lot of haughty talk about professional ethics and civic responsibility too - and you'll be tested on it. To top it all off, you'll perhaps work on the university newspaper or radio station, or possibly complete an internship with a magazine or a mass media conglomerate.

Gold
Gold is a extremely sought-after valuable metal that for many centuries has been used as money, a store of value and in ornaments. The metal occurs as nugget or grains in rocks and in alluvial deposits and is one of the coinage metals. It is a soft, glossy, yellow, dense, malleable, and ductile (trivalent and univalent) change metal. Modern manufacturing uses include dentistry and electronics. Gold forms the basis for a financial typical used by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank for International resolution (BIS). Its ISO currency code is XAU.
Gold is a tinny element with a trait yellow color, but can also be black or ruby when finely alienated, while colloidal solutions are intensely tinted and often purple. These colors are the effect of gold's plasmon frequency lying in the visible range, which causes red and yellow glow to be reflected, and blue light to be engrossed. Only silver colloids show the same interactions with light, albeit at a shorter occurrence, making silver colloids yellow in color.
Gold is a good conductor of temperature and electricity, and is not precious by air and most reagents. Heat, damp, oxygen, and most corrosive agents have very little chemical effect on gold, making it well-suited for use in coins and jewelry; equally, halogens will chemically alter gold, and aqua regia dissolve it.
Pure gold is too soft for ordinary use and is hard-boiled by alloying with silver, copper, and other metals. Gold and its lots of alloys are most often used in jewelry, coinage and as a typical for monetary exchange in various countries. When promotion it in the form of jewelry, gold is calculated in karats (k), with pure gold being 24k. However, it is more commonly sold in lower capacity of 22k, 18k, and 14k. A lower "k" indicates a higher percent of copper or silver assorted into the alloy, with copper being the more typically used metal between the two. Fourteen karat gold-copper alloy will be almost identical in color to definite bronze alloys, and both may be used to produce polish and added badges. Eighteen karat gold with a high copper content is establish in some traditional jewelry and will have a distinct, though not dominant copper cast, giving an attractively warm color. A comparable karat weight when alloyed with silvery metals will appear less humid in color, and some low karat white metal alloys may be sold as "white gold", silvery in exterior with a slightly yellow cast but far more resistant to decay than silver or sterling silver. Karat weights of twenty and higher is more general in modern jewelry. Because of its high electrical conductivity and confrontation to decay and other desirable combinations of physical and chemical properties, gold also emerged in the late 20th century as an vital industrial metal, particularly as thin plating on electrical card associates and connectors.