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Electromagnetic hypersensitivity syndrome

2007-09-25T22:03:00.000-07:00

Some users of mobile handsets have reported feeling several unspecific symptoms during and after its use, such as flaming and tingling feelings in the skin of the head and extremities, fatigue, sleep disturbances, dizziness, loss of mental attention, reaction times and memory retentiveness, headaches, malaise, tachycardia and disturbances of the digestive system. Some researchers, implying a causal relationship, have named this syndrome as a new diagnostic entity, EHS or ES. The World Health Organization prefers to name it “idiopathic environmental intolerance", in order to avoid the insinuation of causation.

The Vanilla orchid

2007-09-18T21:27:00.000-07:00

The main type harvested for vanillin is Vanilla planifolia. Even though it is native to Mexico, it is now extensively grown throughout the tropics. Madagascar is the world's largest producer, Additional sources include Vanilla pompona and Vanilla tahitiensis (grown in Tahiti), though the vanillin satisfied of these species is much less than Vanilla planifolia.

Vanilla grows as a vine, mountaineering up an existing tree, pole, or other support. It can be full-fledged in a wood (on trees), in a plantation (on trees or poles), or in a "shader", in increasing orders of productivity. Left alone, it will produce as high as possible on the support, with few flowers. Every year, growers fold the senior parts of the plant downwards so that the plant stays at heights accessible by a standing human. This also very much stimulate flowering.

Stratosphere

2007-09-11T21:19:00.000-07:00

From the Latin word "stratus" meaning a scattering out. The stratosphere extends from the troposphere's 7 to 17 km (23,000 – 60,000 ft) range to about 50 km (160,000 ft). Temperature in crease through height. The stratosphere contains the ozone layer, the division of the Earth's atmosphere which contains comparatively high concentrations of ozone. "Relatively high" means a few parts per million—much higher than the concentrations in the lower atmosphere but still small compare to the main components of the atmosphere. It is frequently located in the lower portion of the stratosphere from approximately 15 to 35 km (50,000 – 115,000 ft) above Earth's surface, although the thickness varies seasonally and geographically.

Yawl

2007-09-04T23:29:00.000-07:00

A yawl (from Dutch Jolt) is a two-misted sailing craft similar to a sloop or cutter but with an extra mizzen mast well behind of the main mast, often right on the transom. A small mizzen sail is raise on the mizzen mast.
The yawl is often puzzled with the ketch, which also has two masts with the main mast foremost. The common view is that a ketch has the mizzen mast forward of the rudder post whereas the mizzen on a yawl is aft of the wheel post. This definition is a relatively recent meaning and the historical definition is likely to be quite different.
In practice, on a ketch the main purpose of the mizzen mast is to help push the vessel, while on a yawl it is mostly used for the purposes of trim and balance. In result the mizzen sail of a yawl tends to be smaller, and the mainsail larger, when compared to a ketch of similar size. The mainsail of a yawl will be comparable in size to that of a similarly sized and proportioned sloop.
The yawl was initially developed as a rig for commercial fishing boats, one good example of this being the Sercombe Yawl (a traditional small fishing boat built in Devon). In its heyday, the rig was mainly popular with single-handed sailors, such as circumnavigators Joshua Slocum and Francis Chi Chester. This was mostly due to the remarkable ability of a yawl to be trimmed to follow a compass course exactly despite minor wind shifts. Modern self-steering and navigation aids have made this less important, and the yawl has normally fallen out of favor.

Leaf vegetable

2007-08-27T22:44:00.001-07:00

Leaf vegetables, also called potherbs, greens, or leafy greens, are plant leaves eat as a vegetable; sometimes attend by tender petioles and shoots. Although they come from a very broad diversity of plants, most share a great deal with other leaf vegetables in nutrition and cooking methods.

Nearly one thousand types of plants with edible leaves are known Leaf vegetables most often come from short-lived herbaceous plants such as lettuce and spinach. Woody plants whose leaves can be eaten as leaf vegetables include Adenosine, Aralia, and Moringa, Morus, and Toona species.

The leaves of many fodder crops are also edible by humans, but frequently only eaten under famine conditions. Examples include alfalfa, clover, and most grasses, as well as wheat and barley. These plants are often much more prolific than more traditional leaf vegetables, but utilization of their rich nutrition is difficult, primarily because of their high fiber content. This obstacle can be overcome by further giving out such as drying and grinding into powder or pulping and pressing for juice.

During the first half of the 20th century many grocery stores with vegetable sections sold small bunch of herbs tied with a thread to small green and red peppers known as "potherbs."

Security

2007-08-21T22:16:00.000-07:00

A security is a fungible, negotiable interest on behalf of financial value. Securities are generally categorized into debt and equity securities. The company or other individual issuing the security is called the issuer.
Securities may be represented by a certificate or, more characteristically, by an electronic book entry interest. Certificates may be bearer, meaning they entitle the holder to rights under the security merely by holding the security, or registered, meaning they give the right the holder to rights only if he or she appears on a security register maintained by the issuer or an intermediary. They include shares of corporate stock or mutual funds, bonds issued by corporations or governmental agencies, stock options or other options, limited partnership units, and a variety of other formal investment instruments that are negotiable and fungible.

Chef's uniform

2007-08-13T21:34:00.000-07:00

The conventional chef's uniform, including toque (traditional hat), white double breasted jacket, and checked pants are immediately recognized by most members of the Western world, especially in this day of television's celebrity chefs. The double breasted jacket can be inverted to conceal stains. Its thick cotton cloth protects from the heat of stove and oven and protects from splattering of steaming liquids. An apron is an obviously useful piece of utensils used to guard the rest of the wearer's garments from food splatters and stains.

The toque (chef's hat) dates back to the 16th century when hats were regular in many businesses. Different heights of hats point out rank within a kitchen. Some modern chefs have put their own diverse whirl on the traditional uniform. But the traditional, practical, clothing of the chef still remainders a standard in the food industry.

Gold

2007-08-07T21:56:00.001-07:00

Gold is an 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 change metal. Modern manufacturing uses include dentistry and electronics. Gold forms the basis for a financial typical used by the International Monetary Fund and the Bank for International resolution. 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.

Software

2007-07-30T23:11:00.001-07:00

Software basically is the distinct image or representation of physical or material position that constitute configuration to or functional identity of a machine, usually a computer. As a substance of memory, software in principle can be changed without the alteration to the static paradigm of the hardware thus without the remanufacturing thereof. Generally software is of an algorithmic form which translates into being to a progression of machine instructions. Some software, however, is relational forms which translate into being the map of a recognition network.

Software is a program that enables a computer to achieve a specific task, as contrasting to the physical components of the system. This include application software such as a word processor, which enables a user to achieve a task, and system software such as an operating system, which enables other software to run suitably, by interfacing with hardware and with other software.

Metabolism

2007-07-24T22:44:00.001-07:00

Metabolism is the total set of chemical reactions that occur in living cells. These processes are the source of life, allowing cells to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and react to their environments. Metabolism is frequently divided into two categories. Catabolic reactions yield energy, an example being the stop working of food in cellular respiration. Anabolic reactions, on the other hand, use this energy to construct mechanism of cells such as proteins and nucleic acids.

The chemical reactions of metabolism are organized into metabolic pathways, in which one chemical is distorted into another by a series of enzymes. Enzymes are vital to metabolism because they allow cells to drive desirable but thermodynamically unfavorable reactions by combination them to favorable ones. Enzymes also agree to the regulation of metabolic pathways in response to changes in the cell's environment or signals from other cells.

Robotics

2007-07-16T23:32:00.001-07:00

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

Although the outside and capabilities of robots vary extremely, all robots share the features of a mechanical, movable structure under some form of control. The chain is misshapen of links, actuators and joints which can allow one or more degrees of freedom. Most modern robots use open sequential chains in which each link connects the one before to the one after it. These robots are called serial robots and often look like the human arm. A few robots, such as the Stewart platform, use closed parallel kinematic chains. Other structures, such as those that imitate the mechanical structure of humans, diverse animals and insects, are relatively rare. However, the development and use of such structures in robots is a dynamic area of research. Robots used as manipulators have a finish effector mount on the last link. This end effector can be something from a welding mechanism to a mechanical provide used to manipulate the environment.

Hardware and software design

2007-07-11T22:48:00.001-07:00

Supercomputers using custom CPUs traditionally gained their speed over conventional computers through the use of innovative designs that allow them to carry out many tasks in parallel, as well as complex feature engineering. They tend to be expert for certain types of computation, usually numerical calculations, and perform poorly at more general computing tasks. Their memory hierarchy is very cautiously designed to ensure the processor is kept fed with data and commands at all times—in fact, much of the performance difference between slower computers and supercomputers is due to the memory hierarchy. Their I/O systems tend to be planned to support high bandwidth, with latency less of an issue, because supercomputers are not used for transaction processing.

As with all highly parallel systems, Amdahl's law applies, and supercomputer designs devote great effort to eliminate software serialization, and using hardware to speed up the remaining bottlenecks.

Punt

2007-06-12T22:24:00.000-07:00

A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, planned for use in small rivers or other shallow water. Punting refers to boating in a punt; the punter normally propels the punt by pushing beside the river bed with a pole.
Punts were initially built as cargo boats or platforms for fowling and angling but in modern times their use is almost wholly confined to pleasure trips on the rivers in the university towns of Oxford and Cambridge in England and races at a few summer regattas on the Thames.
A customary river punt differs from many other types of wooden boat in that it has no keel, stem or sternpost. In its place it is built rather like a ladder with the main structure being two side panels connected by a series of 4 in (10 cm) cross planks, known as "treads", spaced about 1 foot (30 cm) apart.
The first punts are traditionally linked with the River Thames in England and were built as small cargo boats or platforms for fishermen. Pleasure punts — particularly built for recreation — became popular on the Thames between 1840 and 1860. Some other boats have a similar shape to a traditional punt — for example the Optimist training dinghy or the air boats used in the Everglades — but they are normally built with a box construction instead of the open ladder-like design of a traditional Thames pleasure punt.

Pinnace

2007-06-06T19:55:00.000-07:00

A pinnace is a light boat, propelled by sails or oars, previously used as a "tender" for guiding merchant and war vessels. In modern parlance, pinnace has come to mean a boat linked with some kind of larger vessel, that doesn't fit under the launch or lifeboat definitions. In all-purpose, the pinnace had sails, and would be used to ferry messages between ships of the line, visit harbors ahead of the fleet with messages of state, pick up mail, etc.

Lifeboat

2007-05-28T01:20:00.001-07:00

A lifeboat is a rigid or inflatable boat planned to save the lives of people in trouble at sea. The term has somewhat special meanings in British and American usage. The British usage emphasizes particular vessels kept in harbor or near a harbor, often manned by volunteers, considered to quickly reach a ship in trouble. The term "lifeboat" in American usage normally refers to rigid or inflatable vessels accepted by larger ships to allow passengers and crew to escape in an emergency.
The first boat expert as a lifeboat was tested on the River Tyne on January 29, 1790. William would have and Lionel Lufkin both claim to be the inventor of the first lifeboat. One example of an early lifeboat was the Land guard Fort Lifeboat of 1821, considered by Richard Hall Gower.
In U.S. waters, rescue-at-sea is part of the duty of the United States Coast Guard, which employs its multipurpose ships and aircraft in this role. The Coast Guard is also responsible for making sure that the proper type and number of lifeboats (American usage) is available and kept in good repair on any large ship. "Lifeboat drills" are a division of a cruise experience.

Hovercraft

2007-05-20T23:40:00.000-07:00

A hovercraft, or air-cushion vehicle (ACV), is a vehicle or craft that can be hold up by a cushion of air dispossessed downwards against a surface close below it, and can in principle travel over any relatively smooth surface, such as gently sloping land, water, or marshland, while having no substantial contact with it.
Hovercraft has one or more parts of engines (some craft, such as the SR-N6, have one engine with a drive split through a gearbox). One engine drives the fan (the impeller) which is in charge for exciting the vehicle by forcing air under the craft. The air therefore must exit throughout the "skirt", lifting the craft above the area which the craft resides. One or more additional engines are used to offer thrust in order to propel the craft in the favorite direction. Some hovercraft utilized ducting to allow one engine to perform both tasks by directing some of the air to the skirt, the rest of the air passing out of the back to push the craft forward.

Cigarette boat

2007-05-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

The cigarette boat or go-fast boat is a high performance boat of a feature design. Originally designed for his offshore racing team by Donald Aronow, the fast, powerful boats became infamous as the drug smuggling boat of choice in many parts of the world in the 1990s and first years of the 21st century.
In harmony with their pure racing heritage, the accommodations on these boats are minimal, and they are built to hold 5 or more passengers. While most do have some cabin under the foredeck, it is low and much smaller than a characteristic motor yacht of similar size. Apart from the racing market, most buyers of these boats purchase them for the mystique; the mixture of the racing and smuggling connections, plus the immense power and high top speeds make these boats popular as ostentatious displays of wealth.
These boats are hard to detect by radar except on flat calm seas or at close range. The United States Coast Guard and the DEA establish them to be stealthy, fast, seaworthy, and very complicated to intercept using conventional craft. Because of this, Coast Guards contain developed their own high-speed craft and also use helicopters. The helicopters are prepared with Anti-materiel rifles which can be used to disable the motors of the go-fast boat. The Coast Guard go-fast boat is a rigid hulled inflatable boat RHIB ready with radar and powerful engines. The RHIB is armed with quite a few types of non-lethal weapons and M240 GPMG.

Banana boat

2007-04-02T04:58:00.001-07:00

A banana boat (or water sled), frequently referred to simply as a banana, is an uncovered recreational boat considered to be pulled by a larger boat. Riders sit astride a large tube which is support by two smaller tubes which give balance and footrests, allowing them to understanding some of the thrill of moving fast and close to the water much more easily and safely than by water-skiing or surfing and they are therefore a popular ride for children. Many large motor yachts or luxury yachts have a banana as one of their onboard "toys", but any powered boat can pull a banana, and they are sometimes available as a commercial ride at festival resorts. Most models seat among three and ten people. Double models with two seating tubes side by side are obtainable. Banana boats are often yellow and are sometimes actually molded into the shape of a banana.

Charabanc

2007-03-20T23:13:00.000-07:00

A charabanc (pronounced sha-ra-bang) is a kind of open-topped bus common in Britain throughout the early part of the 20th century. It was particularly popular for "works outings" to the country or the seaside that businesses would hold once a year. The name derives from the French char à bancs ("carriage with wooden benches"), where it originates in the early 19th century.
It is mentioned in Ian Anderson's song, "Wondering Again" from the Jethro Tull compilation Living in the Past, as well as imaginatively in The Decemberists' song "The Legionnaire's Lament". From what is gathered from the context of the song, a charabanc ride is nothing but a joy-ride for the nothing-to-dos, and finds use in guiding tourists approximately a town or city. Also mention in the Stranglers song Peaches.
The charabanc travel around is also the (admittedly vague — see The Beatles Anthology, episode 6) premise of The Beatles' 1967 television film supernatural Mystery Tour, in which a group of characters (Spotlight 'oddities', 'lovelies' and The Beatles themselves) toured Southern England in a mix of music hall tunes or comedy, contemporary psychedelia, and musical set pieces by the Fab Four.

Egypt

2007-02-20T22:53:00.000-08:00

Egypt is officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country in North Africa that includes the Sinai Peninsula, a ground bridge to Asia. Covering a region of about 1,001,450 square kilometers (386,560 square miles), Egypt borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and Israel and the Gaza Strip to the northeast; on the north and the east are the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, correspondingly.

Egypt is the fifteenth most crowded country in the world. The huge majority of its 78.8 million people (2006) live close to the banks of the Nile River (about 40,000 km² or 15,450 sq miles) where the only arable agricultural land is found. Large areas of land form part of the Sahara Desert and are sparsely inhabited. Around half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with the majority spread across the densely populated center of greater Cairo (the largest city in Africa and the Middle East), Alexandria and other major towns in the Nile Delta.

Egypt is famous for its very old civilization and some of the world's most ancient and important monuments, including the Giza Pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza; the southern city of Luxury contains a particularly large number of ancient artifacts such as the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Nowadays, Egypt is extensively regarded as a main political and cultural centre of the Middle East

Permanent makeup

2007-01-21T23:50:00.000-08:00

Permanent makeup is a cosmetic technique which employs tattoos as a means of producing designs that resemble makeup, such as eye lining and other permanent enhancing colors to the skin of the face, lips and eyelids. It is also used to produce artificial eyebrows, particularly in people who have lost it as a consequence of old age, disease, such as alopecia, chemotherapy or a genetic disturbance, and to disguise scars and white spots in the skin such as in vitiligo. It is also used to restore or enhance the breast's areola, such as after breast surgery.

Other names used are derma pigmentation, micro pigmentation, permanent cosmetics and cosmetic tattooing. These procedures are regulated in many countries and states, many of them requiring a registered professional, such as an esthetician, dermatologist or plastic surgeon to perform it. In the United States and other countries, the inks used in permanent makeup and the pigments in these inks are subject to FDA regulation as cosmetics and color additives.

Fingerprint

2007-01-08T23:07:00.000-08:00

A fingerprint is an impression of the friction ridges of all or any part of the finger. A friction ridge is a raised portion of the epidermis on the palmar or plantar skin, consisting of one or more connected ridge units of friction ridge skin. These ridges are sometimes known as "dermal ridges" or "dermal papillae".

Fingerprints may be deposited in natural secretions from the eccrine glands present in friction ridge skin or they may be made by ink or other contaminants transferred from the peaks of friction skin ridges to a relatively smooth surface such as a fingerprint card. The term fingerprint normally refers to impressions transferred from the pad on the last joint of fingers and thumbs, though fingerprint cards also typically record portions of lower joint areas of the fingers .Fingerprint identification sometimes referred to as dactyloscopy is the process of comparing questioned and known friction skin ridge impressions from fingers, palms, and toes to determine if the impressions are from the same finger.

Greenpeace

2007-01-01T23:08:00.000-08:00

Greenpeace is an international environmental organization founded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1971. Greenpeace is known for its use of campaigns to stop atmospheric and underground nuclear testing as well as bring an end to high seas whaling. In later years, the focus of the organization turned to other environmental issues, including bottom trawling, global warming, ancient forest destruction, and genetic engineering. Greenpeace has national and regional offices in 41 countries worldwide, all of which have affiliation with the Amsterdam-based Greenpeace International. The global organization receives its income through the individual contributions of an estimated 2.8 million financial supporters, as well as from grants from charitable foundations, but does not accept funding from governments or corporations.

Green peace’s transformation from a loose international network united by style more than by focus to a global organization able to apply the full force of its resources to a small number of environmental issues deemed of global significance, owed much to McTaggart's personal vision.

Economics

2006-12-26T23:43:00.000-08:00

Economics is a social science seeking to analyze and describe the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics studies how individuals and societies seek to satisfy needs and wants. Alfred Marshall in the late 19th century informally described economics as "the study of man in the ordinary business of life"; the vast number of topics to which the methods of economic theory have been applied suggests to some that economics is simply "that which economists do."

Economics has two broad branches: microeconomics, where the unit of analysis is the individual agent, such as a household or firm, and macroeconomics, where the focus is on aggregates, the sum of the supply and demand in an economy, or the total net result of buying and selling. Another division of the subject distinguishes positive economics, which seeks to predict and explain economic phenomena, from normative economics, which orders choices and actions by some criterion; such orderings necessarily involve subjective value judgments.

Tornado

2006-12-18T01:30:00.000-08:00

A tornado is a violently rotating column of air which is in contact with both a cumulonimbus cloud base and the surface of the earth. Tornadoes can come in many shapes, but are typically in the form of a visible condensation funnel, with the narrow end touching the earth. Often, a cloud of debris encircles the lower portion of the funnel.

Tornadoes can be the most destructive storms on earth. Most have winds of 110 mph or less, are approximately 250 feet across, and travel a mile or more before dissipating. However, some tornadoes can have winds of more than 300 mph be more than a mile across, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles.

They have been observed on every continent except Antarctica; however, a significant percentage of the world's tornadoes occur in the United States. This is mostly due to the unique geography of the country, which allows the conditions which breed strong, long-lived storms to occur many times a year. Other areas which often experience tornadoes are south-central Canada, northwestern Europe, east-central South America, South Africa, and south-central Asia.

Greek temple

2006-12-13T23:22:00.000-08:00

The Greeks began to build massive temples in the first half of the 8th century BC. The temples of Hera at Samos and of Poseidon at Isthmia were among the first erected. Greek temples differed from their Roman counterparts in that the colonnade shaped a peristyle around the whole structure, rather than merely a porch at the front; and also in that the Greek temple was not raised above ground level on a high podium.

As the Greeks became more adept at massive building, regional styles of architecture solidified into what are now the classical orders of architecture: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. The Parthenon, one of the most famous Greek temples, was devoted to Athena, goddess of wisdom. Festivals were held in and around it every year. The Parthenon powerfully influenced Roman architecture. After the Romans conquered Greece, many tourists from the victorious country came to view the temples of Greece. Among them was the Parthenon, which rapidly became one of the most popular tourist sites in Greece. Unlike modern places of worship, Greek temples were not intended for group worship, but more as a dedication to a god or goddess, explaining why the sculpture on temples was always right at the top and hard to see - it was built for the pleasure of its deity and not for people.

Stonehenge 1

2006-11-08T10:31:00.000-08:00

After Cleal et alThe first monument consisted of a circular bank and ditch enclosure measuring around 110 m in diameter with a large entrance to the north east and a smaller one to the south. It stood in open grassland on a slightly sloping but not especially remarkable spot. The builders placed the bones of deer and oxen in the bottom of the ditch as well as some worked flint tools. The bones were considerably older than the antler picks used to dig the ditch and the people who buried them had looked after them for some time prior to burial. The ditch itself was continuous but had been dug in sections, like the ditches of the earlier causewayed enclosures in the area. The chalk dug from the ditch was piled up to form the bank. This first stage is dated to around 3100 BC after which the ditch began to silt up naturally and was not cleared out by the builders. Within the outer edge of the enclosed area was dug a circle of 56 pits, each around 1m in diameter , known as the Aubrey holes after John Aubrey, the seventeenth century antiquarian who was thought to have first identified them. The pits may have contained standing timbers, creating a timber circle although there is no excavated evidence of them. A small outer bank beyond the ditch could also date to this period..

New definition of planet

2006-08-25T05:48:00.000-07:00

New definition of planet:

International Astronomical Union proposed that the term "planet" be redefined to include other objects beyond the traditional nine planets considered a part of the solar system in the year 2006. On August 24, 2006 in Prague, in the Czech Republic the members of the IAU will vote on the proposal. They have included three planets they are Ceres which is considered as a planet, then an asteroid. The next comes the Charon previously measured as a moon of Pluto would be considered as double planet under this proposed definition. And then comes the finally discovered 2003 UB313 also named as Xena. It is quite possible that, after more searching, astronomers will discover more objects in the solar system that meet this new definition.

Speed of light

2006-06-30T03:56:00.000-07:00

The speed of light in a vacuum is denoted by the letter c for constant or the Latin celeritas (speed). The speed of light through a transparent medium (that is, not in vacuum) is less than c; the ratio of c to this speed is called the refractive index of the medium.
In metric units, c is exactly 299,792,458 metres per second or 1,079,252,848.8 kilometres per hour. Converted to imperial units, it is approximately 186,282.397 miles per second, or 670,616,629.384 miles per hour. Note that this speed is a definition, not a measurement, since the fundamental SI unit of length, the metre, has been defined since 21 October 1983 in terms of the speed of light—one metre is the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.

According to standard modern physical theory, all electromagnetic radiation, including visible light, propagates (or moves) at a constant speed or velocity in a vacuum, commonly known as the speed of light, which is a physical constant denoted as c. This speed c is also the speed of the propagation of gravity in the theory of general relativity.

One consequence of the laws of electromagnetism is that the speed c of electromagnetic radiation does not depend on the velocity of the object emitting the radiation; thus for instance the light emitted from a rapidly moving light source would travel at the same speed as the light coming from a stationary light source (although the colour, frequency, energy, and momentum of the light will be shifted, which is called the relativistic Doppler effect). If one combines this observation with the principle of relativity, one concludes that all observers will measure the speed of light in vacuum as being the same, regardless of the reference frame of the observer or the velocity of the object emitting the light. Because of this, one can view c as a fundamental physical constant. This fact can then be used as a basis for the theory of special relativity. It is worth noting that it is the constant speed c, rather than light itself, which is fundamental to special relativity; thus if light is somehow manipulated to travel at less than c, this will not directly affect the theory of special relativity.

2006-06-01T00:04:00.002-07:00

The last phone system a law firm will ever need

New business and client retention is dependent on legal practices being able to provide the right legal expert at the right time. How often have you been out of the office when reception has phoned to ask you to call back a ver AmbiLOG: call accounting for SwyxWare

For the vast majority of businesses, telephony is still the most popular form of business communication. Therefore it is critical that the effectiveness of this tool is easy to monitor and account for. For example, do you know which parts of your business generate the highest calling costs, or how many calls fail to reach you because of busy lines, or when exactly your peak hours are?
Many modern computer-based PBXs can provide customers with a wealth of valuable data but that data is often hidden in endless columns of numbers. ambiLOG is a flexible and convenient tool that works in conjunction with SwyxWare to make the available information easy to analyse.

Solution overview

ambiLOG’s clear and well-organised user inter-face makes it easy to use even for
beginners. The standard ambiLOG version runs on any Windows PC or server. There is an optional web-client called ambiLOG Web which lets you use all ambiLOG features over the internet. In addition ambiLOG can also send reports automatically by email. The power of ambiLOG Queries are one of ambiLOG’s most powerful features. With queries, you can easily sort and filter large and small files containing call data. It’s as simple as dragging and dropping the relevant search criteria in the order you need. The result: an instantaneous structured overview of all the data.
The reporting features with ambiLOG make this a valuable tool for monitoring costs within your business. You can see at a glance which users, projects, departments or extensions have generated the highest costs and how much time has been spent on the phone. And, the option to see a concise overview of the top 10 highest costs as well as a detailed report with all connections allows you to spend just as much time as you need managing your business. You even have the choice of how to view the reports - in text or graphical form. Customisable for your business with fully automated operation ambiLOG features can be implemented to reflect the internal structure of your company such as departments, project groups and employees. In addition, users can be imported from your SwyxServer and linked to extensions and user information created in ambiLOG. Once configured, ambiLOG works fully automatically if you want it to. By setting up schedules, ambiLOG can automatically gather date from the SwyxServer and generate reports which can be sent to you via email.

Features of AmbiLOG

• Anonymous caller numbers for privacy purposes
• Automatic import of users and extensions
• Clearly arranged total reports
• Compose your individual queries by drag and drop with query reports
• Export reports as PDF, Word, Excel or RTF files
• Generate your own reports
• Graphical reports
• Manual or automatically scheduled import of CDR data (hourly, daily, weekly or monthly)
• MSDE database integrated – alternatively MySQL, SQL or Oracle databases are supported (database licenses must be bought separately)
• Network ready
• Phone book with automatic number recognition
• Powerful administration and configuration features for users, extensions, apartments and projects
• Reports of incoming, outgoing and internal calls
• Reports of multiple sites
• Scalable user access rights
• Send reports by email
• Tariff manager
• Traffic evaluation by callers, users, extensions or PSTN trunks
• User-friendly graphical interface with shortcuts, explorer and main window
• View and print graphic or text reports
• Tree functionality for quick report queries
• Individual creation of query reports

AmbiLOG Web is the ideal companion to ambiLOG. This web client lets you use
ambiLOG’s powerful features everywhere in the world where you have access to the
internet. The elegant web interface lets you work as if you were logged-in to your local network.

Features of ambiLOG web

• Additional web-based module for ambiLOG
• Additional web browser interfaces available
• All reports from ambiLOG available
• Automatic synchronisation with ambiLOG
• Easy to use with your web browser
• Multilingual
• Supports Linux, Unix and Windows platform
y important client? Wouldn’t it be great to have a telephone system whereby you can route calls according to the importance of the customer? This would mean for example, that calls from valued clients could be identified and routed directly to your mobile or a phone near to where you are working so that you can respond immediately? We also understand that under stringent guidelines important telephone conversations have to be manually transcribed. Wouldn’t it be handy if your telephone system could record
these conversations and save them for easy storage? The Swyx solution helps overcome these issues and enables better resource management thus helping the firm maintain a competitive advantage through their telephone system.

Key benefits of SwyxWare for law firms

There are a number of benefits that a law firm would have from using the Swyx IP
telephony solution. These include:

• Maximise fee-earning capability of legal professionals - experts in all aspects of your legal practice can be made available to clients regardless of their location.
• Pool Receptionist resources – Using pure IP telephony it is possible for all calls to
be managed centrally at a particular site and calls then re-routed transparently to the
correct department or other office location rather than the customer re-dialling a
separate number.
• Individual client billing - Full reporting of telephone activity enables more accurate
billing of clients quickly and easily without the need to travel through phone bills.
• Instant access to client files – Integrate your phone system with all existing
applications such as Microsoft’s Outlook, CRM, billing, and e-mail so that on
incoming calls the appropriate contact window of the caller pops up and case
histories can be viewed instantly.
• Remote working - Remote access via phone or PDA into the office while sat at court
house, over a VPN or wireless connection, gives instant access to the same phone.
environment as in the office so the user can make and receive calls in the same way
• Inter-site connectivity - Reduce call charges between sites and mobile workers –
communication can be operated over existing IP connections between different sites
or subsidiaries for connection to the company’s PBX.
• Fax directly to and from your desk - This speeds up office efficiency and increases
professionalism as important faxes are no longer ignored or forgotten at the fax
machine.

Features of SwyxWare that will support a law firm

Whether you’re in or out of the office, getting important calls through to you is critical to the success of your business. This is an area in which the SwyxWare solution excels by providing you with the ability to route incoming calls based on parameters such as the caller’s telephone ID, the called extension, the time/date/day, and the availability of your legal staff as defined in their Microsoft Outlook / Lotus Notes Calendar. User can choose to set up call routing through a simple rules-based ‘wizard’ or a more sophisticated, yet still easy to use, graphical tool for more complex calling scenarios so that you can respond to your important clients as quickly as possible.

For instances where you are out of the office and need to call a customer but also need
consultation with a colleague who is in the office, Swyx’s conferencing solution enables all 3 of you to participate in an ad hoc conference call so that any potential issues can be quickly resolved. In legal situations, it is often necessary to have a formal record of calls with clients. For easy transcribing of conversations, your legal experts can record each call on a case by case basis and can choose at what point during the conversation to start recording the call – a click of a button on your SwyxIt! softphone is all that is required. Or you may decide that every conversation across your business should be recorded – this can easily be set up by the person who administers your system. Faxes play an important role in law firms but, with the Swyx solution, there is no need for you to have a physical fax machine. You can receive faxes through your Microsoft Outlook Inbox, just like an email, and you can send faxes to your clients directly from your PC or laptop.

Key features of SwyxWare

• Software IP telephony solution based on open standards, no proprietary hardware
required.
• Intelligent call routing/handling and management.
• Home/Office networking, inter-site coupling/networking via IP link.
• Call Detail Records (CDR)
• Voicemail, emails and faxes can be viewed through one PC inbox
• Integrated conference Manager
• Fax integration with the SwyxFax Option Pack
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Visual Basic Scripting with the Extended Call
•Routing Option Pack
• Music on hold

Summary

The Swyx solution is an inexpensive software-based IP telephony system which
integrates all your business telephony, Internet, email and fax services into one
package. It not only handles the tasks of a traditional phone system but includes as
standard conference, voicemail, call routing and call recording for all users for no
extra cost.

2006-06-01T00:04:00.001-07:00

Homeoffersusa

Online home sales have become more prominent in the real estate field. As per the recent data it’s recorded that most of the prominent states in USA and other prominent states worldwide prefer to sell home fast and therefore look forward for professionals who buy houses for cash and complete the real estate transactions quickly and easily within a short span of time. The deliberate devise of the internet in the web world has fastened the rate of home sales in this way. The online home sales professionals have real estate listings on their site covering most of the prominent states and other provinces worldwide especially USA, UK and Europe.

This novel strategy with which the people can make their home buying and selling process themselves by just sitting at home browsing through the net. This is the best way the buyer or seller prefers without lose of time and energy. More over there is no brokerage commission or any other fees to be paid to the online home sale professionals because they provide all the information’s cost free because they want to achieve a fast rate buying & selling process in the real estate field with their valued customers.

Some of online home buyers buy any type of homes for sales confined to a particular locality. They buy old, ugly, ruined, spoilt, damaged houses which are not preferred by most of the home buyers. They buy houses for cash demanded by the home seller. Home selling process which was very tiresome to people sometime back has now turned to be an easy going process with online home sale experts. In spite of high competition in the real estate field for new houses in most of the important destinies, the online home sales experts have proved to gather more homes in the market. They can easily buy homes for sale in such places.

Any lay man can make the home buying & selling process easy by just gathering the information’s in the internet. The online home sales professionals would be glad to welcome you and find the dream house for you in just few days time. They also give ample information’s regarding the search for a home in a particular city. Nowadays home buyers are very particular in selecting their house and for this reason; most of the online realtors furnish all the details of the house in the real estate listings along with the photos, sketch and maps of the house destined to the particular location within the country. They also help people to find houses in the country where they are recently relocated.

2006-06-01T00:04:00.000-07:00

India tourism

We organize tourism in India, building India tourism a pleasurable affair. We offer variable custom-made travel tour India packages customized to cover Indiana tourism in a more successful way. You can merge into the India culture sports and tourism surrounded by India tour breaks. Toptourguide.com gives you all the information essential for an unforgettable experience in India tourism. Make the best opportunity to tour and travel in India – a country of culture and conditions.

2006-06-01T00:03:00.002-07:00

Vacation Villas

A villa is a luxurious house built for the upper class people of Rome. An ancient author and Natural philosopher Mr. Pliny describes more in writtings about the Roman villas of the empire. He categorises the villas as two types they are the villa urbana and villa rustica. The villa urbana was a country seat which could easily be reached within a night or two from the Rome or another city. And the villa rustica is the farm house estate. These farm house estates are permanently occupied by the servants who had charge generally of the estate, which would center on the villa itself, perhaps these villas are seasonally occupied.

The dwelling quarters, consisting of several low buildings, included recreation facilities and lodgings for the servants. The villa rustica, which is the farmhouse type, had barns, orchards, and vineyards, and the villa urbana type which are used as a pleasure retreat had the incidental garden architecture adorned with fountains and sculptures.

There are other villas that originated during different periods like post-roman villas, renaissance villas, Palladio’s villas, English villas and modern villas.

2006-06-01T00:03:00.001-07:00

Florida Lifestyle

Florida is an enchanting city located in southern United States. This magical land is filled with fun and excitement. Popularly called as “The Sunshine City”, Florida exhibits a wonderful moderate climate through out the year. The major attraction in Florida is its superb weather, this city experiences long and warm summers and cool winters. Extremes of climate are very rare in Florida. This is the reason for the migration of elderly people from the colder northern parts of United States. This pleasant weather also attracts a lot of tourists. The most fascinating aspect of Florida is its diversified cities. Each city located in Florida houses something unique and different.

People flock to Florida not only for its tourist attractions but also for its employment opportunities. Florida presents a variety of job opportunities; this is because mixtures of industries are present in this state. There are many media and gaming industries in various cities in Florida, so people interested in this field come to Florida. This state contains a lot of software and hardware industries, which invites all the software and hardware professionals.

Living in the orange country Florida gives you a fabulous experience. The taxes collected in Florida are, the sales tax, the use tax, intangible tax and the corporate income tax. There is no need to pay the personnel income tax in Florida. Some people consider the cost of living in Florida to be a bit expensive; the housing prices are also high in and around the state of Florida.

All kinds of foodstuffs are available in Florida. Owing to its suitable climate it produces a variety of fruits and vegetables. Florida is the dream place for people from other parts of the world; the reason for this is the breadth taking “Disney Land” in Orlando. This popular attraction point receives more than a million of visitors every year. Florida’s major part of economy comes from the tourists industry, while the other kind of manufacturing industries also give a helping hand.

Since millions of people visit Florida, this state is also filled with restaurants, bars and clubs. Florida contains a large variety of restaurants, and these restaurants serve different cuisines. Nightclubs and bars are also popular in this city.

2006-06-01T00:03:00.000-07:00

Florida Vacation Resort

Florida is the most beautiful state in southeast United States. Florida is situated on the peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean and Straits of Florida. The Florida also has a Spanish adjective meaning called flowery. Tallahassee is the capital for the state florida. Jacksonville is the largest city in florida. The Florida has a nickname called "The Sunshine State". In United States the Central florida is called the lightning capital. Florida is said to be the most beautiful state in United States. It has various vacation spots like disney land, busch garden, sea world, everglades, florida beaches and many more. Orlando has become the most popular tourist area, because of disney world. As the major attraction is tourism in florida, it plays the major part for improving the florida economy.

2006-06-01T00:02:00.001-07:00

Fabvillas

Florida, being the harbor city invites enormous tourists to spend their holidays in an unimagined way. Authentic Florida will help you discover a new thrill and excitement throughout your vacation in the prominent places of interest such as the Orlando coastline beach, the Disney land, etc, of the sunshine state. Finding the best rentals/villas in such a place in very difficult but the private rentals/villas organizers over there help you to reduce your time in sorting out luxury rentals in such places.

Florida, being an island is simply magnificent surrounded by water. If mankind has thought of a water sport, then it is bound to be available here. Parasailing above the water, skiing on the water and swimming in the water sounds to be a thrilling experience both for the young and the old. Besides all these attractions, finding a comfortable place to stay is a bit tedious process for the visitors. The private luxury rental home owner’s help people discover the luxurious and all expected rentals at affordable rates confined to a particular area. They also offer flexible services to their customers by providing them the best standardized rentals and make them feel it as a home away from home. All the private rentals/villas are confined to the prominent places which make the tourists feel comfortable in sighting through the places in and around Florida.

The tourists will find all the information and details about the privately owned vacation rentals or villas in Florida when they browse online. Many private rentals/villas offer much information on the luxury rental homes with all the needs and standards to satisfy the tourists. They also provide the travelers with certain tips to help them plan their vacation in the new place and suggest visiting nearby places including various new entertainment and activities put forth by some organizations in Florida especially for children. They also offer the tourists with the opportunity of selecting the rental home of their own choice in any prominent locality of their interest. They have flexible rentals to suit all needs whether it being just a couple or the whole extended family. Private vacation rental homes are privately owned and are situated in desirable locations. Their rental homes offer their special attention to the tourists from various parts oft the world who are new to Florida and provide them with all the details that many hotels are unable to offer making a villa holiday a true home from home experience.

2006-06-01T00:02:00.000-07:00

Auto Transport

Transportation was considered to be a luxury in the ancient times but now it has become a real necessity. Man being a technological animal has developed various modes of transportation. In which auto-transport stands out to be the striking feature.
Vehicle shipping is not a very easy task, before this vehicle shipping came in to existence, people were helpless about transporting there vehicles. So if they needed to move out of the city or country their vehicle transportation was impossible. But auto transport served to be a real remedy for this problem.
Auto transportation service is nothing but a carrier service which transports your vehicles, across the city or country. If you plan to leave the country or city then you are now free to take your vehicle with you. This service is economical than selling your own vehicle in one place and then buying the same in another new place.
Auto transport proves to be the best way, or it is the only way of shipping your adored vehicles safely. But there are some basic points to be checked before selecting a auto- transportation service.

1. First we need to check whether our vehicles are in safe hands, so that our vehicles remain undamaged during the transportation process.
2. Regardless of the mode of transportation employed we have to obtain insurance for our vehicle. This proves to be a protective method.
3. The services offered by the vehicle shipping company should be taken into consideration. Their delivery services and our conveniences should be taken into account.
4. If our vehicle needs to be stored, be it short or long term, we have to check whether the storage facilities are up to the mark.
5. If you need to check whether any company is properly licensed then visit the website of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
6. Before you ship your vehicle enquire about the transportation time in advance, check out whether the company offers speedy vehicle shipping
7. Confirm with the company about their inspection services.
8. Enquire about the conditions and environment about the carrier which is used to transport your vehicle.
9. And finally select a company which demands a fair shipping price in accordance with their services.

2006-06-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

Mp3 player Accessories

We are living in a millennium where the technological advancements are above imagination. One such mind blowing audio breakthrough is the mp3 players. These mp3 players come in a variety of sizes ranging from huge players to small handy ones which could be carried everywhere. The mp3 player also called as the audio digital player comes with fancy buttons, cute icons, smart accessories and unbelievable features. They also possess an interactive display. You get players consisting of a variety of display. The display sizes also range from small to big. Mp3 players can be used with so many different accessories.

Nowadays we are able to use these players to connect to our computers where we can transfer files from our computer to the mp3 player. This ability makes the mp3 player very useful and also it avoids the use of compact disks. The innovative gadgets and accessories used with the mp3 player is aeat technological progress. The storage capacity in the mp3 player is much larger when compared to other storage medium. This high storage capacity is achieved, because all the files are stored in a compressed manner. You can even download free mp3 files from the internet legally. The mp3 players reached the heights of popularity because these audio digital players emphasized on quality. Quality is one unbeatable factor in these

2006-06-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Debt consolidation
Debt consolidation is the process by which a consumer exchanges one loan for another taking various factors in to consideration. Factors such as reduction of average interest rate, reduced to one credit payment from multiple creditors, reduction of past interest or penalty charges, obtaining a payment plan as per the capability of an individual and becoming debt free individual at a faster rate.
Advantages1. Reduction of average interest rate:Taking multiple credit interest rate (which varies from one credit card to another) in to account will have a high interest when compared to one single credit interest for the whole amount with a low interest rate. So an individual may choose this option to reduce his interest rate.2. Reduction to one credit payment:An individual may use many credit cards and pay his bills for all the credit cards. This may need a good management technique depending up on the number of cards in use. If you use more number of credit cards then the planning need to be done more appropriately and executed timely where as if you have one credit card your job is done in a way simple and easily executable. One hence opts to shift from multiple loan payments to one loan payment program replacing all the rest.3. Reduction of past interest or penalty charges:One opting for debt consolidation may go for reduction of past interest or penalty charges paid for the borrowed amount under certain options. Options include high interest rate or penalty charges placed for the credited amount, when the total amount paid in the history till date exceeds the borrowed amount, or if it is a very long duration payment program going for 5 yrs or above. Under each case stated one can reduce the past interest and penalty charges or sometimes even eliminate those and pay only the amount borrowed.4. Obtaining a payment plan:This payment plan is given to the consumer analyzing the capability of an individual by thoroughly going through the personal needs of an individual, his responsibilities etc after which the debt consolidator restructures the existing plans taken by the consumer.5. Becoming debt free at a faster rate:Taking debt consolidation program relieves a person from debts at a faster rate than the usual time, which is required to come out of the debt. Following the plans given by a debt consolidator and proper execution of the plan will surely make an individual debt free and obtain high credit scores.
Disadvantages1. When applying for a loan to replace another you go under the secured loan payment plan placed against an asset such as a home, car or any belongings. Hence at a risk of closing the loan through the asset placed against the loan.
2. You tend to use your credit cards again since you had paid back the credit amount through another loan. Hence the usage of credit cards ads up to your debts ending up in bankruptcy.

Edirol

2006-05-16T01:51:00.000-07:00

Gigasonic has a range of digital musical solutions which suit everyone’s needs. There is the provision of shopping by audio mixer as you browse through. The computer music category includes interface packages which consist of Edirol, usb audio interface, music software and special bundles. To record audio in to your computer, gigasonic has a wide range of audio interfaces. This includes USB and PCI audio interfaces which has premium sound quality and economically viable. These interfaces come with brand names like usb audio interface, interface midi, Line 6 and Casio Privia piano. These audio interfaces have balanced main outputs, input channels headphone outputs and balanced line inputs.

Kaiser Medical California

2006-05-02T21:49:00.000-07:00

The Kaiser Insurance health whereby the insurer pays the medical costs of the person insured if the latter becomes sick is called as medical or health insurance. It is the process of securing one’s life by prior insurance with respect to certain terms and conditons. With many health insurance plans, there is a basic premium involved, which is basically how much you pay to buy health insurance coverage. This is the basis for every health insurance plan. There are health insurance plans available almost for every places and regions. There is health insurance California, in which there is individual health insurance California, blue cross blue shield health, kaiser medical California, group health insurance California and lot more options available in the insurance options available. There are facilities of California dental insurance and business insurances available.

Jaw chuck

2006-04-21T22:23:00.000-07:00

A collet is a sleeve with a cylindrical inside and a conical outside. The collet has kerf cuts along its length to allow it to expand and contract. A threaded section at the rear of the collet is used to pull it into a matching conical socket. As the collet is pulled into the socket, the collet will contract - gripping the contents of the inner cylinder. Collets are most commonly found on milling machines, lathes, wood routers, and precision grinders. Collets can also be obtained to fit Morse or Brown and Sharpe taper sockets.

Typically collets offer far higher levels of precision and accuracy than self-centering chucks, and have a far shorter setting up time than independent-jaw chucks. The penalty is that most collets can only accommodate a single size of workpiece. An exception is ER collets which typically have a working range of 1mm. Air cylinders or collet chucks are made to hold cylindrical work, but are available to hold square, hexagonal or octagonal work pieces.

carbohydrates

2006-04-02T23:26:00.000-07:00

Physical fitness is a good physical health and development using fitness equipments and exercises. It is a result of regular physical activity, proper diet and nutrition. It maximizes individual physical health, endurance, muscular strength and agility, body build, and physiology. It can be realized only through hardworking in exercise, diet, rest. Exercise should be hard and regular, but begun slowly and gradually increased in laboriousness. Aerobics exercises including jogging, cycling and the use of bodybuilding machines, sleeping should be restful and regular. A balanced diet is very essential, it includes bodybuilding supplements like carbohydrates, vitamins, proteins and minerals. Alcohol consumption is a counter productive for any physical fitness.

Another Round of Paganism

2005-12-27T00:53:00.002-08:00

Another Round of Paganism

TRUTH and UNDERSTANDING - An electronic magazine of real knowledge
Millions, perhaps billions of people will once again run full throttle into the upcoming fall and winter holiday seasons of Halloween and Christmas. Many fully acknowledge that the customs of these events are deeply rooted in paganism.
Many take paganism as an ugly word, but it simply means teachings of the nations that did not know the Jewish or Hebrew God of the Bible. An important point to always remember is that the Hebrews or Israelites and not the nations (non Hebrews) were the ones who brought us the knowledge of God. Even in the New Testament we know that Jesus and the Apostles were Israelites. This is why scripture says, "You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews." So it always comes as a surprise to me that the tail (the nations) tries to wag the dog when it comes to religious knowledge. Yet this is what is commonly allowed in the so-called Christian holidays.
The Catholic encyclopedia seems to struggle somewhere between acknowledging that modern Christianity has incorporated pagan teachings and no it is just a coincidence. A coincidence? When you look at the preponderance of coincidences like a day for all the dead Saints that comes on the heels of an ancient Celtic fire festival called Samhain (notice that this is a nations non Hebrew pagan teaching here) now called Halloween in which we have children dressing as demons, ghosts and skeletons or we shift to Christmas and really examine through some simple web research about the origin of these Bacchanalian or Saturnalia type festivities.
Research the origins of the Yule log, tree, mistletoe, wreaths, greenery, birthdays, gifts, caroling (yes even seemingly innocent Christmas carols are from ancient circle dances dealing with fertility rites of the medieval Celtic countries of Europe) and lights. Bacchanalian festivities also had parties celebrated with drinking and promiscuity orgies and riotousness. The Saturnalia festivities also included exchanging gifts, greenery, lights etc. It is impossible to ignore that we have ties to teachings of the nations or pagans that we have justified just as the Bible says, "everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Yet again the Bible says, "what communion has light with darkness?" But we say we cleaned it all up. Why we Christianized it Lord! Yet again the Bible says, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!"
But some may ask isn’t it all ok. Can’t we just have some fun? Why half the stuff I do isn’t really Christian related, I just do it for fun and I’m not thinking of Christ. I’ve seen these attitudes. They are attitudes of someone who thinks they have some distinguishable alter ego. That somehow we can separate ourselves from ourselves like some type of Jekyl and Hyde. But do you think you can really hide half of yourself from before the Lord? The Bible says, "For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord" and "He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord" Therefore all we do is in plain sight of God.
So how dangerous is all this? Well this is what I call mixing of religions or religious practices. Though it appears to be innocent by most, truly it is the most dangerous of all sins. Believe it or not this is something that gets God absolutely furious. Notice God said, "do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way". If nothing else notice the word nations in the above. God is saying do not adapt the practices of the nations. In another example from the book of Ezekiel we read, "Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary?" What was this sanctuary? Why it was God’s temple back in the Old Testament. What were they doing to drive God far from His Temple? Well a further read says they were doing things like bringing in, "every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols", the Bible says the, "women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz." (It is known that there were ancient pagan religions that practiced weeping. Tammuz was an agricultural god who got weak as summer waned on and we all know how we get sad as summer nears its end, so they wept) and the Bible reads, "twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east" (hey look it’s a first Easter sunrise worship.)
The point of all this is that it all occurred in God’s temple. They had stained, soiled, desecrated and defiled the Temple of God by bringing in the ways and teachings of the nations, the pagans, those who did not have a knowledge of proper worship of the true God. After all, why do you think they were called pagans? Because they were stupid, get it? And why is it that their knowledge is so great now that it is brought into Christianity? Because we are stupid I guess. Belittling God’s Temple is not relegated just to the Old Testament. I’m sure we all remember how infuriated Jesus became when He encountered the merchandising in the Temple and made a whip and started to crack some heads. Some things are just off limits.
But now for the biggie because there is a scripture that we need to look long and hard at which says, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are." Defiling our human temple here is no different than all we just read about defiling the physical one. Simply intermix paganism, mix in the bad with the good and you are defiled. As a matter of fact if you mix in any ways of any kind of disobedience you are on your way to defilement and utter destruction.
Disobedience leads to destruction, but obedience and a humble spirit leads one to salvation. It is your disobedience that caused Christ to have to die for our sins (our disobedience) so why do we think it is ok to continue to disobey? Now that you have learned nothing from paganism, for what did you learn from the Yule log or dressing your child up as an Easter egg? Why not learn from God about His holidays? Most people do not even know that God also has Holidays (Holy Days). Well He does and there are seven of them that He commands us to observe.

Baking Bread

2005-12-27T00:53:00.001-08:00

Baking Bread

Holiday activities are stirring among us. The weather is easing into a crisp chilliness that is comfortable in calling out our warmer coats and scarves. Balanced against homes warmed by evening lighted windows and rich stews bubbling on the stove, we are taking our first steps into the time of year that beckons us to enter the mysteries of faith, hope and new life itself. Some of my favorite childhood memories are from this time of year in my mother's Saturday morning kitchen. My mother is a practiced and skilled baker, and she made good use of her creative gift, manifesting cookies, cakes, pies and sweet rolls that make my mouth water and my mind drift with remembered pleasure even as I write these words. Any Saturday could include one or more of these items, and Christmas holiday preparation particularly focused on fruit cake,cookies, sweet rolls, and pies. (The abundance of fruit cake jokes in our culture is lost on me because I have eaten good fruit cake all my life.) But the staple of all these baking days was bread. Baking bread tied all these Saturdays together into one grand, fond memory of a kitchen filled with warm scents, laughter, creativity and love.
My mother learned the fine art of bread baking from her mother-in-law, who lived across the alley behind our house. These lessons were solidified before my memory began, but I witnessed the patterns and rhythm of a defined plan that always exhibited specific, consistent results. Each ingredient was added in order, integrated into the process in the way that would ensure its proper place with its companion components, and the the kneading would begin. Once completed, the dough, covered gently with a cotton dish cloth, was set into the warmed oven to raise. Once risen, the dough was then punched down, divided among the readied loaf pans and set back to the task of raising again before the official baking began. While the creation process evoked a warm, satisfying aroma, the end result, pulled from the oven with round golden crusts, looking like works of art, wafted of contented abundance like nothing else imaginable. We barely let it cool enough to slice it, slather it with butter and taste it melt in our mouths.
On rare occasion, only one that I can remember, this beautiful scene was halted by the dismal performance of yeast that was simply unable to complete its work. No matter how gifted, skilled or practiced the baker, if the yeast doesn't work, the bread doesn't rise, and you are left looking at some very heavy, chewy loaves of mismatched ingredients. The same can be said if the yeast is not left to do its work once blended with the other ingredients. Too little kneading creates huge piles of raw dough, unshaped, uncontrollable and impossible to bake. Too much kneading tells the yeast its services are no longer required, and perfectly good bread gives up the fight and falls as flat as its sibling which came to the table unable to rise at all. It is a delicate balance, this infusion of yeast into the process of baking bread, and how it is handled once in the mix makes all the difference in the success of the end product as it is removed from the oven.
It is no surprise, then, that Jesus chose to use this image to challenge his followers to ponder a new understanding of God's kingdom. "And again he said, 'To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened." (Luke 13:21) Interesting that bread making hasn't changed in its basic form in over two thousand years. Interesting too, that the woman in Jesus' parable did not force the bread into submission, rush it to move more quickly than would be appropriate to achieve a healthy result, or change it into something it wasn't designed to be or do. In short, the woman did her part, then let the yeast rise to the occasion, doing what yeast was intended to do for the bread to become bread.
Fortunately, God is a very practiced and skilled baker, one who is acquainted with the mysteries of the powerful activity of yeast, and with the grace of well-placed faith that, left to its natural devices, will do its work, in its time.

Bringing God Alive

2005-12-27T00:53:00.000-08:00

Bringing God Alive

Every one who believes in God is, to some degree, into theological argument -- argument in the sense of developing logical reasons and propositions for various points of view about God.
We are not concerned here with the development of doctrinal arguments, nor in comparing one set with another. There is a level and degree of conviction which goes infinitely beyond all that and wordy dialogue. And beyond consulting vast tomes of theological treaties. It is the conviction which comes from an EXPERIENTIAL knowledge of God. It comes from experiencing God in our own, everyday lives. Certainly, what we "know" about God comes in some degree from what we believe. But is there not a difference between "belief" in some theological proposition and faith, which is what makes that proposition into a reality for any one of us?
FAITH BRINGS GOD "ALIVE"
It is faith which, as it were, "brings God alive" for each one of us. It is faith exercised at a personal level which makes God personal to us. It is that, rather than delving into works of theology, which make God real.
Faith is, in practice, different to belief. We can believe something and, because we never act on it, it never changes our lives. If I say "I believe God, the father Almighty", it is open to someone without that belief to ask, "So what?" The question is really, "So what is different in your life compared to mine as a result of your belief?"
Unfortunately, there are Christians who would be hard put to answer that, because they have belief but little faith. Faith can be expressed as belief put to the test. No, we are not testing God so much as testing ourselves. We can call in God's promises to us, but such calls are ultimately tests of our own faith, although they must inevitably also show God's loyalty to his own word.
FAITH BRINGS KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
What kind of knowledge of God does faith bring? It is a knowledge which goes beyond anything we can find in a book -- or in an article such as this! It is an EXPERIENTIAL knowledge of God. That is to say, every act of faith is a personal encounter with God, a personal experience of him. The reason is that God never ignores an act of faith, not least because, apart from love, it is the greatest quality he desires from us.
We can read, say, Paul in Roman 4. 17 that God is he who: "gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were." (NIV) He "calls things that are not as though they were"! It is acting on such scriptures as this which brings God alive to us, which brings us into a reality of God which might not previously have existed.
THE KNOWLEDGE THAT COUNTS
That experiential knowledge is what counts! It is that which converts people from no belief to putting God first in their lives, from being nominal Christians into committed Christians -- because that knowledge of God is something which cannot be acquired in any other way. And it tells us what cannot be known in any other way. You may acquire some kind of knowledge about me from reading this article or some of the books I have written. Yet all that would be far less than the knowledge gathered from the experience of actually meeting me (which some may say is a great blessing for you!!!). How much more important, and how much more life-changing is the experiencial knowledge of actually encountering God?
In Romans (as elsewhere) Paul makes the case that we are saved through faith. That is the ultimate expression and consequence of our faith. But it must not be the only one! If we can trust God for this ultimate expression of his love for us, and the dependability of his word, the consequence of which will last for eternity, we can surely trust him for a myriad of other things -- things which are of much less consequence, but which happen every day in our lives.
That repeated, ongoing accumulation of (essentially loving) experiential knowledge is open to anyone who has the courage to risk the consequences of holding God to his many biblical promises -- and who wants to see God "come alive" in their lives.

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Customer Service Rating: God

2005-12-27T00:51:00.000-08:00

Customer Service Rating: God

Holiday shopping season officially starts the day after Thanksgiving. Traditionally called Black Friday, what for most of the country is a day to sleep late and socialize with visiting relatives and friends, is for retail workers the beginning of the countdown until close of business on Christmas Eve. Swarms of people come out to see what is available, enjoy the decorations and wistfully lament how fast time goes by. How can it be Christmas again already?
It's the retail rhythm of life, and stores are the official worship centers of this highly consumeristic season. As a precursor to this main event, an article flashed across my computer screen last week, indicating that disgruntled shoppers were taking charge and fighting back against poor customer service. I can only imagine what these irate and aggravated customers did to vent their frustration regarding being overcharged and underserved. But I also know what it feels like to stand behind the counter, exhausted, aiming to do everything I can to help, but what I have to offer is seen as not enough.
What customers who complain about poor customer service will not tell you is their whole side of the story. They won't tell you they have not ordered their merchandise early enough to be delivered before they need to be on the plane to their mom's house in another state. They won't tell you that they broke the pretty blue and white vase, the last one in stock, as they put it into their car. It was , you see, broken when they purchased it, and they want a refund. They also won't tell you how they held up the line behind them being unpleasant to a sales associate who was unable to locate their item in the back room because they had ordered a completely different product from another company.
What you will hear is the partial story. Although it is the truth, it is not the whole truth. The truth, the whole truth, is that many of us know we have put too much pressure on ourselves regarding shopping and entertaining, we have waited too long to be able to complete our tasks thoroughly, let alone joyfully, and so we become frustrated, blaming other people at hand for our poor choices. I have stood on this side of the counter too, and recognized the bitterness and enraged feelings that begin to rise inside me like music from a horror movie, as the hidden monster was about to strike.
Raising this issue now is a moment to remember all the times I realized, as I rang people up for ornaments, holiday serving pieces and collector nutcrackers, that blaming retailers for poor customer service is a lot like how we treat God when our prayers are not answered and things don't go our way. Prayers are very much like sales transactions. We place our order for the work, the relationship, the house, the vacation, the weather we want, move on to the next task, and assume God is at work on filling our order. when we realize that the order hasn't been filled to our specifications, we often become irritated, blame God and wonder why God is being mean to us, ignoring us, or not giving us what we want. What about that whole asking and receiving business in the bible? Doesn't that really work?
Our overabundance of material wealth in the United States has backfired on us in so many ways. We assume that if we want something, it must be available, and be available when we say so, even when we are dealing with God Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. God's abundance is always at our door, but not always at our disposal. God isn't about supporting our use it/toss it society, regarding material objects or human resources. God is also not about being dictated to according to the terms we set for how we think things should run.
In chapter forty, verse twenty-five, the prophet Isaiah asks us, on God's behalf, an important question: To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? Do we really want to be treating God as a purveyor of poor customer service in our lives? Do we really think God isn't treating us kindly or lovingly just to make our lives miserable? I do believe God has an interesting way of working with circumstances that doesn't usually enter my mind, except in retrospect. But I also believe that God has my best interests in mind, and is quite delighted to help whenever asked with an open mind and heart.
It's my heartfelt hope that as we stand on the threshold of another holiday season, that we can approach each other with open hearts and minds, remembering that, given the truth and a chance, most people will do their best for each other, simply because they can and they want to.

Laughter

2005-12-22T22:20:00.002-08:00

Laughter
Laughing childLaughter is the biological reaction of humans to moments or occasions of humor: an outward expression of amusement. Laughter is subcategorised into various groupings depending upon the extent and pitch of the laughter: giggles, clicks (which can be almost silent), chortles, chuckles, hoots, cackles, sniggers and guffaws are all types of laughter. Smiling may be considered a mild silent form of laughter. Some studies indicate that laughter differs depending upon the gender of the laughing person: women tend to laugh in a more "sing-song" way, while men more often grunt or snort. Babies start to laugh at about 4 months of age. Philosopher John Morreall theorises that human laughter may have its biological origins as a kind of shared expression of relief at the passing of danger. The relaxation we feel after laughing may help inhibit the fight-or-flight response, making laughter a behavioral sign of trust in one's companions.
On the other hand, laughing at somebody is ridiculing him or her.
Laughter is a part of human behavior regulated by the brain. It helps humans clarify their intentions in social interaction and provides an emotional context to our conversations. Laughter is used as a signal for being part of a group — it signals acceptance and positive interactions. Laughter is contagious and the laughter of one person can itself provoke laughter from others. This may account in part for the popularity of laugh tracks in situation comedy television shows. A particularly dramatic demonstration of contagious laughter was the Tanganyikan laughter epidemic, which demonstrated that laughter can also be difficult to control and can occur, unpleasantly, when people are severely stressed.
However, laughter in certain contexts can feel threatening as in drama. For instance, the Batman supervillain The Joker is an insane clown like criminal who finds violent crime hilarious and often laughs hysterically for the slightest reason, especially when commiting murder. Furthermore, one of his favourite methods is a deadly poison that causes the victims to laugh uncontrollably before death.
Certain medical theories attribute improved health and well-being to laughter as it triggers the release of endorphins. A study demonstrated neuroendocrine and stress-related hormones decreased during episodes of laughter, which provides support for the claim that humor can relieve stress.
Research has shown that parts of the limbic system are involved in laughter. The limbic system is a primitive part of the brain that is involved in emotions and helps us with basic functions necessary for survival. Two structures in the limbic system are involved in producing laughter: the amygdala and the hippocampus.
Researchers frequently learn how the brain functions by studying what happens when something goes wrong. People with certain types of brain damage produce abnormal laughter. This is found most often in people with pseudobulbar palsy, gelastic epilepsy and, to a lesser degree, with multiple sclerosis, ALS, and some brain tumors. Inappropriate laughter is considered symptomatic of psychological disorders including dementia and hysteria.
In most people, laughter can be induced by tickling, a phenomenon in itself. Laughing gas is sometimes used as a painkiller. Other drugs, such as cannabis, can also induce episodes of strong laughter. At rare times, pain can sometimes be used to create laughter, though not necessarily with sadistic or masochistic reasoning.
The December 7, 1984 Journal of the American Medical Association describes the neurological causes of laughter as follows:
"Although there is no known "laugh center" in the brain, its neural mechanism has been the subject of much, albeit inconclusive, speculation. It is evident that its expression depends on neural paths arising in close association with the telencephalic and diencephalic centers concerned with respiration. Wilson considered the mechanism to be in the region of the mesial thalamus, hypothalamus, and subthalamus. Kelly and co-workers, in turn, postulated that the tegmentum near the periaqueductal gray contains the integrating mechanism for emotional expression. Thus, supranuclear pathways, including those from the limbic system that Papez hypothesized to mediate emotional expressions such as laughter, probably come into synaptic relation in the reticular core of the brain stem. So while purely emotional responses such as laughter are mediated by subcortical structures, especially the hypothalamus, and are stereotyped, the cerebral cortex can modulate or suppress them." Laughter might not be confined to humans. Chimpanzees show laughter-like behavior in response to physical contact, such as wrestling, chasing, or tickling, and rat pups emit short, high frequency, ultrasonic vocalizations during rough and tumble play, and when tickled. Rat pups "laugh" far more than older rats. Chimpanzee laughter is not readily recognizable to humans as such, because it is generated by alternating inhalations and exhalations that sound more like breathing and panting. The differences between chimpanzee and human laughter may be the result of adaptations that have evolved to enable human speech. However, some behavioral psychologists argue that self-awareness of one's situation, or the ability to identify with somebody else's predicament, are prerequisites for laughter, so animals are not really laughing in the same way that we do.

Types of smiles

2005-12-22T22:20:00.001-08:00

Types of smiles
The "Duchenne smile", after the researcher Guillaume Duchenne, is the most studied, and involves the movement of both the zygomaticus major muscle near the mouth and the orbicularis oculi muscle near the eyes. It is believed that the Duchenne smile is only produced as an involuntary response to genuine emotion, and is therefore what one could call the "genuine" smile. The "Pan American smile", on the other hand, is the voluntary smile involving only the zygomatcus major muscle to show politeness; for example, by a flight attendant on the former airline of the same name. Considered "insincere", this type of smile has also been called the "Professional Smile" by David Foster Wallace in his comedic short story A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (see link for relevant excerpt).

Smile

2005-12-22T22:20:00.000-08:00

Smile
For other uses, see Smile (disambiguation). An Iraqi girl smilesIn physiology, a smile is a facial expression formed by flexing muscles most notably near both ends of the mouth, but also around the eyes. Among humans, it is customarily an expression of pleasure or amusement, but can also be an involuntary expression of anxiety. There is much evidence that smiling is a normal reaction to certain stimuli and occurs regardless of culture. Many studies indicate that smiling is an innate reaction, as children blind from birth smile; however feral children generally do not smile, perhaps lending evidence to the contrary. Among animals, the exposure of teeth, which may bear a resemblance to a smile, are often used as a threat - known as a snarl - or a sign of submission.
Smiling not only changes a facial expression, but can also make the brain produce endorphins which reduces physical and emotional pain, and give a greater sense of well-being.

2005-11-30T16:40:00.000-08:00

Painting Mediums

2005-11-27T21:27:00.000-08:00

Paint and paintings materials differ depending up on the place where it is to be painted whether it is an interior painting or exterior. Interior paintings basically use materials such as oil paint, water colors, wooden board, fabric etc where as exterior paintings involves using water resistant base and mediums.

WLAN

2005-09-20T08:54:00.000-07:00

A wireless LAN or WLAN is a wireless local area network that uses radio waves as its carrier: the last link with the users is wireless, to give a network connection to all users in the surrounding area. Areas may range from a single room to an entire campus. The backbone network usually uses cables, with one or more wireless access points connecting the wireless users to the wired network.
WLAN is expected to continue to be an important form of connection in many business areas. The market is expected to grow as the benefits of WLAN are recognized. Frost and Sullivan estimate the WLAN market to have been 0.3 billion US dollars in 1998 and 1.6 billion dollars in 2005. So far WLANs have been installed in universities, airports, and other major public places. Decreasing costs of WLAN equipment has also brought it to many homes. However, in the UK the exorbitant cost of using such connections in public has so far limited use to airports' Business Class lounges, etc. Large future markets are estimated to be in health care, corporate offices and the downtown area of major cities. New York City has even begun a pilot program to cover all five boroughs of the city with wireless internet.
Originally WLAN hardware was so expensive that it was only used as an alternative to cabled LAN in places where cabling was difficult or impossible. Such places could be old protected buildings or classrooms, although the restricted range of the 802.11b (typically 30ft.) limits its use to smaller buildings. WLAN components are now cheap enough to be used in the home, with many being set-up so that one PC (a parent's PC, for example) can be used to share an internet connection with the whole family (whilst retaining access control at the parents' PC).
Early development included industry-specific solutions and proprietary protocols, but at the end of the 1990s these were replaced by standards, primarily the various versions of IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) (see separate articles) and HomeRF (2 Mbit/s, intended for home use, unknown in the UK). An alternative ATM-like 5 GHz standardized technology, HIPERLAN, has so far not succeeded in the market, and with the release of the faster 54 Mbit/s 802.11a (5 GHz) and 802.11g (2.4 GHz) standards, almost certainly never will.
The lack of default security of Wireless connections is fast becoming an issue, especially in the UK, where many Broadband (ADSL) connections are now offered together with a Wireless Basestation/ADSL Modem/firewall/Router access point. Further, many laptop PCs now have Wireless Networking built in (cf. Intel 'Centrino' campaign) thus eliminating the need for an additional plug-in (PCMCIA) card. This might even be enabled, by default, without the owner ever realising it, thus 'broadcasting' the laptop's accessibility to any computer nearby.
The basic security used for a WLAN was originally Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), but this was shown to provide minimal security due to serious weaknesses. The alternate Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) security protocol was later created to address these problems. Since then software solutions such as SSL, SSH, and various types of software encryption have become the prefered methods of securing wireless information transmission.
Modern operating systems such as Linux, Mac OS, or Microsoft Windows XP as the 'standard' in home PCs makes it very easy to setup a PC as a Wireless LAN 'basestation' and using Internet Connection Sharing allows all the PCs in the home to access the Internet via the 'base' PC. However, lack of expertise in setting up such systems often means that someone nearby, such as a next-door neighbor, may also share the internet connection. This is typically without the wireless network owner's knowledge; it may even be without the knowledge of the user (the neighbor) if his computer automatically selects a nearby wireless network. Nowadays it has become etiquette to leave wireless access points open for others to use just as one expects to find open access points while on the road. This freely sharing of bandwith is the basis of free wireless community networks which are often considered the future of the internet.
The frequency which 802.11b operates at is 2.4GHz, which can lead to interference with cordless phones on the same frequency. If one wants to use a cordless telephone on the same premises, one should ensure that the cordless set uses a different frequency, such as 900Mhz or 5.8 Ghz. However, any wireless router has the ability to operate in different channels. Using channel 11 is most often the best situation for a wireless access point.
There are two possible types of operation:
Peer-to-peer or ad-hoc mode This mode is a method for wireless devices to directly communicate with each other. Operating in ad-hoc mode allows wireless devices within range of each other to discover and communicate in peer-to-peer fashion without involving central access points. This is typically used by two PCs to connect to one another, so that one can share the other's Internet connection for example, as well as for wireless mesh networks. Infrastructure mode This mode of wireless networking bridges a wireless network to a wired Ethernet network. Infrastructure mode wireless also supports central connection points for WLAN clients. A wireless access point is required for infrastructure mode wireless networking, which serves as the central WLAN communication station. This is typically used by a stand-alone base-station (such as a Broadband/ADSL connection box).

Relaxed pronunciation

2005-08-19T19:16:00.000-07:00

Relaxed pronunciation (also called condensed pronunciation or word slurs) is a phenomenon that happens when the syllables of common words are slurred together. It is almost always present in normal speech, in all natural languages (not in some constructed languages such as Loglan or Lojban, which are designed so that all words are parsable).
Shortened forms of words and phrases (such as English contractions) can be considered to derive from relaxed pronunciations, but a phrase with a relaxed pronunciation is not the same as a contraction. In English, where contractions are common, they are considered part of the standard language and accordingly used in many contexts (except on very formal speech or in formal/legal writing); however, relaxed pronunciation is nonstandard and may sound uneducated. This is also sometimes reflected in writing: contractions have a standard written form, but relaxed pronunciations may not.

Creation of the Internet

2005-02-25T02:45:00.000-08:00

The core networks forming the Internet started out in 1969 as the ARPANET, created by the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Some early research which contributed to the ARPANET included work on decentralised networks, queueing theory, and packet switching. On January 1, 1983, the ARPANET changed its core networking protocols from NCP to TCP/IP, marking the start of the Internet as we know it today.
Another important step in the development was National Science Foundation's (NSF) building of a university backbone, the NSFNet, in 1986. Important disparate networks that have successfully been accommodated within the Internet include Usenet and Bitnet.
The collective network gained a public face in the 1990s. In August 1991 Tim Berners-Lee publicized his new World Wide Web project, two years after he'd begun creating HTML, HTTP and the first few web pages at CERN. A few academic and government institutions contributed pages but the public didn't begin to see them yet. In 1993 the Mosaic web browser version 1.0 was released, and by late 1994 there was growing public interest in the previously academic/technical internet. By 1996 the word "Internet" was common public currency, but it referred almost entirely to the World Wide Web.
Meanwhile, over the course of the decade, the Internet successfully accommodated the majority of previously existing computer networks (some networks such as Fidonet have remained separate). This growth is often attributed to the lack of central administration, which allows organic growth of the network, as well as the non-proprietary nature of the Internet protocols, which encourages vendor interoperability and prevents one company from exerting control over the network.

The Economics of Being a Sodomite

2004-11-01T21:34:00.000-08:00

The Economics of Being a Sodomite Since when did my being a "biological error" make me so profitable to Corporate America?
I'm a marketing professional by trade. I've been in gay-borhoods all over the country: Castro in San Francisco, WeHo in Los Angeles (which we all know is just begging for a pun. I mean...We...Ho..very approriate), Boys Town in Chicago, Oaklawn in Dallas, Montrose in Houston, Chelsea in New York, SoBe in Miami. Even Soho in London and the Marais in Paris. And I have to admit, that sometimes these areas drive me nuts! Over thirty years of building "gay neighborhoods" have resulted in building nothing more than a "gay marketing plan," helped along by the so-called gay press (The Advocate, GQ, Men's Fitness). These neighborhoods strike me as a sort of package tour aimed at one very strictly-defined type of gay (white) male who reads the right magazines, spends the required hours at the right gym, has the right job, and possesses the necessary cash (or plastic) to carry it off.
Read any mainstream gay magazine and you'll see what I'm saying. There are no blue collar queers, most certainly no under-employed ones, and (God forbid) no homeless ones. If you're in a band, it's dance-pop. If you work the midnight shift at a convenience store, don't know or care where the nearest gym is, or don't have a tasteful and well-furnished home, you can't be in the club.
Leatherfags and most dykes are not invited either, unless they're discreet and know their respective places. Discussion of having had sex with more than three people in the last year, or in any public place, is not permitted. As a matter of fact, any discussion of sex is frowned upon. Pretty ironic, isn't it, for a group whose only commonality IS sexual orientation?
I realize that I write from some sense of privilege myself. I'm a white boy, an educated, sharply dressed, 30-year-old over-achiever who does in fact go to the gym, earns over $80K annually, not including stock options, 401K plan and benefits, and I have a cute boyfriend, domestic partner benefits, a great pad, two dogs, two cats and pretty much everything I want and need. I'll admit that I could be seen by many as the poster boy of Gay America -- if I weren't still fat. Maybe it's liberal guilt, but I don't think I fit into this package either. I know I don't WANT to. I'll admit that it's a tad hypocritical, but I do read the gay press from time to time, and I'm often on gay.com or advocate.com, to see what's happening, or to chat with my fellow fudgepackers. But I'd like to think we are much more diverse than the images presented there.
Do not for a moment think that I'm on a "gay culture bores me...I want a straight acting and straight appearing lifestyle." That is most definitely NOT what I want. People who are obsessed with their "normalcy" and "masculinity" bore me to no end. Give me the choice between a date with a big butch football player and a date with a cute boy who may be a bit "effeminate" and I'll take the sissy any day, as long as he has a brain, a personality and self-will. But the currently media-packaged, corporate and retail-driven version of "gay culture" doesn't hold a lot of interest for me either.
My idea of a "gay community" does not involve a strip full of stores all my straight friends (hell, even my mother) would feel comfortable in. Frankly, even most of my straight friends in Dallas find Oaklawn a tad sanitized, and the same has been said for the Castro in San Francisco.
So just what is my point? I don't know for sure. I think I'm just a little disillusioned that decades of fighting for the right to be ourselves and to love as we see fit has evolved into such a de-sensualized party line of fitting into cute little assimilated pigeonholes, with the Banana Republic and Abercrombie & Fitch providing our role models. Maybe, as some suggest, this means our movement is "growing up" and I'm just lagging behind. Could be some truth in this. But if being grown up means becoming nothing more than a demographic profile, I want no part of it!
Or, maybe I'm just pissed off and am in a bad mood because I picked up the latest issue of Out magazine and I look nothing like the guys in there. Sure, I work out, but I have some flab here and there, I don't have big pecs or arms or washboard abs. It's never good enough, and I could most certainly never attend a circuit party. Guess this means I need to head over to the gym and pump some more iron, and maybe stop at Starbucks on my way back home, and pick something up at Pottery Barn or Williams-Sonoma to ease the pain. Oh, does it ever end?

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Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda Been A One Hit Wonder

2004-10-20T23:43:00.000-07:00

I hate that I rarely remember my dreams. However, last night I had a rather vivid dream that I had written a song, and, if I do say so myself, it was quite good. It was a song about growing up.It had a catchy, walking piano part, a bit like in a Randy Newman song but slightly more complicated milf.The song's bridge was very sweet and melancholy-funny, and you couldn't help but sing along.But as soon as I opened my eyes, it slipped from my memory like smoke into wind. All I was able to hold onto was this lyric:
"When I was a young boyI had a young boy smile."I am very upset that I have forgotten the rest.

Adrian of Austin

2004-10-20T23:42:00.000-07:00

Since today is Labor Day, and since I'm turning t-h-i-r-t-y in two days, I've been thinking about my job, which I'm growing to dislike. So, I've seriously been considering changing my career, going to culinary school...anything...for a change. Then, I saw an ad this morning informing me that Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ is now on DVD. Then, I thought of Jesus.Jesus of Nazareth, you may have read, was a carpenter. Building things out of wood wasn't really his claim to fame; it was just something he did, because his earthly father, Joseph, was a carpenter. Jesus grew up around a carpenter and just sort of naturally picked up the trade.My earthly father was a psychologist. By extension, I'm certain I'm clinically insane, which makes me adequately suited for my career in Marketing. I have an ingrained ability to put together a marketing plan, competitive analysis and the associated ad campaign. I don't particularly enjoy being a soulless marketer, but I do it because it's what I know how to do.I imagine Jesus might have felt the same way about his learned profession. "Carpentry is alright," he may have thought. "But I think I'd prefer to save the souls of all mankind."OK. I'm nothing like Jesus.But I do want to help people, and since I'm so close to turning t-h-i-r-t-y, I'm not getting any younger, so if I want to do something new, I better get a move on. That's why I contacted a recruiter a couple of weeks ago, exploring the idea of joining the Peace Corps. But here's the thing about Peace Corps: they send the help that countries actually want. For example, China seems keen on having a few folks come over and teach English. So, if I were an English teacher, I might get sent there.But..."We don't have a marketing or advertising need," said the recruiter when I called him to scope out the opportunity.Pity the country that would, actually.milf Things are in a very bad way when a government cries: "We need more marketers!"I certainly don't blame anyone for neglecting to request rabble-rousers when there are houses that need building, diseases that need fighting, and infrastructure that needs developing. But, uhm, I can't do anything else. I'm a monkey with a keyboard.So, the recruiter's suggestion to me: Learn carpentry.

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