miastorm

Angelfire

2009-07-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

Angelfire is an Internet venture offering free space for web sites. Angelfire also offered an online email service but this ceased operation in January 2002. In the past, it was long known for providing advertising-free hosting. (It also offered medical transcription services). The site was bought by Mountain View, California-based WhoWhere, which was itself subsequently purchased by the search engine company Lycos. As Lycos already offered web page hosting with advertising through its acquisition of Tripod.com, Angelfire's offering was modified to also have parity with Tripod, including the addition of an increasing amount of ads but also by offering more disk space.

As of 2008, Angelfire continues to operate separately from Tripod and now includes features such as blog building and a photo gallery builder. It also supports, for paid members only, CGI scripts written in Perl. Until May 2004, Angelfire offered free email (as a cobrand of Mailcity) at the @angelfire.com domain, but this feature has been replaced by webmail for premium users only (through Lycos Domains).

Although the Angelfire and Tripod are very much separate sites, they do share much of the same underlying software, such as the blog application. Lycos brands, including both Angelfire and Tripod, were licensed to a company in the UK, which shut them down. The media announced they were shutting down but neglected to note that they were in no way related to their U.S. counterparts, resulting in a January 2009 posting by Lycos.

Fiber Optical Cable

2009-07-10T10:11:00.000-07:00

An optical fiber (or fibre) is a glass or plastic fiber that carries light along its length. Fiber optics is the overlap of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of optical fibers. Optical fibers are widely used in fiber-optic communications, which permits transmission over longer distances and at higher bandwidths (data rates) than other forms of communications. Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them with less loss, and they are also immune to electromagnetic interference. Fibers are also used for illumination, and are wrapped in bundles so they can be used to carry images, thus allowing viewing in tight spaces. Specially designed fibers are used for a variety of other applications, including sensors and fiber lasers.

Light is kept in the core of the optical fiber by total internal reflection. This causes the fiber to act as a waveguide. Fibers which support many propagation paths or transverse modes are called multi-mode fibers (MMF), while those which can only support a single mode are called single-mode fibers (SMF). Multi-mode fibers generally have a larger core diameter, and are used for short-distance communication links and for applications where high power must be transmitted. Single-mode fibers are used for most communication links longer than 550 metres (1,800 ft).

Joining lengths of optical fiber is more complex than joining electrical wire or cable. The ends of the fibers must be carefully cleaved, and then spliced together either mechanically or by fusing them together with an electric arc. Special connectors are used to make removable connections.

Cable modem

2009-07-01T17:10:00.000-07:00

A cable modem is a type of modem that provides bi-directional data communication via radio frequency channels on a cable television (CATV) infrastructure. Cable modems are primarily used to deliver broadband Internet access in the form of cable Internet, taking advantage of the high bandwidth of a cable television network.

They are commonly deployed in Australia, Europe, and North and South America. In the USA alone there were 22.5 million cable modem users during the first quarter of 2005, up from 17.4 million in the first quarter of 2004.

Modem

Modem (from modulator-demodulator) is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data. Modems can be used over any means of transmitting analog signals, from driven diodes to radio.

The most familiar example is a voiceband modem that turns the digital 1s and 0s of a personal computer into sounds that can be transmitted over the telephone lines of Plain Old Telephone Systems (POTS), and once received on the other side, converts those 1s and 0s back into a form used by a USB, Ethernet, serial, or network connection. Modems are generally classified by the amount of data they can send in a given time, normally measured in bits per second, or "bps". They can also be classified by Baud, the number of times the modem changes its signal state per second.

Streaming media

2009-06-18T15:53:00.000-07:00

Many existing radio and television broadcasters provide Internet "feeds" of their live audio and video streams (for example, the BBC). They may also allow time-shift viewing or listening such as Preview, Classic Clips and Listen Again features. These providers have been joined by a range of pure Internet "broadcasters" who never had on-air licenses. This means that an Internet-connected device, such as a computer or something more specific, can be used to access on-line media in much the same way as was previously possible only with a television or radio receiver

. The range of material is much wider, from pornography to highly specialized, technical webcasts. Podcasting is a variation on this theme, where—usually audio—material is downloaded and played back on a computer or shifted to a portable media player to be listened to on the move. These techniques using simple equipment allow anybody, with little censorship or licensing control, to broadcast audio-visual material on a worldwide basis.

Webcams can be seen as an even lower-budget extension of this phenomenon. While some webcams can give full-frame-rate video, the picture is usually either small or updates slowly. Internet users can watch animals around an African waterhole, ships in the Panama Canal, traffic at a local roundabout or monitor their own premises, live and in real time. Video chat rooms and video conferencing are also popular with many uses being found for personal webcams, with and without two-way sound.

YouTube was founded on 15 February 2005 and is now the leading website for free streaming video with a vast number of users. It uses a flash-based web player to stream and show video files. Registered users may upload an unlimited amount of video and build their own personal profile. YouTube claims that its users watch hundreds of millions, and upload hundreds of thousands, of videos daily.

Internet Protocol Suite

2009-06-04T16:51:00.000-07:00

The Internet Protocol Suite (commonly known as TCP/IP) is the set of communications protocols used for the Internet and other similar networks. It is named from two of the most important protocols in it: the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), which were the first two networking protocols defined in this standard. Today's IP networking represents a synthesis of several developments that began to evolve in the 1960s and 1970s, namely the Internet and LANs (Local Area Networks), which emerged in the mid- to late-1980s, together with the advent of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s.

The Internet Protocol Suite, like many protocol suites, may be viewed as a set of layers. Each layer solves a set of problems involving the transmission of data, and provides a well-defined service to the upper layer protocols based on using services from some lower layers. Upper layers are logically closer to the user and deal with more abstract data, relying on lower layer protocols to translate data into forms that can eventually be physically transmitted.

The TCP/IP model consists of four layers (RFC 1122).From lowest to highest, these are the Link Layer, the Internet Layer, the Transport Layer, and the Application Layer.

internet providers

2009-05-12T14:07:00.001-07:00

An Internet service provider (ISP, also called Internet access provider, or IAP) is a company that offers its customers access to the Internet. The ISP connects to its customers using a data transmission technology appropriate for delivering Internet Protocol datagrams, such as dial-up, DSL, cable modem or dedicated high-speed interconnects.ISPs may provide Internet e-mail accounts to users which allow them to communicate with one another by sending and receiving electronic messages through their ISPs' servers. (As part of their e-mail service, ISPs usually offer the user an e-mail client software package, developed either internally or through an outside contract arrangement.) ISPs may provide other services such as remotely storing data files on behalf of their customers, as well as other services unique to each particular ISP.

ISPs employ a range of technologies to enable consumers to connect to their network.For home users and small businesses, the most popular options include dial-up, DSL (typically Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, ADSL), broadband wireless, cable modem, fiber to the premises (FTTH), and Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) (typically basic rate interface).For customers with more demanding requirements, such as medium-to-large businesses, or other ISPs, DSL (often SHDSL or ADSL), Ethernet, Metro Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Frame Relay, ISDN (BRI or PRI), ATM, satellite Internet access and synchronous optical networking (SONET) are more likely to be used.

Semi-Automatic Ground Environment

2009-05-05T17:37:00.001-07:00

The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) was an automated control system for tracking and intercepting enemy bomber aircraft used by NORAD from the late 1950s into the 1980s. In later versions, the system could automatically direct aircraft to an interception by sending commands directly to the aircraft's autopilot.

By the time it was fully operational the Soviet bomber threat had been replaced by the Soviet missile threat, for which SAGE was entirely inadequate. Nevertheless, SAGE was tremendously important; it led to huge advances in online systems and interactive computing, real-time computing, and data communications using modems. It is generally considered to be one of the most advanced and successful large computer systems ever developed.

History of the Internet

2009-04-16T14:18:00.001-07:00

Before the widespread internetworking that led to the Internet, most communication networks were limited by their nature to only allow communications between the stations on the network, and the prevalent computer networking method was based on the central mainframe computer model. Several research programs began to explore and articulate principles of networking between separate physical networks, leading to the development of the packet switching model of digital networking. These research efforts included those of the laboratories of Donald Davies (NPL), Paul Baran (RAND Corporation), and Leonard Kleinrock's MIT and UCLA.The research led to the development of several packet-switched networking solutions in the late 1960s and 1970s,[1] including ARPANET and the X.25 protocols.

Additionally, public access and hobbyist networking systems grew in popularity, including unix-to-unix copy (UUCP) and FidoNet. They were however still disjointed separate networks, served only by limited gateways between networks. This led to the application of packet switching to develop a protocol for inter-networking, where multiple different networks could be joined together into a super-framework of networks. By defining a simple common network system, the Internet protocol suite, the concept of the network could be separated from its physical implementation. This spread of inter-network began to form into the idea of a global inter-network that would be called 'The Internet', and this began to quickly spread as existing networks were converted to become compatible with this.

This spread quickly across the advanced telecommunication networks of the western world, and then began to penetrate into the rest of the world as it became the de-facto international standard and global network. However, the disparity of growth led to a digital divide that is still a concern today.

History of the Internet

2009-04-16T14:18:00.000-07:00

Before the widespread internetworking that led to the Internet, most communication networks were limited by their nature to only allow communications between the stations on the network, and the prevalent computer networking method was based on the central mainframe computer model. Several research programs began to explore and articulate principles of networking between separate physical networks, leading to the development of the packet switching model of digital networking. These research efforts included those of the laboratories of Donald Davies (NPL), Paul Baran (RAND Corporation), and Leonard Kleinrock's MIT and UCLA.The research led to the development of several packet-switched networking solutions in the late 1960s and 1970s, including ARPANET and the X.25 protocols.

Additionally, public access and hobbyist networking systems grew in popularity, including unix-to-unix copy (UUCP) and FidoNet. They were however still disjointed separate networks, served only by limited gateways between networks. This led to the application of packet switching to develop a protocol for inter-networking, where multiple different networks could be joined together into a super-framework of networks. By defining a simple common network system, the Internet protocol suite, the concept of the network could be separated from its physical implementation. This spread of inter-network began to form into the idea of a global inter-network that would be called 'The Internet', and this began to quickly spread as existing networks were converted to become compatible with this.

This spread quickly across the advanced telecommunication networks of the western world, and then began to penetrate into the rest of the world as it became the de-facto international standard and global network. However, the disparity of growth led to a digital divide that is still a concern today.

The client-server model

2009-04-06T09:08:00.000-07:00

A client is an application or system that accesses a remote service on another computer system, known as a server, by way of a network.The term was first applied to devices that were not capable of running their own stand-alone programs, but could interact with remote computers via a network. These dumb terminals were clients of the time-sharing mainframe computer.

The client-server model is still used today on the Internet, where a user may connect to a service operating on a remote system through the internet protocol suite. Web browsers are clients that connect to web servers and retrieve web pages for display. Most people use e-mail clients to retrieve their e-mail from their internet service provider's mail storage servers.

Disable Indexing Services

2009-03-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

Indexing Services is a small little program that uses large amounts of RAM and can often make a computer endlessly loud and noisy. This system process indexes and updates lists of all the files that are on your computer. It does this so that when you do a search for something on your computer, it will search faster by scanning the index lists. If you don't search your computer often, or even if you do search often, this system service is completely unnecessary. To disable do the following:

1. Go to Start
2. Click Settings
3. Click Control Panel
4. Double-click Add/Remove Programs
5. Click the Add/Remove Window Components
6. Uncheck the Indexing services
7. Click Next

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

2009-03-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

SMTP is a relatively simple, text-based protocol, in which one or more recipients of a message are specified (and in most cases verified to exist) along with the message text and possibly other encoded objects. The message is then transferred to a remote server using a series of queries and responses between the client and server. Either an end-user's e-mail client, a.k.a. MUA (Mail User Agent), or a relaying server's MTA (Mail Transport Agent) can act as an SMTP client.

An e-mail client knows the outgoing mail SMTP server from its configuration. A relaying server typically determines which SMTP server to connect to by looking up the MX (Mail eXchange) DNS record for each recipient's domain name. Conformant MTAs (not all) fall back to a simple A record in the case of no MX (relaying servers can also be configured to use a smart host). The SMTP client initiates a TCP connection to server's port 25 (unless overridden by configuration). It is quite easy to test an SMTP server using the netcat program (see below).

SMTP is a "push" protocol that cannot "pull" messages from a remote server on demand. To retrieve messages only on demand, which is the most common requirement on a single-user computer, a mail client must use POP3 or IMAP. Another SMTP server can trigger a delivery in SMTP using ETRN. It is possible to receive mail by running an SMTP server. POP3 became popular when single-user computers connected to the Internet only intermittently; SMTP is more suitable for a machine permanently connected to the Internet.

HTTP-Hypertext Transfer Protocol

2009-03-16T16:33:00.000-07:00

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. Its use for retrieving inter-linked resources led to the establishment of the World Wide Web.

HTTP development was coordinated by the World Wide Web Consortium and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), culminating in the publication of a series of Requests for Comments (RFCs), most notably RFC 2616 (June 1999), which defines HTTP/1.1, the version of HTTP in common use.

HTTP is a request/response standard between a client and a server. A client is the end-user, the server is the web site. The client making a HTTP request—using a web browser, spider, or other end-user tool—is referred to as the user agent. The responding server—which stores or creates resources such as HTML files and images—is called the origin server. In between the user agent and origin server may be several intermediaries, such as proxies, gateways, and tunnels. HTTP is not constrained to using TCP/IP and its supporting layers, although this is its most popular application on the Internet. Indeed HTTP can be "implemented on top of any other protocol on the Internet, or on other networks. HTTP only presumes a reliable transport; any protocol that provides such guarantees can be used."

Social network service

2009-03-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.

Social networking has created new ways to communicate and share information. Social networking websites are being used regularly by millions of people, and it now seems that social networking will be an enduring part of everyday life. The main types of social networking services are those which contain directories of some categories (such as former classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages), and recommender systems linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with My Space and Face book being the most widely used in North America; Nexopia (mostly in Canada); Bebo, Face book, Hi5, My Space, Tagged, Xing; and Sky rock in parts of Europe; Orkut, Face book and Hi5 in South America and Central America; and Friendster, Orkut, Xiaonei and Cyworld in Asia and the Pacific Islands.

There have been some attempts to standardize these services to avoid the need to duplicate entries of friends and interests (see the FOAF standard and the Open Source Initiative), but this has led to some concerns about privacy.

The user-agent string

2009-03-02T13:59:00.000-08:00

A user agent is the client application used with a particular network protocol; the phrase is most commonly used in reference to those which access the World Wide Web, but other systems such as SIP use the term user agent to refer to the user's phone. Web user agents range from web browsers and e-mail clients to search engine crawlers ("spiders"), as well as mobile phones, screen readers and Braille browsers used by people with disabilities. When Internet users visit a web site, a text string is generally sent to identify the user agent to the server. This forms part of the HTTP request, prefixed with User-Agent: (case does not matter) and typically includes information such as the application name, version, host operating system, and language. Bots, such as web crawlers, often also include a URL and/or e-mail address so that the webmaster can contact the operator of the bot.

The user-agent string is one of the criteria by which crawlers can be excluded from certain pages or parts of a website using the "Robots Exclusion Standard" (robots.txt). This allows webmasters who feel that certain parts of their website should not be included in the data gathered by a particular crawler, or that a particular crawler is using up too much bandwidth, to request that crawler not to visit those pages.

The term user agent sniffing refers to the practice of websites showing different content when viewed with a certain user agent. On the Internet, this will result in a different site being shown when browsing the page with a specific browser (e.g. Microsoft Internet Explorer). An infamous example of this is Microsoft Exchange Server 2003's Outlook Web Access feature. When viewed with IE, much more functionality is displayed compared to the same page in any other browser. User agent sniffing is mostly considered poor practice for Web 2.0 web sites, since it encourages browser specific design. Many webmasters are recommended to create an HTML markup that is as standardized as possible, to allow correct rendering in as many browsers as possible.

Web browser

2009-02-23T12:41:00.000-08:00

Short for Web browser, a software application used to locate and display Web pages. The two most popular browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Both of these are graphical browsers, which means that they can display graphics as well as text. In addition, most modern browsers can present multimedia information, including sound and video, though they require plug-ins for some formats.

DEC 3000 AXP

2009-02-16T21:37:00.000-08:00

DEC 3000 AXP was the name given to a series of computer workstations and servers, produced from 1992 to around 1995 by Digital Equipment Corporation. The DEC 3000 AXP series formed part of the first generation of computer systems based on the 64-bit Alpha AXP architecture. Supported operating systems for the DEC 3000 AXP series were DEC OSF/1 AXP (later renamed Digital UNIX) and OpenVMS AXP (later renamed OpenVMS).

All DEC 3000 AXP models used the DECchip 21064 (EV4) or DECchip 21064A (EV45) processor and inherited various features from the earlier MIPS architecture-based DECstation models, such as the TURBOchannel bus and the I/O subsystem.

The DEC 3000 AXP series was superseded in late 1994, with workstation models replaced by the AlphaStation line and server models replaced by the AlphaServer line.

Budget

2009-02-09T12:58:00.001-08:00

Budget (from French baguette, purse) generally refers to a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving and spending. [1]A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods. In other terms, a budget is an organizational plan stated in monetary terms.

In summary, the purpose of budgeting is to:

1. Provide a forecast of revenues and expenditures i.e. construct a model of how our business might perform financially speaking if certain strategies, events and plans are carried out.
2. Enable the actual financial operation of the business to be measured against the forecast.

Sputnik

2009-02-02T09:36:00.000-08:00

Sputnik (Russian: "Спутник-1" Russian pronunciation: [sputnik], "Satellite-1", ПС-1 (PS-1, i.e. "Простейший Спутник-1", or Elementary Satellite-1)) was the world's first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. It circled the earth in 96.2 minutes. Launched into a low altitude elliptical orbit by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, it was the first in a series of satellites collectively known as the Sputnik program. The unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1's success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the Space Race within the Cold War.

Sputnik helped to identify the upper atmospheric layer's density, through measuring the satellite's orbital changes. It also provided data on radio-signal distribution in the ionosphere. Pressurized nitrogen, in the satellite's body, provided the first opportunity for meteoroid detection. If a meteoroid penetrated the satellite's outer hull, it would be detected by the temperature data sent back to Earth.

IBM VNET

2009-01-26T02:26:00.001-08:00

VNET is an international computer networking system deployed in the mid 1970s and still in current, but highly diminished use. It was developed inside IBM, and provided the main email and file-transfer backbone for the company throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Through it, a number of protocols were developed to deliver e-mail amongst time sharing computers over alternate transmission systems.

VNET was first deployed as a private host to host network among CP/67 and VM/370 mainframes beginning before 1975. It was based on RSCS, a virtual machine based communications program. RSCS used synchronous data link protocols, not SNA/SDLC, to support file to file transfer among virtual machine users. The first several nodes included Scientific Centers and Poughkeepsie, New York lab sites.

Broadband Internet access

2009-01-12T14:18:00.000-08:00

Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just broadband, is high data rate Internet access—typically contrasted with dial-up access over a modem.

Dial-up modems are generally only capable of a maximum bitrate of 56 kbit/s (kilobits per second) and require the full use of a telephone line—whereas broadband technologies supply at least double this bandwidth and generally without disrupting telephone use.

Although various minimum bandwidths have been used in definitions of broadband, ranging up from 64 kbit/s up to 1.0 Mbit/s, the 2006 OECD report is typical by defining broadband as having download data transfer rates equal to or faster than 256 kbit/s, while the United States FCC, as of 2008, defines broadband as anything above 768 kbit/s. The trend is to raise the threshold of the broadband definition as the marketplace rolls out faster services each year.

Voice over Internet Protocol

2009-01-05T14:11:00.000-08:00

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP, IPA: /vɔɪp/) is a general term for a family of transmission technologies for delivery of voice communications over IP networks such as the Internet or other packet-switched networks. Other terms frequently encountered and synonymous with VoIP are IP telephony, Internet telephony, voice over broadband (VoBB), broadband telephony, and broadband phone.

VoIP systems usually interface with the traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) to allow for transparent phone communications worldwide

VoIP systems employ session control protocols to control the set-up and tear-down of calls as well as audio codecs which encode speech allowing transmission over an IP network as digital audio via an audio stream. Codec use is varied between different implementations of VoIP (and often a range of codecs are used); some implementations rely on narrowband and compressed speech, while others support high fidelity stereo codecs.

E-mail

2008-12-29T14:10:00.000-08:00

Electronic mail, often abbreviated to e-mail, email or eMail, is any method of creating, transmitting, or storing primarily text-based human communications with digital communications systems. Historically, a variety of electronic mail system designs evolved that were often incompatible or not interoperable. With the proliferation of the Internet since the early 1980s, however, the standardization efforts of Internet architects succeeded in promulgating a single standard based on the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), first published as Internet Standard 10 (RFC 821) in 1982.
Modern e-mail systems are based on a store-and-forward model in which e-mail computer server systems, accept, forward, or store messages on behalf of users, who only connect to the e-mail infrastructure with their personal computer or other network-enabled device for the duration of message transmission or retrieval to or from their designated server. Rarely is e-mail transmitted directly from one user's device to another's.

Internet Protocol Suite

2008-12-22T14:09:00.000-08:00

The Internet Protocol Suite (commonly known as TCP/IP) is the set of communications protocols used for the Internet and other similar networks. It is named from two of the most important protocols in it: the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), which were the first two networking protocols defined in this standard. Today's IP networking represents a synthesis of several developments that began to evolve in the 1960s and 1970s, namely the Internet and LANs (Local Area Networks), which emerged in the mid- to late-1980s, together with the invention of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 (and which exploded with the availability of the first popular web browser: Mosaic).

The Internet Protocol Suite, like many protocol suites, may be viewed as a set of layers. Each layer solves a set of problems involving the transmission of data, and provides a well-defined service to the upper layer protocols based on using services from some lower layers. Upper layers are logically closer to the user and deal with more abstract data, relying on lower layer protocols to translate data into forms that can eventually be physically transmitted

Internet Governance Forum

2008-12-15T14:06:00.000-08:00

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a multi-stakeholder forum for policy dialogue on issues of Internet governance[1]. The establishment of the IGF was formally announced by the United Nations Secretary-General in July 2006 and it was first convened in October / November.

Flash memory is non-volatile, which means that no power is needed to maintain the information stored in the chip. In addition, flash memory offers fast read access times (although not as fast as volatile DRAM memory used for main memory in PCs) and better kinetic shock resistance than hard disks. These characteristics explain the popularity of flash memory in portable devices. Another feature of flash memory is that when packaged in a "memory card," it is enormously durable, being able to withstand intense pressure, extremes of temperature, and even immersion in water.

Broadband Internet access

2008-12-12T14:12:00.000-08:00

ICANN

2008-12-08T14:20:00.000-08:00

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the authority that coordinates the assignment of unique identifiers on the Internet, including domain names, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, and protocol port and parameter numbers. A globally unified namespace (i.e., a system of names in which there is at most one holder for each possible name) is essential for the Internet to function. ICANN is headquartered in Marina Del Rey, California, but is overseen by an international board of directors drawn from across the Internet technical, business, academic, and non-commercial communities.

The US government continues to have the primary role in approving changes to the root zone file that lies at the heart of the domain name system. Because the Internet is a distributed network comprising many voluntarily interconnected networks, the Internet has no governing body. ICANN's role in coordinating the assignment of unique identifiers distinguishes it as perhaps the only central coordinating body on the global Internet, but the scope of its authority extends only to the Internet's systems of domain names, IP addresses, protocol ports and parameter numbers.

Ozone

2008-11-07T14:58:00.001-08:00

Ozone is a gas. It can be good or bad, depending on where it is. "Good" ozone occurs naturally about 10 to 30 miles above the Earth's surface. It shields us from the sun's ultraviolet rays. Part of the good ozone layer is gone - destroyed by man-made chemicals. Without enough good ozone, people may get too much ultraviolet radiation. This may increase the risk of skin cancer, cataracts and immune system problems.

"Bad" ozone is at ground level. It forms when pollutants from cars, factories and other sources react chemically with sunlight. It is the main ingredient in smog. It is usually worst in the summer. Breathing bad ozone can be harmful, causing coughing, throat irritation, worsening of asthma, bronchitis and emphysema, and even permanent lung damage, if you are regularly exposed to it.

Internet structure

2008-10-20T04:59:00.000-07:00

There have been many analyses of the Internet and its arrangement. For example, it has been resolute that the Internet IP routing structure and hypertext links of the World Wide Web are example of scale-free network.

Similar to the way the profitable Internet providers connect via Internet swap points, research networks tend to intersect into large sub networks such as the next:

* GEANT

* GLORIAD

* The Internet2 Network

* JANET

These in turn are built around relatively smaller network. See also the list of school computer network organizations.

In computer network diagrams, the Internet is often representing by a cloud symbol, into and out of which network transportation can pass.

Internet protocols

2008-10-13T02:20:00.000-07:00

The complex communications infrastructure of the Internet consists of its hardware mechanism and a system of software layers that control various aspects of the building. While the hardware can often be used to support other software system, it is the design and the rigorous standardization procedure of the software building that characterizes the Internet.

The responsibility for the architectural design of the Internet software systems has been delegate to the Internet Engineering Task Force. The IETF conduct standard-setting work groups open to any person, about the various aspects of Internet building. Resulting discussions and final standards are available in Request for Comments, freely obtainable on the IETF web site.

The principal methods of network that enable the Internet are restricted in a series of RFCs that constitute the Internet Standards. These standards explain a system known as the Internet Protocol Suite. This is a model architecture that divides methods into a layered scheme of protocols. The layers correspond to the setting or scope in which their services operate. At the top is the space of the software application, e.g., a web browser request, and just below it is the Transport Layer which connects applications on different hosts via the network. The underlying network consists of two layers: the Internet Layer which enable computers to connect to one-another via intermediate network and thus is the layer that establish internetworking and the Internet, and lastly, at the bottom, is a software layer that provide connectivity between hosts on the same local link, e.g., a local area network or a dial-up link. This model is also known as the TCP/IP model of network. While other models have been urbanized, such as the Open Systems Interconnection model, they are not like-minded in the details of description, nor completion.

University students' appreciation and contributions for the Internet

2008-10-05T22:57:00.000-07:00

New findings in the field of infrastructure during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s were quickly adopted by universities across North America.

Examples of early university Internet community are Cleveland FreeNet, Blacksburg Electronic Village and NSTN in Nova Scotia. Students took up the opportunity of free transportation and saw this new phenomenon as a tool of liberation. Personal computer and the Internet would free them from corporations and governments.

Graduate students played a huge part in the formation of ARPANET. In the 1960s, the network functioning group, which did most of the design for ARPANET's protocols, was collected mainly of graduate student.

Growth of Internet

2008-09-28T23:41:00.000-07:00

Although the basic application and guidelines that make the Internet probable had existed for almost a decade, the system did not gain a public face until the 1990s. On August 6, 1991, CERN, which straddle the border among France and Switzerland, revealed the new World Wide Web project. The Web was imaginary by English scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 1989.

An early accepted web browser was ViolaWWW, patterned after HyperCard and built using the X Window scheme. It was eventually replaced in fame by the Mosaic web browser. In 1993, the National Center for Supercomputing application at the University of Illinois free version 1.0 of Mosaic, and by late 1994 there was growing public interest in the previously educational, technical Internet. By 1996 usage of the word Internet had become ordinary, and consequently, so had its use as a synecdoche in orientation to the World Wide Web.

Meanwhile, over the course of the decade, the Internet productively accommodated the majority of previously existing public computer networks. During the 1990s, it was predictable that the Internet grew by 100% per year, with a brief period of volatile growth in 1996 and 1997. This growth is often attributed to the lack of central management, which allows organic increase of the network, as well as the non-proprietary open scenery of the Internet protocol, which encourages seller interoperability and prevents any one company from exert too much manage over the network.

Terminology

2008-09-21T23:12:00.000-07:00

The terms "Internet" and "World Wide Web" are often use in every-day speech with no much division. However, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not one and the similar. The Internet is a global data communications scheme. It is a hardware and software infrastructure that provide connectivity between computers. In difference, the Web is one of the services communicate via the Internet. It is a collection of unified documents and other capital, linked by hyperlinks and URLs.

Internet

2008-09-08T03:37:00.000-07:00

The Internet is a global system of interrelated computer networks that exchange data by packet switching using the consistent Internet Protocol Suite. It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of personal and public, academic, business, and government network of local to global scope that are associated by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless relations, and other technology.

The Internet carries various information capital and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer and file sharing, online gaming, and the inter-linked hypertext credentials and other resources of the World Wide Web.

Measurement of the ability-based model

2008-08-24T22:07:00.000-07:00

Different models of EI have lead to the growth of various instruments for the appraisal of the construct. While some of these events may overlap, most researchers agree that they tap somewhat different construct. The current calculate of Mayer and Salovey’s model of EI, the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test is base on a series of emotion-based problem-solving items. Consistent with the model's claim of EI as a type of cleverness, the test is model on ability-based IQ tests. By testing a person’s ability on each of the four branches of emotional intelligence, it generates score for each of the branches as well as a total attain.

Central to the four-branch form is the idea that EI requires attunement to social norm. Therefore, the MSCEIT is score in an agreement fashion, with higher scores representing higher overlap between an individual’s answers and those provide by a worldwide sample of respondents. The MSCEIT can also be expert-scored, so that the amount of overlap is intended between an individual’s answers and those provide by a group of 21 emotion researchers.

Although promote as an ability test, the MSCEIT is most unlike normal IQ tests in that its items do not have impartially correct responses. Among other harms, the consensus scoring criterion income that it is impossible to create items that only a alternative of respondents can solve, because, by definition, response are deemed expressively smart only if the majority of the sample has authorized them. This and other similar evils have led cognitive ability experts to difficulty the meaning of EI as a genuine intelligence.

The ability-based model

2008-08-17T23:44:00.000-07:00

Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer's beginning of EI strives to define EI within the limits of the standard criteria for a new aptitude. Following their continuing study, their early definition of EI was revised to: "The ability to perceive emotion, mix emotion to facilitate thought, appreciate emotions, and to regulate emotion to promote personal growth."

The ability based mock-up views emotions as useful source of information that helps one to make sense of and navigate the social environment. The model proposes that persons vary in their ability to process in sequence of an emotional nature and in their ability to relate emotional dispensation to a wider cognition. This aptitude is seen to manifest itself in certain adaptive behaviors. The model proposes that EI includes 4 types of abilities:

1. Perceiving emotions — the capacity to detect and decipher emotion in faces, pictures, voices, and cultural artifacts- including the ability to identify one’s own emotion. Perceiving emotions represents a basic aspect of touching intelligence, as it makes all other meting out of emotional in sequence possible.

2. Using emotions — the ability to harness emotion to facilitate various cognitive actions, such as thoughts and problem solving. The expressively intelligent person can take advantage of fully upon his or her altering moods in order to best fit the task at hand.

3. Understanding emotions — the aptitude to comprehend emotion language and to be pleased about complicated relationships among emotions. For example, understanding emotions encompass the ability to be responsive to slight variations between emotions, and the ability to recognize and explain how emotions evolve over time.

4. Managing emotions — the ability to adjust emotions in both ourselves and in others. Therefore, the expressively clever person can harness emotion, even negative ones, and direct them to achieve intended goals.

Emotional Intelligence

2008-08-10T22:25:00.000-07:00

Emotional Intelligence (EI), often considered as an Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ), describe an ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and control the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups. It is a pretty new area of psychological research. The definition of EI is constantly varying.

There are a lot of opinion about the definition of EI, opinion that regard both expressions and operationalizations. One attempt near a definition was made by Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer who definite EI as “the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to distinguish among them and to use this in order to guide one's thinking and actions.”

Even though this early definition, there has been disorder regarding the exact connotation of this construct. The definition is so varied, and the field is increasing so rapidly, that researchers are regularly amending even their own definition of the build. Up to the present day, there are three main model of EI:

* Ability-based EI models

* Mixed models of EI

* Trait EI model

Forest

2008-08-03T22:49:00.000-07:00

A forest is an area with a high bulk of trees. There are several definitions of a forest, based on a variety of criteria. These plant communities face large areas of the globe and function as animal habitats, and soil conservers, constituting one of the most important aspects of the Earth's biosphere. While frequently thought of as carbon dioxide sinks, grown-up forests are approximately carbon neutral with only troubled and young forests acting as carbon sinks. However mature forests do play a main role in the global carbon cycle as stable carbon pools, and authorization of forests leads to an increase of impressive carbon dioxide levels.

Forests sometimes have many tree species within a small area or comparatively few species over large areas. Forests are frequently home to many animal and plant species, and biomass per unit area is high compared to other plants communities. Much of this biomass occurs below-ground in the origin systems and as partly decomposed plant accumulation. The woody element of a forest contains lignin, which is comparatively slow to decompose compared with other organic materials such as cellulose or carbohydrate.

Food

2008-07-28T00:36:00.000-07:00

Food is any matter, usually collected primarily of carbohydrates, fats, water and/or proteins, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal or human for diet or enjoyment. Items measured food may be sourced from plants, animals or other category such as fungus or fermented goods like alcohol. Although many human culture sought food items through hunting and gathering, today most cultures use farming, ranching, and fishing, with hunting, foraging and other method of a local nature built-in but playing a minor role.

Most society has an identifiable cuisine, a specific set of cooking society, preferences, and practice, the study of which is known as cooking. Many cultures have diversified their foods by means of homework, cooking methods and developed. These also include a complex food trade which helps the culture to cheaply survive by-way-of food, not just by use.

Many cultures study the nutritional analysis of food habits. While humans are omnivores, religion and social construct such as morals often affect which foods they will drink. Food safety is also a concern with foodborne illness claim many lives each year. In much language, food is often used figuratively or symbolically, as in "food for thought".

What Is Cell Phone Cloning Fraud?

2008-05-19T05:30:00.000-07:00

Every cell phone is supposed to have a unique factory-set electronic serial number (ESN) and telephone number (MIN). A cloned cell phone is one that has been reprogrammed to transmit the ESN and MIN belonging to another (legitimate) cell phone. Unscrupulous people can obtain valid ESN/MIN combinations by illegally monitoring the radio wave transmissions from the cell phones of legitimate subscribers. After cloning, both the legitimate and the fraudulent cell phones have the same ESN/MIN combination and cellular systems cannot distinguish the cloned cell phone from the legitimate one. The legitimate phone user then gets billed for the cloned phone’s calls. Call your carrier if you think you have been a victim of cloning fraud.

Motorola Mobile Phone

2008-05-05T04:14:00.000-07:00

Motorola Mobile Phones is one of the global leaders in the field of Mobile Phone Industry. Harnessing the power of wireless, Internet and the broadband, the Company today is the leading integrated communication solution provider to many business houses and millions of individuals worldwide. Leveraging from its vast experience in diverse fields, Motorola Mobile Phones has become a globally recognized brand in the mobile phone market.

Popular among consumers for its futuristic and innovative handsets, the manufacturer is constantly adapting newer technologies to add spice to your mobile communique. The rich product portfolio of Motorola boasts of some latest and feature packed motorola mobile phones are Motorola KRZR, Motorola PEBL U6, Motorola V3i and Motorola L6. Just scroll down to see the comprehensive list of Motorola mobile phones.

Telephone Features Information

2008-04-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

These features are for digital telephones only. You may refer to the campus directory, on page A-5 for analog instructions. Should you have any questions about these features, please contact Silvia at extension 5050.

Placing A Call - Pickup the handset, or press the "Handsfree" button.

Transferring - Press the "Transfer" button, without putting caller on hold. Dial desired extension and press the "Transfer" key again.

Conference - Without putting caller on hold, press "Conference" button. Dial desired phone number and press "Conference" button again. Continue this process until all parties are connected.

Call Forward - This feature is used when you are either out of the office or you don't want to be disturbed. Simply press "Forward" button, enter extension you would like to forward to (6060 for voice mail). Press "Forward" button again. To cancel, press "Forward" button again. If you need to forward to the same number again, press "Forward" button twice.

Message Waiting - On all digital phones, you have a red light that with light up when you have messages. Simply press your "Message" key, enter 6060 to access voice mail (unless you have auto login).

Last # Redial - This feature allows you to call that last number dialed without dialing the entire number again. Lift your handset and press your extension button twice. If you have handsfree, you may simply press the extension button twice.

Hold Button - Press the "Hold" button and it puts the caller on hold. To retrieve the call, press your line button next to the flashing indicator.

Ring Again - This feature allows you to call a number (on campus only) continuously until the line becomes available. When you hear the busy tone, press the "Ring Again" button, then hang up. When your phone rings, and the "Ring Again" button flashes, press the "Ring Again" button to complete the call. However, Ring Again does not work when the called number has voice mail.

Call Pickup - To answer another phone in your call pickup group, lift your handset and press the "Call Pickup" button.

Speed Call - This feature allows you to place calls to frequently called numbers by entering a 1- or 2- digit code. Press the "Speed Call" button and dial the code.

Voice Mail - This feature allows people to leave messages for you through Meridian Mail. On digital telephones, a red light will blink when new messages have arrived. Simply press the "Message" button to access your voice mail.

Mobile Phone Radiation and Health

2008-03-23T19:20:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of mobile phones, apprehensions have been raised about the potential health forces from regular use. As mobile phone penetrations grew past fixed landline penetration levels in 1998 in Finland and from 1999 in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, the Scandinavian health authorities have run permanent long term studies of effects of mobile phone radiation effects to humans, and in particular children. Numerous studies have reported no significant relationship among mobile phone use and health. Studies from the Institute of Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute and researchers at the Danish Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen for model showed no link between mobile phone use and cancer. The Danish study only covered analog mobile phone tradition up through 1995, and subjects who started mobile phone tradition after 1995 were counted as non-users in the study. The health concerns have grown as mobile phone saturation rates throughout Europe reached 80%–90% levels earlier in this decade and prolonged experience studies have been carried out in almost all European countries again most reporting no effect, and the most alarming studies only coverage a possible effect. However, a study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer of 4,500 users found a borderline statistically important link between tumor frequency on the same side of the head as the mobile phone was used on and mobile phone usage.

The Telephone

2008-03-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

The telephone is a telecommunications device that is used to transmit and receive sound (most commonly speech), generally two people conversing but occasionally three or more. It is one of the most universal household appliances in the world today. Most telephones operate through transmission of electric signals over a complex telephone network which allows almost any phone user to communicate with almost anyone.

ICE Age

2008-03-09T21:21:00.000-07:00

An ice age is a period of long-term downturn in the temperature of Earth's climate, resulting in an increase of the continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers. Glaciologically, ice age is often used to mean a period of ice sheets in the northern and southern hemispheres; by this description we are still in an ice age. More colloquially, when speaking of the most recent few million years, ice age is used to refer to colder periods with extensive ice sheets over the North American and European continents: in this sense, the last ice age ended about 10,000 years ago. This article will use the term ice age in the former, glaciological, sense; and use the term 'glacial periods' for colder periods the duration of ice ages and 'interglacial' for the warmer periods.

During the last few million years, there have been many glacial periods, occurring firstly at 40,000-year frequency but more recently at 100,000-year frequencies.

Natural Science

2008-03-03T18:57:00.000-08:00

Natural sciences form the foundation for the applied sciences. Together, the natural and applied sciences are distinguished starting the social sciences on the one hand, and from the humanities, theology and the arts on the other. Though Mathematics, statistics, and computer science are not considered natural sciences, they supply many tools and frameworks used within the natural sciences.

Alongside this established usage, the phrase natural sciences is also sometimes used more narrowly to refer to its everyday usage, that is, related to natural history. In this sense "natural sciences" may refer to the biology and perhaps also the earth sciences, as illustrious from the physical sciences, including astronomy, physics, and chemistry.

Within the natural sciences, the word hard science is sometimes used to describe those sub-fields that rely on experimental, quantifiable data or the scientific method and focus on accuracy and objectivity. These generally include physics, chemistry and many of the sub-fields of biology. By contrast, soft science is often used to explain the scientific fields that are more reliant on qualitative research, including the social sciences.

There is some explore, collectivelly known as graphism thesis, that indicates that natural science relies on graphs more than soft sciences and mathematics do.

Paper

2008-02-24T18:41:00.000-08:00

Paper is thin material habitually used for writing upon, printing upon or packaging. It is formed by the amalgamation of fibers, characteristically vegetable fibers composed of cellulose, which are subsequently held together by hydrogen bonding. While the fibers are generally natural in origin, a wide variety of synthetic fibers, such as polypropylene and polyethylene, may be incorporated into paper as a way of imparting desirable physical properties. The most general source of these kinds of fibers is wood pulp from pulpwood trees. Vegetable fiber resources such as cotton, hemp, linen, and rice are also used.

2008-02-17T18:08:00.001-08:00

Daisy wheel printers

Daisy-wheel printers operate in much the same style as a typewriter. A hammer strikes a wheel with petals (the daisy wheel), every petal containing a letter form at its tip. The letter form strikes a ribbon of ink, depositing the ink on the page and thus printing a character. By rotating the daisy wheel, various characters are selected for printing.

These printers were also referred to as letter-quality printers since, for the duration of their heyday, they could produce text which was as clear and crisp as a typewriter (though they were nowhere near the quality of printing presses). The fastest letter-quality printers printed at 30 font per second.

2008-02-10T18:23:00.000-08:00

Computer Printer

A computer printer, or more generally a printer, produces a hard copy (permanent human-readable text and/or graphics) of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are mainly used as local computer peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable to a computer which serves as a document source. Some printers, commonly known as network printers, have built-in network interfaces (typically wireless or Ethernet), and can provide as a hardcopy device for any user on the network. Individual printers are often designed to support both local and network linked users at the same time.

In addition, many modern printers can straight interface to electronic media such as memory sticks or memory cards, or to image capture devices such as digital cameras, scanners; some printers are combined with a scanners and/or fax machines in a single unit. Printers that contain non-printing features are sometimes called Multi-Function Printers (MFP) or Multi-Function Devices (MFD).

A printer which is shared with a scanner can function as a photocopier if so designed. Most MFPs include printing, scanning, and copying among their features.

Printers are planned for low-volume, short-turnaround print jobs; requiring virtually no setup time to achieve a hard copy of a given document. However, printers are usually slow devices (30 pages per minute is considered fast; and many consumer printers are far slower than that), and the cost-per-page is relatively high.

In contrast, the printing press (which serves much the same function), is planned and optimized for high-volume print jobs such as newspaper print runs--printing presses are capable of hundreds of pages per minute or more, and have an incremental cost-per-page which is a fraction of that of printers.

The printing press remains the machine of option for high-volume, professional publishing. However, as printers have improved in excellence and performance, many jobs which used to be done by professional print shops are now done by users on local printers; see desktop publishing.

The world's first computer printer was a 19th century mechanically driven tools invented by Charles Babbage for his Difference Engine.

In 2007, a study exposed that toner-based printers produced pollution as harmful as that from cigarettes.

2008-02-05T19:06:00.001-08:00

Systems Engineering

Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary pasture of engineering, that focuses on the development and organization of complex artificial systems. Systems engineering integrates additional disciplines and specialty groups into a team effort, forming a structured development process that proceeds from concept to production to operation and disposal. Systems engineering considers equally the business and the technical needs of all customers, with the goal of providing a quality product that meets the user needs.

2008-01-27T18:31:00.001-08:00

Purely way in Croydon

Purley Way is a section of the A23 trunk road in Croydon, London and has given its name to the out-of-town shopping locale alongside it with a catchment area covering most of South London. It was designed as a sidestep for Croydon and was opened in April 1925. In 1932 Purley Way became the first road in the United Kingdom to be lit with sodium lights. Industry History The IKEA chimneysCroydon Airport (operational 1928 - 1959) is situated on Purley Way. The opening of Purley Way attracted industry to the area and it became the main industrial area of Croydon. Industry concerned to the area included Redwing Aircraft Ltd, Trojan Ltd (car manufacturers) and Tizer Ltd. There were also more than a few metal companies including Standard Steel Co, Croydon Foundry Ltd, Metal Propellers Ltd and Southern Foundries Ltd. Croydon 'B' Power Station was built in the behind 1940s and opened in 1950. It shut down in 1984, was demolished in 1991 and an IKEA amass was opened on the site. The huge chimneys of the power station were retained and remain a local landmark. Retail history The first retail warehouse on Purley Way, Queensway furniture store, opened in 1980. Sainsbury's opened its first Homebase hoard in 1981. The initial PC World opened on Purley Way in 1991. The retail units were not division of the local planning guidance and were part of a national trend towards out of town shopping. These retail parks were not officially recognised by Croydon Council until the publication of its 1997 Unitary Development Plan.

2008-01-17T18:52:00.001-08:00

After 1944 in Croydon Airport

In 1944, Croydon became the base of RAF Transport Command, and in outstanding course civil aircraft operations began again. In February 1946, the airport returned to civilian organize. Gradually it became obvious that with technical advances, post-war airliners were going to be bigger and the use of airports serving capital cities would intensify. Croydon, however, had no room for further development and would shortly be too small to meet evident travel demands. Heathrow was therefore designated as London's airport and a resolution to close Croydon's airport was made in 1952. Blackbushe in Hampshire and Northolt Aerodrome in Middlesex also served airlines in service European scheduled flights during the 1950s. Croydon's most recent scheduled flight departed on 30 September 1959. The De Havilland Heron external Airport HouseThe site may still be seen. Much of it has been built over, but several of the terminal buildings near the main road are still visible, obviously identifiable as to their former purpose, and a De Havilland Heron, a small (fewer than 20 seats) airliner of the 1950s, is currently (2002) displayed outside on struts flanking the entry path. A Tiger Moth in RAF training scheme livery is suspended within the preserved booking hall which functions as a dining room when necessary. A memorial to the Battle of Britain stands somewhat to the south. Although Croydon Airport has long ceased operation, the two ends of Plough Lane that had been separated have never been reunited, the area having been urbanized instead into parkland, playing fields and the Roundshaw residential estate with its roads aptly named after aviators and aircraft.

2008-01-09T19:20:00.000-08:00

Croydon Airport in 1939

A further item that caught the eye of visitor and traveller alike was the time zone be head and shoulders above in the booking hall with its dials depicting the times in different parts of the world. The aerodrome was known the world over, its fame being extend by the many aviators and pioneers who touched down at Croydon. Here is a list of them: Alan Cobham, who flew from Croydon to Cape Town and back in 1925-6; Charles Lindbergh, who flew into Croydon in 1927 shortly later than completing the first solo trans-Atlantic flight; Bert Hinkler, who made the initial flight from Croydon to Darwin, Australia in 1928; Charles Kingsford Smith, who beat Hinkler's record; Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly from Croydon to Australia, later to return to Croydon to a jubilant welcome. When war was stated in September 1939, Croydon Airport was closed to civil aviation. It played a very important role as a fighter station during the Battle of Britain and was attacked in the first major raid over the London area. Factories in its instant vicinity were approximately destroyed with the loss of six airmen and over 60 civilians

2007-12-30T19:10:00.000-08:00

Croydon Airport

Croydon Airport is in south London on the restrictions of the London Boroughs of Croydon and Sutton. It was once the main airport for London, previous to it was replaced by Northolt Aerodrome, London Heathrow Airport and London Gatwick Airport.. Beddingt on Aerodrome, one of a numeral of small airfields around London which had been created for protection against the Zeppelin raids in about May 1915, and Waddon Aerodrome of 1918, a test-flight aerodrome adjoining National Aircraft Factory No1. At the end of that war, the two airfields were shared into London's official airport as the gateway for all international flights to and from the capital. Croydon Aerodrome opened on 29 March 1920, in the mid 1920s, the landing field was extended, some adjacent roads being permanently closed to allow heavier airliners to land and depart safely. A new complex of buildings was constructed adjoining Purley Way, together with the first purpose-designed air terminal in the world, the Aerodrome Hotel and extensive hangars, all opening on 2 May 1928. The terminal building, the booking hall within it with its colonnade balustraded in the geometrical design typical of the period, and the Aerodrome hotel were all built in the Art Deco style of the 1920s and 1930s.

2007-12-23T23:07:00.000-08:00

Qantas Empire Airways

In Australia in 1934 Imperial and Qantas (Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd) created Qantas Empire Airways Limited to extended services in Southeast Asia. But it was not until 1937 with the Short Empire flying boats that majestic could offer an 'all air' service from Southampton to the Empire. The journey to the Cape consisted of flights to Marseille, Rome, Brindisi, Athens, Alexandria, Khartoum, Port Bell, Kisumu and beyond by land-based craft to Nairobi, Mbeya and eventually Cape Town. Survey flights were also completed across the Atlantic and to New Zealand. By mid-1937 Imperial had completed its thousandth service to the Empire. Speed Wings Over the World, statue on a portal above the Empire Terminal's main entrance; by Eric Broadbent The Empire Air Mail Program began in July 1937, delivering anyplace for 1½ d./oz. By mid-1938 a hundred tons of mail had been delivered to India and a related amount to Africa. In the same year, construction was started on the Empire Terminal, intended by A. Lakeman and with a statue by Eric Broadbent, Speed Wings Over the World gracing the entrance above the main entrance. The terminal provided train associations to flying boats at Southampton and to the since closed Croydon Airport. The terminal operated as recently as 1980. Imperial Airways Speedbird logoCompared to extra operators it was lagging behind in Europe and it was suggested that all European operations be handed over to British Airways Ltd (founded in 1935) which had more contemporary aircraft and better organization. However in November 1939 both Imperial and British Airways Ltd were compound into a new state-owned national carrier: British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). The new carrier adopted the Imperial Speedbird logo, which has evolved into the current British Airways Speedmarque, and the term continues to be used as BA's call sign.

2007-12-16T18:22:00.001-08:00

Commercial Flight

The first commercial flight was in April 1924, when a on a daily basis London-Paris service was opened. Additional services to other European destinations were started all the way through the summer. The first fresh airliner was commissioned by Imperial Airways in November 1924. In the first year of process the company carried 11,395 passengers and 212,380 letters. The extension of service to the British Empire was not begun until 1927 when, with the adding of six new aircraft, a service was instituted from Cairo to Basra. But the first service from London for Karachi did not start until 1929 using recently purchased Short S.8 Calcutta flying boats, even then the passengers were transported by train from Paris to the Mediterranean where the Short flying boats were. In February 1931 a weekly service stuck between London and Tanganyika was started as part of the proposed route to Cape Town and in April an experimental London-Australia air mail flight took place; the mail was transferred at the Netherlands East Indies, and took 26 days in total to reach Sydney. The buy of the 8 Handley Page 42 four-engined airliners boosted the range of services, in 1932 the service to Africa was extended to Cape Town.

2007-12-11T17:57:00.001-08:00

Imperial Airways

Imperial Airways Imperial Airways was an near the beginning British commercial air transport company, operating from 1924 to 1939. Created following the advice of the government Hambling commission in 1923- that the main existing aircraft companies should be merged to create a company which would be strong enough to develop Britain's external air services and presented a £1m subsidy over ten years if they merged. Imperial Airways Limited was created in March 1924 from the British Marine Air Navigation Company Ltd (three aircraft), the Daimler Airway (five aircraft), Handley-Page Transport Ltd (three aircraft) and the Instone Air Line Ltd (two aircraft). The land operations were fully based at Croydon Airport.

2007-11-25T18:25:00.001-08:00

Privatisation - British Airways

Sir John King, later Lord King, was selected as Chairman in 1981 with the mission of preparing the airline for privatisation.When King knew Colin Marshall as CEO in 1983. King was credited with turning just about the loss-making giant into one of the most profitable air carriers in the world, boldly claiming to be "The World's Favourite Airline", while many other large airlines struggled. The airline's flotilla and route map were overhauled in the early years of King's tenure, with brand and advertising experts being recruited to overhaul the airline's image. Over 23,000 jobs were shed in the early 1980s, though King managed the extensive trick of boosting staff morale and modernise operations at the same time. Lord King also recognised the importance of Concorde to the company's business plan, and used the supersonic airliner to win business customers by guaranteeing a certain number of Concorde upgrades in return for corporate accounts with BA.

The flag carrier was privatised and floated on the London Stock Exchange in February 1987 by the traditional government, with the initial share offering being 11 times oversubscribed. In April 1988 British Airways effected the contentious takeover of Britain's second-force airline British Caledonian, and in 1992 absorbed Gatwick-based carrier Dan-Air.

2007-11-18T17:34:00.000-08:00

British Airways

British Airways is the major airline of the United Kingdom. It is also one of the biggest airlines in the world, with more flights from Europe across the Atlantic than any other operator. Its main hubs are London Heathrow and London Gatwick, with wide-reaching European and conjugal shorthaul networks, including smaller hubs at other UK airports including Manchester, from which some longer-haul flights are also operated.

The airline's origins go back to the birth of civil aviation and the original days after the First World War. On 25 August 1919 its predecessor company, Aircraft Transport and Travel, launched the world's first daily international scheduled air service, between London and Paris. On 31 March 1924, Britain's four hatchling airlines - Instone, Handley Page, Daimler Airways and British Air Marine Navigation - merged to form Imperial Airways, which developed its Empire routes to Australia and Africa.

2007-11-11T19:08:00.001-08:00

Corbett's Tiger

Indochinese Tiger The Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti), also called Corbett's tiger, is originate in Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, preferring to stay alive in forests in mountainous or hilly regions. Estimates of its inhabitants vary between 1,200 to 1,800, with only several hundred left in the wild, but it seems likely that the number is in the lower part of the range; it is considered Endangered. The largest present population is in Malaysia, where illegal poaching is strictly controlled, but all existing populations are at extreme risk from habitat fragmentation and inbreeding. In Vietnam, nearly three-quarters of the tigers killed provide stock for Chinese pharmacies. Also, the tigers are seen by poor natives as a resource through which they can ease poverty. Indochinese tigers are less significant and darker than Bengal tigers. Males weigh up from 150–190 kg (330–420 lb) on average while females are smaller at 110–140 kg (242–308 lb). Their go on a diet consists of wild pigs, cattle and deer; The Indochinese tiger is a carnivore.

2007-11-04T19:03:00.001-08:00

Tiger’s in

India

Even though this is the most 'common' tiger, these tigers are under severe force from both habitat destruction and poaching. In 1972, India launched a huge wildlife conservation project, known as Project Tiger, to care for the depleting statistics of tigers in India. The project helped raise the population of these tigers from 1,200 in the 1970s to 3,000 in the 1990s and is considered as one of the most successful wildlife conservation programs. At least one Tiger Reserve has lost its full tiger population to poaching. Males in the wild generally weight 205 to 227 kg (450–500 lb), while the average female will weigh about 141 kg. However, the northern Indian and the Nepalese Bengal tigers are invented to be somewhat bulkier than those found in the south of the Indian Subcontinent, with males averaging around 520 lbs (236 kg).

2007-10-28T22:00:00.001-07:00

Subspecies of Tiger

There are nine recent subspecies of tiger, three of which are extinct, one of which is nearly certain to become extinct in the near future, and five of which still occur. Their chronological range ran through Russia, Siberia, Iran, Afghanistan, India, China and south-east Asia, including the Indonesian islands. These are the ongoing subspecies, in descending order of wild population:

Bengal tiger

The Bengal tiger or the Royal Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is originate in parts of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. It lives in different habitats: grasslands, subtropical and tropical rainforests, scrub forests, wet and dry deciduous forests and mangroves. The Indian government's estimated populace figure for these tigers is between 3,100 and 4,500, some 3,000 of which are found in India alone. However, many Indian tiger conservationists uncertainty this number, seeing it as overly optimistic. The number of Bengal tigers in India may be less than 2,000, as most of the collected statistics are based on pugmark identification, which often gives a biased result.

2007-10-21T20:21:00.000-07:00

Tiger's eye

Tiger's eye (also Tigers eye, Tiger eye) is a chatoyant gemstone that is generally yellow- to red-brown, with a silky luster. It is a rubbery silicified crocidolite (blue asbestos), a classic model of pseudomorphous replacement. An incompletely silicified blue option is called Hawk's eye. A member of the quartz group, its physical and optical properties are the same or very near to those of single-crystal quartz.

The gems are generally cut en cabochon in order to best display their chatoyancy. Red stones are brought about through calm heat treatment. Honey-coloured stones have been used to try to be like the much higher valued cat's eye chrysoberyl (cymophane), but the overall effect is unconvincing. Artificial fibreoptic glass is a general imitation of tiger's eye, and is produced in a wide range of colours.

2007-10-15T20:16:00.000-07:00

Naming and etymology of Tiger

The word "tiger" is taken from the Greek word "tigris", which itself is consequential "possibly from an Iranian source." In American English, "Tigress" was first record in 1611. "Tiger's-eye" is a name for a golden-brown with stripes, chatoyant, fibrous assortment of quartz used as a semi-precious gemstone. It was one of the lots of species formerly described, as Felis tigris, by Linnaeus in his 18th century work, Systema Naturae. The generic factor of its scientific designation, Panthera tigris, is often presumed to derive from Greek pan- ("all") and ther ("beast"), but this may be a folk etymology. Although it came into English from side to side the classical languages, panthera is probably of East Asian origin, meaning "the yellowish animal," or "whitish-yellow".

2007-10-08T00:44:00.000-07:00

Tiger

The tiger (Panthera tigris) is a animal of the Felidae family, the largest of four "huge cats" in the Panthera genus. Native to the mainland of Asia, the tiger is an top predator and the largest graceful species in the world, comparable in size to the biggest fossil felids. The Bengal Tiger is the most common subspecies of tiger, constituting something like 80% of the entire tiger population, and is found in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal. It has disappeared from much of its previous circulation including the Caucasus, Java and Bali.

The tiger is an endangered variety, with the majority of the world's tigers now living in captivity.Several subspecies are extinct and others critically in danger of extinction. Tigers have featured in ancient mythologies and tradition, and continue to be depicted in modern films and literature, as well as appearing on flags, coats of arms and as mascots for sporting teams. It is the national animal of India, among other countries.

2007-10-02T03:26:00.001-07:00

Pace Car

100 A pace car has been used to start the Indianapolis 500 since 1911. The primary pace car was a Stoddard-Dayton driven by Carl G Fisher. Other car and motorbike races have also used pace cars.

The purpose of a pace car is to help provide a prepared running start to the race. The racecars follow the pace car around the track, maintaining their assigned limit positions.

The exact details can vary, but typically, there is one "parade lap" at a relatively low speed. This is followed by a much faster lap that directly leads to the formal start of the race, as the pace car turns off the track into the pit area.

Many years, the driver of the pace car is someone connected to car racing or the automotive industry, such as the dealer that provided the car, an executive of a US automaker, or a retired racecar driver. However, especially in recent years, the driver may be a celebrity; recently comedian and talk show host Jay Leno, and actors Anthony Edwards have driven the Indy pace car. Colin Powell was chosen to drive the pace car for the 2005 event.

2007-09-23T23:05:00.000-07:00

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity syndrome

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.

2007-09-16T23:27:00.000-07:00

Ring

A finger ring is a band worn as kind of ornamental jeweler around a finger; it is the most ordinary current meaning of the word ring. Additional types of metal bands worn as ornaments are also called rings, such as arm rings and neck rings.

Rings are worn by both men and women and can be of any superiority. Rings can be made of metal, plastic, wood, bone, glass, gemstone and other equipment. They may be set with a "stone" of some sort, which is often a valuable or semi-precious gemstone such as ruby, sapphire or emerald, but can also be of almost any material.

There are a variety of methods for determining proper ring size. Quantities of the largest rings in the world are made for the winning team of the Super Bowl. The unofficial record for the largest championship ring ever obtainable to a professional sports team belongs to the 2003 World Series champions Florida Marlins, with a weight of over 110 grams and with over 240 stones.

Rings can be worn on any finger, still on toe fingers. In Western society, the traditional "ring finger" for the wearing of an engagement or wedding ring is the fourth finger of the left hand with the thumb counting as finger number one. The signet ring, a ring designate nobility, is normally worn on the little (fifth) finger of the right or left hand, depending on nationality.

2007-09-09T23:21:00.000-07:00

Dutch East Indies

The Dutch East Indies, or Netherlands East Indies, (Dutch: Nederlands-Indië; Indonesian: Hindia-Belanda) was created from the nationalized colonies of the former Dutch East India Company that came under administration of the Netherlands throughout the nineteenth century, and now form modern-day Indonesia.

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

Pollution

Pollution is the opening of pollutants chemical substances, noise, heat, light, energy and others into the environments which effect in deleterious effects of such a nature as to cause danger to human health, harm living resources and ecosystems, and impair or interfere with amenities and other legitimate uses of the environment Pollution is formed by vehicle which make the health spoil.

2007-08-26T21:54:00.000-07:00

Pulses

Pulses are defined by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as yearly leguminous crops yielding from one to twelve grains or seeds of variable size, shape and color surrounded by a pod. Pulses being used for food and animal feed.

The term pulses, as used by the FAO, are kept for crops harvested solely for the dry grain. This therefore excludes green beans and green peas, which are measured vegetable crops. Also barred crops which are mainly grown for oil extraction oilseeds like soybeans and peanuts, and crops which are used exclusively for sowing (clovers, alfalfa).

Pulses are main food crops due to their high protein and necessary amino acid content. Like many leguminous crops, pulses play a key role in crop turning round due to their capability to fix nitrogen.

2007-08-19T22:12:00.000-07:00

Leather jacket

A leather jacket is a type of clothes, a jacket made of leather. The jacket has naturally a brown, dark grey or black color. Leather jackets can be styled in a range of ways and different versions have been linked with different subcultures in places and times. For example, the leather jacket have often been associated with bikers, military aviators, punks, metal heads, and police, which have worn versions intended for protective purposes and often for their potentially intimidating appearance.

In the 20th century the leather jacket achieve iconic status, in major part through film. Examples include Marlon Brando's Johnny Storable character in The Wild One (1953), Michael Pare in Eddie and the Cruisers, as well as James Dean in Rebel without a Cause. As such, these all serve to popularize leather jackets in American and British childhood from the "greaser" subculture in the 1950s and early 1960s. A later description of this style of jacket and time was "The Fonz" in the television series "Happy Days" which was shaped in the 1970s and 1980s but depicted life in the 1950s and 1960s. The Fonz's leather jacket is at the present housed in the Smithsonian Institution, and the Grease movie duo has also since popularized leather jackets with their T-Birds male clique.

The leather jackets worn by aviators and members of the military were brown in color and regularly called "Bomber jackets" as seen on frequent stars in the 1940s and 1950s such as Jimmy Stewart in the 1957 film, Night Passage.

2007-08-12T23:45:00.000-07:00

Diesel

Diesel engine cars have long been admired in Europe with the first models being introduced in the 1930s by Mercedes Benz and Citroen. The major benefit of Diesels is a 50% fuel burn competence compared with 27% in the best gasoline engines. A down side of the diesel is the presence in the wear out gases of fine soot particulates and manufacturers are now preliminary to fit filters to remove these. Many diesel motorized cars can also run with little or no modifications on 100% biodiesel.

2007-08-06T04:49:00.001-07:00

The computer

A computer is a machine for manipulate data according to a list of commands known as a program. Computers are tremendously adaptable. In fact, they are universal information-processing machines. According to the Church–Turing theory, a computer with a positive minimum entrance capability is in principle capable of performing the responsibilities of any other computer. Therefore, computers with capability ranging from those of a personal digital supporter to a supercomputer may all achieve the same tasks, as long as time and memory capacity are not consideration. Therefore, the same computer design may be modified for tasks ranging from doling out company payrolls to controlling unmanned spaceflights. Due to technical progression, modern electronic computers are exponentially more capable than those of preceding generations. Computers take plentiful physical forms. Early electronic computers were the size of a large room, while whole modern embedded computers may be lesser than a deck of playing cards. Even today, huge computing conveniences still exist for focused scientific computation and for the transaction processing necessities of large organizations. Smaller computers designed for personage use are called personal computers. Along with its convenient equivalent, the laptop computer, the personal computer is the ubiquitous in order processing and communication tool, and is typically what is meant by "a computer".

However, the most general form of computer in use today is the embedded computer. Embedded computers are usually comparatively simple and physically small computers used to control one more device. They may control equipment from fighter aircraft to industrial robots to digital cameras. In the beginning, the term "computer" referred to a person who performed numerical calculations, frequently with the aid of a mechanical calculating device or analog computer. In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard made an improvement to the presented loom designs that used a series of punched paper cards as a program to weave involved patterns. The resulting Jacquard loom is not considered a true computer but it was an essential step in the growth of modern digital computers.

2007-07-29T22:34:00.001-07:00

Compact Disc

A Compact Disc or CD is an optical disc meant to store digital data, initially developed for storing digital audio. The CD, obtainable on the market in late 1982, remains the standard physical medium for commercial audio recordings as of 2007. An audio CD includes one or more stereo tracks stored using 16-bit PCM coding at a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz. Standard CDs include a diameter of 120 mm and can hold about 80 minutes of audio. There are also 80 mm discs, occasionally used for CD singles, which hold around 20 minutes of audio. Compact Disc technology was afterward modified for use as a data storage device, known as a CD-ROM, and it consist of record-once and re-writable media (CD-R and CD-RW respectively). CD-ROMs and CD-Rs stay widely used technologies in the Computer industry as of 2007.

2007-07-22T23:13:00.000-07:00

Humans

The term "conception" commonly refers to fertilization, but is sometimes defined as implantation or even "the point at which human life begins," and is thus a subject of semantic arguments about the beginning of pregnancy, within the abortion deliberate. Gastrulating is the point in development when the implanted blast cyst develops three germ layers, the endoderm, the exoderm and the mesoderm. It is at this point that the inherited code of the father becomes fully occupied in the development of the embryo. Until this point in development, twinning is probable. Additionally, interspecies hybrids which have no chance of growth survive until gastrulation. However this stance is not entirely necessary since human developmental biology literature refers to the "concepts" and the medical literature refers to the "products of conception" as the post-implantation embryo and its surrounding membranes. The term "conception" is not generally used in scientific literature because of its variable definition and suggestion.

2007-07-16T23:22:00.000-07:00

Petal

A petal from Ancient Greek petalon leaf, thin plate, regarded as a highly customized leaf, is one member or part of the corolla of a flower. The corolla is the name for all of the petals of a flower; the internal perianth whorl, word used when this is not the same in appearance (color, shape) as the outermost whorl (the calyx) and is used to attract pollinators based on its bright color. It is the inner part of the perianth that comprises the germ-free parts of a flower and consists of inner and outer tepals. These tepals are frequently differentiated into petals and sepals. The term tepal is usually useful when the petals and sepals are alike in shape and color. In a typical flower the petals are showy and colored and enclose the reproductive parts. The number of petals in a flower (see merosity) is analytic of the plant's classification: eudicots (the largest group of dicots) having typically four or five petals and monocots and magnoliids having three, or some multiple of three, petals.

2007-07-10T20:54:00.000-07:00

Wakeboard

Wakeboard Boats have a device that creates a huge wake for a skier to jump the wakes from face to face doing aerial tricks. Wakeboard complete boats are Drive boats. This means they are an inboard boat among the engine place backwards in the nurture of the boat. Some wakeboard detailed boat models are direct drive boats where the engine is in the center of the boat. Most wakeboard boats will have some features that help to make large wakes. Ballast, lodge, and hull technology. Most new wakeboarding boats come usual with some sort of regular ballast. Generally, these ballast tanks are placed inside of the hull of the boat and can be crowded and empties by switches situated in the drivers area. The ballast weights the boat down, creating a larger wake when in proposition. The Wedge is a machine that helps shape the wake. It is a metal structure situated behind the propeller that helps the driver fine melody the wake for the athlete. Hull technology is the innovation and R&D that the manufacturers put into their boats to make sure the best stock wake possible. Many boarders use after market ballast and guide to further weight down their boats for very huge wakes or for sports such as wake surfing.

2007-06-10T22:32:00.001-07:00

Pontoon

A pontoon is a flat-bottomed boat or the floats used to support an arrangement on water. It may be simply constructed from closed cylinders such as pipes or barrels or made-up of boxes from metal or concrete. These may be worn to support a simple platform, creating a raft. A raft supporting a house-like structure is single form of houseboat.
Pontoon boats usually run slower and are less likely to cause harm to themselves or other vessels, and are thus less luxurious to insure. As such, they are the most admired vessel style for rental operations. They also present the largest value in terms of capacity to price.

2007-06-05T00:20:00.001-07:00

Dugout

A dugout is a boat which is essentially a hollowed tree trunk; other names for this type of boat are logboat and monoxylon. Monoxylon (Pl: monoxyla) is Greek -- mono (single) + xylon (tree) -- and is frequently used in classic Greek texts.
Dugouts are the oldest boats archaeologists contain found. Within Germany they are called Einbaum (English translation: One tree). Einbaum dug-out boat finds in Germany day back to the limestone Age. The length of bark and hide canoes, these dugout boats were used by American Indians. This is probably because they are made of enormous pieces of wood, which tend to preserve better than, e.g., bark canoes.
Construction of a dugout begins with the collection of a log of appropriate dimensions. Sufficient wood needed to be removed to make the vessel comparatively light in weight and buoyant, yet still strong enough to support the crew and cargo. Particular types of wood were often favorite based on their strength, durability, and weight. The shape of the boat is then fashioned to reduce drag, with sharp ends at the bow and stern.
First the bark is detached from the exterior. Before the exterior of metal tools, dugouts were then hollowed-out using controlled fires. The burnt wood was then detached using an adze. Another method using tools is to chop out parallel notches crossways the interior span of the wood, then split out and remove the wood from between the notches. Once hollowed out, the core was dressed and smoothed out with a knife or adze.
For traveling the rougher waters of the ocean, dugouts can be fitted with outriggers. One or two smaller logs are mounted parallel to the major hull by long poles.

2007-05-28T00:37:00.001-07:00

Ketch

A ketch is a marine craft with two masts: a main mast, and a shorter mizzen mast abaft (rearward of) the main mast. Both masts are rigged mostly fore-and-aft. From one to three jibs may be approved forward of the main mast when going to windward. If a ketch is not rigged for jibs is known as cat ketch, sometimes called per auger. On older, larger ketches the major mast may in addition carry one or more square rigged topsails, alike to a sloop. A ketch may also carry further sails, see below.

The lowest fore-and-aft sail on the major mast is called the mainsail, while that on the mizzen is called the mizzen sail. These may be any kind of fore-and-aft sail, in any grouping. The Scots Zulu, for example, had a dipping lug main with a position lug mizzen.
The ketch is popular among long distance cruisers as the additional sail allows for a better balance, and a smaller more simply handled mainsail for the same overall sail area. It also allows sailing on mizzen and jib only without introducing extreme lee helm, and in an emergency can be quite well steered without use of the rudder.

2007-05-20T23:25:00.000-07:00

Kerala houseboats

The houseboats in Kerala, south India, are huge, slow-moving, foreign barges used for leisure trips. They are a reworked model of Kettuvallams (in the Malayalam language, Kettu means "tied with ropes", and vallam means "boat"), which, in earlier times, were used to carry rice and spices from Kuttanad to the Kochi port. Kerala houseboats were measured a suitable means of transportation.
The fame of Kettuvalloms has returned in the function as major tourist attractions. Many come across the Kettuvallom an ideal means of explore the beauty of the Kerala backwaters.
Such a houseboat is about 60 to 70 feet (about 18 to 21 meters) long and concerning 15 feet (about 5 meters) wide at the middle. The hull is made of wooden planks that are detained together by ropes of coconut fiber; the usual wood is 'Anjili'. The roof is completed with bamboo poles and palm leaves. The exterior of the boat is tinted with protective coats of cashew nut oil.

2007-05-13T20:08:00.000-07:00

Cigarette boat

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.

2007-04-02T04:38:00.000-07:00

Ship transport

Ship transport is the progression of moving people, goods, etc. by barge, boat, ship or sailboat over a sea, ocean, lake, canal or river. This is normally undertaken for purpose of commerce, recreation or military objectives.
A hybrid of ship transport and road transport is the significant horse-drawn boat. Hybrids of boat transport and air transport are kite surfing and parasailing.
Ship transport is finished on ships and other vessels. These can be famed by propulsion, size or cargo type.
Recreational or educational craft still use wind power, while some smaller craft use internal burning engines to drive one or more propellers, or in the case of jet boats, an inboard water jet. In shallow draft areas, such as the Everglades, some craft, such as the hovercraft, are propel by large pusher-prop fans.

2007-03-20T22:29:00.001-07:00

Quadriga
A chariot is a two-wheeled, horse-drawn means of transportation. In Latin they say biga is a two-horse chariot, and quadriga is a four-horse chariot. It was used for very old warfare throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages, and constant to be used for travel, processions and in games after it had been superseded militarily. Early forms may also have had four wheels, even though these are not usually referred to as chariots. The serious creation that allowed the construction of light, horse-drawn chariots for use in battle was the spoked wheel. In these times, most horses could not support the weight of a man in battle; the unique wild horse was a large pony in size. Chariots were efficient in war only on fairly flat, open terrain. As horses were slowly bred to be larger and stronger, chariots gave way to cavalry. The earliest spoke-wheeled chariots date to ca. 2000 BC and their usage peaked approximately 1300 BC (see Battle of Kadesh). Chariot races sustained to be popular in Constantinople until the 6th century. In modern warfare, the planned role of the chariot is played by the tank or the armored personnel carrier. In World War I, just before the opening of the first tanks, motorcycles with machine-guns mounted on a sidecar and armoured cars constitute mechanized versions of the chariot. It might be said that the Russian tachanka for a short time re-introduced horse-drawn chariots, armed with machine-guns but these were much more a light version of the horse artillery which had been a feature of European battlefields for well over a hundred years.

2007-03-20T22:27:00.000-07:00

Charabanc

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.

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

Mausoleum of Maussollos

In 377 BC, Halicarnassus was capital of a small kingdom along the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia. It was in that year the ruler of this land, Hecatomnus of Mylasa, died and left control of the kingdom to his son, Mausolus. Hecatomnus, a local satrap to the Persians, had been ambitious and had taken control of several of the neighboring cities and districts. Next to Mausolus and Artemisia he had several other sons and daughters: Ada, Idrieus, and Pixodarus. Mausolus in his time extended the territory even further so that it finally included most of southwestern Asia Minor. Maussollos, with his queen and sister Artemisia, ruled over Halicarnassus and the surrounding territory for 24 years. Maussollos, though he was descended from local people, spoke Greek and admired the Greek way of life and government. He founded many cities of Greek design along the coast and encouraged Greek democratic traditions.

Maussollos decided to build a new capital, a city as hard to capture as it was magnificent to look at. He chose the town Halicarnassus. If Mausolus' ships blocked a small channel, they could keep all enemy warships out. He started making Halicarnassus a fit capital for a warrior prince. His workmen deepened the city's harbor and used the dredged up sand to make protecting arms in front of the channel.

2007-01-08T22:54:00.000-08:00

Fraternal twins

Fraternal twins usually occur when two fertilized eggs are implanted in the uterine wall at the same time. The two eggs form two zygotes, and these twins are therefore also known as dizygotic as well as "biovular" twins. When two eggs are independently fertilized by two different sperm cells, fraternal twins result.

Dizygotic twins, like any other siblings, have a very small chance of having the exact same chromosome profile, but most likely have a number of different chromosomes that distinguish them. Like any other siblings, fraternal twins may look very similar, particularly given that they are the same age. However, fraternal twins may also look very different from each other. They may be a different sex or the same sex. Mixed-race twins, or twins born to parents of mixed racial origin, can vary considerably in their skin colouration and other features.

2007-01-01T22:37:00.000-08:00

Cellular differentiation

Cellular differentiation is a concept from developmental biology describing the process by which cells acquire a "type". The morphology of a cell may change considerably during differentiation, but the genetic material remains the same, with few exceptions.

A cell that is able to differentiate into many cell types is known as pluripotent. These cells are called stem cells in animals and meristematic cells in higher plants. A cell that is able to distinguish into all cell types is known as totipotent. In mammals, only the zygote and early embryonic cells are totipotent, while in plants, many differentiated cells can become totipotent with simple laboratory techniques.

In most multicellular organisms, not all cells are alike. For example, cells that make up the human skin are different from cells that make up the inner organs. Yet, all of the different cell types in the human body are all derived from a single fertilized egg cell through differentiation.

2006-12-26T23:27:00.000-08:00

Composing music

People who perform composition are called composers. Useful skills in composition include writing musical notation, instrumentation, and handling musical ensembles. The definition of composition has broadened to include extensive techniques such as improvisation, musical montage, preparing instruments, using non-traditional objects or methods of sound production, and make music from silence, as John Cage famously did.

Compositional techniques are the methods used to create music. In discussing the structure or association of a musical work, the "composition" of that work is generally called its musical form. These techniques draw a parallel to art's formal elements. Sometimes, the entire form of a piece is through-composed, meaning that each part is different, with no repetition of sections; other forms include strophic, rondo, verse-chorus, etc. Some pieces are composed around a set scale, where the compositional technique might be measured the usage of a particular scale. Others are composed during performance; techniques are sometimes used, however, in this case also.

2006-12-18T01:10:00.000-08:00

Avalanche

An avalanche is a slide of a large snow down a mountainside, caused when a buildup of snow is released downward a slope, and is one of the major dangers faced in the mountains in winter. An avalanche is an example of a gravity present consisting of granular material.

In an avalanche, lots of material or mixtures of dissimilar types of material fall or slide rapidly under the force of gravity. Avalanches are often classified by what they are made of, for example snow, ice, rock or soil avalanches. A combination of these would be called a debris avalanche.

A large avalanche can run for many miles, and can create massive demolition of the lower forest and anything else in its path. For example, in Montroc, France, in 1999 300,000 cubic meters of snow slid on a 30 degree slope, achieving a speed of 100 km/h. It killed 12 people in their chalets under 100,000 tons of snow, 5 meters deep. The Mayor of Chamonix was convicted of second-degree murder for not evacuating the area, but received a suspended sentence.

2006-12-12T04:18:00.000-08:00

Meteorology

Meteorology is the scientific study of the atmosphere that mainly focuses on weather processes and forecasting. Meteorological phenomena are observable weather events which light up and are explained by the science of meteorology. Those events are bound by the variables that exist in Earth's atmosphere. They are temperature, pressure, water vapor, and the gradients and relations of each variable, and how they change in time. The majority of Earth's observed weather is situated in the troposphere.

Meteorology, climatology, atmospheric physics, and atmospheric chemistry are sub-disciplines of the atmospheric sciences. Meteorology and hydrology comprise the interdisciplinary field of hydrometeorology. Although the term meteorology is used today to explain a sub discipline of the atmospheric sciences, Aristotle's work is more general. The work touches upon much of what is known as the earth sciences. In his own words: All the affections we may call common to air and water, and the kinds and parts of the earth and the affections of its parts. One of the most impressive achievements in Meteorology is his description of what is now known as the hydrologic cycle.

Now the sun, moving as it does, the set up processes of change and becoming and decay, and by its agency the finest and sweetest water is every day carried up and is dissolved into vapor and rises to the upper region, where it is condensed again by the cold and so returns to the earth.

2006-12-04T22:15:00.000-08:00

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and of the Lazio province, as well as the country's major and most crowded comune, with concerning 2.5 million residents. It is situated in the central-western portion of the Italian peninsula, where the river Aniene joins the Tiber. As one of the prime cities in the European Union, the Comune di Roma has a gross domestic creation of €97 billion in the year 2005, equal to 6.7% of Italy's GDP the highest quantity of GDP produced by any single Italian comune. The current Mayor of Rome is Walter Veltroni.

According to fairy tale, the city of Rome was founded by the twins Romulus and Remus on April 21, 753 BC. Archeological proof supports claims that Rome was inhabited since the 8th century BC and earlier. The city was the support of Roman civilization that shaped the largest and longest-lasting empire of classical antiquity that reached its maximum extent in 117. The city was essential and in charge for the spread of Greco-Roman culture that endures to this day. Rome is also recognized with Christianity and the Catholic Church and has been the Episcopal seat of the Popes since the 1st century. The State of the Vatican City, the monarch territory of the Holy See and smallest nation in the world, is an enclave of Rome.

2006-11-27T21:06:00.000-08:00

Plastic

Plastic covers a variety of artificial or semi synthetic polymerization products. They are composed of organic concentration or addition polymers and may contain other substances to improve performance or economics. There are few natural polymers generally measured to be "plastics". Plastics can be formed into objects or films or fibers. Their name is resulting from the fact that many are malleable, having the belongings of plasticity. Plastic can be classified in many ways but most commonly by their polymer backbone. Other classifications include thermoplastic vs. thermo set, elastomer, manufacturing plastic, addition or condensation, and Glass conversion temperature.

Plastics are polymers: elongated chains of atoms bonded to one another. These handcuffs are made up of many repeating molecular units, or "monomers". The vast bulk of plastics are composed of polymers of carbon alone or with oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine or sulfur in the backbone. The backbone is that part of the chain on the main "path" connecting the multitude of monomer units jointly.

2006-11-08T08:02:00.000-08:00

Replicas and derivative names There is a full-size replica of Stonehenge as it would have been before decay at Maryhill in Washington state, built by Sam Hill as a war memorial. Stonehenge Aotearoa in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand is a modern adaptation aligned with the astronomy seen from the Antipodes; it was built by the Phoenix Astronomical Society from wood and sprayed concrete. The University of Missouri at Rolla has a half-scale replica located on campus, UMR Stonehenge. East Stroudsburg University, in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, has a small replica on its campus dubbed "Stroudhenge".Carhenge was constructed from vintage American cars near Alliance, Nebraska by the artist Jim Reynolds in 1987. Another replica, called Stonehenge II, in Texas is constructed from an adobe-like material. Tankhenge existed in the border zone of Berlin in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Wall. Tankhenge was constructed from three ex-Soviet armoured personnel carriers.A full-size Stonehenge made out of foam — and inevitably called Foamhenge — stands near Natural Bridge, Virginia Another modern take on Stonehenge exists outside of Sante Fe, New Mexico, constructed out of junked refrigerators, known as 'Fridgehenge'. The site was created by the artist Adam Jonas Horowitz. Another full-size exact replica of what Stonehenge would have looked like 4000 years ago, also made of foam, was constructed and erected just 10 mi southwest of the actual Stonehenge. It was used for scientific and archaeological studies and was removed after.The rock band Black Sabbath featured a Stonehenge stage set for the 1983-1984 Born Again tour that ended up being too large to fit in most venues. This was parodied in the movie This is Spinal Tap, when the band orders a Stonehenge set but it arrives in miniature due to a confusion between feet and inches. There was also a Chicago based heavy metal band named Stonehenge that actually owned the trademark to the name. Stonehenge met with underground success in the 1990's - 2000's performing with acts such as Pantera, Iced Earth, Trouble and Manowar.In the MMORPG Runescape, there is a Stonehenge look-alike sometimes refered to as "Runehenge Aside from modern replicas, several other archaeological sites have had Stonehenge's name partially or fully incorporated into their own names. America's Stonehenge is an unusual and controversial site in New Hampshire. A henge near Stonehenge containing concentric rings of postholes for standing timbers, discovered in 1922, was named Woodhenge by its excavators because of similarities with Stonehenge. The timber Seahenge in Norfolk was named as such by journalists writing about its discovery in 1998.In May 2006, reports emerged of an "Amazon Stonehenge" Calcoene, 390 kilometres from Macapa, the capital of Amapa state, near Brazil's border with French Guyana. It is comprised of 127 stones, possibly forming astronomical observing points

2006-11-01T18:37:00.000-08:00

The Sun's place in the Milky Way
The Sun may be found close to the inner rim of the Orion Arm, in the Local Fluff, at a distance of 7.94±0.42 kpc from the Galactic Center. The distance between the local arm and the next arm out, the Perseus Arm, is about 6,500 light-years. Our Sun, and thus the solar system, is found in what scientists call the galactic habitable zone.The Apex of the Sun's Way, or the solar apex, refers to the direction that the Sun travels through space in the Milky Way. The general direction of the sun's galactic motion is towards the star Vega near the constellation of Hercules, at an angle of roughly 86 degrees to the direction of the Galactic Center. The sun's orbit around the galaxy is expected to be roughly elliptical with the addition of perturbations due to the galactic spiral arms and non-uniform mass distributions.It takes the solar system about 225-250 million years to complete one orbit, and so is thought to have completed about 20-25 orbits during its lifetime or .0008 orbit since the origin of man. The orbital speed of the solar system is 217 km/s, i.e. 1 light-year in ca. 1400 years, and 1 AU in 8 days.The Hayden Planetarium uses 8.0 kpc in their interactive 3D Milky Way Atlas, which just includes the Galactic Center.