Darron's day

The Egyptians

2008-06-04T18:55:00.010+01:00

The Egyptians
First of all lets make it clear that most Egyptians were farmers , craftsmen or scribes(1) and not just pyramid builders if at all . They grew crops such as Wheat, Barley, Vegetables, Figs, Melons, Pomegranates and Vines along the banks of the River Nile.
Egypt was the first African civilization ! So from this can we make the assumption that they were a black race or belonged to a Black racial group. For almost 30 centuries Egypt remained the foremost nation in the Mediterranean world'

Old Egyptian language belonged to the language of Afro-asiatic and the subfamily of this would be Semitic , Berber Languages, a family of languages which originated probably in the southeastern Sahara. This language survived until 5th Century AD in the form of Demotic. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3200 BC(3)(4)
Egyptians kept animals such as Sheep,Goats ,Cattle , Geese and Pigs and in later periods kept pets such as monkeys, ducks, geese, pigeons, hoopoes, falcons, cats, dogs and even ferrets. Animals supplied milk, wool, meat, eggs, leather, skins, horn and fat .The skin of Goat was often used as a water container or floating device.

Cattle bones have often been found next to coffins in tombs from the Naqada Period to the First Intermediate Period , demonstrating the importance of beef for the food supply in the afterlife. However, the possession of cattle was also from earliest times an important social marker.

Egyptian farmers divided their year into three seasons, based on the cycles of the River Nile.

Akhet - the inundation (June-September): The Flooding Season.

No farming was done at this time, as all the fields were flooded. Instead, it is

possible that farmers worked for the pharaoh , building pyramids or temples. .

Peret (October-February): The Growing Season.

In October the floodwaters receded, leaving behind a layer of rich, black soil. This

fertile soil was then ploughed and seeded.

Shemu (March-May): The Harvesting Season.

The fully grown crops had to be cut down (harvested) and removed before the Nile

flooded again. It was also the time to repair the canals ready for the next flood.

Few enjoyed the lifestyle of notability in Egypt however the Egyptian people were not and did not consider themselves salves (2).
The Home of the Egyptians family was built from straw mixed with mud from the Nile which was baked in the Sun. If you had wealth the inside of the home may have been painted with colorful pictures showing everyday life , not unlike the pictures we take with cameras today.

The pre-dyastic period in Egypt marked the transition from nomadic trbes to a more traditional, settled society.
Egypt was the world leader in the creation of perfume , when Julius Casesar took control of egypt he return to Roman throwing bottles of perfume to the people.
Pre-dynastic Egypt marked the transition from nomadic tribes to a more traditional, settled society.

The Egyptian people had knowledge of the stars , astronomy been one of the oldest sciences. The people of egypt used this science to create the first working calendar which dates back to 4236 B.C. They noted that a group of stars , which we today call Sirius or “Dog Star “ in the Canis Major rises next to the sun every 365 days , which as we know is one earth year.
Another African tribe called the Dogon also have a connection with Sirius , the Dogon Tribe knew of Sirius a least 1000 years before it was discovered by science. The tribe talk of a legend “ visits from the sky that came in an ark, descending to the ground amid a great wind”.

The Egyptian calendar allowed them to accurately predict when the Nile would flood ,this period was called Akhet , Ultimately, they used 36 stars to mark out the year.
When Julius Caesar visited Egypt, he met an astronomer named Sosigenes who explained the Egyptian calendar to him. The Romans used the Egyptian calendar to help them develop the Julian calendar. This Julian calendar served Western Europe for more than 1,500 years.

The Egypt Archive

2008-05-18T15:12:00.002+01:00

click HERE

2008-05-12T20:53:00.001+01:00

2008-05-12T20:46:00.002+01:00

Question ( who is taking the picture ) ?

2008-05-05T17:38:00.002+01:00

OK who is taking the image ???? ANYONE ?

Classical Archaeology :::have a listen

2008-04-13T18:30:00.004+01:00

Course lectures by Prof. Francesca Tronchin in her Classical Archaeology course (HA306) at The Ohio State University, Winter 2008.

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October 1943 the U.S. navy used Einstein's theories in an experiment that rendered a destroyer totally invisible

2008-03-24T21:12:00.002Z

click here

Mr PCFIT IT GUY

2007-12-15T16:50:00.000Z

Well it seems like a great idea I have he skill and knowledge and there is very little work around Christmas , so lets see how it goes :
step one ,an idea .
step two , the design .
step three , the long walking as I deliver flyer's door to door , well I should get fit .

MR PC FIX IT GUY

well the works starting to come in which is great , getting to know the roads of Stafford very well indeed.

Can Time Really be Turned Back?

2007-12-08T21:38:00.000Z

Interesting article from 2004:

Eight years ago, American and British scientists who conducted investigations in Antarctica made a sensational discovery. US physicist Mariann McLein told the researchers noticed some spinning gray fog in the sky over the pole on January 27 which they believed to be just ordinary sandstorm. However, the gray fog did not change the form and did not move in the course of time. The researchers decided to investigate the phenomenon and launched a weather balloon with equipment capable to register the wind speed, the temperature and the air moisture. But the weather balloon soared upwards and immediately disappeared.

In a little while, the researchers brought the weather balloon back to the ground with the help of a rope attached to it before. They were extremely surprised to see that a chronometer set in the weather balloon displayed the date of January 27, 1965, the same day 30 years ago. The experiment was repeated several times after the researchers found out the equipment was in good repair. But each time the watch was back it displayed the past time. The phenomenon was called “the time gate” and was reported to the White House.

20th stafford Gang Show

2007-12-06T22:11:00.000Z

Next project designing and creating a multimedia media site for the 20th Staffordshire Gang show .

Milton the BEAR Tells the Time

2007-12-06T15:51:00.000Z

This is a game that integrates the user (children under 7) with a talking animated character called MIlton which brings the game to life, I hope .

Milton will also talk to any child by using there given name.this should be typed in during the beginning ( see image below )

Milton helps the children to tell the time by asking them to click on blocks with one containing the correct time.

Download MILTON the BEAR

( The downloaded EXE program contains all the files needs to run the game ) if you have any question please e-mail me at darron@darron-halsall.co.uk

information can be found here about MS Agents

The Bionic Woman

2007-12-02T22:44:00.000Z

Attempting to do for "The Bionic Woman" what he and partner Ronald Moore did for another kitschy '70s classic with "Battlestar Galactica," producer David Eick re-imagines the Jaime Sommers mythology minus the slow-motion and goofy sound effects. The elaborate pilot thus includes a less-benign government, nifty nanotechnology, a villainous cabal and an attractive young British lead in Michelle Ryan. A little messy in its conception, the series still exhibits considerable potential -- the kind that inspires checking out a second episode -- but will have its strength tested by a killer, drama-heavy timeslot.
WHY

Installing MSAgent Characters

2007-12-02T20:49:00.000Z

An interesting area of technology has developed in recent years, regarding the "humanization" of computer-human interaction through the use of characters, or MSAgents, that mediate between the human being and the machine.

The concept of "agent" comes originally from computer science, and it refers to small programs (software agents) that have a high degree of independency, and are used to perform a number of tasks with little or no human intervention.

Those software agents would interact with other programs (or other software agents) to monitor and control different variables in the environment. For instance, they can monitor when a database is reaching its capacity, and redistribute content to a secondary database, or they can adjust variables according to a prespecified schedule, etc. These software agents normally run in the background, and they are invisible to the human user.

The idea of the animated agent, while rooted in the same concept, makes the job of the agent a different one. An animated agent is completely visible to the human user, since its main job is to serve as a visual interface between the human being and the "cold technology".

The use of animated agents in computer application tries to make communication between the user and the computer program more "human-like", by providing an animated character that seems to behave and act independently from the program.

Those agents may receive different names (conversational agent, conversational interface, interface agent, etc.), according to the capabilities they have or the functions they are able to perform. Also, they may have different roles, such as tutoring, guiding, scaffolding, etc.

The roles the agent may perform in a computer-based training program or in educational software range from being the "guide on the side" to being a "sage on the stage". The two extremes show the degree of control the agent will have over the interaction between user and instructional materials.

Installing MSAgent Characters

Microsoft Agent Characters are distributed in the following file formats:
.EXE or acs Files

Some characters may be packaged as self-extracting executable files. Double-click the .EXE file after you have downloaded it to automatically install the character to your character folder. You delete the .EXE file after the character is installed.

Most .EXE files are ZIP compatible so you can optionally open them with a program like WinZip after downloaded to extract characters manually.
.ACS Files

Microsoft Agent Character Files (.ACS) should be saved to your
character folder at:
C:\WINDOWS\MSAGENT\CHARS or C:\WINNT\MSAGENT\CHARS

UFO: Uncovering A National Secret

2007-12-02T20:40:00.000Z

Phil Collins "Gorilla Drummer" Cadbury Ad (Dairy Milk)

2007-12-02T20:38:00.000Z

Current Project THE HANG MAN GAME

2007-11-29T22:07:00.000Z

Working on an education game to aid children 7 and under to learn spellings Using the game hangman as a model and txt file to load in spellings , all seems to be working this far.
Using Macromedia Director mx2004 as my tool allows me to create both an exefile for download and a sockwaves file for web browsing
The test game. Ok now a more up to date game with words that has
"ng"and "nk" A game with
common tricky words am tild by the local school remember these are aimed at 7 years old and below.

The Hang Man Game is a spellings tutor, disguised as an interactive game. The application is a game that provides positive reinforcement to aid learning the of school spellings. The Hang Man Game is provided free to all and without warranty.

Albert Einstein

2007-11-24T21:14:00.000Z

Albert Einstein is perhaps the most famous scientist of this century. One of his most well-known accomplishments is the formula
Despite its familiarity, many people don't really understand what it means. We hope this explanation will help!
One of Einstein's great insights was to realize that matter and energy are really different forms of the same thing. Matter can be turned into energy, and energy into matter.
For example, consider a simple hydrogen atom, basically composed of a single proton. This subatomic particle has a mass of
0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 001 672 kg
This is a tiny mass indeed. But in everyday quantities of matter there are a lot of atoms! For instance, in one kilogram of pure water, the mass of hydrogen atoms amounts to just slightly more than 111 grams, or 0.111 kg.
Einstein's formula tells us the amount of energy this mass would be equivalent to, if it were all suddenly turned into energy. It says that to find the energy, you multiply the mass by the square of the speed of light, this number being 300,000,000 meters per second (a very large number):

= 0.111 x 300,000,000 x 300,000,000
= 10,000,000,000,000,000 Joules
This is an incredible amount of energy! A Joule is not a large unit of energy ... one Joule is about the energy released when you drop a textbook to the floor. But the amount of energy in 30 grams of hydrogen atoms is equivalent to burning hundreds of thousands of gallons of gasoline!

If you consider all the energy in the full kilogram of water, which also contains oxygen atoms, the total energy equivalent is close to 10 million gallons of gasoline!
Can all this energy really be released? Has it ever been?

The only way for ALL this energy to be released is for the kilogram of water to be totally annhilated. This process involves the complete destruction of matter, and occurs only when that matter meets an equal amount of antimatter ... a substance composed of mass with a negative charge. Antimatter does exist; it is observable as single subatomic particles in radioactive decay, and has been created in the laboratory. But it is rather short-lived (!), since it annihilates itself and an equal quantity of ordinary matter as soon as it encounters anything. For this reason, it has not yet been made in measurable quantities, so our kilogram of water can't be turned into energy by mixing it with 'antiwater'. At least, not yet.

Another phenomenon peculiar to small elementary particles like protons is that they combine. A single proton forms the nucleus of a hydrogen atom. Two protons are found in the nucleus of a helium atom. This is how the elements are formed ... all the way up to the heaviest naturally occuring substance, uranium, which has 92 protons in its nucleus.
It is possible to make two free protons (Hydrogen nuclei) come together to make the beginnings of a helium nucleus. This requires that the protons be hurled at each other at a very high speed. This process occurs in the sun, but can also be replicated on earth with lasers, magnets, or in the center of an atomic bomb. The process is called nuclear fusion.
What makes it interesting is that when the two protons are forced to combine, they don't need as much of their energy (or mass). Two protons stuck together have less mass than two single separate protons!
When the protons are forced together, this extra mass is released ... as energy! Typically this amounts to about 7% of the total mass, converted to an amount of energy predictable using the formula .

Elements heavier than iron are unstable. Some of them are very unstable! This means that their nuclei, composed of many positively charged protons, which want to repel from each other, are liable to fall apart at any moment! We call atoms like this radioactive.
Uranium, for example, is radioactive. Every second, many of the atoms in a chunk of uranium are falling apart. When this happens, the pieces, which are now new elements (with fewer protons) are LESS massive in total than the original uranium atoms. The extra mass disappears as energy ... again according to the formula ! This process is called nuclear fission.

Both these nuclear reactions release a small portion of the mass involved as energy. Large amounts of energy! You are probably more familiar with their uses. Nuclear fusion is what powers a modern nuclear warhead. Nuclear fission (less powerful) is what happens in an atomic bomb (like the ones used against Japan in WWII), or in a nuclear power plant.

Albert Einstein was able to see where an understanding of this formula would lead. Although peaceful by nature and politics, he helped write a letter to the President of the United States, urging him to fund research into the development of an atomic bomb ... before the Nazis or Japan developed their own first. The result was the Manhatten Project, which did in fact produce the first tangible evidence of ... the atomic bomb!

MMS Multimedia Messaging

2007-07-29T19:57:00.000+01:00

MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service, and more commonly referred to as 'Picture Messaging' - It's an enhancement over the standard SMS text message as it adds animation, images, sound and video.
This page contains some general information on MMS Messaging.

What can you do with MMS?
With an MMS phone, you can:
Take digital photographs and store photographs on the Internet
Send and receive full colour pictures
Send and receive voice clips
Add a text message to your picture
Purchase pictures and sounds from the Internet
Have enhanced polyphonic ringtones
MMS runs over GPRS. You normally need to subscribe to a GPRS tariff, and have 'Media Messaging' enabled by your network operator. You will need a phone handset that supports the MMS service - If you receive an MMS message and don't have a suitable handset or GPRS service, you'll receive a standard SMS text message, and will be able to view the message at the web address included with the text message.

UK MMS Settings
Below are the MMS picture messaging settings for the main UK network operators:

o2 MMS settings
The o2 MMS settings can be sent direct to your mobile. Go to www.o2.co.uk/services/ota4/select. Alternatively, the settings are:
Access point name: wap.o2.co.uk (contract customers) or payandgo.o2.co.uk (pay-as-you-go customers)Username: o2wap (contract customers) or payandgo (pay-as-you-go customers)Password: passwordAuthentication: NormalData bearer: GPRSGateway IP (proxy) address: 193.113.200.195Session mode: PermanentPort number: 8080 or 9201 URL address: http://mmsc.mms.o2.co.uk:8002

Vodafone MMS settings
Access Point Name: wap.vodafone.co.ukUsername: wapPassword: wapAuthentication: NormalData bearer: GPRSGateway IP (proxy) address: 212.183.137.012Session mode: PermanentMMS Message (Relay) Server URL: http://mms.vodafone.co.uk/servlets/mms/

T-Mobile MMS settings
Access Point Name: general.t-mobile.ukUsername: userPassword: one2oneAuthentication: NormalData bearer: GPRSGateway IP (proxy) address: 149.254.211.10 (also 149.254.201.135)Session mode: PermanentMMS Message (Relay) Server URL: http://mmsc.t-mobile.co.uk:8002/

Orange MMS settings
Note: Orange must enable MMS for your account. Contact Orange Customer Services
Access Point Name: orangemmsUsername: Orange Password: Multimedia Authentication: NormalData bearer: GPRSGateway IP (proxy) address: 192.168.224.10Port: 9201 (some users have reported 8080 works if 9201 doesn't) Session mode: PermanentMMS Message (Relay) Server URL http://mms.orange.co.uk/

Virgin MMS settings
Note: Virgin must enable MMS for your account. Contact Virgin Customer Services
Access Point Name: goto.virginmobile.ukUsername: user Password: (leave blank)Authentication: NormalData bearer: GPRSGateway IP (proxy) address: 193.030.166.001Port: 8080Session mode: PermanentMMS Message (Relay) Server URL http://mms.virginmobile.co.uk:8002

Tesco Mobile MMS settings
Many thanks for Nick B and Martin J for supplying the Tesco Mobile settings...
Access point name: prepay.tesco-mobile.comUsername: tescowapPassword: passwordAuthentication: NormalData bearer: GPRSGateway IP address: 193.113.200.195Session mode: PermanentURL address: http://mmsc.mms.o2.co.uk:8002

BT Mobile MMS settings
Access point name: mobile.bt.ukUsername: userPassword: btmmsAuthentication: NormalData bearer: GPRSGateway IP address: 62.239.21.123Session mode: PermanentURL address: http://mmsc.btmms.co.uk:8002

This WEEK in TECH Technology

2007-07-14T23:10:00.000+01:00

This WEEK in TECH Technology
Your first podcast of the week is the last word in tech. Join Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, John C. Dvorak, and other tech luminaries in a roundtable discussion of the latest trends in digital technology. Winner of the 2005 People's Choice… (Author: Leo Laporte and the TWiTs)

Dealing with workplace stress

2007-07-09T08:42:00.000+01:00

The modern workplace can be a pretty stressful environment. You have lists of tasks to complete and deadlines to meet. Perhaps you are responsible for managing a team, or feel under pressure to produce excellent results for your company. Stress is a fact of modern-day life, so what steps can you take to combat it?

Stress management at work

Misunderstandings and communication problems remain one of the most common sources of workplace strife. Knowing the right way to communicate with others is essential if you want to remain positive and productive at work. Take a look at the following stress management tips:

What is stress?

Stress is the "wear and tear" our bodies experience as we adjust to our continually changing environment; it has physical and emotional effects on us and can create positive or negative feelings.

As a positive influence, stress can help compel us to action; it can result in a new awareness and an exciting new perspective.

As a negative influence, it can result in feelings of distrust, rejection, anger, and depression, which in turn can lead to health problems such as headaches, upset stomach, rashes, insomnia, ulcers, high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.

How can I eliminate stress from my life?

The goal is not to eliminate stress, but to learn how to manage it and how to use it to help us. Insufficient stress acts as a depressant and may leave us feeling bored. On the other hand, excessive stress may leave us feeling "tied up in knots". What we need to do is find the optimal level of stress, which will individually motivate, but not overwhelm us.

How can I manage stress better?

1.Become aware of your stress triggers and your emotional and physical reactions.
Notice when you feel stressed. Don't ignore it. Don't gloss over your problems. Determine what events distress you. Determine how your body responds to the stress.

2. Recognise what you can change
Can you change your stress triggers by avoiding or eliminating them completely?

Can you reduce their intensity? Can you devote the time and energy necessary to making a change? Goal setting, time management techniques, and delayed gratification strategies may be helpful here.

It may be your physical environment:

* Pay attention to lighting, air quality, and pleasing colours.
* Tackle excess noise - decide how much noise you're comfortable with and take steps to reduce or eliminate unwanted distractions.
* Think about your interaction with your surroundings - the angle of your chair, position of your keyboard, or the type of seat cushion you're using can all be significant contributors to elevated office stress levels.

3. Allow time for some fresh, unrecirculated air
If opening a window is not a possibility, take at least part of your break outdoors.

4. Don't go hungry
Skipping meals only leads to after-work binges and overdoses of fast food when your energy plummets. To deal with a stressful day, you've got to have fuel and energy.

5. Cut down on caffeine
Not only is it addictive, but this popular stimulant drug can also send your stress levels soaring.

6. Learn some desk exercises.
This will relieve stiff muscles and improve circulation.

So, if you're feeling a little stressed at work, try some stress management techniques now, to help you become the relaxed person you know you are. For more advice on managing stress, take a look at the free Personal Best at Work course on www.vision2learn.com.

Next Project

2007-07-05T08:32:00.001+01:00

OK Next Project creating a mutimedia website for the GUYS doing The Great Wall of China walk.

1. Colin Cornhill
2. Stephen Bailey
3. Mark Scott
4. Dominique Flint
5. Phil Barrowclough

to name just a few

should be fun

What makes a good Moutain Bike (its time for me to buy a new bike )

2007-06-30T15:58:00.000+01:00

General Description...

Mountain bikes have tough frames, good brakes, lots of gears and knobbly tires - perfect for riding off the beaten track. The riding position is quite upright so you can see that tree you’re about to crash into! Suspension is now common, for two reasons: it’s more comfortable, and it can increase traction. Mountain Bikes, however, do not necessarily all have suspension, some have rigid forks and frames, others just have suspension forks and some have suspension front and rear.

A related breed of bike is the ATB or All Terrain Bike. This is generally less of a serious bike than a mountain bike (MTB), more for pottering along canal towpaths than proper off-road riding.

Types of MTB:

XC (Cross Country) -
This is for what most of us do anyway - a bike for generally playing around in the woods. It may have suspension, but not to an extreme, and will have a good spread of gears and good brakes. Ideally suited to rough but well worn off-road paths and tracks.

Freeride -
Added as a style to suit the pedants who believe this style to be something significantly different! A true freeride bike (I am informed) has lots of suspension but without the weight of a full-on downhill bike. Designed for jumps and berms and fast off-road riding.

Downhill -
For serious nutters only. The idea of downhilling is to get yourself down a path, track or dirt road as fast as possible. A downhill bike has a lot of suspension, very solid frame and components, and very powerful brakes.

Slalom or Trials - (see dedicated page)
Two related disciplines, both of which involve jumping and precision riding. Bikes have small, very strong frames, some suspension, lots of low gears, and very good brakes.

Pros...

Very versatile - you can use an MTB for anything from commuting to travelling across Outer Mongolia. There’s a huge range available, with prices from £60 to in excess of £6000. The fitting of less knobbly tyres will make the bike usable on tarmac.

Cons...

Bare MTBs need lots of extras to make the most of other uses - slick tyres, mudguards and lights for commuting, for example. Cheaper models fitted with suspension are, on the whole, a waste of money and VERY heavy. Often, cheaper suspension fails to give any benefit.

Expect to Pay...

As with BMX there are lots of bikes which look like mountain bikes. These are often referred to as ATB's. These start from as little £60, but you should really expect to pay no less than £250-£300 for a bike which is worth buying if you want to do any kind of off-road riding.

MTB's are the style of bikes which most puts people off cycling. Because the prices start so low, and supermarkets, catalogues and cheap outlets see them as some form of commodity like baked beans, meaning that many many people are succoured into buying a cheap "Mountain Bike". Components are of extremely low quality and can fail very quickly, and, perhaps most importantly, bikes from these types of outlet rarely come fully or correctly assembled meaning that many many bikes out on our roads are plain dangerous. In turn, these bikes get chucked in the shed and forgotten about. What a waste of money. If you feel that a mountain bike is the best type of bike for your intended usage, forget these cheap skips and instead look at bikes which you will enjoy riding. £125-£150 will get you a bike which is at least safe (if adjusted & assembled correctly) but for hard off-road riding, you really need to be looking above £200.

Paris( what a great place )

2007-06-03T08:28:00.000+01:00

Paris is the capital city of France. It is situated on the River Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region ("Région parisienne"). Paris has an estimated population of 2,153,600 within city limit (2005 est.).

The Paris urban area has a population of 9.93 million and a commuter belt around the same completes the Paris "aire urbaine" (roughly: "metropolitan area") that, with its population of 12 million,is one of the most populated areas of its kind in Europe.

Paris' location at a crossroads between land and river trade routes in lands of abundant agriculture had made it one of France's principal cities by the 10th century, rich with royal palaces, wealthy abbeys and a cathedral; by the 12th century Paris had become one of Europe's foremost centres of learning and the arts. Today, Paris is a major influence in politics, fashion, business, arts and science. The city serves as an important hub of intercontinental transportation and is home to universities, sport events, opera companies and museums of international renown, making it an attraction for over 30 million foreign visitors per year.

The Paris region (Île-de-France) is France's foremost centre of economic activity. With €478.7 billion (US$595.3 billion), it produced more than a quarter of the gross domestic product (GDP) of France in 2005. With La Défense, the largest purpose-built business district in Europe, it hosts the head offices of almost half of the major French companies, as well as the headquarters of ten of the world's 100 largest companies. Paris also hosts many international organizations such as UNESCO, the OECD, the ICC, or the informal Paris Club.

Priory of Sion

2007-06-02T23:14:00.000+01:00

The Prieuré de Sion, usually rendered in English translation as Priory of Sion (occasionally as 'Priory of Zion'), is an alleged thousand-year-old cabal featured in various conspiracy theories, as well as being listed as a factual ancient mystery religion in the bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. It has been characterized as anything from the most influential secret society in Western history to a modern Rosicrucian-esque ludibrium, but, ultimately, has been shown to be a hoax created in 1956 by Pierre Plantard, a pretender to the French throne. Some scholars of esoteric history consider the controversial Sicilian Traditionalist philosopher Julius Evola's (1898-1974) ideas as sources for Pierre Plantard's later claims [1]. The evidence presented in support of its historical existence has not been considered authentic or persuasive by established historians, academics, and universities, and the evidence was later discovered to have been forged and then planted in various locations around France by Plantard and his associates. Nevertheless, many conspiracy theorists insist on the truth of the Priory's role as a powerful secret society.

Jesus bloodline

2007-06-02T22:59:00.000+01:00

The Jesus bloodline is the theory that Jesus Christ had a natural child with Mary Magdalene which was then taken to Egypt and then to France, either during Magdalene's pregnancy or as a young child, and whose blood descendants in later centuries founded the Merovingian dynasty of the early kings of France..

The main elements of the thesis are that:
Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene, with whom he was married. The descendants of this child became the Merovingian kings of France.
The Church has suppressed the truth about Mary Magdalene and the Jesus bloodline for 2000 years.
A secret order protects these royal claimants because they may be the literal descendants of Jesus and his wife, Mary Magdalene, or, at the very least, of King David (the Davidic line) and High Priest Aaron.
This secret society known as Priory of Sion has a long and illustrious history dating back to the First Crusade starting with the creation of the Knights Templar as its military and financial front. The Priory is led by a Grand Master or Nautonnier.

It is devoted to returning the Merovingian dynasty, that ruled the Frankish kingdom from the fifth century to 751, to the thrones of Europe.
The Roman Catholic Church tried to kill off all remnants of this dynasty and their guardians, the Cathars and the Templars, during the Inquisition, in order to maintain power through the apostolic succession of Peter instead of the hereditary succession of Mary Magdalene.
A variation on the theory is that instead of dying on the cross, Jesus (in this story known as Yuz Asaf) fled to Kashmir where he died in old age, returning to Srinagar where he had originally been influenced by Hindu and Buddhist teachings. 1 This theory is lent credence by close comparisons of Jesus' sayings in the Gnostic Gospel of St Thomas, which are seen by some as closely paralleling classical Buddhist Sutras.

The Jesus Bloodline "theory" also has parallels with other "disciple flight to distant lands" stories, such as the one that Joseph of Arimathea travelled to England after the death of Jesus taking with him a piece of thorn from the Crown of Thorns, which he later planted in Glastonbury. Historians generally regard these stories as medieval inventions.

Right and Wrong

2007-06-02T22:55:00.000+01:00

Right and Wrong is absolute,
I am always right,
and if you disagree you are absolutely wrong.
One of the worst things we do to children today is convince them that there is an absolute right and wrong or good and evil. It isn't wrong for people to try to apply their rules to themselves (and have rules to live by) -- but when their "wrong" clashes with someone elses world view (of what is right or wrong), there can be serious confrontations. If you think only your world-view is valid, then there will be a war of the worlds .

(1) This of course has to be balanced with standing up for what you beleive in, and your "principles". But if you are the one challenging their world model, you will be the person that is starting the conflict. Some things are worth fighting for, but realize that you are starting it (in the other persons mind).
Right and wrong are personal opinions, and are based on our individual world models. I feel it is wrong to infringe on anyone elses rights. Many sociopaths feel it is perfectly alright to infringe on anyones rights, but wrong to infringe on theirs. To many religious groups or socialists, it is alright (or necessary) to infringe on others rights -- if it is in the best interests of the others or of society in general. To others this is absolutely wrong, and the the individuals rights are saccrosinct. Who is right, and who is wrong? What is good and what is evil? This is all based on the individual. Because it is all based on the individual (and individual opinion), seldom do individuals do things that are wrong in their own minds. But if others play in their world, and break the "rules", then there will be issues. Wars, murders and fights are all started over differences of world view.

Being extreme (fanatical) towards absolute right and wrong doesn't change the fact that it is JUST an opinion. Most religions even agree that sins are subjective (circumstance oriented) and not objective (absolute). Religions have created (or had given to them) rights and wrongs (moral laws), we as a society have created rights and wrongs (judicial laws), but these laws are just a majority consensus (possibly) of what society says is right and wrong. Any individual that does not believe in the majority consensus will believe he is right in what he is doing, eventhough morally, ethically or legally he is wrong. So sociopaths, revolutionaries, and others you disagree with, probably do not think what they are doing is wrong, often reasoning with them is a waste of time. You must resolve yourself to either be prepared to be the judge, jury and "punisher" -- or you must realize where most confrontations are going.

Motives

If you are forced to deal with someone, politically, legally or physically, and you want to understand what is going on, it will help to figure out why he thinks he is right (and you are wrong). If you can not understand HIS right and wrong, then you will not understand him or his actions. If you can not explain your right and wrong to him, he will not understand you (or your actions). So his world model is more important (to him) -- and you should get good at realizing that your world model is irrelevant when it comes to avoiding conflicts, or understanding the rules in one.

Since a world model is the way a person(s) sees the world, this is affected by personality types and his motives. If you understand what is motivating the person, you understand more about that person (and his actions). If the person is an egomaniac, and you are making him look bad, you are on shaky ground. Some people are control freaks, they need to be in control of every situation; if take too much control from them, they will fight you for it. There are so many other types of people and motives, there could be a book about just this topic, but the whole point is; learn to find out what an individual wants, and what motivates him. Then decide wether it is worth fighting for, or what the real conflict is about. If it is not worth fighting for, then give in.

Environment

Learn to read your environment, this is critical. You don't belch loudly in a fine restaurant, and you don't act too polite in a sleazy diner. Situations must be evaluated based on the environment. If you are in a boxing match you have different rules of conduct, than when you are in a bar fight. What is right and what is smart, are often two completely different things. Learn to read the environment you are in, and realize that this immediate environment changes many things. If you get in an argument with someone in private, it is quite different then when it is in public, especially if it is in front of people they want to impress.

You should know how to communicate with others, both in reading them and being able to send signals. However the environment affects the signals. If you ignore the environment, you may become part of it. Your environment you are in had better define your actions -- if you don't know how to act in an environment, you had better learn quickly or get out.

Know Yourself!

Remember to watch yourself! If you are getting carried away because of your own wants (desires), then observe yourself and learn. If you overreact, learn why. Your motives are going to make as much of a difference as the other persons. You can diffuse a situation, especially if you are not running on auto-pilot and escallating it. If you get into a confrontation, figure out why. Are you going to fight over ego, anger, self-righteousness, nastiness, turf, attitude, etc.? Understanding is the first step towards defusing a situation.

It is very rare that the winner walks away unscathed. Since confrontation "hurts" so much, for both parties involved in a fight (physical or metaphorical), it is rare to find someone who actually enjoys fighting. Most people talk big, and will fight to defend their honor, their pecking order, their egos, etc., -- but they don't really want to fight. Some people lash out because of anger, or past wrongs. If you can give them a way out (and make it obvious), most will take it. If it gets to the point of a fight then there is a motive somewhere, figuring it out will save you problems (if not in the present, then in the future).

World Model

2007-06-02T22:50:00.000+01:00

World Model

It is better to live by another mans rules,
than to die by them.
Everyone has their own world model, their beliefs in what is right or wrong, good or evil. It is dangerous to assume that another person world model is the same as yours. If you do this, you will be perpetually dumbfounded at the injustices and craziness of the world (and the lack proper behavior from other people).

Whenever you are on someone elses turf, you had better learn their rules. This is done best by observing, preferably quietly. Everyone lives within their own world model, causing many problems when two different world models collide. When you are in a confrontation, the true skill is in figuring out what that other person's world model is, and what you are doing wrong (which has started or is perpetuating the confrontation). If the confrontation turns into a fight, it is usually due to your lack of insight and understanding. Your world models are going to affect your communications too, so be careful to avoid problems with misunderstandings and miscommunications.

The rules change based on the world model of an "opponent" -- you need to know what rules (or lack of rules) there are.

There some people that are accustomed to "friendly fights", these are just initiation rites and putting you right into the pecking order from the start. His rules are; he punches you (insults you), you reutrn the favor -- and you each figure out your pecking order (one of you is declared the alpha), then you lick your wounds, joke about the confrontation, and share a beer. If you break the rules (i.e. kick the living crap out of him verbally or physically, or break the rules in the confrontation) you will have to be taken down a peg or three -- usually with the help of the others nearby, who understand the rules (and feel you must be punished for breaking them). On the other hand, if you play by "friendly" rules where someone is deadly serious, you will likely be surprised by the lack of ethics, or the level of beating you will receive. All this can be applied metaphorically or literally (physically).

A "friendly fight" is an oxymoron to me. But when you are playing in someone elses sandbox (with his world model) you play by his rules, or leave.
Gestures, jokes and humor all change by region, what was funny at home may be an insult elsewhere. Speech and meaning also change, especially with slang terms. Be aware of the way people are reacting around you, if they are reacting wrong explain what you meant. If you aren't communicating well, then shut up until you learn how to communicate "right". Learning this could save your hide.

The thumbs up "Fonzie gesture", the "O.K." hand gesture, and the "#1" index finger in the air, are all vulgar insults in other regions. Spitting or the wrong look can cause an instant fight. It is not the other persons fault that you don't know how to communicate. When in Rome...
To help you read someones World Model, you must be able to read their body language, this includes their verbal and non-verbal communications. These signals will help you estimate their world model and may save you from some bad situations.

Alphas & Betas

2007-06-02T22:48:00.000+01:00

This is not about grocery stores, this is about people. Psychologists understand that there are two types of people (as a gross over-simplification), or two primary modes of operation for humans. Alphas (a) are the dominants and leaders. Betas (b) are the submissives and the followers.These are roles, and as roles they may change. You may accept your role or deny it. However we are creatures of habit, and are highly likely to fall back into the "role" we are most comfortable (familiar) with. Know that even if you choose not to play the role, that does not mean that others are not still playing theirs, and they may be happy with it -- and most people don't like change (like when you change your role).

This alpha-beta ranking is the pecking order of our society, it is the hierarchy we live by. Your role will probably change based on the context -- at work you may be a subordinate, and have to be the beta; or you might offend or scare your boss, and get fired. At home you might be the head of the household and be the alpha; you get the final say. Or things might be the opposite. Alpha and beta are not good or bad, they just exist. It takes much more responsibility and energy to be the alpha, that is why most people are happy being the beta. Though you may be the beta to those above you, you can still be the alpha to those below you.

Problems don't usually arise when everyone knows their roles, this is the smoothly oiled machine that is our society or family. Problems arise when people want to change the order/roles, or when people feel threatened about their position/status. Think about it, we seldom get mad at our children until they "disobey" us or try to tell us what to do, we fight at home when our spouse won't let us get the last word or they expect us to make all the decisions. At work we have problems when we feel we could do a better job than "so-and-so", or when we aren't getting the recognition that we (or our position) deserve. Our position is not being recognized, therefore, it is being threatened. This makes us nervous. It is this change or challenge that causes the friction, realize that before you attempt to make a change. Since few people want to move down in rank, watch your actions when moving up, though many also get annoyed when you go the other way (they are often happy right where they are). Realize what you do, and how people above or below you are going to feel.

We, as a species, are also scared of the unknown. We have learned that the hard way. We misjudge and often get hurt, so we hate to have to make judgements. This makes us much more cautious. When someone invades our territory, joins our job, comes in our local hang-out, etc., we get nervous. First we must establish the pecking order. As soon as the order is re-established, we quickly become comfortable again.

Watch the fake. There are many people that pretend to be comfortable being the beta, this lets you feel comfortable being the alpha. As soon as your guard goes down, you get hit. If the hit caught you hard and unaware, it proves that you were not smart enough to retain your "alpha" status. This is both a literal example, with a sucker punch by some challenger in a bar, or the example is figurative, with a guy at work pretending to work under you and then suddenly going over your head or stabbing you in the back.

Learning how to read this pecking order, and knowing how to project the proper signals can help you throughout your life. You should learn how to read all the signals for who's who, and what's what.

Technical Information About IP Ratings

2007-06-02T21:16:00.001+01:00

The following information is a guide to help you understand what fittings can be placed where in a bathroom. This is not an installation guide and reference should be made to the IEE Wiring Regulations (16th Edition) or a qualified electrician.

Firstly it is important to understand the rating by which bathroom lights are classified. IP rating stands for "Ingress Protection" and is always followed by two characters. These two numbers refer to the level of protection and it is important that you choose fittings with the correct rating according to where they are to be sited within the bathroom.

The diagram shows a bathroom split into four clear zones: 0,1, 2 and 3.

Zone 0 is inside the bath or shower itself. Any fitting used in this zone must be low voltage, (max 12v) and be rated at least IP67 which is total immersion proof.

Zone 1 is the area above the bath to a height of 2.25m from the floor. In this zone a minimum rating of IP44 is required. If the fitting is 240v a 30ma residual current device (RCD) must also be used to protect the circuit in this zone.

Zone 2 is an area stretching 0.6m outside the perimeter of the bath and to a height of 2.25 from the floor. In this zone IP rating of at least IP44 is required.

In addition it is good practice to consider the area around a wash basin, within a 60cm radius of any tap to be considered as zone 2.

Zone 3 is anywhere outside zones 0,1 and 2 (subject to specific limits) and where no water jet is likely to be used. No IP rating is required.

In addition to the above, if there is a likelihood of water jets being used for cleaning purpose in zones 1,2 and 3 a fitting rated a minimum IP65 must be used.

Full details can be found in the latest copy of the IEE wiring regulations.

I need to get a LIFE ?

2007-05-26T21:11:00.000+01:00

Your Wireless networks

2007-05-26T20:16:00.001+01:00

Wireless networks
More and more people now have a wireless network - a network which is not connected by cables. The data is transferred through the air, by means of radio signals. The advantage is that you can sit on the sofa and use a laptop without the risk of tripping over network cables.

Wireless networks are more vulnerable than ordinary networks. They require extra security, which is why particular attention is devoted to wireless networks on the security pages.

Discovered!
There is a growing group of hobbyists who regularly search for wireless networks. They tour an area with a laptop, scanning for signals from wireless networks. This is known as war-driving, war-walking or war-cycling, depending on the means of transport used. Some people then mark the networks they find; this is known as 'War-chalking'.
There are even websites with maps of areas that have been 'sniffed'. Entire cities are being mapped in this way. War-chalking is not illegal, but penetrating someone's network without permission is.
There are countless tools that can be used to trace a wireless network. These are fairly easy to find and use. Any laptop with a wireless network card and a sniffer program can be used for war-driving.

Risks
Once your wireless network has been discovered, it is very likely to be abused.
For example, people may make free use of your bandwidth while you are paying for the data traffic. Moreover, the data on your network will not be secure if your wireless network is not secured, which means your privacy can easily be infringed. Read about the associated risks, for example in connection with spyware and phishing.
All kinds of other harmful practices also take place. For example, spam may be sent through your connection. Or your network may be used to break into other computers. Fraud may also be committed, such as phishing.

If abuse takes place via your connection, it will not be possible to trace it back any further than your computer. Hence you cannot prove that you yourself are not the culprit. Victims of internet abuse may take legal action, so make sure you are not blamed for other people's misdeeds.

Secure your wireless network
An unprotected wireless network is even more vulnerable than an ordinary network. Prevent abuse being perpetrated on or through your wireless network. Details are given below of how this can be done in two stages.

1. Restrict access to your network
Anyone who wishes to use your network must have your permission. Technical settings can be used to grant or deny access.

In order to establish a connection with a wireless network, a computer must have a wireless network card. Such a network card has its own unique number known as a 'MAC address'. You can set your wireless router in such a way that only computers with a known MAC address can access your network. You enter these addresses manually. The helpdesk pages (NL) show how to secure a Thomson SpeedTouch 580 wireless modem. The left-hand column explains how to find out the MAC address of a card. Make sure you use the address of the wireless card and not the address of another network card.

Only allowing 'known' computers onto your network does not constitute sufficient security. It provides a very thin layer of protection which can easily be circumvented. Because just like ordinary mail, internet traffic operates with an addressee and a sender's address. Each piece of traffic, or data packet, which you send therefore contains your MAC address. In their standard form, your data packets can be read by others. Anyone with a wireless network card in the vicinity of your wireless modem can pick up and read your internet traffic. That is how they find your MAC address.
To gain access to your network, intruders replace their MAC address with yours. They make their laptop appear to be a known computer by spoofing your MAC address. XS4ALL therefore recommends that you encrypt your data.

2. Make your messages unreadable
Encrypt all the data that passes between your computer and your wireless modem by encoding it. This type of security is known as encryption. Only computers which have the correct decryption key can then receive readable packets and send them to your wireless modem. Conversely, your wireless modem can only decrypt packets which have been packed with your unique key. Other traffic will not be processed.
You can choose from two standard ways of encrypting data for wireless networks: the now obsolete WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) and the new and more effective WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access). One of these protocols, or possibly both, will usually be present on your computer and router. You will find them on your computer in the configuration screen, in your wireless network settings.
You enter the WEP or WPA settings yourself. In fact, all you have to do is set your own key. You set this on the router, and on every individual computer you wish to allow to access your wireless network. The key should be the same on all systems. Do not make your key too easy.

If you find all this too complicated, ask for help. The security of your network is worth the effort. If you do not secure your network, it will only be a question of time before someone abuses it.

Black Holes Could Provide the Seeds of Life

2007-05-05T08:40:00.000+01:00

You’ve heard it all before. Black holes pull with a gravity so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. You would think that black holes are the place where everything goes to die, but it might be possible that black holes are the source of life as well.

Astronomers now suspect that there’s a supermassive black hole lurking at the heart of most galaxies in the Universe. These black monsters do crush any matter that falls in, but they’re surrounded by a halo of other material waiting to fall in - like water backing up in a drain. This backup releases a tremendous amount of energy. And so, some material can get so hot and energetic that it escapes the clutches of the black hole.

Supermassive black holes are known to produce powerful hot winds that stream across the galaxy, and this gas might be very special. A recent calculation by researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics calculated that 2-5% of this material is ejected in this way. Carbon and oxygen atoms are propelled out at high speeds - as fast as 6.5 million km per hour (4 million miles an hour).

And so, star-forming nebulae comprised of mostly hydrogen and helium could receive a spray of heavier oxygen and carbon atoms from a supermassive black hole, thousands of light-years away. These atoms make up the basic building blocks of all life here on Earth.

Antarctic conservation blog

2007-05-05T08:23:00.000+01:00

Antarctic conservation blog

This blog describes what it's like to spend time in Antarctica conserving artefacts from the explorer's hut left behind by Ernest Shackleton in 1908.

It is being written by Phillipa Durkin, Emily Fryer, Fiona Cahill and Chris Calnan with previous contributions from the Antarctic conservation summer team 2006 and the winter-over team 2006, who have now left Scott Base.

"makes you think"

Take a look at Scott Base , just thing for a moment how cold it must have been for Scott !

And here is the NEWS !

2007-05-05T08:09:00.000+01:00

front pages from 52 countries.

Todays Front Pages

Cancel your credit cards before you die:

2007-05-02T06:11:00.000+01:00

Be sure and cancel your credit cards before you die. This is priceless, and so easy to see happening, customer service being what it is today.

A lady died this past January, and Citibank billed her for February and March for their annual service charges on her credit card, and then added late fees and interest on the monthly charge. The balance had been $0.00, now is somewhere around $60.00. A family member placed a call to Citibank:

Family Member: "I am calling to tell you that she died in January."
Citibank: "The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply."
Family Member: "Maybe you should turn it over to collections."
Citibank: "Since it is two months past due, it already has been."
Family Member: "So what will they do when they find out she is dead?"
Citibank: "Either report her account to the frauds division or report her to the credit bureau, maybe both!"
Family Member: "Do you think God will be mad at her?"
Citibank: "Excuse me?"
Family Member: "Did you just get what I was telling you - the part about her being dead?"
Citibank: "Sir, you'll have to speak to my supervisor."
Supervisor gets on the phone:
Family Member: "I'm calling to tell you, she died in January."
Citibank: "The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply."
Family Member: "You mean you want to collect from her estate?"
Citibank: "Are you her lawyer?"
Family Member: "No, I'm her great nephew."
(Lawyer info given)
Citibank: "Could you fax us a certificate of death?"
Family Member: "Sure." (fax number is given)
After they get the fax:
Citibank: "Our system just isn't set up for death. I don't know what more I can do to help."
Family Member: "Well, if you figure it out, great! If not, you could just keep billing her. I don't think she will care."
Citibank: "Well, the late fees and charges do still apply."
Family Member: "Would you like her new billing address?"
Citibank: "That might help."
Family Member: "Odessa Memorial Cemetery, Highway 129, Plot Number 69."
Citibank: "Sir, that's a cemetery!"

Best Job in the World: Jill Tarter

2007-04-29T22:15:00.000+01:00

The editors of TIME magazine have named astrobiologist and SETI researcher--Dr. Jill Tarter-- as one of the world's 100 most "influential and powerful people." The award is based on her lifelong study of search strategies for life elsewhere in the universe. She most recently has spearheaded the Allen Telescope Array project, which will provide an innovative, next-generation radio telescope and come on line with 32 dishes.

Dr. Tarter was chosen in the "Scientist and Thinker" category for her leadership role in the scientific search for evidence of life on other worlds, and for her efforts to promote scientific literacy among youth, particularly girls and young women. Tarter was the inspiration for the main character of Carl Sagan's novel Contact.

Tarter has devoted her life to the science of detecting intelligent, technological civilizations through searches of the electromagnetic (radio and now optical) spectrum, a discipline within the growing field of astrobiology. "I became 'hooked' on SETI", she said, "when I realized that I lived in the first generation of human beings that could try to answer the old and fundamental question "Are We Alone?" by doing experiments, instead of relying upon beliefs."

She wrote about the relation between SETI and astrobiology: " The question of where to seek life is another domain in which astrobiology and SETI are inextricable. Today's SETI is working to expand its target list of stars each time a new planet is found, a happy reality that was virtually unthinkable a scant decade ago. Our improved knowledge of the extreme conditions in which life can thrive has forced us to reexamine our conception of habitable zones around stars, again enlarging the scope of today's SETI search. "

Workplace bullying, you know who they are !

2007-04-29T19:48:00.000+01:00

What is workplace bullying?

Usually, if you genuinely feel you are being singled out for unfair treatment by a boss or colleague, you are probably being bullied. Although there is no comprehensive list of bullying behaviours, and there is no one type of person who is likely to be a bully, the list below should give an idea of some behaviour which constitutes workplace bullying.

"I was doing fine at work until we got this new manager. Everything I did seemed to be wrong and she kept criticizing me in front of everyone. In the end it got me down so much that I quit."

Bullying behaviour can include:

1) Competent staff being constantly criticised, having responsibilities removed or being given trivial tasks to do

3) Shouting at staff

4) Persistently picking on people in front of others or in private blocking promotion

5) Regularly and deliberately ignoring or excluding individuals from work activities

6) Setting a person up to fail by overloading them with work or setting impossible deadlines

7) Consistently attacking a member of staff in terms of their professional or personal standing

8) Regularly making the same person the butt of jokes

For most people bullying is something that should end when they leave the school playground, but sadly for a growing number of British workers it's something that will come to define their daily lives.

The cost of bullying to your boss
Bullying is recognised as a major cause of stress in the workplace and by law, stress must be dealt with in the same way as any other health and safety hazard.

Employers who fail to tackle bullying can pay a high price:
In lost time – because staff are affected by stress and ill-health .
Lost incentive – because morale is low.
Reduced work output and quality of service and lost resources – because people who are trained, and experienced, leave the organisation.
and if it goes to Employment Tribunal or to court they also face financial penalties and loss of reputation.
Most importantly, employers who fail to tackle bullying are breaking the law. That’s why it is in everyone’s interest to take workplace bullying seriously.

The legal position
Employers have a duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to ensure the health, safety and welfare of their employees. If they do not do this they are breaching an individual’s contract of employment. It may also be a breach of sexual harassment and racial discrimination legislation as well as the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. Employers and/or the bully may find themselves facing fines, compensation and possibly a jail sentence.

What to do if you are being bullied

If you feel you are being singled out or bullied at work, you should not have to put up with it. There are steps you can take.

First, speak to the bully. A direct approach is usually the best. Tell the person that you find their behaviour unacceptable and ask them to stop. This is sometimes all that is needed. Bullies do not like being confronted particularly by someone who is calm and civilised.

The majority of bullying goes on behind closed doors. So tell a friend or work colleague. You may well find out you are not the only one who has suffered. It is important that you do not try to cope on your own.

If you are in a union and there is a union safety rep where you work, tell them what has been happening. This will be in confidence and does not mean that a formal complaint will automatically be made. A safety rep will only do what you want them to and will give you the advice and support you need. They will want to have the bullying stopped quietly and quickly and can go with you to speak to the bully, or see them on your behalf. They safety rep will also help you with a formal complaint, if it goes that far, giving advice and support throughout the procedure.
If you are in a union but it is not recognised where you work, call your local union office. The number will be on your membership card or in the local telephone directory. You will still get the legal advice and support you need. Where unions are not recognised, employers are obliged by law to consult the workforce on health and safety issues either directly or through members of staff independently elected as Representatives of Employee Safety (ROES). Where they exist, you should consult the ROES who is likely to be a union member as well.

If you are not already in a union – join one. You have every right to do so. You do not have to tell your employers, but if they find out, it is illegal for them to sack you or to cause you detriment. The union will listen to you and ensure you have the best advice. The union can give you free legal advice, support you, put you in touch with support groups and approach the employer on your behalf.
Keep a diary. This will give a vital record of the nature of the bullying and when it occurred. It will be important when the bully is confronted. Many of the incidents may appear trivial in isolation so it is important to establish a pattern over a period of time.

Tell your manager or supervisor. If it is one of them who is bullying you, go and tell their manager. Take your diary with you to back up what you have to say. They may not believe you but you have at least told them there is a bullying problem. The more people that know, the more difficult it is for the bully to flourish.
In the end you may have to make a formal complaint and go through the grievance procedure. If you do take this route, never go to a meeting connected with the complaint without your union rep or a friend as a witness.

Get a better deal at work – join a union
When things go wrong at work – be it injury, illness, sex discrimination or bullying – unions are often the only way to secure redress or compensation. Last year alone, union legal services won a record £330 million for their members.

Unions work to ensure the workplace is a healthy environment and tackle sex, race and age discrimination aiming to win opportunities for all. Everyone has the right to join a union and your employer doesn’t even need to know you have joined. And at an average weekly rate of only £1.86, joining a union costs less than you think.

To find out more about how to join a union and which is the right one for you, complete our form, or phone the TUC, Britain’s national centre for trade unions, on 020 7636 4030 or write to us with your job title, name of employer and the type of industry you work in at: TUC Join a union campaign, Congress House, Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3LS. Further advice?

For further advice on bullying at work, you can contact the following organisations:

The Andrea Adams Trust Maritime House Basin Road North Hove East Sussex BN41 1WA

The Trust runs a confidential helpline 01273 704900 which is open from 10am-4pm Monday-Friday.

The Suzy Lamplugh Trust 14 East Sheen Avenue London SW14 8AS Tel: 0181 392 1839

If you would like more general advice about your rights at work call the TUC’s know your rights line 0870 600 4 882 for a leaflet or click on any of the pages featured in the Know Your Rights section of this website.

Opposition leads in run-up to local elections

2007-04-27T08:15:00.000+01:00

Opposition leads in run-up to local elections

LONDON (Reuters) - The Conservatives are firmly ahead of the Labour Party less than a week before local elections, according to an opinion poll released on Friday.

The YouGov survey in the Daily Telegraph will make uncomfortable reading for Chancellor Gordon Brown -- widely expected to take over from Prime Minister Tony Blair in the coming months -- as it pointed to Labour's worst local election performance in 20 years, according to the newspaper.

Local council elections are due to take place next Thursday. There will also be elections to the devolved Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly.

With political parties trying to woo voters, the YouGov poll put David Cameron's Conservatives ahead of Labour for the 12th consecutive month for the first time since Margaret Thatcher was prime minister in the late 1980s, the Telegraph said.

The Conservatives were on 37 percent -- a 2 percentage point slide from last month -- while Labour was unchanged at 32 percent. The smaller opposition Liberal Democrats came in at 18 percent, an increase of 1 percentage point from March.

Asked to decide whether they would prefer a Conservative government under Cameron or a Labour government under Brown, 45 percent said they would vote Conservative -- a 1 percentage point rise from March -- compared with 35 percent for Labour -- also a 1 percentage point rise. The percentage of those who were undecided fell to 18 percent from 22.

Blair is expected to announce soon after the May 3 election that he is stepping down in the next few months.

YouGov polled 2,019 adults between April 23 and 26.

Earth-like planet discovered 50 light-years away

2007-04-26T08:25:00.000+01:00

European astronomers have found the most Earth-like planet outside our solar system, and here's what it might be like to live there:

The "sun" wouldn't burn brightly. It would hang close, large and red in the sky, glowing faintly like a charcoal ember. And it probably would never set if you lived on the sunny side of the planet.

You could have a birthday party every 13 days because that's how fast this new planet circles its sun-like star. But watch the cake -- you'd weigh a whole lot more than you do on Earth. (Learn more about exoplanets)

You might be able to keep your current wardrobe. The temperature in this alien setting will likely be a lot like Earth's -- not too hot, not too cold.

And that "just right" temperature is one key reason astronomers think this planet could conceivably house life outside our solar system. It's also as close to Earth-sized as telescopes have ever spotted. Both elements make it the first potentially habitable planet besides Earth or Mars.

Astronomers who announced the discovery of the new planet Tuesday say this puts them closer to answering the cosmic question: Are we alone?

"It's a significant step on the way to finding possible life in the universe," said University of Geneva astronomer Michel Mayor, one of 11 European scientists on the team that found the new body. "It's a nice discovery. We still have a lot of questions."

There's still a lot that is unknown about the new planet, which could be deemed inhospitable to life once more is learned about it. But as galaxies go, it's practically a neighbor. At only 120 trillion miles away, the red dwarf star that this planet circles is one of the 100 closest to Earth.

The results of the discovery have not been published but have been submitted to the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Alan Boss, who works at the Carnegie Institution of Washington where a U.S. team of astronomers competed in the hunt for an Earth-like planet, called it "a major milestone in this business."

The planet was discovered by the European Southern Observatory's telescope in La Silla, Chile, which has a special instrument that splits light to find wobbles in different wavelengths. Those wobbles can reveal the existence of other worlds.

What they revealed is a planet circling the red dwarf star, Gliese 581. Red dwarfs are low-energy, tiny stars that give off dim red light and last longer than stars like our sun. Until a few years ago, astronomers didn't consider these stars as possible hosts of planets that might sustain life.

The discovery of the new planet, named 581 c, is sure to fuel studies of planets circling similar dim stars. About 80 percent of the stars near Earth are red dwarfs.

The new planet is about five times heavier than Earth, and gravity there would be 1.6 times as strong as Earth's. Its discoverers aren't certain if it is rocky like Earth or if its a frozen ice ball with liquid water on the surface. If it is rocky like Earth, which is what the prevailing theory proposes, it has a diameter about 11/2 times bigger than our planet. If it is an iceball, as Mayor suggests, it would be even bigger.

Based on theory, 581 c should have an atmosphere, but what's in that atmosphere is still a mystery and if it's too thick that could make the planet's surface temperature too hot, Mayor said.

However, the research team believes the average temperature to be somewhere between 32 and 104 degrees and that set off celebrations among astronomers.

Until now, all 220 planets astronomers have found outside our solar system have had the "Goldilocks problem." They've been too hot, too cold or just plain too big and gaseous, like uninhabitable Jupiter.

The new planet seems just right -- or at least that's what scientists think.

"This could be very important," said NASA astrobiology expert Chris McKay, who was not part of the discovery team. "It doesn't mean there is life, but it means it's an Earth-like planet in terms of potential habitability."

Eventually astronomers will rack up discoveries of dozens, maybe even hundreds of planets considered habitable, the astronomers said. But this one -- simply called "c" by its discoverers when they talk among themselves -- will go down in cosmic history as No. 1.

Besides having the right temperature, the new planet is probably full of liquid water, hypothesizes Stephane Udry, the discovery team's lead author and another Geneva astronomer. But that is based on theory about how planets form, not on any evidence, he said.

"Liquid water is critical to life as we know it," co-author Xavier Delfosse of Grenoble University in France, said in a statement. "Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life. On the treasure map of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X."

Other astronomers cautioned it's too early to tell whether there is water.

"You need more work to say it's got water or it doesn't have water," said retired NASA astronomer Steve Maran, press officer for the American Astronomical Society. "You wouldn't send a crew there assuming that when you get there, they'll have enough water to get back."

The new planet's star system is a mere 20.5 light years away, making Gliese 581 one of the 100 closest stars to Earth. It's so dim, you can't see it without a telescope, but it's somewhere in the constellation Libra, which is low in the southeastern sky during the mid-evening in the Northern Hemisphere.

Even so, Maran noted, "We don't know how to get to those places in a human lifetime."

But, oh, the view, if you could. The planet is 14 times closer to the star it orbits. Udry figures the red dwarf star would hang in the sky at a size 20 times larger than our moon. And it's likely, but still not known, that the planet doesn't rotate, so one side would always be sunlit and the other dark.

Two teams of astronomers, one in Europe and one in the United States, have been racing to be the first to find a planet like 581 c outside the solar system.

The European team looked at 100 different stars using a tool called HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity for Planetary Searcher) to find this one planet, said Xavier Bonfils of the Lisbon Observatory, one of the co-discoverers.

Much of the effort to find Earth-like planets has focused on stars like our sun with the challenge being to find a planet the right distance from the star it orbits. About 90 percent of the time, the European telescope focused its search more on sun-like stars, Udry said.

A few weeks before the European discovery earlier this month, a scientific paper in the journal Astrobiology theorized a few days that red dwarf stars were good candidates.

"Now we have the possibility to find many more," Bonfils said.

Darron's day: How to Add a Podcast to Your Web Site

2007-04-22T09:28:00.000+01:00

Darron's day: How to Add a Podcast to Your Web Site

Questions I get asked a lot !!!

2007-04-21T11:37:00.000+01:00

Does adding more RAM to your computer make it faster?

Yes up to a point, adding RAM (random access memory) will normally cause your computer to feel faster on certain types of operations. RAM is important because of an operating system component called the virtual memory manager (VMM).

When you run a program such as a word processor or an Internet browser, the microprocessor in your computer pulls the executable file off the hard disk and loads it into RAM. In the case of a big program like Microsoft Word or Excel, the EXE consumes about 5 megabytes. The microprocessor also pulls in a number of shared DLLs (dynamic link libraries) -- shared pieces of code used by multiple applications. The DLLs might total 20 or 30 megabytes. Then the microprocessor loads in the data files you want to look at, which might total several megabytes if you are looking at several documents or browsing a page with a lot of graphics. So a normal application needs between 10 and 30 megabytes of RAM space to run.

What is a CPU?
The CPU is certainly the most important PC component. CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. Let us briefly study that name:
It is a processor, because it processes (moves and calculates) data. It is central, because it is the center of PC data processing. It is a unit, because it is a chip, which contains millions of transistors.

Speed, speed, speed
Without the CPU, there would be no PC. Like all other hardware components, the CPUs are continually undergoing further development. You can see the explosive technological development in data processing most clearly in the development of newer and faster CPUs. The CPUs have for years doubled their performance about every 18 months (Moore's Law), and there are no indications that this trend will stop.
When we now look at all the CPUs from a broader perspective, we can see that:
The CPU history is closely tied to the companies IBM and especially Intel.
The CPUs have their roots back to Intel's chip 4004 from 1971.
You can identify seven or eight CPU generations up till today.
The compatibility concept has been important throughout the development.

Moore's Law
The CPUs have doubled their calculating capacity every 18 months. This is called "Moore's Law" and was predicted in 1965 by Gordon Moore. He was right for more than 30 years. The latest CPUs use internal wiring only 0.25 microns wide (1/400 of a human hair). But if Moore's Law has to be valid into the next century, more transistors have to be squeezed onto silicon layers.
IBM succeeded as the first in making copper conductors instead of aluminum. Copper is cheaper and faster, but the problem was to isolate it from the silicon. The problem has been solved with a new type of coating, and now chips can be designed with 0.13 micron technology. The technology is expected later to work with just 0.05 micron wiring!

Texas Instruments announced on August 27th 1998 that they expect 0.07 micron CMOS processing in the year 2001.

AMD was the first company to mass-produce copper-wired CPU's. This happened in their fab 30 in Dresden, April 2000.

Intel Owner's Club site

This site is good if you are interested in the CPUs. Find the Intel Owner's Club, which is a free, easy way for members to:
get the scoop on the latest Intel technologies
get info on hot new software and technologies
interact with Intel & technology experts
download free software and games
enter contests.

How Hypnosis Works

2007-04-21T06:26:00.000+01:00

When you hear the word hypnosis, you may picture the mysterious hypnotist figure popularized in movies, comic books and television. This ominous, goateed man waves a pocket watch back and forth, guiding his subject into a semi-sleep, zombie-like state. Once hypnotized, the subject is compelled to obey, no matter how strange or immoral the request. Muttering "Yes, master," the subject does the hypnotist's evil bidding.

This popular representation bears little resemblance to actual hypnotism, of course. In fact, modern understanding of hypnosis contradicts this conception on several key points. Subjects in a hypnotic trance are not slaves to their "masters" -- they have absolute free will. And they're not really in a semi-sleep state -- they're actually hyperattentive.

Our understanding of hypnosis has advanced a great deal in the past century, but the phenomenon is still a mystery of sorts. In this article, we'll look at some popular theories of hypnosis and explore the various ways hypnotists put their art to work.

What is Hypnosis?
People have been pondering and arguing over hypnosis for more than 200 years, but science has yet to fully explain how it actually happens. We see what a person does under hypnosis, but it isn't clear why he or she does it. This puzzle is really a small piece in a much bigger puzzle: how the human mind works. It's unlikely that scientists will arrive at a definitive explanation of the mind in the foreseeable future, so it's a good bet hypnosis will remain something of a mystery as well.
But psychiatrists do understand the general characteristics of hypnosis, and they have some model of how it works. It is a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination. It's not really like sleep, because the subject is alert the whole time. It is most often compared to daydreaming, or the feeling of "losing yourself" in a book or movie. You are fully conscious, but you tune out most of the stimuli around you. You focus intently on the subject at hand, to the near exclusion of any other thought.

In the everyday trance of a daydream or movie, an imaginary world seems somewhat real to you, in the sense that it fully engages your emotions. Imaginary events can cause real fear, sadness or happiness, and you may even jolt in your seat if you are surprised by something (a monster leaping from the shadows, for example). Some researchers categorize all such trances as forms of self-hypnosis. Milton Erickson, the premier hypnotism expert of the 20th century, contended that people hypnotize themselves on a daily basis. But most psychiatrists focus on the trance state brought on by intentional relaxation and focusing exercises. This deep hypnosis is often compared to the relaxed mental state between wakefulness and sleep.

In conventional hypnosis, you approach the suggestions of the hypnotist, or your own ideas, as if they were reality. If the hypnotist suggests that your tongue has swollen up to twice its size, you'll feel a sensation in your mouth and you may have trouble talking. If the hypnotist suggests that you are drinking a chocolate milkshake, you'll taste the milkshake and feel it cooling your mouth and throat. If the hypnotist suggests that you are afraid, you may feel panicky or start to sweat. But the entire time, you are aware that it's all imaginary. Essentially, you're "playing pretend" on an intense level, as kids do.

In this special mental state, people feel uninhibited and relaxed. Presumably, this is because they tune out the worries and doubts that normally keep their actions in check. You might experience the same feeling while watching a movie: As you get engrossed in the plot, worries about your job, family, etc. fade away, until all you're thinking about is what's up on the screen.

In this state, you are also highly suggestible. That is, when the hypnotist tells you do something, you'll probably embrace the idea completely. This is what makes stage hypnotist shows so entertaining. Normally reserved, sensible adults are suddenly walking around the stage clucking like chickens or singing at the top of their lungs. Fear of embarrassment seems to fly out the window. The subject's sense of safety and morality remain entrenched throughout the experience, however. A hypnotist can't get you to do anything you don't want to do.

But what is it that makes this happen? In the next section, we'll look at the most widely accepted theory of what's going on when you become hypnotized.

The predominant school of thought on hypnosis is that it is a way to access a person's subconscious mind directly. Normally, you are only aware of the thought processes in your conscious mind. You consciously think over the problems that are right in front of you, consciously choose words as you speak, consciously try to remember where you left your keys.
But in doing all these things, your conscious mind is working hand-in-hand with your subconscious mind, the unconscious part of your mind that does your "behind the scenes" thinking. Your subconscious mind accesses the vast reservoir of information that lets you solve problems, construct sentences or locate your keys. It puts together plans and ideas and runs them by your conscious mind. When a new idea comes to you out of the blue, it's because you already thought through the process unconsciously.

Your subconscious also takes care of all the stuff you do automatically. You don't actively work through the steps of breathing minute to minute -- your subconscious mind does that. You don't think through every little thing you do while driving a car -- a lot of the small stuff is thought out in your subconscious mind. Your subconscious also processes the physical information your body receives.

In short, your subconscious mind is the real brains behind the operation -- it does most of your thinking, and it decides a lot of what you do. When you're awake, your conscious mind works to evaluate a lot of these thoughts, make decisions and put certain ideas into action. It also processes new information and relays it to the subconscious mind. But when you're asleep, the conscious mind gets out of the way, and your subconscious has free reign.

Psychiatrists theorize that the deep relaxation and focusing exercises of hypnotism work to calm and subdue the conscious mind so that it takes a less active role in your thinking process. In this state, you're still aware of what's going on, but your conscious mind takes a backseat to your subconscious mind. Effectively, this allows you and the hypnotist to work directly with the subconscious. It's as if the hypnotism process pops open a control panel inside your brain.

Preparing to Move on, New Class, New School

2007-04-18T10:00:00.000+01:00

Whilst many students will apparently sail through the transition from primary to secondary school, or will seem happy to accept the challenge of starting a new school following a house move, there will be no students who would fail to describe the move as being an emotional experience.

For readers of this article, the experience will have been so emotional for them, that even five, ten (or more if you dare admit it!) years later, you can clearly remember the anxiety, excitement or just plain fear, of the days leading up to that first day in "the big school" - and then the sheer awkwardness (or panic) of not knowing where to go or what to say. You even look different, thanks to the new uniform, new bag and the arsenal of pens, felt tips and rulers overflowing from your new pencil case!

True to say that you may not remember exactly what was said to you, or what was done, but we all remember how it made us feel.

The transfer to a new school immediately moves you out of your comfort zone (even if that zone for some students was not the happiest of situations). You are no longer in familiar surroundings. The rules have changed, there seems to be hundreds of new adults and students. Worst of all, you are no longer the biggest or oldest - the one who knows all the ropes.

You are the newcomer, the youngest. It's no wonder behaviour changes. Thoughts and feelings certainly affect behaviour. The previously argumentative, difficult student may well go through a "settling in" period, behaving in an uncharacteristically calm and compliant manner. The previously socially well-adjusted, responsible student may well behave in such a way that makes the staff of the receiving school think:

"I don’t know what the primary school staff meant in the file notes; he's calm, quiet and a pleasure to teach."

"Why on earth wasn't this type of behaviour nipped in the bud when she was in the primary school?"

"This is the worst year group ever sent up from the Primary school! What on earth have they been doing with them?"

Equally, the knowledge that students are leaving the primary school and moving on sometimes presents the primary staff with several dilemmas:

"He's ready to move on, he's outgrown this school."

"Heaven help them when he starts in September!"

"It's not worth telling them about all these issues, she needs time to settle in at the new school. She needs a fresh start."

Don't forget that for many students the overriding fear or concern will be around all the horror stories that have been passed down over the years about what happens when you get to the school. How can we make the move successful and as stress free as possible?

There are already well-tested and established systems in place for the transition from Primary to Secondary, which should continue to be developed and evaluated. Don't forget to collect the views of all parties when evaluating and making changes. How does your school obtain the views, at all stages, from:

Students?

Parents?

Primary school staff?

Secondary school staff?

Students who have already gone through the process?

Standard practice for both transition and systems for students "moving in" mid year should include many, if not all, of the following:

Preliminary visits (parents and students).

Visit by staff from the receiving school to the students in their existing school (if practical).

Buddy systems within the new school.

Up to date information for parents and students, including: details of uniform, rules, times, curriculum info, timetable, site map, staff info, lunchtime arrangements, equipment requirements, travel arrangements.

Accepting that the above practical arrangements have been considered and are in place, it is essential that we give students the necessary "tools" to manage their feelings and equip them with workable models to problem solve.

Spend time in role-play situations and discussions relating to self- calming. Concentrate on both verbal and non-verbal techniques. Try counting and deep breathing, think about body posture and self-talk. All of these will affect both the individual's thought processes and emotions, thus impacting on behaviour.

Some of the students who encounter "problems" when faced with a challenge to their comfort zone will not have the necessary means of solving the problem. The fight and flight response will often take over.

As adults and role models we should not only be demonstrating appropriate behaviour and problem solving systems that students can "catch," but we should also be teaching problem-solving models.

What is the problem?

Think of at least five solutions.

Test your solutions – would it work? Is it possible? How would you feel?

Now pick a solution and try it.

Evaluate and make changes where necessary.

A problem-solving model gives students the means to react to, consider and take appropriate action when faced with difficulties.

A day in the Life of AFRICA.....

2007-04-17T09:19:00.000+01:00

ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF AFRICA , AS SEEN BY 100 PHOTOGRAPHERS

http://www.olympus-global.com/en/evenyDITLA/gallery/index.html

http://www.olympus-global.com/en/event/DITLA/

Internet for Beginners(COOKIES)

2007-04-17T07:16:00.000+01:00

"So, What Exactly are 'Cookies'? Will They Hurt my Computer?
Internet cookies are quite harmless, actually. "Cookies" are special small files that store business information about you. The intent is to make your repetitive visits to shopping and commercial web sites more convenient and quick. At a weather site, a cookie can redirect you directly to your hometown forecast. At an online store, a cookie can bring up the last three items you were browsing. And at your Hotmail or Gmail account, cookies can log you in automatically. No, these cookies don't store your credit card information, but cookies do remember your name, location, and your passwords.

What Cookies Store

Cookies are only as dangerous or invasive as you, the Web page viewer, allow them to be. If you fill out a form with your name, address, and phone number, that information can be stored in an HTTP cookie on your machine. The important part to remember is that a cookie can't know more information than you provide to it. If you don't want a Web site to have your phone number, then don't fill in a form that asks for it.

Cookies are often used to gather demographics about a computer user. The company doesn't know who you are or where you live or anything like that, but every time you accept a cookie from them, you tell them a little bit about where your computer has surfed that day. Specifically, the page that you are currently on, and the page that you came from.

If you frequent running Web pages and natural food store pages, in theory, companies can use that information to target banner ads to your computer.

Something for the weekend sir ?

2007-04-15T08:40:00.000+01:00

My TOP 20

1. Casino Royale Theme (Main Title) (2:34)

2. The Look of Love (4:00
Burt Bacharach's soundtrack to the 1967 James Bond send-up Casino Royale based loosley on the Ian Fleming novel of the same name.
Contains the great main theme performed by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass and the classic tune "The Look Of Love", sung by Dusty Springfield.

In 1968, The Casino Royale soundtrack was nominated for a Grammy for "Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Show" and "The Look Of Love" was Oscar nominated for "Best Music, Original Song".

3.Firefly (3:54)

4.Merry Christmas Mr Lawewnce(5:21)

5.Ghostbusters

6.Where the bad Guys are Gals
Quick to capitalise on the success of the 60's spy craze and Bond in particular, 20th Century Fox released the 'Flint' movies starring James Coburn. Full of campy 60's fun - both movies satirised pretty much every element of the Bond mythos - girls, gadgets, ludicrous world-threatening plots and massive explosions. Jerry Goldsmith was no stranger to the spy genre having scored The Prize (1963) and the pilot and early episodes of The Man From U.N.C.L.E (1964) - but Our Man Flint enabled him to pull out all the stops. Adding jazz influences and electric guitars (a nod to John Barry's Bond theme) to orchestral themes suggesting various geographic locales, these soundtracks are an enduring piece of 60's pop culture and a really fun listen!

West Side Latino records has reissued the classic Ray Barretto LP from 1965, Señor 007!Señor 007 is fantastic - it's chock full of James Bond soundtrack themes - but re-arranged with a Latin-American flavour! Essential!
6.Mister Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Dingo!:Sexopolized by DJ BNX
7.Africa
8.Dingo
9.Maschere

10.Grande Silenzio (from Il Grande Silenzio)
11.Malinconica Serenità, Pt. 1 (from il Mostro) (from Il Grande Silenzio)

12 Kylie :Breathe
Online Videos by Veoh.com

to understand this is to understand me :: Once Were Warriors

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Water Found in Extrasolar Planet's Atmosphere

2007-04-15T08:39:00.000+01:00

Astronomers have detected water in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system for the first time.

The discovery, announced today, means one of the most crucial elements for life as we know it can exist around planets orbiting other stars.

“We know that water vapor exists in the atmospheres of one extrasolar planet and there is good reason to believe that other extrasolar planets contain water vapor,” said Travis Barman, an astronomer at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona who made the discovery.

HD209458b is a world well-known among planet hunters. In 1999, it became the first planet to be directly observed around a normal star outside our solar system and, a few years later, was the first exoplanet confirmed to have oxygen and carbon in its atmosphere.

The things that just just keeps me going

2007-04-14T19:32:00.000+01:00

After all I did work at a Hospital for ten years plus, I think scrubs is something like or you dont there is no middle ground here.

Are we Alone In The Universe?

2007-04-14T18:46:00.000+01:00

More than 400 years ago, Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk, wrote that "In space there are numberless earths circling around other suns, which may bear upon them creatures similar or even superior to those upon our human Earth." Bruno deserves to be remembered in the millennium year -- he was burnt at the stake, in Rome, in the year 1600.

In the late 19th century, the science fiction of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells popularised the idea of alien life. Percival Lowell, a wealthy American, built his own observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona primarily to study Mars. He believed that its surface was criss-crossed by 'canals', dug by an advanced civilisation to channel water from the frozen polar caps to the 'deserts' near the Red Planet's equator

2007-04-13T21:28:00.001+01:00

If you understand it , it may make you cry

Technology and me

2007-04-13T20:51:00.000+01:00

I can’t remember the last time I went into a music shop and purchased a CD I always downloaded from limeware and now itunes. Ok its costs but it’s the right thing to do .

But technology is now taking another jump forwards . for sometime now , people have been able to learn online (BBC.CO.UK)

I always looking for something to learn, like to keep the old brain going (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain)

I find that I can download a podcast called“French For Beginners” so I am now learning French on my way to work , not only that each podcast comes with a PDF , which I read on my PDA.

French for beginners is from the (http://www.thefrenchecole.com/ )

The French Ecole has been teaching French & Spanish to thousands of children throughout the London area (and now Nottingham) for the past 8 years. They provide in-curriculum French and Spanish lessons for Foundation Stage, Keystage 1 and Keystage 2, after-school & lunchtime clubs, teacher training sessions, adult classes.

MARS

2007-04-13T08:23:00.000+01:00

Colonizing Mars

The interests of the Mars Society—an organization with the overarching goal of colonizing Mars—tend to elicit snickers from non-space fans. Why talk about building homes on Mars when we have problems on Earth like war, bird flu, AIDS and global warming? To the Mars enthusiast, these scourges simply count among the reasons to ditch this rock and head for the Red Planet.

Robert Zubrin, the founder of the Mars Society, likes to point out that Columbus encountered similar resistance from noobs when he pointed across the Atlantic. But Zubrin isn’t a seafarer—he's a scientist, with calculations that say people could create an oxygen atmosphere on Mars in just over 1,000 years. Compare that with other scientists’ predictions of 20,000 or 100,000 years, and he might seem like he's peddling interplanetary snake oil, but there’s no denying that his scheme for “terraforming” is thoroughly conceived.

The best way to warm a planet—Earth, for example—is with strong artificial greenhouse gases. With evidence gleaned from our own global warming, scientists have a good idea of which emissions are best suited for climate change. Zubrin, among others, believes tetrafluoromethane (CF4) is the best gas for the global-warming job. Twentieth-century thinking says factories are the best way to create emissions. So Zubrin proposes building several chemical plants on Mars to release fluoromethane continuously. Emitting 1,000 tons of gas an hour would raise the temperature by 50°F over 30 years. This could be done using 5,000 megawatts of energy—the output of five nuclear power plants (which would themselves run on solar power).

Spam update

2007-04-13T07:51:00.000+01:00

SPAM MUSEUM
It is said that within the hallowed halls of the 16,500 square foot SPAM® Museum lies the sum of all human knowledge. After all, SPAM® is the cradle of civilization. It is the ultimate culinary perfection. Within these walls, all of life's questions will be deliciously answered.

http://www.spam.com

SPAMMING NOT SPAM

Spamming is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages, which are generally undesired. While the most widely recognized form of spam is email spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, mobile phone messaging spam, internet forum spam and junk fax transmissions. Spam can be also called junk mail at times. Because many people don't like spam, many emailing companies have created a bulk file in users' email addresses to sort out the spam. However, not all messages can be spam in the bulk folder. The bulk folder only sorts out what it suspects is spam.

Spamming is economically viable because advertisers have no operating costs beyond the management of their mailing lists, and it is difficult to hold senders accountable for their mass mailings. Because the barrier to entry is so low, spammers are numerous, and the volume of unsolicited mail has become very high. The costs, such as lost productivity and fraud, are borne by the public and by Internet service providers, which have been forced to add extra capacity to cope with the deluge. Spamming is widely reviled, and has been the subject of legislation in many jurisdictions.

Adult team work 18plus

2007-04-13T07:22:00.000+01:00

World Wide Web Consortium

2007-04-13T07:14:00.001+01:00

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops interoperable
technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead
the Web to its full potential. W3C is a forum for information,
commerce, communicahttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.giftion, and collective understanding. On this page,
you'll find W3C news, links to W3C technologies and ways to get involved. New visitors can find help in
Finding Your Way at
W3C. We encourage organizations to learn more about W3C and about
W3C Membership.

2006-11-21T21:12:00.000Z

TOP 20 Things You Shouldn't Say While Working The Help Desk

2006-11-21T20:41:00.000Z

20. Tell the caller that you went online pretending to be a transvestite: Had cybersex with Eddie Murphy

19. "Still not used to this whole electricity thing, huh?

18. Proclaim your undying love.

17. Advise the customer to lick the power supply.

16. "So, what are you wearing?"

15. Constantly refer to caller as "Stupid Pumpkin."

14. As you look up a part number, whistle loudly in a monotone.

13. "You've got to be kidding."

12. "What you do is get yourself $50 and go and buy a clue.

11. Use baby talk.

10. "I don't get paid enough to deal with jerks like you."

9. Ridicule the inadequacy of the caller's system.

8. "Yo no hablo ingles."

7. Use metaphors based on your experiences with rabid dogs.

6. Laugh maniacally.

5. Twist the callers words to make it seem as if there is no problem.

4. "You're screwed. You're just screwed."

3. Encourage the caller to pound on the CPU casing.

2. Constantly refer to caller as "Stupid Hobbit."

1. "How the hell did you get access to a computer?"

what is spam

2006-09-09T20:25:00.000+01:00

Spam is defined as unsolicited, bulk, electronic mail - it is the Internet equivalent of junk mail. Just about everyone who has been on the Internet for any length of time has received spam.
Spam costs Internet Service Providers both time and money. ISPs must invest in extra hardware and pay employees to deal with thousands of unsolicited messages. Staff members are put to the task of investigating thousands of spam reports and complaints. Spam increases the load on mail servers and consumes valuable bandwidth. This increase in load overburdens mail queues which lead to delays in sending and receiving mail.
Consumers also pay for spam. Time required to retrieve mail messages, including spam, from the server increases, wasting one's time. Fees for accessing the Internet are dilated fro those who have a limited dial-up service. Time is wasted on filtering, blocking or deleting spam. There are psychological costs as well; frustration and annoyance mounts with each spam message polluting one's inbox. The costs of spam are therefore high to ISPs and consumers alike.

Kodak settled a CAN SPAM suit with the FTC. Their Ofoto unit, which lets people upload digital photos and buy prints, sent two million commercial messages that didn't comply with the very mild requirements of CAN SPAM. In particular, they didn't include a notice that it was an ad, didn't include opt-out info, and didn't include Kodak's postal address. They paid the FTC $26,000, the revenue they got from the two million illegal messages.

Kodak claims (not altogether inplausibly) that it was a technical screwup. But $26K for two million messages does seem like a rather low response rate, doesn't it?

Reuters reports that a UK appeals court ruled that an English 18-year old who sent five million spams to a company who had fired him had indeed broken the law. The judge said that "while a computer user might consent to being sent some e-mails, that consent did not extend to receiving a barrage of such messages."

This may seem obvious, but it wasn't to a lower court, which now has to reconsider the case and what penalty to assess.

How can I make my email newsletters CAN-SPAM compliant?

To comply with the CAN-SPAM act, make sure you that you are conscientious about:

Misrepresentation. Don't try and lure your newsletter recipient into opening your email with false information in the subject line. Similarly, don't misrepresent who is sending the email.

Company address. Your email must have your physical company address. P.O. boxes are not acceptable.

Disclosure. If you're sending a commercial email to people who have not asked to receive it, you must state that the email is an advertisement. If recipients have opted in, you're exempt from this rule.

Unsubscribe. Readers must be able to unsubscribe easily from your email. You must remove them from your mailing list within 10 days of their request.

Email sharing. You cannot share the email address of a person who has unsubscribed from your list.

Email harvesting. Don't collect email addresses from other sources or randomly generate email addresses.

a menu without script

2006-09-05T06:05:00.000+01:00

"Nearly all web browser based menus depend upon running script code in the user's browser. But because running executable code provided in web pages by untrusted web servers is inherently dangerous, a growing number of security conscious users (currently about 10%) wisely disable their web browser's scripting features for all unknown sites and selectively enable scripting only for trusted sites that require scripting for important web services".

"All of this work has been placed into the Public Domain. We hope that it will be of use and benefit to anyone wishing to adapt this system for their own use. "
GRC.com

http://www.grc.com/menu2/invitro.htm

Something to do at lunch time

2006-07-30T20:08:00.000+01:00

Something to do at lunch time
Fryea had lots of fun.

Be Nice, becuase they are judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to recovering your PC

2006-07-29T07:33:00.000+01:00

Do you hate calling tech support? Guess what--it's no picnic for the people on the other end of the line either. Tech support reps say their job description includes occasional death threats, tedium, possible hemorrhoids, low pay, and sporadic moments of job satisfaction.

The faceless army of computer telephone tech support workers can save your bacon by bringing your PC back to life. Or they can ruin your day, sticking you on hold endlessly and requiring you to do the same mindless diagnostic tests over and over until you just give up.

I spoke with many tech support professionals for "Support Tips From the Pros," a brief article about how to get the most out of your tech support call. My goal was simple: to create a tip sheet on what it takes to get your PC fixed over the phone in the shortest amount of time.

Be Nice--Or Else
I learned that if there's one tip that's more important than any other, it's this: Be nice.

Like it or not, the tech support person on the other end of the phone is judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to recovering your PC, sending you a replacement part, or forwarding you on to another technician.

"Being nice can get your PC fixed quickly," says Steven Kok of Texas, who handled tech support calls for a large computer maker in his home state. "Be rude and we might just put you on hold and take a cigarette break."

WiKi

2006-07-28T21:26:00.000+01:00

So we have started our first WIKI at work today, it is going to be so useful for sorting and storing our information in one place what a good idea I have had , added the first few pages to it , using HTML seems to be working just fine .... OK there is only me using it at the moment as a test bed ..... but hey someone has to create and set it up, wonder if the Boss will make lots of changes to it .......

if you not sure what a wiki is go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
but is short its a is a type of website that allows users to easily add, remove, or otherwise edit and change most available content, sometimes without the need for registration....

HELLO WORLD ( ok I do work in IT ) maybe one day someone will say hello back

2006-07-28T21:20:00.000+01:00

Hello world program

A "hello world" program is a software program that prints out "Hello world!" on a display device. It is used in many introductory tutorials for teaching a programming language and many students use it as their first programming experience in a language.
Such a program is typically one of the simplest programs possible in a computer language. Some, however, are surprisingly complex, especially in some graphical user interface (GUI) contexts; but most are very simple, especially those which rely heavily on a particular command line interpreter ("shell") to perform the actual output. In many embedded systems, the text may be sent to a one or two-line liquid crystal display (LCD) (and in yet other systems, a simple LED being turned on may substitute for "Hello world!").
A "hello world" program can be a useful sanity test to make sure that a language's compiler, development environment, and run-time environment are correctly installed. Configuring a complete programming toolchain from scratch to the point where even trivial programs can be compiled and run may involve substantial amounts of work. For this reason, a simple program is used first when testing a new tool chain.
While small test programs existed since the development of programmable computers, the tradition of using the phrase "Hello world!" as the test message was influenced by an example program in the book The C Programming Language, by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, published in 1978. The example program from that book prints "hello, world" (i.e., no capital letters, no exclamation sign; those entered the tradition later). The book had inherited the program from a 1974 Bell Laboratories internal memorandum by Kernighan —Programming in C: A Tutorial— which shows the first known version of the program:

Flying robots made from cellophane

2006-07-13T06:18:00.000+01:00

did youy know researchers have discovered that ordinary cellulose is a piezoelectric and smart material that can flap when exposed to an electric field.

click here