Obama May Delay Tax Rise

President-elect Barack Obama may consider delaying a campaign promise to roll back tax cuts on high-income Americans as he works on a huge stimulus plan to counter the worst economic crisis the world has faced in decades.The policy moves by the Obama team came as Citigroup, the second-largest US bank by assets and one of the best-known American financial institutions, was struggling on Sunday night to restore confidence after its share price dropped 60 per cent last week.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Citigroup was nearing agreement with US government officials on the creation of a separate "bad bank" that would house some of its potentially toxic assets.Meanwhile, the 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which includes the US, Japan and China, pledged at the end of a two-day summit in Lima that they would take quick and decisive action as they seek to reduce the impact of the recessionary conditions sweeping many economies.And diplomats also said there was a high probability the World Trade Organization would hold a ministerial meeting next month to seek a breakthrough in the stalled Doha round of global trade talks.

But the politicians are up against a steady drumbeat of grim economic and corporate news. On Friday, figures from the euro zone and Japan are expected to show increases in jobless rates, and on the same day the traditional start to the US holiday shopping season promises to be one of the most wrenching for retailers in recent memory.The National Institute of Social and Economic Research forecast early on Monday that the British economy will shrink by 1.5 per cent next year, and for a total six quarters in a row, with a recovery not starting until early 2010.

And Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Canada's economy may be in a "technical" recession in the last quarter of this year and the first quarter of next year, the first time the Conservative government has conceded that possibility.Such news will be vying with any positive investor sentiment created by Obama's moves as global financial markets open on Monday.

Early indications were slightly encouraging for US stock market investors at least, with US stock index futures opening a bit higher. The benchmark S&P500 index futures were up 4.50 points at 796.50 in early Asian trading, though Australian stocks were lower in early trading.

Mouse Creek Falls

Big Creek Trail follows an old railroad grade used to haul lumber out of the mountains during the logging boom at the start of the 20th century. At 1.4 miles the trail passes Midnight Hole, a deep, picturesque pool below a 6' falls. At 2.1 miles a short side trail on the left leads to a bench where hikers can rest and view Mouse Creek Falls which is on the far side of Big Creek. The falls are 45’ in height.

The 4-mile roundtrip hike to the waterfall is considered moderate in difficulty.

Access Trail: Big Creek Trail
Trailhead: Exit I-40 at Waterville Road (#451). Turn left after crossing the Pigeon River and proceed 2.3 miles to an intersection. Continue straight, past the ranger station, to a large parking area at road’s end.

Obesity

Obesity means having too much body fat. It is different from being overweight, which means weighing too much. The weight may come from muscle, bone, fat and/or body water. Both terms mean that a person's weight is greater than what's considered healthy for his or her height.

Obesity occurs over time when you eat more calories than you use. The balance between calories-in and calories-out differs for each person. Factors that might tip the balance include your genetic makeup, overeating, eating high-fat foods and not being physically active.

Being obese increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, arthritis and some cancers. If you are obese, losing even 5 to 10 percent of your weight can delay or prevent some of these diseases.

Cranberry

Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the genus Vaccinium subgenus Oxycoccos, or in some treatments, in the distinct genus Oxycoccos. They are found in acidic bogs throughout the cooler parts of the Northern Hemisphere.

Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines up to 2 m long and 5 to 20 cm in height; they have slender, wiry stems that are not thickly woody and have small evergreen leaves. The flowers are dark pink, with very distinct reflexed petals, leaving the style and stamens fully exposed and pointing forward. They are pollinated by domestic honey bees. The fruit is an epigynous berry that is larger than the leaves of the plant; it is initially white, but turns a deep red when fully ripe. It is edible, with an acidic taste that can overwhelm its sweetness.

Cranberries are a major commercial crop in certain American states and Canadian provinces (see "Cultivation and Uses" below). Most cranberries are processed into products such as juice, sauce, and sweetened dried cranberries, with the remainder sold fresh to consumers. Cranberry sauce is regarded an indispensable part of traditional American and Canadian Thanksgiving menus and European winter festivals.

Hamilton Destined For Greatness

Lewis Hamilton has got a bit of a thing about Ayrton Senna.

The Brazilian, considered by many to be the greatest racing driver of all time, was a hero to the new world champion when he was a child.

Hamilton chose to follow Senna in painting his helmet a distinctive bright yellow, and has modelled his aggressive, uncompromising approach to racing on him, too.

The 23-year-old Englishman's detractors - and he has a fair few in Formula One - might also say Hamilton shares Senna's arrogance, and belief that he is on a separate level from his competitors.

The thing is, it is beginning to look as if he is right.

"He's a cut above the rest, isn't he?" says Damon Hill, the last Briton to win the title, in 1996.

Privately, even some of Hamilton's fellow drivers are beginning to admit that he is "that 2-3% above everyone else", as one driver who preferred not to be named put it.

Already the youngest world champion in history, a mantle he has taken from his former team-mate Fernando Alonso, the question now is how good Hamilton can become.

Freshwater aquarium plant

Aquatic plants are used to give the aquarium a natural appearance, oxygenate the water, and provide habitat for fish, especially fry (babies) and for invertebrate species. Some aquarium fish and invertebrates also eat live plants. Recently, there has been a movement in the hobby to use aquatic plants as part of aesthetic aquarium design and aquascaping, spearheaded by Japanese aquarist Takashi Amano.

Most of these plant species are found either partially or fully submersed in their natural habitat. Although there are a handful of obligate aquatic plants that must be grown in water (Cabomba sp., for example), most grow and thrive fully emersed if the soil is kept moist.

Indian Culture and Heritage

The long span of Indian history covering more than 3000 years and enumerating several civilizations has been a constant reminder of the country's rich multicultural extravaganza and world-renowned heritage. The people and their lifestyles, their dance forms and musical styles, art & handicrafts, and such other elements go on to reflect the varied hues of Indian culture and heritage, which truly epitomises the nationality of the country. This section attempts at showcasing all those elements, which act as a window to the culture and heritage of India.

Climate Change Can Grind Down Plate Tectonics

Earth's changing climate has a spectacular ability to reface the planet. Shifting winds and ocean currents can turn rainforests to deserts and back again, while ice ages have covered whole continents in glaciers again and again through time.Now, new evidence has emerged that, given enough time, climate change can even alter the course of plate tectonics.

The march of plate tectonics had previously seemed impervious to water and air's fickle motions. No matter the weather, plates would grind past and crash into one another to build mountain ranges, or sink into the hot depths of the mantle.But, according to Brendan Meade of Harvard University the mighty Andes mountain range, the longest on Earth, might not be here today if it wasn't for a drastic shift in climate 14 million years ago.

McCain Goes On The Attack In Final Debate

John McCain lashed out at Barack Obama's efforts to link him to George Bush's unpopular presidency. "Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago," McCain said. McCain came out fighting last night in what was perhaps his last big opportunity to turn around a campaign less than three weeks before the election, but Obama emerged from the encounter relatively unscathed. McCain's poll numbers have fallen as Americans appear increasingly unwilling to put another Republican in the White House at a time of financial turmoil and fears of a recession. Major U.S. stock market indexes fell nearly 8 percent or more Wednesday. The 90-minute encounter, at Hofstra University outside New York City, had the fireworks lacking in the candidates' first two debates. With the rivals seated at a round table, McCain assailed Obama's character and his campaign positions on taxes, trade, abortion and other issues.

McCain heatedly demanded that Obama explain his relationship with William Ayers, a Vietnam war-era radical. Obama brushed off the attack, saying he was 8 years old when Ayers was involved in anti-war activities, including the bombing of federal buildings. For all of McCain's intensity, it was far from clear that he managed to undermine Obama's growing popularity. The attacks also risked a backlash: Polls have shown that personal attacks by the McCain campaign — including advertisements about Ayers — have backfired, alienating voters at a time that the economy is the overwhelming concern. When McCain talked about Ayers, Obama countered: "The fact that this has become such an important part of your campaign, Senator McCain, says more about your campaign than it says about me." As in the previous two debates, national polls showed a majority of debate watchers rated Obama the clear winner. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll found that 58 percent of those surveyed said Obama did the best job in the debate, with 31 percent saying McCain did better. The poll was conducted by telephone with 620 adult Americans who watched the debate and had a sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Obama Cites Gandhi To Back His Call For Change

Calling Mahatma Gandhi's message and significance as universal, US presidential top-runner Barack Obama has said that real change in America "will not come from Washington - it will come when the people, united, bring it to Washington".

A big admirer of Gandhi, whose portrait hangs in his office, Obama issued a statement on the birth anniversary of the great leader, calling upon Americans to "rededicate ourselves, every day from now until November 4 (election day), and beyond, to living Gandhi's call to be the change we wish to see in the world".

Statement from Vice Chair Donetta Davidson

September 24, 2008 -- Last Thursday, September 18, at an all day Public Meeting, the Commission heard testimony from several panelists including Dr. Merle King of Kennesaw State University who offered probably one of the most poignant observations to date. He quoted a Professor from Georgia Tech who said that “voting systems are not rocket science.” Dr. King replied “No, it’s far more complicated.” He used the analogy that states cannot cancel an election in the way that NASA can scrub a launch at any time if the conditions aren’t ideal. Ready or not the election must go on.

Election officials must be ready for everything and anything that may happen. The EAC has devoted a good deal of time and resources on contingency and disaster planning. State officials have also been working overtime to prepare for the record turnout expected. However, budgets were set before all of the excitement surrounded this particular presidential race. Many of the states set their financial expenditure thresholds before they realized that they would need more equipment, supplies and staff to ensure that November 4th runs smoothly.

One of the other panelists, Doug Lewis of the Election Center, mentioned that there have been local officials who have claimed that they do not have sufficient funds to execute this year’s election and have spent less on this upcoming election than on their previous non-presidential elections. It has been suggested that states should reconsider their application of Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funds to help with their financial constraints in order to keep up with the demand for supplies and resources with this next election. However, this is a situation where states need to be very cautious that they are not supplanting state and local funds with federal funds. This idea could possibly be a good solution as long as officials have properly allocated funding to the local level while in compliance with the guidelines that govern how they spend HAVA money. However, if this solution were to be realized it could constitute a “material change” according to our proposed guidelines.

With the comments which were offered at Thursday’s meeting, it highlighted the concerns that I have had with the proposed guidelines on material changes. HAVA §253 requires that states file a state plan and that the chief State election official file a statement certifying that the State is in compliance with the requirements of §253(b). This is problematic, however, as the state plans submitted do not account for any developments or changes in budget due to unforeseen circumstances. HAVA §254(a)(11) addresses this and requires that states “conduct ongoing management of the plan, except that the State may not make any material change in the administration of the plan.” If material changes are made, they must be done in compliance with §254(a)(11)(A)-(C). This brings me to my concern with sections 3 and 4 of the Proposed Guidelines on HAVA §254(a)(11): Material Changes in the Administration of HAVA State Plans. Section 3 requires that if there is a budget change of 10 percent or more of the HAVA fiscal year’s cumulative budget or a change of more than 10 percent of the cumulative budget of the fiscal years requirement payment from one category to another an amended state plan would be required. Additionally, section four states that if there is a revision in the means by which a State plans to achieve the HAVA objectives then an amended state plan must be submitted. If the proposed guidelines are approved, both of these sections would come into play if there were a disaster or emergency of any kind. We all remember how Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the gulf coast and New Orleans. Elections are unique in that we are dealing with tight and inflexible timelines. If the suggestions in our guidelines cannot be met it will discourage the states from either following the guidelines or taking the necessary action when an emergency arises. The southern states and gulf coast know too well that even with a contingency plan, drastic measures have to be taken to meet their critical deadlines. If the proposed guidelines are implemented sections 3 and 4 will be activated if they utilized their HAVA funds to deal with their emergency situation. They would not have time to amend their state plan before taking action.

It is my strong opinion that the EAC should proceed with caution when creating guidelines that we “suggest” they follow. Best practices on how to improve an election are one matter. However, it is a different matter when we start creating guidance that is suspiciously close to regulation. Under HAVA Congress specifically took the notion that the Commission does not have regulatory authority but serves as a clearinghouse of best practices that states could voluntarily utilize.

Microbial biodegradation

Interest in the microbial biodegradation of pollutants has intensified in recent years as mankind strives to find sustainable ways to cleanup contaminated environments. These bioremediation and biotransformation methods endeavour to harness the astonishing, naturally occurring, ability of microbial xenobiotic metabolism to degrade, transform or accumulate a huge range of compounds including hydrocarbons (e.g. oil), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), pharmaceutical substances, radionuclides and metals. Major methodological breakthroughs in recent years have enabled detailed genomic, metagenomic, proteomic, bioinformatic and other high-throughput analyses of environmentally relevant microorganisms providing unprecedented insights into key biodegradative pathways and the ability of organisms to adapt to changing environmental conditions.

The elimination of a wide range of pollutants and wastes from the environment is an absolute requirement to promote a sustainable development of our society with low environmental impact. Biological processes play a major role in the removal of contaminants and they take advantage of the astonishing catabolic versatility of microorganisms to degrade/convert such compounds. New methodological breakthroughs in sequencing, genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics and imaging are producing vast amounts of information.

Enzyme kinetics

Enzyme kinetics is the study of the chemical reactions that are catalysed by enzymes, with a focus on their reaction rates. The study of an enzyme's kinetics reveals the catalytic mechanism of this enzyme, its role in metabolism, how its activity is controlled, and how a drug or a poison might inhibit the enzyme.

Enzymes are usually protein molecules that manipulate other molecules — the enzymes' substrates. These target molecules bind to an enzyme's active site and are transformed into products through a series of steps known as the enzymatic mechanism. These mechanisms can be divided into single-substrate and multiple-substrate mechanisms. Kinetic studies on enzymes that only bind one substrate, such as triosephosphate isomerase, aim to measure the affinity with which the enzyme binds this substrate and the turnover rate.

Pharmacology

After a confirmed test of the anxiolytic efficacy in a mouse model, receptor antagonists haloperidol, mecamylamine, and ketanserin were applied. Haloperidol completely reversed the anxiolytic effects, and mecamylamine and ketanserin nearly completely reversed the effects. This shows that aniracetam's anxiolytic mechanism is facilitated by D2/D3 dopamine, nicotinic acetylcholine, and 5-HT2A receptors.

Aniracetam has also been shown to selectively modulate the AMPA glutamate receptor and was used as the parent compound to derive a class of drugs known as the ampakines which are being investigated as nootropics and neuroprotective drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.

Despite the fat solubility of aniracetam its half-life is much shorter than common racetam analogs such as Piracetam.

Wide Area Augmentation System

The Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) is an air navigation aid developed by the Federal Aviation Administration to augment the Global Positioning System (GPS), with the goal of improving its accuracy, integrity, and availability. Essentially, WAAS is intended to enable aircraft to rely on GPS for all phases of flight, including precision approaches to any airport within its coverage area.

WAAS uses a network of ground-based reference stations (Benchmark DGPSRs transmitting differential corrections (DCs, located within spaces protected from the public inside airportsin North America and Hawaii, to measure small variations in the GPS satellites' signals in the western hemisphere. Measurements from the reference stations are routed to master stations, which queue the received DCs and send the correction messages to geostationary WAAS satellites in a timely manner (at least every 5 seconds or better). Those satellites broadcast the correction messages back to Earth, where WAAS-enabled GPS receiver uses the corrections while computing its position to improve accuracy. The longer any given DC has been delayed, the less benefit it will produce.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) calls this type of system a Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS). Europe and Asia are developing their own SBASs, the Indian Gagan, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) and the Japanese Multi-functional Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS), respectively. Commercial systems include StarFire and OmniSTAR.

VersionTracker

VersionTracker.com is a website that tracks software releases. It started out originally as a Mac OS software tracker, eventually expanding into Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Palm OS.

VersionTracker does not host the majority of the software listed (it merely links to them), only in special agreements with the developers.

VersionTracker also offers a software called VersionTracker Pro that checks software versions on a user's computer and then queries its database to see if any updates are available. This feature is available only to paid subscribers. Browsing and searching the database is free.

Neogeography

Neogeography literally means "new geography", and is commonly applied to the usage of geographical techniques and tools used for personal and community activities or for utilization by a non-expert group of users. Application domains of neogeography are typically not formal or analytical.

The term and field owes much of its inspiration to the Locative media movement that sought to expand the use of location-based technologies to personal expression and society.

Traditional GIS Geographic Information Systems historically have developed tools and techniques targeted towards formal applications that require precision and accuracy. By contrast, Neogeography tends to apply to the areas of approachable, colloquial applications. The two realms can have overlap as the same problems are presented to different sets of users: experts and non-experts.

Locative media

Locative Media are media of communication bound to a location. They are digital media applied to real places and thus triggering real social interactions. While mobile technologies such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), laptop computers and mobile phones enable locative media, they are not the goal for the development of projects in this field. Rather:

"Locative media is many things: A new site for old discussions about the relationship of consciousness to place and other people. A framework within which to actively engage with, critique, and shape a rapid set of technological developments. A context within which to explore new and old models of communication, community and exchange. A name for the ambiguous shape of a rapidly deploying surveillance and control infrastructure." (Russell, 2004)

Relational model

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

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

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

Multidimensional database

Multidimensional databases are variously (depending on the context) data aggregators which combine data from a multitude of data sources; databases which offer networks, hierarchies, arrays and other data formats difficult to model in SQL; or databases which give a high degree of flexibility in the definition of dimensions, units, and unit relationships, regardless of data format.

Multi-dimensional databases are especially useful in sales and marketing applications that involve time series. Large volumes of sales and inventory data can be stored to ultimately be used for logistics and executive planning. For example, data can be more readily segregated by sales region, product, or time period.

While many of the major database vendors have recognized and implemented at least a partial solution, most frequently they rely upon a Star schema database design. However, the star design for relational databases can result in "sparse data," or sets of ordered data with large gaps between data entries. While modern database engines use strategies to limit the impact of sparse data sets on query performance, such as compressing large blocks of empty data elements for quicker access, star databases can still present worse performance than other alternatives.