Hackers control the internet traffic

Hackers control the internet traffic

  4:42:00 PM    Science Lover

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Internet security researchers on Thursday warned that hackers have caught on to a "critical" flaw that lets them control traffic on the Internet. An elite squad of computer industry engineers that laboured in secret to solve the problem released a software "patch" two weeks ago and sought to keep details of the vulnerability hidden at least a month to give people time to protect computers from attacks.

"We are in a lot of trouble," said IOActive security specialist Dan Kaminsky, who stumbled upon the Domain Name System (DNS) vulnerability about six months ago and reached out to industry giants to collaborate on a solution.

"This attack is very good. This attack is being weaponised out in the field. Everyone needs to patch, please," Kaminsky said. "This is a big deal."

DNS is used by every computer that links to the Internet and works similar to a telephone system routing calls to proper numbers, in this case the online numerical addresses of websites.

The vulnerability allows "cache poisoning" attacks that tinker with data stored in computer memory caches that relay Internet traffic to its destination.

Attackers could use the vulnerability to route Internet users wherever the hackers wanted, no matter what website address is typed into a web browser.

The threat is greatest for business computers handling online traffic or hosting websites, according to security researchers. The flaw is a boon for "phishing" cons that involve leading people to imitation web pages of businesses such as bank or credit card companies to trick them into disclosing account numbers, passwords and other information.

"I was not intentionally seeking to cause anything that could break the Internet," Kaminsky said during a conference call with peers and media. "It’s a little weird to talk about it out loud."

Kaminsky built a webpage, www.doxpara.com, where people can find out whether their computers have the DNS vulnerability. As of Thursday, slightly more than half the computers tested at the website still needed to be patched. "People are spending tens of thousands of hours getting this patch out the door," Kaminsky said.

The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT), a joint government-private sector security partnership, is among the chorus urging people to quickly protect computers linked to the Internet. "Just like you should wear a seat belt going down the road to be safe in a car accident, the same applies here," said Jerry Dixon, a former director of cyber security at the US Department of Homeland Security.

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Microsoft, Google fight over Yahoo

Microsoft, Google fight over Yahoo

  7:57:00 PM    Science Lover

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WASHINGTON: Google and Microsoft will spar today at a congressional hearing called to examine whether Google's revenue-sharing deal with No 2 search rival Yahoo will harm competition. Google, with more than 60 per cent of the Web search market, and Yahoo, with 16.6 per cent, announced a deal on June 12 that would allow Yahoo to place Google advertisements on its site and collect the revenue.

The deal, which the firms have said would garner Yahoo at least $250 million in the first year, was widely seen as an effort by Yahoo to fend off Microsoft's on-again, off-again efforts to buy all or part of Yahoo.

Microsoft's most recent offer to acquire Yahoo's search business was rejected by Yahoo. Google chief legal officer David Drummond, defending his company's deal with Yahoo in written testimony for Tuesday's hearing, took a shot at Microsoft's 90 per cent share of the personal computer operating system market.

"Dominance of the desktop can let one company favor its own products and services and obstruct the interoperability of competing products or services, overriding the desires of consumers," said Drummond in testimony prepared for the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel.

Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith hit back, saying Google's deal would reduce Yahoo's incentive to compete against Google, would push Yahoo's search advertising platform into a downward spiral and establish an illegal price floor.

"When it comes to the issues before this subcommittee, Google should not be allowed to achieve an outcome through an agreement that it would not be permitted to achieve otherwise," said Smith in his written testimony.

The revenue-sharing deal has not been implemented by Google and Yahoo while they wait for an opinion from the Justice Department's Antitrust Division. Several state attorney generals have expressed concern about the arrangement.

"Microsoft believes the Google/Yahoo deal harms competition in several critical ways. Advertisers and online content providers would be harmed through price coordination that will establish higher prices and limit choice," said Smith. "Consumers would be put at risk as Google expands its ability to collect the personal information of users passing through its search gateway. On an even more fundamental level, Google's monopoly power would increase its ability to shape what people get to see and experience online."

The House Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee will hold a similar hearing later on Tuesday.

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Nuclear Power, India's Future Energy Resource

Nuclear Power, India's Future Energy Resource

  9:54:00 PM    Science Lover

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"The Treasure Hunt".Yes, God has given man a great treasure which man has to find out him self and use. At last man has succeeded in finding out "The Treasure", and has now slowly started using it. The Treasure which he discovered is the nuclear power, (the tremendous energy) which was hid deep inside the nucleus of the atom. He can convert this treasure into any form of energy which is a wonder. The only condition is that he should use it properly and should not waste it because it's wastage may cause irreparable damage. God trusted man and gave him this magical power. So he has to be responsible and should be careful while using it.
The group of people who are helping others in using this energy are the scientists of DAE. When nuclear Energy has been successfully applied for power production, in a couple of decades from now, India will not have to look abroad for its exports but will find them ready at hand." These echoing words of the great architect Homi J Babha is coming true. We can be proud to be Indians. Kudos to the scientists of DAE who have found out the first safe Nuclear Reactor in the world. At this glorious moment let us highlight the achievements of DAE.

To harness the atomic energy for peaceful purposes,the Department of Atomic Energy was formed in 1954.Since then ,it is engaged in the development of nuclear power technology and applications of the radiation technologies in the field of agriculture, medicine industry and basic research. The Department is now an integrated group of organizations comprising of five research centers, three industrial organizations ,four public sector undertakings and three service organizations. It has two boards that promote extra mural activities by way of financial support and research in nuclear and allied fields and mathematics. It supports even institutes of International repute engaged in Research in basic sciences- astronomy, astrophysics, cancer research and education etc.

Within a decade of launching it's atomic energy programmes, India became one among the top ten advanced countries in this new and complex technology.In 1956 the country achieved the distinction of commissioning Asia's first Research Reactor "Apsara".

With the confidence gained from this achievement Dr.Bhabha drew up a three stage long term nuclear power programme for India. The objective was that Nuclear Power development should reach a level such that power from nuclear energy should contribute significantly to the electrical needs for Industrial and agricultural growth of the country.

In the short span of a decade India had established comprehensive R&D facilities for the entire nuclear fuel cycle- right from prospecting, mining and processing of Uranium, fabrication of spent fuel, fast breeder reactors using plutonium based fuel to radioactive waste management and health and safety. India has also developed the technology of radioisotopes and their utilization in agriculture , machine and industry.

Even though the great architect is not with us his words are becoming a living truth.

DEMAND OF ELECTRICITY IN INDIA
(PRESENT AND FUTURE)

Availability of required amount of electricity is a necessity for a developing country like India. This has to be done in a manner that is sustainable and is based on diverse fuel sources and technology and provides long term energy security. This implies that we have to examine all fuel resources in the country and tap them keeping short ,medium and long term scenarios in perspective. Hydro potential and renewables must be exploited to the maximum possible extent but to meet long term requirement it is necessary to exploit nuclear resources.

Only in 1950s did attention turn to nuclear power for electricity generation. India is in a unique situation with modest uranium and vast thorium resources .Our nuclear programmes are planned taking this in to consideration. It is expected that annual electricity generation would increase from about 638TWh in year 2002-2003 to 7957TWh in the year 2052 to 2053.The growth rate of electricity has been substantially higher than that of any other form of energy. India is a developing country and due to the rising population demand for electricity is more and so there is always a shortage of electricity.

VARIOUS OPTIONS AND INEVITABILITY
OF NUCLEAR POWER IN TERMS OF RESOURCE
POSITION,COST COMPARISONS ETC.

Nuclear fuel contains energy in a concentrated form thus requiring much less tonnage for fuel to be transported or stored. The overall cost of electricity generated from nuclear fuel is much smaller when compared to other components. In addition spent fuel is a resource for fuel to be used in fast breeder reactors. Further the fuel discharged from nuclear reactors also contain fossil components and can be recovered by reprocessing and recycling preferably in FBRs thereby further multiplying the fossil material.
The growth of nuclear power in India demands more resources. So there is a persisting need for developing robust techniques for both front end and back end of the fuel cycle and also for the economic and efficient extraction of uranium from lean sources. Considering the low grade of uranium ore, low tonnage of some deposits, difficult terrain of some of the locations having rich deposits ,it is challenging to speed up the uranium production.

Atomic minerals Directorate for exploration and Research has identified as many as 14 middle Proterozoic basin in India which can host un-confirmity type deposits. Such deposits are of high grade, have large tonnage deposits and are concealed without any surface manifestation. Exploration needs to be stepped up to locate new deposits including those concealed deep in the earth. The projection about energy requirements beyond five decades and indigenous energy resources indicate a large gap between them. To bridge the gap we have to accelerate the work on thorium. Technology should be developed to extract lean Uranium. Uranium from phosphoric acid is a good option. Monazite sand, IREL and sea Technology should be pursued. New potential Heavy zones are present even in coastal tracks of Jagat Singh Pur districts in Orissa.

WORLD STATUS OF NUCLEAR POWER

Nuclear Power is a saviour to mankind. Man needs energy for developing his environment and himself. He can get it from Nuclear Power. Nuclear Power is the energy released by splitting of certain atoms.
The first commercial nuclear power station was started in 1950s.There are some 440 commercial power reactors operating in 31 countries with over 3,64,000MWe of the total capacity and they supply 16% of the world's electricity, as base load power and their efficiency is increasing. 56 countries operate a total of 284 research reactors and a further 220 reactor power ships and submarines. Today the world produces as much electricity from nuclear energy as it did from all sources combined in1960. 17 countries depend on nuclear power for at least a quarter of their electricity needs. Today only eight countries are known to have nuclear weapons capability. In contrast 56 operate civil research reactors.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF RESEARCH REACTORS FOR
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

Research reactors have many uses including research and the production of medical and industrial isotopes as well as for training. Radiation technologies application programme and other advanced technologies is as important as nuclear power programmes because of its societal relevance. It has many components, the main being the technologies for the production of radiation and the technologies for their application. Radiation can be produced either from radio isotopes or from accelerators. Therefore for the production of radiation one has to develop research reactors and accelerators.

Another technology being pursued by DAE is "Lasers and their applications". DAE has developed and is developing research reactors, accelerators, lasers and other advanced technologies. Application areas of radiation technologies include health-care, agriculture, food preservation, water resources and research. Parallel to the nuclear programmes ,the applications of radiation technologies have made constant progress in India.

PRESENT STATUS AND FUTURE PLANS OF THE INDIAN
NUCLEAR POWER PROGRAMME

Our nuclear programmes in many ways is unique. It encompasses the complete range of activities that characterize an advanced nuclear power including generation of electricity and advanced research and development. Our scientists have mastered the complete nuclear fuel cycle. The manner of development of our programme which has been envisaged is predicted on our modest uranium resources and vast reserves of thorium.

We remain committed to the three stage nuclear power programme, consisting of Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors(PHWR) in the first stage, fast breeder reactors in the second stage and thorium reactors in the third stage. Our scientists have done excellent work and we are progressing well.

A committee was set up by the DAE which has recommended planning of the activities of the DAE to attain a total nuclear installed capacity of about 20,000MWe by the year 2020.These plans have been further fine tuned by the internal working Group (power) set up by DAE for the formation of the five year plan.Capacity addition upto the year 2020 includes several 220MWe PHWRs,540MWe PHWRs,1000MWe LWRs and 800 MWe FBRs. All the activities will be taken up to meet the requirement of the power programmes.

INDIA'S 3-STAGE NUCLEAR POWER PROGRAMME

Accessing the resource position and facilities Dr.Homi Babha designed our 3-stage Nuclear Power Programme.

• The First stage comprises setting up of pressurized heavy water reactors and associated fuel cycle facilities is already in the industrial domain. The technology for manufacturing various components and equipment for PHWRs in India is well established and has evolved through active collaboration between DAE and the industry. As DAE gains experience and masters various aspects of the nuclear technology, performance of nuclear power plants is continuously improving.

• The Second stage envisages setting up of fast breeder reactors backed by reprocessing plants and plutonium based fuel fabrication plants. In order to expand the nuclear capacity in the country fast breeder reactors are necessary.

• The third stage will be based on the thorium -uranium 233 cycle.Uranium233 is obtained by irradiation of thorium in PHWRs and FBRs. An advanced Heavy Water Reactor is developed in BARC. So technologies pertaining to utilization of thorium have been under development.
Indian power plants can definitely achieve these goals and India can become self sufficient in Nuclear Power.

DAE's CAPABILITY IN THE NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE

The nuclear power programme has a number of ancillary operations which form a part of the nuclear fuel cycle. The front end of the cycle includes mineral exploration, mining, milling , processing of ore and fabrication of fuel .Back end of the cycle covers reprocessing of depleted uranium fuel, and management of nuclear waste. India has acquired comprehensive capability in the PHWR design, construction and operation of associated plants facilities covering the entire nuclear fuel cycle of the nuclear power programme based on PHWR.

Self sufficiency has been achieved in the production of heavy water. Besides meeting the domestic demands tones of heavy water is exported to South Korea. The performance and safety of all the operating heavy water plants have remained excellent. The cumulative production achieved by the plants is surpassing the scheduled targets and due to conservation methods consumption has reduced a lot.

The Board also has an energy efficient ammonia-water Front End Technology to delink ammonia based heavy water from the fertilizer plants.It is a heavy water upgrading facility for use on commercial scale which employs indigeneously developed lower internals in vacuum distillation columns. Fuel processing is mainly done in the Back End of the Nuclear fuel cycle.

The Indian Nuclear power programme is based on a closed cycle approach that involves reprocessing of spent fuel and recycle of plutonium239 and Uranium233 for power generation. DAE has a pilot plant for reprocessing at Trombay for the development of fuel processing technology and industry scale plant at Tarapur and Kalpakkam. The plant at Trombay processes spent fuel from research reactors and the other two plants process spent fuel from power reactors. Robotics and automation are very important for all activities of the fuel cycle and several other programmes such as maintenance of nuclear reactors.

NUCLEAR WASTE MANAGEMENT

Radioactive wastes generated at various stages of nuclear fuel cycle are categorized as low , intermediate and high level wastes. The plants for management of all types of radioactive waste have been in operation in many nuclear facilities. The low and medium level radio active wastes are treated in eco friendly ways. The high level waste generated in small quantities are fixed in glass matrix vitrification. It a complete technology possessed by a few nations only and it has been successfully developed at Trombay. Based on this technology two waste immobilization plants are operating in Tarapur and Trombay. A similar plant is at Kalpakkam. After 30 years vitrified waste will be disposed off.

Advanced oxidation process including wet air oxidation, photochemical oxidation, super critical water oxidation etc on an industrial scale need to be developed. Development of specific sorbents and magnetic assisted separations will have a key role to play in future waste management plants. Recovery of zirconium from hulls is highly desirable. Management of waste from pyrochemical will be developed. Overall strategy has to be to ensure that uranium and plutonium are recovered and recycled . Adoption of membrane based technologies such as reverse osmosis, bio separation and ultra filtration techniques should be encouraged.
The highest priority is to develop new technologies to enhance performance and minimize waste leading to a very low impact on the environment.

SAFETY IN NUCLEAR REACTORS AND
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

The safety performance of atomic power stations continue to be excellent. The radio active releases to the environment is much below the prescribed limit. The emergency Preparedness system in the nuclear plants is updated. In almost all nuclear power stations the Environmental management systems was implemented in line with ISO 14001. Environment around the nuclear sites are well conserved. Many nuclear power stations have bagged the AERB Green Site Award. At the low level radiation Research laboratory Kollam, Kerala research on the health and biological effects of continuous natural radiation on human population are continuing.

An independent body, The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board monitors safety. The safety standards formulated by AERB are on par with those recommended. The safety operations through the entire nuclear fuel cycle, from prospecting and mining of ores to management of waste encompass all aspects of safety viz. radiological safety, industrial safety and environmental protection. In all the nuclear installations care is taken to protect operating personnel, public and environment.

It is a matter of pride for our country that NPCILis a member of the world association of nuclear operation(WANO).Indian experts have participated in the peer reviews of the atomic power plants in Japan and many other countries. Indian scientists are members of the International Safety Advisory Grant and IAE which prepare the safety codes and standards.

Safety surveillance inspection are regularly carried out and comprehensive emergency preparedness and response plans to handle postulated emergency scenarios are inaction at DAE. Environmental radiation monitoring and environmental surveillance are the regular features of the Environmenal protection programme of DAE. Full protection of the environment and people is the prime concern of DAE.

PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS ABOUT NUCLEAR ENERGY

There is a need to launch public awareness programmes to explain all aspects of nuclear technology, particularly to remove fears related to nuclear radiation, waste management and safety issues.
People in general have a strong unknown fear in their mind about nuclear power and radiations. This explains why people prefer to live as far as possible from the nuclear power plants.
People treat Nuclear energy as a "rich and powerful man who donates money" even though they admire his money the are scared to be close to him. Similarly people want the energy given by nuclear power but they don't want to be near it.
It is the responsibility of the educated to make the people understand that"Nuclear Energy "is the Saviour of mankind.

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A 'scratch' to make net 100 times faster

A 'scratch' to make net 100 times faster

  10:58:00 AM    Science Lover

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Scientists have developed what they claim is a small scratch on a piece of glass, which could make the internet nearly 100 times faster and give users unlimited, error-free access anywhere in the world.

"This is a critical building block and a fundamental advance on what is already out there. We are talking about networks that are potentially up to 100 times faster without costing the consumer any more.

"The scratched glass we have developed is actually a Photonic Integrated Circuit. This circuit uses the 'scratch' as a guide or a switching path for information - kind of like when trains are switched from one track to another - except this switch takes only one picoseconds to change tracks.

"This means that in one second the switch is turning on and off about one million times. We are talking about photonic technology that has terabit per second capacity," lead researcher Ben Eggleton at the University of Sydney said.

Though the initial demonstration has shown that it is possible to achieve speeds 60 times faster than many current networks, with further development, the process is likely to produce even faster results, according to the researchers.

"Currently we use electronics for our switching and that has been OK but as we move toward a more tech-savvy future there's demand for instant web gratification. Photonic technology delivers what's needed and, importantly, what is wanted," he said.

The University of Sydney has developed the scratch in collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark and financial support from Australian Research Council.

Researchers had reported some time back that the internet could soon be made obsolete by "the grid". The lightning-fast replacement will be capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds. It will have speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection.

The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players, and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.

David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies "could revolutionize society".

"With this kind of computing power, future generations can collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine," he said.

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Artificial Intelligence - Available Now

Artificial Intelligence - Available Now

  8:59:00 PM    Science Lover

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Whenever a person wants to present themselves as an industry expert, one credible approach is to paint a shining picture of future technology and what people can expect from hopeful visions of things to come. One potential that has long bothered me is the current general perception of artificial intelligence technology.

There are a few key concepts that are not often included in the general discussion of creating machines that think and act like us. First, the problem with artificial intelligence is that it is artificial. Trying to create machines that work like the human brain and its special creative properties has always seemed useless to me. We already have people to do all that. If we succeed in generating a system that is every bit as able as the human brain to create and solve problems, such an achievement will also result in the same limitations. There is no benefit in creating an artificial life form that can surpass us to further degrade the value of humanity. Creating machines to enhance and compliment the wonders of human thinking does have many appealing benefits. One significant plus to building artificially intelligent systems is the benefit of the teaching process. Like people, machines have to be taught what we want them to learn, but unlike us, the methods used to imprint machine instructions can be accomplished in a single pass.

Our brains allow us to selectively flush out information we do not want to retain, and are geared for a learning process based on repetition to imprint a long term memory. Machines cannot “forget” what they are taught unless they are damaged, reach their memory capacity, or they are specifically instructed to erase the information they are tasked to retain. This makes machines great candidates for performing all the tediously repetitive tasks, and storing all the information we do not want to burden ourselves with absorbing. With a little creativity, computers can be adjusted to respond to people in ways that are more pleasing to the human experience, without the need to actually replicate the processes that comprise this experience. We can already teach machines to issue polite responses, offer helpful hints, and walk us through learning processes that mimic the niceties of human interaction, without requiring machines to actually understand the nuances of what they are doing. Machines can repeat these actions because a person has programmed them to execute the instructions that offer these results. If a person wants to take the time to impress aspects of presenting their own personality into a sequence of mechanical instructions, computers can faithfully repeat these processes when called upon to do so.

In today’s market place, most software developers do not add on the extra effort that is required to make their applications seem more polite and conservatively friendly to the end users. If the commercial appeal for doing this was more apparent, more software vendors would race to jump onto this bandwagon. Since the consuming public understands so little about how computers really work, many people seem to be nervous about machines that project a personality that is too human in the flavor of its interaction with people. A computer personality is only as good as the creativity of its originator, which can be quite entertaining. For this reason, if computers with personality are to gain ground in their appeal, friendlier system design should incorporate a partnering with end users themselves in building and understanding how this artificial personality is constructed. When a new direction is needed, a person can incorporate that information into the process, and the machine learns this new aspect as well.

People can teach a computer how to cover all contingencies that arise in accomplishing a given purpose for managing information. We do not have to take ourselves out of the loop in training computers how to work with people. The goal of achieving the highest form of artificial intelligence, self-teaching computers, also reflects the highest form of human laziness. My objective in design is to accomplish a system that will do the things I want it to do, without having to deal with negotiating over what the system wants to do instead. This approach is already easier to achieve than most people think, but requires consumer interest to become more prevalent.

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Holographic Projection Glide Paths

Holographic Projection Glide Paths

  8:58:00 PM    Science Lover

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Holographic Technologies are getting closer to becoming reality and soon we can see the data on our computers in 3D, 4D and 5D. We will enjoy Virtual Reality on our 360 X-Box in our living rooms. Military strategists and war fighters can play out the battle in the virtual battlespace in advance and then watch it un-fold in real time. Great, great grandchildren will be about to meet their past ancestors and watch a holographic video. We will communicate in video conferencing with the image of the other people sitting next us, but not actually there. All this is on its way and even more, as the applications are endless indeed.

One application, which has not been mentioned, yet is the potential for pilots to have projected glide paths in front of them as they fly, actually watching their aircraft (full-size) in front of them. All they will have to do is follow the projection and match their aircraft to the angles and speeds of the holographic aircraft ahead. The projection will be set for safest glide path, avoid wake turbulence and be the most fuel-efficient decent. This will make flying easier and become a great training tool for new pilots building hours and their skills.

This will insure a proper downwind to base and base to final approach, with perfect angles, no steep banks and help the pilot land at the perfect speed on the threshold. Additionally these Holographic Projections will be recorded and used for training air traffic controllers and used by flight instructors to watch to make sure the student pilot is coming along fine. The instructor will be able to reduce the scale of the aircraft to 1:24 or 1:48 scale and show student how they did. This can help in training new fighter pilots in the military as well. This can add to the simulator experience. Such technology will come in handy for the NASA SATS Program making general aviation safe as we move more private automobile traffic from our ground transportation infrastructures into the air and help with the Virtual Control Tower Simulation Training Systems to help commercial aviation.

http://sats.larc.nasa.gov/main.html

http://www.simlabs.arc.nasa.gov/vast/vast.html

Imagine eliminating wake turbulence accidents by helping pilots avoid wake turbulence, by using net-centric systems inside the aircraft, which will re-project the holographic aircraft in front of them. Good for collision avoidance as well. This will alleviate issues with the 3-minute rule, when it should be extended or when it is not a factor. The increased efficiency will help the traffic flow at the larger airports, moving more aircraft on their way in less time.

http://oea.larc.nasa.gov/PAIS/AVOSS.html

The Holographic Technology is almost here and it such advances in science has the potential of literally solving many safety and efficiency issues in aviation in the present period and safety in space in the next period. Think on this.

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UFO: Futuristic Concepts and the End of the World

UFO: Futuristic Concepts and the End of the World

  8:55:00 PM    Science Lover

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I was sitting on the front stoop wondering if I should wash the pickup or pick the last of the tomatoes off my one vine that has produced about a zillion marble-sized tomatoes this summer.

I learned last year that you only need one tomato plant in Idaho unless you want to supply (no derogatory remark here) Wal-Mart®. I accidentally picked a plant that pumps out those wee tomatoes that I didn’t like. I like the big ones that send juice running down your cheeks when you bite into them.

My granddaughter, L, loves the little ones and I found that if you get a handful and plunk them into your mouth all at the same time, like she does, you can get a big tomato sensation. I went out to my plant and grabbed a handful. That’s when Xrytspet showed up.

“I don’t see how you can eat those things!”

I said, “Go away, Xrytspet!”

She said, “I came to help. Is that how I’m to be treated?”

“What do you want, Xrytspet?”

“I’ve come to help you with that article you are thinking about.”

As is her custom, she sat on my lap. I said, “Get off my lap!”

“I want to help you with that Future-Concepts - Got futuristic dreams of changing the world? Put even your most eccentric or innovative ideas here! article for the new http://ezinearticles.com category.

“Sense when do I need you to help me write, Xrytspet? I’ve got my own ideas for the article.”

“They stink!”

“What do you mean, they stink? You’ve been in there messing with my computer, haven’t you?”

“I made a few revisions to your article.”

She kissed my cheek and disappeared after turning herself into a Northern Fish Crow, a Blue Bird, and a Northern Shriek.

Last week she turned herself into a cheetah, a puma, and a jaguar before she disappeared. The jaguar chased me up our cherry tree.

I decided to skip washing the pickup. It was getting cloudy in the west and maybe it would rain. I went into the computer and read her article which is as follows:

Futuristic Concepts and Dreams that Will Change the World Including Eccentric and Innovative Ideas. by Xrytspet and John T. Jones, Ph.D.

To determine the future we went to the Synchronic Isentropic Time Warp Predictor and typed in Earth. Here is the printout of significant events:

March 2017: Bush War II (Iraq) ends. The casualties not counting Iraqis (who don’t count) were 12337 Americans, 12 Australian, 987 Britons, 134 Bulgarians, 7 Danes, 9 Dutch, 14 Estonians, 9 Hungarian, 260 Italians, 3 Kazakh, 4 Latvian, 174 Poles, 4 Salvadoran, 6 Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, 8 Thai and 18 Ukrainians.

April 2034: Bush War II (Afghanistan) ends. The casualties not counting citizens of Afghanistan (who don’t count) were 1250 Americans, 8 Australian, 12 Britons, 16 Canadians, 12 Danes, 14 French, 45 Germans, 16 Italians, 5 Norwegian, 7 Romanians and 57 Spaniards. There were also Pakistani deaths (who don’t count).

January 2037: Cell Phone Production Wavers Off: Only 2.345 billion telephones were produced in 2036. The death count by drivers using cell phones reached 52,617 deaths and 7,260,006 injuries.

November 2248: Post revolutionaries attempt to bring freedom to the United States: Students from the University of Nevada, Tonopah called on President Valerie Clinton, a descendent of President Hillary Rodman Clinton, to convince the 47 states that left the Union last year to return and to start up Congress again. The President said, “Are you kidding? I can hardly manage the three states that are left (Utah, Nevada, and Idaho).”

October-December 2869: Meteor shower throw big ones at Aberdeen, Kansas and Aberdeen, Scotland. Most humanoids were killed in the two Aberdeens (and in their surrounding areas) during the recent rock show from the sky. A Mongolian horse breeder said, “At last! Now maybe I can raise my horses in peace without those National Geographic guys being around here all the time.”

February 2356: Nubian man creates fire from rubbing sticks together (Also called Kush, Land of Kush, Te-Nehesy, Nubadae, Napata, or the Kingdom of Meroei.) : Amun-Pa of Batn El Hajar or "Belly of Rocks" has discovered fire, something we all forgot. He lit a torch and ran all the way to the 6th Cataract above Khartoum. His run will be repeated at the First Nubian Olympics in September, at Khartoum, right after the hot season.

August 2459: Glaciers at Antarctica have all now melted. Geologists predict good beach conditions east of the underwater community of Sacramento, CA and at the lower elevations below Spruce Pine, NC.

June 2787: Astronomers apologize for not predicting the correct approach of Asteroid Humongous last fall. Speaking for the scientist at Area 51 near Los Vegas, Nevada, Dr. Alice Brown-Jones, a remote cousin of the famous cinema star, Catherine Zeta Jones that we have been watching on our television sets for decades, said in a news conference this morning at 1:17 a.m. that the trajectory of Asteroid Humongous was calculated incorrectly last fall and that the asteroid was going to hit the moon dead center rather than swishing by our earth sucking the ocean waters into the sky. (That would have been a sight!) She said that scientist at Area 51 near Los Vegas were calculating the consequences of this, but she suggested that we all take measures to learn the Nuclear Age Safe Position. As a public service we instruct you herewith:

1. Find a strong table or desk. (If you have a choice, choose the one in the cellar or basement.)

2. Sit under the desk or table.

3. Pull your legs up to your chin but keep your legs apart wide enough to kiss your butt goodbye.

End of Record

After I read this report, I was very relieved. None of this would affect me much.

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Future-Concepts : Merit Pay For Teachers - How Will It Work?

Future-Concepts : Merit Pay For Teachers - How Will It Work?

  9:36:00 PM    Science Lover

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Merit pay for teaching has been an unfulfilled goal of many teaching proponents for decades. There are examples that show it works elsewhere in this nation.

What about the private, entrepreneurial segments of America? Do they use rewards to recognize exemplary performance, as well as to motivate quality? One prominent performance measure in manufacturing is worker productivity. The more output a worker produces over a given time period, the higher the productivity quotient, with opportunity to increase earnings. In retail trade, customer satisfaction is a crucial measure of management focus. The healthcare sector uses trial studies to achieve success through improving patients' quality of life and lengthening life span. As diverse as these three enterprises are, they each remain worldly competitive by reducing errors. Through research and measurement, they isolate those areas of operation where most errors occur, and initiate practices to reduce those errors, with merit rewards as the prime incentive.

Although somewhat simplistic, it might be useful to identify the proven techniques that aid these employment segments with error reduction.

Goal Setting: With a continuing process in place for isolating error prone activities, goals that are observable and specific are stated in written form and communicated to all those involved in error reduction. Vague goals are easy to reach, but useless.

Computer-aided Technology Use: Creating software and/or hardware designed for alleviating tasks of a repetitive nature usually helps in reducing errors. Precision results are more likely to occur with technology use, than when humans perform the same tasks.

Decision Making: The responsibility for problem solving is usually best vested in persons closest to the problem. If you see it, fix it. Don't just call a specialist.

Merit Rewards: For that person who causes success above the level of expectation, their repeated performance at that level will more likely occur with merit recognition.

Entrepreneurial Competitive Support: American ingenuity remains the reason for surges in the unprecedented growth in start-up small business employment. This American service sector continues to grow, and create solutions wherever challenges exist.

COULD MERIT REWARDS WORK IN EDUCATION ?

Now, let's examine how well these techniques are, or could, benefit public education. If the private sector finds competitive success by implementing proven approaches for error reduction, could the public sector do the same? Perhaps attention to the elements that have made our American private sector the envy of the world would do the same for education.

Let's examine them one-by-one:

Goal Setting: This is one of the important sections of the Federal Policy "No Child Left
Behind" law. Each State is empowered with the task of writing, communicating and implementing specific, measurable student learning outcomes. This state-by-state process is moving slowly and many of the already published learning goals are not measurable, therefore no one can precisely agree if these stated student-goals have even been reached.

A practical solution to this dilemma would be an insistence that all goal statements contain action verbs that define observable human behaviors. One simple, but useful list of these verbs, arranged from simplest to most complex would be to: identify; distinguish; name; place in order; describe; contrast; state a rule; apply a rule; demonstrate; and interpret.
Not only would statements containing these verbs be observable, but they would also lead to measurability, a necessity for tracking learning progress with standardized testing.

Entrepreneurial Competitive Support: With the availability of goals containing observable academic behaviors, the task of preparing test questions focused on these outcomes becomes a precision task. Research by qualified test making companies can match questions to goals very precisely. At the present time these companies provide standardized achievement tests and scored test results.

But these results are of little use to teachers who need immediate feedback to diagnose areas for remediation. The thing that would be most useful to educators would be an Internet system that could electronically supply teachers with short classroom quizzes and instant scoring.

Unique tests of any length could be downloaded, based on the teacher's subject choice of item characteristics, available from the test company's large test-item database.

Other support organizations might offer a way to provide the quiz according to teacher-chosen curriculum characteristics, but with each student in the class receiving only a few questions. And each student's questions would differ from questions of all the others in class.

When electronically graded and returned, the scoring would then cover all the questions, and a wider range of ideas, thus providing the teacher immediate feedback on reaching specific academic objectives for the whole classroom. This process has been well researched and documented for about 35 years by the independent, National Assessment Of Educational Progress.

Should the teacher find these diagnostic quiz results unsatisfactory and desire a fresh approach to teaching the concept, a database of research-proven approaches, in lesson plan format should be available by electronic means. Over the years, educational research into successful teaching approaches has been supported by government grants and contracts, but remains hidden in some government file or on some professors' bio sheet. An entrepreneurial opportunity exists to validate and communicate these ideas; greatly assisting teachers through Internet downloads.

These are just a few ideas that should be available to help teachers reduce the errors in instructing America's uneducated youth. The service sector is always willing, capable and ready to fill this void, and to accomplish it competitively.

Computer-Aided Technology Use: With the familiarity of Internet use by today's educators, transition to this classroom measurement processes could occur with little training. In fact, the proliferation of software and hardware service could even assure test-item security for test manufacturers.

The service sector has a proven ability to meet this need quickly. Teachers would need log-in codes for program entry, classroom printers to download and print unique quizzes for students to answer, built in machine scoring capability to produce a classroom score and then destroy the paper tests, and database development to capture quiz and longer test results over a semester or year for teacher look-back and self-analysis.

This is just a sample of the aids a creative society could provide as assistance for our Nation's teachers, and result in improved student academic performance.

Decision Making: It goes without saying that individual leaders manage teachers' classrooms. Their success in fostering student academic achievements rests on their ability, training and support. Having immediate, professional feedback is much better than waiting a long time for "standardized test" results that come too late to practice remediation.

Merit Rewards: The basis for granting merit pay for exceptional performance is imbedded in the record electronically produced with each use of technology outlined in this article. It can be done. The private sector has shown the way!

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How Satellite TV Systems Originated

How Satellite TV Systems Originated

  10:19:00 PM    Science Lover

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What we know as satellite tv actually had its origins in the space race which began with the launching of the satellite Sputnik by the Russians in 1957. The first communication satellite was developed and launched by a consortium of business and government entities in 1963. It was known as Syncom II and achieved an orbit at 22,300 miles over the Atlantic. The first satellite communication was between a U.S. Navy ship in the harbor of Lagos, Nigeria and the U.S. Army located at the naval station at Lakehurst, New Jersey on July 26, 1963.

Telephone companies began using satellite communication for communicating as land based distribution methods became overloaded. Television began using satellites on March 1, 1978 when the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) introduced Public Television Satellite Service. Broadcast networks adopted satellite communication as a distribution method from 1978 through 1984. As the use of satellites for communication and broadcast purposes increased, it became evident that everyone had the potential to receive satellite signals for free.

Direct to Home (DTH) satellite receivers were developed in the early 1980's. Rural areas thus gained the capacity to receive television programming that was not capable of being received by standard methods. With the development of television receive only (TVRO), broadcasters began to complain that reception of their signals were being either received illegally or pirated. The position of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was governed by its "open skies' policy. It was the FCC's position that users had as much right to receive satellite signals as broadcasters had the right to transmit them.

The broadcasters, in response to this government policy, began to use developed technologies which allowed them to scramble the signals they were broadcasting. Users, in turn, had to buy a decoder from a satellite program provider that packaged programs similar to the packages provided by cable systems. Ideas began to abound about the potential market for satellite television. The FCC, following the World Administrative Radio Conference of 1979, in 1980 established the plans and policy for a new service, direct broadcast satellite or DBS. This new service was to consist of a broadcast satellite in geostationary orbit, facilities for transmitting signals to the satellite and equipment needed by individuals to access the signals.

Early successful attempts to launch satellites for the mass consumer market were led by Japan and Hong Kong in 1986 and 1990, respectively. The first successful attempt by the United States was made by a group of major cable companies and was named Primestar. Next came Direct TV. Echostar Dish Network entered the market in the Spring of 1996 offering cheaper prices and forcing all of its competitors to do likewise.

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How Albert Einstein Saw Things A Little Differently

How Albert Einstein Saw Things A Little Differently

  10:17:00 PM    Science Lover

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Albert Einstein had just administered an examination to an advanced class of Physics students.

As he left the building, he was followed out by one of his teaching assistants.

“Excuse me, sir,” said the shy assistant, not quite sure how to tell the great man about his blunder.

“Yes?” said Einstein.

“Um, eh, it's about the test you just handed out.”

Einstein waited patiently.

“I'm not sure that you realize it, but this is the same test you gave out last year. In fact, it's identical.”

Einstein paused to think for a moment, then said, “Hmm, yes, it is the same test.”

The teaching assistant was now very agitated. “What should we do, sir?”

A slow smile spread over Einstein's face. “I don't think we need do anything. The answers have changed.”

And just as the answers in Physics change, so, too, do the answers to your problems change.

While to all appearances you may have the same tests given to you by life, the same recurring problem, consider the possibility that the person contemplating the problem has changed.

Time has passed; you've learned many things along the way.

Rather than keep on trying to force the same old solutions which didn't work before, it might be time to try something else, something that emerges from the new person that you've become.

The tests may be the same, but the answers have changed.

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