Friday, November 30, 2007
iGoogle
iGoogle: "Accepting limitations placed on you may not be an easy task now, but it's the key to your freedom. Don't ignore your responsibilities or boundaries; instead work within the confines of the current circumstances. For today, hold back your actions just enough to maintain the status quo. The problems will seem less overwhelming by tomorrow. By Rick Levine Friday, November 30, 2007"
Thursday, November 29, 2007
iGoogle
iGoogle: "Restrictive Saturn is one of your key planets and it is in the forefront of your life for the next couple of days, possibly preventing you from doing things exactly your way. Keep in mind, however, that you will still have your chance. But first you must demonstrate that you can follow directions and fulfill your current obligations. Once you have shown your willingness to be a team player, you will be granted the additional freedom you desire. By Rick Levine Thursday, November 29, 2007"
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
iGoogle
iGoogle: "[Tarot.com ] Put extra effort into anything that helps you to concentrate your attention on the details. You have an extra high level of intuition that helps you connect with even the most mechanical tasks in a satisfying way. Don't force anything, for too much hard work could be draining and may even waste your time. By Rick Levine Tuesday, November 27, 200"
Monday, November 26, 2007
iGoogle
iGoogle: "As much as you are ready to enjoy the finer aspects of your life, today may be busier than a typical Monday. You have the energy to do your job, but you are a bit distracted by your unexpressed desires. Unfortunately, the more you try to concentrate, the more persistent your fantasies become. Instead of pushing them away, focus on ways to make your dreams come true. By Rick Levine Monday, November 26, 2007"
Sunday, November 25, 2007
iGoogle
iGoogle: "Your intuition is particularly sharp now, enabling you to pull rabbits out of hats. You can miraculously come up with the right answers as if by sheer magic. Your spiritual channels will open wider when you are able to enjoy yourself and be in the present moment. Even a good sense of humor can be helpful, turning this into a socially successful day as well. By Rick Levine Sunday, November 25, 2007"
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Harvard Physicist Plays Magician With the Speed of Light
Harvard Physicist Plays Magician With the Speed of Light: "Lene Vestergaard Hau can stop a pulse of light in midflight, start it up again at 0.13 miles per hour, and then make it appear in a completely different location. 'It's like a little magic trick,' says Hau, a Harvard physicist. 'Of course, in all magic tricks there's a secret.' And her secret is a 0.1-mm lump of atoms called a Bose-Einstein condensate, cooled nearly to absolute zero (-459.67 degrees Fahrenheit) in a steel container with tiny windows. Normally — well, in a vacuum — light goes 186,282 miles per second. But things are different inside a BEC, a strange place where millions of atoms move — barely — in quantum lockstep. About a decade ago, Hau started playing with BECs — for a physicist, that means shooting lasers at them. She blew up a few. Eventually, she found that lasers of the right wavelengths could tune the optical properties of a BEC, giving Hau an almost supernatural command over any other light shined into it. Her first trick was slowing a pulse of light to a crawl — 15 mph as it traveled through the BEC. Since then, Hau has completely frozen a pulse and then released it. And recently she shot a pulse into one BEC and stopped it — turning the BEC into a hologram, a sort of matter version of the pulse. Then she transferre"
iGoogle
iGoogle: "You may be struggling as you attempt to put everything in your life in order, but it could be a hopeless goal now. You might need to let go of something, even if you have apprehensions about it. Remember, your current lack of efficiency doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong. Don't be too hard on yourself; things will make more sense in a few days. By Rick Levine Saturday, November 24, 2007"
Friday, November 23, 2007
iGoogle
iGoogle: "Spending time with those who are near and dear can make this a special weekend. Tender moments with family members can feel precious, especially if you still need to head to work for part of the day. You may not be the sentimental type, but today could be an exception. You don't need to be as ambitious now, for you are capable of finding great happiness close to home. By Rick Levine Friday, November 23, 2007"
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
iGoogle
iGoogle: "Your powers of observation are strong now, as long as you can trust your instincts. Don't worry about counting everything down to the tiniest measurement. Instead, back away from your regular routines so that you can get more perspective on your life. Ask for help, if needed; wisdom can come from someone who you know to be a valuable mentor. By Rick Levine Tuesday, November 13, 2007"
White House Directed To Preserve E-Mails, Lawsuits Seek To Determine Whether White House Destroyed E-Mails In Violation Of Federal Law - CBS News
White House Directed To Preserve E-Mails, Lawsuits Seek To Determine Whether White House Destroyed E-Mails In Violation Of Federal Law - CBS News
White House Directed To Preserve E-Mails
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
White House Directed To Preserve E-Mails
WASHINGTON, Nov. 12, 2007
(AP) A federal judge Monday ordered the White House to preserve copies of all its e-mails, a move that Bush administration lawyers had argued strongly against.
U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy directed the Executive Office of the President to safeguard the material in response to two lawsuits that seek to determine whether the White House has destroyed e-mails in violation of federal law.
In response, the White House said it has been taking steps to preserve copies of all e-mails and will continue to do so. The administration is seeking dismissal of the lawsuits brought by two private groups, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive.
The organizations allege the disappearance of 5 million White House e-mails. The court order issued by Kennedy, an appointee of President Clinton, is directed at maintaining backup tapes which contain copies of White House e-mails.
The Federal Records Act details strict standards prohibiting the destruction of government documents including electronic messages, unless first approved by the archivist of the United States.
Justice Department lawyers had urged the courts to accept a proposed White House declaration promising to preserve all backup tapes.
"The judge decided that wasn't enough," said Anne Weismann, an attorney for CREW, which has gone to court over secrecy issues involving the Bush administration and has pursued ethical issues involving Republicans on Capitol Hill.
The judge's order "should stop any future destruction of e-mails, but the White House stopped archiving its e-mail in 2003 and we don't know if some backup tapes for those e-mails were already taped over before we went to court. It's a mystery," said Meredith Fuchs, a lawyer for the National Security Archive.
CREW and the National Security Archive are seeking to force the White House to immediately explain in court what happened to its e-mail, an issue that first surfaced nearly two years ago in the leak probe of administration officials who disclosed Valerie Plame's CIA identity to reporters.
Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald revealed early in 2006 that relevant e-mails could be missing because of an archiving problem at the White House.
The White House has provided little public information about the matter, saying that some e-mails may not have been automatically archived on a computer server for the Executive Office of the President and that the e-mails may have been preserved on backup tapes.
The White House has said that its Office of Administration is looking into whether there are e-mails that were not automatically archived and that if there is a problem, the necessary steps will be taken to address it.
Kennedy issued the order following recommendations to do so by a federal magistrate who held a hearing on the matter.
"We will study the court's order and the magistrate's recommendations," said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel. "However, the Office of Administration has been taking steps to maintain and preserve backup tapes for the official e-mail system. We have provided assurances to the plaintiffs and to the court that these steps were being taken. We will continue preserving the tapes in compliance with the court's order."
(AP) A federal judge Monday ordered the White House to preserve copies of all its e-mails, a move that Bush administration lawyers had argued strongly against.
U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy directed the Executive Office of the President to safeguard the material in response to two lawsuits that seek to determine whether the White House has destroyed e-mails in violation of federal law.
In response, the White House said it has been taking steps to preserve copies of all e-mails and will continue to do so. The administration is seeking dismissal of the lawsuits brought by two private groups, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive.
The organizations allege the disappearance of 5 million White House e-mails. The court order issued by Kennedy, an appointee of President Clinton, is directed at maintaining backup tapes which contain copies of White House e-mails.
The Federal Records Act details strict standards prohibiting the destruction of government documents including electronic messages, unless first approved by the archivist of the United States.
Justice Department lawyers had urged the courts to accept a proposed White House declaration promising to preserve all backup tapes.
"The judge decided that wasn't enough," said Anne Weismann, an attorney for CREW, which has gone to court over secrecy issues involving the Bush administration and has pursued ethical issues involving Republicans on Capitol Hill.
The judge's order "should stop any future destruction of e-mails, but the White House stopped archiving its e-mail in 2003 and we don't know if some backup tapes for those e-mails were already taped over before we went to court. It's a mystery," said Meredith Fuchs, a lawyer for the National Security Archive.
CREW and the National Security Archive are seeking to force the White House to immediately explain in court what happened to its e-mail, an issue that first surfaced nearly two years ago in the leak probe of administration officials who disclosed Valerie Plame's CIA identity to reporters.
Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald revealed early in 2006 that relevant e-mails could be missing because of an archiving problem at the White House.
The White House has provided little public information about the matter, saying that some e-mails may not have been automatically archived on a computer server for the Executive Office of the President and that the e-mails may have been preserved on backup tapes.
The White House has said that its Office of Administration is looking into whether there are e-mails that were not automatically archived and that if there is a problem, the necessary steps will be taken to address it.
Kennedy issued the order following recommendations to do so by a federal magistrate who held a hearing on the matter.
"We will study the court's order and the magistrate's recommendations," said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel. "However, the Office of Administration has been taking steps to maintain and preserve backup tapes for the official e-mail system. We have provided assurances to the plaintiffs and to the court that these steps were being taken. We will continue preserving the tapes in compliance with the court's order."
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Ancient beer pots point to origins of chocolate - being-human - 12 November 2007 - New Scientist
Ancient beer pots point to origins of chocolate - being-human - 12 November 2007 - New Scientist
Ancient beer pots point to origins of chocolate
- 22:00 12 November 2007
- NewScientist.com news service
- Jeff Hecht
Earlier long-necked pots would have been used for beer making. Chemical evidence in a pot such as this is seen as proof that beer brewing involved fermenting cacao (Illustration: PNAS/National Academy of Sciences)
Pots with shorter, wider necks were used for making the frothed chocolate drink after 900 BC (Image: PNAS/National Academy of Sciences)
Chocolate was first produced by the ancients as a by-product of beer, suggests a new archaeological study. And evidence from drinking vessels left by the Mesoamericans who developed chocolate suggests that the source of chocolate, cacao, was first used 500 years earlier than thought.
Mesoamericans – who flourished in central America before it was colonised by the Spanish – developed chocolate as a by-product of fermenting cacao fruit to make a beer-like drink called chicha still brewed by South American tribal people.
The Mesoamericans before Columbus’s time, developed a taste for the chocolate better, but their cousins down in South America stuck with the beer, says Cornell University archaeologist John Henderson, who led the new study.
Unsweetened chocolate drinks became a central element of Mesoamerican cultures including the Aztecs, from whom Europeans learned of chocolate in the 16th century.
Archaeologists have found pottery made to serve the frothed chocolate drink preferred by the pre-Columbians in earlier sites, and have found traces of chocolate in pots dating back to 600 BC. But the origins of the drink had been unclear.
Chemical clues
Chocolate's unique flavour develops only when the watery pulp of raw cacao fruit and seeds are fermented together, colouring the seeds purple. Grinding the seeds yields the chocolate.
"It struck us that it wasn't obvious how to do this," says study co-author Rosemary Joyce at the University of California at Berkeley. The involvement of fermentation led her and Henderson to speculate that cacao beer might have been the originating process
Only now has hard evidence come to light in the form of pot sherds dating from 200 BC to before 1100 BC that they found in the ruins of an ancient village called Puerto Escondido in the Ulúa Valley in Honduras.
Harnessing a technique developed by Patrick McGovern at the University of Pennsylvania, they were able to extract chocolate residues from the pores in the pottery. Tests found theobromine – a chemical signature of cacao – in 11 of 13 fragments, including one that Joyce estimates dates from 1100 to 1200 BC.
'Smoking gun'
That pushed evidence for cacao drinking back 500 years. That pot, and others older than about 900 BC, also lacked any traces of the chilli pepper Mesoamericans used to spice up their chocolate. Pots designed for making a frothed chocolate first appeared after this date, the researchers report.
The oldest fragment was the long neck of a bottle that could have held beer, but could not have been used to make the frothed chocolate beverage that became popular later. Joyce called that "the smoking gun" showing that beer had come first.
She suggests that the key step in switching to chocolate came when ancient brewers ground up the cacao seeds remaining after fermentation and added them to thicken the beer – giving it a chocolate taste.
Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0708815104)
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Printed on Tue Nov 13 07:34:49 GMT 2007
iGoogle
iGoogle:
"Your powers of observation are strong now, as long as you can trust your instincts. Don't worry about counting everything down to the tiniest measurement. Instead, back away from your regular routines so that you can get more perspective on your life. Ask for help, if needed; wisdom can come from someone who you know to be a valuable mentor."
"Your powers of observation are strong now, as long as you can trust your instincts. Don't worry about counting everything down to the tiniest measurement. Instead, back away from your regular routines so that you can get more perspective on your life. Ask for help, if needed; wisdom can come from someone who you know to be a valuable mentor."
iGoogle
iGoogle:
"Your powers of observation are strong now, as long as you can trust your instincts. Don't worry about counting everything down to the tiniest measurement. Instead, back away from your regular routines so that you can get more perspective on your life. Ask for help, if needed; wisdom can come from someone who you know to be a valuable mentor.
By Rick Levine Tuesday, November 13, 2007"
"Your powers of observation are strong now, as long as you can trust your instincts. Don't worry about counting everything down to the tiniest measurement. Instead, back away from your regular routines so that you can get more perspective on your life. Ask for help, if needed; wisdom can come from someone who you know to be a valuable mentor.
By Rick Levine Tuesday, November 13, 2007"
Aquarius: Jan. 20 - Feb. 18 - Horoscope- msnbc.com
Aquarius: Jan. 20 - Feb. 18 - Horoscope- msnbc.com:
"Jan 20-Feb 18 Aquarius
November 12, 2007 Dive headfirst into this day, because you will have all the energy you need to stay focused and disciplined. You'll know answers to questions that haven't even been asked yet. It's a great day to prepare a big presentation or get in some solid studying, although you should still be sure to squeeze in some fun stuff. Physical activity is highly recommended, as it will build on that energy and give you a great sense of doing some good for your body."
"Jan 20-Feb 18 Aquarius
November 12, 2007 Dive headfirst into this day, because you will have all the energy you need to stay focused and disciplined. You'll know answers to questions that haven't even been asked yet. It's a great day to prepare a big presentation or get in some solid studying, although you should still be sure to squeeze in some fun stuff. Physical activity is highly recommended, as it will build on that energy and give you a great sense of doing some good for your body."
iGoogle
iGoogle:
"Your powers of observation are strong now, as long as you can trust your instincts. Don't worry about counting everything down to the tiniest measurement. Instead, back away from your regular routines so that you can get more perspective on your life. Ask for help, if needed; wisdom can come from someone who you know to be a valuable mentor. By Rick Levine Tuesday, November 13, 2007"
"Your powers of observation are strong now, as long as you can trust your instincts. Don't worry about counting everything down to the tiniest measurement. Instead, back away from your regular routines so that you can get more perspective on your life. Ask for help, if needed; wisdom can come from someone who you know to be a valuable mentor. By Rick Levine Tuesday, November 13, 2007"
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
iGoogle
iGoogle: "Your key planet Uranus is getting stronger day by day, giving you the ability to make sweeping actions with independence and originality. You have the best of both worlds now, so there's no need to make a rash decision based upon a sudden impulse. Even if you get overly excited about doing something now, remember that a little common sense will prevent erratic behavior."