one of the more interesting microsoft projects is " simulating biological systems in the stochastic pi calculus. " the idea is to create a more scaleable way to track " the behavior of biological systems. " one approach is to build a so - called stochastic pi machine, a project driven by andrew phillips of microsoft research. so what does stochastic mean? well, a stochastic process is one in which there is a certain amount of randomness. this means that computers and scientists can gather data and analyze the process, but, due to its random nature, cannot make accurate predictions about it. the stochastic pi machine is designed to simulate and model the workings of biological systems. using stochastic pi calculus, biological models can be built step by step, where models of small systems are ultimately built into a model of staggering complexity - - the type of complexity that matches the reality of biological systems themselves. one peek at the science 2020 work and you ' d swear it was tailor made for the bill & melinda gates foundation. not the case. while so many of the goals are identical, they are two entirely separate " bill has clearly had input into the overall european scientific program. he launched it last year and has provided input on numerous occasions. with the bill & melinda gates foundation there is no formal link with what we ' re doing. however, some of the work that we are doing clearly has an implication for the areas that the foundation is working in, " says stephen emmott, director of the microsoft research european nevertheless, gates ' foundation is privately funding projects that could just as easily be paid for by microsoft research. while microsoft research obsesses over the human genome, the gates foundation has earmarked $ 2. 5 billion to fight malaria by building a genetic map of the disease. the foundation is also working with glaxosmithkline, a microsoft research partner, to test a new vaccine. beating meningitis is another item on the gates foundation ' s agenda. the foundation, along with the serum institute of india, is working on an inexpensive vaccine that works across all age levels and prevents the disease from being passed from person to person. - - d. b. interestingly enough, computers are built much the same way. they start off simple, but through more and more memory, networks, grids etc., increase in complexity in an additive way. one of the biggest 2020 goals is fighting disease, a goal shared by the bill & melinda gates foundation, which has no formal


off simple, but through more and more memory, networks, grids etc., increase in complexity in an additive way. one of the biggest 2020 goals is fighting disease, a goal shared by the bill & melinda gates foundation, which has no formal relationship with microsoft " it is remarkable to think that it ' s 2006 and it ' s not known even how a cell works - - let alone how a human works. as a consequence, it ' s not well understood how to treat disease, " emmott says. " once we get to a stage where we have the tools for understanding fundamental biological processes, it is only a short step to building the tools and the languages to model how disease occurs in those biological systems - - i. e. when something goes wrong or when the system is invaded by a virus. " emmott believes that such an approach could " completely revolutionize how we think of treating disease and how we can identify and discover entirely novel therapies for treating diseases, whether they are third - world diseases such as malaria or first - world diseases such as cancer and obesity. " projects are on the way. " we ' re just getting underway on a project with my team in cambridge and one of the world ' s leading mathematical biologists at imperial college in london to build a global pandemic modeling system to predict when outbreaks of diseases will occur - - global outbreaks of diseases from avian flu to malaria. this will be a powerful tool for agencies such as the world health organization, for scientific researchers around the world to be able to use to do their own modeling [ and ] for medical research councils, as well as for interventionist types of organizations like the united nations, " climate and the environment are key factors in understanding and predicting many diseases. " there ' s a tremendously important relationship between environmental conditions and outbreaks of third - world diseases, but the relationship is not well understood, " he says. " being able to more effectively model and understand, say, climate change and increases in, or changes in, third - world diseases will be tremendously valuable eventually for agencies and foundations such as the bill & melinda gates foundation. " the future of science, and in particular fighting disease, lies in miniaturization. take molecular computers. these tiny devices, while small enough to fit into a cell, are smart enough to understand inputs, such as whether a cell is diseased, and take actions - - for instance, releasing just the right amount of a cancer drug. in fact, one


tiny devices, while small enough to fit into a cell, are smart enough to understand inputs, such as whether a cell is diseased, and take actions - - for instance, releasing just the right amount of a cancer drug. in fact, one of the biggest benefits of molecular machines is supporting smart drugs, which can be released or held back based on their surroundings. sensor networks are another example of tiny yet powerful tools. here, massive networks of sensors can be placed - - say, around a mountain - - that collect information on weather, plant life and trends, and help scientists understand the health of the mountain ' s ecosystem. through wireless networks, this data can be amassed and scrutinized. and science : a short course this field, also called computational biology, applies math, statistics and computer science to the understanding of biology, in particular the behavior of biological systems ( see systems machine learning : here software learns from experience. one technique is bayesian, a machine learning approach applied molecular computer : a computer small enough to fit into a cell. by detecting its surroundings and making decisions, these computers could support smart drugs. smart drugs : drugs that can adapt to their surroundings - - for instance, releasing their contents if disease is detected. stochastic : a stochastic process is " fuzzy. " you can collect the data and understand certain trends, but you can ' t predict precisely what will happen based on past experience. the stock market, especially given the last five years, is a prime example. systems biology : the attempt to understand how biological components work together. similar to molecular computers, small, intelligent, adaptable systems could support new artificial immune systems. " virtual human immune systems should be able to compute the results of host - pathogen interaction, including solutions to the pattern recognition problem of discriminating between self and non - self, " wrote soren brunak, a member of the 2020 science group, in " towards 2020 science. " the goal? to " compute a specific vaccine design tailored to individuals with different tissue types in the best possible way, " brunak computational biology, energy & global warming world health is one area where the pairing of computer science and traditional science holds tremendous promise. future energy is another. new energy sources are important for two reasons : we are running out of fossil fuels, and these fuels, most believe, contribute to global warming. science, in particular computational biology, could help. with this style of biology, scientists can build new tools for understanding biological processes. we could " understand


we are running out of fossil fuels, and these fuels, most believe, contribute to global warming. science, in particular computational biology, could help. with this style of biology, scientists can build new tools for understanding biological processes. we could " understand how one of the world ' s efficient energy converters performs at such a level. there ' s something like 1. 6 kilowatts of energy [ from the sun ] that falls onto every square meter of the planet every hour. the most efficient converter of that energy from the sun into its own energy for a different purpose - - for growth - - is a plant, " emmott says. " it isn ' t terribly well understood how they make such efficient use of the sun ' s energy. that ' s because we don ' t even know how a cell works, whether it ' s a cell in a plant or a cell in a human. " if we fully understood how plants convert energy, we could perhaps " help energy companies and energy scientists mimic that process to build entirely novel technological solutions for new sources of energy that are currently unimaginable today. that ' s a decade or so away but it ' s worth pursuing, " emmott believes. every year, humans crank out three times the amount of carbon dioxide that nature ' s " carbon sinks " absorb. if this keeps up, many scientists believe the planet will be forever changed by global warming, perhaps even doomed. while this problem is not on the top of the microsoft agenda, emmott ' s group does hope to help. " our research efforts around climatology and earth life support systems, of which climate is an important one, are based around working with climatologists, oceanographers and ecologists, and building new computational tools that scientists urgently need, " emmott says. " climatologists are not short of data, so building tools to create yet more data is not urgently needed. what they do urgently need are software tools to model and couple the physical aspects of climate change, atmospheric and oceanographic type of effects, with the biotic - - produced or caused by living organisms - - elements of determining climates and climate change. that [ includes ] the organisms that live in the ocean that are carbon sinks, oxygen producers, regulators of the carbon cycles and regulators of climate, and also the biotic aspects such as forests - - terrestrial sources of carbon sinks and oxygen producers. it is currently largely unknown how the two interact - - the physical and biotic components


oxygen producers, regulators of the carbon cycles and regulators of climate, and also the biotic aspects such as forests - - terrestrial sources of carbon sinks and oxygen producers. it is currently largely unknown how the two interact - - the physical and biotic components. it is largely unknown what the impact is of the biotic components. it ' s an incredibly important component but just one that ' s not understood, " science gives back microsoft is also working with the sloan digital sky survey, and has already helped craft an online astronomy catalog. physicists and astronomers for centuries have tried to unravel the mysteries of the universe - - yet after all this work our picture is far from complete. " understanding the universe is a large - scale data - acquisition and data - analysis problem. that is one [ area ] where the standard software tools that microsoft currently produces, from web services to database technologies to better acquire, share and analyze large scale data in the science community, can help the science community understand origins of the universe and how the universe works, " while science pushes the envelope of computing, computing and microsoft also " science is where the real action is going to be for computer science over the next decade. by being at the cutting edge of the intersection of science and computer science, microsoft will gain remarkable insight as to the key things the company needs to do on the broad business and personal computing challenges and opportunities a decade later. they can think of what ' s happening at the intersection of science and computing as being like formula one. bmw and ferrari do formula one because the technology they need to develop to compete in formula one ends up in any standard family car a decade later - - and its gives them remarkable insights into technical engineering, " emmott says. the 2020 roadmap is more specific. it argues that by 2015, the work done to build new scientific software frameworks will " radicalize " business computing. and beyond 2020, we should look for " novel, biologically inspired computing architectures and paradigms, " according to the roadmap.


understanding racism today requires that one understand the subtleties of the language of those who perpetuate it. please contribute to the glossary in the comments section. i will add confirmed, relevant and accurate tropes to the glossary. please read the entire article first. please note the difference between individual uses of prejudiced language and institutional racism. i encourage readers who have not yet already, to investigate this subject, which i ’ ll inevitably be posting on. the following post addresses use of racially prejudiced language and ideas in the context of institutional racism. as a result of the abolition of slavery, then later desegregation and the civil rights movement, and finally the combination of contemporary cultural pressures and demographic shifts, the language of racial prejudice and bigoted assumptions has changed dramatically, especially over the last 50 or so years. words that start with n are no longer the haute couture of racists and privilege - denying whites. although the old words are cropping up in specific places which guarantee anonymity and / or acceptance, the use of subtlety, context, subjective subtext and nuance have taken the place of open slurs and language. here we ’ ll take a look at some of these words and tropes, their context, and their meaning. many of these words are not new to the racist vocabulary, though many of the old words have taken on new aspects or are used in different contexts. this will be a modified open - source project, the only restriction being that the author has discretion over the final product. please put suggestions in the comments below. all black panthers are new black panthers - trope. a problem of assumptions and lack of disambiguation. used by people who have never read a factually correct book or article about the black panther party ( bpp ). this trope occurs because users are not aware that the bpp were black marxist revolutionaries, whereas the new black panther party ( nbpp ), which is not an actual descendant organization of the bpp, is a black nationalist organization. a way for whites to trumpet their ignorance of black history. see hoodlums, hooligans, thugs. fear of a black planet ensues. associated with the old - school trope, they all look the same to me. animal ( s ) - label. used in context to describe a person of color. this becomes a trope and is multiplied by the factors of age group, gender / sex, and socioeconomic disposition. multipliers


look the same to me. animal ( s ) - label. used in context to describe a person of color. this becomes a trope and is multiplied by the factors of age group, gender / sex, and socioeconomic disposition. multipliers therefore include mob, teen mob, welfare queen and “ young people ” in scare quotes. barbarians - label. used ambiguously to refer to people of color, especially in regard to growing demographic shifts in the u. s. : “ our socioculture [ sic ] is raising barbarians in greater numbers with each passing decade. ” ( quoted from a typical comment at the blaze, regarding a story about a white girl and some cops who were attacked by teenagers – most of whom were evidently pocs. ) diversity - word / trope. used to denote the idea that mixing of the races in culture and relationships is inherently bad. users of this trope commonly cite any news event that they think proves their racism to be correct. usually users have an obsession with this trope. as in : “ this is what happens when obama introduces diversity into western civilization. ” ( apocryphal ) entitlements aka “ entitlement mentality ” - word / trope. the brazen assumption that pocs are lazy and self - entitled. also negates the fact that many persons who at one time receive social aid are the very people who at another time subsidized it in the first place. a blatant announcement of assumptions created by racial prejudice. see welfare, welfare queens. fear of a black planet - trope. the hysterical fear of living in a society where whites are a minority and blacks are a majority. feral youth - label / trope. this trope refers to poor people of color living in inner cities. it is often used interchangeably with hoodlums, hood rats and similar tropes. hoodlums, hooligans, thugs - labels / tropes. these words / tropes are commonly used ambiguously to refer to the spectre or threat of black power. users commonly make correlation fallacies while reading news reports from sites that only present negative information about non - conservative people of color, such as the blaze and worldnutdaily. they then ascribe hoodlum status to urban youth of color ; though the trope extends regardless of age. hood rats - label / word / trope. used ambiguously, this trope enables users to insult black people two - fold : because not all supposed “


hoodlum status to urban youth of color ; though the trope extends regardless of age. hood rats - label / word / trope. used ambiguously, this trope enables users to insult black people two - fold : because not all supposed “ hood rats ” are non - white, this trope is not only meant to target black folks but also targets black culture ’ s influence on female - bodied white teens / children. inner city youths - trope. this label enables white conservatives to bash people of color with its degree of ambiguity, which is very thin considering the common knowledge that inner urban areas most often have a higher population of people of color. see also animal ( s ), zoo, hoodlums, hooligans, thugs. leave the cities - trope. also known among pocs as “ white flight ”, this trope is used by racist whites to denote the fact that urban areas often have higher concentrations of pocs, leaving white conservatives and supremacists to urge each other to “ flee the cities! ” mob - word / label. used to describe more than two people who are persons of color. frequently levied at teenagers. used to describe a plethora of situations, such as people in urban areas, or gatherings of black people. extenuating circumstances may mean that this term will be applied to whites who are not conservative, such as occupy wall street. never applied to right - wing groups in these circumstances. obama is kenyan ( or marxist, muslim, communist, et al. ) - trope. with the radical reaction by conservative whites to the election of a black person to the presidency of the u. s., this trope was bound to occur. it is a testament to the rabid fear of blacks in power. fear of a black planet ensues. political correctness ( pc ) is bad - trope. used by conservative white people who themselves use politically correct language to employ subtle racism / bigotry. an error of projection, as no one has benefited more from pc language than white racists / bigots who use pc in the home or at work, but not in their minds, in private conversation or anonymously on the internet. pc allows bigots to socially function while still clinging to a bigoted mindset. prepare yourself, aka prepare for the coming racial wars - trope. this trope comes in many forms and is favored especially by survivalist types, but is widespread among white conservatives. its pathology is twofold : a desire by


nahuatl, known as “ mexicano ” by many of its speakers, is the most widely spoken indigenous language in mexico. it was the lingua franca of the aztec empire and is currently one of mexico ’ s official languages. it belongs to the uto - aztecan language family, which spread from the united states southwest to central america. in fact, it is theorized that nicaragua ’ s etymology comes from the nahuatl words “ nican ca anahuac, ” which roughly translates to “ here is anahauc ” denoting the geographical limits of the aztec empire. there are currently several regional varieties of nahuatl, including one still spoken in el salvador. all in all, today the language boasts over 1. 5 million native speakers. nahuatl is an agglutinative language and is rich in morphology. its classical form was highly metaphorical and poetic in style. some of the literary treasures studied in depth by scholars are the poems of nezahualcoyotl ( “ coyote in fast ” ) and the huehuetlahtolli ( literally “ the ancient word ” ), which is an ancient collection of sayings, exhortations, and the traditional wisdom of the culture which helped preserve and pass down family values and ideals to generations — until the spanish invasion. the good news is that despite the imposition of spanish and trends showing a slight decline in the number of nahuatl monolinguals, there has recently been a growing interest in nahuatl. aided by a movement of cultural revival, specifically in many areas of the united states, nahuatl ’ s resilience is in part due to the cultural consciousness and commitment of the new generation of mexicans. sergio avila ( @ nahualyolotl ) is part of that generation who are working to keep the language alive. using social media he strives to preserve the language and teach the rich history and culture of his ancestors. he has primarily been using his twitter account, which has more than 1, 000 followers to post a nahuatl “ word of the day ” as a way to teach and to interact with other up and coming learners of this indigenous language. he also is an administrator of the nahuatl facebook page. here is a short interview with sergio conducted in the nahuatl language : rising voices : tell us about yourself. notoca sergio, ompa mexihco tenochtitlan nichanti. ce pohualli ihuan chicoace xihuitl nicpia.


sergio conducted in the nahuatl language : rising voices : tell us about yourself. notoca sergio, ompa mexihco tenochtitlan nichanti. ce pohualli ihuan chicoace xihuitl nicpia. nitlacuilo ihuan ompa “ twitter ” ihuan “ facebook ” nitemachtia nochin cemilhuitl in nahuatlahtolli. rv : how long have you been studying nahuatl? how did you become interested in the language and how did you learn it? ome xihuitl nahuatlahtolli onicmomaxtic. ihcuac onimomatic ¿ tleica in mexihcatlaca titlahtoah caxtillantlahtolli intla tehuan ahmo caxtillantlaca?. ompa “ tepeticpac tlahtolcalli, ce telpochcalli. rv : how do you use social media for language preservation? what kind of response are you seeing from your followers on twitter and facebook? nochin cemilhuitl ce nahuatlahtolli nitlacuiloa ompa “ twitter ” ihuan “ facebook ”. in tlacah quinpactiah notequiuh miec, inon nechpactia miec. in tlacah nechtlacuiloa “ pahpaquiliztli ” ihuan “ miec tlazohcamati ”. rv : give us an example or two of a “ nahuatl word of the day ” ( # palabranahuatl ) 1. nahualyolotl : corazon de nahual ( nahual es el ser que se reboza bajo la piel de otro, asi como parte de nuestra alma fuera de nuestro cuerpo, parecido a un “ animal totemico ” propio ) # palabranahuatl 2. chicahualiztli : fuerza ( fisica ) # palabranahuatl 2. chicahualiztli : strength ( physical ) rv : in your opinion, what is the future of the nahuatl language? nicneltoca intla cachi tlacah in nahualthtolli quimatizque ( tlen inon notequiuh ), yehuan quiihtazque iquetzalcayo


part 4 of doug sovern ’ s kcbs cover story series on online high school classes. | part 1 | part 2 | part 3 alameda ( kcbs ) – tens of thousands of california high school students make up for failed classes by taking them again online with results that educators and students alike acknowledge demonstrates the need to re - think remote education. “ i think it should be changed so you learn from it, but i don ’ t think it should be taken away because it does help people get their credits back, ” said brittany mcgovern, an alameda high school student who had a frustrating experience trying to re - take failed math and social studies classes. mcgovern described being surrounded by so many unfocused students that she just stopped going to the computer center to finish her geometry and ethnic studies make - ups. her experience captures the challenge inherent in tailoring online education to the facebook and youtube generation of digital natives who grew up on the internet, said sally murphy, senior director of undergraduate studies at cal state east bay. “ the online environment for a lot of high school students is a social environment. it ’ s not a work environment. students who see the computer as a playground are less likely to take it seriously, ” she said. the result is students who get through classes without remembering what they were supposed to learn, murphy said. two - thirds of the incoming freshmen at cal state university campuses need to take remedial classes because their high schools gave them a diploma, but not an adequate education. critics say too many high schools feel pressured to raise graduation rates and let students make up classes by taking poorly supervised online courses. when properly supervised though, former alameda principal mike cooper believes, cyber high can work by keeping kids who might otherwise drop out from going over the edge academically. “ i really think there ’ s a place for it, but to call it learning and to call it a rigorous curriculum is, i don ’ t think, truthful, ” cooper said. “ it needs to be watched and monitored and make sure that there ’ s actual learning going on, they ’ re not just giving credits away. ” the boom in online learning can be attributed in part to how little it costs districts that according to murphy, the cal state east bay administrator, now need to refocus on making sure kids actually learn and not just pass. “ that means a smaller classroom. that means more teacher time. it means that we need to give more money to k - 12 education, ” she said


school cafeterias across the country are serving up delicious and different menu items that are nutritious too. whether it ' s spicy stir fry, chicken curry salad, or cuban style roast pork, international recipes helps school districts to meet nutrition standards in a fun way. it also helps students to understand and appreciate different cultures. to provide students a wider range of vegetables, wayzata public schools in mn offers a spicy lemon chicken stir fry dish full of veggies like broccoli, carrot strips, green beans, crisp water chestnuts, onions and julienned red bell pepper. highline school district, wa ( featured in the video ) below provides kids with fun, educational activities that match the cultures represented on the lunch menu to promote cultural awareness among students. interested in ethnic menu options? check out the whole story and learn more about new ethnic school menus at : http : / / www. traytalk. org / ethnic - foods - spicing - up - school - menus / tray talk is not mealtalk! do you know that tray talk and mealtalk are different programs? mealtalk is usda ' s listserv and tray talk ( www. traytalk. org ) is sna ' s website for parents to help them understand the facts about school meals and learn about school nutrition success stories from around the country. © 2000 - 2013 school nutrition association, all rights reserved


north berwick high school ' s health web. the pages on this site contain a range of interesting tasks designed to help pupils increase their understanding of health and wellbeing. are used by a variety of subjects across the school to enhance work in the classroom and at home. our bodyzone for a wide range of tasks to help you learn how your body works. you will also discover what you should and should not do to take proper care of your body. after all, it ' s the only one you ' ve got! our school health web includes a number of health challenges on a4 worksheets. they cover important matters of health and wellbeing and capture the interest of pupils by the use of quiz - based exercises in a variety of styles. click below to try some out : above to open the file. if your browser is google chrome you may need to right click and use ' save link as ' to download health care is very important in britain. but how much do you know about health care and the national health service? your teacher may display the health alphabet above on a alternatively, you can click on the image to open up the sheet on this computer. the answers are listed at are you easily you touch a wasp? even a dead one? the feeling of disgust plays an important role in keeping us healthy. find out how by completing an online bbc experiment. click the picture and follow the instructions carefully.


unless you ' re a detective, a thief or a strangely nosy person, you wouldn ' t take your neighbor ' s trash and dump it in your kitchen, let alone consume it. on the other hand, if you were dying of scurvy, those limes they threw away after last night ' s margarita party might look surprisingly appetizing. accepting a transplant of someone else ' s stool, however carefully tested, might sound just as extreme, but - - thanks in part to its effectiveness in treating the intractable bug clostridium difficile - - fecal microbiota transplantation might just be the next big thing in medicine [ sources : grady ; hudson ; mayo clinic ]. c. difficile, an emerging epidemic in hospitals and nursing homes, primarily affects older patients during long stays in care facilities. like opportunistic weeds, the bacteria move into areas of the gut decimated by the very antibiotics intended to oust infections ( antibiotics don ' t distinguish bacterial friend from foe ). once in the gut, c. difficile cranks out toxins that damage the intestinal lining, causing symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life - threatening colon inflammation. to make matters worse, c. difficile has grown increasingly virulent and antibiotic - resistant in recent years [ sources : grady ; hudson ; mayo clinic ]. sending bacteria to fight bacteria makes good sense. far from being a mere batch of bugs, many bacteria and other microbes are not only our friends, they are part of us. our bodies contain nine to 10 times as many microbial cells as human ones ; we each play host to 100 trillion bacteria. it ' s all part of a microbiome, an ecosystem of microbial communities that perform all kinds of useful work, from enabling digestion to aiding our immune systems [ sources : khoruts ; zimmer ; zimmer ]. the recognition of microbial contributions to health has given rise to the growing field of medical ecology, which approaches the body ' s microbiome as a garden to be nurtured and, if necessary, weeded. fecal transplantation extends this philosophy to " organically mulching " the gut garden : stool from a healthy donor contains beneficial gut microorganisms, aka flora, 60 - 80 percent of which will take up residence in the recipient ' s gut, replacing those destroyed by antibiotics and infections, and overthrowing harmful communities like c. difficile [ sources :


download chapter 3 : ' basic soa using rest ' this chapter is excerpted from the book titled, soa using java web services, authored by mark hansen, published by prentice hall professional, may, 2007, isbn 0130449687, copyright 2007 pearson education, inc. for more information please visit : www. prenhallprofessional. com 3. 1. 1 what is rest? rest - style services ( i. e., restful services ) adhere to a set of constraints and architectural principles that include the following : - restful services are stateless. as fielding writes in section 5. 1. 3 of his thesis, " each request from client to server must contain all the information necessary to understand the request, and cannot take advantage of any stored context on the server. " - restful services have a uniform interface. this constraint is usually taken to mean that the only allowed operations are the http operations : get, post, put, and delete. - rest - based architectures are built from resources ( pieces of information ) that are uniquely identified by uris. for example, in a restful purchasing system, each purchase order has a unique uri. - rest components manipulate resources by exchanging representations of the resources. for example, a purchase order resource can be represented by an xml document. within a restful purchasing system, a purchase order might be updated by posting an xml document containing the changed purchase order to its uri. these are the basic principles behind rest. however, when people talk about the benefits of restful systems today, they usually are not strictly applying these principles. for example, among rest advocates, keeping shopping cart data on the server and maintaining a session related to the shopping process that is using the cart is acceptable. 2 in fact, the xml / http binding provided by jax - ws for implementing restful services provides for session management capabilities using cookies, url rewriting, and ssl session ids. more significant deviations from fielding ' s definition of rest involve getting around the " uniform interface " constraint by embedding verbs and parameters inside urls. the amazom. com rest interface, for example, includes verbs in query strings and doesn ' t have unique uris for each resource. systems like this, although labeled as restful, are really starting to look very much like rpc using xml over http without soap. for the purposes of this book, i am not going to wade into a debate on what is or isn ' t rest


like this, although labeled as restful, are really starting to look very much like rpc using xml over http without soap. for the purposes of this book, i am not going to wade into a debate on what is or isn ' t restful. i simply define restful web services in contrast to soap web services. table 3 – 1 illustrates the principal differences. a. some would argue that xml schema could be used as an interface definition for restful services. not only is that approach possible, but it is used in many practical cases. however, it is not a complete interface solution because many, if not most, restful services incorporate http parameters ( e. g., url query strings ) in addition to xml as part of their invocation interface. chapter 9 looks at the yahoo! shopping restful interface, which uses http parameters in this manner. this is consistent with common usage in the rest versus soap debates. rest uses simple xml over http without a wsdl interface definition. 3. 1. 2 topics covered in this chapterin addition to introducing restful web services, this chapter introduces and reviews some basic techniques for integrating enterprise information systems ( eiss ) using xml, xslt, http, and java. for each example, i demonstrate how to implement it with and without jws. the versions of the examples without jws use basic java http and xml techniques. both approaches are provided to give you a sense of what is really happening, under the covers, when a web service is consumed or deployed using jws. this should give you a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying jws and when to use them. for simple web services, often it is easier to work with the basic java tools than to pull out all the power of jws. on the other hand, you will see from these examples how things can quickly get complicated and require the power of the jws technologies. since one focus of this book is on soa - style development for the enterprise, many of the examples deal with eis — the basic infrastructure of most corporate computing environments. this chapter describes - structuring eis records as xml documents - getting eis records from a rest service ( with and without jws ) - posting eis records to a rest service ( with and without jws ) - basic soa - style integration of rest services using xslt for data transformation - deploying a rest service to be used for getting eis records — in other words, an http get service ( with and without


with and without jws ) - basic soa - style integration of rest services using xslt for data transformation - deploying a rest service to be used for getting eis records — in other words, an http get service ( with and without jws ) - deploying a rest service to be used for posting eis records — in other words, an http post service ( with and without jws ) 3. 2 xml documents and schema for eis recordsthe first step toward implementing an soa component that consumes or provides eis records involves formatting the eis records that need to be exchanged as xml documents. this process is formalized by creating an xml schema to represent the structure of an xml document for a particular eis record. this section introduces some simple examples that are used throughout this chapter to illustrate the role of xml and xml schema in soa - style applications development based on web services. understanding these examples requires a basic knowledge of xml and xml schema. if you are new to xml, you should get an introductory text such as beginning xml by david hunter et al. [ hunter ]. for the necessary background on xml schema, i suggest definitive xml schema by priscilla walmsley [ walmsley ]. alternatively, if you know basic xml, but need to brush up on xml schema, you can probably find all you need to know for this book by reading through the w3c ' s " xml schema part 0 : primer " [ xsd part 0 ]. to illustrate how xml is used, i employ an example based on the fictitious xyz corporation. the example illustrates real soa challenges faced by many companies. xyz corporation has an order management system ( oms ) that needs to be integrated with a customer service system ( css ). the oms should be thought of as an eis, such as sap, for taking customer orders and tracking them through delivery. the css should be thought of as an eis, such as oracle ' s siebel customer relationship management applications, that is used by customer service employees as a tool for handling customer inquiries. xyz corporation would like to build an soa application bridging the oms and the css. every time a new order is entered in the oms ( or an existing order is updated ), the new soa application should transfer that information to the css and add it to the relevant customer ' s history log. the purpose of this soa application


flowering plants prevent inbreeding “ humans have mechanisms to prevent inbreeding that are in part cultural. but a plant can ’ t just get up and move to the next town to find a suitable, unrelated mate. some other system must be at work, ” says teh - hui kao, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at penn state and lead researcher of a team that has discovered a large suite of genes in the petunia plant that acts to prevent it from breeding with itself or its close relatives and promotes breeding with unrelated individuals. kao began to unravel the mystery of what he calls a “ non - self recognition system ” in the mid - 1980s by studying the genetic sequence of petunias. petunias and many common garden plants are hermaphroditic, possessing both male and female reproductive organs, and these reproductive organs are located in close proximity within the flower. this floral anatomy makes it easy for a plant ’ s pollen to land on itself, resulting in self - fertilization and genetically inferior, inbred offspring. to prevent self - fertilization, many flowering plants, including the petunia, have evolved a strategy called self - incompatibility, or the ability to recognize self and non - self components within the male and female reproductive organs. the importance of bees “ we are losing more than a third of our colonies each winter, but beekeepers are a stubborn, industrious bunch. we split hives, rebound as much as we can each summer, and then just eat our losses. so even these big loss numbers understate the problem, ” says beekeeper for 50 years, david hackenberg, who owns the buffy bee honey farm outside tampa, fla. “ what folks need to understand is that the beekeeping industry, which is responsible for a third of the food we eat, is at a critical threshold. ” increasing fruit and veggie consumption : now is the time “ now that the president has signed first lady michelle obama ’ s child nutrition bill into law, and with debate beginning in early 2011 on the next farm bill, now is the time for strong, vocal support in favor of aligning education and agricultural policy with food and nutrition policy … the need to create a nexus between education, agricultural and nutrition policy has never been greater. farm and food policy should be linked more strongly with national health and nutrition goals. data released by the produce for better health foundation warns that in order to close the fruit and vegetable consumption gap, the united states department


and nutrition policy has never been greater. farm and food policy should be linked more strongly with national health and nutrition goals. data released by the produce for better health foundation warns that in order to close the fruit and vegetable consumption gap, the united states department of agriculture needs to close its spending gap. fruits and vegetables should account for 40 percent of a recommended daily diet, yet only 20 percent of what usda spends on food initiatives is on fruits and vegetables. to put the usda ’ s spending priorities in perspective, current subsidy allocations are : meat : 54. 7 percent dairy ( non - butter ) : 11. 4 percent fruits and vegetables : 9. 8 percent as congress moves towards considering the reauthorization of the 2012 farm bill, questions about the cost of the bill amidst growing calls for fiscal constraint will likely dominate the debate. what is important to remember is the status quo : without realigning our spending priorities, america will continue to pay $ 56 billion a year for diet - related chronic diseases specifically due to low fruit and vegetable consumption. both in human terms and in financial terms, poor nutrition is costing us dearly. ” — from an article by elizabeth pivonka, president and ceo of the produce for better health foundation, in the sun senital corn growers push ethanol last year, south dakota passed an ethanol blender pump incentive grant program — a program that reimburses fueling stations up to $ 10, 000 per pump to install alternative fueling infrastructure — and it ’ s been a huge success according to state officials. which prompted gale lush from the american corn growers foundation to ask, “ if they can do it in south dakota, why not here in nebraska and across the country? and, why not use more than $ 15 billion in foreign tax credit to do it? if you could take some of these subsidies from the oil companies that are producing oil overseas — that $ 15 billion, for instance — and channel them back here domestically we could start building our infrastructure here, ” lush says. and he said the best way to do that is by financing blender pumps. nebraska may be the second largest producer of ethanol in the country, but there are only about five pumps in the state. “ south dakota is a good model. they ’ ve had these blender pumps for years. they ’ re using the recovery act that was passed last year to help finance them. our state could do the same thing if they want to, ” says lush, adding that the first step in building an ethanol infrastructure


augusta christine fells was born on february 29, 1892, in green cove springs, florida. she began making sculptures as a child, using the natural clay abundant in her area. she liked to sculpt animals and other small figures, but her father didn ' t approve of it, and did whatever he could to stop her. he was a methodist minister and believed it was a sin to make " graven images. " savage once said that her father " almost whipped all the art out of me. " " from the time i can first recall the rain falling on the red clay in florida. i wanted to make things. when my brothers and sisters were making mud pies, i would be making ducks and chickens with the mud. " but when he found a statue she sculpted of the virgin mary, he changed his mind. she entered some of her pieces into county fairs and won a number of honors. when she could not create a successful career as a sculptor in florida, she moved to new york city, where she was able to study at the cooper union, which offered free tuition, and eventually even gave her a scholarship for her living expenses. while she was at cooper union, she applied for a program to study sculpture abroad in france, but was denied solely because of her race. instead of taking it lightly, she raised a fuss, wrote letters to the media, bringing attention to the racists practices of the program. the program still refused to accept her, but her life was changed, and she became quite active in the civil rights fight. and she became better acquainted with the movers and shakes in the movement. she was even commissioned to sculpt busts of famous civil rights leaders like w. e. b. du bois and marcus garvey. and she did eventually travel to paris on the julius rosenwald fellowship, while enabled her study for one year. when she returned to harlem, she was very active in the art scene, taught classes in the community, and in 1932 established the savage studio of arts and crafts. a few years later, she became the first director of the harlem community arts center - - which is considered to be the forerunner of similar community arts centers around the country. her work is lovely and quite evocative. of all the pieces i ' ve seen, though, this one is my favorite.


siecus ' international policy and advocacy efforts have focused on monitoring, reporting, and taking actions on the activities of the opposition ; ensuring the evidence - based hiv - prevention strategies are implemented ; and equipping advocates wit the tools, skills, and critical information tot secure and protect sexual and reproductive health education programs, services, and rights. as we update our site, please visit back regularly to see updated news and resources. mexico city ministerial declaration – “ educating to prevent ” / declaracion ministerial de la ciudad de mexico – “ prevenir con educacion ” the mexico city ministerial declaration – “ educating to prevent, ” is a strategic tool to strengthen hiv prevention efforts in latin america and the caribbean ( lac ) by ensuring access to quality, comprehensive sexuality education and sexual and reproductive health services. the declarationseeks to foster equity among all people and to combat discrimination, including that based on an individual ’ s hiv status, sexual orientation, or gender identity. the needs of most - at - risk individuals are not forgotten and figure prominently in the goals of the declaration. please find below four fact sheets in a series on the ministerial declaration created by siecus for the pan american health organization ( paho ). afrontando la homofobia en las escuelas : como partes interesadas clave pueden garantizar escuelas seguras e inclusivas ( pdf ) unesco ’ s international technical guidance on sexuality education released the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization ( unesco ) recently released the international technical guidance on sexuality education : an evidence - informed approach for schools, teachers and health educators. we wanted to bring your attention to this two - part document which provides a framework to develop and implement comprehensive sexuality education to ensure that young people have access to evidence - based, medically - accurate, and age - appropriate information to make safe and healthy decisions. read more... safe and inclusive school environments in the prevention of hiv / sti, violence and mental health problems siecus staff participated in an experts consultation convened by the pan american health organization ( paho ) safe and inclusive school environments in the prevention of hiv / sti, violence and mental health problems in mexico city, september 3 - 4, 2009. it was attended by experts in the promotion of sexual health and comprehensive sexuality education ; educators, researchers, and policy makers with experience in addressing bullying, harassment, violence, and abuse in schools. read more...


march is national women ’ s history month by smw staff march is national women ’ s history month, a time to recognize the important contributions made by women. one region in the u. s. is highlighting women ’ s history month by encouraging people to visit specific sites to learn more. the journey through hallowed ground national heritage area is a 180 - mile long, 75 - mile wide swath of land that stretches from gettysburg, pennsylvania, to thomas jefferson ’ s monticello in charlottesville, virginia, and contains a rich collection of sites that chronicle important contributions women have made throughout history. here are a few suggestions that will help you decide to take the journey™. while most envision men and boys marching the battlefield in gettysburg, pa, many of the town ’ s heroes are actually women. after the epic battle in 1863, women were often the only ones to tend to the wounded and take charge in cleaning up the town. one such woman is elizabeth thorn. elizabeth who was six months pregnant and the mother of three children, dug over one hundred graves in the rocky soil in the extreme july heat. today, a statue of elizabeth thorn stands outside the cemetery gatehouse as part of the gettysburg civil war women ’ s memorial. continuing down route 15, visitors should stop by the national shrine of saint elizabeth ann seton in emmitsburg, md. this site promotes the life and legacy of the elizabeth ann bayley seton, the first native - born saint from the united states. seton, who lived, worked, died, and is now buried here, founded the sisters of charity of st. joseph ’ s. her enduring legacy now includes hundreds of schools, social service centers, and hospitals throughout the world. she was canonized by pope paul vi in 1975 in st. peter ’ s square. near sharpsburg, maryland, a monument stands at antietam national battlefield to clara barton, one of the most honored women in american history. known as the “ angel of the battlefield, ” barton brought supplies and nursing aid to the wounded at several civil war battle sites. she later founded the american red cross in 1881 and led it for the next 23 years. first ladies also left their mark within the region. jackie kennedy ’ s style and grace epitomized loudoun county ’ s horse country and its capital, middleburg. in the early 1960s, the kennedy ’ s used middleburg as an escape from washington by leasing, and then building, their own country retreat. in the 1990s, jackie kennedy onassis often returned to


horse country and its capital, middleburg. in the early 1960s, the kennedy ’ s used middleburg as an escape from washington by leasing, and then building, their own country retreat. in the 1990s, jackie kennedy onassis often returned to spend foxhunting weekends in the middleburg countryside, which was filled with happy memories from her time as first lady. today, visitors can see memorabilia at the red fox inn and other establishments the first lady patronized, and the town ’ s public pavilion and garden are dedicated to jackie. in spotsylvania county, the spotsylvania museum has a special exhibit at the spotsylvania towne center about the battle of chancellorsville, which commemorates its sesquicentennial in may. the exhibit features the hawkins girls, who were at home at the time of general stonewall jackson ’ s flank attack across their property. the exhibit will be on display through may 2. edna lewis, born in freetown, virginia, inspired a generation of young african american chefs and ensured traditional southern foods and preparations would live forever. before her culinary journey began, lewis found work as a seamstress and copied christian dior dresses for dorcas avedon. she made a dress for marilyn monroe and became well known for her african - inspired dresses. eventually, lewis opened up cafe nicholson, a restaurant located in manhattan ’ s east side. she became a local legend and cooked for many celebrities such as marlon brando, marlene dietrich, tennessee williams, greta garbo, howard hughes, salvador dali, eleanor roosevelt, and truman capote. and finally, visitors should also make a point to stop at ash lawn - highland in charlottesville, virginia. this home of president james monroe, and his wife elizabeth kortright monroe, served as the official residence of the former first family from 1799 to 1823. here, they regularly welcomed friends, neighbors, dignitaries, and other visitors with warm hospitality. there are many other historic sites pertaining to notable women within the journey through hallowed ground national heritage area. maps, suggested itineraries, and other travel resources are available at www. hallowedground. org.


matter in the corona and solar wind is derived from the outer convective zone ( ocz ) of the sun. isotopic abundances of the less volatile elements in the solar atmosphere are probably very similar to terrestrial, lunar and meteoritic abundances. from such elements it is possible to infer the amount of isotopic fractionation under varying conditions in the solar wind source region. for many species, the solar wind provides the only source of information, which is important for many cosmochemical and astrophysical applications. knowledge of the isotopic composition of the ocz will yield information on the early solar nebula and the history of the solar system. the celias solar wind mass spectrometer ( mtof, mass time - of - flight sensor ) has unprecedented mass resolution for solar wind composition studies, and has already measured rare elements and isotopes that were previously not resolvable from more abundant neighboring species, or were not previously observable at all. the mtof sensor is routinely measuring isotopic abundance variations for several elements ( neon, magnesium, silicon, sulfur, argon, calcium, iron, and nickel ), some of which have never been previously observed in either the solar wind, solar energetic particles, or spectroscopically. among the new solar wind isotopes are those of silicon, sulfur, calcium, chromium, iron, and nickel. other isotopes are being measured with a much finer temporal resolution than previously available ( on the order of minutes / hours instead of months / years ). previously, neon and argon solar wind isotopic measurements were available only from foil measurements collected during the apollo lunar landings - clearly a limited data set! the first magnesium isotope measurements have been reported by mtof ' s sister sensor wind / sms / mass. this image shows isotopes of chromium, iron, and nickel.


marine science students at tates creek high school are raising largemouth bass and growing vegetables without soil in a new three - level aquaponics station, which recycles water in a sustainable food - production model. in the simple setup, water from the fish barrel trickles into the grow beds, which routinely drain so the roots get some air and the plants aren ’ t overly saturated. the water then is pumped back into the barrel of bass. “ throughout generations, it ’ s been done. it ’ s the whole idea of being sustainable and increasing your output with low input, ” said teacher diana mullins. “ in this closed system, the plants are taking less time to grow, so you ’ ve got a faster turnaround. in six months, the fish will be about plate - size. ” the project is a collaboration with foodchain, a local nonprofit run by becca self. “ the great thing is the fish and the plants have a symbiotic relationship. the fish waste is used by the plants as food, and they filter the water so it ’ s clean to go back to the fish, ” self said. “ it uses less than 10 percent of the water that conventional agriculture uses, so it ’ s a really environmentally friendly way of producing food. ”


the origins of intel ' s new transistor, and its future a q & a with chenming hu, coinventor of both the finfet and its likely competitor photo : peg skorpinski 9 may 2011 — last wednesday, intel announced a big change to the electronic switches at the heart of its cpus. going forward, the firm will be using three - dimensional transistors to take the place of long - used planar devices. the new transistors — dubbed " tri - gates " — are a variation on the finfet, a transistor design that substitutes the flat channel through which electrons flow with a 3 - d ridge, or fin. popping the channel out of plane and draping the gate — which switches the transistor on and off — over it will allow intel to shrink the smallest features in its transistors from 32 nanometers to 22 nm while cutting power consumption in half. this feat would be impossible to do with the transistor design the company had been using. how did this 3 - d design win its way into production? we asked the coinventor of the finfet, ieee fellow chenming hu, a professor emeritus at the university of california, berkeley, how the new transistors got their start, why we need them now, and where they will go from here. ieee spectrum : we ’ ve been shrinking two - dimensional, or planar, transistors just fine for 50 years. why are we seeing a switch to three - dimensional finfets? chenming hu : i ’ ll distill the problem with planar transistors to a single point. it all stems from the fact that it is very difficult to turn off a transistor when it ’ s very small. in other words, you can ’ t stop the current flowing through the transistor when you don ’ t want the current to flow. i ’ ll use an analogy to explain this. there is a garden hose lying on a soggy lawn, and you want to stop the water from flowing into this lawn. if there ’ s a long hose, you can call your friends to come in and put 10 pairs of hands down, and you can stop the water. now imagine you shorten the hose so you cannot even put one palm on it to stop it. now you shorten it even more, so you can only put one finger on it. it ’ s impossible to stop. in the past 10 years, people have dealt


ieee spectrum : the idea for finfets has been around for a while. how did it all get started? chenming hu : darpa [ the defense advanced research projects agency ] sent out a request for proposals in 1996 for ideas to develop electronic switches beyond 25 nm. at the time, the industry was using 250 - nm transistors, and the general view was that transistors could not be scaled below 100 nm. but my students and i had already been thinking about how to get transistors to scale to 25 nm and beyond. there was a quick meeting probably lasting only five minutes between myself and two colleagues — professor tsu - jae king liu and professor jeff bokor. the meeting was short because we already knew what to do. i was on a flight to a conference in japan, and i had about 10 hours, so i just wrote down the technical proposal in longhand. i proposed two structures that we ’ d been thinking about for a while. one was finfets, and the other is what we call an ultrathin - body silicon - on - insulator ( utb soi ). we got the contract in 1997, and that gave us the resources to demonstrate finfets experimentally. a young graduate student named xuejue " cathy " huang made the working device, and the team of three professors and 11 students and visiting researchers published it in 1999. ieee spectrum : how did the industry react to the finfet paper? chenming hu : it was an instant hit. i remember cathy and i were invited to intel santa clara just a couple of months after the publication, and in that same year, 2000, i was invited to intel oregon twice. at the time, people were asking me how long it would take for the idea to get into production. i said about 10 years, so i guess i was off by one. ieee spectrum : was the attention that you got unusual for a new transistor design? chenming hu : extremely unusual. we contributed two things : we figured out a way to make the transistor manufacturable, and we showed how this thing could bring us to 25 nm and to 10 nm. we even figured out how to use the finfet to solve the two top problems plaguing mosfets today — random variations of impurity atoms and variations in gate length ( roughly the distance from the source to the drain ). so we anticipated a lot of emerging problems and showed that finfets can solve them. that was


##i were listed in the international technology roadmap for semiconductors ( itrs ). that ’ s an industry consensus of what ’ s needed to keep the industry going. they are the only two that are listed as the likely successors of the planar mosfet. i think there ’ s room for both, at least in the short term. utbs need less manufacturing and design development work than finfets, because utbs rely on something that the semiconductor manufacturers do not have to make. but the utb wafers cost extra money — several hundred dollars more — so it ’ s going to add to the cost. there may be savings in device fabrication cost, which is difficult to estimate. i think some companies, clearly intel and some larger companies, will go with finfets, and some smaller companies will go with utbs. once both are in production, then people will be able to compare the benefits side by side very easily — the economics as well as the performance. ieee spectrum : does one offer a clear advantage over the other? chenming hu : staying with the hose analogy, when you have a big thick hose, you can carry more current, so it ’ s good for high speed. so that ’ s why i think the large companies that can make the investment in finfets will probably do it, because finfets are versatile. for the companies that need to have a quick way to get beyond 22 nm, i think utb is a viable technology, especially for those companies that already have experience with the soi. the shortcoming, of course, is the flat hose — with such thin silicon, less current goes through, which translates to lower speed. ieee spectrum : some industry leaders have been quoted as saying finfets won ’ t be as good for low - power applications as utbs. chenming hu : i think finfets are good for low power as well, but it does take more investment to bring them to production. i think a healthy competition will ensue. the fact is, the two technologies could coexist for a while, which is a good thing for the industry and certainly a very good thing for consumers.


ten lessons from wal - mart going green - 2011 july - august the company once derided as the “ bully of bentonville ” is now serious about green, having concluded that the clean, green, and least wasteful way of doing business is also the most profitable way of doing business. and what works for the world ’ s biggest company can work for anyone. so here are 10 lessons from wal - mart ’ s journey to the green side — five that apply to anyone, five aimed specifically at businesses. - carbon = energy = money. carbon comes from using energy. energy costs money, which means cutting carbon saves the planet and saves you money. so do what wal - mart does : use energy - efficient lighting. plant shade trees near your house or business. insulate your attic and, if you have a flat roof, paint it white. clean the filters in your refrigerator, heater, and ac. small businesses that followed wal - mart ’ s advice have had their energy bills drop 20 to 60 percent by taking just those steps. - waste = money. if wal - mart stores in california can cut their waste by 81 percent, anything ’ s possible. so cut out the disposable water bottles, and use the tap and a glass. make your own coffee instead of using all those disposable latte cups. consider bulk foods ( they ’ re cheaper ) and products with a longer shelf life, such as organic milk, because a shocking third of our food ends up spoiled and in the trash. compost. recycle. donate. wal - mart does all of this — and makes a cool $ 100 million a year from stuff it used to pay to have hauled to the landfill. - make sustainability about health. let ’ s be honest : we all say we want to be greener, but when it comes to voting with our time and our wallets, not so much. so when wal - mart wants to sell green, it emphasizes how sustainable choices are often healthy choices : organic baby food and clothes, for instance, are pesticide - free and therefore healthier for babies. and that does influence consumer behavior. - start with quick wins. wal - mart caught sustainability fever by reducing the packaging on a single toy — and finding it simultaneously saved a forest and $ 2. 5 million. what can a smaller business or household do? switching out light bulbs will garner visible savings, as will washing in cold water. or plant a vegetable garden nurtured with your own compost — the single most


forest and $ 2. 5 million. what can a smaller business or household do? switching out light bulbs will garner visible savings, as will washing in cold water. or plant a vegetable garden nurtured with your own compost — the single most sustainable thing anyone can do. - listen to the kids. wal - mart is adopting sustainable business practices for two reasons : the fi rst is because, right now, sustainability boosts profi ts. the second has to do with the customers of tomorrow — our kids. today ’ s wal - mart shoppers are not particularly motivated to buy green. but their kids are. - for businesses : sustainability starts at the top. no matter the size of the company, ceos have to make sustainability their priority — and make their direct reports do the same. no one else can. - everything is fair game. for a top - down sustainability mandate to succeed, it must “ infect ” thinking throughout a business. it can ’ t be the job of a separate sustainability team but rather the consideration of every department and line worker, from buyers to truck drivers to warehouse foremen. - race to the top, not the bottom : keeping the company at the point where emissions, waste, toxins, and sprawl are legal is a race to the bottom. new thinking about the environment perceives it as an opportunity to use sustainability for competitive advantage, a tool to make a business leaner, cleaner, and less wasteful, beyond anything that regulations require — a race to the top. - burst the bubble, embrace the critics : when secretive, insular wal - mart decided to throw open its doors to critics, inviting environmentalists and activists inside the infamous “ bentonville bubble, ” organizations like the environmental defense fund, conservation international, and the natural resources defense council were happy to lend their expertise for free. - don ’ t wait for the market, lead it : wal - mart decided to get out in front of consumer demand on sustainability and found that it served the bottom line anyway — it pays to be green. but today ’ s sustainability eff orts mean the company will be ready when consumer demand does catch up.


after god dramatically delivered israel from slavery in egypt, he brought them to mount sinai. there, he joined them to himself in a sacred covenant. among all the varied instructions he gave them there, how was beauty included? exod. 25 : 1 – 9. 1 the first half of the book of exodus details the miraculous deliverance of israel from egypt. the second half of the book deals with issues that include beauty. the divine instructions of exodus 25 : 1 – 9 are followed by exodus 25 : 10 – 31 : 11, with god ’ s “ blueprints ” for the portable tent sanctuary, its furnishings, and the priestly vestments. fromexodus 35 : 1 to the end of the book ( exod. 40 : 38 ) are found god ’ s detailed descriptions, along with the record of the precise accomplishment of them. this record includes extensive details of artistry. this collection of details is tedious reading to many modern christians. but it pleased god not only to present these many instructions to the newly - freed slaves but also to include them in scripture. there are almost fifty chapters in the first five books of the bible that record god ’ s precise directives regarding a beautiful sanctuary. he provides not only the architectural blueprints but also the exact directions for the furnishings. it is significant that on mount sinai god gave not only the decalogue, his instructions for obedience within the covenant, but also specific directions of how to fashion a lavish structure involving almost every type of artistic skill. god was architect of it all, even inspiring the artisans to craft the minute details of decoration. nothing was left to human devising. there are more chapters regarding the plans for, and consequent building of, this sanctuary and its furnishings than for any other subject in the first five books of moses. if the earthly sanctuary was only a “ shadow ” of the heavenly, we can hardly begin to imagine the kind of beauty that must exist in the real sanctuary, the one that god himself made. why do you think it was important for the sanctuary to be so beautiful? perhaps to give the people a sense of awe before the power and grandeur of god? maybe to help them sense their own need before such grandeur? how can understanding the glory of the sanctuary better help us grasp the character of god in contrast to our own earthliness and sinfulness?


in python, for a binary file, i can write this : buf _ size = 1024 * 64 # this is an important size... with open ( file, " rb " ) as f : while true : data = f. read ( buf _ size ) if not data : break # deal with the data.... with a text file that i want to read line - by - line, i can write this : with open ( file, " r " ) as file : for line in file : # deal with each line.... which is shorthand for : with open ( file, " r " ) as file : for line in iter ( file. readline, " " ) : # deal with each line.... this idiom is documented in pep 234 but i have failed to locate a similar idiom for binary files. i have tried this : > > > with open ( ' dups. txt ', ' rb ' ) as f :... for chunk in iter ( f. read, ' ' ) :... i + = 1 > > > i 1 # 30 mb file, i = = 1 means read in one go... i tried putting iter ( f. read ( buf _ size ), ' ' ) but that is a syntax error because of the parens after the callable in iter ( ). i know i could write a function, but is there way with the default idiom of for chunk in file : where i can use a buffer size versus a line oriented? thanks for putting up with the python newbie trying to write his first non - trivial and idiomatic python script.


update : if you ’ re reading these words the peak of the quadrantid meteor shower has passed. but if you missed it, you can check out this slideshow or check out the video embedded below the jump. earlier : if you didn ’ t see any fireworks on new year ’ s eve, you might want to look to the skies tonight ( well, technically very early tomorrow ). that ’ s when the quadrantid meteor shower will reach its peek visibility for the year. between 3 a. m. and sunrise thursday morning, as many as 120 meteors an hour fall to earth in the shower. that could make for quite a show, but there ’ s a problem for people who want to watch in texas. actually, there are two of them. many parts of the state are expecting cloudy weather. that alone could be a quandrantid killer for a lot of stargazers, specifically those in central and east texas. and even if you ’ re under clear skies tonight, the moon could get between you and the shooting stars. it will be in a bright gibbous phase, and all that light could overpower the view of weaker meteors. for those who are not likely to catch the show outdoors there is one final option, and it doesn ’ t involve stepping into the cold winter air. nasa will be live streaming a video of the shower from a camera mounted at its marshall space flight center in huntsville, alabama. it ’ s set to begin streaming at approximately 5 p. m. central time. if you still want to check the showers the old fashioned way, nasa has a few simple tips. to view quadrantids, go outside and allow your eyes 30 - 45 minutes to adjust to the dark. look straight up, allowing your eyes to take in as much of the sky as possible. it couldn ’ t get much more simple than that.


| evolution of plants ferns the oldest four very old plants parka myriapods crock hey ( seed ) ferns scorpion lepidodendron sigillaria calamites wood of calamites cordaites the leaf of neuropteris little animals graissessac psaronius permian of lodeve bayreuth yorkshire gymnosperm wood tree fern tempskya palm wood hardwood manosque links eight fossils a concise report of the development of the flora i. silurian and devonian carboniferous and early permian iii. permian - early cretaceous iv. cretaceous - present | the oldest fossils of land plants visible with the naked eye are about 425 million years old. they are miniscule plants from the mid - silurian of ireland en are called cooksonia. cooksonia plants had dichotomously divided little stems with small knobs at the end. these knobs were sporangia and they were filled with spores. during about 20 or 30 millions of years these were the most common plants. they became extinct at the end of the early devonian. in the photo on the left my finest specimen of cooksonia. it comes from south wales and measures 3. 5 cm. click on the photos for enlargement. click here for more information recently microscopic remains have been found in oman indicating that land plants existed already 475 million years ago. probably land plants have developed from green algae living in the sea. | during the early devonian, from about 410 million years ago, more variation came into the flora. new groups of plants came into existence, but still the plants were small ( up to 50 cm ). flowers developed only 250 millions of years later. leaves didn ' t exist either, except for the scalelike leaves, like those of the clubmosses ( click the photo on the right ). several plants had spines ( click photo on the left ). these were not for defending the plant, for animal life on the land was still minimal and the land animals were very small ( millipedes, collembolans, trigonotarbids ( ' spiders ' ), very small crustaceans, etc. ). probably the function of the spines was to enlarge the green surface and so to enhance the assimilation. furthermore the spines could have given more hold to the plants in forming small bushes of plants of the same species, hanging more or less on each other. all plants of that period were cryptogams ( plants with spores ), like


enhance the assimilation. furthermore the spines could have given more hold to the plants in forming small bushes of plants of the same species, hanging more or less on each other. all plants of that period were cryptogams ( plants with spores ), like at present the mosses, the ferns, the clubmosses and the horsetails. but they are so different from the living plants, that in nearly all cases it is impossible to identify to which group of recent plants they belong. all those ancient plants have become extinct. relatively little is known about these primitive plants, because only a small number of complete and well preserved plants have been found. in most cases the plants have been transported by rivers before they ended up in the mud and could fossilize. therefore the plants were mostly cut to small pieces before getting fossil. there are only a limited number of places where plants from the silurian, the lower and middle devonian have been well preserved. | a huge source of information on the oldest land plants is the so called rhynie chert. about 400 million years ago there was a kind of yellowstone park near the place where rhynie is now situated ( click on the photo on the left ). there were erupting vulcanos and geysers belching boiling water, saturated with silicium. that is how a complete silicified marsh came into existence with exceptionally well preserved plants, even showing their cell structure. many animals have also been found in the chert. the photo on the right shows a stem of the plant rhynia ( 1. 3 mm in diameter ). click here for a more extensive description of the rhynie chert. | during the middle devonian the plants became taller and little trees arose, sized up to a couple of meters. recently a trunk with attached crown has been discovered in the state of new york. this tree is called eospermatopteris and it could be sized up to 8 m. it lived in the late middle devonian. read more about this subject. from the late devonian, archaeopteris ( don ' t confuse it with the ancient bird archaeopterix ) is the most well - known tree. it was possibly a predecessor of the conifers and this tree could reach a height of 18 m. the drawing on the left is a reconstruction from the fine website devonian times. especially in belgium quite a number of plants from the upper devonian are found. an example is rhacophyton, occurring


new study details lethal impacts of a fungicide commonly used on golf courses around the world by summit voice summit county — despite the lessons learned from the effects of ddt, people continue to use chemicals in the same organochlorine family, to the detriment of natural ecosystems. now, university of south florida researchers have shown that one of the world ’ s most common fungicides is lethal to a wide variety of freshwater organisms and essentially crashes ecosystems from the bottom up. biologists taegan mcmahon and jason rohr tested the effects of chlorothalonil, a common fungicides used pervasively on food crops and golf courses. even at levels below those deemed safe by the epa, the chemical killed amphibians, snails, zooplankton, algae, and aquatic plants the loss of these herbivores and plants freed the algae from predation and competition, which eventually resulted in algal blooms that were similar to the effects of eutrophication. “ some species were able to recover from the chemical assault, but the ecosystem was fundamentally changed after its exposure to chlorothalonil, ” rohr said. the four - week study was conducted in a series of 300 - gallon tanks used to mimic pond conditions. it follows a 2011 laboratory study conducted by mcmahon and rohr that found that ecologically - relevant concentrations of chlorothalonil killed four species of amphibians. “ although our new study is the only reported community - and ecosystem - level experiment on chlorothalonil, our results are consistent with several direct toxicity studies conducted in the laboratory and with observations in the field, ” mcmahon said. chlorothalonil kills molds and fungus by disrupting cellular respiration, an essential process for most multicellular organisms on the planet. like the infamous ddt, chlorothalonil is a member of the organochlorine chemical family. “ in addition, to reducing biodiversity and altering ecosystem functions, chlorothalonil reduced the decomposition of waste, an important service that freshwater ecosystems provide to humans, ” mcmahon added. “ interest in the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functions stems at least partly from the concern that anthropogenically - driven declines in biodiversity will reduce or alter the benefits offered by ecosystems, ” rohr said. “ surprisingly, however, this is one of the first studies to actually manipulate an anthropogenic factor and link it to changes in ecosystem functions mediated by declines in biodiversity. ” “ this is


the 1st octet already specify the network class ( 1 - 127 : a, 128 - 191 : b, 192 - 223 : c etc. ). a, b, or c implies the number of octets for network ( respectively, 255. 0. 0. 0, 255. 255. 0. 0, 255. 255. 255. 0 ), which automatically tells you how many hosts is allowed for each class of while this was historically true. this hasn ' t been true for years. years ago 188. 8. 131. 52 / 8 was given out in pieces to various isps. ( i believe this was mostly to cable providers. ) even when it was true for network assignments, netmasks were necessary for internal networks to simplify routing. efficient routing of a network like 10. 0. 0. 0 / 8 requires subdivision into smaller networks. this may be a simple scheme using / 16 and / 8 subdivisions, but is more likely to be classless subdivision. larger subnets make more efficient use of address space ( over 99 % of a / 24 is available for devices, while only 50 % of a / 30 is available. the local network is routed directly from the device, while other addresses are passed through a router. hosts with multiple interfaces may be connected to networks of different sizes. for sub - nets without multi - homed hosts a / 24 contains more addresses than is required. most routers i have worked with have 24, 48, or 96 ports and can be supported with / 27, / 26, or / 25 sub - nets. this allows some extra addresses for dchp and / or multi - homing. organizations may standardize on allocating sub - nets of / 24 or / 23 for routing. since a ipv4 address already gives the information of the network and and host, why do we > still need a subnet mask? many devices use a default netmask of / 24 which in many cases matches the size of the local subnet ( localnet ) assigned to the router. this is equally applicable to classes a, b, and c. unless the subnet size matches the default subnet a netmask is required. if addresses are specified using cidr format, the netmask and network can be calculated from the address. if not the network can be calculated from the address and netmask. it is not possible to reliably calculate the netmask from the address and network. providing a gateway ( router ) address for a


select the product you need help with - internet explorer - windows phone - more products detailed explanation of fat boot sector article id : 140418 - view products that this article applies to. this article was previously published under q140418 understanding the content and function of a file system " boot sector " can be helpful when troubleshooting boot failures or disk corruption. from time to time, usually due to hardware failure or virus infection, a boot sector may become corrupted. if the partition is the active primary partition, or a partition containing operating system files, this can prevent the system from starting. otherwise, it may simply prevent access to data on the drive. usually, if you suspect disk corruption, it is best to use commercial anti - virus or disk recovery software. in some cases, however, detailed knowledge of the boot sector can come in handy. this article explains the various fields of a fat boot sector. using the following information, it may be possible to manually repair a damaged fat boot sector. in order to attempt such a repair, disk editing tools capable of editing raw disk sectors are required. this article does not discuss specific tools which can be used to perform such a repair operations. while every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the following information, different operating systems, including future versions of microsoft operating systems, may use different data structures. therefore you should make use of the following information at your own risk. background and terminologyin this document, a " file system boot sector " is the first physical sector on a logical volume. a logical volume might be a primary partition, a logical drive in an extended partition, or a composite of two or more partitions, as is the case with mirrors, stripe sets, and volume sets. on floppy disks, the boot sector is the first sector on the disk. in the case of hard drives, the first sector is referred to as the " master boot record " or " mbr. " this mbr is different from a file system boot sector and contains a partition table, which describes the layout of logical partitions on that hard drive. the file system boot sector would be the first sector in one of those partitions. the boot processthe boot process of 80x86 - based personal computers ( as opposed to risc - based systems ) makes direct use of a file system boot sector for executing instructions. the initial boot process can be summarized as follows : in the case of fat volumes which have windows nt installed, the fat boot sector is responsible for identifying the location of the file


systems ) makes direct use of a file system boot sector for executing instructions. the initial boot process can be summarized as follows : in the case of fat volumes which have windows nt installed, the fat boot sector is responsible for identifying the location of the file " ntldr " on the volume, loading it into memory, and transferring control to it. inside the fat boot sectorbecause the mbr transfers cpu execution to the boot sector, the first few bytes of the fat boot sector must be valid executable instructions for an 80x86 cpu. in practice these first instructions constitute a " jump " instruction and occupy the first 3 bytes of the boot sector. this jump serves to skip over the next several bytes which are not " executable. " following the jump instruction is an 8 byte " oem id ". this is typically a string of characters that identifies the operating system that formatted the volume. following the oem id is a structure known as the bios parameter block, or " bpb. " taken as a whole, the bpb provides enough information for the executable portion of the boot sector to be able to locate the ntldr file. because the bpb always starts at the same offset, standard parameters are always in a known location. because the first instruction in the boot sector is a jump, the bpb can be extended in the future, provided new information is appended to the end. in such a case, the jump instruction would only need a minor adjustment. also, the actual executable code can be fairly generic. all the variability associated with running on disks of different sizes and geometries is encapsulated in the bpb. the bpb is stored in a packed ( that is, unaligned ) format. the following table lists the byte offset of each field in the bpb. a description of each field follows the table. bytes per sector : this is the size of a hardware sector and for most disks in use in the united states, the value of this field will be 512. field offset length - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - bytes per sector 11 2 sectors per cluster 13 1 reserved sectors 14 2 fats 16 1 root entries 17 2 small sectors 19 2 media descriptor 21 1 sectors per fat 22 2 sectors per track 24 2 heads 26 2 hidden sectors 28 4 large sectors 32 4 sectors per cluster : because fat is limited in the number of clusters ( or " allocation units " ) that


19 2 media descriptor 21 1 sectors per fat 22 2 sectors per track 24 2 heads 26 2 hidden sectors 28 4 large sectors 32 4 sectors per cluster : because fat is limited in the number of clusters ( or " allocation units " ) that it can track, large volumes are supported by increasing the number of sectors per cluster. the cluster factor for a fat volume is entirely dependent on the size of the volume. valid values for this field are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and 128. query in the microsoft knowledge base for the term " default cluster size " for more information on this subject. reserved sectors : this represents the number of sectors preceding the start of the first fat, including the boot sector itself. it should always have a value of at least 1. fats : this is the number of copies of the fat table stored on the disk. typically, the value of this field is 2. root entries : this is the total number of file name entries that can be stored in the root directory of the volume. on a typical hard drive, the value of this field is 512. note, however, that one entry is always used as a volume label, and that files with long file names will use up multiple entries per file. this means the largest number of files in the root directory is typically 511, but that you will run out of entries before that if long file names are used. small sectors : this field is used to store the number of sectors on the disk if the size of the volume is small enough. for larger volumes, this field has a value of 0, and we refer instead to the " large sectors " value which comes later. media descriptor : this byte provides information about the media being used. the following table lists some of the recognized media descriptor values and their associated media. note that the media descriptor byte may be associated with more than one disk capacity. sectors per fat : this is the number of sectors occupied by each of the fats on the volume. given this information, together with the number of fats and reserved sectors listed above, we can compute where the root directory begins. given the number of entries in the root directory, we can also compute where the user data area of the disk begins. byte capacity media size and type f0 2. 88 mb 3. 5 - inch, 2 - sided, 36 - sector f0 1. 44 mb 3. 5 - inch, 2 - sided, 18 - sector f9


the disk begins. byte capacity media size and type f0 2. 88 mb 3. 5 - inch, 2 - sided, 36 - sector f0 1. 44 mb 3. 5 - inch, 2 - sided, 18 - sector f9 720 kb 3. 5 - inch, 2 - sided, 9 - sector f9 1. 2 mb 5. 25 - inch, 2 - sided, 15 - sector fd 360 kb 5. 25 - inch, 2 - sided, 9 - sector ff 320 kb 5. 25 - inch, 2 - sided, 8 - sector fc 180 kb 5. 25 - inch, 1 - sided, 9 - sector fe 160 kb 5. 25 - inch, 1 - sided, 8 - sector f8 - - - - - fixed disk sectors per track and heads : these values are a part of the apparent disk geometry in use when the disk was formatted. hidden sectors : this is the number of sectors on the physical disk preceding the start of the volume. ( that is, before the boot sector itself ) it is used during the boot sequence in order to calculate the absolute offset to the root directory and data areas. large sectors : if the small sectors field is zero, this field contains the total number of sectors used by the fat volume. some additional fields follow the standard bios parameter block and constitute an " extended bios parameter block. " the next fields are : physical drive number : this is related to the bios physical drive number. floppy drives are numbered starting with 0x00 for the a : drive, while physical hard disks are numbered starting with 0x80. typically, you would set this value prior to issuing an int 13 bios call in order to specify the device to access. the on - disk value stored in this field is typically 0x00 for floppies and 0x80 for hard disks, regardless of how many physical disk drives exist, because the value is only relevant if the device is a boot device. field offset length - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - physical drive number 36 1 current head 37 1 signature 38 1 id 39 4 volume label 43 11 system id 54 8 current head : this is another field typically used when doing int13 bios calls. the value would originally have been used to store the track on which the boot record was located, but the value stored on disk is not currently used as such. therefore, windows nt uses this field to store two flags : id : the id is a random


value would originally have been used to store the track on which the boot record was located, but the value stored on disk is not currently used as such. therefore, windows nt uses this field to store two flags : id : the id is a random serial number assigned at format time in order to aid in distinguishing one disk from another. volume label : this field was used to store the volume label, but the volume label is now stored as a special file in the root directory. system id : this field is either " fat12 " or " fat16, " depending on the format of the disk. on a bootable volume, the area following the extended bios parameter block is typically executable boot code. this code is responsible for performing whatever actions are necessary to continue the boot - strap process. on windows nt systems, this boot code will identify the location of the ntldr file, load it into memory, and transfer execution to that file. even on a non - bootable floppy disk, there is executable code in this area. the code necessary to print the familiar message, " non - system disk or disk error " is found on most standard, ms - dos formatted floppy disks that were not formatted with the " system " option. finally, the last two bytes in any boot sector always have the hexidecimal values : 0x55 0xaa. troubleshootingif you suspect that a fat boot sector is corrupt, you can check several of the fields listed above to see whether the values listed there make sense. for example, bytespersector will be 512 in the vast majority of cases. you would also expect to see text strings in the executable code section of the boot sector that are appropriate for the operating system that formatted the disk. typical text strings on fat volumes formatted by ms - dos include : " invalid system disk. " ; " disk i / o error. " ; " replace the disk, and then press any key " ; " non - system disk or disk error " ; " replace and press any key when ready. " ; and " disk boot failure. " text strings on fat volumes formatted by windows nt include : " boot : couldn ' t find ntldr. " ; " i / o error reading disk. " ; and " please insert another disk. " you should not regard this list as being all - inclusive. if you find other messages in the boot sector, this does not necessarily indicate that there is a problem with the boot


o error reading disk. " ; and " please insert another disk. " you should not regard this list as being all - inclusive. if you find other messages in the boot sector, this does not necessarily indicate that there is a problem with the boot sector. different versions of ms - dos and windows nt will sometimes have slightly different message strings in their boot sectors. on the other hand, if you find no text whatsoever, or if the text is clearly not related to ms - dos or windows nt, you should consider the possibility that your boot sector may have been infected by a virus or that some other form of data corruption may have taken place. to recover from a boot sector that has been infected by a virus, it is usually best to use a commercial anti - virus program. many viruses will do much more than just write data to the boot sector, so manual repair of the boot sector is not recommended, as it may not completely eliminate the virus and in some cases, may do more harm than good. if you suspect that the boot sector was damaged for some other reason, it is usually best to use commercial disk recovery tools. while it may be possible to recover from boot sector damage without resorting to reformatting the drive by manually modifying the fields described above, manual editing of boot sectors should only be attempted as a last resort and cannot be guaranteed to work in situations where other disk structures may also have been damaged. article id : 140418 - last review : december 6, 2003 - revision : 3. 0


' global warming is real ' declares new scientific work from an independent group of researchers called the berkeley earth surface temperature study. the research team is at least partially funded by the koch brothers who fund several climate denial groups. the team was setup to identify flaws in the climate science of global average temperature trends, but has confirmed the analysis undertaken by nasa, noaa and the hadley centre that about 1 degree celsius of global warming has occurred since 1950. the study confirmed that " we are seeing substantial global warming " and subtantially eliminated arguments that heat island effects, temperature station quality, and the risk of data selection bias had more than a very modest or marginal impact on the trend for increasing global average temperatures. related commentary : nature different method, same result : global warming is real | climate progress hot dog bites skeptical man : koch - funded berkeley temperature study does “ confirm the reality of global warming ” four research papers have been released for public discussion with a view for them all to be submitted for peer review and eventually published. the research team was lead by professor richard muller, a physicist at the university of california at berkeley and included saul perlmutter who was recently announced as a winner of the 2011 nobel prize in physics ( for his work in cosmology ). muller criticised the global temperature trend during 2004 in an article in technology review, alledging that the " hockey stick " of global temperatures was broken. " our biggest surprise was that the new results agreed so closely with the warming values published previously by other teams in the u. s. and the u. k., ” muller said. “ this confirms that these studies were done carefully and that potential biases identified by climate change skeptics did not seriously affect their conclusions. " the study ruled out of contention the urban heat island effect and poor station quality in terms of bias in the results by nasa, noaa and the hadley centre. robert rohde, lead scientist for berkeley earth, noted that " the berkeley earth analysis is the first study to address the issue of data selection bias, by using nearly all of the available data, which includes about 5 times as many station locations as were reviewed by prior groups. " in a related study published this week - effects of urban surfaces and white roofs on global and regional climate - stanford university researchers have quantified the contribution of the heat islands on a global basis for the first time, showing that the contribution to global warming from urban heat islands is very modest compared with what greenhouse gas emissions contribute. the study also ran a simulation for