THE WORLD INFORMATION

Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan

2011-12-03T22:40:00.001-08:00

Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan, (15 April 1851 - 30 November 1930) was a Solicitor General and Tamil political leader in Sri Lanka.

Political career

Ramanathan was nominated as an unofficial Member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon from 1879 to 1892 representing the Tamil-speaking people. He positioned himself as a representative of all communities in the Island. About 1890, Ramanathan had several conferences with the American Theosophist Col. Henry Steele Olcott about the feasibility of founding a Hindu-Buddhist College for the benefit of the Sinhalese Buddhists and Tamil Hindus.He was then appointed by the Governor of Ceylon as Solicitor-General in 1892 and functioned as such until 1906, and acted as Attorney-General on several occasions during this period.

Ramanthan was steeped in Hindu and Christian mysticism, and became active in the revival of Buddhism in Ceylon. He was closely associated with Col. Henry Olcott, the co-founder of the Theosophical Society, in promoting Buddhist education in schools. He was also responsible for the Government declaring Vesak a public holiday.

Ramanathan was nominated by the Government to represent Ceylon as a delegate to the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria in 1897 at London. He was described by Lord Salisbury as the most accomplished speaker in the British Empire and the Queen awarded him a gold medal on the occasion.

Ramanathan was elected representing the educated Ceylonese to the Legislative Council of Ceylon by a sweeping majority in 1911.It was an historic event, as he was the very first candidate to be elected to the Legislature of the country by an all-Ceylon electorate, prior to the introduction of universal franchise in 1931. He was re-elected to this seat in the Legislative Council in 1916 and held it until 1921.

He was the founder of Uduvil Ramanathan Girls College and Parameshwara College Parameshwara College of Jaffna which later became the University of Jaffna.

Riots of 1915

During the widespread and prolonged Sinhalese-Muslim Riots of 1915 (from May 28-June 5, 1915) the British Governor came down with a heavy hand on the Sinhalese community. The Governor declared Martial Law (June 2-August 30, 1915) and ordered the Police and the Army to arrest and imprison several prominent Sinhalese leaders. Among those imprisoned were D. S. Senanayake, D. R. Wijewardena, Dr. Cassius Pereira, E. T. De Silva, F.R. Dias Bandaranaike, H. Amarasuriya, A.H. Molamure and several others. It was reported that other leaders were shot without trial. On the request of Anagarika Dharmapala, Ramanathan came to the rescue of the Sinhalese community and fought hard and long against the tyranny of the British Government.

D. S. Senanayake, the first Sri Lankan prime minister, called Ramanathan ‘the greatest Ceylonese of all times’, while Sir Baron Jayatilaka, the Head of the Cabinet in the State Council, referred to him as ‘the greatest man Ceylon has produced during the past 50 years.K.G.Dilana Sandaruwan.

Family

Ponnambalam Ramanathan married Miss Sellachchi Ammal, daughter of Mudaliyar E. Nannithamby of Manipay. Later, when his first wife died, he was remarried to Leelawathy Ramanathan, née R. L. Harrison in 1906.He was considered a very stubborn man of western ideals, and this identity was changed by Mr Ilakanam Ramaswami Pillai, the Tamil teacher for the Tanjavur Raja, whom he considered his guru. After his meeting with Mr Ramaswami Pillai he gave up liquor, smoking and became a vegetarian. He became a Spiritual man and wrote great books on Hinduism, some translated by his wife Mrs Leelawaty Ramanathan). In return for Mr Ramaswami Pillai's help, he decided to take his great grand son Mr S Natesan to Ceylon, and gave him a job as a teacher in Parameswara College, Jaffna which was founded by him. (Mr S Natesan was a Lawyer by profession, but followed Mr Ponnambalam Ramanathan to become a political leader in Ceylon). He also got his only daughter (Through Leelawathy Ramanathan) Sivagamisundhari married to him. His direct descendants end with Sivagamisundhari. Because Mr S Natesan and Sivagamisundhari did not have any children, they adopted Mr S Natesan's niece Devi (Padmini).

Association of Accounting Technicians of Sri Lanka (AATSL)

2011-10-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

Association of Accounting Technicians of Sri Lanka (AATSL)

AATSL Ourworldi.blogspot.com

History

In December 1987 the Association of Accounting Technicians of Sri Lanka (AATSL) was established on the initiative of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICA-SL), in accordance with the guidelines issued by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC-US), Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants (CAPA), and based on the Association of Accounting Technicians of U.K (AAT - U.K.).The AATSL was established to meet the shortage of Accounting and Audit Personnel at the middle level in Government Departments, State Corporations, Audit Firms, Industrial Organisations and Commercial Establishments. It is a non-profit making Institution.Many Developments have taken place internationally since the Asian and Pacific Conference for Development, organised by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB), which was held in November 1984. Thereafter, IFAC issued guidelines on Education and Training requirements for Accounting Technicians in October 1987. The Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants (CAPA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the ADB in December 1982 for the Development of Teaching Resource Material for training of Accounting Technicians in the Asia and Pacific Region. The ADB also sponsored the Regional Consultative Meeting to review the teaching resource material for Accounting Technicians in 1989 at Seoul, Korea. The ADB was also able to develop the teaching resource material to be used in the Accounting Technicians Programme. The XIVth World Congress of Accountants held from October 11-14th 1992, in Washington U.S.A. had a concurrent session on “The Role of the Accounting Technicians”. The International Federation of Accountants set up by the IFAC task force on Accounting Technicians was chaired by Mr. John Grunner Director General IFAC. Prof. Lakshman R. Watawala, Founder President of AATSL was a member of this task force.
Profile

AATSL was established in Dec. 1987 on the model of the AAT (UK). AATSL is a non profit organisation. AAT (UK) had been formed in 1980 by the merger of two earlier existing bodies in U.K., namely Association for Accounting Technicians of Finance & Accounting (ATFA) and Institute of Accounting Staff (IAS).Subsequently AAT Ireland (called Institute of Accounting Technicians Ireland) was formed in April 1983. Afterwards AATs have been established in Pakistan (now called Institute of Public Service Accountants-Pakistan), in Malaysia (now called Association of Accounting Administrators-Malaysia), in Singapore, and in New Zealand (called College of Accounting Technicians-New Zealand ). The master plan for Accountancy Education in Sri Lanka prepared by the ADB Inception Misson in 1986, emphasized the need for the Technician Level Accounting Personnel. The Mission Report forecast the Island’s requirement of Accounting Technicians at 12,000 by the year 2000.AATSL since 1987 has been able to produce 15473 Passed Finalists up to Dec. 2009. Still there is a great potential for Accounting Technicians which has increased immensely with the expanding economy, and now with the new global village concept. Accounting Technicians are Middle Level Professional Accountants immediately after obtaining the Associate Membership (MAAT). However by gaining experience in the field of Accountancy they can reach to Senior Technician Level (SAT) and Fellow Technician Level (FMAAT), which are considered as well groomed Professional Accountants. One can add more value and recognition to this qualification by gaining qualifications in other Professional Accountancy bodies.

Website-http://www.aatsl.lk/

Rabindranath Tagore

2011-09-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

Ourworldi.blogspot.com
Rabindranath Tagore

Born:May7,1861 Died: August 7,1941
Achievements: Rabindranath Tagore became the first Asian to became Nobel laureate when he won Nobel Prize for his collection of poems, Gitanjali, in 1913; awarded knighthood by the British King George V; established Viswabharati University; two songs from his Rabindrasangit canon are now the national anthems of India and Bangladesh.
Rabindranath Tagore was an icon of Indian culture. He was a poet, philosopher, musician, writer, and educationist. Rabindranath Tagore became the first Asian to become Nobel laureate when he won Nobel Prize for his collection of poems, Gitanjali, in 1913. He was popularly called as Gurudev and his songs were popularly known as Rabindrasangeet. Two songs from his Rabindrasangit non are now the national anthems of India and Bangladesh: the Jana Gana Mana and the Amar Shonar Bangla.
Rabindranath Tagore was born on May 7, 1861 in a wealthy Brahmin family in Calcutta. He was the ninth son of Debendranath and Sarada Devi. His grandfather Dwarkanath Tagore was a rich landlord and social reformer. Rabindra Nath Tagore had his initial education in Oriental Seminary School. But he did not like the conventional education and started studying at home under several teachers. After undergoing his upanayan (coming-of-age) rite at the age of eleven,Tagore and his father left Calcutta in 1873 to tour India for several months, visiting his father's Santiniketan estate and Amritsar before reaching the Himalayan hill station of Dalhousie. There, Tagore read biographies, studied history,astronomy, modern science, and Sanskrit, and examined the classical poetry of Kalidasa. In 1874, Tagore's poem Abhilaash (Desire) was published anonymously in a magazine called Tattobodhini. Tagore's mother Sarada Devi expired in 1875. Rabindranath's first book of poems, Kabi Kahini ( tale of a poet ) was published in 1878.
In the same year Tagore sailed to England with his elder brother Satyandranath to study law. But he returned to India in 1880 and started his career as poet and writer. In 1883, Rabindranath Tagore married Mrinalini Devi Raichaudhuri, with whom he had two sons and three daughters. In 1884, Tagore wrote a collection of poems Kori-o-Kamal (Sharp and Flats). He also wrote dramas - Raja-o-Rani ( King and Queen) and Visarjan (Sacrifice). In 1890, Rabindranath Tagore moved to Shilaidaha (now in Bangladesh) to look after the family estate. Between 1893 and 1900 Tagore wrote seven volumes of poetry,which included Sonar Tari (The Golden Boat) and Khanika. In 1901, Rabindranath Tagore became the editor of the magazine Bangadarshan. He Established Bolpur Bramhacharyaashram at Shantiniketan, a school based on the pattern of old Indian Ashrama. In 1902, his wife Mrinalini died. Tagore composed Smaran (In Memoriam),a collection of poems, dedicated to his wife. In 1905, Lord Curzon decided to divide Bengal into two parts. Rabindranath Tagore strongly protested against this decision. Tagore wrote a number of national songs and attended protest meetings. He introduced the Rakhibandhan ceremony,symbolizing the underlying unity of undivided Bengal.In 1909, Rabindranath Tagore started writing Gitanjali. In 1912, Tagore went to Europe for the second time. On the journey to London he translated some of his poems/songs from Gitanjali to English. He met William Rothenstein, a noted British painter, in London. Rothenstien was impressed by the poems, made copies and gave to Yeats and other English poets. Yeats was enthralled. He later wrote the introduction to Gitanjali when it was published in September 1912 in a limited edition by the India Society in London. Rabindranath Tagore was awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 for Gitanjali. In 1915 he was knighted by the British King George V. In 1919, following the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Tagore renounced his knighthood. He was a supporter of Gandhiji but he stayed out of politics. He was opposed to nationalism and militarism as a matter of principle, and instead promoted spiritual values and the creation of a new world culture founded in multi-culturalism, diversity and tolerance. Unable to gain ideological support to his views, he retired into relative solitude. Between the years 1916 and 1934 he traveled widely. 1n 1921, Rabindranath Tagore established Viswabharati University. He gave all his money from Nobel Prize and royalty money from his books to this University. Tagore was not only a creative genius; he was quite knowledgeable of Western culture,especially Western poetry and science too. Tagore had a good grasp of modern -post-Newtonian - physics, and was well able to hold his own in a debate with Einstein in 1930 on the newly emerging principles of quantum mechanics and chaos. His meetings and tape recorded conversations with his contemporaries such Albert Einstein and H.G. Wells, epitomize his brilliance. In 1940 Oxford University arranged a special ceremony in Santiniketan and awarded Rabindranath Tagore with Doctorate of Literature. Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore passed away on August 7,1941 in his ancestral home in Calcutta.

Economic Service Charge (ESC)

2011-09-03T04:33:00.000-07:00

Economic Service Charge (ESC) has been administered since 1st of April 2006 under the Economic Service Charge (ESC) Act No. 13 of 2006, as amended by Economic Service Charge Amendment Acts No. 15 of 2007, 11 of 2008 and 16 of 2009. prior to this, it has been administered under Finance Acts 11 of 2004 and 11 of 2005 from 01.04.2004 up to 01.04.2006. ESC is allowed to be deducted from the income tax payable in that year of assessment and any ESC which cannot be so deducted is carried forward and deducted from the income tax payable, to the extent that it could be deducted in the succeeding four years of assessments. ESC thus operates as an advance payment of income tax in respect of any person whose liability to income tax exceeds the ESC liability and such person bears no burden of the ESC. A person whose contribution to income tax do not exceed ESC liability, for instance in the case of a loss making business, ESC has to be paid and no deductions can be effected elsewhere.

Consolidated Text of the Economic Service Charge Act No.13 of 2006

Economic Service Charge Act No.13 of 2006[Certified 31st March 2006]

Economic Service Charge (Amendment) Act No.15 of 2007[Certified 12th April 2007]
Economic Service Charge (Amendment) Act No.11 of 2008[Certified 29th February 2008]
Economic Service Charge (Amendment) Act No.16 of 2009[Certified 31st March 2009]

Tax Liability

Every person or partnership which carries on a trade, business, profession or vocation except Cooperative Societies, non resident aviation and shipping companies, local Government bodies and Government Departments will have to pay Economic Service Charge whether such person or partnership liable to pay income tax or not.

Base

Should register for ESC if the turnover of a quarter is Rs. 7.5 million or more. The maximum economic service charge to be paid for a quarter is limited to

Rs. 15 million - up to 31/03/2009

Rs. 30 million - from 01/04/2009

Even if the tax payable by you for the relevant quarter exceeds rs. 30 million as per your turnover, you will have to pay only Rs. 30 million.

Grace Period

A grace period of 36 months from the commencement of the business in respect of manufacturers was there from 1/4/2007 to 31/3/2009. Accordingly, during that period the turnover was not liable even if the turnover exceeded the above limits. However, this was removed from 1/4/2009.

Turnover

The amount due from every transaction whether actually received or not. But following are not included to the liable turnover.

VAT

Proceeds from sale of capital assets.

Bad debts

For the period from 01/01/2009 to 31/12/2009 the following receipts are also not to be included to the liable turnover.

Receipts from export of goods.

Receipt from supply of goods by manufactures to exporters for export.

Receipts from the operating of Tourist Hotels approved by the Tourist Development Authority of Sri Lanka.

Set off of Tax

ESC paid can be set off against the Income Tax payable for the relevant year of assessment. A balance, if any can be brough forward and set against the 4 subsequent years of assessments.

Returns

Return of ESC should be furnished on or before 20th day of the month immediately succeeding the end of that relevant quarter.

1st Quarter - April - June - Prior to 20th July

2nd Quarter - July - September - Prior to 20th October

3rd Quarter - October - December - Prior to 20th January

4th Quarter - January - March - Prior to 20th April

Returns should be submitted to

Relevant Branch

Payment of Tax

ESC is payable on self assessment basis in four quarter. Payments should be made using the specific form and the period of tax should be correctly indicated.

(Ex. 30/06/2009 quarter 09101)

1st Quarter - on or before the 20th July

2st Quarter - on or before the 20th October

3st Quarter - on or before the 20th January

4st Quarter - on or before the 20th April

More Details

Tax Payer Service Unit - 2328702

Secretariat Unit - 2338635

Website

http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.lk/esc.html

Value Added Tax & Nation Building Tax

2011-08-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

Value Added Tax (VAT) is introduced by the Act No.14 of 2002 and is in force from 1st August, 2002. VAT Act replaced the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which was almost similar tax on the consumption of goods and services.
It is a tax on domestic consumption of goods and services. The goods imported into Sri Lanka and goods and services supplied within the territorial limits of Sri Lanka are the subject mater of this tax. It is a multi stage tax levied on the incremental Value at every stage in the production and distribution chain of Goods and Services. The tax is borne by the final or the ultimate consumer of Goods or services. It is an indirect tax and the Government will receive at the end, through all the intermediary suppliers in the chain of production and distribution, an amount equal to the amount paid by the final consumer.
VAT is not charged on certain imports and on retail and wholesale supply of goods. There are certain supplies of goods and services, which is exempt from VAT.

Nation Building Tax (NBT)
Nation Building Tax (NBT) Bill giving legal effect to the 2009 Budget Proposals relating to the imposition of Nation Building Tax (NBT) was passed by parliament on January 7, 2009. NBT Tax Act No. 9 came into operation with effect from February 1st 2009.
Scope
NBT is payable by every person ( individual, company, body of persons) or partnership who :
imports any article (other than any article in the personal baggage) into Sri Lanka or
carries on the business of manufacture of any article or
carries on the business of providing a service of any description.
Chargeability
Every liable person whose, liable turnover for any quarter exceeds Rs. 650,000/= should be registered with the Nation Building Tax (NBT) unit of the Department of Inland Revenue.

Website
http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.lk/vat.html

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants CIMA

2010-06-19T06:50:00.000-07:00

1. Let CIMA shape your career-->Shape your career
Do you want an exciting and rewarding career in business? Ever thought about becoming a Chartered Management Accountant?
The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants is the only professional body that qualifies accountants solely for business. The qualification isn’t about ‘number-crunching’ but provides a wide range of management skills to ensure you develop an understanding of the meaning and relevance of facts and figures and information critical to business success. The CIMA qualification will ensure you have all the essential skills required to assess risk and make key strategic decisions in any organization.
Chartered Management Accountants are essential to every business. They work in all sectors from service industries to manufacturing, government to financial services and small enterprises to multinationals. The broad skill-set that you will acquire will ensure that you have many career options. CIMA members work in a variety of functions, such as marketing, operations and HR, not finance exclusively. Some of their job roles include project manager, finance director, management accountant and business analyst.
Be in demand around the globe
The CIMA qualification is your passport to a successful career abroad and will ensure you are employable wherever you choose to live or work. The CIMA qualification is recognized and highly valued by employers around the world and is the best preparation for an international career in business. You will always be sought after by employers, because they know the CIMA qualification is the most relevant to business today and that CIMA Members are well equipped to make a huge difference in their organization straight away.
Invest in your future
If you are thinking of changing or enhancing your career then CIMA is your best option. Management Accountants will always be needed in any organization, not just for their accounting skills, but for their management and people skills, creative use of numbers and their ability to think outside of the box. This is exactly what CIMA members offer employers.
Andrew Higginson, Finance Director of Tesco plc said: ‘I did the CIMA qualification and I’d take people from CIMA anytime. They’re basically business people, with a finance orientation, not just accountants.’

Open to all
The CIMA qualification is open to everyone, regardless of your educational background. If you have a passion to succeed in business and gain greater employability, then register to study with CIMA today and within three years you could be choosing your perfect job. The investment in time and effort will certainly be worth it.
What to do next
You can visit www.cimaglobal.com/careerdeveloper to find out more about the qualification and how to get started. If you have any questions you can call +44 (0)20 88492314 or email cima.contact@cimaglobal.com.
To receive occasional correspondence from CIMA, that will include student and member case studies, forthcoming events, news, jobs and any other relevant news and information, please complete the contact form at www.cimaglobal.com/careerdevelopercontact

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)

2009-12-24T23:13:00.000-08:00

The mobile messaging market has come a long way since the advent of SMS over ten years ago. Since then we have had advanced SMS in the form of Smart Messaging (like EMS) and we now see the next phase in mobile data services; Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).
MMS messages can be sent not only from phone to phone, but also from phone to email and vice versa. When sending an SMS, the main method for message addressing is using phone numbers (i.e. numeric addressing), but MMS also provides the capability of email addressing (alphanumeric addressing).
MMS can be thought of as a highly developed extension of SMS and therefore is easy for current mobile phone users to adapt to. Each message is a multimedia presentation in a single entry rather than a text file with attachments, and it is therefore a simple and user friendly method of sending messages containing multimedia content. ]
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) - sometimes called Multimedia Messaging System - is a communications technology developed by 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) that allows users to exchange multimedia communications between capable mobile phones and other devices. An extension to the Short Message Service protocol, MMS defines a way to send and receive, almost instantaneously, wireless messages that include images, audio, and video clips in addition to text. When the technology has been fully developed, it will support the transmission of streaming video. A common current application of MMS messaging is picture messaging (the use of camera phones to take photos for immediate delivery to a mobile recipient). Other possibilities include animations and graphic presentations of stock quotes, sports news, and weather reports.
According to Mobile Streams, MMS will be developed in two separate phases. Based on General Packet Radio Services, the currently available MMS is similar to a brief PowerPoint presentation. The second phase of MMS will require a 3G network to enable streaming video. An intermediate technology, Enhanced Messaging Service has more capabilities than SMS, but fewer than MMS. Unlike MMS, EMS doesn't require upgrades to network infrastructures. Unlike SMS and EMS, the size of an MMS message is unlimited, although service providers are likely to impose their own size restrictions.

What is a Share?

2009-04-24T23:42:00.000-07:00

A share is simply a divided-up unit of the value of a company. If a company is worth £100 million, and there are 50 million shares in issue, then each share is worth £2 (usually listed as 200p in the money pages.) As the overall value of the company fluctuates so does the share price.

Shares can, and do, go up and down in value for various reasons. However, such movements are not usually for the most obvious of reasons.

It would be very simple if a share were priced solely on what the company in question owned - its buildings, cars, computers, value of contracts in the pipeline etc.

The total value minus company borrowings would be divided by the number of shares in issue and there would be the value of each individual share. But there is a fly in the ointment called "sentiment".

Why market sentiment matters

In general, share prices rise on the expectation (rather than the publication) of increased future profits and fall on published facts.

If this sounds entirely mad, bear in mind that if an analyst predicts that ABC company will double its profits then the price will rise at the time of the prediction.

When the results come through, revealing that profits have gone up "only" 75%, the price will probably fall because the current facts are less exciting than the earlier prediction.

Understanding this apparent nonsense is key to appreciating the behaviour of markets in general, and individual shares in particular.

Why companies want to please shareholders

Professional investors buy shares in the hope of benefiting from a rising stream of income over the long term.

When profits are distributed to the shareholders the payments are known as "dividends". The capital value of a share - its quoted price - moves mostly in line with expectations of long term dividend payment.

There are myriad reasons why the expectation may become better or worse. A reduction in alcohol duty would guarantee a rise in distilling companies making whisky. An increase in VAT would hit retailers. More technically, a positive or negative assessment of a company's management ability could change investor sentiment enormously.

So why do companies go through all this daily public examination and give shareholders votes to - in extremis - remove directors from their positions of power?

The simple answer is that "floating" - selling shares in their companies to anonymous investors - raises millions of pounds to allow those same companies to expand into bigger and hopefully better businesses. Companies and shareholders alike have a responsibility to each other.

How does one trade in Shares?

Every transaction in the stock exchange is carried out through licensed members called brokers.

To trade in shares, you have to approach a broker However, since most stock exchange brokers deal in very high volumes, they generally do not entertain small investors. These brokers have a network of sub-brokers who provide them with orders.

What is SMS?

2009-04-04T00:33:00.000-07:00

The Short Message Service (SMS) enables people to easily send and receive text messages with their mobile phones. This new form of communication has been enthusiastically embraced throughout Europe, Asia and other parts of the world. SMS is commonly referred to as 2-way text messaging in theU.S.
“Texting” has quickly evolved into a popular way for people to communicate with one another. Users send messages in plain English by typing into their mobile phone keypad. Users are not required to navigate through complex menus or multiple screens. SMS interactivity and ease of use open up valuable opportunities for applications such as mobile commerce, entertainment and content.

The key data related fact about mobile telephony is the unexpected and extraordinary explosion of SMS messaging. Figures indicate that the number of SMS messages now being sent world-wide is above 10 billion per month. This is an astonishing figure given that it approximates to 2 messages per month to every person on the planet. Of course that doesn't give a clear picture of what is going on.

SMS messages may be sent either from one point to another point, or may be sent to all devices within a specific geographical region. The former, known as SMS-PP, is used primarily between individuals communicating with one another, while the latter, known as SMS-CB, may be used to broadcast public announcements such as road or weather conditions, region-specific advertising messages, or messages from a cell provider regarding the new coverage area.

SMS use for personal communication is rapidly increasing in popularity. In 2000, less than 20 billion SMS messages were sent; by 2004 that number had grown to in excess of 500 billion messages. The largest market for SMS is Southeast Asia, with Europe just behind. The United States has seemed to be a slow adopter for the early years of the 21st century, but the pace of texting appears to be increasing in the United States as service providers make its use, particularly between networks, easier.

With this surge in popularity and use, particularly among younger users, new shorthands have developed to communicate more rapidly through the medium. This shorthand mirrors in many way the writing style of online chat, dropping vowels and superfluous letters, and replacing words and entire sounds with representative numbers or single letters. An example might read something like, "how r u?" to mean, "How are you?" or, "did u c wut he askd me 2 do? 4 shme!" to mean, "Did you see what he asked me to do? For shame!" Given the limitations of a smaller keypad, with multiple clicks required for many letters, such shorthand saves large amounts of time over the course of multiple SMS messages.

In addition to person-to-person communication via SMS, a number of television shows have begun accepting text messages for various purposes. Shows which have a voting system, such as American Idol, have begun integrating SMS voting, allowing viewers to easily make their choices using only their cell phone. In Europe, the idea has been pushed even further, with shows that allow viewers to control characters on screen using their cell phone's SMS capabilities.

Some online services, most notably Google, have integrated SMS capability to allow for the easy retrieval of information through one's cell phone. By texting a special number, for example, a cell phone user may receive information ranging from local weather, to sport scores, to where the nearest bus station is in their town. In addition to such regional information, services like Google SMS can also be used to quickly find the definition of a word, to convert one unit of measure to another, or to answer trivia questions. Using SMS, one can in essence access the vast informational resources of the Internet using only a cell phone.

Global warming

2009-01-16T07:05:00.000-08:00

Introduction
Global warming will be the greatest environmental challenge in the 21st century."
One of the most current and widely discussed factors which could lead to the ultimate end of existence of Earth and man is global warming and its devastating effects. Scientists have asked how fast the Earth is heating up, and how the warming effects on Earth may affect crops and climatic conditions. Several current trends clearly demonstrate that global warming is directly impacting on; rising sea levels, the melting of icecaps, and significant worldwide climatic changes. This paper will discuss the degree of destruction caused by global warming; contributing factors to warming, and finally, discuss what we can do to decrease the current rate of global warming. I would also like to present opposing viewpoints to the effects of the warming process. In my understanding, global warming represents a fundamental threat to all living things on earth.
The "Greenhouse Earth" is surrounded by a shield of atmospheric gases, rather than a glass or a plastic cover. The air that makes up our atmosphere consists primarily of nitrogen and oxygen molecules (N2 at 78% and O2 at 21%). A large number of "trace gases" make up the remainder of air's composition. Many of these, including carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) are the so called "greenhouse" gases. Clouds and greenhouse gases keep the earth warm. Technology is partly responsible for explosive population growth and responsible for the resulting damage to Earth's resources. The industrial revolution caused a rapid increase in the Population growth, as oil and gas fuels were exploited for our use. There is a clear link between the problems of global warming and overpopulation, as increases in CO2 levels follows growth in population Trees play a unique role in the global carbon cycle. They are the largest land-based natural mechanism for removing CO2 from the air. Trees are able to store a large amount of CO2 in their structures. However, when trees are burned, the carbon locked in the structure is released into the air in the form of CO2. Smoke and all kind of unborn hydrocarbons from gaseous, liquid and solid fuels and wastes are lost energy, increasing the air and water pollution. For instance, as everybody well knows gas prices are outrageous these days. We can alternate and use something better. Hybrids and electricity cars are also a good way to slow global warming. Another way is also to shut down burning waste dumps.
Advantages of global warming
1. Longer growing seasons could mean increased agricultural production in some local areas.
2. Fewer deaths or injuries due to cold weather.
3. Less need for energy consumption to warm cold places.
4. Mountains increase in height due to melting glaciers, becoming higher as they rebound against the missing weight of the ice.
Disadvantages of global warming
1. Increased air pollution.
2. Increased deaths from heat waves.
3. Ocean circulation disrupted, disrupting and having unknown effects on world climate.
4. Increased disease in humans and animals.
5. Higher sea level leading to flooding of low-lying lands and deaths and disease from flood and evacuation.
Conclusion
The temperature of the atmosphere near the earth's surface is warmed through a natural process called the greenhouse effect. Much of the debate surrounding global warming has centered on the accuracy of scientific predictions concerning future warming. The main problem in this part of the world will be noted in the region of the Gulf Stream, the big rivers in Europe like Elbe, Rhein, Danube, and Rhone. The today flooding problems of the Danube branch Tessa are unfortunately just the beginning - if we with power and intelligence do not activate to avoid Global Warming.
Global warming greatly upsets the ecosystems and habitat of wildlife, totally disrupting their lives. With increasing human population, humans occupy more of the landmass, leaving little space for wildlife. With increasing global warming, animals tend to move to higher levels and plants to new areas that are cooler as the existing environment gets too hot for growth. This includes species of mountain goat, and bighorn sheep. Global warming will affect all ecosystems and species that are unable to adapt and adjust will face extinction. Wildlife around the Arctic is most likely to face the brunt of this warming. Species like the polar bear, emperor penguins. Warm temperatures around the poles means less ice and hence less food for these species that subsist on fish. Fish like salmon, trout, and others that live in cold waters will not survive in the warmer waters. Melting ice leads to the formation of marshes that are conducive to new types of insects and pests. Warmer temperatures imply less wetland for waterfowl that breed in winters. Butterflies appear in Britain earlier in spring than they did a few decades ago. They have moved inward from their usual area of appearance in both Europe and North America. Birds and frogs breed earlier than their usual breeding time due to the warm weather. An unusual occurrence is the appearance of grass in Antarctica. It's amazing how a relatively small rise in temperature can alter an animal's life. Sea turtles are affected throughout their lives by climate change: their sex is determined by the temperature of the sand in which eggs incubate (cooler sand produces males, too-hot sand produces females only); and some rely on coral reefs, which themselves are already succumbing to climate change. Then there's the issue of nesting beaches for turtles. They're increasingly disappearing beneath rising seas. In the wake of this alarming situation, it is important to take steps to curb global warming to safeguard our natural heritage. It is necessary to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and to develop other renewable sources of energy to curb global waming.Hence citizens and governments across the globe must take steps to conserve precious wildlife to ensure our survival in the future.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009 & XMAS

2008-12-24T07:22:00.000-08:00

Norbel Prize Award

2008-12-08T05:47:00.000-08:00

The Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies
The Nobel Laureates take center stage in Stockholm on 10 December when they receive the Nobel Prize Medal, Nobel Prize Diploma and document confirming the Nobel Prize amount from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. In Oslo, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates receive their Nobel Peace Prize from the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in the presence of King Harald V of Norway. An important part is the presentation of the Nobel Lectures by the Nobel Laureates. In Stockholm, the lectures are presented days before the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony. In Oslo, the Nobel Laureates deliver their lectures during the Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony

Using an Excel worksheet - Basic terminology

2008-11-22T05:55:00.000-08:00

Using an Excel worksheet - Basic terminology
Step 1 - Launch Excel - Automatically a workbook opens. An Excel workbook is made of several sheets. Unless you have changed the default setting you will have three sheets.

Step 2 - Changing the name of the worksheets - Each sheet is a full spreadsheet. Having a workbook with multiple sheets allows you to easily establish relationships from one sheet to another.
The name of the sheet may be changed. Double-click the name of the sheet in the tab at the bottom, and type the new name.

Step 3 - Inserting additional worksheets - If you need additional worksheets, go to the Insert menu and select Worksheet. It will be placed before the selected sheet. You may also insert a worksheet by right-clicking on the name of the sheet in the tab and selecting Insert... (Macintosh users, Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking. If you want more information on this see a module about teaching your Mac to right-click.)
As you can see from the graphic above, renaming the worksheet can also be accomplished by right-clicking the tab containing sheet names.

Step 4 - Cells - Rectangles in a spreadsheet are called a cell. Cells are designated by the column and row in which it is located. By default, the top left cell, A1, is highlighted.

Step 3 - Inserting additional worksheets - If you need additional worksheets, go to the Insert menu and select Worksheet. It will be placed before the selected sheet.
You may also insert a worksheet by right-clicking on the name of the sheet in the tab and selecting Insert... (Macintosh users, Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking. If you want more information on this see a module about teaching your Mac to right-click.) Try the following ways to move from cell to cell:

Hit the Return/Enter key to move down to the row below
Hold down the Shift key, then hit the Return/Enter key to move up to the row above
Hit the Tab key to move over to the column to the right
Hold down the Shift key, hit the Tab key to move back to the column to the left
Move the cursor to any cell and click there
Use the arrow keys to move up, down, left, or right.

Step 5 - Recognizing cursor styles - There are four common cursor styles used in Excel

Step 6 - Entering data - Move to the cell where you want to enter data and enter words or numbers. If data is already in the cell it will be replaced without having to cut or delete the previous data.
Using an Excel worksheet - Entering and Editing Data

Step 1 - Cell data - Things that can be entered into a cell:
numbers
words
equations, formulas or functions
fill color
images (although they are actually on top of a cell, not in it)

Step 2 - Entering data - Move to the cell where you want to enter data and enter words or numbers. If data is already in the cell it will be replaced without you having to cut or delete the previous data. A review is available on how to move from cell to cell.

Step 3 - Format data - Once information has been entered into a cell, you might want to change something about the way the information is displayed. To do that, make sure the cell you want to format is selected and go to the Format menu. Select Cells... The number I entered repeats infinitely, but I only need 2 decimal places
You can bring up the Format Cells dialog box by right-clicking on the cell you want to format. (Macintosh users, remember that is Ctrl + click). From the following pop-up box select Format Cells...

Step 4 - Using formatting buttons - There are several toolbar buttons which allow one-click formatting. To illustrate I entered the same number in four cells, with the formatting I plan to use for each cell.

With cell A1 selected I clicked once on the Currency button
In cell B1 I selected the Percent button
I selected the Increase Decimal button for cell C1
The Decrease Decimal button was used to format cell D1
These four actions produced the following result:
As you can see, the Percent button simply multiples by 100 and attaches the % sign. Care must be exercised in using this button properly.

Step 5 - Other formatting options - The Format toolbar includes several formatting options which can be applied to information entered into a cell.
If you need a review of these options, go back to the Formatting toolbar module.

Step 6 - Editing entered data - If incorrect information has been entered into a cell, one easy way to edit that is to click on the cell and enter the correct information. You do not need to highlight or delete. Typing replaces whatever is in the cell.
If you do not want to replace the data, but simply need to correct some part of it, move your cursor into the Formula bar
When your cursor turns into an I-Beam, click and edit within the formula bar.

Step 7 - Review cursor styles - There are four common cursor styles used in Excel. Become familiar with each style.
Website:www.internet4classrooms.com

Sir Isaac Newton

2008-11-12T07:25:00.001-08:00

Sir Isaac Newton, FRS (pronounced 4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727 [OS: 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726]) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, theologian and one of the most influential men in human history. His Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, is considered to be the most influential book in the history of science. In this work, Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, laying the groundwork for classical mechanics, which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries and is the basis for modern engineering. Newton showed that the motions of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler's laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation, thus removing the last doubts about heliocentrism and advancing the scientific revolution.
In mechanics, Newton enunciated the principles of conservation of momentum and angular momentum. In optics, he invented the reflecting telescope and developed a theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into a visible spectrum. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling and studied the speed of sound.
In mathematics, Newton shares the credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the development of the differential and integral calculus. He also demonstrated the generalised binomial theorem, developed the so-called "Newton's method" for approximating the zeroes of a function, and contributed to the study of power series.
Newton was also highly religious (though unorthodox), producing more work on Biblical hermeneutics than the natural science he is remembered for today.
In a 2005 poll of the Royal Society asking who had the greater effect on the history of science, Newton was deemed much more influential than Albert Einstein.[
Early years
Main article: Isaac Newton's early life and achievements
Isaac Newton was born on 4 January 1643 [OS: 25 December 1642][1] at Woolsthorpe Manor in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, a hamlet in the county of Lincolnshire. At the time of Newton's birth, England had not adopted the latest papal calendar and therefore his date of birth was recorded as Christmas Day, 25 December 1642. Newton was born three months after the death of his father. Born prematurely, he was a small child; his mother Hannah Ayscough reportedly said that he could have fit inside a quart mug. When Newton was three, his mother remarried and went to live with her new husband, the Reverend Barnabus Smith, leaving her son in the care of his maternal grandmother, Margery Ayscough. The young Isaac disliked his stepfather and held some enmity towards his mother for marrying him, as revealed by this entry in a list of sins committed up to the age of 19: Threatening my father and mother Smith to burn them and the house over them.[7]
According to E.T. Bell and H. Eves:
Newton began his schooling in the village schools and was later sent to The King's School, Grantham, where he became the top student in the school. At King's, he lodged with the local apothecary, William Clarke and eventually became engaged to the apothecary's stepdaughter, Anne Storer, before he went off to the University of Cambridge at the age of 19. As Newton became engrossed in his studies, the romance cooled and Miss Storer married someone else. It is said he kept a warm memory of this love, but Newton had no other recorded "sweet-hearts" and never married.

Newton in a 1702 portrait by Godfrey Kneller
There are rumours that he remained a confirmed celibate. However, Bell and Eves' sources for this claim, William Stukeley and Mrs. Vincent (the former Miss Storer – actually named Katherine, not Anne), merely say that Newton entertained "a passion" for Storer while he lodged at the Clarke house.
From the age of about twelve until he was seventeen, Newton was educated at The King's School, Grantham (where his signature can still be seen upon a library window sill). He was removed from school, and by October 1659, he was to be found at Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, where his mother, widowed by now for a second time, attempted to make a farmer of him. He hated farming. Henry Stokes, master at the King's School, persuaded his mother to send him back to school so that he might complete his education. This he did at the age of eighteen, achieving an admirable final report.
In June 1661, he was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge. According to John Stillwell, he entered Trinity as a sizar.[10] At that time, the college's teachings were based on those of Aristotle, but Newton preferred to read the more advanced ideas of modern philosophers such as Descartes and astronomers such as Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler. In 1665, he discovered the generalised binomial theorem and began to develop a mathematical theory that would later become infinitesimal calculus. Soon after Newton had obtained his degree in August of 1665, the University closed down as a precaution against the Great Plague. Although he had been undistinguished as a Cambridge student,[11] Newton's private studies at his home in Woolsthorpe over the subsequent two years saw the development of his theories on calculus, optics and the law of gravitation.
Middle years

Isaac Newton (Bolton, Sarah K. Famous Men of Science. NY: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1889)
Mathematics
Most modern historians believe that Newton and Leibniz developed infinitesimal calculus independently, using their own unique notations. According to Newton's inner circle, Newton had worked out his method years before Leibniz, yet he published almost nothing about it until 1693, and did not give a full account until 1704. Meanwhile, Leibniz began publishing a full account of his methods in 1684. Moreover, Leibniz's notation and "differential Method" were universally adopted on the Continent, and after 1820 or so, in the British Empire. Whereas Leibniz's notebooks show the advancement of the ideas from early stages until maturity, there is only the end product in Newton's known notes. Newton claimed that he had been reluctant to publish his calculus because he feared being mocked for it. Newton had a very close relationship with Swiss mathematician Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, who from the beginning was impressed by Newton's gravitational theory. In 1691 Duillier planned to prepare a new version of Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, but never finished it. However, in 1694 the relationship between the two men changed. At the time, Duillier had also exchanged several letters with Leibniz.
Starting in 1699, other members of the Royal Society (of which Newton was a member) accused Leibniz of plagiarism, and the dispute broke out in full force in 1711. Newton's Royal Society proclaimed in a study that it was Newton who was the true discoverer and labeled Leibniz a fraud. This study was cast into doubt when it was later found that Newton himself wrote the study's concluding remarks on Leibniz. Thus began the bitter Newton v. Leibniz calculus controversy, which marred the lives of both Newton and Leibniz until the latter's death in 1716.
Newton is generally credited with the generalised binomial theorem, valid for any exponent. He discovered Newton's identities, Newton's method, classified cubic plane curves (polynomials of degree three in two variables), made substantial contributions to the theory of finite differences, and was the first to use fractional indices and to employ coordinate geometry to derive solutions to Diophantine equations. He approximated partial sums of the harmonic series by logarithms (a precursor to Euler's summation formula), and was the first to use power series with confidence and to revert power series. He also discovered a new formula for calculating pi.
He was elected Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 1669. In that day, any fellow of Cambridge or Oxford had to be an ordained Anglican priest. However, the terms of the Lucasian professorship required that the holder not be active in the church (presumably so as to have more time for science). Newton argued that this should exempt him from the ordination requirement, and Charles II, whose permission was needed, accepted this argument. Thus a conflict between Newton's religious views and Anglican orthodoxy was averted.
Optics
From 1670 to 1672, Newton lectured on optics. During this period he investigated the refraction of light, demonstrating that a prism could decompose white light into a spectrum of colours, and that a lens and a second prism could recompose the multicoloured spectrum into white light.
He also showed that the coloured light does not change its properties by separating out a coloured beam and shining it on various objects. Newton noted that regardless of whether it was reflected or scattered or transmitted, it stayed the same colour. Thus, he observed that colour is the result of objects interacting with already-coloured light rather than objects generating the colour themselves. This is known as Newton's theory of colour.

A replica of Newton's 6-inch (150 mm) reflecting telescope of 1672 for the Royal Society
From this work he concluded that any refracting telescope would suffer from the dispersion of light into colours, and invented a reflecting telescope (today known as a Newtonian telescope) to bypass that problem. By grinding his own mirrors, using Newton's rings to judge the quality of the optics for his telescopes, he was able to produce a superior instrument to the refracting telescope, due primarily to the wider diameter of the mirror. In 1671 the Royal Society asked for a demonstration of his reflecting telescope. Their interest encouraged him to publish his notes On Colour, which he later expanded into his Opticks. When Robert Hooke criticised some of Newton's ideas, Newton was so offended that he withdrew from public debate. The two men remained enemies until Hooke's death.
Newton argued that light is composed of particles or corpuscles, which were refracted by accelerating toward the denser medium, but he had to associate them with waves to explain the diffraction of light (Opticks Bk. II, Props. XII-L). Later physicists instead favoured a purely wavelike explanation of light to account for diffraction. Today's quantum mechanics, photons and the idea of wave–particle duality bear only a minor resemblance to Newton's understanding of light.
In his Hypothesis of Light of 1675, Newton posited the existence of the ether to transmit forces between particles. The contact with the theosophist Henry More, revived his interest in alchemy. He replaced the ether with occult forces based on Hermetic ideas of attraction and repulsion between particles. John Maynard Keynes, who acquired many of Newton's writings on alchemy, stated that "Newton was not the first of the age of reason: he was the last of the magicians."[12] Newton's interest in alchemy cannot be isolated from his contributions to science.[13] (This was at a time when there was no clear distinction between alchemy and science.) Had he not relied on the occult idea of action at a distance, across a vacuum, he might not have developed his theory of gravity. (See also Isaac Newton's occult studies.)
In 1704 Newton published Opticks, in which he expounded his corpuscular theory of light. He considered light to be made up of extremely subtle corpuscles, that ordinary matter was made of grosser corpuscles and speculated that through a kind of alchemical transmutation "Are not gross Bodies and Light convertible into one another, ...and may not Bodies receive much of their Activity from the Particles of Light which enter their Composition?"[14] Newton also constructed a primitive form of a frictional electrostatic generator, using a glass globe (Optics, 8th Query).
Mechanics and gravitatio

Newton's own copy of his Principia, with hand-written corrections for the second edition
Further information: Writing of Principia Mathematica
In 1677, Newton returned to his work on mechanics, i.e., gravitation and its effect on the orbits of planets, with reference to Kepler's laws of planetary motion, and consulting with Hooke and Flamsteed on the subject. He published his results in De motu corporum in gyrum (1684). This contained the beginnings of the laws of motion that would inform the Principia.
The Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (now known as the Principia) was published on 5 July 1687 with encouragement and financial help from Edmond Halley. In this work Newton stated the three universal laws of motion that were not to be improved upon for more than two hundred years. He used the Latin word gravitas (weight) for the effect that would become known as gravity, and defined the law of universal gravitation. In the same work he presented the first analytical determination, based on Boyle's law, of the speed of sound in air. Newton's postulate of an invisible force able to act over vast distances led to him being criticised for introducing "occult agencies" into science.[15]
With the Principia, Newton became internationally recognised. He acquired a circle of admirers, including the Swiss-born mathematician Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, with whom he formed an intense relationship that lasted until 1693. The end of this friendship led Newton to a nervous breakdown.[clarify][citation needed]
Later லைப்

Isaac Newton in old age in 1712. Portrait by Sir James Thornhill.
Main article: Isaac Newton's later life
In the 1690s, Newton wrote a number of religious tracts dealing with the literal interpretation of the Bible. Henry More's belief in the universe and rejection of Cartesian dualism may have influenced Newton's religious ideas. A manuscript he sent to John Locke in which he disputed the existence of the Trinity was never published. Later works – The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended (1728) and Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John (1733) – were published after his death. He also devoted a great deal of time to alchemy (see above).
Newton was also a member of the Parliament of England from 1689 to 1690 and in 1701, but his only recorded comments were to complain about a cold draught in the chamber and request that the window be closed.
Newton moved to London to take up the post of warden of the Royal Mint in 1696, a position that he had obtained through the patronage of Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, then Chancellor of the Exchequer. He took charge of England's great recoining, somewhat treading on the toes of Master Lucas (and securing the job of deputy comptroller of the temporary Chester branch for Edmond Halley). Newton became perhaps the best-known Master of the Mint upon Lucas' death in 1699, a position Newton held until his death. These appointments were intended as sinecures, but Newton took them seriously, retiring from his Cambridge duties in 1701, and exercising his power to reform the currency and punish clippers and counterfeiters. As Master of the Mint in 1717 Newton unofficially moved the Pound Sterling from the silver standard to the gold standard by creating a relationship between gold coins and the silver penny in the "Law of Queen Anne"; these were all great reforms at the time, adding considerably to the wealth and stability of England. It was his work at the Mint, rather than his earlier contributions to science, that earned him a knighthood from Queen Anne in 1705.
Newton's grave in Westminster Abbey
Newton was made President of the Royal Society in 1703 and an associate of the French Académie des Sciences. In his position at the Royal Society, Newton made an enemy of John Flamsteed, the Astronomer Royal, by prematurely publishing Flamsteed's star catalogue, which Newton had used in his studies.
Newton died in London on 31 March 1727 [OS: 20 March 1726][1], and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His half-niece, Catherine Barton Conduit, served as his hostess in social affairs at his house on Jermyn Street in London; he was her "very loving Uncle," according to his letter to her when she was recovering from smallpox. Although Newton, who had no children, had divested much of his estate onto relatives in his last years, he actually died intestate.
After his death, Newton's body was discovered to have had massive amounts of mercury in it, probably resulting from his alchemical pursuits. Mercury poisoning could explain Newton's eccentricity in late life.
Religious views
Main article: Isaac Newton's religious views
Historian Stephen D. Snobelen says of Newton, "Isaac Newton was a heretic. But like Nicodemus, the secret disciple of Jesus, he never made a public declaration of his private faith - which the orthodox would have deemed extremely radical. He hid his faith so well that scholars are still unravelling his personal beliefs." Snobelen concludes that Newton was at least a Socinian sympathiser (he owned and had thoroughly read at least eight Socinian books), possibly an Arian and almost certainly an antitrinitarian. In an age notable for its religious intolerance there are few public expressions of Newton's radical views, most notably his refusal to take holy orders and his refusal, on his death bed, to take the sacrament when it was offered to him.
In a view disputed by Snobelen,[19] T.C. Pfizenmaier argues that Newton held the Eastern Orthodox view of the Trinity rather than the Western one held by Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and most Protestants.[20] In his own day, he was also accused of being a Rosicrucian (as were many in the Royal Society and in the court of Charles II).
Although the laws of motion and universal gravitation became Newton's best-known discoveries, he warned against using them to view the universe as a mere machine, as if akin to a great clock. He said, "Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all things and knows all that is or can be done."
His scientific fame notwithstanding, Newton's studies of the Bible and of the early Church Fathers were also noteworthy. Newton wrote works on textual criticism, most notably An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture. He also placed the crucifixion of Jesus Christ at 3 April, AD 33, which agrees with one traditionally accepted date. He also attempted, unsuccessfully, to find hidden messages within the Bible.
In his own lifetime, Newton wrote more on religion than he did on natural science. He believed in a rationally immanent world, but he rejected the hylozoism implicit in Leibniz and Baruch Spinoza. Thus, the ordered and dynamically informed universe could be understood, and must be understood, by an active reason, but this universe, to be perfect and ordained, had to be regular.
Newton's effect on religious thought
"Newton," by William Blake; here, Newton is depicted as a "divine geometer"
Newton and Robert Boyle’s mechanical philosophy was promoted by rationalist pamphleteers as a viable alternative to the pantheists and enthusiasts, and was accepted hesitantly by orthodox preachers as well as dissident preachers like the latitudinarians.[24] Thus, the clarity and simplicity of science was seen as a way to combat the emotional and metaphysical superlatives of both superstitious enthusiasm and the threat of atheism,[25] and, at the same time, the second wave of English deists used Newton's discoveries to demonstrate the possibility of a "Natural Religion."
The attacks made against pre-Enlightenment "magical thinking," and the mystical elements of Christianity, were given their foundation with Boyle’s mechanical conception of the universe. Newton gave Boyle’s ideas their completion through mathematical proofs and, perhaps more importantly, was very successful in popularising them. Newton refashioned the world governed by an interventionist God into a world crafted by a God that designs along rational and universal principles. These principles were available for all people to discover, allowed people to pursue their own aims fruitfully in this life, not the next, and to perfect themselves with their own rational powers.
Newton saw God as the master creator whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation. But the unforeseen theological consequence of his conception of God, as Leibniz pointed out, was that God was now entirely removed from the world’s affairs, since the need for intervention would only evidence some imperfection in God’s creation, something impossible for a perfect and omnipotent creator. Leibniz's theodicy cleared God from the responsibility for "l'origine du mal" by making God removed from participation in his creation. The understanding of the world was now brought down to the level of simple human reason, and humans, as Odo Marquard argued, became responsible for the correction and elimination of evil.
On the other hand, latitudinarian and Newtonian ideas taken too far resulted in the millenarians, a religious faction dedicated to the concept of a mechanical universe, but finding in it the same enthusiasm and mysticism that the Enlightenment had fought so hard to extinguish

An Open Letter to Barack Obama

2008-11-12T07:03:00.000-08:00

Between Hope and Reality

By Ralph Nader

Dear Senator Obama:

In your nearly two-year presidential campaign, the words "hope and change," "change and hope" have been your trademark declarations. Yet there is an asymmetry between those objectives and your political character that succumbs to contrary centers of power that want not "hope and change" but the continuation of the power-entrenched status quo.Far more than Senator McCain, you have received enormous, unprecedented contributions from corporate interests, Wall Street interests and, most interestingly, big corporate law firm attorneys. Never before has a Democratic nominee for President achieved this supremacy over his Republican counterpart. Why, apart from your unconditional vote for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, are these large corporate interests investing so much in Senator Obama? Could it be that in your state Senate record, your U.S. Senate record and your presidential campaign record (favoring nuclear power, coal plants, offshore oil drilling, corporate subsidies including the 1872 Mining Act and avoiding any comprehensive program to crack down on the corporate crime wave and the bloated, wasteful military budget, for example) you have shown that you are their man?To advance change and hope, the presidential persona requires character, courage, integrity-- not expediency, accommodation and short-range opportunism. Take, for example, your transformation from an articulate defender of Palestinian rights in Chicago before your run for the U.S. Senate to an acolyte, a dittoman for the hard-line AIPAC lobby, which bolsters the militaristic oppression, occupation, blockage, colonization and land-water seizures over the years of the Palestinian peoples and their shrunken territories in the West Bank and Gaza. Eric Alterman summarized numerous polls in a December 2007 issue of The Nation magazine showing that AIPAC policies are opposed by a majority of Jewish-Americans.You know quite well that only when the U.S. Government supports the Israeli and Palestinian peace movements, that years ago worked out a detailed two-state solution (which is supported by a majority of Israelis and Palestinians), will there be a chance for a peaceful resolution of this 60-year plus conflict. Yet you align yourself with the hard-liners, so much so that in your infamous, demeaning speech to the AIPAC convention right after you gained the nomination of the Democratic Party, you supported an "undivided Jerusalem," and opposed negotiations with Hamas-- the elected government in Gaza. Once again, you ignored the will of the Israeli people who, in a March 1, 2008 poll by the respected newspaper Haaretz, showed that 64% of Israelis favored "direct negotiations with Hamas." Siding with the AIPAC hard-liners is what one of the many leading Palestinians advocating dialogue and peace with the Israeli people was describing when he wrote "Anti-semitism today is the persecution of Palestinian society by the Israeli state."During your visit to Israel this summer, you scheduled a mere 45 minutes of your time for Palestinians with no news conference, and no visit to Palestinian refugee camps that would have focused the media on the brutalization of the Palestinians. Your trip supported the illegal, cruel blockade of Gaza in defiance of international law and the United Nations charter. You focused on southern Israeli casualties which during the past year have totaled one civilian casualty to every 400 Palestinian casualties on the Gaza side. Instead of a statesmanship that decried all violence and its replacement with acceptance of the Arab League's 2002 proposal to permit a viable Palestinian state within the 1967 borders in return for full economic and diplomatic relations between Arab countries and Israel, you played the role of a cheap politician, leaving the area and Palestinians with the feeling of much shock and little awe.David Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator, described your trip succinctly: "There was almost a willful display of indifference to the fact that there are two narratives here. This could serve him well as a candidate, but not as a President."Palestinian American commentator, Ali Abunimah, noted that Obama did not utter a single criticism of Israel, "of its relentless settlement and wall construction, of the closures that make life unlivable for millions of Palestinians. ...Even the Bush administration recently criticized Israeli's use of cluster bombs against Lebanese civilians [see www.atfl.org for elaboration]. But Obama defended Israeli's assault on Lebanon as an exercise of its 'legitimate right to defend itself.'"In numerous columns Gideon Levy, writing in Haaretz, strongly criticized the Israeli government's assault on civilians in Gaza, including attacks on "the heart of a crowded refugee camp... with horrible bloodshed" in early 2008.Israeli writer and peace advocate-- Uri Avnery-- described Obama's appearance before AIPAC as one that "broke all records for obsequiousness and fawning, adding that Obama "is prepared to sacrifice the most basic American interests. After all, the US has a vital interest in achieving an Israeli-Palestinian peace that will allow it to find ways to the hearts of the Arab masses from Iraq to Morocco. Obama has harmed his image in the Muslim world and mortgaged his future-- if and when he is elected president.," he said, adding, "Of one thing I am certain: Obama's declarations at the AIPAC conference are very, very bad for peace. And what is bad for peace is bad for Israel, bad for the world and bad for the Palestinian people."A further illustration of your deficiency of character is the way you turned your back on the Muslim-Americans in this country. You refused to send surrogates to speak to voters at their events. Having visited numerous churches and synagogues, you refused to visit a single Mosque in America. Even George W. Bush visited the Grand Mosque in Washington D.C. after 9/11 to express proper sentiments of tolerance before a frightened major religious group of innocents.Although the New York Times published a major article on June 24, 2008 titled "Muslim Voters Detect a Snub from Obama" (by Andrea Elliott), citing examples of your aversion to these Americans who come from all walks of life, who serve in the armed forces and who work to live the American dream. Three days earlier the International Herald Tribune published an article by Roger Cohen titled "Why ஒபாமா

Should Visit a Mosque." None of these comments and reports change your political bigotry against Muslim-Americans-- even though your father was a Muslim from Kenya.Perhaps nothing illustrated your utter lack of political courage or even the mildest version of this trait than your surrendering to demands of the hard-liners to prohibit former president Jimmy Carter from speaking at the Democratic National Convention. This is a tradition for former presidents and one accorded in prime time to Bill Clinton this year.Here was a President who negotiated peace between Israel and Egypt, but his recent book pressing the dominant Israeli superpower to avoid Apartheid of the Palestinians and make peace was all that it took to sideline him. Instead of an important address to the nation by Jimmy Carter on this critical international problem, he was relegated to a stroll across the stage to "tumultuous applause," following a showing of a film about the Carter Center's post-Katrina work. Shame on you, Barack nat

!But then your shameful behavior has extended to many other areas of American life. (See the factual analysis by my running mate, Matt Gonzalez, on www.votenader.org). You have turned your back on the 100-million poor Americans composed of poor whites, African-Americans, and Latinos. You always mention helping the "middle class" but you omit, repeatedly, mention of the "poor" in America.Should you be elected President, it must be more than an unprecedented upward career move following a brilliantly unprincipled campaign that spoke "change" yet demonstrated actual obeisance to the concentration power of the "corporate supremacists." It must be about shifting the power from the few to the many. It must be a White House presided over by a black man who does not turn his back on the downtrodden here and abroad but challenges the forces of greed, dictatorial control of labor, consumers and taxpayers, and the militarization of foreign policy. It must be a White House that is transforming of American politics-- opening it up to the public funding of elections (through voluntary approaches)-- and allowing smaller candidates to have a chance to be heard on debates and in the fullness of their now restricted civil liberties. Call it a competitive democracy.Your presidential campaign again and again has demonstrated cowardly stands. "Hope" some say springs eternal." But not when "reality" consumes it daily.Sincerely,Ralph Nader
November 3, 2008
By: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info
Click on "comments" below to read or post comments

What is Bluetooth?

2008-10-30T07:46:00.000-07:00

Bluetooth is a wireless technology that allows computers, phones and other devices to talk to each other over short distances (up to 100 meters). Bluetooth uses radio waves (in the 2.4 Gigahertz range), and is designed to be a secure and inexpensive way of connecting and exchanging information between devices without wires. You'll find Bluetooth in many of the newer mobile phones, handheld computers, laptops, printers, handheld organisers, as well as in all sorts of products.Uses of Bluetooth include: sending photos from your mobile, exchanging business cards, sending voice from a headset to a mobile phone, and real-time satellite navigation using GPS. This page provides some basic information on what Bluetooth has to offer, plus links to Bluetooth products.
Using Bluetooth
Bluetooth offers a great way of exchanging data between devices. Here are the advantages:
Cable-free, so less messy leads to worry about
Interoperability - In most cases, you can use your portable Bluetooth device to connect with other existing Bluetooth points, without having to carry a data lead and CD of drivers around with you
Here's an example of some of the things you can do with Bluetooth:
Transfer files (such as mp3s and photos) to and from your mobile
A wire-free headset for your mobile
Backup your PDA or mobile to your PC
Use a Bluetooth GPS device for satellite navigation on your mobile phone, PDA or laptop.
Bluetooth software:
The good news is that if you have Bluetooth hardware in your mobile phone, PDA, GPS or headset, you probably won't need to worry about installing special Bluetooth drivers - the software is built-in and ready for use. If connecting to a PC, you may need to install Bluetooth drivers, although newer version of Windows XP and Vista come with Bluetooth drivers that can be used with some plug-and-play Bluetooth hardware, so there's less messing around.

John Cena

2008-10-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

Hello wrestling fans I want to talk to you about one man, John Cena. Nothing really made me say "I have to write this" but I just thought I would throw my thoughts out there. Some of you will agree and some of you will disagree but in the end I just want John Cena haters to have an article that will make them think.
John Cena debuted on June 27, 2002 when he faced Kurt Angle on Smackdown. The man that would go on to be arguably the biggest star in wrestling today put up a good effort (albeit a losing one) against Angle.
Things picked up for Cena when he adopted the "Doctor of Thuganomics" gimmick and Cena soon received praise from the Internet wrestling community. Cena would feud with The Undertaker and then a few months later he would turn face and win the United States title. The sky was the limit for John Cena when he got a shot for the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania 21.
Cena defeated JBL in a lopsided match that saw JBL dominate and then Cena pick up the win with the F-U. Cena showed everyone that he deserved the title though when he beat JBL in their now famous "I-Quit" match at Judgement Day. John Cena was then drafted to Raw and become the top guy on that brand. Why was it then that Cena was so hated when the title was finally taken off of him at New Years Revolution?
Many argue that Cena's reign was just too damn long and while it was a fairly long reign he put on some very good matches with the likes of Chris Jericho, Christian Cage, Kurt Angle, and Shawn Michaels.
Another point that is brought up is that Cena was being shoved down our throats and that it wasn't believable for someone to beat the odds that many times. The truth is John Cena wasn't given more airtime than any other main-event star that held the WWE Championship would be given. To not feature one of your biggest stars is ridiculous.
As far as him overcoming the odds, this is professional wrestling, there are plenty of things that require you to suspend your disbelief. Does anyone honestly think two guys can punch each other in the face and not be phased by it?
The over-coming the odds argument reminds me off the infamous undefeated streak of one Bill Goldberg. The guy went undefeated for a year! No one is that good. But the streak worked because Goldberg was over just like John Cena was and still is.
Ah being over, the WWE did a smart thing when the mixed reactions for John Cena got louder and louder. They pointed out the fact that love him or hate him, he elicits a reaction.
In my opinion it's better to be a face that gets booed then a face who gets no reaction whatsoever. I must take a moment and give credit to the WWE. They could have taken the easy way out of things and turned John Cena heel, but oh know they kept him as a face and Cena kept winning over people with his constant great matches.
John Cena vs HHH-WM 22John Cena vs Edge vs HHH- Backlash 06John Cena vs RVD-ONS 06John Cena vs Edge-Summerslam 06John Cena vs Edge-Unforgiven 06 John Cena vs Umaga-Royal Rumble 07John Cena vs HBK-WM 23John Cena vs HBK-1 hour match on RawJohn Cena vs HBK vs Randy Orton vs Edge-Backlash 2007John Cena vs Great Khali-Cena had Khali's best matchesJohn Cena vs Randy Orton-Summerslam 07John Cena vs HBK- Wrestlemania Rewind Match on RawJohn Cena vs HHH vs Randy Orton-WM 24John Cena vs Jeff Hardy-Raw before Night of ChampionsJohn Cena vs HHH-Night of Champions 08John Cena vs Batista-Summerslam 08
Just take a look at the list I have compiled, all of those matches were definitely above good, with some being just great. I understand the "shoved down our throats" argument and I understand the "overcoming the odds" argument but I don't get it when people say that John Cena can't wrestle and has bad matches.
Even if you don't think those matches were near great, you have to admit there nowhere near bad. Sure John Cena isn't Kurt Angle, or Eddie Guerrero, or even Shawn Michaels, but he he also delivered when the bell rang.
I've often said that it takes two to tango and that applies here as well. The fact is that John is part of what made those match great. Even though I consider HBK to be one of the best ever, he still couldn't pull out a great match with someone that's a bad wrestler. The (R)Truth is that one wrestle can have a good match with a bad one, but he simply cannot have a great match with a bad wrestler.
One last point for me to hammer home is the call for Cena to stay away from the title and that Cena getting injured again is great because he won't be able to go for the title. The fact (there's that word again) is that once a guy wins the big one, and more specifically becomes a main-eventer, he is never out of the title picture.
Plus John Cena hasn't been WWE Champion since, are you ready for this?, October of last year.
The bottom line is that John Cena is truly "McMahon's Dream Wrestler" as Paul Heyman so aptly put it. He is because he loves this business and no matter what offers he gets he will always stay true to the WWE.
Take a look at that picture at the top of the article. What do you see? I for one see passion. The passion to be in the wrestling business and the passion to entertain the fans. This article is called "Why John Cena is Pro Wrestling" and the answer is his passion. His passion brings about great matches, great promos, and a great reaction(positive or negative) from the fans.
Say what you will about John Cena, but im going to have to say that Cena Is Professional Wrestling.

2010 Diversity Visa Program

2008-10-11T07:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome

Our State Department Web site for the 2010 Diversity Visa Program (DV-2010) is now open. The entry submission period for DV-2010 is from 12:00PM EDT (GMT -4) on October 2, 2008 to 12:00PM EST (GMT -5) on December 1, 2008. The entry form will only be available for submission during this period and this period only. Entries will not be accepted through the U.S. Postal Service.

Entry Form
The entry form is prepared in two parts, one for the primary entrant and one for derivatives (if any). Each part must be completed correctly and completely before going to the next part. After all parts are completed, the entry will be submitted to the DV-2010 Processing Center for handling. Click the link below to begin the entry process.

Click here NOW
http://www.dvlottery.state.gov/application.aspx

web browser & Web search & mail

2008-09-22T07:08:00.000-07:00

Electronic mail, often abbreviated to e-mail, email, or originally email, is a store-and-forward method of writing, sending, receiving and saving messages over electronic communication systems. The term "e-mail" (as a noun or verb) applies to the Internet e-mail system based on the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, to network systems based on other protocols and to various mainframe minicomputer, or internet by a particular systems vendor, or on the same protocols used on public networks. E-mail is often used to deliver bulk unsolicited messages, or "spam", but filter programs exist which can automatically block, quarantine or delete some or most of these, depending on the situation.
Gmail
Yahoo
Hotmail
Msn
A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network. Text and images on a Web page can contain hyperlinks to other Web pages at the same or different website.
Internet Explorer,Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Netscape, Opera A Web search engine is a search engine designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. Information may consist of web pages, images and other types of files.
Google,
Yahoo,
Msn,

Emile Durkheim

2008-09-11T02:27:00.000-07:00

Emile Durkheim was born in the eastern French province of Lorraine on April 15, 1858. He was the s on of a rabbi and descending from a long line of rabbis, he decided early that he would follow the family tradition and become a rabbi himself. He studied Hebrew, the Old Testament, and the Talmud, while following the regular course of in secular schools. He soon turned away from all religious involvement, though purposely not from interest in religious phenomena, and became a freethinker, or non-believer. At about the time of his graduation he decided that he would dedicate himself to the scientific study of society. Since sociology was not a subject either at the secondary schools or at the university, Durkheim launched a career as a teacher in philosophy. Emile Durkheim made many contributions to the study of society, suicide, the division of labor, solidarity and religion. Raised in a time of troubles in France, Durkheim spent much of his talent justifying order and commitment to order. Durkheim was a pioneer French sociologist, taught at Bordeaux (1887-1902) and the University of Paris (1902-17). He introduced the system and hypothetical framework of accurate social science. Durkheim was author of The Division of Labour (1893), Rules of Sociological Method (1895), Suicide (1897), Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1915). Emile Durkheim has often been characterized as the founder of professional sociology. He has a great closeness with the two introductory sociologists, Comte and Saint-Simon. Durkheim willingly noticed the ideas of the Division of Labor and the Biological Analogy. Both ideas which had been differently well developed by Comte and Saint-Simon. Durkheim's holism approach said that sociology should focus on and study large social operations and cultures. He used functionalism, an approach of studying social and cultural phenomena as a set of interdependent parts, to find out the roles these institutions and processes play in keeping social order....
Émile Durkheim was born in the eastern French province of Lorraine on April 15, 1858. He came from a long line of devout French Jews; his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had been rabbis. At an early age, he decided not to follow in his family's rabbinical footsteps. Durkheim himself would lead a completely secular life. Much of his work, in fact, was dedicated to demonstrating that religious phenomena stemmed from social rather than divine factors. While Durkheim chose not to follow in the family tradition, he did not sever ties with his family or with the Jewish community. Many of his most prominent collaborators and students were Jewish, and some were blood relations.
A precocious student, Durkheim entered the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in 1879. The entering class that year was one of the most brilliant of the nineteenth century and many of his classmates, such as Jean Jaurès and Henri Bergson would go on to become major figures in France's intellectual history. At the ENS, Durkheim studied with Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges, a classicist with a social scientific outlook, and wrote his Latin dissertation on Montesquieu. At the same time, he read Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer. Thus Durkheim became interested in a scientific approach to society very early on in his career. This meant the first of many conflicts with the French academic system, which had no social science curriculum at the time. Durkheim found humanistic studies uninteresting, and he finished second to last in his graduating class when he aggregated in philosophy in 1882.

Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870)

2008-08-05T03:42:00.000-07:00

Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens is much loved for his great contribution to classical English literature. He is the quintessential Victorian author: his epic stories, vivid characters and exhaustive depiction of contemporary life are unforgettable.
Charles Dickens is much loved for his great contribution to classical English literature. He is the quintessential Victorian author: his epic stories, vivid characters and exhaustive depiction of contemporary life are unforgettable.
His own story is one of rags to riches. He was born in Portsmouth on February 7, 1812, to John and Elizabeth Dickens. The good fortune of being sent to school at the age of nine was short-lived because his father, inspiration for the character of Mr Micawber in David Copperfield, was imprisoned for bad debt. The entire family, apart from Charles, were sent to Marshalsea along with their patriarch. Charles was sent to work in Warren's blacking factory and endured appalling conditions as well as loneliness and despair. After three years he was returned to school but the experience was never forgotten and became fictionalised in two of his better-known novels David Copperfield and Great Expectations.
Like many others, he began his literary career as a journalist. His own father became a reporter and Charles began with The Mirror of Parliament and The True Sun. Then in 1833 he became parliamentary journalist for The Morning Chronicle. With new contacts in the press he was able to publish a series of sketches under the pseudonym 'Boz'. In April 1836, he married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of George Hogarth who edited Sketches by Boz. Within the same month came the publication of the highly successful Pickwick Papers, and from that point on there was no looking back.
As well as a huge list of novels he published autobiography, edited weekly periodicals including Household Words and All Year Round, wrote travel books and administered charitable organisations. He was also a theatre enthusiast, wrote plays and performed before Queen Victoria in 1851. His energy was inexhaustible and he spent much time abroad - for example lecturing against slavery in the United States and touring Italy with companions Augustus Egg and Wilkie Collins, a contemporary writer who inspired Dickens' final unfinished novel Mystery of Edwin Drood.
He was estranged from his wife in 1858 after the birth of their ten children, maintained relations with his mistress, the actress Ellen Ternan and died of a stroke in 1870. He is buried at Westminster Abbey.

2008-07-24T00:53:00.000-07:00

Ronaldo

2008-07-17T02:23:00.001-07:00

Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima (pronounced born September 18, 1976 in Rio de Janeiro), generally referred to simply as Ronaldo, is a Brazilian professional footballer.Having begun his career at Brazilian side Cruzeiro, Ronaldo signed with PSV Eindhoven in 1994, and after that he had memorable tenures with FC Barcelona, Internazionale, and Real Madrid prior to joining Milan.A member of the Brazilian national team, Ronaldo has played over 100 international matches, and was part of the Brazilian squads that won the 1994 and 2002 World Cups.

He is the highest goalscorer in the history of the World Cup with 15 goals, having surpassed Gerd Müller's previous record of 14 at the 2006 tournament.Ronaldo has won three FIFA World Player of the Year awards (1996, 1997, 2002) and is one of two men to have won the award three times, along former Real Madrid teammate Zinedine Zidane. Ronaldo has been nicknamed "The Phenomenon" (Portuguese: O Fenômeno, Spanish: El Fenómeno). Pelé named him one of the 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004. In 2007 France Football named him in their best starting 11 of all time.In April 1999, Ronaldo married female Brazilian footballer Milene Domingues after he saw her playing on television and proposed to her.

The marriage lasted four years and ended in divorce. The couple had a son, Ronald (born 2000). Ronaldo revealed in an interview: "My wife and I eat a lot at McDonald's so we chose Ronald." In 2005, Ronaldo got engaged to Brazilian model and MTV VJ Daniela Cicarelli, who became pregnant but suffered a miscarriage; their relationship lasted 3 months after their engagement.

He ended his relationship with Brazilian supermodel Raica Oliveira in December 2006. Writer Andrew Downie asserted a correlation between Ronaldo's personal life and performance on the pitch, noting that his most prolific periods of goalscoring have coincided with the times when he was happily married.In 2005, Ronaldo became co-owner of A1 Team Brazil, alongside Brazilian motorsports legend Emerson Fittipaldi.

The team participates in the A1 Grand Prix series, with Nelson Piquet, Jr.Tony Kanaan and João Paulo Oliveira as drivers for the debut season.On April 29, 2008, it was alleged that Ronaldo, who had returned to Brazil to continue his injury rehabilitation, had employed the company of three transvestite prostitutes in a Rio de Janeiro motel.Police told a news conference they were also looking into an accusation by the player that one of the three transvestites tried to extort 50,000 reais in exchange for not telling the media about the incident.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

2008-06-04T23:54:00.001-07:00

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. His father was Chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu Tribe. Mandela himself was educated at University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand and qualified in law in 1942. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party's apartheid policies after 1948. He went on trial for treason in 1956-1961 and was acquitted in 1961.
Nelson Mandela's greatest pleasure, his most private moment, is watching the sun set with the music of Handel or Tchaikovsky playing.
Locked up in his cell during daylight hours, deprived of music, both these simple pleasures were denied him for decades. With his fellow prisoners, concerts were organised when possible, particularly at Christmas time, where they would sing. Nelson Mandela finds music very uplifting, and takes a keen interest not only in European classical music but also in African choral music and the many talents in South African music. But one voice stands out above all - that of Paul Robeson, whom he describes as our hero.
The years in jail reinforced habits that were already entrenched: the disciplined eating regime of an athlete began in the 1940s, as did the early morning exercise. Still today Nelson Mandela is up by 4.30am, irrespective of how late he has worked the previous evening. By 5am he has begun his exercise routine that lasts at least an hour. Breakfast is by 6.30, when the days newspapers are read. The day s work has begun.
With a standard working day of at least 12 hours, time management is critical and Nelson Mandela is extremely impatient with unpunctuality, regarding it as insulting to those you are dealing with.
When speaking of the extensive travelling he has undertaken since his release from prison, Nelson Mandela says: I was helped when preparing for my release by the biography of Pandit Nehru, who wrote of what happens when you leave jail. My daughter Zinzi says that she grew up without a father, who, when he returned, became a father of the nation. This has placed a great responsibility of my shoulders. And wherever I travel, I immediately begin to miss the familiar - the mine dumps, the colour and smell that is uniquely South African, and, above all, the people. I do not like to be away for any length of time. For me, there is no place like home.
Mandela accepted the Nobel Peace Prize as an accolade to all people who have worked for peace and stood against racism. It was as much an award to his person as it was to the ANC and all South Africa s people. In particular, he regards it as a tribute to the people of Norway who stood against apartheid while many in the world were silent.
We know it was Norway that provided resources for farming; thereby enabling us to grow food; resources for education and vocational training and the provision of accommodation over the years in exile. The reward for all this sacrifice will be the attainment of freedom and democracy in South Africa, in an open society which respects the rights of all individuals. That goal is now in sight, and we have to thank the people and governments of Norway and Sweden for the tremendous role they played.

Gallery

2008-05-26T22:19:00.000-07:00