Blog Archive

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Carnegie Institution of Washington
This article is about a scientific institution. For the center of higher learning which is not a part of Carnegie Mellon University, refer to Carnegie Institute of Technology. For the Carnegie Institute which operates the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, see that article.
The Carnegie Institution of Washington (CIW) is a foundation established to support scientific research. Today the CIW directs its afforts in six main areas: plant molecular biology at the Department of Plant Biology (Stanford, CA), developmental biology at the Department of Embryology (Baltimore, MD), global ecology at the Department of Global Ecology (Stanford, CA), Earth science at the Geophysical Laboratory (Washington, DC); planetary sciences at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (Washington, DC), and astronomy (at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington (OCIW; Pasadena, CA and Las Campanas, Chile)).

History
The Institution's grant to George Hale was used for the construction of a telescope built around a large mirror blank that he had received as a gift from his father. The OCIW funded the completion of the 60-inch Hale Telescope on Mount Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains above Pasadena, California. Immediately work began on designing the even larger Hooker Telescope (100-inch), completed in 1917. Two solar telescopes were also constructed with Carnegie support and together they form the Mount Wilson Observatory, still chiefly supported by the Carnegie Institution after 100 years. The OCIW went on to help Hale design and build the 200-inch telescope of the Palomar Observatory (although construction was mostly paid for by a Rockefeller grant).
The OCIW's chief observatory is now the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, where two identical 6.5 meter Magellan telescopes operate. OCIW is the lead institution in the consortium building the Giant Magellan Telescope, which will be made up seven mirrors each 8.4 meters in diameter for a total telescope diameter of 25.4 metres (83 feet). The telescope is expected to have over four times the light-gathering ability of existing instruments.

Observatories of the Carnegie Institution
In 1920 the Eugenics Record Office in Cold Spring Harbor, New York was merged with the Station for Experimental Evolution to become the CIW's Department of Genetics. The CIW funded that laboratory until 1939. It closed in 1944 and its records were retained in a university library. The CIW continues its support for genetic research, and among its notable grantees in that field are Nobel laureates Barbara McClintock, Alfred Hershey and Andrew Fire.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Frederick William Seward
Frederick William Seward (July 8, 1830April 25, 1915) was the Assistant Secretary of State during the American Civil War, serving in Abraham Lincoln's administration as well as under Andrew Johnson during Reconstruction and for over two years under Rutherford B. Hayes.

Civil War

Main articles: Abraham Lincoln assassination#William H. Seward and Abraham Lincoln assassination: William H. Seward

Thursday, March 27, 2008

McCloskey critique
The McCloskey critique of post-1940s neo-classical economics is about the alleged elite arguments which are conducted through abstract mathematical models, accused of revealing little about the real economy.

Criticism to McCloskey's critique

Paul Feyerabend's 'postmodernist' critique of fixed methodology in the natural sciences is often compared with McCloskey's
Economic history

Wednesday, March 26, 2008


North Carolina ratified the Constitution on November 21, 1789.

List of United States Senators from North CarolinaList of United States Senators from North Carolina Class 3 seat

Tuesday, March 25, 2008


Beryllium (IPA: /bəˈrɪliəm/) is the chemical element that has the symbol Be and atomic number 4. A bivalent element, elemental beryllium is a steel grey, strong, light-weight yet brittle, alkaline earth metal. It is primarily used as a hardening agent in alloys (most notably beryllium copper).

Notable characteristics
The name beryllium comes from the Greek βερυλλος, beryllos, beryl, from Prakrit veruliya, from Pāli veuriya; possibly from or simply akin to a Dravidian source represented by Tamil veiruor, viar, "to whiten, become pale.") . This element was discovered by Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin in 1798 as the oxide in beryl and in emeralds. Friedrich Wöhler and A. A. Bussy independently isolated the metal in 1828 by reacting potassium and beryllium chloride.

Occurrence on Earth

Applications

Thin sheets of beryllium foil are used with X-ray detection diagnostics to filter out visible light and allow only X-rays to be detected.
Sheets of beryllium ranging from 3mm (0.125") thick down to 25µm (0.001") thick are used as the output window in x-ray tubes, allowing x-rays to leave the tube while keeping a vacuum on the inside of the tube.
Beryllium metal is, due to its stiffness, light weight, and dimensional stability over a wide temperature range, used in the defense and aerospace industries as light-weight structural materials in high-speed aircraft, missiles, space vehicles and communication satellites. For example, many high-quality liquid fueled rockets use nozzles of pure Be, an example being the Saturn V.
Beryllium is used as an alloying agent in the production of beryllium copper, containing up to 2.5% beryllium. Beryllium-copper alloys are used in a wide variety of applications because of their combination of high electrical and thermal conductivity, high strength and hardness, nonmagnetic properties, along with good corrosion and fatigue resistance. These applications include the making of spot-welding electrodes, springs, non-sparking tools and electrical contacts.
In the field of X-ray lithography beryllium is used for the reproduction of microscopic integrated circuits.
In the telecommunications industry, tools made of Beryllium are used to tune the highly magnetic klystrons used for high power microwave applications.
Because it has a low thermal neutron absorption cross section, the nuclear power industry uses it in nuclear reactors as a neutron reflector and moderator.
Beryllium is used in nuclear weapons for similar reasons. For example, the critical mass of a plutonium sphere is significantly reduced if the plutonium is surrounded by a beryllium shell.
Beryllium copper is used in electrical spring contacts.
Beryllium is sometimes used in neutron sources, in which the beryllium is mixed with an alpha emitter such as
Beryllium has been used in tweeter and mid-range audio loudspeaker construction as an alternative to titanium and aluminium, largely due to its lower density and greater rigidity.
Because of its low atomic number beryllium is almost transparent to energetic electrically charged particles. Therefore it is used to build the beam pipe around the collision region in collider particle physics experiments. Notably all four main detector experiments at the Large Hadron Collider accelerator (ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, LHCb) use a beryllium beam-pipe.
Can be found in jewelry, as in a tie tack or clip. As metal and alloys
See also Beryllium compounds.

Beryllium is an effective p-type dopant in III-V compound semiconductors. It is widely used in materials such as GaAs, AlGaAs, InGaAs, and InAlAs grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).
Beryllium oxide is useful for many applications that require an excellent heat conductor, with high strength and hardness, with a very high melting point, and that acts as an electrical insulator.
Beryllium compounds were once used in fluorescent lighting tubes, but this use was discontinued because of berylliosis in the workers manufacturing the tubes (see below). As compounds
Of beryllium's isotopes, only Be are known to exhibit a nuclear halo.

Isotopes

Health effects
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), beryllium and beryllium compounds are Category 1 carcinogens; they are carcinogenic to both animals and humans. Chronic berylliosis is a pulmonary and systemic granulomatous disease caused by exposure to beryllium. Acute beryllium disease in the form of chemical pneumonitis was first reported in Europe in 1933 and in the United States in 1943. Cases of chronic berylliosis were first described in 1946 among workers in plants manufacturing fluorescent lamps in Massachusetts. Chronic berylliosis resembles sarcoidosis in many respects, and the differential diagnosis is often difficult.
Although the use of beryllium compounds in fluorescent lighting tubes was discontinued in 1949, potential for exposure to beryllium exists in the nuclear and aerospace industries and in the refining of beryllium metal and melting of beryllium-containing alloys, the manufacturing of electronic devices, and the handling of other beryllium-containing material.
Early researchers tasted beryllium and its various compounds for sweetness in order to verify its presence. Modern diagnostic equipment no longer necessitates this highly risky procedure and no attempt should be made to ingest this substance. Beryllium and its compounds should be handled with great care and special precautions must be taken when carrying out any activity which could result in the release of beryllium dust (lung cancer is a possible result of prolonged exposure to beryllium laden dust).
This substance can be handled safely if certain procedures are followed. No attempt should be made to work with beryllium before familiarization with correct handling procedures.
A successful test for beryllium on different surface areas has been recently developed. The procedure uses fluorescence when beryllium is bound to sulfonated hydroxybenzoquinoline to detect up to 10 times lower than the recommended limit for beryllium concentration in the work place. Fluorescence increases with increasing beryllium concentration. The new procedure has been successfully tested on a variety of surfaces.

Beryllium Precautions
Beryllium can be harmful if inhaled and the effects depend on period of exposure. If beryllium air levels are high enough (greater than 100 µg/m³), an acute condition can result, called acute beryllium disease, which resembles pneumonia. Occupational and community air standards are effective in preventing most acute lung damage. Long term exposure to beryllium can increase the risk of developing lung cancer. The more common and serious health hazard from beryllium today is chronic beryllium disease (CBD), discussed below. It continues to occur in industries as diverse as metal recycling, dental laboratories, alloy manufacturing, nuclear weapons production, defense industries, and metal machine shops that work with alloys containing small amounts of beryllium.

Inhalation
Some people (1-15%) become sensitive to beryllium. These individuals may develop an inflammatory reaction that principally targets the respiratory system and skin. This condition is called chronic beryllium disease (CBD), and can occur within a few months or many years after exposure to higher than normal levels of beryllium (greater than 0.02 µg/m³). This disease causes fatigue, weakness, night sweats and can cause difficulty in breathing and a persistent dry cough. It can result in anorexia, weight loss, and may also lead to right-side heart enlargement and heart disease in advanced cases. Some people who are sensitized to beryllium may not have any symptoms. The disease is treatable, but not curable with traditional drugs and medicine. CBD occurs when the body's immune system recognizes beryllium particles as foreign material and mounts an immune system attack against the particles. Because these particles are typically inhaled into the lungs, the lungs become the major site where the immune system responds, they become inflamed and fill with large numbers of white blood cells that accumulate wherever beryllium particles are found. These cells form balls around the beryllium particles called "granulomas." When enough of these develop, they interfere with the normal function of the organ. Over time, the lungs become stiff and lose their ability to help transfer oxygen from the air into the bloodstream. Patients with CBD develop difficulty inhaling and exhaling sufficient amounts of air, and the amount of oxygen in their bloodstreams falls. Treatment of such patients includes use of oxygen and medicines that try to suppress the immune system's over-reaction to beryllium. A class of immunosuppressive medicines called glucocorticoids (example: prednisone) is most commonly used as treatment. The general population is unlikely to develop acute or chronic beryllium disease because ambient air levels of beryllium are normally very low (0.00003-0.0002 µg/m³).

Chronic beryllium disease (CBD)
Swallowing beryllium has not been reported to cause effects in humans because very little beryllium is absorbed from the stomach and intestines. Ulcers have been seen in dogs ingesting beryllium in the diet.

Ingestion
Beryllium can cause contact dermatitis. Beryllium contact with skin that has been scraped or cut may cause rashes, ulcers, or bumps under the skin called granulomas.

Dermatological effects
There are no studies on the health effects of children exposed to beryllium, although individual cases of CBD have been reported in children of beryllium workers from the 1940s. It is likely that the health effects seen in children exposed to beryllium will be similar to the effects seen in adults. It is unknown whether children differ from adults in their susceptibility to beryllium. It is unclear whether beryllium is teratogenic.

Effects on children
Beryllium can be measured in the urine and blood. The amount of beryllium in blood or urine may not indicate time or quantity of exposure. Beryllium levels can also be measured in lung and skin samples. While such measurements may help establish that exposure has occurred, other tests are used to determine if that exposure has resulted in health effects. A blood test, the blood beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test (BeLPT), identifies beryllium sensitization and has predictive value for CBD. The BeLPT has become the standard test for detecting beryllium sensitization and CBD in individuals who are suspected of having CBD and to help distinguish it from similar conditions such as sarcoidosis. It is also the main test used in industry health programs to monitor whether disease is occurring among current and former workers who have been exposed to beryllium on the job. The test can detect disease that is at an early stage, or can detect disease at more advanced stages of illness as well. The BeLPT can also be performed using cells obtained from a person's lung by a procedure called "bronchoscopy."

Beryllium Industrial release and occupational exposure limits

Category:Beryllium compounds
Beryllium's entries at fictional applications of real materials
Sucker Bait, a story by Isaac Asimov in which the health hazard of beryllium dust is an important plot point

Monday, March 24, 2008

Nomenclature
Tamazight is a member of the Afro-Asiatic language family (formerly called Hamito-Semitic). Traditional genealogists of tribes claiming Arab origin often claimed that Berbers were Arabs that immigrated from Yemen. Some of them considered Tamazight to derive from Arabic. This view, however, is rejected by linguists, who regard Semitic and Berber as two separate branches of Afro-Asiatic.

Origin
The exact population of Berber speakers is hard to ascertain, since most North African countries do not record language data in their censuses. The Ethnologue provides a useful academic starting point; however, its bibliographic references are inadequate, and it rates its own accuracy at only B-C for the area. Early colonial censuses may provide better documented figures for some countries; however, these are also very much out of date.
"Few census figures are available; all countries (Algeria and Morocco included) do not count Berber languages. The 1972 Niger census reported Tuareg, with other languages, at 127,000 speakers. Population shifts in location and number, effects of urbanization and education in other languages, etc., make estimates difficult. In 1952 A. Basset (LLB.4) estimated the number of Berberophones at 5,500,000. Between 1968 and 1978 estimates ranged from eight to thirteen million (as reported by Galand, LELB 56, pp. 107, 123-25); Voegelin and Voegelin (1977, p. 297) call eight million a conservative estimate. In 1980, S. Chaker estimated that the Berberophone populations of Kabylie and the three Moroccan groups numbered more than one million each; and that in Algeria, 3,650,000, or one out of five Algerians, speak a Berber language (Chaker 1984, pp. 8-9)."[2]
This nomenclature is common in linguistic publications, but is significantly complicated by local usage: thus Tachelhit is sub-divided into Tachelhit of the Dra valley, Tasusit (the language of the Souss) and several other (mountain)-dialects. Moreover, linguistic boundaries are blurred, such that certain dialects cannot accurately be described as either Central Morocco Tamazight (spoken in the Central and eastern Atlas area) or Tachelhit.
Mohammad Chafik claims 80% of Moroccans are Berbers.[3] It is not clear, however, whether he means "speakers of Berber languages" or "people of Berber descent".


Tamasheq: 250,000
Tamajaq: 190,000


Tawallamat Tamajaq: 450,000
Tayart Tamajeq: 250,000
Tahaggart Tamahaq: 20,000
Thus, judging by the not necessarily reliable Ethnologue, the total number of speakers of Berber languages in the Maghreb proper appears to lie anywhere between 14 and 20 million, depending on which estimate is accepted; if we take Basset's estimate, it could be as high as 25 million. The vast majority are concentrated in Morocco and Algeria. The Tuareg of the Sahel add another million or so.

Morocco: In 1952, André Basset ("La langue berbère", Handbook of African Languages, Part I, Oxford) estimated that a "small majority" of Morocco's population spoke Berber. The 1960 census estimated that 34% of Moroccans spoke Berber, including bi-, tri-, and quadrilinguals. In 2000, Karl Prasse cited "more than half" in an interview conducted by Brahim Karada at Tawalt.com. According to the Ethnologue (by deduction from its Moroccan Arabic figures), the Berber-speaking population is estimated at 35% (1991 and 1995). However, the figures it gives for individual languages only add up to 7.5 million, or about 28%. Most of these are accounted for by three dialects:

  • Tarifit: 1.5 million (1991)
    Tachelhit: 3 million (1998)
    Central Morocco Tamazight: 3 million (1998)
    Algeria: In 1906, the total population speaking Berber languages in Algeria (excluding the thinly populated Sahara) was estimated at 1,305,730 out of 4,447,149, ie 29%. (Doutté & Gautier, Enquête sur la dispersion de la langue berbère en Algérie, faite par l'ordre de M. le Gouverneur Général, Alger 1913.) The 1911 census, however, found 1,084,702 speakers out of 4,740,526, ie 23%; Doutté & Gautier suggest that this was the result of a serious undercounting of Chaouia in areas of widespread bilingualism. A trend was noted for Berber groups surrounded by Arabic (as in Blida) to adopt Arabic, while Arabic speakers surrounded by Berber (as in Sikh ou Meddour near Tizi-Ouzou) tended to adopt Berber. In 1952, André Basset estimated that about a third of Algeria's population spoke Berber. The Algerian census of 1966 found 2,297,997 out of 12,096,347 Algerians, or 19%, to speak "Berber." In 1980, Salem Chaker estimated that "in Algeria, 3,650,000, or one out of five Algerians, speak a Berber language" (Chaker 1984, pp. 8-9). According to the Ethnologue, more recent estimates include (by deduction from its Algerian Arabic figures) 17% (1991) and 29% (Hunter 1996). The actual figures it gives for Berber languages, however, only add up to about 4 million, under 15%. Most of these are accounted for by two dialects:

    • Kabyle: 2.5 million (1995), or 8% of the population - or "up to" 6 million (1998), which would be more like 20%.
      Chaouia: 1.4 million (1993), thus 5% of the population.
      Tunisia: Basset (1952) estimated about 1%, as did Penchoen (1968). According to the Ethnologue, there are only 26,000 speakers (1998) of a Berber language it calls "Djerbi" in Tunisia, all in the south around Djerba and Matmata. The more northerly enclave of Sened apparently no longer speaks Berber. This would make 0.3% of the population.
      Libya: According to the Ethnologue (by deduction from its combined Libyan Arabic and Egyptian Arabic figures) the non-Arabic-speaking population, most of which would be Berber, is estimated at 4% (1991, 1996). However, the individual language figures it gives add up to 162,000, ie about 3%. This is mostly accounted for by languages:

      • Nafusi in Zuwarah and Jabal Nafusa: 141,000 (1998).
        Tahaggart Tamahaq of Ghat: 17,000 (Johnstone 1993).
        Egypt: The oasis of Siwa near the Libyan border speaks a Berber language; according to the Ethnologue, there are 5,000 speakers there (1995). Its population in 1907 was 3884 (according to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica); the claimed lack of increase seems surprising.
        Mauritania: According to the Ethnologue, only 200-300 speakers of Zenaga remain (1998). It also mentions Tamasheq, but does not provide a population figure for it. Most non-Arabic speakers in Mauritania speak Niger-Congo languages.
        Mali: The Ethnologue counts 440,000 Tuareg (1991) speaking:
        Niger: The Ethnologue counts 720,000 Tuareg (1998) speaking:
        Burkina Faso: The Ethnologue counts 20,000 - 30,000 Tuareg (SIL 1991), speaking Kidal Tamasheq.
        Nigeria: The Ethnologue notes the presence of "few" Tuareg, speaking Tawallamat Tamajaq.
        France: The Ethnologue lists 537,000 speakers for Kabyle, 150,000 for Central Morocco Tamazight, and no figures for Tachelhit and Tarifit. For the rest of Europe, it has no figures.
        Ceuta and Melilla: A majority of Melilla's 80,000 inhabitants, and a minority of Ceuta's inhabitants, speak Berber[4].
        Israel: A few thousand elderly Moroccan-born Israelis use Judeo-Berber dialects. Berber languages Population
        Nouns in Berber languages / Tamazight vary in gender (masculine vs feminine), in number (singular vs plural) and in state (free state vs construct state). In the case of the masculine, nouns generally begin with one of the three vowels of Berber, a, u or i:


        afus "hand"
        argaz "man"
        udm "face"
        ul "heart"
        ixf "head"
        ils "tongue"
        While the masculine is unmarked, the feminine is marked with the discontinuous morpheme t…t. Feminine plural takes a prefix t… :


        afus → tafust
        udm → tudmt
        ixf → tixft
        ifassn → tifassin
        Berber languages / Tamazight have two types of number: singular and plural, of which only the latter is marked. Plural has three forms according to the type of nouns. The first, "regular" type is known as the "external plural"; it consists in changing the initial vowel of the noun, and adding a suffix -n:


        afus → ifasn "hands"
        argaz → irgazn "men"
        ixf → ixfawn "heads"
        ul → ulawn "hearts"
        The second form of the plural is known as the "broken plural". It involves only a change in the vowels of the word:


        adrar → idurar "mountain"
        agadir → igudar "wall"
        abaghus → ibughas "monkey"
        The third type of plural is a mixed form: it combines a change of vowels with the suffix -n:


        izi → izan "fly"
        azur → izuran "root"
        izikr → izakarn "rope"
        Berber languages also have two types of states or cases of the noun, organized ergatively: one is unmarked, while the other serves for the subject of a transitive verb and the object of a preposition, among other contexts. The former is often called free state, the latter construct state. The construct state of the noun derives from the free state through one of the following rules: The first involves a vowel alternation, whereby the vowel a become u :


        argaz → urgaz
        amghar → umghar
        adrar → udrar
        The second involves the loss of the initial vowel, in the case of some feminine nouns:


        tamghart → tmghart "women"
        tamdint → tmdint "town"
        tarbat → trbat "girl"
        The third involves the addition of a semi-vowel (w or y) word-initially:


        asif → wasif "river"
        adu → wadu "wind"
        ils → yils "tongue"
        uccn → wuccn "wolf"
        Finally, some nouns do not change for free state:


        taddart → taddart "village"
        tuccnt → tuccnt "female wolf"
        The following table gives the forms for the noun amghar "old man, sheikh":

        Grammar
        Subclassification of the Berber languages is made difficult by their mutual closeness; Maarten Kossmann (1999) describes it as two dialect continua, Northern Berber and Tuareg, and a few peripheral languages, spoken in isolated pockets largely surrounded by Arabic, that fall outside these continua, namely Zenaga and the Libyan and Egyptian varieties. Within Northern Berber, however, he recognizes a break in the continuum between Zenati languages and their non-Zenati neighbors; and in the east, he recognizes a division between Ghadames and Awjila on the one hand and El-Foqaha, Siwa, and Djebel Nefusa on the other. The implied tree is:
        There is so little data available on Guanche that any classification is necessarily uncertain; however, it is almost universally acknowledged as Berber on the basis of the surviving glosses. Much the same can be said of the language, sometimes called "Numidian", used in the Libyan or Libyco-Berber inscriptions around the turn of the Common Era, whose alphabet is the ancestor of Tifinagh.
        The Ethnologue, mostly following Aikhenvald and Militarev (1991), subdivides it somewhat differently:

        Nefusa-Siwa languages
        Ghadames-Awjila languages
        Northern Berber languages

        • Zenati languages (including Tarifit)
          Kabyle language
          Moroccan Atlas languages (including Tashelhiyt and Central Morocco Tamazight)
          Tuareg languages
          Zenaga language
          Guanche
          Eastern Berber languages

          • Siwa
            Awjila-Sokna languages
            Northern Berber languages

            • Zenati languages
              Kabyle language
              Chenoua language
              Moroccan Atlas languages
              Tamasheq languages

              • Northern Tamasheq languages
                Southern Tamasheq languages
                Zenaga language Subclassification

                See also

Sunday, March 23, 2008


Upmarket commodities are products, services or real estate targeted at high-income consumers. Examples of products would include items from Mercedes-Benz, Tiffany & Co., Hammacher-Schlemmer, Chanel and The Sharper Image. Upmarket real estate communities include Hampstead, England, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, Hillsborough, California, Ladue, Missouri, SouthPark and Shenzhen, China. There is an entire field of literature directed at the branding of upmarket goods.

Upmarket Examples of upmarket goods
Clothing, cologne, chocolates and consumer electronics are examples of classes of goods that are commonly brand-segregated to yield upmarket branding. Luxury automobiles are frequently dubbed as upmarket or upscale. There are also upmarket newspapers which are newspapers which are produced to appeal to high income individuals. Upmarket newspapers may focus less on tabloid journalism, with the intention of reporting more faithful news and advertising of high-end goods and real estate.

Saturday, March 22, 2008


The Stationery Office (TSO) is a British publishing company that was created in 1996 when the publishing arm of Her Majesty's Stationery Office was privatised.
In 2007, The Stationery Office was bought by Williams Lea.

The Stationery Office Uncovered Editions

Office of Public Sector Information

Friday, March 21, 2008


Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)
Robert Sime 'Roy' Aitken (born November 24, 1958, in Irvine, Ayrshire) is a former football player who went on to become a coach with Leeds United and Aston Villa. His position as a player was midfield.
He started his life in Ardrossan, where most of his family still live today. Roy was Educated at St Peter's Primary School in the town, a place which fueled his love of the game; before going on to St Andrews Academy of Saltcoats when he was twelve. He was an astute pupil, certainly able to go on to higher education but having also furthered his keen interest in football, decided to sign a S-Form with his boyhood Heroes Celtic. During his time at the school he not only excelled at Football but also Rugby and track & field, winning both the schools title of Junior Sports Champion, and then following that by winning the Senior Sports Champion title the next year, whilst still only in 4th year.
He previously had a glowing playing career with Celtic where he was nicknamed 'The Bear' by the supporters due to his large frame and commanding presence. The chant 'Feed the Bear' could be heard on a weekly basis from the terraces of Celtic Park. The supporters took to Roy right from start of his career and he is still reguarly voted in All Time XI's by the fans who still consider him a club legend. He also proudly played 57 games for the Scotland national football team, scoring once. He later went on to play for Newcastle United, St Mirren and Aberdeen. After his playing career he had a short spell in management with Scottish Premier League team Aberdeen, and won the Scottish League Cup in 1995 before turning his attention to coaching.
He went on to become a highly respected coach with Leeds United before rejoining former Leeds coach David O'Leary at Aston Villa. On July 20, 2006 he was named caretaker manager of Aston Villa after O'Leary's exit by mutual consent the previous evening. Aitken managed Villa to 3 pre-season victories before being replaced by the new Villa manager, Martin O'Neill.
He is now one of Alex McLeish's assistants with the Scotland national side as of January 2007.
Roy Aitken

Thursday, March 20, 2008

César Milstein
César Milstein (October 8, 1927March 24, 2002) was an Argentine-born British biochemist in the field of antibody research. Milstein shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 with Niels K. Jerne and Georges Köhler.

Biography
The major part of Milstein's research career was devoted to studying the structure of antibodies and the mechanism by which antibody diversity is generated. It was as part of this quest that in 1975 he, together with Georges Köhler (a postdoctoral fellow in his laboratory), developed the hybridoma technique for the production of monoclonal antibodies - a discovery recognised by the award of the 1984 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. This discovery led to an enormous expansion in the exploitation of antibodies in science and medicine.
Milstein himself made many major contributions to improvements and developments in monoclonal antibody technology - especially focusing on the use of monoclonal antibodies to provide markers that allow distinction between different cell types. He also foresaw the potential wealth of ligand-binding reagents that could result from applying recombinant DNA technology to monoclonal antibodies and inspired the development of the field of antibody engineering.
Milstein's early work on antibodies focused on the nature of their diversity at the amino acid level as well as on the disulphide bonds by which they were held together. Part of this work was done in collaboration with his wife, Celia. The emphasis of his research then shifted towards the mRNA encoding antibodies where he was able to provide the first evidence for the existence of a precursor for these secreted polypeptides that contained a signal sequence. The development of the hybridoma technology coupled to advances in nucleic acid sequencing then allowed Milstein to chart the changes that occurred in antibodies following antigen encounter. He demonstrated the importance of somatic hypermutation of immunoglobulin V genes in antibody affinity maturation. In this process, localised mutation of the immunoglobulin genes allows the production of improved antibodies which make a major contribution to protective immunity and immunological memory. Much of his work in recent years was devoted to characterising this mutational process with a view to understanding its mechanism and, indeed, he contributed a manuscript for publication on this topic less than a week before he died. Quite apart from his own achievements, Milstein acted as a guide and inspiration to many in the antibody field as well as devoting himself to assisting science and scientists in less well developed countries.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1975, was a fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge from 1980 to 2002, awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University in 1980, won the Copley Medal in 1989, and became a Companion of Honour in 1995.
Milstein died early on Sunday 24 March 2002 in Cambridge, England at age 74 as a result of a heart condition from which he had suffered for many years.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Inspector LestradeInspector Lestrade
Inspector Lestrade is a fictional character, a Scotland Yard detective appearing in several of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle used the name (originally pronounced in the French way: l'estrade "less-TRAHD") of an acquaintance from his days at the University of Edinburgh, a St.Lucian whom Doyle disliked. In The Cardboard Box, his first initial is revealed to be G.
It is observed by Holmes in A Study in Scarlet that Lestrade and another detective, Tobias Gregson, have an ongoing rivalry. In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes comments to Dr. Watson that Lestrade "is the best of the professionals, I think," meaning the professional detectives employed by Scotland Yard as opposed to himself.
Lestrade is frequently exasperated by Holmes's unconventional methods. "I am a practical man," he says in The Boscombe Valley Mystery. However, in time he does come to appreciate and respect the unofficial detective's record of success. "We're not jealous of you down at Scotland Yard," he says in The Six Napoleons. "No, sir, we are damned proud of you." Watson notes in passing that this little comment is one of the few instances where Holmes is visibly moved.
In the popular London media, Lestrade is depicted as one of the best detectives at Scotland Yard. Holmes once remarked in The Adventure of the Cardboard Box that although Lestrade had almost no skill at actual crime-solving, his tenacity and determination are what brought him to the highest ranks in the official police force.
The author M. J. Trow wrote a series of sixteen books using Lestrade as the central character, beginning with The Adventures of Inspector Lestrade in 1985. In these stories, Trow shows Lestrade to be a more than capable detective. He is given a first name, Sholto, a young daughter whom he seldom sees, and a series of adventures set against an historical backdrop. In one book Lestrade meets G.K. Chesterton and in another he suffers a broken leg in a fall from the gangplank of the RMS Titanic.
Lestrade's lack of intelligence is frequently exaggerated in adaptations, often characterizing him as a congenial idiot.
Colin Jeavons played Lestrade in the Granada Television adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes with the character played as a capable, if slightly vain, career policeman prone with a prickly but affectionate relationship with Holmes. Dennis Hoey played Lestrade in several of the Sherlock Holmes films from Universal Pictures which starred Basil Rathbone as Holmes.

Other Fictional Portrayals

Archie Duncan played Lestrade in the 1954-55 French-made series Sherlock Holmes.
Borislav Brondukov played him in all of the Russian Sherlock Holmes TV series starring Vasily Livanov
Frank Finlay played him twice in A Study in Terror and Murder by Decree.
Jeffrey Jones was Lestrade in Without a Clue
Kenaway Baker made a quick appearance as Lestrade in Incident at Victoria Falls

Tuesday, March 18, 2008


DHCPDNSFTPGopherHTTPIMAP4IRCNNTPXMPPPOP3SIPSMTPSNMPSSHTELNETRPCRTPRTCPRTSPTLS/SSLSDPSOAPBGPPPTPL2TPGTPSTUNNTP
TCPUDPDCCPSCTPRSVP
IP (IPv4IPv6) • IGMPICMPOSPFISISIPsecRARPRIP
802.11ARPATMDTMToken RingEthernetFDDIFrame RelayGPRSEVDOHSPAHDLCPPP
Ethernet physical layerISDNModemsPLCSONET/SDHG.709Optical FiberWiFiWiMAXCoaxial CableTwisted Pair
Transport Layer Security (TLS) and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), are cryptographic protocols that provide secure communications on the Internet for such things as web browsing, e-mail, Internet faxing, instant messaging and other data transfers. There are slight differences between SSL and TLS, but the protocol remains substantially the same. The term "TLS" as used here applies to both protocols unless clarified by context.

Description
A TLS client and server negotiate a stateful connection by using a handshaking procedure. During this handshake, the client and server agree on various parameters used to establish the connection's security.
The client may contact the server of the trusted CA and confirm that the certificate is authentic before proceeding.
This concludes the handshake and begins the secured connection, which is encrypted and decrypted with the key material until the connection closes.
If any one of the above steps fails, the TLS handshake fails, and the connection is not created.

The handshake begins when a client connects to a TLS-enabled server requesting a secure connection, and presents a list of ciphers and hash functions.
From this list, the server picks the strongest cipher and hash function that it also supports and notifies the client of the decision.
The server sends back its identification in the form of a digital certificate. The certificate will usually contain the server name, the trusted certificate authority (CA), and the server's public encryption key.
In order to generate the session keys used for the secure connection, the client encrypts a random number with the server's public key, and sends the result to the server. Only the server can decrypt it (with its private key): this is the one fact that makes the keys hidden from third parties, since only the server and the client have access to this data.
Both parties generate key material for encryption and decryption. How it works
The TLS protocol exchanges records that encapsulate the data to be exchanged. Each record can be compressed, padded, appended with a message authentication code (MAC), or encrypted, all depending on the state of the connection. Each record has a content type field that specifies the record, a length field, and a TLS version field.
When the connection starts, the record encapsulates another protocol, the handshake protocol, which has content type 22.
A simple connection example follows:


These certificates are currently X.509, but there is also a draft specifying the use of OpenPGP based certificates.

A Client sends a ClientHello message specifying the highest TLS protocol version it supports, a random number, a list of suggested cipher suites and compression methods.
The Server responds with a ServerHello, containing the chosen protocol version, a random number, cipher suite, and compression method from the choices offered by the client.
The Server sends its Certificate (depending on the selected cipher suite, this may be omitted by the Server).
The server may request a certificate from the client, so that the connection can be mutually authenticated, using a CertificateRequest.
The Server sends a ServerHelloDone message, indicating it is done with handshake negotiation.
The Client responds with a ClientKeyExchange message, which may contain a PreMasterSecret, public key, or nothing. (Again, this depends on the selected cipher.)
The Client and Server then use the random numbers and PreMasterSecret to compute a common secret, called the "master secret". All other key data is derived from this master secret (and the client- and server-generated random values), which is passed through a carefully designed "pseudorandom function".
The Client now sends a ChangeCipherSpec message, essentially telling the Server, "Everything I tell you from now on will be encrypted." Note that the ChangeCipherSpec is itself a record-level protocol, and has type 20, and not 22.
Finally, the Client sends an encrypted Finished message, containing a hash and MAC over the previous handshake messages.
The Server will attempt to decrypt the Client's Finished message, and verify the hash and MAC. If the decryption or verification fails, the handshake is considered to have failed and the connection should be torn down.
Finally, the Server sends a ChangeCipherSpec and its encrypted Finished message, and the Client performs the same decryption and verification.
At this point, the "handshake" is complete and the Application protocol is enabled, with content type of 23. Application messages exchanged between Client and Server will be encrypted. TLS Handshake in Detail
This field identifies the Record Layer Protocol Type contained in this Record.
This field identifies the major and minor version of TLS for the contained message. For a ClientHello message, this need not be the highest version supported by the client.
The length of Protocol message(s), not to exceed 2 bytes.
One or more messages identified by the Protocol field. Note that this field may be encrypted depending on the state of the connection.
A message authentication code computed over the Protocol message, with additional key material included. Note that this field may be encrypted, or not included entirely, depending on the state of the connection.

TLS Record Protocol

ChangeCipherSpec Protocol
This field identifies the level of alert.
This field identifies which type of alert is being sent.

Alert Protocol
This field identifies the Handshake message type.
This is a 3-byte field indicating the length of the handshake data, not including the header.
Note that multiple Handshake messages may be combined within one record.

Handshake Protocol

Application Protocol
TLS/SSL have a variety of security measures:

The client may use the CA's public key to validate the CA's digital signature on the server certificate. If the digital signature can be verified, the client accepts the server certificate as a valid certificate issued by a trusted CA.
The client verifies that the issuing Certificate Authority (CA) is on its list of trusted CAs.
The client checks the server's certificate validity period. The authentication process stops if the current date and time fall outside of the validity period.
To protect against Man-in-the-Middle attacks, the client compares the actual DNS name of the server to the DNS name on the certificate. Browser-dependent, not defined by TLS.
Protection against a downgrade of the protocol to a previous (less secure) version or a weaker cipher suite.
Numbering all the Application records with a sequence number, and using this sequence number in the MACs.
Using a message digest enhanced with a key (so only a key-holder can check the MAC). This is specified in RFC 2104. TLS only.
The message that ends the handshake ("Finished") sends a hash of all the exchanged handshake messages seen by both parties.
The pseudorandom function splits the input data in half and processes each one with a different hashing algorithm (MD5 and SHA-1), then XORs them together. This provides protection if one of these algorithms is found to be vulnerable. TLS only.
SSL v3 improved upon SSL v2 by adding SHA-1 based ciphers, and support for certificate authentication. Additional improvements in SSL v3 include better handshake protocol flow and increased resistance to man-in-the-middle attacks. Security
TLS runs on layers beneath application protocols such as HTTP, FTP, SMTP, NNTP, and XMPP and above a reliable transport protocol, TCP for example. While it can add security to any protocol that uses reliable connections (such as TCP), it is most commonly used with HTTP to form HTTPS. HTTPS is used to secure World Wide Web pages for applications such as electronic commerce and asset management. SMTP is also an area in which TLS has been growing and is specified in RFC 3207. These applications use public key certificates to verify the identity of endpoints.
An increasing number of client and server products support TLS natively, but many still lack support. As an alternative, users may wish to use standalone TLS products like Stunnel. Wrappers such as Stunnel rely on being able to obtain a TLS connection immediately, by simply connecting to a separate port reserved for the purpose. For example, by default the TCP port for HTTPS is 443, to distinguish it from HTTP on port 80.
TLS can also be used to tunnel an entire network stack to create a VPN, as is the case with OpenVPN. Many vendors now marry TLS's encryption and authentication capabilities with authorization. There has also been substantial development since the late 1990s in creating client technology outside of the browser to enable support for client/server applications. When compared against traditional IPsec VPN technologies, TLS has some inherent advantages in firewall and NAT traversal that make it easier to administer for large remote-access populations.
TLS is also increasingly being used as the standard method for protecting SIP application signaling. TLS can be used to provide authentication and encryption of the SIP signalling associated with VOIP (Voice over IP) and other SIP-based applications.

Applications
The SSL protocol was originally developed by Netscape. Version 1.0 was never publicly released; version 2.0 was released in 1994 but "contained a number of security flaws which ultimately led to the design of SSL version 3.0", which was released in 1996 (Rescorla 2001). This later served as the basis for TLS version 1.0, an IETF standard protocol first defined in RFC 2246 in January 1999. Visa, MasterCard, American Express and many leading financial institutions have endorsed SSL for commerce over the Internet.
SSL operates in modular fashion. It is extensible by design, with support for forward and backward compatibility and negotiation between peers.

History and development
Some early implementations of SSL used 40-bit symmetric keys because of US government restrictions on the export of cryptographic technology. The US government explicitly imposed a 40-bit keyspace, which was small enough to be broken by brute-force search by law enforcement agencies wishing to read the encrypted traffic, while still presenting obstacles to less-well-funded attackers. A similar limitation applied to Lotus Notes in export versions. After several years of public controversy, a series of lawsuits, and eventual US government recognition of cryptographic products with longer key sizes produced outside the US, the authorities relaxed some aspects of the export restrictions. The 40-bit key size limitation has mostly gone away, and modern implementations use 128-bit (or longer) keys for symmetric key ciphers.

Early short keys
The first definition of TLS appeared in:
The current approved version is 1.1, which is specified in
The next version is proposed:
Other RFCs subsequently extended TLS, including:

RFC 2246: "The TLS Protocol Version 1.0".
RFC 4346: "The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.1".
RFC Draft 4346 - The TLS Protocol, Version 1.2 (published July 2007, expires January 2008)
RFC 2595: "Using TLS with IMAP, POP3 and ACAP". Specifies an extension to the IMAP, POP3 and ACAP services that allow the server and client to use transport-layer security to provide private, authenticated communication over the Internet.
RFC 2712: "Addition of Kerberos Cipher Suites to Transport Layer Security (TLS)". The 40-bit ciphersuites defined in this memo appear only for the purpose of documenting the fact that those ciphersuite codes have already been assigned.
RFC 2817: "Upgrading to TLS Within HTTP/1.1", explains how to use the Upgrade mechanism in HTTP/1.1 to initiate Transport Layer Security (TLS) over an existing TCP connection. This allows unsecured and secured HTTP traffic to share the same well known port (in this case, http: at 80 rather than https: at 443).
RFC 2818: "HTTP Over TLS", distinguishes secured traffic from insecure traffic by the use of a different 'server port'.
RFC 3207: "SMTP Service Extension for Secure SMTP over Transport Layer Security". Specifies an extension to the SMTP service that allows an SMTP server and client to use transport-layer security to provide private, authenticated communication over the Internet.
RFC 3268: "AES Ciphersuites for TLS". Adds Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) ciphersuites to the previously existing symmetric ciphers.
RFC 3546: "Transport Layer Security (TLS) Extensions", adds a mechanism for negotiating protocol extensions during session initialisation and defines some extensions.
RFC 4132: "Addition of Camellia Cipher Suites to Transport Layer Security (TLS)".
RFC 4162: "Addition of SEED Cipher Suites to Transport Layer Security (TLS)".
RFC 4279: "Pre-Shared Key Ciphersuites for Transport Layer Security (TLS)", adds three sets of new ciphersuites for the TLS protocol to support authentication based on pre-shared keys.
RFC 4347: "Datagram Transport Layer Security" specifies a TLS variant that works over datagram protocols (such as UDP).
RFC 4366: "Transport Layer Security (TLS) Extensions" describes both a set of specific extensions, and a generic extension mechanism.
RFC 4492: "Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) Cipher Suites for Transport Layer Security (TLS)". Standards
Programmers may use the OpenSSL, NSS, or GnuTLS libraries for SSL/TLS functionality. Microsoft Windows includes an implementation of SSL and TLS as part of its Secure Channel package. Delphi programmers may use a library called Indy.

Implementation
As noted above, TLS 1.1 is the current approved version of the TLS protocol. TLS 1.1 clarifies some ambiguities and adds a number of recommendations, but remains very similar to TLS 1.0. A full list of differences is provided in RFC 4346 (Section 1.1).

Transport Layer Security See also

OpenSSL: a free (and very popular) implementation (BSD license)
GnuTLS: a free implementation
JSSE: a Java implementation included in the Java Runtime Environment
Network Security Services (NSS): FIPS 140 validated open source library
Crypt::OpenSSL: Perl wrapper modules for OpenSSL
System.Net.Security: a Microsoft implementation for the .NET Common Language Runtime
Mono.Security a free software implementation for the Common Language Runtime

Monday, March 17, 2008

Yomihon
Yomihon (読本 yomi-hon, "reading books") is a type of Japanese book from the Edo period (1603–1867), that was influenced by Chinese vernacular novels such as Water Margin. Unlike other Japanese books of the period, they had few illustrations, and the emphasis was on the text. Often described as moralistic, the books also featured plot elements taken from Chinese and Japanese historical literature and records. The characters often included witches and fairy princesses. They were highly intellectual and were inaccessible to most readers.
Tsuga Teisho, Takebe Ayatari, and Okajima Kanzan were instrumental in developing the yomihon. Another early pioneer of the yomihon, Ueda Akinari initiated the modern tradition of weird fiction in Japan with his Ugetsu Monogatari and Harusame Monogatari. Kyokutei Bakin wrote the extremely popular fantasy/historical romance Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (南総里見八犬伝), in addition to other yomihon. Santō Kyōden wrote yomihon mostly set in the gay quarters until the Kansei edicts banned such works.