WEB SPACE HOSTING

A web space hosting service is a type of internet web space service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide web space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web space hostings can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center, called colocation.

The scopes of web hosting services vary widely. The most basic is webpage and for space for a small-scale file, where files can be uploaded via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or a Web interface. The files are usually delivered to the Web "as is" or with little processing. Many Internet service providers (ISPs) offer this service free to their subscribers. People can also obtain Web page hosting, i.e space on the internet for their webpage , from other, alternative service providers. Personal web site space is typically free, advertisement-sponsored, or cheap. Business web site hosting often has a higher expense.

Space for a Single page is generally sufficient only for personal web pages. A complex site calls for a more comprehensive package that provides database support and application development platforms (e.g. PHP, Java, Ruby on Rails, and ASP.NET). These facilities allow the customers to write or install scripts for applications like forums and content management. For e-commerce, SSL is also required.

Hosting services limited to the Web:

* Free web hosting service: is free, (sometimes) advertisement-supported web hosting, and is often limited when compared to paid hosting.
* Shared web hosting service: one's Web site is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. A shared website may be hosted with a reseller.
* Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a provider. Resellers' accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a colocated server.
* Virtual Dedicated Server: dividing a server into virtual servers, where each user feels like they're on their own dedicated server, but they're actually sharing a server with many other users. The users may have root access to their own virtual space. This is also known as a virtual private server or VPS.
* Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for Dedicated plans. The user has full administrative access to the box, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.
* Managed hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, they are allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management tools. The user is disallowed full control so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The user typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client.
* Colocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service. In most cases, the colocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client's machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or changes.
* Clustered hosting: having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization.
* Grid hosting : this form of distributed hosting is when a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.
* Home server: usually a single machine placed in a private residence can be used to host one or more websites from a usually consumer-grade broadband connection. These can be purpose-built machines or more commonly old PC's.

No Directions Required--Software Smartens Mobile Robots

DARPA initiative to develop self-navigating robots introduces a world of potential for the development of autonomous vehicles, but will the government take advantage of its research or let it wither on the vine?

By Peter Sergo

SMART ROBOT: DARPA's LAGR initiative awarded each of eight teams of scientists $2 million to $3 million to develop software that would give unmanned vehicles the ability to autonomously learn and navigate irregular off-road terrain.
Courtesy of Yann Lecun, N.Y.U.

Computer experts recently gathered in San Antonio, Tex., to test one last time how well their software programs enabled a mobile robot vehicle to think for—and steer—itself. The event wrapped up the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) three-year Learning Applied to Ground Robots (LAGR) initiative, which awarded each of eight teams of scientists $2 million to $3 million to develop software that would give unmanned vehicles the ability to autonomously learn and navigate irregular off-road terrain.

Autonomous maneuvering may not seem terribly difficult for a reasonably smart robot on wheels. But although some vegetation, such as short grass on a prairie, is easily traversable, obstacles such as dense bushes and tree trunks are not. To expediently reach point B, the robot must be able to quickly sort through a range of flora and decide which ones it can travel over—or through—and which are rigid, impenetrable barriers.

Researchers initially believed that visual learning—making basic sense of a surrounding based on changes in light—would be easy to implement in computer systems. But Eero Simoncelli, a principal investigator at the New York University's (N.Y.U.) Laboratory for Computational Vision, pointed out that humans take vision for granted and overlook its complexity. "For you to avoid an object in your path is trivial," he says. "What's visual input [to a computer]? It's a bunch of pixels. It's a bunch of numbers that tell you how much light fell on each part of the sensor. That's a long way from a description of a cup sitting on a table." Extracting symbolic definitions from a large set of numeric values, he adds, is much harder than anyone realized.

Classifying natural obstacles was but one of myriad factors that DARPA researchers had to predict and implement in a software program to expand the capacity of a mobile robot to quickly analyze and travel through an environment. "Of course, no one [knew] how to design this," says Yann Lecun, professor of computer science at N.Y.U.'s Courant Institute of Mathematics who led the university's team. "So DARPA [was] interested in funding projects that advance the science of [robot] learning and vision."

Lecun, who has a knack for designing computer systems that pick out the key visual features in an environment, was an ideal candidate for the LAGR project. DARPA provided the funding and a standard test vehicle so Lecun and Urs Muller, CEO of software maker Net-Scale Technologies in Morganville, N.J., could focus on writing the software. They set out to push the realm of visual-based navigation forward—or to at least bring it up to speed.

A 2002 study by the Washington, D.C.–based National Research Council found that the increase in speed of unmanned ground vehicles was greatly outpaced by the rapid improvement in computer processing from 1990 to 2000 when the physical capability of a vehicle and course complexity is adjusted for. Muller points out that over the past decade there has been a 100-fold increase in computing power and a 1,000-fold gain in memory capacity but developments in unmanned navigational systems have lagged far behind these advances and will continue to without the development of new approaches to visual learning. "The limiting factor in software [design] is the human imagination," he says.

Until LAGR, most self-navigating mobile robots could only scan their immediate surroundings and plot a course over short distances. This made it difficult for robots to figure out an optimum route to any place farther than their own shortsighted universe of about 25 feet (7.6 meters), limiting them to a feel-as-you-go approach that often resulted in time-wasting, circuitous paths to a destination.

Scientists Tuning Very Large Array Radio Telescope for Deeper Exploration

The NSF's Very Large Array radio telescope is getting a digital makeover that will give it the sensitivity to pick up a cell phone signal on Jupiter, and to probe deeper into outer space

By Larry Greenemeier

SILENT VIGIL: The NSF's Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope has become the Expanded VLA and will be 10 times more powerful when work is completed in 2012.
Courtesy of NRAO/AUI and Laure Wilson Neish

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is in the process of transforming its Very Large Array radio telescope into the—wait for it—Expanded Very Large Array, thanks to digital technology that will boost the Socorro, N.M., facility's already impressive ability to tune in on black holes, supernovae and the rest of the deep space menagerie.

Half of the Very Large Array's (VLA) 28 dish antennas—each weighing 230 tons—have already been upgraded so it can collect eight simultaneous data streams at about two giga- (billion) hertz, up from the previous capability of four data streams at about 50 mega- (million) hertz. The rest of the 28 antennas—which made their debut on the silver screen in the 1997 movie Contact, starring Jodie Foster and based on the eponymous Carl Sagan sci-fi novel—will go digital by 2012, increasing the facility's power 10-fold. The makeover will also replace original components that had been in operation since it was built in the 1970s.

"Certain objects radiate over a wide range of frequency," says Mark McKinnon, project manager for the Expanded VLA. "Improving the sensitivity of the telescope boils down to its bandwidth."

Completed in 1980 but operational before then, the VLA was behind the discoveries of water ice on Mercury; the complex region surrounding Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the core of the Milky Way galaxy; and it helped astronomers identify a distant galaxy already pumping out stars less than a billion years after the big bang.

The increased sensitivity and improved resolution of the EVLA will let scientists peer deep into star-forming clouds and spy on protoplanetary disks of dense gas surrounding young stars as well as track supernovae, fast-moving neutron stars and black holes, McKinnon says. The EVLA's receiving system will be sensitive enough to detect the weak radio transmission from a cell phone at the distance of Jupiter—half a billion miles away—at a projected cost of $94 million.

Data gathered by all 28 of the 82-foot- (25-meter-) diameter dish antennas are brought to a correlator—a central, special-purpose computer—which merges the input into a form that allows scientists to produce detailed, high-quality images of the astronomical objects under investigation. A new fiber-optic system replaces the older waveguide system for taking data collected by the receivers to the central control building and increases the amount of data that can be delivered from the antenna to the new $17-million correlator being built by Canadian scientists and engineers to handle the increased data flow.

In addition to its work for the NSF, the VLA site is also playing an important role in the development of another radio telescope, the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA). Started in 2003 and scheduled to be completed by 2012 in northern Chile's Atacama Desert at 16,500 feet (5,000 meters) above sea level, the facility employs more than 64 40-foot (12-meter) antennas. Scientists have been using the VLA site to test the performance of the dishes before they are installed at ALMA.

"The observations we make with the EVLA will be complementary with what they do at ALMA and at other radio telescopes," McKinnon adds. "Trying to understand astrophysical phenomena requires a multiwavelength approach."

Life on Mars

REAL OR ILLUSION? The image has set the Internet abuzz that there really is life on Mars.

JUST LIKE US: The NASA images show a woman-like figure.

SO FAR: An arrow points towrds the woman-like figure.

London: Life on Mars? Well, bizarre images have emerged showing a mystery female figure walking down a hill on the arid planet.

The photo of what looks like a naked woman with her arm outstretched was among several taken on the red planet and sent back to Earth by NASA's Mars explorer Spirit, the Daily Mail reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed website.

Though no official confirmation has come from NASA whether the figure is an alien or an optical illusion caused by a landscape on Mars, it has set the Internet abuzz that there really is life on Mars.

As one enthusiast put it on the website, "These pictures are amazing. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw what appears to be a naked alien running around on Mars."

The news of the mystery woman on Mars came just days after a team of French scientists claimed to have discovered proof that the red planet possesses high-level dense clouds of dry ice, which scud across its orange sky.

Using data obtained by the OMEGA spectrometer on board ESA's Mars Express, the team found the existence of the ice clouds which sometimes become so dense that they throw quite dark shadows on the dusty surface of the red planet.

"This is the first time that carbon dioxide ice clouds on Mars have been imaged and identified from above. This is important because the images tell us not only about their shape, but also their size and density."

"Previously, we had to rely on indirect information. However, it is very difficult to separate the signals coming from the clouds, atmosphere and surface," according to lead scientist Franck Montmessin of the Service d'Aeronomie at University of Versailles.

watt-hour meters

Watt-hour meters
The utility company is not too interested in how much power you’re using with one appliance,
or even how much power a single household is drawing, at any given time. By
far the greater concern is the total energy that is used over a day, a week, a month or a
year. Electrical energy is measured in watt hours, or, more commonly for utility purposes,
in kilowatt hours (kWh). The device that indicates this is the watt-hour meter
or kilowatt-hour meter.
The most often-used means of measuring electrical energy is by using a small electric
motor device, whose speed depends on the current, and thereby on the power at a
constant voltage. The number of turns of the motor shaft, in a given length of time, is directly
proportional to the number of kilowatt hours consumed. The motor is placed at
the point where the utility wires enter the house, apartment or building. This is usually
at a point where the voltage is 234 V. This is split into some circuits with 234 V, for
heavy-duty appliances such as the oven, washer and dryer, and the general household
fines for lamps, clock radios and, television sets.
You’ve surely seen the little disk in the utility meter going around and around,
sometimes fast, other times slowly. Its speed depends on the power you’re using. The
total number of turns of this little disk, every month, determines the size of the bill you
will get—as a function also, of course, of the cost per kilowatt hour for electricity.
Kilowatt-hour meters count the number of disk turns by means of geared, rotary
drums or pointers. The drum type meter gives a direct digital readout. The pointer type
has several scales calibrated from 0 to 9 in circles, some going clockwise and others going
counterclockwise.
Reading a pointer type utility meter is a little tricky, because you must think in
whatever direction (clockwise or counterclockwise) the scale goes. An example of a
pointer type utility meter is shown in Fig. 3-11. Read from left to right. For each little
meter, take down the number that the pointer has most recently passed. Write down
the rest as you go. The meter in the figure reads 3875 kWh. If you want to be really precise,
you can say it reads 3875-1/2 kWh.

wattmeters

Wattmeters
The measurement of electrical power requires that voltage and current both be measured
simultaneously. Remember that power is the product of the voltage and current.
That is, watts (P) equals volts (E) times amperes (I), written as P
EI. In fact, watts
are sometimes called volt-amperes in a dc circuit.
You might think that you can just connect a voltmeter in parallel with a circuit,
thereby getting a reading of the voltage across it, and also hook up an ammeter in series
to get a reading of the current through the circuit, and then multiply volts times amperes
to get watts consumed by the circuit. And in fact, for practically all dc circuits,
this is an excellent way to measure power
Quite often, however, it’s simpler than that. In many cases, the voltage from the
power supply is constant and predictable. Utility power is a good example. The effective
voltage is always very close to 117 V. Although it’s ac, and not dc, power can be measured
in the same way as with dc: by means of an ammeter connected in series with the
circuit, and calibrated so that the multiplication (times 117) has already been done.
Then, rather than 1 A, the meter would show a reading of 117 W, because P
EI
117
 1
117 W. If the meter reading were 300 W, the current would be 300/117
2.56 A.
An electric iron might consume 1000 W, or a current of 1000/117
8.55 A. And a
large heating unit might gobble up 2000 W, requiring a current of 2000/117
17. 1 A. This
might blow a fuse or breaker, since these devices are often rated for only 15 A. You’ve
probably had an experience where you hooked up too many appliances to a single circuit,
blowing the fuse or breaker. The reason was that the appliances, combined, drew too
much current for the house wiring to safely handle, and the fuse or breaker, detecting the
excess current, opened the circuit.
Specialized wattmeters are necessary for the measurement of radio-frequency
(RF) power, or for peak audio power in a high-fidelity amplifier, or for certain other specialized
applications. But almost all of these meters, whatever the associated circuitry,
use simple ammeters as their indicating devices.

Xlink

What is XLink?

XLink is short for the XML Linking Language

XLink is a language for creating hyperlinks in XML documents

XLink is similar to HTML links - but it is a lot more powerful
ANY element in an XML document can behave as an XLink
XLink supports simple links (like HTML) and extended links (for linking multiple resources together)
With XLink, the links can be defined outside of the linked files
XLink is a W3C Recommendation
What is XPointer?
XPointer is short for the XML Pointer Language
XPointer allows the hyperlinks to point to specific parts of the XML document
XPointer uses XPath expressions to navigate in the XML document
XPointer is a W3C Recommendation
XLink and XPointer are W3C Recommendations
The XML Linking Language (XLink) became a W3C Recommendation 27. June 2001.
The XML Pointer Language (XPointer) became a W3C Recommendation 25. March 2003.
XLink and XPointer Browser Support
The browser support for XLink and XPointer is minimal.
There is some XLink support in Mozilla 0.98+, Netscape 6.02+, and Internet Explorer 6.0. Earlier versions of all of these browsers have no XLinks support at all!

COOKED

A headline on the back page of the Guardian last week read “Wenger denies ‘cooked’ Vieira extra time off”. In translation this says that Arsène Wenger, manager of the British football team Arsenal, was denying that his French captain Patrick Vieira was really tired enough to need a rest.

There are lots of other idiomatic uses of the words cook and cooked of course: to cook the books is to alter figures dishonestly, a phrase much in evidence in American business circles recently; in science, data that has been cooked has bee made up to support a theory; chess aficionados use it of chess problems in which the intended solution doesn’t work or there is another way of solving it not thought of by the setter; on the other hand if something or someone is cooking, it’s doing well. But, I’d not encountered cooked in the sense of “exhausted” before.

A small detective investigation followed, with the assistance of Nicholas Shearing at the Oxford English Dictionary and the slang lexicographer Jonathon Green, who shared the examples they had of the word. It turns out that cooked has been in English since the nineteenth century in the sense of being in a bad situation or in serious trouble. It looks as though it is an elliptical form of to cook someone’s goose, meaning to spoil someone’s plans or cause someone’s downfall (before you ask, nobody knows where this comes from). It isn’t widely known, though it does still pop up from time to time — in 1995 the Globe and Mail in Toronto had this: “If you began an election with an eight-point lead, you were home free. If you were eight points behind, you were cooked”. Some of the examples down the years suggest that the bad situation may have come about through exhaustion. For example, in 1913 the Harrow school magazine contained: “They were utterly cooked. They had ceased to have any conscious control of their muscles”.

Vieira was quoted in the Guardian as making his comments to the Paris newspaper L’Equipe, so presumably he had actually used the French idiom “Je suis cuit” that can have the same sense and which is in wide use by French sportsmen (there are much older senses in French of cuit meaning drunk or being done for), though it doesn’t seem to have yet reached dictionaries in France. So did the Guardian translate Patrick Vieira’s words with the known English sense in mind? The obvious assumption was that it did. But it turns out that L’Equipe had actually translated a comment that had appeared in English in the previous day’s Evening Standard in London (professional rivalry presumably explains why the Guardian hadn’t quoted the Evening Standard directly). One must assume that either Patrick Vieira had mentally translated “Je suis cuit” into literal English or that somebody on the Evening Standard had done so for him. It looks as though the word cooked has been borrowed anew from French and isn’t a new sense of the older English slang term.

The results of some online searches support this. A glossary of cyclists’ slang says cooked means “Running out of energy while riding”. There are many examples from bike racing of its being used in this way. Knowing France’s influence in professional cycling, it seems possible that cyclists have likewise borrowed the phrase from French. Further evidence online suggests that it may be moving from cycling into sport in general (its appearances in the Guardian and Evening Standard may help that along).

It shows once again that language can change in ways that are often more complicated and mysterious than one might think — especially with slang — and that one can’t take anything for granted.

BARKING MAD

[Q] From Paul Hughes: “Where does the term barking mad come from? My theory is that it comes from: One stop short of Barking, referring to the London underground station. Any other ideas?”

[A] I can see the way you’re thinking: there are lots of phrases along these lines (sorry, accidental pun) that suggest somebody has less than his full complement of little grey cells: “Two sandwiches short of a picnic”, “three sheep short in the top paddock”, “two bricks short of a load”.

And the name of the East London suburb is a seductive choice for the origins of this slang term. Peter Ackroyd, in his recent book London: A Biography goes so far as to suggest that monks in medieval times had a lunatic asylum there, which gave rise to the term. The problem with Mr Ackroyd’s idea is that the evidence strongly suggests the term is nothing like so old as that.

The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains not a single reference to barking mad and I can’t find an example in my electronic database of more than 4,000 works of literature. Eric Partridge, in his Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, dates it to about 1965.

Nicholas Shearing of the OED kindly hunted through their database of citations and found that their earliest reference is actually from as far back as 1933, from Mr Jiggins of Jigginstown by Christine Pakenham (Countess Longford): “But he was mad! Barking mad!”. By the 1960s, barking was being used alone. Subscriber Anne Hegerty found this in a Nancy Mitford story, Don’t Tell Alfred, of 1960: “If Dr Jore comes here every day like he says he’s going to he will drive me mad. Really, properly barking”.

All these pointers add up to a strong presumption that barking mad is a bit of relatively modern British slang. The idea behind the saying is most likely that the person referred to is so deranged that he or she barks like a dog, or resembles a mad dog, or one that howls at the full moon.

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MILQUETOAST

[Q] From Jonathan Bennett: “I used the word milktoast the other day to describe a person who is unmotivated, ambivalent, and apathetic in their general demeanor. I was questioned on the true meaning and origin of the word. Am I using it correctly? What is its actual meaning, and where does the term come from?”

[A] You’re not quite there. The usual spelling is milquetoast, but said the same way as your spelling. And the usual sense is that of a person who is timid or meek, unassertive. Such people may appear apathetic or unmotivated, but that’s not the reason for their being quiet.

It’s an eponym, named after a fictional cartoon character named Caspar Milquetoast, invented by the American illustrator Harold T Webster in 1924. The strip was called The Timid Soul and appeared every Sunday in the New York Herald Tribune up to his death in 1953. Mr Webster said that his character was “the man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick”.

The name is just a Frenchified respelling of the old American English term milk toast, an uninspiring, bland dish which was created from slices of buttered toast laid in a dish of milk, usually considered to be food for invalids. There’s an even older foodstuff, milksop, which was untoasted bread soaked in milk, likewise something suitable only for infants or the sick. From the thirteenth century on, milksop was a dismissive term for “an effeminate spiritless man or youth; one wanting in courage or manliness”, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it. Mr Milquetoast is in the same tradition.

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COCKPIT

[Q] From Rick Loiacono, Florida: “If I don’t find out where the air-force term Cockpit came from, I’m going to go mad. What do you think?”

[A] When you stop and think about it, the term for the pilot’s cabin on an aircraft — and other spaces such as the driver’s compartment in a racing car or a helmsman in a small yacht — is curious, isn’t it? Its origin is exotic and disquieting to modern minds.

The experts are sure that it does come, as its name might suggest, from a place where cock fights were held. The word is recorded from the latter part of the sixteenth century, during the reign of the first Elizabeth. It came about because the fighting area for cocks (one of the favourite recreations of the time, together with bull- and bear-baiting) was often thought of as a pit. It was a roughly circular enclosure with a barrier around so that the birds couldn’t escape, fitted up with rows of seats like a small theatre so that the spectators could look down on the action. The first recorded mention is in Thomas Churchard’s The Worthiness of Wales of 1587: “The mountains stand in roundness such as it a Cock pit were”. Shakespeare uses it as an allusion to the round shape and noisy crowdedness of a theatre when the Chorus in Henry V laments its inadequacy to portray tumultuous events: “Can this cockpit hold / The vasty fields of France? Or may we cram / Within this wooden O the very casques / That did affright the air at Agincourt?”

More than a century earlier, Elizabeth’s father, King Henry VIII, had bowling alleys, tennis courts and a cock-pit built on a site opposite the royal palace of Whitehall. A block of buildings later erected on the site were taken over in the seventeenth century for government offices such as the Treasury and the Privy Council. That explains the entry in Samuel Pepys’s Diary for 20 February 1659: “In the evening Simons and I to the Coffee Club, where nothing to do only I heard Mr. Harrington, and my Lord of Dorset and another Lord, talking of getting another place at the Cockpit, and they did believe it would come to something.”

A little later, the term came to be applied to the rear part of the lowest deck, the orlop, of a fighting ship (orlop is from Dutch overloop, a covering). During a battle it became the station for the ship’s surgeon and his mates because it was relatively safe and least subject to disturbance by the movements of the ship. Like all lower-deck spaces, it was confined, crowded, and badly lit. During a battle, it was also noisy, stinking and bloody. All this reminded people of a real cock-pit, hence the name. About 200 years ago, on 21 October 1805, Admiral Lord Nelson died in the cockpit of HMS Victory during the battle of Trafalgar.

The move to today’s sense came through its use for the steering pit or well of a sailing yacht, which also started to be called the cockpit in the nineteenth century. This was presumably borrowed from the older term because it was a small enclosed sunken area in which a coxswain was stationed. (The word was cockswain to start with, he being the swain, or serving man, who was in charge of a cock, a type of ship’s boat.) From here, it moved in the early twentieth century to the steering area of an aircraft, and later still to other related senses.

Hypernova

Sometimes the super- prefix just isn’t extravagant enough, or it’s been used already, or linguistic inflation has set in. This term seems to be a product of all three, since it is an even more spectacular cosmic event than the well-known supernova. But perhaps the superlative is warranted in this case, as the last such event spotted from Earth was widely reported as being so intense that if it had happened near to us we would have fried (luckily, it happened long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away). Such cataclysmic explosions — the biggest bangs since the Big Bang, NASA called them, with perhaps permissible overstatement — are about a hundred times as powerful as the biggest supernovae and may be caused by the total collapse of a very large star. They have been suggested as a possible origin of intense bursts of gamma rays that have been observed by space-borne detectors since the 1970s. In January 1999 the source of one was seen for the first time as it was happening.

By this time, theorists had built up a picture in which GRBs [gamma-ray bursters] result from the collision of two high-density neutron stars or from a “hypernova” — the total collapse of a very massive star.

[Science, Mar. 1999]

Really big stars such as Eta Carinae may go out in an even more spectacular explosion called a hypernova. Such a hypernova could produce another phenomenon known as a gamma-ray burster, which sends powerful gamma radiation out into space.

[Minneapolis Star Tribune, Jun. 1999]

Fair to middling

[Q] From John Rupp, Dallas, Texas: “I have often heard the phrase fair to Midland (middlin’?) in response to the inquiry ‘How are you doing?’ Any ideas on the origins of this phrase?”

[A] I do like “fair to Midland”. It sounds like a weather forecast: “fair to Midland, but the North will have rain”. That’s a Texas variation on the phrase, a joke on the name of the city called Midland in that state. It’s really fair to middling, of course, a common enough phrase — in Britain as well as North America — for something that is moderate to average in quality, sometimes written the way people often say it, as fair to middlin’.

All the early examples I can find in literary works — from authors like Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott and Artemus Ward — suggest it became common on the east coast of the US from the 1860s on. The first example in the Oxford English Dictionary is from Artemus Ward: His Travels of 1865: “The men are fair to middling”. Another is from Horace Greeley’s Recollections of a Busy Life of 1869 in which he records seeing a play: “The night was intensely cold, in-doors as well as out; the house was thin; the playing from fair to middling; yet I was in raptures from first to last”.

Hunting around, I’ve found an example three decades earlier, from an article with the title A Succinct Account of the Sandwich Islands, in the July 1837 issue of the Southern Literary Messenger of Richmond, Virginia: “A Dinner on the Plains, Tuesday, September 20th. — This was given ‘at the country seat’ of J. C. Jones, Esq. to the officers of the Peacock and Enterprise. The viands were ‘from fair to middling, we wish we could say more.’ ”

So the phrase is American, most probably early nineteenth century. But where does it come from? There’s a clue in one of the OED’s later citations, from the Century Dictionary of 1889: “Fair to middling, moderately good: a term designating a specific grade of quality in the market”. The term middling turns out to have been used as far back as the previous century for an intermediate grade of various kinds of goods, both in the US and in Britain — there are references to a middling grade of flour or meal, pins, cotton, and other commodities.

Which market the Century Dictionary was referring to is made plain by the nineteenth-century American trade journals that I’ve consulted. Fair and middling were terms in the cotton business for specific grades — the sequence ran from the best quality (fine), through good, fair, middling and ordinary to the least good (inferior), with a number of intermediates, one being middling fair. The phrase fair to middling sometimes appeared as a reference to this grade, or to a range of intermediate qualities — it was common to quote indicative prices, for example, for “fair to middling grade”. The reference was so well known in the cotton trade that it seems to have eventually escaped into the wider language.

FOREX UNDERCAPITALIZATION RISK

UNDERCAPITALIZATION RISK
Insufficient initial capital invested into trade is the first mistake made by a
majority of newcomers, and it often turns out to be their last mistake.
I have witnessed many cases of full loss of capital invested into currency
operations during the first month, weeks, days, and even hours. The
invested capital is lost before a novice FOREX trader has time and an opportunity
for learning.
This happens for a few key reasons. At the beginning of a career, a
new FOREX trader has neither sufficient knowledge and experience nor the feeling
of danger or risk limit that should not be surpassed. Also, at the very
beginning, there are some errors that could be avoided with the proper set
up before conducting business. One of the frequent initial mistakes is insufficient
investment in FOREX trading operations. Consider the condition when
the average daily oscillation amplitude of the main currency in a percent
ratio is comparable to the margin offered to the currency investor by
banks, dealers, and brokers. (It is common nowadays to provide the
trader with such a condition when the initial margin does not exceed 2 to
4 percent of the size of the contract for the daily trade.)
If the currency oscillates 1 to 1.5 percent on a daily average, the loss
of a larger part or even the entire trading account within just a couple of
days is possible. I must mention that most novice traders partially realize
risks they will have to deal with on the currency market, but are not always
capable of precisely formulating and evaluating them. Therefore,
they often undertake incorrect actions for lowering them. Logical thinking
dictates that the simplest way of lowering the risk of potential losses is by
investing the minimum possible amount into FOREX trade. At the same time, the
idea and the plan are to increase the investment later as the necessary experience,
knowledge, and skills are acquired. From my experience, this
approach to lower the risk is virtually ineffective and even harmful. The
situation reminds me of one of my favorite anecdotes: A commission arrives
in a psychiatric hospital to inspect the facility. The commission
members see an empty swimming pool into which the patients are diving
from the diving board. The commission members ask one of the patients
why they are diving into an empty pool. The patient answers that the hospital
administration promised to fill the pool with water immediately after
the patients learn how to dive.
Usually, most novice FOREX ( Foreign Exchange Market)traders partially realize the risks they will have to deal with on the currency market, but they are not always capable of
precisely formulating and evaluating these risks.
In the same way, many novice FOREX traders try to lower the risk of losses while
they are expecting to acquire sufficient practical experience, in order to
invest larger amounts later on. They don’t understand that a small trading
account actually increases the risk of losses. By artificially decreasing
the initial investment capital, it is impossible to lower the risk. This is because
the size of the trading account and the risk degree of losing some
part of the investment capital are not proportionally related. I will illustrate
this statement with a simple example. Let’s assume there are two
accounts. One of them has invested capital of $5,000 and the other
$50,000. All other things being equal (such as minimum contract size of
$100,000), the initial margin equals 4 percent, and during one trade only,
one minimum contract is operated. It is clear that only after two or three
unsuccessful transactions (each resulting in a loss of an average of
$1,000), the smaller account is practically inoperable and requires replenishment
in order to continue participation in the market.
The larger account in this situation remains absolutely sufficient for
further operations. Restoring the loss is easier than in the small account.
Equalizing the chances to win with large and small accounts is possible
only by proportionally decreasing the minimum contract size for a small
account owner, or by the same proportional limitation of loss size. It is
practically impossible to accomplish either of these options.
The size of the trading account and the risk degree of losing some part
of the investment capital are not proportionally related.
The minimum contract size for everyone who works with a good
dealer should not be below $100,000. It can be said that this amount is a
minimum standard for small individual transactions. By putting short and
tight stops, the trader increases the chances the stops will be triggered
more often and the total loss will consist of many small losses.
Sometimes, novice traders gradually add money to the trading account.
By replacing the losses on the market, they keep the small account
instead of immediately investing the large sum in order to lower the risk.
As a result, considerable amounts are often lost, invested into the market
in small portions. One of the main reasons for these losses is insufficient
capital at the moment when it is most required. Therefore, the most frequent
disadvantage is insufficient initial investment.

Forex Market

FOREX market has some certain specific characteristics; without
knowing them and taking them into consideration, the eventual success
in speculative operations could be doubtful.
After the preliminary preparation stage is fulfilled and you think you
are ready to participate in real trade in the FOREX market, you must
choose a broker or dealer company to conduct your investment operations.
You must also determine the size of the initial investment that you
will have to transfer into the trade account opened with the chosen
dealer company. (Which I will be explaining). As is well known, this market has few specific
characteristics; without considering them, success in speculative operations
is doubtful.
Unfortunately they are totally beyond the trader’s control. Those peculiarities
result from conditions characterizing the FOREX market and
from historically developed practices and rules followed by all the participants.
Some specifications on the FOREX market include high volatility of
main currencies; the possibility of trading under conditions of low-interest
margin; and relatively high minimum contract value. These conditions
are initially considered to be advantages and mainly attract investors into
the business. However, they also have a negative side and can be considered
as an additional source of risk for a trader. Everything depends on
the point of view of the observer, as in the well-known example of the
half-empty and half-full glass.
I don’t have any doubts that, because you have made the decision to participate
in the market, you are sufficiently informed about its advantages. My
task is to point out some hidden risks and dangers. Some mistakes made
mainly by novice traders during the first stage of their careers will be described in the
upcoming posts
. They are connected with insufficient initial capital or its incorrect distribution
and management. First, the beginner should be warned about two
possible mistakes that are typical and usually made at the very beginning of
the trading career.




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Learn Electronics - Relays

In some electronic devices, it is inconvenient to place a switch exactly where it should
be. For example, you might want to switch a communications line from one branch to
another from a long distance away. In many radio transmitters, the wiring carries
high-frequency alternating currents that must be kept within certain parts of the circuit,
and not routed out to the front panel for switching. A relay makes use of a solenoid
to allow remote-control switching.
A diagram of a relay is shown in Fig. 8-8. The movable lever, called the armature,
is held to one side by a spring when there is no current flowing through the electromagnet.
Under these conditions, terminal X is connected to Y, but not to Z. When a sufficient
current is applied, the armature is pulled over to the other side. This disconnects
terminal X from terminal Y, and connects X to Z.
There are numerous types of relays used for different purposes. Some are meant for
use with dc, and others are for ac; a few will work with either type of current. A normally
closed relay completes the circuit when there is no current flowing in its electromagnet,
and breaks the circuit when current flows. A normally open relay is just the opposite.
(“Normal” in this sense means no current in the coil.) The relay in the illustration (Fig.
8-8) can be used either as a normally open or normally closed relay, depending on which
contacts are selected. It can also be used to switch a line between two different circuits.
Some relays have several sets of contacts. Some relays are meant to remain in one
state (either with current or without) for a long time, while others are meant to switch
several times per second. The fastest relays work dozens of times per second. These are
used for such purposes as keying radio transmitters in Morse code or radioteletype.

In some electronic devices, it is inconvenient to place a switch exactly where it should
be. For example, you might want to switch a communications line from one branch to
another from a long distance away. In many radio transmitters, the wiring carries
high-frequency alternating currents that must be kept within certain parts of the circuit,
and not routed out to the front panel for switching. A relay makes use of a solenoid
to allow remote-control switching.
A diagram of a relay is shown in Fig. 8-8. The movable lever, called the armature,
is held to one side by a spring when there is no current flowing through the electromagnet.
Under these conditions, terminal X is connected to Y, but not to Z. When a sufficient
current is applied, the armature is pulled over to the other side. This disconnects
terminal X from terminal Y, and connects X to Z.
There are numerous types of relays used for different purposes. Some are meant for
use with dc, and others are for ac; a few will work with either type of current. A normally
closed relay completes the circuit when there is no current flowing in its electromagnet,
and breaks the circuit when current flows. A normally open relay is just the opposite.
(“Normal” in this sense means no current in the coil.) The relay in the illustration (Fig.
8-8) can be used either as a normally open or normally closed relay, depending on which
contacts are selected. It can also be used to switch a line between two different circuits.
Some relays have several sets of contacts. Some relays are meant to remain in one
state (either with current or without) for a long time, while others are meant to switch
several times per second. The fastest relays work dozens of times per second. These are
used for such purposes as keying radio transmitters in Morse code or radioteletype.


In some electronic devices, it is inconvenient to place a switch exactly where it should
be. For example, you might want to switch a communications line from one branch to
another from a long distance away. In many radio transmitters, the wiring carries
high-frequency alternating currents that must be kept within certain parts of the circuit,
and not routed out to the front panel for switching. A relay makes use of a solenoid
to allow remote-control switching.
A diagram of a relay is shown in Fig. 8-8. The movable lever, called the armature,
is held to one side by a spring when there is no current flowing through the electromagnet.
Under these conditions, terminal X is connected to Y, but not to Z. When a sufficient
current is applied, the armature is pulled over to the other side. This disconnects
terminal X from terminal Y, and connects X to Z.
There are numerous types of relays used for different purposes. Some are meant for
use with dc, and others are for ac; a few will work with either type of current. A normally
closed relay completes the circuit when there is no current flowing in its electromagnet,
and breaks the circuit when current flows. A normally open relay is just the opposite.
(“Normal” in this sense means no current in the coil.) The relay in the illustration (Fig.
8-8) can be used either as a normally open or normally closed relay, depending on which
contacts are selected. It can also be used to switch a line between two different circuits.
Some relays have several sets of contacts. Some relays are meant to remain in one
state (either with current or without) for a long time, while others are meant to switch
several times per second. The fastest relays work dozens of times per second. These are
used for such purposes as keying radio transmitters in Morse code or radioteletype.In some electronic devices, it is inconvenient to place a switch exactly where it should
be. For example, you might want to switch a communications line from one branch to
another from a long distance away. In many radio transmitters, the wiring carries
high-frequency alternating currents that must be kept within certain parts of the circuit,
and not routed out to the front panel for switching. A relay makes use of a solenoid
to allow remote-control switching.
A diagram of a relay is shown in Fig. 8-8. The movable lever, called the armature,
is held to one side by a spring when there is no current flowing through the electromagnet.
Under these conditions, terminal X is connected to Y, but not to Z. When a sufficient
current is applied, the armature is pulled over to the other side. This disconnects
terminal X from terminal Y, and connects X to Z.
There are numerous types of relays used for different purposes. Some are meant for
use with dc, and others are for ac; a few will work with either type of current. A normally
closed relay completes the circuit when there is no current flowing in its electromagnet,
and breaks the circuit when current flows. A normally open relay is just the opposite.
(“Normal” in this sense means no current in the coil.) The relay in the illustration (Fig.
8-8) can be used either as a normally open or normally closed relay, depending on which
contacts are selected. It can also be used to switch a line between two different circuits.
Some relays have several sets of contacts. Some relays are meant to remain in one
state (either with current or without) for a long time, while others are meant to switch
several times per second. The fastest relays work dozens of times per second. These are
used for such purposes as keying radio transmitters in Morse code or radioteletype.In some electronic devices, it is inconvenient to place a switch exactly where it should
be. For example, you might want to switch a communications line from one branch to
another from a long distance away. In many radio transmitters, the wiring carries
high-frequency alternating currents that must be kept within certain parts of the circuit,
and not routed out to the front panel for switching. A relay makes use of a solenoid
to allow remote-control switching.
A diagram of a relay is shown in Fig. 8-8. The movable lever, called the armature,
is held to one side by a spring when there is no current flowing through the electromagnet.
Under these conditions, terminal X is connected to Y, but not to Z. When a sufficient
current is applied, the armature is pulled over to the other side. This disconnects
terminal X from terminal Y, and connects X to Z.
There are numerous types of relays used for different purposes. Some are meant for
use with dc, and others are for ac; a few will work with either type of current. A normally
closed relay completes the circuit when there is no current flowing in its electromagnet,
and breaks the circuit when current flows. A normally open relay is just the opposite.
(“Normal” in this sense means no current in the coil.) The relay in the illustration (Fig.
8-8) can be used either as a normally open or normally closed relay, depending on which
contacts are selected. It can also be used to switch a line between two different circuits.
Some relays have several sets of contacts. Some relays are meant to remain in one
state (either with current or without) for a long time, while others are meant to switch
several times per second. The fastest relays work dozens of times per second. These are
used for such purposes as keying radio transmitters in Morse code or radioteletype.In some electronic devices, it is inconvenient to place a switch exactly where it should
be. For example, you might want to switch a communications line from one branch to
another from a long distance away. In many radio transmitters, the wiring carries
high-frequency alternating currents that must be kept within certain parts of the circuit,
and not routed out to the front panel for switching. A relay makes use of a solenoid
to allow remote-control switching.
A diagram of a relay is shown in Fig. 8-8. The movable lever, called the armature,
is held to one side by a spring when there is no current flowing through the electromagnet.
Under these conditions, terminal X is connected to Y, but not to Z. When a sufficient
current is applied, the armature is pulled over to the other side. This disconnects
terminal X from terminal Y, and connects X to Z.
There are numerous types of relays used for different purposes. Some are meant for
use with dc, and others are for ac; a few will work with either type of current. A normally
closed relay completes the circuit when there is no current flowing in its electromagnet,
and breaks the circuit when current flows. A normally open relay is just the opposite.
(“Normal” in this sense means no current in the coil.) The relay in the illustration (Fig.
8-8) can be used either as a normally open or normally closed relay, depending on which
contacts are selected. It can also be used to switch a line between two different circuits.
Some relays have several sets of contacts. Some relays are meant to remain in one
state (either with current or without) for a long time, while others are meant to switch
several times per second. The fastest relays work dozens of times per second. These are
used for such purposes as keying radio transmitters in Morse code or radioteletype.In some electronic devices, it is inconvenient to place a switch exactly where it should
be. For example, you might want to switch a communications line from one branch to
another from a long distance away. In many radio transmitters, the wiring carries
high-frequency alternating currents that must be kept within certain parts of the circuit,
and not routed out to the front panel for switching. A relay makes use of a solenoid
to allow remote-control switching.
A diagram of a relay is shown in Fig. 8-8. The movable lever, called the armature,
is held to one side by a spring when there is no current flowing through the electromagnet.
Under these conditions, terminal X is connected to Y, but not to Z. When a sufficient
current is applied, the armature is pulled over to the other side. This disconnects
terminal X from terminal Y, and connects X to Z.
There are numerous types of relays used for different purposes. Some are meant for
use with dc, and others are for ac; a few will work with either type of current. A normally
closed relay completes the circuit when there is no current flowing in its electromagnet,
and breaks the circuit when current flows. A normally open relay is just the opposite.
(“Normal” in this sense means no current in the coil.) The relay in the illustration (Fig.
8-8) can be used either as a normally open or normally closed relay, depending on which
contacts are selected. It can also be used to switch a line between two different circuits.
Some relays have several sets of contacts. Some relays are meant to remain in one
state (either with current or without) for a long time, while others are meant to switch
several times per second. The fastest relays work dozens of times per second. These are
used for such purposes as keying radio transmitters in Morse code or radioteletype.In some electronic devices, it is inconvenient to place a switch exactly where it should
be. For example, you might want to switch a communications line from one branch to
another from a long distance away. In many radio transmitters, the wiring carries
high-frequency alternating currents that must be kept within certain parts of the circuit,
and not routed out to the front panel for switching. A relay makes use of a solenoid
to allow remote-control switching.
A diagram of a relay is shown in Fig. 8-8. The movable lever, called the armature,
is held to one side by a spring when there is no current flowing through the electromagnet.
Under these conditions, terminal X is connected to Y, but not to Z. When a sufficient
current is applied, the armature is pulled over to the other side. This disconnects
terminal X from terminal Y, and connects X to Z.
There are numerous types of relays used for different purposes. Some are meant for
use with dc, and others are for ac; a few will work with either type of current. A normally
closed relay completes the circuit when there is no current flowing in its electromagnet,
and breaks the circuit when current flows. A normally open relay is just the opposite.
(“Normal” in this sense means no current in the coil.) The relay in the illustration (Fig.
8-8) can be used either as a normally open or normally closed relay, depending on which
contacts are selected. It can also be used to switch a line between two different circuits.
Some relays have several sets of contacts. Some relays are meant to remain in one
state (either with current or without) for a long time, while others are meant to switch
several times per second. The fastest relays work dozens of times per second. These are
used for such purposes as keying radio transmitters in Morse code or radioteletype.In some electronic devices, it is inconvenient to place a switch exactly where it should
be. For example, you might want to switch a communications line from one branch to
another from a long distance away. In many radio transmitters, the wiring carries
high-frequency alternating currents that must be kept within certain parts of the circuit,
and not routed out to the front panel for switching. A relay makes use of a solenoid
to allow remote-control switching.
A diagram of a relay is shown in Fig. 8-8. The movable lever, called the armature,
is held to one side by a spring when there is no current flowing through the electromagnet.
Under these conditions, terminal X is connected to Y, but not to Z. When a sufficient
current is applied, the armature is pulled over to the other side. This disconnects
terminal X from terminal Y, and connects X to Z.
There are numerous types of relays used for different purposes. Some are meant for
use with dc, and others are for ac; a few will work with either type of current. A normally
closed relay completes the circuit when there is no current flowing in its electromagnet,
and breaks the circuit when current flows. A normally open relay is just the opposite.
(“Normal” in this sense means no current in the coil.) The relay in the illustration (Fig.
8-8) can be used either as a normally open or normally closed relay, depending on which
contacts are selected. It can also be used to switch a line between two different circuits.
Some relays have several sets of contacts. Some relays are meant to remain in one
state (either with current or without) for a long time, while others are meant to switch
several times per second. The fastest relays work dozens of times per second. These are
used for such purposes as keying radio transmitters in Morse code or radioteletype.In some electronic devices, it is inconvenient to place a switch exactly where it should
be. For example, you might want to switch a communications line from one branch to
another from a long distance away. In many radio transmitters, the wiring carries
high-frequency alternating currents that must be kept within certain parts of the circuit,
and not routed out to the front panel for switching. A relay makes use of a solenoid
to allow remote-control switching.
A diagram of a relay is shown in Fig. 8-8. The movable lever, called the armature,
is held to one side by a spring when there is no current flowing through the electromagnet.
Under these conditions, terminal X is connected to Y, but not to Z. When a sufficient
current is applied, the armature is pulled over to the other side. This disconnects
terminal X from terminal Y, and connects X to Z.
There are numerous types of relays used for different purposes. Some are meant for
use with dc, and others are for ac; a few will work with either type of current. A normally
closed relay completes the circuit when there is no current flowing in its electromagnet,
and breaks the circuit when current flows. A normally open relay is just the opposite.
(“Normal” in this sense means no current in the coil.) The relay in the illustration (Fig.
8-8) can be used either as a normally open or normally closed relay, depending on which
contacts are selected. It can also be used to switch a line between two different circuits.
Some relays have several sets of contacts. Some relays are meant to remain in one
state (either with current or without) for a long time, while others are meant to switch
several times per second. The fastest relays work dozens of times per second. These are
used for such purposes as keying radio transmitters in Morse code or radioteletype.In some electronic devices, it is inconvenient to place a switch exactly where it should
be. For example, you might want to switch a communications line from one branch to
another from a long distance away. In many radio transmitters, the wiring carries
high-frequency alternating currents that must be kept within certain parts of the circuit,
and not routed out to the front panel for switching. A relay makes use of a solenoid
to allow remote-control switching.
A diagram of a relay is shown in Fig. 8-8. The movable lever, called the armature,
is held to one side by a spring when there is no current flowing through the electromagnet.
Under these conditions, terminal X is connected to Y, but not to Z. When a sufficient
current is applied, the armature is pulled over to the other side. This disconnects
terminal X from terminal Y, and connects X to Z.
There are numerous types of relays used for different purposes. Some are meant for
use with dc, and others are for ac; a few will work with either type of current. A normally
closed relay completes the circuit when there is no current flowing in its electromagnet,
and breaks the circuit when current flows. A normally open relay is just the opposite.
(“Normal” in this sense means no current in the coil.) The relay in the illustration (Fig.
8-8) can be used either as a normally open or normally closed relay, depending on which
contacts are selected. It can also be used to switch a line between two different circuits.
Some relays have several sets of contacts. Some relays are meant to remain in one
state (either with current or without) for a long time, while others are meant to switch
several times per second. The fastest relays work dozens of times per second. These are
used for such purposes as keying radio transmitters in Morse code or radio teletype.


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verse

In free verse it is easier to convey a persons feelings becaus they do not have to worry about rhyme and meter. This allows the poet to write the most descriptive words and are able to get the point across in the best way to the reader. If the writer has to worry about rhyme and meter they will have to change up some words and might not be able to get the point accross the best way possible. This is the same aspect that makes poems in rhyme and meter so clever. If a writer is able to make the point that they want while keeping it in the meter and rhyme of the poem it is brillant. This adds a lot to the poem and makes the poem more attractive to many people. This gives the poem a catchiness and a hook which keeps the readers attention easier. If a poet makes his point the right way and uses the right metaphor they can write a brillant poem either way.

Little consensus on egg freezing

Freezing a woman's eggs for use later in fertility treatments doesn't seem to greatly increase birth defects or abnormalities, new data suggest. But the findings, presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) in Washington DC last week, are difficult to interpret. The field remains caught between researchers, most of whom say that the practice should still be considered experimental, and the public, which is itching to embrace the technology to extend a woman's fertile years.

Egg freezing is regarded as a positive, if costly, option for women facing illness or treatment that could truncate their fertility. But most researchers think that the procedure is not appropriate for women who wish to delay fertility for social, career or other non-health-related reasons.

“We acknowledge the interest women have in this technology,” says Marc Fritz, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But “there remain very few studies in which the safety and efficacy of this practice can be judged.”

Last week, an ASRM committee chaired by Fritz recommended that egg freezing continue to be considered experimental, and not be marketed or promoted to healthy young women.

“Every scrap of evidence comes with a dizzying number of caveats.”

Human eggs are large, fragile and filled with water, and both freezing and thawing can damage them. Freezing fertilized embryos is easier and more routine, but is less desirable for some women owing to social or ethical reasons. Some women wish to preserve eggs for the right partner, and couples can be uncomfortable with the prospect of freezing embryos.

Egg freezing, which has been in place for at least two decades, has not been used widely; doctors estimate that between 300 and 600 children have been born from formerly frozen eggs.

Safety remains one of the main concerns. At the ASRM meeting, Andrea Borini of the Centre for Reproductive Health in Bologna, Italy, reported that just 2 of 123 live births from his clinic's egg cryopreservation programme had major abnormalities: one had a nasal blockage, the other a rare developmental disorder called Rubinstein–Taybi Syndrome. (But both children had fathers with fertility problems; “we may need to look into that,” says Borini.)

Meanwhile, Ilan Tur-Kaspa of the Reproductive Genetics Institute in Chicago, Illinois, presented an analysis of more than 37 publications on children born from cryopreserved eggs. Of 555 live births, including those reported by Borini's group, he turned up just 3 other major abnormalities.

Demonstrating just how difficult the data are to interpret, Kutluk Oktay from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York says that his group tallies the number of reported births from cryopreserved eggs at closer to 300, not 555. He says that the Tur-Kaspa group missed some overlap in the studies — places where researchers re-reported earlier findings or where collaborative groups reported on each others' data. But Tur-Kaspa says that they looked closely for these instances, and says that “as far as we know there's no overlap”.

Nevertheless, the data are reassuring, Tur-Kaspa says. Five abnormalities in 550 births is a less than 1% abnormality rate — comparable to that for a natural pregnancy. The study didn't address efficacy, though. “We don't know the denominator — we don't know how many [pregnancies] were terminated,” says Oktay. “It gives you a summary of how many babies are out there and how many might have an abnormality. But none of the data we've seen out there is sufficient to say the issue is resolved.”

One problem in comparing studies is that eggs can be frozen several ways. The method Borini's group uses, known as slow-rate freezing, automatically cools the eggs in stages to subzero temperatures, in the hope that water will be forced out of the egg before it crystallizes. Another process, vitrification, is a flash-freezing process that requires more manual involvement.

Many practitioners think that vitrification is the superior technology, but few prospective studies have been done to compare the procedures. To help change that, Gary Smith, director of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies Laboratory at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, has been collaborating with a group at the Huntington Centre for Reproductive Medicine in São Paulo, Brazil. At the ASRM meeting, Smith presented results from a small study in which 28 slow-frozen eggs, and 35 vitrified ones, were thawed then fertilized. Further analysis of the results indicates that for every 21 oocytes frozen via vitrification, one pregnancy could be expected. The numbers were slightly worse for slow-rate freezing: 45 frozen eggs per pregnancy.

Doubts remain about egg cryopreservation, and every scrap of evidence comes with a dizzying number of caveats because of variability both in procedures and in patients. Still, some doctors are ready to broaden its use. “We're kind of at a point in this technology where it's kind of like a teeter totter,” says Smith. “For me the important thing is the completion of studies like this that give the patients information about the reality of these technologies.”

Cetuximab, the most expensive cancer drug

Cetuximab (marketed under the name Erbitux) is a chimeric monoclonal antibody, an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor, given by intravenous injection for treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer and head and neck cancer. Cetuximab was discovered by ImClone Systems and is distributed in North America by ImClone and Bristol-Myers Squibb, while in the rest of the world distribution is by Merck KGaA.

Cetuximab faces stiff competition^{[citation needed]} from bevacizumab (Avastin), from Genentech and Roche, and from panitumumab (Vectibix), from Amgen approved by the FDA in November 2006. One of the main differences is that Cetuximab is an IgG1 antibody, and Panitumumab an IgG2 one. Their properties are not absolutely identical[1]. Cetuximab costs $30,000 for eight weeks of treatment per patient.^[1]

Contents [hide] 1 Mode of action 2 Clinical uses 2.1 Colorectal Cancer 2.2 Head and neck cancer 3 ImClone insider trading scandal 4 References 5 External links

Mode of action

Cetuximab is believed to operate by binding to the extracellular domain of the EGFR of all cells that express EGFR, which includes the subset "cancer cells", preventing ligand binding and activation of the receptor. This blocks the downstream signaling of EGFR resulting in impaired cell growth and proliferation. Cetuximab has also been shown to mediate antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC).

Clinical uses

Colorectal Cancer

Cetuximab is used in metastatic colon cancer and is given concurrently with the chemotherapy drug irinotecan (Camptosar®), a form of chemotherapy that blocks the effect of DNA topoisomerase I, resulting in fatal damage to the DNA of affected cells. While there remains some scientific controversy on this, assessment for EGFR expression is required for use in Colorectal Cancer, but not in Head & Neck Cancer. It is best to refer to updated Prescription Information [2].

Head and neck cancer

Cetuximab was approved by the FDA in March 2006[3] for use in combination with radiation therapy for treating squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) or as a single agent in patients who have had prior platinum-based therapy.

One of the side effects of Cetuximab therapy is the incidence of, possibly severe, acne-like rash.

ImClone insider trading scandal

Further information: ImClone Systems#Insider trading scandal

The initial failure of ImClone Systems to prepare an acceptable FDA filing led to the infamous Martha Stewart insider trading scandal when ImClone's CEO sold ImClone shares and this information was leaked to Stewart before the FDA announced its refusal to approve the drug for public use. Martha Stewart, Samuel D. Waksal (the founder and former CEO of ImClone), and their broker were indicted, and Stewart and Waksal were sentenced to prison. ImClone shares dropped sharply in the aftermath of the insider trading scandal.

A new clinical trial and FDA filing prepared by Imclone's partner Merck KGaA ("German Merck," not to be confused with the US company of similar name) resulted in an FDA approval of the drug in 2004 for use in colon cancer.

Cells and batteries

ONE OF THE MOST COMMON AND MOST VERSATILE SOURCES OF DC IS THE CELL.
The term cell means self-contained compartment, and it can refer to any of various different
things in (and out of) science. In electricity and electronics, a cell is a unit source
of dc energy. There are dozens of different types of electrical cells.
When two or more cells are connected in series, the result is known as a battery.

Alkaline cells
The alkaline cell uses granular zinc for the negative electrode, potassium hydroxide as
the electrolyte, and a device called a polarizer as the positive electrode. The geometry
of construction is similar to that of the zinc-carbon cell. An alkaline cell can work at
lower temperatures than a zinc-carbon cell. It also lasts longer in most electronic devices,
and is therefore preferred for use in transistor radios, calculators, and portable
cassette players. Its shelf life is much longer than that of a zinc-carbon cell. As you
might expect, it costs more.

Transistor batteries
Those little 9-V things with the funny connectors on top consist of six tiny zinc-carbon
or alkaline cells in series. Each of the six cells supplies 1.5 V.
Even though these batteries have more voltage than individual cells, the total energy
available from them is less than that from a C cell or D cell. This is because the electrical
energy that can be gotten from a cell or battery is directly proportional to the
amount of chemical energy stored in it, and this, in turn, is a direct function of the volume
(size) of the cell. C or D size cells have more volume than a transistor battery, and
therefore contain more stored energy, assuming the same chemical type.
The ampere-hour capacity of a transistor battery is very small. But transistor radios
don’t need much current. These batteries are also used in other low-current electronic
devices, such as remote-control garage-door openers, TV channel changers, remote
video-cassette recorder (VCR) controls, and electronic calculators.

Lantern batteries
These get their name from the fact that they find much of their use in lanterns. These are
the batteries with a good, solid mass so they last a long time. One type has spring contacts
on the top. The other type has thumbscrew terminals. Besides keeping a lantern lit
for awhile, these big batteries, usually rated at 6 V and consisting of four good-size
zinc-carbon or alkaline cells, can provide enough energy to operate a low-power radio
transceiver. Two of them in series make a 12-V battery that can power a 5-W Citizen
Band (CB) or ham radio. They’re also good for scanner radio receivers in portable locations,
for camping lamps, and for other medium-power needs


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