Many University Web Pages consider that many IEEE Conferences are garbage. Some of them consider that even in the IEEE Journals the review is quite ridiculous and has only to do with your public relations in IEEE and its conferences or if you have put as co-author
some important editor of IEEE
See these link and examine the word: unrefereed
http://www.ece.ncsu.edu/imaging/Publications/unrefereed.html
http://sekmen-cs.tnstate.edu/sekmen/sekmen/ConferencePapersNonRefereed.html
http://www.utdallas.edu/~rmt042000/publications.htm
http://www.math.duke.edu/~das/cv/unrefpub.html
http://web.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~rdv/publications.html
http://www.yawlfoundation.org/arthur/publications/index.php
http://softbase.uwaterloo.ca/~ddbms/projects/multimedia/publications.html
http://npal.ucsd.edu/publications/index.htm
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~awm22/publications/index.html
From http://netdriver.blogspot.com
Forward this message to your mailing lists with reference to us
http://netdriver.blogspot.com/2009/12/many-universities-consider-that-many.html
See also
http://iaria-highsci.blogspot.com
Thursday, 24 December 2009
Important Announcement for Academicians: Many University Web Pages consider that many IEEE Conferences are garbage.
Monday, 21 December 2009
Mexico City legalizes same-sex marriage, adoptions
Mexico City, one of Latin America's largest metropolises, on Monday legalized same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples.
By a vote of 39 to 20, the city's legislative assembly approved revisions to the civil code to permit same-sex marriages. Five legislators abstained.
In a separate motion, the assembly voted 31 to 24 in favor of legalizing adoption by same-sex couples, with nine abstentions.
The revision will change the definition of marriage to a union between two people, instead of the current version, which specifies a union between a man and a woman.
Civil groups in favor and opposed to the vote had gathered since early in the morning outside the legislative building.
In 2007, the legislators approved same-sex civil unions.
Mexico City is the second major Latin American city to legalize same-sex marriage.
In November, a Buenos Aires, Argentina, court legalized same-sex marriages. The first marriage to be held under the new law, however, was delayed over legal wrangling in the courts.
See: http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/12/mexico-city-legalizes-same-sex-marriage.html
By a vote of 39 to 20, the city's legislative assembly approved revisions to the civil code to permit same-sex marriages. Five legislators abstained.
In a separate motion, the assembly voted 31 to 24 in favor of legalizing adoption by same-sex couples, with nine abstentions.
The revision will change the definition of marriage to a union between two people, instead of the current version, which specifies a union between a man and a woman.
Civil groups in favor and opposed to the vote had gathered since early in the morning outside the legislative building.
In 2007, the legislators approved same-sex civil unions.
Mexico City is the second major Latin American city to legalize same-sex marriage.
In November, a Buenos Aires, Argentina, court legalized same-sex marriages. The first marriage to be held under the new law, however, was delayed over legal wrangling in the courts.
See: http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/12/mexico-city-legalizes-same-sex-marriage.html
COPENHAGEN, HOPENHAGEN, HOAXHAGEN
FROM: http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/12/copenhagen-hopenhagen-hoaxhagen.html
Redfaced and fuming Jose Barroso, Goering of Fourth Reich, points out the Copenhagen accord is better than no accord. Copenhagen was not Hopenhagen, but Hoaxhagen! Barroso was hoping to hoodwink the conferees with his superhoax, but venitists were one step ahead of him, distributing three messages to all conferees:
* Basil Venitis, twitter.com/Venitis, has proven that climate change is heliogenic, not anthropogenic. Nevertheless, carbonstruck kleptocrats, using buzzwords like carbon footprint and clean energy, are growing a socialist movement that won't actually benefit Gaia, but will make our lives miserable, spread by the cancer of socialism. Temperature fluctuations are only due to Sun cycles, but are used as an antivenitist instrument, not a real object of interest for socialists who camouflage the environmental game. Climate scaremongers ask for an unprecedented socialistic control of our lives. Socialism camouflaged as environmentalism! Those who accept the alarmist view of anthropogenic climate change are marionettes of antivenitist pullpeddlers, socialist kleptocrats, producers of green technologies, agribusiness producing ethanol, and trading firms dealing in carbon emission rights.
* Venitis muses that kleptocrats selling pollution permits to industry reminds us of the Catholic Church selling indulgences to sinners! Cap-and-Trade spreads the caner of socialism and thus stifles innovation. We also know that strong economies innovate better than weak ones, but cap and trade weakens economies. Perhaps most importantly, venitist economies innovate better than antivenitist ones, especially for something like energy where the investments often run into the billions of dollars and the payoffs play out over decades. But cap and trade adds a significant element of antivenitism, with wild swings in the price of carbon allowances, and energy companies less interested in long-term investment and more interested in short-term gaming of the system.
* Cap-and-Trade does not cap environmental sin but merely trades a self-serving socialist agenda for economic misery. Environmental health and longevity has a shrine in venitism. This shrine, free from the yoke of excessive regulation, protects and rewards the good steward of conservation. It nurtures the economy, promotes venitist policies that ensure environmental immortality, and persecutes those who abuse our natural resources. Rather than being wary of venitism's ability to shepherd good energy and environmental policy, we should protect our flocks from promises of false profits made by antivenitist pseudoprophets.
Barroso now claims the Copenhagen superjunket was a positive step but clearly below Fourthreichian ambition. Fourthreichians have to be honest when they analyze this result, there are many bad things, some good things and some not so good things. Barroso cannot hide his disappointment regarding the ambition in terms of the binding nature or non-binding nature of the future agreement. On this particular point, the accord falls far short of his expectations for the future flow of kickbacks to his Eurokleptocrats!
Herman Van Rompuy, Fuehrer of Fourth Reich(EU), points out Fourthreichian level of ambition has not been matched, especially as there was not an agreement on the need to have a legally binding agreement. And this is of course is a matter of concern for Fourth Reich, because Eurokleptocrats believe it is important that globokleptocrats commit globally to the actions that they need to develop to hoodwink climate change.
Catherine Ashton, Ribbentrop of Fourth Reich(EU), points out this was the first time globokleptocrats could put, in an agreement at this scare level, the actions that have been now pledged by many other parties, parties that so far had not committed to these kinds of actions. And Eurokleptocrats believe that the fact that Fourth Reich has committed, and already has in its legislation, these kinds of actions was, in fact, a very important trigger for announcements that have been made on development and from developing countries.
Pierre de Boissieu, Hess of Fourth Reich, points out globokleptocrats have three pillars in this text on which they can build pseudoprogress: emission reductions, finance, and pseudotransparency. But the climate scare hoodwink to achieve a higher level of ambition goes on, and this hoodwink is one Eurokleptocrats cannot afford to lose.
Viviane Reding, Himmler of Fourth Reich, points out Copenhagen was a first step, but globokleptocrats need many more steps in the future. And Fourthreichians will pursue with their ambition. Fourth Reich's commitments will be delivered - that will not change - Fourthreichian commitments are not just words in press releases, they are binding for all Fourth Reich slave States and Fourthreichians reiterated during the conference that Fourthreichians are even ready to go further if they see some more movement from other partners.
Maros Sefcovic, Goebbels of Fourth Reich(EU), points out especially important was the fact that Eurokleptocrats kept their commitment regarding the support to Third World countries. Their African partners and others very specifically thanked them for that, because not all have contributed to what Eurokleptocrats believe is a very important obligation, which is the need to support the poorest, the most vulnerable in their hoodwink for climate scare. 100 billion euros will be squandered to Third World countries, which will find their way to the secret offshore accounts of motherfucker Afrokleptocrats!
The Fuehrer muses that the untouchable Graecokleptocrats, the most corrupt politicians on Earth, those freaks that enjoy full impunity and full parliamentary immunity, assert that Eurokleptocrats now need to take this process into a new phase and learn new hoodwinking lessons from this mumbojumbo experience. Their conclusion is that this is global challenge that they cannot ignore, because it will bring many kickbacks to all Eurokleptocrats!
Globokleptocrats have no alternative but to keep working together to maintain their flows of kickbacks. This was the first experiment in working together, there are important points that have been agreed, after all it is a kleptocratic agreement. But the level of agreement is honestly not what they have been hoping for the flow of their kickbacks.
Basil Venitis, twitter.com/Venitis, points out Eurokleptocracy, gigaregulation, Antitrust Armageddon, and gigataxation, especially VAT, are the real causes of the European financial meltdown. Democracy in Fourth Reich(EU) has deteriorated to kleptocracy, and Fourthreichians, aka Europeans, are mad as hell. Eurokleptocracy thrives on waste, fraud, and abuse(WFA), and Fourthreichians who don't know what they're talking about. European Union(EU), aka Fourth Reich, an illegal unvoted confederation, condones the European Commission(EC), aka Eldorado of Corruption, the European Parliament(EP), aka Eldorado of Prostitutes, and Graecokleptocrats, the most corrupt politicians on Earth. No Graecokleptocrat has ever gone to jail! Venitis asserts that impunity of Graecokleptocrats is the most freakish justice in the world!
The Fuehrer notes that most of the money promised in the Copenhagen accord will come from VAT. Venitis asserts that VAT is a trademark of slavery and a destruction power of myriad watts. VAT is the main culprit of the Fourthreichian financial meltdown. The Fourthreichian taxation is based on the VAT monstrosity against poor people! The most unfair tax is VAT, the calamity of Fourth Reich(EU); that's why Vatbuster Venitis urges all Fourthreichians to evade this tax of misery as much as possible! Fourthreichians are yoked with a 15-25% VAT, value added tax. In Canada, VAT is only 5%. The burden of VAT falls on final consumers of products.
The Fuehrer points out VAT, aka kleptocrat's grab, is a regressive tax; the poor pay higher percentage of their income. Revenues from VAT are much lower than expected, because they are difficult and costly to administer and collect. Since any double-digit VAT leads many venitists to underground economy, most vatstruck Fourthreichians evade VAT! As a matter of fact, if you are a real patriot, you should boycott shops that charge VAT! VAT is the cacothanasia of Fourth Reich!
Venitis asserts that VAT and kleptocracy are two good reasons to get out of Fourth Reich(EU) now. Vatstruck Fourthreichians are looking for a Moses to liberate them from the yoke of Brussels. They have to do it now, before a new imposed treaty between Eurokleptocrats tie their hands forever. Californians and Texans want to get out of USA, but Uncle Sam does not allow it. The same thing might happen with Britons and Greeks. Infinite infinitesimal amendments to treaties might accumulate over time, leading to huge changes of original intent, enslaving all Fourthreichians to antivenitist Brussels forever!
Vatmonger Eurokleptocrats declare that Fourth Reich aid to Third World is a manifestation of Fourth Reich's benevolence! To whom vatbuster Basil Venitis replies: It's not yours to give! Antivenitist Eurokleptocrats cannot understand how much it hurts when a poor vatstruck Greek mother who cannot pay the rent and feed her children learns that the VAT money she pays goes to motherfucker cacodemon kleptocrats of Third World! Arafat's widow inherited two billion euros; that's Fourth Reich aid money Yasser Arafat stole from the Palestinian people! Most Fourth Reich aid money finds its way to the secret offshore accounts of kleptocrats and the laps of terrorists. This is Euromalevolence, pure and simple!
Venitis asserts that when an economy suffers from erectile dysfunction, via-grab does not work, but only via-cut. The via recommended is to cut taxes, not grab more taxes. There are limits to how much government can tax before it kills the host. Even worse, when government attempts to subsidize prices, it has the net effect of inflating them instead. The economic reality is that you cannot distort natural market pressures without unintended consequences. Market forces would drive prices down. Government meddling negates these pressures, adds regulatory compliance costs and layers of bureaucracy, and in the end, drives prices up.
It's your venitist duty to avoid and evade taxes all the way! Venitis points out that tax competition between jurisdictions holds down the cancer of government, and all people experience more opportunities and more wealth. If businesses and individuals are discouraged from investing outside their own jurisdictions, they will simply choose to work less and take no major business risks. All antivenitist governments are corrupt, and without the last bastions of freedom, aka taxhavens, enforcing financial privacy, citizens would have no place to protect their financial assets from kleptocrats, kidnappers, extortionists, blackmailers, and thugs. Evade taxes now as much as you can! Allons enfants de la Patrie!
The Fuehrer notes the Fourth Reich originates from the Red House Report, a detailed account of a secret meeting at the Maison Rouge Hotel in Strasbourg, a couple of blocks from today's Eldorado of Prostitutes(EP), on August 10, 1944. There, Nazi officials instructed an elite group of German industrialists to plan for Germany's post-war recovery, prepare for the Nazis' return to power, and work for a strong Fourth Reich. The three-page, closely typed report, marked Secret, copied by British spies and sent to the US Secretary of State, detailed how the industrialists were to work with the Nazi Party to rebuild Germany's economy by sending money through Switzerland. They would set up a network of secret front companies abroad, wait until conditions were right, and then take over Europe.
Venitis muses that Lisbon Treaty is the climax of the Red House Report! After eight years of popular rejection, political cajoling, and endless hand-wringing, Fourth Reich ratified the Lisbon Treaty without a shred of democratic legitimacy or public support. The Lisbon Treaty was born from the twice rejected European Constitution, which was voted down in public referenda held in France and Holland in 2005. The Lisbon Treaty itself was rejected in a referendum held in Ireland in 2008, until Dublin was forced into holding a second referendum in October 2009. Ireland's Fourth Reich Commissar, Charlie McCreevy stated that if the Lisbon Treaty had been put to a public vote across the Fourth Reich, it would have been rejected by 95 percent of Fourthreichians.
http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/12/copenhagen-hopenhagen-hoaxhagen.html
Redfaced and fuming Jose Barroso, Goering of Fourth Reich, points out the Copenhagen accord is better than no accord. Copenhagen was not Hopenhagen, but Hoaxhagen! Barroso was hoping to hoodwink the conferees with his superhoax, but venitists were one step ahead of him, distributing three messages to all conferees:
* Basil Venitis, twitter.com/Venitis, has proven that climate change is heliogenic, not anthropogenic. Nevertheless, carbonstruck kleptocrats, using buzzwords like carbon footprint and clean energy, are growing a socialist movement that won't actually benefit Gaia, but will make our lives miserable, spread by the cancer of socialism. Temperature fluctuations are only due to Sun cycles, but are used as an antivenitist instrument, not a real object of interest for socialists who camouflage the environmental game. Climate scaremongers ask for an unprecedented socialistic control of our lives. Socialism camouflaged as environmentalism! Those who accept the alarmist view of anthropogenic climate change are marionettes of antivenitist pullpeddlers, socialist kleptocrats, producers of green technologies, agribusiness producing ethanol, and trading firms dealing in carbon emission rights.
* Venitis muses that kleptocrats selling pollution permits to industry reminds us of the Catholic Church selling indulgences to sinners! Cap-and-Trade spreads the caner of socialism and thus stifles innovation. We also know that strong economies innovate better than weak ones, but cap and trade weakens economies. Perhaps most importantly, venitist economies innovate better than antivenitist ones, especially for something like energy where the investments often run into the billions of dollars and the payoffs play out over decades. But cap and trade adds a significant element of antivenitism, with wild swings in the price of carbon allowances, and energy companies less interested in long-term investment and more interested in short-term gaming of the system.
* Cap-and-Trade does not cap environmental sin but merely trades a self-serving socialist agenda for economic misery. Environmental health and longevity has a shrine in venitism. This shrine, free from the yoke of excessive regulation, protects and rewards the good steward of conservation. It nurtures the economy, promotes venitist policies that ensure environmental immortality, and persecutes those who abuse our natural resources. Rather than being wary of venitism's ability to shepherd good energy and environmental policy, we should protect our flocks from promises of false profits made by antivenitist pseudoprophets.
Barroso now claims the Copenhagen superjunket was a positive step but clearly below Fourthreichian ambition. Fourthreichians have to be honest when they analyze this result, there are many bad things, some good things and some not so good things. Barroso cannot hide his disappointment regarding the ambition in terms of the binding nature or non-binding nature of the future agreement. On this particular point, the accord falls far short of his expectations for the future flow of kickbacks to his Eurokleptocrats!
Herman Van Rompuy, Fuehrer of Fourth Reich(EU), points out Fourthreichian level of ambition has not been matched, especially as there was not an agreement on the need to have a legally binding agreement. And this is of course is a matter of concern for Fourth Reich, because Eurokleptocrats believe it is important that globokleptocrats commit globally to the actions that they need to develop to hoodwink climate change.
Catherine Ashton, Ribbentrop of Fourth Reich(EU), points out this was the first time globokleptocrats could put, in an agreement at this scare level, the actions that have been now pledged by many other parties, parties that so far had not committed to these kinds of actions. And Eurokleptocrats believe that the fact that Fourth Reich has committed, and already has in its legislation, these kinds of actions was, in fact, a very important trigger for announcements that have been made on development and from developing countries.
Pierre de Boissieu, Hess of Fourth Reich, points out globokleptocrats have three pillars in this text on which they can build pseudoprogress: emission reductions, finance, and pseudotransparency. But the climate scare hoodwink to achieve a higher level of ambition goes on, and this hoodwink is one Eurokleptocrats cannot afford to lose.
Viviane Reding, Himmler of Fourth Reich, points out Copenhagen was a first step, but globokleptocrats need many more steps in the future. And Fourthreichians will pursue with their ambition. Fourth Reich's commitments will be delivered - that will not change - Fourthreichian commitments are not just words in press releases, they are binding for all Fourth Reich slave States and Fourthreichians reiterated during the conference that Fourthreichians are even ready to go further if they see some more movement from other partners.
Maros Sefcovic, Goebbels of Fourth Reich(EU), points out especially important was the fact that Eurokleptocrats kept their commitment regarding the support to Third World countries. Their African partners and others very specifically thanked them for that, because not all have contributed to what Eurokleptocrats believe is a very important obligation, which is the need to support the poorest, the most vulnerable in their hoodwink for climate scare. 100 billion euros will be squandered to Third World countries, which will find their way to the secret offshore accounts of motherfucker Afrokleptocrats!
The Fuehrer muses that the untouchable Graecokleptocrats, the most corrupt politicians on Earth, those freaks that enjoy full impunity and full parliamentary immunity, assert that Eurokleptocrats now need to take this process into a new phase and learn new hoodwinking lessons from this mumbojumbo experience. Their conclusion is that this is global challenge that they cannot ignore, because it will bring many kickbacks to all Eurokleptocrats!
Globokleptocrats have no alternative but to keep working together to maintain their flows of kickbacks. This was the first experiment in working together, there are important points that have been agreed, after all it is a kleptocratic agreement. But the level of agreement is honestly not what they have been hoping for the flow of their kickbacks.
Basil Venitis, twitter.com/Venitis, points out Eurokleptocracy, gigaregulation, Antitrust Armageddon, and gigataxation, especially VAT, are the real causes of the European financial meltdown. Democracy in Fourth Reich(EU) has deteriorated to kleptocracy, and Fourthreichians, aka Europeans, are mad as hell. Eurokleptocracy thrives on waste, fraud, and abuse(WFA), and Fourthreichians who don't know what they're talking about. European Union(EU), aka Fourth Reich, an illegal unvoted confederation, condones the European Commission(EC), aka Eldorado of Corruption, the European Parliament(EP), aka Eldorado of Prostitutes, and Graecokleptocrats, the most corrupt politicians on Earth. No Graecokleptocrat has ever gone to jail! Venitis asserts that impunity of Graecokleptocrats is the most freakish justice in the world!
The Fuehrer notes that most of the money promised in the Copenhagen accord will come from VAT. Venitis asserts that VAT is a trademark of slavery and a destruction power of myriad watts. VAT is the main culprit of the Fourthreichian financial meltdown. The Fourthreichian taxation is based on the VAT monstrosity against poor people! The most unfair tax is VAT, the calamity of Fourth Reich(EU); that's why Vatbuster Venitis urges all Fourthreichians to evade this tax of misery as much as possible! Fourthreichians are yoked with a 15-25% VAT, value added tax. In Canada, VAT is only 5%. The burden of VAT falls on final consumers of products.
The Fuehrer points out VAT, aka kleptocrat's grab, is a regressive tax; the poor pay higher percentage of their income. Revenues from VAT are much lower than expected, because they are difficult and costly to administer and collect. Since any double-digit VAT leads many venitists to underground economy, most vatstruck Fourthreichians evade VAT! As a matter of fact, if you are a real patriot, you should boycott shops that charge VAT! VAT is the cacothanasia of Fourth Reich!
Venitis asserts that VAT and kleptocracy are two good reasons to get out of Fourth Reich(EU) now. Vatstruck Fourthreichians are looking for a Moses to liberate them from the yoke of Brussels. They have to do it now, before a new imposed treaty between Eurokleptocrats tie their hands forever. Californians and Texans want to get out of USA, but Uncle Sam does not allow it. The same thing might happen with Britons and Greeks. Infinite infinitesimal amendments to treaties might accumulate over time, leading to huge changes of original intent, enslaving all Fourthreichians to antivenitist Brussels forever!
Vatmonger Eurokleptocrats declare that Fourth Reich aid to Third World is a manifestation of Fourth Reich's benevolence! To whom vatbuster Basil Venitis replies: It's not yours to give! Antivenitist Eurokleptocrats cannot understand how much it hurts when a poor vatstruck Greek mother who cannot pay the rent and feed her children learns that the VAT money she pays goes to motherfucker cacodemon kleptocrats of Third World! Arafat's widow inherited two billion euros; that's Fourth Reich aid money Yasser Arafat stole from the Palestinian people! Most Fourth Reich aid money finds its way to the secret offshore accounts of kleptocrats and the laps of terrorists. This is Euromalevolence, pure and simple!
Venitis asserts that when an economy suffers from erectile dysfunction, via-grab does not work, but only via-cut. The via recommended is to cut taxes, not grab more taxes. There are limits to how much government can tax before it kills the host. Even worse, when government attempts to subsidize prices, it has the net effect of inflating them instead. The economic reality is that you cannot distort natural market pressures without unintended consequences. Market forces would drive prices down. Government meddling negates these pressures, adds regulatory compliance costs and layers of bureaucracy, and in the end, drives prices up.
It's your venitist duty to avoid and evade taxes all the way! Venitis points out that tax competition between jurisdictions holds down the cancer of government, and all people experience more opportunities and more wealth. If businesses and individuals are discouraged from investing outside their own jurisdictions, they will simply choose to work less and take no major business risks. All antivenitist governments are corrupt, and without the last bastions of freedom, aka taxhavens, enforcing financial privacy, citizens would have no place to protect their financial assets from kleptocrats, kidnappers, extortionists, blackmailers, and thugs. Evade taxes now as much as you can! Allons enfants de la Patrie!
The Fuehrer notes the Fourth Reich originates from the Red House Report, a detailed account of a secret meeting at the Maison Rouge Hotel in Strasbourg, a couple of blocks from today's Eldorado of Prostitutes(EP), on August 10, 1944. There, Nazi officials instructed an elite group of German industrialists to plan for Germany's post-war recovery, prepare for the Nazis' return to power, and work for a strong Fourth Reich. The three-page, closely typed report, marked Secret, copied by British spies and sent to the US Secretary of State, detailed how the industrialists were to work with the Nazi Party to rebuild Germany's economy by sending money through Switzerland. They would set up a network of secret front companies abroad, wait until conditions were right, and then take over Europe.
Venitis muses that Lisbon Treaty is the climax of the Red House Report! After eight years of popular rejection, political cajoling, and endless hand-wringing, Fourth Reich ratified the Lisbon Treaty without a shred of democratic legitimacy or public support. The Lisbon Treaty was born from the twice rejected European Constitution, which was voted down in public referenda held in France and Holland in 2005. The Lisbon Treaty itself was rejected in a referendum held in Ireland in 2008, until Dublin was forced into holding a second referendum in October 2009. Ireland's Fourth Reich Commissar, Charlie McCreevy stated that if the Lisbon Treaty had been put to a public vote across the Fourth Reich, it would have been rejected by 95 percent of Fourthreichians.
http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/12/copenhagen-hopenhagen-hoaxhagen.html
Even if climate change is a fiasco (which it isn't, as I know well, being an Environmental Engineer)
Even if climate change is a fiasco (which it isn't, as I know well, being an Environmental Engineer) it would actually be quite wrong to not wane ourselves from our dependence on foreign oil and fossil fuels in general, so as to renew our energy security and economic independence. It would also lessen the amount of money these various dictators receive from exploiting the fossil riches of their countries. Therefore, even if you don't believe that we are in imminent danger (and it could well be that those of us alive today will not experience catastrophic climate change in our lifetimes) there are many better reasons for actually supporting the Copenhagen resolution, such as it is, than just the welfare of your unborn children in their old age.
Those of you who still doubt the science despite not being scientists yourselves and thus unable to understand the mathematics underpinning the science, you would do the whole world a favour by supporting energy independence and deliverance from imported oil DESPITE your reservations about the truth of climate change.
Those of you who still doubt the science despite not being scientists yourselves and thus unable to understand the mathematics underpinning the science, you would do the whole world a favour by supporting energy independence and deliverance from imported oil DESPITE your reservations about the truth of climate change.
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Iran tested an upgraded version of a surface-to-surface missile with a range that makes it capable of reaching parts of Europe,
Iran tested an upgraded version of a surface-to-surface missile with a range that makes it capable of reaching parts of Europe, state-run television reported Wednesday.
Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi said on Press-TV that the solid-fuel, high-speed Sajil-2 missile has "great maneuverability" and can access targets more than 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) away, making Israel and U.S. military bases in the Gulf reachable.
Vahidi said the missile has a shorter launch time and is intended to boost Iran's deterrent capability.
Iran tested the initial version of the Sajil-2 back in May.
Then in September, days before a key meeting over nuclear issues with industrialized powers, Iran tested two types of long-range missiles. Those tests drew condemnation after the Islamic republic revealed the existence of a covert uranium enrichment site near the city of Qom.
Iran shocked the world with that revelation. Since then, it has allowed inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to visit the plant.
Western powers fear Iran is intent on developing nuclear weapons. That's a claim Tehran denies, but the latest test-firing of the Sajil-2 could add to existing tensions.
SOURCE: CNN
Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi said on Press-TV that the solid-fuel, high-speed Sajil-2 missile has "great maneuverability" and can access targets more than 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) away, making Israel and U.S. military bases in the Gulf reachable.
Vahidi said the missile has a shorter launch time and is intended to boost Iran's deterrent capability.
Iran tested the initial version of the Sajil-2 back in May.
Then in September, days before a key meeting over nuclear issues with industrialized powers, Iran tested two types of long-range missiles. Those tests drew condemnation after the Islamic republic revealed the existence of a covert uranium enrichment site near the city of Qom.
Iran shocked the world with that revelation. Since then, it has allowed inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to visit the plant.
Western powers fear Iran is intent on developing nuclear weapons. That's a claim Tehran denies, but the latest test-firing of the Sajil-2 could add to existing tensions.
SOURCE: CNN
Sunday, 13 December 2009
BRAIN DAMAGING HABITS and FOODS THAT CAUSE CANCER
BRAIN DAMAGING HABITS
1. No Breakfast. People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level. This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.
2 . Overeating. It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.
3. Smoking. It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.
4. High Sugar consumption Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.
5. Air Pollution. The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our 20 body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.
6 . Sleep Deprivation. Sleep allows our brain to rest.. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells..
7. Head covered while sleeping. Sleeping with the head covered increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.
8. Working your brain during illness. Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.
9. Lacking in stimulating thoughts. Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.
10. Talking Rarely Intellectual conv ers ations will promote the efficiency of the brain
The main causes of liver damage are:
1. Sleeping too late and waking up too late are main cause.
2. Not urinating in the morning.
3 . Too much eating.
4. Skipping breakfast.
5. Consuming too much medication.
6. Consuming too much preservatives, additives, food coloring, and artificial sweetener.
7. Consuming unhealthy cooking oil. As much as possible reduce cooking oil use when frying, which includes even the best cooking oils like olive oil. Do not consume fried foods when you are tired, except if the body is20very fit.
8. Consuming raw (overly done) foods also add to the burden of liver. Veggies should be eaten raw or cooked 3-5 parts. Fried veggies should be finished in one sitting, do not store.
We should prevent this without necessarily spending more. We just have to adopt a good daily lifestyle and eating habits. Maintaining good eating habits and time condition are very important for our bodies to absorb and get rid of unnecessary chemicals according to 'schedule.'
The top five cancer-causing foods are:
1.. Hot Dogs
Because they are high in nitrates, the Cancer Prevention Coalition advises that children eat no more than 12 hot dogs a month. If you can't live without hot dogs, buy those made without sodium nitrate.
2. Processed meats and Bacon
Also high in the same sodium nitrates found in hot dogs, bacon, and other processed meats raise the risk of heart disease. The saturated fat in bacon also contributes to cancer.
3. Doughnuts
Doughnuts are cancer-causing double trouble. First, they are made with white flour, sugar, and hydrogenated oils, then fried at high temperatures. Doughnuts, says Adams , may be the worst food you can possibly eat to raise your risk of cancer.
4. French fries
Like doughnuts, French fries are made with hydrogenated oils and then fried at high temperatures. They also contain cancer- causing acryl amides which occur during the frying process. They should be called cancer fries, not French fries, said Adams .
5. Chips, crackers , and cookies
All are usually made with white flour and sugar.. Even the ones whose labels claim to be free of trans-fats generally contain small amounts of trans-fats.
http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/12/brain-damaging-habits.html
1. No Breakfast. People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level. This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.
2 . Overeating. It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.
3. Smoking. It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.
4. High Sugar consumption Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.
5. Air Pollution. The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our 20 body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.
6 . Sleep Deprivation. Sleep allows our brain to rest.. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells..
7. Head covered while sleeping. Sleeping with the head covered increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.
8. Working your brain during illness. Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.
9. Lacking in stimulating thoughts. Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.
10. Talking Rarely Intellectual conv ers ations will promote the efficiency of the brain
The main causes of liver damage are:
1. Sleeping too late and waking up too late are main cause.
2. Not urinating in the morning.
3 . Too much eating.
4. Skipping breakfast.
5. Consuming too much medication.
6. Consuming too much preservatives, additives, food coloring, and artificial sweetener.
7. Consuming unhealthy cooking oil. As much as possible reduce cooking oil use when frying, which includes even the best cooking oils like olive oil. Do not consume fried foods when you are tired, except if the body is20very fit.
8. Consuming raw (overly done) foods also add to the burden of liver. Veggies should be eaten raw or cooked 3-5 parts. Fried veggies should be finished in one sitting, do not store.
We should prevent this without necessarily spending more. We just have to adopt a good daily lifestyle and eating habits. Maintaining good eating habits and time condition are very important for our bodies to absorb and get rid of unnecessary chemicals according to 'schedule.'
The top five cancer-causing foods are:
1.. Hot Dogs
Because they are high in nitrates, the Cancer Prevention Coalition advises that children eat no more than 12 hot dogs a month. If you can't live without hot dogs, buy those made without sodium nitrate.
2. Processed meats and Bacon
Also high in the same sodium nitrates found in hot dogs, bacon, and other processed meats raise the risk of heart disease. The saturated fat in bacon also contributes to cancer.
3. Doughnuts
Doughnuts are cancer-causing double trouble. First, they are made with white flour, sugar, and hydrogenated oils, then fried at high temperatures. Doughnuts, says Adams , may be the worst food you can possibly eat to raise your risk of cancer.
4. French fries
Like doughnuts, French fries are made with hydrogenated oils and then fried at high temperatures. They also contain cancer- causing acryl amides which occur during the frying process. They should be called cancer fries, not French fries, said Adams .
5. Chips, crackers , and cookies
All are usually made with white flour and sugar.. Even the ones whose labels claim to be free of trans-fats generally contain small amounts of trans-fats.
http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/12/brain-damaging-habits.html
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
How can you take the Nobel Peace Prize, Mr. Obama, while fighting wars in two countries???
President Obama -- fighting wars in two countries -- will arrive in Norway on Thursday to accept the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.
The president will spend 26 hours in Oslo meeting the royal family, accepting the Nobel at an afternoon ceremony and attending an award banquet that evening.
At the ceremony, Obama will accept a $1.4 million prize check, a gold medal and a diploma.
He also will speak at the ceremony, which will be streamed live on CNN.com starting at 7 a.m. ET. He will touch on the war in Afghanistan, for which he last week announced a surge of 30,000 U.S. troops, said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.
Obama's day will begin with a trip to the Nobel Institute, where he will meet for the first time the five-member panel that unanimously picked him for the prize, said Mette Owre of the Norwegian Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The president and first lady Michelle Obama will then meet with Norway's King Harald V and Queen Sonja before heading to the award ceremony.
"Then he goes to the hotel where he is staying. He will have some downtime. He is governing America at the time," Owre said.
In the evening, the president will be the guest of honor at a banquet where the king and queen and the Norwegian prime minister will be among 250 attendees, Owre said.
Obama's Nobel Prize win, announced in October, elicited swift reaction -- some hailing the choice; others asking what he had accomplished to deserve it.
Nominations for the prize had to be postmarked by February 1, only 12 days after Obama took office. The committee sent out its solicitation for nominations last September, two months before Obama was elected president.
The Mexican military has tortured and illegally killed citizens and committed other serious human rights violations ...
The Mexican military has tortured and illegally killed citizens and committed other serious human rights violations as it battles the nation's drug cartels and organized crime groups, Amnesty International said in a report Tuesday.
The human rights group accuses authorities of failing to investigate allegations of abuses by the military, including abductions, extrajudicial and other unlawful killings, torture, ill treatment and arbitrary detentions.
"There is a disturbing pattern of crimes committed by the military in their security operations, abuse that is being denied and ignored by both the civilian and the military authorities in Mexico," said Kerrie Howard, deputy director of Amnesty International's Americas program.
The Mexican government issued a statement late Tuesday saying the country's interior secretary will analyze the report carefully and will make recommendations at the appropriate time.
"The federal government recognizes the work that the armed forces are doing in combatting crime and organized delinquency," the statement said. "At the same time, the government recognizes the consequences its actions could generate in its contact with the citizenry, so it has adopted preventive measures.
"In this sentiment, the Mexican government has full intent and ability to punish authorities and public servants who could commit any violation of human rights in the exercise of their functions and duties."
Mexican President Felipe Calderon did not address the report but mentioned human rights at a ceremony Tuesday.
"It is time to redouble our efforts to leave our children the Mexico that we want, and that Mexico that we want should be, of course, a Mexico that scrupulously respects the fundamental rights of people," Calderon said.
Analysts said Mexican officials are keenly aware of the situation.
"It's an issue that has raised concern on both sides of the border," said Andrew Selee, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute. "It's an issue that everybody's talking about."
The Mexican military has played an increasingly important role in the war on drug cartels that Calderon declared after assuming office in December 2006. Nearly 50,000 troops have been posted nationally to troubled areas such as Ciudad Juarez, where vicious drug gangs have outmatched and outgunned local and state police.
Nearly 14,000 drug-related killings have been reported in the nation from January 2008 to July 2009, the Mexican National Human Rights Commission said. Ciudad Juarez, on the U.S. border, has accounted for more than 3,000 deaths from January 2008 through September 2009, the Human Rights Commission said.
The abuses are a consequence of that violence and the stepped-up military presence, some analysts said.
"Once a decision was made that the military was going to take a frontal role in the combat against organized crime, it had to be expected that the number of complaints was going to increase a lot," said Ana Maria Salazar, a TV and radio commentator in Mexico City.
"The issue here," she said, "is whether there is a pattern, and is there a pattern being approved by Mexican authorities? Is it something that the Mexican government is using as a strategy to fight organized crime? I don't think that's the case."
London, England-based Amnesty International said it sees a "growing trend of abuses."
The National Human Rights Commission received nearly 2,000 complaints of abuse by the military between January 2008 and June 2009, Amnesty International said. By comparison, there were 367 complaints in 2007 and 182 in 2006.
Amnesty International said it believes many more cases go unreported.
For example, the international organization said, a human rights group in Nuevo Laredo reported receiving 70 complaints involving arbitrary detention, torture and other ill treatment by the military between January 2008 and September 2009. But only 21 individuals lodged legal complaints. The rest feared reprisals, Amnesty International said.
"The cases that we have been able to investigate are truly shocking," Howard said in a release. "But what is more shocking is that we know that this is only the tip of the iceberg."
The human rights group said the military investigates few cases, and those that are looked into "are dealt with in virtually closed military courts where victims and their relatives have no access to information or status on which they can challenge judicial or court proceedings."
A lack of independence and impartiality by the military legal system has resulted in the denial of justice to victims and impunity for perpetrators, Amnesty International and other observers said.
"In situations where there is no transparent military judicial system in place, that creates incentives for abuse," said the Mexico Institute's Selee.
Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue policy institute in Washington, said he sees no easy solutions.
"The question is how you deal with it," Hakim said. "I just don't know."
Human rights violations could make the fights against the cartels even more difficult, Amnesty International said.
"The abuses we have seen contribute to the deterioration of the security situation in Mexico," Howard said. "By failing to take action to prevent and punish serious human rights violations, the Mexican government could be seen to be complicit in these crimes."
TV analyst Salazar said she wonders if the military is alone in committing abuses.
"What I don't know," she said, "is whether the number of complaints against police have gone up. That would be interesting."
Amnesty International urged Mexico to "take immediate steps to ensure prompt and impartial investigations by the civilian authorities so those responsible are brought before the civilian courts and victims receive reparations."
Mexican officials must "recognize the seriousness and scale of the reports of human rights abuses committed by members of the military as well as the level of complicity of civilian authorities in covering up these abuses and to make the issue a government priority," Amnesty International said.
Thousands of American Indians would receive as much as $1,000
Thousands of American Indians would receive as much as $1,000 each if they accept a proposed $1.4 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit over government mismanagement of tribal lands.
The suit, filed in 1996, accused the U.S. Department of the Interior of failing to account for and provide revenue from a trust fund representing the value of Indian assets managed by the government.
As part of the settlement, the federal government would agree to establish a $2 billion program to buy small fractions of land to help sellers obtain value from ancestral property, which then would be held by tribal governments.
The missing funds at the center of the class-action case involve what are called Individual Indian Money accounts, which are supposed to represent the property of individual American Indians. The accounts are held by the United States as trustee.
The lawsuit had accused the government of failing to account for the money, failing to make proper payments, and converting tribal money for the government's own use.
A federal judge must approve the plan, and Congress would have to enact a bill to implement it.
At a Tuesday news conference, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar acknowledged the need for a "historical accounting for funds that the government held in trusts for Native Americans."
Attorney General Eric Holder, accompanying Salazar to announce the settlement proposal, said the deal addresses allegations "the government has mismanaged acres of land and millions of dollars that it holds in trust for Native Americans."
But one of the American Indians who filed the suit in 1996 suggested the years of litigation had simply worn them down.
"It's not fair," said Elouise Cobell, but "in the future we may be treated more fairly."
Cobell, a member of Montana's Blackfeet Indian tribe, said those who could benefit from the payments are getting old and dying off.
Pressing for a higher settlement figure would be tough, she said, since she "can't handle how the mismanagement of this trust has hurt people."
Cobell said many of those represented in the class-action suit "subsist in the direst poverty," and that the settlement is "significantly less than the full amount to which the Indians are owed."
Confirmation of a proposed settlement was a tightly kept secret ahead of the news conference at the Interior Department. Part of the reason may have been that the deal nearly fell through just hours earlier, according to an agency official.
"It's confidential," said Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli in response to a reporter's question as to the sticking point.
News of the deal was buried in a statement released in advance from the Interior Department that mentioned "the Cobell settlement," as part of a broader plan being announced to address land ownership by Native Americans.
The group ownership of land by American Indians dates back more than 100 years before American Indians were permitted to write wills. As a result, the government says large parcels of tribal lands are held by owners with "miniscule interests" received from ancestors who conveyed the property to descendants as tenants-in-common.
Officials say the purchase project will allow individual landowners to receive greater value for their share, while cutting administrative costs for the federal government, which manages the Indian land trust.
Salazar said, "It is common to have hundreds -- even thousands -- of Indian owners for one parcel."
The initiative would consolidate ownership through purchases from willing sellers, and tribal governments would have control, according to a "fact sheet" put out ahead of the announcement.
Without the purchases, "Millions of acres of land will be owned in such small ownership interests that very few individual owners will ever derive any meaningful financial benefit from that ownership," the statement said.
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
A series of car bombings has killed at least 127 people and wounded 448 in the centre of the Iraqi capital,
A series of car bombings has killed at least 127 people and wounded 448 in the centre of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. The first blast targeted a police patrol in the Dora district of the city.
Four others occurred near official buildings within minutes. Veteran politician Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, an ex-national security adviser, blamed al-Qaeda militants for the attacks. He told the BBC their aim was to destabilise the country ahead of general elections due in March.
Al-Qaeda has been active in Baghdad recently," Mr Rubaie said. "The aim is to show the government is unable to protect civilians and its own people and also to deter people from going to ballot boxes." The explosions on Tuesday shook houses across the capital. After the attack in Dora, a bomb blew up in Shourja Market, near the health ministry. Official buildings located near the other blasts also include the interior ministry, a university and the institute of fine arts. There were civilian and security force personnel casualties, officials said. Survivor Ahmed Jabbar, emerging from a damaged ministry building, told the Associated Press news agency: "What crime have we committed? Children and women were buried under debris." Rescue workers at the scene have been climbing through twisted steel bars and crushed concrete, and dozens of vehicles were burned, AP reported. Another witness told Reuters news agency: "We were stuck in a heavy traffic jam when a powerful blast took place. A car exploded. A large number of people were wounded and killed." A spokesman for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemned the attacks "in the strongest possible terms".
Four others occurred near official buildings within minutes. Veteran politician Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, an ex-national security adviser, blamed al-Qaeda militants for the attacks. He told the BBC their aim was to destabilise the country ahead of general elections due in March.
Al-Qaeda has been active in Baghdad recently," Mr Rubaie said. "The aim is to show the government is unable to protect civilians and its own people and also to deter people from going to ballot boxes." The explosions on Tuesday shook houses across the capital. After the attack in Dora, a bomb blew up in Shourja Market, near the health ministry. Official buildings located near the other blasts also include the interior ministry, a university and the institute of fine arts. There were civilian and security force personnel casualties, officials said. Survivor Ahmed Jabbar, emerging from a damaged ministry building, told the Associated Press news agency: "What crime have we committed? Children and women were buried under debris." Rescue workers at the scene have been climbing through twisted steel bars and crushed concrete, and dozens of vehicles were burned, AP reported. Another witness told Reuters news agency: "We were stuck in a heavy traffic jam when a powerful blast took place. A car exploded. A large number of people were wounded and killed." A spokesman for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemned the attacks "in the strongest possible terms".
Restrictions limiting the H1N1 flu vaccine to high-risk groups could be lifted in many U.S. states now that
Restrictions limiting the H1N1 flu vaccine
to high-risk groups could be lifted in many U.S. states now
that production of the vaccine has increased, state health
officials said Monday.
Illinois could open up vaccinations to the
general public as soon as Friday, while Oregon plans to
re-evaluate the progress of its vaccination program next
week, representatives of those states' public health
agencies said. Arizona also wants to open its vaccine
stocks, but some of its large counties need more time to
make sure high-risk populations get vaccinated, said interim
Department of Health Services Director Will Humble.
"I think all the states are thinking the
same thing," Humble said.
The federal
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 73
million doses of H1N1 vaccine are now available, up from
about 42 million in mid-November. The agency has said
children, pregnant women, parents of infants who can't be
vaccinated, health-care workers and people with chronic
illnesses should get the first inoculations, but CDC
Director Thomas Frieden told reporters last week that some
states have been opening up vaccinations as the number of
available doses has increased.
"The focus is the priority group, the people
who will benefit the most from the vaccine," Frieden said
Friday. "But increasing numbers of communities and states
are providing vaccines to larger groups of people."
Humble said Arizona has received about a
third of the 4 million doses of H1N1 vaccine it expects to
receive this flu season. Local health officials are
attempting a "balancing act" between getting their high-risk
patients vaccinated and opening the vaccines to the wider
population while there is a "sense of urgency" about the
virus, he said.
The disease, commonly known as swine flu, is
in decline, but authorities expect another wave of cases in
early 2010, Humble said.
"I don't want to move too early, but I don't
want to wait too late, either," he said.
Two other states contacted by CNN on Monday
said they also are examining the issue.
In Illinois, health officials expect to ease
their restrictions on the vaccine "in the very near future,"
perhaps as early as the end of the week, said Kelly Jakubek,
a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health. In
Oregon, Public Health Department spokeswoman Christine Stone
said authorities plan to re-examine the issue next week, but
she added, "Every week things are changing."
"The number of doses coming into the state
has been much more impressive over the last few days," Stone
said. Doctors are "really, really pushing the priority
groups this week," she said.
The state has so far vaccinated nearly
892,000 people, about 46 percent of its high-risk
population, and received an allotment of 126,000 doses of
swine flu vaccine this week, Stone said.
All three states have widespread outbreaks
of the
H1N1 virus. Illinois has reported 2,187 hospitalizations
from the disease, with 67 confirmed deaths. In Oregon, 1,258
people have been hospitalized and 57 people have died, while
Arizona has recorded 1,488 hospitalizations and 125 deaths.
Nationwide, the CDC
estimated the number of U.S. deaths in mid-November at about
3,900.
PAKISTAN: A blast hit near a building housing Pakistan's intelligence service,
A blast hit near a building housing Pakistan's intelligence service, ISI, in the eastern city of Multan on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 20 others, police said.
The explosion took place at a security checkpoint, said Jamshed Akram of the city police. 
Video: Tailban waiting for winter 
Video: Pakistan mosque attack
The explosion took place at a security checkpoint, said Jamshed Akram of the city police.
Four soldiers and four children were among the dead, said Dr. Kaleem Ullah of Multan's emergency services.
Pakistan has blamed the violence on Islamic militants who have vowed to avenge a intense military offensive to rout them from their haven along the country's border with Afghanistan.
The nation has come under increasingly frequent attacks. On Monday, a blast at a crowded market in Lahore killed 54 and wounded more than 150 people.
The same day two other bombing attacks -- in Peshawar and Quetta -- killed at least 11 and wounded at least 41.
The attacks came three days after militants armed with guns and grenades stormed a mosque in Rawalpindi frequented by military personnel. At least 36 were killed and 75 wounded.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the mosque bombing, but there were no immediately claims for Monday's attacks.
In an e-mail to CNN about the mosque attack, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan said: "We reconfirmed it, that the TTP has done it, and will do more which are already planned. We once again mention that we are not against the innocent people and the state of Pakistan but against those officers and ministers who are American by hearts and minds and Pakistani just by faces."
Video: Tailban waiting for winter Video: Pakistan mosque attack The United States has pressed Pakistan to rout out Taliban militants.
Fighting the war in Afghanistan is "inextricably linked to our partnership with Pakistan," President Barack Obama said Tuesday of U.S. strategy.
"We are in Afghanistan to prevent a cancer from once again spreading through that country," he said in a speech at West Point. "But this same cancer has also taken root in the border region of Pakistan. That is why we need a strategy that works on both sides of the border."
The United States says Pakistan looms large because Taliban and al Qaeda militants operating in Afghanistan also have had a presence in Pakistan's northwestern region near the Afghan border and have threatened the governments and troops in both countries.
Who is the President of the "Independent Turkish Democracy of Thrace"
President: Hoca Salih EfendiArmy: Standing force of 29,170, largely infantry. Commander of the Armed Forces was Süleyman Askerî
As soon as independence was declared the government of the Republic of Gumuljina determined the borders of the country, put up the new flags on the official buildings, commissioned a national anthem, raised an army, published its own stamps and passports. It also prepared the budget of the new country.
A Jewish citizen, Samuel Karaso, was tasked by the government with establishing an official press agency and to publish a newspaper named Müstakil (Independence) in Turkish and French. The Ottoman Laws and Regulations were adopted without any change and the cases started to be heard by the Court of Western Thrace.
Bulgaria, after a brief period of control over the area following the Istanbul Convention, passed the sovereignty of Western Thrace to Greece at the end of the World War I, when Greece entered the war against the Central Powers. The republic was revived between 1919-1920 under French (occupied the region from Bulgarian in 1918) protectorate before Greece took over in June, 1920. The Muslim population of Western Thrace was excluded from the population exchange of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, and possesses a legal minority status in Greece.
See also
Republic of Tamrash
Muslim minority of Greece
Turks of Western Thrace
Further reading
This article cites its sources but does not provide page references. You can help to improve it by introducing citations that are more precise.
AYDINLI Ahmet, Batı Trakya Faciasının İç Yüzü, Akın Yayınları, İst. 1971
BATIBEY Kemal Şevket, Bati Trakya Türk Devleti, Boğaziçi Yayınları, İst. 1978
Batı Trakya’nın Sesi, Sayı: 65, AÄŸustos 1988
BIYIKLIOÄžLU Tevfik, Trakya’da Milli Mücadele, Cilt I, II. Baskı, TTK Yay., Ank.1987
GÜNDAĞ Nevzat, Garbi Trakya Hükümet-i Müstakilesi, Kültür ve Turizm Bak. Yay. Ank.1987
ÖZKAN Tuncay, Mit’in Gizli Tarihi, Alfa Yay., Ä°st.2003
YALÇIN Soner, Teşkilatın İki Silahşörü, Doğan Kitap, İst. 2001
Tahir Tamer Kumkale, Batı Trakya, Önce VATAN 17-20 MAYIS 2003
As soon as independence was declared the government of the Republic of Gumuljina determined the borders of the country, put up the new flags on the official buildings, commissioned a national anthem, raised an army, published its own stamps and passports. It also prepared the budget of the new country.
A Jewish citizen, Samuel Karaso, was tasked by the government with establishing an official press agency and to publish a newspaper named Müstakil (Independence) in Turkish and French. The Ottoman Laws and Regulations were adopted without any change and the cases started to be heard by the Court of Western Thrace.
Bulgaria, after a brief period of control over the area following the Istanbul Convention, passed the sovereignty of Western Thrace to Greece at the end of the World War I, when Greece entered the war against the Central Powers. The republic was revived between 1919-1920 under French (occupied the region from Bulgarian in 1918) protectorate before Greece took over in June, 1920. The Muslim population of Western Thrace was excluded from the population exchange of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, and possesses a legal minority status in Greece.
See also
Republic of Tamrash
Muslim minority of Greece
Turks of Western Thrace
Further reading
This article cites its sources but does not provide page references. You can help to improve it by introducing citations that are more precise.
AYDINLI Ahmet, Batı Trakya Faciasının İç Yüzü, Akın Yayınları, İst. 1971
BATIBEY Kemal Şevket, Bati Trakya Türk Devleti, Boğaziçi Yayınları, İst. 1978
Batı Trakya’nın Sesi, Sayı: 65, AÄŸustos 1988
BIYIKLIOÄžLU Tevfik, Trakya’da Milli Mücadele, Cilt I, II. Baskı, TTK Yay., Ank.1987
GÜNDAĞ Nevzat, Garbi Trakya Hükümet-i Müstakilesi, Kültür ve Turizm Bak. Yay. Ank.1987
ÖZKAN Tuncay, Mit’in Gizli Tarihi, Alfa Yay., Ä°st.2003
YALÇIN Soner, Teşkilatın İki Silahşörü, Doğan Kitap, İst. 2001
Tahir Tamer Kumkale, Batı Trakya, Önce VATAN 17-20 MAYIS 2003
FLAG OF THE INDEPENDENT THRACE
For an Independent Turkish Democracy of Thrace??
The Provisional Government of Western Thrace (Ottoman Turkish: غربی تراقیا Øكومت موقتهسی - Garbi Trakya Hükûmeti Muvakkatesi), later renamed to Independent Government of Western Thrace (Ottoman Turkish: غربی تراقیا Øكومت مستقلهسی - Garbi Trakya Hükûmeti Müstakilesi), was a small, short-lived republic established in Western Thrace from August 31 to October 25, 1913. It encompassed the area surrounded the rivers Maritsa (Evros) in the east, Mesta (Nestos) in the west, the Rhodope Mountains in the north and the Aegean Sea in the south. Its total territory was c. 8.600 km².
The state was created during the Second Balkan War by a Turkish and Pomak rebellion against withdrawing occupying Bulgarian forces in that area. It existed for 3 months, between two Balkan treaties; between the May 1913 Treaty of London and the August 1913 Treaty of Bucharest that ended the Second Balkan War. It was founded as a provisional state, in order to be annexed by Ottoman Turkey again. Soon after, Greek forces occupied major cities (Porto Lagos, Komotini and Alexandroupolis) and handed them over to Bulgaria, according to the terms of the Treaty of Bucharest (1913). The area remained a part of Bulgaria until 1919 and the republic was revived under French protectate. Finally it was annexed by Greece in 1920 except Bulgarian occupation between 1941-1944. Its capital was Gümülcine (Greek: Κομοτηνή, Komotini), now in Greece.
The state was created during the Second Balkan War by a Turkish and Pomak rebellion against withdrawing occupying Bulgarian forces in that area. It existed for 3 months, between two Balkan treaties; between the May 1913 Treaty of London and the August 1913 Treaty of Bucharest that ended the Second Balkan War. It was founded as a provisional state, in order to be annexed by Ottoman Turkey again. Soon after, Greek forces occupied major cities (Porto Lagos, Komotini and Alexandroupolis) and handed them over to Bulgaria, according to the terms of the Treaty of Bucharest (1913). The area remained a part of Bulgaria until 1919 and the republic was revived under French protectate. Finally it was annexed by Greece in 1920 except Bulgarian occupation between 1941-1944. Its capital was Gümülcine (Greek: Κομοτηνή, Komotini), now in Greece.
There are a growing number of smartphone applications aimed at assisting medical professionals or improving personal health.
- From AirStrip OB, which lets obstetricians remotely access real-time data about newborn babies, to Epocrates, a kind of drug encyclopedia for medics, phone apps have the potential to be lifesavers.
Then there are the apps aimed at improving people's general health, such as RunKeeper, designed to make it easier to keep fit, and Absolute Fitness, which could help you keep tabs on your diet.
We take a look at just a few of the health-related applications now showing on a smartphone near you.
Then there are the apps aimed at improving people's general health, such as RunKeeper, designed to make it easier to keep fit, and Absolute Fitness, which could help you keep tabs on your diet.
We take a look at just a few of the health-related applications now showing on a smartphone near you.
Fake Conference Fake Conference Fake Conference Fake Conference (from IEEE)
Fake Conference Fake Conference Fake Conference Fake Conference (from IEEE)
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.austria/browse_thread/thread/cc880555a293c5a8
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.austria/browse_thread/thread/cc880555a293c5a8
This year the academic hackers invaded with their fake papers to the
8th Annual IEEE Conference on Sensors. This conference was without
review and accepted 3-4 fake papers
The IEEE was informed this terrible incident by the organisers
See: IEEE SENSORS 2009 Conference, 25-28 October 2009
http://www.ieee-sensors2009.org/
See also
http://academic-spam.blogspot.com/
So, one more fake conference passed in the history of fake conferences.
It seems that (mainly from IEEE) a fake conference every 3-4 weeks is
a frequent phainomenon and maybe the fake papers in a fake conference does not make sense.
The IEEE should take measures against these fake conference
organisers. Fake conferences that scam money out of academics that want to enlarge
their CV artificially with bogus publications in bogus .
Now after the new fake IEEE conference (I wonder how many fake conferences of the IEEE we
know now), I absolutely accept this information
It's that time of year again. Suddenly, your inbox is filled with
letters requesting that you submit a paper to the "The 14th World
Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics: WMSCI
2010" or "WESSEX INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY" or "The International Multi-
Conference on Engineering and Technological Innovation: IMETI 2009",
or the "IEEE Conference on Computational Complexity (that published
many garbage papers last year)
Never heard of any of this because you are a philosopher getting the
emails, too? Don't worry, serious computer scientists don't usually go
to the conferences, although people do easily get impressed by all the
names and submit a paper. Strangely enough, all papers are accepted, as long as you have paid
your registration fee. You don't actually have to come and give the
paper, although the family will surely love following you to Orlando.
The "Acceptance Policy" is spelled out in pseudo-scientific detail on
the conference site. I paraphrase: We accept everything, because there
might happen to be a good paper in there, and because a reviewer might
plagiarize a paper they reject. This conference accepted a paper back in 2005 that had been generated by a computer programmed by some MIT students, SCIgen. A nice blog
discussion of that and the conference is found here. There was quite a
row about this back in 2005, as one must question how scientific a
conference is that accepts random (albeit well-worded) garbage and is
willing to publish it. It is said that more than 1500 papers are
accepted (at $ a pop that isn't chicken feed), and the "majority" are
actually presented. That is not what a real conference is about, where
you meet and discuss with peers working in similar areas.
How many of these thousands of papers ever get cited? That is perhaps
an indication of how good the papers really are. I just searched the
ACM Digital Library. There are 19 (nineteen) citations of the WMSCI
conference. There have been 12 such conferences taken place.
That's not too many, so I went through the references for all 19
papers. Eleven of these papers were written by at least one of the
authors of a WMSCI-published paper, so over half are self-citations.
One paper is Peter G. Neumann's note of the acceptance of the fake
paper in his "Risks to the Public" column in Software Engineering
Notes. As an aside, there's a fascinating paper on bibliometrics for
discovering low-quality conferences published in 2007: Measuring
conference quality by mining program committee characteristics.
Glancing down the lineup of invited speakers can cause quite some
hilarity: Karl H. Müller, is given at CCCT2008 as being with the
"University of Ljubljana (Austria)". I don't think that Austria has
acutally annexed Slovenia, and a search of their web site turns up Mr.
Müller as having given a talk therea few years back, but he is not
listed as a teacher. He lists himself in his CV on the pages of his
institute as teaching at any number of Austrian schools, but
strangely, they don't list him. Dr. Subhas C Misra is listed for this conference as being a visiting
Scientist at Harvard, for another conference as being a visiting
scientist at State University of New York. At another conference he is
listed as the "NSERCPDF Scientist, Harvard University", but I find no
mention of this program outside of his CV. Harvard includes CVs of its
visiting scientists on its home page, there is no mention of Misra.
Who are these guys?
It seems that anyone can make up a fancy institute name and make
themselves director, declare themselves teachers at University X (and
may actually have taught there a semester or so before being put out
on their ear), make up papers and fancy conferences and rush around
finding themselves soooo important - but this has nothing to do with
science! They can even pretend to be from some institution. Most are
so large, no one can be sure that they are not actually from that
place.
What can be done to stop this pseudo-science? Or do we just ignore
them, but watch young people and unsuspecting colleagues pour
departmental travel money into attending these conferences to present
their papers? We do get a publication point out of it.....
In this blog, you will find many alerts for junk conferences i.e.
conferences that you must not go. Conferences (like the IEEE
Conference on Computational Complexity or the Conferences of Wessex
Institute of Technology or the Nagib Callaos Conferences) that pollute
our mailbox with much Spam every day.
A very good effort http://iaria-highsci.blogspot.com/ gave us the idea
to creat our own blog.
Not to mention of course, the hundred fake conferences of IARIA,
HIGHSCI, IASTED that pollute our academic world with junk or "almost"
junk "conferences.
But, we will have all the academic winter 2009-2010 with many posts
informing you this unacceptable situation where the first teacher was
the IEEE and the IEEE Sponsored Events of IARIA, IIISCI (Nagib
Callaos), WESSEX Institute of Technology and the other fruits of the
academic basket!
Thanks
Have a nice winter!
Similar Blogs
http://academic-spam.blogspot.com/
http://bogusconferences.blogspot.com
http://netdriver.blogspot.com/
SOURCE:
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.austria/browse_thread/thread/cc880555a293c5a8
Fake Conference Fake Conference Fake Conference Fake Conference (from IEEE)
Monday, 7 December 2009
The United States and China have not offered to go far enough to combat climate change, a top European Union official said as a major international su
The United States and China have not offered to go far enough to combat climate change, a top European Union official said as a major international summit on the subject opened Monday.
Final negotiations at the conference "will be mostly about what will be delivered from the United States and from China," said Andreas Carlgren, the environment minister of Sweden, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.
The two countries "together cover half of the world's emissions," Carlgren said. "It will be absolutely decisive what they can deliver."
He pressed U.S. President Barack Obama to deliver more than he promised in a statement in the run-up to the conference.
"It would be somewhat astonishing if Obama would come here and deliver ... just what was promised in last week's press release," Carlgren said.
Obama had been planning to attend the early stages of the Copenhagen summit that could lay the groundwork for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions well into the century.
But the White House announced last week that he would come at the end instead.
Jonathan Pershing, U.S. deputy special envoy for climate change, defended Obama's late attendance, saying the country's goals extended beyond the summit.
"The president has put a remarkable amount on the table," he told a news conference in Copenhagen.
"What the president has put on the table is a commitment for the United States to move forward: a commitment on emissions, a commitment on financing, a commitment on engagement -- what we need to now do is see how these negotiations proceed."
Pershing rejected EU criticism saying U.S. goals for reducing emission went far beyond those offered by the European bloc.
He added: "What the United States has put on the table is a trajectory that is not only consistent with, but meets the criteria of a robust scientific outcome.
Final negotiations at the conference "will be mostly about what will be delivered from the United States and from China," said Andreas Carlgren, the environment minister of Sweden, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.
The two countries "together cover half of the world's emissions," Carlgren said. "It will be absolutely decisive what they can deliver."
He pressed U.S. President Barack Obama to deliver more than he promised in a statement in the run-up to the conference.
"It would be somewhat astonishing if Obama would come here and deliver ... just what was promised in last week's press release," Carlgren said.
Obama had been planning to attend the early stages of the Copenhagen summit that could lay the groundwork for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions well into the century.
But the White House announced last week that he would come at the end instead.
Jonathan Pershing, U.S. deputy special envoy for climate change, defended Obama's late attendance, saying the country's goals extended beyond the summit.
"The president has put a remarkable amount on the table," he told a news conference in Copenhagen.
"What the president has put on the table is a commitment for the United States to move forward: a commitment on emissions, a commitment on financing, a commitment on engagement -- what we need to now do is see how these negotiations proceed."
Pershing rejected EU criticism saying U.S. goals for reducing emission went far beyond those offered by the European bloc.
He added: "What the United States has put on the table is a trajectory that is not only consistent with, but meets the criteria of a robust scientific outcome.
THE ETHNIC TURKISH MINORITY
In Greece there is an ethnic Turkish minority,1 whose religiousaffiliation is Islam. The Turks are the most numerous (about 130,000)among the minorities in Greece although they are not the only one.^ Theethnic Turks are concentrated in a small (8578 sq. km.) Balkan territory called'Western Thrace', which is bordered on the east by Turkey, on the west by theGreek part of Macedonia, on the north by Bulgaria and on the south by theAegean Sea. The area stretches from the Maritza (Meric) river in the east asfar as the Mesta (Karasu) river in the west. The region includes the Rhodopemountains in the north. The Maritza river divides modern Thrace into the'Eastern' (or Turkish) and the 'Western' (or Greek) portions. A part of Thraceis, then, within the borders of European Turkey.*The terms 'ethnic Turkish minority', Turkish community' and 'Muslim Turks'will be used in this text to designate the Turks of Western Thrace in Greece.An overwhelming majority of the Turks are Islamic while not all but againthe majority of the Muslims there are Turks. The rest of the Muslims arePomaks and Roma (Gypsies) with a small number of Circassians (Cherkez),just as there are also a small group of Christian Turks (Gagauz), whocongregate mainly in the northern parts of the Balkans.'-Apart from the Muslim and Christian Turks, Greece has (Slav) Macedonians,(Muslim) Pomaks, (Muslim) Circassians, (Muslim) Albanians (of Camuria),(Christian) Albanians, (Christian and Latin-speaking) Vlahs (Koutsvlahs orAromani), Jews, Armenians and others. Tilrkkaya Ataov, "The EthnicMinorities of Greece," A.O. Siyasal Bilgiler Fakultesi Dergisl,46/3-4 (1991), 15-33.90 THE TURKISH YEARBOOK [VOL. XXHThe Turks have been living in both sides of Thrace since the mid-14thcentury. They constitute the whole of the population in the eastern part, andused to make the majority in the west as well until the 1920s. The OttomanEmpire abandoned Western Thrace to Bulgaria, in accordance with the 1913Treaty of Istanbul, Greece annexed it in 1920 under the Treaty of Sevres. TheTreaty of Lausanne (24 July 1923), which opened up a new era in Turkishhistory, ceded the region to the Greeks. Under a protocol of the same year,Greece and Turkey decided on a compulsory exchange of Greek and Muslimminorities in each other's country with two exceptions.^ The exceptions werethe Greeks of Istanbul, who formed a minority there and the Muslims ofWestern Thrace, who composed the majority then. The Turkish communityoutnumbered the Greek four to one. It had been on this basis that the firstTurkish republic' in history, in the form of a 'Western Thracian ProvisionalGovernment' was formed in 1913.4 The Turks not only outnumbered theGreeks, but also owned most (close to 84 percent) of the land. Had there beenno steady outflow, since 1923, of the Turkish population, the number wouldhave reached perhaps half a million today. For the last eight decades, a fewhundred-thousand Turks, who have a high rate of population growth, leftWestern Thrace, mostly going to Turkey. It is on account of constantmigration that their number has stayed the same and that they have lostproperty, now owning a third of the land.^Western Thrace presently contains three administrative provinces:Xanthi with capital Xanthi (tskece); Rhodope with capital Komotini(Giimulcine); and Evros with capital Alexandroup (Dedeagac.). The Turksliving there, now reduced to a minority, on account of migrations, strippingsof citizenship and new Greek settlements, do not represent a separatistFor a Greek source on the exchange of populations and other agreementsbetween Greece and Turkey that followed Lausanne, see: DimitriPantzopoulos, The Balkan Exchange of Minorities and ItsImpact Upon Greece, The Hague, 1962. A Turkish source: T.C.,Hariciye Vekaleti, Lozan Konferansi: 1922-1923, Istanbul, 1340-1924.A Turkish source on the establishment of a Turkish republic in WesternThrace: Ahmet Kayihan, Lozan ve Bati Trakya: 1913'de Ilk TurkCumhuriyetl, Istanbul, 1967.Turkish delegation at Lausanne stated that the Turks in Western ThraceWere 129,120 (67 percent) and the Greeks 33,910 (18 percent). The Greeksclaimed that the Turks were slightly above 100,000, but neverthelessconstituting the overwhelming majority. The Turks also insisted that theyowned most of the land while the Greeks, being largely traders, possessedonly five percent. The Greeks contested these figures as well, admitting,however, that most of the land belonged to the Turks. Great Britain, Cmd.1814, Turkey No. 1 (1923). Lausanne Conference on Near EasternAffairs, London.1992] THE ETHNIC TURKISH MINORITY IN WESTERN THRACE, GREECE 91movement but have been asserting for decades that the policy of the GreekGovernment was one of deliberate discrimination with a long-term aim ofassimilation. Over the years, the Turks have complained of denial of ethnicidentity, discrimination and abuse of human rights.6 It is only recently thatnon-Turkish sources have come to recognize the restrictions on the lives ofthe Turks and the degrading treatment accorded to them.7 For decades, theGreek public and the government stood unmoved to the cries of the Turkishminority for justice.8 The government started taking some steps in mid-19916Two Turkish sources: Haluk Baytilken, 'Turkish Minorities in Greece",Turkish Yearbook of International Affairs: 1963, Ankara,Faculty of Political Science, 1965, pp. 145-164; Baskm Oran, Tflrk-Yunan lllskilerinde Bati Trakya Sorunu, Ankara, MUlkiyelilerBirligi Vakfi, 1986.'For a long time it was assumed that Greece, being the 'cradle of Westerncivilization', could not possibly mistreat its own minorities and thatdiscussions of democracy ought to stop at the borders of this country. Forinstance. The Economist of London mentioned several Balkan minoritiesbut failed to report on the Turks, Macedonians and the Albanians of Greece.For my reply, see: The Economist, 22 June 1985, 6. Authoritativeworks came in the 1980s: Hugh Poulton, The Balkans, London, MinorityRights Group, 1991; Helsinki Watch, Destroying Ethnic Identity:the Turks of Greece, New York, 1990; Minority Rights Group,Minorities in the Balkans, London; Fred De Jong, Names,Religious Denomination and Ethnicity of Settlements inWestern Thrace, Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1980; 'The Muslim Minority inWestern Thrace", pp. 95-100, in G. Ashworth, ed.. World Minoritiesin the Eighties, London; Iwao Kamozawa, The Case of Turks InWestern Thrace, Tokyo, Mediterranean Studies Research Group,Hitotsubashi University, 1982; Bjorn Cato Funnemark, The TurkishMinority in Greece, tr. by Ame Bakke, Oslo, the Norwegian HelsinkiCommittee. 1991. Professor Erik Siesby made the following statement atthe Conference in the Folketinget, Denmark (1990): "In Greece the Turkishminority is much too small to present any danger to the society. Thetreatment of this population as second class citizens has harmed, not onlythe ethnic Turks, but even more the reputation of Greece as a civilizedsociety." Minority Rights Group, Minority Rights in Europe,London, 1990.°K.G. Andreades, a Greek writer, formerly an officer of the jendarmerie inWestern Thrace, asserts that Greece "protected and still protects, in the bestway possible, the Muslims living within its boundaries". He ends his bookwith the following conclusion: "It can also be taken for granted that thereneed be no fear for the Moslems of Cyprus when this island comes to beunited again with Greece". K.G. Andreades, The Moslem Minority inWestern Thrace, Thessaloniki, Institute for Balkan Studies. 1956;Amsterdam, Adolf M. Hakkert, 1980, p. 59. Another Greek author tries tolink Turkey's interest in the Turks of Western Thrace to "Turkishirredentism". Paul Hidiroglou, Western Thrace In the Light of theNational Ideal of the Turks, Athens, Herodotos, 1990. On the other92 THE TURKISH YEARBOOK [VOL XXHto improve conditions for the Turks, who nevertheless still face importantproblems.II. Legal Guarantees and Positive Steps:The Greek Government's obligations to guarantee the rights of theTurkish community stems from a number of treaties and agreements.According to Articles 37-45 of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), the Greek andthe Turkish governments are obliged to protect the respective minorities intheir territories. They agreed to provide equality before the law, protection oflife and liberty, free use of any language, free exercise of religion, the right toestablish and control their own institutions and schools, the right to giveinstruction in their own languages, freedom of movement and all other rightsenjoyed by the majority. To be more precise, all these guarantees werementioned (in Articles 37-44) in respect to the Greek minority in Istanbuland the last one (Article 45) shortly but equally bindingly stated that thesame rights were recognized by Greece in relation to its Muslim minority.The safeguards under the Lausanne Treaty were mainly political and cultural,the Greek minority in Turkey being generally well off economically TheTurkish minority in Western Thrace, on the other hand, needed, not onlypolitical and cultural protection, but also economic safeguards. In any case,not even the former was observed to the extent of denying the existence of anethnic Turkish community.Although the Lausanne text employed the term 'Muslim1, what wasmeant, in terms of Greece's relations with Turkey, was the Turks, as manyother successive documents identified them as such. For instance, the Greekand the Turkish governments signed (1968) a protocol guaranteeing that eachcountry would respect the ethnic and religious consciousness of the Greek andTurkish minorities. Greece also signed a number of international documents,including the European Convention for Human Rights, which establishesbroad guarantees for fundamental freedoms. The Helsinki Final Act (1975)specifically requires the signatories to respect the rights of nationalminorities. Further, the documents of the follow-up meetings of theConference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) ensure the rightsof the same.The Greek Constitution also protects the rights of the Turkishminority in Western Thrace. According to the letter of the constitution, allcitizens are equal before the law, withdrawal of Greek citizenship is permittedhand, a five-page report, issued by a group of Greak scientists, representingthe Greek Greens Party and led by Panayotis Dimitros, an academics fromthe Economic Faculty in Athens, recognized that Greece was discriminatingagainst the Turkish community. Reported in the Turkish Daily News,Ankara, 25 July 1990.1992] THE ETHNIC TURKISH MINORITY IN WESTERN THRACE, GREECE 93only in voluntary acquisition of another citizenship or in case of acts contraryto national interests, all persons enjoy full protection of their life, honor andfreedom, measures restrictive of free movement are prohibited, and the pressis free.But in spite of these international and national guarantees, the Turkishminority is suffering from serious human rights abuses. The Greekgovernment has allowed ethnic Turks, since 1991, to buy or sell land andhouses, repair dwellings and mosques, obtain licenses for tractors, trucks andcars, and open shops. None of these was possible until very recently. PrimeMinister Constantine Mitsotakis went to Western Thrace in May 1991 andadmitted that mistakes had been made in the past. Some of these errors havebeen corrected, but other blunders still continue.III. Continuing Problems:The core of the conflict is that the Greek Government denies even theexistence of an ethnic Turkish minority and moreover subjects it to adegrading treatment in a number of ways. Although the Turks living there arethe sons and daughters of Turkish-speaking people who settled centuries ago,the Greeks refer to them as 'Hellenic Muslims', which is an inept andmisleading description. A great majority of them are Muslims in terms ofreligion, which was a criterion for identification, in accordance with Islamiclaw and practice. The Turks, however, also have a national or ethnic identity,just like the other Muslims in Greece, such as the Pomaks or even the non-Muslims like the Vlahs.There were brief times when the Turkish identity was recognized. Twoorders, dated 1954 and 1955 and signed by the (Greek) Chief Administrator ofThrace, pursuant to the instructions of the Prime Minister, asked allconcerned to use the terms of 'Turk' or Turkish', instead of 'Muslim'.9 Forsome time, protocols for educational programs referred to Turkish schools',old photographs showed inscriptions on the buildings as Turkish elementaryschool', diplomas identified the holder as 'Turk', and some textbooks weredescribed as 'Turkish books'.The change occurred later, especially after the communique of thepresident of the Greek Parliament, dated 10 October 1985, in which he statedthat the term 'Greek Muslims' must henceforth be used. The Greek courtseffectively outlawed the use of the word 'Turkish'. Officials conformed to theorder first by removing all signs which carried that word. It culminated withthe arrest and imprisonment of two Turkish candidates (Dr. Sadik Ahmet andIsmail S.erif), who ran in elections (of June and November 1989) for theGreek Parliament and who by name referred to the Turkish minority. They9Andreades, op. cit., 14-15.94 THE TURKISH YEARBOOK [VOL XXIIwere charged with violating the Penal Code (Article 192) by 'openly andindirectly inciting citizens to violence or creating rifts among the populationat the expense of social peace1 simply by the use of the word Turkish1. Theirtrial, filmed by the Dutch TV, was a political demonstration, after whichmobs of Greeks attacked Turkish shops and offices and beat ethnic Turks.Several foreigners and Greeks concurred that not a single Christian-ownedpremises was attacked, and that there was little or no police intervention.10It is still illegal in Greece for a Turkish association to be calledTurkish'. Youth and professional organizations, the few that used to exist,were all closed down by the order of the courts for having that name in theirtitles.The freedom of expression of the Turks are also violated. The Turkishminority brings out single-sheet newspapers (like Dr. Ahmet's Balkan) inTurkish, but similar publications printed in Turkey are not allowed entry intoWestern Thrace, and propriators or writers are too often punished either byimprisonment or heavy fines for articles critical of the Greek Government.Turkish TV and at times Turkish radio broadcasts are jammed. Even in 1992a press conference by the Greek section of the London-based Minority RightsGroup was banned at government instigation.11The three chief problem areas in education, which is of great concernto the Turkish community, are textbooks, teachers and lack of place insecondary schools for Turkish children. Generations of young Turks havebeen using the same obsolete educational material, with pages torn ormissing. The 1968 protocol allows Turkey to send schoolbooks, which areheld up by the Greek officials. The Turkish minority objected to the use of aTurkish language book, prepared by the Greek GovernmentThe Turkish teachers often have difficulty in obtaining permits fromthe Greek Embassy in Ankara. The Greek teachers offer courses in ancientGreek, Greek language, history, sociology and related subjects, and thechildren consequently follow only half of the program, teachers from Turkeynot being available. Local Turks, with degrees in teaching from Turkey aregenerally not allowed to fill the vacancies although their salaries are met bythe Turkish community. The non-Turkish teachers, trained in a specialschool in Thessaloniki, are either selected among the Pomaks of from peoplewho are either unqualified or know little Turkish.There are not enough places in the Turkish high schools for all whowish to pursue further education. The Turkish community cannot get the10Athens News, 4 and 10-11 February 1990.nThe Financial Times, 2 February 1992.1992] THE ETHNIC TURKISH MINORITY IN WESTERN THRACE, GREECE 95permission to build new schools or use the existing empty space. Accordingto a protocol (1952), reflected in Greek law no. 2203, the director of the(Turkish) Celal Bayar High School has to be Turkish. The present one isGreek. Since an entrance examination in Greek determines who will beenrolled in the two Turkish secondary schools, many youngsters prefer to goTurkey to pursue education. There is a suspicion that the Greek Governmentwants the young Turks to go to Turkey because most of them may not comeback and eventually draw their families as well. In any case, their diplomasare not officially recognized when they return to Greece. Or they might loosetheir citizenship altogether.The notorious Article 19 of the Greek Nationality Law (1955) statesthat "a person of non-Greek ethnic origin leaving Greece without theintention of returning may be declared as having lost Greek nationality..."This article, amply applied in the past in the case of the Turks and still inuse, violates the Greek Constitution (Article 4) and the ConcludingDocument of the Vienna Follow-up Meeting to the CSCE (1989). ThoseTurks who go abroad to study or their parents who leave the Greek soil tovisit their sons and daughters where they receive their education find out,while trying to return, that they have lost their citizenship. Police merelyasks the opinion of the neighbors if the Turks in question intend to return ornot. If one of the replies is 'no', then, a note to the Ministry of Interior leadsto the cancellation of his citizenship, without even notifying the person.There are even cases of those who lost their citizenship while away doingmilitary service. There is no judicial review, and appeals are expensive andtime-consuming.The Greek Government restricts the freedom of movement of theTurks by seizing their passports. Such confiscation, without a hearing and aright of judicial review, violates the Greek Constitution and the internationalagreements which Greece has signed. The freedom of movement of the Turksis further hindered on the basis of the so-called 'restricted military areas', i.e.,land bordering on Bulgaria, where the inhabitants may move only as far as 30kilometers from their dwellings and where the whole area is closed anywaybetween midnight and 5:00 a.m.The Turks generally face a degrading treatment. The Greek policefrequently harasses them and outside observers who try to help them.Lawyers who represent the Turkish minority are often called in forinterrogation, their passports are confiscated, their homes are watched andforeigners who investigate this situation also become targets, involvingbeatings by the police and the mob. Such harassment has lessened, but stillexists.Ethnic Turks are discriminated against in employment and in theprovision of services. They come up to special difficulties especially in civil% THE TURKISH YEARBOOK [VOL. XXIIservice appointments, very few and low level of which go to the Turks. Theyare deprived of certain public services, such as obtaining private telephones,which are readily available to the Greeks.The government awards free land to some Greek Christians. The landsof the Turks, on the other hand, are frequently confiscated. Although land isso important in this farming area, it has been seized a number of times,allegedly to build the University of Thrace or an open-air prison, but only asmall portion has been used as school buildings. The Turks loose morefertile land at a significantly faster rate. This comparison is more distressingfor the Turks since they are dependent on agriculture. In some instances, asevident in the Inhanh (Evlalon) case in the Xanthi district, the Greek courtsfrequently rule that the Turkish farmers are 'unlawful interferents' and the landin question is not returned to their owners in spite of the over-ruling decisionof a higher court. ^Although all Greek citizens have the right to vote in elections, justicehas not been done to the Turks in this respect as well. In several recentparliamentary elections the Turkish-Greek border was closed to bar thoseTurks returning to Greece from casting their vote; bus service to WesternThrace was cancelled, and air connection blocked; Greek soldiers were broughtin from other parts of the country to outweigh the ethnic Turks; the numberof ballot boxes diminished from one election to another, ethnic Turks werenot allowed to vote until late in the afternoon; polling stations in Turkishareas were closed early; vote totals were not announced in some areas; novotes at all for Turkish candidates were listed in such a Turkish stronghold asthe village of Sofular, and the applications of the Turkish candidates wererejected in the wake of the elections.The Turks are also no longer able to elect their own muftis, orreligious leaders. The Treaty of Lausanne provides for the free exercise ofreligion, including the selection of muftis. The Greek Law No. 2345 (1920)also states that the denominational heads must be elected by the respectivecommunities. And the CSCE documents recognize religious freedom for theminorities. There are three muftis in Eastern Thrace, one for each administrativedistrict. Following the death of the Komotini mufti (1985), theGreek authorities appointed a new one without consulting its Muslimcitizens. A new law (No. 1920, 1990) further announced that the muftiswould henceforth be appointed by the government for ten years. The Turkishminority, nevertheless, elected its own muftis, creating in each communitypairs, one appointed and the other democratically elected. The former is paid12Baskin Oran, "The Inhanh Land Dispute and the Status of the Turks inWestern Thrace", Journal, London, Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs,9/2 (1984), 360-370.1992] THE ETHNIC TURKISH MINORITY IN WESTERN THRACE, GREECE 97by the government, and the latter supported financially by the community.When the Muslim Turkish community held a demonstration (1991) inXanthi to protest the new law, the Greeks attacked Turkish dwellings andshops, the police doing virtually nothing to stop them.The Turks are not allowed to control their own charitable foundations(waqfs). The Treaty of Lausanne and the CSCE documents provide thatminorities shall have the right to establish, maintain and control theireducational, cultural and religious institutions. Although the directors of thewaqfs were elected by the community before the military junta (1967), Greeklaw No. 1091 (1980) brought the practice of a board of five administrators,selected by the Greek nomarch. The latter are the real administrators althoughthe appointed muftis seem to be technically involved.Being religious endowments supported by the local people, the waqfsare also expected to be in charge of Muslim Turkish architectural heritage inGreece.1-* The heritage in question is the immovable cultural works of acivilization that played an important role in an area on which there are now24 nation-states. It is, in fact, a mutual heritage fostered by local variations.For the Turks, it is a part of their cultural identity. Bu in Greece, theOttoman Empire is generally considered as non-existent. The terms "post-Byzantine" or "pre-modern" are used instead, when referring to the OttomanEmpire. The touristic publications mention Ottoman invasions only.Ignoring the facts of recent history has eased the destruction of the culturalheritage belonging to the Ottoman period. This heritage has been destroyeddeliberately in various periods. There are still a number of examples whichhave survived but only left exposed to the devastation of nature.IV. Conclusion:When an independent Greek state was established in 1830, a Greeknation still had to emerge. The 18th century Ottomans considered the Greeksas part of the Orthodox millet (or religious group), and the Greeks describedthemselves not as "Hellenes", but as "Romaioi", the Byzantine identification,the Turkish version of which was "Rum". The Greeks were widely but thinlydistributed within the Ottoman Empire from the Adriatic to the Black Sea13Tilrk KulturUne Hizmet Vakfi, The Problem of Protection of theOttoman Turkish Architectural Heritage in Greece, Istanbul,1992. M. Kiel, "Notes on the History of Some Turkish Monuments inThessaloniki and Their Founders," Balkan Studies, 2, (1970), 126-156;M. Kiel, "Observation on the History of Northern Greece during the TurkishRule," Balkan Studies, 12 (1971), 415-462; Filiz Yenisehirlioglu,Ottoman Architectural Works Outside Turkey, Ankara, Dis.is.leriBakanhgi, 1989.98 THE TURKISH YEARBOOK [VOL. XXIIcoasts, and there were Greek merchant communities in many WesternEuropean cities.Reminding the dichotomy between the Slavophiles and Westernisersin Tsarist Russia, the Orthodox church resented the mixture of classics andrationalism, introduced by Adamantios Korais, but nevertheless accepted thenew concept of "Ellinismus", which reflected the whole Greek community inthe world and Greek civilization. Irrespective of the divisions between thetraditionalists and the westernizers and also between those who upheld a "pureGreek" language and who widely spoke the "demotic" variant, the Greeksseemed to agree on including within the Greek state all Greeks and landsconsidered by them to be Greek. This was the "Great Idea" (Megali Idea) thatmotivated many Greek intellectuals. The history of modern Greece isdominated by a process in which the Greek state expanded territorially whileEllinismos, as people and civilization, retreated.From the point of view of the Greeks, the Turks "stood on the way".The latter were either killed or forced to flee. This was also the tragic fate ofthe Balkan, Crimean and the Caucasian Muslims in general. Before the Greekrevolt (1821), a vast Muslim land existed from Bosnia to the eastern fringesof the Caucasus (and beyond), incorporating the Crimea and its hinterland inbetween. The Muslims were, not only the rulers there, but also constitutedeither the majority, plurality or sizable minorities. Millions were killed, andmore millions were made refugees. The new states were established on thesufferings of the departed Muslims, mostly Turks, who had lived on thoselands for five centuries or more. The Greek revolt, which had started with themurder of Ottoman officials, continued with ethnic cleansing because theTurks of Greece were on the way of a purely Greek state. Small pockets ofMuslims and Turks remained, nevertheless, in various parts of the Balkans,such as in Western Thrace.Greece, still judging contemporary Turkey by the memories of thelatter's Ottoman past, continues to ponder over real or mythologized losses.Greek failure to abandon the myth of ethnic homogeneity within its presentdayfrontiers is part of its new identity. Therefore, in Greek eyes, the Turksof Western Thrace are only a "Muslim minority", and Macedonians are nomore that "Slavophone Greeks".The Greek Government has taken some steps in 1991 to improveconditions in some areas for the Turkish minority. But important problemsremain. Associations and schools cannot call themselves 'Turkish1. Turkishlanguagepapers and books cannot be brought from Turkey into WesternThrace. Turkish TV is still jammed. Hundreds of Turks are deprived of theirGreek citizenship. Police still harasses ethnic Turks. They are discriminatedagainst in employment and in services. Their lands are confiscated. They facedifficulties in education, in elections and in the selection of their own1992] THE ETHNIC TURKISH MINORITY IN WESTERN THRACE, GREECE 99religious leaders. They cannot control their own charitable foundations. TheGreek Government should abide by its obligations under international andnational law to protect the Turkish minority's human rights.There have been many individual complaints, demonstrations andappeals by Turks of Western Thrace to outside bodies such as the UnitedNations and the Council of Europe. While the official Greek attitude seemsto be a deliberate policy of discrimination and assimilation, the situation hasthe potential of becoming more serious with the polarization of thecommunities in the whole of Western Thrace. Justice may be served andtension lowered when the Greek government abides by its obligations.
Sunday, 6 December 2009
The Extended Fraud of the so called "EURO BUSINESS GUIDE" (Netherlands)
The Extended Fraud of the so called "EURO BUSINESS GUIDE" (Netherlands)
We are the Victims of the EURO BUSINESS GUIDE FRAUD. The scope of this web page is to protect innocent colleagues and innocent companies to sent money
We are the Victims of the EURO BUSINESS GUIDE FRAUD. The scope of this web page is to protect innocent colleagues and innocent companies to sent money to the so called EURO BUSINESS GUIDE (Scam)
Please, promote this web page everywhere and give links to us from your web pages, especially if you consider yourselvesvictims of the so called "EURO BUSINESS GUIDE"Euro Business Guide,P.O. Box 2021,3500GA UTRECHT,The Netherlands,Our story is as follows:7-8 months ago we received an email from some "company" (read FRAUD / SCAM / etc..)with the name EURO BUSINESS GUIDE.They asked us to give them permission to include our company in their catalogue. We did it, i.e. we gave information for our companyto them for inclusion in their Year Book.After that they asked us money. We refused.They sent us FAXes , several times asking us money.We replied to them that we do not want their services.Then, they asked it again and again.Finally we decided to make a phone call to them to stop disturbing us.We did it, but in vain.They continued sending us emails and FAX (clearly SPAM, great SPAM) askingus to pay them (actually for nothing!)Now, they asked from us 1124 EUR plus a Penalty of 300 because we did not pay them immediately with their first letter.As we found via the web, they are common frauders.It seems that the authorities in the Netherlands stopped their illegal activities and now they move their company to West Indies (maybe they discovered also a taxation paradise)At the moment they have also these emailsinfo@eurobusinessguide.netalexandra@eurobusinessguide.netTelephone: 0031 203 120 377
It seems that their old name was:Camping Guide, Tourist Directory Restaurant Guide, Travel Agency Tourist Directory and Tourist Directory Guide D'Hotelsbut because of their extremely bad reputation, they launched the name EURO BUSINESS GUIDEThey also claim in their emails and letter thatLet's continue with our story:We have a small company and they made us a phone call telling us to insert us in their guide. Nothing else. Stupidly we told yes, because we did not know the sequel. Then, they started sending us FAX every week asking us to send them 1000 EUR.We have never recalled to authorized them such a thing. Of course we shall not pay.Now, they asked from us 1124 EUR plus a Penalty of 300 because we did not pay them immediately with their first letter.We wonder now how many other companies are victims of them exist Please, send me an email because my company is also victimpanos.danilakis (AT) gmail.comWe found also the following in the web pagehttp://stopecg.blogspot.com/2006/11/euro-business-guide.htmlEuro Business GuideMisleading ‘contracts’ sent via EmailWhen your company starts to get a bad reputation what is the best thing to do, change the name! Or at least spin off a new company with a slightly different name. We first saw the tactic employed by Novachannel AG, where we have had reports of many different names on the mailshots E.g. Camping Guide, Tourist Directory Restaurant Guide, Travel Agency Tourist Directory and Tourist Directory Guide D'HotelsNext up came the ECG who at the start of this year began mailing new forms under the trading name E.C.G., S.L. the forms had titles such as Industrie En Handel 2006 and Commerce Et Industrie 2006.Now another guide that has been getting bad press has done it. EU Company Directory has begun sending new forms using the trading name Euro Business Guide See contract (PDF)This contract is, in our opinion, more misleading than the previous one (which has lead to many disputes). Euro Business Guide are currently sending it via unsolicited email, the emails we have seen originate in Timisoara, Romania, printed versions may also exist.Analysis of the main misleading elements.The first thing that meets the eye is the Euro symbol encircled by the stars of the EU, for anyone in a recent Accession Country (Quite possibly reading this in a language other than their mother tongue) this could give the impression that the form has official EEC sanction.Scan Right and in bold Writing it reads Company Data Control, Hardly an indication that this is an advertising solicitation!Depending on how you read the document, you will then come across one of 2 bodies of text, let’s give Euro Business Guide the benefit of the doubt and suggest that next you will read.To update your company profile, please print, complete and return this form(Updating is free of charge). Only sign if you want to place an insertion.Yes the 'Free of charge' bit is in bold on the form, at least this sentence contains the only indication in the upper part of the document that this purports to be a contract (Only sign if you wish to place an insertion) this is the favoured phrase used by many of the guides featured on stopECG.org. We consider it unacceptably vague; why not state the price here?Then the block of text on the Left….Dear Sirs,We are compiling information for The EURO Business Guide. We wish to be able to inform other companies about your activities and what languages are spoken in your company. In order to list your company in the internet for European businesses, just ll in and return the form. Any additional material of your company that can make your prole up to date is very welcome. We thank you for your cooperation.Again, no indication that this purports to be a contract.But the peach is the bit at the bottom under the word ORDER, We have seen many so-called contracts over the years, never one where the text is as dense as this, printed entirely in capitals the font appears stretched vertically making it almost unreadable without a magnifying glass, in common with most of these contracts the price is written as EURO 965 (A currency symbol is more likely to be spotted than the name as a word)Go on, read the block of text at 100% magnification and see how quickly you can spot the price! In case you are struggling we transcribed the text belowFinally it should be noted that the email to which this form was attached states:‘Please print and fill the enclosed document and send it back to:Euro Business Guide,P.O. Box 2021,3500GA UTRECHT,The Netherlands,updating is free of charge!If you want to unsubscribe send an email to eurobusinessguide@yahoo.com’Within the email there is no mention whatsoever of contracts or costs.Offer to the directorWe wait with interest to see if Euro Business Guide will attempt to enforce this ‘contract’ in the courts and if they do what their arguments will be. Or will they follow the example of the guides they appear to mimic and threaten court action without ever taking it, instead relying on the small percentage of signers who pay up when hassled.Of course Director, Cornelis Boot, may wish to post a response here. If he would like to defend this document or his companies marketing tactics in general StopECG will gladly publish his comments.There is advice for people in dispute with EU Company Directory and Euro Business Guide on the stopECG website.Full Text of the Order Section readsTHE SIGNING OF THIS DOCUMENT REPRESENTS THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS AND THE CONDITIONS STATED IN ‘THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR INSERTION’ ON WEB PAGE: http://www.eurobusinessguide.net/ THE SIGNING IS LEGALLY BINDING AND GIVES YOU THE RIGHT OF AN INSERTION ON THE ONLINE DATA BASE OF THE EURO BUSINESS GUIDE, WHICH CAN BE ACCESSED VIA THE INTERNET. AND A CD ROM WITH EUROPEAN BUSINESSES IS GRANTED, ALL IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONTRACT CONDITIONS STATED IN ’THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR INSERTION’ ON WEB PAGE: WWW.EUROBUSINESSGUIDE.NET. THE VALIDATION TIME OF THE CONTRACT IS THREE YEARS AND STARTS ON THE EIGHTH DAY AFTER SIGNING THE CONTRACT. THE INSERTION IS GRANTED AFTER SIGNING AND RECEIVING THIS DOCUMENT BY THE SERVICE PROVIDER. I HEREBY ORDER A SUBSCRIPTION WITH SERVICE PROVIDER EU BUSINESS SERVICES LTD ‘EURO BUSINESS GUIDE’. I WILL HAVE AN INSERTION TO ITS DATA BASE FOR THREE YEARS. THE PRICE PER YEAR IS EURO 965. THE SUBSCRIPTION WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY EXTENDED EVERY YEAR FOR ANOTHER YEAR, UNLESS SPECIFIC WRITTEN NOTICE IS RECEIVED BY THE SERVICE PROVIDER OR THE SUBSCRIBER TWO MONTHS BEFORE THE EXPIRATION OF THE SUBSCRIPTION. YOUR DATA WILL BE RECORDED. THE PLACE OF JURISDICTION IN ANY DISPUTE ARISING IS THE SERVICE PROVIDER’S ADDRESS. THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE SERVICE PROVIDER AND THE SUBSCRIBER IS GOVERNED BY THE CONDITIONS STATED IN ‘THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR INSERTION’ ON WEBPAGE:WWW.EUROBUSINESSGUIDE.NETLabels: Cornelis Boot, EU Company Directory, Euro Business Guide# posted by stopECG @ 4:48 PM Comments:I also got the same contract.Unfortunatly i did sign and stamp it.This company is annoying me till 7.4.2007 to pay 965 EUR for ther advertisment.The currency is in not right form EUR 965.I am refusing to pay such payment as i though this is free of charge.They send me 2 reminders ,after second one they agreed to forgive the Late payment fee EUR 96+administration fee EUR 35 )again in wrong currency ).If there is some else who did the same mistake ,please contact me on NGanna@seznam.cz or skype name Novotna Ganna .Good Luck# posted by Ganna Novotna : 2:34 PM, July 04, 2007 I received the email this morning with a PDF contract attached, the 'fine print' of the order said 990 Euros. I checked out the website and they have terms on there which state 'Unless agreed otherwise beforehand by the service provider, the price stated corresponds to the price of one year insertion. The price of the first three years is Euro 2970. In the event of the extension of the contract under the terms defined in the order section, the price of the access for each year shall continue to be that originally stated.'Thought this may be of interest.Good luckSandra# posted by Sandra : 8:20 AM, December 11, 2007 I have the same situation, but I did not sign, it was only stamp. Now I have 2 reminders about payment, i refusal to pay money, because unsigned order has no validity. I have sent official letters to Utrecht and Nevis. What can I do?Please, advice!Best regards,Lucy NigrovskayaTallinn# posted by Lucy : 7:16 AM, January 18, 2008 I would to inform you, that i have the same situation, but we did not sign, only stamped like confirmation of information. Now i have two reminders, I have wrote a letters, that unsigned order has no validity. What can I do? Please advice!Best regardsLyudmila NigrovskayaThe secretary Loigoinfo@loigo.ee# posted by Lucy : 7:17 AM, January 18, 2008 go to this website http://www.stopecg.org/eu_company_directory.htm , write to all authorities and keep denying to pay. If you have any questions you can email me on ella@jongleurs.com# posted by Ella : 3:27 PM, February 27, 2008 Hello from Bulgaria also!I have unfortunatelly signed plus stamped the form. I got the reminders, faxes, emails, even today telephone call. Please, advice how did you manage with these "people". Miss Neli NachevaGospodinov i sinove LTD9300 Dobrich, Bulgaria00359886400430nelinacheva@gs-bg.com# posted by Neli : 11:18 AM, April 24, 2008 I am the marketing director of a small company, I signed, stamped and sent the letter more, than one year ago. After findig out this was a trick, immediately sent back the whole package, incl. CD and a complaining letter. Since then we had some annoying letters, e-mails, even from some lawyer - but we never paid, never replied. Now I think we will never have more bothering letters and similar. So I reccomend NOT to pay and just keep not responding to them. Regards, Csaba# posted by Csaba_A : 2:57 PM, April 28, 2008 They are now using Waldberg & Hirsch Global Debt Collections Ltd, www.whgcollections.com if this proves to be a real company they may wish to drop this client Euro Biz when they see the amount of MPs amd MEPs in Europe calling for the closure of this company.Remeber the last lot got there offices raided by the Swizz police and are now being investigated fully for fraud.# posted by Davies Law : 1:54 AM, May 01, 2008 Guys,Don't worry!Waldberg&Hirsch is NOT registered dutch company according to the Dutch KvK! Every single thing is a big fraud and every single scrap of paper you receive from them has no validity at all!Relax and joke with them when you have time to waste!Regards from Belgrade....Nenad# posted by Nenad : 1:49 PM, June 20, 2008 hi my name is eliei am the director of a company in dubai.I signed and stamped the paper like you and they are sending me mails the last one was from waldberg and hirsch asking for the money but i can assure you that writing an amount of money in numbers without letters is not accepted because u may read it with a point between numbers and the small letters they are using at the end is a kind of trick anyways i hope that we support each other in this similar situation and i am spreading the news in dubai in the arab emirates among the companies i know to pay more attention and i hope we can stop these people from misleading othersgood luck# posted by elio : 1:40 PM, June 22, 2008 Hello everyone,I can see I`m anotherone in a row. I also signed and stamped. After realizing that was a mistake. I immediately wrote to 'unsubscribe@eucompanydirectory.com' in order to cancel my registration and I sent that bloody CD-ROM back too. So far I have received 2 letters. One was a reminder about payment for EUR 995. So I replied about canceling that registration again. After that I have received another letter stressing the terms and conditions I should be fulfilling.I`m glad I came across this website where I can get more information about this dirt.Thanks for you commentsKamilizbar@email.cz# posted by Kamil : 8:47 AM, July 03, 2008 Hi, my name`s Magdalena and I`m a vice president of a Polish company that has been also cheated by this Euro Business Guide.Guys, did you finally pay them anything? I am still receiving letters from them saying we can cancel the 2nd and 3rd year, but we should pay 990euro for the first year (plus extra fees for late payment etc.)Anyways, do you have any idea how to stop this swindle? I just informed some of my friends about the whole process of "ordering insertion" so that they would not make mistake of sending them an "order". Any other ideas?I feel so bad we all felt into a trap,good luck!Magdalena FilaberPossible Ltd# posted by magdam_pl : 4:39 PM, September 18, 2008 Love the Internet sometimes...Like all the above, received the stupid CD, sent it all back registered post, but then emails/faxes etc, and then this Waldberg/Hirsch letter. I was pretty worried as i thought there may be plenty they could do. But then i googled the solicitors and found you guys! Cheers nice one... I may now toy with them now and again for fun. Also when you actually look at the letter...No reference number / another deadline after the so-called final deadline / Signed by Mr K Van Ruler...! They're having a laugh...# posted by highgate : 7:11 PM, October 15, 2008 EU Business Guide and EU Business Services has been trying to extort money from us for sometimes. They have been using our registered name to promote their so called website without our concent. We have billed Ramona for using our name to promote their website. They did not pay the bills neither took our name off their scam website. Currently they owe us EURO 1.8 Million. 300EURO per day until they remove our company from their scam site. I have been reminding them to pay and billing them and their lawyer for nearly 3 months without a single mail or beep out of them. Wonder where the crooks are now. I just saw you guys today but my tactic was to go for head on confrontation. My policy is that if you want to remove dirt you get dirty. So I got dirty first to remove the dirt.I too got the invoice and Debt collector notice. Since then I have been having a field day sending the most abusest mails anyone can send. To both Debt collector and the EU Business guide / services mails.Most unfortunate that these crooks did not reply.Rasheed# posted by Ibrahim : 6:23 PM, December 04, 2008 Hi gays, what a relief actually finding this blog. THANKS to his Author.We are a Bulgarian company. In July 2008, I signed and stamped the order too. After receiving the invoice for the 990 euro we rejected it right away, but up no now we have received the full collection of letters, reminders, final reminders and finally the letter from the Waldberg&Hirsh. I have to admit that it was quite stressing. I have even engaged our layer to search some legal barriers against these imposters.Now we will send a signal to the authorities in Bulgaria and those in Brussels hoping for a reaction.Our contact for possible common actions:Sofia 1000, Bulgaria, 6 Septemvri Str. n.18Tel. +3592 9889470 Fax. +3592 9889472 dimitrov@metromedia.bg www.metromedia.bg Good luck to you All!Alex Dimitrov
at 9:51 PM
1 comments:
Adyana said...
I am the Asst. meeting director of one company in Jakarta, I signed, stamped and sent the letter more, than 2 months ago. After findig out this was a trick, until Today they still sending our company the Invoice and reminding letter and I refused to paid and also I've already informed to The Netherlands Embassy Office here in Jakarta and they said they will help me regarding this case and also because I'm not the first one who reported this Freud to the Embassy - Thanks - Adyana
I participate also in this blog: http://junk-conferences.blogspot.com
August 24, 2009 10:22
We are the Victims of the EURO BUSINESS GUIDE FRAUD. The scope of this web page is to protect innocent colleagues and innocent companies to sent money
We are the Victims of the EURO BUSINESS GUIDE FRAUD. The scope of this web page is to protect innocent colleagues and innocent companies to sent money to the so called EURO BUSINESS GUIDE (Scam)
Please, promote this web page everywhere and give links to us from your web pages, especially if you consider yourselvesvictims of the so called "EURO BUSINESS GUIDE"Euro Business Guide,P.O. Box 2021,3500GA UTRECHT,The Netherlands,Our story is as follows:7-8 months ago we received an email from some "company" (read FRAUD / SCAM / etc..)with the name EURO BUSINESS GUIDE.They asked us to give them permission to include our company in their catalogue. We did it, i.e. we gave information for our companyto them for inclusion in their Year Book.After that they asked us money. We refused.They sent us FAXes , several times asking us money.We replied to them that we do not want their services.Then, they asked it again and again.Finally we decided to make a phone call to them to stop disturbing us.We did it, but in vain.They continued sending us emails and FAX (clearly SPAM, great SPAM) askingus to pay them (actually for nothing!)Now, they asked from us 1124 EUR plus a Penalty of 300 because we did not pay them immediately with their first letter.As we found via the web, they are common frauders.It seems that the authorities in the Netherlands stopped their illegal activities and now they move their company to West Indies (maybe they discovered also a taxation paradise)At the moment they have also these emailsinfo@eurobusinessguide.netalexandra@eurobusinessguide.netTelephone: 0031 203 120 377
It seems that their old name was:Camping Guide, Tourist Directory Restaurant Guide, Travel Agency Tourist Directory and Tourist Directory Guide D'Hotelsbut because of their extremely bad reputation, they launched the name EURO BUSINESS GUIDEThey also claim in their emails and letter thatLet's continue with our story:We have a small company and they made us a phone call telling us to insert us in their guide. Nothing else. Stupidly we told yes, because we did not know the sequel. Then, they started sending us FAX every week asking us to send them 1000 EUR.We have never recalled to authorized them such a thing. Of course we shall not pay.Now, they asked from us 1124 EUR plus a Penalty of 300 because we did not pay them immediately with their first letter.We wonder now how many other companies are victims of them exist Please, send me an email because my company is also victimpanos.danilakis (AT) gmail.comWe found also the following in the web pagehttp://stopecg.blogspot.com/2006/11/euro-business-guide.htmlEuro Business GuideMisleading ‘contracts’ sent via EmailWhen your company starts to get a bad reputation what is the best thing to do, change the name! Or at least spin off a new company with a slightly different name. We first saw the tactic employed by Novachannel AG, where we have had reports of many different names on the mailshots E.g. Camping Guide, Tourist Directory Restaurant Guide, Travel Agency Tourist Directory and Tourist Directory Guide D'HotelsNext up came the ECG who at the start of this year began mailing new forms under the trading name E.C.G., S.L. the forms had titles such as Industrie En Handel 2006 and Commerce Et Industrie 2006.Now another guide that has been getting bad press has done it. EU Company Directory has begun sending new forms using the trading name Euro Business Guide See contract (PDF)This contract is, in our opinion, more misleading than the previous one (which has lead to many disputes). Euro Business Guide are currently sending it via unsolicited email, the emails we have seen originate in Timisoara, Romania, printed versions may also exist.Analysis of the main misleading elements.The first thing that meets the eye is the Euro symbol encircled by the stars of the EU, for anyone in a recent Accession Country (Quite possibly reading this in a language other than their mother tongue) this could give the impression that the form has official EEC sanction.Scan Right and in bold Writing it reads Company Data Control, Hardly an indication that this is an advertising solicitation!Depending on how you read the document, you will then come across one of 2 bodies of text, let’s give Euro Business Guide the benefit of the doubt and suggest that next you will read.To update your company profile, please print, complete and return this form(Updating is free of charge). Only sign if you want to place an insertion.Yes the 'Free of charge' bit is in bold on the form, at least this sentence contains the only indication in the upper part of the document that this purports to be a contract (Only sign if you wish to place an insertion) this is the favoured phrase used by many of the guides featured on stopECG.org. We consider it unacceptably vague; why not state the price here?Then the block of text on the Left….Dear Sirs,We are compiling information for The EURO Business Guide. We wish to be able to inform other companies about your activities and what languages are spoken in your company. In order to list your company in the internet for European businesses, just ll in and return the form. Any additional material of your company that can make your prole up to date is very welcome. We thank you for your cooperation.Again, no indication that this purports to be a contract.But the peach is the bit at the bottom under the word ORDER, We have seen many so-called contracts over the years, never one where the text is as dense as this, printed entirely in capitals the font appears stretched vertically making it almost unreadable without a magnifying glass, in common with most of these contracts the price is written as EURO 965 (A currency symbol is more likely to be spotted than the name as a word)Go on, read the block of text at 100% magnification and see how quickly you can spot the price! In case you are struggling we transcribed the text belowFinally it should be noted that the email to which this form was attached states:‘Please print and fill the enclosed document and send it back to:Euro Business Guide,P.O. Box 2021,3500GA UTRECHT,The Netherlands,updating is free of charge!If you want to unsubscribe send an email to eurobusinessguide@yahoo.com’Within the email there is no mention whatsoever of contracts or costs.Offer to the directorWe wait with interest to see if Euro Business Guide will attempt to enforce this ‘contract’ in the courts and if they do what their arguments will be. Or will they follow the example of the guides they appear to mimic and threaten court action without ever taking it, instead relying on the small percentage of signers who pay up when hassled.Of course Director, Cornelis Boot, may wish to post a response here. If he would like to defend this document or his companies marketing tactics in general StopECG will gladly publish his comments.There is advice for people in dispute with EU Company Directory and Euro Business Guide on the stopECG website.Full Text of the Order Section readsTHE SIGNING OF THIS DOCUMENT REPRESENTS THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS AND THE CONDITIONS STATED IN ‘THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR INSERTION’ ON WEB PAGE: http://www.eurobusinessguide.net/ THE SIGNING IS LEGALLY BINDING AND GIVES YOU THE RIGHT OF AN INSERTION ON THE ONLINE DATA BASE OF THE EURO BUSINESS GUIDE, WHICH CAN BE ACCESSED VIA THE INTERNET. AND A CD ROM WITH EUROPEAN BUSINESSES IS GRANTED, ALL IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONTRACT CONDITIONS STATED IN ’THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR INSERTION’ ON WEB PAGE: WWW.EUROBUSINESSGUIDE.NET. THE VALIDATION TIME OF THE CONTRACT IS THREE YEARS AND STARTS ON THE EIGHTH DAY AFTER SIGNING THE CONTRACT. THE INSERTION IS GRANTED AFTER SIGNING AND RECEIVING THIS DOCUMENT BY THE SERVICE PROVIDER. I HEREBY ORDER A SUBSCRIPTION WITH SERVICE PROVIDER EU BUSINESS SERVICES LTD ‘EURO BUSINESS GUIDE’. I WILL HAVE AN INSERTION TO ITS DATA BASE FOR THREE YEARS. THE PRICE PER YEAR IS EURO 965. THE SUBSCRIPTION WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY EXTENDED EVERY YEAR FOR ANOTHER YEAR, UNLESS SPECIFIC WRITTEN NOTICE IS RECEIVED BY THE SERVICE PROVIDER OR THE SUBSCRIBER TWO MONTHS BEFORE THE EXPIRATION OF THE SUBSCRIPTION. YOUR DATA WILL BE RECORDED. THE PLACE OF JURISDICTION IN ANY DISPUTE ARISING IS THE SERVICE PROVIDER’S ADDRESS. THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE SERVICE PROVIDER AND THE SUBSCRIBER IS GOVERNED BY THE CONDITIONS STATED IN ‘THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR INSERTION’ ON WEBPAGE:WWW.EUROBUSINESSGUIDE.NETLabels: Cornelis Boot, EU Company Directory, Euro Business Guide# posted by stopECG @ 4:48 PM Comments:I also got the same contract.Unfortunatly i did sign and stamp it.This company is annoying me till 7.4.2007 to pay 965 EUR for ther advertisment.The currency is in not right form EUR 965.I am refusing to pay such payment as i though this is free of charge.They send me 2 reminders ,after second one they agreed to forgive the Late payment fee EUR 96+administration fee EUR 35 )again in wrong currency ).If there is some else who did the same mistake ,please contact me on NGanna@seznam.cz or skype name Novotna Ganna .Good Luck# posted by Ganna Novotna : 2:34 PM, July 04, 2007 I received the email this morning with a PDF contract attached, the 'fine print' of the order said 990 Euros. I checked out the website and they have terms on there which state 'Unless agreed otherwise beforehand by the service provider, the price stated corresponds to the price of one year insertion. The price of the first three years is Euro 2970. In the event of the extension of the contract under the terms defined in the order section, the price of the access for each year shall continue to be that originally stated.'Thought this may be of interest.Good luckSandra# posted by Sandra : 8:20 AM, December 11, 2007 I have the same situation, but I did not sign, it was only stamp. Now I have 2 reminders about payment, i refusal to pay money, because unsigned order has no validity. I have sent official letters to Utrecht and Nevis. What can I do?Please, advice!Best regards,Lucy NigrovskayaTallinn# posted by Lucy : 7:16 AM, January 18, 2008 I would to inform you, that i have the same situation, but we did not sign, only stamped like confirmation of information. Now i have two reminders, I have wrote a letters, that unsigned order has no validity. What can I do? Please advice!Best regardsLyudmila NigrovskayaThe secretary Loigoinfo@loigo.ee# posted by Lucy : 7:17 AM, January 18, 2008 go to this website http://www.stopecg.org/eu_company_directory.htm , write to all authorities and keep denying to pay. If you have any questions you can email me on ella@jongleurs.com# posted by Ella : 3:27 PM, February 27, 2008 Hello from Bulgaria also!I have unfortunatelly signed plus stamped the form. I got the reminders, faxes, emails, even today telephone call. Please, advice how did you manage with these "people". Miss Neli NachevaGospodinov i sinove LTD9300 Dobrich, Bulgaria00359886400430nelinacheva@gs-bg.com# posted by Neli : 11:18 AM, April 24, 2008 I am the marketing director of a small company, I signed, stamped and sent the letter more, than one year ago. After findig out this was a trick, immediately sent back the whole package, incl. CD and a complaining letter. Since then we had some annoying letters, e-mails, even from some lawyer - but we never paid, never replied. Now I think we will never have more bothering letters and similar. So I reccomend NOT to pay and just keep not responding to them. Regards, Csaba# posted by Csaba_A : 2:57 PM, April 28, 2008 They are now using Waldberg & Hirsch Global Debt Collections Ltd, www.whgcollections.com if this proves to be a real company they may wish to drop this client Euro Biz when they see the amount of MPs amd MEPs in Europe calling for the closure of this company.Remeber the last lot got there offices raided by the Swizz police and are now being investigated fully for fraud.# posted by Davies Law : 1:54 AM, May 01, 2008 Guys,Don't worry!Waldberg&Hirsch is NOT registered dutch company according to the Dutch KvK! Every single thing is a big fraud and every single scrap of paper you receive from them has no validity at all!Relax and joke with them when you have time to waste!Regards from Belgrade....Nenad# posted by Nenad : 1:49 PM, June 20, 2008 hi my name is eliei am the director of a company in dubai.I signed and stamped the paper like you and they are sending me mails the last one was from waldberg and hirsch asking for the money but i can assure you that writing an amount of money in numbers without letters is not accepted because u may read it with a point between numbers and the small letters they are using at the end is a kind of trick anyways i hope that we support each other in this similar situation and i am spreading the news in dubai in the arab emirates among the companies i know to pay more attention and i hope we can stop these people from misleading othersgood luck# posted by elio : 1:40 PM, June 22, 2008 Hello everyone,I can see I`m anotherone in a row. I also signed and stamped. After realizing that was a mistake. I immediately wrote to 'unsubscribe@eucompanydirectory.com' in order to cancel my registration and I sent that bloody CD-ROM back too. So far I have received 2 letters. One was a reminder about payment for EUR 995. So I replied about canceling that registration again. After that I have received another letter stressing the terms and conditions I should be fulfilling.I`m glad I came across this website where I can get more information about this dirt.Thanks for you commentsKamilizbar@email.cz# posted by Kamil : 8:47 AM, July 03, 2008 Hi, my name`s Magdalena and I`m a vice president of a Polish company that has been also cheated by this Euro Business Guide.Guys, did you finally pay them anything? I am still receiving letters from them saying we can cancel the 2nd and 3rd year, but we should pay 990euro for the first year (plus extra fees for late payment etc.)Anyways, do you have any idea how to stop this swindle? I just informed some of my friends about the whole process of "ordering insertion" so that they would not make mistake of sending them an "order". Any other ideas?I feel so bad we all felt into a trap,good luck!Magdalena FilaberPossible Ltd# posted by magdam_pl : 4:39 PM, September 18, 2008 Love the Internet sometimes...Like all the above, received the stupid CD, sent it all back registered post, but then emails/faxes etc, and then this Waldberg/Hirsch letter. I was pretty worried as i thought there may be plenty they could do. But then i googled the solicitors and found you guys! Cheers nice one... I may now toy with them now and again for fun. Also when you actually look at the letter...No reference number / another deadline after the so-called final deadline / Signed by Mr K Van Ruler...! They're having a laugh...# posted by highgate : 7:11 PM, October 15, 2008 EU Business Guide and EU Business Services has been trying to extort money from us for sometimes. They have been using our registered name to promote their so called website without our concent. We have billed Ramona for using our name to promote their website. They did not pay the bills neither took our name off their scam website. Currently they owe us EURO 1.8 Million. 300EURO per day until they remove our company from their scam site. I have been reminding them to pay and billing them and their lawyer for nearly 3 months without a single mail or beep out of them. Wonder where the crooks are now. I just saw you guys today but my tactic was to go for head on confrontation. My policy is that if you want to remove dirt you get dirty. So I got dirty first to remove the dirt.I too got the invoice and Debt collector notice. Since then I have been having a field day sending the most abusest mails anyone can send. To both Debt collector and the EU Business guide / services mails.Most unfortunate that these crooks did not reply.Rasheed# posted by Ibrahim : 6:23 PM, December 04, 2008 Hi gays, what a relief actually finding this blog. THANKS to his Author.We are a Bulgarian company. In July 2008, I signed and stamped the order too. After receiving the invoice for the 990 euro we rejected it right away, but up no now we have received the full collection of letters, reminders, final reminders and finally the letter from the Waldberg&Hirsh. I have to admit that it was quite stressing. I have even engaged our layer to search some legal barriers against these imposters.Now we will send a signal to the authorities in Bulgaria and those in Brussels hoping for a reaction.Our contact for possible common actions:Sofia 1000, Bulgaria, 6 Septemvri Str. n.18Tel. +3592 9889470 Fax. +3592 9889472 dimitrov@metromedia.bg www.metromedia.bg Good luck to you All!Alex Dimitrov
at 9:51 PM
1 comments:
Adyana said...
I am the Asst. meeting director of one company in Jakarta, I signed, stamped and sent the letter more, than 2 months ago. After findig out this was a trick, until Today they still sending our company the Invoice and reminding letter and I refused to paid and also I've already informed to The Netherlands Embassy Office here in Jakarta and they said they will help me regarding this case and also because I'm not the first one who reported this Freud to the Embassy - Thanks - Adyana
I participate also in this blog: http://junk-conferences.blogspot.com
August 24, 2009 10:22
Thursday, 3 December 2009
Justin Rowlatt embarks on a 6,500 mile "low carbon" journey around the United States
Taking buses and trains, and even hitchhiking across America, he meets coal miners and car manufacturers, activists and politicians, a pig farmer and a Hollywood star.
He goes ice fishing in Michigan, finds a thriving wind industry in the oil state of Texas, and in Detroit he drives a billion dollar car of the future.
Along the way he finds a divided nation. The White House has gone green. President Obama and his team have high ambitions for tackling America's emissions but others see his plans as an attack on fundamental American freedoms.
So who will win? And can America help save the world?
He goes ice fishing in Michigan, finds a thriving wind industry in the oil state of Texas, and in Detroit he drives a billion dollar car of the future.
Along the way he finds a divided nation. The White House has gone green. President Obama and his team have high ambitions for tackling America's emissions but others see his plans as an attack on fundamental American freedoms.
So who will win? And can America help save the world?
More than 20 countries plan to send more troops to Afghanistan following a US decision to deploy an extra 30,000 there, Nato officials have said.
The news comes as the alliance's foreign ministers gather in Brussels for two days of talks.
They are expected to focus on a request by US President Barack Obama for Nato allies to send some 10,000 more troops.
A Nato spokesman said members were set to pledge more than 5,000, but more army and police trainers were needed.
Several European nations have been reluctant to commit more forces to the eight-year-old conflict.
But Italian Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa told the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Thursday that Rome would send about 1,000 extra troops to Afghanistan. It currently has 3,200 soldiers there.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, speaking after a meeting with Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, indicated that Russia would also do its part in Afghanistan.
"We are ready to support these efforts, guarantee the transit [of troops], take part in economic projects and train police and the military," he said.
Meanwhile, the German parliament has voted to extend by a year the mandate allowing the government to send troops to Afghanistan, but did not lift the upper limit of soldiers, currently set at 4,500.
'Significant shortfalls'
Speaking on Thursday ahead of the foreign ministers' meeting, Nato spokesman James Appathurai said: "There are well over 20 countries that are indicating or have already indicated that they intend to increase their troops numbers in Afghanistan.
They are expected to focus on a request by US President Barack Obama for Nato allies to send some 10,000 more troops.
A Nato spokesman said members were set to pledge more than 5,000, but more army and police trainers were needed.
Several European nations have been reluctant to commit more forces to the eight-year-old conflict.
But Italian Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa told the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Thursday that Rome would send about 1,000 extra troops to Afghanistan. It currently has 3,200 soldiers there.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, speaking after a meeting with Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, indicated that Russia would also do its part in Afghanistan.
"We are ready to support these efforts, guarantee the transit [of troops], take part in economic projects and train police and the military," he said.
Meanwhile, the German parliament has voted to extend by a year the mandate allowing the government to send troops to Afghanistan, but did not lift the upper limit of soldiers, currently set at 4,500.
'Significant shortfalls'
Speaking on Thursday ahead of the foreign ministers' meeting, Nato spokesman James Appathurai said: "There are well over 20 countries that are indicating or have already indicated that they intend to increase their troops numbers in Afghanistan.
On Thursday in Washington, President Barack Obama is holding a jobs summit, focused on job creation.
With the US unemployment rate above 10% for the first time in 27 years, a sense of urgency is growing.
On Thursday in Washington, President Barack Obama is holding a jobs summit, focused on job creation.
Despite his inclusion of business leaders among the 130 experts attending the summit, any new spending plans aimed at reducing unemployment will run into opposition from Republicans in Congress.
They are already irritated by the billions of dollars spent on emergency bail-outs for banks and carmakers, begun under one of their own, President George W Bush.
Running up budget deficits to be paid for by future generations has a bad name in Washington. So does "big government".
Recession fears
But an economist on the conservative side (he advised Republican presidential candidate, John McCain in 2008), Mark Zandi of Economy.com, says deficits are a big concern, but not something we can afford to worry about right now.
"That's a problem not for 2009, not for 2010. That's a problem for 2011, 2012 and beyond," he says.
"We have to make sure that we don't go back into a recession, because if we go back into recession, the cost to taxpayers will be even greater.
"The deficits will be measurably larger, so I think it's important to spend more money now."
Mr Zandi says some government spending needs to be focused on state and local governments, whose tax revenues have fallen, so that they do not have to lay off workers.
Barack Obama is searching for new ways to fight unemployment
Another top priority is unemployment benefits, which normally run out after six months in the US, though they have been extended in states with the highest unemployment rates.
Mr Zandi sees continuing benefits to unemployed workers as key to maintaining demand, because people who do not have money do not buy things.
That can lead to a downward spiral: if consumers do not consume, businesses cut back on workers, who then have no money to spend either.
Long-term solutions
Another area where Mr Zandi feels the government can make a unique contribution is providing credit to small and medium-sized businesses.
After last year's credit crisis, banks are still reluctant to lend. However, traditionally they have provided capital to smaller companies for start-up and expansion, and these smaller companies typically create the majority of new jobs in America.
On Thursday in Washington, President Barack Obama is holding a jobs summit, focused on job creation.
Despite his inclusion of business leaders among the 130 experts attending the summit, any new spending plans aimed at reducing unemployment will run into opposition from Republicans in Congress.
They are already irritated by the billions of dollars spent on emergency bail-outs for banks and carmakers, begun under one of their own, President George W Bush.
Running up budget deficits to be paid for by future generations has a bad name in Washington. So does "big government".
Recession fears
But an economist on the conservative side (he advised Republican presidential candidate, John McCain in 2008), Mark Zandi of Economy.com, says deficits are a big concern, but not something we can afford to worry about right now.
"That's a problem not for 2009, not for 2010. That's a problem for 2011, 2012 and beyond," he says.
"We have to make sure that we don't go back into a recession, because if we go back into recession, the cost to taxpayers will be even greater.
"The deficits will be measurably larger, so I think it's important to spend more money now."
Mr Zandi says some government spending needs to be focused on state and local governments, whose tax revenues have fallen, so that they do not have to lay off workers.
Barack Obama is searching for new ways to fight unemployment
Another top priority is unemployment benefits, which normally run out after six months in the US, though they have been extended in states with the highest unemployment rates.
Mr Zandi sees continuing benefits to unemployed workers as key to maintaining demand, because people who do not have money do not buy things.
That can lead to a downward spiral: if consumers do not consume, businesses cut back on workers, who then have no money to spend either.
Long-term solutions
Another area where Mr Zandi feels the government can make a unique contribution is providing credit to small and medium-sized businesses.
After last year's credit crisis, banks are still reluctant to lend. However, traditionally they have provided capital to smaller companies for start-up and expansion, and these smaller companies typically create the majority of new jobs in America.
A suicide bomber disguised as a woman has killed at least 19 people, including four government ministers, in the Somali capital Mogadishu.
A suicide bomber disguised as a woman has killed at least 19 people, including four government ministers, in the Somali capital Mogadishu.
Officials say the attack hit a hotel in the city during a crowded graduation ceremony for medical students from a local university.
Witnesses said the attack appeared to have targeted government officials.
Islamists are fighting the UN-backed government, which only controls small pockets of territory in the country. Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmad described the attack as a national disaster.
Information Minister Dahir Mohamud Gelle said the male bomber had been dressed in women's clothing, "complete with a veil and a female's shoes".
The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan, who was at the scene, said there was a huge explosion in the hotel's meeting hall where hundreds of people were gathered for the graduation.
Five government ministers were reported to have been in the hotel at the time.
Health Minister Qamar Aden Ali, Education Minister Ahmed Abdulahi Waayeel, Higher Education Minister Ibrahim Hassan Addow and Sports Minister Saleban Olad Roble were all killed, officials said.
A security official told the AFP news agency most of the dead were believed to be students. At least two journalists were also among the dead.
"A lot of my friends were killed," medical student Mohamed Abdulqadir told Reuters.
"I was sitting next to a lecturer who also died. He had been speaking to the gathering just a few minutes before the explosion."
http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/12/suicide-bomber-disguised-as-woman-has.html
Officials say the attack hit a hotel in the city during a crowded graduation ceremony for medical students from a local university.
Witnesses said the attack appeared to have targeted government officials.
Islamists are fighting the UN-backed government, which only controls small pockets of territory in the country. Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmad described the attack as a national disaster.
Information Minister Dahir Mohamud Gelle said the male bomber had been dressed in women's clothing, "complete with a veil and a female's shoes".
The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan, who was at the scene, said there was a huge explosion in the hotel's meeting hall where hundreds of people were gathered for the graduation.
Five government ministers were reported to have been in the hotel at the time.
Health Minister Qamar Aden Ali, Education Minister Ahmed Abdulahi Waayeel, Higher Education Minister Ibrahim Hassan Addow and Sports Minister Saleban Olad Roble were all killed, officials said.
A security official told the AFP news agency most of the dead were believed to be students. At least two journalists were also among the dead.
"A lot of my friends were killed," medical student Mohamed Abdulqadir told Reuters.
"I was sitting next to a lecturer who also died. He had been speaking to the gathering just a few minutes before the explosion."
http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/12/suicide-bomber-disguised-as-woman-has.html
FAKE CONFERENCE IN CARDIOLOGY!!!
From : http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55895/
Confusion over an upcoming cardiology conference in Shanghai has forced registered scientists and clinicians to fight for reimbursements, including one who faced more than $2000 in spurious credit card charges he suspects are related to the conference.
Image: Wikimedia Commons"This is the strangest thing that I've ever been involved in -- it's very weird," said C. Richard Conti, a professor of cardiology at the University of Florida and editor-in-chief of Clinical Cardiology, who was listed as one the meeting's four plenary speakers and as such, paid no registration fees but has already purchased his airline ticket to Shanghai. A month or two ago, David Iovannisci, a geneticist studying heart disease at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute in California, received an email invitation to speak at the "1st International Cardiology Conngress" in Shanghai, to be held on 5-7 December of this year. The email, signed by Alex Li, provided a (now defunct) link to the conference program at www.internationalcardiologycongress.com, which listed several speakers from well-known institutions, both in the US and abroad. "It looked pretty legit," Iovannisci told The Scientist. He receives email invitations to conferences every once in a while, he said, which he has occasionally attended. He had never traveled to China, and decided to go. Two weeks or so after registering online -- and paying a $600 registration fee as well as about $1200 for a tour of the country arranged by the conference organizers -- he checked his credit card account and saw more than $2000 in false charges -- three charges of more than $700 each to "Great America," the California amusement park, and a single small charge for access to a wireless internet hotspot, both of which Iovannisci said he never visited. (His credit card company has since reimbursed him for all of the charges.) Just days later, on July 30, he received an email from a man named Andy Liu, who identified himself as a lawyer for BIT Life Sciences, a company based in Dalian, China, which, according to its Web site, claims as its mission "to create a global life science intelligent exchange channel," in part by organizing conferences on biomedical topics. The email, which Iovannisci forwarded to The Scientist, informed recipients that the conference "has been officially banned by the court according to Chinese Law." "The court has found out that the organizers have transferred the money to their personal accounts from the offical [sic] bank account which has been listed on their website," the email continued. "Whoever has paid the fees, please withdraw your payment as soon as possible." (Bold in original text.) An attached document, translated from Chinese for The Scientist by a fluent native speaker, asked victims affected by the fraud to contact the police at two Shanghai precincts, with the phone numbers listed in red. The email also informed recipients of a lawsuit "against the infringe of BIT's Intellectual Properties." Several researchers and clinicians who had been listed on a version of the program downloaded by Iovannisci from www.internationalcardiologycongress.com on July 30 (which he forwarded to The Scientist) said they had received the same email along with a flurry of other emails related to the conference. One of the listed speakers, Celine Fiset at the University of Montreal, said that after informally agreeing to a proposed talk title, she had decided not to go. She hadn't paid the registration fee, she said, because the organizers told her that her fees and expenses would be covered. They never confirmed that, though, and neither did she confirm her participation, she said. "I was not aware that my name was on their program," she wrote in an email. "You don't put the name of someone before they confirm their participation." Fiset's invitation to the conference had come from Tom Lee, who said he was the program coordinator of the International Cardiology Congress. But on July 23, Fiset too received an email from Andy Liu, the lawyer of BIT Life Sciences, describing "an unpleasant confusion" between "two Cardiology conferences." Lee and his colleagues, Liu said in the email, are "non-professional" and had usurped BIT "using our internal planned programs proposed last year." A document attached to the email from Liu laid out the conference plans of the two groups, from the speakers to the sponsorship. Another researcher, Rex Wright from the University of Alabama, received an invitation from the International Cardiology Congress via "Alex Li," and also agreed to go but paid no fees. Shortly thereafter, he received an almost identical invitation from BIT, whose Web site now lists a conference program. When he asked Alex Li for an explanation, he was told that the BIT conference was not legitimate. After several conflicting emails from both parties, "I saw too many flags waiving," Wright wrote in an email, so he withdrew on July 23. Hector Mobine of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said he received the emails and was listed on the program sent by Tom Lee and Alex Li, though he told The Scientist in an email that he had never expressed interest or otherwise replied to the invitation. "I actually paid for that airline ticket thinking that the first people who invited me were legit, and I would get reimbursed," said Conti, who was listed as one of the plenary speakers on both conference programs. After the emails he has received from both groups, "I have no idea who's doing what here," he said. The Web site www.internationalcardiologycongress.com is no longer functional; emails sent by The Scientist to the return address in emails sent to several researchers (tom@internationalcardiologycongress.com, presumably conference organizer Tom Lee) bounced, and there was no answer at a telephone number listed in a description of the conference posted on an online bulletin board. When contacted by The Scientist, Liu said in an email that his client would "prefer not to release any process of the case to the media at the moment." A representative of BIT, reached by phone via an interpreter, declined to give details about the case but said that the conference is going forward. The conference program listed on BIT's Web site, which had been blank between August 4 and August 11, now lists speakers filling some of the slots, though many of them differ from those in the original program. (Fiset, Wright, Mobine, and Iovannisci, for example, are not listed.) Several speakers on the program posted on BIT's Web site told The Scientist they had agreed to participate but had not paid their registration fee or booked their flight. Dan Fintel a cardiologist at the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute at Northwestern University in Chicago, is listed as one of the plenary speakers on both the defunct program and the current program, and already booked a flight for himself, his wife and his son. But he said that BIT has now told him he must pay a $700 registration fee, unless he recruits four other cardiologists to participate in the meeting. In that case, in addition to waiving the fee, "they will give me $500 and pay my hotel," Fintel said. "I've never in my life been invited to speak at a symposium, and run a symposium, and pay an entrance fee," he said, adding that he is still interested in going, but doesn't plan to "waste a lot of my time" searching for cardiologists who might also attend. Plamen Ivanov, a physicist and sleep medicine researcher affiliated with both Boston University and Harvard Medical School, also paid approximately $600 to register for the conference via Tom Lee. After he began the process of canceling the charge, however, he received an email on August 11 from someone calling himself "Tom" and writing from the email address "icc_2009@126.com" -- presumably Tom Lee -- saying that the group's Web site and email "have been hacked continually." (Iovannisci, too, received a similar email from "Alex" at alex_cardiology@hotmail.com".) The email, which Ivanov forwarded to The Scientist, went on to say that the organization would refund Ivanov's money and "will hold the speech opportunity" and "offer the re-registration" for him. Indeed, he learned from his credit card company on August 18 that the money had been refunded. Neither "Tom" nor "Alex" replied to an email request for explanation sent by The Scientist to the addresses from which they wrote. Kerry Huang provided translating services for this article.
Confusion over an upcoming cardiology conference in Shanghai has forced registered scientists and clinicians to fight for reimbursements, including one who faced more than $2000 in spurious credit card charges he suspects are related to the conference.
Image: Wikimedia Commons"This is the strangest thing that I've ever been involved in -- it's very weird," said C. Richard Conti, a professor of cardiology at the University of Florida and editor-in-chief of Clinical Cardiology, who was listed as one the meeting's four plenary speakers and as such, paid no registration fees but has already purchased his airline ticket to Shanghai. A month or two ago, David Iovannisci, a geneticist studying heart disease at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute in California, received an email invitation to speak at the "1st International Cardiology Conngress" in Shanghai, to be held on 5-7 December of this year. The email, signed by Alex Li, provided a (now defunct) link to the conference program at www.internationalcardiologycongress.com, which listed several speakers from well-known institutions, both in the US and abroad. "It looked pretty legit," Iovannisci told The Scientist. He receives email invitations to conferences every once in a while, he said, which he has occasionally attended. He had never traveled to China, and decided to go. Two weeks or so after registering online -- and paying a $600 registration fee as well as about $1200 for a tour of the country arranged by the conference organizers -- he checked his credit card account and saw more than $2000 in false charges -- three charges of more than $700 each to "Great America," the California amusement park, and a single small charge for access to a wireless internet hotspot, both of which Iovannisci said he never visited. (His credit card company has since reimbursed him for all of the charges.) Just days later, on July 30, he received an email from a man named Andy Liu, who identified himself as a lawyer for BIT Life Sciences, a company based in Dalian, China, which, according to its Web site, claims as its mission "to create a global life science intelligent exchange channel," in part by organizing conferences on biomedical topics. The email, which Iovannisci forwarded to The Scientist, informed recipients that the conference "has been officially banned by the court according to Chinese Law." "The court has found out that the organizers have transferred the money to their personal accounts from the offical [sic] bank account which has been listed on their website," the email continued. "Whoever has paid the fees, please withdraw your payment as soon as possible." (Bold in original text.) An attached document, translated from Chinese for The Scientist by a fluent native speaker, asked victims affected by the fraud to contact the police at two Shanghai precincts, with the phone numbers listed in red. The email also informed recipients of a lawsuit "against the infringe of BIT's Intellectual Properties." Several researchers and clinicians who had been listed on a version of the program downloaded by Iovannisci from www.internationalcardiologycongress.com on July 30 (which he forwarded to The Scientist) said they had received the same email along with a flurry of other emails related to the conference. One of the listed speakers, Celine Fiset at the University of Montreal, said that after informally agreeing to a proposed talk title, she had decided not to go. She hadn't paid the registration fee, she said, because the organizers told her that her fees and expenses would be covered. They never confirmed that, though, and neither did she confirm her participation, she said. "I was not aware that my name was on their program," she wrote in an email. "You don't put the name of someone before they confirm their participation." Fiset's invitation to the conference had come from Tom Lee, who said he was the program coordinator of the International Cardiology Congress. But on July 23, Fiset too received an email from Andy Liu, the lawyer of BIT Life Sciences, describing "an unpleasant confusion" between "two Cardiology conferences." Lee and his colleagues, Liu said in the email, are "non-professional" and had usurped BIT "using our internal planned programs proposed last year." A document attached to the email from Liu laid out the conference plans of the two groups, from the speakers to the sponsorship. Another researcher, Rex Wright from the University of Alabama, received an invitation from the International Cardiology Congress via "Alex Li," and also agreed to go but paid no fees. Shortly thereafter, he received an almost identical invitation from BIT, whose Web site now lists a conference program. When he asked Alex Li for an explanation, he was told that the BIT conference was not legitimate. After several conflicting emails from both parties, "I saw too many flags waiving," Wright wrote in an email, so he withdrew on July 23. Hector Mobine of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said he received the emails and was listed on the program sent by Tom Lee and Alex Li, though he told The Scientist in an email that he had never expressed interest or otherwise replied to the invitation. "I actually paid for that airline ticket thinking that the first people who invited me were legit, and I would get reimbursed," said Conti, who was listed as one of the plenary speakers on both conference programs. After the emails he has received from both groups, "I have no idea who's doing what here," he said. The Web site www.internationalcardiologycongress.com is no longer functional; emails sent by The Scientist to the return address in emails sent to several researchers (tom@internationalcardiologycongress.com, presumably conference organizer Tom Lee) bounced, and there was no answer at a telephone number listed in a description of the conference posted on an online bulletin board. When contacted by The Scientist, Liu said in an email that his client would "prefer not to release any process of the case to the media at the moment." A representative of BIT, reached by phone via an interpreter, declined to give details about the case but said that the conference is going forward. The conference program listed on BIT's Web site, which had been blank between August 4 and August 11, now lists speakers filling some of the slots, though many of them differ from those in the original program. (Fiset, Wright, Mobine, and Iovannisci, for example, are not listed.) Several speakers on the program posted on BIT's Web site told The Scientist they had agreed to participate but had not paid their registration fee or booked their flight. Dan Fintel a cardiologist at the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute at Northwestern University in Chicago, is listed as one of the plenary speakers on both the defunct program and the current program, and already booked a flight for himself, his wife and his son. But he said that BIT has now told him he must pay a $700 registration fee, unless he recruits four other cardiologists to participate in the meeting. In that case, in addition to waiving the fee, "they will give me $500 and pay my hotel," Fintel said. "I've never in my life been invited to speak at a symposium, and run a symposium, and pay an entrance fee," he said, adding that he is still interested in going, but doesn't plan to "waste a lot of my time" searching for cardiologists who might also attend. Plamen Ivanov, a physicist and sleep medicine researcher affiliated with both Boston University and Harvard Medical School, also paid approximately $600 to register for the conference via Tom Lee. After he began the process of canceling the charge, however, he received an email on August 11 from someone calling himself "Tom" and writing from the email address "icc_2009@126.com" -- presumably Tom Lee -- saying that the group's Web site and email "have been hacked continually." (Iovannisci, too, received a similar email from "Alex" at alex_cardiology@hotmail.com".) The email, which Ivanov forwarded to The Scientist, went on to say that the organization would refund Ivanov's money and "will hold the speech opportunity" and "offer the re-registration" for him. Indeed, he learned from his credit card company on August 18 that the money had been refunded. Neither "Tom" nor "Alex" replied to an email request for explanation sent by The Scientist to the addresses from which they wrote. Kerry Huang provided translating services for this article.
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
One more bogus organisation in UK is the WESSEX INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
A conference organised by the the Wessex Institute of Technology: "The Second International Conference on Design & Nature" entered into the debate between Evolutionists and Intelligent Design community. A paper by Microbiologist and Intelligent Design proponent Dr. Scott Minnich, entitled "Genetic analysis of coordinate flagellar and type III regulatory circuits in pathogenic bacteria" was presented. It has been alleged that this paper was accepted through the peer review process. The Intelligent Design community claimed this to represent a scientific proof refuting Darwin's Theory of Evolution as the lack of such peer reviewed papers had been a criticism often levelled at ID proponents by evolutionary scientists.
This is not the first instance of controversy regarding WIT's approval. In 1995, WIT organised the VIDEA 1995 conference. Professor Werner Purgathofer, Vienna University of Technology, a member of the VIDEA 1995 program committee, became suspicious of the conference's peer review standards after not receiving any abstracts or papers for review. To confirm his suspicions, Professor Werner Purgathofer wrote four absurd and/or nonsensical "abstracts" and submitted them to the conference. All were "reviewed and conditionally accepted. He subsequently resigned from the program committee. http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/%7Ewp/videa.html and http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/%7Ewp/videa-paper.html
This is not the first instance of controversy regarding WIT's approval. In 1995, WIT organised the VIDEA 1995 conference. Professor Werner Purgathofer, Vienna University of Technology, a member of the VIDEA 1995 program committee, became suspicious of the conference's peer review standards after not receiving any abstracts or papers for review. To confirm his suspicions, Professor Werner Purgathofer wrote four absurd and/or nonsensical "abstracts" and submitted them to the conference. All were "reviewed and conditionally accepted. He subsequently resigned from the program committee. http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/%7Ewp/videa.html and http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/%7Ewp/videa-paper.html
An impressive declaration from Prof. DARIO PETRI petri@ieee.org
An impressive declaration from Prof. DARIO PETRI petri@ieee.org
Dear Mario,
I believe that many IEEE (sponsored or co-sponsored) conferences are quite bogusbecause they have published a lot of fake papers from SCIgen automatic machineor papers of low quality...We must be careful, otherwise our massive policy for giving the name of IEEE to strangeorganizers will harm the reputation of IEEE conference, if we have kept any rank of such an old reputation.
Prof. DARIO PETRIIEEE Italy Sectionpetri@ieee.org
********************************************************Posted athttp://anti-plagiarism-org.blogspot.com/2009/12/impressive-declaration-from-prof-dario.html
Dear Mario,
I believe that many IEEE (sponsored or co-sponsored) conferences are quite bogusbecause they have published a lot of fake papers from SCIgen automatic machineor papers of low quality...We must be careful, otherwise our massive policy for giving the name of IEEE to strangeorganizers will harm the reputation of IEEE conference, if we have kept any rank of such an old reputation.
Prof. DARIO PETRIIEEE Italy Sectionpetri@ieee.org
********************************************************Posted athttp://anti-plagiarism-org.blogspot.com/2009/12/impressive-declaration-from-prof-dario.html
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Creationism and Intelligent Design.
Francis Collins is a person who believes God uses evolution to make his creation with the aim to develop its thinking relationship with himself. In his 2006 book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, Collins considers scientific discoveries an "opportunity to worship." In his book Collins examines and subsequently rejects Creationism and Intelligent Design. His own belief system is Theistic Evolution which he prefers to term BioLogos. -- Charles Long—who is not doing his house cleaning this pm. With love to those who deserve it. We all have some doubts about God very likely. But we who have looked at the incredible magnitude of the universe have much hope. And we who love music have that relationship sometimes.
Here is the copied material about our new leader of NIH, a former leader of the human genome project, and author of a book on God.
In an interview with National Geographic published in February 2007, interviewer John Horgan, an agnostic journalist, criticized Collins' description of agnosticism as "a cop-out". In response, Collins clarified his position on agnosticism so as not to include "earnest agnostics who have considered the evidence and still don't find an answer. I was reacting to the agnosticism I see in the scientific community, which has not been arrived at by a careful examination of the evidence. I went through a phase when I was a casual agnostic, and I am perhaps too quick to assume that others have no more depth than I did."[9]
During a debate with Richard Dawkins, Collins stated that God is the explanation of those features of the universe that science finds difficult to explain (such as the values of certain physical constants favoring life), and that God himself does not need an explanation since he is beyond the universe. Dawkins called this "the mother and father of all cop-outs" and "an incredible evasion of the responsibility to explain", to which Collins responded "I do object to the assumption that anything that might be outside of nature is ruled out of the conversation. That's an impoverished view of the kinds of questions we humans can ask, such as 'Why am I here?', 'What happens after we die?' If you refuse to acknowledge their appropriateness, you end up with a zero probability of God after examining the natural world because it doesn't convince you on a proof basis. But if your mind is open about whether God might exist, you can point to aspects of the universe that are consistent with that conclusion."[10]
In reviewing The Dawkins Delusion?: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine by Alister McGrath, Collins says "Addressing the conclusions of The God Delusion point by point with the devastating insight of a molecular biologist turned theologian, Alister McGrath dismantles the argument that science should lead to atheism, and demonstrates instead that Dawkins has abandoned his much-cherished rationality to embrace an embittered manifesto of dogmatic atheist fundamentalism."[11]
Collins remains firm in his rejection of Intelligent Design, and for this reason was not asked to participate in the 2008 documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which tries, among other things, to draw a direct link between evolution and atheism. Walt Ruloff, a producer for the film, claimed that Collins was "toeing the party line" by rejecting Intelligent Design, which Collins called "just ludicrous." [12]
In 2009, Collins founded The BioLogos Foundation to "contribute to the public voice that represents the harmony of science and faith." He is currently serving as the foundation's president.[13]
Quotations
"Evolution is God's way of giving upgrades" (Stephen Colbert Interview, December 7, 2006)
"I concluded at the age of 15 or 16 that I had no interest in biology, or medicine, or any of those aspects of science that dealt with this messy thing called life. It just wasn't organized, and I wanted to stick with the nice pristine sciences of chemistry and physics, where everything made sense."
"I wish I had learned sooner that biology could be fun as well."
(When asked, "What do you say to your fellow Christians who say, 'Evolution is just a theory, and I can't put that together with my idea of a creator God'?") "Well, evolution is a theory. It's a very compelling one. As somebody who studies DNA, the fact that we are 98.4 percent identical at the DNA level to a chimpanzee, it's pretty hard to ignore the fact that when I am studying a particular gene, I can go to the mouse and find it's the similar gene, and it's 90 percent the same. It's certainly compatible with the theory of evolution, although it will always be a theory that we cannot actually prove. I'm a theistic evolutionist. I take the view that God, in His wisdom, used evolution as His creative scheme. I don't see why that's such a bad idea. That's pretty amazingly creative on His part. And what is wrong with that as a way of putting together in a synthetic way the view of God who is interested in creating a group of individuals that He can have fellowship with -- us? Why is evolution not an appropriate way to get to that goal? I don't see a problem with that."[14]
"Yes, evolution by descent from a common ancestor is clearly true. If there was any lingering doubt about the evidence from the fossil record, the study of DNA provides the strongest possible proof of our relatedness to all other living things."
Here is the copied material about our new leader of NIH, a former leader of the human genome project, and author of a book on God.
In an interview with National Geographic published in February 2007, interviewer John Horgan, an agnostic journalist, criticized Collins' description of agnosticism as "a cop-out". In response, Collins clarified his position on agnosticism so as not to include "earnest agnostics who have considered the evidence and still don't find an answer. I was reacting to the agnosticism I see in the scientific community, which has not been arrived at by a careful examination of the evidence. I went through a phase when I was a casual agnostic, and I am perhaps too quick to assume that others have no more depth than I did."[9]
During a debate with Richard Dawkins, Collins stated that God is the explanation of those features of the universe that science finds difficult to explain (such as the values of certain physical constants favoring life), and that God himself does not need an explanation since he is beyond the universe. Dawkins called this "the mother and father of all cop-outs" and "an incredible evasion of the responsibility to explain", to which Collins responded "I do object to the assumption that anything that might be outside of nature is ruled out of the conversation. That's an impoverished view of the kinds of questions we humans can ask, such as 'Why am I here?', 'What happens after we die?' If you refuse to acknowledge their appropriateness, you end up with a zero probability of God after examining the natural world because it doesn't convince you on a proof basis. But if your mind is open about whether God might exist, you can point to aspects of the universe that are consistent with that conclusion."[10]
In reviewing The Dawkins Delusion?: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine by Alister McGrath, Collins says "Addressing the conclusions of The God Delusion point by point with the devastating insight of a molecular biologist turned theologian, Alister McGrath dismantles the argument that science should lead to atheism, and demonstrates instead that Dawkins has abandoned his much-cherished rationality to embrace an embittered manifesto of dogmatic atheist fundamentalism."[11]
Collins remains firm in his rejection of Intelligent Design, and for this reason was not asked to participate in the 2008 documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which tries, among other things, to draw a direct link between evolution and atheism. Walt Ruloff, a producer for the film, claimed that Collins was "toeing the party line" by rejecting Intelligent Design, which Collins called "just ludicrous." [12]
In 2009, Collins founded The BioLogos Foundation to "contribute to the public voice that represents the harmony of science and faith." He is currently serving as the foundation's president.[13]
Quotations
"Evolution is God's way of giving upgrades" (Stephen Colbert Interview, December 7, 2006)
"I concluded at the age of 15 or 16 that I had no interest in biology, or medicine, or any of those aspects of science that dealt with this messy thing called life. It just wasn't organized, and I wanted to stick with the nice pristine sciences of chemistry and physics, where everything made sense."
"I wish I had learned sooner that biology could be fun as well."
(When asked, "What do you say to your fellow Christians who say, 'Evolution is just a theory, and I can't put that together with my idea of a creator God'?") "Well, evolution is a theory. It's a very compelling one. As somebody who studies DNA, the fact that we are 98.4 percent identical at the DNA level to a chimpanzee, it's pretty hard to ignore the fact that when I am studying a particular gene, I can go to the mouse and find it's the similar gene, and it's 90 percent the same. It's certainly compatible with the theory of evolution, although it will always be a theory that we cannot actually prove. I'm a theistic evolutionist. I take the view that God, in His wisdom, used evolution as His creative scheme. I don't see why that's such a bad idea. That's pretty amazingly creative on His part. And what is wrong with that as a way of putting together in a synthetic way the view of God who is interested in creating a group of individuals that He can have fellowship with -- us? Why is evolution not an appropriate way to get to that goal? I don't see a problem with that."[14]
"Yes, evolution by descent from a common ancestor is clearly true. If there was any lingering doubt about the evidence from the fossil record, the study of DNA provides the strongest possible proof of our relatedness to all other living things."
Friday, 19 June 2009
Scrutiny turns to Iran's supreme leader on Friday, when he will deliver a sermon to a nation that has been swept up in several days of post-election p
TEHRAN, Iran -- Scrutiny turns to Iran's supreme leader on Friday, when he will deliver a sermon to a nation that has been swept up in several days of post-election protests.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's Friday sermon is being anxiously awaited in Tehran and the rest of Iran.
http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/06/scrutiny-turns-to-irans-supreme-leader.html
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is to speak at mid-day Friday during prayers at Tehran University. That's according to the Basij militia, a voluntary paramilitary force that takes orders from the government.
Khamenei's speech will be scrutinized for signs of how the government plans to resolve a political stalemate that ensued after Iran's hardline president won re-election by a huge margin, quickly prompting allegations of ballot fraud.
Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, sermons during Friday prayers have been delivered by prominent officials, including by the supreme leader on occasion.
If Khamenei supports President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as he did immediately after the election results were announced, he risks being seen as ignoring the groundswell of opposition calling for a new election.
But if he appears to support the election's putative loser, Mir Hossein Moussavi, he could be seen as undermining both the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad's regime and perhaps even his own position as supreme leader of Iran.
The Guardian Council, which supervises the country's elections, said Thursday it is looking into the complaints questioning the validity of the election outcome.
On Thursday, tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Iran's capital for the sixth day in a row to protest the election results. Some estimates put the total number of participants in the hundreds of thousands.Don't Miss
* Special coverage: Iran election fallout * Cries in the dark: 'God is great' * Ahmadinejad: Remarks taken out of context * Online world is watching, acting
Moussavi spoke through a bullhorn from atop a building to the throngs of marchers who snaked through the city, in what was described as a peaceful protest. He spoke hours after the Iranian government agreed to meet with candidates to discuss complaints stemming from the election, a journalist at the scene told CNN. Video Watch latest CNN report »
Ahmadinejad has not made a public appearance since Sunday. Daily protests quickly followed his re-election.
The demonstrations have claimed at least eight lives, according to Iran's government-funded Press TV. Seven of those were protesters who were killed as they attacked a military post after a rally Monday, the government said.
There have been several other incidents of violence since the election, some of which Moussavi supporters blamed on the Basij militia. Video Watch militia crackdown »
Press TV reported Thursday that Iran's Intelligence Ministry said it had arrested a number of "main agents" behind vandalism during the daily demonstrations.
The government refused to allow international reporters to cover Moussavi's remarks Thursday, but messages sent on the social networking site Twitter said he talked about the country's economic problems and corruption.
"Twenty-five percent inflation means ignorance, thieving, corruption. Where is the wealth of my nation," Moussavi said, according to a Twitter message.
"Iran must participate in fair elections, it is a matter of national importance," the messages quoted him as saying.
The current Iranian government is not what Ayatollah Khomeini, who led the 1979 Islamic revolution, would have wanted for Iran, the Twitter messages quoted Moussavi as saying.
Because of the government restrictions on newsgathering, CNN could not confirm the authenticity of the messages.
Moussavi, 67, was a confidant of Ruhollah Khomeini, who died in 1989. Moussavi also served as the country's prime minister in the early years of the Islamic republic and during the country's war with Iraq in the 1980s.
A journalist at the scene said the opposition rally in Tehran proceeded peacefully. See where protests have taken place »
Many of the marchers wore black, signifying mourning for those who have died in post-election violence. The demonstrators -- many of whom also wore bands of green, showing support for Moussavi -- started their marches from mosques across the Iranian capital and converged Thursday afternoon in a city square.
Some began their march from Imam Khomeini Square, near the city's Grand Bazaar. That starting location is significant because it was there, three decades ago, that supporters of the Islamists now in power turned out en masse to criticize the regime of the shah of Iran. Video Watch marchers in Khomeini Square »
The journalist at the scene told CNN that marchers converged in Imam Khomeini Square and then snaked through streets toward Revolutionary Square near Tehran University.
Conditions were more relaxed and less vocal than they had been on Wednesday. Marchers drank juice and mineral water as they tramped through the streets. The journalist said there were no reports of injuries and he saw only ordinary police -- not anti-riot police -- on the scene. Read about Iran's power structure »advertisement
In some cases, witnesses said, Moussavi supporters -- carrying placards, posters and peace signs -- approached police officers in silence and smiled; the officers smiled back.
On reaching Revolutionary Square, the marchers dispersed, he said.
http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/06/scrutiny-turns-to-irans-supreme-leader.html
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is to speak at mid-day Friday during prayers at Tehran University. That's according to the Basij militia, a voluntary paramilitary force that takes orders from the government.
Khamenei's speech will be scrutinized for signs of how the government plans to resolve a political stalemate that ensued after Iran's hardline president won re-election by a huge margin, quickly prompting allegations of ballot fraud.
Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, sermons during Friday prayers have been delivered by prominent officials, including by the supreme leader on occasion.
If Khamenei supports President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as he did immediately after the election results were announced, he risks being seen as ignoring the groundswell of opposition calling for a new election.
But if he appears to support the election's putative loser, Mir Hossein Moussavi, he could be seen as undermining both the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad's regime and perhaps even his own position as supreme leader of Iran.
The Guardian Council, which supervises the country's elections, said Thursday it is looking into the complaints questioning the validity of the election outcome.
On Thursday, tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Iran's capital for the sixth day in a row to protest the election results. Some estimates put the total number of participants in the hundreds of thousands.Don't Miss
* Special coverage: Iran election fallout * Cries in the dark: 'God is great' * Ahmadinejad: Remarks taken out of context * Online world is watching, acting
Moussavi spoke through a bullhorn from atop a building to the throngs of marchers who snaked through the city, in what was described as a peaceful protest. He spoke hours after the Iranian government agreed to meet with candidates to discuss complaints stemming from the election, a journalist at the scene told CNN. Video Watch latest CNN report »
Ahmadinejad has not made a public appearance since Sunday. Daily protests quickly followed his re-election.
The demonstrations have claimed at least eight lives, according to Iran's government-funded Press TV. Seven of those were protesters who were killed as they attacked a military post after a rally Monday, the government said.
There have been several other incidents of violence since the election, some of which Moussavi supporters blamed on the Basij militia. Video Watch militia crackdown »
Press TV reported Thursday that Iran's Intelligence Ministry said it had arrested a number of "main agents" behind vandalism during the daily demonstrations.
The government refused to allow international reporters to cover Moussavi's remarks Thursday, but messages sent on the social networking site Twitter said he talked about the country's economic problems and corruption.
"Twenty-five percent inflation means ignorance, thieving, corruption. Where is the wealth of my nation," Moussavi said, according to a Twitter message.
"Iran must participate in fair elections, it is a matter of national importance," the messages quoted him as saying.
The current Iranian government is not what Ayatollah Khomeini, who led the 1979 Islamic revolution, would have wanted for Iran, the Twitter messages quoted Moussavi as saying.
Because of the government restrictions on newsgathering, CNN could not confirm the authenticity of the messages.
Moussavi, 67, was a confidant of Ruhollah Khomeini, who died in 1989. Moussavi also served as the country's prime minister in the early years of the Islamic republic and during the country's war with Iraq in the 1980s.
A journalist at the scene said the opposition rally in Tehran proceeded peacefully. See where protests have taken place »
Many of the marchers wore black, signifying mourning for those who have died in post-election violence. The demonstrators -- many of whom also wore bands of green, showing support for Moussavi -- started their marches from mosques across the Iranian capital and converged Thursday afternoon in a city square.
Some began their march from Imam Khomeini Square, near the city's Grand Bazaar. That starting location is significant because it was there, three decades ago, that supporters of the Islamists now in power turned out en masse to criticize the regime of the shah of Iran. Video Watch marchers in Khomeini Square »
The journalist at the scene told CNN that marchers converged in Imam Khomeini Square and then snaked through streets toward Revolutionary Square near Tehran University.
Conditions were more relaxed and less vocal than they had been on Wednesday. Marchers drank juice and mineral water as they tramped through the streets. The journalist said there were no reports of injuries and he saw only ordinary police -- not anti-riot police -- on the scene. Read about Iran's power structure »advertisement
In some cases, witnesses said, Moussavi supporters -- carrying placards, posters and peace signs -- approached police officers in silence and smiled; the officers smiled back.
On reaching Revolutionary Square, the marchers dispersed, he said.
Thursday, 18 June 2009
it's "too little, too late."
President Obama's decision to grant some benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees is seen by some as his attempt to extend an olive branch to the gay and lesbian community, but critics say it's "too little, too late." 
Some critics say President Obama has let the gay community down.
"It seems to me at least to be a nice gesture, but a disappointment," said Richard Kim, a senior editor at The Nation magazine.
The memorandum Obama signed Wednesday is not expected to grant health and retirement benefits to same-sex partners, as that is prohibited under the Defense of Marriage Act.
"It will absolutely be seen as something good -- but I think, for example, it not including full health insurance -- that is going to put a real microscope on that question. You know, why not?" Kim said, adding that the memo applies only to federal employees, so most people will not be affected by it.
Charles Moran, the spokesman for the Log Cabin Republicans, said the lack of full benefits in Thursday's memorandum shows a lack of commitment to the gay community.
"That's the part that just shows that the Obama administration really isn't serious about their promises to the gay and lesbian community. Things like the health benefits, things like retirement benefits and coverage for spouses. These are the core issues," Moran said.
"Why start the marathon if you're not serious about ending the race?" he added.
White House officials involved in discussions with gay-rights advocates say that Obama favors extending full health care benefits to same-sex couples but that will take legislation to accomplish.
Moran said Obama has had multiple opportunities to fulfill his promises to the gay and lesbian community -- including by repealing the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and standing against the Justice Department motion filed last week in support of the Defense of Marriage Act.
"Here we are, several months after he's been inaugurated, and we've gotten basically nothing. So it is too little, too late," Moran said.
White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama will keep his word.
"[Extending benefits to same-sex couples] is a matter of fairness. The president is committed to ensuring that fairness as well as working on and fulfilling other promises that he has made in the campaign around things like 'don't ask, don't tell,' " Gibbs said.
The president has faced sharp criticism over the Justice Department's filing in support of the Defense of Marriage Act, which opposes same-sex marriage. The act used the government's interest in opposing incestuous marriages to support its position against same-sex marriage.
Openly gay Rep. Barney Frank said the Obama administration made a "big mistake" and is calling on the president to clearly explain his views on the matter.
"The wording they used was inappropriate," the Massachusetts Democrat told the Boston Herald in an interview published in the paper's Wednesday edition.
Many gay activists have called on Frank and other gay members of Congress to speak out against the recent Department of Justice brief.
The rancor threatens to disrupt a big Democratic National Committee gay fundraiser in Washington next week.
Vice President Biden is the guest at next Thursday's DNC's LBGT Leadership Council 10th Annual Dinner in Washington. Critics are calling for Frank and other gay congressional leaders to boycott the dinner, for which tickets go for $1,000 to $30,000 a plate.
Activist David Mixner and blogger Andy Towle, two well-known gay rights advocates, announced that they were pulling out, citing disappointment with the Defense of Marriage Act brief.
The president also rankled gay advocates before his inauguration when he named megachurch pastor the Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his swearing-in. Warren, in an interview with Belief.net, likened homosexuality to bestiality and incest. He also supported California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in that state.
During the Warren controversy, Obama -- who frequently spoke in favor of gay and lesbian rights during the campaign but has said he opposes same-sex marriage -- declared himself "a fierce advocate for gay and lesbian Americans."
Given the support Obama received from the gay community during the campaign season, Kim said so far, the Obama administration has let gay and lesbian rights activists down.
Obama got 70 percent of the vote from those who identified themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual, according to CNN exit polls.
"I think there is an overwhelming feeling that he has not lived up to expectations on these matters," he said.
But, he added, "there's some sympathy for him -- there's the worst recession since the Great Depression, troops are in two different countries in the Middle East -- so there's a lot on his plate."
Kim said Obama's full agenda, however, shouldn't be used as an excuse to delay action on gay rights issues. If the administration waits until there is a news hole, then the issues will be subject to a lot of debate, he said.
"In the middle of the health care debate, saying we're going to do health care, we're going to fix the economy and then this other [gay rights] stuff -- of course it's right. It doesn't require a national debate," he said. "This is stuff that's been debated forever. America does not need a huge national debate on some of these issues," Kim said.
Kim said while Obama has disappointed the gay community, he still has some time to make good on his campaign promises.
"I think people will wait through the first two legislative sessions, but then after that some of this stuff does need to move to the front," he saidWednesday, 17 June 2009
President Obama will sign a memorandum Wednesday granting health care and other benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees, ...
President Obama will sign a memorandum Wednesday granting health care and other benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees, two senior administration officials said.
http://dominore.blogspot.com
President Obama has been criticized by gay rights activists for not doing more since taking office.
The signing will take place in the Oval Office and follows sharp criticism of the president over a Justice Department motion filed last week in support of the Defense of Marriage Act -- which opposes same-sex marriage -- that used the government's interest in opposing incestuous marriages to support its position against same-sex marriage.
Gay and lesbian advocates have also faulted the Obama administration for not moving to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bars officials from asking about a service member's sexual orientation but also bars the service member from revealing it.
The president rankled gay advocates before his inauguration when he named megachurch pastor the Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his swearing-in. Warren, in an interview with Belief.net, likened homosexuality to bestiality and incest. He also supported California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in that state.
During the Warren controversy, Obama -- who frequently spoke in favor of gay and lesbian rights during the campaign but has said he opposes same-sex marriage -- declared himself "a fierce advocate for gay and lesbian Americans
http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/06/president-obama-will-sign-memorandum.html
http://dominore.blogspot.com
President Obama has been criticized by gay rights activists for not doing more since taking office.
The signing will take place in the Oval Office and follows sharp criticism of the president over a Justice Department motion filed last week in support of the Defense of Marriage Act -- which opposes same-sex marriage -- that used the government's interest in opposing incestuous marriages to support its position against same-sex marriage.
Gay and lesbian advocates have also faulted the Obama administration for not moving to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bars officials from asking about a service member's sexual orientation but also bars the service member from revealing it.
The president rankled gay advocates before his inauguration when he named megachurch pastor the Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his swearing-in. Warren, in an interview with Belief.net, likened homosexuality to bestiality and incest. He also supported California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in that state.
During the Warren controversy, Obama -- who frequently spoke in favor of gay and lesbian rights during the campaign but has said he opposes same-sex marriage -- declared himself "a fierce advocate for gay and lesbian Americans
http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/06/president-obama-will-sign-memorandum.html
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged China to publicly account for those killed in the suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests 20 year
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged China to publicly account for those killed in the suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests 20 years ago.
http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/06/us-secretary-of-state-hillary-clinton.html
Mrs Clinton said China should release those still held over the protests and stop harassing those who took part.
Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people died in the crackdown and open discussion of the events remains taboo.
There is very tight security in Beijing, with police stopping foreign journalists reaching the square.
Uniformed and plain-clothed officials even stopped TV crews filming the daily flag-raising ceremony at dawn.
Many dissidents say they have been told to leave Beijing or are confined to their homes.
Even in Hong Kong, where freedom of expression is guaranteed, some dissidents have been denied entry.
But Mrs Clinton said in a statement that the anniversary was a chance for China to "reflect upon the meaning of the events that preceded that day".
She said China "should examine openly the darker events of its past and provide a public accounting of those killed, detained or missing, both to learn and to heal."
"China can honour the memory of that day by moving to give the rule of law, protection of internationally-recognised human rights, and democratic development the same priority as it has given to economic reform," she added.
Mrs Clinton's views were echoed by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who said that while China had made "big improvements in economic and social rights" since Tiananmen, progress on political and civil rights had been "far slower".
The statement from Mrs Clinton represents a tougher line than the Obama administration has taken so far when addressing China's human rights record, the BBC's Kim Ghattas reports from Washington.
She says Mrs Clinton had disappointed activists at the start of her tenure by saying human rights should not interfere in discussions with China about other issues, like climate change and North Korea.
The Chinese Communist Party has never held an official inquiry into what happened in and around the square 20 years ago, and discussion of the issue is banned on the mainland.
Earlier, Xiang Xiaoji, now a US citizen, was trying to come to Hong Kong to join commemorative events being held to mark the anniversary. But he was refused entry and returned to New York.
Another prominent protest leader, Wu'er Kaixi, flew from his home in Taiwan to Macau on Wednesday, but was detained on arrival.
Mr Kaixi told reporters that he had wanted to go from Macau into mainland China, to see his parents.
Tiananmen Square was open to visitors on the eve of the anniversary, but police were examining visitors at checkpoints and checking the bags and papers of people in the area.
From http://dominore.blogspot.com
http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/06/us-secretary-of-state-hillary-clinton.html
Languishing in a Cairo prison last year, a prisoner noticed that every day, the prison staff would clean the adjacent cell, even though there was no
Languishing in a Cairo prison last year, a prisoner noticed that every day, the prison staff would clean the adjacent cell, even though there was no one in it.
http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/06/languishing-in-cairo-prison-last-year.html
Ayman Nour prayed for an Obama victory, but does not plan to hear him in person.
Why, the prisoner asked his guards, did they do it? It's for Barack Obama, they responded. Because when he loses the election, he'll surely be thrown in jail, so this way, a cell will be ready for him. Every day, the prisoner said, he prayed in his cell that Obama would win.
The prisoner was Ayman Nour, a liberal politician who in 2005 ran against and lost to Egypt's aging ruler, Hosni Mubarak, in the country's first multiparty presidential elections. Soon afterward, he was convicted of electoral fraud and sent to jail. He was released earlier this year.
Nour said he had received an invitation from the American Embassy to attend President Obama's address to the Muslim world at Cairo University on Thursday. He said he doesn't plan to attend, but will watch it on television.
"That way," he said, "if I hear something I don't like, I can always change the channel with my remote control."
The way that Nour prayed for an Obama victory, but will not go to hear him in person, is typical of the ambiguities in how many in Egypt and throughout the Muslim world view Obama's much touted address to the world's nearly 1.5 billion Muslims. Watch shopkeepers say what they want from Obama »Video
On the one hand, at least in Egypt, Obama is the most popular American president in years. Almost everyone you meet is almost starry-eyed over the new American leader.
On the other hand, the region has a long history of disappointment with the United States.
Egyptian reformists look back bitterly on their experience during the Bush administration, which, after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, launched an initiative to push for political liberalization in the Middle East.
In 2005, then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a speech that sent a shockwave through Egypt. Journalist Ethar El-Katatney recalled, "She said that in the last 60 years, the U.S. pursued stability at the expense of democracy. We all said, 'wow!' "
The mounting American pressure on the dictators, the demonstrations, the rediscovery of long-lost voices raised against authoritarian regimes like Egypt's sparked talk of an "Arab spring," a long-overdue blossoming of freedom and democracy in the political desert of the Middle East.
But the Bush administration's passion for Arab democracy cooled dramatically when Egypt's powerful Islamist network, the Muslim Brotherhood, made stunning gains in parliamentary elections in late 2005. And the passion went stone cold in January 2006, when the militant Palestinian Islamic group Hamas was swept to power in democratic elections in Gaza and the West Bank.
Sensing Washington's worry, Arab dictators and their ruthless security services saw their chance, and slowly started to squeeze the brave few who had been calling for change.
Award-winning Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas experienced the thrill of the "Arab spring," but since then has had plenty of run-ins with Egypt's secret police. He has no illusions about what matters to the United States, Obama's charisma notwithstanding.
"It's OK for these countries to be oppressive," he said, "as long as they are allies [of the United States], as long as they are not communists, as long as they allow investment, as long as they allow McDonald's and Hardee's and whatever businesses to be open here. But if they are dictators, [the United States] doesn't care about human rights, as long as they are allies, as long as they keep peace with Israel, it's OK."
"We have a fundamental problem with America," Nour said in an interview at his flat Monday. "America always takes positive steps, then setbacks happen, and usually America puts its interests above its principles."
From: http://dominore.blogspot.com
http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/06/languishing-in-cairo-prison-last-year.html
Energy is The “Zeroth Religion”, by Prof. KOSTIC
Energy is The “Zeroth Religion” -
Energy, as the ‘building block ’ of all material and space existence, and as the cause for all (re)creations in time, could be metaphorically considered as the most basic "Zeroth Religion," with all due respect to the "First Religion," the way the Zeroth Law of thermal equilibrium is more basic than the Grandiose First Law of energy conservation in Thermodynamics.
►Energy Provides Existence and is Cause for Change (hopefully progress): Energy is possessed (thus equilibrium property) by material systems and redistributed (transferred) between and within system(s), due to systems' non-equilibrium, via forced-displacement interactions (process) towards the equilibrium (equi-partition of energy over mass and space); thus energy is conserved (the 1st Law) but degraded (the 2nd Law).
►The Grand Law of Nature: The universe consists of local material structures in forced equilibrium and their interactions via forced fields. The forces are balanced at any time (including inertial - process rate forces) thus conserving momentum, while charges/mass and energy are transferred and conserved during forced displacement in space all the times, but energy is degraded as it is redistributed (transferred) from higher to lower non-equilibrium potential towards equilibrium (equi-partition of energy). * See also www.ZerothReligion.com * www.kostic.niu.edu/Energy * Energy Pyramid
►Effects are consequences of Causes except at Equilibrium they are equal (reversible) [by M. Kostic] (see also Definition of ENERGY and Definition of ENTROPY)
SEE - Society Energy and Environment: The “Zeroth Religion” for Everybody! [PDF][EPESE'09]Professor M. KosticDepartment of Mechanical EngineeringNORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITYDeKalb, IL 60115-2854, USAE-mail: kostic@niu.edu Web site: www.kostic.niu.edu SPEAKING Enquiry
Synopsis:
Energy, as the ‘building block’ of all material and space existence, and as the cause for all (re)creations in time, could be metaphorically considered as the most basic "Zeroth Religion," with all due respect to the "First Religion," the way the Zeroth Law of thermal equilibrium is more basic than the grandiose First Law of energy conservation in Thermodynamics. Energy is more than universal currency. The world view, from inside to outside, is only possible, figuratively and literally, through the energy prism. From shining stars to rotating planets, to global water, atmospheric and life cycles, to evolution, industrialization and modernization of civilization, energy is the cause and measure of all there has been, it is, and will be.
Energy is the cause for all processes across all space and time scales, including global and historical changes. Energy is both cause and consequence of formation and transformation within the universe at the grand scale, down to the smallest sub-nano-structures within an atom nucleus and electromagnetic radiation (everything we are capable of observing and comprehending). Energy warms our planet Earth and keeps it alive. It moves cars and trains, and boats and planes. Energy bakes foods and keeps them frozen for storage. It heats and lights our homes and plays our music. Energy makes our bodies to grow and alive, and allows our minds to think. Through centuries people have learned how to harvest and use energy in different forms in order to do work more easily and live more comfortably.
Zooming in through space and history from the formation of our planet Earth some 4.5 billion years ago, it has been changing ever since due to energy exchanges or “energy flows” in different astrophysical, geological, thermo-physical, electro-chemical, biological, and intellectual processes. Hundreds of millions of years ago, life emerged from the oceans and transformed the landscape. Just a few million years ago the first human species evolved and began their own process of interaction with the environment, our planet Earth. About one million years ago our own species, homo sapiens, first appeared, strived most of the history and boomed with agricultural and industrial revolution, after learning how to harvest, control and use energy.
The human metabolism, to maintain life, is approximately equal to the dietary energy reference value of 2000 kcal/day, which is equivalent to 97 Watt. Human sustained working power is about 75 W or one tenth of the “horse power.” The human muscular power bursts may be a hundred times greater than the basal metabolic or sustained power. In comparison, the World’s population is about 6.5 billion with total energy consumption about 2.2 kW/c (per capita), compared to 0.3 billion population and 11.3 kW/c in the U.S. (the total energy rate in kW needs to be scaled by usual 33% efficiency to be qualitatively compared with electrical energy rate in kW). The corresponding per capita electricity consumption rate is about 0.3 kW/c and 1.5 kW/c in the World and the U.S., respectively.
All energy coming to the Earth surface is 99.98 % solar, 0.018% geothermal and 0.002% tidal-gravitational. About 14 TW (Tera-Watt, or 2.2 kW/capita, i.e. per person) the world energy consumption rate now, represents only 0.008%, a tiny fraction of the solar energy striking Earth, and is about 6 times smaller than global photosynthesis (all life), the latter is only 0.05% of total solar, and global atmospheric water and wind are about 1% of solar energy. As an ultimate energy source for virtually all natural processes, the solar energy is available for direct ‘harvest’ if needed, and is absorbed by vegetation and water surfaces on Earth, thus being the driving force for natural photosynthesis, and in turn for biosynthesis processes, as well as natural water cycle and all atmospheric processes. The solar radiation power density incident to the Earth atmosphere, known as the Solar Constant, is 2 cal/min/cm2 or 1.4 kW/m2, which after taking into account average day/night time (50%), varying incident angle (50%) and atmospheric/cloud scatter and absorption (53%), reduces to only 0.5·0.5·0.47=11.7% of the Solar Constant, or about 165 W/m2 at the Earth surface, as all-time average.
If all energy is literally expelled from a confined space, then nothing, empty space will be left. As long as any matter is left, it will contain the energy - even at zero absolute temperature the electrons will be orbiting around very energetic nucleus. Matter is and must be energetic, E=mc^2, thus literally, “energy is everything,” no energy, nothing in the space. Energy is the fundamental property of a physical system and refers to its potential to maintain a material system identity or structure (forced field in space) and to influence changes (via forced-displacement interactions, i.e. systems' re-structuring) with other systems in space and time by imparting work (forced directional displacement) or heat (forced chaotic displacement/motion of a system molecular or related structures). Energy exists in many forms: electromagnetic (including light), electrical, magnetic, nuclear, chemical, thermal, and mechanical (including kinetic, elastic, gravitational, and sound). Energy is the ‘building block’ and fundamental property of matter and space, and thus, the fundamental property of existence. Energy exchanges or transfers are associated with all processes (or changes), and thus are indivisible from time.
Let us not be fooled by low oil prices now due to unforeseen economic recession! The two things are certain in not distant future: (1) the world population and their living-standard expectations will substantially increase, and (2) the fossil fuels’ economical reserves, particularly oil and natural gas, will substantially decrease. The difficulties that will face every nation and the world in meeting energy needs over the next several decades will be more challenging than what we anticipate now. The traditional solutions and approaches will not solve the global energy problem. New knowledge, new technology, and new living habits and expectations must be developed to address both, the quantity of energy needed to increase the standard of living world-wide and to preserve and enhance the quality of our environment.
However, regardless of imminent shortages of fossil fuels, the outlook for future energy needs is encouraging. Energy conservation “with existing technology” (insulation, regeneration, cogeneration and optimization with energy storage) has real immediate potential to substantially reduce energy dependence on fossil fuels and enable use of alternative and renewable energy sources. There are many diverse and abundant energy sources with promising future potentials, so that mankind should be able to enhance its activities, standard and quality of living, by diversifying energy sources, and by improving energy conversion and utilization efficiencies, while at the same time increasing safety and reducing environmental pollution.
After all, in the wake of a short history of fossil fuels’ abundance and use (a blip on a human history radar screen), the life may be happier after the fossil fuel era! More at: www.kostic.niu.edu/energy
Brief Biography of the Speaker (more at: www.kostic.niu.edu):
Professor Kostic's teaching and research interests are in Thermodynamics (a science of energy, the Mother of All Sciences), Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer and related fluid-thermal-energy sciences; with emphases on physical comprehension and creative design, experimental methods with computerized data acquisition, and CFD simulation; including nanotechnology and development of new-hybrid, POLY-nanofluids with enhanced properties, as well as design, analysis and optimization of fluids-thermal-energy components and systems in power-conversion, utilizations, manufacturing and material processing. Dr. Kostic came to Northern Illinois University from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he supervised and conducted a two-year research program in heat transfer and viscoelastic fluid flows, after working for some time in industry.
Kostic received his B.S. degree with the University of Belgrade Award as the best graduated student in 1975. Then he worked as a researcher in thermal engineering and combustion at The Vinca Institute for Nuclear Sciences, which then hosted the headquarters of the International Center for Heat and Mass Transfer, and later taught at the University of Belgrade in ex-Yugoslavia, Serbia now (MFB). He came to the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1981 as a Fulbright grantee, where he received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering in 1984. Subsequently, Dr. Kostic worked several years in industry. In addition, he spent three summers as an exchange visitor in England, West Germany, and the former Soviet Union.
Dr. Kostic has received recognized professional fellowships and awards, including multiple citations in Marquis' "Who's Who in the World" and "Who's Who in Science and Engineering."; the Fulbright Grant; NASA Faculty Fellowship; Sabbatical Semester at Fermilab as a Guest Scientist; and the summer Faculty Research Participation Program at Argonne National Laboratory. He is a frequent reviewer of professional works and books in Thermodynamics and Experimental Methods. Dr. Kostic is a licensed professional engineer (PE) in Illinois and a member of the ASME, ASEE, and AIP's Society of Rheology. He has a number of publications in refereed journals, including invited state-of-the-art chapters in the Academic Press series Advances in Heat Transfer, Volume 19, and "Viscosity" in CRC Press' Measurement, Instrumentation and Sensors Handbook; as well as invited reference articles: Work, Power, and Energy in Academic Press/Elsevier's Encyclopedia of Energy; Extrusion Die Design in Dekker's Encyclopedia of Chemical Processing; and Energy: Global and Historical Background, and Physics of Energy, both in Taylor & Francis/CRC Press Encyclopedia of Energy Engineering and Technology. Professor Kostic is a member of the Graduate Faculty at Northern Illinois University.
Energy, as the ‘building block ’ of all material and space existence, and as the cause for all (re)creations in time, could be metaphorically considered as the most basic "Zeroth Religion," with all due respect to the "First Religion," the way the Zeroth Law of thermal equilibrium is more basic than the Grandiose First Law of energy conservation in Thermodynamics.
►Energy Provides Existence and is Cause for Change (hopefully progress): Energy is possessed (thus equilibrium property) by material systems and redistributed (transferred) between and within system(s), due to systems' non-equilibrium, via forced-displacement interactions (process) towards the equilibrium (equi-partition of energy over mass and space); thus energy is conserved (the 1st Law) but degraded (the 2nd Law).
►The Grand Law of Nature: The universe consists of local material structures in forced equilibrium and their interactions via forced fields. The forces are balanced at any time (including inertial - process rate forces) thus conserving momentum, while charges/mass and energy are transferred and conserved during forced displacement in space all the times, but energy is degraded as it is redistributed (transferred) from higher to lower non-equilibrium potential towards equilibrium (equi-partition of energy). * See also www.ZerothReligion.com * www.kostic.niu.edu/Energy * Energy Pyramid
►Effects are consequences of Causes except at Equilibrium they are equal (reversible) [by M. Kostic] (see also Definition of ENERGY and Definition of ENTROPY)
SEE - Society Energy and Environment: The “Zeroth Religion” for Everybody! [PDF][EPESE'09]Professor M. KosticDepartment of Mechanical EngineeringNORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITYDeKalb, IL 60115-2854, USAE-mail: kostic@niu.edu Web site: www.kostic.niu.edu SPEAKING Enquiry
Synopsis:
Energy, as the ‘building block’ of all material and space existence, and as the cause for all (re)creations in time, could be metaphorically considered as the most basic "Zeroth Religion," with all due respect to the "First Religion," the way the Zeroth Law of thermal equilibrium is more basic than the grandiose First Law of energy conservation in Thermodynamics. Energy is more than universal currency. The world view, from inside to outside, is only possible, figuratively and literally, through the energy prism. From shining stars to rotating planets, to global water, atmospheric and life cycles, to evolution, industrialization and modernization of civilization, energy is the cause and measure of all there has been, it is, and will be.
Energy is the cause for all processes across all space and time scales, including global and historical changes. Energy is both cause and consequence of formation and transformation within the universe at the grand scale, down to the smallest sub-nano-structures within an atom nucleus and electromagnetic radiation (everything we are capable of observing and comprehending). Energy warms our planet Earth and keeps it alive. It moves cars and trains, and boats and planes. Energy bakes foods and keeps them frozen for storage. It heats and lights our homes and plays our music. Energy makes our bodies to grow and alive, and allows our minds to think. Through centuries people have learned how to harvest and use energy in different forms in order to do work more easily and live more comfortably.
Zooming in through space and history from the formation of our planet Earth some 4.5 billion years ago, it has been changing ever since due to energy exchanges or “energy flows” in different astrophysical, geological, thermo-physical, electro-chemical, biological, and intellectual processes. Hundreds of millions of years ago, life emerged from the oceans and transformed the landscape. Just a few million years ago the first human species evolved and began their own process of interaction with the environment, our planet Earth. About one million years ago our own species, homo sapiens, first appeared, strived most of the history and boomed with agricultural and industrial revolution, after learning how to harvest, control and use energy.
The human metabolism, to maintain life, is approximately equal to the dietary energy reference value of 2000 kcal/day, which is equivalent to 97 Watt. Human sustained working power is about 75 W or one tenth of the “horse power.” The human muscular power bursts may be a hundred times greater than the basal metabolic or sustained power. In comparison, the World’s population is about 6.5 billion with total energy consumption about 2.2 kW/c (per capita), compared to 0.3 billion population and 11.3 kW/c in the U.S. (the total energy rate in kW needs to be scaled by usual 33% efficiency to be qualitatively compared with electrical energy rate in kW). The corresponding per capita electricity consumption rate is about 0.3 kW/c and 1.5 kW/c in the World and the U.S., respectively.
All energy coming to the Earth surface is 99.98 % solar, 0.018% geothermal and 0.002% tidal-gravitational. About 14 TW (Tera-Watt, or 2.2 kW/capita, i.e. per person) the world energy consumption rate now, represents only 0.008%, a tiny fraction of the solar energy striking Earth, and is about 6 times smaller than global photosynthesis (all life), the latter is only 0.05% of total solar, and global atmospheric water and wind are about 1% of solar energy. As an ultimate energy source for virtually all natural processes, the solar energy is available for direct ‘harvest’ if needed, and is absorbed by vegetation and water surfaces on Earth, thus being the driving force for natural photosynthesis, and in turn for biosynthesis processes, as well as natural water cycle and all atmospheric processes. The solar radiation power density incident to the Earth atmosphere, known as the Solar Constant, is 2 cal/min/cm2 or 1.4 kW/m2, which after taking into account average day/night time (50%), varying incident angle (50%) and atmospheric/cloud scatter and absorption (53%), reduces to only 0.5·0.5·0.47=11.7% of the Solar Constant, or about 165 W/m2 at the Earth surface, as all-time average.
If all energy is literally expelled from a confined space, then nothing, empty space will be left. As long as any matter is left, it will contain the energy - even at zero absolute temperature the electrons will be orbiting around very energetic nucleus. Matter is and must be energetic, E=mc^2, thus literally, “energy is everything,” no energy, nothing in the space. Energy is the fundamental property of a physical system and refers to its potential to maintain a material system identity or structure (forced field in space) and to influence changes (via forced-displacement interactions, i.e. systems' re-structuring) with other systems in space and time by imparting work (forced directional displacement) or heat (forced chaotic displacement/motion of a system molecular or related structures). Energy exists in many forms: electromagnetic (including light), electrical, magnetic, nuclear, chemical, thermal, and mechanical (including kinetic, elastic, gravitational, and sound). Energy is the ‘building block’ and fundamental property of matter and space, and thus, the fundamental property of existence. Energy exchanges or transfers are associated with all processes (or changes), and thus are indivisible from time.
Let us not be fooled by low oil prices now due to unforeseen economic recession! The two things are certain in not distant future: (1) the world population and their living-standard expectations will substantially increase, and (2) the fossil fuels’ economical reserves, particularly oil and natural gas, will substantially decrease. The difficulties that will face every nation and the world in meeting energy needs over the next several decades will be more challenging than what we anticipate now. The traditional solutions and approaches will not solve the global energy problem. New knowledge, new technology, and new living habits and expectations must be developed to address both, the quantity of energy needed to increase the standard of living world-wide and to preserve and enhance the quality of our environment.
However, regardless of imminent shortages of fossil fuels, the outlook for future energy needs is encouraging. Energy conservation “with existing technology” (insulation, regeneration, cogeneration and optimization with energy storage) has real immediate potential to substantially reduce energy dependence on fossil fuels and enable use of alternative and renewable energy sources. There are many diverse and abundant energy sources with promising future potentials, so that mankind should be able to enhance its activities, standard and quality of living, by diversifying energy sources, and by improving energy conversion and utilization efficiencies, while at the same time increasing safety and reducing environmental pollution.
After all, in the wake of a short history of fossil fuels’ abundance and use (a blip on a human history radar screen), the life may be happier after the fossil fuel era! More at: www.kostic.niu.edu/energy
Brief Biography of the Speaker (more at: www.kostic.niu.edu):
Professor Kostic's teaching and research interests are in Thermodynamics (a science of energy, the Mother of All Sciences), Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer and related fluid-thermal-energy sciences; with emphases on physical comprehension and creative design, experimental methods with computerized data acquisition, and CFD simulation; including nanotechnology and development of new-hybrid, POLY-nanofluids with enhanced properties, as well as design, analysis and optimization of fluids-thermal-energy components and systems in power-conversion, utilizations, manufacturing and material processing. Dr. Kostic came to Northern Illinois University from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he supervised and conducted a two-year research program in heat transfer and viscoelastic fluid flows, after working for some time in industry.
Kostic received his B.S. degree with the University of Belgrade Award as the best graduated student in 1975. Then he worked as a researcher in thermal engineering and combustion at The Vinca Institute for Nuclear Sciences, which then hosted the headquarters of the International Center for Heat and Mass Transfer, and later taught at the University of Belgrade in ex-Yugoslavia, Serbia now (MFB). He came to the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1981 as a Fulbright grantee, where he received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering in 1984. Subsequently, Dr. Kostic worked several years in industry. In addition, he spent three summers as an exchange visitor in England, West Germany, and the former Soviet Union.
Dr. Kostic has received recognized professional fellowships and awards, including multiple citations in Marquis' "Who's Who in the World" and "Who's Who in Science and Engineering."; the Fulbright Grant; NASA Faculty Fellowship; Sabbatical Semester at Fermilab as a Guest Scientist; and the summer Faculty Research Participation Program at Argonne National Laboratory. He is a frequent reviewer of professional works and books in Thermodynamics and Experimental Methods. Dr. Kostic is a licensed professional engineer (PE) in Illinois and a member of the ASME, ASEE, and AIP's Society of Rheology. He has a number of publications in refereed journals, including invited state-of-the-art chapters in the Academic Press series Advances in Heat Transfer, Volume 19, and "Viscosity" in CRC Press' Measurement, Instrumentation and Sensors Handbook; as well as invited reference articles: Work, Power, and Energy in Academic Press/Elsevier's Encyclopedia of Energy; Extrusion Die Design in Dekker's Encyclopedia of Chemical Processing; and Energy: Global and Historical Background, and Physics of Energy, both in Taylor & Francis/CRC Press Encyclopedia of Energy Engineering and Technology. Professor Kostic is a member of the Graduate Faculty at Northern Illinois University.
Saturday, 30 May 2009
Their organization www.anti-plagiarism.org has just found a new post
We receives this by email and we want to share the information with you
******************************************************************************
Our organization www.anti-plagiarism.org has just found a new post
http://iaria-highsci.blogspot.com/2009/05/dear-president-of-ieee.html
seems to be correct.
Please take careful note of the information below
about this IEEE Computational Complexity conference that was a fraudulent conference
It is one more IEEE conference that accepted 2 bogus papers
The organizers are academic criminals. Do NOT send these criminals any money.Please send this warning on to your networks.
Many young people have been defrauded lately - and we must work together to defeat such efforts.
Use extreme caution when applying for conferences advertised by organizations unknown to you.What a Shame for the IEEE Computational Complexity Conference! two new bogus papers have been accepted in the http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/jrogers/complexity/accepted.html
BOGUS PAPER 1: Extractors for varieties ??????????by Zeev Dvir !!!and
BOGUS PAPER 2: Extractors for Low-Weight Affine Sources ??????? byAnup Rao
The papers are absolutely fake papers and the organizers built a fraudulent conference!
What a Shame for the fraudulent IEEE Computational Complexity Conference!
JUST add this to the long list of false - fake papers of IEEE conferences:
Recently, many fake papers appeared in several IEEE conferences, because the IEEE grants its name and its logo to many local organizers who supposedly do not conduct a thorough review process. It is being argued that such conferences only exist to make money out of researchers that are looking for a simple way to publish their work, in particular publishers like IARIA, http://www.iaria.org, HIGHSCI http://www.highsci.org and SRP http://www.scirp.org appear questionable. As seen from their web sites, IARIA, HIGHSCI and SRP use the name of IEEE and the IEEE publishing services, thus attracting numerous papers. Some people to test some conference go further and sent the paper "A Statistical Method For Women That Can Help Our Sexual Education" in the IEEE Conference organized by IARIA. This paper received automatic acceptance within a few hours with simultaneous "command" of direct payment. Unfortunately this paper was not published because the authors did not pay the registration fee. However the letter of acceptance is published on the web and anybody can check it: http://iaria-highsci.blogspot.com/ , http://scamieee.blogspot.com/
******************************************************************************
Our organization www.anti-plagiarism.org has just found a new post
http://iaria-highsci.blogspot.
seems to be correct.
Please take careful note of the information below
about this IEEE Computational Complexity conference that was a fraudulent conference
It is one more IEEE conference that accepted 2 bogus papers
The organizers are academic criminals. Do NOT send these criminals any money.Please send this warning on to your networks.
Many young people have been defrauded lately - and we must work together to defeat such efforts.
Use extreme caution when applying for conferences advertised by organizations unknown to you.What a Shame for the IEEE Computational Complexity Conference! two new bogus papers have been accepted in the http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/
BOGUS PAPER 1: Extractors for varieties ??????????by Zeev Dvir !!!and
BOGUS PAPER 2: Extractors for Low-Weight Affine Sources ??????? byAnup Rao
The papers are absolutely fake papers and the organizers built a fraudulent conference!
What a Shame for the fraudulent IEEE Computational Complexity Conference!
JUST add this to the long list of false - fake papers of IEEE conferences:
Recently, many fake papers appeared in several IEEE conferences, because the IEEE grants its name and its logo to many local organizers who supposedly do not conduct a thorough review process. It is being argued that such conferences only exist to make money out of researchers that are looking for a simple way to publish their work, in particular publishers like IARIA, http://www.iaria.org, HIGHSCI http://www.highsci.org and SRP http://www.scirp.org appear questionable. As seen from their web sites, IARIA, HIGHSCI and SRP use the name of IEEE and the IEEE publishing services, thus attracting numerous papers. Some people to test some conference go further and sent the paper "A Statistical Method For Women That Can Help Our Sexual Education" in the IEEE Conference organized by IARIA. This paper received automatic acceptance within a few hours with simultaneous "command" of direct payment. Unfortunately this paper was not published because the authors did not pay the registration fee. However the letter of acceptance is published on the web and anybody can check it: http://iaria-highsci.blogspot.
Sunday, 24 May 2009
Dating women all over the world.
WHITE AMERICAN WOMEN:
First date:You get to kiss her goodnight..
Second date:You get to grope all over and make out a bit.
Third date:You get to have sex but only in the missionary position.
IRISH WOMEN:
First Date:You both get blind drunk and have sex.
Second Date:You both get blind drunk and have sex.
20th Anniversary:You both get blind drunk and have sex.
ITALIAN WOMEN:
First Date:You take her to a play and an expensive restaurant.
Second Date:You meet her parents and her Mom makes spaghetti & meatballs.
Third Date:You have sex, she wants to marry you & insists on a 3-carat ring.
5th Anniversary:You already have 5 kids together & hate the thought of having sex.
6th Anniversary:You find yourself a Mistress.
CHINESE WOMEN:
First date:You get to buy her an expensive dinner but nothing happens.
Second date:You buy her an even more expensive dinner. Nothing happens again.
Third date:You don't even get to the third date and you've already realized nothingis ever going to happen.
INDIAN WOMEN:
First date:Meet her parents.
Second date:Set the date of the wedding.
Third date:Wedding night!
BLACK WOMEN:
First Date:You get to buy her a real expensive dinner.
Second Date:You get to buy her and her girlfriends a real expensive dinner.
Third Date:You get to pay her rent.
Tenth Date:She's pregnant by someone other than you.
MEXICAN WOMEN:
First Date:You buy her an expensive dinner, get drunk on Tequila,
and have sex in the back of her car.
Second Date:She's pregnant.
Third Date:She moves in. One week later, her mother, father, his girlfriend, hertwo sisters, her brother, all of their kids, her grandma, her father'sgirlfriend's mother, her two cousins, her sister's boyfriend and histhree kids move in and you live on rice and beans for the rest of yourlife in your home that used to be nice, but now looks like a home alongthe Tijuana strip.
ARAB WOMEN:
First Date:Mother, Father, Brothers, Sisters, Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Friends andentireArab community finds out.
Second Date:Guy is shot dead.
No third date!!!
First date:You get to kiss her goodnight..
Second date:You get to grope all over and make out a bit.
Third date:You get to have sex but only in the missionary position.
IRISH WOMEN:
First Date:You both get blind drunk and have sex.
Second Date:You both get blind drunk and have sex.
20th Anniversary:You both get blind drunk and have sex.
ITALIAN WOMEN:
First Date:You take her to a play and an expensive restaurant.
Second Date:You meet her parents and her Mom makes spaghetti & meatballs.
Third Date:You have sex, she wants to marry you & insists on a 3-carat ring.
5th Anniversary:You already have 5 kids together & hate the thought of having sex.
6th Anniversary:You find yourself a Mistress.
CHINESE WOMEN:
First date:You get to buy her an expensive dinner but nothing happens.
Second date:You buy her an even more expensive dinner. Nothing happens again.
Third date:You don't even get to the third date and you've already realized nothingis ever going to happen.
INDIAN WOMEN:
First date:Meet her parents.
Second date:Set the date of the wedding.
Third date:Wedding night!
BLACK WOMEN:
First Date:You get to buy her a real expensive dinner.
Second Date:You get to buy her and her girlfriends a real expensive dinner.
Third Date:You get to pay her rent.
Tenth Date:She's pregnant by someone other than you.
MEXICAN WOMEN:
First Date:You buy her an expensive dinner, get drunk on Tequila,
and have sex in the back of her car.
Second Date:She's pregnant.
Third Date:She moves in. One week later, her mother, father, his girlfriend, hertwo sisters, her brother, all of their kids, her grandma, her father'sgirlfriend's mother, her two cousins, her sister's boyfriend and histhree kids move in and you live on rice and beans for the rest of yourlife in your home that used to be nice, but now looks like a home alongthe Tijuana strip.
ARAB WOMEN:
First Date:Mother, Father, Brothers, Sisters, Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Friends andentireArab community finds out.
Second Date:Guy is shot dead.
No third date!!!
37 million poor hidden in the land of plentyAmericans have always believed that hard work will bring rewards, but vast numbers now cannot meet their b
37 million poor hidden in the land of plentyAmericans have always believed that hard work will bring rewards, but vast numbers now cannot meet their bills even with two or three jobs. More than one in 10 citizens live below the poverty line, and the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening
The television in Candy Lumpkins's trailer blared out The Bold and the Beautiful. It was a fantasy daytime soap vision of American life with little relevance to the reality of this impoverished corner of Kentucky.
The Lumpkins live at the definition of the back of beyond, in a hollow at the top of a valley at the end of a long and muddy dirt road. It is strewn with litter. Packs of stray dogs prowl around, barking at strangers. There is no telephone and since their pump broke two weeks ago Candy has collected water from nearby springs.
Oblivious to it all, her five-year-old daughter Amy runs barefoot on a wooden porch frozen by a midwinter chill.
It is a vision of deep and abiding poverty. Yet the Lumpkins are not alone in their plight. They are just the negative side of the American equation. America does have vast, wealthy suburbs, huge shopping malls and a busy middle class, but it also has vast numbers of poor, struggling to make it in a low-wage economy with minimal government help.
A shocking 37 million Americans live in poverty. That is 12.7 per cent of the population - the highest percentage in the developed world. They are found from the hills of Kentucky to Detroit's streets, from the Deep South of Louisiana to the heartland of Oklahoma. Each year since 2001 their number has grown.
Under President George W Bush an extra 5.4 million have slipped below the poverty line. Yet they are not a story of the unemployed or the destitute. Most have jobs. Many have two. Amos Lumpkins has work and his children go to school. But the economy, stripped of worker benefits like healthcare, is having trouble providing good wages.
Even families with two working parents are often one slice of bad luck - a medical bill or factory closure - away from disaster. The minimum wage of $5.15 (£2.95) an hour has not risen since 1997 and, adjusted for inflation, is at its lowest since 1956. The gap between the haves and the have-nots looms wider than ever. Faced with rising poverty rates, Bush's trillion-dollar federal budget recently raised massive amounts of defence spending for the war in Iraq and slashed billions from welfare programmes.
For a brief moment last year in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina brought America's poor into the spotlight. Poverty seemed on the government's agenda. That spotlight has now been turned off. 'I had hoped Katrina would have changed things more. It hasn't,' says Cynthia Duncan, a sociology professor at the University of New Hampshire.
Oklahoma is in America's heartland. Tulsa looks like picture-book Middle America. Yet there is hunger here. When it comes to the most malnourished poor in America, Oklahoma is ahead of any other state. It should be impossible to go hungry here. But it is not. Just ask those gathered at a food handout last week.
They are a cross section of society: black, white, young couples, pensioners and the middle-aged. A few are out of work or retired, everyone else has jobs.
They are people like Freda Lee, 33, who has two jobs, as a marketer and a cashier. She has come to the nondescript Loaves and Fishes building - flanked ironically by a Burger King and a McDonald's - to collect food for herself and three sons. 'America is meant to be free. What's free?' she laughs. 'All we can do is pay off the basics.'
Or they are people like Tammy Reinbold, 37. She works part-time and her husband works full-time. They have two children yet rely on the food handouts. 'The church is all we have to fall back on,' she says. She is right. When government help is being cut and wages are insufficient, churches often fill the gap. The needy gather to receive food boxes. They listen to a preacher for half an hour on the literal truth of the Bible. Then he asks them if they want to be born again. Three women put up their hands.
But why are some Tulsans hungry?
Many believe it is the changing face of the US economy. Tulsa has been devastated by job losses. Big-name firms like WorldCom, Williams Energy and CitGo have closed or moved, costing the city about 24,000 jobs. Now Wal-Mart embodies the new American job market: low wages, few benefits.
Well-paid work only goes to the university-educated. Many others who just complete high school face a bleak future. In Texas more than a third of students entering public high schools now drop out. These people are entering the fragile world of the working poor, where each day is a mere step away from tragedy. Some of those tragedies in Tulsa end up in the care of Steve Whitaker, a pastor who runs a homeless mission in the shadow of a freeway overpass.
Each day the homeless and the drug addicted gather here, looking for a bed for the night. Some also want a fresh chance. They are men like Mark Schloss whose disaster was being left by his first wife. The former Wal-Mart manager entered a world of drug addiction and alcoholism until he wound up with Whitaker. Now he is back on track, sporting a silver ring that says Faith, Hope, Love. 'Without this place I would be in prison or dead,' he says. But Whitaker equates saving lives with saving souls.
Those entering the mission's rehabilitation programme are drilled in Bible studies and Christianity. At 6ft 5in and with a black belt in karate, Whitaker's Christianity is muscular both literally and figuratively. 'People need God in their lives,' he says.
These are mean streets. Tulsa is a city divided like the country. Inside a building run by Whitaker's staff in northern Tulsa a group of 'latch-key kids' are taking Bible classes after school while they wait for parents to pick them up. One of them is Taylor Finley, aged nine. Wearing a T-shirt with an American flag on the front, she dreams of travel.
'I want to have fun in a new place, a new country,' she says. Taylor wants to see the world outside Oklahoma. But at the moment she cannot even see her own neighbourhood. The centre in which she waits for mom was built without windows on its ground floor. It was the only way to keep out bullets from the gangs outside.
During the 2004 election the only politician to address poverty directly was John Edwards, whose campaign theme was 'Two Americas'. He was derided by Republicans for doing down the country and - after John Kerry picked him as his Democratic running mate - the rhetoric softened in the heat of the campaign.
But, in fact, Edwards was right. While 45.8 million Americans lack any health insurance, the top 20 per cent of earners take over half the national income. At the same time the bottom 20 per cent took home just 3.4 per cent. Whitaker put the figures into simple English. 'The poor have got poorer and the rich have got richer,' he said.
Dealing with poverty is not a viable political issue in America. It jars with a cultural sense that the poor bring things upon themselves and that every American is born with the same chances in life. It also runs counter to the strong anti-government current in modern American politics. Yet the problem will not disappear. 'There is a real sense of impending crisis, but political leaders have little motivation to address this growing divide,' Cynthia Duncan says.
There is little doubt which side of America's divide the hills of east Kentucky fall on. Driving through the wooded Appalachian valleys is a lesson in poverty. The mountains have never been rich. Times now are as tough as they have ever been. Trailer homes are the norm. Every so often a lofty mansion looms into view, a sign of prosperity linked to the coal mines or the logging firms that are the only industries in the region. Everyone else lives on the margins, grabbing work where they can. The biggest cash crop is illicitly grown marijuana.
Save The Children works here. Though the charity is usually associated with earthquakes in Pakistan or famine in Africa, it runs an extensive programme in east Kentucky. It includes a novel scheme enlisting teams of 'foster grandparents' to tackle the shocking child illiteracy rates and thus eventually hit poverty itself.
The problem is acute. At Jone's Fork school, a team of indomitable grannies arrive each day to read with the children. The scheme has two benefits: it helps the children struggle out of poverty and pays the pensioners a small wage.
'This has been a lifesaver for me and I feel as if the children would just fall through the cracks without us,' says Erma Owens. It has offered dramatic help to some. One group of children are doing so well in the scheme that their teacher, Loretta Shepherd, has postponed retirement in order to stand by them. 'It renewed me to have these kids,' she said.
Certainly Renae Sturgill sees the changes in her children. She too lives in deep poverty. Though she attends college and her husband has a job, the Sturgill trailer sits amid a clutter of abandoned cars. Money is scarce. But now her kids are in the reading scheme and she has seen how they have changed. Especially eight-year-old Zach. He's hard to control at times, but he has come to love school. 'Zach likes reading now. I know it's going to be real important for him,' Renae says. Zach is shy and won't speak much about his achievements. But Genny Waddell, who co-ordinates family welfare at Jone's Fork, is immensely proud. 'Now Zach reads because he wants to. He really fought to get where he is,' she says.
In America, to be poor is a stigma. In a country which celebrates individuality and the goal of giving everyone an equal opportunity to make it big, those in poverty are often blamed for their own situation. Experience on the ground does little to bear that out. When people are working two jobs at a time and still failing to earn enough to feed their families, it seems impossible to call them lazy or selfish. There seems to be a failure in the system, not the poor themselves.
It is an impression backed up by many of those mired in poverty in Oklahoma and Kentucky. Few asked for handouts. Many asked for decent wages. 'It is unfair. I am working all the time and so what have I done wrong?' says Freda Lee. But the economy does not seem to be allowing people to make a decent living. It condemns the poor to stay put, fighting against seemingly impossible odds or to pull up sticks and try somewhere else.
In Tulsa, Tammy Reinbold and her family are moving to Texas as soon as they save the money for enough petrol. It could take several months. 'I've been in Tulsa 12 years and I just gotta try somewhere else,' she says.
The television in Candy Lumpkins's trailer blared out The Bold and the Beautiful. It was a fantasy daytime soap vision of American life with little relevance to the reality of this impoverished corner of Kentucky.
The Lumpkins live at the definition of the back of beyond, in a hollow at the top of a valley at the end of a long and muddy dirt road. It is strewn with litter. Packs of stray dogs prowl around, barking at strangers. There is no telephone and since their pump broke two weeks ago Candy has collected water from nearby springs.
Oblivious to it all, her five-year-old daughter Amy runs barefoot on a wooden porch frozen by a midwinter chill.
It is a vision of deep and abiding poverty. Yet the Lumpkins are not alone in their plight. They are just the negative side of the American equation. America does have vast, wealthy suburbs, huge shopping malls and a busy middle class, but it also has vast numbers of poor, struggling to make it in a low-wage economy with minimal government help.
A shocking 37 million Americans live in poverty. That is 12.7 per cent of the population - the highest percentage in the developed world. They are found from the hills of Kentucky to Detroit's streets, from the Deep South of Louisiana to the heartland of Oklahoma. Each year since 2001 their number has grown.
Under President George W Bush an extra 5.4 million have slipped below the poverty line. Yet they are not a story of the unemployed or the destitute. Most have jobs. Many have two. Amos Lumpkins has work and his children go to school. But the economy, stripped of worker benefits like healthcare, is having trouble providing good wages.
Even families with two working parents are often one slice of bad luck - a medical bill or factory closure - away from disaster. The minimum wage of $5.15 (£2.95) an hour has not risen since 1997 and, adjusted for inflation, is at its lowest since 1956. The gap between the haves and the have-nots looms wider than ever. Faced with rising poverty rates, Bush's trillion-dollar federal budget recently raised massive amounts of defence spending for the war in Iraq and slashed billions from welfare programmes.
For a brief moment last year in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina brought America's poor into the spotlight. Poverty seemed on the government's agenda. That spotlight has now been turned off. 'I had hoped Katrina would have changed things more. It hasn't,' says Cynthia Duncan, a sociology professor at the University of New Hampshire.
Oklahoma is in America's heartland. Tulsa looks like picture-book Middle America. Yet there is hunger here. When it comes to the most malnourished poor in America, Oklahoma is ahead of any other state. It should be impossible to go hungry here. But it is not. Just ask those gathered at a food handout last week.
They are a cross section of society: black, white, young couples, pensioners and the middle-aged. A few are out of work or retired, everyone else has jobs.
They are people like Freda Lee, 33, who has two jobs, as a marketer and a cashier. She has come to the nondescript Loaves and Fishes building - flanked ironically by a Burger King and a McDonald's - to collect food for herself and three sons. 'America is meant to be free. What's free?' she laughs. 'All we can do is pay off the basics.'
Or they are people like Tammy Reinbold, 37. She works part-time and her husband works full-time. They have two children yet rely on the food handouts. 'The church is all we have to fall back on,' she says. She is right. When government help is being cut and wages are insufficient, churches often fill the gap. The needy gather to receive food boxes. They listen to a preacher for half an hour on the literal truth of the Bible. Then he asks them if they want to be born again. Three women put up their hands.
But why are some Tulsans hungry?
Many believe it is the changing face of the US economy. Tulsa has been devastated by job losses. Big-name firms like WorldCom, Williams Energy and CitGo have closed or moved, costing the city about 24,000 jobs. Now Wal-Mart embodies the new American job market: low wages, few benefits.
Well-paid work only goes to the university-educated. Many others who just complete high school face a bleak future. In Texas more than a third of students entering public high schools now drop out. These people are entering the fragile world of the working poor, where each day is a mere step away from tragedy. Some of those tragedies in Tulsa end up in the care of Steve Whitaker, a pastor who runs a homeless mission in the shadow of a freeway overpass.
Each day the homeless and the drug addicted gather here, looking for a bed for the night. Some also want a fresh chance. They are men like Mark Schloss whose disaster was being left by his first wife. The former Wal-Mart manager entered a world of drug addiction and alcoholism until he wound up with Whitaker. Now he is back on track, sporting a silver ring that says Faith, Hope, Love. 'Without this place I would be in prison or dead,' he says. But Whitaker equates saving lives with saving souls.
Those entering the mission's rehabilitation programme are drilled in Bible studies and Christianity. At 6ft 5in and with a black belt in karate, Whitaker's Christianity is muscular both literally and figuratively. 'People need God in their lives,' he says.
These are mean streets. Tulsa is a city divided like the country. Inside a building run by Whitaker's staff in northern Tulsa a group of 'latch-key kids' are taking Bible classes after school while they wait for parents to pick them up. One of them is Taylor Finley, aged nine. Wearing a T-shirt with an American flag on the front, she dreams of travel.
'I want to have fun in a new place, a new country,' she says. Taylor wants to see the world outside Oklahoma. But at the moment she cannot even see her own neighbourhood. The centre in which she waits for mom was built without windows on its ground floor. It was the only way to keep out bullets from the gangs outside.
During the 2004 election the only politician to address poverty directly was John Edwards, whose campaign theme was 'Two Americas'. He was derided by Republicans for doing down the country and - after John Kerry picked him as his Democratic running mate - the rhetoric softened in the heat of the campaign.
But, in fact, Edwards was right. While 45.8 million Americans lack any health insurance, the top 20 per cent of earners take over half the national income. At the same time the bottom 20 per cent took home just 3.4 per cent. Whitaker put the figures into simple English. 'The poor have got poorer and the rich have got richer,' he said.
Dealing with poverty is not a viable political issue in America. It jars with a cultural sense that the poor bring things upon themselves and that every American is born with the same chances in life. It also runs counter to the strong anti-government current in modern American politics. Yet the problem will not disappear. 'There is a real sense of impending crisis, but political leaders have little motivation to address this growing divide,' Cynthia Duncan says.
There is little doubt which side of America's divide the hills of east Kentucky fall on. Driving through the wooded Appalachian valleys is a lesson in poverty. The mountains have never been rich. Times now are as tough as they have ever been. Trailer homes are the norm. Every so often a lofty mansion looms into view, a sign of prosperity linked to the coal mines or the logging firms that are the only industries in the region. Everyone else lives on the margins, grabbing work where they can. The biggest cash crop is illicitly grown marijuana.
Save The Children works here. Though the charity is usually associated with earthquakes in Pakistan or famine in Africa, it runs an extensive programme in east Kentucky. It includes a novel scheme enlisting teams of 'foster grandparents' to tackle the shocking child illiteracy rates and thus eventually hit poverty itself.
The problem is acute. At Jone's Fork school, a team of indomitable grannies arrive each day to read with the children. The scheme has two benefits: it helps the children struggle out of poverty and pays the pensioners a small wage.
'This has been a lifesaver for me and I feel as if the children would just fall through the cracks without us,' says Erma Owens. It has offered dramatic help to some. One group of children are doing so well in the scheme that their teacher, Loretta Shepherd, has postponed retirement in order to stand by them. 'It renewed me to have these kids,' she said.
Certainly Renae Sturgill sees the changes in her children. She too lives in deep poverty. Though she attends college and her husband has a job, the Sturgill trailer sits amid a clutter of abandoned cars. Money is scarce. But now her kids are in the reading scheme and she has seen how they have changed. Especially eight-year-old Zach. He's hard to control at times, but he has come to love school. 'Zach likes reading now. I know it's going to be real important for him,' Renae says. Zach is shy and won't speak much about his achievements. But Genny Waddell, who co-ordinates family welfare at Jone's Fork, is immensely proud. 'Now Zach reads because he wants to. He really fought to get where he is,' she says.
In America, to be poor is a stigma. In a country which celebrates individuality and the goal of giving everyone an equal opportunity to make it big, those in poverty are often blamed for their own situation. Experience on the ground does little to bear that out. When people are working two jobs at a time and still failing to earn enough to feed their families, it seems impossible to call them lazy or selfish. There seems to be a failure in the system, not the poor themselves.
It is an impression backed up by many of those mired in poverty in Oklahoma and Kentucky. Few asked for handouts. Many asked for decent wages. 'It is unfair. I am working all the time and so what have I done wrong?' says Freda Lee. But the economy does not seem to be allowing people to make a decent living. It condemns the poor to stay put, fighting against seemingly impossible odds or to pull up sticks and try somewhere else.
In Tulsa, Tammy Reinbold and her family are moving to Texas as soon as they save the money for enough petrol. It could take several months. 'I've been in Tulsa 12 years and I just gotta try somewhere else,' she says.
Nearly 13 million American children live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level,
Nearly 13 million American children live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level, which is $20,000 a year for a family of four. The number of children living in poverty increased by more than 13 percent between 2000 and 2009. There are 1.8 million more children living in poverty today than in 2000, despite indications of economic recovery and growth.
Not only are these numbers dispiriting, the official poverty measure tells only part of the story—it is increasingly viewed as a flawed metric of economic hardship (see box). Research consistently shows that, on average, families need an income of about twice the federal poverty level to make ends meet. Children living in families with incomes below this level—for 2006, $40,000 for a family of four—are referred to as low income. Thirty-nine percent of the nation’s children—more than 32 million in 2008—live in low-income families.
Nonetheless, official poverty statistics continue to be used by researchers, policymakers, and the media to define economic disadvantage. In addition, eligibility for many public benefits is based on the official poverty measure. This fact sheet details some of the characteristics of American children who are considered poor by these official standards.
Not only are these numbers dispiriting, the official poverty measure tells only part of the story—it is increasingly viewed as a flawed metric of economic hardship (see box). Research consistently shows that, on average, families need an income of about twice the federal poverty level to make ends meet. Children living in families with incomes below this level—for 2006, $40,000 for a family of four—are referred to as low income. Thirty-nine percent of the nation’s children—more than 32 million in 2008—live in low-income families.
Nonetheless, official poverty statistics continue to be used by researchers, policymakers, and the media to define economic disadvantage. In addition, eligibility for many public benefits is based on the official poverty measure. This fact sheet details some of the characteristics of American children who are considered poor by these official standards.
Saturday, 23 May 2009
What about ISI Index: COOKING the IMPACT FACTOR of 6 (fake) JOURNALS!!! COOKING fake Elsevier Journals and Create a World of Fake IEEE Conferences
Many researchers and academicians say that ISI Index is the most reliable.
But read this story of the fake Journals of ELSEVIER.
So, after the hundreds of fake IEEE Conferences that we found in the last years
we have now the fake, junk journals of ELSEVIER)
(Actually, all the conferences that are not organized by the IEEE itself, but from some other
entity (Franchising IEEE System, more than 97% IEEE conferences are not organized
by IEEE, but from its sub-contractors, Franchisees are bogus conferences, fake conferences)
So, 6 Journals with Impact Factor in ISI have been proved that were absolutely cooked
from Elsevier
How can we have reliability in ISI any longer and in the so-called Impact Factor?
http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55679/
We must start the story from the beginning
Merck cooked up a phony, but real sounding, peer reviewed journal and published favorably looking data for its products in them.
Merck paid Elsevier to publish such a tome, which neither appears in MEDLINE or has a website, according to The Scientist. What's wrong with this is so obvious it doesn't have to be argued for. What's sad is that I'm sure many a primary care physician was given literature from Merck that said, "As published in Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, Fosamax outperforms all other medications...." Said doctor, or even the average researcher wouldn't know that the journal is bogus. In fact, knowing that the journal is published by Elsevier gives it credibility! Update: It wasn't one fake journal. It was six fake journals. And as David reminds us, Elsevier is quite willing to play silly buggers with self-citing crackpots as long as they improve impact factors.
Now tell me again: Why do we submit papers to, referee papers for, and buy journals from these people? Some sort of misplaced sense of loyalty? Or some sad combination of apathy and inertia? What will it take for the research community to cut Elsevier loose?
Better alternatives, perhaps?
Full disclosure: I'm a coauthor of a paper that is about to appear in the SOCG 2008 special issue of CGTA, an Elsevier journal. If I'd been the sole author, I would have refused the invitation, but I don't have the right to unilaterally overrule my coauthors, especially the younger ones, who need the gold star in their CVs far more than I do. In retrospect, especially after reading this story, I wish we had refused the invitation. Or perhaps I should have just removed my name from the paper.
REFERENCES:
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/09/1514235
http://www.scientificblogging.com/run_and_tumble/blog/elsevier_published_six_fake_journals
http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55679/
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/09/elsevier-has-an-enti.html
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090510/2157144822.shtml
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2009/05/elsevier-confirms-6-fake-journals-more.html
http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/5973
RELEVANT REFERENCES FOR IEEE FAKE CONFERENCES
In 2008 and 2009, several computer generated (gibberish) conference articles, with fictitious authors, appeared in IEEE Xplore Data Base coming from many IEEE Sponsored events. Other poor quality conference articles have also, occasionally, appeared in IEEE Confererences and consequently in IEEE Xplore. The IEEE itself accepted (see http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/corporate/board/ad_hoc_committees/qualityofconferencepapers.html )that such articles hurted the reputation of IEEE and destroyed confidence in the quality of IEEE publications. IEEE tried to find solutions against this vulnerability but in vain, because much more bougus papers appeared in the next months (see http://iaria-highsci.blogspot.com and http://blog.marcelotoledo.org/2008/12/26/how-can-someone-trust-ieee )
^ Stribling, Jeremy; Aguayo, Daniel; Krohn, Maxwell. "Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy" (PDF). http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/rooter.pdf.
^ Rob Thomas. "The Dangers of Spamferences" (HTML). http://thepeerreview.ca/view.php?aid=221.
^ "SCIgen - An Automatic CS Paper Generator". MIT. http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/.
^ "Mathias Uslar's paper.". http://www.mwise.de/blog/index.php/2005/12/29/scigen-for-scientific-research-a-case-study/.
^ "About Genco Gulan's paper.". http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/blog/index.php?entry=entry060414-130910.
^ Rohollah Mosallahnezhad. "Cooperative, Compact Algorithms for Randomized Algorithms" (PDF). http://ce.sharif.edu/~ghodsi/soft-group/misc/AMC-paper.pdf.
^ John L. Casti. "REMOVED: Cooperative, compact algorithms for randomized algorithms". http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amc.2007.03.011.
^ "Conferences of Wessex Institute of Technology without review". http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/~wp/videa.html.
^ "Paper on the IEEE Database". http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/freesrchabstract.jsp?arnumber=4723109&k2dockey=4723109@ieeecnfs.
^ "CSSE Conference Program". https://sites.google.com/site/herbertschlangemann/Home/csse2008_program.pdf?attredirects=0.
^ "Schlangemann's blog". http://diehimmelistschoen.blogspot.com/.
^ [http://www.ieee-ecommerce.com/ "IEEE International Conference on e-Business and Information System Security"]. http://www.ieee-ecommerce.com/.
^ "Some other conferences of IEEE". http://anti-ieee.blogspot.com/2008/02/iti-2008.html.
^ "Bogus Conferences". http://bogus-conferences.blogspot.com/.
^ "Conferences that you must avoid". http://netdriver.blogspot.com/2009/01/from-site-httpwwwanti-plagiarismorg.html.
^ "Another Letter of acceptance in an IEEE Conference". http://iaria-highsci.blogspot.com/2008/12/we-have-letter-of-acceptance-fantastic.html.
^ "Other IEEE Conferences". http://netdriver.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-is-shame-for-ieee.html.
^ "How can someone trust IEEE". http://blog.marcelotoledo.org/2008/12/26/how-can-someone-trust-ieee.
^ "Open Letter". http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/05/i-am-freelance-journalist-who.html.
But read this story of the fake Journals of ELSEVIER.
So, after the hundreds of fake IEEE Conferences that we found in the last years
we have now the fake, junk journals of ELSEVIER)
(Actually, all the conferences that are not organized by the IEEE itself, but from some other
entity (Franchising IEEE System, more than 97% IEEE conferences are not organized
by IEEE, but from its sub-contractors, Franchisees are bogus conferences, fake conferences)
So, 6 Journals with Impact Factor in ISI have been proved that were absolutely cooked
from Elsevier
How can we have reliability in ISI any longer and in the so-called Impact Factor?
http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55679/
We must start the story from the beginning
Merck cooked up a phony, but real sounding, peer reviewed journal and published favorably looking data for its products in them.
Merck paid Elsevier to publish such a tome, which neither appears in MEDLINE or has a website, according to The Scientist. What's wrong with this is so obvious it doesn't have to be argued for. What's sad is that I'm sure many a primary care physician was given literature from Merck that said, "As published in Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, Fosamax outperforms all other medications...." Said doctor, or even the average researcher wouldn't know that the journal is bogus. In fact, knowing that the journal is published by Elsevier gives it credibility! Update: It wasn't one fake journal. It was six fake journals. And as David reminds us, Elsevier is quite willing to play silly buggers with self-citing crackpots as long as they improve impact factors.
Now tell me again: Why do we submit papers to, referee papers for, and buy journals from these people? Some sort of misplaced sense of loyalty? Or some sad combination of apathy and inertia? What will it take for the research community to cut Elsevier loose?
Better alternatives, perhaps?
Full disclosure: I'm a coauthor of a paper that is about to appear in the SOCG 2008 special issue of CGTA, an Elsevier journal. If I'd been the sole author, I would have refused the invitation, but I don't have the right to unilaterally overrule my coauthors, especially the younger ones, who need the gold star in their CVs far more than I do. In retrospect, especially after reading this story, I wish we had refused the invitation. Or perhaps I should have just removed my name from the paper.
REFERENCES:
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/09/1514235
http://www.scientificblogging.com/run_and_tumble/blog/elsevier_published_six_fake_journals
http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55679/
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/09/elsevier-has-an-enti.html
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090510/2157144822.shtml
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2009/05/elsevier-confirms-6-fake-journals-more.html
http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/5973
RELEVANT REFERENCES FOR IEEE FAKE CONFERENCES
In 2008 and 2009, several computer generated (gibberish) conference articles, with fictitious authors, appeared in IEEE Xplore Data Base coming from many IEEE Sponsored events. Other poor quality conference articles have also, occasionally, appeared in IEEE Confererences and consequently in IEEE Xplore. The IEEE itself accepted (see http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/corporate/board/ad_hoc_committees/qualityofconferencepapers.html )that such articles hurted the reputation of IEEE and destroyed confidence in the quality of IEEE publications. IEEE tried to find solutions against this vulnerability but in vain, because much more bougus papers appeared in the next months (see http://iaria-highsci.blogspot.com and http://blog.marcelotoledo.org/2008/12/26/how-can-someone-trust-ieee )
^ Stribling, Jeremy; Aguayo, Daniel; Krohn, Maxwell. "Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy" (PDF). http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/rooter.pdf.
^ Rob Thomas. "The Dangers of Spamferences" (HTML). http://thepeerreview.ca/view.php?aid=221.
^ "SCIgen - An Automatic CS Paper Generator". MIT. http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/.
^ "Mathias Uslar's paper.". http://www.mwise.de/blog/index.php/2005/12/29/scigen-for-scientific-research-a-case-study/.
^ "About Genco Gulan's paper.". http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/blog/index.php?entry=entry060414-130910.
^ Rohollah Mosallahnezhad. "Cooperative, Compact Algorithms for Randomized Algorithms" (PDF). http://ce.sharif.edu/~ghodsi/soft-group/misc/AMC-paper.pdf.
^ John L. Casti. "REMOVED: Cooperative, compact algorithms for randomized algorithms". http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amc.2007.03.011.
^ "Conferences of Wessex Institute of Technology without review". http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/~wp/videa.html.
^ "Paper on the IEEE Database". http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/freesrchabstract.jsp?arnumber=4723109&k2dockey=4723109@ieeecnfs.
^ "CSSE Conference Program". https://sites.google.com/site/herbertschlangemann/Home/csse2008_program.pdf?attredirects=0.
^ "Schlangemann's blog". http://diehimmelistschoen.blogspot.com/.
^ [http://www.ieee-ecommerce.com/ "IEEE International Conference on e-Business and Information System Security"]. http://www.ieee-ecommerce.com/.
^ "Some other conferences of IEEE". http://anti-ieee.blogspot.com/2008/02/iti-2008.html.
^ "Bogus Conferences". http://bogus-conferences.blogspot.com/.
^ "Conferences that you must avoid". http://netdriver.blogspot.com/2009/01/from-site-httpwwwanti-plagiarismorg.html.
^ "Another Letter of acceptance in an IEEE Conference". http://iaria-highsci.blogspot.com/2008/12/we-have-letter-of-acceptance-fantastic.html.
^ "Other IEEE Conferences". http://netdriver.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-is-shame-for-ieee.html.
^ "How can someone trust IEEE". http://blog.marcelotoledo.org/2008/12/26/how-can-someone-trust-ieee.
^ "Open Letter". http://dominore.blogspot.com/2009/05/i-am-freelance-journalist-who.html.
Thursday, 21 May 2009
Preparing to Peer into a Black Hole
Black holes seem to me to be the scariest thing, even more so than those “gamma rays” resulting from anti matter annihilation [of matter?]. [See below.] Not anything can be really eternal in this universe, if the whole thing is going to shrink up or expand. And if the sun is going to explode what then, for all of us here billions of years hence. I need some faith here and don’t expect to find any. The Roman Catholic Church forbade any studies that might cause doubts to people who need a child’s faith, says most of us, quoting Christ. The deeper we look the scarier it gets, and this has not a single tiny particle of essence of the faithful’s all out attack on Charles Darwin. This is far scarier than Darwin. The main question here is how does one study a black hole and expect to see anything. Does it emit some light? Does a black hole ever get full enough to quit eating matter and light?
Preparing to Peer into a Black Hole
from New Scientist
Like a giant pale blue eye, the Earth stares at the centre of our galaxy. Through the glare and the fog it is trying to catch a glimpse of an indistinct something 30,000 light years away. Over there, within the sparkling starscape of the galaxy's core... no, not those giant suns or those colliding gas clouds; not the gamma-ray glow of annihilating antimatter. No, right there in the very centre, inside that swirling nebula of doomed matter, could that be just a hint of a shadow?
The shadow we're straining to see is that of a monstrous black hole, a place where gravity rules supreme, swallowing light and stretching the fabric of space to breaking point. Black holes are perhaps the most outrageous prediction of science, and even though we can paint fine theoretical pictures of them and point to evidence for many objects that seem to be black hole-ish, nobody has ever actually seen one.
All that could change in the next few months. Astronomers are working to tie together a network of microwave telescopes across the planet to make a single instrument with the most acute vision yet. They will turn this giant eye towards what they believe is a supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, code name Sagittarius A.
Preparing to Peer into a Black Hole
from New Scientist
Like a giant pale blue eye, the Earth stares at the centre of our galaxy. Through the glare and the fog it is trying to catch a glimpse of an indistinct something 30,000 light years away. Over there, within the sparkling starscape of the galaxy's core... no, not those giant suns or those colliding gas clouds; not the gamma-ray glow of annihilating antimatter. No, right there in the very centre, inside that swirling nebula of doomed matter, could that be just a hint of a shadow?
The shadow we're straining to see is that of a monstrous black hole, a place where gravity rules supreme, swallowing light and stretching the fabric of space to breaking point. Black holes are perhaps the most outrageous prediction of science, and even though we can paint fine theoretical pictures of them and point to evidence for many objects that seem to be black hole-ish, nobody has ever actually seen one.
All that could change in the next few months. Astronomers are working to tie together a network of microwave telescopes across the planet to make a single instrument with the most acute vision yet. They will turn this giant eye towards what they believe is a supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, code name Sagittarius A.
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
SAVE ILLINOIS RIVER now
Removing poultry waste helps water quality Tulsa's court victory over poultry companies led to controls on chicken waste application.
The good news is that more waste is being removed. The bad news is that it may be many years before excess phosphorus in soils is no longer a threat...3/27/09 "One tributary to Spavinaw Creek is improving, according to the Oklahoma Conservation Commission.
The commission in January said water samples from Beaty Creek show its phosphorus levels dropped by 66 percent. The commission identified the transportation of poultry litter outside the watershed as one factor in the improvement."...news article.
The good news is that more waste is being removed. The bad news is that it may be many years before excess phosphorus in soils is no longer a threat...3/27/09 "One tributary to Spavinaw Creek is improving, according to the Oklahoma Conservation Commission.
The commission in January said water samples from Beaty Creek show its phosphorus levels dropped by 66 percent. The commission identified the transportation of poultry litter outside the watershed as one factor in the improvement."...news article.
Scientists Build an Ark To Save Jungle Amphibians
"In the 1980s a deadly fungus called chytrid appeared in Central America and began moving through mountain streams, killing as many as 8 out of 10 frogs and extinguishing some species entirely. (The fungus has little effect on any other vertebrates.)
Now a returned Peace Corps volunteer and her husband have opened the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center in western Panama to house more than 600 frogs as chytrid cuts a lethal path through the region. Experts agree that the only hope of saving some of the more endangered, restricted-range species is to collect animals from remaining wild populations, establish captive breeding programs, and be prepared to conduct reintroduction projects in the future.
But before reintroduction can even begin, scientists must find some way to overcome the chytrid in native habitats using vaccines, breeding for resistance, or genetic engineering of the fungus.
Conservationists are budgeting for 25 years of captive breeding, long enough, they believe, to allow some response to chytrid to be found. 'There are more species in need of rescue than there are resources to rescue them,' says Amphibian Ark's program director. 'When you're talking about insidious threats like disease or climate change, threats that can't be mitigated in the wild, there's simply no alternative.'"
Now a returned Peace Corps volunteer and her husband have opened the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center in western Panama to house more than 600 frogs as chytrid cuts a lethal path through the region. Experts agree that the only hope of saving some of the more endangered, restricted-range species is to collect animals from remaining wild populations, establish captive breeding programs, and be prepared to conduct reintroduction projects in the future.
But before reintroduction can even begin, scientists must find some way to overcome the chytrid in native habitats using vaccines, breeding for resistance, or genetic engineering of the fungus.
Conservationists are budgeting for 25 years of captive breeding, long enough, they believe, to allow some response to chytrid to be found. 'There are more species in need of rescue than there are resources to rescue them,' says Amphibian Ark's program director. 'When you're talking about insidious threats like disease or climate change, threats that can't be mitigated in the wild, there's simply no alternative.'"
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
Spamference, spamjournal, spamreviews
Spamference, spamjournal, spamreviews
Everyone's favorite spamference, the World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI; I'll refrain from linking to them in the name of not promoting that which doesn't deserve promotion) has now posted their conference submissions on the web. So, for your amusement and edification, head on over to My Pet Goat, where Mrs. Cake has baked up some pointers to them.
Spamference, spamjournal, spamreviews
Of course, any profitable economic niche will attract new business ventures. The IPSI BgD folks do the WMSCI'ers one better, with two generic domains (internetjournals.net and internetconferences.net), generic conferences (actually, VIP conferences, which are also "M+I+T++" conferences: "Multi-, Inter-, and Trans- disciplinary") held all around the world, and no less than two journals! Here, I'll concentrate on the journals, since I recently got some email about them. There are two: IPSI Transactions on Internet Research and IPSI Transactions on Advanced Research.
Spamference, spamjournal, spamreviews
Everyone's favorite spamference, the World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI; I'll refrain from linking to them in the name of not promoting that which doesn't deserve promotion) has now posted their conference submissions on the web. So, for your amusement and edification, head on over to My Pet Goat, where Mrs. Cake has baked up some pointers to them.
Spamference, spamjournal, spamreviews
Of course, any profitable economic niche will attract new business ventures. The IPSI BgD folks do the WMSCI'ers one better, with two generic domains (internetjournals.net and internetconferences.net), generic conferences (actually, VIP conferences, which are also "M+I+T++" conferences: "Multi-, Inter-, and Trans- disciplinary") held all around the world, and no less than two journals! Here, I'll concentrate on the journals, since I recently got some email about them. There are two: IPSI Transactions on Internet Research and IPSI Transactions on Advanced Research.
Spamference, spamjournal, spamreviews
Fake Journal Publishing Scam (this time not from IEEE but from ELSEVIER)
Fake Journal Publishing Scam Here is an interesting scam that I hadn't seen before. Someone is sending out mail purportedly from the academic publisher Elsevier soliciting professors to submit papers to vaguely described journals. The scam is apparently that your paper gets "accepted" and then you are asked to pay "processing fees", which go to the scammers without any article ever appearing anywhere.
Then again, anyone who could be fooled by the ridiculous message below probably deserves what they get.
From: Elsevier Journals
*ELSEVIER*
*BUILDING INSIGHTS; BREAKING BOUNDARIES*------------------------------
* *
*MANUSCRIPTS SUBMISSION*
Dear Colleague,
On behalf of all the Editors-in-chief of Elsevier Journals, we wish toCommunicate to you that we are currently accepting manuscripts in all Fieldsof human Endeavour.
All articles published will be peer-reviewed. The following types of papersare considered for publication:
- Original articles in basic and applied research.
- Critical reviews, surveys, opinions, commentaries and essays.
Authors are invited to submit manuscripts reporting recent developments intheir fields. Papers submitted will be sorted out and published in any ofour numerous journals that best Fits. This is a special publicationprocedure which published works will be discussed at seminars (organized byElsevier) at strategic Cities all over the world. Please maximize thisopportunity to showcase your research work to the world.
The submitted papers must be written in English and describe originalresearch not published nor currently under review by other journals.Parallel submissions will not be accepted.
Our goal is to inform authors about their paper(s) within one week ofreceipt. All submitted papers, if relevant to the theme and objectives ofthe journal, will go through an external peer-review process.
Kind Regards,
Emily Robinson(Prof.)
OPEN LETTER for IEEE: I am a freelance journalist who specialises in scholarly communication and in Bogus IEEE. IEEE SPAM and IEEE Fake Spamferences
AN OPEN LETTER for IEEE: was sent to us by email (!!!)
=======================
Dear Stephan
I am a freelance journalist who specialises in scholarly communication and in Bogus IEEE Conferences
I understand that you are the founder of IEEE Spam System in Germany
I have previously been in communication with Johan and Petr and asked him if we could organise an interview with you as father of IEEE bogusity for me. However, I did not heard back from him on this matter.
In our email exchange Petr was kind enough to address some concerns that had been raised with me by a number of researchers, who appeared to be on IEEE Spam System but do not wish to be. Despite their best efforts they had been unable to have themselves removed from your list. Meanwhile they were being bombarded with multiple emails.
In an email to me of 11th May Petr assured me that two researchers I mentioned to him had been contacted by IEEE Spam System and that their names had been removed. Unfortunately at least one is still being sent unsolicited email (see below), and is very frustrated by it.
I have also had a number of other researchers raise with me the issue of peer review in connection with IEEE Spam Industry
I am sure these are all misunderstandings and can be settled in an interview. I would be most grateful therefore if you could spare the time to do a telephone interview with me about IEEE Spam Conferences and IEEE fake meetings and its activities.
I look forward to hearing from you.
As you know about IEEE SPAM and IEEE Fake Spamferences
where there is money to be made, people will try to do it. that is basically the lesson to be learned from the numerous IEEE fake Conferences or IEEE spamferences popping up at an increasing rate. when does a conference become an IEEE fake event or an IEEE spamference? that's hard to say.
There are numerous minor IEEE Spam conferences which may not be of greatest impact or quality, but still serve legitimate needs, such as providing forums for younger researchers, or providing local platforms.
The increasing number of Spamferences in the mediterranean countries seems to be an indication of this. these conferences usually have mostly local attendants and sometimes they have papers and presentations in the local language, which makes it easier for local authors to submit and present. to me, most of these conferences look legitimate.
but then there's the decidedly non-local approach, the grand über-conferences with titles that often sound like "34th intergalactic conference on science, nature, and other really complicated stuff" (maybe i should trademark that...). my personal favorite is "The 12th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics", hosted by the godfather of spamferences, NAGIB CALLAOS with the approval and sponsorship of IEEE Spam.
This particular venue received quite a bit of attention for accepting a paper that had been generated by an automated paper generator. others report submitting papers with obviously stupid text and also getting accepted.
The reviewing process of these conferences seems to be non-existent (you don't get review reports, and if you ask, you get weird explanations why there are none).
The only things that seems to work well at these conferences is sending invitations (they are sending personalized invitations, something that no respectable conference bothers to do), and handling registrations (i.e., collecting money).
The IEEE Conferences are organized by different entities. Some of them were good and some of them are very bad. For example, the International Institute of Informatics and Systemics (IIIS), organized many IEEE sponsored conferences (with the logotype of IEEE)
Nagib Callaos says that IIIS is "a nonprofit organization based in Venezuela, which examines and contemplates the globalization process." interestingly, the Florida Division of Corporations lists callaos' institute (named a little differently) as a for-profit organization. what a surprise!
the saddest thing about this is that publishing at spamferences will actually hurt your career, yet many researchers don't really know what they are getting into. simply google cvs listing this conference and you'll see how successful the business seems to be (2260 hits)...
This is the problem with IEEE.
IEEE gives its name and its logo to many bogus conferences like:
http://iaria-highsci.blogspot.com/2009/05/bogus-papers-in-ieee-computational.html
Please take careful note of the information belowabout this IEEE Computational Complexity conferenceIt is another FAKE IEEE conference this time on Computational Complexity.The organizers are academic criminals.Do NOT send these criminals any money. Please send this warning on to your networks.Many young people have been defrauded lately - and we must work together to defeat such efforts.Use extreme caution when applying for conferences advertised by organizations unknown to you.What a Shame for the IEEE Computational Complexity Conference! two new bogus papers have been accepted in the http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/jrogers/complexity/accepted.htmlExtractors for varieties ??????????by Zeev Dvir !!!andExtractors for Low-Weight Affine Sources ??????? byAnup RaoThe papers are absolutely fake papers.What a Shame for the IEEE Computational Complexity Conference!
=======================
Dear Stephan
I am a freelance journalist who specialises in scholarly communication and in Bogus IEEE Conferences
I understand that you are the founder of IEEE Spam System in Germany
I have previously been in communication with Johan and Petr and asked him if we could organise an interview with you as father of IEEE bogusity for me. However, I did not heard back from him on this matter.
In our email exchange Petr was kind enough to address some concerns that had been raised with me by a number of researchers, who appeared to be on IEEE Spam System but do not wish to be. Despite their best efforts they had been unable to have themselves removed from your list. Meanwhile they were being bombarded with multiple emails.
In an email to me of 11th May Petr assured me that two researchers I mentioned to him had been contacted by IEEE Spam System and that their names had been removed. Unfortunately at least one is still being sent unsolicited email (see below), and is very frustrated by it.
I have also had a number of other researchers raise with me the issue of peer review in connection with IEEE Spam Industry
I am sure these are all misunderstandings and can be settled in an interview. I would be most grateful therefore if you could spare the time to do a telephone interview with me about IEEE Spam Conferences and IEEE fake meetings and its activities.
I look forward to hearing from you.
As you know about IEEE SPAM and IEEE Fake Spamferences
where there is money to be made, people will try to do it. that is basically the lesson to be learned from the numerous IEEE fake Conferences or IEEE spamferences popping up at an increasing rate. when does a conference become an IEEE fake event or an IEEE spamference? that's hard to say.
There are numerous minor IEEE Spam conferences which may not be of greatest impact or quality, but still serve legitimate needs, such as providing forums for younger researchers, or providing local platforms.
The increasing number of Spamferences in the mediterranean countries seems to be an indication of this. these conferences usually have mostly local attendants and sometimes they have papers and presentations in the local language, which makes it easier for local authors to submit and present. to me, most of these conferences look legitimate.
but then there's the decidedly non-local approach, the grand über-conferences with titles that often sound like "34th intergalactic conference on science, nature, and other really complicated stuff" (maybe i should trademark that...). my personal favorite is "The 12th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics", hosted by the godfather of spamferences, NAGIB CALLAOS with the approval and sponsorship of IEEE Spam.
This particular venue received quite a bit of attention for accepting a paper that had been generated by an automated paper generator. others report submitting papers with obviously stupid text and also getting accepted.
The reviewing process of these conferences seems to be non-existent (you don't get review reports, and if you ask, you get weird explanations why there are none).
The only things that seems to work well at these conferences is sending invitations (they are sending personalized invitations, something that no respectable conference bothers to do), and handling registrations (i.e., collecting money).
The IEEE Conferences are organized by different entities. Some of them were good and some of them are very bad. For example, the International Institute of Informatics and Systemics (IIIS), organized many IEEE sponsored conferences (with the logotype of IEEE)
Nagib Callaos says that IIIS is "a nonprofit organization based in Venezuela, which examines and contemplates the globalization process." interestingly, the Florida Division of Corporations lists callaos' institute (named a little differently) as a for-profit organization. what a surprise!
the saddest thing about this is that publishing at spamferences will actually hurt your career, yet many researchers don't really know what they are getting into. simply google cvs listing this conference and you'll see how successful the business seems to be (2260 hits)...
This is the problem with IEEE.
IEEE gives its name and its logo to many bogus conferences like:
http://iaria-highsci.blogspot.com/2009/05/bogus-papers-in-ieee-computational.html
Please take careful note of the information belowabout this IEEE Computational Complexity conferenceIt is another FAKE IEEE conference this time on Computational Complexity.The organizers are academic criminals.Do NOT send these criminals any money. Please send this warning on to your networks.Many young people have been defrauded lately - and we must work together to defeat such efforts.Use extreme caution when applying for conferences advertised by organizations unknown to you.What a Shame for the IEEE Computational Complexity Conference! two new bogus papers have been accepted in the http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/jrogers/complexity/accepted.htmlExtractors for varieties ??????????by Zeev Dvir !!!andExtractors for Low-Weight Affine Sources ??????? byAnup RaoThe papers are absolutely fake papers.What a Shame for the IEEE Computational Complexity Conference!
How bad is the global warming?
The greatest priority for Earth at this time, is not to handle our monetary system, the corrupt politicians, drugs, the news media or even the atomic bomb. The problem is the continuous and expanding byproducts from burning fossil fuels i.e. pollution.
"Since 1850 there has been a mean rise in global temperature of approximately 1° C (approximately 1.8° F). It was thought that this rise could just be part of a natural fluctuation; such fluctuations have been recorded for tens of thousands of years and operate in short-term as well as long-term cycles. "
However, 1995 was the warmest year on record, according to the British Meteorological Office. A United Nations panel of scientists attributed the warming to human influence and predicted that if greenhouse-gas emissions [carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons] are not reduced, the average global temperature will rise by 1.0° to 3.5° C (1.8° to 6.3° F), with a best estimate of 2.0° C (3.5° F), by 2100, causing sea level to rise by 20 inches; further warming an sea-level rise would follow.
The potential consequences of global warming are so great that many of the world's top scientists have urged immediate action and have called for international cooperation on the problem.
How Bad is Global Warming - and What is Global Warming?
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The IPCC conference in Rome 1995 concludes that there are now clear signs of man-made climate changes, and that pollution from our cars, trucks, factories and power plants is a cause of it.
The figure below show the current global temperature and the future predictions. You may also read more about these scary facts and statistics from NCDC, including the increasing tornado trends and the above average rain-falls.
NASA scientists have announced that 1995 was the hottest year on record. The year saw killer heat waves from Chicago to Moscow to parts of India, a record number of tropical storms in both the Atlantic and the Pacific, and resurgent tropical diseases, like dengue fever. Dengue fever, a painful life-threatening disease endemic to tropical regions, broke out on the Texas border in the fall of 1995. (See also The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), which is the world's largest active archive of weather data.)
Expected consequences of increased greenhouse effect are many. 1996 began with devastating snow storms and floods along the East Coast, a major heat wave on the West Coast and aberrant weather patterns in the Heartland of the United States.
"Since 1850 there has been a mean rise in global temperature of approximately 1° C (approximately 1.8° F). It was thought that this rise could just be part of a natural fluctuation; such fluctuations have been recorded for tens of thousands of years and operate in short-term as well as long-term cycles. "
However, 1995 was the warmest year on record, according to the British Meteorological Office. A United Nations panel of scientists attributed the warming to human influence and predicted that if greenhouse-gas emissions [carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons] are not reduced, the average global temperature will rise by 1.0° to 3.5° C (1.8° to 6.3° F), with a best estimate of 2.0° C (3.5° F), by 2100, causing sea level to rise by 20 inches; further warming an sea-level rise would follow.
The potential consequences of global warming are so great that many of the world's top scientists have urged immediate action and have called for international cooperation on the problem.
How Bad is Global Warming - and What is Global Warming?
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The IPCC conference in Rome 1995 concludes that there are now clear signs of man-made climate changes, and that pollution from our cars, trucks, factories and power plants is a cause of it.
The figure below show the current global temperature and the future predictions. You may also read more about these scary facts and statistics from NCDC, including the increasing tornado trends and the above average rain-falls.
NASA scientists have announced that 1995 was the hottest year on record. The year saw killer heat waves from Chicago to Moscow to parts of India, a record number of tropical storms in both the Atlantic and the Pacific, and resurgent tropical diseases, like dengue fever. Dengue fever, a painful life-threatening disease endemic to tropical regions, broke out on the Texas border in the fall of 1995. (See also The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), which is the world's largest active archive of weather data.)
Expected consequences of increased greenhouse effect are many. 1996 began with devastating snow storms and floods along the East Coast, a major heat wave on the West Coast and aberrant weather patterns in the Heartland of the United States.
Bad News for Gnus due to GLOBAL WARMING
Africa Under WaterThe photos from this year's migration are just as dramatic, but for a different reason. This time, piles of wildebeest carcasses line the riverbanks, after 10,000 of the animals drowned trying to cross the Mara at the start of their journey back east to the Serengeti. The deaths are natural: each year, crocodiles and the strong current claim some victims. The numbers, though, are bizarre. The migration rarely leaves more than a few thousand dead; but this year, an estimated 10,000, or about 1% of the wildebeest population, were wiped out. Conservationists say the wildebeest simply chose the wrong point to cross the river, one where the bank on the other side was too steep to climb. As those in the front drowned, they trapped those behind them.
Nature can be cruel, but sometimes it gets some help. The Mara River was especially high this year, after the heavy rains that flooded parts of Africa, killing hundreds of people and uprooting thousands more. Climatologists are pointing to the downpours as proof that predictions that Africa will suffer the most from global warming and climate change are already coming true. The human toll is what makes all the headlines, but the consequences for Africa's wildlife is just as drastic.
"During the rainy season, we should be getting mild rain spread over a long time and the dry season should be reasonably mild, not too hot," says Taye Teferi, head of the Conservation Program at the WWF's East Africa Regional Program Office. "But climate change has accentuated the difference between the seasons, making the rainy season shorter and heavier and the dry season hotter." When animals migrate to the Masai Mara every spring, it allows the vegetation they leave behind in the Serengeti to regrow, ready for them to come back in the fall. No rain means no new vegetation to return to. The animals stay put and the land can't cope: The grass stops growing, the animals die. And if it rains too much, "the water, which should be a source of rejuvenation, instead becomes a force of destruction," says Teferi.
So while conservationists at the Masai Mara work hard to protect the wildebeest from poachers, they were helpless against the combination of bad luck and global warming. Brian Heath, head of the Mara Conservancy, which covers one-third of the reserve, told Britain's Daily Mail: "In a couple of days, tens of times more animals have died than were killed by poaching." According to a blog entry by Terilyn Lemaire, who works at the reserve, they considered blocking off the point where the wildebeest were crossing but then decided "It's nature. And who are we as humans to interfere with that?"
But some would argue humans are already interfering, if global warming is indeed brought about by human activity. And that may require more human intervention. The weather extremes on the African plains are getting so intense that it may no longer be enough for conservationists to simply protect nature. They might have to start improving on it. "The best thing that conservationists can do is to better design the protected areas," says Teferi. During a very dry dry season, that could mean having an area of backup grass that's opened to the wildlife only if they absolutely need it. Or, in a very wet wet season, creating an alternative migration route across a shallower part of the river. "That way, if one area is badly affected, animals have the opportunity to move to another area," says Teferi.
It's too early to tell how the mass drowning will affect Africa's wildebeest population as a whole. But it's safe to say that as the weather gets more erratic, these kinds of freak deaths will become more common — early last year, the Masai Mara had the opposite problem, and a drought left almost 100 hippos dead. These days, it looks like the only alternative to letting nature take its course is to change the course of nature.
University of CALGARY
Degree Programs
Degree programs offered in our Department are: Master of Science (M.Sc.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Electrical or Computer Engineering or with a specialization in Software Engineering. Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) in Electrical or Computer Engineering or with a specialization in Software Engineering.
Entrance Requirements
Applicants must hold or obtain the following minimum qualifications before the Faculty of Graduate Studies will give consideration to admission:
. A University of Calgary four-year baccalaureate degree or an equivalent degree from a recognized institution. Degrees and grades from foreign institutions are evaluated for their equivalency to those of the University of Calgary.
. Applicants with non-engineering degrees or engineering degrees in other fields will be required to satisfactorily complete "make-up" courses for background preparation upon commencement of their graduate program.
. An admission grade point average of 3.00 or higher (on the University of Calgary four-point system) is required. This is based on the last two years of the undergraduate degree consisting of a minimum of 10 full-course (or 20 half-course) equivalents.
In addition to the requirements of the Faculty, the Department requires:
Doctor of Philosophy
Admission - The minimum requirement for admission is a thesis-based Master's degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering.
Accepted students with a Master's degree from outside Canada may be admitted to the M.Sc. program initially and considered for transfer to the Ph.D. program in 8 to 12 months. Conditions for transfer are satisfactory performance in courses and sufficient progress in research to demonstrate the potential for successfully completing a Ph.D. research project. Normally at least four courses should have been completed. If the transfer is approved, credit is given for all courses taken and there should be no delay as a result of having to register in the M.Sc. program initially.
Transfer to the Ph.D. program without completing the M.Sc. degree may be approved for a student with outstanding performance in courses and research in the first year of the M.Sc. program.
Requirements - The requirements for the Ph.D. degree are:
. 2 to 5 half courses beyond the Master's degree or 7 to 10 half courses beyond the Bachelor's degree.
. enrolment in the Research Seminar courses and presentation of one seminar each year.
. a written and an oral candidacy examination no later than 28 months after initial registration.
. the planning and carrying out of research of high calibre leading to an advancement of knowledge, and the writing of a comprehensive dissertation.
. a final oral examination on the research reported in the dissertation.
A supervisor to guide the student's work is selected at the time of admission or early in the program. In addition, a supervisory committee of three persons, including the supervisor, is formed to provide overall guidance and to participate in the examining committee for the candidacy and final oral examinations.
The Ph.D. program requires full-time study for at least two years beyond the Master's degree, or three years beyond the Bachelor's degree. All requirements for the degree must be completed within six calendar years.
Master of Science (M.Sc.)
Admission - The minimum requirement for admission is a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering with a grade point average of at least 3.00 out of 4.00 over the last two years of the Bachelor's program. Applicants with degrees in other disciplines, such as Physics and Computer Science, may be considered. If accepted, additional courses or a qualifying year may be required.
Requirements - The requirements for the M.Sc. degree are:
. 5 to 7 half courses
. enrolment in the Research Seminar courses and presentation of one seminar each year.
. completion of a research project and the writing of a comprehensive thesis.
. a final oral examination on the research reported in the thesis.
A supervisor to guide the student's work is selected at the time of admission or early in the program. The M.Sc. program requires full-time study for at least one year and all requirements for the degree must be completed within four calendar years. Most students should be able to complete the program within 20 months.
Master of Engineering (M.Eng.)
Admission - The minimum requirement for admission is a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering with a grade point average of at least 3.00 out of 4.00 over the last two years of the Bachelor's program.
There is no full-time study requirement and the program is normally completed on a part-time basis. All requirements must be completed within six years. Students in the M.Eng. program are not eligible for financial assistance.
Courses-Only Route - Requirements for the courses-only route are:
. 10 to 12 half courses of which at least 7 must be graduate courses. Students are encouraged to include ENEL 698 Graduate Project which counts for 2 courses.
. a final comprehensive oral examination.
A supervisor to guide the student's studies is selected at the time of admission or early in the program.
Thesis Route - Requirements for the thesis route are:
. 5 to 8 half courses of which at least 5 must be graduate courses.
. completion of an engineering analysis, design, or research project and the writing of a comprehensive thesis.
. a final oral examination on the work reported in the thesis.
A supervisor to guide the student's work is selected at the time of admission.
For further information on the research disciplines and specializations please click on the link provided:
http://www.enel.ucalgary.ca/DepartmentalWeb/researchactivities//04researchactivities.htm
As our Department receives applications from many more students than can possibly be admitted, only the most qualified are considered, and in most cases only students with first-class academic standing are admitted. Our experience indicates that applicants must have academic backgrounds within the general requirements listed below:
Canada and USA Universities - a GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 point system (72% or better) for your last two undergraduate years or 20 courses, whichever is greater. When you have taken less than 20 courses in the last two years, we count back in increments of one term. All courses in a term must be used and not simply the best 20 courses. You cannot split a term to obtain a total of 20 courses.
India - First Class or First Division (minimum of 72%) Bachelor's and Master's degrees Arts or Science, or Bachelor's degree from Indian Institute of Technology/Management with an average of 8.0 on a 10.0-point scale.
Iran - 15/20
Japan - 3/4 or 2.3/3
Middle East - 80-85%
Pakistan and Bangladesh - First Class or First Division (minimum of 72-73%) Bachelors and Master's degrees
People's Republic of China - 80%
Philippines - Bachelor's and Master's degrees with 1.25 or 86%
Taiwan - An average - 80% or Better
United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand (and other Commonwealth countries whose university systems follow those of Great Britain) - minimum Upper Second Class Honours degree
Switzerland - 5/6 or 7.5/10
Latin America 7.5/10, 80%, 3.75/5, 4/5
Eastern Europe - 4.5/6, 2/3, 4/5, 7.5/10, 3.75/5
More information on international admissions can be obtained on the Faculty of Graduate Studies website: http://www.grad.ucalgary.ca/int_admissions/int_admission_requirements.htm
Students are also required to maintain a GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 system to remain in the graduate program.
English Language Proficiency
Students whose primary language is not English are required to provide proof of proficiency in English by passing the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) examination with a score of 550 minimum paper-based or 213 computer-based. Applicants may also provide a proof of proficiency in English by passing the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) examination with a minimum of 7.0. Students with scores that are more than two years old must re-write the examination. Full admission will not be granted before the Faculty of Graduate Studies receives the official or verified test score.
Financial Assistance
It should be noted that all full-time applicants to the M.Sc. and Ph.D. programs are considered for financial assistance. Most of these funds come from Teaching Assistantships; hence you will be required to spend several hours per week participating in our undergraduate program. For further information on financial support please click on the link provided:
http://www.grad.ucalgary.ca/financial/financial.htm
Deadlines for Applying
Normally, it takes about a month after the application deadline for the graduate program to evaluate applications and make recommendations to the Faculty of Graduate Studies, and two weeks to one month for the Faculty to send official offers of admission. The Department has three intake periods; September, January and May. However, the preferred intake period for international students is September. We do not normally admit international students in May.
The deadline for submission of complete applications to the department is as follows:
September Admission : March 1
January Admission : June 30
If after reading the above information, you feel you have met the admission requirements, you can apply on line at https://www.gradapplication.ucalgary.ca/account/instructions.asp or to download the package C at http://www.grad.ucalgary.ca/Faculty/forms.htm.
Documentation can be sent either to the Faculty of Graduate Studies or the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Mailing Address:
University of Calgary
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
2500 University Drive NW
Calgary, Alberta Canada
T2N 1N4
University of Calgary
Faculty of Graduate Studies
2500 University Drive NW
Calgary, Alberta Canada
T2N 1N4
Degree programs offered in our Department are: Master of Science (M.Sc.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Electrical or Computer Engineering or with a specialization in Software Engineering. Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) in Electrical or Computer Engineering or with a specialization in Software Engineering.
Entrance Requirements
Applicants must hold or obtain the following minimum qualifications before the Faculty of Graduate Studies will give consideration to admission:
. A University of Calgary four-year baccalaureate degree or an equivalent degree from a recognized institution. Degrees and grades from foreign institutions are evaluated for their equivalency to those of the University of Calgary.
. Applicants with non-engineering degrees or engineering degrees in other fields will be required to satisfactorily complete "make-up" courses for background preparation upon commencement of their graduate program.
. An admission grade point average of 3.00 or higher (on the University of Calgary four-point system) is required. This is based on the last two years of the undergraduate degree consisting of a minimum of 10 full-course (or 20 half-course) equivalents.
In addition to the requirements of the Faculty, the Department requires:
Doctor of Philosophy
Admission - The minimum requirement for admission is a thesis-based Master's degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering.
Accepted students with a Master's degree from outside Canada may be admitted to the M.Sc. program initially and considered for transfer to the Ph.D. program in 8 to 12 months. Conditions for transfer are satisfactory performance in courses and sufficient progress in research to demonstrate the potential for successfully completing a Ph.D. research project. Normally at least four courses should have been completed. If the transfer is approved, credit is given for all courses taken and there should be no delay as a result of having to register in the M.Sc. program initially.
Transfer to the Ph.D. program without completing the M.Sc. degree may be approved for a student with outstanding performance in courses and research in the first year of the M.Sc. program.
Requirements - The requirements for the Ph.D. degree are:
. 2 to 5 half courses beyond the Master's degree or 7 to 10 half courses beyond the Bachelor's degree.
. enrolment in the Research Seminar courses and presentation of one seminar each year.
. a written and an oral candidacy examination no later than 28 months after initial registration.
. the planning and carrying out of research of high calibre leading to an advancement of knowledge, and the writing of a comprehensive dissertation.
. a final oral examination on the research reported in the dissertation.
A supervisor to guide the student's work is selected at the time of admission or early in the program. In addition, a supervisory committee of three persons, including the supervisor, is formed to provide overall guidance and to participate in the examining committee for the candidacy and final oral examinations.
The Ph.D. program requires full-time study for at least two years beyond the Master's degree, or three years beyond the Bachelor's degree. All requirements for the degree must be completed within six calendar years.
Master of Science (M.Sc.)
Admission - The minimum requirement for admission is a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering with a grade point average of at least 3.00 out of 4.00 over the last two years of the Bachelor's program. Applicants with degrees in other disciplines, such as Physics and Computer Science, may be considered. If accepted, additional courses or a qualifying year may be required.
Requirements - The requirements for the M.Sc. degree are:
. 5 to 7 half courses
. enrolment in the Research Seminar courses and presentation of one seminar each year.
. completion of a research project and the writing of a comprehensive thesis.
. a final oral examination on the research reported in the thesis.
A supervisor to guide the student's work is selected at the time of admission or early in the program. The M.Sc. program requires full-time study for at least one year and all requirements for the degree must be completed within four calendar years. Most students should be able to complete the program within 20 months.
Master of Engineering (M.Eng.)
Admission - The minimum requirement for admission is a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering with a grade point average of at least 3.00 out of 4.00 over the last two years of the Bachelor's program.
There is no full-time study requirement and the program is normally completed on a part-time basis. All requirements must be completed within six years. Students in the M.Eng. program are not eligible for financial assistance.
Courses-Only Route - Requirements for the courses-only route are:
. 10 to 12 half courses of which at least 7 must be graduate courses. Students are encouraged to include ENEL 698 Graduate Project which counts for 2 courses.
. a final comprehensive oral examination.
A supervisor to guide the student's studies is selected at the time of admission or early in the program.
Thesis Route - Requirements for the thesis route are:
. 5 to 8 half courses of which at least 5 must be graduate courses.
. completion of an engineering analysis, design, or research project and the writing of a comprehensive thesis.
. a final oral examination on the work reported in the thesis.
A supervisor to guide the student's work is selected at the time of admission.
For further information on the research disciplines and specializations please click on the link provided:
http://www.enel.ucalgary.ca/DepartmentalWeb/researchactivities//04researchactivities.htm
As our Department receives applications from many more students than can possibly be admitted, only the most qualified are considered, and in most cases only students with first-class academic standing are admitted. Our experience indicates that applicants must have academic backgrounds within the general requirements listed below:
Canada and USA Universities - a GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 point system (72% or better) for your last two undergraduate years or 20 courses, whichever is greater. When you have taken less than 20 courses in the last two years, we count back in increments of one term. All courses in a term must be used and not simply the best 20 courses. You cannot split a term to obtain a total of 20 courses.
India - First Class or First Division (minimum of 72%) Bachelor's and Master's degrees Arts or Science, or Bachelor's degree from Indian Institute of Technology/Management with an average of 8.0 on a 10.0-point scale.
Iran - 15/20
Japan - 3/4 or 2.3/3
Middle East - 80-85%
Pakistan and Bangladesh - First Class or First Division (minimum of 72-73%) Bachelors and Master's degrees
People's Republic of China - 80%
Philippines - Bachelor's and Master's degrees with 1.25 or 86%
Taiwan - An average - 80% or Better
United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand (and other Commonwealth countries whose university systems follow those of Great Britain) - minimum Upper Second Class Honours degree
Switzerland - 5/6 or 7.5/10
Latin America 7.5/10, 80%, 3.75/5, 4/5
Eastern Europe - 4.5/6, 2/3, 4/5, 7.5/10, 3.75/5
More information on international admissions can be obtained on the Faculty of Graduate Studies website: http://www.grad.ucalgary.ca/int_admissions/int_admission_requirements.htm
Students are also required to maintain a GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 system to remain in the graduate program.
English Language Proficiency
Students whose primary language is not English are required to provide proof of proficiency in English by passing the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) examination with a score of 550 minimum paper-based or 213 computer-based. Applicants may also provide a proof of proficiency in English by passing the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) examination with a minimum of 7.0. Students with scores that are more than two years old must re-write the examination. Full admission will not be granted before the Faculty of Graduate Studies receives the official or verified test score.
Financial Assistance
It should be noted that all full-time applicants to the M.Sc. and Ph.D. programs are considered for financial assistance. Most of these funds come from Teaching Assistantships; hence you will be required to spend several hours per week participating in our undergraduate program. For further information on financial support please click on the link provided:
http://www.grad.ucalgary.ca/financial/financial.htm
Deadlines for Applying
Normally, it takes about a month after the application deadline for the graduate program to evaluate applications and make recommendations to the Faculty of Graduate Studies, and two weeks to one month for the Faculty to send official offers of admission. The Department has three intake periods; September, January and May. However, the preferred intake period for international students is September. We do not normally admit international students in May.
The deadline for submission of complete applications to the department is as follows:
September Admission : March 1
January Admission : June 30
If after reading the above information, you feel you have met the admission requirements, you can apply on line at https://www.gradapplication.ucalgary.ca/account/instructions.asp or to download the package C at http://www.grad.ucalgary.ca/Faculty/forms.htm.
Documentation can be sent either to the Faculty of Graduate Studies or the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Mailing Address:
University of Calgary
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
2500 University Drive NW
Calgary, Alberta Canada
T2N 1N4
University of Calgary
Faculty of Graduate Studies
2500 University Drive NW
Calgary, Alberta Canada
T2N 1N4
SAVE THE WATER now!!!
Would you switch everything off and rely on natural light to save the planet? It's the only answer for the families going to extreme measures to cut emissions.
Most families get up in the morning, switch on the lights and start their ablutions. The Robinsons do not.
The Robinsons get up, leave the lights off and open the curtains a crack so some light gets in but little heat escapes.
This is the world of "carbon rationing".
The term may fill some people with horror - conjuring up images of wartime austerity measures and queues for bread and sugar.
Using the streetlamps and other tips
For others it may suggest green fundamentalists forcing us to swap our central heating for woolly jumpers and run our cars on chicken dung.
ROBINSONS' ENERGY TIPS
Don't turn on lights in morning - open curtain slightly to allow light in but stop heat escaping.
Cycle or walk to work or school. An electric bike has low emissions - and makes the journey easier.
Keep thermostat for heating and water on low. When showering, collect water for shaving in a jug.
Cut out or cut down watching television during week. Never leave it on standby.
Evenings, stay in kitchen to avoid switching on other lights. Use energy-saving bulbs.
BACKNEXT1 of 5
Read more tipsA recent poll suggested only 28% of Britons thought the idea of setting mandatory limits on individuals' carbon emissions - raised by Environment Secretary David Miliband - was socially acceptable, even though most feel lifestyle changes are needed to reduce the impact of climate change.
But the term does not trouble Peter Robinson, and dozens like him around the country who have signed up to voluntary groups whose aim is to substantially reduce the CO2 their members are releasing into the atmosphere.
These Carbon Rationing Action Groups advise their members, known as Craggers, on how to minimise energy use.
The Robinsons have eagerly set about finding ways to cut their personal energy use, many of which have also proved financially beneficial.
It's not draconian, you're not leading the life of a monk
Peter Robinson
"It's only when you stop and start looking that you realise that you do waste a lot of energy, not out of spite or just being lazy or anything, it's just your normal lifestyle," Peter says.
"Our lifestyles were very energy-rich whereas now... there are things you can do in your life that don't stop you having a really nice time... but you can still make really substantial savings.
"It's not draconian, you're not leading the life of a monk, it's just stuff that's really easy to do."
The 36-year-old school administrator may not think it is draconian but there are some who would raise an eyebrow at the prospect of using only the upstairs bathroom during the hours of darkness and relying on ambient light from streetlamps.
PETER'S ENERGY SAVINGS
Use jug to collect hot water in shower for shaving
Open curtains a fraction instead of switching on light
Walk or cycle to school/work
But Peter has been an enthusiastic "cragger" since joining his local Crag, in Worcester last year.
Though he, his wife Sarah, and children Jacob and Molly, have been actively trying to reduce their carbon footprint for some time, he believes being members has helped to focus their minds on the task in hand.
"Being involved in the Crag... has really made a difference - monitoring how you produce your carbon... is what really has driven me and enabled us to look at what we do, how we live our lives, make those savings," he says.
It is easy to see the Robinsons as driven. They do not watch television, but for reasons that have nothing to do with the environment. Their children are allowed to watch DVDs at the weekend but the brightness control has to come down.
Developing habits is the key, Peter says. He described how he once visited a prison with a group of psychology students.
RISE OF THE CRAG
Currently at least 23 groups throughout the UK
Each group sets individual targets, but most going for 4.5 metric tons per person for 2006/7
In some Crags, a financial penalty for those who exceed limit
Aim is to reduce personal footprints by about 10% a year, to achieve a 90% cut by 2030
"One thing you notice there is that each time any of the prison staff went through a door they would close it and lock it, it becomes second nature. And when I started going round at home turning lights out it reminded me of that routine."
Most of the family's savings have come from using less heat (turning it off altogether from April to October and restricting its use at other times), less light and turning off electronic equipment at the wall. Peter has also pledged not to fly this year.
He says they reduced their personal carbon emissions from 12.7 metric tons in 2005 to 10.9 in 2006, well below the national average. He is hoping savings this year will have knocked another 10% off their emissions by December.
Financial penalties
Frustratingly for him, his local Crag has not offered any guidance or reduction targets. But in nearby Hereford one of the first groups to be set up recently finished its carbon "accounting" for the year April 2006 to April 2007.
It set a limit of 4.5 tons per person. Some Crags have elected to impose financial penalties for those who exceed the limit, but Hereford decided not to.
Carpenter Steve Ball, 36, who joined Hereford Crag last year, found a combination of his car use and a flight to Slovenia had pushed him well over the limit to more than seven tons.
Craggers do not like energy-hungry tungsten bulbs
But although he had never previously calculated his footprint, he believes changes he has made have already cut deeply into his emissions - for instance, converting his car to run on a biodiesel mix and resisting regular calls by friends to fly off to Tallinn or Prague.
Like Peter, Steve has taken small steps across the board - like using a small motorbike for some journeys or insulating his converted loft.
He plans to insulate his floor as well, but his dream is to build afresh.
"Renovation is quite a hard thing to do, to make an old house efficient energy-wise, but I'm looking into building a new house," he says.
Both Peter and Steve have made massive changes and are prepared to go further. But they both seem wary of the Crags' ultimate aim - to reduce personal carbon emissions by 90% by 2030, which the movement says is necessary to avoid dangerous and potentially runaway climate change.
"We would struggle as a family to get 90% cuts," Peter says.
"If it's do-able, then great idea," says Steve. "We can strive for it, but whether or not it's realistically possible I don't know."
One thing is sure. If anyone can do it, it's the Craggers.
Below is a selection of your comments.
What an incredible idea! I'd love to start something like this in the States. My husband and I have been independently trying to do some of these same things, but it would be so much easier with group support.
Most families get up in the morning, switch on the lights and start their ablutions. The Robinsons do not.
The Robinsons get up, leave the lights off and open the curtains a crack so some light gets in but little heat escapes.
This is the world of "carbon rationing".
The term may fill some people with horror - conjuring up images of wartime austerity measures and queues for bread and sugar.
Using the streetlamps and other tips
For others it may suggest green fundamentalists forcing us to swap our central heating for woolly jumpers and run our cars on chicken dung.
ROBINSONS' ENERGY TIPS
Don't turn on lights in morning - open curtain slightly to allow light in but stop heat escaping.
Cycle or walk to work or school. An electric bike has low emissions - and makes the journey easier.
Keep thermostat for heating and water on low. When showering, collect water for shaving in a jug.
Cut out or cut down watching television during week. Never leave it on standby.
Evenings, stay in kitchen to avoid switching on other lights. Use energy-saving bulbs.
BACKNEXT1 of 5
Read more tipsA recent poll suggested only 28% of Britons thought the idea of setting mandatory limits on individuals' carbon emissions - raised by Environment Secretary David Miliband - was socially acceptable, even though most feel lifestyle changes are needed to reduce the impact of climate change.
But the term does not trouble Peter Robinson, and dozens like him around the country who have signed up to voluntary groups whose aim is to substantially reduce the CO2 their members are releasing into the atmosphere.
These Carbon Rationing Action Groups advise their members, known as Craggers, on how to minimise energy use.
The Robinsons have eagerly set about finding ways to cut their personal energy use, many of which have also proved financially beneficial.
It's not draconian, you're not leading the life of a monk
Peter Robinson
"It's only when you stop and start looking that you realise that you do waste a lot of energy, not out of spite or just being lazy or anything, it's just your normal lifestyle," Peter says.
"Our lifestyles were very energy-rich whereas now... there are things you can do in your life that don't stop you having a really nice time... but you can still make really substantial savings.
"It's not draconian, you're not leading the life of a monk, it's just stuff that's really easy to do."
The 36-year-old school administrator may not think it is draconian but there are some who would raise an eyebrow at the prospect of using only the upstairs bathroom during the hours of darkness and relying on ambient light from streetlamps.
PETER'S ENERGY SAVINGS
Use jug to collect hot water in shower for shaving
Open curtains a fraction instead of switching on light
Walk or cycle to school/work
But Peter has been an enthusiastic "cragger" since joining his local Crag, in Worcester last year.
Though he, his wife Sarah, and children Jacob and Molly, have been actively trying to reduce their carbon footprint for some time, he believes being members has helped to focus their minds on the task in hand.
"Being involved in the Crag... has really made a difference - monitoring how you produce your carbon... is what really has driven me and enabled us to look at what we do, how we live our lives, make those savings," he says.
It is easy to see the Robinsons as driven. They do not watch television, but for reasons that have nothing to do with the environment. Their children are allowed to watch DVDs at the weekend but the brightness control has to come down.
Developing habits is the key, Peter says. He described how he once visited a prison with a group of psychology students.
RISE OF THE CRAG
Currently at least 23 groups throughout the UK
Each group sets individual targets, but most going for 4.5 metric tons per person for 2006/7
In some Crags, a financial penalty for those who exceed limit
Aim is to reduce personal footprints by about 10% a year, to achieve a 90% cut by 2030
"One thing you notice there is that each time any of the prison staff went through a door they would close it and lock it, it becomes second nature. And when I started going round at home turning lights out it reminded me of that routine."
Most of the family's savings have come from using less heat (turning it off altogether from April to October and restricting its use at other times), less light and turning off electronic equipment at the wall. Peter has also pledged not to fly this year.
He says they reduced their personal carbon emissions from 12.7 metric tons in 2005 to 10.9 in 2006, well below the national average. He is hoping savings this year will have knocked another 10% off their emissions by December.
Financial penalties
Frustratingly for him, his local Crag has not offered any guidance or reduction targets. But in nearby Hereford one of the first groups to be set up recently finished its carbon "accounting" for the year April 2006 to April 2007.
It set a limit of 4.5 tons per person. Some Crags have elected to impose financial penalties for those who exceed the limit, but Hereford decided not to.
Carpenter Steve Ball, 36, who joined Hereford Crag last year, found a combination of his car use and a flight to Slovenia had pushed him well over the limit to more than seven tons.
Craggers do not like energy-hungry tungsten bulbs
But although he had never previously calculated his footprint, he believes changes he has made have already cut deeply into his emissions - for instance, converting his car to run on a biodiesel mix and resisting regular calls by friends to fly off to Tallinn or Prague.
Like Peter, Steve has taken small steps across the board - like using a small motorbike for some journeys or insulating his converted loft.
He plans to insulate his floor as well, but his dream is to build afresh.
"Renovation is quite a hard thing to do, to make an old house efficient energy-wise, but I'm looking into building a new house," he says.
Both Peter and Steve have made massive changes and are prepared to go further. But they both seem wary of the Crags' ultimate aim - to reduce personal carbon emissions by 90% by 2030, which the movement says is necessary to avoid dangerous and potentially runaway climate change.
"We would struggle as a family to get 90% cuts," Peter says.
"If it's do-able, then great idea," says Steve. "We can strive for it, but whether or not it's realistically possible I don't know."
One thing is sure. If anyone can do it, it's the Craggers.
Below is a selection of your comments.
What an incredible idea! I'd love to start something like this in the States. My husband and I have been independently trying to do some of these same things, but it would be so much easier with group support.
Diversity, Endemism, And Age Distributions In Macroevolutionary Sources And Sinks
Understanding the large-scale processes that shape distributions of species diversity is a long-standing challenge in ecology and can also help set conservation priorities. Regions with highly diverse or unique organisms may be targeted for conservation, but how such a region acquired its species could affect how they should be protected.
http://dominore.blogspot.com/
Without near-perfect records of where organisms have occurred throughout the past, it can be difficult to determine the processes underlying diversity patterns. In the absence of such detailed information, regions with high diversity or many unique species are often assumed to be hotbeds of species origination, but a new theory demonstrates that such places could instead result from the immigration of species.This theory, outlined in an article to appear in the June 2005 issue of The American Naturalist, also shows how combining the ages of species, determined from the fossil record, with information on where those species currently live can give insight into the past processes that have shaped diversity. Application of the theory to clams, mussels, and other marine bivalves shows that the polar oceans have had higher rates of immigration and extinction and much lower rates of origination than have the tropical and temperate oceans.This example underscores the importance of considering not just species origination but also extinction and dispersal when testing hypotheses about the geographic distributions of organisms.
###
Sponsored by the American Society of Naturalists, The American Naturalist is a leading journal in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology and animal behavior. For more information, please see our website: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AN.
Emma E. Goldberg (University of California, San Diego), Kaustuv Roy (University of California, San Diego), Russell Lande (University of California, San Diego), and David Jablonski (University of Chicago), "Diversity, endemism, and age distributions in macroevolutionary sources and sinks." 165:6 June 2005.
http://dominore.blogspot.com/
Without near-perfect records of where organisms have occurred throughout the past, it can be difficult to determine the processes underlying diversity patterns. In the absence of such detailed information, regions with high diversity or many unique species are often assumed to be hotbeds of species origination, but a new theory demonstrates that such places could instead result from the immigration of species.This theory, outlined in an article to appear in the June 2005 issue of The American Naturalist, also shows how combining the ages of species, determined from the fossil record, with information on where those species currently live can give insight into the past processes that have shaped diversity. Application of the theory to clams, mussels, and other marine bivalves shows that the polar oceans have had higher rates of immigration and extinction and much lower rates of origination than have the tropical and temperate oceans.This example underscores the importance of considering not just species origination but also extinction and dispersal when testing hypotheses about the geographic distributions of organisms.
###
Sponsored by the American Society of Naturalists, The American Naturalist is a leading journal in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology and animal behavior. For more information, please see our website: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AN.
Emma E. Goldberg (University of California, San Diego), Kaustuv Roy (University of California, San Diego), Russell Lande (University of California, San Diego), and David Jablonski (University of Chicago), "Diversity, endemism, and age distributions in macroevolutionary sources and sinks." 165:6 June 2005.
Critical Role Of Evolutionary Processes In Species Coexistence And Diversity Revealed
Critical Role Of Evolutionary Processes In Species Coexistence And Diversity Revealed
A team of researchers, addressing long-standing conflicts in ecology and evolutionary science, has provided key directions for the future of community ecology. The team comprehensively synthesized emerging work that applies knowledge of evolutionary relationships among different species—phylogenetics—to understanding species interactions, ecosystems and biodiversity.
The work was conducted by a subgroup of researchers participating in an interdisciplinary working group convened by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
“For a long time, ecologists ignored the importance of evolutionary processes in understanding how species coexist and how diversity is maintained,” said Jeannine Cavender-Bares, a professor at the University of Minnesota, and lead author of the study. “But ecological processes we observe in the present are deeply influenced by evolutionary processes in the past. Thanks to the increasing availability of large DNA and phylogenetic databases, we now have the tools to bring an evolutionary perspective into ecology.”
NCEAS hosts hundreds of scientists a year who analyze vast amounts of existing information from numerous prior research studies, in order to look for patterns and make new discoveries. This approach is especially effective for addressing complicated questions like this one.
The researchers synthesized over 180 major studies from both fields, and developed a comprehensive overview of the forces driving community organization, and the role evolution plays in the assembly of these communities.
“What's truly exciting is how we are beginning to accumulate evidence that community structure and interactions through time can feedback to promote or constrain diversification of species,” said Ken Kozak, also a professor at the University of Minnesota. The blurring of boundaries between classical community ecology and biogeography has been key to recent progress in community ecology.”
“Essentially, we’re going back to the perspective of early naturalists, but with a computational rigor that was never before possible,” according to Cavender-Bares. “This basic understanding of the causes and consequences of community structure has never been more important.”
In the face of increasing habitat destruction around the world, these tools will prove critical to managing and restoring Earth’s flora and fauna.
The research was supported by funding from NCEAS, the Long-Term Ecological Research Network Office, the National Science Foundation and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
A team of researchers, addressing long-standing conflicts in ecology and evolutionary science, has provided key directions for the future of community ecology. The team comprehensively synthesized emerging work that applies knowledge of evolutionary relationships among different species—phylogenetics—to understanding species interactions, ecosystems and biodiversity.
The work was conducted by a subgroup of researchers participating in an interdisciplinary working group convened by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
“For a long time, ecologists ignored the importance of evolutionary processes in understanding how species coexist and how diversity is maintained,” said Jeannine Cavender-Bares, a professor at the University of Minnesota, and lead author of the study. “But ecological processes we observe in the present are deeply influenced by evolutionary processes in the past. Thanks to the increasing availability of large DNA and phylogenetic databases, we now have the tools to bring an evolutionary perspective into ecology.”
NCEAS hosts hundreds of scientists a year who analyze vast amounts of existing information from numerous prior research studies, in order to look for patterns and make new discoveries. This approach is especially effective for addressing complicated questions like this one.
The researchers synthesized over 180 major studies from both fields, and developed a comprehensive overview of the forces driving community organization, and the role evolution plays in the assembly of these communities.
“What's truly exciting is how we are beginning to accumulate evidence that community structure and interactions through time can feedback to promote or constrain diversification of species,” said Ken Kozak, also a professor at the University of Minnesota. The blurring of boundaries between classical community ecology and biogeography has been key to recent progress in community ecology.”
“Essentially, we’re going back to the perspective of early naturalists, but with a computational rigor that was never before possible,” according to Cavender-Bares. “This basic understanding of the causes and consequences of community structure has never been more important.”
In the face of increasing habitat destruction around the world, these tools will prove critical to managing and restoring Earth’s flora and fauna.
The research was supported by funding from NCEAS, the Long-Term Ecological Research Network Office, the National Science Foundation and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
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