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Internet Protocol Suite

2008-12-20T08:27:00.000-08:00

The Internet Protocol Suite (commonly TCP/IP) is the set of communications protocols used for the Internet and other similar networks. It is named from two of the most important protocols in it: the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), which were the first two networking protocols defined in this standard. Today's IP networking represents a synthesis of several developments that began to evolve in the 1960s and 1970s, namely the Internet and LANs (Local Area Networks), which emerged in the mid- to late-1980s, together with the invention of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 (and which exploded with the availability of the first popular web browser: Mosaic).

The Internet Protocol Suite, like many protocol suites, may be viewed as a set of layers. Each layer solves a set of problems involving the transmission of data, and provides a well-defined service to the upper layer protocols based on using services from some lower layers. Upper layers are logically closer to the user and deal with more abstract data, relying on lower layer protocols to translate data into forms that can eventually be physically transmitted.

The TCP/IP model consists of four layers (RFC 1122).^[1]^[2] From lowest to highest, these are the Link Layer, the Internet Layer, the Transport Layer, and the Application Layer.

History

The Internet Protocol Suite resulted from work done by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the early 1970s. After building the pioneering ARPANET in 1969, DARPA started work on a number of other data transmission technologies. In 1972, Robert E. Kahn was hired at the DARPA Information Processing Technology Office, where he worked on both satellite packet networks and ground-based radio packet networks, and recognized the value of being able to communicate across them. In the spring of 1973, Vinton Cerf, the developer of the existing ARPANET Network Control Program (NCP) protocol, joined Kahn to work on open-architecture interconnection models with the goal of designing the next protocol generation for the ARPANET.

By the summer of 1973, Kahn and Cerf had worked out a fundamental reformulation, where the differences between network protocols were hidden by using a common internetwork protocol, and, instead of the network being responsible for reliability, as in the ARPANET, the hosts became responsible. Cerf credits Hubert Zimmerman and Louis Pouzin, designer of the CYCLADES network, with important influences on this design.

With the role of the network reduced to the bare minimum, it became possible to join almost any networks together, no matter what their characteristics were, thereby solving Kahn's initial problem. One popular saying has it that TCP/IP, the eventual product of Cerf and Kahn's work, will run over "two tin cans and a string." There is even an implementation designed to run using homing pigeons, IP over Avian Carriers, documented in RFC 1149. ^[3] ^[4].

A computer called a router (a name changed from gateway to avoid confusion with other types of gateways) is provided with an interface to each network, and forwards packets back and forth between them. Requirements for routers are defined in (Request for Comments 1812). ^[5]

The idea was worked out in more detailed form by Cerf's networking research group at Stanford in the 1973–74 period, resulting in the first TCP specification (Request for Comments 675) ^[6] (The early networking work at Xerox PARC, which produced the PARC Universal Packet protocol suite, much of which existed around the same period of time (i.e. contemporaneous), was also a significant technical influence; people moved between the two).

DARPA then contracted with BBN Technologies, Stanford University, and the University College London to develop operational versions of the protocol on different hardware platforms. Four versions were developed: TCP v1, TCP v2, a split into TCP v3 and IP v3 in the spring of 1978, and then stability with TCP/IP v4 — the standard protocol still in use on the Internet today.

In 1975, a two-network TCP/IP communications test was performed between Stanford and University College London (UCL). In November, 1977, a three-network TCP/IP test was conducted between the U.S., UK, and Norway. Between 1978 and 1983, several other TCP/IP prototypes were developed at multiple research centers. A full switchover to TCP/IP on the ARPANET took place January 1, 1983.^[7]

In March 1982, the US Department of Defense made TCP/IP the standard for all military computer networking.^[8] In 1985, the Internet Architecture Board held a three day workshop on TCP/IP for the computer industry, attended by 250 vendor representatives, helping popularize the protocol and leading to its increasing commercial use.

On November 9, 2005 Kahn and Cerf were presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their contribution to American culture.

Layers in the Internet Protocol Suite

The concept of layers

The TCP/IP suite uses encapsulation to provide abstraction of protocols and services. Such encapsulation usually is aligned with the division of the protocol suite into layers of general functionality. In general, an application (the highest level of the model) uses a set of protocols to send its data down the layers, being further encapsulated at each level.

This may be illustrated by an example network scenario, in which two Internet host computers communicate across local network boundaries constituted by their internetworking gateways (routers).

TCP/IP stack operating on two hosts connected via two routers and the corresponding layers used at each hop

Encapsulation of application data descending through the protocol stack.

The major functional groups of protocols and methods are the Application Layer, the Transport Layer, the Internet Layer, and the Link Layer (RFC 1122). It should be noted that this model was not intended to be a rigid reference model into which new protocols have to fit in order to be accepted as a standard.

The following table provides some examples of the protocols grouped in their respective layers.

These textbooks are secondary sources that may contravene the intent of RFC 1122 and other IETF primary sources^[16].

Different authors have interpreted the RFCs differently regarding whether the Link Layer (and the four-layer TCP/IP model) covers physical layer issues or a "hardware layer" is assumed below the link layer. Some authors have tried to use other names for the link layer, such as Network interface layer, in effort to avoid confusion with the Data link layer of the seven-layer OSI model. Others have attempted to map the Internet Protocol model onto the seven-layer OSI Model. The mapping often results in a five-layer TCP/IP model, wherein the Link Layer is split into a Data Link Layer on top of a Physical Layer. Especially in literature with a bottom-up approach to computer networking, where physical layer issues are emphasized, an evolution towards a five-layer Internet model can be observed out of pedagogical reasons.

The Internet Layer is usually directly mapped to the OSI's Network Layer. At the top of the hierarchy, the Transport Layer is always mapped directly into OSI Layer 4 of the same name. OSIs Application Layer, Presentation Layer, and Session Layer are collapsed into TCP/IP's Application Layer. As a result, these efforts result in either a four- or five-layer scheme with a variety of layer names. This has caused considerable confusion in the application of these models. Other authors dispense with rigid pedagogy^[17] focusing instead on functionality and behavior.

The Internet protocol stack has never been altered by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) from the four layers defined in RFC 1122. The IETF makes no effort to follow the seven-layer OSI model and does not refer to it in standards-track protocol specifications and other architectural documents. The IETF has repeatedly stated that Internet protocol and architecture development is not intended to be OSI-compliant.

Computers

2008-12-20T03:00:00.001-08:00

A computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions.

The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century (1940–1945), although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier. Early electronic computers were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers (PC).^[1] Modern computers are based on tiny integrated circuits and are millions to billions of times more capable while occupying a fraction of the space.^[2] Today, simple computers may be made small enough to fit into a wristwatch and be powered from a watch battery. Personal computers, in various forms, are icons of the Information Age and are what most people think of as "a computer"; however, the most common form of computer in use today is the embedded computer. Embedded computers are small, simple devices that are used to control other devices — for example, they may be found in machines ranging from fighter aircraft to industrial robots, digital cameras, and children's toys.

The ability to store and execute lists of instructions called programs makes computers extremely versatile and distinguishes them from calculators. The Church–Turing thesis is a mathematical statement of this versatility: any computer with a certain minimum capability is, in principle, capable of performing the same tasks that any other computer can perform. Therefore, computers with capability and complexity ranging from that of a personal digital assistant to a supercomputer are all able to perform the same computational tasks given enough time and storage capacity.

History of computing

Main article: History of computer hardware

The Jacquard loom was one of the first programmable devices.

It is difficult to identify any one device as the earliest computer, partly because the term "computer" has been subject to varying interpretations over time. Originally, the term "computer" referred to a person who performed numerical calculations (a human computer), often with the aid of a mechanical calculating device.

The history of the modern computer begins with two separate technologies - that of automated calculation and that of programmability.

Examples of early mechanical calculating devices included the abacus, the slide rule and arguably the astrolabe and the Antikythera mechanism (which dates from about 150-100 BC). Hero of Alexandria (c. 10–70 AD) built a mechanical theater which performed a play lasting 10 minutes and was operated by a complex system of ropes and drums that might be considered to be a means of deciding which parts of the mechanism performed which actions and when.^[3] This is the essence of programmability.

The "castle clock", an astronomical clock invented by Al-Jazari in 1206, is considered to be the earliest programmable analog computer.^[4] It displayed the zodiac, the solar and lunar orbits, a crescent moon-shaped pointer travelling across a gateway causing automatic doors to open every hour,^[5]^[6] and five robotic musicians who play music when struck by levers operated by a camshaft attached to a water wheel. The length of day and night could be re-programmed every day in order to account for the changing lengths of day and night throughout the year.^[4]

The end of the Middle Ages saw a re-invigoration of European mathematics and engineering, and Wilhelm Schickard's 1623 device was the first of a number of mechanical calculators constructed by European engineers. However, none of those devices fit the modern definition of a computer because they could not be programmed.

In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard made an improvement to the textile loom that used a series of punched paper cards as a template to allow his loom to weave intricate patterns automatically. The resulting Jacquard loom was an important step in the development of computers because the use of punched cards to define woven patterns can be viewed as an early, albeit limited, form of programmability.

It was the fusion of automatic calculation with programmability that produced the first recognizable computers. In 1837, Charles Babbage was the first to conceptualize and design a fully programmable mechanical computer that he called "The Analytical Engine".^[7] Due to limited finances, and an inability to resist tinkering with the design, Babbage never actually built his Analytical Engine.

Large-scale automated data processing of punched cards was performed for the U.S. Census in 1890 by tabulating machines designed by Herman Hollerith and manufactured by the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation, which later became IBM. By the end of the 19th century a number of technologies that would later prove useful in the realization of practical computers had begun to appear: the punched card, Boolean algebra, the vacuum tube (thermionic valve) and the teleprinter.

During the first half of the 20th century, many scientific computing needs were met by increasingly sophisticated analog computers, which used a direct mechanical or electrical model of the problem as a basis for computation. However, these were not programmable and generally lacked the versatility and accuracy of modern digital computers.

A succession of steadily more powerful and flexible computing devices were constructed in the 1930s and 1940s, gradually adding the key features that are seen in modern computers. The use of digital electronics (largely invented by Claude Shannon in 1937) and more flexible programmability were vitally important steps, but defining one point along this road as "the first digital electronic computer" is difficult (Shannon 1940). Notable achievements include:

EDSAC was one of the first computers to implement the stored program (von Neumann) architecture.

Konrad Zuse's electromechanical "Z machines". The Z3 (1941) was the first working machine featuring binary arithmetic, including floating point arithmetic and a measure of programmability. In 1998 the Z3 was proved to be Turing complete, therefore being the world's first operational computer.
The non-programmable Atanasoff–Berry Computer (1941) which used vacuum tube based computation, binary numbers, and regenerative capacitor memory.
The secret British Colossus computers (1943)^[8], which had limited programmability but demonstrated that a device using thousands of tubes could be reasonably reliable and electronically reprogrammable. It was used for breaking German wartime codes.
The Harvard Mark I (1944), a large-scale electromechanical computer with limited programmability.
The U.S. Army's Ballistics Research Laboratory ENIAC (1946), which used decimal arithmetic and is sometimes called the first general purpose electronic computer (since Konrad Zuse's Z3 of 1941 used electromagnets instead of electronics). Initially, however, ENIAC had an inflexible architecture which essentially required rewiring to change its programming.

Several developers of ENIAC, recognizing its flaws, came up with a far more flexible and elegant design, which came to be known as the "stored program architecture" or von Neumann architecture. This design was first formally described by John von Neumann in the paper First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, distributed in 1945. A number of projects to develop computers based on the stored-program architecture commenced around this time, the first of these being completed in Great Britain. The first to be demonstrated working was the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM or "Baby"), while the EDSAC, completed a year after SSEM, was the first practical implementation of the stored program design. Shortly thereafter, the machine originally described by von Neumann's paper—EDVAC—was completed but did not see full-time use for an additional two years.

Nearly all modern computers implement some form of the stored-program architecture, making it the single trait by which the word "computer" is now defined. While the technologies used in computers have changed dramatically since the first electronic, general-purpose computers of the 1940s, most still use the von Neumann architecture.

Microprocessors are miniaturized devices that often implement stored program CPUs.

Computers that used vacuum tubes as their electronic elements were in use throughout the 1950s. Vacuum tube electronics were largely replaced in the 1960s by transistor-based electronics, which are smaller, faster, cheaper to produce, require less power, and are more reliable. In the 1970s, integrated circuit technology and the subsequent creation of microprocessors, such as the Intel 4004, further decreased size and cost and further increased speed and reliability of computers. By the 1980s, computers became sufficiently small and cheap to replace simple mechanical controls in domestic appliances such as washing machines. The 1980s also witnessed home computers and the now ubiquitous personal computer. With the evolution of the Internet, personal computers are becoming as common as the television and the telephone in the household.

Stored program architecture

Main articles: Computer program and Computer programming

The defining feature of modern computers which distinguishes them from all other machines is that they can be programmed. That is to say that a list of instructions (the program) can be given to the computer and it will store them and carry them out at some time in the future.

In most cases, computer instructions are simple: add one number to another, move some data from one location to another, send a message to some external device, etc. These instructions are read from the computer's memory and are generally carried out (executed) in the order they were given. However, there are usually specialized instructions to tell the computer to jump ahead or backwards to some other place in the program and to carry on executing from there. These are called "jump" instructions (or branches). Furthermore, jump instructions may be made to happen conditionally so that different sequences of instructions may be used depending on the result of some previous calculation or some external event. Many computers directly support subroutines by providing a type of jump that "remembers" the location it jumped from and another instruction to return to the instruction following that jump instruction.

Program execution might be likened to reading a book. While a person will normally read each word and line in sequence, they may at times jump back to an earlier place in the text or skip sections that are not of interest. Similarly, a computer may sometimes go back and repeat the instructions in some section of the program over and over again until some internal condition is met. This is called the flow of control within the program and it is what allows the computer to perform tasks repeatedly without human intervention.

Comparatively, a person using a pocket calculator can perform a basic arithmetic operation such as adding two numbers with just a few button presses. But to add together all of the numbers from 1 to 1,000 would take thousands of button presses and a lot of time—with a near certainty of making a mistake. On the other hand, a computer may be programmed to do this with just a few simple instructions.

Programs

A 1970s punched card containing one line from a FORTRAN program. The card reads: "Z(1) = Y + W(1)" and is labelled "PROJ039" for identification purposes.

In practical terms, a computer program may run from just a few instructions to many millions of instructions, as in a program for a word processor or a web browser. A typical modern computer can execute billions of instructions per second (gigahertz or GHz) and rarely make a mistake over many years of operation. Large computer programs comprising several million instructions may take teams of programmers years to write, thus the probability of the entire program having been written without error is highly unlikely.

Errors in computer programs are called "bugs". Bugs may be benign and not affect the usefulness of the program, or have only subtle effects. But in some cases they may cause the program to "hang" - become unresponsive to input such as mouse clicks or keystrokes, or to completely fail or "crash". Otherwise benign bugs may sometimes may be harnessed for malicious intent by an unscrupulous user writing an "exploit" - code designed to take advantage of a bug and disrupt a program's proper execution. Bugs are usually not the fault of the computer. Since computers merely execute the instructions they are given, bugs are nearly always the result of programmer error or an oversight made in the program's design.^[11]

In most computers, individual instructions are stored as machine code with each instruction being given a unique number (its operation code or opcode for short). The command to add two numbers together would have one opcode, the command to multiply them would have a different opcode and so on. The simplest computers are able to perform any of a handful of different instructions; the more complex computers have several hundred to choose from—each with a unique numerical code. Since the computer's memory is able to store numbers, it can also store the instruction codes. This leads to the important fact that entire programs (which are just lists of instructions) can be represented as lists of numbers and can themselves be manipulated inside the computer just as if they were numeric data. The fundamental concept of storing programs in the computer's memory alongside the data they operate on is the crux of the von Neumann, or stored program, architecture. In some cases, a computer might store some or all of its program in memory that is kept separate from the data it operates on. This is called the Harvard architecture after the Harvard Mark I computer. Modern von Neumann computers display some traits of the Harvard architecture in their designs, such as in CPU caches.

While it is possible to write computer programs as long lists of numbers (machine language) and this technique was used with many early computers,^[12] it is extremely tedious to do so in practice, especially for complicated programs. Instead, each basic instruction can be given a short name that is indicative of its function and easy to remember—a mnemonic such as ADD, SUB, MULT or JUMP. These mnemonics are collectively known as a computer's assembly language. Converting programs written in assembly language into something the computer can actually understand (machine language) is usually done by a computer program called an assembler. Machine languages and the assembly languages that represent them (collectively termed low-level programming languages) tend to be unique to a particular type of computer. For instance, an ARM architecture computer (such as may be found in a PDA or a hand-held videogame) cannot understand the machine language of an Intel Pentium or the AMD Athlon 64 computer that might be in a PC.^[13]

Though considerably easier than in machine language, writing long programs in assembly language is often difficult and error prone. Therefore, most complicated programs are written in more abstract high-level programming languages that are able to express the needs of the computer programmer more conveniently (and thereby help reduce programmer error). High level languages are usually "compiled" into machine language (or sometimes into assembly language and then into machine language) using another computer program called a compiler.^[14] Since high level languages are more abstract than assembly language, it is possible to use different compilers to translate the same high level language program into the machine language of many different types of computer. This is part of the means by which software like video games may be made available for different computer architectures such as personal computers and various video game consoles.

The task of developing large software systems is an immense intellectual effort. Producing software with an acceptably high reliability on a predictable schedule and budget has proved historically to be a great challenge; the academic and professional discipline of software engineering concentrates specifically on this problem.

Memory

Main article: Computer storage

Magnetic core memory was popular main memory for computers through the 1960s until it was completely replaced by semiconductor memory.

A computer's memory can be viewed as a list of cells into which numbers can be placed or read. Each cell has a numbered "address" and can store a single number. The computer can be instructed to "put the number 123 into the cell numbered 1357" or to "add the number that is in cell 1357 to the number that is in cell 2468 and put the answer into cell 1595". The information stored in memory may represent practically anything. Letters, numbers, even computer instructions can be placed into memory with equal ease. Since the CPU does not differentiate between different types of information, it is up to the software to give significance to what the memory sees as nothing but a series of numbers.

In almost all modern computers, each memory cell is set up to store binary numbers in groups of eight bits (called a byte). Each byte is able to represent 256 different numbers; either from 0 to 255 or -128 to +127. To store larger numbers, several consecutive bytes may be used (typically, two, four or eight). When negative numbers are required, they are usually stored in two's complement notation. Other arrangements are possible, but are usually not seen outside of specialized applications or historical contexts. A computer can store any kind of information in memory as long as it can be somehow represented in numerical form. Modern computers have billions or even trillions of bytes of memory.

The CPU contains a special set of memory cells called registers that can be read and written to much more rapidly than the main memory area. There are typically between two and one hundred registers depending on the type of CPU. Registers are used for the most frequently needed data items to avoid having to access main memory every time data is needed. Since data is constantly being worked on, reducing the need to access main memory (which is often slow compared to the ALU and control units) greatly increases the computer's speed.

Computer main memory comes in two principal varieties: random access memory or RAM and read-only memory or ROM. RAM can be read and written to anytime the CPU commands it, but ROM is pre-loaded with data and software that never changes, so the CPU can only read from it. ROM is typically used to store the computer's initial start-up instructions. In general, the contents of RAM is erased when the power to the computer is turned off while ROM retains its data indefinitely. In a PC , the ROM contains a specialized program called the BIOS that orchestrates loading the computer's operating system from the hard disk drive into RAM whenever the computer is turned on or reset. In embedded computers, which frequently do not have disk drives, all of the software required to perform the task may be stored in ROM. Software that is stored in ROM is often called firmware because it is notionally more like hardware than software. Flash memory blurs the distinction between ROM and RAM by retaining data when turned off but being rewritable like RAM. However, flash memory is typically much slower than conventional ROM and RAM so its use is restricted to applications where high speeds are not required.^[18]

In more sophisticated computers there may be one or more RAM cache memories which are slower than registers but faster than main memory. Generally computers with this sort of cache are designed to move frequently needed data into the cache automatically, often without the need for any intervention on the programmer's part.

While a computer may be viewed as running one gigantic program stored in its main memory, in some systems it is necessary to give the appearance of running several programs simultaneously. This is achieved by having the computer switch rapidly between running each program in turn. One means by which this is done is with a special signal called an interrupt which can periodically cause the computer to stop executing instructions where it was and do something else instead. By remembering where it was executing prior to the interrupt, the computer can return to that task later. If several programs are running "at the same time", then the interrupt generator might be causing several hundred interrupts per second, causing a program switch each time. Since modern computers typically execute instructions several orders of magnitude faster than human perception, it may appear that many programs are running at the same time even though only one is ever executing in any given instant. This method of multitasking is sometimes termed "time-sharing" since each program is allocated a "slice" of time in turn.

Before the era of cheap computers, the principle use for multitasking was to allow many people to share the same computer.

Seemingly, multitasking would cause a computer that is switching between several programs to run more slowly - in direct proportion to the number of programs it is running. However, most programs spend much of their time waiting for slow input/output devices to complete their tasks. If a program is waiting for the user to click on the mouse or press a key on the keyboard, then it will not take a "time slice" until the event it is waiting for has occurred. This frees up time for other programs to execute so that many programs may be run at the same time without unacceptable speed loss.

Computers have been used to coordinate information between multiple locations since the 1950s. The U.S. military's SAGE system was the first large-scale example of such a system, which led to a number of special-purpose commercial systems like Sabre.

In the 1970s, computer engineers at research institutions throughout the United States began to link their computers together using telecommunications technology. This effort was funded by ARPA (now DARPA), and the computer network that it produced was called the ARPANET. The technologies that made the Arpanet possible spread and evolved. In time, the network spread beyond academic and military institutions and became known as the Internet. The emergence of networking involved a redefinition of the nature and boundaries of the computer. Computer operating systems and applications were modified to include the ability to define and access the resources of other computers on the network, such as peripheral devices, stored information, and the like, as extensions of the resources of an individual computer. Initially these facilities were available primarily to people working in high-tech environments, but in the 1990s the spread of applications like e-mail and the World Wide Web, combined with the development of cheap, fast networking technologies like Ethernet and ADSL saw computer networking become almost ubiquitous. In fact, the number of computers that are networked is growing phenomenally. A very large proportion of personal computers regularly connect to the Internet to communicate and receive information. "Wireless" networking, often utilizing mobile phone networks, has meant networking is becoming increasingly ubiquitous even in mobile computing environments.

Internet

2008-12-20T02:49:00.000-08:00

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that interchange data by packet switching using the standardized Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, and other technologies.

The Internet carries various information resources and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer and file sharing, online gaming, and the inter-linked hypertext documents and other resources of the World Wide Web (WWW).

Terminology

The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used in every-day speech without much distinction. However, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not one and the same. The Internet is a global data communications system. It is a hardware and software infrastructure that provides connectivity between computers. In contrast, the Web is one of the services communicated via the Internet. It is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs.^[1]

History

Main article: History of the Internet

Creation

A 1946 comic science-fiction story, A Logic Named Joe, by Murray Leinster laid out the Internet and many of its strengths and weaknesses. However, it took more than a decade before reality began to catch up with this vision.

The USSR's launch of Sputnik spurred the United States to create the Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as ARPA, in February 1958 to regain a technological lead.^[2]^[3] ARPA created the Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) to further the research of the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) program, which had networked country-wide radar systems together for the first time. J. C. R. Licklider was selected to head the IPTO, and saw universal networking as a potential unifying human revolution.

Licklider moved from the Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory at Harvard University to MIT in 1950, after becoming interested in information technology. At MIT, he served on a committee that established Lincoln Laboratory and worked on the SAGE project. In 1957 he became a Vice President at BBN, where he bought the first production PDP-1 computer and conducted the first public demonstration of time-sharing.

At the IPTO, Licklider recruited Lawrence Roberts to head a project to implement a network, and Roberts based the technology on the work of Paul Baran,^{[citation needed]} who had written an exhaustive study for the U.S. Air Force that recommended packet switching (as opposed to circuit switching) to make a network highly robust and survivable. After much work, the first two nodes of what would become the ARPANET were interconnected between UCLA and SRI International in Menlo Park, California, on October 29, 1969. The ARPANET was one of the "eve" networks of today's Internet.

Following on from the demonstration that packet switching worked on the ARPANET, the British Post Office, Telenet, DATAPAC and TRANSPAC collaborated to create the first international packet-switched network service. In the UK, this was referred to as the International Packet Switched Service (IPSS), in 1978. The collection of X.25-based networks grew from Europe and the US to cover Canada, Hong Kong and Australia by 1981. The X.25 packet switching standard was developed in the CCITT (now called ITU-T) around 1976.

X.25 was independent of the TCP/IP protocols that arose from the experimental work of DARPA on the ARPANET, Packet Radio Net and Packet Satellite Net during the same time period. Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn developed the first description of the TCP protocols during 1973 and published a paper on the subject in May 1974. Use of the term "Internet" to describe a single global TCP/IP network originated in December 1974 with the publication of RFC 675, the first full specification of TCP that was written by Vinton Cerf, Yogen Dalal and Carl Sunshine, then at Stanford University. During the next nine years, work proceeded to refine the protocols and to implement them on a wide range of operating systems.

The first TCP/IP-based wide-area network was operational by January 1, 1983 when all hosts on the ARPANET were switched over from the older NCP protocols. In 1985, the United States' National Science Foundation (NSF) commissioned the construction of the NSFNET, a university 56 kilobit/second network backbone using computers called "fuzzballs" by their inventor, David L. Mills. The following year, NSF sponsored the conversion to a higher-speed 1.5 megabit/second network. A key decision to use the DARPA TCP/IP protocols was made by Dennis Jennings, then in charge of the Supercomputer program at NSF.

The opening of the network to commercial interests began in 1988. The US Federal Networking Council approved the interconnection of the NSFNET to the commercial MCI Mail system in that year and the link was made in the summer of 1989. Other commercial electronic e-mail services were soon connected, including OnTyme, Telemail and Compuserve. In that same year, three commercial Internet service providers (ISP) were created: UUNET, PSINET and CERFNET. Important, separate networks that offered gateways into, then later merged with, the Internet include Usenet and BITNET. Various other commercial and educational networks, such as Telenet, Tymnet, Compuserve and JANET were interconnected with the growing Internet. Telenet (later called Sprintnet) was a large privately funded national computer network with free dial-up access in cities throughout the U.S. that had been in operation since the 1970s. This network was eventually interconnected with the others in the 1980s as the TCP/IP protocol became increasingly popular. The ability of TCP/IP to work over virtually any pre-existing communication networks allowed for a great ease of growth, although the rapid growth of the Internet was due primarily to the availability of commercial routers from companies such as Cisco Systems, Proteon and Juniper, the availability of commercial Ethernet equipment for local-area networking and the widespread implementation of TCP/IP on the UNIX operating system.

Growth

Although the basic applications and guidelines that make the Internet possible had existed for almost a decade, the network did not gain a public face until the 1990s. On August 6, 1991, CERN, which straddles the border between France and Switzerland, publicized the new World Wide Web project. The Web was invented by English scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 1989.

An early popular web browser was ViolaWWW, patterned after HyperCard and built using the X Window System. It was eventually replaced in popularity by the Mosaic web browser. In 1993, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois released version 1.0 of Mosaic, and by late 1994 there was growing public interest in the previously academic, technical Internet. By 1996 usage of the word Internet had become commonplace, and consequently, so had its use as a synecdoche in reference to the World Wide Web.

Meanwhile, over the course of the decade, the Internet successfully accommodated the majority of previously existing public computer networks (although some networks, such as FidoNet, have remained separate). During the 1990s, it was estimated that the Internet grew by 100% per year, with a brief period of explosive growth in 1996 and 1997.^[4] This growth is often attributed to the lack of central administration, which allows organic growth of the network, as well as the non-proprietary open nature of the Internet protocols, which encourages vendor interoperability and prevents any one company from exerting too much control over the network.^{[citation needed]}

University students' appreciation and contributions

New findings in the field of communications during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s were quickly adopted by universities across North America.

Examples of early university Internet communities are Cleveland FreeNet, Blacksburg Electronic Village and NSTN in Nova Scotia.^[5] Students took up the opportunity of free communications and saw this new phenomenon as a tool of liberation. Personal computers and the Internet would free them from corporations and governments (Nelson, Jennings, Stallman).

Graduate students played a huge part in the creation of ARPANET. In the 1960s, the network working group, which did most of the design for ARPANET's protocols, was composed mainly of graduate students.

Today's Internet

The My Opera Community server rack. From the top, user file storage (content of files.myopera.com), "bigma" (the master MySQL database server), and two IBM blade centers containing multi-purpose machines (Apache front ends, Apache back ends, slave MySQL database servers, load balancers, file servers, cache servers and sync masters).

Aside from the complex physical connections that make up its infrastructure, the Internet is facilitated by bi- or multi-lateral commercial contracts (e.g., peering agreements), and by technical specifications or protocols that describe how to exchange data over the network. Indeed, the Internet is defined by its interconnections and routing policies.

As of June 30, 2008, 1.463 billion people use the Internet according to Internet World Stats.^[6]

Internet protocols

For more details on this topic, see Internet Protocol Suite.

The complex communications infrastructure of the Internet consists of its hardware components and a system of software layers that control various aspects of the architecture. While the hardware can often be used to support other software systems, it is the design and the rigorous standardization process of the software architecture that characterizes the Internet.

The responsibility for the architectural design of the Internet software systems has been delegated to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).^[7] The IETF conducts standard-setting work groups, open to any individual, about the various aspects of Internet architecture. Resulting discussions and final standards are published in Request for Comments (RFCs), freely available on the IETF web site.

The principal methods of networking that enable the Internet are contained in a series of RFCs that constitute the Internet Standards. These standards describe a system known as the Internet Protocol Suite. This is a model architecture that divides methods into a layered system of protocols (RFC 1122, RFC 1123). The layers correspond to the environment or scope in which their services operate. At the top is the space (Application Layer) of the software application, e.g., a web browser application, and just below it is the Transport Layer which connects applications on different hosts via the network (e.g., client-server model). The underlying network consists of two layers: the Internet Layer which enables computers to connect to one-another via intermediate (transit) networks and thus is the layer that establishes internetworking and the Internet, and lastly, at the bottom, is a software layer that provides connectivity between hosts on the same local link (therefor called Link Layer), e.g., a local area network (LAN) or a dial-up connection. This model is also known as the TCP/IP model of networking. While other models have been developed, such as the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, they are not compatible in the details of description, nor implementation.

The most prominent component of the Internet model is the Internet Protocol (IP) which provides addressing systems for computers on the Internet and facilitates the internetworking of networks. IP Version 4 (IPv4) is the initial version used on the first generation of the today's Internet and is still in dominant use. It was designed to address up to ~4.3 billion (10⁹) Internet hosts. However, the explosive growth of the Internet has led to IPv4 address exhaustion. A new protocol version, IPv6, was developed which provides vastly larger addressing capabilities and more efficient routing of data traffic. IPv6 is currently in commercial deployment phase around the world.

IPv6 is not interoperable with IPv4. It essentially establishes a "parallel" version of the Internet not accessible with IPv4 software. This means software upgrades are necessary for every networking device that needs to communicate on the IPv6 Internet. Most modern computer operating systems are already converted to operate with both versions of the Internet Protocol. Network infrastructures, however, are still lagging in this development.

Internet structure

There have been many analyses of the Internet and its structure. For example, it has been determined that the Internet IP routing structure and hypertext links of the World Wide Web are examples of scale-free networks.

Similar to the way the commercial Internet providers connect via Internet exchange points, research networks tend to interconnect into large subnetworks such as the following:

GEANT
GLORIAD
The Internet2 Network (formally known as the Abilene Network)
JANET (the UK's national research and education network)

These in turn are built around relatively smaller networks. See also the list of academic computer network organizations.

In computer network diagrams, the Internet is often represented by a cloud symbol, into and out of which network communications can pass.

ICANN

ICANN headquarters in Marina Del Rey, California, United States

For more details on this topic, see ICANN.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the authority that coordinates the assignment of unique identifiers on the Internet, including domain names, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, and protocol port and parameter numbers. A globally unified namespace (i.e., a system of names in which there is at most one holder for each possible name) is essential for the Internet to function. ICANN is headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, but is overseen by an international board of directors drawn from across the Internet technical, business, academic, and non-commercial communities. The US government continues to have the primary role in approving changes to the root zone file that lies at the heart of the domain name system. Because the Internet is a distributed network comprising many voluntarily interconnected networks, the Internet has no governing body. ICANN's role in coordinating the assignment of unique identifiers distinguishes it as perhaps the only central coordinating body on the global Internet, but the scope of its authority extends only to the Internet's systems of domain names, IP addresses, protocol ports and parameter numbers.

On November 16, 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society, held in Tunis, established the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) to discuss Internet-related issues.

Language

For more details on this topic, see English on the Internet.

For more details on this topic, see Global Internet usage.

Further information: Unicode

The prevalent language for communication on the Internet is English. This may be a result of the Internet's origins, as well as English's role as a lingua franca. It may also be related to the poor capability of early computers, largely originating in the United States, to handle characters other than those in the English variant of the Latin alphabet.

After English (30% of Web visitors) the most requested languages on the World Wide Web are Chinese (17%), Spanish (9%), Japanese (7%), French (5%) and German (5%).^[8]

By region, 40% of the world's Internet users are based in Asia, 26% in Europe, 17% in North America, 10% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 4% in Africa, 3% in the Middle East and 1% in Australia.^[6]

The Internet's technologies have developed enough in recent years, especially in the use of Unicode, that good facilities are available for development and communication in most widely used languages. However, some glitches such as mojibake (incorrect display of foreign language characters, also known as kryakozyabry) still remain.

Internet and the workplace

The Internet is allowing greater flexibility in working hours and location, especially with the spread of unmetered high-speed connections and Web applications.

The Internet viewed on mobile devices

The Internet can now be accessed virtually anywhere by numerous means. Mobile phones, datacards, handheld game consoles and cellular routers allow users to connect to the Internet from anywhere there is a cellular network supporting that device's technology.

Within the limitations imposed by the small screen and other limited facilities of such a pocket-sized device, all the services of the Internet, including email and web browsing, may be available in this way. Service providers may restrict the range of these services and charges for data access may be significant, compared to home usage.

Common uses

E-mail

For more details on this topic, see E-mail.

The concept of sending electronic text messages between parties in a way analogous to mailing letters or memos predates the creation of the Internet. Even today it can be important to distinguish between Internet and internal e-mail systems. Internet e-mail may travel and be stored unencrypted on many other networks and machines out of both the sender's and the recipient's control. During this time it is quite possible for the content to be read and even tampered with by third parties, if anyone considers it important enough. Purely internal or intranet mail systems, where the information never leaves the corporate or organization's network, are much more secure, although in any organization there will be IT and other personnel whose job may involve monitoring, and occasionally accessing, the e-mail of other employees not addressed to them.

The World Wide Web

For more details on this topic, see World Wide Web.

Graphic representation of a minute fraction of the WWW, demonstrating hyperlinks

Many people use the terms Internet and World Wide Web (or just the Web) interchangeably, but, as discussed above, the two terms are not synonymous.

The World Wide Web is a huge set of interlinked documents, images and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. These hyperlinks and URLs allow the web servers and other machines that store originals, and cached copies, of these resources to deliver them as required using HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). HTTP is only one of the communication protocols used on the Internet.

Web services also use HTTP to allow software systems to communicate in order to share and exchange business logic and data.

Software products that can access the resources of the Web are correctly termed user agents. In normal use, web browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Apple Safari, access web pages and allow users to navigate from one to another via hyperlinks. Web documents may contain almost any combination of computer data including graphics, sounds, text, video, multimedia and interactive content including games, office applications and scientific demonstrations.

Through keyword-driven Internet research using search engines like Yahoo! and Google, millions of people worldwide have easy, instant access to a vast and diverse amount of online information. Compared to encyclopedias and traditional libraries, the World Wide Web has enabled a sudden and extreme decentralization of information and data.

Using the Web, it is also easier than ever before for individuals and organisations to publish ideas and information to an extremely large audience. Anyone can find ways to publish a web page, a blog or build a website for very little initial cost. Publishing and maintaining large, professional websites full of attractive, diverse and up-to-date information is still a difficult and expensive proposition, however.

Many individuals and some companies and groups use "web logs" or blogs, which are largely used as easily updatable online diaries. Some commercial organisations encourage staff to fill them with advice on their areas of specialization in the hope that visitors will be impressed by the expert knowledge and free information, and be attracted to the corporation as a result. One example of this practice is Microsoft, whose product developers publish their personal blogs in order to pique the public's interest in their work.

Collections of personal web pages published by large service providers remain popular, and have become increasingly sophisticated. Whereas operations such as Angelfire and GeoCities have existed since the early days of the Web, newer offerings from, for example, Facebook and MySpace currently have large followings. These operations often brand themselves as social network services rather than simply as web page hosts.

Advertising on popular web pages can be lucrative, and e-commerce or the sale of products and services directly via the Web continues to grow.

In the early days, web pages were usually created as sets of complete and isolated HTML text files stored on a web server. More recently, websites are more often created using content management system (CMS) or wiki software with, initially, very little content. Contributors to these systems, who may be paid staff, members of a club or other organisation or members of the public, fill underlying databases with content using editing pages designed for that purpose, while casual visitors view and read this content in its final HTML form. There may or may not be editorial, approval and security systems built into the process of taking newly entered content and making it available to the target visitors.

Remote access

Further information: Remote access

The Internet allows computer users to connect to other computers and information stores easily, wherever they may be across the world. They may do this with or without the use of security, authentication and encryption technologies, depending on the requirements.

This is encouraging new ways of working from home, collaboration and information sharing in many industries. An accountant sitting at home can audit the books of a company based in another country, on a server situated in a third country that is remotely maintained by IT specialists in a fourth. These accounts could have been created by home-working bookkeepers, in other remote locations, based on information e-mailed to them from offices all over the world. Some of these things were possible before the widespread use of the Internet, but the cost of private leased lines would have made many of them infeasible in practice.

An office worker away from his desk, perhaps on the other side of the world on a business trip or a holiday, can open a remote desktop session into his normal office PC using a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection via the Internet. This gives the worker complete access to all of his or her normal files and data, including e-mail and other applications, while away from the office.

This concept is also referred to by some network security people as the Virtual Private Nightmare, because it extends the secure perimeter of a corporate network into its employees' homes; this has been the source of some notable security breaches, but also provides security for the workers.

Collaboration

See also: Collaborative software

The low cost and nearly instantaneous sharing of ideas, knowledge, and skills has made collaborative work dramatically easier. Not only can a group cheaply communicate and test, but the wide reach of the Internet allows such groups to easily form in the first place, even among niche interests. An example of this is the free software movement in software development, which produced GNU and Linux from scratch and has taken over development of Mozilla and OpenOffice.org (formerly known as Netscape Communicator and StarOffice).

Internet "chat", whether in the form of IRC "chat rooms" or channels, or via instant messaging systems, allow colleagues to stay in touch in a very convenient way when working at their computers during the day. Messages can be sent and viewed even more quickly and conveniently than via e-mail. Extension to these systems may allow files to be exchanged, "whiteboard" drawings to be shared as well as voice and video contact between team members.

Version control systems allow collaborating teams to work on shared sets of documents without either accidentally overwriting each other's work or having members wait until they get "sent" documents to be able to add their thoughts and changes.

File sharing

For more details on this topic, see File sharing.

A computer file can be e-mailed to customers, colleagues and friends as an attachment. It can be uploaded to a website or FTP server for easy download by others. It can be put into a "shared location" or onto a file server for instant use by colleagues. The load of bulk downloads to many users can be eased by the use of "mirror" servers or peer-to-peer networks.

In any of these cases, access to the file may be controlled by user authentication; the transit of the file over the Internet may be obscured by encryption, and money may change hands before or after access to the file is given. The price can be paid by the remote charging of funds from, for example, a credit card whose details are also passed—hopefully fully encrypted—across the Internet. The origin and authenticity of the file received may be checked by digital signatures or by MD5 or other message digests.

These simple features of the Internet, over a worldwide basis, are changing the basis for the production, sale, and distribution of anything that can be reduced to a computer file for transmission. This includes all manner of print publications, software products, news, music, film, video, photography, graphics and the other arts. This in turn has caused seismic shifts in each of the existing industries that previously controlled the production and distribution of these products.

Internet collaboration technology enables business and project teams to share documents, calendars and other information. Such collaboration occurs in a wide variety of areas including scientific research, software development, conference planning, political activism and creative writing.

Streaming media

Many existing radio and television broadcasters provide Internet "feeds" of their live audio and video streams (for example, the BBC). They may also allow time-shift viewing or listening such as Preview, Classic Clips and Listen Again features. These providers have been joined by a range of pure Internet "broadcasters" who never had on-air licenses. This means that an Internet-connected device, such as a computer or something more specific, can be used to access on-line media in much the same way as was previously possible only with a television or radio receiver. The range of material is much wider, from pornography to highly specialized, technical webcasts. Podcasting is a variation on this theme, where—usually audio—material is first downloaded in full and then may be played back on a computer or shifted to a digital audio player to be listened to on the move. These techniques using simple equipment allow anybody, with little censorship or licensing control, to broadcast audio-visual material on a worldwide basis.

Webcams can be seen as an even lower-budget extension of this phenomenon. While some webcams can give full-frame-rate video, the picture is usually either small or updates slowly. Internet users can watch animals around an African waterhole, ships in the Panama Canal, the traffic at a local roundabout or their own premises, live and in real time. Video chat rooms, video conferencing, and remote controllable webcams are also popular. Many uses can be found for personal webcams in and around the home, with and without two-way sound.

YouTube, sometimes described as an Internet phenomenon because of the vast amount of users and how rapidly the site's popularity has grown, was founded on February 15, 2005. It is now the leading website for free streaming video. It uses a flash-based web player which streams video files in the format FLV. Users are able to watch videos without signing up; however, if users do sign up they are able to upload an unlimited amount of videos and they are given their own personal profile. It is currently estimated that there are 64,000,000 videos on YouTube, and it is also currently estimated that 825,000 new videos are uploaded every day.

Voice telephony (VoIP)

For more details on this topic, see VoIP.

VoIP stands for Voice over IP, where IP refers to the Internet Protocol that underlies all Internet communication. This phenomenon began as an optional two-way voice extension to some of the instant messaging systems that took off around the year 2000. In recent years many VoIP systems have become as easy to use and as convenient as a normal telephone. The benefit is that, as the Internet carries the actual voice traffic, VoIP can be free or cost much less than a normal telephone call, especially over long distances and especially for those with always-on Internet connections such as cable or ADSL.

Thus, VoIP is maturing into a viable alternative to traditional telephones. Interoperability between different providers has improved and the ability to call or receive a call from a traditional telephone is available. Simple, inexpensive VoIP modems are now available that eliminate the need for a PC.

Voice quality can still vary from call to call but is often equal to and can even exceed that of traditional calls.

Remaining problems for VoIP include emergency telephone number dialing and reliability. Currently, a few VoIP providers provide an emergency service, but it is not universally available. Traditional phones are line-powered and operate during a power failure; VoIP does not do so without a backup power source for the electronics.

Most VoIP providers offer unlimited national calling, but the direction in VoIP is clearly toward global coverage with unlimited minutes for a low monthly fee.

VoIP has also become increasingly popular within the gaming world, as a form of communication between players. Popular gaming VoIP clients include Ventrilo and Teamspeak, and there are others available also. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 also offer VoIP chat features.

Valea Prahovei

2008-11-16T03:04:00.000-08:00

Trasee turistice in Muntii Bucegi si Muntii Baiului:
Trasee turistice montane in Muntii Bucegi si Muntii Baiului:
- Sinaia - Cuibul Dorului (8 Km cu masina) - Cuibul Dorului (1 030 m) in Saua Dichiului (1 630 m) - 10 Km; aici ramificatii:
- spre Valea Ialomitei la Cabana Pestera (13 Km);
- spre Piatra Arsa (1 950 m) - 9 Km si Babele (2 206 m) 12 Km. Traseul ofera o imagine a zonei centrale a muntilor Bucegi. In functie de pregatirea fizica, acest traseu se poate face astfel: Sinaia - Cuibul Dorului - Saua Dichiului - Babele - Vf. Omu (2 507 m) - Obarsia Ialomitei - Cabana Padina - Cabana Zanoaga - Saua Dichiului - Sinaia.
Se recomanda innoptarea la Vf. Omu, fiind necesare doua zile pentru parcurgerea acestui traseu.
- Sinaia (800 m) - Cabana Piscul Cainelui (950 m) - Vf. Piscul Cainelui (1 658 m) - Vf. Baiul Mare (1 895 m) - Vf. Cazacu (1 735 m) - Vf. Urechea (1 715 m) - Culmea Sorica - Azuga (900 m).
Acest traseu ofera cea mai frumoasa perspectiva asupra Muntilor Bucegi. Durata parcursului este de 7 - 10 ore, in functie de conditia fizica. Traseul nu prezinta puncte periculoase.Varful Omu este varful muntos clasat al noualea intre varfurile muntoase din Romania, situat in Masivul Bucegi, reprezentand cel mai inalt punct al acestui masiv.Altitudinea sa este de 2.505m.Este vizibil de pe creasta Pietrei Craiului precum si de pe Valea Prahovei.

Bald Eagle

2007-08-05T06:13:00.000-07:00

In 1994, America's efforts to save endangered species reached a milestone with the announcement by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service that the bald eagle had recovered sufficiently to change its status from endangered to threatened in most of the nation. Bald eagle numbers in the lower 48 states climbed from 417 nesting pairs in 1963 to more than 4,400 pairs in 1994. In addition, 5,000 to 6,000 juvenile bald eagles live in the lower 48. Federal protection and tremendous public support led to this recovery -- through stricter law enforcement, protection of important habitat, reintroduction, a strong public education program and banning of DDT, a pesticide that interfered with normal eggshell production.
The first successful bald eagle nesting since 1930 was reported in Arkansas in 1982. In 1995, 18 pairs of Arkansas eagles successfully fledged young from the nest. An eagle hacking program started by the Game and Fish Commission in 1982 contributed to this resurgence. Young eagles from Minnesota and Wisconsin are brought to the state, raised in "hacking" facilities and released in hopes they will return to raise their young in Arkansas.
Arkansas ranks in the top 10 states in the number of winter bald eagle sightings. Over 1,000 bald eagles are counted each winter, nearly triple the 368 recorded in 1979.

CallWave's Free Text Messaging (5 free sms)

2007-07-25T00:16:00.001-07:00

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Species Endangered

2007-07-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

In 1988, at a site now inundated by Greers Ferry Lake, peregrine falcons reared their young. Over a century passed before fledgling peregrines returned to Arkansas.
In June 1993, an environmental team flew to Minnesota and picked up five fledgling falcons. These birds were given a new home at the Arkansas Power & Light Company power station on the White River in Independence County. They were acclimated to their new area in a hacking station 300 feet above the ground, then released when ready to fly. Three birds survived and were often seen flying near the White and Black rivers.
In 1994, six more Minnesota peregrines were released from a hacking station atop the TCBY Tower in Little Rock, Arkansas's tallest building. It is hoped the relocated falcons will imprint on their new homeland and return to nest on permanent structures built for their use. Reintroductions like these have worked successfully in many other parts of the U.S., thanks in part to falconers who have raised thousands of peregrines in captivity for eventual release.
Although peregrines live on every continent except Antarctica, they are always rare. In Arkansas, they're most likely to be seen from mid-September through mid-May in southern lowlands.
The peregrine's recent history holds a cautionary tale. In the 1950s and '60s, these magnificent birds were nearly wiped out when their food chain was contaminated with pesticides, primarily DDT. All 275 known nesting sites in the eastern U. S. were deserted by 1964. To our good fortune, however, they were saved from extinction. There are now more than 1,200 pairs in North America, a four-fold increase in the last 20 years.
Unfortunately, we still have not roused ourselves to face the real enemy. DDT and other persistent pesticides continue to be manufactured and exported to the Third World, and the chemicals currently used in Western countries may be almost as deadly. Many contend we must change agricultural practices on a global scale; only then will we be heeding the message of hope the falcon brings

Coffee

2007-07-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

Coffee today is grown and enjoyed worldwide, and is one of the few crops that small farmers in third-world countries can profitably export.

Coffee Timeline:
Prior to 1000 AD: Members of the Galla tribe in Ethiopia notice that they get an energy boost when they eat a certain berry, ground up and mixed with animal fat.

1000 AD: Arab traders bring coffee back to their homeland and cultivate the plant for the first time on plantations. They also began to boil the beans, creating a drink they call "qahwa" (literally, that which prevents sleep).

1453: Coffee is introduced to Constantinople by Ottoman Turks. The world's first coffee shop, Kiva Han, open there in 1475. Turkish law makes it legal for a woman to divorce her husband if he fail to provide her with her daily quota of coffee.

1600: Coffee, introduced to the West by Italian traders, grabs attention in high places. In Italy, Pope Vincent is urged by his advisers to consider that favourite drink of the Ottoman Empire part of the infidel threat. However, he decides to "baptise" it instead, making it an acceptable Christian beverage.

1607: Captain John Smith helps to found the colony of Virginia at Jamestown. It's believed that he introduced coffee to North America.

1645: First coffeehouse opens in Italy.

1652: First coffeehouse opens in England. Coffee houses multiply and become such popular forums for learned and not so learned - discussion that they are dubbed "penny universities" (a penny being the price of a cup of coffee).

1668: Coffee replaces beer as New York's City's favorite breakfast drink.

1690: With a coffee plant smuggled out of the Arab port of Mocha, the Dutch become the first to transport and cultivate coffee commercially, in Ceylon and in their East Indian colony - Java, source of the brew's nickname.

1727: The Brazilian coffee industry gets its start when Lieutenant colonel Francisco de Melo Palheta is sent by government to arbitrate a border dispute between the French and the Dutch colonies in Guiana.

1886: Former wholesale grocer Joel Cheek names his popular coffee blend "Maxwell House," after the hotel in Nashville, TN where it's served.

1901: The first soluble "instant" coffee is invented by Japanese-American chemist Satori Kato of Chicago.

1903: German coffee importer Ludwig Roselius turn a batch of ruined coffee beans over to researchers, who perfect the process of removing caffeine from the beans without destroying the flavour. He markets it under the brand name "Sanka." Sanka is introduced to the United States in 1923.

1938: having been asked by Brazil to help find a solution to their coffee surpluses, Nestle company invents freeze-dried coffee. Nestle develops Nescafe and introduces it in Switzerland.

1940: The US imports 70 percent of the world coffee crop.

English - the global language

2007-07-23T04:59:00.000-07:00

Throughout the modern history, the English-speaking countries have, somehow, dominated the global economy.
First, there was The Commonwealth – the British colonies, which included Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, and other parts of the world. The British administration was installed in those territories, and along with it, domination over every economical domain like trading and industry.
English was declared the official language of these colonies.
Then, in the last few decades, the USA has become the largest economical power of the world, reaching a very high level of development.
Nowadays, it is the European Union’s aim to achieve a greater degree of economic and monetary harmonization between the European countries and especially, the member states.
The European Union has its roots in a desire to make Europe more stable. Since its creation in the early 1950s , the member states have become intertwined because of a convergence in economic and monetary union. As the end of the century approaches, more than 60% of EU member trade is with the other states.
Therefore, the necessity of using a single, global language has become very obvious. Since 1944, the year the International Monetary System
was established, English has been the international language of communication in all domains.
This is proved by the fact that English is frequently used in official documents of many international organizations, treaties, contracts, negotiations and summits. Almost all the personalities in the politics communicate their opinions and decisions in English, for example, the European Parliament president Jose Maria Gil - Robles , in his speech on the 27th of April 1998.

drifting..control a car

2007-07-19T11:59:00.000-07:00

What is drifting?
Drifting is a high-skill level motor-sport in which drivers control a car while it slides from side to side at high speed (approx. 80 to 100mph) through a fixed course. It is similar to Rally racing on ice barn, but is done on a tarmac (paved course) and judged on speed, angle of attack, execution and style rather than just who finishes the fastest. Drift cars are typically compact to midsized, rear-wheel-drive sport cars. The goal is to apply enough power to the rear wheels to break the tires' traction and initiate a slide while accelerating the vehicle forward, or "drift" Once a drift is initiated, it must be maintained through the turn using nearly a full power, a tap of braking and precise counter steering. Drift racing as all about style and control the better you are the faster you go and the longer you can drift. Time and speed don't play a part really it the skill of the driver, his level of control.
The cars are often not the most popular models and are generally older types because parts cost less and the initial purchase price isn't so high the reason is accidents /crashes yes they happen in drifting no one is perfect and when you get good you just push it harder and faster.

History of Drifting

The Japanese towns of Rokkosan, Hakone, Irohazaka, and various hill climbs in Nagano are all steeped in legends of the origins of drifting. No one can really pinpoint drifting's actual birthplace but the movement started in the mid 1960s. Like many forms of professional racing today, the modern interpretation of drifting evolved from a form of illegal street racing held on windy mountain roads called touge (pronounced toe-geh). Touge was practiced by extremely dedicated enthusiasts known as rolling zoku (pronounced zoe-koo) whose only goal was to trim precious milliseconds off their time between two points. Eventually, some of these rolling zoku began to adopt driving techniques used by rally drivers, techniques to clear a corner quickly without sacrificing too much momentum. As touge drivers started to emulate the rally racers techniques, they discovered that not only did their driving performance and times improve, the rush was much more intense. From touge, drifting was born.

How is drifting judged?

Because professional drifting events are judged on execution and style, it is mandatory that the judges are intimately familiar with the capabilities of the cars and the advanced driving techniques employed by the competitors. D1 Grand Prix judges are usually former professional drifters or racing drivers. These expert D1 judges evaluate speed, angle of attack, showmanship and vehicle control. All drivers make solo runs before Best 16 heads-up eliminations start. The competitors who make it to the Best 16 run door handle-to-door handle, going against one other car on the circuit at the same time. As fun as the solo runs are, these drift showdowns really ignite the crowd and bring them to their feet.
Factors like slowing to the point of hindering the other driver, running into another car or spinning out mean an automatic loss of the run. To advance to the next round, drivers use tactics such as putting pressure on an opponent through a more aggressive drift angle, carrying a higher speed through a corner, and showing good strategy. Judges are thoroughly familiar with the capabilities of each competitor's car and if the driver is not pushing the car to the limit, they will be eliminated from the round.

How the cars are set up
The suspension in a drift car is very tight and unforgiving even the chassis is tightened with roll cages and strut brace. The die hard followers of drift also alter the geometry of the suspension this is to allow the car to slide a lot better.. The differentials aren't your standard limited slip type they are semi lockers to ensure there is more wheel spin. The cars quite often have different wheels front and back cause the owner has quite a few sets cause one afternoon of drifting can destroy a set of tires. As a rule the good tires and I mean very good tires go on the front on the back they fit hard compound tires quite often second hand ones as they tend to end up in a cloud of smoke. Also they stretch the tires over a wide rim to give an example fitting 205 50 16 tires to an 8" rim or 235 45 17 to a 9" rim this reduces the chance of the tire rolling off the rim and enables the car to side better. The clutches on these cars ( don’t bother drifting with an auto it is quite dangerous.. you can pretend in the wet though) tend to be very tough ceramic brass button or multiple plate varieties. Why? well a lot of drifter use their clutch to commence wheel spin and hence the slide by either using compression lock or a clutch dump at high revs.
Power is not a requirement but helps in the learning stages. the most popular car for drifting is the Toyota Tureno or sprinter this is a non turbo 1.6L 4 cylinder car that is quite light and twitchy. the cars I will talk about are the Nissan Skyline and silvia/180-240 platform. as I know a bit about these
The Silvia/180/240sx s13 platform .

These are some of the most popular drifter in Japan Australia and the US.
Japan and the US were fortunate to get these cars new, in Australia these cars have only been coming in as second hand imports for the last few years. They come with a range of engines from 1.8 L non turbo to 2.0 L turbo in the US they only get the 2.4 ka engine non turbo.
The 2 turbo engines both lend themselves to modification and are great for drifting as they like to rev and with a few simple bolt on moods can make 300 hp. Basically these cars in turbo form come from the factory with manual or auto transmissions manual is the choice to go for LSD is fitted as standard as well. then you would change the suspension for some thing harder. and proceed from there. as for the engines 300-350 hp should be ample power.
here are some pictures of drift cars a bit closer up.

The Drifting Movement Evolves

About the same time touge evolved into drifting, some of the rolling zoku came off the mountains to bring their new sport to the urban jungles of Japan. The urban drifters added their own flavor to the sport with their flamboyant driving style and outrageous vehicles. Eventually, word of the spectacle spread and fans began showing up to witness drifting's amazing drivers and machines. But as popular as drifting had become, it was relegated to underground status by the risks and image associated with illegal street contests.
Eventually, the popularity of drifting propelled the sport into the mainstream and competitors started to organize and take their home-grown trials to the track. The gatherings were originally just for fun until the cars and driving skills became so refined that things started to get competitive. From the initial organized trials, regional drift contest open to the public and professionally judged, known as ikaten (pronounced ee-kah-ten) created by Video-OPTION, were began all major cities of Japan. The Drivers Search events let local drivers of all backgrounds show off their skills and compete with each other.

A Visionary

It was the vision of a car enthusiast and magazine publisher that brought drifting to mainstream motorsports in Japan.
Daijiro Inada (pronounced dye-jee-ro ee-na-da) , founder of Option Magazine and the Tokyo Auto Salon, knew drifting and the Drivers Search events represented only a fraction of the potential of drifting to the global motorsport subculture. Daijiro felt a strong need to bring drifting to a professional level.
In 2001, with the help of longtime friend Keiichi Tsuchiya (pronounced kay-ee-chee soo-chee-ya) , a professional Touring Car driver and the person considered to be the father of modern competitive drifting, Daijiro created the D1 Grand Prix. Today, the D1 Grand Prix is so popular in Japan that D1 drivers are celebrities. True to Mr. Inada's vision, the D1 Grand Prix represents the highest level of competition in the sport and provides the best-of-the-best to fans throughout Japan. Now he brings that passion and innovation to North America. Through D1 Drivers Search events, the D1 Grand Prix series and D1 Grand Prix in the United States, and with events planned for Europe and Korea in 2005, drifting is poised to take the world by storm.
Since its humble beginnings only a short time ago, the D1 Grand Prix events have grown from relatively small contests with 50 or so teams and 3,000 to 4,000 spectators to today's shows that
typically host over 100 teams and, by the end of the 2003 season, were attracting upward of 20,000 spectators.
Prior to 2001, relatively few tuners specialized in drifting set-ups. With the incredible success of the D1 drifting series in Japan, the number of drifting-specific shops jumped to over 200, revitalizing
the tuning industry in Japan.

Charles John Huffam Dickens

2007-07-18T17:48:00.000-07:00

Charles Dickens, Charles John Huffam Dickens was born February 7, 1812, in Ports Mouth, Hampshire. In his infancy his family moved to Chatham, where he spent his happiest years and often refers to this time in his novels (1817-1822). From 1822 to 1860 he lived in London, after which he permanently moved to a quiet country cottage in Glads Hill, on the outskirts of Chatham. He grew up in a middle class family.

His father was a clerk in the navy pay office and was well paid, but his extravagant living style often brought the family to financial disaster. The family reached financial "rock bottom" in 1824. Charles was taken out of school and sent to work in a factory doing manual labour, while his father went to prison for his debt. These internal disasters shocked Charles greatly. He refers to his working experiences in his writings. Although he hated doing labour, he gained a sympathetic knowledge into the life of the labour class. He also brings forth the images of prison and of the lost and oppressed child in many novels.

His schooling ended at 15, and he became a clerk in a solicitor's office, then a short hand reporter in the lawcourts (where he gained much knowledge of legalities which he used in his novels), and finally like other members of his family, a newspaper reporter. Here, he got his first taste of journalism and fell in love with it immediately. Drawn to the theatre, Charles Dickens almost pursued the career of an actor. In 1833, he began sending short stories and descriptive essays to small magazines and newspapers. These writings attracted attention and were published in 1836 under the name, Sketches by "Boz". At the same time, he was offered a small job of writing the text for a small comic strip, where he worked with a well know artist.

Seven weeks later, the first instalment of The Pickwick Papers appeared. Within a few months Pickwick was the rage and Dickens was the most popular author of the day. During 1836, he also wrote two plays and a pamphlet, he then resigned from his newspaper job, and undertook the editing job of a monthly magazine, Bentley's Miscellany, in which he serialized Oliver Twist (1837-1839). By this time, the first of his nine surviving children had been born. He had married Catherine, eldest daughter of a respected journalist George Hogorth (April 1836).

His first major success was with The Pickwick Papers. They were high spirited and contained many conventional comic butts and jokes. Pickwick displayed, many of the features that were to be blended in to his future fiction works; attacks on social evils and the delight in the joys of Christmas. Rapidly thought up and written in mere weeks or even days before its publication date, Pickwick contained weak style and was unsatisfactory in all, partly because Dickens was rapidly developing his craft as a novelist while doing it. This style of writing in a first novel, made his name know literally overnight, but created a new tradition of literature and was made one of the best know novel's of the world.

After The Pickwick Papers were published in 1837, he put together another novel, Oliver Twist. Though his artistic talent is very much evident, he refrained from using the successful formula used in The Pickwick Papers. Instead, Oliver Twist is more concerned with social and more evil, though it did still contain much comedy. The long last of his fiction is partly due to its being so easy to adapt into effective stage plays. Sometimes 20 London theatres simultaneously were producing adaptations of his latest story; so even non- readers became acquainted with simplified versions of his works.

In the novel Barnaby Grudge he attempted another type of writing, a historical novel. It was set in the late 18th century and graphically explored the spectacle of large scale mob violence. The task of keeping unity throughout his novels (which often included a wide range of moods and materials and several complicated plots involving scores of characters) was made even more difficult because he was forced to write and publish them, while also doing on going serials.

His next major work, and probably his most famous was published in 1843, and was called A Christmas Carol. Suddenly conceived and written in mere weeks, while he was preoccupied in writing another serial, it was an unmatched achievement. His view of life was described as "Christmas Philosophy," and he spoke of "Carol philosophy" as the basis of his work. He was extremely attached to the christmas season, and this contributed to his great success and popularity. A Christmas Carol immediately entered the general public and awareness, and Thackeray (another author), in a review, called it a "national benefit, and to every man and woman who reads it a personal kindness...". He wrote many other christmas plays and novels thereafter, but none equalled the Carol in energy. These series of books, were known as the Christmas Books, and cumulatively they represent a celebration of Christmas attempted by no other great author.

His activity outside his novels at this time in his literary life was extremely active and centrally involved. He was said to be the best after dinner speaker of the age, also, he was credited with being the best reporter on the London press and the best amateur actor on the stage.

As for his private life, he loved his family and was a proud householder; he once even wrote a cookbook. To his children he was a great father, until their adolescence, where their lives proved less happy. Besides periods in Italy (1844-1845), Switzerland and France (1846-1847) he lived in London, and moved from house to larger house as his family grew. He became acquainted with may popular authors and journalists and entertained them regularly at his home. Though financially well off, he generally avoided high society, he hated to be idolized or patronized. He was extremely proud of his work, and strived on improving it with every new venture, yet his work, never employed all of his energies.

He became the founder (editor) in 1846 of the Daily News, (soon to become the leading liberal newspaper). His journalistic backgrounds, his political knowledge and readiness to act as a leader, and his wish to secure a steady income independent of his literary creativity made him plan several ventures in the 1840's. This return to journalism soon proved a great mistake, the biggest fiasco in a career that included nearly no misdirections or failures. He then moved onto a more limited but happier exercise of his talents, for more than a decade he directed a reformatory home for young female delinquents, which was financed by a wealthy friend Angela Burrdett-Coutts. He also used compassionate speaking abilities often in public speeches, fund-raising activities and private acts of charity.

His next novel, was called Dombey and Son, written between the years 1846- 1848, it was crucial to his development. It was more thoroughly planned, and used maturer thought and deals with more specific social injustice. Shortly after the release of Dombey and Son, he wrote David Copperfield (1849-1850). It has been described as a "holiday" from the larger social concerns. This novel has always been among his most popular novels and was Dickens's own favourite. Charles Dickens finally found a permanent form for his writing in 1850, with the novel Household Words, and its successor All the Year Round (1859-1888). These novels incorporated a combination of weekly miscellaneous fiction works, poetry, and essays on a wide range of topics. These two works had circulations reaching 300, 000 for some Christmas seasons. During this period Dickens contributed some serials, for example Child's History of England (1851-1853), Hard Times (1854), A Tale of two cities (1859), and Great Expectations (1860- 1861). No English author has devoted 20 years of his/her mature life to such editorial work. Novels During these years he wrote many more novels. The first of which was called Bleak House (1852-1853), then Hard Times (1854), and Little Dorrit (1855- 1857). These novels were much more dark then his earlier novels. Portraying a sad and dark view on contemporary society. In the novels of the 1850's, he is politically more depressed, emotionally more tragic. The sadness is harsher, and the humour is less gentle, and the happy endings are more relaxed than his early fiction.

Technically the later novels are more logical, the plots are more related to the themes, and the themes express more grim symbols. The characterization has become more in line with general purpose and design. In general the characters are becoming more complex, even the children who were before loosely thrown together are now complicated in their makeup. Dickens becomes more enthraled with the general purpose of life, and poses questions to this in his works, and attempt to explore the prospects of humanity, questions that are still being asked today and being debated by society. During the 1850's his spirits fell. 1855 was "a year of much unsettled discontent for him", . He began to cease to find satisfaction in his home, and he showed his first sign's of marital discontent. From May 1858, his wife, Catherine Dickens lived apart from him. This separation jarred his friendships and began to shrink his social circle, yet to his surprise, it didn't effect his social popularity. Catherine Dickens stayed silent and most of Dickens family and friends were unwilling to talk about it. He dated the unhappiness of his marriage to 1838, calling his wife "perculliar", and sometimes "under a mental disorder". No one talked about the separation until 1939, when his daughter, Katey speaking to a friend (who was recording the conversation) offered an inside account of the true marriage and family life during that time. By the end of the 1850's Charles Dickens was tired and growing more and more ill, yet he maintained inventive in his final novels.

A Tale of Two Cities (1859) was an experiment, relying less than before on characterization, dialogue, and humour. An exciting narrative, it lacks too many of his strengths to count among his major works.

His next, Great Expectations, (1860-1861) resembles David Copperfield , by it being a first person narration, it draws on Dickens personality and experience. He continued to write novels, though none of them was truly up to par with his early novels, they were still given rave reviews.

In 1864-65, he wrote Our Mutual Friend, and Edwin Druid in 1870. His humorous handling is sometimes tiresome, and has grown mechanical. Between the years 1867- 1868 many of his co-writers noticed his immense personality change and it appears in friends remarks who met him again after many years during an international reading tour. ("I must have known two individuals bearing the same name, at various periods of my own life."). But his fiction, besides his personal developments still had the many stylistic features as in his earlier works so he remained the "human hurricane." Even though he was old, and his health was deteriorating, his close friends saw him as a hearty man, with a good deal of fun in him ", but that very day (on a train ride in 1865), Dickens wrote, that "I am nearly used up,". After he had completed his reading tour, his health remained precarious, but he insisted on continuing to do readings. His farewell reading tour was abandoned when, in April 1869, he collapsed. He began writing another novel in the London Hospital, and gave a short farewell sessions of readings in London, ending with thee famous speech, "From these garish lights I vanish now for evermore...".

Charles Dickens died suddenly at Gad's Hill on June 9, 1870, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. People all over the world mourned the loss of "a friend" as well as a great entertainer and creative artist, and one of the acknowledged influences upon the spirit of the age. Charles Dickens is regarded as the greatest English novelist. He had a wider popularity than any other author before him or during his life time. His works appealed to everyone, a peasant, or the Queen of England. This, and the quality of his work enabled his fame to spread world wide. His popularity has never ceased, and he is as popular today, as he ever was. His compassion and intelligence enriched his novels and made him one of the great forces in 19th century literature, an influential conscience of his age.

Great Expectations versus Oliver Twist

Thematical Lives of Dickens' Characters Charles Dickens' literary works are comparable to one another in many ways; plot, setting, and even experiences. His novels remain captivating to his audiences and he draws them in to teach the readers lessons of life. Although each work exists separate from all of the rest, many similarities remain. Throughout the novels, Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, the process of growing up, described by the author, includes the themes of the character's ability to alienate themselves, charity given to the characters and what the money does to their lives, and the differences of good and evil individuals and the effects of their influences. Collectively, these major novels overflow with orphans, adoptive parents, guardians, and failed parent-child relationships.

Oliver, the main character in Oliver Twist, must forget about his "infantile past" (Marcus 182) in order to seek "the idyllic future" (Marcus 182). He gets hurled from orphanages to foster parents and so on until he finds himself a portion of the "wrong crowd." The pickpockets take him under their authority and attempt to show him the ropes of the embezzling operation. The orphan Carter 2 adapts well to the swindling lifestyle of Fagin and the boys, and through a series of mischievous choices, authorities apprehend him for stealing (although Dodger was the true felon), and Oliver must live with the consequences.

Great Expectations also emphasizes the process of growing up through Pip, the main character. Pip's mother and father passed away while he was young, and he was forced to reside in the house of his older sister and her husband. The boy obtains many idealistic fathers, including Joe, Magwitch, Jaggers and Pumblechook, but none of these men can give him what he needs from a predecessor. Dickens demonstrates to the reader the consequences that bad parenting has on children. Some children are warped by the "knottiest roots" (Lucas 141). Pip, Estella, and Magwitch are all examples of hurt children. The bitter children dwell on their past, or "what has been forgotten" (Marcus 182), and blame the parents for their sufferings. Other children such as Joe and Herbert survive bad parents and go on with their lives, not letting the history affect the outlook. Personalities in the novels became cut off physically or spiritually from human companionship.

Oliver suffers from a sense of estrangement. He fears being abandoned by foster parents and friends, even though the relationships are not healthy for him. Consider his relationship with Dodger. The orphan was told to "take Dodgers advice and do what he does" (Oliver 138) by Fagin in order to succeed. Oliver knew that his new Carter 3 friends were bad influences on him, but yet he remained with the clique to keep from feeling a hint of isolation.

In Great Expectations, Ms. Havisham, resembling Pip, Estella, and Jaggers, acquires a sense of mutilation from her locked up feelings. In her past, she was abandoned by her fiancé at the altar on her wedding day. Ironically, the old woman, so terrified of the idea of being alone, alienates herself from most human contact. After the horror of her love's departure, she does not allow anything in the house to change. Wedding cake still sits on tables, clocks unexpectedly stopped at the exact time that she was deserted, and she lives in the past and denies the future. Desperately, she withers away "corpse-like" (Great 54) in solitude. Largely through Joe, Warwick, Herbert, Wemmick and Wopsle, Pip learns to form bonds of love. Bound to Estella through his affection for her, he does not realize her teasing games. She does not seem to display the same feelings towards him, but he believes that he will win her emotions. This relationship matures into the destruction of Pip, but his fear of existing in seclusion keeps his helpless, constant infatuation burning. This "twist of fate finds Pip sadly and searchingly wanting" (Sucksmith 186).

Dickens suggests that charity, like love, will earn integrity only if honest. Indicated in Oliver Twist, is the impression that true concern for people dwells in individuals, not in institutions. From the beginning, in the orphanage, Oliver was the Carter 4 object of people's benevolence. He obtained food, clothing, and shelter, but lived in horrible conditions and his guardians treated him as though he was not deserving. In one case, at a workhouse, the operator of the institute was given government money to tend to the children but "however she kept most of the money for herself" (Oliver 10). When Oliver encountered the pickpockets, he felt as though he belonged, but Dodger and his group helped Oliver only when they believed they could profit from the innocence of the boy. These associations showed no real compassion for Oliver as a human, but thought of him as a way of benefitting themselves instead. The orphan finds true kindness in charity when he encounters the generosity of Brownlow and Mrs. Maylie. They offer love and forgiveness for past mistakes along with meeting Oliver's basic needs.

In Great Expectations, money has tricky value. Coin is not bad in itself, since it helps Herbert and prevents Pip from getting placed into debtors' prison. From the beginning, Pip received endowments from which he thought were gifts to him from Ms. Havisham, but in the end he found it was from the convict he encountered while playing in his parent's graveyard as a child. He had provided the felon with extra food and in turn, he was given money and a good life. Coin eventually became dangerous to Pip. He evolved into prey for greedy individuals, and those that would "marry for wealth" (Great 392). He also began to lose his moral bearings. If he did not love money in itself, he adored the power that it Carter 5 brought him in life.

Several of Dickens' publications, like most excellent literature, depict the struggle between opposing forces of good and evil. The living conditions of the characters determine what will become of them in their future. Those who are deprived of good influences as a child are doomed to lead bad lives, and suffer, while those who grow up in good environments, full of love and security, will flourish in adulthood. Oliver, for example, gets rescued in time from the wickedness of bad influences. He lands in the hands of "righteousness before death" (Lucas 253). Nancy, however, must pay the price for sin; she can not escape demise. Dickens illustrates the results of poverty, especially hunger, which has the ability to turn humans into malicious animals. The author may also continue to argue in his books that criminals are made, not born. Great Expectations portrays kindness and immorality as inseparably intermingled. Pip and his childish and strict moral views, partitions life into absolutes: Estella is good, Magwitch is bad; Jagger's world is evil while Herbert's is good. Later in life, Pip sees that he must accept that all life is interwoven together, and that he must search for good in people as well as seeing their corrupt behavior and "self-deception" (Sucksmith 186). Celebrated writers all tend to use a specific style to their literature. Some use the same setting, other use similar ideas. Charles Dickens illustrates the importance of childhood and what Carter 6 occurs to a human as a child potentially has the power to change their lives forever. Parents, or guardians exist as role models for their children. Either the young ones see what their parents accomplish and mock them, or they become the opposite. Emotions of a child affect emotions as an adult. Essentially, Dickens characterizes the idea that a person's adulthood is a reflection of their past.

Struggling Towards Understanding and Awareness

As characters transpire through a course of struggles, the traditional author carries them to a point of understanding and awareness. In the novel, Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, characters are forced to face this struggle and eventually go on to reach their epiphany. However, this realization doesnąt occur until after much devastation and damage has been caused.

The eccentric Miss Havisham is one of these characters that is in constant battle with her emotional past. She uses her bitterness against mankind by adopting a young girl and training her to mechanically break the hearts of men. After many years of seclusion at Satis house, she employs Pip to amuse her and train her adopted daughter, Estella. She uses Estella as a form of torture for Pip since she knows very well that Estellaąs attractiveness will lure him in and capture her in his heart. Although Estella is completely inaccessible, Pip is still invited over and leaves the Satis house fully tormented. Miss Havishamąs devious ways give her enjoyment when she watches Pip suffer and yearn for a girl he canąt have. Also, when Pip discovers that he is intended for łgreat expectations,˛ she continues to lead him on making him think that she is the secret benefactor. Miss Havisham merely uses Pip as a pawn to play and exploit with in her game of retaliation. Her role as a complete manipulator helps her seek revenge to all mankind on account of her misfortunes.

Miss Havishamąs fortune quickly alters when things donąt go as she has planned. She watches intently as Estella throws herself at Drummle and realizes that sheąs the reason that Estella migrates towards a man of low stature like Drummle. Seeing Pip desolate and extremely hurt makes her feel like she betrays someone so undeserving of this kind of torment. Miss Havisham realizes that itąs too late to take back the past and change her meticulous ways. She can only remorse as she does her best to amend the disheveled situation, as she sees that thereąs not any course of action that would improve it. She is no longer cynical and hard headed. In a way, to make up for what she has caused, she helps fill Pipąs request to help Herbert Pocket in the Clarriker firm. She sees a new light and understands that her malicious game hurts the people who are closest to her and benefits no one, leaving her without anyone when she passes away.

Pip is another character in the novel that learns from his false pride and arrogant ways that he hurts the people that treasure him the most. While attending several visits to Miss Havishamąs house, Pip develops a snobbish superiority over Joe and the rest of his family. The standards at his common house could never live up to the lifestyle that the Havishams endure. He begins to develop a dislike of the łcommonness˛ of his lower class home. After being informed of his benefactor, Pip quickly leaves Joe to go to London without hesitation and remorse. As the years go on, he often comes back to visit Estella and Miss Havisham, but purposely avoids going back home. After living such a high class lifestyle, he canąt go back and associate with the common people. Even when Joe comes to visit him in his own home, Pip is completely ashamed of having Joeąs company. He even says, łIf I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money.˛ He is worrisome about what Herbert and the other towns people will think if they happen to see Pip and Joe together. Then, as he learns that the convict is the benefactor, he becomes embarrassed and highly ungrateful since it isnąt Miss Havisham as anticipated. Pipąs head becomes so clouded by this new high society that he refuses to accept the people in his past.

Coinciding with Miss Havishamąs realization, Pip begins to reach maturity and encounters the damage that he implements. He awakens to find that he does have a responsibility to Magwitch for his continuous generosity. While Magwitch is in jail, Pip visits and stays with him every day as he becomes Magwitchąs only companion when he needs it the most. Signs of unselfishness appear as he secretly helps his friend, Herbert, even though Pip himself is in debt. He even refuses to take money unearned from Miss Havisham and Magwitch. Pip understands that his whole way of living is superficial and meaningless to his life. He has to go through significant change before he realizes the true value of Biddy and Joe and how much he betrays the both of them. When Joe hears that he is sick, Joe immediately comes and takes care of Pip like he used to. Pip finally sees that Joe has his own pride and self respect when he goes back home for the first time in years. He realizes that Biddy wonąt wait for him and have her be the second option like he had thought. He patches things up with Biddy and Joe silently and is no longer afraid to show his face in their home. Pip realizes that people still live their lives without him and that he should not take friends and family for granted.

Faced with a hard lesson to overcome and learn, these two characters turn out to be decent people despite all the hardships they may have triggered. Even though they end up pushing away most of their closest friends, their realization is admirable because of the forceful ways they attempt to mend things back together. These characters reach understanding and awareness after their long struggle with their inner selves.

Taj Mahal

2007-07-17T16:20:00.001-07:00

Located at the city of Agra in the State of Uttar Pradesh, the Taj Mahal is one of the most beautiful masterpieces of architecture in the world. Agra, situated about 200 km south of New Delhi, was the Capital of the Mughals (Moguls), the Muslim Emperors who ruled Northern India between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Mughals were the descendents of two of the most skilled warriors in history: the Turks and the Mongols. The Mughal dynasty reached its highest strength and fame during the reign of their early Emperors, Akbar, Jehangir, and Shah Jehan.
It was Shah Jehan who ordered the building of the Taj, in honor of his wife, Arjumand Banu who later became known as Mumtaz Mahal, the Distinguished of the Palace. Mumtaz and Shah Jehan were married in 1612 and, over the next 18 years, had 14 children together. The Empress used to accompany her husband in his military campaigns, and it was in 1630, in Burhanpur, that she gave birth to her last child, for she died in childbirth. So great was the Emperor love to his wife that he ordered the building of the most beautiful mausoleum on Earth for her.
Although it is not known for sure who planned the Taj, the name of an Indian architect of Persian descent, Ustad Ahmad Lahori, has been cited in many sources. As soon as construction began in 1630, masons, craftsmen, sculptors, and calligraphers were summoned from Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and Europe to work on the masterpiece. The site was chosen near the Capital, Agra on the southwest bank of the River Yamuna. The architectural complex is comprised of five main elements: the Darwaza or main gateway, the Bageecha or garden, the Masjid or mosque, the Naqqar Khana or rest house, and the Rauza or the Taj Mahal mausoleum. The actual Tomb is situated inside the Taj.
The unique mughal style combines elements of Persian, Central Asian, and Islamic architecture. Most impressive are the black and white chessboard marble floor, the four tall minarets (40 m high) at the corners of the structure, and the majestic dome in the middle. On closer look, the lettering of the Quran verses around the archways appears to be uniform, regardless of their height. The lettering spacing and density has been customized to give this impression to the beholder. Other illusionary effects have been accounted for in the geometry of the tomb and the tall minarets. The impressive pietra dura artwork includes geometric elements, plants and flowers, mostly common in Islamic architecture. The level of sophistication in artwork becomes obvious when one realizes that a 3 cm decorative element contains more than 50 inlaid gemstones.

The Rolling Stones

2007-07-16T17:20:00.000-07:00

Formed in 1962, The Rolling Stones have become one of the world's most recognized and enduring bands. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards first crossed paths at Dartford Maypole County Primary School. A decade later the two had become avid fans of blues and American R&B, and shared a mutual friend in musician Dick Taylor. Jagger and Taylor were jamming together in Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys. Richards would soon join the group and become expelled from Dartford Technical College for truancy.

Meanwhile in another part of town. . . .Cheltenham's Brian Jones had begun a career in truancy to practice the sax. By the time Jones had reached sixteen, the future Stone had fathered two illegitimate children and skipped town to Scandinavia, where he began to pick up guitar. Jones eventually drifted to London where he spent some time with Alexis Korner's Blues, Inc., then made the move to start up his own band. While working at the Ealing Blues Club with a loose version of Blues, Inc. and drummer Charlie Watts, Jones began jamming with Jagger and Richards on the side. Jagger would front the new band.

Jones, Jagger and Richards, along with drummer Tony Chapman, cut a demo tape that was rejected by EMI. Chapman left the band shortly after to attend Art College. By this time Blues, Inc. had changed their name to the Rolling Stones, after a Muddy Waters song.

The Rolling Stones' first show occurred on July 12, 1962 at the Marquee. In January of 1963, after a series of personnel changes, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts rounded out the Stones' line-up.

A local entrepreneur, Giorgio Gomelsky, booked the group for an eight month stint at his Crawdaddy Club. The highly successful run at the Crawdaddy attracted the attention of manager Andrew Loog Oldham, who signed them as clients. With the Beatles quickly becoming a sensation, Oldham decided to market the Stones as their wicked opposites.

In June of 1963, the Stones released their first single, a Chuck Berry tune, "Come On." The group performed on the British TV show "Thank Your Lucky Stars," where the producer told Oldham to get rid of "that vile-looking singer with the tire-tread lips." The single reached #21 on the British charts.

After proving themselves with a series of chart topping hits, Jagger and Richards began writing their own songs using the pseudonym "Nanker Phelge." "Tell Me (You're Coming Back)" became the band's first U.S. Top Forty hit. January of 1965 was the year the Stones broke another # 1 in the U.K. with "The Last Time" and broke the top ten in the U.S. with the same tune. The band's next single, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," held the # 1 spot for four weeks and went on to become probably their most famous.

Rollings Stones (ro)

2007-07-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

Rolling Stones vor concerta în România, muzicienii răspunzând invitaţiei unei companii de telefonie mobilă..
Keith Richards, chitaristul grupului Rollings Stones, a respins acuzatiile ca el si colegii lui de trupa canta doar pentru bani...

suntem pe ultima suta de metri ... scena a fost construita ..
formatia este in bucuresti ...
urmeaza concertul

British Museum

2007-07-16T16:18:00.000-07:00

The British Museum is one of the greatest museums of the world. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1753 and is now governed under the British Museum Act 1963. General management and control are vested in a Board of twenty-five Trustees (one appointed by the Sovereign, fifteen by the Prime Minister, four nominated by Learned societies and five elected by the Trustees themselves.
The Museum is largely funded by a government grant-in-aid administered by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Additional income is also secured through sponsorship and a wide range of commercial and fund-raising activities. The British Museum Company is responsible for the sale of publications and fund-raising activities. The British Museum Company is responsible for the sale of publications and replicas and also operates a tour company, British Museum Traveller. There are a number of active supporters' groups including the British Museum Friends, and its Young Friends, Patrons Associates, the Townley Group, Caryatids, Friends of the Ancient Near East and Japanese Friends.
The Museum now holds national collections of antiquities; coins, medals and paper money; ethnography; and prints and drawings. Its natural history collections were transferred to South Kensington in the 1880s, becoming the Natural History Museum. The library collections (Printed Books, Manuscripts, Maps, Music and Stamps) became part of the British Library in 1973 and have now gone to a new building at St Pancras.
The main Museum buildings are in Bloomsbury. The core consists of buildings of a floor area of about 600,000 square feet, designed by Sir Robert and Sidney Smirke and erected between the 1820s and 1850s. Major subsequent additions totalling about 340,000 square feet consists of the Classical and Assyrian Sculpture Galleries (1850s-1870s), the White Wing (1884), the King Edward VII Building (1914), the Duveen Gallery (1939/62) and the New Wing (1979/80). With the departure of the British Library the Museum has embarked upon a programme of development leading up to its 250th birthday in 2003. The glass-covered Great Court, opened 7 December 2001 is the centrepiece of the project.

marea .. unde sa merg?? (ro)

2007-07-16T16:03:00.000-07:00

apropo am inceput pregatirile pt vacanta...
de plecat undeva cu apa, soare si racoritoare..

dar problema este unde???
la noi in tara sau mai departe ...

este o diferenta foarte mare de servici mai bine zis calitatea serviciilor

ramane de gandit si de cautat prin agenti de turism

The motor car

2007-07-16T15:50:00.000-07:00

The replicas of the originals that each engineer produced gave birth to the world’s motor industry, although in 1896, France and not Germany became the world’s largest manufacturer of motor vehicles. In 1891 a French engineer, Emile Levassor, transferred the engine of the Panhard et Levassor car from its established rear location to the front of the vehicle, from where it drove the rear wheels via a clutch and in-line gearbox. Named Systeme Panhard, it rapidly overtook the original layout in popularity and survives, in essence, on large-capacity cars.

The progressive Gottlieb Daimler soon produced, in 1893, a vertical two-cylinder in-line engine and Benz followed, in 1897, with a horizontally opposed twin in which the cylinders were in the same plane as the crankshaft. Panhard had introduced the in-line four in 1896 and this configuration soon outstripped all other types in popularity, most notably in the Henry Ford Model T, built between 1908 and 1927.

Over 15 million of these Fords were produced and their success helped America to consolidate its position, attained in 1906, as the world’s largest manufacturer of motor cars. The United States dominated the industry until 1980, when it was overtaken by Japan.

Britain had lagged behind France and Germany in introducing the motor car, as its industry was stifled by the presence of the Locomotive Act of 1865. This required self-propelled vehicles to be limited to a speed of 3.2 km/h (2 mph) in towns and 6.2 km/h (4 mph) elsewhere. Originally, motor cars were required to be preceded by a man carrying a red flag but this stipulation was usually set aside following an amendment to the act in 1878.

As early cars were capable of at least 32 km/h (20 mph), Continental imports could not be practically or legally run on Britain’s roads until 1896, when the Locomotive Act was modified. The speed limit was raised to a blanket 19 km/h (12 mph) and increased again, in 1904, to 32 km/h (20 mph).

Britain’s motor industry therefore dates from 1896, although most manufacturers were initially only responsible for their vehicles’ mechanical components. Bodywork, usually of the open type with only rudimentary weather protection in the form of a canvas hood, was the responsibility of coachbuilders, who had hitherto manufactured horse-drawn vehicles.

In 1904 the English Napier company had built the world’s first usable six-cylinder car, although the costly straight-eight engine did not make any impact until after World War I. The more compact V8, in which four in-line cylinders were positioned in a V-shaped configuration, was popularized by the American Cadillac company in 1915. Its Lincoln rival was responsible for the world’s first successful V12-engined car that dates from 1915. However, the V6 unit, pioneered by Lancia, did not arrive until 1950.

Q Saloon Bodies

Most cars were fitted with open, wooden-framed, hand-crafted steel or aluminium bodywork that was mounted on a separate chassis frame. Saloons were more expensive because they used more materials. It was not until 1925 that the American Essex company risked all by offering a closed car that sold for less than a touring vehicle. The gamble paid off and the rest of the motoring world soon followed suit.

Machine-made pressed steel body panels had been used by Dodge in America from 1916; this led to the all-steel saloon and, finally, the unitary body, which dispensed with the chassis and transferred stresses to the hull. Citroën’s advanced front-wheel drive Traction Avant model of 1934 was the first mass-produced car to feature the concept and was followed by General Motors’ German Opel subsidiary in 1935. General Motors was also responsible for introducing silent gear changes to motoring in 1928, and in 1940 an American car, the Oldsmobile, was the first vehicle to have automatic transmission.

Cars used leaf springs inherited from horse-drawn carriages until the 1930s, when independent front suspension was developed. However, its rear equivalent was rarer and usually confined to more expensive vehicles. An exception was provided by Volkswagen AG in Germany. The Beetle was the Volkswagen which was designed by Ferdinand Porsche in 1934 and entered series production in 1945. Featuring all-independent suspension, it was powered by a rear-mounted, horizontally opposed, four-cylinder engine that was cheap to run, and which also defied convention by being air- rather than water-cooled. The Beetle became the most popular car in the history of motoring; it is still in production and a record 21 million have been built.

A German company also produced the economical and efficient diesel engine, invented in 1893 by Rudolf Diesel. Adopted in the 1920s for use in commercial vehicles, in 1935 Mercedes-Benz introduced the 260D as the world’s first diesel-engined car.

R Front-Wheel Drive

In 1937 the French Citroën company briefly offered a diesel option in its front-wheel drive Traction Avant. This model represented the first serious challenge to the orthodox front-engine/rear-drive configuration. Although the mechanics were more sophisticated, the Traction Avant cornered better and could be built with lower body lines because there was no obtrusive transmission tunnel.

While the Citroën’s engine was conventionally positioned, the British Motor Corporation’s front-wheel drive Mini of 1959, designed by its chief engineer Alec Issigonis, had its power unit turned 90° to a transverse-mounted location. This allowed for more passenger accommodation: four adults could be seated in a car only 3 m (10 ft) long.

S Fuel Economy

In Europe Mini-inspired cars became increasingly popular and the Mini itself became a classic. However, the global influence of the Issigonis approach attained its height following the oil price rises in the early 1970s. This resulted in a trend in designing and producing smaller front-wheel drive cars with hatchback bodies, so called because they incorporated a single opening tailgate. (It also marked a decline in production of the vast American “gas-guzzlers”, which had been so popular in the 1950s.) These cars currently dominate the world market.

The soaring price of petrol also revived research, dormant on passenger cars since the 1930s, into more aerodynamically efficient bodywork. This meant that a car’s styling was contoured to assist its passage through the air in order to minimize petrol consumption. This had hitherto been the preserve of sports-car makers.

T Performance and Four-Wheel Drive

Lamborghini GTV 350 The Lamborghini 350 GTV was introduced to the public at the 1963 Turin Motor show. It was made of steel and aluminium panels over a chassis of round tubes. Despite many critics, the car got a lot of attention from the press because of its very modern chassis.Farabolafoto

From the 1970s the performance of such vehicles had also been enhanced by the development of the turbocharger. Driven by otherwise wasted exhaust gases, it is a small, high-revolution pump that forces air into the cylinders at pressure and is invariably used in conjunction with an intercooler. This cools incoming air to make it denser, further increasing engine power.

Performance cars were usually front-engined (and sometimes rear-engined) until the appearance, in 1966, of the Lamborghini Muira, which had a mid-located power unit. This meant a better-balanced car, but at the expense of greater interior noise and loss of rear seating.

Yet a further development in performance was the four-wheel drive with superior road holding. This was a luxury fitment until the arrival, in 1980, of the Audi Quatto, a make that had also introduced, in 1976, the petrol-fuelled five-cylinder engine. Four-wheel drive had already been incorporated in the cross-country Land Rover, its design inspired by the American Jeep. It first appeared in 1948 and paved the way to the better-equipped Range Rover.

U Further Developments

U1 Reducing Car Emissions

Traffic Pollution The world's roads currently accommodate over 500 million motor vehicles. Most concern about traffic pollution has been expressed in relation to busy inner-city areas, where high vehicle flows and large numbers of pedestrians share the same streets. The worst conditions are experienced when there is a combination of dense traffic and hot weather without winds.Wesley Bocxe/Photo Researchers, Inc.

In recent years environmental considerations and growing concern over traffic pollution have had a profound effect on car design. The United States introduced the first regulations on noxious car emissions in 1967; the California Clean Air Act requires that, by 2003, 10 per cent of all new cars sold in that state must have zero exhaust emissions. However, as these restrictions become more rigorous, their effects on the power and efficiency of car engines grow more adverse. Noxious emissions include carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, and particulates. In 1986 the Japanese Toyota company introduced the more efficient multivalve twin overhead camshaft engine, a unit more usually associated with high-performance models. This concept has now been widely adopted by the world’s motor industries.

All new cars sold in Europe since 1990 have had to be capable of running on unleaded petrol. Lead has been added to petrol since the 1920s to improve engine performance, but was found to be a health hazard when emitted from car exhausts. In Britain unleaded fuels account for 67 per cent of petrol sales.

Similarly, the exhaust systems of all new cars have had to be fitted with catalytic converters since 1993. In its basic two-way form, the catalytic converter uses platinum and palladium to catalyse the carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons that are produced by the engine’s combustion process into carbon dioxide and water.

Manufacturers are currently undertaking research into “lean-burn” engines, which use less petrol and therefore produce a lower level of harmful emissions. The diesel-engined car has grown in popularity but recent evidence shows that the minute specks of soot, called particulates, that it produces are likely to exacerbate conditions such as bronchitis and asthma, mostly in city centres.

U2 Safety

Crash Test Dummy Dummies, such as this one, are used in tests to provide data regarding the movement of passengers in simulated car crashes, thus enabling manufacturers to make improvements in the safety of their vehicles.Paul Almasy/Corbis

Although cars have become faster, current models are safer than many of those manufactured in previous decades. Modern cars incorporate beams at their front and rear, which crumple progressively in order to absorb energy, while having a strong central cell to protect occupants in the event of a crash.

Braking has greatly improved in recent years and most systems feature servo assistance. This harnesses the vacuum produced by the engine to actuate the brakes, so that the driver does not need to apply an excessive amount of pressure to the pedal.

A further refinement is an automatic braking system. This sophisticated anti-locking device operates in conjunction with the vehicle’s engine management unit, and was initially used on expensive cars to prevent skidding.

U3 Electric Cars

Electric Car: The Zoom Among electric cars, the vehicle ZOOM©, a prototype electric car for city use, contains many technological innovations, including a variable wheelbase. Designed and built by MATRA AUTOMOBILE©, ZOOM© received public attention at its introduction in 1992.Matra Automobile

The only vehicle to meet the requirements of the California Clean Air Act is the electric car. This type of car produces no harmful exhaust fumes, and does not absorb power when stationary. In 1996 General Motors became the world’s first major car manufacturer to put a purpose-designed electric car, the EV1, into production

LIMBA ROMANA index (ro-index)

2007-07-16T14:53:00.001-07:00

INDEXUL POSTARILOR IN LIMBA ROMANA

iuly 2007

rollings-stones (limba romana)
marea..unde sa merg (limba romana)
bogdanel (limba romana)

o luna incarcata iulie 2007 (ro-index)

cea mai importanta aparitie este bogdanel (am un nepotel)

De acum un program foarte incarcat asteapta familia mea
dineinteles Bogdanel este principala atractie , a produs
o schimbare totala in viata noastra ..

cat de scump este cu stomacul plin ..
scoate limba la toti

aici dupa ce a facut baie ne spune cat de mult ia placut

IMPACT OF THE INTERNET

2007-07-16T14:44:00.000-07:00

There is a big influence of technique on our daily life. Electronic devices, multimedia and computers are things we have to deal with everyday.
Especially the Internet is becoming more and more important for nearly everybody as it is one of the newest and most forward-looking media and surely “the” medium of the future.
Therefore we thought that it would be necessary to think about some good and bad aspects of how this medium influences us, what impacts it has on our social behaviour and what the future will look like.

The Internet changed our life enormously, there is no doubt about that. There are many advantages of the Internet that show you the importance of this new medium. What I want to say is that Internet changed our life in a positive way.

First we have to make a differentiation concerning the usage. You can use the Internet at home for personal or you at work for professional usage. Let’s come to the first. To spend a part of our day on the Internet is for many people quite normal. They use this kind of medium to get information about all kinds topics. Maybe some of them are interested in chatting probably they are members of a community. Whatever you are looking for, you will find it. Even if you want to have very specific information, you will find it in a short time. Normally, you often have to send a letter, than you have to wait for the reception of the reply, or you have to make some telephone calls and so on. In any case, the traditional way is the longer one. To put your own information on the Internet is also possible. Create your own homepage, tell other users about your interests, what you want, that’s no problem at all.

As we all know, software costs a lot, if you buy it legal. Free software, free music is available on the Internet. You just have to download the program, the mp3-file or whatever and that’s it. Why do you want to pay more as you need to? Special websites are created just to give you the newest programs, or to tell you where you can get it from. Napster might actually be the most famous one.

The computer is a fix part of every modern office and the greatest part has also an access to the Internet. Companies already present their products, their services on the Internet and so they get more flexible.
The next advantage I want to mention is the faster development. Many universities and research institutions are also linked. They are able to exchange experiences, novelties and often they start new projects together. If they are linked, they can save time and money.
Especially at the business sector knowledge is power. If you are the leader of a product, of a technology or just of an idea you are able to make a lot of money. To get into this position, the Internet can play an essential part. Companies all over the world are online. If you want, it is no problem for you to exchange experiences, you will hear new things, you will see some facts from another point of view. For this reason you will find new solutions, new ways to go, so take this chance!

“Learning by doing”, everybody knows this phrase and its still an essential part concerning the Internet. Children also use the Internet, most of the time they will “play” over the Internet, but they learn to work with the computer. There is only one way to learn something, you have to do it. Even it’s the first contact with the computer, after a few minutes the person will know that the computer-mouse is no animal running on the monitor. He or she learns to write on the keyboard, to navigate, to open and close programs, to save data... within hours. Try to do that on a normal computer course for beginners, you will need more time and the most important fact, it’s not as funny as surfing on the Internet and so they participants are less motivated.

Let’s change over to another positive effect of the Internet.
In any case, everybody’s private situation is different. For many women their own children are the main reason for staying at home. Nowadays this won’t be a problem any more, you can do work on your computer at home, called tele-working. Also men take this opportunity to work at home. What are the consequences, the advantages of tele-working? Sure, if you have a family, you can spend more time at home, probably you can spend more time with your children. Next is, that you can organize every day in the way you want to. Meetings at the company are reduced to a minimum. Tele-working is also an advantage for the owner of the company. Official studies substantiate that people who work at home are more motivated than their colleagues at the office. .

You see, the Internet is really a very positive medium. Use the Internet and discover the advantages of this new, forward-looking medium!
Another advantage of the internet is that you can join a community.
You can create new social contacts all over the world, which you could not do so easy without the internet.
Such communities can also help people who can not go out to find friends in the real life because they are disabled. Therefore they can chat with other people via the internet. Sometimes it is also easier for people, who are afraid to look into the other’s face while talking, to chat with a person that they do not know. There is something between them which makes it easier for them to communicate. It also does not matter if you have a terrible appearance because you can pretend to be whatever you want. You can also change your gender and your age to talk about topics which you do not normally do.
However, there are no time and place limitations and there are no boundaries, both geographical and political. You can chat with people in Australia and you have freedom of your mind in a way.

Moreover the internet is much cheaper than the real life, e.g. phoning a friend in Australia costs more than to chat with him.
From my point of view the e-mail has replaced the traditional letter. You do not have to buy stamps anymore and it is much faster and also for free. You can also add files to your E-mail and that’s why a big data transfer is possible. Therefore you do not have to send disks with information around the world anymore and you have your information in a digital way.
Another free service of the internet is sending SMS. You can save a lot of money if you do not send it with your mobile phone especially from Austria to America. You also have the opportunity to register as a user. Then you can use more things, e.g. sending E-postcards, I-messages (messages between registered users), and lead an address book.
You can also place your digital photos in the internet. With a password and a login name your friends in America can look at your photos without sending them to them.
Another important part is online gaming. You can play with people from all over the world and share your knowledge. In my opinion it’s more exiting to play with friends than playing alone.

Additionally, another big advantage of the internet is the easy access to information. Online reference books and dictionaries replace the way to the bookshop or to the library. It is again cheaper to search for information in the internet than to buy a book that is old after one year. In the internet a lot of information is renewed and up to date. You can also find information which is very new and a book does not exist yet.
Moreover you can read the daily newspapers from all over the world, sometimes for free. You do not have to buy them anymore. In addition, most newspaper sites have an archive in which you can search for old articles.
However, the internet is also a big “advertising company”. A lot of enterprises have a homepage with ads and support opportunities. On some of them you can order products online. Then you do not have to go to the city anymore. You avoid waiting in front of the cash because of a long queue.

Moreover, you can get the newest stock exchange courses because the stock exchange in the Internet is always the most current one. You also have the ability to tell the computer to buy shares when the course is down.
Besides you can learn with the internet. CBTs (Computer Based Training) already exist but you can also join an internet course with other members.
Furthermore you can hold videoconferences which mean that e.g. your teacher is sitting in his office in America and teaching you in Austria.
This is very important in the medical sector because doctors from all over the world can join an operation. So specialists can give tips and help other doctors to complete the operation successfully. The patient has not to wait until a specialist will come from America.
But this is only available because of the internet 2 which is much faster.

The internet is a database full of information and offers us a lot of services, sometimes for free. This makes our life easier and sometimes also cheaper.
All in all I think that the internet is very useful especially for students.
Clicking on the Internet-Button is getting more and more thrilling nowadays.

Sometimes it is a real adventure not being sure if you have downloaded a virus or if it is only a hoax. You even cannot be sure to be alone if you are alone. Is there someone else working on my computer or is it only me? To have more security you have to install a firewall, buy anti-virus-programmes and update them regularly. So you have to spend much money only for preventing a virus-caused breakdown or hacker-attacks. It is annoying not being sure if the money you have spent will prevent all those things or if there is already a new virus and a new way hacking into computers. This is no more an investment into security it is a steady consumption which will not end. Some people even have to take up a loan to buy a computer. They are forced to buy one. Otherwise they maybe would not be able to stay in their job. What will the poor people do? They will be rarely informed about news and the space between rich and poor will become bigger and bigger.

Having downloaded the latest anti-virus-program it will not prevent meeting bad people on the internet. If you chat with someone you cannot be sure about the truth of his/her words. Most people cheat emotions, cheat about their appearance, age, job. That can be funny but if you want to meet someone talking to each other seriously it can be hard to do so. Is it a man, is it a woman or is it someone I already know? You never can be sure. Is that something on the other side already hacking into my computer reading personal information? If you get to a web site of a bank – is it a real bank or only a faked one? There have to be some signs which identify an original website reliably. How can I be sure if I want to buy something on the web and send my credit card-number that nobody will read it?

Imagine the following scene: You are surfing through the internet and suddenly – you are just downloading the latest screensaver of Verona Feldbusch – the whole internet breaks down. What would you do? Trying to build your own internet? Worrying about the lack of Verona? Sitting in front of the computer waiting for hours and looking into a black screen? Seriously, what would happen? I think most of the people would wait an hour or longer. Some people would stop existing because they have no real life. They only exist on the internet with their avatars in the chat rooms. They have given up reality for cyberspace. It is more practical for them because they do not need to ask someone to meet someone. The other one is just on the other end. Seriously speaking, I think people would not be glad about having to get out of their rooms. They feel uncomfortable about leaving their beloved computer. They do not know what to do. I think many even do not know any more how a book looks like or a typewriter. Besides losing our social abilities we are also losing our every-day-abilities. The computer is a nanny, a dictionary, an information centre, a job, a shopping centre. Nobody has to know anything about everyday business because the computer does it for us.

Internet user are becoming younger and younger. For children it is no problem to work with a computer. They just accept "him" as partner. But what do the older people do? Some even do not know how to switch the computer on. I know some people who are afraid of the computer. They think everything they do is wrong and the computer is breaking down on purpose. For these people the computer is already too complex. There has to be something like a computer for beginners. Otherwise there will always be some people who do not want to know how to use the computer because there is too much to know about it.

There are people who do not read the paper in the morning any more. They are reading the e-paper. Even in the morning they are sitting in front of the computer and not talking to each other while drinking a cup of tea. In the future there will be more and more e-papers and the newspapers will disappear. Some are beginning to talk to their computer (Come on, let’s work!) but they are not any more able to talk to each other. While chatting in the internet you are frequently using abbreviations, uncompleted sentences and so on. This leads to speaking disabilities in everyday life.

One of the most negative aspects of the impact of the internet on our daily life is, in my opinion, that it alters the social behaviour, habits and abilities of people.
Especially children are often badly influenced by the internet.
Therefore I want to deal with the impact of the internet on the social behaviour of children.

In our times, when nearly every household has a computer and access to the internet, it is only clear that also children deal with computers and the internet. They should learn how to use it, of course.
The world of the World Wide Web and virtual space is going to become more important with every year and everybody should be able to use this tool – even children.
They should know how to get information, how they can buy something on the web, where they can meet people online.
They should be able to use the internet because if they are not, they are going to have great difficulties with getting on in their lives without knowing how to use the internet later on. Simply because it is a very powerful media which is going to be the main medium in the future.

But what I am worrying about is that children will be very competent experts on using the internet – but not on how to live in the real world anymore.
The first point I want to mention is that I don’t consider the internet as a suitable babysitter or friend for children.
As I have already said, I think that it is important that children learn how to use the internet but it is also very important that they learn to have the right attitude towards the internet.
The internet will never replace the real world and therefore it is important that children see that the internet is a great tool if you know how to handle it but it should not be a replacement for real friends, for a real life. It’s the parents duty to tell their children so.
Parents should not just put their children in front of a computer and say “Oh well, that’s the internet, go on, have some fun and be quiet.” The internet was not made for children and so it should not be used as a babysitter.
You can never be sure what the child will get to see when it is online without an adult sitting next to it. There is so much harmful, offending and simply disgusting material on the internet, that it is – in my opinion – totally careless when you let your children surf through the net all by themselves.
By reading the emails from the discussion group I often heard that if you teach your children the basics of ethic and just tell them not to look at harmful material then they can go online and surf through the net alone. I’m not of the same opinion. Children are children and they are not adults. If you tell them not to look at – for example – pornographic sites, you can never be sure that they will not. Children are nosy ones – at least most of them are – and most children will go and have a look at pornographic materials on the internet. The only way to provide that children do not see harmful things on the internet is to sit next to them and supervise them.
I have a little brother, aged seven and when he wants to go online, then he has to ask my parents or me to come with him and sit next to him while he’s surfing. Surely, it doesn’t mean fun when you have to sit next to him and listen to the Teletubbies talking or see Mickey Mouse bowling but I am far more interested in hearing and seeing these things than in not being sure what he would see if I was not sitting next to him.
That’s the one point why the internet should not be used as a babysitter.
The other point is that it is – in my opinion – not good for the children to sit in front of the computer all day.
Children need friends and they need to play with friends to learn how to behave and how to interact with others.
Human beings are not born with any social abilities – we have to learn all of these stuff.
And if children sit in front of the computer and don’t play with other children – when and where should they learn how to behave?
Another question is whether the internet is a useful medium to educate children or not.
Well, in my opinion it is not.
Even for adults it is often a problem to say whether an information is right or wrong on the internet. So when adults are not able to be sure about it – how should children be?
The risk to learn wrong things from the internet is very big and so the internet should not be used to educate the child right from the beginning on.
But: You should try to tell your children how they can distinguish between “good” and “bad” information. (Be critically, try to figure out who has written the information, when was the last update, and so on….) Later on, they will have to get information for the internet and then they should be able to use it, of course.
But in my opinion there’s no sense to teach them the basics with the help of the internet before they have learnt how to distinguish between good and bad information – they are simply too young to be sure about that.
It is very difficult to differ between the good and bad aspects of internet. There are good and bad things about every service of the internet.

If you chat you can meet many interesting people which come from all over the world. Distance is not important any more. You can meet people which are not able to find friends in reality because of their appearance. In cyberspace there is no appearance - the character of a person counts. But you also can meet people, who cheat on you and fool you. That can be funny, but it is not if you want to meet “real”, divine friends. Sometimes, if you meet your online friends it can be very thrilling. You make your own picture of your chat-partner in your mind. And what about your friends in reality? There will be less time left for them, if you sit in front of the PC all the day. But there is also the possibility to make your real friends your online-friends.

Searching for information you will find a huge amount of it on every topic you are searching for. This can be very comfortable. You only have to type in a word and you will find everything about it. But be careful! There is also false information. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish between true and false information.

Often you have the possibility to listen to music on the internet. You may also download it for free. That is very cheap because you only have to pay the telephone-costs and the music is for free. What does that mean for the musicians? They will not get all their money they would normally receive. That is not too dangerous for the well-known musicians but it can become dangerous to the little ones who cannot afford to lose a part of their income.

What about communicating with an online-friend? You will send him/her an email. It is faster than a letter, cheaper than a telephone call and easier to use than a radio set. But: Is the encryption-code secure enough? Many hackers will try to read the message you send to your friends. This leads to the next problem of the internet: How can you provide privacy in a non- private world? Everybody wants to know everything about everyone. How can you say: “This is my private zone, nobody can get into it.” A few minutes later someone will try to get into the privacy-zone. Why? Everyone thinks there must be something very interesting and secret inside this zone. Nothing is more interesting than a forbidden place. There is some special anonymity about the internet. You may tell anything about yourself and everyone will believe you – if nobody checks the information. You also may swap your gender and nobody will recognise it.

What will happen, if you are ill and cannot leave the house? No problem! You can do everything on the internet without leaving the house. You can do the shopping, meet friends and so on. The only problem is the way of paying. It is very easy, you only have to type in your credit card-number and the goods will be paid. But some transmission techniques are not very safe and so someone could read your credit card-number and use it to buy things himself. You always have to inform yourself about the transmission-techniques to be sure about security. Otherwise you may pay for being uninformed later on.
This leads to the costs of the internet. The only good about it is that the surf-cost are low (depending on the provider). But anything else is very cost-intensive. You have to buy anti-virus-programmes, software, computer … And that is not enough! Internet is developing very fast for this you have to update the programmes regularly. You will also not abandon the option to get a faster computer.

Conclusion:

Information is difficult to divide into true and false. It is too much information to be able to view on everything.

It is a strong positive argument that internet does not care about time or distance. Everyone can be online every time and communicate with everyone everywhere.

Though you have the possibility to meet many people on the internet frequent use of this will cause loneliness because you won’t have real friends anymore.

It is very difficult to give children access to the internet. There are many things which are not suitable for children. Either you sit next to them during surfing or you believe in the internet that it will not show harmful things and in the children that they will not try to find harmful things.

Artificial intelligence vs human

2007-07-16T14:41:00.000-07:00

First of all we have to clear up what does artificial intelligence means? If we take a regular computer magazine in their opinion is that intelligence that was created in an artificial media with the computer on first place. To have artificial intelligence we first need a model to create it. That model came from the old Mother Nature that has inspired us in many areas. Biology performs some of our most sophisticate computation and exhibits are robustness and adaptability uncharacteristic of our current generations of computers, but will be the characteristic base of the next generations of computers. One way of capitalizing on this realization is to learn and copy techniques from biology and apply them to building and improving our existing computational infrastructure. But we can also consider another agenda -- that of replacing or augmenting the electronics/silicon substrate of modern computation with a living, biochemical substrate. Important engineering advantages include the (unique) capability of self-replication, a straightforward interface to the chemical world, and access to the most sophisticated nanostructural assembly system, the ribosome. But the achievement in this area proved not to be satisfied yet.
In the eternal battle of creating the perfect robot, which assembles human nature, researchers have created the M2 robot, which is a humanoid that was made for walking research. Since the robot is focused purely on walking it is simply a torso and two legs. It has 12 active degrees of freedom powered by Series Elastic Actuators. In contrast to the other humanoid walking projects in Japan and Europe, control of M2 does not rely on the traditions from robotic arm research, which suggest "stiffer is better". Instead, control of M2 is 'soft' and concentrated on augmenting the natural dynamics of the robot rather than overriding them.
In contrast with the humans intelligence the computers seem to have more success, because only with their help we can obtain all the precise calculations and the best results in all scientific fields. But on the other part the computers can’t manage them self yet, and because of those put humans on the first place.
All the discoveries that were made in the past 20-30 years changed our lives like any other discoveries since the wheel, and the most important on the fire. The astonishing speed of all this discoveries made them unreplaceable in our daily life. But where will all these inventions stops? When the Artificial Intelligence will take control all over mankind? And the relation master-servant will change in servant-master one? My opinion is that researchers should stop at the point near by the non-returnable way.

Voodoo

2007-07-15T17:50:00.000-07:00

Who hasn’t heard about Voodoo? Al the time we see the pinned dolls in movies or TV spots. We ask ourselves what are their purposes…they were only created to scare…and nothing more.
The book which cought the imagination of people outside the West Indies, and which was responsible for much of the misunderstanding and fear that is present today is “Haiti or the Black Republic”,written by S.St. John. It is an inaccurate and sensational book, written in 1884 and which describes Vodun as a profoundly evil religion, and included lurid descriptions of human sacrifice, cannibalism etc, some of which have been extracted from Vodun priests by torture. Hollywoodfound this a rich source for Voodoo screen plays. Horror movies began in 1930s and continue today to misrepresent Vodoo. It is only since the late ‘50s that the accurate studies by anthropologists have been published.
It all started 6 000 years ago in Africa, but can be directly traces to the West African Yaruba people who lived in the 18th and 19th centurydahomey, which occupied parts of today’s Togo, Benin and Nigeria. It was brought to Haiti and the other islands in West Indies when the slaves were brought there by force. When the slaves arrived, it was prohibited to them to practice those rituals and were baptised inte the Roman catholic Church, but altough they attended Mass regurarly, they kept practicing their rituals in secret. It was also actively supressed during colonial times when the priests were either killed or imprisoned. The Dahomean were forced to create Voodoo Orders or underground societies and so to continue to worship their ancestors and their powerful gods. It was again supressed during Marxist regime. In Benin, for exemple, the Vodun religion is freely practiced since1989 and since 1996 it is formely recognized as Benin’s official religion. It is also followed by most adults in Haiti. It can be found in many large cities in North America, particularly in American South. It is laso related to other religions such as: santeria in Cuba, Shango in Trinidad, condomble, xango, macumba and batuque in Brazil, obeaj in Jamaica.
All the Vodun practicers worship three goups of spirits: the saints(also known as loa ), the ancestors and the twins (marassa). The loa are often associated withcatholic saints and African tribal deities and many combine characteristics of both, as the indentification of St.Patrick with a native sake deity. Individuals inherit the obligation to worship a particula r loa, as well as the family dead and the spirits of the twins among the ancestors. There is no hierarchy of priests and no centralised control, and the cult groups are aided to do rituals by priests (also called hungan) or priestesses (mambo) but not necessarely.
As well as the Catholics, the Vodun belief includes a chief God Olorum, who is remote and unknowable. He authorised a lesser God Obatala to create the earth and rhe life forms. A battle between the two gods led to Obatala’s temporary banishment. The spirits which originated from Dahomey are called rada; those who were added later are often deceased headers in the new world and are called Petro.
Followers of Vodun believe that each person has a soul which is composed of two parts: a gros bon ange or “big guardian angel” and a ti bon ange, meaning “little guardian angel”.
Although the African and Haitian Vodun have the same source, along the time little differences apeared. I would say African Vodun is more agressive but of course is just my opinion.
The African followers rely on unseen forces to govern their world and their lives. Most of West Africa’s 2.5 million Ewe are devout believers. The coastal people learn from childhood to honor their divinities. Parents use voodoo to teach their children how to behave and what the comunity expects of them. Each morning worshipers make an offering to the local god, asking for guidance.
There are voodoo healing hospitals were all kind of cures can be found, from cures for leprosy to ones for paralysis. In these hospitals there are shrines of the loa and the “doctors” invoke their spirits. One declared “The gods protect us. They direct our actions and tell us which medicines to take so no harm can come to us.” But the shrines are a little bit funny: they smoke, drink gin and smell good.
Every three years, in May, a seven-day celebration is held and the meeting place hundreds of worshipers from area villages come and pay homage Flimani koku, the healing god. During the celebration weird things happen “with the help of our gods” as they say “a man brings a heated knife to his tongue but after several repetitions, his tongue doesn’t even redden”. Only for the strangers this things seem weird but for the participants it seems normal.
During the ritual a feast has to be prepared and a chiken has to be killed on the forehead of a boy and cooked in a cabalash. Before this the Kokuzun participants follow the deities command: “ Do not have sex or eat goat meat for two weeks before the celebration, and come with a clean heart.
Haitian Voodoo rituals involve a feast before the main ceremony and a dance. The dancing will typically build in intensity until one of the dancers ( usually a hounsis- students studying Vodun) becomes possesed by o loa and falls. His or her ti bon ange has left their body and the spirit has taken control. The possesed dancer will behave as the loa and is treated with respect and ceremony by the present. While they are possessed they may walk, dance, eat and even give advice to and prescribe cures for ill. A possessed individual is known as the deity’s “horse” and the deity is said “to mount” his “horse”. At the end of the possession the “horse” is expected to have no memory of the experience. The dance and the whole ritual is accompanied by a lot of drumming and singing. The drummings and the songs must be appropriate for the particular group of spirits to be invoked, because each loa has his or her own particular drum rythms and songs. They are thus invited to participate in the dance.
The Haitian form oh spirit possessionb is clearly derived from similar, somewhat more highly formalized fhenomena in elements of voodoo are derived.
A Vodun ritual contains a number of elements taken over from catholicism as the Hail Mary, the Lord’s Prayer, the Littany of Saints, the sign of cross, baptism, the use of bells, candles, crosses and pictures of saints.
There are more similar points of similarity between Roman Catholicism and Vodun: both believe in a supreme being, the Loa resemble Christian Saints, in that they were once people who led exceptional lives, and are usually given a simple responsibility or special attributes, both believe in an after life, followers of vodun believe in each persona has a met tet (master of the head) which corresponds to a Christian’s patron saint.
Sticking pins in ‘voodoo dools” was once used as a method of curing an individual by some followers of Vodun in New Orleans; this practice continues occasionaly in South America. The practice became associated with Voodoo in the public mind through the vehicule of horror movies.
Vodun is not what we all thought about it, but a religion like others and the hot details about, were just inventions we see all the time at TV and we take for granted.

AGLOCO... money on internet

2007-07-15T17:32:00.000-07:00

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Tennis

2007-07-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

Tennis, game played with a racket and a ball by two (as in singles) or four (as in doubles) competitors, on a rectangular court with a net strung between the midpoints of the longer sides of the court. Tennis may be played indoors or outdoors. The game ranks as one of the most popular spectator and participation sports in the world, with fans and competitors in more than 100 countries. Originally called lawn tennis to distinguish it from the sport of court tennis, from which it was derived, the game is now commonly known as tennis.
The court is marked with white lines to indicate its dimensions and service areas. The court is 78 ft (23.8 m) long, divided into two equal sides by a net standing 3 ft (0.9 m) high at the center of the court. For singles the court is 27 ft (8.2 m) wide. For doubles the addition of alleys 4.5 ft (1.4 m) wide along the two longer sides increases the width to 36 ft (11 m). (For more detail, see accompanying diagram.) Courts may be of grass, clay, asphalt, concrete, wood, artificial grass, or other synthetic-materials. A tennis ball is hollow and composed of inflated rubber covered with a fabric made of wool and artificial fibers. It is between 2 1/2 and 2 5/8 in (6.35 and 6.67 cm) in diameter and weighs between 2 and 2 1/16 oz (57.7 and 58.5 g). Yellow and white balls are used in tournament competition and are the most common colors, although balls of other colors are manufactured.
There is no uniform design of tennis rackets, and their sizes and shapes vary. The general classifications, determined by the size of the racket head, are standard, midsize, oversize, and super oversize. In tournament play, the maximum length of a racket is 32 in (81.3 cm). The maximum width is 12.5 in (31.8 cm). The head of the racket may not exceed a length of 15.5 in (39.4 cm) and a width of 11.5 in (29.2 cm), and it is usually strung with resilient gut or nylon or other synthetic materials. There are no restrictions on weight. Rackets were originally made of wood, but now virtually all rackets are made of such materials as aluminum or graphite, which are stronger and lighter than wood. The racket handle is generally covered with a rubber or leather grip. Players usually wear lightweight clothing, traditionally white, and shoes with nonskid rubber soles.

A serve begins every point of a tennis match. The player who initiates the point is called the server, and the one who receives the ball is called the receiver. To serve, a player tosses the ball into the air and strikes it before it touches the ground, hitting it into the opponent's service area, known as the service box. Although players usually employ an overhand motion to serve, it is permissible to strike the ball underhanded.
The server delivers the ball from behind the baseline. His or her feet must remain outside the court until the ball is struck. On the first serve of a game, the server stands on the right side of the court and attempts to hit the ball into the service box on the diagonally opposite side of the court. Two tries are permitted for each service. If the ball first strikes any part of the opponent's court except the service box, or exits the court altogether, a fault is called. A fault is also called if the ball is served into the net, or if it strikes the net before hitting the opponent's court outside the service box or before exiting the court altogether. A foot fault is called if the server's foot enters the court before service is completed. After one fault a server may serve again. If both tries result in faults, a double fault is called, and the opponent wins the point. If the serve, on either try, touches the net and then falls into the diagonally opposite service box, a let is called, and the server is permitted to serve again. A valid serve that is not reached by the opponent is called an ace.
In general, the faster the serve, the more difficult it is to return. But a faster serve is also more difficult for the server to control. Accordingly, first serve attempts usually have more velocity; second serves usually have greater accuracy and, sometimes, more spin. In preparation for returning serve, the receiver stands a certain distance behind the service box line, usually close to the baseline. In anticipation of a fast serve, many players move behind the baseline to provide more time to react. After the first point has been played, the service is made from the left-hand side of the court into the opponent's diagonally opposite service court. On each point thereafter the side from which service is made alternates until an entire game has been played. The opponent serves the next game, and the pattern of alternation of serve continues. In doubles, serves alternate between teams and also between players, so that an individual player will serve every fourth game.
After a successful serve the ball is hit back and forth until one player or side fails to return the ball successfully. A shot is unsuccessful when a player lets the ball bounce twice, drives it into the net, or hits it beyond the boundaries of the opposite side of the court. If the ball strikes the line of the court, it is considered in play. If, after hitting the net, a shot falls out of bounds on the opposite side of the court, it is considered out; if the ball falls in bounds in the opposite court, it is considered in play. When a shot is unsuccessful, the opponent scores a point.
Scoring is identical in the singles and doubles games. A tennis game, when not prolonged by a tie, is played to four points, designated by the terms 15, 30, 40, and game, with zero points being referred to by the term love (possibly derived from the French word for egg, l'oeuf, referring to the physical appearance of the number zero). A tie at 40 is called deuce. Because a game must be won by two points, play continues from deuce until one player leads by a margin of two points. After reaching deuce, the player who can win the game on the next point is said to have the advantage, while a subsequent tied score is always called deuce. (A system referred to as “no-ad” is sometimes employed in which the winner of the point following the first deuce wins the game.) In tennis competition, the score of the server is always given first. Typical scores at stages of a given tennis game might be “love-15” or “40-30.” The players or teams exchange sides after each odd-numbered game.
Players must win six games to win the set, but they must win by at least two games. Thus, if a set becomes tied at 5-5, at least 7 game victories are required to win the set. A tiebreaker is often employed if a set becomes tied at 6-6. A tiebreaker is generally played to 7 points, but because it too must be won by at least two points, it may be extended. The winner of a tiebreaker is recorded as having won the set 7-6, regardless of the point total achieved in the tiebreaker. Tennis matches are usually the best two out of three sets or the best three out of five sets.

JUSTICE AGENCY

2007-07-15T15:59:00.000-07:00

Now, in world are many categories of people.

There are people who have a sense or a consciosness of justice and there are people who search for the best ways to gain succes independentlly of the
justice principles.

The justice agent is imperfect in the folowing sense:

• it do not know all the illegalities that was made, that are made and that will be made.

• it cannot prevent all the illegalities.

• it cannot punish all the people who
had made ilegalities; there are many people in the world and in the history of world that, due to their mony or manipulative and deceptive inteligence or relationships, escape of punishment .

• sometimes laws are injust.

• our justice conception is progressible.

Because of this imperfections many people, about justice agent do not know, or maybe do not want to know, anything, had suffered. It is imposible for me to present their list or the quantity of their pain.

There exist and existed before many people in the world who search the imperfections and weakenesses of laws to make the most profitable injusticies. And, after they made this injusticies they wipe all signs.

When this injusticies are to great, and it seem that it is no posible any application of a punisment, those who suffer them blaim god...

It is a great need of an perfect impartial justice agent, but, there is no god...

If there is no omniscience and omnipotence, there cannot be omnijustice?

In the history of world there was many inteligent peoples who discovered many new posibities.

On the one hand, there was scientists, artists, politicians, lawers, and others that discovered new good posibilities, on the other hand, there was and there are people who discover new injust profitable posibilities.

It seem that there is no, and there will never be a world in wich the posibility to make injusticies to be minimized.

What make it posible the realization of these injust actions?

How would be posible to minimze the number and gravity of injust actions?

How much would be the gain and the happiness of minimization of injustice?

From antiquity humans aspired at a perfect/divine justice and justice agent.

But, a perfect justice agent involve omniscience, omnipotence and impartiality...

However, I think that human justice and justice agency can make new fundamental evolutionary steps.

I think at the ways of minimize the injust actions; justice agent is taken many times tipically by surprise.

There are no scientific institutionalised systematic efforts to calculate all the posible injust actions at all the levels of society
• at the level of individ.
• at the level public institutions.
• at the level of press.
• at the political level.

If this posibilities of illegal actions
would be know, the next step would can be their prevention.

There are no scientific institutionalised systematic efforts to calculate the absolute action posibilities and the context-relative actions posibilities at all the previous levels and for all the posible contexts, for our security.

There are no payed scientific institutionalised systematic efforts to find ways to minimize the the posibility of realization of all the injust posibilities.

That is why, at least in part, we suffer in continuation.

It is not the most inteligent thing
to have good experts for discovery of injust actions.

I think that, a great evolutionary step in human justice and justice agency
would be assured by the systematic pursuit of the next pragmatic regulative principle:

The minimization of the posibilities to make injust actions imply the minimization of realization of injust actions.

But, I think that, the application of this principle have as a previous condition of posibility the knowledge of all injust strategical posibilities of agents at all the social organization levels.

Maybe this principle, sometimes, was pursuited, but, in an unconscious or inexplicit and nonscientific, noninstitutionalised manner.

In the time in wich we work hardlly with our inteligence in the limits of our justice conception, others try to develop a deceptive and manipulative and thief inteligence to gain the results of our work and our deserved
place in the social hierarchy.

We loss because of our justice principles of behaviour and because of the imperfections of justice agency.

Sometimes, we have not time or we are incapable to calculate all the injust posibilities wich would can affect us.

On the other hand, why we live in society? To manipulate and deceive each others?

Always will be people wich will love this posibility.

But, if the justice agency is inefficient
how will we rationally justify our just actions?

By non-inteligence?

By the evolution of inteligence appear new deceptive and manipulative posibilities.

I think that wisdom must to imply justice and freedom, therefore it does not involve deceptive and manipulative behaviour, but this thoughts must to be grounded.

A rational belive would say that the deceptive and manipulative behaviour will be detected at least in long time, but this is not necessary or depend also on the evolution of justice agency.

I tell you an partial story to see a
kind of injust posibility:

There was once, a workoholic student.

But, this student was very
independent and critical in his ideas and behaviour at courses and seminars.

This student have had in its class a student competitor that was very sly:
she tried to gain the sympathy of proffesors by flatering them and relative to class have had a nice, but, in secret, very deceptive and manipulative behaviour. For exemple, in the ideatic fights in class she allied temporarlly
with everybody, even with its anemies, for the sake of succes. Its mentality was fundamentaly independent of every justice conception; but it showed herself
as a good person, especially to those weak.

When the individual and independent thinking of the workoholic student have arrived at some veridical ideas, she tried to misinterpret its behaviour:

• she tried to attract the discredit and irony of class and of professors on it.

• she used subtle tactics of psychological influence; for exemple, when he was was said
something, she tried to stomble it by creating some ironical backgrounds or by irritating it etc.

This competitor student tried to create for herself good relationships with some proffesors, those who had a similar interests with she. Its mentality was, in secret, one fundamentaly sly, injust.

Most times she was not sufficient powerfull to win independently and with the power of truth or of just inteligence.

That is why she used other injust tactics.

After she gained the sympathy of those who feeled somehow threatened theirself, they had begun to fight together legally but injustlly.

The workoholic and independent student, who always tried to win with truth in the limits of justice, feeled more hate relative to its competitor fundamental etichal mentality.

Therefore, it selected a licence theme in the same domain with its competitor to be in competition with she.

Both was under the co-ordination of the same professor, so she begun to
friendlly "understand" with the
professor.

The independent one begun to work hardly informing itself by international journals(in some limits, because was poor), but hated the idea to be c-oo-rdinated by somebody, much more he tried to compete with this professor at seminars.

The formal conditions wich should be fulfilled by licence works and their evaluation criterions was not popularized.

On the other hand, the workoholic student sometimes changed the bibliography for some papers in favour of some other better bibliography.

In final, all presented their licence work.

The workoholic student's licence work does not filled some formal conditions, about he does not knew anything, and was rejected.

Its pain was inexpressible and its competitor received a maxim evaluation.

The workoholic one was at least by the first active minds in its class.

Its work was substantiated by the wish of a rational and hierarchical progress,in the shorter possible time.

He lost friends for study time, lived far from home and was sponsorized most times only by a poor and sickly mother. And this was the result.

He loved philosophy of science, logic and tended toward a absolut thinking.

She had and have fundamentally an dialectic-pragmatic-deceptive-manipulative mentality, and this peoples are dominant now days.

Now, she is at master in philosophy of science and he is not.

Someday, he made a visit at his previous colleagues from faculty wich
are now at master and she hardlly retained to burst into laughter with
all its heart...when saw him.

Those who know the mentality exhibited by all the students in four years in faculty, also know who would be deserved to progress in this sense and who does not deserved. In truth, here was made an legall injustice.

The absolute or individual power lover have another chance in the february of 2004, with the same professor.

After of a summer of study he presented to profesor a new bibliography, the professor ignored all its work and gived to he another bibliography, I think not a better one.

The professor selected the co-authors names for bibliography so as if the student accept this to be for him un unbearable humility and if does not accept to reject him again.

When the professor rejected him first time he said "you can to come to me one hundred of times!"...

The professor do not like to hear the student's arguments and suggested to student, with other words, that if he do not like something to change the professor.

This profesor have an eliminativist
lover thinking(he like Churchlands) and said to student that there is no manipulation and subtle psychological coercition.

The student asked to professor to give him the licence work of its competitor for critics, given the fact that they was in the field of philosophy where "who reject the examination of reason does not deserve respect", but the professor does not want to give to him...

In truth, this professor protect its competitor licence work against critics, injustly, but with fine words...

Sometimes, this student is very desperate, he think that all was useless and cannot accept this... he fear that he never will have the chance to revenge in the limits of law on its injust competitors, because they try to distroy its progress...

When he loss every hope, alternate between desperation and criminal fury...

I feel regret for this man, but I cannot help him.

There is now law for this kind of injusticies in his country...

In addition, he haven't mony to sponsorise lawers.

He have no evidences.

The professors are all united.

Much more, this injustice was made by professor on legall grounds.

He arrived in this situation because always hated to develop its manipulation and deception abilities.

He hated some aspects of social life.

There are many people now on the planet who have fundamentally an injust mentality.

There are many situations for wich justice agency is not prepared to solve them.

And, this is because it does not know neither of their posibilty nor how to prevent them.

There is a need of serious scientific calculation of all or at least the most grave injust possibilities.

If in faculties from the world are made such injusticies, then what injusticies are made now at political level?

Who would be able to calculate all the possible political injusticies?
At least in principle, it is not imposible and progress is a question of time and thinking-work.

It is very hard to know all that it happen on the planet at the most lower/individual levels of society.

strange planet

2007-07-15T15:09:00.001-07:00

The best way to introduce these notes from our journey is to report Great Leader Cottaft’s speech to us. On the day before we left Earth he called us all together and said:
“Tomorrow, the Globe will go out. Tomorrow, the science and skill of Earth will win a victory over nature. There were other races on Earth before ours, but they could not control nature so they died as conditions changed. We have become stronger, and we have solved problem after problem. And now we must solve the most difficult problem of all. Earth, our world, is old and nearly dead. The end is near, and we must find a new home and make sure our race survives.
“Tomorrow the Globe will set out to search the heavens in every direction. Each one of you holds the whole history, art, science, and skill of Earth. Use this knowledge to help others. Learn from others, and add to Earth’s knowledge, if you can. If you do not use your knowledge and add to it, there will be no future for our race.
“And if we are the only intelligent life in the universe, then you are responsible not only for our race, but for all intelligent life that may develop.
“Go out into the universe, then. Go and be wise, kind, and truthful. Go in peace. Our prayers go with you.”
After the meeting I looked again through the telescope at the planet to which our Globe is being sent. It is a planet, which is neither too young nor too old. It shines like a blue pearl because so much of it is covered with water. I am glad we are going to the blue planet; the other Globes are being sent to worlds that do not look so inviting.
I am full of hope. I no longer have any fear. I shall go into the Globe tomorrow, and the gas will put me to sleep. When I will wake again, it will be in our shining new world. If I do not wake, something will have gone wrong, but I shall never know.
It is all very simple really – if we trust in God.
This evening I went down to look at the Globes for the last time before we board them. They are amazing! Our scientists have achieved the impossible. They are the largest things ever built. They are so heavy that they look more likely to sink into the surface of Earth than to fly off into the space. It is hard to believe that we have built thirty of these metal mountains. But there they stand, ready for tomorrow.
Some of them will be lost. Oh, God, if ours survives, I hope that we can meet the challenges and satisfy the trust place in us.
These may be the last words I shall ever write. If I do write again, it will be in a new world under a strange sky.
I have just woken up. Has it happened, or have we failed to start? I cannot tell. Was it an hour ago that we entered the Globe? Or was it a day, or a year, or a century? It cannot have been an hour ago. I am sure of that, because my body is tired and aching.
However, it seems only a short time ago that we climbed the long passage into the Globe and went to our place. Each one of us found his or her compartment and crawled into it. I fastened myself into my compartment. Its plastic walls filled with air and pushed against me, protecting me against shock from all directions. I lay and wait. One moment I lay there fresh and strong. The next moment, it seemed, I was tired and aching.
The journey must have ended. The sides of my compartment are empty of air. We must have arrived on that beautiful, shining blue planet, with Earth only a tiny light in our new havens. I feel full of hope. Until now, my life has been spent on a dying planet. Here, there is a world to build and a future to build for.
I can hear our machines at work, opening the long passage which had been filled for the journey. What shall we find, I wonder? Whatever this world is like, we must not betray our trust. We each possess a million years of history, and a million years of knowledge. All this must be preserved.
This planet is very young, and if we do find intelligent life, it will be only at its beginning. We must find them and make friends with them. They may be very different from us, but we must remember that this is their world. It will be very wicked to hurt any kind of life on its own planet. If we find any such life, our duty is to teach, and to learn, and to work with them. Perhaps one day we shall build a world even more civilized than Earth’s own…
This is a terrible place! Is this really the beautiful blue planet that promise so much? We are by far the most advanced race there has even been, but the horrible monsters around us terrify us (or: we are terrified by the horrible monsters around us).
We are hiding in a dark cave. There are nine hundred and sixty-four of us. There were a thousand. This is how we lost the others.
The machines clearing the passage out of the Globe stopped. We crawled out of our compartments and met in the center hall of the Globe. Sunss, our leader, made a short speech. He reminded us that we must be brave as we went into the unknown. We were the seed of the future, and we were responsible for taking Earth into the future.
We went through the long passage, and left the Globe.
How can I describe this terrible world? It is a dull and shadowy place, although it is not night-time. What little light there it comes from a huge square hanging in the sky. The square is divided into four smaller squares by two black bars.
We stood on a wide level plain, but a plain such as I have never seen before. We could not see an end to it, whichever way we looked. It was made of rows of straight, endless, parallel roads all going the same way. (I call them roads, because they looked like roads, but each one was much wider than any road I have ever seen.) Each road was divided from the next by a deep, straight cutting as wide as by height. The man next to me said that we had come into a world of straight lines lit by a square sun. I told him he was talking nonsense. However, I could not explain what I saw.
Suddenly we heard a noise, and looked towards it. We saw an enormous face looking at us round the Globe. It was high above us, and it was black. It had two pointed ears, the size of towers, and two huge, shining eyes.
As the monster came towards us round the Globe, we saw its legs, which were like great columns. We turned to run away, so great was our terror. Then the monster moved like lightning. A huge black paw, suddenly showing long, sharp claws, smacked down. When the paw was raised again, twenty of our men and women were no more than marks on the ground. The paw came down again. Eleven more of us were killed.
Sunss, our leader, ran forward and stood between the monster’s front paws. His fire-tube was in his hands. He aimed and fired. I thought the weapon would have no effect on such a huge creature, but Sunss knew better. Suddenly the monster’s head went up, and then the creature dropped dead.
And Sunss was under it. He was a very brave man.
We chose Iss as our next leader. He decided we must find a place of safety as soon as possible. Once we had found one, we could remove our records, instruments and equipment from the Globe. He started to lead us forward along one of the wide roads.
After traveling a very long way, we reached the bottom of a cliff. It went straight up in front of us. Its surface was made up of strangely regular blocks of rock. We walked along the bottom of the cliff, and found a cave, which went a long way into the cliff and to both sides. Again, the cave was very regular in shape and height. Perhaps the man who spoke about the world of straight lines was not as stupid as seemed…
Anyway, here we are safe from monsters like the ones that killed Sunss. The cave is too narrow for those huge paws to reach inside.

Later. We went to the Globe and we took all the equipment that was there. After that a terrible thing has happened! Our Globe has gone.
While Iss had taken a group to explore the cave, the rest of us were on guard at the entrance. We could see our Globe, and the grate monster lying close to it. Then a strange thing happened. Suddenly the plain become lighter. Then there was a noise like thunder, and everything around us shook. A huge object came down on the dead monster and removed it from our sight. The light suddenly faded again.
I cannot explain these things; none of us can understand them. All I can do is to keep an accurate record.
It was some time later when the worst possible thing happened. Again the plain become suddenly lighter and the ground shook. I looked out of the cave, and saw something that I can still hardly believe. Four huge creatures, compared with which the previous monster was very small, were approaching the Globe. I know that nobody will believe this, but they were three times the height of our enormous Globe! They bent over it, put their front legs to it, and lifted that unbelievably heavy ball of metal from the ground. Then the ground shook again even more violently as they walked away carrying the extra weight.
Our Globe is lost. Thanks God we had removed our precious things from it.
But there was more sorrow to come. Two of the group who had gone with Iss returned with a dreadful story. Behind the cave they had found a large number of wide tunnels, full of the dirt and smell of some unknown creatures. As the group went through the tunnels, six-legged, and sometimes eight-legged, creatures of horrible appearance attacked them. Many of these were a great deal larger than themselves, and had huge claws and teeth. However, the creatures, though very fierce, were not intelligent, and were soon killed by our fire –tubes.
Iss found open country beyond the tunnels, and decided to come back and fetch us. It was then that the next dreadful thing happened. Fierce gray creatures about half the size of the first monsters attacked them. These creatures were probably the builders of the tunnels. There was a terrible battle in which nearly all our men were killed before the monsters were beaten. Only two men survived to bring us the bad news.
We have chosen Muin as our new leader. He has decided we must go forward through the tunnels to the open country. We pray to God that beyond the tunnels we shall find a world that is not mad and evil like this one.
Is it too much we ask – simply to live, to work, and to build, in peace…?
As we went through the tunnels, we met again the “builders” of those tunnels. The battle begun, and this time we won. At the end of the tunnel we met some tiny creatures. I picked up one to take a closer look. It was a strange-looking little thing. Its body was an almost perfect half of a ball, with the flat side underneath. The round top was pink and shiny. It was like an insect, except that it had only four legs, which were very short. It had no separated head, but it had two eyes on the edge where the covered top of its body met the bottom.
As I looked at it, it stood up on two of its legs, showing a pale flat underside. In its front legs it seemed to be holding a bit of grass or thin wire. I felt a sudden burning pain in my hand.
“Hell!” I exclaimed, shaking the creature off my hand. ”The little horrors certainly can sting. I don’t know what they are, but they’re dangerous things to have in the garden or the house. “
When I looked in front of me I saw several hundreds of the little pink creatures crawling towards the walls of the tunnel. I shook a tin, and send a cloud of insect-killer over them.
We all watched as the little creatures crawled more and more slowly. Some of them turned over, weakly waving their legs in the air. Then they lay still.
“We won’t have any more trouble from them,” I said. “Horrible little creatures! I’ve never seen anything like them – I wonder what on earth they were?”
Later. We entered the new world, a beautiful place, where it is light, green-grass and many rivers.
The planet it is called Ygam, as we later found out. In this planet, a race of detached, intellectual blue giants, called Traags, live in abstracted peace. They spend much of their time meditating, sending their consciousnesses sailing over their planet’s surface in colorful bubbles. They merge and distort their bodies in a ritual called “Imagination”. They acquire their race’s collected knowledge through a metal induction device, ensuring that even their young children quickly become remote geniuses. Their world contains cruel predators, but little seems to touch the aloof Traags.
As a society, their only enduring problem seems to be the presence of a race they call Oms, a species of tiny pink-skinned bipeds brought back to Ygam as pets after a trip to a planet. Oms have a tendency to escape and breed in the wild at an alarming rate, and they steal food and destroy property. Frequent ”de–Oming” runs are necessary to keep the population down, and some Traags debate the wisdom of keeping Oms as pets at all–back on their planet, they show signs of organized life, and it’s possible they may even be intelligent. From one side they seem like us.
We make them our friends and we soon discovered that they were brought here without their permission.
They live in some villages and their society begins to change and mature from a near–Neanderthal tribal state into a more cohesive group (that might actually challenge the Traags) as they learn to read Traag language and use Traag technology.
Now that we are their friends we are helping them with our knowledge and they are teaching us the Traag language.
We hope that one day will live like we were used to live back there on our beloved Earth. But until then we are learning and teaching….

Castle

2007-07-14T12:48:00.001-07:00

The castles of Wales

Wales is often called the "Land of Castles" and rightly so, as it is home to some of Europe's finest surviving medieval castle construction.In Wales you can visit well known castles, but also less known ones, from the mighty Chepstow in southeast Wales, to Beaumaris on the Isle of Anglesey, and charming Ewloe in the north. The Castles of Wales survive today in a variety of conditions, starting from completely ruined castles to ones that still serve as homes for their owners. Many are currently under the care of CADW: Welsh Historic Monuments, an organization whose members are dedicated to preserving the many ancient monuments found in this land.
In a country with few great churches and abbeys, the Castles of Wales are the most important group of monuments left from the Middle Ages, also adding the landscape that surrounds them.

Chepstow Castle

Chepstow is a Norman castle built high above the banks of the river Wye in southeastern part of Wales by William fitz Osbern. Construction began at Chepstow in 1067, less than a year after William the Conqueror was crowned King of England.
Chepstow Castle became the reason for expeditions into Wales, expeditions that helped organise the rebellious population.
Chepstow's Great Hall begun in 1067, is the oldest surviving stone fortification in Britain. The arch above the main doorway to the hall is made from brick brought from a Roman fort that was once built nearby.
The hall was always the heart of the castle, and at the beginning it stood alone. Over the years, the castle was extended by a series of builders. Today, the castle takes the shape of a long rectangle, high above the river Wye.
Before William fitz Osbern’s death in 1071 he had built the rectangular keep, which is still a part of the castle today. At the end of the 12th century, Chepstow passed by marriage to William Marshal, a formidable and wealthy soldier, and earl of Pembroke. With quite a lot of experience in military architecture in France, he started bringing fitz Osbern's castle up to date
Before 1245, the sons of William Marshal greatly extended Chepstow's defences and improved the accommodation.
Chepstow was modified after that in the Tudor period, and in the Civil War it was twice damaged. Its defences, designed against medieval attack, fell to Parliamentary cannon.
Chepstow was also used for State prisoners and the republican Henry Marten, spent 20 years of quite comfortable captivity in the tower which now owns his name.

Television

2007-07-14T12:23:00.000-07:00

Television has changed our lives in many ways. Many people now spend more time watching TV than doing anything else. It helps us learn more about the world and know and see many new things. It can often present information to us in a more effective way than books and it can also make things more memorable.
Also it entertains us, it is an enjoyable way to relax. For many people around the world it is a source of companionship helping them overwhelm the difficulties of life.
Television has increased the popularity of sports and arts. People like live football games, many because of the commentator, football fans seeing and hearing everything that happens.
It has also made us aware of our global responsabilities. In 1985, per example, 1.5 billion people in 147 countries watched a TV pop concert and helped to collect more than 100 million dollars for people in Africa.
On the other hand televison can make people passive, we don`t have to think and our brain becomes lazy, making us “couch potatoes”.
Unfortunately TV also encourages us to buy things that we don`t need (“teleshopping”). We shouldn`t trust everything we see on our TV because some products are way too expensive and really unuseful.
Televison gives some of us a false picture of society. A study in 1994 sustains that the people who watch more TV are more afraid of crimes and robberies than the others and think that there is more crime around them than there really is.
However some critics say that television makes people violent. A 10 year study in the USA shows that children who watch violent television are more likely to become violent persons.
So the conclusion is that we are dependent of TV, and the only way we can protect ourselves and our family is to carefully selct what we watch and try not to be influenced by what we see an hear

Statue of Liberty

2007-07-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

The Statue of Liberty,which is one of the best-known monuments in the world ,presented to the United States of America in the nineteen century by the people of France.
The French made this gift in memory of the help which France gave the Americans during the war of Independence against the English.
The great statue was designed by the French sculptor,Frederic Bartholday and it took ten years to complete.The statue is made of copper and it is supported by a metal framework which was especially constructed by Gustave Eiffel the enginer who build the Eiffel Tower in Paris.The site chosen for the statue was an island at the entrance of New York Harbour.In 1884 the satue,which was 151 feet high,was erected in Paris.The following year it was taken to pieces and carried to America where it was placed in a large pedestal 151 feet high,so that the stateme is altotether 305 feet high.It weights 255 tons.
In 1885 the stateme was put together again and it was afficially presented to the American people by Barthold.Ever since than,great monument has welcomed the millions of people have past through New York Harbour.

Shakespeare

2007-07-14T12:06:00.000-07:00

Shakespeare, William (1564-1616), English poet and playwright, recognized in much of the world as the greatest of all dramatists.
Life
A complete, authoritative account of Shakespeare’s life is lacking; much supposition surrounds relatively few facts. His day of birth is traditionally held to be April 23; it is known he was baptized on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. The third of eight children, he was the eldest son of John Shakespeare, a locally prominent merchant, and Mary Arden, daughter of a Roman Catholic member of the landed gentry. He was probably educated at the local grammar school. As the eldest son, Shakespeare ordinarily would have been apprenticed to his father’s shop so that he could learn and eventually take over the business, but according to one apocryphal account he was apprenticed to a butcher because of reverses in his father’s financial situation. In recent years, it has more convincingly been argued that he was caught up in the secretive network of Catholic believers and priests who strove to cultivate their faith in the inhospitable conditions of Elizabethan England. At the turn of the 1580s, it is claimed, he served as tutor in the household of Alexander Houghton, a prominent Lancashire Catholic and friend of the Stratford schoolmaster John Cottom. While others in this network went on to suffer and die for their beliefs, Shakespeare must somehow have extricated himself, for there is little evidence to suggest any subsequent involvement in their circles. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a farmer. He is supposed to have left Stratford after he was caught poaching in the deer park of Sir Thomas Lucy, a local justice of the peace. Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway produced a daughter, Susanna, in 1583 and twins-a boy and a girl-in 1585. The boy died 11 years later.
Shakespeare apparently arrived in London in about 1588, and by 1592 had attained success as an actor and a playwright. Shortly thereafter, he secured the patronage of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. The publication of Shakespeare’s two fashionably erotic narrative poems Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594) and of his Sonnets (published 1609, but circulated previously in manuscript) established his reputation as a gifted and popular Renaissance poet. The Sonnets describe the devotion of a character, often identified as the poet himself, to a young man whose beauty and virtue he praises and to a mysterious and faithless dark lady with whom the poet is infatuated. The ensuing triangular situation, resulting from the attraction of the poet’s friend to the dark lady, is treated with passionate intensity and psychological insight. They are prized for their exploration of love in all its aspects, and a poem such as “Sonnet 18” is one of the most famous love poems of all time:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st
Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

While the poem may be familiar, it is less well known that this is an exquisite celebration of a young man’s beauty. The fact that 126 of the 154 sonnets are apparently addressed by a male poet to another man has caused some critical discomfort over the years. However, Shakespeare’s modern reputation is based mainly on the 38 plays that he apparently wrote, modified, or collaborated on. Although generally popular in his day, these plays were frequently little esteemed by his educated contemporaries, who considered English plays of their own day to be only vulgar entertainment.
Shakespeare’s professional life in London was marked by a number of financially advantageous arrangements that permitted him to share in the profits of his acting company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Company, later called the King’s Men, and its two theatres, the Globe Theatre and the Blackfriars. His plays were given special presentation at the courts of Elizabeth I and James I more frequently than those of any other contemporary dramatists. It is known that he risked losing royal favour only once, in 1599, when his company performed “the play of the deposing and killing of King Richard II” at the request of a group of conspirators against Elizabeth. They were led by Elizabeth’s unsuccessful court favourite, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and by the Earl of Southampton. In the subsequent inquiry, Shakespeare’s company was absolved of complicity in the conspiracy.
After about 1608, Shakespeare’s dramatic production lessened and it seems that he spent more time in Stratford. There he had established his family in an imposing house called New Place, and had become a leading local citizen. He died on April 23, 1616, and was buried in the Stratford church.
Works
Although the precise date of many of Shakespeare’s plays is in doubt, his dramatic career is generally divided into four periods: the first period, involving experimentation, although still clearly influenced by or imitating Classical models; the second period, in which Shakespeare appears to achieve a truly individual style and approach; a third, darker period, in which he wrote not only his major tragedies but also the more difficult comedies, known as the “problem plays” because their resolutions leave troubling and unanswered questions; and his final period, when his style blossomed in the romantic tragicomedies-exotic, symbolic pieces which while happily resolved involve a greater complexity of vision.
These divisions are necessarily arbitrary ways of viewing Shakespeare’s creative development, since his plays are notoriously hard to date accurately, either in terms of when they were written or when they were first performed. Commentators differ and the dates in this article should be seen as plausible approximations. In all periods, the plots of his plays were frequently drawn from chronicles, histories, or earlier fiction, as were the plays of other contemporary dramatists.
First Period
Shakespeare’s first period was one of experimentation. His early plays, unlike his more mature work, are characterized to a degree by formal and rather obvious construction and often stylized verse.
Four plays dramatizing the English civil strife of the 15th century are possibly Shakespeare’s earliest dramatic works. Chronicle history plays were a popular genre of the time. These plays, Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III (c. 1590-1592) and Richard III (c. 1593), deal with the evil results of weak leadership and of national disunity fostered for selfish ends. The cycle closes with the death of Richard III and the ascent to the throne of Henry VII, the founder of the Tudor dynasty, to which Elizabeth belonged. In style and structure, these plays are related partly to medieval drama and partly to the works of earlier Elizabethan dramatists, especially Christopher Marlowe. Either indirectly through such dramatists or directly, the influence of the Classical Roman dramatist Seneca is also reflected in the organization of these four plays, in the bloodiness of many of their scenes, and in their highly coloured, bombastic language. Senecan influence, exerted by way of the earlier English dramatist Thomas Kyd, is particularly obvious in Titus Andronicus (c. 1590), a tragedy of righteous revenge for heinous and bloody acts, which are staged in sensational detail. While previous generations have found its violent excesses absurd or disgusting, some directors and critics since the 1960s have recognized in its horror the articulation of more contemporary preoccupations with the meanings of violence.
Shakespeare’s comedies of the first period represent a wide range. The Comedy of Errors (c. 1592), an uproarious farce in imitation of Classical Roman comedy, depends for its appeal on the mistakes in identity of two sets of twins involved in romance and war. Farce is not so strongly emphasized in The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1592), a comedy of character. The Two Gentlemen of Verona (c. 1592-1593) depends on the appeal of romantic love. In contrast, Love’s Labour’s Lost (c. 1595) satirizes the loves of its main male characters as well as the fashionable devotion to studious pursuits by which these noblemen had first sought to avoid romantic and worldly ensnarement. The dialogue in which many of the characters voice their pretensions ridicules the artificially ornate, courtly style typified by the works of the English novelist and dramatist John Lyly, the court conventions of the time, and perhaps the scientific discussions of Sir Walter Raleigh and his cohorts.
Second Period
Shakespeare’s second period includes his most important plays concerned with English history, his so-called joyous comedies, and two major tragedies. In this period, his style and approach became highly individualized. The second-period historical plays include Richard II (c. 1595), Henry IV, Parts I and II (c. 1597), and Henry V (c. 1599). They cover the span immediately before that of the Henry VI plays. Richard II is a study of a weak, sensitive, self-dramatizing, but sympathetic monarch who loses his kingdom to his forceful successor, Henry IV. In the two parts of Henry IV, Henry recognizes his own guilt. His fears for his own son, later Henry V, prove unfounded, as the young prince displays an essentially responsible attitude towards the duties of kingship. In an alternation of masterful comic and serious scenes, the fat knight Falstaff and the rebel Hotspur reveal contrasting excesses between which the prince finds his proper position. The mingling of the tragic and the comic to suggest a broad range of humanity became one of Shakespeare’s favourite devices.
Outstanding among the comedies of the second period is A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c. 1595-1596). Its fantasy-filled insouciance is achieved by the interweaving of several plots involving two pairs of noble lovers, a group of bumbling and unconsciously comic townspeople, and members of the fairy realm, notably Puck, King Oberon, and Queen Titania. These three worlds are brought together in a series of encounters that veer from the magical to the absurd and back again in the space of only a few lines. In Act III, for example, Oberon plays a trick on Titania while she sleeps, employing Puck to anoint her with a potion that will cause her to fall in love with the first creature she sees on waking. As luck would have it, she opens her eyes to the sight of Bottom the weaver, himself adorned by Puck with an ass’s head. Yet the comic episode of the Queen of the Fairies “enamoured of an ass” (4.i.76) echoes the play’s more profound concerns with the nature of the real.
Subtle evocation of atmosphere, of the sort that characterizes this play, is found also in the tragicomedy The Merchant of Venice (c. 1594-1598). The Renaissance motifs of masculine friendship and romantic love in this play are portrayed in opposition to the bitter inhumanity of a Jewish usurer named Shylock, whose own misfortunes are presented so as to arouse understanding and sympathy. While this play undoubtedly deals in the currency of European anti-Semitism, its exploration of power and prejudice also enables a humanist critique of such bigotry. As Shylock himself says, confronted by the double standards of his Venetian opponents:

He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies, and what’s his reason?-I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.
(3.i.50-63)

The type of quick-witted, warm, and responsive young woman exemplified in this play by Portia reappears in the joyous comedies of the second period.
The witty comedy Much Ado About Nothing (c. 1598-1599) is marred, in the opinion of some critics, by an insensitive treatment of its female characters. However, Shakespeare’s most mature comedies, As You Like It (c. 1599) and Twelfth Night (c. 1601), are characterized by lyricism, ambiguity, and the attraction of beautiful, charming, and strong-minded heroines such as Rosalind. In As You Like It, the contrast between the manners of the Elizabethan court and those current in the English countryside is drawn in a rich, sweet, and varied vein. Shakespeare constructed a complex pattern between different characters and between appearance and reality. He used this pattern to comment on a variety of human foibles. In that respect, As You Like It is similar to Twelfth Night, in which the comical side of love is illustrated by the misadventures of two pairs of romantic lovers and of a number of realistically conceived and clowning characters in the sub-plot. Yet there is a darker side even to these plays. In Twelfth Night, the conventional resolution is disrupted by the exclusion of Malvolio, a figure who has served as the butt of the comic sub-plot. Rather than participate in the concluding scene of forgiveness and reconciliation, he storms off stage with the words “I’ll be reveng’d on the whole pack of you!” (5.i.377). Another comedy of the second period is The Merry Wives of Windsor (c. 1597); this play is a farce about middle-class life in which Falstaff reappears as the comic victim.
Two major tragedies, differing considerably in nature, mark the beginning and the end of the second period. Romeo and Juliet (c. 1595), famous for its poetic treatment of the ecstasy of youthful love, dramatizes the fate of two lovers victimized by the feuds and misunderstandings of their elders and by their own hasty temperaments. On the other hand, Julius Caesar (c. 1599) is a serious tragedy of political rivalries, less intense in style than the tragic dramas that followed.
Third Period
Shakespeare’s third period includes his greatest tragedies and his so-called dark or bitter comedies. The tragedies of this period are the most profound of his works and those in which his poetic idiom became an extremely supple dramatic instrument capable of recording the passage of human thought and the many dimensions of given dramatic situations. Hamlet (c. 1601), his most famous play, goes far beyond other tragedies of revenge in picturing the mingled sordidness and glory of the human condition. Hamlet feels that he is living in a world of deceit and corruption. It is the precipitous marriage of his mother to Claudius, his uncle, that is the source of his unease: the wedding has taken place barely two months after the sudden death of Hamlet’s father, the king. His suspicions are spectacularly confirmed by the appearance of the dead king’s ghost. Confirming that he was murdered by Claudius, the ghost urges Hamlet to revenge. Yet this injunction is the trigger for a dramatic exploration of Hamlet’s self-doubt, an introspective torment that leads him to the brink of suicide in perhaps the most famous Shakespearean line of all, “To be, or not to be, that is the question” (3.i.58). As Hamlet recognizes, his hesitancy is akin to the sleep of oblivion:

And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.
(3.i.86-90)

Yet in regaining “the name of action”, Hamlet brings about the self-destruction that his indecision had only mimicked. Through such density of character and language the play commands the affection and attention that is still accorded it today.
Othello (c. 1602-1604) portrays the growth of unjustified jealousy in the protagonist, Othello, a Moor serving as a general in the Venetian army. The innocent object of his jealousy is his wife, Desdemona. In this tragedy, Othello’s evil lieutenant, Iago, draws him into mistaken jealousy in order to ruin him. King Lear (c. 1604-1606), conceived on a more epic scale, deals with the consequences of the irresponsibility and misjudgement of Lear, a ruler of early Britain, and of his councillor, the Duke of Gloucester. The tragic outcome is a result of giving power to his evil offspring, rather than to his good offspring. Lear’s daughter Cordelia displays a redeeming love that makes the tragic conclusion a vindication of goodness, though a bleak resolution because Cordelia dies. This conclusion is reinforced by the portrayal of evil as self-defeating, exemplified by the fates of Cordelia’s sisters and of Gloucester’s opportunistic son. Antony and Cleopatra (c. 1606-1607) is concerned with a different type of love, namely the middle-aged passion of the Roman general Mark Antony for the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Their love is glorified by some of the most sensuous poetry written by Shakespeare, as in this description of the Egyptian queen by Antony’s friend, Enobarbus:

The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne
Burned on the water. The poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were love-sick with them. The oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggared all description. She did lie
In her pavilion-cloth of gold, of tissue-
O’er picturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature.
(2.ii.198-208)

In Macbeth (c. 1606), Shakespeare depicts the tragedy of a great and basically good man who, led on by others and because of a defect in his own nature, succumbs to murderous ambition. In getting and retaining the Scottish throne, Macbeth dulls his humanity to the point where he becomes capable of any amoral act. As with Hamlet, this retreat from a full humanity is paradoxically accompanied by a heightened self-awareness; yet for Macbeth there is no redemption, only a descent into a bleak nihilism. Human existence, as he sees it, amounts to nothing:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle.
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
(5.iv.18-27)

Three other plays of this period suggest a bitterness that these tragedies more successfully contain, because the protagonists do not seem to possess greatness or tragic stature. In Troilus and Cressida (c. 1602), the most intellectually contrived of Shakespeare’s plays, the gulf between the ideal and the real, both individually and politically, is skilfully evoked. In Coriolanus (c. 1608), another tragedy taking place in antiquity, the legendary Roman hero Caius Marcius Coriolanus is portrayed as unable to bring himself either to woo the Roman masses or to crush them by force. Timon of Athens (c. 1607) is a similarly bitter play about a character reduced to misanthropy by the ingratitude of his sycophants. Because of the uneven quality of the writing, this tragedy is considered to be a collaboration, quite possibly with Thomas Middleton.
The two comedies of this period also are dark in mood. In the 20th century these plays gained the name of “problem plays” because they do not fit into clear categories or present easy resolution. All’s Well That Ends Well (c. 1598-1604) and Measure for Measure (c. 1604) are both plays that question accepted patterns of morality without offering the comfort of solutions.
Fourth Period
The fourth period of Shakespeare’s work comprises his principal romantic tragicomedies. Towards the end of his career, Shakespeare created several plays that, through the intervention of magic, art, compassion, or grace, often suggest redemptive hope for the human condition. These plays are written with a grave quality differing considerably from his earlier comedies, but they end happily with a reunion or final reconciliation. The tragicomedies depend for part of their appeal upon the lure of a distant time or place, and all seem more obviously symbolic than most of his earlier works. To many critics, the tragicomedies signify a final ripeness in Shakespeare’s own outlook, but other authorities believe that the change reflects only a change in fashion in the drama.
The romantic tragicomedy Pericles, Prince of Tyre (c. 1606-1608) concerns the title character’s painful loss of his wife and the persecution of his daughter. After many exotic adventures, Pericles is reunited with his loved ones. In Cymbeline (c. 1609-1610) and The Winter’s Tale (c. 1610-1611), characters suffer great loss and pain, but are reunited. Perhaps the most successful product of this particular vein of creativity, however, is what may be Shakespeare’s last complete play, The Tempest (c. 1611), in which the resolution suggests the beneficial effects of the union of wisdom and power. In this play Prospero, deprived of his dukedom and banished to an island, confounds his usurping brother by employing magical powers and furthering a love match between his own daughter and the son of one of his enemies. Shakespeare’s poetic power reached great heights in this beautiful, lyrical play, and in Prospero’s surrender of his magical powers at its conclusion, some critics-perhaps fancifully-have seen Shakespeare’s own relinquishment of the theatre’s “rough magic”.
Two final plays, sometimes ascribed to Shakespeare, presumably are the products of collaboration. A historical drama, Henry VIII (c. 1613) was probably written with the English dramatist John Fletcher, as was The Two Noble Kinsmen (c. 1613; published posthumously, 1634), a story of the love of two noble friends for one woman.
Literary Reputation
Shakespeare’s reputation as perhaps the greatest of all dramatists was not achieved during his lifetime. Though his contemporary Ben Jonson declared him “not of an age, but for all time”, early 17th-century taste found the plays of Jonson himself, or Thomas Middleton, or Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, equally worthy of praise. Only in the Restoration period-some 50 or more years after Shakespeare’s death-did his reputation begin to eclipse that of his contemporaries. This is not to say that the late 17th- and early 18th-century theatre treated his plays with anything like reverence. When they were performed, it was most often in versions rewritten for the fashions of the age, purged-as their adaptors maintained-of their coarseness and absurdities. These alterations could be very significant: in one version of King Lear popular throughout the 18th century Lear and Cordelia are reprieved at the play’s conclusion, transforming a tragedy into a tragicomedy! Perhaps paradoxically, it was exactly this fondness for adapting Shakespeare that kept his plays in the repertoire while those of Jonson, Middleton, and others went down to obscurity. Also, during the first half of the 18th century Shakespeare began to be afforded the role of English national poet, a process that reached its culmination in the installation of a memorial statue in Westminster Abbey in 1741 and a huge Jubilee festival, staged in 1764 to celebrate the bicentenary of his birth.
The Romantic movement, particularly the writings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Johann Wolfgang Goethe, did much to shape both Shakespeare’s international reputation and the account of his achievement that has persisted ever since. Romantic authors claimed Shakespeare as a great precursor of their own literary values: his work was celebrated as an embodiment of universal human truths, an unequalled articulation of the human condition in all its nobility and variety. In later Victorian Britain this view was married to the moralistic “civilizing” mission of educationalists and empire builders, while American writers looked to Shakespeare as a foundation stone of their own distinct cultural identity. The years since World War I have if anything cemented these positions: the establishment of institutions such as the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Britain, and the Folger Shakespeare Library in the United States, has ensured that his work has remained a central icon of Western culture. The claim that his plays have the power to transcend their historical moment and speak to all humanity now underlies an insistence on Shakespeare’s continuing relevance to our own situation: as the title of a seminal book by Jan Kott put it, Shakespeare is “our contemporary”.
Nevertheless, there have always been dissenters. Writers of the stature of Leo Tolstoy and George Bernard Shaw were prepared to offer devastatingly negative judgements on the plays and their author, while others have advanced eccentric theories designed to prove that such great plays could not have been written by someone of Shakespeare’s obscure origins and limited education. In their own way, recent Shakespearean scholars have also contributed to a demythologizing of the bard that some think threatens the security of his reputation. Yet even as the focus of such activities Shakespeare remains central to the work of literary critics, to theatre throughout the world, to Western accounts of national and cultural identity, and to the British tourist industry. These are not positions he will be allowed to surrender easily.

Scotland

2007-07-14T12:03:00.000-07:00

Scotland, one of the four national units that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The other units are England, Northern Ireland, and Wales. Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, and Glasgow is its largest city.
Scotland and its offshore islands comprise the northernmost part of the United Kingdom. The Scottish mainland, which occupies roughly the northern third of the island of Great Britain, is bordered on three sides by seas. To the north and west is the Atlantic Ocean; to the east is the North Sea. Rugged uplands separate Scotland from England to the south. The territory of Scotland includes 186 nearby islands, a majority of which are contained in three groups. These are the Hebrides, also known as the Western Isles, located off the western coast; the Orkney Islands, located off the northeastern coast; and the Shetland Islands, located northeast of the Orkney Islands. The largest of the other islands is the Island of Arran. The total land area of Scotland, including the islands, is 78,790 sq km (30,420 sq mi).
An independent nation for much of its history, Scotland was joined to England by a series of dynastic and political unions in the 17th and 18th centuries. Scotland retains a separate national identity, however, supported by separate legal and educational systems, a national church, a parliament with wide-ranging powers, and other national symbols and institutions.
Scotland has an irregular and deeply indented coastline. The rugged western coast, in particular, is pierced by numerous inlets from the sea. Most of these inlets are narrow submerged valleys with steep sides, known as sea lochs. The larger and broader inlets are called firths. The principal firths are the Firth of Lorne, the Firth of Clyde (see Clyde), and Solway Firth. The major indentations on the eastern coast are Dornoch Firth, Moray Firth, the Firth of Tay, and the Firth of Forth (see Forth). Measured around the various firths and lochs, the coastline of Scotland is about 3,700 km (about 2,300 mi) long.

The terrain of Scotland is predominantly mountainous but may be divided into three distinct regions, from north to south: the Highlands, the Central Lowlands, and the Southern Uplands. More than one-half of the land in Scotland is occupied by the Highlands, the most rugged region on the island of Great Britain and the least densely inhabited part of Scotland. The Highlands contain two parallel mountain chains that run roughly northeast to southwest. The rocky summits of the Highlands were carved by ancient glaciers and centuries of rain. Broken by deep ravines and valleys, the region is noted for its scenic grandeur. Precipitous cliffs, moorland plateaus, mountain lakes, sea lochs, swift-flowing streams, and dense thickets are common to the Highlands.
Dividing the parallel mountain ranges of the Highlands is a depression, or fault line, known as the Glen More, or the Great Glen. This depression extends southwest from Moray Firth on the eastern coast to Loch Linnhe on the western coast. Within the Great Glen is a chain of narrow lakes, or lochs, including Loch Ness. These natural lochs are linked by a series of artificial channels and together form the Caledonian Canal. Small craft can use this canal to sail through the Great Glen from coast to coast. To the northwest of the Great Glen lie heavily eroded peaks with fairly uniform elevations ranging from about 600 to 900 m (about 2,000 to 3,000 ft). Between the peaks are numerous valleys, known as glens, carved by glaciers. In the Highlands southeast of the Great Glen the topography is varied and spectacular. This region is traversed by the Grampian Mountains, the principal mountain system of Scotland. The highest peak of the Grampians is Ben Nevis (1,343 m/4,406 ft), the highest summit in the United Kingdom.
To the south of the Highlands lie the Central Lowlands, a low-lying belt of fertile valleys with an average elevation of 150 m (500 ft). Rich soils and most of the country’s coal deposits are found in the Lowlands. This region, which comprises just one-tenth of Scotland’s surface area, is home to Scotland’s leading industries and cities and the majority of the country’s population. Several chains of hills cross the Lowlands, including the Ochil and Sidlaw hills, as do several important rivers, notably the Clyde, Forth, and Tay.
The terrain of the Southern Uplands, a region less elevated and rugged than the Highlands, consists largely of a moorland plateau traversed by rolling valleys and broken by mountainous outcroppings. Only a few summits in the Southern Uplands exceed 760 m (2,500 ft) in elevation, the highest being Merrick (843 m/2,765 ft) in the southwest. The Cheviot Hills adjoin the Southern Uplands region along the boundary with England.
Scotland is endowed with an abundance of streams and lakes. Most lakes are long and narrow. Notable among the lakes, which are especially numerous in the central and northern regions, are Loch Lomond, the longest lake in Scotland; Loch Ness, which according to legend contains a sea monster; Loch Tay; and Loch Katrine.
Many of the rivers of Scotland, especially those in the west, are short, torrential streams, with limited commercial importance. The longest river of Scotland is the Tay. The Clyde, which flows through the city of Glasgow and through the industrial heartland, is Scotland’s most important river and serves as a transportation outlet to the Atlantic Ocean. Other important rivers in Scotland flow east and drain into the North Sea. They include the Forth, Tweed, Dee, and Esk
Ness, Loch, long, narrow lake, northern Scotland, forming part of the Caledonian Canal. It extends in a northeastern direction for 37 km (23 mi) from Fort Augustus to a point near the city of Inverness. The average width of the lake is about 2 km (about 1 mi), and the greatest depth is about 230 m (about 754 ft). It is drained by the Ness River into Moray Firth. The lake is reportedly the home of the so-called Loch Ness monster, but its existence has never been proven.

Prague & London & Bucharest

2007-07-14T11:52:00.000-07:00

Bucharest is the capital and largest city of Romania, located in the southeastern part of the country. The city is situated about 65 km north of the Danube River, near Ploieşti, on the banks of the Dîmboviţa River. Bucharest lies on a generally level plain and, including suburban districts, occupies an area of about 300 sq km.
The first written appearance of the name Bucuresti dates from 1459, when it was recorded in a document of Vlad III the Impaler, the ruler of Walachia. Vlad III built the fortress of Bucharest--the first of many fortifications--with the aim of holding back the Turks who were threatening the existence of the Walachian state. By the end of the 16th century, Bucharest was South-Eastern Europe's largest christian city. In 1640, a traveller remarked that the population of the city exceed 100,000. Under the Ottoman suzerainty that was eventually established, Bucharest developed rapidly as the main economic centre of Walachia, becoming the capital in 1659.
In 1859 Bucharest became the administrative center of the united principalities of Walachia and Moldavia, under Ottoman suzerainty. By the decisions of the Congress of Berlin, which provided for a general settlement of the Balkan situation after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 and 1878, Romania was recognized as an independent country with Bucharest as its capital. German troops occupied Bucharest from December 1916 until mid-1918 during World War I. During World War II Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu admitted German troops into Romania in October 1940, and the Germans occupied Bucharest until 1944. Weakened by Romanian insurrection and Allied bombings, the Germans surrendered when Soviet forces entered the city in August. Soviet military occupation lasted until 1958.
The city is divided into two sections by the Dîmboviţa River and is crossed by two wide boulevards. Bucharest contains six administrative districts; the adjacent rural area forms a seventh district. Most industrial areas are located in the suburbs, while the city is primarily residential. Bucharest, known as the “Paris of the Balkans” in the early 20th century, was a cosmopolitan city before 1944 when its architecture, city planning, and culture were French-inspired. After a Communist government came to power following World War II (1939-1945), French cultural qualities were ended, although the architecture remains. During the 1980s, under the orders of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, a vast area on the banks of the Dîmboviţa was razed, including houses and historical monuments. Buildings of North Korean architectural style were then erected.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the city's streets were lit by electric bulbs and petrol lamps. In 1904, the public trasportation system saw the introduction of electric street cars. After World War I, Bucharest strengthened its position as the most important city of a greatly enlarged country.
In 1930 the population of Bucharest was 631,288. By the 1950s, as a result of industrialization and urbanization policies, the population doubled, and it has continued to increase steadily. The population was 2,037,000 in 1997.
Bucharest is a major industrial center and the main financial and trade center of Romania. The city accounts for about 20 percent of the country's industrial production. Industries include heavy machinery, aviation, precision machinery, agricultural tools, furniture, electronics, chemicals, textiles, leather goods, wire, soap, cosmetics, and food processing.
Noteworthy secular structures include the Palace of Justice (1864), the Stirbey Palace (1835), the National Bank (1885), the Presidential Palace (previously Cotroceni Palace; 17th century with later additions), and the buildings of the Central Library of the University (1893). In the 20th century, the Cantacuzino Palace (1900), the Central Post Palace (1900), the Central Savings Bank (1900), the Royal Palace (1935), the Central Army House (1913), and the Arch of Triumph (1920) were built. Among Bucharest's outstanding religious structures are the Antim Monastery (1715) and the Patriarchate Church (1665). Bucharest has many parks and wooded areas, including Herăstrău, a large park with lakes.
The city has a large number of churches, usually small, in Byzantine style. Apart from the Curtea Veche (Old Court) church, the Antim Monastery (1715) and the churches of Stavropoleos (1724) and Spiridon (1747) are of considerable architectural interest. The most important centres for higher education are the Technical Institute of Bucharest (founded 1819) and the University of Bucharest (founded 1694). In addition, there are several academies in both arts and sciences, as well as numerous research institutes.

Once you have arrived in London, there are assorted places that you should, you really should, go and see.

A good starting place is Trafalgar Square with Nelson’s Column right in the centre. It is a 51m column, poised on top of which is the hero of the Battle of Trafalgar, who was killed while winning in 1805. The four lions which surround the column are of more recent date, having been sculpted by Sir William Landseer in 1868. There are many claimants to being the heart of London, but Trafalgar Square has the best right, because it is the hub of so much that is wonderful.

Just alongside is the church of St Martins in the Fields, which is open throughout the day and has been around for a long time. The current church dates from 1726, but there has been a church on that site since the thirteenth century. This is the parish church for Buckingham Palace and, yes, there is a royal pew. The church has some wonderful lunch time concerts, which are normally free.

On the next side of the square is the National Portrait Gallery, which is fascinating because it has the largest collection of portraits in the world although, understandably, only part of the collection is on show at any one time. Behind is Charing Cross station, not of great interest except that in the side road running alongside is The Players Theatre, old time music hall where the audience is expected to dress up in the right costume and positively join in with the show.

Running from there is the Strand, which was once the fashionable thoroughfare of London but fell on slightly seedier times. It is currently being upgraded and it still contains the Savoy Hotel - one of the great hotels of the world.

If you reverse your course from Trafalgar Square, you will go up the Mall, past Horse Guards Parade and at the end is the impressive building which is Buckingham Palace. And you pass St James on the way up.

So that’s one quick fix on part of London from one central point. But London has so many other central points. You can do the same sort of orientation from Piccadilly Circus or Hyde Park Corner or, indeed, pretty much anywhere. Once you have your bearings you can start to concentrate on specific areas. You might like to start with the Houses of Parliament, which have been operating in one form or another since 1275. Worth knowing that the original Parliament was in St Stephen’s Chapel and the members sat in the choir stalls facing each other. That tradition carries on to this day.

You can go to the visitor’s gallery in the afternoon and evening when Parliament is sitting. Typically it opens at 2.30 PM and will stay open until 10.30 PM or even later. If you plan your visits for the evening you will not have to queue.

Just round the corner is Westminster Abbey. Every King and Queen of England since William the Conqueror has been crowned here, and many are buried here, as well as many other notable historic figures. In the memorable words of an American Wimbledon contestant - “it’s just a lot of dead dudes.” Westminster Abbey is one of the great tourist attractions of London and it is nearly always crowded. Your best bet is to get there at opening time, which is 8 AM.

And from there you might like to go and see the Changing of The Guard, which happens from about the middle of April until the end of July at 11.30 in the morning, and creates monster traffic jams with parked tourist buses everywhere. Get there early and you will see one of the five regiments of Foot Guards march from Wellington Barracks and go through the age-old ceremony. You may not understand the orders being shouted, but they are in English. On one occasion that whole guard was mounted using the single command, “bacon and eggs.” Strange but true. If the scene outside Buckingham Palace is a bit too crowded for you, go to Horse Guards in Whitehall and watch the Household Cavalry mount the guard and then ride off along the mall. Both guards are changed about the same time.

From military pomp and circumstance you can venture to somewhere a little softer, a little more restrained. One of the new places, which have grown into a major tourist attraction, is Covent Garden. This used to be where all the fruit and vegetables coming to London from the country were sorted out and sold. You may recall that the opening scenes of Pygmalion and, later, My Fair Lady are set there. Now the fruit and vegetable markets have moved out to the suburbs, but some of the old feeling still remains. There have been tremendous efforts made to refurbish the old buildings so they retain a feeling of authenticity.
Covent Garden Plaza in the centre of the area has regained some of the popularity it experienced in the 17th-century. It has coffee-houses, street entertainment, boutiques, elegant shops and a feeling of cafe society. All traffic is banned, which makes walking around a pleasure.
Walk from Covent Garden down Fleet Street, once the newspaper capital of Britain until Rupert Murdoch moved his newspapers to the old dockland area. And there, ahead of you, is the majesty of St Paul’s. This is the building that survived the Second World War against all odds. It was designed by Christopher Wren, although this is the third church on the site. The previous one burned down in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It is interesting that this is one of the very few cathedrals in Britain to have been designed by an architect, and the result is glorious.
If you’re feeling exceptionally energetic, climb to the Golden Gallery - 530 steps, and you will be puffing at the end - to see one of the great views of London. In a very real sense St Paul’s is one of the churches of the City of London. It gets a bit confusing, but note that the City of London is quite separate from the rest of London, which is Greater London. The City of London even has its own special police force. It is the financial centre of the city of Greater London, and once boasted Dick Whittington as its Lord Mayor. You can walk the narrow streets for hours and find something fresh and fascinating around every corner.
From there it is very easy to walk down to Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, which is awesome, frightening and yet at the same time extremely charming. While you are there, look at the Crown Jewels in the Jewel House. You go past them on a traveling walkway, which gives you time to try and work out how much they are worth.
All of this that has been suggested would take two days and would give you a feel for the city and a taste, but only a taste, of the charms of London. Noel Coward in one of his better songs had the line “every stone bears the stamp of history”. The song was called London Pride and the words are very true, very precise and very accurate.

Prague

Prague is there any city in Euorpe, or elsewhere, like Prague? There has been a city here for over a thousand years, and now 1.250.000 people live here. It is most famous for its Gothic an baroque building. Old Town square, white its wonderful clock, the Cahrles Brigde, and Prague castel on the hill above the river are just a few of Prague’s famous attractions.

Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí)

Being Prague's heart since the 10th century and its main market place until the beginning of the 20th century, the spacious 1.7 hectare Old Town Square has been the scene of great events, both glorious and tragic. There are beautiful pastel-coloured buildings of Romanesque or Gothic origin with fascinating house signs. Some of the most prominent examples include the Kinský Palace, the House of the Stone Bell and the torch House. Today, the Old Town Square offers visitors a tourist information office, number of restaurants, cafés, shops and galleries.

Prague Castle
Prague Castle is the most popular sight visited in Prague. It is the largest ancient castle in the world (570 m long, on average 128 m wide, area 7.28 hectares).
Constructed in the 9th century by Prince Bořivoj, the castle transformed itself from a wooden fortress surrounded by earthen bulwarks to the imposing form it has today. Rulers made their own additions so there is a mixture of styles. Prague castle has had four major reconstructions, but it keeps its classical facelift it took on in the 18 century during the reign of Maria Theresa.
The castle has three courtyards and it has always been the seat of Czech rulers as well as the official residence. Allow at least half a day (it does not include time for museum visits) if you want to examine it in depth.
Getting around prague is easy by tram or underground but it’s also a pedestrian’s dream because much of the old quarter and many of the streets and lanes have little or no traffic. The medieval centre is Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral. An evening view of these illuminated landmark is one of the most memorable sights in Europe. Wenceslas Square is in the heart of modern Prague.

Welceslas Square (Václavské náměstí)
Originally a horse market, it got its present name in the mid-19th century. The Wenceslas Square is the main centre of modern Prague surrounded by shops, cinemas, office blocks, hotels, restaurants and cafés. The 750 m long and 60 m wide square has been the scene of a great deal of Czech history. In 1969 a university student Jan Palach burnt himself to death in protest against the Warsaw Pact invasion and in November 1989 protest meetings against police brutality were held here and led to the Velvet Revolution and the end of communism in Czechoslovakia. In the middle of the square is a monument of St Wenceslas on a horse accompanied with sculptures of four Czech patron saints.

St Vitus Cathedral (Katedrála Sv. Víta)
The cathedral's foundation stone was laid in 1344 by Emperor Charles IV. The first architect was Matthias of Arras, after his death Petr Parler took over and completed much of the structure in late-Gothic style. Over the following centuries renaissance and baroque details were added and the job was completed in 1929. The most beautiful of numerous side chapels, Parler's Chapel of St Wenceslas, houses the crown jewels and the tomb of “Good King” Wenceslas.
There are many superb exaples of 20th century Czech stained glass and marvellous pieces of art, for example a wooden relief by Caspar Bechterle that shows the escape of Frederik of the Palatinate from Prague in 1621, and wooden Crucifixion by Frantiek Bílek
The Royal Crypt contains the remains of Charles IV, Wenceslas IV, George of Poděbrady and Rudolf II.
There are excellent views from the Great Tower on a clear day.

Visiting Prague today, you immediately notice the lively atmosphere. The city can be crowded during the hot summer months, but it is a delight to vivit at any time of the year, even in the snowy cold of winter. In fact, tourism makes the largest contribution to Prague’s economy. Classical concert take place all through the year, though the biggest event is the Prague spring International Music Festival in May and early June. Theatre also has a special place in the life of the city.
The suburbs are like many in Eastern Europe with tall skyscrapers and some light industry, but you’re very quickly in the sleepy villages and gentle hills of Bohemia.
Many people say Prague reminds them Viena or Budapest. But in fact, Prague is unique. There’s nowhere quite like it.

Stonehenge

2007-07-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

The megalithic ruin known as Stonehenge stands on the open downland of Salisbury Plain two miles (three kilometres) west of the town of Amesbury, Wiltshire, in Southern England.It is not a single structure but consists of a series of earth, timber, and stone structures that were revised and re-modelled over a period of more than 1400 years. In the 1940s and 1950s, Richard Atkinson proposed that construction occurred in three phases, which he labelled Stonehenge I, II, IIIa, IIIb, and IIIc. This sequence has recently been revised in Archaeological Report (10) published by English Heritage.
The earliest portion of the complex dates to approximately 2950-2900 BCE (Middle Neolithic). It is comprised a circular bank, ditch, and counterscarp bank of about 330 feet (100 metres) in diameter. Just inside the earth bank is a circle of the 56 Aubrey holes that held wooden posts.
After 2900 BCE and for approximately the next 500 years (until 2400 BCE), post holes indicate timber settings in the centre of the monument and at the north-eastern entrance. The Aubrey Holes no longer held posts but were partially filled, some with cremation deposits added to the fill. The numerous post holes indicate timber structures but no clear patterns or configurations are discernible that would suggest their shape, form, or function.

Between 2550-1600 BCE the monument underwent a complicated sequence of settings of large stones. The first stone setting comprised a series of Bluestones placed in what are known as the Q and R Holes (sub-phase 3i). These were subsequently dismantled and a circle of Sarsens and a horseshoe-shaped arrangement of Trilithons erected (sub-phase 3ii).
The Sarsen Circle, about 108 feet (33 metres) in diameter, was originally comprised of 30 neatly trimmed upright sandstone blocks of which only 17 are now standing. The stones are evenly spaced approximately 1.0 to 1.4 metres apart, and stand on average 13 feet (4 metres) above the ground. They are about 6.5 feet (2 metres) wide and 3 feet (1 metre) thick and taper towards the top. They originally supported sarsen lintels forming a continuous circle around the top. Each lintel block has been shaped to the curve of the circle. The average length of the rectangular lintels is 3.2 metres (10' 6"). The lintels were fitted end-to end using tongue-and-groove joints, and fitted on top of the standing sarsen with mortice and tenon joints. The Sarsen Circle with its lintels is perhaps the most remarkable feature of Stonehenge in terms of design, precision stonework, and engineering.
Sarsen stones are hard-grained sandstone with a silaceous cement. They were probably brought to the site from the Marlborough Downs, about 30 kilometres to the north of Stonehenge.
The Trilithons are ten upright stones arranged as five freestanding pairs each with a single horizontal lintel. They were erected within the Sarsen Circle in the form of a horseshoe with the open side facing north-east towards the main entrance of the monument. They were arranged symmetrically and graded in height; the tallest is in the central position. Only three of the five Trilithons are now complete with their lintels. The other two both have only one standing stone with the second stone and lintel lying on the ground.

Stonehenge is surely Britain's greatest national icon, symbolizing mystery, power and endurance.
Its original purpose is unclear to us, but some have speculated that it was a temple made for the worship of ancient earth deities. It has been called an astronomical observatory for marking significant events on the prehistoric calendar. Others claim that it was a sacred site for the burial of high-ranking citizens from the societies of long ago.
While we can't say with any degree of certainty what it was for, we can say that it wasn't constructed for any casual purpose. Only something very important to the ancients would have been worth the effort and investment that it took to construct Stonehenge.

.....................................

The stones we see today represent Stonehenge in ruin. Many of the original stones have fallen or been removed by previous generations for home construction or road repair. There has been serious damage to some of the smaller bluestones resulting from close visitor contact (prohibited since 1978) and the prehistoric carvings on the larger sarsen stones show signs of significant wear.

Construction of the Henge
In its day, the construction of Stonehenge was an impressive engineering feat, requiring commitment, time and vast amounts of manual labor. In its first phase, Stonehenge was a large earthwork; a bank and ditch arrangement called a henge, constructed approximately 5,000 years ago. It is believed that the ditch was dug with tools made from the antlers of red deer and, possibly, wood. The underlying chalk was loosened with picks and shoveled with the shoulderblades of cattle. It was then loaded into baskets and carried away. Modern experiments have shown that these tools were more than equal to the great task of earth digging and moving.

The Bluestones
The term "Bluestone" refers to various types of mostly igneous rocks including dolerites, rhyolites, and volcanic ash. It also includes some sandstones. The Bluestones at Stonehenge are believed to have originated from various outcrops in the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire in Wales. How they were transported to the site at Stonehenge has been the subject of much speculation.
Finally, mention should be made of the so-called Altar Stone, a large dressed block of sandstone that lies embedded in the ground within the Trilithon Horseshoe and "in front of" of the central and largest Trilithon pair. Two fallen stones now lie across it. The stone is believed to be Cosheston Beds Sandstone from south Wales, and is the only example of this type of stone at Stonehenge. It is 16 feet long (4.9 metres), 3 feet 6 inches wide (1 metre), and 1 foot 9 inches thick (0.5 metres).
About 2,000 BC, the first stone circle (which is now the inner circle), comprised of small bluestones, was set up, but abandoned before completion. The stones used in that first circle are believed to be from the Prescelly Mountains, located roughly 240 miles away, at the southwestern tip of Wales. The bluestones weigh up to 4 tons each and about 80 stones were used, in all. Given the distance they had to travel, this presented quite a transportation problem.

Modern theories speculate that the stones were dragged by roller and sledge from the inland mountains to the headwaters of Milford Haven. There they were loaded onto rafts, barges or boats and sailed along the south coast of Wales, then up the Rivers Avon and Frome to a point near present-day Frome in Somerset. From this point, so the theory goes, the stones were hauled overland, again, to a place near Warminster in Wiltshire, approximately 6 miles away. From there, it's back into the pool for a slow float down the River Wylye to Salisbury, then up the Salisbury Avon to West Amesbury, leaving only a short 2 mile drag from West Amesbury to the Stonehenge site.

Who Built Stonehenge?
The question of who built Stonehenge is largely unanswered, even today. The monument's construction has been attributed to many ancient peoples throughout the years, but the most captivating and enduring attribution has been to the Druids. This erroneous connection was first made around 3 centuries ago by the antiquary, John Aubrey. Julius Caesar and other Roman writers told of a Celtic priesthood who flourished around the time of their first conquest (55 BC). By this time, though, the stones had been standing for 2,000 years, and were, perhaps, already in a ruined condition. Besides, the Druids worshipped in forest temples and had no need for stone structures.

The best guess seems to be that the Stonehenge site was begun by the people of the late Neolithic period (around 3000 BC) and carried forward by people from a new economy which was arising at this time. These "new" people, called Beaker Folk because of their use of pottery drinking vessels, began to use metal implements and to live in a more communal fashion than their ancestors. Some think that they may have been immigrants from the continent, but that contention is not supported by archaeological evidence. It is likely that they were indigenous people doing the same old things in new ways.

As Legend Has It
The legend of King Arthur provides another story of the construction of Stonehenge. It is told by the twelfth century writer, Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his History of the Kings of Britain that Merlin brought the stones to the Salisbury Plain from Ireland. Sometime in the fifth century, there had been a massacre of 300 British noblemen by the treacherous Saxon leader, Hengest. Geoffrey tells us that the high king, Aurelius Ambrosius, wanted to create a fitting memorial to the slain men. Merlin suggested an expedition to Ireland for the purpose of transplanting the Giant's Ring stone circle to Britain. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, the stones of the Giant's Ring were originally brought from Africa to Ireland by giants (who else but giants could handle the job?). The stones were located on "Mount Killaraus" and were used as a site for performing rituals and for healing. Led by King Uther and Merlin, the expedition arrived at the spot in Ireland. The Britons, none of whom were giants, apparently, were unsuccessful in their attempts to move the great stones. At this point, Merlin realized that only his magic arts would turn the trick. So, they were dismantled and shipped back to Britain where they were set up (see illus. at right) as they had been before, in a great circle, around the mass grave of the murdered noblemen. The story goes on to tell that Aurelius, Uther and Arthur's successor, Constantine were also buried there in their time*.

Present Day Stonehenge
Situated in a vast plain, surrounded by hundreds of round barrows, or burial mounds, the Stonehenge site is truly impressive, and all the more so, the closer you approach. It is a place where much human effort was expended for a purpose we can only guess at. Some people see it as a place steeped in magic and mystery, some as a place where their imaginations of the past can be fired and others hold it to be a sacred place. But whatever viewpoint is brought to it and whatever its original purpose was, it should be treated as the ancients treated it, as a place of honor .

The modern age has not been altogether kind to Stonehenge, despite the lip service it pays to the preservation of heritage sites. There is a major highway running no more than 100 yards away from the stones, and a commercial circus has sprung up around it, complete with parking lots, gift shops and ice cream stands. The organization, English Heritage, is committed to righting these wrongs, and in the coming years, we may get to see Stonehenge in the setting for which it was originally created. Despite all its dilapidation and the encroachment of the modern world, Stonehenge, today, is an awe-inspiring sight, and no travel itinerary around Britain should omit it.

PROTECT THE EARTH ?

2007-07-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

We can still choose how we use our environment. When we use resources wisely, we honour the trust the next generation has placed in us. Environmental threats like global warming and the water crisis take their greatest toll on children. Environmental threats will continue to take their toll, for the mistakes of today will continue to haunt the world tomorrow.
During Earth Day '70, people all over the nation were working on projects to protect our environment. Projects included: organizing neighborhood clean-ups, and planting trees. Demonstrators spoke out on polluters of air, water and noise in an ecology fair. After the first Earth Day, a lot of persons feared that enviromental issues would not become part of the way of life, but much to their surprise, activators continued their fight daily to save our environment .
Over the years, Earth Day has had its successes and struggles. Earth Day struggled because of a lack of political support that year. Supporters held clean up drives, offered educational programs to teach others about saving our earth, and marches were held .
In 1990, on the twentieth anniversary of Earth Day, organized the first International Earth Day. Throughout 140 countries, over 200 million people involved themselves to save our planet.
There are several issues related to Earth Day and our environment that we will discuss throughout this unit. We will be discussing how we can clean up our earth, our air, and our water.
There are billions and billions of people that live on our earth. Each person on earth needs a place to live. We also need materials to build our homes and businesses. There are several things we should do to preserve the land we live on. We can protect our parks, playgrounds and even our own backyards. We can plant flowers and trees to make our world a beautiful place to live. We can learn to reuse and recycle paper, plastics, aluminum, and glass.
Every living thing needs fresh air to breath. There is a lot of air pollution now because of the many factories that make clothing for us and also in the cars we drive. We can cut down on air pollution by walking more, driving in car pools, and riding subways and buses.
Water is essential to life. We use water to drink and to grow plants. Our water is being polluted by sewage, factories waste, and oil. We can better conserve water by not throwing garbage in rivers and lakes. We can also save our water by not wasting water at home.

Pollution. You can't miss it, can you? It's everywhere... all over our planet. It makes people, other animals and plants sick or even kills them. It's even making the climate change. Humans are the cause and humans will have to try and stop it... especially you kids, because the future is yours! Please join me in this guide as I find out what's happening and give you ideas to try and make things better for everyone.

Hidrogenul

2007-07-12T15:38:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of the 90`s Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace and Tupolev co-operate in the field of cryogen aircraft technology. This co-operation is called Cryoplane Program. The aim is to switch the engines of a turboprop-aircraft (DO 328) over to hydrogen propulsion and to install a hydrogen supply system on board. The experience to be gained in this project can be transferred to big passenger aircrafts (Airbus) later
Hydrogen at home
The most important stationary application of fuel cells and hydrogen is the co-generation of electric power and heat in a fuel cell heating and power station. The advantage of making use of both products - electric power and heat - is the very high overall system efficiency thus making the best possible use of the primary energy sources

Such cogeneration fuel cell power stations can be realised even in very small construction sizes. Most common will be systems having the size of regular residential heating systems or of gas heating boilers. When these systems were produced in large numbers they would be only slightly more expensive than conventional heating boilers but in addition they are "incidentally" generating electric power!
One can imagine how our energy system would change if millions of such plants were installed directly in residential buildings. The generation of electric power would become decentralised and we would use the primary energy sources more efficiently

Hydrogen in your hands
A great variety of possible applications for fuel cells and hydrogen can be found in the energy supply of portable devices: mobile phones, laptops, walkmen, camcorders and many other things could be powered by hydrogen and by fuel cells in the size of batteries.
In this exposition you can have a look at a computer powered by a fuel cell. Its operation time far exceeds the operation time of computers powered by conventional accumulators. And when the hydrogen draws to an end one simply inserts a new cartridge. The empty cartridges can be refilled.
Fuel cells which are even smaller, so called micro fuel cells, could be integrated in mobile phones. Prototypes with an operation time of fifty hours have already been presente
Is hydrogen dangerous?
Hydrogen is highly inflammable, that means it easily reacts with oxygen and when it burns water is produced. Exactly this characteristic makes it suitable as a fuel.
Hydrogen has no greater danger potential than oil, natural gas or uranium. With regard to its physical and chemical specifications hydrogen is not particularly dangerous. Therefore, e.g. in Germany, the safety precautions and regulations for hydrogen do not differ from those for every other burnable gas.
In car accidents or air crashes liquid fuels often lead to fire slicks and in consequence frequently result in fatal injuries. In contrast to this hydrogen escapes upwards into the air very fast as proved by the accident of the airship "Hindenburg" in 1937. On the other hand one has to consider that there is an increased explosion hazard when hydrogen is set free in closed rooms, e.g. in garages or tunnels. In closed rooms good ventilation and perhaps additional safety precautions must be provided.
The chemical industry has been using hydrogen for hundred years. The experiences concerning safety are positive.
Hydrogen and fuel cells - a perfect combination
In this chapter we learn the basic facts of fuel cells. What for we need fuel cells, how they work and what is already reality.
Fuel cells gives us a very efficient way to produce electric power and heat. In the whole circle of renewable energies they are the final element. The sun provides energy, solar cells or wind power catch it for us, hydrogen is the storage and the medium to transport the energy and the fuel cells generate the energy whenever and whereever it is needed.
If we get into our car, if we need heat and electricity at home or if we just listen music on our walkmen. The energy could be provided by a fuel cell.
Basic construction
Fuel cells have a very simple structure. The cell itself consists of three layers, one above the other:
The first layer is the anode, the second an electrolyte and the third layer is the cathode.
Anode and cathode serve as catalyst. The layer in the middle consists of a carrier structure which absorbs the electrolyte. In different types of fuel cells different substances are used as electrolyte. Some electrolytes are liquid and some are solid with a membrane structure.
Because one cell generates only low voltage several cells get stacked according to the requested voltage. This arrangement is called "stack".
What exactly does a fuel cell?
The fuel cell reverses the process of electrolysis which is known from school. In the process of electrolysis by applying electric power water is decomposed into the gaseous components oxygen and hydrogen.
The fuel cell takes exactly these two substances and converts them to water again. In theory the same amount of energy which has been used for the electrolysis is set free by this conversion. In practice insignificant losses are caused by different physical-chemical processes.
So to say electric power is stored in hydrogen. Therefore we have a gas at our disposal in which electric power can be stored and this gas is hydrogen. In fuel cells we get back the electric power stored in the hydrogen. Most fuel cells are operating with air, so there is no need to store oxygen.

HyNet Hydrogen Information Site
Welcome to HyNet's hydrogen, energy and fuel cell information site!
In three short chapters we will introduce you to some basic facts in the fields "Energy", "Hydrogen" and "Fuel Cells".
After reading all three chapters you will be able to understand what hydrogen is, what for we need hydrogen, and what a fuel cell is.
Further you can find out how an hydrogen economy works and why it is a perfect solution for the energy of today and for the future!

Energy the Driver
We need energy for a lot of purposes in our every day life. Whether we use the refrigerator, TV, computer whether we drive by car or by subway or whether we only enjoy light and heat, the driving force is always energy.
But energy is finite! We generate more than 90% of our energy from fossil sources like oil, gas or coal. During the next fifty years we will deplete almost all the remaining oil and gas on the world.

Mankind is growing
Never before have lived as many people on our planet as today. There are more then six billion people now, and their number will increase further.
On which scale it will increase, no one can say with certainty. If you take a look at the UN scenario of the least growth, you will see that there will be up to 9 billion people in 2050. This scenario would demand very drastic measures and therefore the actual population will be supposedly higher in reality.
Extrapolating this trend there will be 13 billion people in one hundred years. All those people have a right to meet their basic needs for food, housing, heating, education.

Therefore we need huge amounts of energy! Now more than 2 billion people have no access to electric power. Therefore they do not participate in energy consumption yet.

United Nations growth scenarios
Can the way of living in the industrialized countries serve as a model for the world?
Considering who is using the energy today one finds a striking imbalance. Only 17% of mankind live in industrial nations but nevertheless they have a share of more than 60% on the total energy consumption!
How are our energy requirements met today?
More then 90% of today's energy supply consists of coal, petroleum and gas. So we meet 90% of our energy requirement by burning fossil fuels.
At today's consumption rate petroleum, our most important fuel, lasts for another 40 to 50 years. One can easily work out what would happen if the other 83% of mankind consumed as much energy as we do: In less than 10 years the world's remaining petroleum would be used up!
Therefore resolving the world energy problem has to start with us. We have to reduce our energy consumption and we have to introduce modern technologies. In actual fact the developing countries do not yet participate in global energy consumption!

17 % of the world's population needs 62 %
of the world's energy. That means that 83 %
of mankind shares the remaining 38 %

today more then 90 % of the world's energy supply
is meet by fossile resources

Today's energy is fossil
Fossil fuels are coal, petroleum and natural gas. They are not renewable, once burnt they are gone forever.
These sources supply more then 90% of our energy requirement.
In this context two problems are paramount. One problem is the question for how many years these fuels will be available. The other problem is the pollution caused by burning fossil fuels.
That's why we subdiveded the fossil chapter into two subchapters: Climate and Resources

Energy Conservation is a Means of Climate Protection
The graph on the right shows the development of the average temperatures in the last 140 years. The trend shows a clear increase of temperatures. The graph also shows the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This is mainly due to the burning of the fossil fuels coal, oil and gas.
During the last 50 years the mean temperature on earth increased by about 1degree. At first this does not sound too dramatic. But this increase has caused a dramatic reduction of the size of alpine glaciers and the beginning melting of huge areas of ice in the polar region.
Most important an increase of the average temperature by 1degree leads to an increase in the occurrence of weather extremes like periods of draught, storms, floods etc. Biological adaptation processes can not happen at that fast rate of change, the variety of species begins to decrease. Particularly within insurance companies there is a growing awareness that natural disasters are a consequence of climate change.
The causal correlation between climate change and the emission of carbon dioxide can at the moment not be proven with final certainty-but also the proof of the contrary is not possible. Yet all measurements confirm this theory. Our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will have to take the consequences of our experiments with atmosphere - this should be reason enough for us to act.
If the prognosticated increase in energy demand is to be met by fossil fuels then the world-wide emissions of greenhouse gases will have doubled by 2030!

The grafic shows the temperature divergences from the mean value. Warmer years are green, colder years are blue. The last decade had been the warmest in the last century. The orange line represents the increasing carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere.

Satelites view of a hurricane

A 2000 square kilometers iceberg breaks off the "Larsen Shelf ice" near the south pole.

World Energy Resources
The graph on the right shows the reserve-to-production ratios for those fuels which meet almost 100% of today's requirements (i.e. the remaining number of years these fuels would last at our present level of consumption.)
It is not realistic to assume that there will be no increase in consumption. Therefore the graph below shows the reserve-to-production ratios assuming a 1% yearly increase in the consumption of crude oil and a 1.5% increase per year in the consumption of natural gas and coal. One can see clearly how the reserve-to-production ratios are decreasing. This representation is called the dynamic reserve-to-production ratio. It should be noted that the assumed rate of increase in consumption is rather moderate.
Oil and Gas
Those two fuels together meet more then 60% of the world's energy demand. Both fuels will be depleted in a few decades.
The IEA (International Energy Agency) -an institution of the United Nations- predicts an increasing gap between supply and demand starting in 2010. At first this gap will not be dramatic but no one can say for sure how the energy prices will develop in future. In any case demand will exceed supply.
A large part of the fossil resources -about half- has been used up in the last 100 years. Even in relation to the age of mankind this is a very short period of time.
Therefore it is less important whether fossil fuels will be depleted in 50 or rather in 70 years but the real issue is whether mankind should use them to the very end at all. The use of fossil fuels poses - apart from the problem of greenhouse gases- the question of a just distribution of resources. The generations to come will lack these resources we are using at such a great extent. We live at the expense of future generations.
We have the responsibility to develop and to apply alternative technologies, in order that coming generations can be sure to meet their energy requirement!

Static range of fossil energy carriers (years)

Dynamic range of fossil energy carriers (years)

The development of oil demand seen with the eyes of IEA 1999.
In the year 2024 the gap between demand and production corresponds to the worlds production amount of 1997. The blue areas show the decrease of production.

A sustainable solution
The sun could be the solution to all energy supply problems - already now and in future!
The sun radiates many times more energy down to earth than we require: Every day, without emissions and completely free. We just have to find ways of using this energy.
In principle all renewable energy sources originate from the sun. The sun makes the wind blow, causes rain to fall and heats our planet.
The term "renewable" energy means that this energy is not taken from a finite stock but is generated in a cyclical process. Scientists talk of "sustainability" in this context.
This can be explained very graphic taking wood (one type of biomass) as an example: The sun causes a tree to grow and this tree produces oxygen and binds carbon dioxide. To burn the wood we need oxygen and we get carbon dioxide as a result. Over all these processes are balanced but we gained thermal energy. Virtually the tree has stored solar energy for us.
For every renewable energy source there is such a balanced cyclical process. This is the decisive benefit of renewable energy sources!
On the following pages we want to present you some of the most important technologies for renewable energy sources. They do not compete but supplement each other. Also today electric power is generated partly from coal, petroleum, natural gas or uranium.
An even greater number of options is characteristic for the renewable energy sources. Hydrogen is the perfect connection between these options!

Solar energy
Direct use of solar energy means that electricity or heat is generated directly from the sun. An indirect use of solar energy is e.g. windpower.
To generate energy directly from the sun, there are different possibilities. Photovoltaics converts solar energy directly into electric power. Solar thermal installations use the sun to produce heat which is either used directly as heat or in solar thermal power stations steam is generated to produce electric power.
The passive use of solar energy is another solar technology. Whenever a building or the facade of a building is constructed in such a way that it collects energy then this is called solar architecture. In principle it is possible to supply a house with energy entirely by the sun, even in our climes. Additional energy from fossil fuels is unnecessary. Such "zero-energy-houses" are state of the art technology today and even construction costs are only slightly higher than those of conventional houses.
Where as right now 1 kilowatt hour of electric power from photovoltaics costs well over 50 Cent solar thermal hot-water systems are already competitive.
Photovoltaics has the potential to become much cheaper as well. In principle the technology is simple and silicium (for the production of wafers) is one of the most frequent elements in the world. Only the necessary mass production is missing!

solar cell

1 MW photovotaic system on the roof of the munich fair

150 MW solar thermal power plant (USA)

Power from wind and water
Man has used these two renewable energy sources for a very long time. In the past windpower has been used to sail around the world and with the aid of waterpower grain has been ground in the Middle Ages. Windmills have existed for many hundred years!
Modern power generating installations are using both energy sources. There are many hydroelectric power stations which have been producing energy for many decades.
Hydroelectric power stations are good base load power stations because one can reliably predict their output. But the potential of waterpower is restricted and not all countries have enough water at their disposal. Waterpower will also in future have a stable share in renewable energy sources.
The global potential of windpower is immense. Wind farms can be built onshore as well as offshore. So called offshore-wind farms work on perfect wind conditions and they do not disturb anyone out there.
Europe is the world champion in using windpower. Installed power has already reached 25,000 megawatt (33,000 MW worldwide). This is sufficient to meet 1.6% of electricity production in Europe. Unfortunately the wind does not blow all the time and we therefore have to keep power plants in stand-by. Hydrogen can be useful to store wind power in future.
Wind power is a good example to demonstrate how dynamic the development of technologies for renewable energy sources can become once they reach profitability. In 1993 only under 200 megawatt had been installed and the prognosticated yearly growth was less than 100 megawatt up to 2015. The actual growth turned out to be 6000 megawatt per year!

wind farm

hydro power

offshore wind farm

Energy from farming
The energetic use of biomass has much potential world-wide and can get an important share in European energy supply as well.
There are different types of biomass. One is "bio-garbage" coming from our households. It is especially suited for gasification: In an accelerated process of putrefaction methane is produced, which can be used directly to generate electric power. When required also hydrogen can be produced from methane.
All sorts of organic waste from agriculture and forestry are also forms of biomass and there are different technologies and methods to utilise them. As pellets it can be used in modern biomass-ovens to generate heat but of course also cogeneration is possible.
This type of biomass together with plants especially cultivated for this purpose can be converted to hydrogen in a biomass-reformer. In this process a lot of carbon dioxide is produced but only as much as has been absorbed from air by the plants before.
Part of the hydrogen which is needed for fuel cell cars and residential fuel cell systems could in future be produced by agriculture.

bio mass pellets for burning in combined
heat power stations

power station for pellets

Further renewable options
Apart from the already demonstrated types of renewable electric power production there are some technologies which are not so well known or not so well developed. Some of them we want to present:
Geothermics
In many regions of the world there are subterranean sources of heat. Sometimes they are so hot that one can use their energy. Nearly hundred percent of the energy supply of Iceland are based on this energy. Only the fuels for cars and ships are derived from crude oil. Iceland wants to become independent of these oil imports as well and has decided to switch the whole energy economy over to hydrogen. They want to generate hydrogen by geothermal energy in future. Many European partners are supporting this project.
In Europe there is an unused potential of geothermics as well. It is imaginable that it will supplement our supply of energy in future.
Energy from The Sea
Ebb and flow are moving immense masses of water every day. Enormous amounts of energy are necessary to bring this about. Tidal power stations are able to use this energy. Such a tidal power station has existed in St. Malo at the French Atlantic coast for many years.
The power of the waves can be used as well. Mostly in Britain there are prototypes of such wave power stations. They are built on the seabed and use the sea's up and down movement. The energy contained in waves several metres high is considerable in any case. But the question remains whether we succeed in using them.
Certain sorts of algae are a perfect source for biomass. With algae farms the immense area of the sea could be used in a natural way!
Other Solar Power Stations
Apart from the thermo solar and photovoltaic power stations there are various other types. There one should mention up current thermal power stations and tower power stations. Both technologies have already been tested successfully.
Up current thermal power stations use the fact that hot air is lighter than cold air. On the ground of the tower air gets heated by the sun. The air then rises in the tower and drives a turbine.
In tower power stations hundreds of mirrors focus the sunlight on top of a tower where water vaporises. The steam then drives a turbine.

geothermal california

St. Malo in France (240 MW)

Nuclear Power
Nuclear power is undoubted the most controverse way of producing energy throughout Europe.
Several European countries already decided to quit the use of nuclear energy due to the risks and to the unsolved problem of nuclear waste, others will rely on nuclear power even in the future.
Today there are about 400 nuclear power plants world-wide. Their energy meets just under 7% of the global energy demand. If nuclear energy is to make a relevant contribution to the future supply of energy we would need several thousand new power plants. During the next 40 years we would have to take a new reactor into operation about every second day if this power source should be available when all sources of fossil energies are used up.
At the present consumption rate natural uranium will last for just under 100 years. If power stations with today's technology were built then the uranium stocks would be used up in a very short period of time.
The only way out would be the nuclear breeder technology, its fuels are reprocessable to nearly hundred percent. World-wide the breeder technology is not pursued any more. Nuclear breeders have the disadvantage of needing highly toxic plutonium and producing radioactive waste with long half-life which we have to keep safe for thousends of years.
Society will have to decide whether it wants to introduce in a large scale a technology which holds a certain danger potential and which confronts many future generations with the problem of the disposal of nuclear materials.
This is especially relevant if you take into consideration that renewable energy sources give us the possibility to generate energy in a sustainable and safe way and that there we have technologies which are much easier to handle for all the people in the world.
There remains the problem of profitability. The price of energy generated from renewable energy sources will decrease when the use increases. Nevertheless it will never arrive at the price we pay for our energy today. Therefore it is society's responsibility to start appreciating the value of renewable energy sources and to perceive their use as a way towards a better quality of life.
Thermo Nuclear Fusion
No one can say for sure whether nuclear fusion reactors are ever going to work. Even the scientists who are working on fusion research talk about reactors fit for operation only in 50 years. But for several reasons it is important that at that time we already have at our disposal a working and clean supply of energy.

nuclear power station
What for we need hydrogen?
As a result of the "Energy" chapter we can see that a world energy supply only based on renewable sources is possible. We have the potential and we have the technologies.
One problem that accompanies all renewable energies is the storage. If we use electrical energy it is always most efficient to use it directly. The electrical grid is a kind of storage for that. But if the amount for instance of solar and wind power grows there will be a need to store the energy for example if it needs to be used at nighttime.
Even for mobile and portable applications we need an "Energy Carrier" to use the solar energy as a fuel for cars or in an aircraft.
Therefore we need hydrogen. Hydrogen can store energy like it is stored today by oil or by natural gas. That's why hydrogen is called a secondary energy carrier. You need a primary energy to produce. But at the same time it is a big advantage because for production various sources can be used.
So you can fly or drive by wind power, by biomass or by many other renewable sources.
This chapter will explain all about the production, the storage and the use of hydrogen.

Physical Specification
Hydrogen is a colourless, odourless and completely non-poisonous gas. It has a specific gravity of 0.0899g/l (Air is 14.4 times as heavy)
Hydrogen condenses at -252.77°C. Liquid-hydrogen has a specific gravity of 70.99 g/l. Because of that hydrogen has the highest energy density in relation to mass of all fuels and energy carriers: 1 kg hydrogen contains as much energy as 2.1 kg natural gas or 2.8 kg petrol.
The energy density referring to volume of liquid hydrogen is a quarter of petrol's and a third of natural gas's. The share of hydrogen of the weight of water is 11.2%.
Ecological Advantages of Hydrogen
When burning hydrogen with air in internal combustion engines and gas turbines (when a suitable procedure is applied) only very few or negligible emissions are resulting.
Nitrogen monoxide emissions increase exponentially with calorific intensity. Therefore these emissions can be influenced by choosing a suitable process. Because hydrogen, in contrast to other fuels, leaves us more freedom to influence the burning process it is possible to decrease the Nox-emissions compared with natural gas or petroleum. To achieve this one can attain low calorific intensity e.g. by using a high air surplus.
By using hydrogen in low-temperature fuel-cells ( e.g. membrane fuel cells: PEMFC) emissions can be avoided completely. In the process of generating energy from hydrogen and air-oxygen there is only water as a reaction product (i.e. water without any minerals, like distilled water).
The use of hydrogen in fuel-cells operating at a higher temperature-level causes emissions a hundred times lower than in conventional power stations.

How to get hydrogen?
Hydrogen in a pure form (and only as such an energy carrier) does not occur in nature but exists only in bond structures.
It therefore can not be exploited like crude oil or coal: it has to be generated from other chemical compounds. This is why scientists call it a secondary energy carrier.
Of course the best example for a hydrogen-compound is water. Two hydrogen-atoms and one oxygen-atom form water. But there are many other substances which contain hydrogen.
Most organic compounds are a combination of carbon and hydrogen. An example for this is natural gas (methane) which consists of one carbon-atom and four hydrogen-atoms.
Plants consist of organic compounds which consist of carbon and hydrogen. Biomass in general, consists on the biggest part of carbon and hydrogen: e.g. refuse containing biomass, refuse from plants, refuse wood from forests or especially cultivated energy plants like rape or particular grasses.
Independent from the base material hydrogen is always generated by a process. For this energy is needed.
It is an advantage of the use of hydrogen that the energy for its generation has not necessarily to be taken from fossil sources. Windpower, solar energy and waterpower are primary energy sources as well!
The production of hydrogen is not really new. At the moment world-wide every year 500 billion cubic metres of hydrogen are produced, stored, transported and used. This is happening mostly in the chemical (and petrochemical) industry.
Click left to see various ways of industrial hydrogen production...

gaseous hydrogen molecules H2

water: two H , one O (H2O)

natural gas: one C, four H (CH4 - Methane)

A typical organic combination.
Biomass consists dominantly of variations of this
organic chains. (here: glucose)

Hydrogen from fossil sources
Von The biggest part of todays 500 billion cubic metres world-wide is generated from fossil sources (natural gas, oil) or is obtained as by-product-hydrogen in chemical processes. A lot of hydrogen is obtained by chlor-alkali electrolysis and crude-oil-refinery-processes.
Altogether the hydrogen generation as by-product amounts to around 190 billion cubic metres world-wide.
There are the following processes to generate hydrogen from fossil fuels:
Small Reformer
To be able to use hydrogen in fuel cell applications in the near future small reformers (steam reforming, partial oxidation) are being developed. These systems are intended particularly for mobile use in vehicles and in small stationary applications.
For mobile applications one is hoping that the higher energy density and the easier handling of a conventional liquid fuel could be used to supply fuel cells. For this purpose the partial oxidation or reforming of methanol or gasoline is particularly important.
Steam Reforming
Steam reforming is the endothermic catalytic conversion of light hydrocarbons (methane,..., gasoline) in the presence of steam. This large-scale process normally takes place at a temperature of 850°C and a pressure of 2.5 bar. Hydrogen and carbon dioxide as well as methane and carbon monoxide are produced in the conversion process. In the so called "shift reaction" carbon monoxide reacts with steam to generate carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The carbon dioxide and other unwelcome constituents are removed from the gas mixture by adsorption or membrane-separation later on.
The separated residual gas which contains about 60% of combustible components (H2, CH4, CO) is used as a fuel in the reformer, together with a part of the input gas.
The large-scale generation of hydrogen is done in steam reformers with production capacities of usually 100.000 cubic metres of hydrogen per hour. These plants are built by companies like Linde, KTI or Uhde .
Partial Oxidation
Partial oxidation is the thermal conversion of heavy hydrocarbons (e.g. residues from oil refining or diesel oil) with oxygen and sometimes with additional water vapour. The amounts of oxygen and hydrogen are allocated in such a way that gasification without external energy supply is possible.
This hydrogen generation process works with coal as well. The coal is ground very fine and mixed with water into a pumpable suspension with 50-70% of solid matters. This process is profitable only in typical coal mining countries like China or South Africa. In Germany there are only pilot plants.
In case hydrogen is to play an important role in the energy economy in the medium or long-term it is not recommendable to base its generation on conventional steam reforming or partial oxidation from natural gas, oil or coal in view of the environmental requirements (CO2-reduction).
Modern Processes
Modern processes make it possible to generate hydrogen potentially without CO2 from natural gas and using electric power:
Since the beginning of the 80´s KVAERNER ENGINEERING S.A. from Norway is developing the plasma-arc-process which at 1600°C splits hydrocarbons into hydrogen and clean coal. For this process which causes no considerable emissions electric power and cooling water are needed in addition to the primary energy sources (petroleum, natural gas).
A pilot plant in operation since April 1992 generates 500kg/h clean-coal (activated carbon) and 2000 Nm3/h hydrogen from 1000 Nm3/h natural gas and 2100 kWe. As an additional by-product superheated steam with a power of 1000 kW is generated. Considering all potentially usable products the plant works with an efficiency of almost 100%. Of this output about 48% are contained in hydrogen, 10% in super heated steam and the remaining 40% in activated carbon.
The process is in the pilot phase. As a next step there are plans to build a plant with a capacity of 100.00 Nm3/h hydrogen under industrial conditions.

hydrogen production plant in Leuna, by Linde

residential natural gas reformer by Hyradix

natural gas steam reformer by Air Liquide

Electrolysis
For the generation of hydrogen from water now and in the foreseeable future electrolysis is the only process of practical significance among the possible alternatives. The conventional process is the alkaline electrolysis which has been in commercial use for more then 80 years. Because hydrogen generated by electrolysis uses electric power (also a secondary energy carrier) this is economic only in those regions of the world where electric power can be generated very cheaply. This is the case almost exclusively in big hydroelectric plants (e.g. in Egypt, Iceland, Norway..)
General Description
The water decomposition via electrolysis takes place in two partial reactions at both electrodes, which are separated by an ion conducting electrolyte. At the negative electrode (cathode) hydrogen is produced and on the positive electrode (anode) oxygen is produced. The necessary charge exchange works via ion conduction. To keep the product gases separated the two reaction compartments are separated by an ion separator (diaphragm). The energy for the splitting of the water is provided by electric power. The following types of electrolysis exist:
Conventional Water Electrolysis
This process works with alkaline, aqueous electrolytes. Anode compartment and cathode compartment are separated by a microporous diaphragm to avoid the blending of the product gases. Good dynamic performance is a feature of the latest developments which allows for fluctuating operation. Therefore they are perfectly suited for applications with renewable energy generating plants.
High-Pressure Water Electrolysis
With high-pressure electrolyzers hydrogen pressures up to and even over 50 bar are possible. This is feasible because of a specific choice and optimisation of materials. Some technologies which are in the development stage at the moment shall make feasible an unproblematic operation of an electrolyzer powered by a fluctuating electric power unit (e.g. wind- or PV-power) thus enabling the building of stand-alone plants.
High-Temperature Electrolysis
High-temperature electrolysis has been discussed as an interesting alternative some years ago. It would be an advantage to put part of the energy needed for dissociation as high-temperature heat at around 800-1000°C into the process and then to be able to run the electrolysis with reduced electric power. These considerations were directed at using in this way the heat set free in a solar-concentrator or waste heat from power plants. But in the last years the interest in this type of electrolysis decreased and therefore we will not go into more detail.

large scale electrolysis by norsk hydro

electrolysis from water

home electrolyser to refuel a car at home (stuart)

high pressure electrolyser by GHW
(at munich filling station)

Hydrogen from Biomass
Technologies for the generation of hydrogen from biomass are not commercially available so far. Dependent on the process they are at different stages of research and development.
Experts differentiate between the following methods for the generation of hydrogen: conversion of firm biomass (e.g. pellets from cultivation, residues consisting of biomass), fermentation of biomass like liquid-manure and biological generation of hydrogen.
The charming thing about generating H2 directly from biomass is that the generation of hydrogen is effected directly from the renewable energy source without taking the detour of converting the energy contained in the biomass to electric power (needed for electrolysis). By doing this a high system efficiency with a positive general balance is made possible.
The process of water vapour gasification of biomass generates a gas mixture which consists of
• 0% hydrogen
• 20% carbon monoxide
• 10% carbon dioxide
• just under 5% methane
• 45% nitrogen
When using pure oxygen or only water vapour the product gas contains no nitrogen.
In this process due to the heat the organic substances decompose into coke, condensate and gases before the gasification itself takes place. This process is called thermal decomposition or pyrolysis. Because of the oxygen present in the reactor the intermediate products are not reformed but there is a partial oxidation instead.
In a second phase of the shift-reaction the carbon monoxide together with water vapour is converted into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. After that the gas mixture is dissociated in a pressure-swing-absorption process into pure hydrogen and residual gas.
Fermentation of Biomass
Biogas can be generated by anaerobe methane fermentation when biomass or liquid manure contains a high percentage of moisture. Biogas contains a high percentage of carbon monoxide and methane. Even though this gas mixture contains very little hydrogen it can be used as fuel in advanced high-temperature fuel cells (MCFC). Because of the high process temperatures (~ 650°C) the reforming of the methane takes place directly at the electrode. Before it can be used in membrane fuel cells (PEM) the gas has to be converted into hydrogen in a reformer.
Biological Hydrogen Production
There are different biological processes in which hydrogen is set free or is produced as an intermediate product. In principle two different types of processes can be distinguished: The photosynthesis which requires light and the fermentation which takes place in darkness. Hydrogen is produced by algae in the first case and by micro-organisms in the latter case.
These methods of generating hydrogen are still in the development stage but they are a complementing option for a future hydrogen economy.

biomass gasification plant (Herten, Germany)

How to store hydrogen
Hydrogen serves as a storage and transportation medium for energy.
In general there are three different ways of storing hydrogen:
• storage in pressure tanks
• storage of liquid hydrogen
• storage via absorption
All of them have pros and cons which qualify them for different applications:

Storage of Pressurised Gas
We talk of the storage of pressurised gas whenever a gas is stored under higher than normal pressure. Tanks for the storage of pressurized gas differ by their construction according to the type of application which determine the required pressure levels. For the most part stationary tanks have a lower pressure level because this type of storage is cheaper. The requirements for mobile applications, for example in a motor vehicle, are quite different because there is not much room for tanks. For such applications tank pressure is increased up to 700 bar in order to store as much hydrogen as possible in a very confined space.
Pressure tanks used to be made from steel and therefore were very heavy. Modern pressure tanks are made from composite materials (coal-fibre composite materials with a thin internal aluminium liner) and they are much lighter.
When it is necessary to store large amounts of hydrogen in a future energy economy then hydrogen can be pressed into subterranean cavern storages. There it can be stored under a pressure of up to 50 bar. In France and in the USA this method is already in use. In Germany natural gas is stored in such caverns. They could be used for the storage of hydrogen in future.

vehicle storage system (GM)

storage system for buses (roof system by MAN)

Stationary storage system at a filling station

Liquid storages for hydrogen
Hydrogen has the highest energy storage density referring to volume when it is liquefied before storing. Hydrogen is liquefied at -235°C.
Cryo-tanks - tanks for liquid gases at very low temperatures are called this - can be produced with very high quality today. The losses resulting from the gradual heating up of the liquid hydrogen in the tank (waste steam losses) can be kept very low. The storage of liquid hydrogen is especially suited for the use in vehicles because the space requirement of liquid hydrogen tanks is lowest.
For the re-fuelling of these vehicles automatic robots exist already.
Stationary liquid-storage will only be used when hydrogen is really requested in liquid form, e.g. in fuel stations. For all other applications the high amount of energy requested for the liquefaction should be avoided wherever possible.

BMW with liquid hydrogen storage in the back

robot fueling station at munich airport

Adsorption Storage
Beside pressure gas and liquid gas storage there are other methods for the storage of hydrogen as well.
Metal hydride storage
This storage technology uses certain metal alloys which are storing hydrogen like a sponge becoming saturated with water. The hydrogen is adsorbed by the metal thus building metal hydrides.
If a metal hydride is "filled" with hydrogen it emits heat. To regain the hydrogen heat must be supplied.
Referring to the volume metal hydride storage has a very high storage capacity. Unfortunately those storages are quite heavy and therefore they can not be used in mobile applications. In addition they are very expensive because of the high costs of materials.
With regard to handling and safety there are advantages in the use of metal hydride tanks. Almost all of them operate at normal pressures, there are no losses and they effect a cleaning of the hydrogen. Hydrogen is released by the supply of heat and therefore the hydrogen remains bonded in case the tank is damaged.
In submarines this type of storage is in commercial use today.
Carbon Nanotubes
This material on carbon base may revolutionise the technology of storage for hydrogen one day. Some years ago it has been discovered that large amounts of hydrogen can be stored in tube-shaped microscopically small graphite-structures.
Meanwhile many groups are doing research on the storage technology world-wide. But up to now the reports on the storage capacity are differing very much.
Independent from each other several groups proved that this method of storage is working in principle and that it has a high potential. We can really look forward to the scientific and technical advances.

portable metal hydride storage

large scale metal hydride storage

tubular graphite structures

Hydrogen supply
In principle hydrogen can be transported by using all the discussed storage technologies. Tank sizes will be rather big corresponding to the technologies.
Liquid hydrogen can be transported with trucks either in special trailers or in containers. In the USA there even exists a 40 km pipeline for liquid hydrogen.
Pressurized hydrogen today is delivered in mobile pressure tanks by truck or train from producer to consumer. In addition there is the option to build a pipeline system for the delivery of hydrogen which would principally correspond to our present natural gas mains. One day every household could be supplied with hydrogen instead of natural gas.
In the Ruhr Basin and in Leuna there has been a pipeline grid for hydrogen with a length well over 100 km for several decades. It is working without any problems. World-wide there are about 1000 km of hydrogen pipelines in operation.
Ships for the transport of liquid hydrogen could be very similar to the tankers for liquid natural gas which are used today. But new concepts for ships specially for the transport of liquid hydrogen have been designed in detail as well.
As long as there are only small amounts of hydrogen to be transported intercontinentally the transport in containers makes sense. These containers for liquid hydrogen are standardised and they can be transported world-wide with ships, trains and trucks. And they can be transferred in every container-terminal.

hydrogen pipeline

trailer for pressurized hydrogen

liquid gas vessel

liquid hydrogen delivery trailer

Mobile or stationary
The use of hydrogen as an energy carrier will change many facets of our life in future. Together with the fuel cell it has the potential to revolutionise the whole energy economy.
Hydrogen enables the use of renewable energy sources: as a fuel in traffic or as a fuel for the co-generation of electric power and heat in stationary applications. Whoever wants to cook or to drive with hydrogen generated from solar energy or from windpower will be able to do so.
By the way, hydrogen is the only energy carrier which makes it possible to power an aircraft using solar energy!
Generally one can differentiate between three main areas for the use of hydrogen: Stationary, mobile and portable applications. Chose a category on the left and take a look at some examples!

fuel cell car (Toyota)

residential fuel cell system

Hydrogen as a fuel
All the means of transport we know today could be powered by hydrogen. There are two possibilities for doing so: Hydrogen is burnt in conventional engines instead of gasoline. The other option is the use of fuel cells which are generating electric power for an electric motor in the car.
The use of fuel cells in cars has some decisive advantages: There is only water emitted from the exhaust, it operates without noise and without vibrations and it is more efficient than a combustion engine - so it saves energy. When a fuel cell car is waiting at a traffic light there is no noise because the engine does not work. The noise from accelerating is much reduced as well. Our cities will become much quieter.
Motorcars with Fuel Cells
World-wide all the big motorcar producing companies are developing test cars with fuel cell drive systems. In Germany mainly DaimlerChrysler, Opel and Ford are the first to do so. BMW presented hydrogen powered cars very early but they are still concentrating on combustion engines. Though future vehicles of the 7-series will use a fuel cell for the electric power supply.
DaimlerChrysler wants to bring a serial A-class model with fuel cells up for sale beginning in 2005. Which fuel will be used then - hydrogen or methanol - has not been decided yet. At the moment the missing fuel station infrastructure is an obstacle to the broad market introduction of fuel cell cars.
Hydrogen Driven City buses
For buses the two different concepts of internal combustion engine and fuel cell exist as well. Compared with diesel buses they both have the advantage of greatly reduced pollutant emissions.
At the Munich Airport three hydrogen buses with internal combustion engines which were built by MAN and Neoplan are in operation since 1999. Meanwhile both companies are also testing fuel cell buses because they are convinced of the advantages of fuel cells, especially concerning operation in cities. It is planned to run a MAN city bus with a fuel cell in Berlin as well.
DaimlerChrysler wants to test some dozen of its "Nebus" city buses with fuel cells in regular service in the coming years.
Trucks, Trams, Railway Engines and Ships
There is hardly a means of transport for which no hydrogen or fuel cell concept exists. The use in trams or railway engines is in the discussion for all applications where there are not yet overhead lines or where these overhead lines would be really spoiling. In these cases there is a trade-off between the additional costs for hydrogen powered railway engines and the costs for overhead lines.
The use of hydrogen and fuel cells in trucks has not been tested yet, because on long-distance rides diesel engines work very efficiently. However the use of fuel cells in delivery vehicles operating in cities is very interesting because these vehicles are usually part of a fleet and have only a limited daily mileage. In the evenings they could be refilled in the depots. The "Hermes-Versand" in Hamburg, inter alia, runs seven Mercedes Sprinters (with internal combustion engines) to supply its customers. The next step will be the import of hydrogen from Iceland which will be renewably generated. As a result the hydrogen driven vehicles will have an excellent local and global emission balance.
Ships which are used in urban areas, like passenger ferries or pleasure boats, could considerably lower their emissions. In addition these ships are very quiet and really comfortable for the passengers because the fuel cell works without noise. In big ships the electric power supply is to be met by fuel cells first, allowing the generators to be stopped when in harbour.
Hydrogen Driven Aircrafts
Since the beginning of the 80`s the Russian manufacturer Tupolev worked on aircraft versions with cryogen energy supply. In 1988 Tupolev presented a TU 154 of which the right of the three engines was modified so that it could be powered by liquid hydrogen and also tanks for hydrogen were installed.
The engine was working successfully for the whole flight phase which lasted more than 100 hours.
Since the beginning of the 90`s Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace and Tupolev co-operate in the field of cryogen aircraft technology. This co-operation is called Cryoplane Program. The aim is to switch the engines of a turboprop-aircraft (DO 328) over to hydrogen propulsion and to install a hydrogen supply system on board. The experience to be gained in this project can be transferred to big passenger aircrafts (Airbus) later on.

BMW with internal combustion engine for hydrogen

fuel cell delivery car (GM/Opel)

the fuel cell "motor"

the Hywire concept car (GM/Opel)

fuel cell bus by MAN

airport bus with internal hydrogen combustion engine

fuel cell locomotive for mining

fuel cell delivery truck (DC)

sightseeing boat with fuel cell propulsion

hydrogen aircraft

concept aircraft "cryoplane"

Hydrogen at home
The most important stationary application of fuel cells and hydrogen is the co-generation of electric power and heat in a fuel cell heating and power station. The advantage of making use of both products - electric power and heat - is the very high overall system efficiency thus making the best possible use of the primary energy sources.
Such cogeneration fuel cell power stations can be realised even in very small construction sizes. Most common will be systems having the size of regular residential heating systems or of gas heating boilers. When these systems were produced in large numbers they would be only slightly more expensive than conventional heating boilers but in addition they are "incidentally" generating electric power!
One can imagine how our energy system would change if millions of such plants were installed directly in residential buildings. The generation of electric power would become decentralised and we would use the primary energy sources more efficiently.
In Europe only a very small part of all power stations uses the "waste heat" of the power generation for heating purposes. Conversely heating installations burn oil and gas without generating electric power.
Even if in the beginning the fuel cell is to be operated together with a reformer which converts natural gas (i.e. a fossil fuel) the overall energy consumption and therefore the greenhouse gas emissions would decrease considerably.

fuel cell system for an apartment house

1 kW home fuel cell system (SOFC)

home fuel cell system (PEM)

Hydrogen in your hands
A great variety of possible applications for fuel cells and hydrogen can be found in the energy supply of portable devices: mobile phones, laptops, walkmen, camcorders and many other things could be powered by hydrogen and by fuel cells in the size of batteries.
In this exposition you can have a look at a computer powered by a fuel cell. Its operation time far exceeds the operation time of computers powered by conventional accumulators. And when the hydrogen draws to an end one simply inserts a new cartridge. The empty cartridges can be refilled.
Fuel cells which are even smaller, so called micro fuel cells, could be integrated in mobile phones. Prototypes with an operation time of fifty hours have already been presented.
Portable applications with higher power ratings are in the development stage as well. In the USA the lighting appliances on some construction sites in remote regions are already powered by fuel cells. Provided there is a big enough tank these systems work for weeks and they are cheaper to run than batteries with equivalent capacities.

mobile phone (motorola)

notebook power supply (SMFC)

portable power supply (Ballard)

Hydrogen Demonstration Projects
There are already a lot of hydrogen demonstration projects throughout Europe.

CUTE -European fuel cell bus project

Is hydrogen dangerous?
Hydrogen is highly inflammable, that means it easily reacts with oxygen and when it burns water is produced. Exactly this characteristic makes it suitable as a fuel.
Hydrogen has no greater danger potential than oil, natural gas or uranium. With regard to its physical and chemical specifications hydrogen is not particularly dangerous. Therefore, e.g. in Germany, the safety precautions and regulations for hydrogen do not differ from those for every other burnable gas.
In car accidents or air crashes liquid fuels often lead to fire slicks and in consequence frequently result in fatal injuries. In contrast to this hydrogen escapes upwards into the air very fast as proved by the accident of the airship "Hindenburg" in 1937. On the other hand one has to consider that there is an increased explosion hazard when hydrogen is set free in closed rooms, e.g. in garages or tunnels. In closed rooms good ventilation and perhaps additional safety precautions must be provided.
The chemical industry has been using hydrogen for hundred years. The experiences concerning safety are positive.

The outbreak of the fire which destroyed the airship LZ 129 "Hindenburg" in Lakehurst in 1937 had nothing to do with the hydrogen gas which had been stored on board in large amounts as ascending force. The reasons for the accident were the chemical and electric characteristics of the paint applied to the outer skin in combination with the particular weather situation in Lakehurst on the day of the tragedy. In a thunderstorm a electrostatic stroke set the highly inflammable paint on fire. Then the fire spread to the hydrogen.

If the airship really had "exploded", like it is so often said, then this photo could not have been taken. The truth is that the hydrogen burnt while escaping upwards. Any passenger who did not jump off survived the accident! If a liquid fuel had started burning the accident would have been much more disastrous, because a liquid fuel always collects at the bottom and builds a fire slick!

Hydrogen and fuel cells - a perfect combination
In this chapter we learn the basic facts of fuel cells. What for we need fuel cells, how they work and what is already reality.
Fuel cells gives us a very efficient way to produce electric power and heat. In the whole circle of renewable energies they are the final element. The sun provides energy, solar cells or wind power catch it for us, hydrogen is the storage and the medium to transport the energy and the fuel cells generate the energy whenever and whereever it is needed.
If we get into our car, if we need heat and electricity at home or if we just listen music on our walkmen. The energy could be provided by a fuel cell.

An invention with history
Back in the year 1839 the foundation stone for today's fuel cell technology has already been laid. It was the Welsh justice and physician Sir William Robert Grove (1811-1896) who developed the first working prototype. This prototype consisted of two platinum electrodes which were separately surrounded by a glass cylinder. One of the cylinders was filled with hydrogen the other with oxygen. Both electrodes were immersed in diluted sulphuric acid -which was the electrolyte- and created the electric connection. At the electrodes voltage was produced. This voltage was very low and therefore Grove linked several of these fuel cells to get a higher voltage.
Groves`s contemporaries underestimated the importance of his discovery and the fuel cell was forgotten. Only in the 1950`s, against the background of the Cold War, his idea was taken up again. Space travel and military technology required compact and powerful energy sources.
Spacecraft and submarines require electric power and it is not possible to work with internal combustion engines. Because of batteries being too heavy for spacecrafts, NASA (e.g. in the Apollo program) decided in favour of the direct chemical generation of electric power by fuel cells.
The civil use of fuel cells became interesting only during the last years.
At the beginning of the 90`s scientists and engineers developed different new concepts and technologies which made it possible to increase efficiency continually and to decrease costs at the same time. Today fuel cells can be used for a lot of different applications: for vehicle engines, for residential heating systems and also for big power stations with a power rating of several megawatts as well as for smallest applications like in mobile phones or mobile computers.
The fuel cell really has the potential to revolutionise the world of energy technology!

Sir Wiliam Robert Grove

Groves experiment

Basic construction
Fuel cells have a very simple structure. The cell itself consists of three layers, one above the other:
The first layer is the anode, the second an electrolyte and the third layer is the cathode.
Anode and cathode serve as catalyst. The layer in the middle consists of a carrier structure which absorbs the electrolyte. In different types of fuel cells different substances are used as electrolyte. Some electrolytes are liquid and some are solid with a membrane structure.
Because one cell generates only low voltage several cells get stacked according to the requested voltage. This arrangement is called "stack".

princip of a cell

Many cells combined are called a fuel cell stack. The bipolar plates (dark blue) seperate the cells and avoid electric connections.

What exactly does a fuel cell?
The fuel cell reverses the process of electrolysis which is known from school. In the process of electrolysis by applying electric power water is decomposed into the gaseous components oxygen and hydrogen.
The fuel cell takes exactly these two substances and converts them to water again. In theory the same amount of energy which has been used for the electrolysis is set free by this conversion. In practice insignificant losses are caused by different physical-chemical processes.
So to say electric power is stored in hydrogen. Therefore we have a gas at our disposal in which electric power can be stored and this gas is hydrogen. In fuel cells we get back the electric power stored in the hydrogen. Most fuel cells are operating with air, so there is no need to store oxygen.
There are different types of fuel cells which are distinguished by construction and mode of function. In the next chapters we will describe the fundamental modes of operation of different fuel cells...:

electrolysis

a fuel cell

The first "modern" fuel cell
Apart from Grove`s prototype the alkaline fuel cell - AFC- was the first type of fuel cell.
It was in use, and still is in use today, for space travel and submarine engines.
It is the only type of fuel cell that requires oxygen and hydrogen in purest form because even smallest amounts of dirt would destroy the cell. The electrolyte consists of caustic potash.
Today there are AFC available that can be operated with air. A very good filter is needed to clean the air to avoid contamination of the fuel cell.

AFC used in the space shuttle

The function of the AFC in seven steps:
Step 1
Inside the two seperate gas supply cicuits the gaseous oxygene and hydrogen flow into the gas area and the catalyzer.
Step 2
While getting in contact with the catalyzer the hydrogen molecules (H2) are splitted into two H+ protons. At the same time each hydrogen atom sends out one electron.
Step 3
Dhe electrons move from the anode to the cathode and cause an electric current. This electric current supplies an electric capacitor with electric power.

Step 4
Respectively four electrons recombine with one hydrogen molecule at the cathode.
Step 5
The now generated oxygene ions react with water to OH ions.
Step 6
This hydroxide ions move through the electrolyte (potash solution) to the anode.
Step 7
The hydroxide ions react at the anode with the protons to water. The water is partly leaded back to the cathode to enhance the further reaction.

AFC applications
Alkaline fuel cells have been in use in manned space travel which would not have been possible without the fuel cell. In the Apollo and in the Apollo-Soyuz program as well as in the Skylab and in space shuttles alkaline fuel cells were and are in use.
At the moment AFCs are in the development stage for the use as vehicle drives. But the fact that AFCs can not be fed directly with air (but only with pure oxygen) is a big disadvantage.
CO2 has to be removed from the air in the beginning to avoid a "poisoning" of the electrolyte. This requires additional devices in the fuel cell system.
Alkaline fuel cells are especially suitable for niche vehicles because they can be produced quite cheaply even in small numbers. An example for such an application are the famous London taxis.

fuel cell from the Apollo program

a taxi driven by a AFC

the first fuel cell boat with an AFC

The proton exchange membrane fuel cell - PEMFC
is easy to handle. It is very light, it is very efficient and as reaction gas it requires only atmospheric oxygen instead of pure oxygen. The hydrogen has to have the typical purity.
PEM fuel cells are very sensitive to carbon monoxide (CO). This gas might block the anode catalyst and subsequently lead to a reduced performance.
The electrolyte consists of a solid proton exchange membrane (PEM) made from sulphonated polymer.
The power output of a PEM fuel cell can be controled very dynamically. Therefore it is perfectly suitable for mobile applications and decentralised power plants.
Among the development of fuel cells the PEMFC is most paramount at the moment. One reason is the cell`s enormous potential to be mass produced. The target costs for a fuel cell stack are about 200 DM/kW.

1.2 kW PEM fuel cell system (Ballard)

PEM fuel cell stack components

The function of the PEM fuel cell in seven steps:
Step 1
Inside the two seperate gas supply cicuits the gaseous oxygene and hydrogen flow into the gas area and the catalyzer.
Step 2
While getting in contact with the catalyzer the hydrogen molecules (H2) are splitted into two H+ protons. At the same time each hydrogen atom sends out one electron.
Step 3
The protons move through the electrolyte (membrane) to the cathode area.

Step 4
Dhe electrons move from the anode to the cathode and cause an electric current. This electric current supplies an electric capacitor with electric power.
Step 5
Respectively four electrons recombine with one hydrogen molecule at the cathode.
Step 6
The now generated oxygene ions have a negative load. They move to the positiv loaded protons.
Step 7
The oxygene ions give their electrons to the two protons and oxidize to water.

Applications for PEM fuel cells
The PEM fuel cell can be used for a great variety of applications such as mobile phones, cogeneration of power and heat or drive trains for automobiles.
PEM fuel cell drive systems are now demonstrated in many prototype vehicles. Motorcars, minibuses and city buses will be the first types of vehicles to be fitted and sold with fuel cells.
Later on vans and some other light commercial vehicles will be added. Only heavy trucks are not probable to be offered with PEM fuel cells in the near future because very large hydrogen tanks would be needed to drive long distances and in addition the diesel engines work very efficiently in big trucks.
PEM fuel cells are also suitable for rail vehicles like trams or regional railways. In this case overhead lines are not required.
PEM fuel cells are perfectly suitable for the co-generation of electric power and heat. Small applications e.g. in houses as well as applications for large buildings like hospitals are in the development stage.
It must be reckoned that the commercialisation will take place in the next two years. In these applications the hydrogen is generated from natural gas or liquid gas in reformers.
Portable devices which require electric power are also possible applications of PEM fuel cells. Most prominent is the field of camping equipment. But also accumulator-drills or lawn-mowers could be driven by PEM fuel cells. The first fuel cell systems for mobile phones and laptops have already been developed.

fuel cell car (Ford)

PEM fuel cell integration (Ford)

stationary fuel cell by GM

bycicle with PEM fuel cell (front) and hydrogen storage

The phosphoric acid fuel cell - PAFC
is the type of fuel cell which has reached the highest stage of technological and commercial development.
Because it is run at a high operating temperature it is suited perfectly for cogeneration. Highly concentrated phosphoric acid which is bond in a gel matrix serves as catalyst.
The PAFC requires atmospheric oxygen and hydrogen as reduction gases. One disadvantage is that the phosphoric acid effloresces irreversibly when temperature sinks below 42°. When this happens the fuel cell becomes unusable.

200 kW PAFC cogeneration unit (Onsi)

The function of the PAFC in seven steps
Step 1
nside the two seperate gas supply cicuits the gaseous oxygene and hydrogen flow into the gas area and the catalyzer.
Step 2
While getting in contact with the catalyzer the hydrogen molecules (H2) are splitted into two H+ protons. At the same time each hydrogen atom sends out an electron.
Step 3
The protons move through the electrolyte (highly concentrated phosphoric acid) to the cathode area.

Step 4
The electrons move into the anode and cause an electric current. This electric current supplies an electric capacitor with electric power.
Step 5
Respectively four electrons recombine with one hydrogen molecule at the cathode.
Step 6
The now generated oxygene ions have a negative load. They now move to the positiv loaded protons.
Step 7
The oxygene ions give their electrons to the two protons and oxidize with them to water.
Applications for the PAFC
The PAFC is used exclusively for the cogeneration of power and heat.
The PAFC was the first commercially available fuel cell. In units with an electric power of 200 kW and a thermal power of 220 kW it is offered by the American company ONSI. Up to now more then 200 PAFC plants have been installed world-wide.

fuel cell power plant for an apartment house
(supply of heat and electric power)

The molten carbonate fuel cell - MCFC
operates at high temperature ranges of 580 to 660°C.
The advantage of this type of cell is that there is no need for gas purification. In addition the cell is insensitive to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Natural gas, coal gas, biogas and synthesis gas can be used directly as fuels. No reformer is needed.
The electrolyte in this fuel cell is a salt melting of combined alkali carbonates (Li2CO3 / K2CO3).

280 kW MC fuel cell (Hot Module by mtu)

MCFC Applications
Molten carbonate fuel cells are being developed for stationary applications. They are especially useful for the cogeneration of power and heat in industrial and commercial applications where high temperatures are required (process heat) because the MCFC operates at temperatures around 650°C.
Plants with around 300 kW power rating are in the development but plants with more power are also possible. Apart from these stationary applications ship engines on the basis of MCFCs are being developed as well.

2 MW MCFC power station
Glossary
AFC alkaline fuel cell; with alkaline electrolyte, operating temperature 60 to 90°C; fuel: pure hydrogen; can only be operated with pure oxygen or with air if the CO2 has been removed; state of the art: so far used mainly in military applications and space travel; presently developed and manufactured by ZeTek Power for terrestrial applications.
biomass all organic substances: plants, wood chips, bales of straw, liquid manure, organic wastes etc.
biomass converter (technical) system that converts organic feedstock (biomass) into a technically usable energy carrier: e.g. steam reformer.

boil-off loss amount of gas that vaporizes in a liquid gas storage through external heating (ambient temperature). The gas will only be vented when the operating pressure is exceeded.
catalyst a catalyst is a material that facilitates, accelerates etc. a chemical reaction retaining its own properties and without being consumed.
catalytic combustion in a catalytic combustion the combustion temperature is reduced by a catalyst. Lower temperatures result in near zero nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions.
CGH2 or CH2 compressed gaseous hydrogen

compressed gas storage storage device for gases (e.g. hydrogen, natural gas, nitrogen) at room temperature under high pressure (typically some 20 MPa).
compressor device for increasing gas pressure or gas flow rate.
cryoadsorption storage special type of graphite storage. Carbon is able to adsorb hydrogen. Different qualities of carbon can adsorb higher quantities of hydrogen under certain temperature and pressure conditions than could be stored without the carbon under the same conditions. Temperatures are below 0°C (cryogenic) and above boiling temperature of hydrogen (20 K). The pressure levels are above 5 MPa.
cryogenic Greek krýos: cold, frost. Applied to gases cryogenic refers to low temperatures where the gases are in their liquid phase. For natural gas the boiling temperature (where the phase transition from liquid to gaseous occurs) is -161.5°C (111.5 K) and for hydrogen it is -253°C (20 K).

dissociation of water at high temperatures above 2000 K (1700°C approximately), a temperature that can be achieved in solar furnaces without major problems, water is split into hydrogen and oxygen. Ceramic membranes permitting the permeation of hydrogen but inhibiting that of oxygen are used for the gas separation. This process is in a very early stage of development.
DMFC direct methanol fuel cell; fuel: methanol; state of the art: basic research.

electro farming concept that comprises the conversion of energy crops (biomass) via steam reforming and fuel cells into electricity. This way, in principle, electricity is „farmed".
elektrolyzer In an electrolyzer, an electric current splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. Reverse process of the fuel cell.

energy carrier medium (gaseous, e.g. natural gas, hydrogen; liquid, e.g. petrol, biofuels; solid, e.g. wood, coal) in which energy is stored in chemical form; by means of energy carriers energy is storable and transportable. Non-material energy carriers are e.g. electricity and solar radiation. Within certain limits and with certain losses energy carriers can be converted into one another (e.g. solar radiation into electricity, electricity into hydrogen, hydrogen into electricity, electricity into light etc.).
energy crop plants that are grown for the sole purpose of energy production, not for food production (e.g. rape used for the production of biofuels). The growing of energy crops is not yet very wide-spread.
fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical device in which hydrogen and oxygen combine in an controlled manner (in contrast to combustion or explosion) to directly produce an electric current and heat. Reverse process of electrolyzer.

full composite storage storage tank produced entirely from composite materials. Presently, the market introduction of full composite compressed gas storages takes place.

GH2 gaseous hydrogen. At room temperature (above -253°C or 20 K, to be exact) hydrogen is gaseous independent of the pressure.
graphite storage carbon is able to adsorb hydrogen. The amount of adsorbed hydrogen depends on temperature, pressure and the quality/ structure of the carbon used. Carbon structures in the nanometers range (one nanometer corresponds to 10-9 meters), e.g. balls, tubes or fibers, seem to be very promising. The developments are in a very early stage.
H2 hydrogen

H2/O2 steam generator device that produces steam via the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen. The subsequent injection of water allows a temperature control between 200 and 2000°C. H2/O2 steam generators have been developed as a spinning reserve of large power plants, but have not yet been applied.
heating value energy content of an energy carrier. Upper and lower heating value are distinguished. Upper heating value: total energy content of the energy carrier. Lower heating value: energy content reduced by the condensation energy (latent heat) of the product gas (the steam in the product gas, to be exact).
hydrogen H is the chemical symbol for hydrogen, the lightest element of the table of elements and the most abundant element of the universe. In general, hydrogen will be found in molecular form, i.e. as a hydrogen molecule composed of two hydrogen atoms (H2), or in other compounds (e.g. in water – H2O, organic substances). Hydrogen as secondary energy carrier is seen as the key component of a global renewable world energy supply.

hydrogen as solar energy carrier solar hydrogen energy economy

hydrogen energy economy energy economy where hydrogen is used as the secondary energy carrier.

hydrogen liquefaction liquefaction of hydrogen, which is gaseous at room temperature, by cooling it below -253°C (20 K).
hydrogen motor combustion engine which uses hydrogen as a fuel.

hydrogen propulsion mobile propulsion system that uses hydrogen as fuel. The propulsion energy is produced in a fuel cell and an electric motor, in a combustion engine (hydrogen motor) or a gas turbine.

hydrogen storage compressed gas storage, cryoadsorption storage, graphite storage, iron sponge storage, liquid hydrogen storage, metal hydride storage.

hydrogen jet engine hydrogen fueled jet engine for aviation use

iron sponge storage iron sponge can be used as a hydrogen storage material. Hydrogen and „rust" (Fe3O4) are converted into pure iron („iron sponge") which is transported to the hydrogen consumption site. In the reverse reaction (oxidation) „rust" is produced liberating the hydrogen. The iron sponge storage can also be filled/ loaded with synthesis gas (mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide) also liberating pure hydrogen in the reverse reaction. Iron sponge storage is in an early stage of development.
LH2 liquid hydrogen

LH2 storage liquid hydrogen storage

liquid gas storage tanks for the storage of liquids that are gaseous under normal conditions (room temperature, atmospheric pressure). The substances are kept in the liquid phase either by applying a slight over-pressure (e.g. LPG – liquefied petroleum gas; 0.5 - 1.5 MPa) or by storing it at low temperatures in superinsulated devices (e.g. hydrogen at -253°C).

liquid hydrogen below -253°C or 20 K hydrogen is in its liquid phase.

liquid hydrogen storage liquid gas storage for cryogenic hydrogen at atmospheric pressure and cryogenic temperatures.
MCFC molten carbonate fuel cell; with molten alkaline carbonate electrolyte; operating temperature 600 to 650°C; fuel: carbon containing gases (e.g. natural gas, synthesis gas); state of the art: prototypes are being manufactured, demonstration planned for the period 1997 to 2000, first small series production starting after 2000.
metal hydride storage device that can store hydrogen by use of a metal alloy. The hydrogen is soaked into the alloy like into a sponge and fills the spaces in the crystal lattice of the alloy. The storage is filled applying a modest over-pressure and is usually operated in the temperature range of 20 - 80°C.
MPa mega Pascals (SI pressure unit); one MPa corresponds to a pressure of 10 atmospheres (10 barabs).
PAFC phosphoric acid fuel cell; with phosphorous electrolyte; operating temperature 160 up to 220°C; fuel: pure hydrogen; state of the art: 200 kWe systems commercially available.
partial oxidation conversion of hydrocarbons (diesel, residual oil etc.) into a synthesis gas that consists of hydrogen, carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2). The necessary energy is supplied by the combustion („oxidation") of parts („partial") of the feedstock in the process itself. Partial oxidation is a common process for the production of hydrogen (the synthesis gas is converted into pure hydrogen by converting the carbon monoxide and water into carbon dioxide and hydrogen and by subsequently separating the carbon dioxide).
PEFC PEMFC

PEMFC proton exchange membrane fuel cell; with proton conducting membrane as electrolyte; operating temperature 60 to 80°C; fuel: pure hydrogen; state of the art: in 1997 first systems in commercial operation in the very small power range (>50 W), larger units in series production for mobile and stationary applications before the turn of the century.
photobiological water splitting there are different biological processes that liberate hydrogen or where hydrogen is produced as an intermediate product. Photobiological processes as e.g. photosynthesis use the solar radiation as source of energy, while fermentation processes that take place in the absence of light take advantage of the energy stored in the feedstock (e.g. glucose). There are several first efforts to use photobiological water splitting for the technical production of hydrogen.
primary energy energy carrier to be found in nature (e.g. solar energy, wood, coal, petroleum, natural gas).
primary energy carrier primary energy, energy carrier

renewable energy form of energy which is never exhausted because it is renewed by nature (within short time scales; e.g. wind, solar radiation, hydro power).
renewable raw material biomass that is only harvested to an extent that allows a (natural) regeneration. It is used for energetic or other purposes (e.g. as a construction material).
secondary energy energy carrier which has been produced from primary energy in a conversion process (e.g. electricity, hydrogen, petrol).

secondary energy carrier secondary energy, energy carrier

SOFC solid oxide fuel cell; with oxygen ion conducting ceramic electrolyte; operating temperature 800 to 1000°C; fuel: pure hydrogen, carbon containing gases (e.g. natural gas, synthesis gas); state of the art: first demonstration projects are presently being carried out, commercialization planned after 1998.
solar energy solar radiation reaching the earth and its use for the production of electricity and heat.
solar hydrogen energy economy energy economy where solar energy is the primary energy and hydrogen is used as secondary energy carrier.

SPFC solid polymer fuel cell = PEMFC

steam reformer device for steam reforming

steam reforming catalytic conversion of light hydrocarbons (biomass, fossil energy carriers e.g. natural gas) producing a synthesis gas that consists of hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO) and methane (CH4). The process is heat consuming. Steam reforming of natural gas is a common process for the production of hydrogen (the synthesis gas is converted into pure hydrogen by converting the carbon monoxide and water into carbon dioxide and hydrogen and by subsequently separating the carbon dioxide).