EAC Issues Voter’s Guide to Federal Elections

WASHINGTON- The U.S. Election Assistance Commission has issued a guide for citizens about voter registration and voting in the November presidential election. In addition to the basics of ballot-casting, the guide explains special voting procedures, such as early, absentee, and military and overseas voting.

“This guide is a one-stop resource for all types of voters, from first-time voters to frequent voters. It also includes step-by-step instructions for distinct categories of voters, such as military and overseas voters, who must follow special procedures,” said EAC Chair Rosemary Rodriguez.

“Citizens will also learn of new voting options that more states are offering, such as early voting and absentee voting. Voters need to know about all voting options, and this guide shows them how to take advantage of them.”

Since many voting procedures vary from state-to-state, it’s important that citizens always review their state’s materials. Links to all state voter information Web sites are available at www.eac.gov, along with any voter guides issued by individual states.

Copies of the EAC’s A Voter’s Guide to Federal Elections have been mailed to every jurisdiction in the country. Election officials may request additional copies at no charge by calling Edgardo Cortés or Juliana Milhofer at (202) 566-3100. An electronic version of the guide is also available online at www.eac.gov. The EAC Web site also features a variety of information for voters, including registration deadlines for each state, how to register using the National Mail Voter Registration Form, and how to become a poll worker.

Aerobic biodegradation of pollutants

The burgeoning amount of bacterial genomic data provides unparalleled opportunities for understanding the genetic and molecular bases of the degradation of organic pollutants. Aromatic compounds are among the most recalcitrant of these pollutants and lessons can be learned from the recent genomic studies of Burkholderia xenovorans LB400 and Rhodococcus sp. strain RHA1, two of the largest bacterial genomes completely sequenced to date. These studies have helped expand our understanding of bacterial catabolism, non-catabolic physiological adaptation to organic compounds, and the evolution of large bacterial genomes. First, the metabolic pathways from phylogenetically diverse isolates are very similar with respect to overall organization. Thus, as originally noted in pseudomonads, a large number of "peripheral aromatic" pathways funnel a range of natural and xenobiotic compounds into a restricted number of "central aromatic" pathways. Nevertheless, these pathways are genetically organized in genus-specific fashions, as exemplified by the b-ketoadipate and Paa pathways. Comparative genomic studies further reveal that some pathways are more widespread than initially thought. Thus, the Box and Paa pathways illustrate the prevalence of non-oxygenolytic ring-cleavage strategies in aerobic aromatic degradation processes.

Ping–pong mechanisms

As shown on the right, enzymes with a ping-pong mechanism can exist in two states, E and a chemically modified form of the enzyme E*; this modified enzyme is known as an intermediate. In such mechanisms, substrate A binds, changes the enzyme to E* by, for example, transferring a chemical group to the active site, and is then released. Only after the first substrate is released can substrate B bind and react with the modified enzyme, regenerating the unmodified E form. When a set of v by [S] curves (fixed A, varying B) from an enzyme with a ping–pong mechanism are plotted in a Lineweaver–Burk plot, a set of parallel lines will be produced.

Enzymes with ping–pong mechanisms include some oxidoreductases such as thioredoxin peroxidase, transferases such as acylneuraminate cytydilyltransferase and serine proteases such as trypsin and chymotrypsin. Serine proteases are a very common and diverse family of enzymes, including digestive enzymes (trypsin, chymotrypsin, and elastase), several enzymes of the blood clotting cascade and many others. In these serine proteases, the E* intermediate is an acyl-enzyme species formed by the attack of an active site serine residue on a peptide bond in a protein substrate. A short animation showing the mechanism of chymotrypsin is linked here.[δ]

Piracetam

Piracetam (brand name: Nootropil, Qropi, Myocalm, Dinagen) is a nootropic. It is a dietary supplement which is claimed to enhance cognition and memory, slow down brain aging, increase blood flow and oxygen to the brain, aid stroke recovery, and improve Alzheimer's, Down syndrome, dementia, and dyslexia, among others. Piracetam's chemical name is 2-oxo-1-pyrrolidine acetamide; it shares the same 2-oxo-pyrrolidone base structure with 2-oxo-pyrrolidine carboxylic acid (pyroglutamate). Piracetam is a cyclic derivative of GABA. It is one of the racetams. Piracetam is prescribed by doctors for some conditions, mainly myoclonus,1 but is used off-label for a much wider range of applications. However, some treat it as a food supplement rather than a drug.

Inertial navigation systems in detail

INSs have angular and linear accelerometers (for changes in position); some include a gyroscopic element (for maintaining an absolute angular reference).

Angular accelerometers measure how the vehicle is rotating in space. Generally, there's at least one sensor for each of the three axes: pitch (nose up and down), yaw (nose left and right) and roll (clockwise or counter-clockwise from the cockpit).

Linear accelerometers measure how the vehicle is moving in space. Since it can move in three axes (up & down, left & right, forward & back), there is a linear accelerometer for each axis.

A computer continually calculates the vehicle's current position. First, for each of the six degrees of freedom (x,y,z and θ x, θ y and θ z), it integrates the sensed amount of acceleration over time to figure the current velocity. Then it integrates the velocity to figure the current position.

Inertial guidance is difficult without computers. The desire to use inertial guidance in the Minuteman missile and Project Apollo drove early attempts to miniaturize computers.

Inertial guidance systems are now usually combined with satellite navigation systems through a digital filtering system. The inertial system provides short term data, while the satellite system corrects accumulated errors of the inertial system.

An inertial guidance system that will operate near the surface of the earth must incorporate Schuler tuning so that its platform will continue pointing towards the center of the earth as a vehicle moves from place to place.

Planet (software)

In computing, Planet is a feed aggregator application designed to collect posts from the weblogs of members of an Internet community and display them on a single page. Planet runs on a web server. It creates pages with entries from the original feeds in chronological order, most recent entries first.

Planet is written in Python and maintained by Jeff Waugh and Scott James Remnant. Released under the Python License, Planet is free software.

Google Earth

Google Earth is a virtual globe program that was originally called Earth Viewer, and was created by Keyhole, Inc, a company acquired by Google in 2004. It maps the earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial photography and GIS 3D globe. It is available under three different licenses: Google Earth, a free version with limited functionality; Google Earth Plus ($20 per year), which includes additional features; and Google Earth Pro ($400 per year), which is intended for commercial use.

The product, renamed Google Earth in 2006, is currently available for use on personal computers running Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, or Vista, Mac OS X 10.3.9 and above, Linux (released on June 12, 2006), and FreeBSD. Google Earth is also available as a browser plugin (released on June 02, 2008) for Firefox, IE6, or IE7. In addition to releasing an updated Keyhole based client, Google also added the imagery from the Earth database to their web based mapping software. The release of Google Earth in mid 2006 to the public caused a more than tenfold increase in media coverage on virtual globes between 2006 and 2007, driving public interest in geospatial technologies and applications.

Geography Markup Language

The Geography Markup Language (GML) is the XML grammar defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) to express geographical features. GML serves as a modeling language for geographic systems as well as an open interchange format for geographic transactions on the Internet. Note that the concept of feature in GML is a very general one and includes not only conventional "vector" or discrete objects, but also coverages (see also GMLJP2) and sensor data. The ability to integrate all forms of geographic information is key to the utility of GML.

Navigational database

Navigational databases are characterized by the fact that objects in the database are found primarily by following references from other objects. Traditionally navigational interfaces are procedural, though one could characterize some modern systems like XPath as being simultaneously navigational and declarative.

Navigational access is traditionally associated with the network model and hierarchical model of database interfaces and have evolved into Set-oriented systems . Navigational techniques use "pointers" and "paths" to navigate among data records (also known as "nodes"). This is in contrast to the relational model (implemented in relational databases), which strives to use "declarative" or logic programming techniques in which you ask the system for what you want instead of how to navigate to it.

For example, to give directions to a house, the navigational approach would resemble something like, "Get on highway 25 for 8 miles, turn onto Horse Road, left at the red barn, then stop at the 3rd house down the road".

Database transaction

A database transaction is a unit of work performed against a database management system or similar system that is treated in a coherent and reliable way independent of other transactions. A database transaction, by definition, must be atomic, consistent, isolated and durable. These properties of database transactions are often referred to by the acronym ACID.

Transactions provide an "all-or-nothing" proposition stating that work units performed in a database must be completed in their entirety or take no effect whatever. Further, transactions must be isolated from other transactions, results must conform to existing constraints in the database and transactions that complete successfully must be committed to durable storage.

Data extraction

Data extraction is the act or process of retrieving (binary) data out of (usually unstructured or badly structured) data sources for further data processing or data storage (data migration). The import into the intermediate extracting system is thus usually followed by data transformation and possibly the addition of metadata prior to export to another stage in the data workflow.

Usually, the term data extraction is applied when (experimental) data is first imported into a computer from primary sources, like measuring or recording devices. Today's electronic devices will usually present a electrical connector (e.g. USB) through which 'raw data' can be streamed into a personal computer.

Electronic signature

The term electronic signature has several meanings. In recent US law, influenced by ABA committee white papers and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL), electronic signature means "an electronic sound, symbol, or process, attached to or logically associated with a record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record." This definition comes from the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act or "UETA" released by NCCUSL in 1999. The U.S. ESign Act of 2000 enacted on a federal level many of the core concepts of UETA. 46 US states, the District of Columbia, and the US Virgin Islands have enacted UETA.

The concept itself is not new. US and other common law contains references to telegraph signatures and faxed signatures, some as far back as the mid-19th century. For that matter, the text of, and comments to, US Federal Rules of Evidence 1001, 1002, and 1003, among others, give good support for the proposition that electronic records and signatures would be admissible in court.

Types of Trojan horse payloads

Trojan horse payloads are almost always designed to do various harmful things, but can also be harmless. They are broken down in classification based on how they breach and damage systems. The six main types of Trojan horse payloads are:

* Remote Access
* Data Destruction
* Downloader
* Server Trojan(Proxy, FTP , IRC, Email, HTTP/HTTPS, etc.)
* Security software disabler
* Denial-of-service attack (DoS)

Some examples of damage are:

* Erasing or overwriting data on a computer
* Encrypting files in a cryptoviral extortion attack
* Corrupting files in a subtle way
* Upload and download files
* Copying fake links, which lead to false websites, chats, or other account based websites, showing any local account name on the computer falsely engaging in untrue context
* Showing fake downloads of software movies, games, porn videos and porn websites, that you did not download nor go on.
* Allowing remote access to the victim's computer. This is called a RAT (remote access trojan)
* Spreading other malware, such as viruses: this type of Trojan horse is called a 'dropper' or 'vector'
* Setting up networks of zombie computers in order to launch DDoS attacks or send spam.
* Spying on the user of a computer and covertly reporting data like browsing habits to other people (see the article on spyware)
* Making screenshots
* Logging keystrokes to steal information such as passwords and credit card numbers
* Phishing for bank or other account details, which can be used for criminal activities
* Installing a backdoor on a computer system
* Opening and closing CD-ROM tray
* Playing sounds, videos or displaying images.
* Calling using the modem to expensive numbers, thus causing massive phone bills.
* Harvesting e-mail addresses and using them for spam
* Restarting the computer whenever the infected program is started
* Deactivating or interfering with anti-virus and firewall programs
* Deactivating or interfering with other competing forms of malware
* Randomly shutting off the computer
* A virus

E-mail spam

E-mail spam, also known as "bulk e-mail" or "junk e-mail," is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by e-mail. A common synonym for spam is unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE). Definitions of spam usually include the aspects that email is unsolicited and sent in bulk. "UCE" refers specifically to "unsolicited commercial e-mail."

E-mail spam slowly but exponentially grew for several decades to several billion messages a day. Spam has frustrated, confused, and annoyed e-mail users. Laws against spam have been sporadically implemented, with some being opt-out and others requiring opt in e-mail. The total volume of spam (over 100 billion emails per day as of April 2008) has leveled off slightly in recent years, and is no longer growing exponentially. The amount received by most e-mail users has decreased, mostly because of better filtering. About 80% of all spam is sent by fewer than 200 spammers. Botnets, networks of virus-infected computers, are used to send about 80% of spam. The cost of spam is borne mostly by the recipient, so it is a form of postage due advertising.

Roboticist

A roboticist designs, builds, programs, and experiments with robots. Since robotics is a highly interdisciplinary field, roboticists often have backgrounds in a number of disciplines including computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer engineering. Roboticists often work for university, industry, and government research labs, but may also work for startup companies and other entrepreneurial firms. Amateur Roboticist is also a growing hobby all over the world.

Cybernetics

Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of complex systems, especially communication processes, control mechanisms and feedback principles. Cybernetics is closely related to control theory and systems theory.

Example of cybernetic thinking. On the one hand a company is approached as a system in an environment. On the other hand cybernetic factory can be modeled as a control system.

Example of cybernetic thinking. On the one hand a company is approached as a system in an environment. On the other hand cybernetic factory can be modeled as a control system.

Contemporary cybernetics began as an interdisciplinary study connecting the fields of control systems, electrical network theory, mechanical engineering, logic modeling, evolutionary biology and neuroscience in the 1940s.

Other fields of study which have influenced or been influenced by cybernetics include game theory, system theory (a mathematical counterpart to cybernetics), psychology (especially neuropsychology, behavioral psychology, cognitive psychology), philosophy, and architecture.

Homeodynamics

"HOMEODYNAMICS - One of the dominating motifs in biological thinking was provided by the physiologist Claude Bernard in Paris in the 1850s. Bernard, who among many other discoveries carried out some of the earliest systematic studies on what were later to become known as enzymes and hormones, saw living systems as explicable neither by vitalism (the belief that there existed some special 'life forces' beyond the reach of chemistry or physics) nor by mechanism. "He regarded stability as a major organising physiological principle, and emphasised the constancy of what he described as the milieu interieur - the 'internal environment' - of multicellular organisms, their tendency to work to regulate this environment in terms of temperature, acidity, ionic composition and so forth.

This capacity he saw as providing a stable context in which the individual cells of the body can function with a minimum of disruptive turmoil. "Seventy years later the American physiologist Walter Cannon generalzed Bernard's concept by introducing the term homeostasis - the tendency of a regulated system to maintain itself close to some fixed point, like the temperature of a room controlled by a central heating system and a thermostat. No modern textbook account of physiological or psychological mechanisms fails to locate itself within this homeostatic metaphor. But the metaphor of homeostasis contrains our view of living systems. "Lifelines are not purely homeostatic: they have a beginning at conception, and an end at death. Organisms, and indeed ecosystems, develop, mature and age.

The set oints of homeostatic theory are not themselves constant during this trajectory but change over time. The organism switches its own thermostat. Organisms are active players in their own fate, not simply the playthings of the gods, nature or the inevitable workings-out of replicator-driven natural selection. To understand lifelines, therefore, we need to replace homeostasis with a richer concept, that of homeodynamics."

Adaptive system

An adaptive system is a system that is able to adapt its behavior according to changes in its environment or in parts of the system itself. A human being, for instance, is certainly an adaptive system; so are organizations and families. Some man-made systems can be made adaptive as well; for instance, control systems utilize feedback loops in order to sense conditions in their environment and adapt accordingly. Robots incorporate many of these control systems. Neural Networks are a common type of algorithmic implementation of adaptive systems.

Diffusion of innovations theory can help to explain the uptake of new ideas, practices and products by individuals and social groups -- human adaptive systems.

Microsoft Reciprocal License (Ms-RL)

This Microsoft license allows for distribution of derived code so long as the modified source files are included and retain the Ms-RL. The Ms-RL allows those files in the distribution that do not contain code originally licensed under Ms-RL to be licensed according to the copyright holder's choosing. This is equivalent to the CDDL or LGPL (GPL with a typical "linking exception"). Initially known as the Microsoft Community License, it was renamed during the OSI approval process.

On December 9, 2005, the Ms-RL license was submitted to the Open Source Initiative for approval by John Cowan. OSI then contacted Microsoft and asked if they wanted OSI to proceed. Microsoft replied that they did not wish to be reactive and that they needed time to review such a decision.

At the O'Reilly Open Source Convention in July 2007, Bill Hilf, director of Microsoft's work with open source projects, announced that Microsoft had formally submitted Ms-PL and Ms-RL to OSI for approval. It was approved on October 12, 2007 along with the Ms-PL. According to the Free Software Foundation, it is a free software license. However, unlike the Microsoft Public License, it is not compatible with the GNU GPL.

Norse colonization of the Americas

Norse sailors, often referred to as Vikings, explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeast fringes of North America, beginning in the 10th century. While this settlement process did not have the lasting effects that later settlements and conquests would have, it can be seen as a prelude to wide-scale European settlement in the Americas.

The Viking activities are often erroneously described as the Viking colonization of North America, but there are few findings to support the idea that the Vikings colonized North America, except for Greenland which they occupied for almost 500 years . Outside Greenland, though, the Viking settlements only grew to a small size and never fully developed into permanent colonies, partly because of hostile relations with Native Americans, whom the Norse referred to as Skrælings. In turn, the Viking exploited the natural resources such as furs and lumber. Lumber, in particular, was in short supply in Norse Greenland, due to deforestation.