Israeli tanks and troops poured into the Gaza Strip Saturday night and by Sunday afternoon appeared to have pushed deep into the north of the territory, as the Jewish state launched a ground assault against the militant group Hamas.
The land attack marks the dramatic escalation of an Israeli offensive that Palestinian hospital officials say has left as many as 470 Gazans dead and wounded over 2,200 since it began on Dec. 27.
Israel launched the offensive, one of the deadliest Israeli assaults on Palestinians ever, in response to intensified rocket attacks by Hamas against southern Israeli communities after a six month ceasefire expired in December.
By Sunday afternoon, Israeli forces appeared to have advanced significantly south of Gaza City, the enclave's largest city, situated in the north with a population of some half a million. Gaza has been sealed off to foreign journalists by the Israeli military. But Palestinian eyewitnesses reported Sunday that troops appeared to have essentially encircled Gaza City, but hadn't yet entered large population centers, according to wire reports.
Eyewitnesses reported Israeli shelling of Gaza City and heavy ground fighting Saturday night and early Sunday between Israeli armor and troops and Gaza militants in and around smaller northern towns. Gaza health officials reported 20 civilian deaths in the weekend fighting, while Israel officials confirmed some 30 Israeli wounded, according to the Associated Press.
As many as two dozen Gaza-launched rockets rained down on southern Israel by midday Sunday.
The Bush administration defended Israel's military incursion, asserting that Jerusalem had the right to defend itself against Hamas rocket fire and stressing that any cessation of hostilities must include guarantees of a change in Hamas's behavior.
The United Nations Security Council held emergency consultations Saturday night to address the escalation of violence, and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged an immediate halt to Israel's ground operation. Arab nations demanded that the Security Council call for an immediate cease-fire.
The U.S. late Saturday blocked approval of a Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel and expressing concern at the escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas. U.S. officials said there was little chance Hamas would adhere to the statement, based on the group's earlier response to such calls for a cease-fire.
Credits to the Wall Street Journal
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Microsoft planning big layoffs for January?
Up to 15,000 jobs worldwide are at risk as the computer software giant prepares for first layoffs in its 32-year history.
The latest to report on the possibility of layoffs at the software giant is the blog Fudzilla, which puts the number of job cuts at 15,000, or nearly 17 percent of Microsoft's worldwide operations. The January 15 date is a week before Microsoft's second-quarter earnings report, scheduled for January 22.
Microsoft also has a briefing for financial analysts planned for January 8 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, with the headliner listed as Robbie Bach, president of the entertainment and devices division.
Those purported layoff numbers are up from earlier rumors, which suggested that 10 percent of the company's employees would lose their jobs.
Fudzilla sees the biggest hit coming for the MSN unit, where Yusuf Mehdi recently took over as marketing chief while the company continued to look for an executive to run its overall online services group:
So far, we haven't managed to confirm what departments or regions will be hit the worst, but we're hearing that MSN might be carrying the brunt of the layoffs. We're also hearing rumors about the possibility of somewhat larger staff cuts at Microsoft EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).
It's unlikely that Microsoft will be laying off a lot of people in departments and regions that are doing well, and considering the recent upturn in console sales, we have a feeling that at least most of the people working in the Xbox 360 departments will be pretty safe.
Wall Street veteran Henry Blodget says the target areas mentioned by Fudzilla make sense, but not the high volume of job cuts:
Unless Microsoft's business has been absolutely crushed in the past two months, there is no reason for the company to suddenly cut this much cost. Microsoft's margins are still fine, and much of its revenue is generated from multi-year contracts (and is therefore unlikely to see a massive intra-quarter hit).
In October, word leaked out of Microsoft that it would be closing its MSN Groups service on February 21, to be replaced with Windows Live Groups.
Blodget sees potential for a restructuring in Redmond that would fit into the long-running, on-again-off-again Microhoo saga:
The only way we could see Microsoft laying off this many people is if the company decided to eliminate business units. And if Microsoft did decide to restructure its business, it would likely sell rather than shut down divisions, including MSN (If Microsoft wants to get out of the consumer Internet business, which it should, the best way to do it is to spin its online operations into Yahoo in exchange for a big piece of the company.)
Credits to CNET News
The latest to report on the possibility of layoffs at the software giant is the blog Fudzilla, which puts the number of job cuts at 15,000, or nearly 17 percent of Microsoft's worldwide operations. The January 15 date is a week before Microsoft's second-quarter earnings report, scheduled for January 22.
Microsoft also has a briefing for financial analysts planned for January 8 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, with the headliner listed as Robbie Bach, president of the entertainment and devices division.
Those purported layoff numbers are up from earlier rumors, which suggested that 10 percent of the company's employees would lose their jobs.
Fudzilla sees the biggest hit coming for the MSN unit, where Yusuf Mehdi recently took over as marketing chief while the company continued to look for an executive to run its overall online services group:
So far, we haven't managed to confirm what departments or regions will be hit the worst, but we're hearing that MSN might be carrying the brunt of the layoffs. We're also hearing rumors about the possibility of somewhat larger staff cuts at Microsoft EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).
It's unlikely that Microsoft will be laying off a lot of people in departments and regions that are doing well, and considering the recent upturn in console sales, we have a feeling that at least most of the people working in the Xbox 360 departments will be pretty safe.
Wall Street veteran Henry Blodget says the target areas mentioned by Fudzilla make sense, but not the high volume of job cuts:
Unless Microsoft's business has been absolutely crushed in the past two months, there is no reason for the company to suddenly cut this much cost. Microsoft's margins are still fine, and much of its revenue is generated from multi-year contracts (and is therefore unlikely to see a massive intra-quarter hit).
In October, word leaked out of Microsoft that it would be closing its MSN Groups service on February 21, to be replaced with Windows Live Groups.
Blodget sees potential for a restructuring in Redmond that would fit into the long-running, on-again-off-again Microhoo saga:
The only way we could see Microsoft laying off this many people is if the company decided to eliminate business units. And if Microsoft did decide to restructure its business, it would likely sell rather than shut down divisions, including MSN (If Microsoft wants to get out of the consumer Internet business, which it should, the best way to do it is to spin its online operations into Yahoo in exchange for a big piece of the company.)
Credits to CNET News
‘Bucky paper’, Future Skins for Cars, Planes and Screens?
It is already a hype for several years and many say it will have a great future. And now seems the time that it changes from hype towards reality and it will change the world. It will (for example) change airplanes, TV, computers, cars etc. What is it? It is called ‘bucky paper’.
Imagine machines smaller than microscopic in size working around us, in us and for us. Imagine them seeking out diseases, cleaning the environment and making the world a better place. Just as a car is a combination of a whole series of separate items, engine, suspension, wheels, electronics, chassis, etc, nanomachines too need to be constructed from a range of components.
One such component is a type of actuator to open and close things, to absorb shock, lift or lower loads and provide other forms of linear movement. It is known that forms of carbon nanotubes can function as actuators, but thanks to some new research we have a better understanding of what they do and how well they do it.
A Fraunhofer Techologie-Entwicklungsgruppe based research team have published a paper looking at an actuation measurement set-up constructed to perform electromechanical characterization of bucky papers. Bucky papers are sheets of carbon nanotubes obtained via filtration process. The research paper has been published in a special edition of the open access journal, AZoJono*. This special edition of AZoJono features a number of papers from DESYGN-IT, the project seeking to secure Europe as the international scientific leader in the design, synthesis, growth, characterisation and application of nanotubes, nanowires and nanotube arrays for industrial technology.
The researchers, Urszula Kosidlo, Daniel Georg Weis, Klaus Hying, Mohammad H. Haque and Ivica Kolaric, constructed a special measurement device and performed their tests in liquid electrolyte to allow the build up of the electrochemical double-layer, which is necessary for the actuation of carbon nanotubes. The measurements are performed with focus on the out-of-plane strain and stress generated by the structure of interest.
The device they designed was found to be useful for characterising electromechanical properties of bucky paper. Using their device, they were able to determine the dependence on applied voltage, electrolyte used as well as performance under additional load applied on the sample. They also concluded that to gain a better understanding of the actuation mechanism of bucky paper, galvanodynamic tests, current/charge controlled should be performed. The device that was used in this investigation is also suitable for this application.
The article is available to view in full in AZoJono at www.azonano.com
----------------------------
Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
----------------------------
Imagine machines smaller than microscopic in size working around us, in us and for us. Imagine them seeking out diseases, cleaning the environment and making the world a better place. Just as a car is a combination of a whole series of separate items, engine, suspension, wheels, electronics, chassis, etc, nanomachines too need to be constructed from a range of components.
One such component is a type of actuator to open and close things, to absorb shock, lift or lower loads and provide other forms of linear movement. It is known that forms of carbon nanotubes can function as actuators, but thanks to some new research we have a better understanding of what they do and how well they do it.
A Fraunhofer Techologie-Entwicklungsgruppe based research team have published a paper looking at an actuation measurement set-up constructed to perform electromechanical characterization of bucky papers. Bucky papers are sheets of carbon nanotubes obtained via filtration process. The research paper has been published in a special edition of the open access journal, AZoJono*. This special edition of AZoJono features a number of papers from DESYGN-IT, the project seeking to secure Europe as the international scientific leader in the design, synthesis, growth, characterisation and application of nanotubes, nanowires and nanotube arrays for industrial technology.
The researchers, Urszula Kosidlo, Daniel Georg Weis, Klaus Hying, Mohammad H. Haque and Ivica Kolaric, constructed a special measurement device and performed their tests in liquid electrolyte to allow the build up of the electrochemical double-layer, which is necessary for the actuation of carbon nanotubes. The measurements are performed with focus on the out-of-plane strain and stress generated by the structure of interest.
The device they designed was found to be useful for characterising electromechanical properties of bucky paper. Using their device, they were able to determine the dependence on applied voltage, electrolyte used as well as performance under additional load applied on the sample. They also concluded that to gain a better understanding of the actuation mechanism of bucky paper, galvanodynamic tests, current/charge controlled should be performed. The device that was used in this investigation is also suitable for this application.
The article is available to view in full in AZoJono at www.azonano.com
----------------------------
Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
----------------------------
Enders Seeks Drag Racing History
Pro Stock racer Erica Enders is certain to make drag racing history if the 22-year-old can hold on to the No. 1 qualifying position she earned Friday night during the opening day of the 22nd annual Checker Schuck’s Kragen NHRA Nationals.
Enders covered Firebird International Raceway's quarter-mile in 6.679 seconds at 206.48 mph in her Slammers Ultimate Milk Chevrolet Cobalt, becoming the first female in class history to earn provisional low qualifier honors. Saturday's final two qualifying sessions will set the field for Sunday's 11 a.m. eliminations.
Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher and Funny Car racer Eric Medlen also led their respective fields at the $1.5 million race, the second of 23 on the POWERade Drag Racing Series. Schumacher ran a 4.459 at 330.97 mph in the heat of the day in his U.S. Army dragster. Medlen got the job done in Round 2 when he roared to a 4.707 at 321.96 mph in his Castrol Syntec Ford Mustang.
Only six female racers have earned the No. 1 qualifier position before and none have done so in Pro Stock. Overall, Enders is just the sixth female to compete in the class since its inception in 1970.
"This is big because we had 10 DNQs early on last year and we were so disappointed," Enders said. "Then we got it together and started doing lots of things in the second half where I was the first female to do this or that. I think it's cool. We still want to be thought of as racers first but I don't mind being the first girl to do something."
After a slow start where she failed to complete her first run, Enders overcame the fact she ran early in the second session to post her big run.
"We just missed the set-up in Round 1," Enders said. "It made us all a little nervous going into Friday night because we were the third pair out. You know it's going to be the best session of the weekend and you have to trust the set-up you have because you don't have many cars ahead of you.
"My car was really loose in third and fourth gear. Thoughts of shoving in the clutch did pop into my head. But I stayed with it and we got the 6.679 so I'm glad I kept my foot in it."
Eric Medlen
Medlen also had a lot on his mind as he moved into the top spot in Funny Car.
"We're making executive decisions as we go down the track because we only have one of the new bodies so you sure don't want to blow it up or catch it on fire," Medlen said. "Everybody in this class is so close right now and we're looking for inches. I know the new car is quicker. I don't want to go back to the old body."
After running such a great number in the first Top Fuel session, anticipation was high that Schumacher would set the national record after it cooled off. But it wasn't meant to be as he slowed slightly to a 4.47. Even so, his two passes were the only ones in the 4.4-second range.
"We were going for the record, no doubt," Schumacher said. "We wanted to get those 20 (bonus) points right there. We just missed it, that's it.
"We tend to run better in the heat of the day. The facts are we put more effort into day runs because we race in the day. We don't race at night and we don't make many runs at night so it's not something we spend a lot of time on."
Qualifying continues Saturday at noon and 2:30 p.m.
Credits to NHRA.com
Enders covered Firebird International Raceway's quarter-mile in 6.679 seconds at 206.48 mph in her Slammers Ultimate Milk Chevrolet Cobalt, becoming the first female in class history to earn provisional low qualifier honors. Saturday's final two qualifying sessions will set the field for Sunday's 11 a.m. eliminations.
Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher and Funny Car racer Eric Medlen also led their respective fields at the $1.5 million race, the second of 23 on the POWERade Drag Racing Series. Schumacher ran a 4.459 at 330.97 mph in the heat of the day in his U.S. Army dragster. Medlen got the job done in Round 2 when he roared to a 4.707 at 321.96 mph in his Castrol Syntec Ford Mustang.
Only six female racers have earned the No. 1 qualifier position before and none have done so in Pro Stock. Overall, Enders is just the sixth female to compete in the class since its inception in 1970.
"This is big because we had 10 DNQs early on last year and we were so disappointed," Enders said. "Then we got it together and started doing lots of things in the second half where I was the first female to do this or that. I think it's cool. We still want to be thought of as racers first but I don't mind being the first girl to do something."
After a slow start where she failed to complete her first run, Enders overcame the fact she ran early in the second session to post her big run.
"We just missed the set-up in Round 1," Enders said. "It made us all a little nervous going into Friday night because we were the third pair out. You know it's going to be the best session of the weekend and you have to trust the set-up you have because you don't have many cars ahead of you.
"My car was really loose in third and fourth gear. Thoughts of shoving in the clutch did pop into my head. But I stayed with it and we got the 6.679 so I'm glad I kept my foot in it."
Eric Medlen
Medlen also had a lot on his mind as he moved into the top spot in Funny Car.
"We're making executive decisions as we go down the track because we only have one of the new bodies so you sure don't want to blow it up or catch it on fire," Medlen said. "Everybody in this class is so close right now and we're looking for inches. I know the new car is quicker. I don't want to go back to the old body."
After running such a great number in the first Top Fuel session, anticipation was high that Schumacher would set the national record after it cooled off. But it wasn't meant to be as he slowed slightly to a 4.47. Even so, his two passes were the only ones in the 4.4-second range.
"We were going for the record, no doubt," Schumacher said. "We wanted to get those 20 (bonus) points right there. We just missed it, that's it.
"We tend to run better in the heat of the day. The facts are we put more effort into day runs because we race in the day. We don't race at night and we don't make many runs at night so it's not something we spend a lot of time on."
Qualifying continues Saturday at noon and 2:30 p.m.
Credits to NHRA.com
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