Sriwijaya University to apply barcode system

In a bid to increase efficiency and ease monitoring of campus activities, Sriwijaya University in Palembang, South Sumatra, will apply a barcode system starting next academic year.

This will be the first time such a system is applied to a university in South Sumatra.

Dean of academic affairs Zulkifli Dahlan said that the new system will be used to record attendance, library services, tuition payments, student registrations and course loads, as well as test numbers.

The university is currently preparing a barcoded ID card for students, lecturers, and administrative staffers and installing scanners around the campus.

"The system will help us to get accurate data in no time," Zulkifli said recently. "Students will no longer cheat on attendance and they will be more disciplined."

He said that the system will reduce manual work in recording, collecting and identifying data.

Oil rises above $71 amid falling inventories

Oil prices rose above $71 a barrel Thursday in Asia, arresting a recent decline as falling U.S. crude inventories suggested demand is improving.

Benchmark crude for July delivery rose 41 cents to $71.44 a barrel by late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Wednesday, it rose 56 cents to settle at $71.03.

Prices dipped below $70 a barrel earlier this week from an eight-month high near $73 the previous week on investor concern that the economy may not recover as fast as some traders anticipate.

The Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that crude inventories fell last week by 3.9 million barrels, or 1.1 percent, and have dropped 10.8 million barrels over the last four weeks.

While U.S. inventories are still bloated with the most oil in nearly 16 years, analysts see the recent drawdowns as a sign that gasoline demand is recovering.

"The tightening of the U.S. market is continuing," Barclays Capital said in a report. "U.S. gasoline demand continues its clear improving trend."

U.S. retail gasoline prices have risen 50 straight days as demand during the summer holiday season exceeded expectations of refiners.

Oil has doubled since March on investor optimism that the global economy is on the road to recovery from its worst slowdown in decades. Indicators this week suggest growth remains sluggish, but some analysts are anticipating a better economic environment later this year.

"We continue to expect an improvement in fundamentals to begin to take hold in the next several months," Goldman Sachs said in a report. "Recent data points have already begun to suggest some stabilization."

Goldman said it expects the prices of oil to rise to $85 a barrel in six months and reach $95 by the end of 2010.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for July delivery was steady at $2.03 a gallon and heating oil gained 1.15 cents to $1.86. Natural gas for July delivery rose 1.8 cents to $4.27 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent prices rose 33 cents to $71.18 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

taken from: thejakartapost.com

Arctic sea ice thinnest ever going into spring

The Arctic is treading on thinner ice than ever before. Researchers say that as spring begins, more than 90 percent of the sea ice in the Arctic is only 1 or 2 years old. That makes it thinner and more vulnerable than at anytime in the past three decades, according to researchers with NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado.

"We're not set up well for summertime," ice data center scientist Walt Meier said Monday. "We're in a very precarious situation."

Young sea ice in the Arctic often melts in the spring and summer. If it survives for two years, then it becomes the type of thick sea ice that is key. But the past two years were warm, and there's more young, thin ice at the top of the world.

In normal winters, thick sea ice - often about 10 feet thick or more - extends from the northern boundaries of Greenland and Canada almost to Russia. This year, the thick ice cap barely penetrates the bull's-eye of the Arctic Circle.

The amount of thick sea ice hit a record wintertime low of just 378,000 square miles this year, down 43 percent from last year, Meier said. The amount of older sea ice that was lost is larger than the state of Texas.

"That thick ice really traps ocean heat; it keeps the planet in its current state of balance," said Waleed Abdalati, director of the Center for the Study of Earth from Space at the University of Colorado and NASA's former chief ice scientist. "When we start to diminish that, the state of balance is likely to change, tip one way or another."

Sea ice is important because it reflects sunlight away from Earth. The more it melts, the more heat is absorbed by the ocean, heating up the planet even more, said NASA polar regions program manager Tom Wagner. That warming also can change weather patterns worldwide and it alters the ecosystems for animals such as polar bears.

The Arctic essentially acts as a refrigerator for the rest of the globe. And the amount of sea covered by ice - thick or thin - has been shrinking at a rate of about 3 percent a decade in the Arctic.

This year, the maximum ice cover of 5.85 million square miles - reached on Feb. 28 - was higher than four of the previous five years. But it was still the fifth lowest since record-keeping began in 1979.

Usually, younger, thin ice accounts for about 70 percent of the ice cover. This year it reached 90 percent, Meier said.

And the problems of global warming caused melt is being seen at the other pole, too.

The U.S. Geological Survey last week released a detailed map of the Antarctic coastline and found dwindling and even disappearing ice shelves.

The map itself was finished in the middle of last year, but the previous Interior Department didn't want to release it and other Antarctic maps, said map co-author Richard Williams Jr., a glaciologist for the USGS. The report with the map bears the 2008 date and the previous interior secretary's name on it.

The map shows found for the first time that an entire ice shelf - the Wordie ice shelf on the western end of the Antarctic peninsula- has essentially disappeared. In 1966, it was 772 square miles. In addition, about 4,500 square miles of the Larsen ice shelf is gone.

"The map portrays one of the most rapidly changing areas on Earth, and the changes in the map are widely regarded as among the most profound, unambiguous examples of the effects of global warming on Earth," the USGS report concludes.

taken from: jakarta post

SBY points finger at elections commission

The General Elections Commission (KPU) is fully responsible for the 2009 elections, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Thursday, in response to demands that he explain why millions of eligible voters were disenfranchised.

“While up until the 1999 elections the party responsible for the elections was the president, with the KPU reporting to the President, this is not the case in the 2009 elections,” he said in a televized address at the presidential palace, citing the current law on elections.

“Therefore the role of the government, the political parties and elements of society is to assist the KPU,” Yudhoyono said, exactly a week after legislative elections.

A number of organizations have filed lawsuits against the government, the Home Ministry and the Elections Commission, over elections violations related to the voter lists. A number of political parties plan to file similar lawsuits.

Ahead of the April 9 polls many citizens across the country said they had found that they were not on the list of eligible voters, even though they had identity cards and had lived in their area for a long time.

An analyst has suggested that at least 10 million citizens were disenfranchised, estimating that 20 residents at each of more than 500,000 polling stations were not on the list of over 171 million eligible voters.

The President was, however, quick to add that other parties shared the blame. The KPU, he said, had invited political parties and legislative candidates, along with local election committees, to give feedback on the provisional voter lists.

The task shows the division of labor between the KPU, the election supervisory body, the government, political parties and citizens, Susilo said.

"But clearly determining the eligible voters' list is the authority of the KPU," he said.

He added that as president he had issued all the necessary regulations to help the commission with its task.

Based on input from several governors Yudhoyono said there was both a "lack of information from the KPU" and also a "lack of response" mainly from candidates, the local administrations and citizens.

The President said he was "deeply concerned" with the voter list problem, but added that suspicions of cheating without evidence would be "premature and bad politics". Yet he "agreed 100 percent" that alleged violations should be legally processed and that the perpetrators should be "firmly punished."

Meanwhile, KPU chairman Abdul H. Anshary ruled out demands to annul the results of the elections, the final tally of which is expected to be announced on May 9.

"There's no strong reason," he said Thursday.

"There has to be evidence. Besides, nothing in the law justifies the annulment of the election's result."

Any shortcomings "would not have been intentional," he said.

He urged citizens who were unregistered to ensure they were listed for July's presidential election.

Election expert Hadar Gumay cited the law, saying it does not provide the possibility of repeating elections based on unregistered voters.

A revote would only be possible "if there was a lawsuit stating

that the elections law is unconstitutional, given that the Constitution guarantees the citizen's right to vote," he said.

Taliban extend cease-fire in Pakistani valley

Taliban militants indefinitely extended a cease-fire Tuesday in a northwestern Pakistani valley, granting more time for peace talks that the United States worries could create an insurgent haven in the nuclear-armed country.

Troops and insurgents have been observing a truce in the Swat valley since Feb. 15, when Pakistani authorities offered to introduce Islamic law in the region if militants lay down their arms. A hard-line cleric is negotiating a possible deal with the militants on behalf of the government.

The Taliban cease-fire was due to expire on Wednesday, but spokesman Muslim Khan said insurgent leaders decided to extend it "for an indefinite period."

"From our side, there will be no hostility against the government and the army, and we expect the same from them," Khan told The Associated Press.

Pakistani officials say the offer to introduce Islamic law in Swat and surrounding areas addresses long-standing demands for speedy justice that have been exploited by the Taliban, which residents say now control much of the region.

But NATO and the United States have voiced concern that any peace accord could effectively cede the vally to militants who have defied a yearlong military operation, beheaded opponents and bombed girls' schools.

Many analysts doubt the Taliban will accept the mild version of Islamic law on offer - or that they will loosen their grip on the valley, which lies just 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the capital, Islamabad. A deal last year collapsed after several months.

Swat, a steep-sided valley once popular with tourists, lies close to Pakistan's lawless tribal belt, from where Taliban and al-Qaida militants launch attacks into Afghanistan.

Pakistan's pro-Western government has defended the Swat peace initiative as a chance to weaken the insurgency threatening both countries. It insists it will come down hard on militant groups who refuse to renounce violence and halt cross-border attacks in return for reconciliation.

But American officials have expressed skepticism about the willingness and ability of its security forces to regain control of Pakistan's border areas, and have ratcheted up U.S. missile strikes on al-Qaida targets in Pakistani territory.

Pakistan's army chief and foreign minister are holding talks in Washington this week as the new U.S. administration hammers out a new policy for the region.

taken from: thejakartapost

Today, Oil falls below $38

Oil prices extended losses for a second day Tuesday in Asia, falling below $38 a barrel, as a loss of investor confidence that the global economy will recover soon swept across stock and crude markets.

Benchmark crude for April delivery fell 59 cents to $37.85 a barrel by midday in Singapore on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract overnight fell $1.59 to $38.44.

U.S. stock indexes fell to the lowest since 1997 on Monday on investor fear that a government stimulus package and plan to rescue ailing banks won't keep the worst recession in decades from deepening.

Months of dismal economic news, highlighted by massive job cuts, have weighed on the psyche of investors and undermined faith that the economy will recover in the second half.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 3.4 percent Monday and the Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 3.5 percent.

Most Asian stock markets also fell sharply at the open on Tuesday.

"The stock and crude markets are reflecting the same negative sentiment about the broader economy," said Gerard Burg, minerals and energy economist with National Australia Bank in Melbourne.

Even large output reductions by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have failed to boost prices. OPEC has announced 4.2 million barrels a day of production cuts since September, and the group's leaders have said it's likely the 13-member cartel will cut more supply at a meeting on March 15.

"There's relatively little that further production cuts can do," Burg said. "They've already cut a sizable amount of their production."

The fall in oil prices - crude has plummeted 74 percent since July - may itself eventually trigger a rally, as producers of high-cost fields shut down operations to avoid losses.

"Some producers are probably struggling to be profitable, and that puts a constraint on the downside," Burg said. "It puts a very real floor in place."

Burg said he expects oil to trade between $35 and $45 a barrel for the next few months.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures fell 0.39 cent to $1.04 a gallon. Heating oil dropped 1.14 cents to $1.16 a gallon, while natural gas for March delivery slid 5.7 cents to $4.04 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Brent prices fell 47 cents to $40.52 on the ICE Futures exchange in London

North Korea: Missile, nuclear programs pose no threats

North Korea said Thursday its missile and nuclear programs pose no threat, ahead of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to South Korea for talks expected to focus on the communist country.

North Korea's military accused South Korea of misusing what it called "nonexistent nuclear and missile threats" as a pretext to invade, and renewed a warning that its troops are in an "all-out confrontational posture" against Seoul.

The statement from the North Korean military's general staff came as the regime is believed to be gearing up to test-fire a long-range missile and Clinton is scheduled to arrive in Seoul later Thursday for meetings expected to tackle the missile issue.

It also underscored high tensions between the two Koreas since Seoul's pro-American, conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office a year ago and sought hard-line policies toward Pyongyang.

North Korea is believed to be on track in preparations to launch its longest-range missile, the Taepodong-2 - believed to have a range that could reach Alaska - moving the rocket and other equipment to a launch site on the country's northeast coast.

South Korea's defense minister reportedly said Wednesday that the North could complete preparations to fire a missile within the next two weeks at the earliest.

Seoul's Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan warned that a missile launch will "inevitably" entail sanctions because it would be a violation of a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution banning Pyongyang from pursuing missile or nuclear programs.

Clinton also warned Tuesday a missile launch "would be very unhelpful in moving our relationship forward."

Amid growing international pressure to drop the plan, Pyongyang said earlier this week that it has the right to "space development" - a term it has used in the past to disguise a missile test as a satellite launch.

When North Korea conducted a ballistic missile test in 1998, it claimed it put a satellite into orbit. The regime carried out its first-ever nuclear test blast in 2006, and claims it has atomic bombs.

Also Thursday, the official Korean Central News Agency accused the U.S. and South Korea of preparing to attack the North, warning the two countries of "a high price" for their moves.

The claim followed an announcement South Korea and the U.S. plan to conduct an annual military exercise next month.

North Korea has dubbed such drills a rehearsal for invasion, despite repeated assurances from the U.S. and South Korea that the exercises are purely defensive.

US, RI pledge closer, comprehensive ties

The US and Indonesia have pledged to deepen cooperation, with visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telling Indonesia it played a key role in US foreign policy.

In a joint press conference Wednesday after a bilateral meeting with her Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirajuda, Clinton said the US new administration recognized Indonesia’s role in handling global problems, including terrorism, protectionism, climate change and the economic crisis.

“Building a comprehensive partnership with Indonesia is a critical step on behalf of the United States’ commitment to smart power,” she said.

Clinton said it was not an accident her first trip abroad as the top US diplomat included Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim-majority country, as it was meant to show support for the country’s vibrant democracy and efforts to fight terrorism while respecting human rights.

She said US President Barack Obama’s administration wanted to reach out to the entire world and Indonesia would be an important partner in that effort.

“Certainly Indonesia, being the largest Muslim nation in the world, the third largest democracy, will play a leading role in the promotion of that shared future. So we are looking forward to deepening our cooperation on a number of shared issues,” Clinton said.

Hassan said the US was a very important partner for Indonesia, and their bilateral relations went from strength to strength, with Indonesia having every reason to further strengthen bilateral cooperation.

“We have proven here that democracy, Islam and modernity can go hand in hand. And through Indonesia, the United States can reach out to the Muslim world,” he said.

Clinton also pledged a new American openness to ideas from abroad, especially the Muslim world.

“It's important to listen as well as talk to those around the world, to support a country that has demonstrated so clearly that Islam, democracy and modernity cannot only coexist but thrive together,” she said.

She added the US stood ready to help Indonesia deal with the global economic crisis, saying concrete steps toward fostering closer and comprehensive relations had been taken, including the resumption of the Peace Corps program — where American citizens volunteer in villages — as well as cooperation in education by renewing a five-year Fullbright scholarship and agreement to be signed in science and technology.

In trade relations, Hassan said after the press conference that Indonesia expected the US to provide US$5 billion in bilateral swap arrangement and contingency funds to bolster the economy should the crisis hit in the months ahead.

“We need the same amount that other donors and countries, such as the World Bank and Japan, have pledged to us. We need around $5 billion. We may not use the money, but we need it to show the world we have credibility,” he said.

“We hope that during the crisis, the US and the rest of the world will avoid protectionism,” he said.

Clinton and Hassan also discussed how to help resolve various problems, including in the Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan and Myanmar.

Clinton, who first came to Indonesia as the US first lady in 1994 with her husband Bill Clinton to attend the APEC summit, will pay a courtesy call on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday before leaving for South Korea later that day.

North Korea could test-fire missile this month

North Korea's most advanced long-range missile is being assembled at a launch site for a possible test-firing later this month, a newspaper said Friday. The South responded by preparing "for all situations."

The Taepodong-2 missile has recently been moved to Musudan-ni site on the North's eastern seaboard, but has not yet been seen near the launch pad, South Korea's mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo reported.

"We assume that they are currently assembling the first and second-stage rockets," the newspaper quoted an unidentified South Korean government official as saying.

South Korean and American intelligence authorities believe that the North could test-fire the missile, potentially capable of reaching the western U.S., around Feb. 25, the first anniversary of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's inauguration, the paper said.

The National Intelligence Service, Seoul's top spy agency, said it could not confirm the report, citing the sensitivity of intelligence matters.

North Korea's saber-rattling has been interpreted as an attempt to grab President Barack Obama's attention, though his defense secretary, Robert Gates, has played down reports of possible North Korean missile launch preparations, noting Tuesday that Pyongyang's last such test in 2006 was a failure.

But Seoul and Washington have issued repeated warnings to North Korea over a possible launch, with South Korea's new Unification Minister Hyun In-taek telling lawmakers Friday that the North should not fire a missile.

Hyun, a key architect of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's hard-line policy on North Korea, said Seoul was "closely watching the movements of North Korean troops and making thorough preparations for all situations."

South Korea is pushing to establish a missile defense system to counter the threats posed by the North's missiles, Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said at a parliamentary session.

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said a test launch would threaten stability on the Korean peninsula, isolate the North and trigger punitive measures, citing U.N. Security Council resolutions condemning the country's missile tests in 1998 and 2006.

Late last month, Pyongyang declared it would scrap peace accords with South Korea and warned of a war on the divided peninsula.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to visit South Korea next week and will no doubt address the deteriorating ties on the peninsula. Also on the agenda will be stalled international disarmament talks on North Korea's nuclear programs.

While the reports of missile launches raise particular concern given North Korea's nuclear arsenal, Obama's top intelligence official said Thursday that North Korea probably would not use nuclear weapons against U.S. forces unless Pyongyang thought it was on the verge of "military defeat and risked an irretrievable loss of control." North Korea is not believed to have the technology to mount a nuclear weapon on a missile head.

National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair told lawmakers that North Korea probably views its nuclear arsenal more as a means of deterrence and a source of prestige and "coercive diplomacy" than as a military tool.

Ties between the Koreas have soured since the conservative Lee took office one year ago and broke with the two previous administrations' policy of providing unconditional aid to the North. Pyongyang has responded by cutting off ties, halting inter-Korean projects and restricting the number of South Koreans who can cross the border.

The rival states are still technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Pulau Hati Terkuak dari Google Earth

Zagreb - Lambang hati bertebaran di mana-mana pada bulan Februari ini. Maklum, Hari Valentine pada 14 Februari akan datang. Ternyata hati tidak hanya bertebaran di kartu ucapan dan cokelat, namun juga menjelma di muka bumi sebagai bentuk pulau.

Ya, pulau berbentuk hati itu terkuak melalui Google Earth, seperti dilansir dari Ananova, Rabu (11/2/2009).

Pulau Galesnjak, begitu nama 'pulau hati' itu, terletak di lepas Pantai Kroasia. Luasnya 130 ribu meter persegi. Bahkan, keluarga Sang pemilik pulau Vlado Juresko pun tidak sadar, pulau yang dimiliki keluarganya berbentuk hati.

"Itu luar biasa. Kami pikir itu adalah pulau berbentuk hati paling sempurna di dunia," ujar Juresko.

Percaya atau tidak, Juresco malah mengetahui bahwa pulaunya berbentuk hati setelah pihaknya kebanjiran permintaan para pasangan dari seluruh dunia, yang ingin tinggal di sana.

"Kami selalu berpikir itu sedikit berbentuk seperti hati. Tapi sejak tampil di Google Earth dan semua orang bisa melihat, seluruh dunia tampaknya ingin tinggal di sana," imbuhnya.

"Tidak ada orang yang tinggal di sana, jadi kalau sepasang kekasih ingin menghabiskan waktu sendiri, itu adalah pulau yang sempurna," promosi Juresco. Siapa berminat?

taken from: detik news

Gaza militants fire rockets into Israel

The Israeli military says Gaza militants have launched two rockets into Israel, violating an informal cease-fire.

The military says Friday's rockets hit near a communal farm and the town of Sderot. No one was injured.

Israel ended its punishing Gaza offensive on Jan. 18, and Hamas declared a cease-fire the same day. But sporadic violence has continued as Egyptian mediators try to hammer out a long-term arrangement between the sides. The military says more than 40 rockets have been launched since the offensive's end.

The deputy leader of Hamas told Egypt's MENA news agency Thursday that the Islamic militant group has agreed to an 18-month truce with Israel.

Moussa Abu Marzouk said the deal calls for Israel to reopen its border crossings into Gaza. Israeli officials refused to comment.

taken from: thejakartapost

Plane crash in New York state kills 49 people

Authorities say 49 people are dead after a commuter plane crashed into a home in suburban Buffalo and erupted in flames late Thursday.

State police say all 48 people aboard the Continental Connection Flight 3407 are dead.

Clarence emergency control director Dave Bissonet says the crash also killed one person on the ground.

The turboprop plane from Newark, New Jersey, hit a house in Clarence around 10:10 p.m. Thursday (0300 GMT, Friday).

Bissonet says the plane was approaching Buffalo Niagara International Airport, about 10 miles away.

Twelve homes near the crash site have been evacuated.

Continental Airlines says the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 operated by Manassas, Virginia-based Colgan Air was operating between Newark Liberty International Airport and Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

taken from: the jakartapost

North Sulawesi quake injures dozens

Hundreds of people fled to the hills and at least 64 were injured when a major quake hit off the North Sulawesi coast early Thursday, officials say.

Hundreds of homes and buildings were also damaged in the 7.4-magnitude undersea quake that struck at 1:34 a.m. local time in the waters between North Sulawesi and the southern Philippines.

The geophysics agency issued a tsunami alert, which was later revoked.

“Initially, there was a possibility of a tsunami,” said Mudjianto of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG).

“But based on the early warning system installed around the Sangihe area, there was no movement of water mass indicating a tsunami; so we announced the earthquake had no tsunami potential as it occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers under the sea.”

Up to 90 tremors of magnitude 5 to 6 occurred later in the day.

Rendy Rompas of the provincial disaster management body said people fled and camped on the hills, panicked by aftershocks that struck every 20 minutes following the quake.

“At least 597 homes are severely damaged [in Talaud regency],” Rendy said.

“An estimated 5,000 residents have fled their homes,” said government spokesman Manurat.

Tsunami early warning systems have been set up in a number of areas following the earthquake and tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean in December 2004.

Indonesia was the hardest hit by that devastating quake, with more than 165,000 out of an estimated 200,000 fatalities recorded in Aceh and Nias alone.

Thursday’s quake also caused the partial collapse of the main district hospital, forcing it to move patients to local clinics, AFP reported.

The news agency cited the US Geological Survey as stating that the epicenter of the shallow quake was about 320 kilometers northeast of the provincial capital of Manado and 280 kilometers southeast of General Santos in the Philippines.

There were no reports of any damage or casualties in the Philippines.

The USGS initially put the magnitude of the quake at 7.5, but later revised this down to 7.2. Indonesia measured the quake at 7.4.

Several aftershocks with magnitudes of up to 6.3 struck in the hours following the original quake, the USGS reported.

The Philippines, made up of more than 7,000 islands, also experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

taken from: the jakartapost

Iranian president says talks with US possible

Iran's president said Tuesday the world was "entering an era of dialogue" and that his country would welcome talks with its longtime adversary, the United States, if they are based on mutual respect.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement during a rally celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution comes a day after President Barack Obama said his administration was looking for opportunities to engage Iran and pledged to rethink United States' relationship with Tehran.

"The Iranian nation is ready for talks (with the U.S.) but in a fair atmosphere with mutual respect," Ahmadinejad told hundreds of thousands of Iranians at the rally, which marked the 1979 toppling of the U.S.-backed shah that brought hard-line clerics to power.

The hard-line Iranian leader said terrorism, the elimination of nuclear weapons, restructuring the U.N. Security Council and fighting drug trafficking could be topics for the two sides to talk about.

"If you really want to fight terrorism, come and cooperate with the Iranian nation, which is the biggest victim of terrorism so that terrorism is eliminated. ... If you want to confront nuclear weapons ... you need to stand beside Iran so it can introduce a correct path to you," he said.

Ahmadinejad said the world was at a "crossroads" because it had been proven that military power has not been successful — a reference to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But now, he said, "the world is entering an era of dialogue and intellect."

"The new U.S. government has announced that it wants to bring changes and follow the path of dialogue. It is very clear that changes have to be fundamental and not tactical. It is clear that the Iranian nation welcomes true changes," Ahmadinejad told the crowds at the rally in Freedom Square.

State television showed similar rallies in cities across Iran, saying "millions of people" turned out for the celebrations.

Tehran and Washington severed relations nearly three decades ago after the 1979 Iranian revolution and the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by hard-line Iranian students.

But relations deteriorated even further after the Sept. 11 attacks when former President George W. Bush declared Iran belonged to an "axis of evil." Ahmadinejad widened that gap after he was elected in 2005 and defied the U.S. and its allies by pursuing Iran's controversial nuclear program.

The U.S. believes Iran is secretly trying to pursue nuclear weapons, but Iran has denied this accusation, saying its program is solely for peaceful purposes such as electricity.

Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that the "world does not want to see the dark age of Bush repeated."

"The fate that befell Bush — and it was a very bad fate — can be viewed as a lesson for most of the people that ... want to impose their will on the world," he said.

Since his campaign for president, Obama has signaled a willingness for a dialogue with Iran. At his inauguration last month, Obama said his administration would reach out to rival states, saying "we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

On Monday, Obama said his national security team was reviewing its existing Iran policy and "looking at areas where we can have constructive dialogue." He said he expected that his administration would be looking for "openings" where Washington and Tehran can sit face-to-face.

Iranian leaders have struck a moderate — but cautious — tone about Obama since his election in November. Ahmadinejad sent Obama a message of congratulations after he was elected — the first time an Iranian leader offered such wishes to the winner of a U.S. presidential race since the two countries broke off relations.

In his speech, Ahmadinejad declared Iran a "superpower" and said threats against it had disappeared. He didn't elaborate but apparently meant that the U.S. should treat Iran as an equal.

"Today, I officially announce that the Iranian nation is a true and real superpower ... I need to declare with a loud voice that ... the shadow of threat has been removed forever from over the Iranian nation's head," he said.

Ahmadinejad also lauded Iranian achievements over the past three decades including the recent launch of the first domestically made satellite into orbit.

"Despite the will of evil-wishers ... who tried not to allow us to gain technologies, the satellite launch station is the product of scientists of the Iranian nation," he said.

Last week's launching of satellite — called Omid, or hope, in Farsi — was a key step for Iran's ambitions space program that has worried the U.S. and others because the same rocket technology used to launch satellites can also deliver warheads.

An actual-size model of Omid and its carrier rocket were displayed at Tuesday's rally, and leaflets containing information about the satellite were distributed.

The launch also was a symbol of national pride to Iranians even as falling oil prices have battered the economy and Ahmadinejad's popularity. On Sunday, former reformist President Mohammed Khatami announced he would run for president again and challenge Ahmadinejad, who is seeking a second term in the June vote.

taken from: the jakarta post

Strong quakes hit North Sulawesi

A series of earthquake,the first one measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale, has hit Melonguane, Talaud Islands in North Sulawesi on Thursday morning. There were no immediate reports of damages or injuries,

The local Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency recorded that the first quake hit at 0:34 a.m.. The epicenter was located 112 kilometers southeast of Melonguane, at 10 kilometers beneath the surface.

The agency recorded that the quake was followed by 15 others, with shocks of decreasing intensity. The last one, measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale, was recorded at 05:32 a.m.

taken from: thejakarta post

Operation Research Calculation Handbook

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Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Means and Variance

Chapter 3 Discrete Probability Distributions

Chapter 4 Continuous Probability Distributions

Chapter 5 Probability Relationships

Chapter 6 Stochastic Processes

Chapter 7 Queuing Theory Results

Chapter 8 Production Systems Modeling

Chapter 9 Inventory Control

Chapter 10 Distance Formulas for Logistics Analysis

Chapter 11 Linier Programming Formulations

Chapter 12 Mathematical Functions

Chapter 13 Calculus Results

Chapter 14 Matrices

Chapter 15 Combinatory

Chapter 16 Summations

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International Mergers and Acquisitions Activity Since 1990: Recent Research and Quantitative Analysis

It is now a well-know fact that mergers and acquisitions activity comes in waves. The most recent wave, the 5th takeover wave of the 1990s, was characterized by an unprecedented number of corporate restructurings in terms of mergers and acquisitions (M&As), public-to-private transactions, spin-offs and divestitures, and leveraged recapitalizations. Following the collapse of the stock market in March 2000, M&A activity slumped dramatically, but this pause ended in the second half of 2004 when takeover deals occurred again quite frequently. Indeed, some observers wonder whether the 6th takeover wave has started. The takeover wave in the 1990s was particularly remarkable in terms of size and geographical dispersion. For the first time, Continental European firms were as eager to participate as their US and UK counterparts, and M&A activity in Europe hit levels similar to those experienced in the US. Due to its financial impact and the unprecedented activity in Continental Europe, the 5th takeover wave of the 1990s and recent takeover activity (in biotech, utilities, pharmaceuticals) have triggered a great deal of interesting academic research. This volume brings together a selection of insightful papers. An impressive group of international authors address the following themes: takeover regulation; the cyclical pattern of the M&A markets and probable causes and effects; methods to determine the performance of success of M&A actions; cross border deals; means of payment and its effects; studies of hostile bids; high leverage takeovers and delistings.
*A selection of the best and latest quantitative research on M&A activity worldwide
*Impressive collection of international authors
*Provides important insights and implications for practitioners
Greg N. Gregoriou, Luc Renneboog, "International Mergers and Acquisitions Activity Since 1990: Recent Research and Quantitative Analysis"
Academic Press | 2007-05-10 | ISBN: 0750682892 | 320 pages | PDF | 1,5 MB
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Malcolm McDonald on Marketing Planning: Understanding Marketing Plans and Strategy

Malcolm McDonald on Marketing Planning guides readers through the production of a marketing plan made to work in the real world. With the emphasis on practicality, this book covers the essentials of marketing planning and the strategic marketing process. Key content includes: defining markets and segments, setting marketing objectives and strategies, advertising and sales promotion strategies, and price and sales strategies. Test questions at the end of each chapter aid understanding. Written by an authority on marketing plans, this book is useful for any busy marketing professional who needs a short, sharp revision of their planning skills, or a handy guide to put their plans on the right track.
Malcolm McDonald, "Malcolm McDonald on Marketing Planning: Understanding Marketing Plans and Strategy"
Kogan Page | 2008-01-01 | ISBN: 0749451491 | 208 pages | PDF | 1,2 MB
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Suicide and the Body Politic in Imperial Russia

Susan K. Morrissey, “Suicide and the Body Politic in Imperial Russia (Cambridge Social and Cultural Histories)”
Cambridge University Press | 2007-01-15 | ISBN: 052186545X | 400 pages | PDF | 2,75 MB

In early twentieth-century Russia, suicide became a public act and a social phenomenon of exceptional scale, a disquieting emblem of Russia's encounter with modernity. Drawing on an extensive range of sources, from judicial records to the popular press, this book examines the forms, meanings, and regulation of suicide from the seventeenth century to 1914, placing developments into a pan-European context. It argues against narratives of secularization that read the history of suicide as a trajectory from sin to insanity, and instead focuses upon the cultural politics of self destruction. Suicide - the act, the body, the socio-medical problem - became the site on which diverse authorities were established and contested, not just the priest or the doctor but also the sovereign, the public, and the individual. This panoramic history of modern Russia, told through the prism of suicide, rethinks the interaction between cultural forms, individual agency, and systems of governance.

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Multivariate Statistical Process Control with Industrial Application

Multivariate Statistical Process Control with Industrial Application By Robert L. Mason, John C. Young
Publisher: Information Science Publishing | ISBN: 0898714966 | 2002 | PDF | 250 pages | 14 Mb

This applied, self-contained text provides detailed coverage of the practical aspects of multivariate statistical process control (MVSPC)based on the application of Hotelling's T2 statistic. MVSPC is the application of multivariate statistical techniques to improve the quality and productivity of an industrial process. The authors, leading researchers in this area who have developed major software for this type of charting procedure, provide valuable insight into the T2 statistic. Intentionally including only a minimal amount of theory, they lead readers through the construction and monitoring phases of the T2 control statistic using numerous industrial examples taken primarily from the chemical and power industries. These examples are applied to the construction of historical data sets to serve as a point of reference for the control procedure and are also applied to the monitoring phase, where emphasis is placed on signal location and interpretation in terms of the process variables.
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statistical table, explained and applied

Louis Laurencelle, Francois Dupuis “Statistical Tables: Exlained and Applied"
World Scientific Publishing Company | 2002-03-01 | ISBN: 9810249195 | 244 pages | PDF | 11 Mb

Contains several new or unpublished tables, such as one on the significance of the correlation coefficient r, one giving the percentiles of the statistic for monotonic variation, and a table of coefficients for the re-conversion of orthogonal polynomials.
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Scalig Concepts in Polymer Physics

Scaling concepts in polymer physics
Publisher: Cornell University Press | ISBN: 080141203X | 1979 | Pages: 324 | djvu | 2.4 MB

The book written by Pierre-giles De Gennes (1979), The first stage of the physics of long, flexible chains was pioneered by eminent scientists such as Debye, Kuhn, Kramers, and Flory, who formulated the basic ideas. In recent years, because of the availability of new experimental and theoretical tools, a second stage of the physics of polymers has evolved. In this book, you can find a noted physicist explains the radical changes that have taken place in this exciting and rapidly developing field.

The Author points out the three developments which have been essential for recent advances in the study, actually for large-scale conformations and motions of flexible polymers in solutions and melts. They are the advent of neutron-scattering experiments on selectively deuterated molecules; the availability of inelastic scattering of laser light, which allows us to study the cooperative motions of the chains. From this book you can also find an important relationship between polymer statistics and critical phenomena, leading to many simple scaling laws.

Contents of this book are:
Introduction: Long Flexible Chains
Part A
Static Conformations
I Single Chain
II Polymer Melts
III Polymer Solutions in Good Solvents
IV Incompatibility and Segregations
V Polymer Gels
Part B
Dinamics
VI Dynamics of a Single Chain
VII Many-Chain Systems: The Respiration Modes
VIII Entanglement Effects
Part C
Calculation Methods
IX Self-Consistent Fields and Random Phase Approximation
X Relationship between Polymer Statistic and Critical Phenomena
XI An Introduction to Renormalization Group Ideas

Until now, information relating to these advances has not been readily accessible to physical chemists and polymer scientists because of the difficulties in the new theoretical language that has come into use. Professor de Gennes bridges this gap by presenting scaling concepts in terms that will be understandable to students in chemistry and engineering as well as in physics.

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Meta Analysis

Meta Analysis: A Guide to Calibrating and Combining Statistical Evidence acts as a source of basic methods for scientists wanting to combine evidence from different experiments. The authors aim to promote a deeper understanding of the notion of statistical evidence.
The book is comprised of two parts – The Handbook, and The Theory. The Handbook is a guide for combining and interpreting experimental evidence to solve standard statistical problems. This section allows someone with a rudimentary knowledge in general statistics to apply the methods. The Theory provides the motivation, theory and results of simulation experiments to justify the methodology.
This is a coherent introduction to the statistical concepts required to understand the authors’ thesis that evidence in a test statistic can often be calibrated when transformed to the right scale.

Elena Kulinskaya, Stephan Morgenthaler, Robert G. Staudte “Meta Analysis:
A Guide to Calibrating and Combining Statistical Evidence"
Wiley-Interscience | 2008-04-25 | ISBN: 0470028645 | 282 pages | PDF | 2,4 Mb
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six sigma statistic

Alastair Muir, "Lean Six Sigma Statistics"
McGraw-Hill Professional | 2005-08-26 | ISBN: 0071445854 | 333 pages | PDF | 4,2 MB

The marriage between Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma has proven to be a powerful tool for cutting waste and improving the organization’s operations. This third book in the Six Sigma Operations series picks up where other books on the subject leave off by providing the six sigma practioners with a statistical guide for solving problems they may encounter in implementing and managing a Lean Six Sigma programs. The book draws it examples from all sectors of business ranging from financial to manufacturing providing the reader with a wealth of case studies and as numerous worked out equations which are designed to facilitate the full potential of any Lean Six Sigma project.

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Quantitative Data Analysis with SPSS

Pete Greasley “Quantitative Data Analysis with SPSS"
Open University Press | 2007-12-01 | ISBN: 0335223052 | 144 pages | PDF | 2,67 MB


This accessible book is essential reading for those looking for a short and simple guide to basic data analysis. Written for the complete beginner, the book is the ideal companion when undertaking quantitative data analysis for the first time using SPSS.
The book uses a simple example of quantitative data analysis that would be typical to the health field to take you through the process of data analysis step by step. The example used is a doctor who conducts a questionnaire survey of 30 patients to assess a specific service. The data from these questionnaires is given to you for analysis, and the book leads you through the process required to analyse this data.
Handy screenshots illustrate each step of the process so you can try out the analysis for yourself, and apply it to your own research with ease.
Topics covered include:
Questionnaires and how to analyse them
Coding the data for SPSS, setting up an SPSS database and entering the data
Descriptive statistics and illustrating the data using graphs
Cross-tabulation and the Chi-square statistic
Correlation: examining relationships between interval data
Examining differences between two sets of scores
Reporting the results and presenting the data
Quantitative Data Analysis Using SPSS is helpful for any students in health and social sciences with little or no experience of quantitative data analysis and statistics.
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free maintenance book

An Introduction to the Basics of Reliability and Risk Analysis.

World Scientific Publishing Company | 2007-02-28 | ISBN: 9812706399 | 180 pages | PDF | 7,1 MB

This book introduces the principal concepts and issues related to the safety of modem industrial activities and presents the classical techniques for reliability analysis and risk assessment used in the current practice. It is aimed at providing an organic view of the subject. The contents of the book comprise:

i) a basic illustration of some

methods of system analysis commonly used in practice for the identification of the hazards associated to industrial plants and processes;

ii) a review of the basics of probability theory, tailored to its application to reliability analysis and risk assessment;

iii) an overview of the basics of reliability, availability and maintainability applied to standard system configurations, such as series, parallel, stand-by and others;

iv) a presentation of the fault tree and event tree analysis methods, which constitute powerful tools widely used in practice for the reliability and risk assessment of complex systems; v) a review of the statistical methods for the estimation of failure rates; vi) a sketch of some modelling techniques of reliability growth and prediction.

The book can serve as any senior undergraduate or post-graduate university course on the subject or as reference for the initiation of young researchers to the field. In this view, several numerical examples are provided when appropriate, as guide for the comprehension.

The book written by Enrico Zio, professor of Nuclear Engineering and Dean of the Graduate School of the Politecnico di Milano, Italy. He holds a course on Computurionul Methods for safety and risk analysis at the Politecnico di Milano and has served as lecturer at various Master and PhD programs in Italy and abroad.

He has served as Vice-chairman of the European Safety and Reliability Association,

ESRA and as Editor-in-Chief of the International journal Risk, Decision and Policy. He is

member of the editorial boards of two recognized international scientific journals and has been

involved in the organization of various international conferences, in the field of Safety and

Reliability.

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