What is the driving force that moves us along through life? What makes us persevere in life despite the hardships and ordeals that beset us each day? Pious people may say that it’s love. The greedy classes can boastfully say it is money and power. But what is it really? It all boils down to one thing. Security. We work our bones to the grind just to have that feeling of security in our lives – security from hunger, from poverty, from death, from the crimes that keeps on permeating our land. Mom and Dad including ourselves are willing to have three to five jobs (or even more) so we don’t have to worry about our stomachs rumbling and whining about. But we cannot deny the fact that there are groups of people that don’t see in these sacrifices we make. Villainous people who want to make easy money through malicious means. Consequently, Banks and other establishments have employed security guards and cutting edge security systems in order to protect their assets. But whoever said business establishments are the only ones worthy of such safekeeping? Check out Security System Reviews and find the ideal security devices that you can use at home to keep yourself from danger.

Meanwhile, if you happen to find these things a novelty, don’t worry. We don’t want to keep you guessing. Check out the Vista 20P Review. Here, we give you a vivid description of the products that you can have just below your fingertips. What are you waiting for?

Sometimes in school, especially when you are a college student, you are asked to research for audio books for certain topics and then present it to the class the following day. Presenting it might not be much of a problem. But looking for an audio book is a major problem and if you don’t have any major solution to it, you are literally dead in your class. If you can’t find one, then you won’t have anything to present and you will be scolded for that. It is then imperative for you that you should learn about some solutions to this problem. Well, there is actually one solution that we can suggest for you. You can try it and see if it can help you. It never hurts to try and you won’t lose anything from it. Who knows? Upon trying, you might be able to find the solution for your online book problems.

If you are looking for an audio book, a video book or any sort of online book that will be used for a presentation that involves sounds, you can try Netflix for Books. The service that it provides really lives up to its reputation. You can be assured that the quality of sounds that can be produced from these books are indeed of high quality, thus you won’t have a hard time trying to listen to the sound being produced. You can try this out as a solution to your problem. Anyway, what do you have to lose right? Who knows? This might be the solution you are looking for your problem.

Wealth is the prize of your effort, blood and sweat. So it’s just right to secure your wealth against criminals who do nothing but to own and steal all the prizes of your sacrifices. One way of protecting and securing your wealth is to have some modernized gadgets in place. Security camera perfectly fits for you who value all the prizes of being hard working. What is this security camera reviews anyway?

Well, Security Camera Reviews could help you to be aware on how the product works as a monitor for a certain place. It can even work for 24 hours a day. Many businessmen use security camera for their own good. We have encountered some incidents that have been resolved because of security camera reviews. Best example is in the grocery stores, shoplifters are caught in the act because of this monitoring device called security camera system reviews. Security Camera System Reviews are sources of information designed for your safety. You can use this camera to your house, office or in your business. No need to hire too many security guards. Too many security guards are another burden in your part. But this security camera system reviews are bought once but works anytime you want. If you avail this product, stealers would not do something bad because they know that they are being monitored. Don’t let anyone cheats on you. You don’t deserve to be cheated.

One of the most talked about issues today in the field of environmental science is one that involves the rights of animals. As we all aware of it, animals should be left the way they are. We must not attempt to artificially change their genetic properties just to produce higher breeds of animals. Today, issues about crossbreeding has reverted the eyes of people who stands as advocate to the animal rights. But it will surely and greatly help us if we first know what is this process all about and let us try to find out why some people go against this one process which is dubbed by some of us as “one of the major advancements made by the use of technology.”

As wikipedia defines it, Crossbreeding refers to the process of breeding such an animal, often with the intention to create offspring that share the traits of both parent lineages, or producing an animal with hybrid vigor. While crossbreeding is used to maintain health and viability of animals, irresponsible crossbreeding can also produce animals of inferior quality or dilute a purebred gene pool to the point of extinction of a given breed of animal.

The term is also is used at times to refer to a domestic animal of unknown ancestry where the breed status of only one parent or grandparent is known, though the term “mixed breeding” is technically more accurate. The term outcross is used to describe a type of crossbreeding used within a purebred breed to increase the genetic diversity within the breed, particularly when there is a need to avoid inbreeding.

As the definition is given, we can say that there is a benefit that we can get from this process and that is to maintain the health and viability of animals. However, its negative effect says that it can lead to serious extinction of a certain breed or specie of an animal if not to produce inferior breeds. Here in the Philippines, the birth of a “hebra”, that is the combination of a horse and a zebra, in the Manila Zoo, brought delight to many people but not into the eyes of some agencies such as PETA or the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The “hebra” came from a female zebra and a male horse. PETA said that with this condition, the “hebra” will have to hide behind the bars will never ever earn the chance to run free in the wild-a freedom that has been taken away from it because of the condition it got from the process of crossbreeding. PETA believes that zoos just continue their crossbreeding process in order to increase their profit as this process provides them with endless “cute animal babies” and will draw crowds and that would mean more income for the zoo. Although the administration of the zoo already said their defense, that since it is the last zebra they have in the zoo, they have decided to let it mingle with horses because they don’t want it to be lonely, PETA just seems not to buy it.

Animals have rights too, right? If that is true, then it be just great if we let them live the way they should be. We should not be involving them in any process that alters the way they are. Crossbreeding, as a process of maintaining health and viability of animals can, more or less, lead to the extinction of some of the animal species that we have today. That is a fact we must keep in mind before we say that it is entirely good for the welfare of animals.

If there is one country that manifests the great and warm welcome of people to the game casino, it would be the United States of America or USA. In some of its states particularly in Las Vegas, this game serves as one of the things that people in there would like to do whenever they are free. For them, playing casino is not gambling at all but a good source of fun and enjoyment. Today, this is even made better because of the invention of one concept of playing and that is the online one. If before, in order to play casino, people should travel outside their houses just to go to playing centers, now, all they have to do is to sit in front of their computer, browse the web and play online casino usa. This is such a great development.

When you play usa online casino, you get to have a lot of benefits. For example, in terms of money, you will save the money which you have spent for transportation and even for snacks if you are fond of doing so. Another one is time. You will be able to save time because again, you don’t need to travel. Your safety is also assured because even if you win big, no one will be able to do anything bad to you because you are inside your home. In addition to this, even if we say that you are playing using the internet, you will definitely have the same gaming rules and the same benefits as compared to the regular game. The only difference is that you are facing your computer instead of other players. There is no need to worry about the mechanics of this game.

Today, this game is very much popular and with the invention of the online way of playing it, there is no doubt that its popularity will soar up even higher. The latest development in this game proves that if people love doing something, they will surely find a way to make doing that thing very convenient and of course enjoying.

The exciting part in the up-coming 2010 election is the prospect of unscrupulous candidates starting to rely on geeks, aside from their goons, to affect the vote. Like a friend said, cheating attempts may actually give more people throughout the country more incentive to learn techie stuff like programming, network management, etc.

Of course, no one wants to see fraudulent elections. But what if Filipinos in the most remote areas of the Philippines suddenly learn computer programming? That’s a possibility, especially if candidates are willing to pay good money for results. But with all of the positive things that have been said about the automation of the election, there are still risk factors that we have to consider. Such risk factors might include:

1. Software – The software used all throughout the process, from ballot reading all the way to returns tallying, must be open for public scrutiny. It may not be proprietary and secret.
2. Devices – Ballots and computers used throughout may fail. Backup/contingency plan must exist and be robust. Sabotage could be the way cheating will be introduced, in order to force reverting to manual process.
3. Architecture – Transmittal and reporting of results could be susceptible to hacking. Instant public visibility of results as counted at source and as transmitted at receipt will mitigate threats of hacking.
4. User – Voting needs to be simple and straightforward. Many Filipinos are not computer literate, and barely literate. PEBKAC errors can lead to many spoiled ballots, which may either be invalidated like in the US, or can be used as a pretense to revert to manual.

Some may argue opening the COMELEC’s system up for review will make it easier for cheaters to find vulnerabilities they can exploit. Yet at the same time, it also allows people to find these same holes and suggest ways to plug them.

The thoughts regarding sabotage make a lot of sense. Any issues encountered with the system will give its detractors more excuses to call for its rollback, potentially making clean and fast elections harder to achieve.

Most important though is making sure voters won’t have a hard time. A relatively easy way to come up with a system that’s not impossible to use is to test it, as detailed. PEBKAC stands for “Problem Exists between Keyboard and Chair”, a term computer experts use to make fun of user errors. Yet it also represents a serious problem for anyone designing a system, especially when user errors in automated elections mean lost ballots.

Automation of elections will mean that Philippines will have an easy and fast electoral process. However, no matter how great is the assurance that no flaws will happen, we should consider the fact that as long as it has not yet proven, we should never assume that this will be safe. It is not safe from errors. Remember that if people who created machines commit errors, ho much more with the machines they created?

With the advent of the modern technology we are using today, we are given the chance to prove that we can bring this modern technology into one of the most important events that will take place on our country. It will make the election in our country be automated for the first time. That means to say that from voting until counting, we will be aided by computers with special programs intended to fulfill this specific purpose. But what do this automation mean for our country?

In principle, election automation will remove the potential for human error/cheating from the ballot review and ballot counting. It can give near instant feedback of the election results. As soon as voting closes, it should be technically possible to get the election results within an hour.

We think it will have the following positive effects:

1. Remove the potential for human error and cheating at ballot reading and tallying
2. Remove the delay and potential for cheating between ballot tallying and preparation of election returns
3. Remove the delay and potential for cheating during tallying of election returns
4. Make elections much cheaper to execute
5. Reduce election violence significantly.

You’re probably wondering why automating the elections could reduce related violence significantly. Well, you won’t have to gun people down if there are no ballots being delivered to polling centers. Though, due to the dual nature of our planned automation (manual polling will continue in less developed parts of the country), such violence won’t disappear entirely. There are also changes that are expected to happen with this automation process. Such changes might be:

1. Quick counts will become obsolete. If the results can be reported on the same day, there will be no market for quick counts. (NAMFREL has recently announced no quick counts for 2010 -Editor)
2. Labor will no longer be needed for several days/weeks to manage and monitor elections. the resulting creative destruction will affect teachers, poll-watchers, men of arms, media people, advertising, and the peripheral economy that they patronize during election period.
3. Guns and goons will give way to geeks and gold. Attempts at cheating will shift to hacking the transmittal of election results from far flung areas to Manila, as well as hacking the tallying of results in Manila. This could have the happy side-effect of pushing the computer and internet revolution into far flung provinces, as money flows to reward technical know-how every six years.
4. Quick direct from population feedback will become a viable option—referendum questions like charter change can be realistically executed in a short period of time if elections become so cheap and quick to do.

In other words, automating elections in the Philippines will have far-reaching effects. At least if and when the entire country’s elections are automated. Conceivably, less people will need to watch over the process, so that means fewer customers for any nearby vendors or establishments in each area’s election stations.

Courtesy of Philstar.com

The issue on the automation of the 2010 national elections have reverted all ears as it creates noise. Billions of pesos will be spent for a strategy that is not proven to eliminate the problem of elections, and so, a test is about to be done.

Opposition Senator Allan Peter Cayetano said in a press conference that he is filling a resolution for COMELEC (Commission on Elections) to appropriate an amount of 100 million pesos out of the 11 billion pesos fund on the automation of elections as a reward for anyone who can show and convince the people that the automated elections is also susceptible to dirty tactics such as fraud and tampering of election paraphernalia. If this goes through (the resolution), this will be a test to the automation process’s invulnerability and probably will make the fear of people for any untoward act regarding the elections vanish.

This is why the Commission on Elections (Comelec) challenged hackers to try to hack into the voting and counting machines that will be used in next year’s elections, but expressed confidence that they would fail.

Comelec executive director Jose Tolentino said they are very confident the security features of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines would be able to thwart hackers.

“Even in the first level, we can already detect any tampering,” noted Tolentino, who is also the project manager of poll automation.

“After that, we’ll know if the machines are accurate… The parties will then sign a document to certify that the machines are accurate,” Tolentino added.

The election process is one of those processes that should not be taken with risks for it would determine the future of our country. I for one would like to contribute by saying that I am also a computer enthusiast with knowledge about hacking and I will try my best to penetrate and hack the system to prove whether the automation process will be a success or yet again, another failure. So to all the hackers there, I urge you to try and give it your best shot to prove yourself as hackers. You might just got lucky and take the 100 million pesos reward plus the bonus of helping your own country.

But today scientists recently discovered that a new form of carbon ribbon that’s ultra-flexible and super-strong could become the infrastructure for the first working space elevator. Such a structure would usher in a new era in easy space travel.

Long-predicted by science fiction authors, and memorably portrayed in Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel Red Mars (where a space elevator crashes to the planet’s surface), a space elevator would pull people out of the atmosphere quickly – without wasting as much energy as rockets do as they escape Earth’s gravity. The elevator would begin at the Earth’s equator and could stretch up to an orbital platform or even a relocated asteroid. People who wanted to travel to space would ride the elevator far out of the atmosphere and catch a ship in orbit.

NASA holds regular competitions to inspire people to come up with materials that would make a space elevator possible, and the team behind the new ribbon material developed it for one of NASA’s competitions. According to the Times Online:

Spurred on by a $4m (2.7m) research prize from Nasa, a team at Cambridge University has created the world’s strongest ribbon: a cylindrical strand of carbon that combines lightweight flexibility with incredible strength and has the potential to stretch vast distances. The development has been seized upon by the space scientists, who believe the technology could allow astronauts to travel into space via a cable thousands of miles long – a space elevator . . .

The Cambridge team is making about 1 gram of the high-tech material per day, enough to stretch to 18 miles in length. “We have Nasa on the phone asking for 144,000 miles of the stuff, but there is a difference between what can be achieved in a lab and on an industrial level,” says Alan Windle, professor of materials science at Cambridge University, who is anxious not to let the work get ahead of itself.

The rest of the Times article is worth checking out – there’s a lot of cool information about space elevators and their potential development over the next few decades.

Description:

Over its lifetime of about 20 months, GOCE will map global variations in the gravity field with extreme detail and provide a unique model of the geoid, which is crucial for understanding ocean circulation, sea-level change and ice dynamics – all of which are affected by climate change.