Lauren 10PIB2 Fieldtrip (Assignment)

Giving and receiving is the basis of all transactions. No interaction can take place without these two. Nowadays, we are constantly trying to elevate one to a place of sanctity and the other to subordination. One is considered superior and the other inferior. Today, we feel we must emphasize the importance of giving only because taking happens in large volumes and giving has become scarce.

In reality, however, there is no giving or taking. With a little deeper perception of life, one can see that there is no such thing as giving and taking. It is just life rearranging itself constantly. Modern science agrees with this today. There is no giving and taking, no adding or subtracting, just a rearrangement of the same energy. If you see everything as yours, you just rearrange as necessary.

When you realize that the essential process of life is a constant transaction, you will realize that for an iota of offering that you make, there are a trillion things to receive all the time. Think of the forces of existence and the zillions of creatures working, knowingly or unknowingly, within your body and outside of it, to make life possible. Everything in the existence is somehow collaborating to keep you alive and well. Only a fool thinks of himself as a giver. Just to be alive is to receive in great abundance.

by : Jaggi Vasudev

source : ijourney.org

One afternoon Angela gave her young daughter four jellybeans and let her know that was all the candy she was going to receive.

After practically inhaling the first three candies, Eliana lingered over the final one. She sucked on it, took it out of her mouth, bit into it, sucked on it some more, then gnawed at the outer shell. Knowing that this was her last jellybean, she took a full 45 minutes to ingest the treat completely.

Angela observed her little girl with amusement. It occurred to her that she was watching Eliana learn the value of savoring—enjoying taste and texture and learning to draw out every possible bit of flavor from the pleasurable experience.

When we read, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. 34:8), we can be sure that God wants us to “savor” His presence. He allows us to gain intimate and satisfying knowledge of Him. And when we meditate on His Word, we will draw out a deeper understanding of who He is (Ezek. 3:1-3). As we taste His goodness and love, He will reveal the distinctive flavor of His creativity, sovereignty, holiness, and faithfulness.

Our Father must look on with enjoyment as we learn how to enjoy and savor Him.


Oh, taste the goodness of the Lord
And savor all that He has done;
Draw close and give your praise to Him—
The holy, sovereign, faithful One. —Sper


Our greatest privilege is to enjoy God’s presence.

by : Cindy Hess Kasper

source : odb.org, april 5 2011

A cartoon depicts a woman shaking hands with her clergyman as she leaves the church. The caption says, "Thank you for the sermon. It was like water to a drowning man." Some compliments are better left unsaid....

Isn't it true that words carry with them immense power? Power to build up and power to tear down. Such was the case with the words of Maude, a woman who learned that there is no wrong time to say the right thing.

It was a cold, rainy day in March. Across the room in the millinery department of the store where Maude worked, sat Laura, a woman about Maude's age. Other workers did not like Laura; they thought her to be snobbish and aloof. And Maude agreed.

But sweeping the bias from her eyes, she made up her mind to say something kind to Laura. Finally, she managed, "Do you know, Laura, that I've worked in this room with you for several years. And whenever I glance up I see your head silhouetted against the window there behind you. I think you have the prettiest profile and hair that I have ever seen on anybody." Her words were not insincere flattery. She meant it.

Laura looked up and began to cry. "That's the first kind word anybody has ever said to me in all the years I've worked here," she said.

Maude discovered that Laura's aloofness was not due to snobbishness, but shyness. The two became friends. Other workers soon began to include Laura in their activities, and she blossomed like a flower that, for the first time, found sunlight. The right words, spoken in kindness, changed a life.

Never underestimate the power of your words. There is no wrong time to say the right thing. And there is no better time than now.

by : Steven Goodier

source : allthingsfrugal.com

IDG News Service - Texas Instruments on Monday announced it has agreed to acquire semiconductor company National Semiconductor for US$6.5 billion in an all-cash transaction.

TI, which makes low-power chips, said it would combine its 30,000 analog products and advanced manufacturing capabilities with the offerings of National Semiconductor, which makes analog integrated circuits.

National will bring 12,000 analog products to the joint product portfolio. On the close of the deal, National will become a part of TI's analog segment. Sales of analog semiconductors will represent almost 50 percent of TI's revenue, the companies said in a joint statement.

Analog semiconductors convert analog data into digital signals in smartphones, PCs and many other devices.

"This acquisition is about strength and growth," said Rich Templeton, TI's chairman, president and chief executive officer, in the statement. Each company has unique strengths in delivering products to improve performance and efficiency and convert real-world signals in electronic systems, the companies said.

In a conference call to discuss the deal with analysts, executives from TI and National said that there is very little product overlap at the companies. TI currently has three segments to its analog business and with the acquisition will add a fourth, Templeton said.

"The thought process isn't one of consolidation, but an opportunity to grow faster, and it's a great way to put $6.5 billion to work earning pretty good rates of return," he said.

TI expects to retain all of National's engineering talent but might find some overlap in people who take care of corporate functions such as IT. Still, TI expects that once it reduces that overlap, it will save about $100 million through efficiencies.

TI also expects to retain all the manufacturing processes and facilities in use by National. Because National has so-called "headroom" in its manufacturing, or the ability to make more than it currently produces, it offers TI the ability to grow, said Templeton.

National wasn't looking to be acquired, said the company's CEO, Don Macleod. But TI approached the company and the leaders decided joining the two would complement each other, he said.

Because TI's sales force is much larger than National's, he expects the combination to significantly boost sales of National's products.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in six to nine months, they said. The executives said that while the deal faces regulatory scrutiny in many regions around the world, they don't expect issues with the dominance of the new combined company.

"It's a fragmented market," Templeton said. TI has about 14 percent market share in the analog market and National about 3 percent, he said. "The story of analog is, when you drill down into the compartments and product areas, you find competitive offerings in many of these spaces," he said.

If the acquisition is completed, TI will have a stronger foothold in a market in which it already is a leader, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64. The acquisition could provide new growth opportunities and an extended market presence for products made by National Semiconductor, which over the years has tried a variety of tactics to grow its business.

"These are both names that have been a part of the semiconductor industry since the days the industry got created" decades ago, Brookwood said.

The analog semiconductor market has always been an exclusive club of a few companies, Brookwood said. The acquisition could help contract the market into a few players that includes Linear Technology and NXP Semiconductor.

by : Agam Shah and Nancy Gohring

source : computerworld.com

Iran's first nuclear power plant has been forced to delay when it will begin supplying energy by several months, following the spread of a global computer virus.

Iranian officials said on Sunday the Stuxnet virus had hit staff computers at the Bushehr plant, a symbol of Iran's growing geopolitical sway and rejection of international efforts to curb its nuclear activity, but not affected major systems there.

When Iran began loading fuel into Bushehr in August, officials said it would take two to three months for the plant to start producing electricity and that it would generate 1,000 megawatts, about 2.5 per cent of the country's power usage.

"We hope that the fuel will be transferred to the core of the Bushehr nuclear power plant next week and before the second half of the Iranian month of Mehr (Oct. 7)," Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, said.

"The ground is being prepared in this regard and, God willing, the fuel will be loaded to the core of the reactor completely by early November and the heart of Bushehr power plant will start beating by then."

Mr Salehi added: "Two to three months after that electricity will be added to the networks."This would mean Bushehr generating electricity from January or February.

Security experts say the Stuxnet computer worm may have been a state-sponsored attack on Iran's nuclear programme and have originated in the United States or Israel, the Islamic Republic's arch-adversaries.

Iran's programme includes uranium enrichment – separate from Bushehr – that Western leaders suspect is geared towards developing atom bombs. Iran says it is refining uranium only for a future network of nuclear power plants.

Diplomats and security sources say Western governments and Israel view sabotage as one way of slowing Iran's nuclear work.

Little information is available on how much damage, if any, Iran's nuclear and wider infrastructure has suffered from Stuxnet and Tehran will probably never disclose full details.
Some analysts believe Iran may be suffering wider sabotage aimed at slowing its nuclear advances, pointing to a series of unexplained technical glitches that have cut the number of working centrifuge machines at the Natanz enrichment plant.

Bushehr was begun by Germany's Siemens in the 1970s, before Iran's Islamic Revolution, but has been dogged by delays.

Russia designed and built the plant and will supply the fuel. To ease nuclear proliferation concerns, it will take back spent fuel rods that could otherwise be used to make weapons-grade plutonium. Bushehr is also being monitored by inspectors of the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Washington has criticised Moscow for pushing ahead with Bushehr despite Iranian defiance over its nuclear programme.

source : telegraph.co.uk

As Japan starts the long road to recovery following last week’s terrible events, the technology world starts to feel the effects as well. We told you recently that some of Japans biggest electronics companies have had to shut down production, and even video games have been delayed.
Miyoung Kim from Reuters is reporting that prices for key technology items have soared following the troubles out in Japan. The probability of prolonged supply issues have seen companies searching for alternative sources of tech components. According to research firm HIS iSuppli this could lead to big price rises.

Prices for NAND flash chips rose again today by three percent, this after rising twenty percent yesterday. DRAM memory chip prices have also risen by 7.2 percent since Monday. NAND memory chips have seen demand jump mainly due to the Apple iPad 2. Toshiba Corp who are responsible for around one-third of the world’s NAND chips is not sure when its plant will reopen.

Texas Instruments has warned its two sites might not be running at full production before July, but it has been able to redirect sixty percent of output to other factories. Sony which have eight factories making a variety of products including Blu-ray discs do not know when they will be opening.

A company which makes the touch module for the iPad 2, Taiwan’s Wintek, has said they have over two weeks of supplies left, and a source from the company said they were looking for alternative suppliers.

The dreadful events of last week will continue to cause problems for the country, which will be keen to get the economy back up and running to start funding the massive rebuilding program the people of Japan are now facing.

by : Gary Johnson

source : product-reviews.net

ScienceDaily (Apr. 3, 2011) — With the first observation of thermoelectric effects at graphene contacts, University of Illinois researchers found that graphene transistors have a nanoscale cooling effect that reduces their temperature. Researchers found that thermoelectric cooling effects can be stronger at graphene contacts than resistive heating, so graphene transistors are self-cooling.

Led by mechanical science and engineering professor William King and electrical and computer engineering professor Eric Pop, the team will publish its findings in the April 3 advance online edition of the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

The speed and size of computer chips are limited by how much heat they dissipate. All electronics dissipate heat as a result of the electrons in the current colliding with the device material, a phenomenon called resistive heating. This heating outweighs other smaller thermoelectric effects that can locally cool a device. Computers with silicon chips use fans or flowing water to cool the transistors, a process that consumes much of the energy required to power a device.

Future computer chips made out of graphene -- carbon sheets 1 atom thick -- could be faster than silicon chips and operate at lower power. However, a thorough understanding of heat generation and distribution in graphene devices has eluded researchers because of the tiny dimensions involved.

The Illinois team used an atomic force microscope tip as a temperature probe to make the first nanometer-scale temperature measurements of a working graphene transistor. The measurements revealed surprising temperature phenomena at the points where the graphene transistor touches the metal connections. They found that thermoelectric cooling effects can be stronger at graphene contacts than resistive heating, actually lowering the temperature of the transistor.
"In silicon and most materials, the electronic heating is much larger than the self-cooling," King said. "However, we found that in these graphene transistors, there are regions where the thermoelectric cooling can be larger than the resistive heating, which allows these devices to cool themselves. This self-cooling has not previously been seen for graphene devices."

This self-cooling effect means that graphene-based electronics could require little or no cooling, begetting an even greater energy efficiency and increasing graphene's attractiveness as a silicon replacement.

"Graphene electronics are still in their infancy; however, our measurements and simulations project that thermoelectric effects will become enhanced as graphene transistor technology and contacts improve " said Pop, who is also affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science, and the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory at the U. of I.
Next, the researchers plan to use the AFM temperature probe to study heating and cooling in carbon nanotubes and other nanomaterials.

King also is affiliated with the department of materials science and engineering, the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, the Beckman Institute, and the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Office of Naval Research supported this work. Co-authors of the paper included graduate student Kyle Grosse, undergraduate Feifei Lian and postdoctoral researcher Myung-Ho Bae.

source : sciencedaily.com