PARIS (AFP) - Governments scrambled for emergency measures to protect savers, shore up confidence in banks and shield them from a potentially catastrophic cash exodus on Tuesday amid more panic on global stock markets.

i(4 Oct 2008)/ibr /br /This paper proposes a hierarchical, multi-resolution framework for the identification of model parameters and their spatially variability from noisy measurements of the response or output. Such parameters are frequently encountered in PDE-based models and correspond to quantities such as density or pressure fields, elasto-plastic moduli and internal variables in solid mechanics, conductivity fields in heat diffusion problems, permeability fields in fluid flow through porous media etc. The proposed model has all the advantages of traditional Bayesian formulations such as the ability to produce measures of confidence for the inferences made and providing not only predictive estimates but also quantitative measures of the predictive uncertainty. In contrast to existing approaches it utilizes a parsimonious, non-parametric formulation that favors sparse representations and whose complexity can be determined from the data. The proposed framework in non-intrusive and makes use of a sequence of forward solvers operating at various resolutions. As a result, inexpensive, coarse solvers are used to identify the most salient features of the unknown field(s) which are subsequently enriched by invoking solvers operating at finer resolutions. This leads to significant computational savings particularly in problems involving computationally demanding forward models but also improvements in accuracy. It is based on a novel, adaptive scheme based on Sequential Monte Carlo sampling which is embarrassingly parallelizable and circumvents issues with slow mixing encountered in Markov Chain Monte Carlo schemes.

centerimg title="Fancy Lightbulb Concept" style="MARGIN: 0px" alt="Fancy Lightbulb Concept" src="http://www.ubergizmo.com/photos/2008/10/pocket-light.jpg" border="0" //centerbr / pWhat you see here looks like a normal cardboard cut-out of a lightbulb, but what's so amazing about it is it actually lights up the moment the lightbulb cut-out is flipped. No measure of magic is used in this procedure, although I'm sure those at Hogwarts will be to differ. A tiny cell powers the cardboard lightbulb to help provide ambient illumination around you. Would be nice to see this concept roll off manufacturing lines though as it would be handy carrying this around in my wallet./p pa href="http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2008/10/fancy_lightbulb_concept.html#comments"Add a comment/a | From: a href="http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2008/10/fancy_lightbulb_concept.html"Fancy Lightbulb Concept/a | Visit a href="http://www.ubergizmo.com"Ubergizmo/a | a href="http://www.uberbargain.com/"Good deals/a/p pmap name="google_ad_map_081006204441" area shape="rect" href="http://imageads.googleadservices.com/pagead/imgclick/081006204441?pos=0" coords="1,2,367,28"/ area shape="rect" href="http://services.google.com/feedback/abg" coords="384,10,453,23"//map img usemap="#google_ad_map_081006204441" border="0" src="http://imageads.googleadservices.com/pagead/ads?format=468x30_aff_imgamp;client=ca-pub-7335032025195922amp;channel=9684588219amp;output=pngamp;cuid=081006204441amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ubergizmo.com%2F15%2Farchives%2F2008%2F10%2Ffancy_lightbulb_concept.html"//p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/Wt0B7GhkkatndQqekKqfiZMQHMw/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/Wt0B7GhkkatndQqekKqfiZMQHMw/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?a=3uBuBfOH"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?a=Zc8qXV9U"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?i=Zc8qXV9U" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?a=O7aMkeE2"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?a=9dv26pIG"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/ubergizmo?i=9dv26pIG" border="0"/img/a /div

LUXEMBOURG (AFP) - European finance ministers were set Tuesday to begin preparing their first joint measure to reassure savers unnerved by the financial crisis by ramping up minimum bank deposit guarantees.

The good news is that a relative recently bought a mac after I had strongly recommended it for so long. Overall, she loves the computer, but she's used to using Adobe Audition which is not available for mac. Now, what are the equivalents? I haven't done sound editing in years now and the last thing I used was Logic. I have no idea how that measures up to Audition. Logic express? What about Garage Band? I would really appreciate advice from someone who has used Audition. I don't really know what she uses Audition for though.. I think it's for making radio shows or podcasts.

Thanks!

In our daily lives, checking on someone’s background has become a protective measure especially when someone seems to be suspicious. There can be loads of reasons why people perform a background check on others.

In 2003, Georgia had its Rose Revolution. In 2004, Ukraine had its Orange Revolution. And in 2005 Kyrgyzstan had its Tulip Revolution.

These “revolutions” managed to shift the politics of their respective countries, and many democracy activists believed the pattern might be extended to other countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia. In the end, the new political forces fell into familiar tracks, and the rest of the Central Asian leaders took the lesson that they should crack down on democracy movements before they start (the worst example being the massacre in Andijon, Uzbekistan.)

That didn't stop Dodojon Atovulloev/Atoullo, a Tajik journalist who has published a Tajik-language newspaper in Russia since the 1990s, from declaring in 2007 that he was forming a new movement called “Vatandor” (”Patriot”) which he hoped would would eventually result in a “Violet Revolution.” He claimed he would be able to challenge the Rahmon government by appealing to the thousands of Tajiks living and working in Russia. Those expat Tajiks contribute a significant portion of the economy of Tajikistan through their remittances.

The state prosecutor of Tajikistan recently announced charges of slander and “destabilizing the country,” and there was speculation that the charges would become a pretext to request Atovulloev's extradition from Russia.

Atovolloev, who had resided in Moscow but possessed a residency permit for Germany, fled Moscow on a plane to Paris. In an interview with Darius at A Dervish [tj], he explains that he chose a flight to Paris because he thought that the Russian government might be expecting him to fly to Germany. Western press agencies were also invited to videotape his departure, in the hope that their presence would prevent his arrest or detention.

The journalist has had his ups and downs with the government of Tajikistan. In 1992, the government sought to prosecute him for meetings with the opposition coalition that fought against Rahmon in the Tajik civil war of the 1990s. In 1998, the prosecutor charged him with libeling the president. In 2001, Atovulloev was arrested at the airport in Moscow, although he was later released.

Then, in 2002, as part of a general amnesty, the Tajik government pardoned Atovulloev and invited him back to Tajikistan as part of an effort to promote reconciliation and garner international credibility. He cut his first visit back to Tajikistan short, claiming that he had been followed and threatened. He returned to Moscow and continued to publish his newspaper, “Charogh-i Ruz” (”Daily Beacon”).

In his most recent interview, Atovulloev says that the Tajik government tried to woo him back to Tajikistan, but that he refused:

Atovullo revealed that representatives of the Rahmon administration approached him in 2007 to explore a political deal. “Last year, Rahmon’s closest aids negotiated with me almost for six months,” he said. “They tried to convince me to return to Tajikistan, to get a portfolio or pocket a huge sum of money in exchange for my silence. After I gave them cold shoulder they resumed my criminal case.”

Also in his interview with Darius, he asserts that democratic voices are the only thing that can restrain a religious backlash:

Another misfortune is that if the remaining democratic forces in Tajikistan are defeated, there's a 100% chance of a Tajik Taliban entering the political arena, or that they would win a victory. Today we see that the youth of Tajikistan don't have anywhere to go but to the mosque to sit at the foot of demagogic mullahs. This is a lost generation.

As of today, there is little evidence of a wide-scale Islamic political movement in Tajikistan, mostly because of the strict measures the Rahmon regime has applied to the religious establishment. How accurate Atovulloev's assessment is, and how influential his voice is, is hard to gauge. But the Rahmon government clearly sees him as a large enough threat to direct so much public attention at him.

TOKYO (AFP) - World stock markets plunged again Tuesday as the global financial crisis deepened, with governments taking emergency measures to shore up confidence but failing to stem the panic.

In our daily lives, checking on someone’s background has become a protective measure especially when someone seems to be suspicious. There can be loads of reasons why people perform a background check on others.

LUXEMBOURG (AFP) - European finance ministers were set Tuesday to begin preparing their first joint measure to reassure savers unnerved by the financial crisis by ramping up minimum bank deposit guarantees.

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Governments around the world scrambled for new measures to contain the fast-spreading credit crisis as stock, bond and commodity markets bet on deepening uncertainty and a sharp downturn. pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/Kxr1NjhYTyvhv8RI-E3kBUytMHw/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/Kxr1NjhYTyvhv8RI-E3kBUytMHw/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=mYVkuK5s"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=jrL6AwhC"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=jrL6AwhC" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=DHyrpq8T"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=DHyrpq8T" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~4/KnG-Kf4Mrag" height="1" width="1"/

“This low” meaning “Is DC now publishing torture porn?” How sad would that be?

Over at Every Day Is Like Wednesday, I came across a description of Nightwing #149: “[I]t is incredibly, spectacularly awful.” Caleb goes far more into it, and I just thought, “I must buy this. I must read it.” And so I bought it. And I read it. Boy howdy, he’s right. He celebrates its awfulness, however, believing that nothing can come “anywhere near the terrible glory” that is Nightwing #149. I can’t be quite so blasé about it, however. This is a bad comic. More than that, it’s a depressing comic. In a DC Universe that has recently been all about cruelty, this stands out. If you didn’t buy it, I thought I’d break it down for you.

Page 1: Nightwing is narrating. He’s breaking through “the safehouse window” and he can “smell them” before he can see them. We see some major Batman villains: Joker, Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, Penguin, Poison Ivy, and Two-Face. Joker is holding a crowbar with blood on it, the tip of Penguin’s umbrella has blood on it, and Killer Croc has blood dripping from his teeth and claws. Unpleasant, but nothing terribly egregious. Thanks to Nightwing’s narration, we learn that he might be hallucinating some of this because of Scarecrow’s “fear serum.” Okay.

Pages 2-3: These are two big splash pages, with the credits on Page 3. On page 2, our perspective is from behind Dick as he stands above the villains. Each villain is menacing a woman, but we quickly realize it’s the same woman, so this must be a hallucination. Much of what follows is just that - not “real.” However, that doesn’t change the fact that the events are drawn on the page. Anyway, Mr. Freeze has, well, frozen his woman. Behind him stands the Joker with his crowbar, and the woman at his feet has blood streaming down her face. The Penguin clutches his victim against his chest with his pointed umbrella across her throat. Oddly, she has two large round blood splotches on her breasts, where her nipples would be. It’s bizarre. Croc has very clearly eaten his woman. Even though Dick is blocking most of our view of that, we see a stump of a leg. Charming. On page 3, Dick leaps down among them and starts beating on them. This all takes place in what looks like a lake of blood on the floor, by the way.

Page 4: We learn that the woman’s name is Carol. We have no idea who she is, yet (we’ll find out). Croc has Carol’s head in his mouth, and blood is pouring down her face. She chastizes Dick for failing to save her. Croc falls forward into the blood on the floor. Dick leaps backward and then lands on Croc’s head. He takes his two sticks (nunchucks?) and … rams them into Croc’s eyes. Blood spurts out with a swell sound effect: “Sklatch.” The Penguin appears to stab Dick in the back. It’s unclear whether he stabs him or just whacks him with the flat of the umbrella’s point.

Page 5: Our hero kicks Penguin in the face, knocking him against a wall and presumably giving him a concussion (that is, if Oswald were there, which he’s not). Then we see Scarecrow, holding Carol’s limp body as blood coats his shirt. Dick leaps at Scarecrow and tackles him.

Pages 6-8: Dick holds Scarecrow under the level of the blood on the floor, asking him why he looks so scared - “What’s the problem - my hands too tight?!?” He continues, “Fear got your tongue?!? Spit it out - I can’t hear you with all that blood in your mouth!” Behind him, Poison Ivy wraps vines around his neck and pulls him backward. She asks him if he can smell the “beautiful leaves and flowers.” Dick responds, “I like the smell of cut grass better after it’s been mowed.” Uh, what? Ivy makes her vines smash him against the ceiling, telling him to “apologize” to it. Uh, what? As he hangs there, Carol shows up again. This time she tells him what happened to her: “Ivy broke my windpipe … squeezed every last breath from me … and you let her …” Dick breaks free and shoots a rope at Ivy. This somehow electrocutes her. But then Mr. Freeze shows up! Behind him are several frozen people. At least there’s no blood!

Pages 9-10: Underneath the now-frozen blood, Carol lies, blaming Dick for her plight. Dick breaks free of Freeze’s ice and breaks his helmet. He takes Freeze’s gun, shoves it in his mouth, and fires. Not without saying, and I kid you not, “Ever drink a chocolate shake too fast … and get a brain freeze?” Icicles shoot out of Freeze’s eyes and nose. Behind Dick, the Joker says, “Ever talk too much and get a brain fart?” Um, what? I know this is mostly a hallucination of Dick’s, but the shadow that the Joker casts shows him holding the crowbar over his head, while he’s standing with it lowered. Good stuff.

Pages 11-12: So the Joker bashes Dick for a page, evoking Jason’s death both visually and by referencing it himself. Dick, however, grabs hold of the crowbar and punches the Joker out. That leaves Harvey, who compliments him on defeating his “hired help.”

Pages 13-14: Harvey tells Dick that he shot our hero with bullets laced with fear serum, and then he drags out the real Carol, still very much alive. I should point out that they’re still standing in what looks like blood, and it’s up to their waists. Yes, their waists. Meanwhile, lying on the ground, underneath the surface, are several punks that presumably Nightwing saw as the villains. Um, are they dead? If not, they’re going to drown pretty soon. I know they’re bad guys, but damn, Dick - that’s cold. Anyway, we find out that Harvey came to Dick and asked him to keep Carol safe. So now he’s proving that Dick can’t keep her safe. Yes, it makes sense. Dick tries to reason with him, but there’s only one logical solution that Harvey understands - the coin! He flips a coin.

Pages 15-16: Okay, I hope Dick is still imagining things, because the coin Harvey flips grows huge, knocking him through a wall as a bomb goes off. He falls and imagines that his parents are falling with him, while suddenly, Harvey and Carol are on the roof of the building. Okay, a wall collapsed and the building is still standing? And they were in the room where the bomb went off but now they’re on the roof? Hmmm … Carol tries to get through to Harvey, but he tells her, “I need you to die,” and pulls the trigger.

Pages 17-19: As Dick fires a line toward the roof, we see a close-up of Carol’s face. Then we pull back and we see her bleeding from a gut shot. She’s remarkably lucid for just getting shot in the gut, as she asks if Harvey’s just going to stand there and watch her die. You’d think she’d be doubled over moaning in pain, but not Carol! On the next page, she’s lying on the ground in agony, bleeding out (that was a quick transition!) as Harvey leaves, saying he’s “going to walk out slowly” so he doesn’t “slip” on her blood. Classy! Dick reaches Carol, who is apparently back inside the building, and he imagines he sees Barbara lying there, shot through the spine. Then he sees that it’s Carol, blood all over the floor beneath her. Nice! He starts to administer CPR, which means he has to rip open her shirt so we can see her breasts as she dies, and then he slaps her for good measure. All for naught. Sayonara, Carol.

Pages 20-22: There’s a funeral, and then we cut to Harvey at “Bear Mountain State Park.” He’s standing by a limosine, and the man inside is watching coverage of the funeral. We learn that Carol was the district attorney in the “Blackhole investigation,” and this guy hired Harvey to kill her so that the Feds wouldn’t be able to prosecute. Harvey realizes that Dick failed to save her, so he blasts the guy in the limo. And that’s a wrap!

Sweet fancy Moses, this is yucky. I realize that pretty much all of it doesn’t actually take place, but that doesn’t make it any less yucky. And Carol does die “in reality,” so there’s that (and I think we can safely put this in the Women in Refrigerators section as our Dread Lord and Master defines it, as her death does serve a purpose in the context of the larger story, but immediately, it’s simply to get an emotional reaction out of Dick, which is that he’s a lousy hero). Beyond the utter awfulness of the vile violence, however, is the underlying message of DC these days: Heroes can’t do anything to help anyone. Until recently, this was a relatively minor subset of superhero comics. Now, it’s basically the way things are, mostly at DC, but it’s also creeping into Marvel as well. Dick fails in pretty much every way in this comic. He doesn’t overcome Scarecrow’s fear serum, he tries and almost succeeds in “killing” “Scarecrow” (and would have if Ivy hadn’t stopped him), he leaves unconscious thugs to drown, and he can’t stop Harvey from killing Carol. It’s not the end of the story, so I’m sure in Nightwing #150 he’ll do something to prove he’s a hero, but the fact is that in this issue, he’s an utter failure. Not only is he an utter failure, there’s nothing to even hint at any redemption. There’s absolutely no reason for this issue to exist except as “torture porn,” meaning that it allows the creators to indulge in horrific violence for violence’s sake, and they can’t even use the excuse that it’s all in Dick’s head, because the character he’s supposed to saved gets gut-shot and bleeds to death.

Peter Tomasi, who wrote this, and Don Kramer, who drew it, should be ashamed of themselves. Tomasi has written some decent stuff in the past, but this might negate everything he’s ever done. This is poorly-written (remember Dick’s comment about “cut grass”?), ugly, and pointless. As Caleb points out, it might have been a meditation on Harvey’s psychosis (he wants Dick to protect Carol, and then makes sure he can’t), but it’s swamped, quite literally, by the blood. You might think I’m being overly squeamish. Well, I read the novels of Michael Slade and love them, so I don’t think that’s it. It’s that this is a mainstream DC superhero comic, and therefore, as Greg Hatcher pointed out recently, it’s probably going to be a bit immature. DC has been trying very hard to make their comics “mature,” but what that means to them is killing people in gruesome ways. I don’t want to go all “Won’t someone think of the children?” here, but the fact that this isn’t labeled as a “mature readers” book and that any kid can buy it depresses me. DC should shit or get off the pot. Make their superheroes “mature” books or stop printing crap like this.

I know I’m pissing in the wind with that, so I’ll do the only thing I can: Beg you to avoid buying this book or any like it. Not only is this horrifying in all the wrong ways, it’s dull, dumb, and ugly. It’s everything we should think of when we think of offensively bad comic books. It’s symptomatic of what’s wrong with so much of DC’s output these days. It’s not even fun to eviscerate this thing. It’s just sad.

(I’d love to show you some scans of the pages, but that, I think, would be as bad as drawing it in the first place. I hope you can live with my descriptions of what happens. Seeing it might depress you even further.)

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Federal Reserve and the US Treasury, armed with new emergency powers, announced measures to tackle a rapidly escalating financial crisis as panicked investors fled stock markets.

This heart rate monitor application uses the iPhone's microphone to "listen" and measure your heart beat. As the image shows, you can use the phone directly on your (bare) chest, or more conveniently under your jaw, with a headphone cable microphone. It is said to work best with the new iPhone 3G. Users of older models should always use the headphone microphone. (video in the full post)

Add a comment | From: Heart rate monitor iPhone app (video) | Visit Ubergizmo | Good deals

Stock markets remained in free fall yesterday despite a range of desperate measures to stabilise the world's financial system.

fring VoIP has finally arrived in the App Store. How well will it measure up in real use? Ars Technica puts it to the test and discovers that, while it's definitely a cool and useful app, it could use some more spit and polish.

Read More...

Filed under: Transportation

There's not exactly a shortage of options out there for parents that want to keep watch on their kids' driving, but Ford looks to be taking things a bit further than most with its new MyKey system, and it's making it standard issue, no less. Set to debut in the 2010 Focus Coupe and plenty of other Ford vehicles shortly thereafter, the key-based system will let parents limit their car's top driving speed to 80 miles per hour, cut off the stereo's volume at just 44% of its max output, and set a persistent chime to go off if the seatbelts aren't being used (the stereo also gets muted until everyone buckles up). As if that wasn't enough, it'll also provide a low-fuel warning at 75 miles to empty, start issuing a surely annoying reminder as the driver inches up past the 45 mph mark, and make it impossible to disable some of the Focus' usual safety measures like Park Aid and Cross Traffic Alert. Also not able to be disabled: your kid's resentment.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Matchlink.com is the premier dating website with the most attractive, successful singles in YOUR area. We use a patented technology to find the member that would be most compatible to you. The one that shares your likes and dislikes, hobbies and even political views. We feature SoulMatch, StarMatch and Sensuality Match all of which measure your compatibility with other Matchlink Members.

Category: Utilities
Released: Oct 06, 2008
Price: Free

Description:
This application measures the angles(as in a spirit level), elevation or slopes from each of the four edges of the iPhone/iPod Touch. You can also place your device face up and measure both axis. So it can be used to level many things! You can calibrate each direction individually. It contains a lock feature, and the calibration process is easy. The application also disables the automatic sleep mode of your device, so when measuring, you wont have to be touching the screen or pressing any button to keep it awake. *Test if any surface is leveled *Very precise *Doesn't goes to sleep mode *You can lock your reading *Amazingly easy calibration *Bubble level like when face up *Stunning graphics *Smooth animation The accuracy of the accelerometer may vary from device to device. Needs to be calibrated in a leveled surface for accurate results. ***Lite version limitations*** -Every minute a pop up will appear so you can check out our paid version. Even though the lite version is a complete version of our paid application, It is intended so you can test the application, if you like it, you can buy our paid version. A link to the AppStore will pop up so you can check out the complete version. Any questions or suggestions please send it to: support@is.hn, add TiltMeter Lite to the subject ******************************

Website: http://is.hn/tiltmeter
Support Website: http://is.hn/tiltmeter

Note: The description above is the official one supplied by the application developer and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of this site or its staff.


Get it on iTunes: Tilt Meter Lite

Category: Utilities
Released: Oct 06, 2008
Price: Free

Description:
This application measures the angles(as in a spirit level), elevation or slopes from each of the four edges of the iPhone/iPod Touch. You can also place your device face up and measure both axis. So it can be used to level many things! You can calibrate each direction individually. It contains a lock feature, and the calibration process is easy. The application also disables the automatic sleep mode of your device, so when measuring, you wont have to be touching the screen or pressing any button to keep it awake. *Test if any surface is leveled *Very precise *Doesn't goes to sleep mode *You can lock your reading *Amazingly easy calibration *Bubble level like when face up *Stunning graphics *Smooth animation The accuracy of the accelerometer may vary from device to device. Needs to be calibrated in a leveled surface for accurate results. ***Lite version limitations*** -Every minute a pop up will appear so you can check out our paid version. Even though the lite version is a complete version of our paid application, It is intended so you can test the application, if you like it, you can buy our paid version. A link to the AppStore will pop up so you can check out the complete version. Any questions or suggestions please send it to: support@is.hn, add TiltMeter Lite to the subject ******************************

Website: http://is.hn/tiltmeter
Support Website: http://is.hn/tiltmeter

Note: The description above is the official one supplied by the application developer and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of this site or its staff.


Get it on iTunes: Tilt Meter Lite

Leaders of all 27 European Union governments vowed on Monday to 'take whatever measures necessary' to prop up the financial system as markets plunged across the continent and countries raced to put in place blanket protection for depositors