NEW YORK (Reuters) –
The Northeast began digging out on Sunday from a massive snowstorm that buried cities from Washington to Boston under as much as two feet of snow, creating travel chaos and hampering Christmas shopping.

Nearly two feet of snow piled up in the Baltimore-Washington area on Saturday in the largest snowstorm to hit the region since February 2003, while New York City saw totals up to a foot before the monster storm churned into New England.

Boston and Cape Cod areas were expected to see as much as a foot snow before the storm moved out to sea. Areas of eastern Long Island had blizzard-like conditions and nearly two feet of precipitation.

The storm gave Washington its snowiest December on record, said Weather Channel meteorologist Mike Seidel.

"After six winters here in Washington of sub-par (below average) snowfall ... we picked up a whole season's worth in one storm," Seidel said. The average for a season is just under 16 inches.

Washington-area airports were hit with significant delays and cancellations, as were New York's three metropolitan airports, which remained opened with only minor delays on Sunday. But airlines canceled hundreds of flights, with few planes either arriving or departing.

Washington's Reagan National airport shut down on Saturday and reopened around midday on Sunday.

The driving snowstorm, which meteorologists said was one of the biggest ever in terms of size and scope, did not stop the U.S. Senate from convening and Democrats secured the pivotal 60th vote of holdout Senator Ben Nelson needed to ensure passage of the healthcare overhaul bill by Christmas.

And the shows -- Broadway's -- went on, with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg urging residents to enjoy the city's cultural institutions and take advantage of ticket cancellations for hot shows.

"SHOPPER STOPPER"

The storm also took a bite out of retail sales on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year.

Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty declared a snow emergency and asked District of Columbia residents to keep off the streets as the U.S. capital faced what one TV station dubbed "The Shopper Stopper Storm."

Washington closed above-ground operations of its subway and stopped all bus services by early afternoon Saturday because streets were rapidly becoming impassable.

In New York, where totals ranged from about six inches in the Bronx to a foot in beach communities in Queens, Bloomberg said "the snow coming in later yesterday than forecast was a godsend for the stores," which reported only small downticks in business on Saturday.

New York subways remained running, and its public school were expected to be open on Monday.

Amtrak trains experienced cancellations, a reduced schedule and delays, with seats at a premium as holiday travelers sought alternatives when air travel was severely disrupted.

Motorists across the region were urged to stay off treacherous roads and several main arteries were closed. In Washington, drivers who ventured out often had to abandon their cars due to deep snow on streets.

At least one person died in the storm. The Virginia Department of Emergency Management said a 68-year-old woman died in a car crash in southern Virginia on Friday night.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

It is not always easy to track the development of Halloween in Ireland and Scotland from the mid-seventeenth century, largely because one has to trace ritual practices from [modern] folkloric evidence that do not necessarily reflect how the holiday might have changed; these rituals may not be "authentic" or "timeless" examples of pre-industrial times.

Fire rituals were also important. Great bonfires were lit in a village, or by individual families, and when the fire died down, its ashes were used to form a circle and one stone for each member of the household was kept inside this circle near the circumference. If any stone were displaced or seemed broken by next morning, then the person to whom that stone belonged was believed to be destined to die within a year. A similar rite in north Wales includes a great bonfire called Coel Coeth’ being built for each family on Halloween. Later, the members of the household threw a white stone in the ashes marked in their name.

Adult Halloween Costumes

COPENHAGEN, Dec 19 (OneClimate.net) - I was one of the very few people around the world listening to world leaders as they took the floor one after another in the wee hours of this morning to justify their positions in favor or against the so-called "Copenhagen Accord." I was one of the even fewer people who also followed the ups, downs, frenzies, and stagnations of the Copenhagen Climate Summit for the 11 days and nights that led up to last night's dramatic oratorical jousting session.

Over the course of those 11 days as part of the OneClimate.net team streaming live from the Bella Center every day and night, I interviewed experts on topics from ocean acidification and coral reef destruction to forest-cover monitoring and emerging technologies. I spoke directly with Connie Hedegaard, Bill McKibben, and seemingly everyone in between. It's been a whirlwind two weeks. And it all came down to last night.

Countless texts had appeared, been leaked, retracted, redacted, debated, eviscerated. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of stalemates, Obama appeared, then disappeared behind closed doors, appeared again with little to say and less to show, disappeared again, and then reappeared again with what he called a deal. Eerily, though, he appeared in voice only, since his final press conference was neither televised nor open to the world press. Regardless, by 10pm last night, a single final document was on the table.

The details of the document emerged slowly, late in the night, as the text began to circulate beyond the select group of countries involved in its drafting. Obama and his U.S. press pool were long gone.

The initial reaction came from civil society -- the voice of the voiceless worldwide -- and it was loud, clear, and utterly damning. The text offered nothing new, they said. A reference to holding temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius, sure, but no clear path to make that happen (the emission targets currently pledged get nowhere near the 2-degree goal). A small amount of short-term funding to help the poorest countries adapt ($30 billion total for the next three years), and a bigger longer-term package ($100 billion per year by 2020), but this is far too little, and not entirely in the form of public grants without strings, the civil society groups said. The only good thing about the "Accord," they noted, was that it was so vague that it left immense room for potential improvements in the coming weeks and months.

The EU spoke next, clarifying that they had helped draft the text, and that they had wanted it to be more ambitious, including a pledge to cut emissions 50 percent by 2050, but were rebuffed by unnamed nations and groups of nations who, the EU representatives said, still don't get the severity and urgency of the climate situation. Nevertheless, the EU was backing the "Accord."

So clearly, we now knew, this document was the product of a negotiation including at least the major world economic powers: the United States and Europe. But what of the most vulnerable countries, the ones whose voices and opinions were supposed to be protected by this consensus-driven process. Were they on board? Had they even been consulted? That would make all the difference to me as I tried to figure out what to make of all this -- and where I personally stood on the key question: to support the final document or agree with those recommending the conference adopt nothing rather than legitimizing this deeply flawed document.

We heard from the EU that Sudan and "a few other countries" were opposed to the document -- but there was no indication of how many other countries and who they were. Was Sudan's opinion reflective of the entire African group? If so, that could well spell doom for Obama's "deal." What about the small island nations, who had repeatedly said they would not sign any agreement that would not hold global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and do it in a legally binding way. Anything else would amount to a suicide pact for their countries, they had passionately declared time and again these past two weeks.

We waited and waited as Friday turned over into Saturday, trying to glean little bits of information in that stark, cold, conference hall dominated by delegates in suits and pants suits and almost devoid of the colorful, creative, and informative voices of global civil society, who had been excluded from the center for the previous two days.

Finally, just as we started considering cutting off our broadcast for the evening -- a little after 2am I think -- the plenary hall stirred on our computer screen. We immediately started streaming it to our viewers.

The Danish president of the conference was calling the delegates to order, and within a flash we had what seemed to be our answer. The delegate from Tuvalu, Ian Fry, who had taken the collective breath away from the assembled negotiators earlier in the week with his emotional declaration that "the fate of my country now rests in your hands," was at the mic.

His judgment of the document was swift and uncompromising. The "deal" would not save his country. Tuvalu would not accept it. The hall echoed with applause. Fry was immediately followed by a bevy of outraged delegates from Latin America. Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Costa Rica, Nicaragua all would not sign, as they felt the deal was being "imposed" on them from above rather then negotiated in good faith among all the world's nations. Sudan spoke vehemently about how the deal would mean "incineration" for Africa, as a global 2-degree Celsius increase would likely mean a 3.5-degree increase for Africa, which is more susceptible and sensitive to temperature increases than other parts of the planet. The Danish president called for a break in the "discussions."

It had to be close to 4am now. The deal could actually be killed, it seemed. Had Obama miscalculated? Would the world's poorer countries band together this time to quash a deal that they felt would not save their livelihoods, their cultures, their people? Would the world body try a new approach this time -- choosing "none of the above" rather than its usual: "lesser of two evils"? Had the heightened stakes -- the future of humanity and most species on the planet -- altered the traditional calculus? I was just about ready to start printing my "I am Tuvalu" t-shirts.

Then the plenary hall stirred again, and Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed took the mic. He was the only head of state to stick it out through the night, as far as I could tell.

Nasheed has an incredible story. After decades within an embattled opposition party, and having spent years imprisoned by his country's autocratic rulers -- Amnesty International designated him as a prisoner of conscience -- and living in exile, he finally managed to take over the leadership of the Maldives last year in the country's first free and fair elections ever. He has since declared that his country will be the first in the world to go entirely carbon neutral, and has waged an impressive international campaign to put ambitious climate action at the top of the world's agenda.

Nasheed's country is the lowest on the planet, with an average ground level only 5 feet above sea level. No political leader in the world has more to lose from climate change than Nasheed, and so none prioritizes the global climate interest as high as he does. He speaks logically, reasonably, and passionately about the issue, and is 100-percent  informed about the realities -- both scientifically and politically. If Nasheed were to join his Tuvalan colleagues in opposing the admittedly weak draft before the UN body, there would be no telling how the rest of the developing countries would fall, but I certainly would be sure of where I stood on the issue.

He did not. Around 5 in the morning, Nasheed calmly, but resolutely told the world that, in this case, it was best for his country to move forward with the unambitious and non-binding "deal" on the table. He said that, though he highly respected his colleagues' objections, he believed that the best chance of survival now lay in accepting the limited offer on the table and then working to make it much more ambitious -- and legally binding -- by the end of 2010.

In essence, Nasheed was giving Obama the green light to punt on all the hard decisions until next year. Perhaps he decided that 2009 was about putting the Maldives -- and Tuvalu and Grenada and Sudan and all the world's most vulnerable countries -- on the world's radar screen. And putting the wealthier countries on notice that not enough was being done, and they could very well face an even stronger insurrection in 2010 if they do not come through with emission cuts.

Perhaps Nasheed has calculated that Obama just needs a few more months to let the economy begin to recover and message the American people about global warming (something his administration has done very little of). Blowing up the entire process -- which Nasheed may or may not have had the power to do -- would probably have meant no binding targets for developed countries anytime soon, and thus almost certain destruction for the Maldives.So instead, it seems Nasheed has bought Obama some time and political cover, while at the same time putting him the U.S. president on notice with the good-cop, bad-cop routine he ran with Tuvalu's Ian Fry.

There is no doubt that the "Copenhagen Accord" is a bad, bad deal for the world's most vulnerable people and countries. The failure to work out a fair, ambitious, and binding treaty here is a absolute disappointment that threatens the future of all humanity, not to mention the rest of life on Earth. But when it came time for the final up or down decision, every leader had to decide what response, at this extraordinarily precarious moment in human history, would most likely result in success down the road.

Mohamed Nasheed knows the science, he knows the politics, and I'm confident he's acting in the best interest of stabilizing the global climate as much and as soon as humanly possible. If this "deal" is good enough for him, then it's good enough for me.

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More from OneWorld:

» Sudan Lays Groundwork for Elections, Peace

» India's Trash Pickers Keep Global Warming in Check

» Tuvalu: 'Fate of My Country Rests in Your Hands'

» Small Islands Discovering Their Power in Copenhagen

WASHINGTON – The federal government improperly posted an internal guide to its airport passenger screening procedures on the Internet in a way that could offer insight into how to sidestep security.
The document outlines who is exempt from certain additional screening measures, including members of the U.S. armed forces, governors and lieutenant governors, the mayor of Washington, D.C., and their immediate families.
It offers examples of identification documents that screeners accept, including congressional, federal air marshal and CIA ID cards; and it explains that diplomatic pouches and certain foreign dignitaries with law enforcement escorts are not subjected to any screening at all. It said certain methods of verifying identification documents aren't used on all travelers during peak travel crushes.
The Transportation Security Administration, which oversees airport security, said the document is outdated. It was posted in March by TSA on the Federal Business Opportunity site. The posting was improper because sensitive information was not properly protected, TSA spokeswoman Kristin Lee said.
As a result, some Web sites, using widely available software, were able to uncover the original text of sections that had been blacked out for security reasons. On Sunday, the Wandering Aramean blog pointed out the document in a posting titled "The TSA makes another stupid move."
According to the blog, TSA posted a redacted version of the document but did not delete the sensitive information from the file. Instead of removing the text, the government covered it up with a black box. But the text was still embedded in the document and could be uncovered.
TSA asked that the document be removed from the Federal Business Opportunity site on Dec. 6 after the security lapse was reported in a blog. But copies of the document — with the redacted portions exposed — circulated on the Internet and remain posted on other Web sites not controlled by the government.
Lee said TSA takes the incident seriously and a review is under way.
Noting that the transportation agency uses multiple layers of security, Lee said, "TSA is confident that screening procedures currently in place remain strong."
The document, marked "sensitive security information," includes instructions on how it should be stored to avoid compromising security: Electronic copies should be password-protected; hard copies should be in separate binders and stored in cabinets or desk drawers; and missing copies should be immediately reported.
The document also describes these screening protocols:
_Individuals with a passport from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, or Algeria, should be given additional screening unless there are specific instructions not to.
_Aircraft flight crew members in uniform with valid IDs are not subject to liquid, gel, aerosol and footwear restrictions.
_Wheelchair and scooter cushions, disabled people's footwear that can't be removed, prosthetic devices, casts, braces and orthopedic shoes at certain times may be exempt from screening for explosives.
Intelligence officials have warned of prosthetic devices and wheelchairs being used to conceal weapons and other contraband.
"Some of these devices may have been used to exploit a perception that security and law enforcement officers offer disabled or pregnant individuals a more relaxed inspection," said an August 2007 TSA intelligence note marked "for official use only" and obtained by The Associated Press.
Former TSA Administrator Kip Hawley said the document is not something a security agency would want to inadvertently post online, but he said it's not a roadmap for terrorists.
"Hyperventilating that this is a breach of security that's going to endanger the public is flat wrong," Hawley said.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., was more concerned.

"Undoubtedly, this raises potential security concerns across our transportation system," Thompson wrote the agency Tuesday in a letter recommending that an independent federal agency be found to review the incident. The chairwoman of the panel's transportation security subcommittee, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas, also signed the letter.

Thompson's Senate counterpart, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said the episode was "an embarrassing mistake that calls into question the judgment of agency managers. ... That it was incompetently redacted only compounds the error."

___

On the Net:

Blog: http://www.wanderingaramean.com/2009/12/tsa-makes-another-stupid-move.html

TSA: http://www.tsa.gov

ARKALYK, Kazakhstan (Reuters) –
Three astronauts landed safely in the frozen steppe of northern Kazakhstan on Tuesday after six months orbiting the world on the International Space Station.

The Russian Soyuz space capsule, carrying Belgian Frank de Winne, Canadian Robert Thirsk and Russian Roman Romanenko, landed as planned at 10:17 a.m. Moscow time (0717 GMT/2:17 a.m. EST) about 85 km (50 miles) north of the town of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan.

De Winne waved as he was helped from the scorched TMA-15 capsule which took more than three hours to descend from the space station orbiting about 400 km (250 miles) above earth.

"The Soyuz commander has just reported that the crew is in good shape," said an official at Mission Control in Korolyov, outside Moscow.

Icy weather meant that support teams traveled over land rather than in helicopters to the desolate landing site where medics gave the crew check ups.

The crew will fly back to Russia's space training center in Star City, outside Moscow, on Tuesday for a reunion with their families and for training on how to deal with gravity after six months on the space station, NASA said.

American Jeff Williams and Russian Maxim Suraev will remain on the space station until the arrival of a three man crew -- including Russian Oleg Kotov, NASA's Timothy Creamer and Japan's Soichi Noguchi -- who are expected to leave earth aboard a Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft on December 21. (Additional reporting by Conor Sweeney in Korolyov; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

NAIROBI, Kenya — Crews on oil tankers aren't allowed to smoke above deck, much less carry guns, for fear of igniting the ship's payload. That's one of the main reasons Somali pirates met little resistance when they hijacked a U.S.-bound supertanker carrying $20 million in crude.
The Greek-flagged tanker — traveling from Saudi Arabia to New Orleans — had no escort when it was hijacked Sunday because naval warships are stretched too thin. The problem has been further exacerbated because pirates have expanded their operations to hundreds of miles out at sea.
The hijacking, one year after seizure of a Saudi supertanker led to heightened international efforts to fight piracy off the Horn of Africa, has highlighted the difficulty of keeping ships safe in the region — particularly oil tankers.
The Maran Centaurus was about 800 miles off the coast of Somalia when it was hijacked with 28 crew, said Cmdr. John Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force. On Monday, it was headed toward Somalia's lawless coast, a location where pirates most likely will hold the vessel as they attempt to negotiate a multimillion-dollar ransom.
While some ships traveling in the region have been outfitted with high pressure water guns and piercing noisemakers to repel pirates, even this is shunned on oil tankers for fear of triggering a response from pirates armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
"If you're not allowed to smoke a cigarette on the upper deck of an oil tanker, why would you want someone with a weapon up there?" said Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, who heads the private security company Dryad Maritime Intelligence.
There is also the threat that an accident or gunfight could lead to a leak that would devastate thousands of miles of ocean or coastline.
Protecting the huge tankers that carry more than half of the world's oil supply is made even more difficult because of their slow speed.
Sailors can typically distinguish fishermen from pirates around 300 yards, but by then it is too late to stop most attacks, said Gibbon-Brooks.
Expense and legal worries rule out armed escorts on a separate ship, he said, suggesting the best way to evade attack was for tankers to increase speed and steer the ship 30 to 45 degrees either side of its course. The swinging motion increases wake, destabilizing pirate skiffs, and keeps the low stern moving where pirates usually board. Trailing nets or lines behind vessels can also help by fouling the propellers of pirate skiffs, he said.
The Maran Centaurus was traveling about 11 knots when it was hijacked, according to Maj. Marten Granberg of the EU Naval Force. Most successful hijacks occur on ships traveling less than 20 knots. The ship was heading toward New Orleans, he said.
Gibbon-Brooks said he had recently received information from contacts in Somalia that more attacks were planned on tankers.
Twenty percent of global shipping — including eight percent of global oil shipments — is funneled into the narrow, pirate-infested Gulf of Aden that leads through the Red Sea to the Suez Canal. The route is bordered on one side by the failed state of Somalia and on the other by the increasingly unstable country of Yemen.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration says about 5 percent of daily oil shipments pass down the east African coast and around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope, which is where the Maran Centaurus appeared to be headed, Granberg said.
The Maran Centaurus is carrying around 275,000 metric tons of crude, said Stavros Hadzigrigoris, from the ship's owners Maran Tankers Management. At current market rates the oil would be worth just more than $20 million.
The ship had 9 Greeks, 16 Filipinos, 2 Ukrainians, and a Romanian aboard. Granberg said the ship's owner reported the crew was not injured in the attack.
The vessel is only the second oil tanker captured by Somali pirates. Its seizure resurrected the fears raised by the takeover of the Saudi-owned Sirius Star, a hijacking resolved with a $3 million ransom payment.
The Sirius Star held 2 million barrels of oil valued at about $100 million and was released last January.

The seizure of the tanker will have a minimal effect on global oil markets, said Ben Cahill, the petroleum risk manager at global oil consultancy PFC energy, although American refineries in the Gulf of Mexico region waiting for the ship's crude might experience some disruption.

Cahill said the longer term concern for the oil industry was that Yemen would collapse like its neighbor Somalia, and create an "arc of instability" that would block the mouth of the Gulf of Aden. Somalia's lawless 1,880-mile coastline already provides a perfect pirate haven.

The impoverished Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government for a generation and the weak U.N.-backed administration is too busy fighting the Islamist insurgency to arrest pirates. Across the Gulf of Aden, tensions between north and south Yemen continue to rise and Islamic militancy is increasing.

"The situation could degenerate into a choke point for global shipping," in five to ten years, Cahill said, driving up the costs.

Pirates now hold about a dozen vessels hostage and more than 200 crew members.

___

Associated Press Writers Malkhadir M. Muhumed and Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece contributed to this report.

NEW ORLEANS – Broadway shows are finally back in New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina four years ago, and at least one — "The Color Purple" — is giving something back to the recovering city.
"The Color Purple" opens at the Mahalia Jackson Theater on Tuesday, but for months leading up to its New Orleans stop, the show has been raising money in cities across the country to help families displaced by Katrina.
"We all felt a very strong emotional and spiritual connection to the city and the people," said Scott Sanders, the show's lead producer. "We thought, we can't just sell tickets and leave. We have to do something special while we're there. We have to leave something behind."
"The Color Purple" is only the second major Broadway production to come to New Orleans since Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city in 2005. The first was "Cats," which ran Oct. 27-Nov. 1 at the Mahalia Jackson Theater.
The Mahalia Jackson is the city's only major performing arts theater to reopen since the storm. Others, including the Saenger Theatre, State Palace Theater and Orpheum Theater, are still under repair or have not yet begun renovations.
David Skinner, general manager of the Mahalia Jackson, said reviving the performing arts in New Orleans has "been a real uphill struggle." The 2,100-seat theater flooded and had wind damage requiring millions of dollars in repairs. It reopened in January.
"It's been tremendous, the opera, the ballet, and now bringing Broadway back," Skinner said. "It's been very exciting."
Sanders said "The Color Purple" — which opened in New York in December 2005 — was honored to be asked to be a part of the first post-Katrina Broadway season in New Orleans. The season also includes "Mamma Mia" in February, "Wicked" in March and "Avenue Q" in June.
"The Color Purple" donation drive netted more than $300,000 from cities across the country, including Chicago, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Birmingham, Ala., Orlando, Fla., and Norfolk, Va. It will put at least 20 families back in their homes.
Cast and crew are slated to meet with the 20 families after Tuesday's performance, and on Wednesday, they will help move Violet resident Lynette Harvey and her family into their rebuilt home.
"There's not enough words to describe how grateful I am," said Harvey, 44, whose home was flooded to the roofline. "I'm just so happy. I feel so blessed because there were times I thought I'd never get back home."
"The Color Purple" is working with the St. Bernard Project to help Harvey and the other families. The nonprofit agency works with families in Orleans and St. Bernard parishes to rebuild their Katrina-damaged homes.
Zack Rosenburg, director and co-founder of the St. Bernard Project, said it takes an average of $15,000 in materials and hundreds of volunteer hours to rebuild one home. He said "The Color Purple" has provided a much-needed morale boost for the city and its residents.
"It has shown the people here that their citizenship and humanity matter," Rosenburg said. "So much of the federal response, while well-intentioned, was incredibly late. So much has been driven around failure, what went wrong and who is to blame. The needs here are incredible."
To date, the St. Bernard Project has rebuilt just under 250 homes in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish and is currently working on dozens more. More than 17,000 volunteers have worked with the organization since its launch after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Rosenburg said the fact that "The Color Purple" is the show giving the donations has had an impact on the residents. He said the people of New Orleans can relate because "The Color Purple" is an inspiring story about a woman who, through love, finds the strength to triumph over adversity.
"It has a focus on family, resilience, strength and home," Rosenburg said, saying those are "themes that, now more than ever, appear to be universal."
Harvey said she's been a huge fan of both the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker and the film by Steven Spielberg and is looking forward to seeing the Broadway show Tuesday. Harvey and other families have been invited to opening night, she said.

"The Color Purple" was nominated for 11 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The show's national tour began in May 2007 in Chicago and continues through 2010. It will be in New Orleans through Sunday.

___

On the Net:

The Color Purple, http://www.colorpurple.com

St. Bernard Project, http://www.stbernardproject.org

Computer software is often regarded as anything but hardware, meaning that the "hard" are the parts that are tangible while the "soft" part is the intangible objects inside the computer. Software encompasses an extremely wide array of products and technologies developed using different techniques like programming languages, scripting languages or even microcode or a FPGA state. The types of software include web pages developed by technologies like HTML, PHP, Perl, JSP, ASP.NET, XML, and desktop applications like OpenOffice, Microsoft Word developed by technologies like C, C++, Java, C#, etc. Software usually runs on an underlying software operating systems such as the Linux or Microsoft Windows. Software also includes video games and the logic systems of modern consumer devices such as automobiles, televisions, toasters, etc.

Computer software is so called to distinguish it from computer hardware, which encompasses the physical interconnections and devices required to store and execute (or run) the software. At the lowest level, software consists of a machine language specific to an individual processor. A machine language consists of groups of binary values signifying processor instructions that change the state of the computer from its preceding state. Software is an ordered sequence of instructions for changing the state of the computer hardware in a particular sequence. It is usually written in high-level programming languages that are easier and more efficient for humans to use (closer to natural language) than machine language. High-level languages are compiled or interpreted into machine language object code. Software may also be written in an assembly language, essentially, a mnemonic representation of a machine language using a natural language alphabet. Assembly language must be assembled into object code via an assembler.

Member Management Software

OTTAWA (AFP) –
Six severe allergic reactions to swine flu vaccinations have been observed in Canada, health authorities said Tuesday, adding that all of the individuals are feeling better.

All of the cases of anaphylactic shock were linked to a single batch or 172,000 doses of Aprepanrix vaccines made by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) distributed starting November 2, said Caroline Grondin, a spokeswoman for Canada's health ministry.

Distribution of the batch to six provinces -- British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Prince Edward Island -- was halted, she said.

But she could not say how many doses had been used before distribution was suspended.

The health ministry believes the number of adverse reactions is abnormally high and has asked officials to investigate. One allergic reaction in 100,000 doses is the currently accepted norm.

Anaphylactic shock is a severe, rapid and sometimes fatal allergic reaction to a foreign substance such as a vaccine, shellfish or insect venom. Symptoms include difficulty breathing and a sudden drop in blood pressure.

It is a serious medical issue, said Grondin, but anyone who received the vaccines and did not have a reaction should not worry.

The A(H1N1) vaccine is safe and effective, she insisted. "The fact that we've uncovered problem with a specific batch shows that our monitoring system works," Grondin told AFP.

The World Health Organization (WHO), which first alerted health authorities of potential problems with this batch of vaccines, has not changed its recommendations regarding swine flu vaccines.

These remain, according to the WHO, the most effective way to fight the virus, which has killed some 6,750 people worldwide since it first appeared in March.

Fences can be the source of bitter arguments between neighbours, and there are often special laws to deal with these problems. Common disagreements include what kind of fence is required, what kind of repairs are needed, and how to share the costs.

Ownership of the fence varies. In some parts of the country all boundaries are shared; in other parts of the country you may own the boundary on the left-hand or right-hand side, however, only the title deeds can be depended on to tell you which side is yours. (A 'T' symbol indicates who is the owner). It used to be normal for the cladding to be on the non-owners side (enabling access to the posts for the owner when repairs need doing), but increasingly this cannot be depended on.

Magna Latch Vertical Pull

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Pirates freed 36 crew members from a Spanish trawler Tuesday after holding them for more than six weeks. A self-proclaimed pirate said the hostage-takers were paid $3.3 million in ransom, while Spain's prime minister said the country did what it had to do.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said the tuna boat Alakrana "is sailing toward safer waters. All of its crew members are safe and sound." The release came despite the fact that two Somali pirates in Spanish custody soon will stand trial for kidnapping and related charges.
A Somali villager named Ali Ahmed Salad said 12 armed pirates left the ship shortly after noon Tuesday and joined colleagues near the pirate town of Haradhere.
Ali Gab, a self-proclaimed pirate, told The Associated Press that a boat delivered $3.3 million in ransom. Gab said pirates began leaving the ship shortly afterward, and that a Spanish warship nearby watched the proceedings.
The EU Naval Force said the Alakrana had made its way to the open sea late Tuesday, accompanied by two Spanish warships that would see the trawler to safety.
"Alakrana stated in her call that all the pirates had disembarked the ship and that she had sufficient fuel," the force said in a statement. "The captain also reported that the crew of 36 were in good health."
Zapatero was evasive when asked if the government had taken part in payment of a ransom. "The government did what it had to do," he told a news conference in Madrid after talks with the president of Hungary.
"The important thing is that the sailors will be back with us," Zapatero said. "The first obligation of a country, of the government of a state, is to save the lives of its countrymen."
In April 2008, the Spanish government reportedly paid a ransom of $1.2 million to win the release of another Spanish trawler seized by pirates off Somalia, that time with a crew of 26. The ordeal lasted a week.
The reported ransom payment demonstrates why pirate attacks have been on the rise. The millions of dollars a successful hijacking can bring is a windfall in impoverished and war-ravaged Somalia.
The trawler had been seized Oct. 2 with 16 Spaniards, eight Indonesians and 12 crew from five African countries aboard.
The pirates holding the Alakrana had been pressing for the release of two colleagues who were captured by Spanish naval forces a day after the hijacking and eventually brought to Madrid to face charges.
The Spanish government has been working feverishly to find some sort of legal formula that would allow it to try them and send them back to Somalia quickly in hopes of appeasing the pirates who remained in control of the trawler.
In the end, the hostages were released with the two Somali suspects still in custody in Madrid. They were formally charged with kidnapping and related charges Monday.
In the latest attempted hijackings, pirates attacked two vessels Monday off East Africa, successfully capturing one of the ships and its crew of 28 North Koreans, officials said Tuesday.
The pirates attacked a chemical tanker named the MV Theresa with the 28 crew members on board, the European Union's anti-piracy force said. The vessel, which was operated out of Singapore, had been heading to the Kenyan port town of Mombasa. The EU force did not say what kind of chemicals were on board.
In a second incident Monday, pirates attacked a Ukrainian cargo ship with AK-47 rifles and rocket propelled grenades after two small skiffs detached from a mother ship. Harbour, the EU Naval Force spokesman, said that private security guards on board fired on the pirates, wounding two. The pirates then broke off the attack, the force said, Harbour said the Ukrainian ship was not hijacked.
A Somali man who claims to be a spokesman for the pirates, Gedi Ali, said Tuesday that pirates had captured the Ukrainian ship. Ali also said two pirates were wounded in the attack.

Pirates hold around a dozen ships and more than 200 crew. Attacks have increased in recent weeks as the monsoon season subsided. An international flotilla of warships now patrols the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden, but pirates continue to carry out attacks because of the millions of dollars that can be made from a successful hijacking.

___

Associated Press Writer Daniel Woolls in Madrid contributed to this report.

Division 10 Specialties

The design of a bathroom must account for the use of both hot and cold water, in significant quantities, for cleaning the human body. The water is also used for moving solid and liquid human waste to a sewer or septic tank. Water may be splashed on the walls and floor, and hot humid air may cause condensation on cold surfaces. From a decorating point of view the bathroom presents a challenge. Ceiling, wall and floor materials and coverings should be impervious to water and readily and easily cleaned. The use of ceramic or glass, as well as smooth plastic materials, is common in bathrooms for their ease of cleaning. Such surfaces are often cold to the touch, however, and so water-resistant bath mats or even bathroom carpets may be used on the floor to make the room more comfortable. Alternatively, the floor may be heated, possibly by strategically placing heater conduits close to the surface.

Electrical appliances, such as lights, heaters, and heated towel rails, generally need to be installed as fixtures, with permanent connections rather than plugs and sockets. This minimizes the risk of electric shock. Ground-fault circuit interruptor electrical sockets can reduce the risk of electric shock, and are required for bathroom socket installation by electrical and building codes in the United States and Canada. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, only special sockets suitable for electric shavers are permitted in bathrooms, and are labelled as such.
[edit] History of bathrooms

WASHINGTON – U.S. spy agencies spent $49.8 billion in fiscal year 2009, $2 billion more than in 2008 and the second such multibillion-dollar increase in as many years.
National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair released the aggregate intelligence budget Friday. Congress in 2007 passed a law requiring that overall intelligence spending to be made public, as the 9/11 Commission had recommended.
The budget includes money spent by 16 different intelligence entities, from the CIA to the FBI, the Pentagon to the Homeland Security Department. Around 80 percent of the intelligence budget is consumed by the Pentagon intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Item by item details of the budget, however, remain classified.
The spy agencies spent $47.5 billion in 2008, a $4 billion increase over the 2007 budget. The national intelligence budget had until 2007 been classified, although the Clinton administration voluntarily disclosed it in 1997 and 1998. It was then $26.6 billion and $26.7 billion, respectively.

LONDON – The World Anti-Doping Agency has asked tennis to investigate Andre Agassi's admission that he took crystal meth in 1997.
WADA director general David Howman would not elaborate on what he wrote in the letter sent to the ATP, but he told The Associated Press he hopes it "would bring a considered response."
"Our task is to protect the clean athletes and to make sure that these sorts of things don't recur," Howman said by telephone. "And if we didn't take any steps, somebody would be knocking on our door saying, "Well, what are you doing about this?'"
Agassi wrote in his soon-to-be-released autobiography "Open" that he ingested crystal meth and then lied to the governing body of men's tennis to avoid a suspension after failing a doping test.
Howman said the letter was specifically addressed to the ATP, but the International Tennis Federation would be made aware of it.
"The ATP can confirm it has received a letter from WADA," the tour said in a statement e-mailed to the AP on Monday. "When it responds it will do so directly to WADA and not through the media."
The statement continued, in part: "The ATP would also like to reiterate its policy of not commenting on anti-doping test results unless and until an anti-doping violation has been found."
That was the crux of what the ATP said last week, when excerpts from the book revealed that eight-time Grand Slam champion Agassi admitted to using crystal meth in 1997 and said he had wriggled his way out of a suspension after a positive drug test that year. Other tennis and doping authorities initially expressed disappointment at those revelations, but they also said it was too late for sanctions because of an eight-year limitation rule.
Howman, however, has urged the ATP to look more closely into the situation and inform WADA of its findings.
He wants his group to "respond in as responsible fashion as possible by making sure we don't start preaching or teaching before we have all the relevant information. Once we've got the relevant information we can make better judgment calls."
Agassi, who is married to tennis great Steffi Graf, is a former top-ranked player who won all four Grand Slam titles. He has also raised tens of millions of dollars for at-risk youths in his hometown of Las Vegas and opened a preparatory academy there.
Besides admitting to using crystal meth in the book, Agassi also wrote that he swallowed a pill given to him by his father — apparently when he was a junior player — that may have been the amphetamine speed.
"These things of yesteryear, before our time, are such that we're required to investigate them but we don't have the tools with which we can manage unless there is something that comes from such an investigation," Howman said of WADA, which was founded in 1999.
Howman said he expected the ATP to proceed with caution.
"We've got to be reasonably fair and give them time, he said.

HARDCOVER FICTION
1. "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown (Doubleday)
2. "Pursuit of Honor: A Novel" by Vince Flynn (Atria) (F-H)
3. "Nine Dragons" by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown) (F-H)
4. "The Last Song" by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central Publishing)
5. "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam/Amy Einhorn)
6. "A Touch of Dead" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)
7. "Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel" by Jeannette Walls (Scribner)
8. "Rough Country," by John Sandford (Putnam Adult)
9. "An Echo in the Bone" by Diana Gabaldon (Delacorte)
10. "Heat Wave" by Richard Castle (Hyperion)
11. "The Professional" by Robert B. Parker (Putnam Adult)
12. "Evidence" by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine)
13. "Her Fearful Symmetry" by Audrey Niffenegger (Scribner)
14. "Star Wars: Death Troopers" by Joe Schreiber (Del Rey)
15. "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel (Holt)
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
1. "Have a Little Faith: A True Story" by Mitch Albom (Hyperion)

2. "Arguing With Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government" by Glenn Beck (Threshold Editions)

3. "Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters" by Chesley B. Sullenberg with Jeffrey Zaslow (William Morrow)

4. "True Compass: A Memoir" by Edward M. Kennedy (Twelve)

5. "Postsecret" by Frank Warren (Morrow)

6. "Moonwalk" by Michael Jackson (Harmony)

7. "Jim Cramer's Getting Back To Even" by James J. Cramer with Cliff Mason (Simon & Schuster)

8. "The Murder of King Tut" by James Patterson, Martin Dugard (Little, Brown)

9. "Crush It! Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion" by Gary Vaynerchuk (HarperStudio)

10. "Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman" by Jon Krakauer (Doubleday)

11. "The Time of My Life" by Patrick Swayze, Lisa Niemi (Atria)

12. "Outliers: The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown and Company)

13. "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution" by Richard Dawkins (Free Press)

14. "America for Sale: Fighting the New World Order, Surviving a Global Depression, and Preserving USA Sovereignty" by Jerome R. Corsi (Threshold Editions)

15. "Guinness World Records 2010" by Guinness World Records (Guinness)

MASS MARKET PAPERBACKS

1. "The Associate" by John Grisham (Dell)

2. "Cross Country" by James Patterson (Vision)

3. "Heat Lightning" by John Sandford (Berkley)

4. "Just After Sunset: Stories" by Stephen King (Pocket)

5. "True Detectives" by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine)

6. "Razor Sharp" by Fern Michaels (Zebra)

7. "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold (Little, Brown)

8. "Born of Night" Sherrilyn Kenyon (Saint Martin's Paperbacks)

9. "Covet" by J.R. Ward (Signet)

10. "Windfall: Impulse Temptation" by Nora Roberts (Silhouette)

11. "From Dead to Worse" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)

12. "The Renegade Hunter" by Lynsay Sands (Avon)

13. "Extreme Measures" by Vince Flynn (Pocket)

14. "Scarpetta" by Patricia Cornwell (Berkley)

15. "Divine Justice" by David Baldacci (Vision)

TRADE PAPERBACKS

1. "Say You're One of Them" by Uwem Akpan (Little, Brown)

2. "The Shack" by William P. Young (Windblown Media)

3. "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger (Mariner Books)

4. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson (Vintage)

5. "Olive Kitteredge" by Elizabeth Strout (Random House Trade Paperbacks)

6. "Push" by Sapphire (Vintage)

7. "Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine" by Glenn Beck (Threshold Editions)

8. "The Glass Castle: A Memoir" by Jeannette Walls (Scribner)

9. "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (Dial)

10. "Handle With Care: A Novel" by Jodi Picoult (Washington Square Press)

11. "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin)

12. "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" by Tucker Max (Citadel)

13. "The Art of Racing in the Rain" (Garth Stein) (Harper)

14. "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski (Ecco)

15. "The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks" by Max Brooks (Three Rivers)