Whale (origin Old English hƿæl) is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea.
The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it wrongly excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti (toothed whales). This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga whale.

The other Cetacean suborder Mysticeti (baleen whales), are filter feeders that eat small organisms caught by straining seawater through a comblike structure found in the mouth called baleen. This suborder includes the blue whale, the humpback whale, the bowhead whale and the minke whale. All Cetaceahave forelimbs modified as fins, a tail with horizontal flukes, and nasal openings (blowholes) on top of the head.

Whales range in size from the blue whale, the largest animal known to have ever existed[4] at 35 m (115 ft) and 150 tonnes (150 LT; 170 ST), to various pygmy species, such as the pygmy sperm whale at 3.5 m (11 ft).

Whales collectively inhabit all the world’s oceans and number in the millions, with annual population growth rate estimates for various species ranging from 3-13%.[5] For centuries, whales have been hunted for meat and as a source of raw materials. By the middle of the 20th century, however, industrial whaling had left many species seriously endangered, leading to the end of whaling in all but a few countries.

Why do you think saving whales is important?

My story is about me and a girlhood friend who were separated, but miraculously reconnected 23 years later.

The magazine’s program is designed to give celebrity women a chance to direct subject matter about real women stories, and bring it to the masses.   They choose 3 stories a year.  Go to glamour.com for more details.

The tide of money washing in from emerging nations has already fuelled the recent property bubble in the West, while new patterns of trade have left the West increasingly dependent on risky financial services. Unless things change drastically, King argues, the increasing power of emerging markets, when coupled with poor internal regulation and an increasingly anachronistic system of global governance, will result in greater instability and income inequality, accompanied by the risk of a major dollar decline. And as Western populations age and emerging economies develop further, the social and political consequences may be alarming to citizens who have grown accustomed to living in prosperity.

Stephen D. King is the global chief economist at HSBC, for which he has written on a wide range of global issues, including China’s currency, demographics, and, more recently, the debt burden of Western governments. He is a regular contributor to the London Independent and makes frequent appearances on television and radio. He has provided both written and oral evidence on globalization to the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee and the House of Lords Economics Committee.

Hulu Plus supports browsers on the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X platforms, certain Samsung Internet-connected television and Blu-ray Disc players, and Apple’s iPhone 3GS/4, third-generation iPod touch, and iPad devices. Hulu (and Larry Hryb, Xbox Live Director of Programming at Microsoft) promises support for other devices, including the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 game consoles. People can request invitations to join the service until Hulu ramps up the service to let anyone subscribe.

Netflix already offers a subscription streaming service alongside its DVD-by-mail program, and Crunchyroll and The Anime Network are among the subscription streaming services that focus on anime.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/16897

It’s coming to Amazon soon, too.  Check it out!

Reasoning Mind is a highly acclaimed math program that makes learning math in second through sixth grades not only easy but downright fun.

“Reasoning Mind engaged our students from grade 2 to grade 4, and that has been expanded to grades 5 and 6,” said Gerald McElvy, vice chairman of the program. Until he retired a few weeks ago, McElvy was president of the Exxon Mobil Foundation, which has given $4.4 million over the last five and a half years to Reasoning Minds, about a fourth of the program’s financial support.

Reasoning Mind uses computers and artificial intelligence to help children realize that they can do math, McElvy said.

“After receiving an initial review of the program, Dallas ISD executive director Shirley Ison-Newsome and a team of Southeast Learning Community principals visited several schools in Houston, where the program was being used successfully.

“Very young children were able to articulate the operations they were engaging in using mathematics vocabulary; the children maintained math journals and could explain what they had written and the mathematics behind it.”

Reasoning Mind classes started in 26 DISD schools in January, and the program has been well-received by teachers and more than 3,000 students.

“For our teachers, it has been great to watch the partnership and support they are provided as they ‘grow’ little mathematicians in their class,” McElvy said. “I look forward to watching the full year of implementation on next year, not only to see the growth in mathematics academic achievement, which I know will happen, but to also see the confidence and ‘I can do’ attitude of the children continuing to grow and develop.”

McElvy said that DISD leadership wants to evaluate the program after a full year of use before deciding on broader implementation.

Reasoning Mind is also helping DISD in a communitywide effort to improve math performance by engaging organizations to provide tutoring and other support for students. The United Way of Metropolitan Dallas is providing office space and services, and discussions are under way with Big Thought, YMCA and the Boys and Girls Clubs.

The program at the Salesmanship Club’s private J. Erik Jonsson Community School in Oak Cliff has resulted in math proficiency levels that match those of students in the Park Cities, principal Sandy Nobles said.

This fall, under the leadership of Ison-Newsome, 25 to 30 DISD elementary schools will adopt the program. If funding can be obtained, as many as 50 DISD elementary schools could take part.

Seeing progress

A Russian mathematician who settled in Houston with his family, Dr. Alexander R. “Alex” Khachatryan, is the founder, president and CEO of Reasoning Mind.

He found that with the Reasoning Mind program, it took just one semester to close the achievement gap between the scores of the predominantly Hispanic students of an inner-city school in Houston and those of the average white student. Similar improvements were reflected among advanced math students.

The program caught the attention of Houston businessman Ernest H. Cockrell, who is now chairman emeritus of the program, and Cockrell recruited oilman and civic leader Forrest Hoglund, who has homes in Dallas and Houston, to serve as vice chairman.

Hoglund, now chairman of the program, and his wife, Sally, have donated millions of dollars to Reasoning Mind through their foundation. And Hoglund, who led the expansion of Houston’s Museum of Natural Science and is chairing the capital campaign to build the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, has been the engine driving Reasoning Mind after accepting the torch from Cockrell.

Reasoning Mind, which is based in Houston and also has a corporate office in Moscow, says its goal is to serve a half-million students by the middle of this decade.

It uses program coordinators to train teachers and visit each campus biweekly.

Reasoning Mind recruits students from leading universities to serve as program coordinators, including Yale, Cornell, the University of Chicago, Princeton, Rice, Baylor, Columbia, Stanford, Spelman, Duke, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Texas and Texas A&M.

Teachers get extensive training in mathematics, and students get a curriculum that builds deep understanding through a logical progression of mathematical ideas.

Students master each objective before moving to the next lesson, meaning each student progresses at his own pace.

By offering problems of various difficulties and using artificial intelligence to adapt what each student sees based on previous performance, Reasoning Mind ensures that advanced students are challenged and that struggling students get the help they need.

Every problem comes with a step-by-step solution. An attractive interface, colorful graphics and games are interspersed with the curriculum.

Students read and watch mathematical concepts being illustrated on the screen and then demonstrate their understanding through interactive exercises.

Happy students

Using the Internet to distribute the program to schools helps keep costs low – Reasoning Mind costs the school districts around $150 per student per year, and philanthropy pays an additional $100 per student. The goal is to lower the schools’ costs to $70 per child.

In a survey taken earlier this month by more than 5,000 students who used Reasoning Mind this year, 93 percent said they liked learning math with the program, and 70 percent said they liked math more after using Reasoning Mind.

With math mastered, chemistry, physics and biology lessons propelled by Reasoning Mind will not be far behind, Hoglund said.

Besides the Hoglunds and the Exxon Mobil Foundation, other big donors include Jim and Judy Gibbs, McDermott International , Gerald and Sylvia McElvy, the Meadows Foundation, MediSend, the Harold Simmons Foundation, the Wachovia Foundation and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.

To donate to Reasoning Mind, call Julie Fry at 832-476-9241 or e-mail jaf@reasoningmind.org.

 The background on FIFA is as follows:
The need for a single body to oversee the worldwide game became apparent at the beginning of the 20th century with the increasing popularity of international fixtures. FIFA was founded in Paris on 21 May 1904; the French name and acronym remain, even outside French-speaking countries. The founding members where Belgium, Denmark, France, Holland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Also, that same day, the German Association declared its intention of affiliating through a telegram. Its first president was Robert Guérin.

FIFA presided over its first international competition in 1906, but this met with little approval or success. This, in combination with economic factors, led to the swift replacement of Guérin with Daniel Burley Woolfall from England, by now a member association. The next tournament staged, the football competition for the 1908 Olympics in London was more successful, despite the presence of professional footballers, contrary to the founding principles of FIFA.

Membership of FIFA expanded beyond Europe with the application of South Africa in 1908, Argentina and Chile in 1912, and Canada and the United States in 1913.

During World War I, with many players sent off to war and the possibility of travel for international fixtures severely limited, there were few international fixtures, and the organisation’s survival was in doubt. Post-war, following the death of Woolfall, the organisation was run by Dutchman Carl Hirschmann. It was saved from extinction, but at the cost of the withdrawal of the Home Nations (of the United Kingdom), who cited an unwillingness to participate in international competitions with their recent World War enemies. The Home Nations later resumed their membership.

The FIFA collection is held by the National Football Museum in England.

Publishers have begun to evolve, too, especially when it comes to their thoughts on search marketing. Hearst Magazines announced Thursday it acquired iCrossing and will roll the company into Hearst Marketing Services, a new business unit led by Matthew Petersen, senior vice president at Hearst Magazines who previously held a similar position at Meredith.

Not surprising, Hearst’s plan to build out its marketing services will concentrate on digital. A couple of ad and search execs who have met with the Hearst media team say they “don’t get search. With online publishers falling behind, it’s not uncommon to see a publisher the size of Hearst trying and play catch-up by acquiring a company strong in search market and digital media, though Forrester Research named iCrossing as one of the top search firms in 2009.

Hearst’s acquisition of iCrossing is likely to inspire other similar agreements, according to Scott Brinker. Ion Interactive’s president and chief technology officer says in the short term traditional media companies and others supporting old businesses will come under threat by the dynamics of the digital world still have money and power to buy their way into the future.

In the long term, the architecture of the “future” media company continues to emerge, but it makes sense that search marketing and an integrated Web experiences should become a core competency of publishers, Brinker says. For him, the question becomes will Hearst become successful in incorporating iCrossing’s services into their overall strategy and leadership.

For others, the big question remains whether this combined company creates a conflict of interest for the publisher. Could the deal put Hearst in competition with media agencies? Aaron Goldman, principal at Connectual, who tells me independent stand-alone SEM firms are a rare and dying breed, says it it’s a total conflict of interest for an agency that buys media to be owned by a publishing group.

It’s akin to MSFT owning Razorfish or Google owning Performics, both of which have since divested those assets. However, there is precedent for this with Meredith buying Genex and New Media Strategies in late 2006 and early 2007, Goldman says. “Still, iCrossing will undoubtedly continue to serve and chase business with marketers that might otherwise work with different digital shops,” he says, noting the company will likely spruce up its own properties to generate more traffic.

Similarly, Adam Heimlich, Razorfish group search director, who worked at iCrossing in 2005, calls the Hearst/iCrossing relationship “strange, a conflict of interest.” Maybe as a media buying agency for other publishers other than Hearst, but I view iCrossing more as a technology company that provides bid and feed management, SEO automation, display ad serving services, optimization, and dashboard reporting. The media buying would sit on the sidelines for the dozens of Hearst publications, both online and offline.

Industry execs agree iCrossing’s SEO and paid search services for the online versions of Hearst’s magazine portfolio provides obvious synergies. But a “neutral” media buyer looking for the best place to insert a campaign would find conflicts when trying to determine where to place ads for iCrossing clients like Coca-Cola, Bank of America, Epson and Toyota in other publications other than Hearst’s.

Heimlich says you have to compare the price they paid for the company with the price they would pay to rent out services from another agency. A brand could hire Razorfish, for example, to work fulltime for less than $350 million, the reported sale price. For Heimlich, it makes more sense to believe Hearst wants a new revenue stream and plans to get it through iCrossing’s media buying and professional services business.