RESUMPTION of talks between Dhaka and Washington regarding a trade and investment deal should necessarily hinge on the possibility of securing a fully preferential market access for Bangladesh in the United States. At least in the immediate term, Bangladesh’s key interest, as regards trade with the United States, remains tariff free market access for apparels without any quota restrictions. The last summit of the World Trade Organisation, the global trade forum with about 150 member countries, in its declaration promised as much. The rich countries agreed to provide undeterred market access to products from Least Developed Countries, of which Bangladesh is one. But it stipulates that countries facing difficulties may refrain and provide access 97 per cent of the goods produced by poor countries.
Although Bangladesh is entitled to preferential arrangements from developed countries, and many respect this entitlement, the United States has consistently refused to grant this preference. This market issue happens to be one of Bangladesh’s prime concerns at almost any multilateral trade talks particularly at the World Trade Organisation. That the new government is willing to enter into talks with Washington on a pending — there have been three rounds of negotiations previously — deal, the ‘Trade and Investment Framework Agreement’, according to a report in New Age on Monday, at this juncture raises certain concerns.
Finalising a bilateral agreement, before completion of the ongoing round of global trade talks, must not preclude the scope for Bangladesh to enhance its market access through the multilateral negotiations under the global forum. There are certainly cases of bilateral trade and investment treaties benefiting both parties and as such Bangladesh has all the more to gain from this deal. But as is often the case in bilateral trade agreements, the weaker side — in terms of economic, military and intellectual clout — loses out to the stronger. In this particular case, Bangladesh not only lacks resources and skills to conduct efficient negotiations but the state of the two economies affords the Americans to strike a harder bargain and demand full reciprocity. ‘Equal’ treatment for two unequal parties is inherently unjust and would certainly be unjust to Bangladesh as well.
Besides the point that this framework agreement’s provisions, at least as they were in the initial draft of this agreement, undermine political authority, there are a host of other concerns regarding the provisions of that text. While we agree that labour standards can generally be part of trade pacts with the United States, we have strong concerns regarding implementation of intellectual property rights. It is understandable that writers and artistes receive their rightful dues but it also poses strong obstacles for people of the poor countries in their access to knowledge, healthcare and technology.
The government should be careful in proceeding with its talks with the United States so that a bilateral agreement does not compromise the potential of privileges that Bangladesh has in other forums, particularly in the form of special and differential treatment under the World Trade Organisation. The negotiations on this framework agreement have been going on since 2003 but as of yet there has been no public disclosure of the draft agreement to encourage debates and consultations among the more conscious and aware sections of the citizenry. This time, we expect that the draft of the agreement will at least be debated in the parliament in line with the culture of transparency and accountability that the United States itself so often proclaims a commitment to.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Can Moore’s Law Predict the Size of Internet?
Will the world of internet grow further than what is now? What will be the volume of internet in the next five years? It is predicted that the size of the internet would double every five years. And this is being researched and calculated by Chinese researchers now. There was one famous Moore’s Law stated by the famous Intel founder Gordon Moore.
He predicted that the number of transistors on a CPU would double every eighteen months. This was the law put forward by Moore in 1965 and this proved to be true for almost half century. Now this law is the model which is being taken into account to predict the future technology trends.
The present Chinese researchers are there to believe that the internet growth too can be predicted well with the help of Moore’s law and the variant of it. They have collected the data at an interval of six months from December 2001 to December 2006. After their extensive study and research they claim that the Internet is going to get double in size every 5.35 years or so. This is much higher than Moore’s 18 month law, but it represents the same exponential growth pattern.
But this contradicts the data that was released by Netcraft which tells about the growth of internet a different tale. There have been evidences of growth of Internet at much faster rate and the hostname growth in merely two years is a significant indication that it is not necessary for 5.35 years to growth twice. It can grow in less than this period.
He predicted that the number of transistors on a CPU would double every eighteen months. This was the law put forward by Moore in 1965 and this proved to be true for almost half century. Now this law is the model which is being taken into account to predict the future technology trends.
The present Chinese researchers are there to believe that the internet growth too can be predicted well with the help of Moore’s law and the variant of it. They have collected the data at an interval of six months from December 2001 to December 2006. After their extensive study and research they claim that the Internet is going to get double in size every 5.35 years or so. This is much higher than Moore’s 18 month law, but it represents the same exponential growth pattern.
But this contradicts the data that was released by Netcraft which tells about the growth of internet a different tale. There have been evidences of growth of Internet at much faster rate and the hostname growth in merely two years is a significant indication that it is not necessary for 5.35 years to growth twice. It can grow in less than this period.
Famous Inventions That Have Shaped our History and Impacted our Lives
Barbed wire, a simple tool, reshaped Life in the American West by allowing ranchers to tame the land. The new fencing simplified the work of the rancher and farmer, and significantly affected political, social, and economic practices throughout the west.
Before the famous invention of barbed wire, the lack of effective fencing limited the range of farming the number of settlers in an area. With little or no wood and no rocks there wasn’t any way to fence off your land.
Wire fences used before the invention of the barb consisted of only one strand of wire, which was often broken by the weight of cattle pushing against it. Michael Kelly made a significant improvement to wire fencing with an invention that "twisted two wires together to form a cable for barbs - the first of its kind. Kelly's double-strand design made the fence stronger, and the painful barbs taught cattle to keep their distance.
The widespread use of barbed wire changed life on the Great Plains dramatically and permanently. The lives of Native Americans were radically altered they began calling barbed wire "the Devil's rope." Fenced-off land meant that more and more cattle herders were dependent on the dwindling overgrazed public lands. The harsh winter of 1886, and a big January 1887 blizzard, wreaked further havoc on the cattle market. Large-scale, open-range cattle enterprises effectively disappeared.
Barbed wire has survived the passage of time being used everywhere from farm land to prisons and even in battle fields. Barbed wire, a simple famous invention, truly tamed the West.
The microwave oven
It was during a radar-related research project around 1946 that Dr. Percy Spencer, while working for Raytheon Corporation, noticed that a candy bar in his pocket melted during the testing of a new vacuum tube called a magnetron. This intrigued Dr. Spencer, so he tried another experiment, this time he placing some popcorn kernels near the tube and, watched as the popcorn sputtered, cracked and popped.
The next morning Spencer decided to put the magnetron tube near an egg. Spencer and a colleague both watched as the egg began to tremor and shake. Spencer’s colleague moved in for a closer look just as the egg splattered yolk all over his face. Dr. Spencer concluded that if you can cook an egg that quickly, then you could cook other foods as well. He began experimenting. Dr. Spencer enclosed the food to be cooked in a metal box that he fed the microwaves into. Dr. Spencer had invented what was to revolutionize cooking, and form the basis of a multimillion dollar industry, the microwave oven, another famous invention.
In 1947, Raytheon demonstrated the world's first microwave oven and called it a Radarange. The first microwave ovens cost between $2,000 and $3,000. Around 1952-55, Tappan introduced the first home model priced at $1295. In 1967 Raytheon owned Amana Refrigeration introduced the first countertop microwave oven. It cost just under $500 and was smaller, safer and more reliable than previous models.
By 1975, sales of microwave ovens would, for the first time, exceed that of gas ranges. In 1976, the microwave oven became a more commonly owned kitchen appliance than the dishwasher, reaching nearly about 52 million U.S. households. America's cooking habits were being dramatically changed by the convenience of the microwave oven. Once considered a luxury, the microwave oven had developed into a practical necessity for a fast-paced world.
The transistor
The transistor is possibly the most important of the famous inventions of the twentieth century. I don’t think it’s the most famous necessarily, but I believe it is one of the most important inventions ever. Without it there would be no personal computers, no cell phones, no calculators and no GPS system. Life would be quite different.
Before the advent of the transistor, the valve used in electronic circuits was the vacuum tube. The vacuum tube worked but it was bulky and used a lot of electrical power that ended up as heat which shortened the life of the tube itself. The transistor is small and uses much, much less power than the vacuum tube. Because it uses so little power there is little heat to dissipate and the transistor does not fail as fast as does a vacuum tube.
The transistor was successfully demonstrated on December 23, 1947 at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Bell Labs was the research arm of American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T). William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain were the three individuals credited with the invention of the transistor.
Shockley had been working on the theory of such a device for more than ten years. While he could work out the theory successfully but after eight years of trying he could not build a working model. Bardeen and Brattain were called in to handle the engineering and development, which they did in the relatively short time of two years, creating point-contacBack Muscle Pain: Muscle Game
Back muscle pain is an extremely common form of back pain. Nearly 80% of adults suffer from moderate to severe muscular back pain at some time in their lives. Muscle Pain is rarely serious, but can be extremely painful to endure.
Our back is made up of many muscles, both deep and superficial. These extensors, flexors and oblique muscles help in the functioning of the spine.
Back ache develops primarily due to damage or injury of these soft tissues around the spine. The pain also occurs at times due to swelling of the joints or other structures in the spine.
Types Of Back Muscle Pain
Muscle Strain is when the muscle is over stretched or torn. The actual muscle fibers are damaged. Muscle fibers are chains of muscle cells that are grouped together to form a muscle. In a muscle strain, the muscle fiber links are separated or even broken, causing muscular damage.
Muscle Sprain is when ligaments are over stretched or torn. Ligaments are very tough, fibrous connecting tissues. The ligaments connect the muscles to their attachments In a muscle sprain, these chains are separated or torn, causing ligament and muscle damage.
Most Common Causes
Most of the times, backache is encountered by people indulging in activities that involve a high level of physical movement, for example- sports professionals. However, it would be wrong to limit the reasons to only strenuous physical activities. Performing some physical activity after a long period of time or while performing some sudden activity also causes damage to the spinal tissues and thereby causes back pain.
Other common reasons may be: stress, anxiety, sleepless nights; lifting heavy objects, sudden movements such as bending; vitamin deficiency, dehydration, sitting or driving in a hunched position for a long time, sleeping on extra soft or extra hard mattresses, wrong sleeping positions, improper work stations, obesity, pregnancy, menstrual cycle, and a sedentary life style at times could also result in backache.
Given that there could be various causes, you may have to introspect in order to understand the true cause so as to get an exact solution for your condition.
Theres Still Hope
Treatment for back ache is as varied as its causes. There is no common prescription that fits all conditions. Each one needs to be individually evaluated and a suitable treatment arranged.
Some encounter the symptoms because of vitamin deficiency and vitamin supplements may help alleviate them. In other cases, it may be due to a muscle spasm. These pains are the most difficult to bear and ice and heat treatments provide quick relief.
The good news is that such pains are surely not life threatening and there are various solutions at home to help oneself attain relief. If the ache persists, see a doctor and get treated at an early stage.
Useful Piece Of Advice
Since the mind and the body are inseparable, they work together in all that they do. Most muscular pains are the direct result of internal stress and tension. Emotional and psychological stress causes physical tension to build up in our muscles. Tense muscles are also more susceptible to injury.
Try to relax and spare your self from back muscle pain.
Our back is made up of many muscles, both deep and superficial. These extensors, flexors and oblique muscles help in the functioning of the spine.
Back ache develops primarily due to damage or injury of these soft tissues around the spine. The pain also occurs at times due to swelling of the joints or other structures in the spine.
Types Of Back Muscle Pain
Muscle Strain is when the muscle is over stretched or torn. The actual muscle fibers are damaged. Muscle fibers are chains of muscle cells that are grouped together to form a muscle. In a muscle strain, the muscle fiber links are separated or even broken, causing muscular damage.
Muscle Sprain is when ligaments are over stretched or torn. Ligaments are very tough, fibrous connecting tissues. The ligaments connect the muscles to their attachments In a muscle sprain, these chains are separated or torn, causing ligament and muscle damage.
Most Common Causes
Most of the times, backache is encountered by people indulging in activities that involve a high level of physical movement, for example- sports professionals. However, it would be wrong to limit the reasons to only strenuous physical activities. Performing some physical activity after a long period of time or while performing some sudden activity also causes damage to the spinal tissues and thereby causes back pain.
Other common reasons may be: stress, anxiety, sleepless nights; lifting heavy objects, sudden movements such as bending; vitamin deficiency, dehydration, sitting or driving in a hunched position for a long time, sleeping on extra soft or extra hard mattresses, wrong sleeping positions, improper work stations, obesity, pregnancy, menstrual cycle, and a sedentary life style at times could also result in backache.
Given that there could be various causes, you may have to introspect in order to understand the true cause so as to get an exact solution for your condition.
Theres Still Hope
Treatment for back ache is as varied as its causes. There is no common prescription that fits all conditions. Each one needs to be individually evaluated and a suitable treatment arranged.
Some encounter the symptoms because of vitamin deficiency and vitamin supplements may help alleviate them. In other cases, it may be due to a muscle spasm. These pains are the most difficult to bear and ice and heat treatments provide quick relief.
The good news is that such pains are surely not life threatening and there are various solutions at home to help oneself attain relief. If the ache persists, see a doctor and get treated at an early stage.
Useful Piece Of Advice
Since the mind and the body are inseparable, they work together in all that they do. Most muscular pains are the direct result of internal stress and tension. Emotional and psychological stress causes physical tension to build up in our muscles. Tense muscles are also more susceptible to injury.
Try to relax and spare your self from back muscle pain.
Get Online Advance Payday Cash Loan For Instant Cash
Online advance payday cash loan helps in meeting immediate requirements of the borrower. These payday loans are provided by financial organizations and can be accessed from any part of the world.
The process of applying is hassle free as it allows the borrower to do everything online. He is not required to fax any documents and enjoys the benefits of fax free payday loan.
There are a few requirements that need to be fulfilled for getting online cash loan. These are as provided below.
With the facility of internet, the loan lenders provide the facility to borrower to apply and receive quick cash from them.
How Online Advance Payday Cash Loan Works?:
For getting online cash advance the borrower submits an application to the lender company online. The application requires few details such as applicants job poof, age, income statement, a checking account and citizenship proof. The lender company then verifies all the details and when all the details are found genuine by the lender company then they approve the online advance payday loan application. Further, the cash advance is deposited into the borrowers bank account by next business day. After this, the consumer is asked to submit a payment request where he tells how much he will be paying when his amount is due. Subsequently, when the loans are due the money is directly debited from the borrowers checking account.
Why Online Advance Payday Loan is required?
Cash advances are the only option for consumers who have bad credit and cannot apply for credit card, bank loan and other alternatives of low interest. Customers take this amount to fulfill there short term cash needs like: small billing payments, car repair, celebrating special occasion, making penalty payments etc.
With fax free program consumer can apply for a secure online application and request the money online without leaving his place.
Amount of Loan that can be taken:
Typically, the amount of cash loan that can be taken lies between $100 and $500. However, this is the limit until you repay the first loan in time. After that the limit goes beyond $500.
The lender company typically charges in the range of $15-$30 per $100 borrowed per 2 weeks which converts into 390% to 780% when expressed as Annual Percentage Rate(APR). The borrower gives a post dated check of the loan amount plus interest plus fees to the lender. When the repayment of the amount is due the lender can electronically withdraw from the borrowers checking account.
As can be seen payday loan is a simple way of getting loan even for those individuals who have had a bad credit history, though the price paid for this convenience is a fairly high rate of interest.
A Guide to Creating Photographic Holiday Cards
Photographic holiday cards are one of the best ways to greet your loved ones on the occasion of a holiday event. If you look around in the market, you may be overwhelmed with the millions of choices available. It may sound an easy task to just go ahead and purchase well-designed cards and send the same to your loved ones. This is what most people do. But, if you want to make the occasion memorable for yourself and the recipient, it is always nice to custom design these cards. Here’s how you can make the occasion more special by creating a photo holiday greeting card.
Theme
The first thing that you have to do is to choose an interesting theme, depending upon whom you are sending the card to and how special the occasion is. However, you do not need to limit your ideas centered around the holiday or winter theme, as the recipient may want to keep it even when the winter season or the holiday season has passed. So, think up something creative and try to make the holiday cards versatile. For example, if you are sending it to a family member or a close relative, a family shot on the cover of the card will make it very special. You may also want to include the pictures of a great holiday trip that you have been to along with the recipient recently.
Click Some New Photographs
If you do not find anything that interesting in the existing lot of photographs with you, the best way is to get outdoors and get yourself clicked. Choose a scenic location and ask someone shoot. If you do not find someone to shoot the photo, you may try some timer-race photos. Set the timer and run. Sometimes, these photos are quite funny. So, you may get some great photo ideas even by chance.
Increase The Impact By Editing
In order to increase the impact of the photo holiday card, you must crop, level and edit these images carefully. Some interesting edits may include softening, sepia, watercolor finish, and other such things. The idea is to bring the holiday mood on the images.
Get It Printed With A Good Printer
The final step is to get the images printed on the holiday cards. Choose a good printer for this purpose. Sometimes, the quality of the images goes down when you get the same printed. This happens because of the wrong printer you are using. If you have a limited budget, you should consider flat glossy cards. However, if you want to see a big “wow” on the face of your friends and relatives, you should go for coated, folded cards, which you can create by using a professional card printing service.
A word of caution – if you are creating holiday cards for professional use, such as for your employees, make sure that you don’t break the law. Make sure that you are not using copyright images, without permission.
Theme
The first thing that you have to do is to choose an interesting theme, depending upon whom you are sending the card to and how special the occasion is. However, you do not need to limit your ideas centered around the holiday or winter theme, as the recipient may want to keep it even when the winter season or the holiday season has passed. So, think up something creative and try to make the holiday cards versatile. For example, if you are sending it to a family member or a close relative, a family shot on the cover of the card will make it very special. You may also want to include the pictures of a great holiday trip that you have been to along with the recipient recently.
Click Some New Photographs
If you do not find anything that interesting in the existing lot of photographs with you, the best way is to get outdoors and get yourself clicked. Choose a scenic location and ask someone shoot. If you do not find someone to shoot the photo, you may try some timer-race photos. Set the timer and run. Sometimes, these photos are quite funny. So, you may get some great photo ideas even by chance.
Increase The Impact By Editing
In order to increase the impact of the photo holiday card, you must crop, level and edit these images carefully. Some interesting edits may include softening, sepia, watercolor finish, and other such things. The idea is to bring the holiday mood on the images.
Get It Printed With A Good Printer
The final step is to get the images printed on the holiday cards. Choose a good printer for this purpose. Sometimes, the quality of the images goes down when you get the same printed. This happens because of the wrong printer you are using. If you have a limited budget, you should consider flat glossy cards. However, if you want to see a big “wow” on the face of your friends and relatives, you should go for coated, folded cards, which you can create by using a professional card printing service.
A word of caution – if you are creating holiday cards for professional use, such as for your employees, make sure that you don’t break the law. Make sure that you are not using copyright images, without permission.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Top Weird News of 2008
The Stock Market went bankrupt, Democrats and Republicans were nipping at each other like vicious enemies, and this was the situation of the whole world. All the companies were merely surviving and hoping that they could see the next year. As for America situations were turning out to be quite a lot suspicious as the elections for the President of the United States took place and Obama came up with the majority of people on his side.
Now we look at some of the weirdest news of this year.
President Bush went to Iraq for some meeting with the Iraqi President, where he was facing a press conference. Now when President Bush was giving away the answers, one of the Iraqi reporter stood up, took one of his shoes and threw it towards Bush. Bush was too athletic to get away from it. But that man fired another shoe which was only some inches away. Now everyone was shocked and was apologizing with Bush.
Nobody needed to see Verne "Mini-Me" Troyer's sex tape! But it was hardly as the guy charged with having sex with his picnic table, the woman who sold videos of herself having sex with her stupid enough dog, the guy who cooked his girlfriend for dinner or the Danish students who killed a cat (of real) and ate it on Face book.
In August, when Mrs. McKinney of California stood before cameras to unveil the cloned pups of her deceased pit-bull, Booger (for which she paid a handsome amount of $30,000+), knew she was different than what expected.
A few days later, British tabloids recognized her as Joyce McKinney, a woman charged in 1977 with kidnapping some Mormon missionary and getting out on bail. McKinney was charged of chloroforming the man on the steps of a church, took him off to a remote villa, shackled him in mink handcuffs, and forced him to have sex with her! Damn where in the hell was I.
Before the trial, McKinney ran off to the United States and had been living in relative obscurity. Once discovered, she faced the media, telling the Associated Press, "My mother said, 'Say something good or say nothing at all'."
Two other highlights in laughable litigiousness: a California woman sued Victoria's Secret after injuring her eye while trying on a thong. A New York businessman also sued over an eye injury. His came after a stripper accidentally smacked him in the face while taking her clothes off.
When a company launch a line of bikinis, for girls as young as two months old, the outcry from child advocates and feminists was as predictable as it was justifiable. What are they up to? The same could be said for GPS Lingerie-- underwear that lets a woman's boyfriend know where she is all the time. This great invention will hopefully go far.
In other religious news, the Virgin Mary appeared on an MRI and the face of Jesus turned up on an electric guitar (both listed on eBay for sale)
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