China warns states not to support Nobel dissident

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Liu Xiaobo: Jailed for 11 years in December 2009

China has warned that there will be "consequences" if governments show support for jailed Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo at the award ceremony.

Vice-Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said the prize was highly politicised and "a challenge to China's judicial system".
Diplomats in Oslo said China's embassy had sent letters implicitly warning them not to attend the prize-giving.
Liu was jailed in December for subversion after calling for sweeping political reform in China.
China angrily condemned the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the dissident. It has said the award was tantamount to "encouraging crime".
'Political tool' "The choice before some European countries and others is clear and simple: do they want to be part of the political game to challenge China's judicial system or do they want to develop a true friendly relationship with the Chinese government and people?" Cui Tiankai said.
"What image do they want to leave for ordinary Chinese people? So, in my view, they are facing such a choice. They have to make the choice according to their own judgement," Mr Cui said.

“Start Quote

It is the normal practice of the British ambassador to Norway to attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. The ambassador intends to attend this year”

End Quote UK Foreign Office statement

"If they make the wrong choice, they have to bear the consequences."

A commentary published in Friday in the People's Daily, the Communist
Party's flagship newspaper, described the prize as a Western political tool used to attack a rising China.
The newspaper said the Nobel Prize has become wrapped up in ideology since the end of the Cold War and had become "a tool for Western countries to impose peaceful evolution on powers which do not meet their standards".

Peru court paroles Lori Berenson for second time

A court in Peru has granted parole for a second time to an American woman imprisoned for aiding a left-wing rebel group.

Lori Berenson had served 15 years of a 20-year sentence when she was freed on parole in May.
But she was returned to jail in August on a technicality.
She has apologised for working with the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and has denied having been a member or taking part in "violent acts".
The 40-year-old show no emotion as the court ruled she should be freed.
As part of its insurgency, the Tupac Amaru robbed banks, kidnapped and killed a number of people in the 1980s and 90s.
The Marxist group was active at the same time as the Shining Path guerrillas, who unleashed a brutal civil conflict in which nearly 70,000 people were killed.

Red Bull's Vettel & Webber dominate Brazil GP practice

 

   

     

       
       
       
       
     

   

 

 

   
 

 

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Red Bull have established themselves as the team to beat at the Brazilian Grand Prix by dominating practice on Friday.

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were first and second fastest in both sessions, well clear of their rivals.
Ferrari's championship leader Fernando Alonso was third fastest in the afternoon, a position McLaren's Lewis Hamilton occupied in the morning.
McLaren's Jenson Button, the fifth title contender, was seventh in the afternoon's practice.
The Englishman had been fourth fastest in the morning session.

ANDREW BENSON'S BLOG There have been so many twists and turns this season that it would be very unwise to rule anyone out

Throughout the day, the Red Bulls looked comfortably the quickest cars as the teams spent the day evaluating set-up and various new parts on their cars.
They tried to cram more work into Friday's running than normal as they expect it to be raining on Saturday and dry for the race. So Friday was their only chance to prepare the cars for the race.
Vettel - who is fourth in the championship, 25 points behind Alonso - was 0.482 seconds quicker than Webber in the first session, although the Australian narrowed that margin to just 0.104secs in the afternoon.

FIVE-WAY TITLE BATTLE EXPLAINED 1 ALONSO 231pts 2 WEBBER 220pts 3 HAMILTON 210pts 4 VETTEL 206pts 5 BUTTON 189pts If Alonso wins in Brazil, he will be champion unless Webber is higher than fifth If Alonso is second, he will be champion unless Webber is higher than eighth, Hamilton higher than fourth or Vettel wins If Alonso is third, he will be champion unless Webber finishes in the top 10, Hamilton in the top four and Vettel in the top three If Alonso does not finish on the podium, it will go to Abu Dhabi Button can only stay in contention if he finishes first or second but is out if Alonso finishes in the top six or if Webber is in the top two Vettel must beat Alonso on track to stay in contention

Webber, second in the championship 11 points behind Alonso, was just 0.035secs ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in the morning session, and 0.256secs clear of Alonso in the afternoon. Webber said: "It was a good Friday, we got through everything we wanted to."
Vettel added: "It was a good start. The car feels all right. Not 100% happy yet - I think we can still improve it."
Hamilton is third, 21 points behind Alonso, while Button still has a mathematical chance with a 42-point deficit and 50 points still available.
Hamilton said McLaren had had a "good" day, but sounded downbeat about his car's performance.
"The car felt good," he said. "Not enough downforce and to pick up speed through the corners you need more grip and I just don't have it.
"We have a slight update to the floor which has helped but unfortunately not a big enough step.
"We are clearly not as quick as the Red Bulls as they are over half a second ahead of us so it'll be interesting tomorrow when it's wet.

Rain makes race a 'lottery' - Hamilton

"I feel confident that if it is wet we should be able to fight for the front row.
"I'm getting everything I can out of the car out there but those guys have such a big gap."
Ferrari suffered two reliability problems. Alonso stopped on the track with an engine failure close to the end of the first session and Massa had a clutch failure in the second.
Ferrari said the engine in Alonso's car was at the end of its life and the failure happened two laps earlier than expected.
The team had anyway been planning to change Alonso's engine between first and second practice, and the Spaniard said the failure did not unduly concern him.
"This morning (it) was already programmed to change the engine between the two sessions," Alonso said.
"We used a very, very old engine this morning. There was only three laps to go.
"Everything is going according to plan, fingers crossed, and we still have plenty of engines left to use.
"Red Bull are still very competitive so it seems another strong weekend for them.

Button expects Red Bull to take pole

"Right behind them we can fight with McLaren to be the first ones to be behind Red Bull and put Red Bull in problems.
"Obviously it's important for us to be as close to Red Bull as possible to fight for pole position and hopefully we can do that tomorrow as well.
"The forecast is for rain tomorrow so we'll see how this will affect the positions - sometimes it can be good or bad for you.
"There is very little to lose for us at the moment.
"The other four contenders if they do a bad qualifying, it is more of a problem as they have to catch extra points, but for us it is less of a risk."
In the morning session, there were two crashes at Turn Seven, when Renault's Vitaly Petrov and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi both lost control at the quick uphill right-hander known as Ferra Dura.

Translation

Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text.[1] Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh (ca. 2000 BCE) into Southwest Asian languages of the second millennium BCE.

Translators always risk inappropriate spill-over of source-language idiom and usage into the target-language translation. On the other hand, spill-overs have imported useful source-language calques and loanwords that have enriched the target languages. Indeed, translators have helped substantially to shape the languages into which they have translated.

Due to the demands of business documentation consequent to the Industrial Revolution that began in the mid-18th century, some translation specialties have become formalized, with dedicated schools and professional associations

Because of the laboriousness of translation, since the 1940s engineers have sought to automate translation (machine translation) or to mechanically aid the human translator (computer-assisted translation).The rise of the Internet has fostered a world-wide market for translation services and has facilitated language localization.

Modem

A modem (modulator-demodulator) is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data. Modems can be used over any means of transmitting analog signals, from driven diodes to radio.

The most familiar example is a voice band modem that turns the digital data of a personal computer into modulated electrical signals in the voice frequency range of a telephone channel. These signals can be transmitted over telephone lines and demodulated by another modem at the receiver side to recover the digital data.

Modems are generally classified by the amount of data they can send in a given time unit, normally measured in bits per second (bit/s, or bps). They can also be classified by the symbol rate measured in baud, the number of times the modem changes its signal state per second. For example, the ITU V.21 standard used audio frequency-shift keying, aka tones, to carry 300 bit/s using 300 baud, whereas the original ITU V.22 standard allowed 1,200 bit/s with 600 baud using phase shift keying.

How to delete Google Account

"This sounds weird, but how do I delete my google account?"

Strangely, I too had some problems when I first tested deleting a Google Account as it was not as straight forward as I thought. So here is a step-by-step instruction on how to delete your Google Account. Warning: Deleting your Google Account means you will not be able to access your Blogger account, gmail account or whatever Google Products you have signed up for. So be absolutely sure you don't ever want to access those accounts again later before you delete your Google Account.

103rd Apple Cup

The last time the Apple Cup had bowl-eligibility implications, the Washington Huskies came into Martin Stadium and handed the 6-5 WSU football team a 35-32 defeat to end the Cougars’ season in 2006.

Fast forward to 2010 and the venue is the same, but the shoe is on the other foot. The Huskies (5-6, 4-4) are a win away from bowl eligibility, and the Cougars (2-9, 1-7) will attempt to play the part of spoiler in the 103rd meeting between the two schools on Saturday.

However, stopping a bowl berth is not on the minds of WSU players.

“You know their bowl hopes is not extra incentive for us on Apple Cup,” redshirt senior James Montgomery said. “We just want to come out and win. If they were 0-11 like they were a few years ago, we’d still come out with the same attitude.” For the Huskies, Saturday could mark the final game for quarterback Jake Locker, who poses a duel threat for the Cougar defense.

“We just have to stay disciplined with our assignments,” redshirt sophomore safety Tyree Toomer said. “He’s a good player and a great runner, but as long as we stay disciplined we should be able to contain him.” The Huskies have relied heavily on a running game that is averaging just more than 150 yards a game. Running back Chris Polk is on pace for his second-consecutive 1,000 yard rushing season.

Early weather forecasts predicted snow for the game, but as kickoff gets closer, it has become unclear how much will fall, if any. However, snow or no snow, the temperature will be cold with highs predicted in the mid-20s.

“We get a few more inches of snow than they do in Seattle, but we’re both going to be playing below freezing temperatures,” Montgomery said.

The Cougars haven’t faced an opponent since they knocked off Oregon State 31-14 on Nov. 13.

“Obviously we’re recharged, we’re healthy,” sophomore quarterback Jeff Tuel said. “We got our legs back. Guys should be running around feeling great, which is good.

“But at the same time, the high from the Oregon State game has worn off a little bit, but it should.” Tuel was named Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Week following the Cougars’ win.

A year ago, Washington shut out WSU 30-0 in Seattle. It marked the first shutout in the rivalry since the Cougars knocked off the Huskies 24-0 in 1968. The Cougar players who experienced the shut out in 2009 have not forgotten about it.

“We definitely haven’t forgot about that,” Toomer said. “We definitely had a serious injury problem. A lot of guys we’re out, including myself, so we had a lot of our two’s and three’s ended up starting for us at the end of the year.

“But now we’re pretty much healthy, we have our guys out there so I think we’ll be good.” Kickoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. at Martin Stadium. The game will be broadcast nationally on Versus.