Thank you. Thank you, my friends. Thank you for coming here on this beautiful Arizona evening.
My friends, we have we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly.
A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him [BOOING] – please – to congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love.
In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.
This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight. I've always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Senator Obama believes that, too. But we both recognize that, though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation's reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound.
A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters.
America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States.
Let there be no reason now ... let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth.
Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for his country. I applaud him for it, and offer him my sincere sympathy that his beloved grandmother did not live to see this day. Though our faith assures us she is at rest in the presence of her creator and so very proud of the good man she helped raise.
Senator Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain. These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.
I urge all Americans ... I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.
Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.
It is natural. It's natural, tonight, to feel some disappointment. But tomorrow, we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again.
We fought we fought as hard as we could. And though we feel short, the failure is mine, not yours.
(NO!)
I am so...
(CHANTING)
I am so deeply grateful to all of you for the great honor of your support and for all you have done for me. I wish the outcome had been different, my friends.
The road was a difficult one from the outset, but your support and friendship never wavered. I cannot adequately express how deeply indebted I am to you.
I'm especially grateful to my wife, Cindy, my children, my dear mother ... my dear mother and all my family, and to the many old and dear friends who have stood by my side through the many ups and downs of this long campaign.
I have always been a fortunate man, and never more so for the love and encouragement you have given me.
You know, campaigns are often harder on a candidate's family than on the candidate, and that's been true in this campaign.
All I can offer in compensation is my love and gratitude and the promise of more peaceful years ahead.
I am also I am also, of course, very thankful to Governor Sarah Palin, one of the best campaigners I've ever seen and an impressive new voice in our party for reform and the principles that have always been our greatest strength ... her husband Todd and their five beautiful children ... for their tireless dedication to our cause, and the courage and grace they showed in the rough and tumble of a presidential campaign.
We can all look forward with great interest to her future service to Alaska, the Republican Party and our country. To all my campaign comrades, from Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter, to every last volunteer who fought so hard and valiantly, month after month, in what at times seemed to be the most challenged campaign in modern times, thank you so much. A lost election will never mean more to me than the privilege of your faith and friendship.
I don't know I don't know what more we could have done to try to win this election. I'll leave that to others to determine. Every candidate makes mistakes, and I'm sure I made my share of them. But I won't spend a moment of the future regretting what might have been.
This campaign was and will remain the great honor of my life, and my heart is filled with nothing but gratitude for the experience and to the American people for giving me a fair hearing before deciding that Senator Obama and my old friend Senator Joe Biden should have the honor of leading us for the next four years.
(BOOING)
Please, please
I would not I would not be an American worthy of the name should I regret a fate that has allowed me the extraordinary privilege of serving this country for a half a century. Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much. And tonight, I remain her servant.
That is blessing enough for anyone, and I thank the people of Arizona for it.
(USA USA USA USA)
Tonight – tonight more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama whether they supported me or Senator Obama. I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.
Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.
Thank you, and God bless you, and God bless America। Thank you all very much.

Mccain

Eight Reasons Why ‘Global Warming’ Is a Scam

When Al Gore lost his bid to become the country’s first “Environment President,” many of us thought the “global warming” scare would finally come to a well-deserved end. That hasn’t happened, despite eight good reasons this scam should finally be put to rest.

It’s B-a-a-ck!

Similar scares orchestrated by radical environmentalists in the past--such as Alar, global cooling, the “population bomb,” and electromagnetic fields--were eventually debunked by scientists and no longer appear in the speeches or platforms of public officials. The New York Times recently endorsed more widespread use of DDT to combat malaria, proving Rachel Carson’s anti-pesticide gospel is no longer sacrosanct even with the liberal elite.

The scientific case against catastrophic global warming is at least as strong as the case for DDT, but the global warming scare hasn’t gone away. President Bush is waffling on the issue, rightly opposing the Kyoto Protocol and focusing on research and voluntary projects, but wrongly allowing his administration to support calls for creating “transferrable emission credits” for greenhouse gas reductions. Such credits would build political and economic support for a Kyoto-like cap on greenhouse gas emissions.

At the state level, some 23 states have already adopted caps on greenhouse gas emissions or goals for replacing fossil fuels with alternative energy sources. These efforts are doomed to be costly failures, as a new Heartland Policy Studyby Dr. Jay Lehr and James Taylor documents. Instead of concentrating on balancing state budgets, some legislators will be working to pass their own “mini-Kyotos.”

Eight Reasons to End the Scam

Concern over “global warming” is overblown and misdirected. What follows are eight reasons why we should pull the plug on this scam before it destroys billions of dollars of wealth and millions of jobs.

1. Most scientists do not believe human activities threaten to disrupt the Earth’s climate. More than 17,000 scientists have signed a petition circulated by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine saying, in part, “there is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.” (Go to www.oism.org for the complete petition and names of signers.) Surveys of climatologists show similar skepticism.

2. Our most reliable sources of temperature data show no global warming trend. Satellite readings of temperatures in the lower troposphere (an area scientists predict would immediately reflect any global warming) show no warming since readings began 23 years ago. These readings are accurate to within 0.01ºC, and are consistent with data from weather balloons. Only land-based temperature stations show a warming trend, and these stations do not cover the entire globe, are often contaminated by heat generated by nearby urban development, and are subject to human error.

3. Global climate computer models are too crude to predict future climate changes. All predictions of global warming are based on computer models, not historical data. In order to get their models to produce predictions that are close to their designers’ expectations, modelers resort to “flux adjustments” that can be 25 times larger than the effect of doubling carbon dioxide concentrations, the supposed trigger for global warming. Richard A. Kerr, a writer for Science, says “climate modelers have been ‘cheating’ for so long it’s almost become respectable.”

4. The IPCC did not prove that human activities are causing global warming. Alarmists frequently quote the executive summaries of reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations organization, to support their predictions. But here is what the IPCC’s latest report, Climate Change 2001, actually says about predicting the future climate: “The Earth’s atmosphere-ocean dynamics is chaotic: its evolution is sensitive to small perturbations in initial conditions. This sensitivity limits our ability to predict the detailed evolution of weather; inevitable errors and uncertainties in the starting conditions of a weather forecast amplify through the forecast. As well as uncertainty in initial conditions, such predictions are also degraded by errors and uncertainties in our ability to represent accurately the significant climate processes.”

5. A modest amount of global warming, should it occur, would be beneficial to the natural world and to human civilization. Temperatures during the Medieval Warm Period (roughly 800 to 1200 AD), which allowed the Vikings to settle presently inhospitable Greenland, were higher than even the worst-case scenario reported by the IPCC. The period from about 5000-3000 BC, known as the “climatic optimum,” was even warmer and marked “a time when mankind began to build its first civilizations,” observe James Plummer and Frances B. Smith in a study for Consumer Alert. “There is good reason to believe that a warmer climate would have a similar effect on the health and welfare of our own far more advanced and adaptable civilization today.”

6. Efforts to quickly reduce human greenhouse gas emissions would be costly and would not stop Earth’s climate from changing. Reducing U.S. carbon dioxide emissions to 7 percent below 1990’s levels by the year 2012--the target set by the Kyoto Protocol--would require higher energy taxes and regulations causing the nation to lose 2.4 million jobs and $300 billion in annual economic output. Average household income nationwide would fall by $2,700, and state tax revenues would decline by $93.1 billion due to less taxable earned income and sales, and lower property values. Full implementation of the Kyoto Protocol by all participating nations would reduce global temperature in the year 2100 by a mere 0.14 degrees Celsius.

7. Efforts by state governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are even more expensive and threaten to bust state budgets. After raising their spending with reckless abandon during the 1990s, states now face a cumulative projected deficit of more than $90 billion. Incredibly, most states nevertheless persist in backing unnecessary and expensive greenhouse gas reduction programs. New Jersey, for example, collects $358 million a year in utility taxes to fund greenhouse gas reduction programs. Such programs will have no impact on global greenhouse gas emissions. All they do is destroy jobs and waste money.

8. The best strategy to pursue is “no regrets.” The alternative to demands for immediate action to “stop global warming” is not to do nothing. The best strategy is to invest in atmospheric research now and in reducing emissions sometime in the future if the science becomes more compelling. In the meantime, investments should be made to reduce emissions only when such investments make economic sense in their own right.

This strategy is called “no regrets,” and it is roughly what the Bush administration has been doing. The U.S. spends more on global warming research each year than the entire rest of the world combined, and American businesses are leading the way in demonstrating new technologies for reducing and sequestering greenhouse gas emissions.

Time for Common Sense

The global warming scare has enabled environmental advocacy groups to raise billions of dollars in contributions and government grants. It has given politicians (from Al Gore down) opportunities to pose as prophets of doom and slayers of evil corporations. And it has given bureaucrats at all levels of government, from the United Nations to city councils, powers that threaten our jobs and individual liberty.

It is time for common sense to return to the debate over protecting the environment. An excellent first step would be to end the “global warming” scam.

Source:  Web: Joseph L. Bast is president of The Heartland Institute.

Cheers !!!

This Week’s Crazy Jobs ## FUNNIEST

This week’s odd arrangement of occupations involves some wordy, but worthwhile job posts. I’ll let them explain themselves:

1. Monroe, WA: Bank Robber Decoys Sought

I didn’t see the actual ad for this post. Here’s the story, via BoingBoing:

A brazen crook apparently used a Craigslist ad to hire a dozen unsuspecting decoys to help him make his getaway following a robbery outside a bank on Tuesday.

The robber had planned ahead. In case anyone was hot on his trail, he had at least a dozen unsuspecting decoys waiting nearby, which he recruited on Craigslist.

“I came across the ad that was for a prevailing wage job for $28.50 an hour,” said Mike, who saw a Craigslist ad last week looking for workers for a road maintenance project.

He…was e-mailed…instructions to meet near the Bank of America in Monroe at 11 a.m. Tuesday. He also was told to wear certain work clothing.

“Yellow vest, safety goggles, a respirator mask… and, if possible, a blue shirt,” he said.

Mike showed up along with about a dozen other men dressed like him, but there was no contractor and no road work to be done. He thought they had been stood up until he heard about the bank robbery and the suspect who wore the same attire.

Priceless.

2. Nebraska: Frustrated Business Owner Wanted

Business Owner frustrated by
the shifting Economy
Must have knowledge of Marketing
Sales and Closings…
2nd Position open for Account Executive
Contact: Dan
(If busy send response via reply email)

Please write
Your resume
In free verse;
Iambic pentameter,
Even better.

3. Beijing: American who loves to decorate

A Chinese real estate developer is looking for an American who can help with arranging accessories and designing window treatment for our model homes in various cities. Interior design or decorating background will be helpful but not required. Some short traveling within China.

We want our suburbia to look just like yours. Please show us how Pottery Barn is done right.

4. Edinburgh: Wanted: 2 X waitresses for fish & chip restaurant–live-in

This is a busy and popular fish and chip licensed restaurant and take-away located in the seas side town of East Lothian.

We are urgently seeking 2 WAITRESSES to start as soon as possible. We can employ singles or 2 female friends, as our accommodation is female shared.

Applicants should be of neat appearance, keen, motivated, fluent in English and should be team players who are willing to pitch in throughout the restaurant and take-away.

We offer a negotiable salary with live-in accommodation.

We apologize in advance that the fish smell permeating your person and belongings will utterly kill your sex life for the duration of your employment.

5. New Zealand: PowerHouse Executive Wanted

Top real estate and mortgage firm with some international activity headquartered in South Florida is looking for a seriously experienced and impressive Executive Administrative Assistant for it’s energetic, fast-paced Founder.

REQUIREMENTS:
• Real Estate and/or mortgage experience/knowledge absolutely required (and “experience” does not mean you own your own home)
• College degree
• Minimum of three years of experience assisting a Senior Executive Assistant: this is mandatory, if Candidate does not have 3 years experience, resumes will not be considered
• Must be EXTREMELY motivated (Never quits)
• Master at daily task-list completion
• Must be able to work very independently
• This should be the candidate’s long-term career choice
• Strong in Word, Excel and Outlook
• Detail-oriented
• Must be able to work in a fast paced environment
• Must have ability to multi-task
• Strong written and verbal communication
• Must be a self starter who can work with minimal supervision
• Must be highly organized and have strong time management skills
• Must have the ability to maintain confidentiality
• Must have flexibility to meet deadlines with short notice
• Professional appearance and demeanor
• Proficiency in iPhone and/or Blackberry operations an absolute must.
*Hedge Fund/Mezz Financing/Senior Debt-Service a PLUS

Candidate must be able to get a nasty “To-Do” list completed daily, and not let items roll-over to the next day. Having the ability to multi-task and work in fast-paced environment is the only way this opportunity will work out for you. Some days a completely manic, and some days you may need to keep yourself busy- on those days, we expect Candidate can be proactive about creating tasks and prioritize them according to the company’s mission.

Join a winning team, help us achieve our goals, we can help you achieve yours.

We’re trying to break a record for highest number of Type-A personalities in a single office in New Zealand. Won’t you help us?

6. India: Elder Care - Home Care

I am searching for a female to take care of a healthy elderly gentleman for 5 months from November ‘08 to March ‘09. Job location is Tuticorin.

Salary offered is Rs. 6,000 per month. Candidate must be over 18 years of age and under 45, have some college education, must have good health, cleanliness and must speak either Tamil or Malayalam or English. Must stay at the job location. Food and living quarters, transportation to and from home town will be provided.

Attending the elderly gentleman is the primary responsibility which includes light cooking, shopping and house keeping. Gentleman is in his 60’s and in good health and so no need for any medical assistance. Prior experience is a plus.

Rent-a-wife! Someone needs to scale this operation and market it to lonely singles around the world.

7. Nationwide: Part-Time National Guard Infantryman

Major duties

Assists in the performance of reconnaissance operations
Employs, fires, and recovers anti-personnel and anti-tank mines
Operates, mounts/dismounts and zeros weapon systems under various conditions including engaging targets using night vision sights
Operates and maintains communications equipment, and operates in a radio net
Performs as a member of a fire team during training and combat missions
Processes prisoners of war and captured documents

Benefits

Up to a $20,000 Bonus
A monthly paycheck
Montgomery G.I. Bill
Up to 100% tuition assistance for college
Retirement benefits for part-time service
Low-cost life insurance (up to $400,000 in coverage)
401(k)-type savings plan

Duties will be activated after you have scrubbed at least 1,500 latrines. Bonus given to infantrymen who pass 30 short-arm inspections without wincing. Benefits contingent upon survival.

8. Finland: General Manager – Dairy Farm

The role is responsible for providing both strategic and operational leadership for the farming, dairy and processing facility. The role will support the execution of strategic and tactical business plans by working directly with the management team, employees, external business relationships, corporate office and any other entities required to ensure that the business objectives are met.

ESSENTIAL JOB RESULTS:

o Technical experience managing farm of 20-30 thousand heads of cows (yield per cow above 30 Liter/day);

o Minimum experience of 15 years in respective fields of dairy farming;

o Broad understanding of the global trends in dairy industry;

o Operational efficiency track records; in terms of milk yield per cows and costs per liters of milk

o Farming and Dairy Operations, Maintenance, Accounting and

o Purchasing, HR and others to ensure objectives and goals are met and departments are managed effectively

o Coach and counsel subordinate managers to encourage autonomy and accountability within departments.

o Demonstrate an adequate understanding of organic dairy cattle, organic farming practices, equipment, processing, quality, and/or other requisite technical knowledge to engage in overall direction, and leadership of managers across the facility that leads to effective financial performance.

o Demonstrate clear integrity and a sense of ethics and responsibility to the farm and its employees on a daily basis, serving as a model for others.

o Manage relationships with neighbors, community leaders and regulatory agencies

o Respond effectively and to work cross-functionally with in the organization particularly with other farms and corporate leadership.

o Effectively partnership with Human Resources and others in a culturally diverse workforce

o Effectively implement, improve and reinforce the company’s environmental health and safety programs and product food safety programs.

How would you change Apple's iPod touch 2G / nano 4G?

Hope you don't mind two similar worlds running together, because today we're asking about not one, but two of Cupertino's latest. The iPod touch 2G and iPod nano 4G were both simultaneously (give or take a few minutes) announced back in early September, and after getting a chance to handle both, we felt that Apple did a stand-up job with the each of 'em. That being said, there's always a thing or two that could use tweaked, added or removed completely, but we'll spare you any additional opinions from us on that. Instead, we want to know how you, dear reader, would change either of Apple's freshest PMPs. What are you digging? What's still not good enough? The floor is yours.

MSN MESSENGER LOGIN PROBLEMS

About a month ago, Brandon LeBlanc wrote about his problems signing in to the Windows Live Messenger network. Last week, it began happening to me. I was able to install the Messenger client software on another computer and sign in, but on my main system, even uninstalling and reinstalling wouldn’t fix the problem. And Brandon says he’s still getting “tons of comments” left on the original post.

Yesterday, I sent a note to support and got the suggested fix within a few hours. Open Regedit and delete the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSNMessenger\Policies

After doing that, I was able to sign in again. If you’re having this problem, maybe the same fix will work for you.

Cheers 

Source : Web

Depression : Causes and Solutions to the Extend

Depression may be described as feeling sad, blue, unhappy, miserable, or down in the

 dumps. Most of us feel this way at one time or another for short periods.

True clinical depression is a mood disorder in which feelings of

 sadness, loss, anger, or frustration interfere with everyday life for an extended period of time.

 

Alternative Names

Blues; Discouragement; Gloom; Mood changes; Sadness; Melancholy

 

Considerations

Depression is generally ranked in terms of severity -- mild, moderate, or s

evere. The degree of your depression, which your doctor can determine, influences how you are treated. Symptoms of depression include:

·         Trouble sleeping or excessive sleeping

·         A dramatic change in appetite, often with weight gain or loss

·         Fatigue and la

ck of energy

·         Feelings of worthlessness, self-hate, and inappropriate guilt

·         Extreme difficulty concentrating

·         Agitation, restlessness, and irritability

·         Inactivity and withdrawal from usual activities

·         Feelings of hopelessness and helplessness

·         Recurring thoughts of death or suicide

Low self esteem is common with depression. So are sudden bursts of anger and lack of pleasure from activities that normally make you happy, including sex.

Depressed children may not have the classic symptoms of adult depression. Watch especially for changes in school performance, sleep, and behavior. If you wonder whether your child might be depressed, it's 

worth bringing to a doctor's attention.

The main types of depression include:

·         Major depression -- five or more

 symptoms listed above must be present for at least 2 weeks, but major depression tends to continue for at least 6 months. (Depression is classified as minor depression if you have fewer than five depression symptoms for at least 2 weeks. In other words, minor depression is si

milar to major depression except it only has 2 - 4 symptoms.)

·         Atypical depression -- occurs in about a third of patients with depression. Symptoms include overeating and oversleeping. These patients tend to have a feeling of being weighed down and react strongly to rejection.

·         Dysthymia -- a gene

rally milder form of depression that lasts as long as two years.

Other common forms of depression include:

·         Postpartum depression -- many women feel somewhat down after having a baby, but true postpartum depression is rare.

·         Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) -- depressive symptoms occur one week prior to menstruation and disappear after you menstruate.

·         Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) -- occurs during the fall-winter season and disappears during the spring-summer season. Likely to be due to lack of

 sunlight.

Depression may also occur with mania (known as manic-depression or bipolar disorder). In this condition, moods cycle between mania and depression.

Depression is more common in women than men and is especially common during the teen years. Men seem to seek help for feelings of depression less often than women. Therefore, women may only have more

 documented cases of depression.

 

Causes »

Depression often runs in families. This may due to your genes (inherited), learned behavior, or both. Even if your genes make you more likely to develop depression, a stressful or unhappy life event usually triggers the onset of a depressive episode.

Depression may be brought on by:

·         Alcohol or drug abuse

·         Childhood events like abuse or neglect

·         Chronic stress

·         Death of a friend or relative

·         Disappointment at home, work, or school (in teens, this may be breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, failing a class, or parents divorcing)

·         Drugs such as sedatives and high blood pressure medications

·         Medical conditions such as hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid), cancer, or hepatitis

·         Nutritional deficiencies (such as a lack of folate and omega-3 fatty acids)

·         Overly negative thoughts about one's self and life, self blame, and ineffective social problem solving skills

·         Prolonged pain or having a major illness

·         Sleeping problems

·         Social isolation (common in the elderly)

 

Home Care

If you are depressed for 2 weeks or longer, you should contact your doctor, who can offer treatment options. Regardless of whether you have mild or major depression, the following self-care steps can help:

·         Get enough sleep.

·         Follow a healthy, nutritious diet.

·         Exercise regularly.

·         Avoid alcohol, marijuana, and other recreational drugs.

·         Get involved in activities that make you happy, even if you don't feel like it.

·         Spend time with family and friends.

·         Try talking to clergy or spiritual advisors who may help give meaning to painful experiences.

·         Consider prayer, meditation, tai chi, or biofeedback as ways to relax or draw on your inner strengths.

·         Add omega-3 fatty acids to your diet, which you can get from cold-water fish like tuna, salmon, or mackerel.

·         Take folate (vitamin B9) in the form of a multivitamin (400 to 800 micrograms).

If your depression occurs in the fall or winter months, try light therapy using a special lamp that mimics the sun.

Many people try a popular over-the-counter herb called St. John's wort. Some studies do suggest that this herbal remedy may be helpful for mild depression, but not moderate or severe. Be aware that St. John's wort has potential drug interactions and should NOT be taken with prescription antidepressants, birth control pills, protease inhibitors for HIV, theophylline, warfarin, digoxin, reserpine, cyclosporine, or loperamide. Talk to your doctor if you are thinking about trying this herb for mild depression.

If you have moderate to severe depression, the most effective treatment plan will likely be a combination of counseling and medication.

 

When to Contact a Medical Professional

Call 911, a suicide hotline, or get safely to a nearby emergency room if you have thoughts of suicide, a suicidal plan, or thoughts of harming yourself or others.

Call your doctor right away if:

·         You hear voices that are not there

·         You have frequent crying spells with little or no provocation

·         You have had feelings of depression that disrupt work, school, or family life for longer than 2 weeks

·         You have 3 or more depressive symptoms

·         You think that one of your current medications may be making you feel depressed -- DO NOT change or stop any medications without consulting your doctor

·         You believe that you should cut back on drinking, a family member or friend has asked you to cut back, you feel guilty about the amount of alcohol you drink, or you drink alcohol first thing in the morning

 

What to Expect at Your Office Visit

A complete history, a psychiatric interview, and a physical examination will be performed to try to classify your depression as mild, moderate, or severe and to see if there is an underlying, treatable cause (such as alcohol abuse or an underactive thyroid). Hospitalization is usually recommended if suicide seems possible.

Expect some exploration of the issues and events associated with your feelings of depression. Your doctor will ask you about:

·         Your depressive moods and other symptoms (sleep, appetite, concentration, energy)

·         Possible stressors in your life, and support systems in place

·         Whether thoughts about ending your life have ever crossed your mind

·         Drug and alcohol use, and about the medications you are currently taking, if any

Treatment will vary according to the cause and severity of your depressive symptoms, as well as your personal preference. The most effective therapy for moderate or severe depression is a combination of antidepressant medication and psychotherapy.

For mild depression, counseling and self-care measures without medication may be enough.

If you are taking medications for other purposes that could cause depression as a side effect, these may need to be changed. DO NOT change or stop any of your medications without consulting your doctor.

For people who are so severely depressed as to be unable to function, or who are suicidal and cannot be safely cared for in the community, psychiatric hospitalization may be necessary.

 

Prevention

Healthy lifestyle habits can help prevent depression, or lessen the chances of it happening again. These habits include eating properly, sleeping adequately, exercising regularly, learning to relax, and not drinking alcohol or using drugs.

Counseling may help you through times of grief, stress, or low mood. Family therapy may be particularly important for teens who feel blue.

If you feel socially isolated or lonely, try volunteering or getting involved in group activities.

 

Source: NY  Times - Web

 

Forget iPhone, the Gphone is here

Google, the nearly $13.5 billion search engine major, is believed to be a fortnight away from the worldwide launch of its much-awaited Google Phone (Gphone) and has started talks with service providers in India for an exclusive launch on one of their networks.

Talks are believed to be taking place with Bharti Airtel  and Vodafone Essar, respectively India's first and third largest mobile telephony operators, and state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam.

Sources close to the development said a simultaneous launch across the US and Europe is expected, and announcements would be sent to media firms in India and other parts of the world. US regulatory approval, which is expected soon, is the only hurdle that Google is waiting to cross, they added. Google plans to invest $7-8 billion for its global telephony foray.

In India, it is also believed to be in talks with Indian providers to offer data and content and platforms including Instant Messaging (IM) and Search functions. However, these could not be confirmed.

A Google spokesperson said, "We don't comment on market rumour or speculation. However, Google is committed to providing users with access to the world's information, and mobile becomes more important to those efforts every day. We're collaborating with partners worldwide to bring Google search and applications to mobile users everywhere. However, we have nothing to announce at this time."

Reports of the Internet major getting into handset manufacturing as an answer to Apple's iPhone has been doing rounds in cyberspace and international media for some time. These reports suggest that Google has developed a prototype that will hit the markets in a year's time. The US-based company has neither confirmed nor denied these reports. The Wall Street Journal too had reported that Google had invested "hundreds of millions of dollars" in the project and was involved in discussions with US-based T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless.

Globally, Google is likely to participate in the upcoming auction for 700 MHz spectrum for which it is prepared to spend up to $4.6 billion. The firm is also introducing ads to YouTube videos which could be replicated on mobile phones. Ironically, Google recently partnered Apple to produce services such as e-mail and maps for its iPhone handset. And Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, said recently that more Google services for the iPhone would be rolled out.

Cheers !

Source: Web

 

Gphone vs. iPhone: The security debate begins

It wasn't long after Google announced its long-anticipated mobile plans this week that a debate emerged about the prospective security of the project's Linux-based platform.
Can the open-source model for the platform, now known as Android, produce secure code? Will phones based on Android, dubbed "Gphones" by many, be more or less secure than Apple's iPhone, which has been developed using proprietary software? What will Android's developers be able to do to stop authors of malicious code from capitalizing on its openness?
Security vendor McAfee, which produces proprietary security software for mobile devices, has been quick to defend open-source practices for developing mobile code.
McAfee is a member of the Linux Mobile (LiMo) Foundation, a group of companies formed to develop an open mobile-device software platform. Many of the companies in the LiMo Foundation have also become members of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), which Google has formed to develop and promote Android.
Jan Volzke, global marketing manager for McAfee Mobile Security, said that Linux is not new to the mobile arena and maintained that secure coding practices can successfully be built into the Android development process.
"Japan has a large deployment, with 60 percent of phones powered by Linux. McAfee protection has been integrated in the majority of these mobile Linux phones for many years," Volzke said. "For any mobile-device platform, security should not be a developer option but a mandatory requirement. Consumers--as well as operators--expect devices to be safe from the outset, with no effort required from them."
Volzke said security can be built in from the beginning of the development process by collaboration between security companies, although at the moment McAfee is the only security player in the LiMo Foundation.
Open coding practices nonetheless seem ripe for abuse. Making source code available to everyone inevitably invites the attention of black-hat hackers.
"Linux has so far been used on the enterprise-server side, with most deployments being professionally IT administrated," Volzke said. "Due to a number of industry initiatives, especially the LiMo Foundation--and now also the Open Handset Alliance--Linux will become more widely available in the consumer space. As a result, visibility to already experienced hackers increases. Open means open to everyone--with (both) good and malicious intent."

Where bugs most likely breed

The debate about the relative security merits of open source as opposed to proprietary software development has been long-running. Open-source software development has the advantage of many pairs of eyes scrutinizing the code, meaning irregularities can be spotted and ironed out, while updates to plug vulnerabilities can be written and pushed out very quickly. However, one disadvantage of open-source development is that anyone can scrutinize the source code to find vulnerabilities and write exploits.
The source code in proprietary software, on the other hand, can't be directly viewed, meaning vulnerabilities need to be found through reverse engineering. However, as fewer people see proprietary source code, critics argue that code is more likely to be buggy. Some observers also claim that once vulnerabilities have been found, updates are slower to be pushed out, especially by large multinational software companies.
Most security vendors try to avoid commenting on whether open-source or proprietary software is more secure, often arguing that it is like comparing apples to oranges.
Volzke said it wasn't possible to compare the security of development practices for Android-based devices andApple's iPhone handset, which will be released in the U.K. on Friday. "Apple's iPhone has nothing to do with open source. Instead Apple will provide a software development kit," Volzke said. "Comparing the security challenges for an open-source device platform versus a device-specific software development kit will result in different conclusions."
One security vendor was willing to make a prediction, albeit gingerly. Ben Whitaker, head of security at mobile-security development company Masabi, came down cautiously on the side of open source. "Gphone is open source, which means it can get a good kicking and shoeing, and can be worked on by just about anyone," Whitaker said. "It's starting out in a better way than the iPhone, which has seen vulnerabilities. However, any new consumer (of both the iPhone and Gphone) won't be secure when the first product comes out."
Whitaker said that given the iPhone's record of vulnerabilities and its full, smartphone Internet connectivity, it would be more vulnerable than a strictly Java-based mobile platform, which he classified as "semi-smart." It will not be known until the Android software development kit comes out on Monday whether the Gphone will be strictly Java-based.
In the case of the iPhone, "with any brand new Web browser, malicious Web sites will take advantage of Ajax, JavaScript, and ActiveX vulnerabilities," Whitaker said. "The less smart a phone is, the less vulnerable it is. (Android) developers should stick to a semi-smartphone platform because the Java sandbox can protect against the normal kinds of attacks."
Whitaker added that, like the iPhone, Gphone devices will have vulnerabilities. "The Gphone could allow full apps to run on it, which would open it to keyloggers," Whitaker said. "At the moment, the Gphone platform doesn't run on an encrypted file system and has a vulnerable log-in. It's so stealable that (an encrypted file system and a secure log-in) should by default be included."
With much development work yet to take place--and the U.K. market still waiting for both the Apple and Google-based devices to arrive--the jury remains out for the definitive ruling on which model will be most secure. But one thing is for certain: no device that connects to the outside world can be totally secure, and neither the iPhone nor Gphone will prove to be the exception.
Source: Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London. (News BroadCast)

With proprietary, neglecting version X, Y, or Z, the platform is the same--you can guarantee the vulnerability exists with a very small number of conditions (i.e. it's been patched because it's known or the feature is turned off).

With Open Source, the 5-10% of the community who will want to poke around their code, and will distribute the changes to the community, will result in 20-25% of the community having different sets of vulnerabilities, when and if a vulnerability is found (they are there, but then again, large portions of the code, is mature, while other portion are new, thus a large number of the potential vulnerabilities are ironed out).
But then again, iPhone runs everything as root, while Android is unlikely to do so, as security (including permissions and SELinux--which is a large security aid in and of itself) are there to prevent (most) exploitation. Apple could use similar features and tools, but they don't want to.
But Google has had to deal with security for years too, as they are a prime target for hackers and DDOS attacks.
So, time will tell. We will know in a few years to some degree.

Cheers !