copy of this.com - From the moment I read the book, the audacity of hope, I realized a phenomenon had been with us for some time. I had watched with rapt
attention that speech, he gave in 2004 during the Democratic Party convention in the comfort of my sitting room at The Hague, opposite the magnificent Hollandspoor train station, some 500 meters away from my University, The Hague University of Professional Education. I knew Obama was going to make history, somehow without actually knowing what direction it was going to take. I knew the black man or as they say, the African-American was set to actualize a dream long dreamt by Martin Luther King, Jnr. The dream of Dr. King had been the dream of every black man and every person under one form of servitude or discrimination, or another, predicated on race, creed, religion and other trivialities. It was just a matter of time, I told myself and it was going to be sooner than later.

The campaign trail had taken a lot of energy and resources but my confidence had never been shaken, not even for a moment. A lot of buck passing had been going on. The opponents of the enigma called Obama from both parties were very ferocious and determined to push him by the side. On his side, he remained unruffled and natural. He weeded them out one after another. He outwitted them on every plank. He even out-cashed them and left them gasping and helpless at the end. Mrs. Clinton learned the hard way, how not to under-estimate any opponent and the enigmatic old horse, John Mc-Cain and Governor Sarah Palin simply cowed in after Americans handed over their fate to them. Barrack clinched the victory and Americans and the rest of the world celebrated exotically.

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Business bits.com - Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The euro and the pound fell against the dollar on speculation the European and U.K. central banks will lower interest rates to combat a recession and bank losses.

The 16-nation euro also traded near a seven-year low versus the yen before data that may show business sentiment in Germany slumped. Sterling approached a 23-year low versus the U.S. currency after U.K. home prices had the biggest annual decline since at least 2001.

“The European Central Bank will have to cut rates further than the market expects,” said Paul Robinson, a currency strategist in London at Barclays Capital. “Far too much bad news is priced in the pound.”

The euro fell to $1.2945 as of 9:47 a.m. in London from $1.2975 in New York on Jan. 23, when it slid to $1.2765, the lowest level in more than six weeks. The euro was at 115.23 yen from 115.12 yen and 113.75 earlier. The euro touched 112.15 yen on Jan. 21, the weakest since March 2002. The dollar bought 89.07 yen from 88.75 yen.

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Businessaholic.com - NEW DELHI - Consumers in Asia, especially India, China, Philippines are ready to accept the benefits of biotechnology derived foods, according to a consumer survey by the Asian Food Information Centre (AFIC). 

The Asia region resource centre on nutrition, health and food safey has concluded that biotech foods will likely become an increasing and well accepted feature of the Asian diet in the light of the region's grwoing demand for high volumes of food.

Currently, the only genetically modified (GM or biotech) crop grown commercially in India is Bt Cotton but the government's policy leans towards bigger use of biotech food crops in the near future.

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www.celibaciez.com Women who need to undergo surgery for gynaecological cancers now have an option to have surgery that is less painful, results in less scarring, allows them to get back on their feet faster while being just as effective in removing cancer - by opting for robotic cancer surgery. With this surgical breakthrough, patients avoid the complications associated with more traditional approaches to surgery for women's cancers.

The Gynaecologic Robot-Assisted Cancer and Endoscopic Surgery at Singapore's National University Hospital surgical programme (GRACES @ NUH) started offering this option to gynaecologic cancer patients in August 2008. The first patient to receive this treatment was a 52-year-old woman with endometrial cancer.

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www.thecontroversies.com MARK COLVIN: Since the discovery of insulin in the 1920's scientists have been puzzled by how it actually works in the body to absorb glucose from food. Now a Sydney PhD student along with researchers from the Garvan Institute have discovered a key step in that process.

The scientists have found that insulin activates a protein that helps transport glucose from the blood stream into the muscle or fat cell. They believe for people with Type 2 diabetes this process doesn't work as well. Jennifer Macey reports

JENNIFER MACEY: Every time we eat nutrients flow into the bloodstream triggering the pancreas to secrete insulin. The insulin travels via the bloodstream and locks onto muscle and fat cells and helps them absorb sugar which is stored to produce energy for later use. Professor David James is the director of the diabetes program at the Garvan Institute for Medical Research

DAVID JAMES: So insulin was first isolated and discovered in the early 1920's. That was really I think one of the major discoveries of modern medicine, because at that time there were young kids with Type 1 diabetes who were basically just dying of starvation because they had no insulin and so when they ate a meal their sugar could not be imported into their tissues and so they couldn't get energy.

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www.divinationpower.com An earthquake measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale shook Grindavík on Reykjanes peninsula, southwest Iceland, on Tuesday evening. According to information from the Icelandic Meteorological Office, there were no aftershocks.

“It was like an explosion and then the house shook for up to 30 seconds,” Sigurdur Ágústsson, superintendent at Grindavík police and member of the local civil defense committee, told Morgunbladid. However, nothing fell from shelves.

“It is among the sharper quakes that we have been hit with, which can explained by the fact that the epicenter is so close to town. We often sense jerks, but they are usually much, much smaller than this,” Ágústsson added.  The epicenter of the earthquake was located less than four kilometers west of Grindavík.

Ágústsson said no one had reported any damages. “People seem to have been calm about the quake.” Click here to read about a larger earthquake which caused damages in southwest Iceland in late May this year.

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www.divorceecorner.com Madonna's plans to adopt another child are in tatters because she is getting divorced.  The 4 Minutes singer - who announced her split from director Guy Ritchie last month - has been in negotiations with officials in Malawi for two years to care for three-year-old Mercy James but has reportedly been told she will not be allowed to adopt the girl because they do not approve of children being placed with single or recently divorced parents.

Penston Kilembe, Malawi's director of Child Welfare Services, told Grazia magazine: "One fundamental condition in scrutinising adoptions is the connectedness of a family. We can't approve a child to go into a broken family because the divorce could be the result of the behaviour of the party trying to adopt. 

"Madonna should forget this one." Madonna - who adopted another Malawian tot, David Banda, now three, in 2005 - became aware of Mercy's plight when she met her at an orphanage in 2006. The child's family have been opposed to her adoption, insisting they want her back "when she is no longer a baby".

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www.freebie123.com Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled its BizSpark initiative, an effort that aims to provide startup software companies with access to Microsoft technology at low or no cost and on easy credit terms.
The company called BizSpark "a program designed to give young companies a boost at a time when credit and funding are more difficult to come by." It could also help seed Silicon Valley garages with Microsoft technology and create future customers for the software maker.

Under the program, qualified startups get access to Microsoft technology and services, such as SQL Server Enterprise and Windows Server 2008, and some marketing support, for up to three years with little or no up-front costs. Microsoft also launched BizSpark DB, a Web site where startups can expose themselves to investors, partners, and potential customers.

Microsoft needs to reach out to startups, as new companies have more technology options than ever. Google for the past year has been pitching its hosted Google Apps offering as a means for businesses to upgrade their IT systems without having to make a large initial investment. Open source software packages, like Linux and Apache, also are making headway in numerous markets.

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www.keeprelationships.com Janice, 31, proclaimed that her long-distance relationship was perfect. She is a busy corporate interior designer with clients up and down the country. That's how she met Ben, 35, when making a pitch to one of her northern clients.

Janice explained that the only hiccup was that Ben harped on about one of them moving - either he moving south or Janice north - to be with each other. “Why spoil a perfect thing?” she complained “There's plenty of time to makesuch decision in the future...it's only been 20 months.”

Her relationship is blissful if she wants only the excitement of getting together every so often without the day-to-day grind that really tests a couple. But after nearly two years, Ben's request didn't seem unreasonable. Many people don't have a choice when it comes to long-distance dating but others do, and still opt to keep it that way. For them, distance can become a defence mechanism that keeps you “safe” from what's really going on. It was time to explore what underpinned Janice's desire to maintain their long-distance dating.

It was no surprise that Janice saw Ben as a bit of fun but not permanent partner material. As her business was thriving Ben fulfilled her social and sexual needs as an occasional partner. I challenged her on whether honesty was called for, as Ben viewed their dating differently. With her conscience tweaked, she's now considering how to approach this.

I always recommend opening a discussion on expectations and whether both of your needs can be met by the relationship. If you're keeping yourself “safe” through distance, you'll never learn to face the challenges that real intimacy brings, nor will you develop the give-and-take, patience and respect fundamental to a healthy, intimate relationship. As the saying goes, there's safety in numbers and in this case that means two people, together.

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www.myspacegossips.com MySpace Music the worlds most popular music community, is proud to announce one that former Slowdive and current Mojave 3 frontman Neil Halstead will take part in the 8th installment of "MySpace Transmissions," going live on http://www.myspace.com/transmissions. This Transmission will be available for free to download. "MySpace Transmissions" a music program that empowers top recording artists with a new platform to create and distribute exclusive video content available for viral distribution and audio tracks available for purchase in the US. MySpace Transmissions underscores the company's commitment to building unique music programming and business models that benefit labels, bands, and fans.

Neil Halstead was the founding member of the seminal and critically acclaimed Slowdive and when that band split he formed the much beloved Mojave 3. Halstead released his second solo album Oh! Mighty Engine this past July and has toured opening for Jack Johnson and done some headlining shows since its release.The songs for the Neil Halstead Transmissions are:

Oh! Mighty Engine
Witless or Wise
Elevenses
Paint a Face
Two Stones in My Pocket
Martha's Mantra (For the Pain)

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