MyLot News

well i would really appeciate if others help me in keeping this thread up to date

4th december The US ambassador to the United Nations is to leave his post when his temporary appointment runs out. John Bolton looked unable to win the necessary Senate support for him to continue in the job. Democrats in the chamber, who objected to his combative approach at the UN, were due to reject his nomination. He is the second high-profile member of President George W Bush's team to leave after the Republicans fared badly in last month's mid-term elections. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld left shortly after the 7 November polls. Mr Bolton took up the UN posting last year during a Congressional holiday after his nomination stalled in the Senate. It was a procedural manoeuvre that avoided the need for him to be confirmed until the end of this year. That procedure cannot be repeated, and the new climate in Congress would make it all but impossible for him to win a two-thirds majority of senators. The incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Senator Joe Biden, had already said he saw "no point in considering Mr Bolton's nomination again". 'Ideal' Mr Bolton's critics said a man who once declared there was "no such thing" as the UN was hardly a suitable choice to join the body. His nomination incensed many former US ambassadors - 102 of whom signed a letter urging senators to reject his nomination. But his admirers said he was a bright, hard-working realist - whose scepticism about the UN's role made him an ideal envoy, particularly when the organisation was in need of deep reform. A White House spokeswoman said that among Mr Bolton's accomplishments, he assembled coalitions addressing North Korea's nuclear activity, Iran's uranium enrichment and reprocessing work and the horrific violence in Darfur. He personified Washington's view of the UN, says the BBC's diplomatic correspondent, an institution that was viewed as being wasteful and ineffective at best and, at worst, as inimical to America's wider global interests.

Dubai International Capital (DIC) has confirmed it is in exclusive talks about a takeover of Liverpool FC. DIC, the investment arm of Dubai's government, is thought to be nearing a buy-out of the club worth £450m. "Liverpool's investment requirements are well publicised," said DIC chief executive Sameer al-Ansari, whose firm has begun to examine the club accounts. "We hope we can agree a deal that will provide us with the opportunity to fund its needs both on and off the pitch." The proposed deal is expected to include £200m to build a new 60,000-capacity stadium. The due diligence process has begun, giving DIC exclusive rights to study the accounts of Liverpool with a view to finalising a deal. Liverpool chairman David Moores and chief executive Rick Parry stayed behind in Liverpool while the team flew to Istanbul for Tuesday's Champions League match against Galatasaray. However, the deal is not expected to be concluded until the new year. DIC owns the Madame Tussauds Group and the Travelodge hotel chain as well as one third of the London Eye. The company is an investment arm of Dubai Holding, which is owned by Dubai Crown Prince and United Arab Emirates Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Sheikh Mohammed, whose family is internationally renowned for its running of the Godolphin horse racing stables, is the world's fifth richest man. Liverpool have been linked with other takeover bids in recent years. In 2005, American billionaire Robert Kraft - owner of the New England Patriots NFL team - was linked with a bid for the club. And in 2004 Thaksin Shinawatra, then Prime Minister of Thailand, made a high-profile bid to take control of the club. The takeover news will concern those worried about the number of Premiership clubs currently in the hands of foreign owners. Manchester United, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Portsmouth and Aston Villa have all gone through high-profile takeovers by foreign owners in recent years.

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The delicate workings at the heart of a 2,000-year-old analogue computer have been revealed by scientists. The Antikythera Mechanism, discovered more than 100 years ago in a Roman shipwreck, was used by ancient Greeks to display astronomical cycles. Using advanced imaging techniques, an Anglo-Greek team probed the remaining fragments of the complex geared device. The results, published in the journal Nature, show it could have been used to predict solar and lunar eclipses. The elaborate arrangement of bronze gears may also have displayed planetary information. "This is as important for technology as the Acropolis is for architecture," said Professor John Seiradakis of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, and one of the team. "It is a unique device." However, not all experts agree with the team's interpretation of the mechanism. Technical complexity The remains of the device were first discovered in 1902 when archaeologist Valerios Stais noticed a heavily corroded gear wheel amongst artefacts recovered by sponge divers from a sunken Roman cargo ship. A further 81 fragments have since been found containing a total of 30 hand-cut bronze gears. The largest fragment has 27 cogs. Researchers believe these would have been housed in a rectangular wooden frame with two doors, covered in instructions for its use. The complete calculator would have been driven by a hand crank. Although its origins are uncertain, the new studies of the inscriptions suggest it would have been constructed around 100-150 BC, long before such devices appear in other parts of the world. Writing in Nature, the team says that the mechanism was "technically more complex than any known device for at least a millennium afterwards". Although much of it is now lost, particularly from the front, what remains has given a century's worth of researchers a tantalising glimpse into the world of ancient Greek astronomy. One of the most comprehensive studies was done by British science historian Derek Solla Price, who advanced the theory that the device was used to calculate and display celestial information. When you see it your jaw just drops and you think, 'bloody hell that's clever' Mike Edmunds Cardiff University This would have been important for timing agricultural and religious festivals. Some researchers now also believe that it could have been used for teaching or navigation. Although Solla Price's work did much to push forward the state of knowledge about the device's functions, his interpretation of the mechanics is now largely dismissed. A reinterpretation of the fragments by Michael Wright of Imperial College London between 2002 and 2005, for example, developed an entirely different assembly for the gears. The new work builds on this legacy. Eclipse function Using bespoke non-invasive imaging systems, such as three-dimensional X-ray microfocus computed tomography, the team was able to take detailed pictures of the device and uncover new information. The major structure they describe, like earlier studies, had a single, centrally placed dial on the front plate that showed the Greek zodiac and an Egyptian calendar on concentric scales. On the back, two further dials displayed information about the timing of lunar cycles and eclipse patterns. Previously, the idea that the mechanism could predict eclipses had only been a hypothesis. Other aspects are less certain, such as the exact number of cogs that would have been in the complete device. The new research suggests 37 gears could have been used. However, what is left gives an insight into the complexity of the information the mechanism could display. For example, the Moon sometimes moves slightly faster in the sky than at others because of the satellite's elliptic orbit. To overcome this, the designer of the calculator used a "pin-and-slot" mechanism to connect two gear-wheels that introduced the necessary variations. "When you see it your jaw just drops and you think: 'bloody hell, that's clever'. It's a brilliant technical design," said Professor Mike Edmunds. Planetary display The team was also able to decipher more of the text on the mechanism, doubling the amount of text that can now be read. Combined with analysis of the dials, the inscriptions hint at the possibility that the Antikythera Mechanism could have also displayed planetary motions. Inscriptions mention the word 'Venus' and the word 'stationary' which would tend to suggest that it was looking at retrogressions of planets," said Professor Edmunds. "In my own view, it probably displayed Venus and Mercury, but some people suggest it may display many other planets." One of those people is Michael Wright. His reconstruction of the device, with 72 gears, suggests it may have been an orrery that displayed the motions of the five known planets of the time. "There is a feature on the front plate that could have made provision for a bearing with a spindle, that carried motion up to a mechanism used to model the planets of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn as well," he told the BBC News website. "That's how I see it and my reconstruction shows it works well." Intriguingly, Mr Wright also believes the device was not a one-off. "The designer and maker of the device knew what they wanted to achieve and they did it expertly; they made no mistakes," he said. "To do this, it can't have been very far from their everyday stock work."