A black and white photo of the moon's Bay of Rainbows was unveiled Monday morning. The high quality photograph is expected to reveal the landscape details of the area, the proposed landing site for Chang'e 3. The image of the Bay of Rainbows, snapped 18.7 kilometers from the moon's surface, shows a rather flat area covered with basalt soil. It is also scattered with craters of various sizes. The picture shows the landscape of the Bay.
Dr. Mu Lingli, Research Fellow of National Astronomical Observatories, said, "Of all the strip images that the camera took, this one reveals the varied details of the moon's surface. It contains old craters, and new ones with rays that extend 800-kilometers."
The photo's taken October 28th with the main camera on the lunar probe. A CCD stereo camera is designed to capture images 17 times clearer than that of the Chang'e one. The design of 96 sensors and scanning technology allows for an enhanced definition and resolution.
He said, "The resolution of Chang'e one's camera was 120 meters. The Bay of Rainbows area looks very smooth. But the new camera from Chang'e two shows the site scattered with craters. It does provide a much clearer image."
With the Bay of Rainbows images, the Chang'e 2 successfully completed its mission to scout out a landing location for its successor Chang'e 3. The satellite will continue its scientific objectives including investigating the lunar landscape and exploring the geological structure of the moon.
CCTV reporter Zhang Nini said, "This is the first batch of photos relayed back from Chang'e 2 and it's only a start. In the next five months, Chang'e will continue to send back more high resolution pictures, which will give scientists a more accurate understanding of the moon's geology and topography, and pave the way for China's future lunar programs.
China Unveils First Moon Photos From New Lunar Orbiter By SPACE.com Staff posted: 08 November 2010 04:24 pm ET
This photo, taken by China's Chang'e 2 lunar probe in October 2010, shows a crater in the moon's Bay of Rainbows. The image is one of the first released to the public by China's space agency. Credit: China Lunar Exploration Program [Full Story]
This photo, taken by China's Chang'e 2 lunar probe in October 2010, shows a three-dimensional map of part of the moon's Bay of Rainbows. Credit: China Lunar Exploration Program [Full Story]
This 3-D map view of the moon's Bay of Rainbows was taken by China's Chang'e 2 lunar probe in October 2010. The mission is China's second robotic mission to explore the moon. Credit: China Lunar Exploration Program [Full Story]
This is due to ethical integrity and accountability becoming increasingly vital
KUALA LUMPUR: Finance professionals are expected to take on a more strategic role in corporates in the future with ethical integrity and accountability becoming increasingly important, said Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) chief executive Helen Brand.
“The core technical skills of accountants are recognised and valued but what really matters going forward is the ethical dimension of the profession and the rounded sustainability that professional accounting can bring to business and economies globally.
“In particular, we are looking at issues around risk management and internal control. Businesses are focusing more on this and see professional accountants providing value in that sphere,” she told StarBiz.
Brand said that according to ACCA’s recent report, The value creation model for business: 2010 and beyond, business leaders believed that accountants helped to improve the ethical standards across an organisation.
Helen Brand says business leaders believe that accountants help to improve the ethical standards across an organisation.
Some 58% of the respondents believe this guardianship role will become more important in the future. The research also noted that the role of the finance professional was now more visible and more responsible since the global financial crisis and this visibility and responsibility would grow in the future.
In addition, business leaders expect accountants to bring greater oversight and supervision in an increasingly global regulatory environment and help organisations manage risk more effectively.
Two-thirds of the respondents placed risk management and internal control among the top skills required of accountants going forward.
The survey, which was launched at the World Congress of Accountants 2010 last week, sought the opinions of over 500 senior business people in nine countries.
Brand said one of the ways that accountants could add value was by looking at the investment and financial aspects that would provide a sustainable future to businesses.
“Another issue is governance. Many chief financial officers (CFOs) have a higher profile in the boardroom now and this adding of sound financial accounting advice and good governance framework will help businesses develop,” she said.
Brand said accountants had been taking on a strategic role for a long time and it was basically the recognition of that role and the integration of the financial and strategic aspects that would be emphasised going forward. “CFOs are being brought more firmly into the centre of decision-making.
“We are seeing more CFOs becoming CEOs in many markets. This used to be a myth as CFOs do not have the appropriate profile to become the CEO,” she said.
Brand said accountants would play a critical role in ensuring that the world would not be hit by the same problems that resulted in the recent financial crisis again and that the right financial information and strategies were pursued.
“We see it as a golden age for accountants going forward, where their value will be truly understood,” she added.
On the roles of accountants in the next decade, Brand sees the profession becoming more dominated by women.
“The majority of new members in ACCA are female. Research has shown that if women entered the boardroom then there is diversity of approach that strengthens the business,” she said.
Panellists: They are moving away from traditional accounting practices
KUALA LUMPUR: Accountants have an important role in assisting their organisations create value and sustain long term growth, industry experts said.
Panellists at the World Congress of Accountants 2010 plenary session, entitled Accountants: Sustaining Value Creation in the Borderless Economy, said accountants were moving away from traditional accounting practices and playing a more active strategic role in their organisations and in turn help economic growth.
China’s Ministry of Finance vice minister Dr Wang Jun said the global accountancy profession should constantly play a more active role in driving economic recovery and growth.
Dr Wang Jun
“In doing so, the profession continuously creates value for society,” he said at the session yesterday.
He said accountants and accounting bodies globally should bring fuller into play the supervising and alerting role to promote economic recovery and assist the economy to meet challenges post crisis.
In addition, Wang said the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) should actively participate in international economic affairs and help the accountancy profession to make greater contributions to the world economy.
“Accountants in all jusrisdictions must further strengthen cooperation in the accountancy profession and improve the competitiveness of the accounting industry,” he said.
Khazanah Nasional Bhd managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar highlighted three key points – trust, relevance and leadership - to enable accountants to create value sustainably in their organisations and the economy.
“We need to go back to the basics and rebuild the trust in the profession. From the investor standpoint, we need information that is relevant, reliable and understandable.
“Once we regain the trust, then we can look at how to chart the way forward,” he said.
London School of Economics (Department of Accounting) Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) professor of accounting and financial management Professor Wim A. Van der Stede said that according to a global survey by CIMA, momentum towards greater responsibility was likely to continue for accountants the world over although the degree might differ geographically.
“The results underscore that there remains significant pressure for financial professionals to move into roles that add more value to their organisations and broaden their responsibility beyond traditional accounting tasks.
“Keeping the numbers in order do not span the entire extent of an accountant’s reach as major corporations need financial professionals who understand risk, financial instruments and other complex functions and be able to offer strategic guidance to executives and enter boardrooms as peers,” he said.
AICPA certified public accountant Olivia Faulkner Kirtley said it was key to embed sustainability into the DNA of a company.
“The accounting profession has a role to play. They need to present the business case to senior management, to help develop a reporting system and processes and influence the mindset of the people in the organisation,” she said.
The session was chaired by IFAC president Robert Bunting.
Meanwhile, at a press conference later, Bunting said one of the key challenges for the accounting profession post financial crisis was a greater examination of the role of the accountants and its future.
On fair value accounting and its usefulness, Kirtley said it was the accountants’ role to help investors gain an understanding of it and help investors to make decisions.
Van der Stede said the important role for an accountant was to produce reliable information in a fair value environment.
Azman had questioned the relevance of fair value accounting in today’s reporting system.— ENDS-
Newswise — In the largest study to date of the Arthritis Foundation’s Tai Chi program, participants showed improvement in pain, fatigue, stiffness and sense of well-being.
Their ability to reach while maintaining balance also improved, said Leigh Callahan, PhD, the study’s lead author, associate professor in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and a member of UNC’s Thurston Arthritis Research Center.
Benefits of Tai Chi on arthritis pain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8iHg4fCR_A&feature=player_embedded
UNC Health Care
uncmedicine's Channe
“Our study shows that there are significant benefits of the Tai Chi course for individuals with all types of arthritis, including fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis,” Callahan said. “We found this in both rural and urban settings across a southeastern state and a northeastern state.”
Callahan will present these results on Monday, Nov. 8, at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in Atlanta.
In the study, 354 participants were recruited from 20 sites in North Carolina and New Jersey. They were randomly assigned to two groups. The intervention group received the 8-week, twice-weekly Tai Chi course immediately while the other group was a delayed control group. All participants received baseline and 8-week follow-up evaluations, after which the control group also received the Tai Chi course.
To be eligible for study, participants had to have any type of self-reported, doctor-diagnosed arthritis, be 18 years old or older and able to move independently without assistance. However, they did not have to be able to perform Tai Chi standing. They were eligible for the study if they could perform Tai Chi seated, Callahan said.
Self-reports of pain, fatigue and stiffness and physical function performance measures were collected at baseline and at the eight-week evaluation. Participants were asked questions about their ability to perform activities of daily living, their overall general health and psychosocial measures such as their perceived helplessness and self-efficacy. The physical performance measures recorded were timed chair stands (which are a measure of lower extremity strength), gait speed (both normal and fast) and two measures of balance: a single leg stance and a reach test.
At the end of eight weeks the individuals who had received the intervention showed moderate improvements in pain, fatigue and stiffness. They also had an increased sense of well being, as measured by the psychosocial variables, and they had improved reach or balance, Callahan said.
Study co-authors, all from UNC, are statistician Jack Shreffler, PhD, Betsy Hackney, BS, Kathryn Martin, PhD, and medical student Brian Charnock.
Description
The study found that there are significant benefits of Tai Chi for individuals with all types of arthritis, including fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.
Benefits of Tai Chi on arthritis pain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8iHg4fCR_A&feature=player_embedded
UNC Health Care
uncmedicine's Channe
UNC Medical Center News Office
In the largest study to date of the Arthritis Foundation’s Tai Chi program, participants showed improvement in pain, fatigue, stiffness, their sense of well-being and their ability to reach while maintaining balance.
Leo Melamed, the founder of financial futures, has labeled the U.S. Federal Reserves' second round of quantitative easing not only dangerous but unnecessary.
The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday it would buy another 600 billion dollars worth of U.S. Treasury securities to revive the sputtering U.S. economy.
"The U.S. Federal Reserve is taking a very dangerous and unnecessary step by undertaking a second round of quantitative easing policy," Melamed told Xinhua reporter in an exclusive interview here Friday.
"We have certain opinions as market participants. I think the Fed is taking a very dangerous step, because it's not clear that the QE2 is necessary, and it's also not clear whether it can achieve the purpose Fed intends," said Melamed, currently chairman emeritus of CME Group and CEO of global consulting enterprise Melamed & Associates, Inc.
"We already had a good deal of quantitative easing in the U.S, and so far it hasn't done any restructuring of the market. In terms of strength of the economy, our economy has not rebounded, so why would it be necessary to do it again, when the first round isn't helping. We should give it more time before we do anything else," he said.
Melamed warned it was a very dangerous move the Fed was undertaking. The danger was that it might not work to rejuvenate the economy but would create a falling dollar, which was not helpful for the economy and eventually would create an inflationary environment in the United States.
As for the rest of the world, Melamed indicated it would create a dynamic where every nation tried to lower the value of its currency so it could compete with the U.S. dollar. "If every nation competes to depreciate their currency, it's not a good thing," Melamed said.
"A currency war is not the right word to describe the current situation. War is an intentional act, I don't think the U.S. is intending to create a war climate, I think it's just a logical result, not an intentional war," he said.
Melamed admitted that the QE2 was very bullish on commodities, creating a surge in the price of commodities due to the influx of money. "But the danger is that there are no underlying reasons for the rise of the prices, it doesn't really change the supply and demand equations, the prices could suddenly break, and it will create a very dangerous climate," Melamed said.
As an independent voter, Melamed was generally very pleased with the mid-term election results and has confidence that newly elected officials will change the direction of the economy and solve the high-unemployment through tax and spending cuts.
"If we reduce spending and taxation, that will encourage the business community to invest more and create more jobs, and that's the best way to reduce the unemployment rate," said Melamed, "I don't believe the Federal government should be printing money, they should be creating an environment for jobs by inviting investment and cutting taxes."
US MID-TERM elections were never made for presidential incumbents. After two years into a presidential term, opponents become agitated as supporters grow complacent.
And so it was that last Tuesday President Barack Obama’s Democrat Party lost seats in Congress to the Republican Party, while maintaining a wafer-thin majority in the Senate. There was little change in the gubernatorial elections of 37 states and two territories.
A loss of seats in Congress for a sitting president’s party is not unusual. Of the previous 20 mid-term elections, there were 17 such losses.
However, the size of the loss this time is significant. The swing of some 64 seats is the biggest since the Roosevelt presidency’s 72-seat swing in 1938.
An inopportune combination of setbacks explains the Democrats’ present predicament: a weak economy, high unemployment and ambitious federal government programmes requiring vast public expenditure. Together with tweaks to Bush-era tax breaks for the rich, it was enough to bring right-wing Republicans onto the streets to condemn Obama’s “socialism”.
Groups like the reactionary Tea Party movement were motivated ideologically, yet decry the administration for its ideological motives. That revealed themselves collectively as something of a riddle wrapped within a mystery inside an enigma, with little contribution to nation or society apart from the anticipated policy gridlock to come.
Much of the fallout from this particular mid-term is admittedly subjective. What then are the factual or substantive features?
One distinguishing notch is the cost of the exercise, which at almost US$4bil (RM12.38bil) in total is unprecedented. That naturally shifts the focus to its value for money, which is practically negligible.
Of course, mid-term results can be read as barometer data, usefully indicating the direction of political winds halfway through a presidency. But that purpose can be served by good opinion polling costing far less.
Now that the data indicates strong support for the conservative Opposition, there is talk that Obama may have to start diluting his policies. This could be the beginning of the end of his promised “change”.
His aides have said that he would “stay the course,” but they would say that anyway. With a Republican-controlled Congress to come from January, there may be little choice but to adulterate if not abandon his pledges – particularly those that could make a difference.
Still, little of Obama’s promised changes have materialised two years into his presidency. That means whatever reform that may yet come could be strangled at birth.
For months already, his critics had made themselves far more vocal and visible than his supporters, regardless of the merits of their arguments. They had staked the battleground where they would fight and win, banking on their savvy showmanship and extremist positions rather than any sense or reason in stating their case.
And they remain in the spotlight. Far from Obama’s supporters being sated with the success of their several campaigns for change, liberals and reformists continue to wait for the changes in relative silence.
The right-wing’s novelty value may not add up to much in terms of political maturity, coherence or even sanity, but with media attention it can acquire a multiplier effect in influencing popular perceptions of political incumbents. It would be a naive politician to dismiss their reach out of hand.
As the battle now stands, Obama, the consummate community organiser and campaigner via new media, is on the defensive, trumped by people who insist on repeating slogans often enough and loudly. These people have tasted victory, and are hungry for more.
Their two years of vilifying Obama over little or nothing seem to have paid off. So what is there not to repeat?
There is a strong current in US politics that elevates the frivolous and the bizarre to undeserved heights of significance. Thus the constant targeting of Obama personally, from being dressed in a turban by his host on a visit to Kenya in 2006 as senator to bowing to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and then to Emperor Akihito in Tokyo as president last year.
If Obama had been trying to show that he respected foreign cultures, it would be a significant departure from some of his predecessors. But supporters of the latter would naturally condemn him for that.
In policy terms, Obama’s working-class opponents would reject his federal programmes such as in health care even when these benefit them. This continues the kind of uncomprehending class-unconsciousness that denies its own self-interests, as seen during the presidency of George W. Bush in a right-wing Republican Party favouring the rich.
On a visit to Kuala Lumpur earlier in the week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said an incumbent party losing control of the House at mid-term is a self-correcting mechanism in US politics to keep things at the centre. If so, that does not bode well for Obama’s promised change.
After the costliest mid-term elections yet, the US president is now on the longest foreign excursion (10 days), including the longest stop in any country (three days in India). That should give his opponents back home more ammunition to use against him personally.
But anyone who thinks Obama is temporarily seeking an escape from the Congressional turmoil at home would be wrong. More than even his supporters in the US, his foreign hosts are extending their welcome based on the “hope” for “change” that he represents and had promised to deliver.
As some had forecast when Obama won the presidency in 2008, he would spend the first term settling down and focusing on re-election – only to find that in the second term, if he wins it, he would not have enough time to push enough meaningful changes through.
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