What is a LED Tube Light?

When a shadowy American who became a sworn member of al-Qaeda was captured in Pakistan in 2008, U.S. intelligence officials sensed they had struck gold.

The young jihadist was whisked away to a New York courtroom in early 2009, where he secretly pleaded guilty to terrorism charges and was then held in seclusion. His identity - but not much else - was made public a few months later.

More than three years later, the world could get a full introduction to Bryant Neal Vinas at a trial starting Monday of another man accused in a foiled plot to attack New York City subways.

Vinas' name appears on a list of potential witnesses in the case against Adis Medunjanin - and officials say he would offer a unique perspective on the inner workings of the terrorist group and how it indoctrinates born-in-the-USA extremists.

Medunjanin has pleaded not guilty in federal court in Brooklyn to charges accusing him of traveling to Pakistan with two former high school classmates, Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay, to seek terror training there and hatch their scheme back home.

Zazi, a former Denver airport shuttle driver, and Ahmedzay admitted in guilty pleas that they wanted to avenge U.S. aggression in the Arab world by becoming martyrs in a suicide attack on Manhattan subway lines in 2009. Both are key witnesses against Medunjanin.

Vinas, 29, was never charged in the case. But he is an intriguing and valuable cooperator because he had extraordinary access to al-Qaeda's leadership, a U.S. official said.

Known by the nicknames "Ibrahim" or "Bashir al-Ameriki," Vinas met on a few occasions with Abu Yahya al-Libi, al-Qaeda's now No.2. He also mixed with Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the top commander in Afghanistan and Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, who orchestrated a plot involving a double agent that led to the killing of seven CIA employees - both since killed in drone strikes.

A video released in October 2008 and shot at an al-Qaeda outpost shows al-Libi with an armed man believed to be Vinas - his head wrapped in a scarf and an ammo belt around his waist - a month before his capture, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.

Vinas also could captivate the jury with his personal tale of radicalization - a subject of intense interest to counterterrorism officials concerned about homegrown threats. He also could explain what convinced him to betray al-Qaeda.

At some point, Vinas took the name Ibrahim and began attending services at the Islamic Association of Long Island, a mainstream mosque in nearby Selden. The president of the mosque recalled him as "very quiet, polite, smiley" - a calm disposition that apparently masked a growing resentment toward his own country.

The new atheists--participants in the contemporary anti-religion movement led by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, the late Christopher Hitchens, among others--are working overtime to tell the world that reason favors atheism, and atheism alone. Richard Dawkins leads his Foundation for Reason and Science. Sam Harris is founder and chair of Project Reason. The upcoming March 24 Reason Rally in Washington, D.C. is the new atheists' latest and most visible attempt to send the message that reason belongs to the atheists.

For years, though, knowledgeable critics have been calling attention to new atheist' rational fallacies, emotionally loaded rhetoric, and illegitimate, selective use of evidence. It's time now to add that up together and recognize what it means: the new atheists have no business proclaiming themselves the defenders of reason, simply because they don't practice it competently.

Of course that's not what the new atheists want us to believe. It is religion, they say, that is the antithesis of reason. Sam Harris assures us in "The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason" that "faith is what reason becomes when it finally achieves escape velocity from the constraints of terrestrial discourse-constraints like reasonableness, internal coherence, civility, and candor."

What happens, though, when we examine the new atheists' own "reasonableness" and "internal coherence"?

Sam Harris debated William Lane Craig last April on whether atheism or theism (roughly defined as the belief in one God) provides a better explanation for the existence of moral truths. Opinions may differ as to which of them held the more defensible position. What can hardly be disputed, though, is that Craig showed up with logical arguments, at least one of which, if sound, would completely destroy Harris's atheistic explanation for morality. Harris conspicuously ignored this, and indeed virtually all of Craig's logic.

He devoted one 12-minute segment to rhetoric depicting Christianity in the most negative light possible, and suggesting that we should therefore conclude that Christianity is wrong. It was what logicians would describe as a fallacious appeal to emotion with respect to the question being debated and to the points Craig had raised.

In his best-selling "The God Delusion," Richard Dawkins devotes an entire chapter to unscientific anecdotes supporting his belief that a religious upbringing is abusive to children. Actual science shows exactly the opposite: spiritually engaged teens are healthier than others on multiple dimensions. Such abandonment of science is surprisingly irrational for the man who was formerly Oxford University's Professor for the Public Understanding of Science.

But rational and logical errors are pervasive throughout "The God Delusion," so much so that University of Florida philosopher Michael Ruse, an atheist, would endorse Alister and Joanna Collicutt McGrath's "The Dawkins Delusion?" by saying, "‘The God Delusion' makes me embarrassed to be an atheist, and the McGraths show why."

With the flick of a switch, a room at the Thomas Edison National Historic Park went dark Monday afternoon.

The gesture was a nod to Earth Hour slated to take place March 31 from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.

"This one symbolic act, of switching off one's light for only 60 minutes, connects millions of people from around the world," said Councilwoman Susan McCartney who is also a liaison to the West Orange Energy Commission.

Local officials gathered yesterday at the national park to raise awareness around energy conservation.

"Global warming is for real … we can see there is truly a problem," Assemblyman John McKeon said, adding that the state has taken a real "step backwards" in the last two years when it comes to environmental initiatives. "To ignore it is to ignore the science, we need to do something about it, we need to fight."

McKeon also presented the energy commission with a resolution immortalizing the event and praising the commission and the township for their work to spread awareness regarding climate change.

Near the end of the event, two students from West Orange High School that are also a part of the West Orange Sustainability Committee, pulled a large switch, turning off four generations of light bulbs — a multifilament bulb, an incandescent, a compact fluorescent and an LED light.

The act was videotaped and will be posted on the Earth Hour website in the hopes of encouraging others to "go dark" come March 31.

"Earth Hour is a great way to show students that we an make a change in our environment," Erica Price, a junior at the high school said.

The video, once on the website will be "for the entire world to watch," according to Michael Brick, co-chair of the energy commission. He said though this is the first time the township submits a video to the website, the township has been a previous sponsored of Earth Hour.

Earth Hour was co-founded in 2003 by Andy Ridley as an awareness movement, Brick said. "People realized the environment needed support."

Superintendent of West Orange Schools and Mayor Robert Parisi were also in attendance.

"We went from no light to light … to realizing the importance of conservation and that is why we are here today," Parisi told the crowd.

Celtic Connections is once again celebrating a bumper year as the 19th festival draws to a close tonight. The attendances have reached over 100,000 and gross ticket sales topped 1.1 million for the fifth year running. This was the sixth year that the festival has been supported by its principal sponsor Scottish Power who are the educational arm of the festivals' cheerleader.

Spread over 18 days across January and February, 2,100 artists from around the globe were assembled in Glasgow to make the greatest winter music festival in the world another piece of magic. The highlights of the 2012 festival included a poignant tribute to Gerry Rafferty (which will still be here on the Beeb's iplayer) if you're quick); a celebration of the centenary of Woody Guthrie; a spectacular collaboration between Jack Bruce and Lau; as well as performances by Bruce Hornsby, The Average White Band and Hue & Cry, James Vincent McMorrow and Treacherous Orchestra.

We were lucky enough to choose the Treacherous Orchestra last night and were treated to a brand of very unique grooves indeed. The band comprised five fiddlers, three flautists, who became two pipers, two guitarists, a bodhranist (is that a word?) a drummer, a double bassist, as well as banjo and accordion to complete the ensemble.

The strobe lighting that opened the show was excessive and incredible to behold. That was a warning of the audio and light storm that was to come but it was fantastic.

The Treacherous Orchestra has been encouraged by Celtic Connections since the bands inception 4 years ago. This year the festival was rewarded by its impetuous offspring finally producing a CD for us all to enjoy. We have been very patient. Patience has been a great virtue. Soaring tunes and belting rhythms brought to mind some great images and evoked the sounds of Pink Floyd and Fergie MacDonald at different times.

The sell-out crowd came warm and got hot waving fluorescent lights at times and up for the challenge from accordionist John Somerville to 'Jump!' The band – sorry Orchestra, led the way and the ABC jumped.

Gabby Young and other Animals got the gig started  and the crowd warm for the headliners. Gabby and her welldressed friends are destined to greater things in the future with their blend of European music made their own. The new album is available at the website and at all good music shops. The new animals will roar!

Music fans have attended approximately 300 concerts, ceilidhs, talks, free events, late night sessions and workshops, which took place in 20 venues across Glasgow over 18 days in January and early February.

The festival is renowned for its ambitious programme of one-off shows, world exclusive performances and unique collaborative events.

The 2012 line-up explored the connections between Celtic music and cultures across the globe, bringing musicians from all over the world to Glasgow, with acts coming from as far afield as Australia, Greenland, Mexico, Mali, Pakistan, Serbia, Palestine, Senegal, Cuba, as well as most corners of  Europe, the USA and Canada.

The new Bertram 64 is one well-designed sportfisherman, with features that other boat builders should copy, if they're smart.

It's also a boat that you should check out, if you haven't already done so, as the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show wraps up Monday.

The 52nd annual show began its five-day run at six sites on Thursday. The Bertram 64 has been one of the more popular vessels at the Ferretti Group display on E dock, just south of Bahia Mar Yachting Center's tower.

It has all the classic features for which Bertram's fishing boats are known, including a smooth-riding hull that can handle all types of sea conditions. But it's what's inside the Bertram 64 that sets it apart.

The large baitwell in the transom has a window and a blue LED light inside so you can keep an eye on how your bait is doing. The engine room door provides easy access to boat's twin 1,925 horsepower Caterpillar C32 Acerts.

The cockpit's mezzanine is stylish and comfortable, with a step leading up to a cushioned seat with a cushioned backrest. It's a welcome change from other boats where you have to hike yourself up to sit on the hard top of a built-in cooler or bait station.

Enter the spacious salon and to the left is an innovative slide-out rod rack, as opposed to having fishing rods hanging in a rack on the ceiling or scattered in the salon or piled in a berth.

"People always ask about rod storage," said Federico Ferrando of Bertram. "The thinking was that as soon as you walk in, you can store them."

The salon has all LED lights and a flat-screen LCD TV that goes up and down from the back of a custom cabinet along the starboard side. The galley has four slide-out refrigerator drawers that can also be used as freezers, a microwave/convection oven and a dishwasher.

Instead of handles that you pop out to open a cabinet, then push in after you close it, the cabinet doors have hidden latches that you press to open the door. To close them, just give the doors a push. The drawers in the cabinets have clear bottoms so you can see what's in each one.

The four staterooms are well-appointed and comfortable. The master stateroom has a large window, and a flat-screen TV inside the opposite wall. When the TV is off, all you see is a mirror. The companionway has a locker with a washer and dryer.

The clean-looking helm has two pedestal seats, and there's plenty of room to walk behind the seats and look out over the cockpit. Each throttle has a thumb-operated bowthruster control in the handle. The helm also has a monitoring system for everything down below.

In fact, you can monitor and control all the electronics on the Bertram 64 remotely from an iPad, iPhone or iPod, no matter where you are. Ferrando told how the boat was recently moved a few feet at the dock and the captain called from another location to make sure all was well after receiving an alert on his cell phone.

Ambient mass spectrometry source uses high air flow rates
The ion collection tube in the novel source was 50 cm long with an unusually large internal diameter of 3 mm. It led into a refluence tube which was attached to the mass spectrometer and was pumped using an aspirator as a supplementary pump to generate high air flow rates up to 25 L/min. The collection tube inlet was positioned near the sample to collect desorbed ions and the other end was held 5-10 mm from the mass spectrometer orifice.

The effect of the air flow rate was illustrated in initial experiments with the dye rhodamine 6G on a glass plate using desorption electrospray ionisation (DESI) and a time of flight mass spectrometer. The intensity of the characteristic ion at m/z 443 increased rapidly with rising air flow rate and was still rising at the maximum flow rate, changing 75-fold over the range.

The researchers attributed this vast improvement to higher collection efficiency due to better pumping combined with reduced levels of neutralisation of the charged droplets on the transport tube walls, even though the transport distance to the orifice was relatively long.

With the signal intensity of conventional ESI set to 100%, the relative intensity for remote ESI, in which the source was at the open end of the 50-cm transport tube, was just 7%. However that for AFA-ESI was 150%. So, the ion intensity losses in remote ESI can be countered with AFA-ESI.

Further studies on the influence of the static electric field applied between the transport tube and an ion funnel in its open end showed that air flow was the dominant effect.

In AFA-ESI experiments with the protein cytochrome c, ion intensities again increased with air flow rate and shifted to higher charge states, although they remained lower than those in conventional ESI. This shift was interpreted in terms of increased desolvation of the ions at higher flow rates, which was supported by other experiments.

In addition, the variation of water cluster intensities with air flow rate in AFA-APCI studies confirmed that clusters are promoted by higher flow rates, preventing fragmentation.

This combination of reduced fragmentation and improved ion capture and transport using the long transport tube enhanced the sensitivity of remote sampling ambient mass spectrometry, which the researchers illustrated with a series of analytes and sampling conditions.

Vibe LED tubes from ANL Lighting provide an ideal alternative to fluorescent tubes as they are a more efficient and environmentally friendly way of lighting.

LED lights offer reduced operating costs over their long life thanks to their efficiency. LED does not contain the harmful mercury and phosphorus that is found in fluorescent lights, which makes LED lights even more environmentally friendly.

Replaceable adapters are provided on all Vibe LED tubes lights, achieving a projected lifetime of approximately 80,000 hours, helping to save an extra 50% on replacement costs.

Phillip Hill, Vibe Director, explained, “When the driver eventually fails, instead of having to replace the entire LED tube, you need only to replace the adaptor. This makes the Vibe LED Tube the most economical and cost effective option for replacing standard fluorescent tubes.”

One key advantage of LED tube lighting is that it will not flicker like fluorescent tubes. Flicker and glare can impact learning and the ability to concentrate while also causing headaches. Although humans cannot see fluorescent lights flicker, the sensory system can. LED tubes operate a constant colour output resulting in no flicker.

LED tube lighting is ideal for used in schools, offices, retail stores and other applications where the consumer is looking for a long-lasting, green alternative to fluorescent lighting.

Vibe LED tube lights are available in a wide range of colour temperatures and wattage options. Colour options include; Warm White, Pure White, Daylight White and Cool White, while the length and wattage options include; 600mm (9w), 1200mm (18w) and 1500mm (22w).

Japanese scientists have accomplished a feat thought to be impossible - for the first time, they have produced fertile mammalian sperm in a test tube.

The technique holds significant promise for male infertility, reports Nature.

Biologists have been trying to make sperm outside the body for almost a century.

So, a team led by Takehiko Ogawa of Yokohama City University designed a way to culture sperm and allow them to mature outside of the body.

They found that the key to getting sperm through meiosis lay in a simple change to standard culture conditions.

Ogawa and his colleagues took tissue fragments from neonatal mouse testes to mature.

They then soaked the testes tissue in a mixture called KnockOut Serum Replacement, often used to grow embryonic stem cells.

To track sperm development, they used a fluorescent protein that marked cells undergoing - or that had undergone - meiosis.

After several weeks in the mix, the testes looked normal and were producing sperm. Nearly half of the samples contained cells with sperm-like tails.

Finally, the researchers injected the sperm into egg cells. A few weeks later, surrogates delivered a dozen live, fertile offspring.

“These dimming LED tube lights are something we are really proud of. No other company has thought of using on/off switches to control dimming functions on tube lights before. Innovation is one of our primary goals and it is very rewarding to be able to offer a product that is truly the first of its kind.” -Alan Lin, CEO of FZLED

Already released products will also be on display, including FZLED's Bike Torch, Hiking Torch, Waterproof Torch, and a variety of high-power LED bulbs such as the following: MR16, PAR20, PAR30, PAR38 and GU60 bulbs.

FZLED is now looking to expand distribution into several other major markets around the world. The Taiwan International Lighting Show will provide an excellent venue for interested parties to meet with FZLED associates to discuss expansion and collaboration opportunities.