CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Engineers have developed a device platform that combines electronic components for sensing, medical diagnostics, communications and human-machine interfaces, all on an ultrathin skin-like patch that mounts directly onto the skin with the ease, flexibility and comfort of a temporary tattoo. Led by John A. Rogers, the Lee J. Flory-Founder professor of engineering at the University of Illinois, the researchers described their novel skin-mounted electronics in the Aug. 12 issue of the journal Science. The circuit bends, wrinkles and stretches with the mechanical properties of skin. Skin-mounted electronics have many biomedical applications, including EEG and EMG sensors to monitor nerve and muscle activity. One major advantage of skin-like circuits is that they don’t require conductive gel, tape, skin-penetrating pins or bulky wires, which can be uncomfortable for the user and limit coupling efficiency. They are much more comfortable and less cumbersome than traditional electrodes and give the wearers complete freedom of movement. In addition to gathering data, skin-mounted electronics could provide the wearers with added capabilities. For example, patients with muscular or neurological disorders, such as ALS, could use them to communicate or to interface with computers. The researchers found that, when applied to the skin of the throat, the sensors could distinguish muscle movement for simple speech.
http://news.illinois.edu/news/11/0811skin_electronics_JohnRogers.html

The Berbers have lived in North Africa since the earliest recorded time. References to them date from about 3000 B.C. and occur frequently in ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman sources. For many centuries the Berbers inhabited the coast of North Africa from Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean. They continued to inhabit the region until the 7th century AD, when the Arabs conquered North Africa and drove many Berber tribes inland to the Atlas Mountains and to areas in and near the Sahara. After the Arab conquest, the Berbers embraced the Muslim faith of their new rulers. Succeeding centuries were marked by almost continuous struggles for power in North Africa among the various Berber tribes, between the Berbers and the Arabs, and between both these peoples and Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish invaders. During the same period the Barbary Coast of North Africa, the name of which is derived from the word Berber, became famous as the principal base of Arab and Berber pirates, who preyed on Mediterranean shipping. http://www.arab.de/arabinfo/berbers.htm

Berbers are not a homogenous ethnic group and encompass a range of phenotypes, cultures and ancestries. The one unifying force is the Berber language and an identification with the Berber heritage and history. Many Berbers call themselves some variant of the word Imazighen (singular: Amazigh), possibly meaning "free people" or "free and noble men" (the word has probably an ancient parallel in the Roman name for some of the Berbers, "Mazices"). The best known of the ancient Berbers are the Numidian king Masinissa, the Berber-Roman author Apuleius, Saint Augustine of Hippo, and the Roman general Lusius Quietus, who was instrumental in defeating the major wave of Jewish revolts of 115–117. Famous Berbers of the Middle Ages include Tariq ibn Ziyad, a general who conquered Hispania; Abbas Ibn Firnas, a prolific inventor and early pioneer in aviation; Ibn Battuta, a medieval explorer who traveled the longest known distances in pre-modern times; and Estevanico, an early explorer of the Americas. Well-known modern Berbers in Europe include Zinedine Zidane, a French-born international football star of Algerian Kabyle descent, and Ibrahim Afellay, a Dutch-born footballer of Moroccan Riffian descent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berber_people

Arab proverbs
A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.
A book that remains shut, is but a block.
All sunshine makes the desert.
Diligence is a great teacher.
from "472 Arab Proverbs"
http://www.special-dictionary.com/proverbs/source/a/arab_proverb/

Like other transformational technologies, the growth of digital information technologies has posed new challenges for our traditional interpretations of individual rights and protections. The World Wide Web, for example, brings a wealth of information and material directly to your home, office, or lab. In legal circles, content is called "intellectual property." The point is that this content is provided by somebody and is likewise created by somebody. And, protecting the rights of creators and producers is one of the hallmarks of our society. Traditionally the creators of intellectual property are protected by a broad assortment of laws. There are laws protecting trademarks, patents, and trade secrets. Trademarks protect words, names, symbols, and logos normally used in commerce. Patents protect the rights of individuals who make discoveries or inventions. Trade secrets cover information, designs, and devices that companies wish to keep secret in order to retain commercial advantages from their creations. Copyrights are another form of protecting intellectual property. Copyrights protect authors of original works from damages caused by others who might improperly reproduce or use materials without their permission. Copyrighted materials include
literary works, musical pieces, dramatic works, dance and pantomime works, pictorial, graphic, or sculptured pieces, motion pictures and video, sound recordings, and architectural designs . These laws are not extended to intellectual ideas or discoveries, to concepts and principles, nor to a process or procedure. In short, copyrights protect the expression of an idea and not the idea itself. Read an extensive essy on copyright in the digital domain at:
http://cs.furman.edu/digitaldomain/themes/copyrights/copyright.html

In 2010, ACM published about 18,000 articles in its digital library. Each author signed an agreement to transfer copyright to ACM. Authors retain rights to reuse any potion of the work, without fee, in future works of the author's own, to revise the work, to retain copyright on embedded images, to post author-prepared versions in a personal collection on their own home page, on a publicly accessible server of their employer, or a repository legally mandated by the agency funding the research on which the work is based. Communications of the ACM October 2010

See ACM copyright policy here: http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/copyright_policy

The Ugaritic language, discovered by French archaeologists in 1928, is known only in the form of writings found in the lost city of Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra), Syria. It has been used by scholars of the Old Testament to clarify Biblical Hebrew texts and has revealed ways in which ancient Israelite culture finds parallels in the neighboring cultures. Ugaritic has been called "the greatest literary discovery from antiquity since the deciphering of the Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian cuneiform". The Ugaritic alphabet is a cuneiform abjad (alphabet without vowels), used from around 15th century BCE. The Ugaritic language is attested in texts from the 14th through the 12th century BCE. The city was destroyed in 1180–1170 BCE. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugaritic_language