IDEA derives much of its security by interleaving operations from different groups — modular addition and multiplication, and bitwise eXclusive OR (XOR) — which are chosen to be "algebraically incompatible".
Each of the eight round uses six sub-keys, while the half-round uses four; for a total of 52 sub-keys. Each sub-key is a 16-bit in length. The first eight sub-keys are extracted directly from the 128-bit key, with K1 being the lowest sixteen bits and K8 is the highest sixteen bits; further groups of eight keys are created by rotating the main key left 25 bits after the creation of the previous group; six rotations generate all sub-keys.
The designers analyzed IDEA to measure its strength against differential cryptanalysis and concluded that it is unsusceptible only under certain assumptions. No successful linear or differential attacks have been reported. Some classes of weak keys have been found — E.g. (Daemen "et al.", 1994) — but these are of little importance, being so rare to be explicitly avoided. As of 2007, the best attack which applies to all keys can break IDEA if reduced to 6 rounds (the full IDEA cipher uses 8.5 rounds).
In 1996, Bruce Schneier wrote about IDEA, "In my opinion, it is the best and most secure block algorithm available to the public at this time." ("Applied Cryptography", 2nd ed.) However, by 1999 he was no longer recommending IDEA due to the availability of faster cryptographic algorithms, some progress in its cryptanalysis, and the issue of patents.
Luduş
Luduş (German: "Ludasch", Hungarian: "Marosludas") is a town in Mureş County, Romania. It is the fourth biggest city in the county by population. The name of the town in Hungarian means "gooses at Maros"
2008 Yemen floods
The 2008 Yemen floods took place on October 23, leaving 65 dead and 20,000 without shelter. The Yemeni governorates of Hadhramaut, Lahij, Al Mahrah and Ta'izz were affected the worst by the floods, and most of the deaths were in Hadhramaut.
Before the flooding was several days of rain starting on October 23, as the remains of a tropical cyclone moved over the area. Rain continued, with weather systems coming in from neighbouring Saudi Arabia and northern Somalia, causing severe flooding in some areas of Yemen. Better conditions are expected by Sunday.
Thousands of families fled Hadhramaut alone; many schools were used as evacuee shelters, but these could only hold 10% of the affected. Search and rescue teams said that the number of deaths may increase due to the likelihood of people trapped in flooded houses. Electricity and telephone lines were cut off, and many homes were damaged.
The Yemeni government promised to supply tents as a means of emergency shelter, along with other emergency supplies, with six transport aircraft loaded with supplies taking off from Sanaa on Saturday and more scheduled for later. President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered the creation of a committee to provide aid to affected civilians. Also, the United Arab Emirates declared their intent to provide relief. However, several residents in the city of Shibam say that government assistance and support, if any, is low.
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference declared the situation a "national catastrophe" and started a drive on Saturday to collect funds for the relief of flood victims.
Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh said, "The damages... are great and the catastrophe is also great."
Along with deaths, about 730 homes were destroyed, along with businesses and other building projects. The severe thunder of the thunderstorms resulted in at least nine deaths from lightning in the Al Mahrah, Ta'izz and Lahij governorates. The rain also destroyed large amounts of farmland and killed large numbers of livestock.
Alexander Ramsey
Alexander Ramsey (September 8, 1815– April 22, 1903) was an American politician. He was born near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Ramsey was elected from Pennsylvania as a Whig to the U.S. House of Representatives and served in the 28th and 29th congresses from March 4, 1843 to March 3, 1847. He served as the first Territorial Governor of Minnesota June 1, 1849 to May 15, 1853 as a member of the Whig Party.
In 1855, he became the mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota. Ramsey was elected the second Governor of Minnesota after statehood and served from January 2, 1860 to July 10, 1863. Ramsey is credited with being the first Union governor to commit troops during the American Civil War (he happened to be in Washington, D.C. when fighting broke out). He resigned the governorship to become a U.S. Senator, having been elected to that post in 1863 as a Republican. He was re-elected in 1869 and held the office until March 3, 1875, serving in the 38th, 39th, 40th, 41st, 42nd, and 43rd congresses.
Ramsey served as Secretary of War from 1879 to 1881, under President Rutherford B. Hayes.
The Minnesota Historical Society preserves his home as a museum. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. Alexander Ramsey Park, located in Redwood Falls, Minnesota, is the largest municipal park in Minnesota. Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County, North Dakota, the city of Ramsey, Minnesota, the city of Ramsey, Illinois, Ramsey Park in Stillwater, Minnesota, and Alexander Ramsey Elementary School in Montevideo, Minnesota are also named for him.
Lounge Act
"Lounge Act" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana. It was the ninth song on their second studio album, "Nevermind", which is credited with bring grunge music to the mainstream. The song is much like the post-grunge songs that were very popular starting in the mid-1990s, after Nirvana broke up.
The title "Lounge Act" came from when the band thought it sounded like a song they would play in a lounge.
It is one of the songs in the soundtrack of the video game "Skate.", a skateboarding video game from 2007 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Hurricane Dean
Hurricane Dean was the strongest tropical cyclone of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season. It was also the strongest Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Wilma of 2005. Also, it made the third strongest Atlantic hurricane landfall. Dean moved west-northwest from the eastern Atlantic Ocean through the Saint Lucia Channel and into the Caribbean Sea. It became into a very strong hurricane, reaching Category 5 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale before moving south of Jamaica on August 20. The storm moved onto land on the Yucatán Peninsula on August 21 as a Category 5 storm. It moved across the peninsula and entered the Bay of Campeche, as a weakened storm, but still a hurricane. It strengthened for a short time before making a second landfall in Veracruz near Tecolutla, Mexico, on August 22. Dean slowly moved to the northwest, weakening into a low pressure area which dissipated over the southwestern United States.
The hurricane's strong winds, waves, rains and storm surge caused over 45 deaths across ten countries and caused estimated damages of US$1.5 billion. First impacting the islands of the Lesser Antilles, Dean's path through the Caribbean severely damaged agricultural crops, especially those of Martinique and Jamaica. When it reached Mexico, Hurricane Dean was a Category 5 storm, but it missed large cities and its exceptional Category 5 strength landfall caused no deaths and less damage than in the Caribbean islands it passed as a Category 2 storm. Because of the damage, the name "Dean" was retired, and will not be used again for a tropical cyclone.
Amazon Basin
The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its branches. It is low-lying in relation to sea level.
The river has its origins high up in the Andes of Peru and Ecuador. Most of this drainage basin (54%) is in Brazil, including the lower part. The river also has tributaries from Colombia, Venezuela and
Bolivia. The Amazon rainforest is the largest in the world, covering about 8,235,430 km with dense tropical forest.