Ku Bersujud...
Ku Berdoa Atas Hadirmu ya ramadhan....
ku akui aku tak sempurna ...
ku akui ku banyak dosa...
dalam menjalani hidupmu sebagai khalifah di muka bumi ini....

Hanya KepadaMulah ya ALLAH aku Bertobat

di dalam perilaku yang berdusta...
di dalam kata yang tak terpikirkan ....
di dalam menjalani hidup yang fana ini....

Hanya KepadaMulah ya ALLAH aku Bertobat

menuju fitrimu ..
menuju nur yang akan ditunjukkan oleh Alqur'an dan Hadis...

Ampunkanlah aku ya ALLAH dan semua muslim di Muka Bumi ....
aku dan mereka Hanya menjadi Khalifah di muka bumi ini

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sales of existing homes rose in July, surpassing expectations, as buyers snapped up deeply discounted properties in parts of the U.S. hit hardest by the housing bust.

It's estimated 33 to 40 percent of sales activity is coming from foreclosures or other distressed properties

However, the number of unsold properties hit an all-time high, the latest indication that the worst housing slump in decades is far from over. Prices nationwide are not expected to hit bottom until early next year.

The National Association of Realtors reported Monday that sales rose 3.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5 million units, down from June's downwardly revised rate of 4.85 million units. Sales had been expected to rise by only 1.6 percent, according to economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR.

"The process of a recovery has begun," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors. "It's not going to be short and swift, but it's begun nonetheless."

Home sales were about 13 percent lower than a year ago and prices were down dramatically. The median price for a home sold in July dropped to $212,000, down by 7.1 percent from a year ago.

Despite the third monthly sales increase this year, the number of unsold single-family homes and condominiums rose to 4.67 million, the highest number since 1968, when the Realtors group started tracking the data.

That represented a 11.2-month supply at the July sales pace, matching the all-time high set in April.

Until the inventory level is reduced to more normal levels, analysts say, the housing slump is likely to persist. The inventory level is being driven higher by a massive wave of mortgage foreclosures.

Between 33 and 40 percent of sales activity is coming from foreclosures or other distressed properties, he estimated.

While buyers are pouncing on lower prices -- especially in places like California, Florida and Nevada -- sales are sluggish in formerly stable states like Texas.

"People are responding to lower prices," Yun said, but there is "too much uncertainty" about the housing market's future to mark a definite bottom.

In Las Vegas, sales were up 96 percent in July, after prices fell more than 25 percent to a median of $220,000, according to The Associated Press-Re/Max Monthly Housing Report, which analyzed home sales recorded by all real estate agents in 55 cities, regardless of company affiliation.

Sales in Los Angeles jumped 31 percent after prices fell 35 percent over the past year to a median of $335,000, according to the AP-Re/Max report.

In Miami, sales were up 9 percent while prices dropped nearly 10 percent to a median of $280,000. One of those sellers last month was Jennifer Del Pino, who unloaded her 3,600 square-foot (334 sq. meter) Miami home to a buyer from Germany for $490,000.

She cut her asking price by $60,000, but sold her house in about a month.

"It's kind of a relief for me," she said.

One key unknown for the U.S. housing market is the future ability of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to supply money for loans. The two government-sponsored companies have dramatically cut back the availability of mortgages as they cope with mounting losses from foreclosures.

President George W. Bush last month signed sweeping housing legislation that aims to prevent foreclosures by allowing an estimated 400,000 homeowners to swap their mortgages for more affordable loans, but only if their lender agrees to take a loss on the initial loan.

TETAPLAH senandungkan lagu Don't Worry Be Happy. Lagu yang tenar di era 1980-an ini ternyata benar adanya. Sebuah penelitian menunjukkan, merasakan kebahagiaan membuat hidup bakal lebih awet dan lama.

"Kebahagiaan tidak menyembuhkan, tetapi melindungi kita dari penyakit," ujar Ruut Veenhoven dari Universitas Erasmus di Rotterdam dalam sebuah penelitian yang dipublikasikan bulan depan.

Setelah meninjau kembali 3 penelitian yang telah dilakukan di berbagai belahan dunia selama periode hingga 30 tahun, profesor asal Belanda ini mengatakan bahwa efek bahagia pada panjang umur itu sama dengan kalau kita membandingkan antara orang yang merokok dan yang tidak merokok.

Merasa bahagia, katanya, dapat memperpanjang usia 7,5 hingga 10 tahun.
Temuan ini membawa pada sebuah pertanyaan baru yang cukup sulit dijawab, yakni soal penyebab bahagia. Apa yang bisa membuat seseorang bahagia?

Dan terkait dengan pertanyaan ini perlu kita cermati gejala yang menarik di negara-negara maju. Materi begitu diupayakan sedemikian rupa. Namun setelah dicapai, di tempat ini, kelebihan materi atau kelimpahan rezeki ternyata dianggap sebagai sesuatu yang tak lagi memuaskan hidup mereka.

Pertanyaan atas kebahagian muncul, dianalisis, dan menjadi pertanyaan yang serius untuk dicari tahu. Beberapa mengungkapkan jawaban yang kemudian jatuh pada keadaan yang disebut hedonis (mengutamakan kenikmatan materi, fisik).

"Ide bahwa ada situasi yang disebut bahagia dan kita dapat menjelaskan ciri-ciri mengenai rasa dan bagaimana mengukurnya, jelas-jelas merupakan ide subversif," ungkap Bill McKibben dalam bukunya Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, 2007.

Ini akan membuat para pemuja ekonomi berpikir untuk meningkatkan kekayaan. Padahal, bertambahnya materi, kekayaan, hanya menyumbang sedikit bagi munculnya kebahagiaan seseorang. Demikian hasil riset itu.

Namun, kebahagiaan dapat muncul akibat suasana persahabatan yang hangat dan menyenangkan, juga karena faktor-faktor sosial seperti kemerdekaan, demokrasi, pemerintahan yang efektif, dan aturan hukum yang ditegakkan.

Dalam temuan Veenhoven, yang dipublikasikan di Journal of Happiness Studies, sebuah media ilmiah yang didirikan tahun 2000, bukti bahwa rasa bahagia sangat berpengaruh atas kehidupan seseorang ditemukan pada sekelompok biarawati di Amerika Serikat. Mungkin karena mereka didukung oleh komunitas yang saling mendukung, kedekatan antarpribadi dan kesatuan hati dan budi yang terjadi di antara mereka.

Lirik lagu dari pemenang Grammy 1989 Be Happy terinspirasi dari guru terkenal dari India, Meher Baba. Saat ini, di lebih dari 100 negara, dari Butan di Pegunungan Himalaya hingga Amerika Serikat dan Australia, para ahli ekonomi berupaya membuat indikator "kebahagiaan" (satu bentuk indeks kualitas hidup yang baru) ke dalam ukuran pertumbuhan.

Kebahagiaan, menurut para spesialis, yang diterima oleh masyarakat umum diartikan sebagai "penghargaan atas hidup seseorang sebagai manusia utuh".

Dalam tulisan ini, Veenhoven pertama-tama mencermati statistik untuk melihat apakah kegembiraan membawa pengaruh bagi orang yang sakit. Yang ditemui justru kebahagiaan memang membantu mengurangi derita yang dialami pasien kanker. Namun, secara umum kebahagiaan tidak akan memperpanjang hidup mereka.

Di antara warga masyarakat yang sehat, sebaliknya, kebahagiaan terbukti melindungi mereka dari sakit. Ini berarti memperlama hidup mereka.

Orang yang bahagia lebih mudah waspada akan berat badannya, lebih mengerti dan memahami gejala-gejala penyakit yang mungkin timbul di dalam dirinya, cenderung lebih moderat bila mereka perokok dan peminum, dan secara keseluruhan hidup mereka lebih sehat. Mereka juga lebih aktif, lebih terbuka terhadap dunia, lebih percaya diri, membantu membuat keputusan yang tepat, dan membangun jaringan sosial yang kuat.

"Selama ini kita tahu bahwa rasa bahagia akan membuat fisik kita menjadi sehat, tapi kita tidak tahu persisnya bagaimana. Kesedihan atau rasa kurang bahagia kronis mengaktifkan respons bertempur dalam diri kita. Artinya, kondisi ini bakal mengancam diri sendiri karena jangka lama bakal membuat kita sendiri hipertensi dan respons kekebalan tubuh menurun", tulisnya

Untuk meningkatkan rasa gembira perlu ada riset tambahan atas efek-efek kondisi tempat tinggal, sekolah, atau lingkungan yang mengelilingi hidup kita dalam waktu lama. Apakah semua itu membuat kita bahagia?

Bahkan, penelitian atas kepuasan kerja dan tempat kerja pun memengaruhi kebahagiaan seseorang. Karena itu, pemerintah perlu mengajari atau setidaknya memberikan suasana yang nyaman pada rakyatnya untuk bisa hidup nyaman sehingga semua orang bisa menikmati hidup dan mendapatkan makna yang berarti dalam hidupnya.

"Jika kita merasa tidak sehat, kita akan pergi ke dokter umum," katanya. "Jika kita merasa tidak bahagia, tak ada ahli dalam hal itu. Kita harus mengupayakan sendiri. Petunjuk profesional bagaimana caranya agar bisa hidup bahagia sampai sekarang belum ada," tuturnya. Ini jelas merupakan pertanda nyata kegagalan pasar dan ekonomi. Pada akhirnya, tanpa hal ini pun banyak orang merasa lebih bahagia.

Scientists have created a cloaking device that can reroute certain wavelengths of light, forcing them around objects like water flowing around boulders in a stream. To creatures or machines that see only in microwave light, the cloaked object would appear nearly invisible.

"The microwaves come in and are swept around the cloak and reconstructed on the other side while avoiding the interior region," said study team member David Smith at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering. "So it looks as if they just passed through free space."

The device [image] only works in the microwave range of light, so cloaked objects are still visible to humans. Also, it only works in two dimensions and only for microwaves moving in a plane. A three-dimensional invisibility cloak would hide an object completely.The microwave cloak is also slightly reflective and casts a partial shadow.

Despite these shortcomings, however, the new device is "a very good achievement," said Ulf Leonhardt, a theorist at the University of St. Andrews in England who was not involved in the study.

"It's surprising that it's as simple as it is and that it works so well," Leonhardt said in a related news article about the work in the journal Science.

The achievement, reported online today by the journal, comes five months after the same team published a study detailing the precise mathematical specifications a needed to build such a cloaking device.

Metamaterials

The apparatus was made using "metamaterials," artificial materials engineered to have precisely patterned surfaces that interact with and manipulate light in novel ways.

Although called a cloak, the device is not something that can be worn. Rather, it consists of a series of concentric circles, made of copper rings and wires patterned onto sheets of fiberglass, and resembles a loosely coiled reel of film.

The patterns enable the manipulation of light, and the size of the patterns determines which wavelengths of light can be manipulated. Smaller patterns affect shorter the wavelengths. Microwaves have relatively long wavelengths and can be affected with metamaterials having relatively large patterns. Manipulating visible light, which has much shorter wavelengths, will require metamaterials with much finer patterns.

While making those finer patterns is possible with current nanomanufacturing technologies, the metals used to make the microwave cloak would behave differently with visible light, Smith said.

"They act very differently at optical wavelengths; they become very absorptive. A cloaked object would just become very opaque, rather than transparent," he told LiveScience.

But even if metamaterials are made that can deflect visible light, don't expect the kind of invisibility offered by Harry Potter's cloak or Star Trek cloaking devices any time soon.

Human eyes are sensitive to many different wavelengths of light, as evidenced by the rainbow of colors that we see, and it's still uncertain if metamaterials can deflect so many wavelengths simultaneously.

Still useful

But even imperfect cloaking devices might be useful, the researchers say. Cloaks that deflect radio waves could render an object invisible to radar or improve cell phone receptions by rerouting signals around obstructions. They might also be used to protect people from penetrating and harmful radiation.

"If you knew that you had radiation of a certain bandwidth frequency, you could have it skirt around some region that you wanted shielded," Smith said.

The team says the next step is to create a cloak that works in three dimensions and to perfect the cloaking effect.