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20 September 2008

Democracy Now!


Democracy Now!
RealPlayer: http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2008/sept/video/dnB20080919a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=10:56
While the press has extensively covered the Wall Street meltdown,little attention has been paid to what this means to the Americanworker. We speak to longtime labor activist and writer Bill Fletcher,co-author with Fernando Gapasin of the new book Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice. Fletcher is the executive editor of BlackCommentator.com and the former president of TransAfrica Forum.

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Democracy Now!


http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2008/sept/video/dnB20080919a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=10:56
While the press has extensively covered the Wall Street meltdown,little attention has been paid to what this means to the Americanworker. We speak to longtime labor activist and writer Bill Fletcher,co-author with Fernando Gapasin of the new book Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice. Fletcher is the executive editor of BlackCommentator.com and the former president of TransAfrica Forum.

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Planet is running out of clean water


CNN - One sixth of the world's population does not have access to cleandrinking water. More than 2 million people, most of them children, dieeach year from water-borne diseases.
People in India, where millions don't have access to clean drinking water,  fill buckets from a supply pipeline.

People in India, where millions don't have access to clean drinking water, fill buckets from a supply pipeline.

Water-related problems aren't restricted to the developing world. Aharmful pesticide, banned by many European countries, remains widelyused in the United States, where it runs into rivers and streams.

And one expert estimates California's water supply will run out in 20 years.

These sobering statistics come from "FLOW," a new documentary filmabout the world's dwindling water supply. The filmmakers and theirsources argue a combination of factors, including drought andskyrocketing demand, have created a looming global crisis thatthreatens the long-term survival of the human race.

Afterpremiering in January at the Sundance Film Festival, "FLOW" openedSeptember 12 in New York and Los Angeles, California, and expands tomore cities this week. The New York Times called the documentary "lessdepressing than galvanizing, an informed and heartfelt examination ofthe tug of war between public health and private interests."

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19 September 2008

TruthDig



book cover

The Truthdig Book Review Edited by Steve Wasserman
"Does the Cold War Have Lessons for Today?"-- Carolyn Eisenberg takes a close look at Melvyn Leffler's "For theSoul of Mankind" to ask whether our current troubles are rooted in ahistory that continues to haunt.

>> THE TRUTHDIG PODCAST: ROBERT SCHEER

"Robert Scheer on the Economic Meltdown"-- Truthdig's editor in chief warns against thinking about the economiccrisis as an "act of God," saying "this is man-made" and that theindividuals responsible are well known and entirely too influential inthe current election.

>> SPECIAL REPORT:

Patrick Cockburn on Petraeus's Departure
"Farewell, General—but Did You Bring Iraq Hope?"-- Gen. Petraeus' oft-declared uncertainty about the future stabilityof Iraq is genuine. It is the Shiites and their Iranian backers, notthe Americans, who are the true victors in the Iraqi war.

>> DON'T MISS THE BEST OF OUR SYNDICATED COLUMNISTS:

Marie Cocco on the Economic Crisis
"Fiddling While Wall Street Burns"-- Obama shows more promise than McCain, if only because he correctlysees deregulatory zeal as a culprit. But Obama's economic strategysimply can't be implemented now: He wants to spend on necessaryinvestments such as health care, but would have no money to do it. 

Joe Conason on McCain and Social Security
"The 'Reform' McCain Wants to Forget"-- With the markets in frightening turmoil and the public outraged byfinancial irresponsibility and excessive greed, John McCain hassuddenly rediscovered the importance of strong, watchful government.

E.J. Dionne on Obama's Key Battleground State
"The Battle for Michigan" -- If he carries Michigan, many routes to victory are open for Barack Obama. Without Michigan, he's got a big problem.

Amy Goodman on the Wall Street Bailout
"Wall Street Socialists"-- With financial institutions begging for bailouts, taxpayers shouldbe in the driver's seat. Instead, decisions that will cost people fordecades are being made behind closed doors, by the wealthy, by theregulators and by those they have failed to regulate.

Ellen Goodman on Women and the Presidential Election
"Sisterhood of the Flummoxed Female Voters"-- Three weeks after the nomination of the Candidate From Nowhere, oneweek after the robo-interview with Charlie Gibson and days after the"Saturday Night Live" skit, there is still a flood tide of womenchoking on the possibility that Hillary Clinton paved the way for SarahPalin.

William Pfaff on the Death of Free-Market Capitalism
"Reality Catches Up to the Free Market"-- Karl Marx, were he still about, would surely be interested in thereport that unregulated free-market capitalism has died in a flash, byits own hand; whereas it took 70 years and a Cold War to bring down theMarxist economy established in the Soviet Union following the BolshevikRevolution.

Eugene Robinson on McCain and the Economy
"This Is the Man Who's Going to Fix the Economy?"-- John McCain was telling the truth when he said that economics wasn'this strong suit. In response to what many economists have called theworst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the Republicannominee has sounded—and let's be honest here—totally, embarrassinglyand dangerously clueless.

David Sirota on Obama's Wall Street Buddies
"No Time for a Minimalist"-- Barack Obama isn't going to win any arguments about the economy ifhe keeps winking at the robber barons who helped wreck Wall Street.


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17 September 2008

A Swedish IT Support Function



Data-support..........
 
  Supporten: Vad kan jag hjälpa till med?
 
  Kunden: Jag håller på att skriva mitt första mail och jag har skrivit bokstaven a men hur skall jag göra för att få till den lilla cirkeln runtomkring?
 
  Supporten: Är markören fortfarande där?
 
  Kunden: Nej, jag är ensam här.
 
  ----------------------------------------------------------
 
  Och nästa kund kunde inte koppla upp sig.
  Supporten: Är du säker på att du använt rätt lösenord?
 
  Kunden: Ja jag såg när min arbetskamrat skrev in det.
 
  Supporten: Kan du säga mig vad lösenordet var?
 
  Kunden: Det var fem små stjärnor.
 
  ----------------------------------------------------------
 
  Supporten: Nu skall vi se hur ditt system ser ut, klicka på 'den här datorn'
 
  Kunden: Men hur skall jag kunna göra det härifrån?
 
  ----------------------------------------------------------
 
  Kunden till Hewlett Packardsupporten: Min laserskrivare är trasig.
 
  Supporten: Vilken modell har du?
 
  Kunden: Det är en Hewlett Packard.
 
  Supporten: Jo, jag förstår det. Är det en svartvit skrivare?
 
  Kunden: Nej, den är beige
 
  ----------------------------------------------------------
 
  Kunden till Tele2supporten: Jag har köpt internet och vill ha hjälp.
 
  Supporten: Ok, hur långt har du kommit i installationen?
 
  Kunden: Jag har packat upp lådan med internetet i
 
  Supporten: Ok, har du anslutit alla sladdar och slagit på datorn?
 
  Kunden: Slagit på datorn? Jag har ingen dator, jag har köpt internet.
 
  -----------------------------------------------------
 
  Kunden. 'Datorn hänger sig hela tiden.'
 
  Supporten 'Har du många fönster öppna?'
 
  Kunden: 'Nej, men dörren står lite på glänt....'

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Soros expects more bank woes



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Small meets Big


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Virtual Keyboard


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16 September 2008

XPERIA X1 gets demoed in Sony Ericsson webcast


Sony Ericsson webcast


Those following the XPERIA X1'severy move no doubt caught this as it happened earlier today, but forthose that missed it, the Inexperia website has now posted most of SonyEricsson's latest webcast, in which the X1's interface gets shown offto a far greater extent than we've seen previously. That includes alook at the phone's much talked about panel system and a glimpse of itsvideo-playing abilities, plus some expected gushing about the phone'sdesign, which is described as feeling like a well-tailored suit. Headon past the break for the video courtesy of Inexperia, and look for thewhole thing to be available direct from Sony Ericsson on September17th.

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John McCain's health records must be released



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Bird and Fortune - Subprime Crisis



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Bird and Fortune (Washington Diplomat)




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15 September 2008

Fungi: The Good, The Bad And The Edible - Podcast


Listen Now [48 min 4 sec] 

Talk of the Nation,
September 12, 2008 · Though fungi is essential in the production of bread, beer and somecheeses, it can also be a threat to human life in the form of deadlydisease and infection. Fungus experts discuss the diverse and complexnature of the underappreciated "fifth kingdom" of organisms.




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Fungi: The Good, The Bad And The Edible - Podcast


Listen Now [48 min 4 sec] 

Talk of the Nation, September 12, 2008 · Though fungi is essential in the production of bread, beer and somecheeses, it can also be a threat to human life in the form of deadlydisease and infection. Fungus experts discuss the diverse and complexnature of the underappreciated "fifth kingdom" of organisms.



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Steve Coll on “The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century”


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14 September 2008

ScienceDaily: Solar Energy News


ScienceDaily

Converting Sunlight To Cheaper Energy
Scientistsare working to convert sunlight to cheap electricity. They are workingwith new materials that can make devices used for converting sunlightto electricity cheaper and more efficient.

Polymer Electric Storage, Flexible And Adaptable
The proliferation of Solar,wind and even tidal electric generation and the rapid emergence ofhybrid electric automobiles demands flexible and reliable methods ofhigh-capacity electrical storage. Now materials scientists aredeveloping ferroelectric polymer-based capacitors that can deliverpower more rapidly and are much lighter than conventional batteries.

Solar Collector Could Change Asphalt Roads Into Renewable Energy Source
Scientists have found a way to use asphalt's heat-soaking property for an alternative Energy source by developing a Solar collector that could turn roads and parking lots into ubiquitous - and inexpensive sources of electricity and hot water.

Flexible Nanoantenna Arrays Capture Abundant Solar Energy
Researchers have devised an inexpensive way to produce plastic sheets containing billions of nanoantennas that collect heat Energy generated by the sun and other sources. The new technology is the first step toward a Solar Energy collector that could be mass-produced on flexible materials, say the researchers.

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In the computer business since 1962 - love IT.