Joao Rei's random thoughts

Here is an interview the Portuguese finance minister gave to CNN’s Richard Quest on his show Quest Means Business.

Throughout the interview the minister expresses his feeling that the markets are overreacting to the threat of debt default on the part of Portugal, and that the recent measures taken by the Portuguese parliament to increase spending on regional budgets, that were approved by the opposition without support from the government can be prevented by using legal provisions that allow the minister to cut back on spending.

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The Sunshine Coliseum

By Chris Davis | Wed Feb 3, 2010 09:17 PM ET Here’s an idea for a power plant: the solar-powered sports coliseum. What if you skinned an entire stadium with solar such that it could satisfy its own ginormous appetite for power when filled with spectators, but when idle (which is usually often) its solar panels could still be at work, making and feeding electricity to the grid? Sports facility as power plant. A colossal idea not likely to be done anytime soon; a rich fantasy beyond the pale. Except that it has been done, in Taiwan. Recently completed to host the 2009 Goodwill Games, the stadium will be able to supply all the juice for its 3,300 lights and two jumbotrons, or local residents when the lights and screens are off. Solar seldom makes the payback cut, but maybe it just sort of gets tucked into the mega-buck coliseum construction budget. Consider: the new Cowboys football stadium in Texas (which has no solar) seats 80,000 and cost 1,000,000,000. Taiwan’s stadium cost 182,000,000 and seats 50,000. Can’t say how the math works for these two stadiums on opposite ends of the planet, but in the 818,000,000 difference between the two, couldn’t you toss solar into the 1 billion do…

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Infographics of the Day: Obama’s 2011 Budget, Cut Three Ways

BY Cliff Kuang Today Yesterday President Obama released his proposed budget for 2011, and the newspapers naturally sniffed out the massive infographic possibility. Here are the offers from The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal. The New York Times, naturally, has the best, most useful graphs. Here, a map of all the spending categories in the budget, along with color coding for whether the budget grew or shrank compared to last year. (Green: Grow, Pink: Shrank) Also via The New York Times, maybe the most intriguing graphic of the lot. The series focuses on budget forecasts of the past and present—and how they’ve stacked against reality. Perhaps it’s unsurprising that budget forecasts are usually far too optimistic, but check out how systematic the effect has been. Forecasts are shown in light blue, and reality is in dark blue. (The interactive version lets you mouse over each line for details): The Guardian also has a graph (ignore the typo in the subhed) comparing Obama’s budget to George Bush’s last one. Spending is up almost across the board—a difference driven largely by funds yet to be spent from the $787 economic stimulus passed in 2009. (Only about a …

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Dear Rupert Murdoch: Here’s Some Free Online Content That You Don’t Own

BY Kit Eaton Today It’s okay, Mr. Murdoch. We think we finally understand why you hate Google and the Net so much—you gave it away in your rant during News Corp.’s finances: It’s because you really don’t get technology—or people—very much. I’m referencing a little aside the news industry billionaire made during a conference call about News Corporation’s second quarter earnings yesterday. On the subject of tablet PCs (clearly driven by all the news of Apple’s iPad,) e-readers and smartphones, Murdoch admitted these devices were a growing phenomenon. But he then immediately launched a venomous attack on the technology, denouncing the gizmos as lifeless “empty vessels.” His argument is that without content, the hoard of tablets and e-readers and smartphones are dead things, useless and un-engaging. “Content isn’t just King anymore but rather the emperor of all things electronic,” and though larger flat-screen devices are an advance, without content they’ll remain “unloved and unsold.” What you’re referring to, Rupert, is, of course, your content: That’s what you think we should be viewing on these devices. “Undercover” reports on what it’s like to visit the country’s first legal ma…

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Download now or preview on posterous

strat_final_en_web.pdf (188 KB)

This is basically a reply to Christopher Dawson’s post on his implementation of a Learning Management System in his district in the U.S.

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German government warns against using MS Explorer

By Daniel Emery The German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security. The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google’s systems. Microsoft rejected the warning, saying that the risk to users was low BBC News German government warns against using MS Explorer…

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Facebook Now Running Virus Scans on Users’ PCs

Facebook Now Running Virus Scans on Users’ PCs Earlier this week, Facebook and security company McAfee which offers Facebook’s 350 million users a free six-month subscription to McAfee’s security software. Interested parties can visit the on Facebook to sign up for the deal. However, the most interesting part of this new partnership isn’t the online ReadWriteWeb Facebook Now Running Virus Scans on Users’ PCs…

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