October 2011
1 post
Great wall under threat
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/23/great-wall-under-threat_n_1027608.html Posted via email from Joao Rei’s web junk | Comment »
June 2011
1 post
April 2011
2 posts
Vem ai o FMI, vale a pena relembrar...
Um texto que se revela mais actual que nunca… [FMI foi um texto com música que José Mário Branco gravou num espectáculo ao vivo em 1982 e que foi publicado na altura em maxi-single. Foi republicado em 1996 em cd, juntamente com o duplo álbum Ser Solid/tário.] Vou… vou vos mostrar mais um pedaço da minha vida, um pedaço um pouco especial: trata-se de um texto que foi escrito...
Linkedin April fools
So today is April 1st, and all the sites are trying to one-up each other with funny little jokes. Personally, I don’t like it when news sites do it, unless it’s blatantly obvious. Google usually does a pretty good job at these. So usually I check their joke and avoid news and tech sites as much as possible. But this year I was laughing at Linkedin’s take. Take a look at some of...
February 2011
1 post
Google celebrates the Estonian Independence day
If you visit Google.com from Estonia today, you’ll get this nice reminder of why you don’t go to work today. It’s the Estonian Independence day. It’s also the first day of e-voting for the national elections! The Google Doodle has the colors of the Estonian flag, plus the national bird of Estonia, the barn swallow I Love Estonia! Posted via email from Joao Rei’s...
October 2010
1 post
Facebook innovates, Google stagnates
Facebook is on a hiring and acquisition spree lately… They’re getting more products out than Google, and are getting ready for an upcoming IPOThis week, they’re having a “Mobile Event” at their HQ, where we can expect anything from a Facebook phone, to more mobile apps that integrate facebook contacts more deeply into your phone contacts. Robert Scoble thinks that a...
September 2010
1 post
Peter Sarstedt - Blagged
Blagged by Peter Sarstedt Download now or listen on posterous 08 Blagged.mp3 (4525 KB) Peter Sarstedt - Blagged And as I blagged a cigarette from her And gazed upon her nakedness She moved her lovely head from side to side and said I was just like the rest “You’ve got what you came for” she said “And that’s what...
July 2010
5 posts
Colbert Report goes after the Polka Pirates
One of the funniest Colbert Report segments The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30cNailed ‘Em - Polka Piracywww.colbertnation.comColbert Report Full Episodes2010 ElectionFox News Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »
Who's afraid of Apple? Not Consumer Reports...
Interesting article on Business Week on the Consumer Reports magazine, who test products on behalf of consumers and calls companies on their bullshit marketing. http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/10_31/b4189058784981.htm The company started after the great depression, and the start was rocky “The founders’ mission was considered heretical at the time. Reader’s...
Praising the beauty of a queen
When the poet-king, Ucaf Uddaul, celebrates the charms of the queen of Ahmehnagara, he speaks thus: “Her shining tresses, divided in two parts, encircle the harmonious contour of her white and delicate cheeks, brilliant in their glow and freshness. Her ebony brows have the form and charm of the bow of Kama, the god of love, and beneath her long silken lashes the purest reflections and a...
[Google Fast Flip] The World's Worst Commutes
Sent to you by joao.rei via Google Fast Flip: The World’s Worst Commutes Richard Florida - Richard Florida is the author of The Creative Class and founder of the Creative Class Group. Richard Florida is director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto and author of the forthcoming The Great Reset and also Rise of the Creative Class. He is founder of the Creative...
[Google Fast Flip] Subway on the Street
Sent to you by joao.rei via Google Fast Flip: Subway on the Street The MTA has a simple, not very expensive ticket for improving how the city gets around: Revolutionize the bus. But can even the most sensible ideas get implemented these days? By Robert Sullivan You would never guess it from the dispiriting news coming out of the MTA, but if you want to see the future of New York, then head up to...
May 2010
4 posts
Portugal, as portrayed by Spanish TV
Sometimes it takes a stranger or a neighbor to praise your country to make you feel just a little bit proud of it. This is a video of a Spanish television hour-long overview of Portugal. Some pretty stunning images. Of course it could have been done by any Portuguese TV channel, but it would have raised eyebrows in Portugal. We’re not usually known for our “pride” or for...
To the critics...
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does...
[Google Fast Flip] The USA Pavilion Is a Disgrace
Sent to you by joao.rei via Google Fast Flip: The USA Pavilion Is a Disgrace By John Mahoney Posted 05.06.2010 at 3:00 pm 11 Comments Many of the pavilions at the 2010 Expo in Shanghai are phenomenal, both inside and out. The USA pavilion, however, is neither. But far worse than being visually unimpressive (which it is), the essence of our representation at the largest World’s Fair...
The Euro - take it or leave it...
“Deep down, tensions inside the euro-zone involve clashing social contracts and democratic preferences. Post-war German governments have won voters’ consent by offering thrift and monetary stability (a comfort for Germans with a folk memory of life savings lost to hyperinflation), plus an elaborately consensual capitalism. Greek governments have instead spent years buying social peace and...
April 2010
4 posts
Tip of the day - STS for free postcard delivery...
Tip of the day: If you have one of those days where it just doesn’t feel right to be stuck inside an office, a classroom, your room or whatever other boring place for the whole day, do the following (read it all before you start): a) Go to the city center b) Hop on to some bars, cafes, art shops, trendy places c) Grab those free postcards, one or two of each. They are free to take, grab at...
Come down to Cleveland! (we're not Detroit)
Every city should have promotional videos like these!! And here’s the second one Posted via email from Joao Rei’s web junk | Comment »
[Google Fast Flip] The trouble with the Fed's...
Sent to you by joao.rei via Google Fast Flip: The trouble with the Fed’s secret bailout - Federal Reserve - Salon… The trouble with the Fed’s secret bailout The Federal Reserve has come clean about its covert actions. Now it’s time to look at the worrisome consequences The U.S. Federal Reserve Building in Washington The Federal Reserve has finally came clean. It now admits...
Hilarious - Stephen Colbert reviews the iPad
The Newsweek cover / backcover comparison is just priceless!
Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »
March 2010
10 posts
Japan, strange country (in japanese)
This is a Japanese version, since the author decided to remove the English version from the web Posted via email from Joao Rei’s web junk | Comment »
Trololo cat! funniest thing in a long time
Cat meets Trololo The original Trololo video Posted via email from Joao Rei’s web junk | Comment »
The other Joao in Estonia @jlopesmarques is...
Portuguese author Joao Lopes Marques (@jlopesmarques) is presenting his new book today at Hell Hunt, one of the few decent pubs in Tallinn. Joao, or as I like to call him “the other Joao” has been living on and off in Tallinn for some time now, and has written about his “beautiful Estonian exile” in a new book that is being promoted by Eesti Ekspress He is not only an...
Facebook vs Twitter vs Buzz (imho)
Twitter: “This is big! I need to get this out there!” Facebook: “Look at me! I’m interesting!”Buzz: “Why is this guy annoying me?” I find that one of the main unspoken advantages of twitter over Facebook is that in twitter there’s no “follow back” concept. You only follow those you want to listen to, not necessarily because you know...
Elaborate and creative campaign for Heineken in...
Heineken Case Study - Champions League Match vs Classical Concert (Real Madrid, AC Milan) from Carlos Pecuch on Vimeo.
Very elaborate campaign from Heineken to get 1000+ football fans under the same roof under the false pretense of going to a classical music event…
Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »
[Google Fast Flip] Centuries-Old Shipwrecks Found...
Sent to you by joao.rei via Google Fast Flip: Centuries-Old Shipwrecks Found in Baltic Sea A gas company building an underwater pipeline stumbled upon several wrecks, some dating back 800 years. The wheel of a 18th or 19th century sailing ship appears in the waters of the Baltic Sea. AP Photo/Nord Stream A dozen centuries-old shipwrecks dating from medieval times to the world wars have been...
How much TV do you watch?
Feel free to draw your own conclusions. To me the bottom line seems to be, the more educated you are, the less TV you watch. I’ve been TV free for 3 years now. But that doesn’t mean I don’t watch TV shows or movies, it just means I don’t own a TV set or pay for a subscription. I get my stuff online, like Euronews to start the day and some sitcom to end it with (30 rock, How...
[Google Fast Flip] Between Germany and Greece, a...
Sent to you by joao.rei via Google Fast Flip: Between Germany and Greece, a Chorus of Sturm, Drang and Pathos By NICHOLAS KULISH In recent days, novel solutions to the Greek debt crisis have surfaced, though perhaps not the constructive ones European leaders desperate to hold their struggling union together were hoping to hear. A pair of German politicians, incensed at the thought of paying for a...
Germans want Greece to sell off their paradise...
Some right wing German politicians are suggesting that Greece should sell some of its islands to pay off the country’s raising debt.In an interview to German tabloid newspaper Bild, the MP’s said: “A bankrupt party must use everything he has to make money and serve his creditors. Greece owns buildings, companies and several uninhabited islands, which can now be used to repay...
One year of walking through China, timelapse
via http://www.thelongestway.com/ Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »
February 2010
10 posts
British MEP's tirade against EU president Van...
The Brits have done it again.This time it was the UK Independence party MEP Nigel Farage who went on a personal tirade of attacks against the newly appointed EU President Van Rompuy. Calling Belgium a “non-country” he kept saying that on behalf of the (majority of the) British people “we don’t know you, we don’t want you”...
European effort to bring the death penalty to an...
The EU is pushing ahead in an effort to end the death penalty by 2015. A goal that would bring the Millennium development goals closer to reality. “More than two-thirds of the United Nations member states abolished the death penalty, by law or in practice,” Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero of Spain, which holds the presidency of the European Union, told the congress. Europe is the...
In memoriam - The Knack's singer Doug Fieger
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_KnackTheir most recognizable hit - My Sharona http://www.youtube.com/v/h3ADektyDhMAnd some songs that (imho) are inspired by “My Sharona” Hey Mickey - Basilhttp://www.youtube.com/watch#v=y4CyNvEfWoE&feature=related The Ting TIngs, That’s now my namehttp://www.youtube.com/v/A0e9GuYRqKA Posted via email from Joao Rei’s...
[Google Fast Flip] The Smarter You Are, The Less...
Sent to you by joao.rei via Google Fast Flip: The Smarter You Are, The Less You Click If the latest numbers from online ad network Chitika are anything to go by, then we may well be on our way to the world of Idiocracy. According to the study, which compared click through rates to college education, the less educated your audience, the more likely they are to click through on an...
Ryanair to invest in Lithuanian airport
This is very big, and good, news for Lithuania and all the Baltics. Ryanair is ready to invest in Lithuania, at a time it needs it the most, and no doubt using some of it’s “muscle” to get lower taxes from both the local authorities and the airport authorities. I’d love to see the actual numbers, because I think the calculation of the 140 million dollars is not FDI, but...
Google Maps now has extra Labs features
I hadn’t noticed this before, so it’s news to me. Not sure for how long this has been in the wild already.Some of the Google Maps Labs features are quite useful, like the Drag ‘n’ Zoom, which lets you select an area of the map and Google Maps automatically zooms to it. Others are just pointless like the “back to beta” and yet others are just funny like the...
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Portuguese Finance Minister talks to @richardquest
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...
[Google Fast Flip] The Sunshine Coliseum
Sent to you by joao.rei via Google Fast Flip: 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...
[Google Fast Flip] Infographics of the Day:...
Sent to you by joao.rei via Google Fast Flip: 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...
[Google Fast Flip] Dear Rupert Murdoch: Here's...
Sent to you by joao.rei via Google Fast Flip: 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...
January 2010
17 posts
Hundreds of Passengers Stranded on Ferry Stuck in...
Nearly 850 passengers are stranded on an Eckerö Line ferry that got stuck in the ice half an hour after leaving Helsinki Friday morning. The vessel, which was heading to Tallinn, is waiting for an icebreaker to dislodge it. Officials say they can’t predict when the ferry will be freed. The ferry was scheduled to arrive in Tallinn at 11 am. The vessel is still waiting for an icebreaker from...
Romanian's orphans - 20 years on...
How can we tolerate this happening in Europe? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8425001.stm The images are not only shocking, they are dramatically similar to those shot right after the fall of Ceausescu’s regime 20 years ago. Wasn’t one of the conditions of accession to the European Union that Romania had to provide better conditions to its state orphanages? Hasn’t the EU sent...
Video of freezing Ice in a small Estonian Island
Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »
The Estonian e-learning center a reply to...
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. He’s in charge of implementing (by yesterday as he says). Chris, I tried to reply on ZDnet but it required registration, and I’m too...
[Google Fast Flip] German government warns against...
Sent to you by joao.rei via Google Fast Flip: 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...
[Google Fast Flip] Facebook Now Running Virus...
Sent to you by joao.rei via Google Fast Flip: 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....
[Google Fast Flip] Spanish MP's photo used for...
Sent to you by joao.rei via Google Fast Flip: Spanish MP’s photo used for Osama Bin Laden poster A Spanish politician has said he was shocked to find out the FBI had used his photo for a digitally-altered image showing how Osama Bin Laden might look. Gaspar Llamazares said he would no longer feel safe travelling to the US after his hair and parts of his face appeared on a most-wanted...
[Google Fast Flip] Media Criticism - Salon.com
Sent to you by joao.rei via Google Fast Flip: Media Criticism - Salon.com It’s not 1984, but Newspeak lives on in the media’s skewing of the terms of our political debate Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt. “War is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength” — more than a quarter-century after those oxymorons were supposed to...
[Google Fast Flip] Jobs of 2030: Memory...
Sent to you by joao.rei via Google Fast Flip: Jobs of 2030: Memory Augmentation Surgeon, Waste Data Handler, Narrowcaster BY Ariel Schwartz Today We’ve given you a preview of some of the best green jobs of the next decade, but what will the job market look like a bit further into the future? That’s the question that research company Fast Future and the UK Department of Business,...
[Google Fast Flip] Pixel Qi: The LCD Screen That...
Sent to you by joao.rei via Google Fast Flip: Pixel Qi: The LCD Screen That Could Finally Kill Paper For Good Mary Lou Jepsen has created massive holograms and cheap laptops for the developing world. Now she’s rethinking the LCD screen, leading the way to the next great gadget: an e-reader to replace your laptop By Lauren Aaronson Posted 01.12.2010 at 1:01 pm 0 Comments Pixel Qi :...