Joao Rei's random thoughts

[Google Fast Flip] Between Germany and Greece, a Chorus of Sturm, Drang and Pathos

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:31:50 +0200

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 bailout of the profligates to the south, suggested Thursday that the Greeks consider plugging the large hole in their budget by selling off some of their lovely islands. Several Greek politicians and commentators have argued that the Germans should pony up reparations for the death and destruction wrought by the Nazis during World War II. These would not be the coolest heads prevailing. In times of economic growth and rising prosperity, the continent’s shared and all-too-often unhappy history was a lot easier to paper over. Now that there’s room for blame and recrimination, the history suddenly matters. Germans, still smarting from the replacement of their beloved Deutsche mark with the euro, harbor deep suspicions that European unity boils down to them perpetually handing out their hard-earned money, an inerasable debt for the horrors of Nazism. The German news magazine Focus recently summed up t…

Read full story

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

Germans want Greece to sell off their paradise Islands

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:44:00 +0200

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 debt.”

Another MP from a more radical party had this to say: “Greece must radically part with company shares and also sell property, for example uninhabited islands”

Other suggestions included selling historical monuments, government buildings, art works, and government owned land. Which no doubt the Germans would be willing to buy and use for their vacations… This exchange of words is escalating and won’t help calming tensions between Berlin and Athens over fears the Germans have that they would have to bail out Greece.

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

One year of walking through China, timelapse

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:12:50 +0200

via http://www.thelongestway.com/

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

British MEP's tirade against EU president Van Rompuy

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:03:06 +0200

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”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7040733.ece

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

European effort to bring the death penalty to an end by 2015

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:28:46 +0200

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 only continent where the death penalty is abolished. In the US, 35 states still allow the death penalty.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0„5281429,00.html

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

In memoriam - The Knack's singer Doug Fieger

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:18:46 +0200

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Knack

Their most recognizable hit - My Sharona

http://www.youtube.com/v/h3ADektyDhM

And some songs that (imho) are inspired by “My Sharona”

Hey Mickey - Basil

http://www.youtube.com/watch#v=y4CyNvEfWoE&feature=related

The Ting TIngs, That’s now my name

http://www.youtube.com/v/A0e9GuYRqKA

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

[Google Fast Flip] The Smarter You Are, The Less You Click

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:39:53 +0200

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 advertisement. While this may be good news for some, it certainly seems to spell doom for supporting intelligent content through advertising. The two states with the lowest click rate were Massachusetts and Washington, while the state with the highest click-through rate was West Virginia. These correlate very strongly, according to Chitika’s blog post, with the education rates in those states. The study works with stats on a large scale, comparing click through rates with education rates for entire states. The blog quotes Daniel Ruby, research director for Chitika, as saying that this should be taken as an opportunity. “Obviously, if you’re targeting a more educated demographic, you need to do a better job of making your ad worthwhile,” says Ruby. “This, like everything, is an opportunity to push the industry towards the idea of content first, sales pitch second, even among advertisements.” …

Read full story

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

Ryanair to invest in Lithuanian airport

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:37:23 +0200

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 rather money that takes into account the number of planes being stationed there, the number of routes that Ryanair promised to have from Kaunas, and with it the pilots, flight attendants and other airport staff. So it’s a little naive to believe there’s a big fat check coming from Ryanair to Kaunas. But still it’s a positive investment.

On the other hand, who seems more and more distant from the rest of Europe and form the lowcost hubs of Eastern Europe, is Tallinn. I had the opportunity to speak to the head of Tallinn Airport last December, and he told me they have no plans to decrease their fees to accommodate a low cost airline like Ryanair. Of course everyone in Estonia wants more low cost companies operating here, but they are simply not willing to go bellow operating costs to have Ryanair fly here.

That decision means that the Tallinn Airport company won’t be asking the government for support just to attract more airlines here. It’s a fiscally responsible decision, and I respect it. But you can’t ignore the fact that Riga, and now Kaunas, are becoming what Tallinn long ago sought to be. The low cost airline, and business hub of the Baltics.

Ryanair to put $140 million in Lithuanian hub

(AP) –

4 days ago

VILNIUS, Lithuania — Budget airline Ryanair will establish a major hub in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas, its first in Central and Eastern Europe, the company’s chief executive announced Tuesday.

Ryanair will $140 million into the project, CEO Michael O’Leary told reporters in Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital, adding that Ryanair would introduce 18 new routes from Kaunas and employ 150 pilots and flight attendants to serve them.

Ryanair has been searching for a hub in Eastern Europe for several years, and O’Leary said the discount carrier chose Lithuania because of its attractive business climate, good infrastructure and rapidly growing passenger numbers.

Kaunas authorities slashed airport taxes last year after Lithuania’s main carrier, flyLAL, was forced into bankruptcy, depriving the country of its own airline.

Ryanair will allocate two new Boeing 737-800 aircraft to the Kaunas hub, O’Leary said. He said he expected passenger numbers at the Kaunas airport to more than double this year to 1 million. The hub is also expected to create 1,000 jobs.

Kaunas, an hour’s drive from Vilnius, is Lithuania’s No. 2 city but has one of the highest rates of joblessness in the Baltic state of 3.4 million people.

O’Leary said Ryanair was considering opening other hubs in Eastern Europe.

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

Google Maps now has extra Labs features

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:16:27 +0200

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 “Where in the World Game” which promises hours of time wasted!

Had you seen any of these labs enabled on your google maps?

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

Portuguese Finance Minister talks to @richardquest

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:46:43 +0200

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.

Posted via web from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

[Google Fast Flip] The Sunshine Coliseum

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:51:10 +0200

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 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…

Read full story

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

[Google Fast Flip] Infographics of the Day: Obama's 2011 Budget, Cut Three Ways

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:04:30 +0200

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 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 …

Read full story

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

[Google Fast Flip] Dear Rupert Murdoch: Here's Some Free Online Content That You Don't Own

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:04:27 +0200

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 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…

Read full story

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

Hundreds of Passengers Stranded on Ferry Stuck in Ice

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:14:14 +0200

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 Finland to dislodge it from the ice. However icebreakers are currently busy helping free other vessels.

Eckerö Line says the passengers are not in any danger and are being offered food and beverages. The company says it doesn’t expect the Nordlandia ferry will face travel difficulties in the coming days. Port authorities say this is the worst ice situation in years.

Source: http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2010/01/hundreds_of_passengers_stranded_on_ferry_stuck_in_ice_1405126.html

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

Romanian's orphans - 20 years on...

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:00:01 +0200

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 millions of Euros to Romania (much of that money lost to corruption….) to help them tackle this and other problems? I understand if roads and telecommunications are a priority, but these are human beings we’re talking about here! Defenseless and with no hope of leading a normal life.

I mean no disrespect to my many Romanian friends, and I know that every country has its problems. Especially when you have to deal with a legacy of a communist and closed-to-the-world rule. But ignoring it won’t make it go away. This needs the good people of Romania to be so enraged over it, that it’s on the agenda of every candidate to the next elections. Sadly they just had elections, and I don’t recall this being on anyone’s agenda.

Shame on you Romania, shame on us Europe.

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

Video of freezing Ice in a small Estonian Island

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:32:48 +0200

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

The Estonian e-learning center a reply to @mrdatahs

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:42:38 +0200

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 lazy for that, so I decided to write my reply as a blog post and put the reply as a link to your initial twitter post. (sounds more complicated, I know, but somehow for me it’s easier)

You should check out the implementation of the Estonian state e-learning initiative. I use it everyday for my classes in the Technical University.

www.e-ope.ee

they mostly use moodle. One moodle for the whole country (1.4 mil inhab.) That’s right, one single, centralized moodle for all learning institutions (public and private) in the whole country. Most courses require a registration key that each teacher gives to their students. Assignments, grades, wikis, blogs, tests, discussions. Everything you can imagine is online.

It helps that a) Estonia is a relatively small country, b) the population is fairly IT minded and c) there probably was a clean slate to start with, and not many legacy systems around. It might have been that the largest teaching institution (the Technical Uni.) was using it, and it then got extended to all the other.

I took the liberty to attach their e-learning development center strategy paper to this blog post. Give it a glance, maybe you’ll find some good ideas there that might help you.

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

[Google Fast Flip] German government warns against using MS Explorer

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:26:10 +0200

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 rejected the warning, saying that the risk to users was low BBC News German government warns against using MS Explorer…

Read full story

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

[Google Fast Flip] Facebook Now Running Virus Scans on Users' PCs

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:16:54 +0200

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. However, the most interesting part of this new partnership isn’t the online ReadWriteWeb Facebook Now Running Virus Scans on Users’ PCs…

Read full story

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »

[Google Fast Flip] Spanish MP's photo used for Osama Bin Laden poster

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:08:38 +0200

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 poster. He said the use of a real person for the mocked-up image BBC News Spanish MP’s photo used for Osama Bin Laden poster…

Read full story

Posted via email from Joao Rei’s ramblings | Comment »