This is not serious stuff, this was a competition to find who could make the most viral website, a website with most visitors and most talked about.
Needless to say some of these 60 websites are very very weird but they can be quite entertaining if you have some time to kill.
The annual press freedom index is out for 2006 and can be seen here. Europeans countries do well in general although the UK does not do that well. But a lot better than the States.
The United States (53rd) has fallen nine places since last year, after being in 17th position in the first year of the Index, in 2002. Relations between the media and the Bush administration sharply deteriorated after the president used the pretext of “national security” to regard as suspicious any journalist who questioned his “war on terrorism.” The zeal of federal courts which, unlike those in 33 US states, refuse to recognise the media’s right not to reveal its sources, even threatens journalists whose investigations have no connection at all with terrorism.
Freelance journalist and blogger Josh Wolf was imprisoned when he refused to hand over his video archives. Sudanese cameraman Sami al-Haj, who works for the pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera, has been held without trial since June 2002 at the US military base at Guantanamo, and Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein has been held by US authorities in Iraq since April this year.
These are the criteria used to compile the list.
According to HM Revenue & Customs these are the top ten excuses given by employers for not paying the National Minimum Wage.
He doesn't deserve it - he's a total waste of space
But she only wanted £3 an hour
I didn't think the workers were worth NMW
I didn't think it applied to small employers
He's disabled
They can't cope on their own and it's more than they would get in their own country
She's on benefits - if you add those to her pay, it totals the NMW
He's over 65, so the national minimum wage doesn't apply
The workers can't speak English
I only took him on as a favour
If you have not seen it yet, this is an interesting video..
Video: GuardianFilms and BBC Newsnight present ...
Sean Smith, the Guardian's award-winning war photographer, spent nearly six weeks with the 101st Division of the US army in Iraq. Watch his haunting observational film that explodes the myth around the claims that the Iraqis are preparing to take control of their own country.
Within 100,000 years the divide between rich and poor could lead to two human sub-species
HUMANITY could evolve into two sub-species within 100,000 years as social divisions produce a genetic underclass, a scientist said yesterday.The mating preferences of the rich, highly educated and well-nourished could ultimately drive their separation into a genetically distinct group that no longer interbreeds with less fortunate human beings, according to Oliver Curry.
Dr Curry, a research associate in the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science of the London School of Economics, speculated that privileged humans might over tens of thousands of years evolve into a “gracile” subspecies, tall, thin, symmetrical, intelligent and creative. The rest would be shorter and stockier, with asymmetric features and lower intelligence, he said.
This is really scary. Provided the human race manages to survive that long, with the current death wish I somehow doubt it.
I've just downloaded and tried it. It is quite a change from all the previous versions this feels a lot more like Firefox and it's faster than the old IE.
I don't use IE normally, well sometimes I have no choice as some sites still require it but I've been using Firefox for a long time and more recently Flock. I don't think that I will switch to IE 7 but I'm too curious and have to try anything new. I definitely like the RSS feeds function similar to the one that Flock has. I enjoy trying stuff like this but then I go back to my good old bloglines.
We have all heard stories of people that got the sack because they wrote something about their employers.
Now we have this:
In addition, Google’s corporate blogmistress admitted that the company has a special e-mail list where employees send personal blog posts for “vetting.” (Sadly this detail didn’t make the final article.) She also said Google routinely reads the blogs of potential employees before hiring them. Yes, we all know this is true on a common sense level, but it’s another thing to have someone officially admit it.
Is it acceptable to read someone's blog to decide whether to employ them or not?
Would it work anyway?
After all I could have two blogs: one where I write what I want but using a false name and one with my real name where I make myself look good and the perfect employee.
The Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus), sometimes known by the name of its nominate subspecies (the Indian Elephant), is one of the three living species of elephant, and the only living species of the genus Elephas. The species is found primarily in large parts of India, Sri Lanka, Indochina peninsula and parts of Indonesia. It is smaller than its African relatives, and the easiest way to distinguish the two is the smaller ears of the Asian Elephant. The Asian Elephant tends to grow to around two to four meters (7-12 feet) in height and 3,000-5,000 kilograms (6,500-11,000 pounds) in weight.
The Asian Elephant has other differences from its African relatives, including a more arched back than the African, one semi-prehensile "finger" at the tip of its trunk as opposed to two, 4 nails on each hind foot instead of three, and 19 pairs of ribs instead of 21. Also, unlike female African elephants, the female Asian Elephant lacks tusks. The forehead has two hemispherical bulges unlike the flat front of the African. Some males may also lack tusks and they are termed as makhnas. The population in Sri Lanka has a greater number of makhnas.
The Asian Elephant is endangered, there is website that has a pre-written forms that can be sent to 51 recipients asking for;
1) Establish a single lead agency with sufficient power and responsibility to command and coordinate the conservation effort.
2) Immediately secure the known elephant corridors in the area around Masinagudi, Tamil Nadu.
3) Raise the standard of protection in all reserved forests that contain viable elephant habitat.
4) A permanent moratorium on any further road development in the Sigur reserved forest.
5) Immediate instigation of initiatives for cattle-tenders and tribals to encourage wildlife-congruous livelihood activities.
I don't know whether this kind of thing actually works but it's always worth a try, this is the form.
There is a simulation called Darfur is dying to raise awareness about this humanitarian crisis.
It is sponsored by Reebok Human Rights Foundation and International Crisis Group
I was reading somewhere that Chevron Texaco has been an example of an oil company that cares about the environment. I was intrigued
so I decided to look for something online that confirms this, after all I'm always happy to find some positive stories.
But I can't find anything positive.
The Wikipedia's entry does not say anything.
Then I found this:
Chevron and Texaco, on the other hand, are known primarily for their transgressions on a wide range of social issues. The two companies, for example, have been forced to settle high-profile lawsuits involving gender and racial discrimination, environmental racism and worker safety issues. And, as you would expect with two major oil refiners, their environmental violations have been innumerable.
In fact, investors in the new Chevron Texaco will likely be buying one of the biggest polluters in California history and one of the worst in the world, in terms of spills, leaks and the release of toxic emissions into the air.
The record of these two companies is even worse in the developing world. Both companies' operations overseas have been surrounded by allegations of corruption, exploitation, environmental catastrophe and human rights abuses. True, these abuses are endemic to the oil business in the developing world. Nonetheless, Chevron and Texaco have been implicated from Russia to West Africa to China.
Full article
It does not seem to be a very good example to me.
There is a lot of stuff about the mess they've made in Ecuador and the following lawsuit and more here.
But they have this website, so I might be wrong but it looks like this company has a long history of bad environmental management but now they have a greenish website. That's alright then.
I checked the first four pages of my search in Google "Chevron Texaco environment" and this is all I could find.
Does anyone know whether Chevron-Texaco is actually a good example and if yes why I mean have they done anything besides a website and a bit of spin?
This is a video of a news story dated 1993 about the Internet
Only 13 years have past and yet it seems so naive. I think the internet is the best invention after the radio, I skip TV completely, I've always found TV too mind numbing, only good when I'm very tired or ill, it requires my full attention while at the same time I have to remain passive which is something I find difficult to do.
In case someone wonders about the brand new look I would like to point out that as I have no artistic abilities whatsoever this is not my work. I've tried not to touch the look before as I did not want to create a visual eyesore. I had to rely on the kindness of someone with talent. I think it looks good, thank you!
In the past few days I've started to read blogs of people that work for the NHS. I've started with the famous Random Acts of Reality which I've known for a long time but never sat down to read properly. If there is someone who still does not know this blog, given the recent media coverage it is the online diary of a London ambulance man. The other blog I'm trying to read is that quite famous NHS Doctor blog then I will move on and read the point of views of some nurses (that blog has lots of good links to other blogs by healthcare professionals).
I'm interested to know about the increasingly evident disintegration of the NHS and that's why I'm reading these blogs.
For instance I've not seen anything that makes me believe that subcontracting services to private companies saves money and makes the process more efficient. I'm still waiting for someone to convince me and these blogs don't help.
The other thing is what New Labour is good at is introducing targets and checklists which only look good on paper but in reality do little to help those that need help.
A good example from Dr Crippen:
Dorothy is on her knees. Eric needs full-tim care. He cannot be left. He should be in a nursing home. I have told social services that he needs residential care. They responded by saying that they would send “someone” round to “assess” him. I said I had already “assessed” him, but that will not do. I am not “someone”. When “someone” arrived, she had a clip board and a tick-sheet. Can Eric dress himself? Yes. Tick. (Well, sort of. Sometimes his shirt is back to front and he puts both legs down one hole in his old fashioned commodious underpants). Eric can also undress himself, and frequently does, but not in appropriate places nor at appropriate times. “Someone” asked Eric lots of questions. He was on best behaviour. He accrued enough “ticks” not to qualify for residential care. My opinion is irrelevant. The only option is the private sector. “Rich” though Eric and Dorothy are, they could not sustain that for more than a few months. Well, they will have to sell the house. Dorothy will do that if necessary, but where does she live? And even then, the money will soon run out.
So Doris should sell her house, make herself homeless and send her husband to a lovely little private place like this:
10:38 Set to a Bupa nursing home for a little old lady with a grotty chest infection. Quite seriously ill, and as is common in nursing homes 'it happened suddenly'.
After taking the patient away they asked for the oxygen mask back as it was the only one they had...
...why aren't we winning the fight against MRSA?
(For those that don't know, oxygen masks are one use items, otherwise illness, for example a CHEST INFECTION may be spread between two people).
Full post here
This is not just the issue of the free market model being applied to health and social care which I don't believe it works, but also the way elderly people are treated. A society should also be judged on how it treats its more vulnerable citizens, the ones that no longer produce and consume very little. You mention veiled women and lots of people go up in arms, the matter is discussed for weeks, headline news, but I don't see the same level of interest in discussing these issues yet most of us will become weak and frail one day.
I've just discovered this website and I wanted to share it simply because I like it. It has pictures of children living in New York but each of them comes from a different country. The same thing could easily be done in London. Nice one.
When I saw the video of Mohammed Sidique Khan, telling me I had been attacked because I supported this Government and it’s policies in the Middle East I shouted back at the TV ‘I didn’t’. I marched against the war, I voted against this Government after the invasion of Iraq. I fundamentally didn’t support it. And you know what, I can see why they are angry and so can thousands of others. The ‘them and us’ in this battle of wills needs to be between moderate peace loving citizens and the extremist violent ones. We need to embrace the majority of Muslims, tell them we are on their side, we understand their frustrations and fight the injustices together.
The above paragraph come from the blog Am I still me? by Holly who was on that Piccadilly Line train on that fateful 7th July 2005. The reason why I quote it here is because it says very clearly what I believe in too. But I'm not that articulate.
I think it should not be the Clash of Civilizations that some people (too many) want it to be. But if there is a battle on is between rationality and irrationality.
Any suicide bomber overflows with irrationality but so does George W Bush and whoever is doing nuclear testing in North Korea.
Unfortunately our politicians and most of the media don't help. I know that Jack Straw was not trying to impose anything on anyone really but what he said could easily be manipulated by all sides which it has been. The Sun managed to say that the veil is a threat. As an experienced politician he should have known better so my question is not so much about what he said but why he said it.
I'm tired of all those people that have suddenly become committed feminists and worry about how the veil simbolises male oppression, infringement of human rights and so on.
To be honest I'm for instance more concerned about women not being able to access education, that's oppression. (Accidentally I knew two Iraqi women who used to wear what I think is called a khimar but one had a degree from Oxford, the other was studying medicine at the Imperial College.) I think the most important thing is that oppression or not, change should always come from within, you don't impose values, yes, not even democracy, to people. If Muslim women feel oppressed they have to do what women in the western world did not so long ago (Swiss women have only been able to vote in 1971): fight against it. It is a long fight but it must be their own.
Invading Iraq has, for instance, worsen the situation for women in that country, while they had equality at least on paper under Saddam Hussein, now they have become second class citizens and their heads are getting covered again. And the more we meddle in the Middle East the more we silence those men and women that have been working to improve human rights in those countries. And then we feel threatened by a veil.
A bank that wins the Nobel prize. I remember hearing about this bank a few years back.
Mr Mjoes said Mr Yunus had shown himself to be a leader who had managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people.
He and the bank were being honoured "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below", Mr Mjoes said.
He said the bank's work in creating opportunities for large numbers of people to get out of poverty created the conditions for sustainable peace.
"Development such as this is useful in human rights and democracy," said Mr Mjoes.
It makes sense to me. I know that such schemes are common in other Asian countries and tend to loan money just to women as they are considered to be more responsible than men. They do not appear to be the perfect solution as in most cases the people that have loaned money can have an income that is barely enough to survive but it is still an improvement from the abject poverty they were living in before.
1. Sleep
-Often depression can lead to sleep, which can naturally improve one's mood and help balance one's inner chemicals - * as long as enough nutrients are available.
-Unfortunately, some of us cannot sleep when are in a bad mood. So, we must go on to step 2.2. Listen to classical music
-Unless you absolutely hate classical music or have negative emotional connections to it, then classical music relaxes your body.
-Some studies have shown an increase in white blood cells (healthy) after prolonged intakes of classical music.
-Recommended: Beethovan's 9th Symphony.
-This method helps is good because listening to music requires almost 0 effort and/or motivation.3. Eat Bananas
-Bananas contain certain proteins that turn into natural anti-depressants when consumed. Recent studies have show that they actually make you feel better.
-If you cannot eat, then save this for later, but usually one banana doesn't take much.4. MOVE
-Getting your body moving will release certain good chemicals and get rid of bad chemicals. This means that you should exercise.
-Smiling as also been known to trigger responses in your brain to make you feel better.
-TIP: While very difficult to do, smiling in the mirror works best, and might make you laugh.
-"Laughter is the best medicine." Even for heartbreak.
-Movement such as exercise, should also increase appetite and make you tired enough to sleep. Thus, repeat step 1 and 3.
-Unless you don't like being touched at all, physical touch from people that care about you has been known to help... which leads to the final point:5. Social support
-Hanging out with friends, and doing normal things is moving in the right direction.
This comes from a new website called Helium which is another Web2.0 kind of thing, people write giving advice on all sorts of issues. If it works it will be bought by Google.
I have a question though, how do you start a website like this?
I mean before users join and write things the website looks pretty empty and boring which will not entice other people to join. Do they pay people to write at the beginning? How did delicious look when it only had one link? Or myspace.com with only one profile?
It feels like the beginning of the universe, hard to imagine.
Well we have to accept the fact that even the internet will be owned more and more by a few players. Google and Yahoo are buying the whole thing, as soon as someone independent comes with a good idea they will buy it. I can say that if someone offers me $50 millions for a website the offer would be far too tempting to resist.
I've found this table with recent and current acquisitions and their worth.
A few days ago I posted about queuing to pay in supermarkets, tonight I found out there is a blog about queuing called quite aptly Stand in a Queue.
There is also a post about a good Sainsbury's experience to counteract my negative one. But I agree about WHSMITH they have messy shops.
I know that the Independent wants to save the planet but I find it ludicrous that if I don't buy it one day thus saving natural resources they want to charge me £1 just to read just an article.
I think I'll stick to the Guardian Online.
They ask £50 a year just to read Robert Frisk, if I feel the urge to read him I can find lots of his articles here.
As YouTube has gone to Google I expect that all this copyrighted material will disappear for good soon. The party will be over at least on YouTube, Google Video is a lot stricter about copyright than YouTube has ever been. There will be other sites anyway.
Hopefully as I have enjoyed watching videos of old TV programmes, stuff that interests me a lot more that what the record companies allow us to watch. I don't want to watch just Paris Hilton.
So let's take advantage of this while it lasts.
War with Iran -- a war that would unleash an apocalyptic scenario in the Middle East -- is probable by the end of the Bush administration. It could begin in as little as three weeks. This administration, claiming to be anointed by a Christian God to reshape the world, and especially the Middle East, defined three states at the start of its reign as "the Axis of Evil." They were Iraq, now occupied; North Korea, which, because it has nuclear weapons, is untouchable; and Iran. Those who do not take this apocalyptic rhetoric seriously have ignored the twisted pathology of men like Elliott Abrams, who helped orchestrate the disastrous and illegal contra war in Nicaragua, and who now handles the Middle East for the National Security Council. He knew nothing about Central America. He knows nothing about the Middle East. He sees the world through the childish, binary lens of good and evil, us and them, the forces of darkness and the forces of light. And it is this strange, twilight mentality that now grips most of the civilian planners who are barreling us towards a crisis of epic proportions.
Some people thought that the Cold War was really scary. Well with hindsight it wasn't. You had two sides that did not want to die, Now we have these people who are also here.
I saw a one page advertisement in the Independent today that made me smell a rat. That could not have been real so I went to see their website (you should have a look at this) and found out that three organizations are behind it:
Airportwatch
enoughsenough.org
and the usual Greenpeace
This article shows the ten coolest places to work.
I'm not sure about the Red Bull HQ with the slides, funny for a few days but I'm sure it gets pretty annoying soon.
And the conference bike is just too weird.
Just been to Sainsburys. One of those Sainsburys locals and it was packed. There are many things I don't undestand in this world and one of them is why they always seem to have two check out tills open and that's it.
Maybe I'm really unlucky but I always find the place with a queue twisting around the shop and it takes about 15/20 minutes to pay for my shopping. And there are ten empty check outs. You see people walk out or unable to get what they want because they cannot reach some items as they are blocked by people queuing to pay. I cannot see why they can't open more tills. I don't like to do shopping anyway but having to stand waiting to give them my money is a real torture. Why can't they have more staff?
I don't know why but I'm prone to cases of Saturday Night Migraine, sigh, not something that starred John Travolta.
My favourite cure is to listen to some quiet music with the lights off, staring at the PC is a very bad idea.
And in desperation I place this classic here.
This is a story about a comedian, Mark Thomas, who seems to crop up everywhere these days and how he managed to unearthed the illicit sales of military weapons over the Internet.
I always say that you can do anything online these days
