Buenos Aires in english

Friday, January 23, 2009

It is necessary to run risks, to follow certain paths and to abandon others. No one can make a choice without feeling fear.
( Brida )

Thursday, January 22, 2009

George Bush Top 10 Moments - David Letterman Show

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

15 Deadly But Often-Made Resume Blunders to Avoid

Most articles on this topic list blunders that very few people are dumb enough to actually make. Maybe we’re making a bold assumption, but it’s not likely that very many people are “stating that they work well in the nude”, as one resume blunder article cautions against. Nor are very many job seekers likely to “use pale blue paper with teddy bears printed around the border”, as another article warns of. Very helpful! But nevertheless, there are quite a few real resume blunders that perfectly intelligent people commit, which you should be aware of, because they can diminish you in the eyes of employers.

1) Letting typos slip through

Possibly the easiest resume blunder to make, letting typos slip through is almost one of the most dangerous. A recent survey indicated that 84% of hiring personnel toss a resume in trash upon spotting just one or two typos! Understand this for what it is: the HR people do not have some type of vendetta against spelling errors in and of themselves. Rather, what they see when they come across as a spelling error is a lack of conscientiousness. They see someone who apparently did not even take their application seriously enough to proofread it before clicking the “Send” button or mailing it in. This isn’t the impression you want to give off, so be sure to eliminate all spelling errors before submitting your resume.

resume blunder

2) Inappropriate e-mail address

It is common today for applicants to leave an e-mail address on their resumes. Nothing wrong with that. Unfortunately, many applicants make the mistake of leaving personal or inappropriate e-mail addresses rather than professional ones. Put yourself into the HR guy’s shoes. You are looking at two very impressive applications, but one them lists their e-mail as “ismokeweedeveryday@gmail.com” while the other lists theirs as “JohnSmith@gmail.com.” Which person are you more likely to hire? If you don’t already have a professional-sounding e-mail address, just visit one of the many free e-mail providers (like gmail, yahoo, and hotmail) and sign up for one.

3) Listing irrelevant, non-job-related information

Too many applicants try to get “cute” and show how eclectic they are by listing non-job related information in their resumes. This can be anything from the vacations they’ve taken, the hobbies they enjoy, or even (in rarer cases) the pets they own! It’s understandable to want to “liven up” your application, but remember this: the HR person who will eventually read it reads thousands of applications each year. They have trained themselves to relentlessly skim through applications searching for only the very relevant details.

4) Poor formatting

Remember: employers and their HR staffs scan resumes. They do not painstakingly read each and every word. Being that this is the case, the best thing you can do is make your resume scannable. This means using one of the many free resume templates that come with Word or that can be downloaded on the Internet. These are the formats employers are used to reading, and it’s one easy way you can take friction and hassle out of their reviewing of your resume. Don’t get “cute” with formatting!

5) Use of personal pronouns

Remember back in college when your professor didn’t let you use words like “I” or “me” in essays? Keep this rule in mind when creating your resume as well. Like a college essay, a resume is a formal document (albeit a business document rather than an academic one.) For example, rather than saying

I oversaw the creation of a new department that generated $5 million in sales and increased pre-tax profits by 15%.

Say this instead:

Oversaw creation of new department that generated $5 million in sales and increased pre-tax profits by 15%.

If this seems like a lot to remember, just pretend that you are someone else, describing yourself to another person. This rule will help keep you on track.

6) Trying to sound “well-rounded”

Some applicants believe they will look better to employers if they seem well-rounded. Such people typically play up how many committees they’ve served on, how many different and varying job titles they’ve held, different industries they’ve worked in, and the like. Unfortunately, this does not work as intended. Most employers see such people as not being great at any one thing, and they are thus unsure of how to evaluate them. Most often, such applicants are simply passed over in favor of those with more specific skillsets.

7) Self-deprecation

Too many resumes have self-deprecating remarks and phrases. While it’s understandable to not want to be seen as bragging on your application, you still want to look good. It is for this reason that statements like “graduated in the top 66% of my class” and “self-employment: what a disaster that was!” will not make you look good. Rather, they will make you seem like a potential threat to the organization, someone who probably shouldn’t be trusted with much power or autonomy.

8) Bragging

Of course, the other side of the resume blunder coin are applicants who excessively brag about themselves or their achievements. Again - you do want your resume to make you look like a strong candidate. What you do not want is obnoxious arrogance, as seen in statements like “you will never find a better candidate than me”, or “my job performance is unsurpassed”, or “if you don’t hire me, you’ll regret it!” Such statements make you seem cocky and indicate a potential lack of team spirit (or even narcissism!)

9) Focusing on responsibilities instead of achievements

The best resumes draw attention to what you as an employee have achieved - sales growth, cost-cutting, higher customer retention, etc. The worst resumes talk only or mostly about what responsibilities you have held - manager, committee supervisor, etc. Take a good, hard look at your resume and determine if it is primarily responsibilities or achievements based. If it is not already achievements-based, make sure it is before you send it in to employers!

10) Important skills buried at the bottom

Some otherwise good resumes handicap themselves by listing important skills at the bottom - say, computer skills. It should go without saying that the skills most relevant to the job you want should be listed top, front, and center in your resume. Read over your resume a few times and put yourself in the position of a busy, beleaguered HR person. Would your job-specific skills jump out to them? If not, re-arrange your resume so that they will.

11) Lack of bullet points

As alluded to earlier, scanability is essential to creating a good resume. One of the most critical elements of scanability is the use of bullet points. Do not make the mistake (which many applicants do) of writing everything in as a “wall” of text, hoping that whomever reads your resume will painstakingly peruse your every word to extract the important parts. They will not. That being the case, be sure to use bullets early and often!

12) Listing references directly on the resume

You should list your references on a separate sheet of paper or, ideally, only provide them when asked. Including them within the resume itself only adds bulk (which makes it more tempting to rush through) and does you little good, since references will only matter if and when the employer decides to interview you and advance the process beyond the resume-reviewing stage. When in doubt, leave the references out!

13) The “more is better” mentality

An article listing the 100 funniest resume mistakes says that one woman divided her resume into acts as though it were a play: ie, Act 1 of the resume, Act 2 of the resume, etc. We realize this is rather extreme and ridiculous, but it’s telling because of how many people (albeit less dramatically) adopt a “more is better” approach with their resumes. This is absolutely false. In fact, research would probably show that resumes are read less often in proportion to how large they are. Whenever possible, try to include only the essential details necessary to convey your main point.

14) Resume sent as an attachment without you knowing how it’ll look

We’ve all been there: you send something out as an e-mail attachment, only to have it look different (sometimes drastically) on your recipient’s computer than it does on yours. This can be disastrous if the random factor and chaos of the Internet messes up your resume’s formatting or bullets! Luckily, this need not become an obstacle. Before sending your resume via e-mail, simply “test” send it to a few of your friends and verify how it looks on their computers. If it looks as it does on your computer, send it to the employer. If not, find out why and fix it.

15) Passive-aggressiveness

Not every job applicant has the benefit of writing a resume with a sparkling job history. Some have been fired numerous times or been involved in conflicts with bosses at one or more jobs. There is a strong tendency among such people to demonize their ex-bosses in the resume, blaming them for their own failures. But while you might think this makes you look better, it rarely has this effect. Rather, most employers will read something like “I only got fired because my boss was an unrealistic jerk” and imagine themselves being in that boss’ shoes someday. You will be seen as a “problem-person” and probably ignored. The far more effective and mature approach is to simply acknowledge any past difficulties you may have had and exude an honest, sincere willingness to put those things behind you.

Source:

Monday, January 19, 2009

Sweet Dreams

Bupa appoints Fiona McAnena as group brand director

LONDON - Bupa, the private healthcare provider, has appointed Fiona McAnena as its group brand director and Sue Moore as marketing director of its UK health insurance business.

McAnena will be responsible for developing Bupa's brand around the world, with a remit that covers health insurance as well as services in aged care, preventive health, hospitals and home healthcare.

She joins Bupa from Pepsico where she was vice-president, innovation. She started her career at Unilever, and went on to become group development director at WPP's research agency, Kantar, CEO of its media agency, Mediaedge:cia, and UK managing director at Added Value, the brand development agency.

Moore leaves her role as marketing and communications director of Land Securities Trillium, a property outsourcing and public private partnerships business.

Before Land Securities, Moore spent four years on the main board of building services provider Rok plc.

She also spent 17 years at British Airways in a series of brand, marketing and strategy roles, where she launched BA's Executive Club loyalty programme, led the airline's brand team and introduced the flat bed for Club World customers.

Dr Natalie-Jane Macdonald, managing director of Bupa UK Health Insurance, said: "Sue brings significant expertise to Bupa's UK businesses which will be invaluable for us at a time when the economy is uncertain, developments in the wider health system continue and customers rightly seek value from private healthcare propositions.

"Both Sue and Fiona bring a wide range of experience to Bupa as it moves into new areas such as home healthcare and disease management and further develops products and services for our medical insurance and aged care customers."

Source

Evolution Through Exploration

Most living things belong to a particular soul group and are born knowing their purpose in life. An animal will spend its day foraging for food, taking care of itself and its young, and creating a home. No one tells an animal to do this, yet it instinctively knows how. Humans, for the most part, are not born consciously knowing what their purpose is.

Purpose gives our life meaning. When you discover your purpose, you can live your life with intention and make choices that serve your objective for why you are here on the planet. Finding your purpose is not always easy. You must embrace life wholeheartedly, explore many different pathways, and allow yourself to grow.

Your purpose is as unique as you are and will evolve as you move through life. You don’t need anyone’s permission to fulfill your purpose, and no one can tell you what that purpose is. Finding and fulfilling your purpose can be a lifelong endeavor. To figure out what your purpose is, ask yourself what drives you – not what forces you out of bed in the morning, but what makes you glad to be alive. Make a list of activities that you wish you were involved in or think about a career path that you would love to embark upon. These are the endeavors that can help you fulfill your purpose and bring you the most satisfaction.

Picture yourself working on projects that don’t interest you or fulfill your purpose, yet they help satisfy your basic survival needs. Imagine how living this way each day would make you feel. Next, picture yourself devoting your time to projects that spark your imagination, inspire, excite, and satisfy you. More often than not, these activities are some of the ways that you can fulfill your life purpose. Time spent on these endeavors will never feel like a waste. Live your life with purpose, and you will feel significant and capable because every action you take and each choice you make will have meaning to it.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

UK GOVERNMENT’S HEATHROW EXPANSION THREATENS GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE FIGHT

London, 15 January 2009 -- The UK government’s decision to expand Heathrow airport, announced today, is a serious threat to the fight against global climate change. At full capacity, an expanded Heathrow airport would become the biggest single source of carbon emissions in the UK.

Developed countries must take steps to ensure their carbon emissions are cut by the upper end of 25-40%, by 2020, as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in order to avoid catastrophic climate change. Already aviation accounts for 13% of the UK’s climate impact – a figure that is rapidly growing. An expanded Heathrow would make it extremely difficult for the UK government to lead on emissions cuts in international climate talks in Copenhagen later this year.

“The UK government’s decision to expand Heathrow is extraordinary given the realities of global warming. It is time for governments to get serious and take effective action to tackle climate change. This is a dangerous step, not just for the UK, but the world as a whole,” said Greenpeace International Executive Director Gerd Leipold.

“We’ll fight this every step of the way. The movement against this runway is huge and growing. We have MPs from all the major parties, organisations representing millions of people, the country doesn’t want this expansion and we have the science on our side,” said Greenpeace UK Executive Director John Sauven.

Crucially, Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon accepted in his statement that there would be a sizable increase in CO2 emissions from a new runway, but that electrification of cars would – supposedly – offset those increases as would emissions caps and improved aviation technology. However, vehicle electrification is meant to contribute to the government’s 20% renewable energy target, not offset a third runway.

The proposal to set in place a cap on emissions from Heathrow will be policed by the Climate Change Committee, an advisory body with no power to punish Spanish-owned BAA, which owns Heathrow, or the UK government for non-compliance. The government’s commitment to cut its carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, which the new package is supposedly designed to protect, is full of loopholes – for example, Britain can simply buy in carbon credits from other countries to meet the target.

In addition, a marginally more fuel-efficient plane will not solve the problem of climate change. “Hoping for an aeroplane that doesn’t cause global warming is like holding out for a cigarette that doesn’t cause cancer,” Sauven stressed.

Earlier this week Greenpeace announced it had bought the land earmarked for the new runway development and is now co-owner of the plot with award-winning actress Emma Thompson, comedian Alistair McGowan and Conservative Party green advisor Zac Goldsmith. Over 12,000 people from across the world have signed up to be “beneficial owners” of the land, meaning each name will appear on the title deeds and will be able to be represented at inquires in the bid to stop the expansion of Heathrow

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Crazy!

Hey Barack, stop asking me to help retire Hillary's campaign debt. If she didn't want to spend tens of millions of extra $$$ she should have quit afte

"But as we all prepare for that journey, we can't forget our commitment to help Hillary Clinton retire her campaign debt."

Vice-President Elect Joe Biden

Joe, is this really the best way to strategically use the 13 million strong mailing list? I realize Hillary has talents and debts, and that helping take care of her debts is probably part of some grand handshake that I don't know about or quite understand. Why not just go and ask her top supporters as well as Obama's and your own? Raising more money for change from the movement and then spending it on campaign debts doesn't jive with me.

On a "Are we ready for the Inauguration" note, I witnessed a humorous episode of security training at Union Station. Of course, we're becoming acclimated to squads of secret service police with machine guns poised -- reminds me of Europe in the 1970s. Those guns certainly change the atmosphere -- as they should.

Last Friday, I witnessed the confused interaction between a neophyte dog sniffer named Smitty, his black lab, and his wildy gesticulating supervisor in need of some training about how to coach employees. As morning commuter crowds poured into the station, we heard: "Smitty, work the crowd. Smitty, work the crowd." Smitty kept his composure in his brand new black uniform and hat and tried his best. The dog sniffed and twisted around people, lunged for the men's Room, and finally chased a fella with a striped shirt to the pretzel stand. "Smitty, work the crowd," grew more urgent. The supervisor, unsatisfied with Smitty's performance, took the leash and demonstrated how to move back and forth through the torrent of passengers. It was difficult for my unschooled eyes to distinguish the right way from the wrong way "Smitty, work the crowd" echoed as we left for our train.

It's good to practice -- and to start early. I'm sure we'll all be ready for the great day.

Source

Monday, December 22, 2008

A Minimalist’s Guide to Using Twitter Simply, Productively, and Funly

This morning after our hill run my sister asked me about Twitter: “What’s Twitter all about? I don’t get it?”

Neither did I at first — I resisted using Twitter for more than a year because it seemed like just another distraction, just another way to waste time and have noisy chatter going on in front of you.

But I decided to see what the fuss was all about, and did my Great Twitter Experiment. To my surprise, Twitter was actually fun, interesting, and useful — if used correctly.

I’ve also found that Twitter isn’t something you can explain, and it’s not something you can understand until you’ve used it for at least a few days. You have to use it to get it.

I think that’s because Twitter can be so many things to so many people. One person might use it as a marketing tool, another to stay in touch with friends, another to collaborate with co-workers, and still others to stay informed about their favorite bloggers, websites, the latest gossip, reading, news and more.

Today we’ll look at some different ways you can use Twitter without spending too much time doing it.

A Minimalist Approach

When I first signed up for Twitter a few months ago, I followed a bunch of people I knew and was instantly fed with a stream of new “tweets” from all the people I was following. I read through all the tweets, but the stream just kept coming.

I’d wake up in the morning and try to read through all the tweets, or at least scan them. Then I’d try to keep up periodically throughout the day. It was stressful.

Then I learned the secret of Twitter: don’t try to keep up.

Twitter is like a river … you can step into it at any point and feel the water, bathe in it, frolic if you like … and then get out. And go back in at any time, at any point. But, you don’t have to try to consume the entire river — it’s impossible and frankly a waste of time in my eyes.

So that’s how I approach Twitter these days: I’ll just jump into the stream of incoming tweets and see what people are saying. I can ignore them or follow their links or reply if I want. Then I get out of the stream. I don’t try to read everything I missed, and if I miss a lot of stuff, I’m OK with that.

I’ve actually used this approach I learned from with other things, such as email, Facebook, RSS, news and other information. I don’t have to consume it all, but I can jump into the river anytime I like and read, reply if I like, and get back out. So what if I miss a ton of blog posts, news stories, and emails? Will my life fall apart?

The answer turns out to be no.

Simple Ways to Use Twitter

If you follow this minimalist approach, you don’t have to spend a lot of time using Twitter to get a lot out of it, no matter what your goals are.

Here are some guidelines and ideas for using Twitter that I’ve found to be useful:

* Don’t follow a lot of people. Some people follow thousands of people. Their incoming stream must be incredible — I’m sure they don’t even try to keep up with everything. Others might be even more minimalist than I am: they follow a dozen people or less. But then what’s interesting about that? You’re not getting very much out of Twitter if you only follow a few people. Your needs will be different than mine, but I’ve found that following a few dozen to a hundred people is ideal if you’re trying to keep things simple but still get a lot out of Twitter. I think I’m following about 60 right now. I add people now and then but also drop others if they tweet too often and I don’t get anything out of their tweets.
* Don’t tweet too much. Some people are constantly tweeting. Personally, I don’t like to read that many every hour, so if they’re filling up my stream of incoming tweets, they’re wasting my time. I’ve found that once a day or a few times a day or even 10 times a day at the most is ideal for me — your usage will vary. But if you do it too much, you have to be using Twitter a lot, and to me that’s too much of a distraction and time drain. So I go on a few times a day (at most) and tweet only when I feel I have something interesting to say or ask.
* Don’t be on Twitter all the time. Some people have it open all the time — and that’s fine if it works for you. Personally, I’ve found that if Twitter is open (or if Twitterific, my desktop Twitter program, is open) all the time, I have a hard time focusing on other work. So like I said, I close it most of the time and open it a few times a day to see what’s going on. Mainly when I want to take a break. I only open it for a few minutes at most.
* Make announcements. I like to announce things on Twitter — it’s more effective than announcing things through email and less obtrusive than doing an entire post on my blog.
* Ask questions. Sometimes I’ll need a solution or some ideas for something, and I’ll ask the question on Twitter — and immediately get a dozen great replies. Thank you Twitterers! One time I couldn’t order a notebook (Muji Chronotebook) online so I asked if anyone lived near a Muji store, in New York for instance — and one Twitterer actually went to the store and bought it for me, and mailed it to me! Btw, I love this notebook and use it daily now. Thanks Chris!
* Take a poll. I’ve asked people how often they like to see posts on Zen Habits, things they want me to write about, whether I should do a Zen Habits post about the presidential election, and other similar poll questions, and have gotten some great feedback.
* Tell people interesting things. If you have something going on in your life that’s really interesting, by all means, share it. That’s what Twitter is about. It often gets some great conversations going. If you don’t have anything interesting to say, don’t be afraid to be silent. No one really cares if you don’t say anything, but it’s annoying to read people share things that aren’t interesting.
* Jump into conversations sometimes. I don’t think you should get involved in every conversation, but sometimes it can be fun to jump in and say your two cents. Then jump back out when you’re done.
* Find some great reading. When I feel like a distraction and want to read something useful or interesting, I’ll scan through my Twitter stream and find a few cool links to read. People share some really great stuff from the web on Twitter. However, as a warning, it can be overwhelming if you try to read everything. Again, it’s a river — go into the water when you feel like it, but get back out too — don’t try to consume the entire river.
* Learn to be concise. What I really love about Twitter is its 140 character limit for tweets. Some people cheat by doing multiple tweets about the same thing, but that defeats the purpose of the limit. Instead, learn to say just the essential in one post (or two if you really need to). It forces you to choose, to edit, to simplify. I love that. I wish email had a limit.
* Use it as a log. I forget where I read this idea, but one fitness blogger suggested using Twitter to help lose weight: post *everything* you eat on Twitter. It’s a great idea (I think it was Craig Ballantyne) because it hold you accountable, and you don’t want to post something that you shouldn’t have eaten. But Twitter could be used as a workout log, a travelogue, anything really.
* Find someone to hire. Just now I posted on Twitter to find someone to redo the software for Guampedia.com in Drupal or Joomla. Got some great responses already! Whoever you need to find, Twitter should be able to help.
* Reduce your inboxes. If you use Twitter regularly, you can probably reduce your need for RSS (my favorite blogs are on Twitter anyways), email (you can DM people), IM, news sites, and so on. It’s nice to consolidate, as long as you use it intelligently.
* Create a Twitter personal assistant. Check out this guide for a pretty cool use of Twitter and associated services.

Just for fun: check out Twittervision 3D for an incredible global representation of tweets at they happen around the globe in real time.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Standards: Slot Machines vs. Electronic Voting Machines

Is Cheney hinting that Bin Laden is about to be taken out of the freezer?

The Bush administration would "love" to capture 9/11 terror mastermind Osama bin Laden during the remaining 30 days left with it, US Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday.

"Capturing Osama bin Laden is something we clearly would love to do in the 30 days left," Cheney told Fox News in an interview.

Asked if it was a major disappointment for him not to catch bin Laden during his term, Cheney said: "Well I would prefer to have gotten Usama bin Laden the week after 9/11. So would the president."

"I think more important though is what we've been able to do generally to his organisation. Even if you were able to get Osama bin Laden, which clearly we would like to do, you've still got I've had in the past, a strong functioning organisation there," he said.

"He's been holed up in a way where he's not even been communicating and there are questions about whether or not he's even running the operation. But we have had major success against the organisation, Cheney said.

He pointed out that US forces have captured and killed a lot of Al Qaeda members since 9/11.

At the same time, he pointed out that the Bush administration has succeeded in preventing a similar attack on the US since the 9/11.

"As I said, we've prevented further attacks against the United States. But that's probably the most important objective," Cheney, who also backed the controversial policies that had helped protect the country from another terrorist strike, said.

He claimed that the Bush administration had acted appropriately in its "war on terror".

Saturday, December 06, 2008

5 Things Facebook Needs to Improve Right Now

We love Facebook, ok? It’s a wild love affair. However, just like in every relationship, frustration abounds, because many of Facebook’s features either don’t work as intended, are too slow, or simply lack the details to be truly great. Here’s our list of possible Facebook improvements that would make our hearts smile.
Facebook Chat

Ok, we talked about this a month and a half ago, and nothing has been done. Facebook Chat is a fantastic way to chat with folks with whom you might not be chatting on a regular basis - old friends from high school, business acquaintances and so forth. However, it’s plagued with problems: your chat buddies seem to keep going offline (although they’re not), messages aren’t delivered, chat is down for maintenance.

In fact, I know several users who’ve confessed that they only say hello on Facebook Chat and then move on to Google Talk because it’s so much more reliable. Furthermore, it lacks some crucial features: the chat log only goes back a short time period, and it’s impossible to access when your chat buddy is offline (very frustrating). Fix it, please.
Facebook Mail

We get it: it’s not meant to be a full featured e-mail client, it’s meant to be simple. However, some of its “feats” truly baffle us. For example, you can’t archive messages, you can only delete them. But even when you delete them, you can still view them, if someone replies to a deleted thread. It’s not a deal breaker, we’d just like to see a little consistency here.

The view, which always shows you a thumbnail next to each message, cannot be changed. When you start actually using the Mail feature, you start aching for a way to see more items on the page, and get rid of the thumbnails. Also, no drafts? Don’t know about the rest of the world, but I like to create drafts for later use. In short - and we know we might be asking for a lot here, but what the hell - we’d like it to be more like Gmail.
Events

Facebook could be a fantastic way to find out about events. In my case, those events are mostly related to music. But I’m not using Facebook for this, I’m using Last.FM. Why, you ask? Well, because it’s vastly better. First of all, you can set an exact date to find events; you can also set it to see events in a proximity (100 miles, for example) of a certain location (I can’t seem to find the proximity feature in the new design, though. Have they removed it? If you have any clue, please let me know.). This means you can find all the concerts in the vicinity of New Jersey occurring in a three day window a month from now. Neat.

Now, let’s check the situation on Facebook. You can only browse events that’ll happen today, tomorrow, in one week, or one month. And no location. Gee, great: that makes the entire thing totally useless, because searching for movies that will happen in the next month anywhere in the world will yield thousands of results. Useless results. Add location and precise date to the mix, and the Events feature will be a zillion times better. No need to thank me, Facebook, a hefty check will do.
Live Feed

This feature was what made me start regularly using Facebook. I don’t like being given a choice of what Facebook thinks is most interesting to me, like I do in the News Feed; I like to see it all. But I can’t, because the damn thing is awfully laggy. Yes, I’m aware that syncing all that data across thousands of servers and delivering it to millions of users across the globe is tricky. That’s why you, Facebook, are smart and Microsoft gave you a lot of money. Find a way to make it work.
Filtering

This is a minor point, but it’s still something that could be improved upon. You can filter out things from the News Feed - very precisely, I might add - but you can’t filter out things from the status updates, photos, or posted items list. Why? And while we’re at it, having filters in email wouldn’t exactly hurt our feelings, either.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Clowns ...mmm

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

UK Gets Serious About Algae Biofuel

The Carbon Trust is a private company which works across a wide range of sectors to reduce carbon emissions across the UK. They conduct studies, lend money and come up with national initiatives – like the algae biofuel initiative announced yesterday. The Algae Biofuels Challenge, as they call it, is to commercialize algae biofuel by 2020 and have it provide a significant of the country’s fuel needs (70 billion liters of oil).

Algae is the favored biofuels candidate, mostly because it takes few resources to grow and does not compete for food production; a major drawback of conventional biofuels. The choice of algae is not surprising; algae biofuel startups are appearing in the US on a fairly regular basis. What makes this initiative particularly exciting is that it provides a clear cut vision of how to bring algae fuel from the lab to commercialization.

To that end, The Algae Biofuels Challenge has delineated two major goals: first figuring out which algae technology really works the best, and subsequently figuring out how to bring that technology to scale. Unlike the American market leaders such as Amyris, Petrosun and Solazyme, The Carbon Trust has not committed to anything yet – which strain of algae, how to grow it, etc. Instead, they hope to recruit some of the top algae scientists in the world to work together on the issue. They will address the second step, bringing the fuel to scale, in the same way.

The algae fuel industry is still young, and we don’t really know whether it will be a success. It is possible that an American company will come up with an idea that the Carbon Trust’s people do not think of. Still, I consider the Algae Biofuels Challenge a refreshingly different approach to the issue – rather than waiting for the Google of algae to descend from the heavens, the UK approach is to establish a center where many people work towards a common goal

UN rejects suggestions it failed in Congo conflict

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Several top U.N. officials vehemently rejected suggestions on Monday that U.N. peacekeepers have failed to protect civilians in eastern Congo, where recent fighting is causing a humanitarian catastrophe. Aid agencies say tens of thousands of civilians are roaming the countryside unprotected, in need of shelter, food, water and medical care. Some of the displaced have accused U.N. peacekeepers of failing to fulfill a mandate to protect them from violence and looting, not just by armed rebel groups but also by Congolese government forces. The head of U.N. peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy, dismissed suggestions that U.N. peacekeepers in Congo, known by their French acronym MONUC, had failed to carry out their duty. "We are doing our utmost," he told reporters in New York by video link from Congo, where he was meeting with senior officials from the largest U.N. peacekeeping operation. He said MONUC, which has some 17,000 troops across Congo, was doing everything possible to fulfill its mandate in as robust a manner as possible with limited manpower over eastern Congo, a region one and a half times the size of France. Earlier French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said MONUC needed to get tougher in protecting civilians from violence. Le Roy said he spoke with Kouchner, who said he agreed MONUC needed to be "more robust" but also needed reinforcement. Le Roy said Congolese authorities, including those in North Kivu, acknowledged that MONUC had helped prevent renegade Congolese Tutsi Gen. Laurent Nkunda's CNDP rebels from seizing more territory than they already have in eastern Congo. "The authorities on the ground recognize that without MONUC, many other areas would have been taken," he said. "The criticism (of) MONUC is in many cases I must say unfair." Nkunda's troops have been poised to take Goma, the capital of North Kivu, since last week, but have been complying with a ceasefire that both Le Roy and Alan Doss, the head of MONUC, described as fragile. NO ADDITIONAL TROOPS A January peace deal collapsed in August in Congo, where a 1998-2003 war and resulting humanitarian disaster have killed an estimated 5.4 million people, mostly through hunger and disease. With the crisis deepening, Doss asked the U.N. Security Council a month ago for additional troops and military hardware to help him deal with Nkunda's advance. But Doss' deputy, Ross Mountain, said it appeared "that we are not getting those reinforcements immediately." As a result, MONUC will have to redeploy troops protecting civilians in other parts of the country to help secure Goma. This, Mountain said, will expose those civilians to attacks by more than 20 other armed groups across the region. In the meantime, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has launched a diplomatic drive to help back up what he described as a U.N. "thin blue line against the chaos." Ban said Congolese President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame, two leaders seen as essential to resolving the crisis, had expressed a willingness to meet him "sometime this weekend or early next week." He also announced he was nominating former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo as a special envoy to seek a political settlement and was reappointing Senegalese Gen. Babacar Gaye to command MONUC forces after Spanish Lt. Gen. Vicente Diaz de Villegas lasted just seven weeks in the job.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Socialism Scare

Recently, the right wing has seized on Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) admission that he wants to "spread the wealth around" as evidence that his tax policies are somehow socialist, communist, or Marxist. Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) compared Obama's policies to those of Cuba, saying, "Where I come from, where I was raised, they tried wealth redistribution. We don't need that here, that's called Socialism, Communism, not Americanism." House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said, "You want to talk about socialism. You put these people in office, it's batten down the hatches and watch out." The media have also piled on, with WFTV Orlando's Barbara West asking Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) during an interview, "How is Sen. Obama not being a Marxist if he intends to spread the wealth around?" Fox News' Sean Hannity said Obama has "doubled down on socialism for America," while Bill O'Reilly admitted that he "wouldn't have said the Marxism thing" but that Obama nevertheless espouses "quasi-socialism." All of these conservatives, however, are distorting the Obama plan, which simply makes the American tax system slightly more progressive -- an idea that the American public solidly supports.

REPEALING THE TOP BUSH TAX CUTS: As the New Yorker noted, "[T]he principle that Obama evinced, which most economists would regard as unexceptionable, can be traced to Adam Smith," who wrote in "The Wealth of Nations," "It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion." Obama's plan is to repeal the Bush tax cuts on the top two federal income tax brackets, raising their rates to 36 percent and 39 percent and from 33 and 36 percent, respectively. This returns them to the levels that President Clinton had set. A new analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice found that only 2.5 percent of Americans would lose any of their Bush tax cuts under the Obama plan. Meanwhile, making all of Bush's cuts permanent, along with the corresponding alternative minimum tax relief, would cost $4.4 trillion by 2018. Research has shown that both private business investment and job growth were significantly stronger under Clinton's tax rates than under Bush's.

AMERICANS FAVOR PROGRESSIVE TAXATION: Ever since the federal income tax was enacted in 1913, it has been progressive; rates have increased proportionally with income. And the income tax is part of an overall tax system that is otherwise regressive. All working Americans pay the payroll tax, as well as various local and state sales and property taxes. Payroll taxes are quite regressive -- the highest earning 20 percent of Americans pay a lower average rate than the lowest earning 20 percent. Additionally, the public strongly favors the concept of progressive taxation: a Financial Times/Harris Poll found that 62 percent feel "the government should tax the wealthy more." A Pew Research Poll released last week shows that the public "agrees with progressives' stance on taxation and rejects the conservative approach." Only 25 percent agree "with the centerpiece of the conservative tax program: making all of the Bush tax cuts permanent." Meanwhile, 37 percent want to repeal tax cuts for the wealthy while keeping the rest of the cuts, and 25 percent want to repeal all of the cuts.

CONSERVATIVE REVERSE SOCIALISM: Conservative economic plans also redistribute wealth, but to the wealthiest Americans in the form of tax cuts that benefit corporations and those in the top income brackets. Yesterday, Boehner unveiled his own economic recovery plan, which is focused on tax breaks that include cutting the top corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent and suspending the capital gains tax for two years. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) proposed a similar "six point economic plan" this month, in which he advocated completely eliminating the capital gains tax and making all of the Bush tax cuts permanent. Some of these provisions are also embraced by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and they are all propositions from which the overwhelming benefit would go to the very wealthy. As the Tax Policy Center found, 75 percent of the benefit of low taxes on capital gains and dividends "already go to those making $600,000 or more. Half goes to those making $2.8 million or more." Simply cutting the capital gains rate in half gives two-thirds of the benefit to those making $1 million or more. Meanwhile, cutting the corporate tax rate sends $175 billion to America's corporations, and these corporations would have no incentive to reinvest the extra money. As a report by the Center for American Progress found, "economic policies with tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy as their centerpiece have simply failed to produce strong economic growth by a variety of measures," including employment, investment, and wage levels.

TERRORISM -- ROBERT KAGAN DISMISSES EVIDENCE OF BUSH'S IRAQ LIES AS 'CONSPIRACY THEORIES': Leading neoconservative scholar and former Reagan administration official Robert Kagan in a recent interview with Der Spiegel dismissed concerns that the Bush administration had misled the American public in the lead-up to the Iraq war as "silly" and "absurd." The newspaper asked whether it was possible to deny "that the war was based on manipulation exaggeration and flat-out lies." Kagan replied that such an assertion was "absurd" and repeated the right-wing talking point that President Bush used the same intelligence as the Europeans. "I think it's about time we moved beyond this silly conversation and these absurd conspiracy theories," Kagan insisted. It's no longer a matter of dispute that the Bush administration manipulated, exaggerated, and lied about the true nature of the threat Saddam Hussein posed. As the Wonk Room's Matt Duss points out, it's irrelevant that other countries shared the same intelligence; the important point is that "the German government and the French government didn't spin that intelligence into a justification" for the Iraq war.

ENVIRONMENT -- HERITAGE RESPONDS TO GREEN RECOVERY PLANS WITH FEAR-MONGERING: Earlier this week, Heritage Foundation blogger Nick Loris responded to the U.N. Environmental Program's Green Economy Initiative and the Center for American Progress's Green Recovery program with historical revisionism and a fear-mongering reference to "Nazi Germany." Loris wrote that the U.N. is proposing an "environmental 'New Deal,'" akin to President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, which Loris claims "made things worst" after the Great Depression. In fact, economists broadly agree that stimulative government spending is necessary to prevent a further collapse of the global economic system, just as the New Deal and the deficit spending of World War II revived the health of the global economy in the last century. The U.N. Green Economic Initiative is a mainstream capitalist effort, with research overseen by Pavan Sukdhev, a top investment banker and self-described "total capitalist." CAP's Green Recovery program primarily uses tax credits and federal loans to spur private investment, as well as investment in a 21st-century public infrastructure. Despite Loris's baseless claims that "taxing and spending does not create wealth," moving to a green economy will in fact generate more jobs and greater economic growth, as California's green economy has proven.

MEDIA -- FOX NEWS'S BRIT HUME CLAIMS HE IS 'A JOURNALIST FIRST AND A CONSERVATIVE SECOND OR THIRD': Soon after the election next Tuesday, Brit Hume, the Washington D.C. managing editor for Fox News, "will step down from the anchor desk and his long-running show, Special Report." Discussing his impending departure, Hume said yesterday that one of the reasons he is retiring is because the "whole general tone of politics in this country has turned so sour and so bitter and so partisan." At the same time, Hume decried increased partisanship, he defended Fox against claims that it is biased in favor of conservatives, saying that he and his colleagues constantly think about their "own biases." "I'm a journalist first and a conservative second or third," he claimed. But not everyone believes that Hume has successfully checked his biases. "Brit Hume injected his supposedly straight newscasts with an almost pathological conservative bent," Media Matters spokesman Karl Frisch told the Politico. In the past, Hume has said that Democrats "are kind of embarrassed by patriotism" and are "invested in our losing" in Iraq. He has also repeatedly pushed factually-challenged global warming skepticism.

Politico reports: "Two days after next week's election, top conservatives will gather at the Virginia weekend home of one of the movement’s most prominent members to begin a conversation about their role in the GOP and how best to revive" the party. The meeting will include a "who's who of conservative leaders."

Recently convicted Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) "is asking the Justice Department to investigate the conduct of federal prosecutors" who prosecuted him. Stevens's attorney has requested an investigation into "numerous, serious constitutional violations" by government prosecutors, alleging that his trial was "irretrievably tainted by the prosecution team’s zeal to convict a high-profile but innocent defendant."

"After years of flooding Americans with credit card offers and sky-high credit lines, lenders are sharply curtailing both, just as an eroding economy squeezes consumers." The move "threatens an already beleaguered banking industry with another wave of heavy losses after an era in which it reaped near record gains from the business of easy credit that it helped create."

President Bush has transformed America's federal appeals courts, "advancing a conservative legal revolution that began nearly three decades ago under President Ronald Reagan." By Inauguration day, "Republican-appointed judges, most of them conservatives, are projected to make up about 62 percent of the bench" while controlling 10 of the 13 circuit courts. More »

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) returned to his Washington residence yesterday, after spending the last six months at his home on Cape Cod battling brain cancer. Kennedy's spokesperson "declined to speculate on when Kennedy might return to his full duties in the Senate," but his return is "a sign that his treatments have been progressing well."

U.S. commanders in Afghanistan now believe they need about 20,000 more troops to battle a growing Taliban insurgency, the Washington Post reports today. The recent troop requests reflect the struggles that the military is facing in the country, where overall attacks "are up about 25 percent from January to October this year, compared with the same period last year."

Afghans are increasingly pessimistic about their country, according to a new Asia Foundation poll. Only 36 percent believe they are "more prosperous today than under the 1996-2001 Taliban government," down from 54 percent in 2006.

"In a study conducted in Florida, researchers found that drugstores in the poorest areas charge more, on average, for four widely used prescription medications than do pharmacies in wealthier neighborhoods."

And finally: Happy Halloween from the White House, with special greetings from Barney, Miss Beazley, and Willie the cat.

CGI and its Impact on 160 Million Lives

Dear Hernan,

This year's Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), a project of the Clinton Foundation, was our most successful to date. One thing was clear to all who attended: our work together has never been more important.

With mounting economic troubles exacerbating poverty levels around the world, health pandemics cutting lives short, education slipping out of reach for millions of children, and increasing temperatures threatening the future of our planet, action is needed more than ever. As President Clinton summarized, "We cannot afford to walk away from this work."

Members at CGI heeded this call, making more than 200 commitments this year alone, which will impact more than 160 million lives. The potential results of some of these commitments include:

	More than $400 million will be raised for investment and credit for small- and medium-sized enterprises in the developing world.
	$375 million will be raised to develop new vaccines and conduct medical research.
	50 million people will have access to mobile financial services.
	75 million people will have first-time access to health care or access to improved health care.
	25 million children will have access to new or improved school feeding programs.
	16 million children will participate in de-worming programs.
	The emission of 44 million metric tons of CO2 will be avoided.
	Enough clean energy will be created to power the equivalent of 7 million homes in the United States.
	Over 1 billion liters of safe drinking water will be distributed.

In the months to come, CGI will expand to new places and reach new people. On December 2nd and 3rd, the first in a series of CGI meetings outside of the United States will be held in Hong Kong. To learn more about CGI's meeting in Hong Kong, click here.

As always, you can join us by making your own commitment at MyCommitment.org. We each have the power to transform words into action, and a responsibility to help make a positive change today.

Thank you,

Signature

Bruce R. Lindsey
Chief Executive Officer
William J. Clinton Foundation

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