Well, it’s time to update the Linux. The latest update is Hardy Heron.
Computer people like cute names, and each Linux/ubuntu update has an animal name to identify it. Hardy Heron, gutsy Gibbon, etc.
The last time  I updated my Ubuntu operating sytem, I downloaded a torrent file of the iso (in English, I downloaded a new […]

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In a story titled “Consumer Credit: Going For Broke,” published by Forbes.com on May 8, 2008, Carl Gutierrez cited figures from the Federal Reserve indicating “that consumer borrowing in the United States rose by $15.3 billion in March, well ahead of Wall Street’s expected $6.0 billion, and was the biggest rise since November.” In light […]

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Crank the Wayback Machine to Summer, 2005. When the U.S. Supreme Court allowed New London, Connecticut, to use eminent domain to take the property of people living and doing business in the waterfront neighborhood of Fort Trumbull. The Supreme’s decision on Kelo v. New London was the cherry on an ugly sundae. New London […]

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I love hospice, because I’m old enough to remember when dying patients ended up in hospitals, or we docs would try to make house calls and try to get neighbors to help give adequate care in their homes. But with hospice, nurses helped me care for my patients by checking them frequently at home, and […]

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US President George Bush has joined his top diplomat in suggesting that the growing prosperity of India’s large middle class is contributing to rising food prices around the world
He said “So, for example, just as an interesting thought for you, there are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That’s bigger […]

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If you ask most Germans, and I wouldn’t if I were you, they will tell you that they want to have the Berlin Wall back. They also want the Sandmann, the World Cup, cheaper beer and gasoline, snow in the winter and Sabine Christiansen back, too (ich will, Anne Will, we all will). They will […]

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That heparin contamination that killed a few dozen folks might have been a deliberate act, not an accident…well, duh…
I noted that two weeks ago…
And this is on the heels of the fake protein in cat/dog food, and the lead in the kids’s toys.
But in Africa and Asia, things are worse. The tainted cough medicine that […]

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I am sure you have seen the late night TV adverts, “Need a few bucks till payday, give us a call”. In concept it is an unsecured loan payable in usually less than 14 days. It sounds good, you have a bill to pay but your bank account is dry. All you need is proof […]

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The small but prosperous Gulf kingdom of Bahrain has appointed a new Ambassador to the United States.
And she is Jewish.
Surprised?
Most Americans can’t tell a Shiite from a Sunni, or a Farsi from an Arab.
And a lot of blogs seem to think “Arab =Muslim”, a generalization that would come as a surprise to Lebanese Christians or […]

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(London, UK) The UK based Autism Awareness Campaign has urged British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor of the Exchequer Alastair Darling to reach out to the vulnerable and help families with autism during what is now a time of crisis. According to campaigners, the credit crunch will hurt the poor, the most vulnerable sections […]

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It’s bad enough for a straight-A wind energy Musterschuler (model student) like Germany to suddenly fall back to fifth place in class (at least when it comes to the number of turbines installed last year, that is), but to be passed up in the process by the Mother of all Umweltsünder (environmental sinners), the United […]

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An EARTH DAY SPECIAL from Churchill’s Parrot blog
Granted Karl Marx was a bitter, self-loathing, misanthrope, half-crazed with envy and his own depraved world view, but at least he had integrity.  When advocating the implementation of his beloved communism, for instance, he made no attempt to sugar coat what would be required:
“The proletariat will use its […]

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New Yorkers can thank their lucky SARs that X Governor Eliot Spitzer had a thing for hookers. Or more accurately– for pricey hookers run by international criminals who laundered payments through shell companies. If Spitzer had been doing cheap cash and carry on the streets of Albany (contrary to official reports, Mayor Jerry Jennings hasn’t […]

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Citizen involvement in political affairs is slowly dying.  Even with internet activism on the rise, mainly because it’s easier than actually going out and doing something, people are becoming more disjointed from the political process in their countries.  This leaves activism as a form which is found more towards the fringes of any given political […]

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Business Entities have of late been realizing that threats from Cyber Space have increased beyond the critical point where they can either be ignored or covered as a normal business loss. As Cyber Crime is getting more and more targeted towards financial benefits, the CEOs need […]

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Attention Conspiracy theorists.
They caught two of the ships that caused part of that Middle East Cable outage, and it turns out it was not done by the CIA, or Mossad, or Iran, or Alqaeda.
Just some careless sailors.
There were four cable cuts at the time; this story refers to the FLAG cable between Oman and the […]

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In their stump speeches Barack Obama (D-IL) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) have done their best to create what Washington Post columnist George Will calls “economic hypochondria,” and their surrogates in the MSM are laboring mightily to find everyday folks who can put a face to the suffering the candidates claim is caused by the “housing […]

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We just delivered more rice from the “second harvest” to the rice mill for storage and milling later. We don’t worry about a shortage of rice: We grown our own, a gormet organically grown rice for the upscale Manila market.
But not everyone is so lucky.
Here in the Philippines there is a rice shortage.
It came on […]

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New Jersey Gov., Jon S. Corzine, met with members of the New Jersey Conference of Mayors, at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, to discuss 2008’s tourism campaign, reported the Press of Atlantic City.
In an effort to help the NJ economy, tourism is high on the agenda. So don’t be surprised to see the big […]

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Petreus giving his testimony was on CNN last night..
Instapundit has his testimony here
My summary: Not all sweetness and light, but a hard slog, getting there slowly. Sounds about right.
But seeing Petreus testify reminded me that straight talkers who have quiet authority and integrity tend to play well on television, but politicians who talk too much […]

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Or is less gas more? The Germans call biofuel Biosprit but whether you call it that or bioethanol or biobutanol or biodiesel or whatever else kind of bio something you want to call this new poo poo power stuff, well, it’s all a bunch of gas in the end. Or at least it is whenever […]

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The usually staid Wall Street Journal has an AP article about how the Philippine government is planning to regulate a growing black market in buying kidneys from poor people in Manila. The headline reads:
Philippine Health Chief Orders Eradication of Kidney Black Market
Ah so. It’s already against the law, since it was made illegal by […]

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This isn’t the first time, I’ve written about Operation Ore, where a lot of British citizens were wrongfully accused of viewing child pornography.
Operation Ore was the result of an investigation conducted in the United States (Operation Avalanche), where a lot of credit card details being used to view child pornography were provided to the British […]

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Hill and Bill turn out the lights in their separate bedrooms, and the phone rings at 3 a.m. – again. This time the crisis is economic, home foreclosures mounting markets teetering. And even though the banks are closed and the NYSE won’t open for another 6½ hours, Hillary answers the phone. But wait – it’s […]

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In Colombia, the narco “insurgent” group FARC is being decimated by a “carrot-stick” approach by the Colombian President Uribe.
After years of a “talk nice and let’s negotiate” President, where FARC used truces and safe zones to regroup and fight again rather than to negotiate, the present government is hitting hard, but offering amnesty to those […]

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A new PNC Economic Outlook survey released today revealed that many businesses are pessimistic, not only about the economy, but also the success of the economic stimulus package. Only 6% of businesses surveyed were optimistic about the economy, and 19% expected their short term profits to decrease.

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The European Union’s carbon dioxide emissions during 2007 rose around 1.1% compared to the year before. Emissions by over 10,000 European companies who are mandated to offset pollution once they exceed industry limits, reached around 1.914 billion metric tons. Data released Wednesday suggests that 93% of the heavy industry companies had submitted their pollution numbers.
The […]

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While speaking today at the 21st Century Job Summit in Pittsburgh, PA, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced a plan that would reward companies who create new jobs in the United States, and eliminate the tax rewards for outsourcing.

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In India, admissions to the prestigious Management institutes such as IIMs are accepted through a common entrance test called CAT. Every year, lakhs of students participate  in the examinations for the few thousands seats.  The test is therefore  fiercely contested.
Authorities have  now proposed that from next year onwards, CAT examinations will be made online like […]

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During a speech in Philadelphia, PA in front of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, Hillary Clinton unveiled her plan to create 3 million new jobs by investing in infrastructure. “Today, I am announcing an aggressive infrastructure agenda will create at least 3 million jobs over the next decade. After the failed levees in New Orleans, the tragic bridge collapse in Minnesota, we don’t need any more devastating wake up calls. And you don’t have to look any further than the problems you had with I-95 to know that we have to take action now. We’re trying to run today’s economy on yesterday’s infrastructure – our bridges, our tunnels, our roads, our water systems and so much else – and we are jeopardizing American prosperity. So I will rebuild America by rebuilding, repairing and modernizing our infrastructure,” Clinton said.

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