July 10, 2010 archive

325,000 Students Compete (in the Cloud) for $240,000 from Microsoft

Cloud

From Scientific American…

Compassionate Coding:

Students Compete in Microsoft Competition to Write Humanitarian Apps

With the understanding that emergency, health care and other services’ reliance on software will only grow over time, Microsoft has for the past eight years hosted a global competition that challenges high school and college students to develop applications that address some of the planet’s most urgent needs.

The event’s popularity has expanded rapidly–about 325,000 students from more than 100 countries registered to compete this year. The company’s Eighth Annual Imagine Cup finals wrapped up Thursday in Warsaw, Poland, with 400 students vying for $240,000 in prize money.

As one might suspect, a prerequisite is that all competitors develop their programs using Microsoft products, including software writing tools, databases and the Windows operating system.

325,000 high-school geeks hard at work for Microsoft, for an average “wage” of $0.75.

Open Bird

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“Only the little people — should — pay taxes.” Right?

[BP Chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg] is no different than other corporate elitists who are surrounded by evidence of what they see as their superiority. Leona Helmsley referenced us when she said, “Only the little people pay taxes.”

But this time, the truth cannot be hidden. The real evidence of what he and much of the corporate plutocracy thinks of us will be apparent to the residents of the gulf coast and likely well beyond for decades.

Is Financial Reform Good for the “Small People?”

George Mantor, RISMEDIA, 06/22/10

Only the little people pay taxes”   So says former Queen of the Elites.

Afterall, SOMEONE has to pay.

And we shouldn’t expect the Corporations and Millionaires to carry that weight —

They’re too busy Downsizing the Life out of the Economy, to be saddled with the burden, of paying for the Bush Years.

They really, really need that Bush Tax Cut ‘Free Ride’ to CONTINUE —

Or they just might LET the Economy GET EVEN Worse.

Best we not test them, eh?   Or they really might ef-it-up!

News at Noon

From Reuters

BP set to install bigger cap on leaking Gulf well

By Dan Whitcomb and Jeff Mason

July 10, 2010

Calif./NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – BP was set on Friday to install a bigger cap that could contain almost all the oil leaking from its blownout Gulf of Mexico well, a top U.S. official said.

The Obama administration has been pressing the British energy giant to install the new cap, which could capture up to 80,000 barrels (3,360,000 gallons/12,700,00 liters) of oil a day, versus the 25,000 barrels currently being contained.

The government has estimated the well is leaking a maximum of 60,000 barrels a day, although independent estimates have been as high as 100,000 barrels a day.

Related Stories

BP spill won’t affect Iraq projects: oil minister

EU considers deepwater oil restrictions: report

Chalchiutlicue’s Wrath

About 500 years ago, Cortez landed in Mexico. He told the people who were already living there that they had to become subjects of the King of Spain. But, they told him, they were already subjects of Montezuma, the Emperor who was in Tenochtitlan. Cortez told them that Montezuma had to become a subject of the King of Spain, too, and he took Montezuma prisoner. As if that weren’t enough, he told the People that they had to give up their Old Gods and accept his God. Cortez’s God, he told them, was far more powerful than their Gods, and if they didn’t accept his God and abandon their own Gods and abandon their practice of having idols and human sacrifices and ceremonies and dances to their Gods, they would be killed. Also, Cortez told them, they had to deliver to Cortez all of their gold and silver. So it was that the Spanish foothold came to what is now Mexico in 1517.

Docudharma Times Saturday July 10




Saturday’s Headlines:

Iraq withdrawal: A US unit prepares Mosul police for self-rule

USA

Oil hasn’t hit South Atlantic, but its effects on business reverberate already

In Louisiana, oil spill’s economic impact is muted – so far

Europe

Two nations, one World Cup final and 440 years of hur

Office of financial advisor to L’Oreal heiress raided in Sarkozy funding investigation

Middle East

West Bank barrier a ‘health hazard’

Iran cuts oil prices as sanctions bite

Asia

Taliban faction supplying intelligence to Afghan government

North Korea offers to resume talks

Latin America

Haitians wait in tents for a recovery that has still barely begun

Late Night Karaoke

OPEN THREAD

Gulf Coast, A dedication

Here I am once again & as promised  I will only post images of life that is not visible from the surface.

Many people tend to think that life in our oceans consists mostly of fish, crabs, shrimp, & shellfish, like oysters, scallops clams & snails, plus mammals like dolphins, whales, & I have to also mention turtles, the darlings of the  gulf.

What many don`t realize is that the above mentioned  species make up a small fraction of the biodiversity of the oceans.

In the following images, try & look beyond the main subject, & look to the backgrounds of the images. Every bit of color is a living  organism.

The purple on the  reef structure is coralline algae.

Every little nook & cranny has little “bugs” living in them.

Every little filament you see is some kind of worm.

The reef is covered with billions & billions of life forms, & I`m just talking about these numbers, pertaining to my reef tanks.The sand  at the bottom contains billions of  these per cubic inch.

Now these are the bottom of the food chain, but also sometimes the first to die off when the water chemistry is changed by even parts per billion.

When the first link in the food chain is destroyed, the other links fall apart in rapid succession. That`s why I post these images. They are not spectacular in any way as images, but as examples of the spectacular life in the oceans that the planet depends on.

Regardless of their microscopic sizes.

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Random Japan

WHERE THERE’S SMOKE…

Kagoshima’s Mount Sakurajima broke its own record with its 550th volcanic eruption this year-two more than it had in 2009.

A teenage girl died and three of her relatives were hospitalized after likely inhaling volcanic gas on a trip to an onsen area in the Hakkoda Mountains in Aomori.

The butler really did do it! A 69-year-old Japanese man and his 67-year-old wife were stabbed to death at their home in Jakarta, allegedly by a recently fired servant and his buddy.

New archeological evidence suggests that some higher-ups in eighth century Nara were indeed meat eaters, despite a Buddhist ban on such practices.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai paid his respects at Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park. After all that has happened in his country, he wanted to see first-hand how an area can bounce back from devastation.

Clad in kimono and carrying samurai swords, 200 Japanese and Americans took part in a parade in New York’s Central Park to mark Japan’s first diplomatic mission to the US 150 years ago.

Japan’s Cabinet Office said the country’s economy bottomed out in March 2009, but the drop was still not quite as bad as the post-Bubble dip in the early ’90s.

It was reported that 707,824 marriages took place in Japan in 2009, 18,282 fewer than the previous year.

Original v. Cover — #33 in a Series

Maxfield Parrish "daybreak" Pictures, Images and Photos

The featured selection this week could well be the biggest hit that never was. The song was written as a tribute to the birth of the composer/performer’s daughter Aisha in 1976. Despite the song’s popularity and extensive airplay, it never charted on the Billboard Hot 100 because the artist never allowed it to be released as a 45 rpm single, despite being requested to do so by Motown Records.

My Fifth Blogaversary

Oh my goodness.  On August 7, 2010, my little blog, the Dream Antilles will be five years old.  Time flies on the web.  Blogging is probably passe now.  There are probably millions upon millions of abandoned blogs strewn across the Internet like beer cans on an Alabama roadside.  Today’s was the 794th post.

I have no idea how many people may have seen my blog.  Or who read it.  I admit that I’m defensive about all of that..  I disconnected all the counters (they didn’t work anyway) and took the position that it didn’t matter how many readers there were.  Also, that small was good.  That the writing is an exercise you do, like breathing, because it’s what you do.  If you stop, you’re dead.

Join me below.

Breaking: Blogger takes dump on shit-filled ideoscape.

Booman “squats and leaves it:”  

It’s the pwoggies, the friggin’ pwoggies!  who are ruining the Democrats’ Pathocrats’ chances in November, by trying to subvert and de-motivate the base.

He’s terrified of the hardcore psychopaths come November.  And he should be.

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That list is hardly comprehensive, but it does spell trouble for the Democrats pseudo-psychopaths.