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October, 2009

10 things Google has taught us.

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What makes it so revolutionary? Ken Auletta, author of a new book on the company, shares his insights on why it's uniquely successful and what that means for the media world.

In researching his new book, Googled: the End of the World as We Know It, to be published next week by Penguin Press, author Ken Auletta had extensive access to the company's inner workings and reported widely on its impact on the media landscape.  Read more »

Money - the mother of all bubbles.

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Fossil fuels have allowed the world’s industrial societies to pursue their follies on a more grandiose scale than any past empire has managed, but the follies themselves closely parallel those of previous societies, and tracking the trajectories of these past examples is one of our few useful sources of guidance if we want to know where the current versions are headed.  Read more »

The BBC's change on climate change.

Constantine's picture
Submitted by Constantine on Wed, 14/10/2009 - 07:47.
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The BBC wanted to slip this one out quietly, but a Matt Drudge link put paid to that. The climate change correspondent of BBC News has admitted that global warming stopped in 1998 – and he reports that leading scientists believe that the earth’s cooling-off may last for decades.

“Whatever happened to global warming?” is the title of an article by Paul Hudson that represents a clear departure from the BBC’s fanatical espousal of climate change orthodoxy. The climate change campaigners will go nuts, particularly in the run-up to Copenhagen. So, I suspect, will devout believers inside the BBC. Hudson’s story was not placed very prominently by his colleagues – but a link right at the top of Drudge will have delivered at least a million page views, possibly many more.  Read more »

Selling England by the Pound!

Zooot's picture
Submitted by Zooot on Tue, 13/10/2009 - 07:30.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced on Monday a 16-billion-pound sale of state assets including a high-speed railway and a betting service to cut soaring debt caused by the economic crisis.

Brown -- facing a likely election defeat next year by David Cameron's Conservative Party -- wants to halve Britain's deficit in four years.

But opposition politicians derided the asset sale as a political gimmick and compared it to a "national car boot sale" and "selling the family silver."  Read more »

Euro, Dollar & Oil.

Constantine's picture
Submitted by Constantine on Tue, 06/10/2009 - 08:40.
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Iran announced late last month that its foreign currency reserves would henceforth be held in euros rather than dollars. Bankers remember, of course, what happened to the last Middle East oil producer to sell its oil in euros rather than dollars. A few months after Saddam Hussein trumpeted his decision, the Americans and British invaded Iraq.

But of course it is all about WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction)!

WLan technology can see through Walls.

Paul's picture
Submitted by Paul on Sun, 04/10/2009 - 19:35.
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Radio signals are sent and received in a wireless network. These signals vary in a predictable way when the volume of space in which they travel changes. Why would the volume of space change? Well, any movement will have this effect regardless if it is a bird, an object, or a person that is moving. Although it is at the beginning, this technology has potential for huge breakthroughs. Its main advantage is cost. While other systems cost over $100,000, this one can cost as little as $500. The second advantage is its simplicity; it is simple to set up, operate, and maintain.  Read more »