Happy 2010

Facebook fuelling divorce, research claims

clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk Facebook is being cited in almost one in five of online divorce petitions, lawyers have claimed. The social networking site, which connects old friends and allows users to make new ones online, is being blamed for an increasing number of marital breakdowns. Divorce lawyers claim the explosion in the popularity of websites such as Facebook and Bebo is tempting to people to cheat on their partners. Suspicious spouses have also used the websites to find evidence of flirting and even affairs which have led to divorce. One law firm, which specialises in divorce, claimed almost one in five petitions they processed cited Facebook. Mark Keenan, Managing Director of Divorce-Online said: "I had heard from my staff that there were a lot of people saying they had found out things about their partners on Facebook and I decided to see how prevalent it was I was really surprised to see 20 per cent of all the petitions containing references to Facebook.

Pepsi to Skip Super Bowl Ads in Favor of $20M Social Media Campaign

Pepsi to Skip Super Bowl Ads in Favor of $20M Social Media Campaign

Pepsi to Skip Super Bowl Ads in Favor of $20M Social Media Campaign

Pepsi to Skip Super Bowl Ads in Favor of $20M Social Media Campaign

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Défice da CP já ultrapassa os três mil milhões de euros

clipped from economia.publico.clix.pt Verba dava para construir TGV que vai ligar Lisboa à fronteira com Espanha e para fazer a nova travessia do Tejo 08.12.2009 - 08h05 Por Carlos Cipriano  PÚBLICO (arquivo) A CP tem a decorrer o maior concurso de sempre para a compra de material circulante O défice da CP, a transportadora ferroviária pública de Portugal, é actualmente de 3,1 mil milhões de euros, verba equivalente à que vai custar a linha de TGV entre Lisboa e Elvas, com a terceira travessia do Tejo incluída.

Rwanda's laptop revolution Upgrading the children

clipped from www.economist.com TINY, landlocked Rwanda is sometimes touted as Africa’s high-tech economy. It is still a bit early for that, however. Neighbouring Uganda produces far more computer-science graduates. Countries such as Nigeria and Kenya are even further ahead. South Africa is out of sight. But technology is the core of Rwanda’s plan to transform its economy by 2020. The country seems ready to back its ambition with money and policies. A pioneering scheme to computerise a whole people By 2012, for instance, Rwanda wants every child in the country between the ages of nine and 12, 1.3m children in all, to have a laptop, each with an internet or intranet connection to download free educational software and electronic books. “We estimate the start-up cost will be $313m,” says Richard Niyonkuru of Rwanda’s education ministry. If all goes well, the programme will embrace children between six and eight by 2015.

Vodka Soon Available in Pill Form

clipped from www.neatorama.com A researcher at a Russian university has developed a powdered form of alcohol that will soon make the consumption of vodka more convenient. From The Times of India: Russian professor Evgeny Moskalev of Saint Petersburg Technological University has evolved a technique that allows turning alcohol into powder and packing it in pills. The new technique can solidify any kind of alcohol, including whisky, cognac, wine and beer. The new technique can solidify any kind of alcohol, including whisky, cognac, wine and beer. “Dry” vodka can be wrapped in paper and carried around in a pocket or a bag. Vodka in form of a pill would come handy at parties when “consumers” would be able to calculate their exact required dosage. Verily, we live in an age of medical wonders. Link via Geekologie | Image: US Department of State (not the pills in question)

Turning threats into opportunities

CLIMATE CHANGE 'FRAUD'

 

CLIMATE CHANGE: Many experts claim man-made global warming is melting sea ice

Wednesday December 2,2009

By John Ingham

THE scientific consensus that mankind has caused climate change was rocked yesterday as a leading academic called it a "load of hot air underpinned by fraud".

Professor Ian Plimer condemned the climate change lobby as "climate comrades" keeping the "gravy train" going.

In a controversial talk just days before the start of a climate summit attended by world leaders in Copenhagen, Prof Plimer said Governments were treating the public like "fools" and using climate change to increase taxes.

He said carbon dioxide has had no impact on temperature and that recent warming was part of the natural cycle of climate stretching over ­billions of years.

If you have to argue your science by using fraud, your science is not valid.

Prof Plimer - author of Heaven and Earth: Global Warming, The Missing Science - told a London audience: "Climates always change. They always have and they always will. They are driven by a number of factors that are random and cyclical."

His comments came days after a scandal in climate-change research emerged through the leak of emails from the world-leading research unit at the University of East Anglia. They appeared to show that scientists had been massaging data to prove that global warming was taking place

The Climate Research Unit also admitted getting rid of much of its raw climate data, which means other scientists cannot check the subsequent research. Last night the head of the CRU, Professor Phil Jones, said he would stand down while an independent review took place.

Professor Plimer said climate change was caused by natural events such as volcanic eruptions, the shifting of the Earth's orbit and cosmic radiation. He said: "Carbon dioxide levels have been up to 1,000 times higher in the past. CO2 cannot be driving global warming now.

"In the past we have had rapid and significant climate change with temperature changes greater than anything we are measuring today. They are driven by processes that have been going on since the beginning of time."

He cited periods of warming during the Roman Empire and in the Middle Ages – when Vikings grew crops on Greenland – and cooler phases such as the Dark Ages and the Little Ice Age from 1300 to 1850.

And he predicted that the next phase would cool the planet.

Available at: http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/143573/Climate-change-fraud-