MEXICO CITY - Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly "running out" on Dec. 21, 2012. After all, it's not the end of the world. Or is it? Definitely not, the Mayan Indian elder insists. "I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff." It can only get worse for him. Next month Hollywood's "2012" opens in cinemas, featuring earthquakes, meteor showers and a tsunami dumping an aircraft carrier on the White House. At Cornell University, Ann Martin, who runs the "Curious? Ask an Astronomer" Web site, says people are scared. "It's too bad that we're getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they're too young to die," Martin said. "We had a mother of two young children who was afraid she wouldn't live to see them grow up." Chile Pixtun, a Guatemalan, says the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan ideas.
MEXICO CITY - Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly "running out" on Dec. 21, 2012. After all, it's not the end of the world.
Or is it?
Definitely not, the Mayan Indian elder insists. "I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff."
It can only get worse for him. Next month Hollywood's "2012" opens in cinemas, featuring earthquakes, meteor showers and a tsunami dumping an aircraft carrier on the White House.
At Cornell University, Ann Martin, who runs the "Curious? Ask an Astronomer" Web site, says people are scared.
"It's too bad that we're getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they're too young to die," Martin said. "We had a mother of two young children who was afraid she wouldn't live to see them grow up."
Chile Pixtun, a Guatemalan, says the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan ideas.
Email has had a good run as king of communications. But its reign is over. In its place, a new generation of services is starting to take hold--services like Twitter and Facebook and countless others vying for a piece of the new world. And just as email did more than a decade ago, this shift promises to profoundly rewrite the way we communicate--in ways we can only begin to imagine. We all still use email, of course. But email was better suited to the way we used to use the Internet--logging off and on, checking our messages in bursts. Now, we are always connected, whether we are sitting at a desk or on a mobile phone. The always-on connection, in turn, has created a host of new ways to communicate that are much faster than email, and more fun. Why wait for a response to an email when you get a quicker answer over instant messaging? Thanks to Facebook, some questions can be answered without asking them. You don't need to ask a friend whether she has left work, if she has updated her public "status" on the site telling the world so. Email, stuck in the era of attachments, seems boring compared to services like Google Wave, currently in test phase, which allows users to share photos by dragging and dropping them from a desktop into a Wave, and to enter comments in near real time. Little wonder that while email continues to grow, other types of communication services are growing far faster. In August 2009, 276.9 million people used email across the U.S., several European countries, Australia and Brazil, according to Nielsen Co., up 21% from 229.2 million in August 2008. But the number of users on social-networking and other community sites jumped 31% to 301.5 million people.
Email has had a good run as king of communications. But its reign is over.
In its place, a new generation of services is starting to take hold--services like Twitter and Facebook and countless others vying for a piece of the new world. And just as email did more than a decade ago, this shift promises to profoundly rewrite the way we communicate--in ways we can only begin to imagine.
We all still use email, of course. But email was better suited to the way we used to use the Internet--logging off and on, checking our messages in bursts. Now, we are always connected, whether we are sitting at a desk or on a mobile phone. The always-on connection, in turn, has created a host of new ways to communicate that are much faster than email, and more fun.
Why wait for a response to an email when you get a quicker answer over instant messaging? Thanks to Facebook, some questions can be answered without asking them. You don't need to ask a friend whether she has left work, if she has updated her public "status" on the site telling the world so. Email, stuck in the era of attachments, seems boring compared to services like Google Wave, currently in test phase, which allows users to share photos by dragging and dropping them from a desktop into a Wave, and to enter comments in near real time.
Little wonder that while email continues to grow, other types of communication services are growing far faster. In August 2009, 276.9 million people used email across the U.S., several European countries, Australia and Brazil, according to Nielsen Co., up 21% from 229.2 million in August 2008. But the number of users on social-networking and other community sites jumped 31% to 301.5 million people.
At the end of "Manhattan," the celebrated movie romance from 1979, a teenager played by Mariel Hemingway delivers some good news to the 42-year-old television writer, portrayed by Woody Allen, with whom she has had a long-running sexual affair. "Guess what, I turned 18 the other day," said Ms. Hemingway, in what was framed as a poignant encounter. "I'm legal, but I'm still a kid." That was then. Roman Polanski's arrest on Sept. 26 to face a decades-old charge of having sex with a 13-year-old girl stirred global furor over both Mr. Polanski's original misdeed and the way the authorities have handled it -- along with some sharp reminders that, when it comes to adult sex with the under age, things have changed.
"Guess what, I turned 18 the other day," said Ms. Hemingway, in what was framed as a poignant encounter. "I'm legal, but I'm still a kid."
That was then.
Roman Polanski's arrest on Sept. 26 to face a decades-old charge of having sex with a 13-year-old girl stirred global furor over both Mr. Polanski's original misdeed and the way the authorities have handled it -- along with some sharp reminders that, when it comes to adult sex with the under age, things have changed.
The Guardian has been prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights.Today's published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented - for the first time in memory - from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret.The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck, who specialise in suing the media for clients, who include individuals or global corporations.
The Guardian has been prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights.
Today's published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.
The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented - for the first time in memory - from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret.
The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck, who specialise in suing the media for clients, who include individuals or global corporations.
I won't mention names that can be found by search engines. You can't be me, I'm taken
The new breed of super injunction is far more opressive than the traditional court order under which a newspaper or tv channelis (Perhaps temporarily) prevented from publishing a particular allegegation. It usually includes an order that "the publication of all information relating to these proceedings or of information describing them or the intended claim is expressly prohibited" (our italics) In other words no one can report that the order has been granted, or who applied for it, Even the identities of the judge and the newspaper remain secret, and anyone who even hints at them "May be held in contempt of court and may be imprisoned, fined, or have their assets siezed"
Apparently this is at least the 13th such order the guardian has recieved this year, although this one goes further in actually trying to ban the reporting of parliament. The eye points out that noone knows how many of these injunctions exist, because the different recipients cant talk to each other about them. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
How it washes out in a full hearing is another matter ...
One MP, who the Guardian is currently prohibited from identifying, said he would ask the Speaker to consider taking action against Carter-Ruck for contempt of parliament.The ban on reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds appears to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights.
One MP, who the Guardian is currently prohibited from identifying, said he would ask the Speaker to consider taking action against Carter-Ruck for contempt of parliament.
The ban on reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds appears to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights.
A contempt of [under litigation] suit against them would be [under litigation.]
I'd be surprised if this has helped Trafigura's negotiating position.
France has the best quality of life out of Europe's biggest countries, while Britain has the worst despite having the highest incomes, a study says. British workers can expect to spend three years longer at work and die two years younger than their French counterparts, while they pay above the European average for fuel, food, alcohol and cigarettes, the study by uSwitch.com released on Monday said. The consumer website used existing research from different sources to compare 17 lifestyle factors in France, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Italy, Sweden, Ireland and Britain.
British workers can expect to spend three years longer at work and die two years younger than their French counterparts, while they pay above the European average for fuel, food, alcohol and cigarettes, the study by uSwitch.com released on Monday said.
The consumer website used existing research from different sources to compare 17 lifestyle factors in France, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Italy, Sweden, Ireland and Britain.
Full report (such as it is) is here [PDF].
Why are the French so prone to suicide? IT IS the country that invented the 35-hour working week, prides itself on its joie de vivre and whose president extols the merits of measuring happiness, not just national income. That makes the string of 24 suicides at France Telecom all the more chilling (see article). Yet what is perhaps most striking is that the suicide rate at the company is about average for France. The French suicide rate is 14.6 per 100,000 people, according to the OECD. Men are particularly prone: 22.8, against 7.5 for women. This puts the suicides over 20 months at France Telecom, which employs just over 100,000 people, in line with the national average. More people take their lives as a share of the population than anywhere in western Europe bar Finland and Belgium. The French suicide rate is over twice that in Britain and 40% higher than in Germany and America.
IT IS the country that invented the 35-hour working week, prides itself on its joie de vivre and whose president extols the merits of measuring happiness, not just national income. That makes the string of 24 suicides at France Telecom all the more chilling (see article). Yet what is perhaps most striking is that the suicide rate at the company is about average for France.
The French suicide rate is 14.6 per 100,000 people, according to the OECD. Men are particularly prone: 22.8, against 7.5 for women. This puts the suicides over 20 months at France Telecom, which employs just over 100,000 people, in line with the national average. More people take their lives as a share of the population than anywhere in western Europe bar Finland and Belgium. The French suicide rate is over twice that in Britain and 40% higher than in Germany and America.
And as this is the Economist, their explanation for this is ... (who is surprised?) ... rigid labor markets!
How to explain this existential angst? France offers its citizens unusual comforts, with first-rate health care, long holidays and sit-down lunches, protected jobs and generous welfare. But the veneer of security masks much uncertainty. Job-protection rules discourage permanent job creation, so the young drift on temporary contracts. Unable to shed staff, firms give employees meaningless jobs instead, to try to nudge them out. And big French firms, many one-time branches of the civil service, have been opened up to market competition, bringing new pressures to perform in the office or factory floor.
Apple has admitted that its latest operating system harbours a bug that can accidentally delete data belonging to the computer's owner.The glitch occurs when some users who upgraded to the Snow Leopard - which was released at the end of August - log into a "guest" account on their machines. When they log back in under their own name, all of the files in their home directory - such as documents, music and videos - have been deleted. Reports of the problem first surfaced more than a month ago, but it was only on Monday that Apple finally responded by recognising that there was a problem for some customers.
Apple has admitted that its latest operating system harbours a bug that can accidentally delete data belonging to the computer's owner.
The glitch occurs when some users who upgraded to the Snow Leopard - which was released at the end of August - log into a "guest" account on their machines. When they log back in under their own name, all of the files in their home directory - such as documents, music and videos - have been deleted.
Reports of the problem first surfaced more than a month ago, but it was only on Monday that Apple finally responded by recognising that there was a problem for some customers.
:) In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
I'm not planning to check this myself, oddly enough.
You can enable "disposable" guest account:
The bug seems to be, quite simply, that some coder fucked up the retrieval of the "right" user Id to delete on logoff...Instead of deleting the guest account, it deletes the newly logged user ! Pierre
It will be now. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
Debbie Christie's son Zachary, a first-grader at Downes Elementary School in Newark, Del., was suspended for carrying a camping utensil that contained a spoon, fork, bottle opener and knife to school. "I wasn't really trying to get in trouble," 6-year-old Zachary said. "I was just trying to eat lunch with it." "I got a call from the principal, telling me to come down, that Zach had carried a dangerous weapon into school and was going to be suspended," Christie told "Good Morning America" today.
Debbie Christie's son Zachary, a first-grader at Downes Elementary School in Newark, Del., was suspended for carrying a camping utensil that contained a spoon, fork, bottle opener and knife to school.
"I wasn't really trying to get in trouble," 6-year-old Zachary said. "I was just trying to eat lunch with it."
"I got a call from the principal, telling me to come down, that Zach had carried a dangerous weapon into school and was going to be suspended," Christie told "Good Morning America" today.
