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Emails expose BP’s attempts to control research into impact of Gulf oil spill

Posted on April 16th, 2011 at 18:48 by Paul Jay in category: News

[Quote]:

BP officials tried to take control of a $500m fund pledged by the oilcompany for independent research into the consequences of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, it has emerged.

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show BP officials openly discussing how to influence the work of scientists supported by the fund, which was created by the oil company in May last year.

Russell Putt, a BP environmental expert, wrote in an email to colleagueson 24 June 2010: “Can we ‘direct’ GRI [Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative] funding to a specific study (as we now see the governor’s offices trying to do)? What influence do we have over the vessels/equipment driving the studies vs the questions?”.

The email was obtained by Greenpeace and shared with the Guardian.


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It’s official: Asia’s just run out of IPv4 Addresses

Posted on April 16th, 2011 at 17:46 by John Sinteur in category: News

[Quote]:

Well, that was fast. The Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) has just released the last block of Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses in its available pool.


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Three largest online poker sites indicted and shut down by FBI

Posted on April 16th, 2011 at 11:39 by John Sinteur in category: Robber Barons

[Quote]:

The founders of the three largest online poker sites were indicted on Friday in what could serve as a death blow to a thriving industry.

Eleven executives at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and a number of their affiliates were charged with bank fraud and money laundering in an indictment unsealed in a Manhattan court. Two of the defendants were arrested on Friday morning in Utah and Nevada. Federal agents are searching for the others.

[..]

“These defendants concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits,” Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement.

So these banks willing to be bribed…. are they indicted too?


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Wonder where your taxes went? Well, here you go.

Posted on April 16th, 2011 at 11:30 by John Sinteur in category: News

[Quote]:

Your 2010 Federal Taxpayer Receipt. “In his State of the Union Address, President Obama promised that this year, for the first time ever, American taxpayers would be able to go online and see exactly how their federal tax dollars are spent. Just enter a few pieces of information about your taxes, and the taxpayer receipt will give you a breakdown of how your tax dollars are spent on priorities like education, veterans benefits, or health care.”

[..]

“Let me see how much that Public Radio and Planned Parenthood the nice people on Fox tell me are bankrupting the country cost.”

“.002 cents, huh?”

“The Defense Department gets WHAT?”


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Let’s hang the bankers

Posted on April 16th, 2011 at 11:08 by John Sinteur in category: Robber Barons

Well, we’ve tried not hanging them and that hasn’t worked.


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Comments:

  1. Sue W on April 16th, 2011 at 14:47:

    “Wake up! Wake up! This is important!” lol

What sounds does a tickly pinguin make?

Posted on April 16th, 2011 at 10:33 by John Sinteur in category: News


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Comments:

  1. Rob on April 20th, 2011 at 19:53:

    Cookie’s a pie. :)

First quarter PC forecast

Posted on April 16th, 2011 at 9:29 by John Sinteur in category: Apple

[Quote]:


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Comments:

  1. Roland Hesz on April 16th, 2011 at 13:57:

    Nice. In the end, Apple will have over 18%.
    Although – this is a bit misleading. iMacs, Macbook Pros, etc. a big number of them run Windows.
    Even when in Hungary someone threw something at Steve Ballmer, and the video shown a lot of Macs, more than half of them were running Windows OS.
    iOS growth rate is big, but that’s mostly not on PCs, but on iPads and iPhones.

    And where is Linux?

  2. Desiato on April 16th, 2011 at 17:51:

    iMacs, Macbook Pros, etc. a big number of them run Windows.
    Even when in Hungary someone threw something at Steve Ballmer, and the video shown a lot of Macs, more than half of them were running Windows OS.

    Really? Do you mean Windows as the main OS, or as an auxiliary in a VM? I know a fair number of Mac owners who keep a Windows VM handy for one minor thing or another, but very few who boot Windows as their primary OS. I have real doubts that people are willing to pay the Mac hardware premium to get a Windows machine. There aren’t even good Win7 drivers, are there?

  3. John Sinteur on April 16th, 2011 at 17:52:

    Haven’t tried win 7 (and I doubt I ever will) on my Mac, but here’s the support page.

  4. Spaceman Spiff on April 16th, 2011 at 17:54:

    It would be interesting to see server numbers, including Linux and what’s going into cloud facilities. I think it would look like this, but Linux would be where Apple is here. Of course, since Apple has nuked their server line, it is pretty much out of the picture now.

  5. Desiato on April 16th, 2011 at 17:57:

    About the graph–be careful in drawing conclusions based on a growth rate graph. It’s easy to have high growth if you’re starting from small numbers, but very hard to have high growth if you have large marketshare already. For example, Windows pretty much *can’t* have 200% YoY growth. That doesn’t mean it’s rapidly becoming irrelevant.

    (Don’t read this as saying that I think the iPad is not a big success–clearly it is. But the main thing I think when I see a graph like this is “can we get a few different dissections of that data for some context, please?”)