Bogdan Gavrila – Core Target

Wael Abbas was one of the guests at the World Blogging Forum in Bucharest last autumn (I wrote a post here about his fascinating story, online activism and struggle). On the 21st of January the court of Hadayek ElQobba, upheld the sentence against of six months imprisonment. Find below more info about the imprisonment and about how you can support Wael:

تأييد الحكم بحبسي ستة أشهر

تأييد الحكم بحبسي ستة أشهر
Upholding the Imprisonment Sentence of Blogger Wael Abbas, Six Months In Jail

Cairo on 21/1/2010

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said that the misdemeanor court of Hadayek ElQobba, upheld the sentence against the blogger “Wael Abbas” of six months imprisonment and LE 500 pounds as a judiciary bail in order that he would not attend the appeal hearing. The lawsuit was filed against Wael by a citizen and his police officer brother on charges of “damaging an internet cable”.

The case comes in a series of multiple violations against Abbas as consequences to what he publishes on his blog http://misrdigital.blogspirit.com” where he monitors and exposes many crimes of torture committed by the government against citizens. The verdict is a threat to the blogger to force him stop blogging. Continue reading ‘Wael Abbas, World Blogging Forum member, sentenced in Egypt’

A List Bloggers from 30 countries will come in Romania in november to join The World Blogging Forum.

Continue reading ‘World Blogging Forum – WBF2009, Bucharest, Romania’

1. Yahoo creates new council to boost online advertising, BrandRepublic reports (Indirectly, will also influence Romania on the long run):

LONDON – Yahoo is forming an advisory council to explore digital opportunities with its advertiser and media agency partners. The Digital Advisory Council, which will consist of around 20 leading media and advertising industry executives, will work to explore digital media and online advertising opportunities. Continue reading ‘News to read between two meetings’

Here is a movie about media failing to report important issues. I’ve decided to post this movie because it presents some important points of view although skeptics could rate it as subversive low-profile leftist propaganda. If so, try to hear the rational ideas expressed by Chris Crames – CNN:

The most important news for Romania this week was the release regarding the budget for 2008. The media failed to cover this and the whole focus went to a scandal regarding a bribery.

Across the oil and natural gas industry, 1.5 percent of the total outstanding shares of its public companies are owned by the officers and board members of those companies (“insiders”), compared to 29 percent owned by individual investors who manage their own holdings and who are not insiders, 42.7 percent owned or held by mutual funds and other asset management companies that have mutual funds, 18.1 percent owned or held by asset management companies that do not have mutual funds, and the remaining 8.7 percent owned or held and directly managed by pension funds, insurance companies, endowments and foundations, banks and other financial institutions:

Here is the full study (download PDF) (Robert J. Shapiro and Nam D. Pham)

Of course, you can always wonder who owns the asset management firms

Further reading and References: Continue reading ‘Who owns big oil?’

Cuba and Venezuela already have doctors in the field and it was about time that the U.S. figured out this direct campaign in providing free medical care for the poor. This is a strategic program for South America and more than sure this is part of the attempts to improve their image in the area.
Here is a full AlJazeera report:

Another great TED movie with Sir Ken Robinson:

Later edit:
Creativity? We don’t like that. This is how they punish creatives (romanian lang):

1. Colorado Police Link Rise in Violence to Music – this is one interesting story in the New York Times. Of course, this can only be great advertising for the hip-hop community (Local police say recent shootings are tied to clubs that play gangsta rap) although not very pleasant for the club owners.

2. If you follow the Microsoft vs. Google war, you should also find intresting the Microsoft in ‘Cloud’ Computing article – “Microsoft is moving to create an experience that will divorce a user’s information from the particular device the person is working with at any moment” Bill Gates said and this is the future of computing.

3. Xinhua says China reduces investment barriers – “It is the improvement in the investment climate in China compared to other economies that has mattered most for the global pattern of investment,” says the report titled “Reducing Behind-the-Border Barriers to Investment”, which was drafted by the Center for International Economics, based in Canberra, capital of Australia.

4. Stepped-up checks mean longer lines at U.S. borders – many people seem to forget how is like to stay in line at the customs. In the near future we’ll probably see interesting news from this part of the world (Canada-USA-Mexico).

5. Another special operation in Copenhagen this week-end – 63 arrested: “hundreds of youth activists turned violent with protesters setting fire to street barricades and cars, and smashing shop windows, police said”. Again, I’m writing with my left hand.

6. According to a U.N. report, workers in the United States lead the world in labor productivity – The average U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all other countries, the International Labor Organization said in its report. Ireland comes in second at $55,986, followed by Luxembourg at $55,641, Belgium at $55,235 and France at $54,609.” – This may come as a bad news for some US politicians but they’ll have a reason to express their social views because a CEO pay is 364 times more than workers. Social justice, social justice!!!

7. Tiraspol Times: Independence Day celebrations in cities throughout Transdniestria – “Pridnestrovie’s annual independence day parade moved through Tiraspol, its capital city, on Sunday. Assembled bystanders cheered as the parade – led by the young country’s armed forces and volunteer soldiers – entered the city’s main square” – how cool is that?

8. Russia Today, 48 minutes ago – “Boris Berezovsky’s name is again in the news. Is he somehow connected to the Politkovskaya and Litvinenko affairs? There are those who speculate. In Context examines how Berezovsky became one of Russia’s kingpin “oligarchs” during the turbulent 1990s to a strident Kremlin critic”:

9. When typing “news” in my Google center, the first result was BBC News before the CNN and Google News

Today, in the Guardian:
“The United States has agreed to lift sanctions against North Korea and remove it from its list of states that sponsor terrorism, the foreign ministry in Pyongyang announced today.[...]

Under the US Trading With the Enemy Act, there is a ban on arms sales and certain types of aid for nations designated as state sponsors of terrorism. In addition to these formal sanctions, businesses are discouraged from investment and trade with a nation classified as having pariah status.

Korea watchers said a change in designation would be a historic breakthrough.”

Indeed, history is changing before our very eyes.

Yemenis belonging to the Bagefer tribe attend a wedding ceremony at Wadi Lesser, in Hadramout August 28, 2007. The Hadramout is an isolated tribal region in the south of the Arabian peninsula and is the ancestral home of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. (YEMEN):

Photo: REUTERS/Str

I’m not a specialist in firearms but It seems they display the Remington M1903A3 (circa 1943 Rifle). The M1903 was used in World War I and World War II, and in Vietnam. It was also used as a sniper rifle in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Although the rifle was sighted for 2,300 m (point-blank range of 457 m) this gun could fire at a rate of 20 shots per minute. Each stripper clip contained 5 cartridges, and standard issue consisted of 12 clips carried in a cloth bandolier.

Looking to the picture above I told to myself that these US weapons are quite old. Having old weapons and showing them on REUTERS it’s like posting a desperate ad on the internet and saying “we need new weapons”.
The best deal for them could probably the new AKM (AK-47) Kalashnikov modernized assault rifle (these guns look mean and can provide great PR in the village) but the best news is that changing the weapons can be a very good business. Here is what can be done:

1) Collect all the old weapons and sell them on the Internet – Prices (plus shipping, handling and insurance) for M1903 – $1,395, M1903 Mark1 – $1,495, M1903A3 – $1,395. The fact that the Arabian peninsula is the ancestral home of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden means that the old weapons also have a story (this should ad at least 20% value to the price).
2) The Russian AK-47 is a good weapon but their price begins with 800$. You’d think this is a good price but there are some issues – I don’t recommend buying Russian because my country is a NATO member so I have to promote my side of town. So, practically the Russians will rip you off.
3) THE BEST NEWS is that you CAN buy an American AK-47 – the AKM 47RS built by Lancaster Consulting IS ONLY $469.00 – The price also includes free shipping to your village.
4) Selling the old weapon (a piece of history) with 1,495 and buying the $469 American AK-47 means $1026 in your pocket out of nowhere for every gun.

The thing is that having new weapons is good, you’ll look great in the pictures and you’ll have a new story to tell (not to mention your capabilities to increase the damages for your enemies in the desert). And the best thing is that the great PR is just a bonus for this great financial deal.

Now, let’s see who’ll notice the old weapons in today’s newspapers and hurry up to make a sell

Someone seems to be testing a new kind of graphic card technology, with 520-bit colors and we managed to catch it on one of our websites.

If a standard resolution is 1280×1024, this makes an overall of 1.310.720 pixels. Many of us use the 32 bit colors -> 4 bytes per pixel -> this means that we need 5.242.880 bytes (~5 Mb) per screen.

My Google Analytics reported today a 520-bit color depth (it could be some kind of error). If the report is right, this means that a new technology is out there: 520 bit means 65 bytes per pixel – 85.196.800 bytes (~81 MB).

The second interesting thing is that this guy who has the 520-bit color depth also has a 10.000×10.000 screen resolution.

I tried to find out more about this technology and it seems it is used for 2D/3D supercomputing simulations. Here is a short list of some public supercomputers:

CCRT (CEA Supercomputing Center):
- HP/OSF1 256 quadri-processors alpha nodes
- Linux 128 quadri-processors AMD Opteron

IDRIS (CNRS Supercomputing Center)
-1024 processors Power4 cluster

MareNostrum (Barcelona Supercomputing Center)
-2406 dual 64-bit processor nodes @ 2.2GHz, ~42 TeraFlops
-they say this is the most powerful supercomputer in Europe

This could mean that a supercomputer is now connected to the Internet in a special project. If you want to find out more on supercomputers and their global network, you should check out DEISA.

My stats showed me a clue about University of North Carolina and this is how I found out that they also have a supercomputer. Here is something they do with the technology:

The nanoManipulator, developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is an interface to scanning probe microscopes allowing users to see, feel, and manipulate samples ranging in size from DNA to single atoms. The interface controls the microscope, provides interactive 3D visualizations of scanning probe microscope data , and allows the user to actually feel the shape of the sample through a force-feedback device. An enhanced nanoManipulator can be used collaboratively by teams of scientists in a “virtual laboratory” environment that allows remote access to a shared microscope and previously collected data. Because the collaborative nanoManipulator handles multiple data flows, e.g. video and system control data—all having different bandwidth, loss, and latency (delay) requirements—a network Quality of Service is required at 100-150 Mbps for optimal visualization and haptic/touch response. In contrast to some high-bandwidth applications that have “bursty” bandwidth demands, the typical scientific experiment using the nanoManipulator lasts for many hours, creating a long-lived high demand on the network.

[LATER UPDATE - It was a sick joke on Wikipedia - Don is still alive, taking care of his wife]

I was reading today that the oldest blogger in the world is 92+ and this is how I managed to see his blog. His last post was on the 8th of March and since we’re in August made me do a little research and I came up with some sad news.

Wikipedia says that Donald Crowdis died on the 22th of may due to a heart-attack while he was posting a new entry on hist blog entitled “I never felt so alive before in my life”.

Russia:

China:

USA:

This is a top I’ve made using Google Zeitgeist By Country (june 2007 stats). I wanted to know which are the most Googled brands in the world and determine if there really are lovemarks

In this study, I’ve searched for the global brands that appeared in the top 15 keywords searches in the following countries: Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Iraq, Ireland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom and Vietnam. I also took into account the internet users in the country and the presence of the brand in more than 1 area.

I’ve tried to avoid the “product oriented” searches and focus only on brands but the sad thing is that the list was quite short. Here are the Top10 Global Brands Googled all over the world:

10. Air France was no. 12 in France (with all the holiday coming up)

9. Corvette was no. 9 in Chile

8. Prada was no.5 in Ireland

7. Daewoo was second in Hungary

6. UPS was no. 4 in Canada

5. Bank of England was no. 4 in the United Kingdom

4. Krispy Krem Doughnuts were a big fuzz in Australia in June – it was the 2nd most looked-up phrase in Australia

3. British Airways was no.1 in Pakistan

2. Toyota was no.1 in Ireland

1. NOKIA was the only brand Googled in top 15 in more than one country. Nokia was no. 5 in Finland (no surprise here), no. 2 in Pakistan, no. 5 in Hungary, no. 9 in Taiwan and no. 12 in Mexico.

VERY IMPORTANT is the fact that NOKIA and TOYOTA are the only brands from Interbrand’s Best Global Brands 2007 Report Top 10 (NOKIA no. 5 and TOYOTA no. 6).

MISSING from the Google Top 10 are: Coca Cola (no.1 Interbrand Best Global Brands 2007), Microsoft (no.2), IBM (no.3), GE (no.4), Intel (no.7), McDonald’s (no.8), Disney (no.9) and Mercedes (no.10).

CONCLUSION:
- NOKIA left indeed a lovemark in the world – this brand has a great potential and the advantage of the Internet is that people can google for certain specs on the NOKIA phones;
- iPhone was just a marketing campaign – iPhone was not Googled (sad news for the Apple fans);
- CocaCola is strange to Google because they still direct their bugets for traditional media – If CocaCola is the no.1 GLOBAL BRAND, IT SHOULD BE NO.1 in Google also!
- Google (no. 20 Interbrand Best Global Brands 2007) has to be the no.1 brand for the Internet users all over the world but we don’t know it yet

NOTES
Google Zeitgeist Explained
zeit·geist | Pronunciation: ‘tsIt-”gIst, ‘zIt | Function: noun | Etymology: German, from Zeit (time) + Geist (spirit) | Date: 1884 | Meaning: the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era.

He Fan – the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences:

China has accumulated a large sum of US dollars. Such a big sum, of which a considerable portion is in US treasury bonds, contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency. Russia, Switzerland, and several other countries have reduced the their dollar holdings. China is unlikely to follow suit as long as the yuan’s exchange rate is stable against the dollar. The Chinese central bank will be forced to sell dollars once the yuan appreciated dramatically, which might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar.

Read also:
- About the nuclear blackmailing on Wikipedia
- China may sell off Treasury bonds if US imposes trade sanctions – report in Forbes
- China threatens ‘nuclear option’ of dollar sales – Telegraph.co.uk

Using $1.33 trillion of foreign reserves is a great political weapon – who needs nukes anymore?

Reaching 3,953,698 people from 200 countries in the first 6 months of 2007.

This is what I do.

As a global citizen, this is my personal battle in making the world a better place.

JP Morgan International Bank Limited
Citibank International Plc
UBS
KBC Bank
Credit Suisse International
The Royal Bank of Scotland
Goldman Sachs International Bank
Morgan Stanley Bank International Limited
Berkshire Hathaway International Insurance Limited
Cardif Assurance Vie
Swiss RE Denmark Reinsurance
White Rock Insurance
Vida Caixa

… in Romania beginning with 2007.

While doing my daily digest and reading Sorin’s blog I found this disturbing article published on The Onion:

WASHINGTON, DC—The Environmental Protection Agency issued a bulletin Tuesday warning the bodies of American citizens, with their large concentrations of artificial, synthetic, and often toxic substances, have been reclassified as industrial waste.

“The average human body is now only 35 percent organic,” EPA chief Ralph Johnson said. “Due to changes brought about by modern detergents, silicone implants, and processed cheese food product, it is no longer safe to allow human tissue to come into contact with our nation’s topsoil.”

Johnson said the EPA is seeking funding to construct a massive, federally managed human-body containment facility in the Mojave Desert to safely and viably store human remains.

Lenovo:

VISA:

OMEGA:

VW:

China Airlines:

NINTENDO:

The full list of sponsors and partners is available here…

Coca-Cola has plans to enter the Russian kvass market (traditional local beverage that has become one of the fastest-growing soft drinks sectors in the country):

Obama Girl – “I Got a Crush…On Obama”

Hot 4 Hill – “I Got a Crush… On a girl named Hill”

2008 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul in discusion with Google executive Elliot Schrage as part of the company’s Candidates@Google series:

NO END IN SIGHT – the movie
The first film of its kind to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq’s descent into guerilla war, warlord rule, criminality and anarchy, NO END IN SIGHT is a jaw-dropping, insider’s tale of wholesale incompetence, recklessness and venality:

After taking care of the copyright laws, China will produce world class entertainment:

Elvis receives a JCI award for being one of the ten outstanding young men in 1970.

The Outstanding Young Persons of the World (TOYP) Program serves to formally recognize young people who excel in their chosen fields and exemplify the best attributes of the world’s young people.

By recognizing these young people, JCI encourages them and others to seek excellence and serve others.

Thus, JCI contributes to prepare better leaders, who will create better societies.

A new way to perceive the biological weapons in this interesting campaign started by the Pentagon:

The idea of the hormone bomb is quite old and already done but imagine the impact this news can have on some areas of the world. As a terrorist you’re not afraid of death and it doesn’t matter if the enemy has a nuclear bomb… but turning into a homosexual can be perceived as “a great shame” that comes along with the incapacity to fight and die as a “real man”.

So I wonder: is this story really about the chemical warfare or about the psychological warfare?

The Chevrolet Suburban K2500 (17 miles/galon on the highway) was in the top as a very poor ranked car for its fuel economy and emissions as reported to the EPA in 2006 (Source: American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE)).

Having the moral power to rise after intoxicating us with tons of CO2, the PR guys at CHEVY thought it was a damn good idea to sponsor the LIVE EARTH online coverage for the concerts. I understand why there are brands like Philips or Zune on the website but the CHEVY logo is just offensive… not because they want to “look worried” about the environment but because they have a huge campaign these days promoting the 2007 Suburban models…

The new logo for the event,  this horrible jagged emblem (I think is based on the date 2012), was unveiled on Monday and already started a fuzz.

First, because they say it took 12 months of work and $800.000 (damn good business ).

Then, the BBC website says that “A segment of animated footage promoting the 2012 Olympic Games has been removed from the organisers’ website after fears it could trigger epileptic fits. Prof Graham Harding, who developed the test used to measure photo-sensitivity levels in TV material, said it should not be broadcast again. Charity Epilepsy Action said it had received calls from people who had suffered fits after seeing it.”

In the end, a funny comment regarding the Waffen SS complaint against the London Olympics Commitee: “The 2012 Olympics brand logo clearly shows the SS logo”, stormed Wolff Ollinslanger – spokesman for the SS. He added, “This is a logo that we gave our lives for. To see it now twisted and perverted in the name of sport, shames the memory of our Comrades”.

Click here to find out more about the new brand on the official website.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:HOT) announced that it will be the first in the hospitality industry to debut Microsoft Surface, Microsoft’s easy-to-use, surface computing product that breaks down the traditional barriers between people and technology, providing effortless interaction with digital content. Starwood will initially launch Surface at Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, Starwood’s largest and most global brand, where it will help bring interaction, connectivity and play to the Sheraton brand’s new lobby experience, currently rolling out in key cities nationwide. With Surface’s ability to provide guests with greater service, unique experiences and new forms of entertainment, Sheraton views it as a key component of its lobby transformation.

Eugène Ionesco, introduced to the world the Theatre of the Absurd.
This website, although very old fashioned, is a very interesting project meant to be a museum of portraits and caricatures made by authors from all over the world.

Source: Imagine Romania.

BOEING
Russian airline S7, formerly called Sibir, has signed a $2.4 billion contract for 15 Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research planes, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted a company statement as saying on Tuesday.
It said the deal also included an option for 10 more Dreamliners.
Last month the company signed a $705 million deal with Boeing, ordering 10 Boeing 737-800s and securing purchase rights for another 10 of the same model.
A spokesman for S7 told Reuters he was unaware that any press release had been issued and declined to make any comment. S7 is scheduled to hold a news conference later on Tuesday | more…

AIRBUS
Finnair took delivery from Airbus of its first long-range A340-300E (E for Enhanced), the first of an initial order of three placed in December 2005. Since, Finnair has increased its order for Airbus long haul aircraft, adding seven A330/A340s and 11 A350XWBs. The A350XWB is Airbus’ latest medium capacity long range airliner and will join Finnair’s fleet in 2014.
The A340-300Es will replace Finnair’s MD11 fleet and will be put into service on its long-haul destinations to Asia. Finnair’s new A340-300E will accommodate 269 passengers in a very comfortable two-class cabin configuration (42 in Business, 227 in Economy).
Finnair started operating a pre-owned A340-300 in June 2006 | more…

Avaaz.org (Avaaz means “voice” or “song” in Hindi, Urdu, Farsi, and other langauges) is a community of global citizens who take action on major issues around the world. They say that they have members in every country on earth, and operate in twelve languages. Their aim is to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people -and not just political elites and unaccountable corporations – shape global decisions.

The video above helped launch their campaign against the so-called Clash of Civilizations – starting with a call for real Middle East peace talks now.

They also have a blog and you can check it out here…

Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments -> Romania
We find out that the Acting Romanian president is Nicolae Vacaroiu. The news should be updated because the re-elected president Traian Basescu is now back on the job.
Btw, the new website layout is quite cool.

LATER UPDATE:
While the guys at CIA were lauching the new website, the Russian FSB announced the 2007 LITERATURE AND ART OF THE FEDERAL SECURITY SERVICE competition (you can enter the competition before October 1st, 2007 – the results will be concluded in December 2007).
What’s next? A world class ballet performed by Mossad?

The massive wave of cyber attacks which have hit Estonia’s websites this month are a security issue which concern NATO,the Alliance’s Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Friday.

“These cyber attacks have a security dimension without any doubt and that is the reason that NATO expertise was sent to Estonia to see what can and should be done,” he told a meeting of lawmakers from NATO member states held in Funchal on the Portuguese island of Madeira.

“Does this have a security implication? Yes, it does have a security implication. Is it relevant for NATO? Yes, it is relevant for NATO. It is a subject which I am afraid will stay on the political agenda in the times to come,” he added.

NATO nations have sent cyber experts to Estonia, one of the 26 members in the military alliance, as has the United States to help it combat the cyber attacks which have jammed mostly goverment websites.

Estonia has said that some of the cyber attacks came from Russian government computers, including the Kremlin. Moscow denies any role.

The cyber attacks on the high-tech country began after Estonian officials removed a statue on April 27 from central Tallinn which commemorates Soviet troops killed fighting the Nazis.

Related:
- The Sydney Morning Herald – The first newspaper printed today (since they’re in Australia )
- speaking of Australia, the weather seems to be sunny over there
- The lastest global news on the matter
- my previous post: Cyber-terrorism targets Estonia
- Russia Today:

- Russian NGO reactions:


- and we have the viral movies and the viral campaigns going on over there – after all, Estonia is really hi tech (the russian response was to post footages from the Russia vs. Estonia soccer games – Russia always wins ):

- in the end, a movie to remember (the photos are quite nice) and a book to read – Kremlin Rising – Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the End of Revolution, Updated Edition, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser:

If you enjoyed the movie, you should probably check again the picture shown at 01:04 – young Vladimir Putin with a sailor