The year you were born

The year you were born....

A good read, but make sure you have time  to sit back and actually read it all.  Or let it load and go back and read it.

Click on year of your birth below, then type in the year and hit go. The screen is going to fade to black; have your glasses on, and follow the instructions below.  You'll be pleasantly surprised with this one... Type the year only!! Then click the question (?) mark!  Sit back and enjoy!!  Year of your birth

Google Wallet

Imagination has no limit

Google Wallet - why you shouldn't throw away your wallet just yet

by Graham Cluley on September 20, 2011

Google has announced, to some fanfare, what it hopes will be a revolution in the way we pay for things: Google Wallet.

Google Wallet is a smartphone app (currently only available for the Nexus S 4G Android phone) that aims to replace your credit cards.

It works like this. You go to a store (let's imagine it's a coffee shop), the barista hands you your steaming skinny caramel macchiato and a toasted onion bagel with low fat cream cheese and bacon, and rather than give them your credit card or reach into your pocket for some coins, you..

* take out your smartphone
* unlock it
* run the Google Wallet app
* enter the PIN for your Google Wallet app
* swipe your smartphone against the coffee shop's pay point.

How convenient!

The Google Wallet app uses NFC (near-field communications) technology in your smartphone to wirelessly debit the credit card you have linked with the application.

 what it is, some people will be nervous of adopting this kind of technology to pay for goods. Just remember how long it took for some people to switch to using credit cards.

The PIN
It looks like Google recognises that some people will be fearful, and is keen for potential users to know that the Google Wallet app is protected by a four digit PIN.

Unless the PIN is entered, the NFC antenna is switched off - meaning that you can't make any purchases. Similarly when the phone's screen is switched off, the NFC antenna is disabled.

The Google Wallet app insists that you re-enter your PIN every five minutes by default - something that I suspect many users will find irritating, and will change to a longer time period for more convenience and less security.

Another concern I have, though, is whether users will choose sensible PINs to protect their Google Wallet.

When you're waiting to slurp your steaming skinny caramel macchiato and munch on your toasted onion bagel with low fat cream cheese and bacon, will you be entering a PIN code that is convenient or one that is more secure?

Research published earlier this year, revealed the top 10 passcodes that iPhone owners use to protect their devices and we have to assume that Google Wallet users will be just as laissez-faire when choosing a PIN.

We already know that 67% of consumers don't have any form of passwordon their mobile phones.

It's hard to imagine that all users are going to choose a PIN code for their Google Wallet which is hard to crack, let alone different from the one which they should be using to protect all the rest of their smartphone.

So, if you lose your smartphone and have not chosen a sensible PIN code both for the device and a different one for your Google Wallet then there may be opportunities for criminals to take advantage.

Don't throw away your wallet just yet
I don't want to rain on the parade entirely, however. It's not Google's fault that people might choose dumb obvious PINs or use the same PIN code for their digital wallet as for the device itself (although Google might do some work to reduce the likelihood of those happening, or give an option for longer pass codes).

We may be a long way off throwing away our physical wallets entirely - as folks still like to carry around their receipts, driving license, business cards and some old fashioned bank notes - but we will see mobile devices being used more and more for commerce.

It's going to take some years for merchants to invest in the hardware to provide support for Google Wallet, and some may prefer to wait and see how the market plays out and if a rival option becomes more popular.

Always have a backup
I have one piece of advice though, which will probably hold true for many years to come. Think about this. What happens when your smartphone runs out of juice?

You won't be able to open your Google Wallet app to pay for the late night train ride home if the battery is flat. Then you'll be rueing not having a real credit card in your pocket or a couple of notes hidden in the sole of your shoes.

Source:  http://www.google.com/wallet/  http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com

One-year-old Indian boy breaks world record after being born with THIRTY FOUR fingers and toes

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Last updated at 1:46 PM on 26th July 2011

A one-year-old boy in India has broken a world record after being born with 34 fingers and toes.

Akshat Saxena had seven fingers on each hand and ten toes on each foot, according to a spokesman for Guinness World Records. 

The child, from Uttar Pradesh in northern India, has since had a series of surgeries to amputate the excess digits. Akshat was born last year without thumbs so doctors are working to reconstruct these out of the fingers they have removed.  

Extraordinary: Akshat Saxena has entered the Guinness Book of Records after being born in India with ten toes on each foot and seven fingers on each hand

His mother Amrita Saxena said: 'I was so happy to see my baby as it was our first child.

'But later, when I saw his fingers, I was shocked and surprised.'

 

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The condition is known as polydactyly, a genetic disorder which can be inherited and gives rise to excess digits.

Most commonly, the extra digits appear on the little finger side of the hand.

Mrs Saxena said it was a family friend who convinced them Akshat was extremely special. 

She said: 'He read on the internet about the baby born in China with 31 fingers. 

Record breaker: One-year-old Akshat, from Uttar Pradesh in northern India, has the most fingers and toes in the world

'Then he said that my boy has broken the record of having 34 fingers. At first, I was not convinced at all. It was hard to believe that my son has broken the record. 

'But later, he along with my husband and my younger sister registered the data in the Internet.'

The record was previously held by a six-year-old boy in China who had 15 fingers and 16 toes.

The child, who his family refused to name, also had surgery to remove his extra digits. He now has ten fingers and ten toes following a six-and-a-half hour operation at a hospital in Shenyang, Liaoning last March.

Operation: The one-year-old boy has now had surgery to correct his condition which is known as polydactyly

Source: Daily mail

FIFA WORLD CUP QATAR

Some nice bit of illustrations from the Structural and Architectural works

proposed to be accomplished in Qatar for the FIFA World Cup.

-- 

Champions aren't Made in the Gyms. Champions are Made from Something 

They Have Deep Inside T hem - A Desire, A Dream, A Vision ----Boxer Muhammad Ali

Doha Port Stadium in Doha . T o be built. Expected capacity: 44,950

And here's how the stadium, designed by Albert Speer Partner, will look from across the Harbour

Al-Gharrafa Stadium in Al-Rayyan. Major renovation. Expected capacity: 44,740

Built in 2003 and currently with a capacity of just 25,000, the Al-Gharrafa Stadium will require significant redvelopment to achieve the vision below

Al-Shamal Stadium in Al-Shamal. T o be built. Expected capacity: 45,120

The stadium's shape derives from traditional fishing boats known as 'dhow'

Al-Khor Stadium in Al-Khor. T o be built. Expected capacity: 45,330

To combat the searing heat, air conditioning units will be installed in this and all of the other stadiums

Umm Slal Stadium in Umm Slal. T o be built. Expected capacity 45,120

The stadium is located in south eastern Qatar , albeit just 40 miles from Doha . It's shape bears similarities to a nearby fort that is one of the most important landmarks of Qatar, T he Umm Salal Mohammed Fort

EducationCityStadium in Al-Rayyan. T o be built. Expected capacity 45,350

Following the World Cup, the stadium will be downsized to 25,000 seats for use by the University hockey team

Access to the stadium will be made easy, even for people travelling from Bahrain , which is only 51 minutes away by high-speed rail

Khalifa International Satdium in Al-Rayyan. Major renovation. Expected capacity 68,030

Al-Wakrah Stadium in Al-Wakrah. T o be built. Expected capacity 45,120

Home to Al-Wakrah football team, the current stadium only holds 20,000 fans

Al-Rayyan Stadium in Al-Rayyan. Major renovation. Expected capacity 44,740

The exterior of the stadium features a membrane that will act as a screen for projections and advertisements

QatarUniversity Stadium in Doha . T o be built. Expected capacity 43,520

Of the six stadiums based in the capital, Doha , the University Stadium will be marginally the smallest

SportsCity Stadium in Doha . T o be built. Expected capacity 47,560

A bird's eye view shows how the stadium draws inspiration from traditional Arab tents

Lusail Iconic Stadium in Al-Daayen. T o be built. expected capacity 86,250

The showpiece stadium and venue for the World Cup final, the Lusail Iconic Stadium will be a masterpiece of engineering. T he stadium will have a near circular footprint and will be surrounded by a vast moat

"Reflecting Dohas culture and heritage, the stadium is designed to be highly energy efficient and capable of performing in extreme summer climatic conditions," say the designers

Another Famine in the Horn of Africa: Putting Hunger in Context

by Dr. Ali Kadri

By 2002, five years after the World Food Summit, the FAO reported that it was not possible to meet the objective of halving the numbers of the world hungry and eliminate its more extreme manifestations in starvations and famines by 2015. In 2002, basic food prices had fallen to two-thirds the level at which they were five years earlier. That was a time when food was cheap.

In 2002, declining basic food production per capita and a higher frequency of production shortfalls in poorer food-importing countries represented the hollow reasons as to why the human-right to food was not going to be met. Accompanying the quantitative trend, rising basic food imports per capita added to an already asphyxiating Least Developing Countries debt burden. Responding to this, the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO contemplated setting up a financial institution that would lend to poorer countries at concessional interest rates so that they could offset hunger or, its extreme manifestation in famine, with adequate food imports.

Whilst the subsidised agriculture of the more developed economies was being protected from the intrusion of cheaper food from the South by a so-called WTO peace clause (see note below), the alleged ‘magic’ of the market in the poorer economies, whose peasantry was being dislocated by a combination of cheap subsidised food from the North, neoliberal policies and unsightly forms of primitive accumulation, was supposed to optimally deploy the newly freed labour from the farms into more productive activities springing from freer trade and capital accounts. Neither did the concessional lending bank materialise nor the ‘magic’ of the market deliver the goods. Donors were willing to pitch only four billion dollars into the concessional fund, when a minimum of sixteen billion was required, and the assumptions of textbook economics used to embellish the ‘magic’ of the market stood the test of formal reasoning but not that of historical facts.

Today, food remains abundant but the price of basic foods, which were driven up by speculation, is more than twice what it used to be in 2002. The hunger problem is, at least, two times bigger as well. Notwithstanding that the imperfections are the real and the market is a concocted ideal, the explanations for the persistence of hunger remain centred around the misallocation of food resources by imperfect markets. But the very concept of ‘misallocation’ sheds a semblance of haphazardness and innocence on the matter. The persistence of policy emitting hunger and famine, however, is anything but that. It is a purposeful and recurring activity, which, in an increasingly interdependent and integrated world, drags down the political standing of labour everywhere, strips peoples of their will and of their resources, and contributes to engaging coercively non-monetised or forcibly cheapened assets in the formation of value necessary for maintaining profit rates. In the organic like totality, which is capital, these are not simply the pitifully small agro-business profit rates, but the global profit rates. This is the social process by which the booty of empire interlocks with the wealth of the modern Western formations to uphold the riches of global elites.

When stripped bare from falsehood, prices and the sums of profits they amount to, are brokered by a structure of power from which the poorest peoples of the world have been discarded. A hungry, dispossessed and disempowered working population cannot negotiate the condition of its survival. Food security for working people in the poorest countries has to be denied so that their national security and sovereignty are later laid open for imperial plunder. The terms of power, which underlay the terms of trade and the grabbing of resources for maintaining the rate of global accumulation are reproduced by all forms of belligerence and aggression, including, wars and the policies of starvation. Notwithstanding the enforced public-to-private transfers under neo-liberalism, wars inflicted upon the poorer countries act as the ultimate instrument of encroachment by which resources and labour are forcibly engaged in the formation of value under capitalist accumulation. Global food allocation policy, which deliberately generates hunger and famine, acts as an additional instrument of imperial control.

Seen from a perspective that makes the social category an antecedent to the formation of economic phenomenon, by making the poorer countries more food and nationally insecure, immensely more profits are accrued by the amalgam of capital than the pittance spent on subsidies to northern farmers or the small share of profits that goes to agribusiness. That is exactly why despite the fact that the share of agricultural trade is so small relative to global trade, the issue of agriculture always represented the biggest hurdle to WTO negotiations. By tearing apart old ways of maintaining a living, inflating the ranks of the unemployed  and driving people into abjection, the global trading system bolsters, partly by the demonstration effect and, equally, by the images of starving children in the third world, the ideology of racist-laced nationalisms, which remain to date necessary corollaries of capitalist dynamics. Famines and hunger are necessary ideological tools for capital and an advertisement for imperialism.

There are also additional security-related reasons as to why the hunger and famine policy gets repeatedly actualised. When all the diplomatic, political and financial means of suppression fail, an embargo on a developing nation can prove as lethal as a nuclear weapon playing out in slow motion. Iraq was a case in point. The sanctions regime amounted to a weapon that has hewn an immense number of lives over a decade and prepared the ground for all out re-colonisation of the oil rich country. The counterrevolutionary forces in Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere in the Arab world invoked the possibility of food shortages to deter people from participating in the demonstrations.

The kernel of the hunger and famine debacle lies not in the quantitative scenarios, but in the way third world resources, which are engaged in the formation of value, are cheapened to maintain the profit rate. Famines reduce the foremost commodity that lies behind the formation of value and profits, which is labour power or, the ability to labour, to something dispensable, and with it of course, human life. Thus, whilst some on the left argue that the differences in wages across the globe are related to degrees of productivity or relative surplus value, they forget that there is a criminally wasted human life in what is being produced. The formation of value is an integrated historical process, in which, all moments participate in the realisation of the commodity, and not a statistical exercise accounting for distorted power-brokered prices. The politics of hunger, famines, and imperialist aggression come to mediate the growing rift between private gain and the redistribution of value to a complex global production structure, which, in the age of financialisation, draws its signal from a fetish incarnate in the price system. The more acute the contradictions, the more developing nations would have to be stripped of their food and national securities before they get deprived of their will and national resources.

Commissioning the Bank, the Fund and their subordinate international organisations, which are governed principally by the US and its cohort, with eliminating hunger and famine is an inapposite measure. Hunger and famines are situated on the encroachment side of the accumulation process, as distinct from expansion by commodity realisation in the market and, therefore, improving conditions through a reform process is not at all a possibility. In an increasingly interdependent globe, hunger, famine and the shows of misery associated therewith raise profits and drag down the power of labour everywhere.

The scene of famine is so poignant as an ideological tool, that it contributes to lowering the starting point for negotiation between capital and labour across the globe. However, in as much as the scenes of the hungry invoke empathy, in the absence of an alternative internationalist cum humanist ideological hold on working peoples’ consciousness, they also provoke insecurity and many revert to narrower versions of nationalisms, further differentiating themselves from others. In a state of humanist defeatism or the estrangement of people from their own humanity and the scaremongering associated with alleged food scarcity, the initial state of solidarity with the skeletally starved transmutes into its opposite, deepening the divisions between working people along national and other lines and depressing the global wage by one degree or another.

It is this subtle ideological aspect of the hunger and famine issue which reinforces the ideology of capital, and which paves the ground for the continuation of what only appears on the surface to be an irrational food allocation policy but which is, at a more profound level, a calculus of mass crime. Like the reproduction of social conditions under capital to which hunger contributes, hungers and famines also buttress the ideology of capital, which has to be continuously reproduced and is never separate from the way expropriation occurs on a global scale.

That is all the more reason why, despite the abundance of food, under no circumstances shall the relief of famine amount to more than a charity fanfare by the rich classes for the rich classes. The TV look of self-righteousness, ‘politically-correct’ compassion and aid lullabies serve capital more than they relieve the poor.  The degree to which immiserisation will proceed and be manifest will be commensurate to the real and ideological crisis of capital and, by conjunction, to how close we are to the next famine or imperialist war.

Ali Kadri is presently a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE). Formerly, he served as Head of the Economic Analysis Section of the United Nations regional office in Beirut. A.Kadri@lse.ac.uk

Source:  Triplecrisis.com