When science projects...

...become interesting again.

The following article was posted on daylymail and got me smiling. Although, I have stopped to post news, this one got my attention and I thought that it will be nice to share it with you. A bunch of Spanish students could get pictures of the "outer space" (ok not so outer, just of the stratosphere) using a simple digital photographic camera attached to a helium balloon. Total cost of their science project about 60 euros, or the cost of the camera. Innovation and knowledge does not require lots and lots of money to get children learn a few things. And I'm sure that they got their minds off the boring stuff of everyday-life.

Bad news

...there are a few events that can be associated through almost visible lines that eventually will reveal the great picture, even though you can not make out the final strokes, even though this picture is just a faint sketch, because like a good mystery novel the important notes, clues, hints, the masterminds behind the curtains, are unreachable. There are a lot of people that try to assume what will happen, what the multinationals have planned long time ago, or whoever weaves the plot, in order to achieve world domination (like brain in pinky and brain!!! although brain always failed to achieve his ultimate goal), by controlling the economy, the governments, the masses and finally the individual, preferably in this order. Few people deciding over the fate of billions. Governments, unwilling, for any reason, to stand up and act in favor of the citizens, for reasons probably unknown. Tragic misdirection of funds (from the view of the many), and labor, keep making the rich people reacher and the poor poorer. Since we live in a world dominated by imperialism and capitalism it is an expected fate. We are blinded from our urge for consumption of products, as the one I'm currently using to deliver you those thoughts, keeping us in constant search for the best, the fastest the one with the best style, with the most functions, and so on, to keep our minds away from the problems that keep surrounding us, and we like it as it is, no worries, means a happy life. We using technological achievements to keep ourselves occupied, to get away from the boredom of the contemporary life, to get ourselves safe from everything evil. It reminds me of this expression:

see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evilWe tend to resemble those three little monkeys, trying to keep away from evil, although it exist, happy in our ignorance.

This is human nature, selfish, arrogant and self-destructive. Exceptions exist to verify the rule.

But for how much longer? How long our empathy, indifference will last?

What am I referring to with that cryptic prologue? Basically to the latest(s) world wide crisis, the plural under the brackets defines the variety. I do not know how it started or why (although I think that it all resides in the those aspects of human nature described from as the 7even deadly sins)!!!???. Anyway, in a few words, I am referring to what I consider as the greatest crisis till now, that seems to just getting build up. It's not about the oil, about the banks or the downfall of the stock markets, I am referring to a crisis of the most basic human needs.
The lack of food, the high food prices, around the world that is more noticeable in countries where the daily salary of a great percentage of the population is no more than a dollar.

One of those is Haiti, where people where killed during food riots.

from timesonline
from msnbc
from bbc

In Zimbabwe also in the middle of political crisis, during the elections (the link is in Greek, sorry), while millions are disappearing, in a country that a decade ago was one of the most prosperous in Africa.

from bbc

Also in India

from economic times
from down to earth

Asia Food Crisis, facing Rice shortage,

Cambodia
Vietnam
Thailand

Those are just the peak, according to the wiki on world food crisis. The World Bank has donated 10 million dollars and advices other countries to do so( I heard that one from the news on the TV), a total amount of 500 million dollars should be raised to avoid a crisis in much larger scale. Some articles and news reporting sites give the magnitude of this crisis.
USA and UN express their concern, but it appears that they are capable to do only that.
The World Food Program cannot afford the raise in food prices, UN strangle to keep the program going.
France one of the first countries (?) to give 60 million euros trying to avoid the worst. But my opinion is that giving just money, the amount is insignificant, will not solve anything, the problem will remain as long as the causes are unsolved. As a Chinese anecdote says, if you want to keep a poor man well fed, do not give him fish to eat, teach him to fish.
The main causes of this phenomenon are the extreme rise in oil prices and the usage of fertile land as source for biofuel, and of course the climate changes (one more site). Also other reasons exist, such as animal industry, millions of food is wasted to feed our beloved cats and dogs, and I do not want to know what else, keeping the products of the land away from the farmers, and the citizens.


To end this a few more links regarding the food crisis, comments, facts and analysis of the phenomenon.

2007–2008 world food price crisis
Global food crisis looms as climate change and fuel shortages bite
Food price hikes spark riots
US Food Riots Much Closer Than You Think
Already we have riots, hoarding, panic: the sign of things to come?
Riots and hunger feared as demand for grain sends food costs soaring

Food riots revisited - public protests in the seventeenth to the nineteenth century
this one is a rather big article and I haven't read it all...will try
and a site from wiki that try to document the enlisted riots of human history:
List of riots

Finally I've finished it!!!

Anonymous web posting may become illegal in Kentucky

So, the next one has to do once more with the freedom of speech in the internet era, under the safety of anonymity. This one from Kentucky, news taken from Betanews

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews March 11, 2008, 2:31 PM

Although it's not exactly clear how the law could be enforced, the lawmaker said outlawing anonymous posting could curb online bullying.

Kentucky Representative Tim Couch introduced the bill in the state's Legislature last week. Under the policy, anyone who contributes to a Web site will have to submit a name, e-mail address, and mailing address.
This essentially would ban anonymous posting, as the contributor's name would have to be listed with the post. If the site still decides to allow for anonymous posting, a $500 fine would apply for the first offense and $1,000 for each subsequent offense.
Couch seems to be directing his ire at sites like the increasingly popular JuicyCampus.com, which encourages students to post anonymous, and most times slanderous, comments about others. He says that the bullying problem is significant in his own district in eastern Kentucky. However, at the same time he says the bill could be difficult to enforce if signed into law.
A local news station said it polled residents of Couch's district and found mixed results. While some saw it as a method to combat online harassment, others saw it in violation of the First Amendment.

I find it a little bit ridicule and more importantly frightening.

So let me get this straight. In USA and particularly in Kentucky, a new law was voted (?) to protect people from being bullied. A law to divide citizens:

some saw it as a method to combat online harassment, others saw it in violation of the First Amendment

In Greece there was a big fuzz a few weeks ago when it was discovered that a blog site (in Greek) maintained by "bloggers" (I despise that word), tried to blackmail a few high ranked persons (as the article mentions this story is more than a year old), from journalists to politicians, with the threat of exposing their illegal actions to the public. The revelations were mostly false accusations with intention to hurl the reputation of the "victims".

I hope that that case will not set an example to the rest of the world to blackmail by abusing the freedom of speech and the anonymity of the internet, because the outcome will be terrible. Certainly, governments and companies will have a milestone to use in their efforts to control the internet and silencing the unwanted voices.

News For Technology Freaks

The first one goes around to the net for a while now and has to do with the popular "social site" FACEBOOK. So if you ever get invitation from the application "Secret Crush" just harden yourself, turn your heart into stone and forget of the could-be-lovers ones.

Secret Crush was quickly branded a malicious widget by the security researchers who discovered it, seeing as how it poses as a legitimate application that promises to reveal someone’s admirer(s). In reality, it loads an adware/spyware associated with Zango, which historically has been linked to adware and spyware designed to gain access to certain games, DRM-protected videos, and software. In 2006, the FBI gave it a fine of US$3 million for allowing third parties to secretly install its adware.

.
The next one has to do with the vodafone 3G, or however they call it, and sites as yahoo, mail.yahoo.com to be more accurate. It just refuses to load while I'm surfing using the vodafone's 3G service, for those who doesn't know, 3G services are streaming data over the cell technology in high speed, as with ADSL. This network thinks for itself, sometimes I'm able to "surf" to any site I want to and sometimes the address is unreachable...This blog is not too popular so it want make any difference, or I want start a thread from this post, but posting it won't harm anyone, right?
update
it seems that with the newer 3g modems internet sites loads properly now.

Radiohead, a new album, but not a review

I believe that most of you know that Radiohead (Ραδιοκέφαλος) have finished recording their latest album, In Rainbows, the forthcoming cd/vinyl release should be available after the 3rd of December. I am also aware that a great deal of you also have visited the corresponding site and downloaded the album either free or by paying a fee (those not informed of this, will now be considered as such!!!). No big deal right?
Not quite...
...Radiohead are not just a group, since they considered to be one of the greatest bands in the world. So when Radiohead decide to "sell" their new album, directly from their site, by giving us the chance to pay as much as we want, to download the album, (or to preorder a great edition of it, double cd, vinyl and a hardcover illustration book, I'm drooling here, without the labels) it will be an opportunity for various sources to do their hypothesis and conclusions about the outcome.
From Bittorrent search engines to market analysts. even slashdot.com, all making their comments on this movement, as do I, while others, go even farther, considering it to be a hard kick in the balls for the music industry.
Even TIME magazine has an article on this, including a piece from an interview of Thom York, describing the music industry as a decaying business model. A statement, that is backed up by:

an A&R executive at a major European label:
"This feels like yet another death knell, If the best band in the world doesn't want a part of us, I'm not sure what's left for this business."

As of 12th of October Radiohead Made $6-$10 Million on Initial Album Sales (depending on the average amount payed for downloading the album) as I was informed from WIRED

I'm thinking...will they got a lawsuit from RIAA, from music corporations, for "freely" distributing an album via the internet, even if Radiohead has finished with EMI from 2004, and by doing so, encouraging the "leeching/seeding" community to burn up some more the copper telephone wires?

A few more artists seem to follow this business plan, one of the Trent Raznor, the Nine Inch Nails man, as well as Prince(?couldn't find that one). Even a record label as magnatune and artists as Saul Williams.

And this lovable guy (Trent Raznor) has said:

A few months ago, Trent Reznor (frontman of the band Nine Inch Nails), was in Australia doing an interview when he commented on the outrageous prices of CDs there. Apparently now his label, Universal Media Group is angry at him for having said that. During a concert last night, he told fans, '...Has anyone seen the price come down? Okay, well, you know what that means — STEAL IT. Steal away. Steal and steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealin'. Because one way or another these mother****ers will get it through their head that they're ripping people off and that's not right.

And to finish this read that one:

The Impact of Music Downloads and P2P File-Sharing on the Purchase of Music: A Study for Industry Canada

Description: Industry Canada undertook a music file sharing study during 2006-07 to measure the extent to which music downloads over peer-to-peer file sharing networks, for which the sound recording industry receives no remuneration, affect music purchasing activity in Canada. The data used for this analysis are from a Decima Research survey conducted between April and June, 2006, on behalf of Industry Canada. The report, prepared by University of London researchers, Birgitte Andersen and Marion Frenz, found that music downloads have a positive effect on music purchases among Canadian downloaders but that there is no effect taken over the entire population aged 15 and over.

that's all for now...keep on sharing...

The Day After Tomorrow

...will it ever come?
PHOTO IS FROM NASA's "VISIBLE EARTH" obtained ON 2000 (not recent OK? but to the point)

Once more the world has noticed this small country called Greece, but again not for something we are proud of. Almost the 2/3 of Peloponnese is turned to ashes, over 52 persons dead, and respiratory problems for thousands of people as most part of Peloponnese is covered with thick smoke. It seems that there is no end to this horror that is spreading through Greece, mostly at Peloponnese.
Fire raging on, from numerous locations to devour anything or everyone that stands in its way. As if it will rage on even through the sea.
People have died, people will probably die during the night of Saturday 25th of August and the death toll will probably rise, at the morning of Sunday the 26th. Hopefully, I will be mistaken, and wish I am.


CNN,photos
EL PAIS
ABC NEWS
HERALD TRIBUNE
THE GUARDIAN
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MSN NEWS
AL JAZEERA
RADIO CANADA
LE FIGARO

I believe that there are numerous hypothesis on this profound disaster. I know that we all have listen, read, talk about the why who or where and how, but in the end as history dictates and to quote Einstein:

...Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.

I will come back to this subject and edit a few things, as I usually do with every article.

The Long Before Forgoten Usage of Spear

Long before javelin was introduced as a standard Olympic Game (modern or ancient), it has been used during warfare or for hunting. Think of it as the ancient equal of a modern rifle.
In 13 of July 2007 during the Golden Gala Rome Giavellotto, a javelin athlete, mr. Pitkamaki (hmmmm weird name...here in Greece kamaki means fish-spear, a harpoon....hmmmmm...coinsidence?) demonstrated the original use of a spear to the unfortunate candidate of long-jump, mr Sdiri.

If you ask me that was a perfect throw, well calculated, balanced, the warrior demonstrated his skills without the need for further bloodshed.

France should admit defeat to Finland.






P.S.: Rumor has it that mr. Sdiri looks like a dear but its from an unconfirmed source.

Music A personal Afair

OuR DearesT FrienD Has ReturneD FroM The LanD Of "if-you-pay-a good-lawyer-you-can-almost-do-anything" and many other , BUT RidiculouS NewS Are FlooDing IN. AnD My FavoritE Ones Are RelateD To MusiC RoyaltieS and THE ExtremitY OF RIAA ActionS. SO...
I've TolD YOU AbouT The BIG HAND of Darkne$$ ThaT AfteR The "SuccesfuL" ProsecutioN OF InterneT UserS ThaT ARE SHARING MUSIC, actually "stealing" under theirs terms, AND InterneT RadiO StationS...the Fullne$$ OF TimE is HerE and TheiRs ProtectivE Wings HAD SpreaD to OtheR areas ThaT NeedeD TheiRs ImmediatE DivinE IntervantioN.
ONE of ThosE ARE YouR LocaL CoffeE ShoPs (the American Term for CAFE, avec accent)...

So In the future,
AuthoritY WilL CrosS ChecK if your MP3 PlayeR IncludE LegaL CopieS of OweneD MusiC
.............. WilL ArresT You if The MusiC is TOO LOUD and CAN be HearD FroM OtheR PeoplE
.............. OfficerS WitH A WarreN EscordinG LwayerS WilL BreaK UP a PartY and ArresT PeoplE NOT FOR BEING TO LOUD, BuT FoR BroadcastiC MusiC, without PayinG a PennY for ThiS Action.
.............. No MoRE BeacH PartieS WitH a GuiTaR UndeR a StarfuLL SKY
.............. No MorE WhisperinG of SongS to The EAR oF YOUR LOVER, SinginG LullabieS to YOUR ChilD.
It COulD EveN go to the extreme case of:
BeinG aBle To SinG a FamiliaR TunE WhilE BathinG ONLY if those bloody ROYALTIES were PAID.

CASE CLOSED

News

• Today 26th of June 2007 and for the whole day internet radio will go silent

to draw attention to an impending royalty rate increase that, if implemented, would lead to the virtual shutdown of this country’s Internet radio industry.

What for? Copyright Royalty Board will raise royalties from per-song rate to per-person rate!!!

• RIAA sued back, lovable -Directly from Slashdot

Washington Woman Sues RIAA for Attorneys Fees

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday June 23, @11:40AM
from the time-and-recompense dept.

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A Washington woman sued by the RIAA has asked the Court to award her attorneys fees, after the record company plaintiffs (Interscope Records, Capitol Records, SONY BMG, Atlantic Recording, BMG Music, and Virgin Records) dropped their case against her after two years of litigation, in Interscope v. Leadbetter. The brief submitted by her attorneys (pdf) pointed out the similarity between Ms. Leadbetter's case and Capitol v. Foster. In the Leadbetter case, as well as Foster case, the RIAA sued the woman solely because she had paid for an internet access account, and then later in the case attempted to plead 'secondary liability' against her without any factual basis for doing so. This tactic had been repudiated by Judge Lee R. West in Capitol v. Foster as 'marginal' and 'untested' in his initial decision awarding attorneys fees, and in his later decision denying the RIAA's motion for reconsideration."

and...

RIAA, Safenet Sued For Malicious Prosecution

Today at 3:34 πμ

DaveAtFraud writes "Tanya Anderson, the single mother from Oregon previously sued by the RIAA — which dropped the case just before losing a summary judgement — is now suing the RIAA and their hired snoop Safenet for malicious prosecution. (Safenet was formerly known as MediaSentry.) Anderson is asserting claims under the… Read more

DaveAtFraud writes "Tanya Anderson, the single mother from Oregon previously sued by the RIAA — which dropped the case just before losing a summary judgement — is now suing the RIAA and their hired snoop Safenet for malicious prosecution. (Safenet was formerly known as MediaSentry.) Anderson is asserting claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. A reader at Groklaw has already picked up that she is seeking to have the RIAA forfeit the copyrights in question as part of the settlement (search the page for '18.6-7')."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• German Bundestag passes it's new Internet surveillance law

Most of the news are from the German Newspaper Spiegel.

The story is just a fragment of the EU plans to control-track conversations, personal data and more, by forcing companies to keep a record of at least 6 months in their databases of every kind of traffic information.

The Good Part of this new wannabe law is the that Greece ONCE MORE has proven to be a step ahead in violation of personal rights. Do you remember the scandall with VODAphone regarding rather crusial data leaking out to "unknown" receivers?

• and don't forget...

Parties in Greece tend to move theirs sorry butts to work only a few months before elections. Those are the days of milk and honey cause after they will turn to be the days of rape and honey (to rephrase the titles of two albums).

• Just for laughts in Greek

Θα πληρώσει τα δικαστικά έξοδα: Έχασε τη δίκη μηνυτής που ζητούσε 54 εκατ. δολάρια για ένα χαμένο παντελόνι

Φυλακή τέλος για τη μεταμελημένη χρυσή κληρονόμο Πάρις Χίλτον

That's all folks

FAKELLAKI

Ok people this is SERIOUS.


How many of you know about http://fakellaki.blogspot.com ?

Well, you should and I have to say that I was referred to it just yesterday. It is/was created by amalia kalyvinou and I found this blog important for reasons of ethics, of humanity of not going with the easy way. As far as I know, she had cancer (malignant tumor) at her leg. And I'm referring to her in past tense cause from 25/05/2007 she is no longer a stranger among us.

The short story is that from the age of 8 till the age of 26 she complained about pain in her leg. All the doctors mentioned at her blog failed in miraculous ways to diagnose the growing tumor. Until it was to late. But her suffering was never-ending. And even when the size of tumor was too great, some doctors (names and situations in the blog) refused to see the obvious. As she refused to bribe doctors for drags, chemicals, for even to diagnose the problem so that the treatment Will commence.

The tumor spread to her body...

Read her blog...

the story is not new but it is my first time reading them from a person how suffered from the medical/pharmaceutical system in Greece.

FOR THE NON GREEK READERS SORRY...but find someone to translate this one to you.

[EDIT] : no comments will be allowed for this post. Read her blog and write there, if you feel like it. No credits for me. She will never read your replies or your condolences, sad but true.

Powered by ScribeFire.

News

OK, so after a long time let me write about a few things that raised my curiosity.

...In The Beginning

talking about billions of years before of our times, to be exact, 13.2 billion years ago, +/- a "few "million of years probably, a star was formed, now coded as HE 1523-0901. So what is the big deal?
Apart from the obvious and jaw drooping 13.2 BILLion YEARS?????????????OK let's see what I can come up with:
First concentration of metal is low ( I do not know the significant of that one, probably has to do with the age determination), it is located in the Milky Way (which has a diameter of around 100,000 light years, those are the years we are looking back to the past watching the far end of our galaxy), aaaaaand keep in mind that the BIG BANG is located like 13,7 billion years ago, this one is one of the oldest stars founded and still active (I cannot find its distance from earth, so I do not know how much back in time the good fellows looking at). Soooooooo, as physorg calls it, it is a true galactic fossil, alive and kicking.








Our beautifull "milky way" as seen from death valey in U.S.

The next one is just a note of something else I read at physorg.
SKorea's LG Philipps develops first A4 colour e-paper. No more paper, tons of it are going to waste anyway, so why produce more, I would love to have one of that in my pocket, full of newspapers, books, comics, art, anything... but hush my foolish heart, the time for revolution is not here yet!
For more technical data, as we read from engadget.com:

A4-sized rendition of the vivid bendable display has successfully been developed in its labs. The panel reportedly measures just 35.9-centimeters diagonally, is 0.3-millimeter thick, and can display up to 4,096 colors while maintaining the energy efficient qualities that inevitably come with using energy only when the image changes. Unsurprisingly, the company plans on marketing the device as one of convenience and doesn't hesitate to tout its greenness in the process, but unfortunately, it failed to mention when this would find its way out into the general public.

Next on somedayitwillbe...

Another scientific thing, and cosmology again from newscientist.com. It's a vast and unknown universe (but sometimes is better to focus on the one we are standing on)



Those lovable darlings (who never misses a chance to attend a meeting, a scientific one, and get stoned/drunk at the dinner/parties) found out a planet coded GJ 436 with a four times the width of Earth surrounded by "hot ice". An exotic form of water that although it is under 300° C or more the gravity keeps it in "liquid" form.





PARTHENOGENESIS

About another thing I wanted to talk about is the finding of female sharks that are able to fertilize themselves, without the need of a male, a PURE PARTHENOGENESIS. The offsprings are genetically identical to their mother. And I quote:

Mahmood Shivji -- Nova Southeastern's Guy Harvey Research Institute director and one of the paper's authors -- said that he and his colleagues determined that a byproduct formed when sharks produce eggs, known as a sister polar body, had fused with an unfertilized egg to produce the baby shark, whose DNA had only half as much genetic variability as the mother.

"Yes, indeed this is a virgin birth," Shivji said in an interview, adding that this could help explain why other sharks have suddenly been born in captivity, like a bamboo shark that appeared in Detroit's Belle Isle Aquarium in 2002.

"We have now demonstrated that sharks are actually able to use an alternative, previously unknown reproductive pathway, which is parthenogenesis. The problem here is that this alternative reproductive pathway results in offspring that have much lower genetic diversity," he said.

That's all for now folks. It's 00:05 and I need FOOD, and a beer but the fridge is empty. CRAP, pfffffffffffffff

NEWS, wireless power

Well the news you will never read from anywhere else except from here, or the other sites that mentioning them, are...
First of all THE one and only

Plastic sheet delivers wireless power

Anyone who has access to this article could read it. As for all the others could go to the links provided and read what I've learned. So go here or here. All the others could read this small but complete abstract by myself.
So T Sekitani et al, were able by using a plastic sheet of 4 layers to deliver remotely 40Watt to different appliances. The whole idea is based to something that was first described by Faraday in 1831 called electromagnetic induction. Transmission of power was a common knowledge (when electrical energy can be transmitted without direct contact of the source and the battery), the thing that makes a difference is the fact that

it can transmit high power selectively to the position of electronic objects

as the researchers said, as the fact that this is a rather simple a cheap way to do it.
Well do you plan for a wireless home? I think it could be happen.

...news

Let's started:
Student writes essay, arrested by police
...WTF???!!! I mean freedom of speech? pfffff I tried to find a link to read what the students essay was about and how could cause any trouble, and i did. As it has been posted

"Allen Lee made references to violence, drug use, and a dream about a shooting spree where he had sex with dead bodies"

oh my god i'm in trouble, i think i hear police knocking on my door, well so does Steven Kings, Paolo Pasolini if he was alive, almost every contemporary American novel writer, like J. G. Ballard, most of Japanese film directors including Takashi Miike as their leader and so many other people.
Create a WANTED LIST on the comments. Feel free to add yourself also.

NEXT

Japanese Railway


I do get furious with Greek public transportation and especially when i compare Greece with the rest of the world, so after the previous news of TGV and the speed record achieved recently i found that its great rival in public transportation, Japan, started a new project on magnetic elevated trains (our friends call us MagLev. So one thing in mind...
BOB SAGET help us


...last but not least

Broadband to go free in 2 yrs

In Greece, oh no, dream of it. In INDIA. Yes in India. The point is that if i had heard of it like 1 day ago, i would be there (at the enemies auditorium, demokritos) and kiss India's president feet, no in fact beg him to adopt me.

Sea, money, and fire

Well those three words always were describing, and will be, Greece, from ancient Greece till now days. And I mean it. Lets look over at today's and yesterday's news. TOP leading articles all over the press: (something is wrong with syntax but i had to let go of my proof-reader)

first there was fire

1. Assault on Precinct 13...hmmm wrong, but not quite, OK the real stuff. Assault yesterday and today to police stations by the Usual Suspects. What I've heard from the news, imagine like 30-50 people crossing a distance of 2-4 kilometers, and then as easy as taking a crap, unload a few molotovs, to the police stations. The surrounding area, bursts in flames (I'm really sorry for those poor bustards that watched their cars burned to ashes). And all of that shit because the demand the release of a convict, who was not imprisoned because of his believes, but of robbery (i found out, by the news reporters that he has confessed his participation in one of the robberies he is accused with (I'm hating writing down in English, but since i started it...).
...sooooooo where else anyone can prepare a few homemade molotov and burn to ashes a police station (well it wasn't burned but you get the picture). how did this joyful party arrived or left from the area in daylight, without any police officer even start a pursuit, even notice anyone to track them down. What the hell do those cameras ever exist? and so on, and so on. I will try to keep this post informed.
links, most in native language:
in.gr
flash.gr

...then water

2. TITANIC strikes back...i think it's been like two weeks...
the story is simple (but be aware nothing in Greece is as simple as it looks like). A ship was sunk while being at the "port" of Santorini. The "" on port is cause of the lack of a decent port in this particular island, peculiar geographic reasons make this almost impossible, for Greek standards anyway. Now even on CNN
CNN1
CNN2
CNN3
CNN4
soooo i heard today that after 14 days post-sinking and recovery of ships black box, it hasn't been sent for analysis...(??????????? probably they just trying telepathy on that black thing, who needs hi-tech??????).
Anyway, one thing left to say...CONSPIRACY THEORIES RUUUUULE. Who's gonna admit that all bad things happening are caused by aliens that are bombarding our planet, especially Greece, with strange radiation that causes a series of unfortunate events?

and then human greed create money

3. take the money and run...a few millions of euros via bond where misplaced, and now are missing??? Truly I'm not the best person, not a clue with economics, to talk about those things. So, money (actually public money, money to pay pensions etc) are in a company's or a person's pocket. Or this is the way i understood things. An then they say that those bonds should bought back from J.P. Morgan ( i seem to recall this company from somewhere...)
latest articles:
in.gr1
in.gr2

it's out of control so they called up the reporters to solve the case.

...live your myth in greece

P.S. how awfull is my writting????

Violence, games and reality

Well, I should say that after the latest survey from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), computer games will not force you to MURDER DEATH KILL (MDK, do you remember this game? Apart from the name it was almost hilarious). I'm soooo disappointed, all those years of "melting" my brain will lead me to no misbehaviour? Except if you are already a little bit crazy and you already have killed most of the cats you run along in the street, then violent games could do some "good" to you and advance to people killing. This is like the heavy metal will lead you to Satan, to much violent movies will lead you to kill innocent schoolmates (like the recent Virginia Incident)and so on.
Anyway the subject is still open for debate for both sides. I will enjoy playing computer games, listening to metal (καφρίλα για πάντα) and watching violent movies (το ξύλο βγήκε από τον παράδεισο, beating arrived from heaven -free interpretation of classic Greek movie- the ultimate ass kicking movie, where dozen of schoolgirls are beaten up by their teachers, those were the good old days, a real hard-core, Avant-garde movie, from Greek independent movie productions)

from CNN.com

France: after the first round of national elections, as it was expected, Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal received enough votes to compete for the presidency at second round. Interesting is the percentage of 10% in favor of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of far-right nationalist party. Well it seems to me that as time goes by far-right parties increase their popularity among citizens. Troubled times indeed...so waiting for the second round.

P.S. a lot of info derives from www.liberation.fr, excuse me for any abuse of any TM rights.

TGV new speed record

Traveling with train is one of my favorable meanings of transportation, the other one is the bicycle. So when i read the news that at Tuesday 3 April 2007, the famous TGC (Train de Grand Vitesse) brakes another speed record. I really got depressed.
How come, you'll ask me. Well, it takes about 1 hr 10 min by train to go from Athens to Corinth (85km), or even 4 hr 30 min for 500km (Athens to Thessaloniki), so how should i feel like? The same distance in France is no more than an hour trip.
Ok you'll argue, the geography of the countries is completely different and standards as those can not be achieved in Greece. But train "exists" only for particular destinations. For other cities/villages either there is no train, or the one that exists at full speed and without any load will reach the astounding speed of 40-50 km/h. So traveling around Greece will take you days. So you are condemned to buy a car (the root of all problems).
Why am I always hearing promises about meliorate the means of transportation but always being at the shadow of other countries? pfffffff