Duvet-Dayz

History: Niall Ferguson – The 6 killer apps of prosperity

We finally found some time to watch Niall Ferguson's Ted Talks presentation with the "killer applications" he also describes in his latest book "Civilization The West and the Rest"
Niall Ferguson starts his presentation outlining his playing field, pointing us to the facts that more than 106 billion people have walked this planet and 94% of those are already dead. Out of those 106 billion 60% were or are Asian and most of them were or are very poor (shortening their life span / economic output). He then bridges over to explain the concept of the "Great Divergence", that the majority of today's wealth (US$195 Trillion) was made after 1800 by so-called Westerners and till today 66% of the world's wealth is owned by these Europeans, North-Americans and Austral-Asians that only make up 19% of the world's population...
Continue reading...

Humor: Stephen Colbert is preparing them

In response to what was said by Mitt Romney during his "victory speech" on Tuesday in Florida, Stephen Colbert created the hashtag #PrepareThem on Twitter. As we all know Stephen will always try to help out when it comes to support the GOP with finding the perfect candidate...
The best quotes we've seen so far:
(Comedy alert --- Comedy alert - politicians and yaysayers there is nothing to see here - carry on looking the other way)
Continue reading...

Opinion: ACTA – speaking out the unspeakable

Kader Arif, the Rapporteur for the ACTA agreement in the European Parliament has today resigned over the issues he sees with the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (AKTA). To express his views and issues as a member of the European Parliament he issued the following statement on his blog (in French – English translation below) ...
Continue reading...

Happy Australia Day – Ms Gillard

Life is full of surprises and not all girls that loose one shoe at a party will be rescued and married by a prince later.
We do understand that Ms Gillard and her buddies would like to turn the clock back in Australia to pre-Howard times. But maybe this time the Aborigines and others will not take it all standing down watching how their land, their children, their lives, their religion and resources are stolen or otherwise been taken away from them.
So, happy Australia day, Ms Gillard or as the people who were there before you called it - Happy Invasion day.
Continue reading...

RIP – Etta James

Today soul, blues and R&B legend Etta James died in California - may her soul be blessed. Her life was a journey rough and long and we hope she found peace at last. She was a wonderful artist and a great human being. Rest in paradise, dear sister Etta...
Continue reading...

Quote of the day: Internet regulations are like witchcraft

The fact that there is no such thing as witchcraft didn't stop them from burning a lot of "witches". By the same token the ineffectiveness of the "remedy" is actually worse for us. It's like the "five-year-plan" that produces no wheat that yields an even more drastic "five-year-plan" that also produces no corn ...
Cory Doctorow @ 28C3 28-December-2011
Continue reading...

Internet: The Great Firewall of the USA – Stop SOPA before it is too late

On November 16th, Congress is holding hearings on the first American Internet censorship system.
If this bill passes it certainly will be the worst piece of Internet legislation in American history. The House of Representatives opens hearings on SOPA soon, but has rejected all submissions and testimony from public interest groups and others who oppose the bill.
If this bill passes, the Internet and free speech will never be the same. And so will U.S. society and the Internet industry as a whole. In the U.S. where this industry in total is larger than energy, agriculture, communication, mining or utilities, this bill will put innovation and thousands of small to mid-size companies at risk....
Continue reading...

Advertising: Dear Silvio by RyanAir

Advertising as we like it - funny, greatly executed and with high current relevance to make most people smile.
RyanAir with a new ad shown on their web site is offering Silvio Berlusconi "another possibility to escape".
In difference to about 10%+ of his colleagues in the Italian parliament who are already convicted criminals, Silvio Berlusconi has during the last years successfully used his financial and political powers to shield away any criminal prosecution from himself by new laws and delay tactics - at least as long he stays in power and that now might soon be changing...
Continue reading...

Technology: The Biped Robot on a bike

There are quite a few tasks that for humans seem to be very simple and do happen nearly automatically, but for robots and their creators these have turned out to be rather challenging. Walking, running, balancing things and of course bicycling are some of those tasks.
Now here's a robot with two legs riding on a bicycle...
Continue reading...

Guy Fawkes Night 2011

Tonight it is the 5th of November - Guy Fawkes' night the 406th - and celebrations of this event are becoming more and more lively particularly in the UK.
Sign of the time?
"...Remember, remember the Fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot
I know of no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot..."
Continue reading...

DMR 1941 – 2011, RIP

At the age of 70 on 12-Oct-2011 tech giant and Turing award winner Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie, co-creator of Unix and C has passed away.
RIP, our thanks will always be with you. Very few things that today hundreds of million people use on their computers everyday would have been possible or here without your work...
Continue reading...

USA: Cutting GAO budgets a guaranteed way to waste even more

Almost every western country is currently developing or has implemented plans to reduce administrative overheads and cost of government services. Often this happened by just reducing service levels and extent instead of looking for ways to spend the government money more wisely.
Sometimes such blunt tactics shed a light on the true intentions behind some of these "cost cuttings" - quick & dirty fixes, reduce social benefits and put even more pressure and fear into the majority of citizens.
Cost cuttings are seen across all areas of government services not stopping even with closing hospitals, fire services or massive cuts with other essential services.
Continue reading...

USA: Elizabeth Warren at the Democrats in Massachusetts

Elizabeth Warren at the first debate of Democrats in Massachusetts:
"...Everyone has to follow the law. That has to be the story in place. But no one understands better what the frustration is right now.
The people on Wall Street broke this country, and they did it one lousy mortgage at a time. It happened more than three years ago, and there is still no basic accountability, and there has been no real effort to fix it..."
Continue reading...

Life: We are the 99 percent

This is not about right versus left ... about the poor versus the rich ... It's about right versus wrong. When people are loosing their homes, their pensions or their jobs having worked whole lives often multiple jobs at the same time while those very few who profit from the current "business climate" often have never really worked all their life, breaking and bending the law left, right and back, not paying or paying nearly no taxes while those who have nearly nothing pay most, something is substantially wrong and must change very quickly before the overall situation explodes. But this is maybe what some of those few "really" want besides bringing back fascism and slavery...
Continue reading...

Quote of the day: Politicians and Diapers

Politicians are like diapers - you should change them from time to time - ...and for the same reasons.
Continue reading...

U.S.A. – The weather and climate change in 2011

With climate extrema continue to expose human and natural system vulnerabilities, natural disaster cost are skyrocketing and dozens of billions in damages each year become common, many are asking how this will continue.
According to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) 2011 is estimated to become the costliest year for weather-related disasters since they began tracking billion-dollar disasters in 1980. There seems to be a pattern of more extreme, more frequent and more hazardous weather disasters emerging. Based on HVRI data (in 2009 USD) 6 of the 15 costliest years of the last 50 years where during the last decade. With losses of property & crop in 2009 totaling up to USD 67.4 billion after the record losses of USD 111.6 billion in 2005 and the almost 3 times the average (USD 11.4 billion) year of 2004 with USD 30.4 billion, losses of USD 23 billion in 2008, USD 16.2 billion in 2001 and USD 11.9 billion in 2006 these 6 peak years of the last decade combined have caused damages of USD 260.5 billion. That there is a change in extreme weather phenomena happening becomes even clearer when looking at the overall damage totals from the last 50 years (USD 573.6 billion) where those 6 peak years of the last decade represent more than 45% of all losses occurred during the recorded time frame (HVRI has data published from 1960 - 2009).
The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) tracked 3 more than an USD billion disasters for 2010 and 2011 has already topped their 30 year record of 2008 (8 events) with so-far 10 (multi)-billion disasters (Hurricane Irene being the 10th) ...
Continue reading...

Music: Space Oddity

This is ground control to Major Tom .... can you hear me Major Tom ...
...and I'm sitting in a tin can, far above the moon, planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do...
Continue reading...

Humor: Facebook’s new Timeline feature explained

Finally the ultimate background info on Facebook we've all been waiting for.
If you're not paying for it you might not be the customer. You might be the product being sold.
Continue reading...

Portugal: Where you have to study to be a slave – Parva Que Sou – Deolinda

Not only in the Arabic world where young protesters have overturned regimes installed decades ago and kept alive by generous aid from abroad and oppression of their citizens, this summer also in Europe young people in many countries were filling the streets with their protest and anger.
In Lisbon, Portugal earlier this year about 300'000 people were protesting against so-called austerity cuts and the way how current politicians want to remedy the damages from the global financial crisis on the back of the poorest and the young. These were the biggest protests in Portugal since the Carnation Revolution in 1974 that overturned dictatorship.
A song that got accidentally famous on the Internet in Portugal is currently making its way across Europe. It strongly expresses the feelings of ...
Continue reading...

Internet: The Next Net

The moment the "net neutrality" debate began was the moment the net neutrality debate was lost. For once the fate of a network - its fairness, its rule set, its capacity for social or economic reformation - is in the hands of policymakers and the corporations funding them - that network loses its power to effect change. The mere fact that lawmakers and lobbyists now control the future of the net should be enough to turn us elsewhere...
continue reading...

Goodbye 2010 – Welcome 2011

A happy and prosperous 2011 from the Duvet-Dayz.com team
All the best for next year !
continue reading...

Government: Your Taxes at Work – Reaching the Millennium Goals

For this year's Christmas we thought a short metaphor / parable describing how a very prominent PPP/ government agency in Europe has handled one of its most important business services for years now and is by this wasting billion of tax payer's funds, might get you into the right spirit for donations to that help-industry. Like every holiday season they will certainly like many others of these so-called "humanitarian agencies" in the next days appeal to you for more donations.
Most of these agencies are doing fine but this one is certainly the black sheep. And as it seems many in that "industry" do know that but still the billions (of tax payer's money) continue to be coming in.
Let's assume for our little metaphor you are the owners of a small company with a few hundred staff members. Almost your whole business depends on letters people send you by mail and replies you pass back to them by mail as well...
Continue reading...

Music: Puccini’s Tosca – E lucevan le stelle

Puccini's masterpiece from the 3rd act of Tosca - Cavaradossi singing the aria while waiting for his execution. About the preparation for death that is filled by the love for life.
Continue reading...

Travel: The Market

Beautiful impressions of Bangkok's Maeklong market that remind us to soon go travel again despite all the atrocities the NeoCon countries and their vassals have created on their quest to treat most people worse than cattle...
Continue reading...

Movies: 22 Bullets Movie Trailer

Trailer for Jean Reno's latest movie "22 Bullets"...
Continue reading...