Day: January 27, 2009

One Billion And Counting

A report published by leading Internet research firm comScore asserts that the worldwide Internet usage figures had crossed the 1 Billion mark during December 2008 with the highest number of users coming from the Asia Pacific region.

The report also highlights the slowing down of growth of Internet in USA which incidentally has come third in overall share of internet audience at a mere 18.4 percent and is topped by Europe and Asia Pacific region who have a respective share of 28 percent and 41.3 percent internet usage.

The report which also covers the reach of specific internet properties has highlighted the popularity of Google which it claims has a reach of nearly 77 percent of the worldwide internet audience.

Other internet properties that figured at the top included Microsoft’s network of sites, Yahoo with a reach of 64.2 percent and 55.8 worldwide internet audiences respectively.

While terming the breaching of the 1 Billion figure as significant, Magid Abraham, CEO of comScore expressed his opinion on the growth of Internet in near future by mentioning “The second billion will be online before we know it, and the third billion will arrive even faster than that, until we have a truly global network of interconnected people and ideas that transcend borders and cultural boundaries.

Stimulus Or Pork?

Lots of argument and debate on the Obama plan is it good stimulus or is it just pork as usual by a Dem congress?  Opinions are like….well you guys know the rest of that statement.  One of the biggesty and loudest arguments is the one by Rep, Boner, oh dam, my bad, Rep Boehner of Ohio and he mentions “millions for contraceptives”.  Okay I understand that but as of yet he has NOT explained to anyone what the hell that means.  Vague BS is wedll and good, but if you want us to understand why you want us to be against this stimulus plan then I suggest that they be more specific and flush the partisan crap down the toilet.

The Repubs are stuck in the 1980’s and keep calling and chanting the tired old mantra of “cutting taxes” as the way to save the economy.

Now with that said, I will admit that some parts of the plan do seem like they are a bit on the WTF side.  This is a sampling of some of the stuff included in the plan.  You decide for yourself  if it is stimulus or pork.

$44 million for repairs at the Agriculture Department headquarters in Washington.

$200 million to rehabilitate the National Mall.

$360 million for new child care centers at military bases.

$1.8 billion to repair National Park Service facilities.

$276 million to update technology at the State Department.

$500 million for the Transportation Security Administration to install bomb detectors at airports.

$600 million for General Services Administration to replace older vehicles with alternative fuel vehicles.

$2.5 billion to upgrade low-income housing.

$400 million for NASA scientists to conduct climate change research.

$426 million to construct facilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

$800 million to clean up Superfund sites.

$150 million for the Coast Guard to repair or remove bridges deemed a hazard to navigation.

$6.7 billion to renovate and improve energy efficiency at federal buildings.

$400 million to replace the Social Security Administration’s 30-year-old National Computer Center.

Can You Catch “Fat”?

Could it really be possible to catch obesity?

One doctor in the US believes that a common cold virus can interfere with our normal body processes and make us fat.

For the past ten years, Dr Nikhil Dhurandhar from Louisiana has been carrying out animal and human studies on the virus, Adenovirus-36.

He believes it could be one of the mechanisms causing some people to put on weight more quickly.

His team at the Pennington Biomedical Research Centre have now documented more than 1,000 patients whose obesity appears to be linked to infection with the virus.

Dr Dhurandhar’s team took blood samples from people an obesity clinic.

They tested it for antibodies to Adenovirus-36 and found that 20% of the patients had encountered the virus at some point and were significantly heavier than their antibody negative counterparts.

In another study, they showed that obese people were nearly three times more likely to have the virus than a non obese person and even amongst the non obese group, those with the virus were heavier than average.

Dr Dhurandhar said we probably encounter it first when we are small children and only remain infective for two to three months and there are many other reasons why we get fat.

And Dr Carel Le Roux, an obesity expert at Imperial College, who has been carrying out experiments to see if he can make thin people fat, said: “It’s very important to know that it’s not the reason why we’re seeing a major epidemic of obesity.

The World Health Organisation says that globally there are more than a billion overweight adults and a third of them are obese.

Obesity rates that have risen three-fold or more since 1980 in some areas of North America, the United Kingdom, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, Australasia and China.

But Dr Tam Fry, chair of the Child Growth Foundation, said: “I’m sceptical because this theory has been around for 10 years and no-one has come up with a comparable study to back this up.

Geithner Is In

Geithner has be sworn in he will pay his back taxes that he somehow forgot to pay and he will help his buds on Wall Street.  And now for something completely different……

President Barack Obama’s financial rescue plan will be unveiled soon and is likely to be larger and more ambitious than originally planned as the economy and banking system worsen.

The last procedural roadblock is set to be removed today, congressional Democrats said, when the Senate confirms Obama’s choice for Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, who will speed the rescue program out the door as soon as this week. Administration officials and members of Congress said yesterday the second $350 billion of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, released by Congress earlier this month, may not be enough to shore up lenders and pull the economy out of recession.

Lawrence Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council, said yesterday those funds would get the rescue plan started, while Vice President Joseph Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi both said there may be a need for more money later.

Obama’s plan will initially include between $50 billion and $100 billion for foreclosure-mitigation programs and an unspecified amount of money to stabilize undercapitalized banks to unlock the flow of credit to consumers and businesses, Summers said. He didn’t provide details of any other measures the administration is considering to help the banking system.

Okay, the first TARP did litle to help the economy and it was aimed almost totally at the banks and now we are asked to do more of the same….I am have a major problem with this whole damn thing.