bookofjoe: BehindTheMedspeak: CPR — How to save a life without knowing a thing
A February 20, 2007 USA Today article about the latest push to improve cardiac-arrest survival rates.

I have been using Iconnecthere for Internet telephone. They provide and adapter that allows you to use a regular telephone over the Internet. It took me a while to get it setup as they did not pre-configure the adapter like they should of. Well anyhow the adapter was stolen last summer when we were away including a DVD player recorder and some old camera gear.

I tried to use Skype but they make it impossible to pay for Skype Out from here. Skype out lets you use Skype to call land lines. The Skype software is a zillion times better than the iConnecthere dialer.

There is so much Internet fraud that Skype won’t allow payments from here. They can tell by your IP address where you are. And if you use an anonymous proxy connection like Anonymizer Skype will also reject your payment. In a way you can’t blame them, as I’m sure stealing free phone calls on the net is a top scam that is tried.

And, you ask, why the Prohibited Access? That is because telephony is regulated here by the Kuwait Ministry of Communications they don’t want you to use Internet telephony. I think this is mostly to not allow the Asian Expats here to setup call centers. The local news often has stories of them busting up call centers.

Ottawa spends $155.9M to help oil industry go green

Ottawa will spend $155.9 million to make Alberta’s oil and energy industry more environmentally friendly, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Thursday.

Most of the money will be spent studying ways to capture carbon dioxide emitted from the province’s oilsands and store it underground, instead of releasing the polluting gas into the atmosphere.

And they are going to run out of natural gas anyhow as it uses lots and lots to process the oil sands. Nuclear may be the answer. Years ago they talked about even detonating a nuclear bomb undergroud and then the heat would liquefy the oil sands. I don’t know how radioactive the oil would be though?

Update for March 10

This is true:

Planting trees won’t save us, ethanol isn’t cool, and rebuilding a city below sea level is insane

“Green” celebrities often claim to reduce their carbon imprint to zero when flying around the world by buying “carbon offsets”. One popular way of doing this is by planting trees.

Let’s do the math. It takes 15 trees 40 to 50 years to absorb five tons of carbon.

A return flight from Toronto to Vancouver injects 5.4 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per passenger. Carbon dioxide takes 50 to 200 years to dissipate naturally.

Therefore, to absorb most of the carbon dioxide caused by one passenger taking one domestic round-trip flight across Canada in 2007, requires planting 15 trees today that won’t complete the job until 2047-2057, assuming none is destroyed by fire, disease or insects. If they are, they’ll release their carbon back into the atmosphere.

In the Herald Tribune today there is an article Global Carbon Offsets by Gregg Easterbrook.
He checked Gore’s power bills and carbon use on TerraPass web site. So basically Gore excess caused 377,000 pounds of greenhouse gases annually, the equivalent of 20 Hummers. And so he pays $1,247.50 to offset it (the equivalent of 20,000 trees planted annually! Apparently the economies of scale of carbon trading allow this mostly to be used to offset landfill methane emissions. So Easterbrook is condescending to this stuff, but again, I think it is nonsense.

Updated March 6
I’ve updated this because this post is not surprise. Carbon trading is hypocrisy. Just be more humble and use less!

Gore Buys Carbon Offsets from Himself to Rationalize His Energy Wasting Lifestyle

Intuitively I think this as well. Just fix it.

More myths about carbon offsets | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

I finally got my repaired back. It took some time!

This was good for me. Then Eureka called me and said, oops, no they are going to fix it. So one week later I have the old one back with the scroll wheel replaced. I have a previous post about it here.

Eureka told me that it only had a 3 month warranty and that caused the confusion on what to do. But fortunately I had an extended warranty, so the warranty agency paid for the repair which they said cost about 35 KD.

Lesson in this, and in my previous Ikea posting as well. Make sure you know what warranty stuff has and consider extended ones as they are not too expensive.

We’ve learned that on the washing machine here too. It is a Samsung and has needed lots of service calls. I wouldn’t buy another like that.

Oh and also the new Fridigaire fridge, which we bought also has needed multiple service calls and also had the extended warranty.

Some people here say it is because of the quality of the electricity?

One of Geni’s long-term aspirations is to build a family tree of the whole world.

Interesting!

The Next Net: Startup Watch: Geni (Build a Family Tree, and a Network)

43 Folders Series: Inbox Zero | 43 Folders
These are posts from a special 43 Folders series looking at the skills, tools, and attitude needed to empty your email inbox — and then keep it that way.

Jonathon Coulton Code Monkey

Code Monkey get up get coffee
Code Monkey go to job
Code Monkey have boring meeting
With boring manager Rob
Rob say Code Monkey very dilligent
But his output stink
His code not “functional” or “elegant”
What do Code Monkey think?

You can subscribe to songs on iTunes, some are really good and some are OK. Best is they are free to get. His site is at Jonathon Coulton

There was also a remix contest.
Welcome to Quick Stop Entertainment

This is a good page with explanation also of the regional variation in how the Sari is worn.

How to wear an Indian Sari

Check this out on CBC, a audio slide show of some amazing photos.
Inside the Daily Dose of Imagery photo blog - CBC.ca - Media

And this is his photo blog is here.