Month: April 2008

Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs Review & Download Link | freewaregenius.com

Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs Review & Download Link | freewaregenius.com Chemists Without Borders promotes open source solutions. The above link, and other links therein, point to excellent resources for running Windows machines entirely with freeware programs. For those who wish to avoid Windows altogether, there are excellent Linux implementations …

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Jan Egeland on Charlie Rose

This is a fascinating and informative inverview with Jan Egeland, former Undersecretary-General (USG) for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC). He talks about the many successes of the the various humanitarian efforts, as well as current critical issues and what to do about them. Egeland’s new book on these issues, A Billion Lives : …

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25 Tools: A Free Toolset for Learning

25 Tools: A Free Toolset for Learning This is a site with useful links. Slideshare, for example, is a popular way to create presentations and make them available to specific users or to the general public. We may use this for our continuing education and personal development program. Bego

As Food Prices Soar, U.N. Calls for International Help

(Once again the NewsHour on PBS provides excellent analysis of current issues. You can read the transcript and listen to the audio. There are additional links to other relevant discussions.) Here’s an opportunity for us: Chemistry claims to be “The Central Science“. If so, we are central to the issue of food and energy. The …

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Long Slide For R&D Energy Spending

The US General Accountability Office recently reported in Advanced Energy Technologies: Budget Trends and Challenges for DOE’s Energy R&D Program that federal R&D dropped from $6 billion in 1978 to $1.4 billion in 2008, adjusted for inflation. Fossil and nuclear will get an increase of 34% and 44% respectively in 2009, while renewable energy R&D …

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Sarah Chayes: Hope is irrelevant. It’s determination that counts.

I recently saw on PBS this wonderfully enlightening Bill Moyers interview about Afghanistan with Sarah Chayes, former New York Times correspondent. At the end of the conversation, they have the following dialogue: BILL MOYERS: There’s a thin line. As I listen to you, there’s a thin line we sometimes walk, we human beings, between hope …

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