Lampedusa, another European dissension?

The Italian Police has announced a few hours ago that “Eight boats coming from North Africa and transporting approximately 1.300 migrants reached the Italian island of Lampedusa”, which is located between Tunisia and Sicily.

This new arrival brings up the total of migrants currently living on the island to the number of 1.800. Since the beginning of the year more than 35.000 Africans, (24.000 from Tunisia), reached the Italian coast. Several thousands of them were already transferred to “reception” centres of the peninsula.

" Europe does not keep its promises", declared yesterday evening the Italian Minister of the Interior, Roberto Maroni. The member of the Ligua Norte reminded that Rome had asked for help to its European partners.

We have witnessed lately the willingness by several European countries to find solutions in order to face this influx of immigrants that came after the Tunisian revolution and the civil war in Libya.

Roberto Maroni added that "There is a war in Libya and, as long as this war is not finished we shall have refugees who will try to come live here”.

He however considered that the agreements concluded with Tunisia a couple of weeks ago to stop this influx were already helping a lot.

Europe is facing a difficult situation because we have to choose to understand or not the need for other people to come to our countries. People are risking their lives trying to reach us and are often mislead by what is waiting for them here.

Should we close our borders? Should we carry on to accept everyone? This is one of the most important debates that our governments have to lead. Sensibilities are very different among the population and tensions are noticeable.

With the elections coming in a lot of European countries, are the governments ready to have this debate? This is the question. What is sure is that the population is waiting for them to act…in a way or another..

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Feel like playing? Be one of the Navy Seals… a bit too soon?

Having thrown Osama Bin Laden’s body in the sea like a vulgar pair of socks wasn’t apparently enough.

This Saturday, Kuma Games has decided to launch a game where the player can be of one of the Navy Seals during the attack of the military complex in Abbottabad. Kuma Games is offering its players the opportunity to repeat the assault made by the Navy Seals on a specially designed “map”.

The only difference with what happened last week is that Osama Bin Laden’s position changes at the beginning of every new game, allowing people to play it as much as they want.

The development and the implementation of the game have been done following the different elements that have been published in the media.

It is not Kuma Games’ first tendentious production. They have built their image on editing special games and maps retracing real life military operations.

Players have already had the possibility to play different missions like the assault against Saddam Hussein, military drones’ attack in Afghanistan or several battles in Iraq.

If you feel like watching how it looks like, check this video:



Everyone is entitled to its own opinion of course but releasing such a game a week after seems a bit tendentious especially if we look at the way the whole situation has been dealt with by American officials.

For sure an amazing communication boost for the editor… and probably a lot of players in the couple of days along with a torrent of misplaced hatred…

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Bruno "ADAILYSONG" Bavota, a talented musician

Bruno Bavota is an Italian man with a passion for music.

Since the early stage of his life, he was attracted to music. He learned on his own how to play guitar and since 2007 he is cooperating with Miss Alessia Viti on composing music samples with guitar, violin and piano acoustics.

Some of the tracks contained in "Between pain, love and hope" (the first Ep made in cooperation with Miss Viti) have been chosen for commercial spots and films.

For example Mr Bavota did the soundtrack of the commercial spot for "Opportunity Job":

The real capability of Mr Bavota is to play piano. He discovered his talent only in 2010 but after having taken lesson with Miss Di Natale he developed his knowledge pretty easily.

"Lo specchio dell'anima" is the first Ep played by piano by Mr Bavota and is already a success!
In 2007, Mr Bavota and Mr De Rosa won the first prise at "Eccellenza Napoletana".

The last Ep released by Mr Bavota is "il Pozzo d'amore". It is an authentic piece of emotions put together and deeply touches the listener from the start in a way that just the "already famous ones" can do.
It is something not expected, something that leaves the listener amazed.

this is the track N°8 "Respiro":

Yes, knowledge is everything and Bruno Bavota is a perfect example of how music is one of the best explanation of what a talented musician can do.

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iPhone 5! are they giving us technology in pills?

In a few months Apple will launch the new iPhone 5. Already a lot of rumours are going on the web, but how is it going to be?

This fantastic product is being developed really quickly and in a way we can say that its development is beating the normal “consumerist timing”.

Indeed, the technology is getting easier and faster almost everyday; and people are now submerged by new information, product and trends.

The problem comes out if you want to keep yourself updated on every single new development. Today, it is getting almost impossible to do so.

In two years, already three different types of iPhone, two different types of iPad have been released plus plenty of updates. For a normal middle-class consumer, it is getting very hard to follow buying the latest product almost every three months.

One day, Bill Gates said that if Microsoft was developing cars we would nowadays drive for a 100 km with a litre of petrol and we could buy a car for 10$.

If we accept this assumption we should get an iPhone for one penny or maximum 2. We would have then the possibility to have the latest product every time we would like to!

Going back to the iPhone, hopefully it will be thinner, lighter and with a better camera but this is the least Apple could do..

What do we really want to see included in the iPhone 5? Do we really need a new product or do we just need another update?
By buying it, are we satisfying a real need or are we feeding our “thirst to appear”?




Your call.. THE iPHONE5 OR YOUR OLD ONE WITH UPDATES?

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Breaking news: Egypt asks the IMF for its help!

The International Monetary Fund just received a loan request on behalf of Egypt’s military government.

The IMF is planning to send a team of experts to the Cairo within a couple of days to discuss Egypt’s real needs and to determine the amount of the loan and the associated conditions.

This has just been announced by a spokeswoman of the International institution based in Washington D.C.

We have to remind you that on the 8th of April, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators filled Tahrir Square, criticizing the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces for not following through on revolutionary demands.

They demanded the resignation of remaining regime figures and the removal of Egypt’s public prosecutor due to the slow pace of investigations of corrupt former officials.

Surkld will carefully look for more information and let you know as soon as possible.

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The Chromebook, Google’s new bet!

The Californian search engine is soon going to launch notebooks equipped with its operating system Chrome. Google is planning to launch them on the 15th of June.

These computers will be produced by Samsung and Acer and should be sold online at the price $349. They will first be released in the United States, in France, in Great Britain, in Germany, in Italy, in Spain and in the Netherlands.

With these “Chromebook”, Google clearly wants to walk on Microsoft’s territory.

Thanks to these new computers optimized for Internet, Samsung and Acer will get a chance to penetrate a market that has been dominated for years by Microsoft and Apple.

For the last two years, Google has presented Chrome as a valuable alternative to Windows and really expects consumers to follow. It is not the first time that we hear such noises but the release of these laptops has been repeatedly postponed to make sure that the quality of the products will meet Google’s expectations.

Although Chrome is free, Google expects that it will help increasing its activities of online advertising by facilitating Internet access to its users. By attracting in much quicker way its users online, Google bets that they will be connected more often and therefore launch more “searches”.

Consumers and Google followers will probably welcome these new notebooks, as it will increase the competition and lower the prices. We still have to wait to see if the sales go well at the beginning but we are convinced that its competitors will soon raise a few concerns about data protection.

Surkld will announce the release a bit before and update you if any relevant information is published.

Meanwhile, have a look at this video made by Google presenting the Chromebook:

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What is a QR code?

A QR a code (quick response) is a specific matrix barcode invented by Denso-Wave (a Toyota’s subsidiary) in 1994.

It’s two-dimensional code readable by QR barcode readers and camera phones.

It’s a very nice app widely used in Japan and nowadays is becoming quite used also in the West.

If you have an iPhone or an iPad and you want to use this technology you have just to download the FREE specific app from the app store and then you will have the faster access from your mobile to web sites or specific texts.

The application it’s really easy to use, you will have just to frame the QR code and the app will take you straight to the specific URL.

Do you want to start using it? find out what there is behind this two ones :)

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Do you want to lose weight? “Big Brother nutritionist!”

Yes, if you want to loose weight hopefully in a few month you will be helped by the new version of the Big Brother… the Nutritionist one!

This is the ambitious project supported by the American first lady, Michelle Obama.

This project cost $2 million and it consist on installing cameras in the refectory of 5 primary schools in Texas,

These cameras will take pictures of the trays of all the students when they take food and after the meal when they leave the trays in the apposite space.

This new system will match the taken information and thanks to the bar code of the packages and an accurate analysis of the food left in the trays of each student will calculate the numbers of calories that any student has got.

Then this new software will give advices according with all the analyzed info and the type of student to improve his/her specific diet and let them have a better alimentation.

This program has been widely accepted by the 90% of the parents of the students attending these 5 specific “test” schools in Texas.

All the schools in Texas will use this system if proven to be successful.

Surkld’s point of view:  unfortunately in US the obesity is a big problem, it cost million every year and obese have a really bad life style.

The health care is struggling with the debt and only rich people can afford specific medical expenses.

The idea of the “big brother in the refectory” is not bad.  Ok for sure someone will complain for privacy, etc..  

But anything done to prevent a disease as to be analyzed carefully hoping that it will finally works.

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Breaking News: Gaddafi is now a “legitimate target”

Libyan leader, Mouammar Gaddafi, is now a legitimate target for the NATO that is leading airstrikes in the country.

Moustapha Abdeljalil, The President of the Libyan National Council of Transition, has made this announcement a few hours ago in London.

Mr Abdeljalil, who represents Libyan opposition, has declared during a press conference, “As Gaddafi is the commander in chief of armed forces, he is the one who encourages everybody to fight. It is therefore logic to consider him a legitimate target of the NATO”.

The Atlantic Alliance has been present in Libya since end of March in order to, according to the officials; dismantle the military devices used against the civilians by Colonel Gaddafi.

The Alliance has not directly aimed Gaddafi for the moment but has only warned him according to the official reports.

But this morning, the vast residential complex owned by Gaddafi has been hit by airstrikes, making 6 deaths declared a Libyan official earlier on.

As we can see, the situation in Libya is still very hard to read and nobody really knows what will happen in the next couple of weeks.

More information to follow on our blog….

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“Planking", the new trend on social networks!!

A new trend has appeared on social networks lately and Surkld wanted to share this story with you as we had a good laugh hearing it.

This new wave, called “planking” consists of lying down on the stomach in unusual and sometime dangerous places. Someone has then to take a picture and post it online on social networks’ accounts.

Watch this great compilation:



From our point of view, it sounds quite fun and seems to be harmless but apparently not to everyone.

Michael Brannon, 20 years old Australian, got arrested by the police while he was performing his “planking” on one police car.

Yesterday, the police of the State of Queens land in Australia arrested him and decided to pursue him for “being on police equipment without any prior authorization”.

Michael Brannon, on his side, wrote on Facebook “quite frankly, I think it is absolutely ridiculous for them to arrest me. We were just having harmless fun and they waste both my time and theirs instead of running after criminals”.

In Australia, “planking” Facebook page counts around 10,000 fans and displays hundreds of pictures of people lying down on rails, escalators, fire hydrants and other unusual places.

This is why Australian police decided to monitor closely planking activities.

Matthew Russell, from the police of Gladstone, declared that” planking can be dangerous and its followers take the risk of exposing themselves to further legal proceedings”. He explains it by the fact that “people are putting themselves in danger by always trying to do more than their neighbour”.

Whether you find it stupid or not, we have to admit that some people really have a limitless imagination.

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Glamour is back to Cannes for 11 days!!

Bernardo Bertolucci, first " Palm d’Honneur" of the Cannes film festival, opened yesterday evening the 64th edition of the most glamorous film festival in the world. This legend of the industry launched it during the traditional opening ceremony, just before the projection of Woody Allen's latest movie " Midnight in Paris ".

" I waited a little but I will finally have my Palme d’Or ", declared the 70 years old Italian film director. Bertolucci, in a wheelchair on the stage of the Palais des festivals, appeared to be particularly moved.

He received his Palme d’Or from the hands of the president of the festival, Gilles Jacob. This distinction was handed for the first time and intended to reward a director deprived until then of the Palme d’Or.

Welcomed by a powerful " standing ovation”, Bertolucci dedicated this distinction to " all the Italians who still have forces to fight, to criticize and to get indignant".

A bit before, French actress Mélanie Laurent, in a beautiful black dress made of tulle, had launched the festivities by celebrating " these eleven days which are worth one hundred".

Legend actor Robert de Niro, who is this year’s President of the Jury, was also greeted by a long standing ovation.

He was anxious to express himself in French: "Thank you for inviting me here, for the 75th… sorry 64th Cannes film festival ". " I hope that I will make a good job and thank you again”, De Niro said while the audience was cheering.

Frédéric Mitterrand, French Minister of Culture has been seen in the audience next to legend actress Claudia Cardinale. The Minister was also with a delegation of Tunisian film directors, as well as Antonio Banderas, Woody Allen and the team of " Midnight in Paris ", but also Faye Dunaway, Emir Kusturica, Gong Li, Michel Piccoli, and Salma Hayek.

Glamour and fame are back to Cannes for the next eleven days and Surkld will obviously keep you posted!

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Facebook was displaying members’ private data for years…by mistake

It turns out that announcers, thanks to a security key, had the possibility to have access to all information displayed on Facebook members’ profiles.

This security key was passed on to them by MISTAKE. Facebook argues that they maybe didn’t realize it.

For years, Facebook was actually much more opened and talkative to the announcers than we all believed they were.
Without knowing it, tens of thousand applications installed by members were communicating a security key to their intermediaries, in particular the advertising platforms. This key was passed to the intermediaries without any encoding protection.

The well-known editor, Symantec, revealed this on Tuesday. They said that this security key gave the possibility to consult profiles, pictures and immediate messages. It could also, depending on the confidentiality settings of the profile, write messages on users’ so called walls.

According to Symantec, about 100.000 applications could have exposed this security key until they warned Facebook of their system’s fault.

In an article posted on Symantec’s blog, an engineer explained that, " these third parties, fortunately, maybe didn’t realize that they had the possibility to reach these information ".

On its side, Facebook took measures to correct this mistake and said that” an investigation revealed no proof of use of information by parties that weren’t authorized to".

We have to remind that it is not the first time Facebook struggles with the security of its applications.

In October, the Wall Street Journal revealed that another data, the accounts’ identifier, was passed on by some of the most popular applications to the advertising platforms; providing them access to names and to the lists of friends.

At this time, Facebook had quickly reacted, asserting that this identifier was passed on "BY MISTAKE”……

A lot of convenient mistakes are you thinking? Your call...

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From Movie to Reality…They are watching you!

If you have ever seen the movie Minority Report with Tom Cruise or read 1984 by George Orwell this will sound familiar.

A big step has been made by police forces in the UK today.

The Metropolitan Police has announced that they have bought a new software called GEOTIME which will allow them to map suspects’ digital movements!

This software, already used by US Military, is a security programme that shows an individual’s movements and communications with other people.

All information gathered from social networking sites, satellite navigation equipment, mobile phones, financial transactions and IP network logs can be put together using GEOTIME and show the results on a three-dimensional graphic!

Obviously a few concerns have been rising already and lawyers are worried that this software could be used to monitor innocent parties also, and not only suspects or criminals.

Campaigners for Privacy, freedom of speech, assembly and movement, have called the Metropolitan Police to have more information on how this software will be used by them.

The Met said that they are not using it yet as it is still in the testing period. The Ministry of Defense is also investigating on the software.

For the moment GEOTIME is only assessed as part of research for the Met and the Ministry of Defense but we can bet that it will be used very soon and that we will soon have our own three-dimensional graphic in a few official offices…

We will of course keep you updated on the evolution of the investigations but watch out for the big eye…

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Microsoft has acquired Skype!

The news is confirmed, Microsoft has acquired Skype,


The transaction has been made for $8.5 billion.


Skype was founded in 2003 and was bought by eBay two years later.
In 2009 eBay sold the majority of the stake to a consortium that included Silver Lake, Andreesses and Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board  for $ 1.9 Billion cash.


In the end of the day we can clearly say that we hope that with this new giant behind skype hopefully all the users will have benefits out of it and this amazing service will continue to increase its technology and help people to be easily connected!

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Does Hugo Chavez go hand to hand with the FARC?

The International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) published a very interesting report today in London.

From what we can see in the report, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia also known as the “FARC” do enjoy more support by governments than it is generally stipulated or presented in the media.

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s President, is accused by the IISS to have made a donation promise to the Colombian rebel group.

Chavez told the FARC that he would give them $300 M in 2007 but apparently he never did it. The FARC were only authorized to train in Venezuela if they needed to.

From what the institute is saying, Chavez has done a few minor money transfers. He also gave weapons, ammunitions and the right to use Venezuelan’s territory.

The report also states that Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s president, has accepted non-official funding from the Colombian rebel group and its allies. They didn’t get Ecuador’s political support as they expected to.

All this information have been released by the IISS after having their experts checking the content of three computer, two hard-drive and three USB keys that were owned by Paul Reyes, former number two of the FARC, who was killed in Ecuador in 2008.

We can be sure that the international community will largely discuss this report.

With such information, situation in Latin America is more and more difficult to follow and understand.

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“Poor Economics”, a revolution in the struggle against poverty

Surkld’s team would like to recommend a fantastic book written by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) scientists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo.

The book is called “Poor Economics” and has just been published.

It is a result of the great work the two scientists have been doing lately and presents a new way to look at poverty in poor countries. They provide very interesting facts and data that are coming from their research and surveys in the countries the study is based on.

This book tries to show the logic behind the economic choices made by people living below the poverty line in poor countries. Sometimes the choices they are making might seem a bit strange to us in developed countries to the NGOs working there.

Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo provide new insights and solutions that are based on actual examples they have witnessed during their stay. They have been trying, without any political ideology, to look at the situation in the countries and the solutions given in response by the local governments or NGOs.

By collecting data and focusing on representative groups, the two scientists managed to get to very interesting solutions that will surely be of a great help in the near future. As emeritus scientists, they have of course used the most accurate statistic tools they could in order to achieve an outstanding study that cannot be seen as politically committed.

One of their main conclusions is that people living in these countries are economically rational and behave accordingly. Even if their choices are not the most profitable ones, they are made rationally.

They also say that often, due to their misunderstanding of this logic, NGOs and governments decide for them what is best or not which unfortunately results in lowering the impact of the multiple campaigns they are trying to set up.

We strongly advice you to have a look at the book’s website where you can read more about their amazing work and results:

http://pooreconomics.com/

Surkld would like to compliment Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo and thank them for the great value of their work.

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Difference Between Primary and Secondary Research | Difference Between | Primary vs Secondary Research

Difference Between Primary and Secondary Research | Difference Between | Primary vs Secondary Research

this is a useful article that clearly explain the difference between primary and secondary research,

hope it will be useful for everybody stuck on their dissertation.... like me!

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Google to announce Google Music tonight!

The noise is getting bigger and from the information we have, Google has to announce today the launch of its newest service, Google Music.

We were aware that Google has been negotiating with all the major labels in the music industry for the last couple of months. Google wanted to find an agreement with them in order to compete with software such as iTunes or Spotify or online music service like Deezer.

It turns out that no agreement has been reached between Google and the labels. Google still wants to pursue with its always growing ambition and decided to launch Google Music anyway.

Jamie Rosenberg, head of numeric content for Android said that "big labels didn't do enough efforts to reach a compromise" and that "they were asking for too much".

Google Music in a beta version will first be launched for american users in a "invites only system". The platform will allow users to upload (for free) up to 20,000 songs on their personal library. As a comparison, Amazon gives you the possibility to upload a 1,000 songs for the moment.

Regarding licenses and music rights, Jamie Rosenberg said that it won't be a problem as the service offered is a personal library following the same rules as when you transfer music to your iPad or iPod.

Obviously, music labels have a different opinion and from what we know, the talks between Google and the labels are not totally over... The evolution will be very interesting to follow and we will keep you updated.

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Microsoft is buying Skype

SAN FRANCISCO, the giant of the computer industry, MICROSOFT, is going to buy the new "internet communication" system SKYPE.

This is what has been reported by the Wall Street Journal,

Skype has been developed by an estonian developer, it was sold after to years and now it gets almost 124.000.000 users a month.

Microsoft is the giant of the "computer industry" and with its liquidity of almost 50 billion dollars is trying to start to compete, with this acquisition, with google in this 2.0 era.

This is just the beginning,
We will see by the and of the day if this transaction will be fine!

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How to prevent and treat Migraine

The goals of preventive therapy are to reduce the frequency, painfulness, and/or duration of migraines, and to increase the effectiveness of abortive therapy. Another reason to pursue these goals is to avoid medication overuse headache (MOH), otherwise known as rebound headache. This is a common problem among migraneurs, and can result in chronic daily headache.

Many of the preventive treatments are quite effective. Even with a placebo, one-quarter of patients find that their migraine frequency is reduced by half or more, and actual treatments often far exceed this figure.

There are many medicines available to prevent or reduce frequency, duration and severity of migraine attacks. They may also prevent complications of migraine. Beta blockers such as Propranolol, atenolol, and metoprolol, calcium channel blockers such as amlodipine, flunarizine and verapamil, the anticonvulsants sodium valproate, divalproex gabapentin and topiramate and tricyclic antidepressants are some of the commonly used drugs.

These drugs, however, may give rise to undesirable side effects, such as insomnia, sedation or sexual dysfunction. 

There is some evidence that low-dose asprin has benefit for reducing the occurrence of migraines in susceptible individuals.

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Who is mr Hammer? What is the "German medicine"? What should we do?

Following a huge discussion seen on the italian tv show "mi manda rai tre" between the On.Scilipoti and the showman mr Camurri the surkld team decided to get deeply on this subject..

Who is mr Hammer? What is the "new medicine"?

 Mr Hammer is a german doctor, he raised in germany where he did his career and in the same time he developed different patents.

thanks to his patents he was having enough money to support his family and he decided to leave his job to go to help poor people.

in the 70s his son got killed by Vittorio Emanuele Savoia, this event completely upset his life and after a while he got a cancer.

from this point he started to develop this new theory: the "german medicine".

the "german medicine" is mainly composed by 5 laws:

1) trauma is the trigger

2) nothing exists without his opposite 

3) The ontogenetic system of tumors and disease equivalent

4) Microbes are in the service of brain

5) Quintessence

the essence of this new way of prevent and fight cancer is that you can control your body through the brain and your body doesn't need any special treatment out of our main auto-control.

For that reason Dr Hamer has found multiple reason for multiple types of cancer, for example, from his point of view, the cancer of the left breast is caused by something happened to the young son (under the age of 18) of the ill person...

the problem, once again, is that unfortunately when talking about cancers we can not generalize because there are multiple differences between one type to another, for that reason it's very difficult to find a proper treatment that could recover all the patients.

People are scared when talking about cancer and much more when they got it.

For that reasons people are easily susceptible to any kind of help (true or fake) when are scared and without too many time to spend on looking for different treatments.

Yes, the modern medicine is the best way of preventing and fighting any kind of disease but unfortunately on this field we still not have the certainty of being "safe" and it's understandable that some people want to try different treatments on themselves out of the conventional ones.

soo, what should we do? are we free to choose the "best" treatment for ourself or should someone else chose for us?

please leave a comment below.

the surkld's team

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Tunisia is not back to peace yet

Crisis in Tunisia is not over yet. After a couple of months of rebellion and protests for democracy, the situation is very difficult again.

Protests are rising in Tunis and violent events took place last Friday. Police decided to use teargas and batons against anti-government protesters. Scenes of rough clashes were seen in the streets of Tunis.

Tunisia's government decided to reinstate an emergency night-time curfew for Tunis and its surroundings.

Read this article made by the guardian to have a better overview of the situation there. Path to democracy is hard to follow...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/08/tunisia-curfew-protests

It took Europe centuries so we can not expect Tunisia to go back to a peaceful life within the next months. Good luck to them, we will follow the evolution carefully.

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Our best wishes to all the mothers of the world!

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