Day in brief – 2011-09-15

  • @mashable 70+ Essential Resources? Really? Not even just tips? It's easier than that: 1. Invest in good content. 2. Give it time. #
  • @savvides Competition is healthy :) #
  • Shared: Intel, Google Team To Optimize Android For Smartphones http://t.co/hn1lN0J5 #
  • Shared: Original Twitter homepage http://t.co/sZGBaSeA #
  • Shared: Living In The Cloud Era http://t.co/wy1778oV #
  • @stepanov Indeed! :) #
  • Molly Mallone's Irish Pub people know how to celebrate and get drunk. I got a "Happy Easter!" SMS from them today. :) #
  • It's beem awhile but now I am back. (@ The Ship Inn) http://t.co/J4EZ30MH #

On global food crisis

Some of these food-related historical anecdotes are fascinating:

The G8 met in Hokkaido, Japan, in July 2008 to address the global food crisis. Over an eighteen-course meal—including truffles, caviar, conger eel, Kyoto beef, and champagne—prepared by sixty chefs, the world leaders came to a consensus: “We are deeply concerned that the steep rise in global food prices coupled with availability problems in a number of developing countries is threatening global food security.”

Via Kottke.org.

Hellenic Bank updates interface, adds mobile banking

A couple of weeks ago Hellenic Bank clients received a notification through their bank mail that the web interface is about to be updated.  The update was schedule for September 3rd, but I guess it didn’t go as smooth as expected.  For the last two weeks the web banking was slow, unstable, and unavailable at times.  Today I finally managed to login and experience the new interface.  Here are the before and after screenshots for you to compare.

The new interface is far from perfect, but it is a vast improvement over the old one.   I’ve also noticed a banner advertising the mobile banking.  That sounded totally like a dream.  It’s hard to believe that Hellenic Bank even knows what a mobile banking is, let alone is capable of implementing one. I immediately decided to check it out – after all it was as simple as navigating to a mobile version of the website.  I tried to log into it, but was constantly thrown into a blank white page.  Not very surprising, but I am willing to give them time.  Given that there web site is still shaky, I doubt they have time to look at the mobile version of it as well.

Is Cyprus ready for the oil and gas exploration?

Cyprus Mail reports that “President will not be put off drilling for gas“:

“We have decided that Noble Energy will proceed in the forthcoming period with the exploratory drilling to find out the quantity and the quality of hydrocarbons,” he said.

The president added that drilling would provide clear evidence of whether potential deposits exist, something for which geological surveys have shown “the probability is very high”.

Christofias highlighted it was Cyprus’ sovereign right, based on international law and the Law of the Sea, to start gas exploration in its EEZ, underlining that “all our decisions and actions so far, stem from international law and strictly fall into this parameter”.

Given how the President handled the Mari naval base explosion, I wouldn’t trust the guy with the keys to my car, let alone drilling for gas.  I mean, I am for Cyprus benefiting from these resources and all.  But a project like that is legally, technically, financially, and politically huge.  Someone has to organize and manage that.  And current President haven’t shown any particular talent in managing anything yet.  Even of a much smaller and simpler scale.  The potential for disaster is huge here, and I don’t think Cyprus needs another one of those.  Not now, not ever.

Statistics in a time of war

John D. Cook shares this interesting piece of history:

During WWII, statistician Abraham Wald was asked to help the British decide where to add armor to their bombers. After analyzing the records, he recommended adding more armor to the places where there was no damage!

This seems backward at first, but Wald realized his data came from bombers that survived. That is, the British were only able to analyze the bombers that returned to England; those that were shot down over enemy territory were not part of their sample. These bombers’ wounds showed where they could afford to be hit. Said another way, the undamaged areas on the survivors showed where the lost planes must have been hit because the planes hit in those areas did not return from their missions.

Wald assumed that the bullets were fired randomly, that no one could accurately aim for a particular part of the bomber. Instead they aimed in the general direction of the plane and sometimes got lucky.

It stories like this one, of a practical application, that make me regret of being a bad student.  I think that more of these should be a part of a curriculum.