XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Thursday 22 March 2012

Ducklings Reunited by White House Security Guards -

Ducklings Reunited by White House Security Guards - 


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It turns out there is a way to make it past the high-security gates and onto the White House’s front lawn.  You just have to waddle and quack your way through.
That was the lesson learned from a mother duck and her ducklings who made a surprise visit to the White House Wednesday.
Video from outside the White House shows the duck and her eight little ones mulling outside a White House entrance when the mother duck hops up and squeezes in between the gates and onto the White House grounds.  Her ducklings, not yet strong enough to jump over the gate’s concrete barrier, befell the same fate as so many human guests to the White House and were left stranded on the outside.
These tiny creatures, however, were able to do something most visitors cannot, melt the hearts of the usually stoned-faced Secret Service agents.
Uniformed guards watching the entrance brought  a ramp over for the ducklings to walk up and even picked up by hand the ones who still could not make it.  As each duckling made it through, the guards got a round of applause from the assembled visitors.


Read more -
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/ducklings-reunited-by-white-house-security-guards/ 

Bill Gates' $160 Billion Nightmare: The Cloud That's Raining on Microsoft's Parade -

Bill Gates' $160 Billion Nightmare: The Cloud That's Raining on Microsoft's Parade - 
 

What terrifies a man as smart and successful as Bill Gates? Just two words, it turns out.


Some say these two words keep him up at night. Others claim they are the real reason for his early retirement. Still others assert that the concept behind these words is a bigger threat to Microsoft (MSFT) than Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), and Facebook combined.


The two words that upended Bill Gates' world? "Cloud computing."



It Begins on Oct. 30, 2005 in Redmond ...


Bill Gates knew the world he created was in danger of being upended, and on a gray autumn afternoon he sent an urgent memo to his top engineers and most trusted managers.


It sounded the alarm that a disruptive "wave" was about to wash over the entire world, forever changing the way we get information and do business. It also warned that this could wipe out the $300 billion empire he'd spent his life building.


It was happening a few hundred miles south, on the banks of the Columbia River. A mysterious outfit known only as "Design, LLC" constructed two massive, windowless warehouses -- which the International Herald Tribune described as "looming like an information-age nuclear plant."


Inside those monoliths, the "wave" Bill Gates feared was being built under the code name "Project 2."


Today, "Project 2" -- or "cloud computing" -- is a $160 billion tsunami. And experts say it will capsize a $1 trillion industry.


Read more - 
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/03/20/bill-gates-160-billion-nightmare-the-cloud-thats-raining-on/?test=latestnews