Financing purchases under a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement can help CIOs strategically manage their IT budgets
REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 1, 2011 — In the current global economic climate, chief information officers (CIOs) are carefully examining their technology priorities and becoming more involved in financing to meet strategic IT objectives. (more…)
Political unrest in Egypt, Yemen and Tunisia is not unlike a modern version of the American Revolution, according to North Carolina State University’s Dr. Akram Khater. Khater’s expertise in Middle Eastern history can provide perspective to help us better understand what is taking place in the region. Khater is director of NC State’s Middle East Studies Program and an associate professor of history. He can be reached at 919/513-2218 or akram_khater@ncsu.edu. (more…)
There’s a reason why Hollywood makes movies like Arachnophobia and Snakes on a Plane: Most people are afraid of spiders and snakes. A new paper published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reviews research with infants and toddlers and finds that we aren’t born afraid of spiders and snakes, but we can learn these fears very quickly.
One theory about why we fear spiders and snakes is because so many are poisonous; natural selection may have favored people who stayed away from these dangerous critters. Indeed, several studies have found that it’s easier for both humans and monkeys to learn to fear evolutionarily threatening things than non-threatening things. (more…)
*Businesses and developers will soon be able to run Oracle Databases with the pricing flexibility, ease of use, and scalability of Amazon RDS and the AWS Cloud*
SEATTLE, Feb 01, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Amazon Web Services LLC (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon.com, 
Inc., today announced that it plans to make Oracle Database 11g available via the Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), during the second quarter of 2011. Amazon RDS is a web service that makes it easier to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. Amazon RDS for Oracle will include flexible pricing options for customers. Those with existing Oracle licenses will be able to run Oracle Databases on Amazon RDS with no additional software licensing or support charges. Those without existing Oracle licenses can take advantage of on-demand hourly licensing with no upfront fees or long-term commitments. Businesses and developers can visit [https://aws.amazon.com/rds/oracle] to learn more, sign up to be notified when the service is available, and request a briefing from an AWS associate. (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Brain scans showing neural reactions to pro-health messages can predict if you’ll keep that resolution to quit smoking more accurately than you yourself can. That’s according to a new study forthcoming in Health Psychology, a peer-reviewed journal. (more…)
COLUMBUS, Ohio – For troubled war veterans, a friendly bartender can be the source of more than just drinks and a sympathetic ear. (more…)
*Project to Streamline IT Infrastructure to Improve Service Delivery, Reduce Energy Consumption and Strengthen Security*
NEW YORK, N.Y. – 31 Jan 2011: IBM today announced that it has been selected by the City of New York to build a 
more efficient, smarter technology platform for CITIServ, the City’s IT infrastructure modernization program. The goal of the project is to streamline delivery of City services by consolidating and updating outdated and incompatible IT, thereby reducing energy consumption, strengthening security, and providing City workers with faster access to the latest technologies. (more…)
The temperatures of North Atlantic Ocean water flowing north into the Arctic Ocean adjacent to Greenland — the warmest water in at least 2,000 years — are likely related to the amplification of global warming in the Arctic, says a new international study involving the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Led by Robert Spielhagen of the Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Literature in Mainz, Germany, the study showed that water from the Fram Strait that runs between Greenland and Svalbard — an archipelago constituting the northernmost part of Norway — has warmed roughly 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the past century. The Fram Strait water temperatures today are about 2.5 degrees F warmer than during the Medieval Warm Period, which heated the North Atlantic from roughly 900 to 1300 and affected the climate in Northern Europe and northern North America. (more…)
