Blue Balloon

I think it’s worth spreading the word that Joseph (Sifis) Sifakis, a computer scientist born in my home town, won the Turing Award for 2007. He won the prize for establishing the foundations of Automatic Verification Technology (or Model Checking). The news has been out several days now but I do not have an exact idea for the reception it received back in Greece. The French people seem to be pretty happy though - he is the founder of the Verimag Lab in Grenoble.

For those readers of my blog who can read greek (thousands of them), here is an interview he gave to Skai. Among other things, he suggests that there should be greater connection between the educational system and the industry.

Το ρεπορτάζ του ΣΚΑΪ και του Τάσου Τέλλογλου περιγράφει το θέμα του σκανδάλου της Siemens και τη σχέση του με τη χώρα μας. Μερικά σημεία που μου έκαναν εντύπωση από το ρεπορτάζ είναι ο τρόπος και η αποφασιστικότητα που έδρασε η γερμανική αστυνομία, η προσέλευση και το ενδιαφέρον των απλών μετόχων καθώς και η ρητή επιθυμία του εκπροσώπου των μετόχων της Siemens να υπάρξει παραδειγματική τιμωρία για τους ένοχους υπαλλήλους της εταιρίας. Θα δοθεί άραγε και στη χώρα μας η απαιτούμενη προσοχή στο θέμα; Θα φανεί τις επόμενες μέρες. 

Admittedly, there was little I knew about Benazir Bhutto before her assassination yesterday. Nevertheless, it was difficult not to be impressed by that image of strong personality she had. Maybe this is why the news of her death was shocking to me.

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Here is an article Bhutto had written in October for the Globe, while she was preparing to travel to Pakistan.

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Here is an interview of hers to David Frost. She says something really strange, during 2:20 - 2:25, I wonder why the interviewer let it pass by.

Half the population of Toronto and one out of five people in the country are foreign-born, according to the latest (2006) Canadian census. Regarding tolerance in a multicultural society, there is no doubt that few nations have done better than Canada. However, the news does not come without a raised concern about the limits of a policy that Canada has consistently followed for the past forty years.

The Star: A city of unmatched diversity.

The Star: 1 in 5 foreign born.

National Post: Immigrants make up 20% of the population.

This is a surprise. Reuters