There will be a free CloudCamp meeting in Baltimore from 6:000pm to 10:00pm Wednesday March 9th at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront. Cloudcamps are participants-driven unconferences where users of Cloud Computing technologies meet to network and share ideas, experiences, challenges and solutions. The event is free but participants are asked to register to ensure there is enough food and refreshments. Here is the current, tentative schedule:

6:00pm – Registration & Networking (food/drink)
6:30pm – Opening Introductions
6:45pm – Lightning Talks (5 minutes each)
7:30pm – Unpanel
8:00pm – Organize Unconference
8:15pm – Unconference Breakout Session Round 1
9:00pm – Unconference Breakout Session Round 2
9:45pm – Wrap-up
10:00pm – Find somewhere for post-event networking

Contact the organizers if you are interested in giving a five minute lightning talk or lead breakout session.

There will be a free CloudCamp meeting in Baltimore from 6:000pm to 10:00pm Wednesday March 9th at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront. Cloudcamps are participants-driven unconferences where users of Cloud Computing technologies meet to network and share ideas, experiences, challenges and solutions. The event is free but participants are asked to register to ensure there is enough food and refreshments.

Here is the current, tentative schedule:

6:00pm – Registration & Networking (food/drink)
6:30pm – Opening Introductions
6:45pm – Lightning Talks (5 minutes each)
7:30pm – Unpanel
8:00pm – Organize Unconference
8:15pm – Unconference Breakout Session Round 1
9:00pm – Unconference Breakout Session Round 2
9:45pm – Wrap-up
10:00pm – Find somewhere for post-event networking

Contact the organizers if you are interested in giving a five minute lightning talk or lead breakout session.

UMBC is one of 50 public institutions in the United States recognized by The Princeton Review as a “Best Value College” offering a combination of educational excellence and affordability.  The ranking was announced February 22 on the Today Show and in USA Today.

Read the full story here.

Showdown in Libya: Ominous signs of a bloody confrontation ahead.

New Zealand grieves: hope for survivors of deadly quake diminishes.

Where’s Nemo?: world coral reefs in grave danger.

Finally some good news! Chocolate may be good for you!

“For the sense of smell, almost more than any other, has the power to recall memories and it is a pity that we use it so little.”

Rachel Carson

Thanks to Wikicommons.

President Obama (perhaps copying Facebook’s attitude) has changed the US governments policy on homosexual marriage.

The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act defined marriage as

only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word ’spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.

Mr. Obama declared yesterday that this act was unconstitutional as it failed to provide equal protection under the law. Although this does not repeal the law (that is a job for the courts) it does mean that the Federal government will not fight legal challenges to the law.

This reversal is getting attention of people on both sides.

Republican Rick Santorum issued a strongly worded statement that

President Obama’s refusal to defend a law that was overwhelmingly supported on both sides of the aisle and signed into law by a president of his own party is an affront to the will of the people. This is yet another example of our president’s effort to erode the very traditions that have made our country the greatest nation on earth

The Human Right Campaign, America’s largest gay rights organization, hailed the Presidents decision with the organizations president, Joe Solomese, stating that

This is a monumental decision for the thousands of same-sex couples and their families who want nothing more than the same rights and dignity afforded to other married couples

Before anyone gets too excited (or up in arms) change is not coming immediately and may not at all.

For one thing, as a spokesman for the President noted, this only changes the legal defenses of the law as

the enforcement of the Defense of Marriage Act continues — the President is constitutionally bound to enforce the laws and enforcement of the DOMA will continue.

The law’s future is now out of Obama’s hands and into those of the nations courts.

UMBC will host a two day “Pre-Spring Break Dissertation House” on Friday, March 11 and Saturday, March 12, 2011. Breakfast, lunch, and a snack will be served daily. This Dissertation House session will be held in lieu of the annual Dissertation House and Community Building Retreats at Coolfont and Rocky Gap. The event will take place from 9:00am to 5:00pm in the UMBC Commons.

At Dissertation House, Ph.D. students from Maryland’s research campuses learn the skills of thesis-writing success. During the immersive twice-yearly four-day program, a group of about twenty graduate students share experiences, set transparent goals, and map out ways to get to the finish line of the doctoral dissertation.

Interested Ph.D. students should follow the application guidelines and apply by Friday, 4 March 4 2011. For more information see the Dissertation House Blog.