Over 20 fire engines and 100 firefighters rushed to the Berlin Philharmonic after a fire broke out. No one was injured but the rush was on to put out the blaze and save the instruments inside from damage. Massive plumes of smoke billowed across central Berlin on Tuesday as over 100 firefighters battled to put out a blaze at Berlin's Philharmonic concert hall. The fire was reported shortly after 2 p.m. and 21 fire engines and 110 firefighters immediately rushed to the building, which is located next to Berlin's central Tiergarten park. Visitors who had been attending a lunchtime concert were evacuated from the building, and musicians could be seen rushing from the building with their instruments.
Over 20 fire engines and 100 firefighters rushed to the Berlin Philharmonic after a fire broke out. No one was injured but the rush was on to put out the blaze and save the instruments inside from damage.
Massive plumes of smoke billowed across central Berlin on Tuesday as over 100 firefighters battled to put out a blaze at Berlin's Philharmonic concert hall.
The fire was reported shortly after 2 p.m. and 21 fire engines and 110 firefighters immediately rushed to the building, which is located next to Berlin's central Tiergarten park. Visitors who had been attending a lunchtime concert were evacuated from the building, and musicians could be seen rushing from the building with their instruments.
A spokesman for the Berlin fire brigade said on Wednesday the fire was now completely extinguished and scarcely any water had penetrated the main concert hall, which is renowned for its fine acoustics. As much as a third of the roof, or around 1,600 square metres (17,200 square feet) of space, had been affected by the flames and heat, but if engineers detect no serious structural damage concerts could restart in a few days, he added.
As much as a third of the roof, or around 1,600 square metres (17,200 square feet) of space, had been affected by the flames and heat, but if engineers detect no serious structural damage concerts could restart in a few days, he added.
Serbia could soon end up with an anti-European government despite pro-Europeans winning the last election. But this week, all Serbs will be Europe's biggest fans as the continent's largest song contest comes to Belgrade. Serbia's three anti-European political parties want to move their country away from the European Union and towards Russia. By agreeing on general principles to create a coalition last Thursday, May 15, they could even form the country's next government -- despite the fact that the pro-European party of Serbian President Boris Tadic actually won early parliamentary elections on May 11. But Tadic's party has failed to find a coalition partner so far. Amid this tense and anti-European political situation, Serbia's getting ready to host a truly European event -- the Eurovision Song Contest.
Serbia's three anti-European political parties want to move their country away from the European Union and towards Russia. By agreeing on general principles to create a coalition last Thursday, May 15, they could even form the country's next government -- despite the fact that the pro-European party of Serbian President Boris Tadic actually won early parliamentary elections on May 11. But Tadic's party has failed to find a coalition partner so far.
Amid this tense and anti-European political situation, Serbia's getting ready to host a truly European event -- the Eurovision Song Contest.
Toto the runaway kangaroo has been caught after a 15-day odyssey in Germany. His pursuers cunningly exploited his fondness for peanut butter during their hunt. A six-year-old kangaroo called Toto which escaped from a wildlife park in Germany and spent more than two weeks on the run was recaptured by his keepers north of the German city of Hanover on Monday. Keepers snared the runaway marsupial after a tireless pursuit that involved trying to lure him with his favorite food, peanut butter, police said.
Toto the runaway kangaroo has been caught after a 15-day odyssey in Germany. His pursuers cunningly exploited his fondness for peanut butter during their hunt.
A six-year-old kangaroo called Toto which escaped from a wildlife park in Germany and spent more than two weeks on the run was recaptured by his keepers north of the German city of Hanover on Monday. Keepers snared the runaway marsupial after a tireless pursuit that involved trying to lure him with his favorite food, peanut butter, police said.
In the past year, the world has witnessed the unintended effects of diverting food crops like corn and palm to make biofuel: In part because of competition from the hot biofuels market, food prices are skyrocketing and food stocks vanishing. Rain forest is being cut down to grow more "green" fuel. As such problems have emerged, it has become almost a mantra among investors and politicians that newer "second-generation" biofuels - made from nonfood crops like reeds and wild grasses - would provide green energy, without taking food off the table. Second-generation biofuel plantations growing jatropha, a genus of succulents, have sprung up all over Africa. In the United States and Europe, plans abound to grow crops like switch grass and giant reed for energy and fuels. Now, biologists and botanists are warning that these second-generation biofuels may have serious unintended consequences as well: Most of these newer crops are what scientists label invasive species - weeds - which they say have high potential to escape plantations, overrun adjacent farms and natural land, and create economic and ecological havoc.
In the past year, the world has witnessed the unintended effects of diverting food crops like corn and palm to make biofuel: In part because of competition from the hot biofuels market, food prices are skyrocketing and food stocks vanishing. Rain forest is being cut down to grow more "green" fuel.
As such problems have emerged, it has become almost a mantra among investors and politicians that newer "second-generation" biofuels - made from nonfood crops like reeds and wild grasses - would provide green energy, without taking food off the table.
Second-generation biofuel plantations growing jatropha, a genus of succulents, have sprung up all over Africa. In the United States and Europe, plans abound to grow crops like switch grass and giant reed for energy and fuels.
Now, biologists and botanists are warning that these second-generation biofuels may have serious unintended consequences as well: Most of these newer crops are what scientists label invasive species - weeds - which they say have high potential to escape plantations, overrun adjacent farms and natural land, and create economic and ecological havoc.
On this page in 1993, [Kurt Hauser] stated that "No matter what the tax rates have been, in postwar America tax revenues have remained at about 19.5% of GDP." What a pity that his discovery has not been more widely disseminated. The chart nearby, updating the evidence to 2007, confirms Hauser's Law. The federal tax "yield" (revenues divided by GDP) has remained close to 19.5%, even as the top tax bracket was brought down from 91% to the present 35%. This is what scientists call an "independence theorem," and it cuts the Gordian Knot of tax policy debate. The data show that the tax yield has been independent of marginal tax rates over this period, but tax revenue is directly proportional to GDP. So if we want to increase tax revenue, we need to increase GDP. What happens if we instead raise tax rates? Economists of all persuasions accept that a tax rate hike will reduce GDP, in which case Hauser's Law says it will also lower tax revenue. That's a highly inconvenient truth for redistributive tax policy, and it flies in the face of deeply felt beliefs about social justice. It would surely be unpopular today with those presidential candidates who plan to raise tax rates on the rich - if they knew about it.
The chart nearby, updating the evidence to 2007, confirms Hauser's Law. The federal tax "yield" (revenues divided by GDP) has remained close to 19.5%, even as the top tax bracket was brought down from 91% to the present 35%. This is what scientists call an "independence theorem," and it cuts the Gordian Knot of tax policy debate.
The data show that the tax yield has been independent of marginal tax rates over this period, but tax revenue is directly proportional to GDP. So if we want to increase tax revenue, we need to increase GDP.
What happens if we instead raise tax rates? Economists of all persuasions accept that a tax rate hike will reduce GDP, in which case Hauser's Law says it will also lower tax revenue. That's a highly inconvenient truth for redistributive tax policy, and it flies in the face of deeply felt beliefs about social justice. It would surely be unpopular today with those presidential candidates who plan to raise tax rates on the rich - if they knew about it.
In order to refute this --
Economists of all persuasions accept that a tax rate hike will reduce GDP
-- is it sufficient simply to show this:
? ... all progress depends on the unreasonable mensch.(apologies to G.B. Shaw)
When the percentage of GDP collected seems to gain 2% under Clinton, that would represent a 10% increase -not insignificant at all- but hardly readable on this graph.
Anyway, what else to expect from WSJ.com... Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
Not that the argument is exploiting Soviet levels of disingenuousness in the first place, of course.
(From [origo])
The storm pushed nice shelf clouds ahead of itself, here is one photographed in Hajdúszoboszló from SZUPERCELLA.HU:
Tornado sightings in Hungary are around 1-3 one year. This year, a tornado spawned by winter storm Emma's meeting with warmer air tore up rooftops in the village Nagyszentjános on 1 March; and a second tornado devastated the cemetery of the village Csány on 7 April, and . And then, this single storm produced two more tornadoes (and another two funnels that didn't touch down). Storm-chasing is a newly popular hobby in Hungary, and one team caught the tornado plowing up fields and a forest near Gátér on camera. The video is not yet on YouTube, so here is a still again from SZUPERCELLA.HU.
*Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
I find I'm behind the news in science: the systematic registration of tornadoes in Hungary (i.e. not just those doing significant damage) started oly recently, and the normal number seems not 1-3 but 6-12. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
We hurried a bit so as to get out of the wide open fields before the lighting may arrive, and arrived at our destination at least a whole minute before the heavy rain started to fall. Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
If I read the archived pressure/front maps right, in part: storms over Paris must have been caused by a cold front of a depression moving over the Baltic Sea; three days later, this and a previous cold front of this depression (over St. Petersburg by then) and that of another depression over Italy linked up over the Carpathian Basin, producing a very strong temperature gradient. (I remember from the no more archived temperature map that Western Hungary had 10°C at the same time Eastern Hungary had 28°C, with a sharp transition of at least 10°C right above the Danube.) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Xcel Energy has selected Arlington, Va.-based GridPoint's SmartGrid Platform for its SmartGridCity in Boulder, Colo. The platform applies information technology to the electric grid to provide utilities with a network of distributed energy resources that controls load, stores energy and produces power.
Another step towards the creation of intelligent electrical grids capable of managing demand, including better integration of renewables. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
