Some 2,000 delegates from around the globe have descended upon Bonn, Germany, to open a two-week conference on global warming. A fresh round of UN climate talks began in Bonn on Monday, June 2, aimed at building on the climate conference held in Bali in December last year. Delegates from more than 150 countries and agencies are set to attend the two-week event, which is part of the process to hammer out a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions.
A fresh round of UN climate talks began in Bonn on Monday, June 2, aimed at building on the climate conference held in Bali in December last year.
Delegates from more than 150 countries and agencies are set to attend the two-week event, which is part of the process to hammer out a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions.
First, a British court awarded a man compensation because there were too many Germans in his holiday hotel. Now, the German press is firing back -- with tips on how best to avoid the English this summer. Hint: It involves football. German tourists having fun on the Spanish island of Mallorca. A court in Britain appears to have wounded German pride by awarding British tourist David Barnish £750 pounds (€948/$1,484) in compensation because there were too many German tourists at the Greek island hotel where he spent a family holiday last August. Barnish had sued holiday company Thomson because it hadn't told him the Grecotel resort on the island of Kos was occupied almost exclusively by Germans -- more than 600 of them. Only 25 of the 700 guests at the hotel were English. Barnish had paid £4,000 for the holiday. Barnich claims his family was unable to take part in entertainment or children's activities at the hotel because they were only organized in German.
First, a British court awarded a man compensation because there were too many Germans in his holiday hotel. Now, the German press is firing back -- with tips on how best to avoid the English this summer. Hint: It involves football.
German tourists having fun on the Spanish island of Mallorca. A court in Britain appears to have wounded German pride by awarding British tourist David Barnish £750 pounds (€948/$1,484) in compensation because there were too many German tourists at the Greek island hotel where he spent a family holiday last August.
Barnish had sued holiday company Thomson because it hadn't told him the Grecotel resort on the island of Kos was occupied almost exclusively by Germans -- more than 600 of them.
Only 25 of the 700 guests at the hotel were English. Barnish had paid £4,000 for the holiday. Barnich claims his family was unable to take part in entertainment or children's activities at the hotel because they were only organized in German.
"Dear British -- from next weekend you'll have all the beaches to yourself. We'll be at the European Championship," the newspaper wrote.
Awa! That's mean (as i'm watching a German-dubbed version of "Kick It Like Beckham." "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
This is the only song that brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it - for very personal as well social cohesion reasons. Apart from the lack of sisters, the lyrics express the ET philosophy - for me.
I don't like this tricksy video. The original track on the 'White City' album, with the intrusion from madman Ron Geesin 'It's all going to end in fire', is IMO definitive. You can't be me, I'm taken
Give blood But it could cost more than your dignity Give blood Parade your pallor in iniquity Give blood They will cry and say they're in your debt Give blood But then they'll sigh and they will soon forget
So give love and keep blood between brothers You can't be me, I'm taken
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Trunks-and-bikini-clad Europeans and foreign tourists will be happy to know that as they take to the seas, rivers and lakes of the continent for a dip this year, the water quality has remained high, according to the European Commission's annual bathing water quality report, issued on Monday (2 June). The study, which is designed to be user-friendly for citizens - with an accompanying colour-coded online map system rather than a document legible only to denizens of the Brussels institutions - found that though water quality in Europe's bathing areas is good, there has been a slight decline on last year. "It's not exactly as good as it was in 2006," said environment commissioner Stavros Dimas to reporters at the launch of the report. "We have notice a slight decrease in quality." The UK in particular saw a ten-fold increase in areas not complying with European hygiene standards, with the number of 'dirty' beaches climbing from 0.4 percent in 2006 to 3.5 percent the last year.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Trunks-and-bikini-clad Europeans and foreign tourists will be happy to know that as they take to the seas, rivers and lakes of the continent for a dip this year, the water quality has remained high, according to the European Commission's annual bathing water quality report, issued on Monday (2 June).
The study, which is designed to be user-friendly for citizens - with an accompanying colour-coded online map system rather than a document legible only to denizens of the Brussels institutions - found that though water quality in Europe's bathing areas is good, there has been a slight decline on last year.
"It's not exactly as good as it was in 2006," said environment commissioner Stavros Dimas to reporters at the launch of the report. "We have notice a slight decrease in quality."
The UK in particular saw a ten-fold increase in areas not complying with European hygiene standards, with the number of 'dirty' beaches climbing from 0.4 percent in 2006 to 3.5 percent the last year.
Trunks-and-bikini-clad Europeans
Most of whom will be British while the European Cup is on.
FORTUNA, Spain: Lush fields of lettuce and hothouses of tomatoes line the roads. Verdant new developments of plush pastel vacation homes beckon buyers from Britain and Germany. Golf courses - 54 of them, all built in the past decade and most in the past three years - give way to the beach. At last, this hardscrabble corner of southeast Spain is thriving. There is only one problem with this picture of bounty: This province, Murcia, is running out of water. Spurred on by global warming and poorly planned development, swaths of southeast Spain are steadily turning into desert. This year in Murcia farmers are fighting developers over water rights. They are fighting each other over who gets to water their crops. And in a sign of their mounting desperation, they are buying and selling water like gold on a burgeoning black market. "Water will be the environmental issue this year," said Barbara Helferrich, spokesman for the European Union's Environment Directorate. "The problem is urgent and immediate." "If you're already having water shortages in spring, you know it's going to be a really bad summer."
FORTUNA, Spain: Lush fields of lettuce and hothouses of tomatoes line the roads. Verdant new developments of plush pastel vacation homes beckon buyers from Britain and Germany. Golf courses - 54 of them, all built in the past decade and most in the past three years - give way to the beach. At last, this hardscrabble corner of southeast Spain is thriving.
There is only one problem with this picture of bounty: This province, Murcia, is running out of water. Spurred on by global warming and poorly planned development, swaths of southeast Spain are steadily turning into desert.
This year in Murcia farmers are fighting developers over water rights. They are fighting each other over who gets to water their crops. And in a sign of their mounting desperation, they are buying and selling water like gold on a burgeoning black market.
"Water will be the environmental issue this year," said Barbara Helferrich, spokesman for the European Union's Environment Directorate. "The problem is urgent and immediate."
"If you're already having water shortages in spring, you know it's going to be a really bad summer."
Galicia is the only part of spain I consider viable in the future. keep to the Fen Causeway
T-shirt with picture of armed robot endangers British aviation system | boing boing
This poor guy tried to board a BA flight at Heathrow terminal 5 but was turned back and told to change out of his t-shirt, which featured a Transformer robot carrying a gun -- a robot with a gun that apparently posed a threat to flight safety.
that said, it's only on this guy's say so cos BAA are denying it happened. keep to the Fen Causeway
On 13 February, B&B was the first British bank to announce full-year results, stunning investors with £228m of charges for wholesale assets and financial instruments hit by the credit crunch. The writedowns and losses shook confidence in the banking sector, raising fears of massive losses at other lenders as results season unfolded. Though the numbers did not turn out as bad as feared at the time, the concerns were borne out later as Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS revealed big writedowns last month and announced rights issues.Now investors fear that B&B's latest warning is a harbinger of things to come. This time, the Yorkshire-based bank's main problem is not caused by losses on exotic credit products at its Treasury operation. Instead, the country's biggest buy-to-let lender has sounded the alarm over old-fashioned arrears and bad debts from its stock of mortgages.
Now investors fear that B&B's latest warning is a harbinger of things to come. This time, the Yorkshire-based bank's main problem is not caused by losses on exotic credit products at its Treasury operation. Instead, the country's biggest buy-to-let lender has sounded the alarm over old-fashioned arrears and bad debts from its stock of mortgages.
Analysts at Collins Stewart today called on Bradford & Bingley shareholders to vote against the repriced rights issue and force management to go back to its original scheme.Collins Stewart analyst Alex Potter described the renegotiation of the rights issue as "little short of a disgrace".Anger is growing among B&B shareholders after the bank scrapped its original £300m cash call. UBS and Citi, the investment banks underwriting the fund raising, had agreed to guarantee a price of 82p six weeks ago but forced B&B to cut that price to 55p, reducing the size of the cash call to £258m. "Management claim it wanted to avoid the stock trading below the previous issue price of 82p - the share price move yesterday is clearly much more damaging to shareholders than the previous issue having been left in place and the underwriters potentially holding significant amounts of stock," Potter said. "We believe shareholders should vote against the new issue at the upcoming EGM and force management to revert to the old scheme."
Collins Stewart analyst Alex Potter described the renegotiation of the rights issue as "little short of a disgrace".
Anger is growing among B&B shareholders after the bank scrapped its original £300m cash call. UBS and Citi, the investment banks underwriting the fund raising, had agreed to guarantee a price of 82p six weeks ago but forced B&B to cut that price to 55p, reducing the size of the cash call to £258m.
"Management claim it wanted to avoid the stock trading below the previous issue price of 82p - the share price move yesterday is clearly much more damaging to shareholders than the previous issue having been left in place and the underwriters potentially holding significant amounts of stock," Potter said. "We believe shareholders should vote against the new issue at the upcoming EGM and force management to revert to the old scheme."
Jeepers. What a way to start a week. Any remaining doubt that the housing market is in freefall was blown away by figures showing a collapse in mortgage approvals, an unprecedented rights issue repricing and profits warning from Bradford & Bingley - and an increase in the Nationwide's fixed-rate mortgages.With house prices falling, there is a full-scale retreat from the mortgage market. Would-be homebuyers don't want to buy something they might get much cheaper next year, while lenders won't lend on assets that might soon be under water. None of the Nationwide's fixes are available below 6%, more than a full point above base rates. The squeeze is on.In the early stages of a housing market slump, activity indicators are often more relevant than price data, which tends to lag. So when mortgage approvals fall by half and net new home reservations are down by three-quarters there is a problem. Right now the data is telling us just one thing, that the housing market is in meltdown.
With house prices falling, there is a full-scale retreat from the mortgage market. Would-be homebuyers don't want to buy something they might get much cheaper next year, while lenders won't lend on assets that might soon be under water. None of the Nationwide's fixes are available below 6%, more than a full point above base rates. The squeeze is on.
In the early stages of a housing market slump, activity indicators are often more relevant than price data, which tends to lag. So when mortgage approvals fall by half and net new home reservations are down by three-quarters there is a problem. Right now the data is telling us just one thing, that the housing market is in meltdown.
I remember noting that a lot of "serious" commentators were calling the recession over at stage 3 and I was wondering why they'd think that when the pressure on morgages had obviously not filtered through.
However, although I accept it makes me look petty and wishing ill on people, I am glad to see that buy-to-let people are suffering disproportionatley. They are parasites who bear tremendous responsibility for forcing prices up for entry level housing. keep to the Fen Causeway
Dog-fighting is becoming more common as youths use the animals to try to assert their status on housing estates, according to the RSPCA. More than 350 cases were reported to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 2007, compared with 137 the year before. In 2004, the figure was just 24. Nearly a third referred specifically to youths or "hoodies" training their dogs to fight in the street or park.
More than 350 cases were reported to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 2007, compared with 137 the year before. In 2004, the figure was just 24.
Nearly a third referred specifically to youths or "hoodies" training their dogs to fight in the street or park.
this isn't just a penis enhancer, it's a sex-substitute. keep to the Fen Causeway
Grab hold of the front paws and move them about 25-30 degrees sideways away from the body. It won't injure, but it should be enough to hurt. Basically continue widening until dog whimpers. Then just flex like you're gonna do more...yes you're scaring it.
It's a very good teaching aid if you dislike a dog and the dog will tell no tales.
I love dogs to bits, but I won't take sh!t from them either. keep to the Fen Causeway
Dogs do dominance games, they don't anthropomorphise themselves, they relate to you as an odd dog. You are either top dog or they don't give a shit what you think.
So if a dog wants to give you hassle, you don't negotiate, you metaphorically let it know you have its balls in a bag. keep to the Fen Causeway
