WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Did U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain vote for President George W. Bush in 2000? Liberal Internet blogger Arianna Huffington says McCain told her he did not. But the Arizona senator says he did vote for Bush, a fellow Republican, in 2000 and campaigned for him all over the country after his own attempt to win the party's nomination failed. The claims and counterclaims may provide an entertaining distraction from the day-to-day battle for votes for this November's presidential election, when McCain will face one of two Democratic contenders, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. But Huffington said in an interview the dust-up over the item she posted on her Web site earlier this week has broader meaning than whether or not McCain voted for his rival in the 2000 race for the Republican nomination. "It's John McCain's relationship with the truth that's at stake here. It's not John McCain's relationship with me," Huffington said.
Liberal Internet blogger Arianna Huffington says McCain told her he did not. But the Arizona senator says he did vote for Bush, a fellow Republican, in 2000 and campaigned for him all over the country after his own attempt to win the party's nomination failed.
The claims and counterclaims may provide an entertaining distraction from the day-to-day battle for votes for this November's presidential election, when McCain will face one of two Democratic contenders, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.
But Huffington said in an interview the dust-up over the item she posted on her Web site earlier this week has broader meaning than whether or not McCain voted for his rival in the 2000 race for the Republican nomination.
"It's John McCain's relationship with the truth that's at stake here. It's not John McCain's relationship with me," Huffington said.
It's John McCain's relationship with the truth that's at stake here.
Youthful idealism - it's so very touching.
In the first of an occasional series on foreign universities, Olivia Chavassieu describes how tough it is to reach the top in the French system. I did everything I could to avoid attending university. In my family the grandes ecoles, or elite schools, is what you aim for. University is where you end up if you fail to get into one... My idea of university was negative. All I had heard was that the organisation was chaotic and that the studies themselves were not very challenging. So in October 2005 I went to the Sorbonne in Paris with a heavy heart. Even though I was dragging my feet on my way in, I was amazed by the place... However, on that first day I had a rude awakening. Hundreds of students were trying to find their way in the maze, and hundreds more were queuing and looked as though they had been waiting forever. The first experience at the Sorbonne will always be a painful introduction to French administration. Before I came to Australia I had never heard of orientation week, campus tours or student services. Everyone is on their own at the Sorbonne; nobody will answer your questions, and nobody will let you know if you have made a mistake. The first you will know about it is at the end of the year, when you have missed out on your diploma... Each of my school years cost €1700, and a full year of enjoyable study at the Sorbonne cost just €320, including insurance fees. Most of the books you do not need to buy as they are all in the library, ready to be borrowed - but watch out for the queues. Olivia Chavassieu is an intern at the Herald and is completing her master's degree in journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney.
I did everything I could to avoid attending university. In my family the grandes ecoles, or elite schools, is what you aim for. University is where you end up if you fail to get into one...
My idea of university was negative. All I had heard was that the organisation was chaotic and that the studies themselves were not very challenging.
So in October 2005 I went to the Sorbonne in Paris with a heavy heart. Even though I was dragging my feet on my way in, I was amazed by the place...
However, on that first day I had a rude awakening. Hundreds of students were trying to find their way in the maze, and hundreds more were queuing and looked as though they had been waiting forever. The first experience at the Sorbonne will always be a painful introduction to French administration.
Before I came to Australia I had never heard of orientation week, campus tours or student services. Everyone is on their own at the Sorbonne; nobody will answer your questions, and nobody will let you know if you have made a mistake. The first you will know about it is at the end of the year, when you have missed out on your diploma...
Each of my school years cost €1700, and a full year of enjoyable study at the Sorbonne cost just €320, including insurance fees. Most of the books you do not need to buy as they are all in the library, ready to be borrowed - but watch out for the queues.
Olivia Chavassieu is an intern at the Herald and is completing her master's degree in journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney.
(As a "proof" of how elitist the system is, a new ranking system was built, which simply allocates a point for each Fortune 500 CEO that has a diploma from the relevant university: 5 French Grandes Ecoles are in the top ten using that ranking - which only reflects the fact that the selection process to be part of the French (business) elite takes place at the point of entry into these Ecoles. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Plus, in Spain there is a difference between the sindicato de estudiantes (student union, in the "labour movement" sense of "union") and whatever it is that the "student government" is called at each school. The sindicato de estudiantes is a national organization with its own agenda, usually a launchpad for political careers and has fuck-all to do with students. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes
Generally the student societies per school pull the cart during orientation week - also with the ulterior motive to grow membership.
That's true also in the UK universities, from my (limited) experience. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes
One simply expects such services when the cost to attend for a year at even a third rate college is $10,000.
I don't see these services as bad things. The first week on campus is confusing enough for everyone. Having some organisation to make it less confusing can only be good.
Scientists say they may have discovered the reason why swarms of locusts are driven to devour such huge quantities of vegetation. They suggest that locusts combine into swarms because they are frightened of being eaten by each other. The findings by researchers from the US, UK and Australia were published in the journal Current Biology. A swarm can contain billions of insects and eat tens of thousands of tonnes of vegetation in a single day.
They suggest that locusts combine into swarms because they are frightened of being eaten by each other.
The findings by researchers from the US, UK and Australia were published in the journal Current Biology.
A swarm can contain billions of insects and eat tens of thousands of tonnes of vegetation in a single day.
ACCRA, May 10 (IPS) - You've heard of solar power, and also wind power. Now, you might start hearing about soil power as well. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) that make use of the energy given off by soil microbes are amongst the technologies that hold promise for bringing power to developing states, where electricity is often scarce. The cells also form part of a project that has just won a grant of almost 200,000 dollars in the 'Development Marketplace' competition, for which results were announced at 'Lighting Africa 2008' this May 5-8 conference took place in the Ghanaian capital of Accra. The project, developed by six students at Harvard University in the United States, was one of 16 winners selected from 52 finalists competing to bring innovative lighting products to the 74 percent of Africans without access to electricity.<...> A microbial fuel cell taps into the energy that soil microbes generate when they break down organic matter. Literally, this is energy from dirt: no special microbes or conditions are needed other than enough moisture for the bugs to do their work. Essentially all you do is dig a hole, layer an anode, some soil, sand and a cathode -- and connect the anode and cathode to a circuit board to charge a battery that can power an LED (light emitting diode) light, run a radio or charge a mobile phone. Harvard biology professor Peter Girguis developed the technology, called Living Power Systems, and is our technology partner.
A microbial fuel cell taps into the energy that soil microbes generate when they break down organic matter. Literally, this is energy from dirt: no special microbes or conditions are needed other than enough moisture for the bugs to do their work. Essentially all you do is dig a hole, layer an anode, some soil, sand and a cathode -- and connect the anode and cathode to a circuit board to charge a battery that can power an LED (light emitting diode) light, run a radio or charge a mobile phone. Harvard biology professor Peter Girguis developed the technology, called Living Power Systems, and is our technology partner.
Guardian - Larry elliot - Brown damned by his Faustian pact
This argument is both right and wrong. It is quite true to say that the financial crisis of the past 10 months was the consequence not of too much regulation but far too little. It is equally true to say that the most important economic task of the coming years is to restore the prudential controls that will deter the financial system from taking such reckless gambles. Where the argument falls down, however, is in its assumption that Labour is ideologically equipped for that job. ................... Labour struck a bargain with the devil. Having decided that the financial markets were too powerful, Labour made a virtue of necessity. There would be no talk of tougher regulation to rein in the excesses of speculation; on the contrary, the message went out that the City was to have the lightest of light-touch regulation. And if there was to be no limit on the sort of business the City could do, nor were there to be any limits on what the traders could earn. There would be no mention of raising the top rate of income tax. In other respects too, Labour turned its previous policy on its head to make itself respectable with the financial markets. Public spending was frozen for two years; an over-valued exchange rate attracted hot money into London while crippling Britain's industrial base.
...................
Labour struck a bargain with the devil. Having decided that the financial markets were too powerful, Labour made a virtue of necessity. There would be no talk of tougher regulation to rein in the excesses of speculation; on the contrary, the message went out that the City was to have the lightest of light-touch regulation. And if there was to be no limit on the sort of business the City could do, nor were there to be any limits on what the traders could earn. There would be no mention of raising the top rate of income tax. In other respects too, Labour turned its previous policy on its head to make itself respectable with the financial markets. Public spending was frozen for two years; an over-valued exchange rate attracted hot money into London while crippling Britain's industrial base.
Sadly, the chances of such a repetition [of the New Deal] today are slim, even though a few carefully targeted financial asbos would be consistent with New Labour's social authoritarianism. It would be greeted with wholly erroneous claims that the government was driving businesses off shore in order to curry populist favour. That is the government's predicament. It has moved so far from its traditional social democratic roots that any action to remedy the excesses of capitalism can now be portrayed as being akin to Bolshevism. The obvious solution to the 10p tax fiasco, for example, would be to raise the money from the rich instead. That, though, is off limits. The simple solution to banks refusing to pass on lower interest rates to their customers is to use Northern Rock as an aggressive state-owned competitor for mortgages. That, too, is off limits. There is, of course, not the slightest suggestion that the Conservatives would do any of this either. But that's not the point. There is a policy vacuum and today the Liberal Democrats will seek to fill it when Nick Clegg urges tougher regulation on the City. For Labour the warning is clear, since the public is asking a perfectly valid question. If the government is culpable for the economic crisis but responds to it with utter passivity, is there really any point to it?
That is the government's predicament. It has moved so far from its traditional social democratic roots that any action to remedy the excesses of capitalism can now be portrayed as being akin to Bolshevism. The obvious solution to the 10p tax fiasco, for example, would be to raise the money from the rich instead. That, though, is off limits. The simple solution to banks refusing to pass on lower interest rates to their customers is to use Northern Rock as an aggressive state-owned competitor for mortgages. That, too, is off limits.
There is, of course, not the slightest suggestion that the Conservatives would do any of this either. But that's not the point. There is a policy vacuum and today the Liberal Democrats will seek to fill it when Nick Clegg urges tougher regulation on the City. For Labour the warning is clear, since the public is asking a perfectly valid question. If the government is culpable for the economic crisis but responds to it with utter passivity, is there really any point to it?
Then again, the Liberals have a history of advocating for regulation. For instance, the "patrician liberal" Keynes mentioned in a previous paragraph:
The last time big finance messed things up as spectacularly as this was the late 1920s and early 1930s. Then the retribution was swift and brutal. Tough controls were put on banks and they remained in force for the duration of the long post-war boom and were put there by people who were not anti-market but who wanted to save the market from itself. Neither Roosevelt nor Keynes qualified as a raving leftie: one was a patrician Democrat, the other a patrician Liberal.
To restrain private people, it may be said, from receiving in payment the promissory notes of a banker for any sum, whether great or small, when they themselves are willing to receive them; or, to restrain a banker from issuing such notes, when all his neighbours are willing to accept of them, is a manifest violation of that natural liberty, which it is the proper business of law not to infringe, but to support. Such regulations may, no doubt, be considered as in some respect a violation of natural liberty. But those exertions of the natural liberty of a few individuals, which might endanger the security of the whole society, are, and ought to be, restrained by the laws of all governments; of the most free, as well as or the most despotical. The obligation of building party walls, in order to prevent the communication of fire, is a violation of natural liberty, exactly of the same kind with the regulations of the banking trade which are here proposed.
Outside-the-box thinking cited in new library plan At the University of Chicago, where the student hangout is the library and a prize is awarded annually for undergraduate book collecting, officials are expected to announce Monday plans to build another tribute to the university's bookish character. A glass-domed, mostly underground library, to be built just west of the Joseph Regenstein Library, will have space for 3.5 million volumes, allowing the university to keep its entire collection on campus as other top academic libraries are building off-site facilities to store books. Designed by Chicago architect Helmut Jahn, the library is expected to open in 2010 and will be named for Joe Mansueto, chairman and chief executive officer of Morningstar Inc., and his wife, Rika. The Mansuetos, U. of C. alumni, contributed $25 million toward the $80 million cost of the building. "It is a very progressive design that has the potential to be an iconic structure on campus," said Mansueto, who has bachelor's and MBA degrees from U. of C. He said that when he was in school, he spent most nights at the library. "Intellectual life is at the heart of the university, and the library is core to that."
A glass-domed, mostly underground library, to be built just west of the Joseph Regenstein Library, will have space for 3.5 million volumes, allowing the university to keep its entire collection on campus as other top academic libraries are building off-site facilities to store books.
Designed by Chicago architect Helmut Jahn, the library is expected to open in 2010 and will be named for Joe Mansueto, chairman and chief executive officer of Morningstar Inc., and his wife, Rika. The Mansuetos, U. of C. alumni, contributed $25 million toward the $80 million cost of the building.
"It is a very progressive design that has the potential to be an iconic structure on campus," said Mansueto, who has bachelor's and MBA degrees from U. of C. He said that when he was in school, he spent most nights at the library. "Intellectual life is at the heart of the university, and the library is core to that."
Very nifty! Jahn did the Sony Center in Berlin... "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
