Confusion has marred French President Nicolas Sarkozy's farewell to Israel, after a soldier shot himself dead during an airport departure ceremony. Mr Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, were rushed into their plane after the shot. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was also hurried to safety. The incident at Ben-Gurion airport came at the end of Mr Sarkozy's three-day visit to Israel and the West Bank. A police spokesman said the security officer had committed suicide. Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the incident, which happened just as Mr Sarkozy and Ms Bruni were about to board their plane, had posed no threat to the visitors. He denied reports that it might have been an assassination attempt on the French president. Other reports suggested the soldier may have shot himself accidentally.
Confusion has marred French President Nicolas Sarkozy's farewell to Israel, after a soldier shot himself dead during an airport departure ceremony.
Mr Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, were rushed into their plane after the shot. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was also hurried to safety.
The incident at Ben-Gurion airport came at the end of Mr Sarkozy's three-day visit to Israel and the West Bank.
A police spokesman said the security officer had committed suicide.
Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the incident, which happened just as Mr Sarkozy and Ms Bruni were about to board their plane, had posed no threat to the visitors.
He denied reports that it might have been an assassination attempt on the French president. Other reports suggested the soldier may have shot himself accidentally.
French President says viable state for Palestinians with Arab east Jerusalem as its capital is priority for France. BETHLEHEM, West Bank - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday spoke out strongly in favour of a Palestinian state after talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem. "The security of Israel is non-negotiable for France, but the creation of a viable, democratic, modern state for the Palestinians is a priority for France," he said as he wrapped up a three-day visit at a joint news conference with Abbas in the Biblical town. "We will work towards the creation of your state. We will use the same strength, the same commitment we used in ensuring Israel's security," said Sarkozy, who on Monday had addressed the Israeli parliament.
French President says viable state for Palestinians with Arab east Jerusalem as its capital is priority for France.
BETHLEHEM, West Bank - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday spoke out strongly in favour of a Palestinian state after talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem.
"The security of Israel is non-negotiable for France, but the creation of a viable, democratic, modern state for the Palestinians is a priority for France," he said as he wrapped up a three-day visit at a joint news conference with Abbas in the Biblical town.
"We will work towards the creation of your state. We will use the same strength, the same commitment we used in ensuring Israel's security," said Sarkozy, who on Monday had addressed the Israeli parliament.
You'd never hear this;-
The security of Palestine is non-negotiable for ...., but the creation of a safe, peaceful state for Israelis is also a priority ,"
It's just as meaningless as his "enduring" support for Israel. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Strong euro helps put European airlines in better position than U.S. carriers LONDON -- With the dollar down and fuel prices up, U.S. airlines are fighting to stay afloat. But they're also fending off another challenge: increasingly powerful European rivals. Analysts say European airlines are in a much better position to weather the current storm because of a strong euro, newer fleets and a recent wave of consolidation. And it shows. As many U.S. airlines put expansion plans on hold, British Airways launched a premium subsidiary, OpenSkies, with direct flights between Paris and New York. European airlines also might be in position to offer better deals to passengers, analysts say.
LONDON -- With the dollar down and fuel prices up, U.S. airlines are fighting to stay afloat. But they're also fending off another challenge: increasingly powerful European rivals.
Analysts say European airlines are in a much better position to weather the current storm because of a strong euro, newer fleets and a recent wave of consolidation.
And it shows. As many U.S. airlines put expansion plans on hold, British Airways launched a premium subsidiary, OpenSkies, with direct flights between Paris and New York.
European airlines also might be in position to offer better deals to passengers, analysts say.
Long before the recent spike in the price of energy, environmentalists decried suburban sprawl a waste of land, energy and tax dollars. Governments from Virginia to California have in recent decades lavished resources on building roads and schools for new subdivisions in the outer rings of development while skimping on maintaining facilities closer in. <...> More than three-fourths of prospective home buyers are now more inclined to live in an urban area because of fuel prices, according to a recent survey of 903 real estate agents with Coldwell Banker, the national brokerage firm. Some now proclaim the unfolding demise of suburbia. "Many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and '70s -- slums characterized by poverty, crime and decay," declared Christopher B. Leinberger, an urban land use expert, in a recent essay in The Atlantic Monthly. <...> In a recent study, Mr. Cortright found that house prices in the urban centers of Chicago, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Portland and Tampa have fared significantly better than those in the suburbs. So-called exurbs -- communities sprouting on the distant edges of metropolitan areas -- have suffered worst of all, Mr. Cortright found. Basic household arithmetic appears to be furthering the trend: In 2003, the average suburban household spent $1,422 a year on gasoline, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By April of this year -- when gas prices were about $3.60 a gallon-- the same household was spending $3,196 a year, more than doubling consumption in dollar terms in less than five years.
Long before the recent spike in the price of energy, environmentalists decried suburban sprawl a waste of land, energy and tax dollars. Governments from Virginia to California have in recent decades lavished resources on building roads and schools for new subdivisions in the outer rings of development while skimping on maintaining facilities closer in. <...>
More than three-fourths of prospective home buyers are now more inclined to live in an urban area because of fuel prices, according to a recent survey of 903 real estate agents with Coldwell Banker, the national brokerage firm.
Some now proclaim the unfolding demise of suburbia.
"Many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and '70s -- slums characterized by poverty, crime and decay," declared Christopher B. Leinberger, an urban land use expert, in a recent essay in The Atlantic Monthly. <...>
In a recent study, Mr. Cortright found that house prices in the urban centers of Chicago, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Portland and Tampa have fared significantly better than those in the suburbs. So-called exurbs -- communities sprouting on the distant edges of metropolitan areas -- have suffered worst of all, Mr. Cortright found.
Basic household arithmetic appears to be furthering the trend: In 2003, the average suburban household spent $1,422 a year on gasoline, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By April of this year -- when gas prices were about $3.60 a gallon-- the same household was spending $3,196 a year, more than doubling consumption in dollar terms in less than five years.
"Many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and '70s -- slums characterized by poverty, crime and decay,"
No, they won't, because unlike cities where you can always mug and scavenge, and there's the option of walking or biking, exurbs are useless unless you can grow your own food and hunt. And the McMansions weren't built to last, so they'll start falling apart within a few years.
If the middle classes can't afford to live in them, poor people certainly won't be able to. They probably won't even be able to afford to squat in them.
Over the last decade, even as spending on new military projects has reached its highest level since the Reagan years, the Pentagon has increasingly been losing the people most skilled at managing them. That brain drain, military experts like Mr. Kaminski say, is a big factor in a breakdown in engineering management that has made huge cost overruns and long delays the maddening norm. <...> At M.I.T., a 2007 survey showed that 28.7 percent of undergraduates were headed for work in finance, 13.7 in management consulting and just 7.5 percent in aerospace and defense. The top 10 employers included McKinsey, Google, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Bain, JPMorgan and Oracle -- but not a single military contractor or government office. The survey showed that the average annual starting salary in finance and high-tech was more than $70,000, compared with $37,000 at the Defense Department. The average in the military industry was $61,000.M.I.T. does not have comparable survey data for 10 or 15 years ago, but officials there say the trend is unmistakable. "Google calls me every other week looking for systems engineers," said Donna H. Rhodes, a systems engineering expert at M.I.T.
Over the last decade, even as spending on new military projects has reached its highest level since the Reagan years, the Pentagon has increasingly been losing the people most skilled at managing them. That brain drain, military experts like Mr. Kaminski say, is a big factor in a breakdown in engineering management that has made huge cost overruns and long delays the maddening norm. <...>
At M.I.T., a 2007 survey showed that 28.7 percent of undergraduates were headed for work in finance, 13.7 in management consulting and just 7.5 percent in aerospace and defense. The top 10 employers included McKinsey, Google, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Bain, JPMorgan and Oracle -- but not a single military contractor or government office.
The survey showed that the average annual starting salary in finance and high-tech was more than $70,000, compared with $37,000 at the Defense Department. The average in the military industry was $61,000.
M.I.T. does not have comparable survey data for 10 or 15 years ago, but officials there say the trend is unmistakable.
"Google calls me every other week looking for systems engineers," said Donna H. Rhodes, a systems engineering expert at M.I.T.
In the past, huge cost overruns were, of course, unheard of.
TOMSK, Russia -- On side streets all over this riverfront city are wooden buildings erected before Communism and now in various states of decay. As Tomsk prospers from the trade in the region's natural resources, pressure is growing for new real estate projects, especially in the commercial center. What to do about the gingerbread houses?Some are already gone, demolished and replaced by the usual high-rise apartments and supermarkets and offices. Yet 1,800 or so remain, and their fate is emblematic of the struggle across Russia to balance the preservation of architectural treasures with the demands for development now that the economy is surging. "This is the problem: preserving a unique layer of Russian culture that is disappearing, that is being pushed out by reinforced concrete and stone," Mr. Zakotnov said. "Actually, this is a problem for all Russian cities, having a downtown area that is being covered by modern structures."Mr. Zakotnov is hoping that a third of the wooden buildings can be saved and restored, creating a historic district that might even lure tourists to Tomsk, which is four hours away from Moscow by plane. It is not as far-fetched as it sounds.
TOMSK, Russia -- On side streets all over this riverfront city are wooden buildings erected before Communism and now in various states of decay. As Tomsk prospers from the trade in the region's natural resources, pressure is growing for new real estate projects, especially in the commercial center. What to do about the gingerbread houses?
Some are already gone, demolished and replaced by the usual high-rise apartments and supermarkets and offices. Yet 1,800 or so remain, and their fate is emblematic of the struggle across Russia to balance the preservation of architectural treasures with the demands for development now that the economy is surging.
"This is the problem: preserving a unique layer of Russian culture that is disappearing, that is being pushed out by reinforced concrete and stone," Mr. Zakotnov said. "Actually, this is a problem for all Russian cities, having a downtown area that is being covered by modern structures."
Mr. Zakotnov is hoping that a third of the wooden buildings can be saved and restored, creating a historic district that might even lure tourists to Tomsk, which is four hours away from Moscow by plane. It is not as far-fetched as it sounds.
Plans require the buildings to be self-powered by horizontal wind turbines that spin between each floor to generate electricity. Solar power will be provided by photovoltaic cells on the roof of each rotating floor, 15 per cent of which will be exposed to sunlight at any one time.
"... man has still within him sufficient resources to alter the direction of modern civilization, for we then need no longer regard man as the passive victim of his own irreversible technological development."
Most architects I know are incapable of spatial thinking, they prefer the monumental as sketched out on a paper napkin. You can't be me, I'm taken
they do like looking at pictures of their own work, as long as every upright is precisely 90 degrees to horizontal.
Not for quite a while now:
The rotating floors idea is fun though - but good luck trying to fix the mechanism when it breaks down.
If it gets a little noisy up there when the wind blows, that's the price you pay for living on the aesthetic bleeding edge.
Many people say that high-performance pieces of engineering are normally aesthetically pleasing, too. 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
As I've said before, I'd rather have a country run by engineers than lawyers. You can't be me, I'm taken
The one thing Modernism has never been is affordable. Especially not proper Modernism, which isn't like the gawky cheap knock-offs the proles get.
you are the media you consume.
People hated the Eiffel Tower, too.
