LODZ, Poland: People drag-race on the main avenue here in broad daylight, and the police just stand by and watch. That is, until the commissioner steps up to hand trophies to the winners. Gleaming BMW M3 sports cars mingle with souped-up speedsters incognito in the form of stubby Fiats - and everything in between. "Are you kidding me? Suzuki never made a blue engine," one of the organizers shouted, after popping a car's hood during the prerace inspection. A newly flush Poland has a new hobby, cars, and the faster the better. Nowhere is that more clear than here in the country's second most populous city, where municipal officials struggled in recent years to deal with an explosion in the number of illegal races on public streets and a raft of complaints from residents nearly driven off the road by them.
LODZ, Poland: People drag-race on the main avenue here in broad daylight, and the police just stand by and watch. That is, until the commissioner steps up to hand trophies to the winners.
Gleaming BMW M3 sports cars mingle with souped-up speedsters incognito in the form of stubby Fiats - and everything in between.
"Are you kidding me? Suzuki never made a blue engine," one of the organizers shouted, after popping a car's hood during the prerace inspection.
A newly flush Poland has a new hobby, cars, and the faster the better. Nowhere is that more clear than here in the country's second most populous city, where municipal officials struggled in recent years to deal with an explosion in the number of illegal races on public streets and a raft of complaints from residents nearly driven off the road by them.
Thousands of people who suffered severe allergic reactions after sitting on their sofas were victims of a toxic gas emitted by an anti-mould agent, a study has concluded. Hospitals across northern Europe have treated thousands of patients with symptoms which appeared to range from skin cancer and chemical burns to severe eczema. The British cases have been linked to an estimated 100,000 sofas sold by Argos, World of Leather and Walmsley Furnishing manufactured in China by a company called Linkwise. A study in Sweden has concluded that the skin conditions were a reaction to the gas created during the sublimation of a chemical called dimethyl fumarate. Sublimation is the conversion of a solid to a gas without passing through a liquid state. Sachets containing crystals of the chemical were placed between the cover and foam of the sofas to prevent mould developing during shipping.
Thousands of people who suffered severe allergic reactions after sitting on their sofas were victims of a toxic gas emitted by an anti-mould agent, a study has concluded.
Hospitals across northern Europe have treated thousands of patients with symptoms which appeared to range from skin cancer and chemical burns to severe eczema.
The British cases have been linked to an estimated 100,000 sofas sold by Argos, World of Leather and Walmsley Furnishing manufactured in China by a company called Linkwise.
A study in Sweden has concluded that the skin conditions were a reaction to the gas created during the sublimation of a chemical called dimethyl fumarate. Sublimation is the conversion of a solid to a gas without passing through a liquid state.
Sachets containing crystals of the chemical were placed between the cover and foam of the sofas to prevent mould developing during shipping.
Senegal may conjure up images of the singer Youssou N'Dour, the Dakar rally or perhaps the football team's successful 2002 World Cup display. Yet for Ndongo Sylla, his home nation is just another word that can be rearranged in different ways - whether that be 'agneles' (lambed), 'glanees' (gleaned), 'langees' (nappies) or 'sanglee' (strapped). Sylla, 29, is that Senegalese rarity - a world champion - whose titles have come in Scrabble, a board game where competitors score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles. He is competing in the 37th Francophone Scrabble World Championships, which are taking place in Senegal this week.
Yet for Ndongo Sylla, his home nation is just another word that can be rearranged in different ways - whether that be 'agneles' (lambed), 'glanees' (gleaned), 'langees' (nappies) or 'sanglee' (strapped).
Sylla, 29, is that Senegalese rarity - a world champion - whose titles have come in Scrabble, a board game where competitors score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles.
He is competing in the 37th Francophone Scrabble World Championships, which are taking place in Senegal this week.
Depressed dachshunds and anxious alsatians can now get their paws on a little pooch-me-up - thanks to the US drugs industry. Back in the day - before Paris Hilton carried a pooch in her handbag, before professional dog-walking was a serious career, and before "doggy day-care" even existed - the most popular cure for an unhappy canine was, as the nursery rhyme goes, to give the dog a bone. How times have changed. A surge in the popularity of household animals, coupled with the licensing of several new veterinary drugs, is seeing thousands of American dog owners replace comforting marrow-bones with a chemically enhanced modern alternative: Pet Prozac. Lifestyle drugs to treat troubled canines for depression, anxiety, bad behaviour and even obesity are being launched by pharmaceutical firms anxious to cash-in on the nation's booming love affair with man's best friend. Most of the new pills are almost identical to those popped by humans - and some are proving very controversial indeed. This month, the American Veterinary Medical Association's (AVMA) annual convention in New Orleans, attended by more than 10,000 of the country's leading vets, saw a heated debate about the doggie anti-depressants Clomicalm and Reconcile, and a product called Slentrol - the world's first canine anti-obesity pill.
Back in the day - before Paris Hilton carried a pooch in her handbag, before professional dog-walking was a serious career, and before "doggy day-care" even existed - the most popular cure for an unhappy canine was, as the nursery rhyme goes, to give the dog a bone.
How times have changed. A surge in the popularity of household animals, coupled with the licensing of several new veterinary drugs, is seeing thousands of American dog owners replace comforting marrow-bones with a chemically enhanced modern alternative: Pet Prozac.
Lifestyle drugs to treat troubled canines for depression, anxiety, bad behaviour and even obesity are being launched by pharmaceutical firms anxious to cash-in on the nation's booming love affair with man's best friend. Most of the new pills are almost identical to those popped by humans - and some are proving very controversial indeed.
This month, the American Veterinary Medical Association's (AVMA) annual convention in New Orleans, attended by more than 10,000 of the country's leading vets, saw a heated debate about the doggie anti-depressants Clomicalm and Reconcile, and a product called Slentrol - the world's first canine anti-obesity pill.
ST. LOUIS, July 21, 2008 -- Boeing [NYSE: BA] and the government of Qatar signed an agreement on July 21 for the purchase of the C-17 Globemaster III airlifter to provide new strategic-airlift mobility capabilities for the Qatar Armed Forces (QAF). Qatar will sign a Foreign Military Sales agreement for contractor logistics support with the U.S. Air Force. Boeing will begin deliveries from its Long Beach, Calif., C-17 factory, in summer 2009.
ST. LOUIS, July 21, 2008 -- Boeing [NYSE: BA] and the government of Qatar signed an agreement on July 21 for the purchase of the C-17 Globemaster III airlifter to provide new strategic-airlift mobility capabilities for the Qatar Armed Forces (QAF). Qatar will sign a Foreign Military Sales agreement for contractor logistics support with the U.S. Air Force.
Boeing will begin deliveries from its Long Beach, Calif., C-17 factory, in summer 2009.
Qatar ??? What in hell they need that huge plane for? The only thing I can imagine is the stack of dollars they gain from oil and gas... The struggle of man against tyranny is the struggle of memory against forgetting.(Kundera)
you are the media you consume.
