As family-owned Porsche continues to up its stake in VW, a nasty feud has broken out between Volkswagen Board Chairman Ferdinand Piech and his cousins at Porsche over the future of Europe's biggest carmaker. Ferdinand Piech is 71, a billionaire and a brilliant technocrat who has reached the pinnacle of the automobile industry as supervisory board chairman of Volkswagen, Europe's biggest automaker. And he's also having some family problems. Wolfgang Porsche, who in addition to being the chairman of the German luxury carmaker that bears his name also happens to be one of Piech's cousins, is trying to unseat Piech by buying up VW stock through Porsche's holding company. The company currently owns 35 percent of VW ordinary stock and has plans to increase its share to over 50 percent in November. Unwilling to relinquish control to Porsche without a fight, Piech decided, unexpectedly, not to show up for a board meeting over technical cooperation between Porsche and VW's upscale Audi division last week.
Ferdinand Piech is 71, a billionaire and a brilliant technocrat who has reached the pinnacle of the automobile industry as supervisory board chairman of Volkswagen, Europe's biggest automaker. And he's also having some family problems.
Wolfgang Porsche, who in addition to being the chairman of the German luxury carmaker that bears his name also happens to be one of Piech's cousins, is trying to unseat Piech by buying up VW stock through Porsche's holding company. The company currently owns 35 percent of VW ordinary stock and has plans to increase its share to over 50 percent in November.
Unwilling to relinquish control to Porsche without a fight, Piech decided, unexpectedly, not to show up for a board meeting over technical cooperation between Porsche and VW's upscale Audi division last week.
GRAFENHAUSEN, Germany: A country girl from the Black Forest has conquered the hearts of hipsters across big-city Berlin. Her name is Birgit Kraft, a play on words in her local dialect for "beer gives strength," and she can be found, smiling in her traditional garb and holding a pair of beers, on the labels of Rothaus beer bottles. The cartoon maiden has not changed a bit since 1972, which is one of the secrets of her success. Beer from the state-owned brewery here deep in the Black Forest, founded as part of the St. Blasien monastery in 1791, has grown into a surprise hit in big cities around the country, and nowhere more so than in Berlin. Rothaus has managed to thrive in an era dominated by multinational beverage concerns, on little more than crisp beer and its quaint, old-fashioned image. When the first Oktoberfest keg is tapped in neighboring Bavaria at noon on Saturday, the tourist spectacle of the world's largest beer festival will likely produce fresh records for visitors and consumption that will obscure the woes of a domestic beer industry that has been in slow decline for decades.
GRAFENHAUSEN, Germany: A country girl from the Black Forest has conquered the hearts of hipsters across big-city Berlin.
Her name is Birgit Kraft, a play on words in her local dialect for "beer gives strength," and she can be found, smiling in her traditional garb and holding a pair of beers, on the labels of Rothaus beer bottles. The cartoon maiden has not changed a bit since 1972, which is one of the secrets of her success.
Beer from the state-owned brewery here deep in the Black Forest, founded as part of the St. Blasien monastery in 1791, has grown into a surprise hit in big cities around the country, and nowhere more so than in Berlin. Rothaus has managed to thrive in an era dominated by multinational beverage concerns, on little more than crisp beer and its quaint, old-fashioned image.
When the first Oktoberfest keg is tapped in neighboring Bavaria at noon on Saturday, the tourist spectacle of the world's largest beer festival will likely produce fresh records for visitors and consumption that will obscure the woes of a domestic beer industry that has been in slow decline for decades.
Italian police have uncovered a scam in which traffic lights in 30 towns throughout Italy were rigged to ensure that drivers were fined for failing to stop at red lights. Prosecutors in Milan said that the company that provided and maintained the traffic lights had manipulated them so that the amber signal lasted for only "a few seconds". This meant that motorists who thought that they had time to pass through the junction were inevitably fined for going through a red stop light. Police said that 30 local councils were involved in the scheme, in collusion with the company that provided and maintained the lights. Most of the councils were in the North Milan area, but some in southern Italy also took part. La Stampa said that the councils had accumulated "huge amounts" in fines, with the company also receiving a rake off. Four men who ran the company that supplied both the traffic lights and the cameras recording the number plates of "transgressors" are under arrest. Seventeen council officials are also under investigation for corruption and fraud.
Italian police have uncovered a scam in which traffic lights in 30 towns throughout Italy were rigged to ensure that drivers were fined for failing to stop at red lights.
Prosecutors in Milan said that the company that provided and maintained the traffic lights had manipulated them so that the amber signal lasted for only "a few seconds". This meant that motorists who thought that they had time to pass through the junction were inevitably fined for going through a red stop light.
Police said that 30 local councils were involved in the scheme, in collusion with the company that provided and maintained the lights. Most of the councils were in the North Milan area, but some in southern Italy also took part.
La Stampa said that the councils had accumulated "huge amounts" in fines, with the company also receiving a rake off. Four men who ran the company that supplied both the traffic lights and the cameras recording the number plates of "transgressors" are under arrest. Seventeen council officials are also under investigation for corruption and fraud.
Shackle, who was saved from a local zoo as the storm struck, is holed up in the sanctuary of the First Baptist Church in Crystal Beach, lounging across the altar and being fed roast pork by local residents.The lion and her owner, Michael Ray Kujawa, waded into the church after roads out of the area were blocked by flooding. People who were sheltering inside the building helped lock the lion in the sanctuary - and then stayed well away."They worked pretty well together, actually. When you have to swim, the lion doesn't care about eating nobody," said Mr Kujawa.Jim Yarbrough, a Galveston County judge, said the authorities were working out a way of evacuating the big cat. "When you think you've seen everything, you find something else," he said.Locals did - when they discovered that a tiger is also on the loose.
Shackle, who was saved from a local zoo as the storm struck, is holed up in the sanctuary of the First Baptist Church in Crystal Beach, lounging across the altar and being fed roast pork by local residents.
The lion and her owner, Michael Ray Kujawa, waded into the church after roads out of the area were blocked by flooding. People who were sheltering inside the building helped lock the lion in the sanctuary - and then stayed well away.
"They worked pretty well together, actually. When you have to swim, the lion doesn't care about eating nobody," said Mr Kujawa.
Jim Yarbrough, a Galveston County judge, said the authorities were working out a way of evacuating the big cat. "When you think you've seen everything, you find something else," he said.
Locals did - when they discovered that a tiger is also on the loose.
Scientists studying voters in the US say our political views may be an integral part of our physical makeup. Their research, published in the journal Science, indicates that people who are sensitive to fear or threat are likely to support a right wing agenda. Those who perceived less danger in a series of images and sounds were more inclined to support liberal policies. The authors believe their findings may help to explain why voters' minds are so hard to change.
Scientists studying voters in the US say our political views may be an integral part of our physical makeup.
Their research, published in the journal Science, indicates that people who are sensitive to fear or threat are likely to support a right wing agenda.
Those who perceived less danger in a series of images and sounds were more inclined to support liberal policies.
The authors believe their findings may help to explain why voters' minds are so hard to change.
remember, john, the country you caused a blackout to, while playing thehemingway hero macho dumbfuck ?
want mcpow to bring blackouts to your neighbourhood?
want him to run the administration like a low-flying hedge-hopper? ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
Two unknown fragments of music by Mozart are believed to have turned up in a library in Nantes in western France. If authenticated by musical scholars, at least one of the pieces may be performed in a festival in the city next year. A yellowing sheet of paper, held in the library since the 19th century, contains two or three lines of music, and a separate jumble of notes, signed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The music had previously been assumed to be a rough draft, or copy, of extracts from two of the 626 known pieces by the 18th century Austrian composer. A German expert concluded, after examining the sheet last year, that the Mozart signature is genuine and - more importantly - that the sonata and the religious music on the yellowing paper are unknown.
If authenticated by musical scholars, at least one of the pieces may be performed in a festival in the city next year.
A yellowing sheet of paper, held in the library since the 19th century, contains two or three lines of music, and a separate jumble of notes, signed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The music had previously been assumed to be a rough draft, or copy, of extracts from two of the 626 known pieces by the 18th century Austrian composer.
A German expert concluded, after examining the sheet last year, that the Mozart signature is genuine and - more importantly - that the sonata and the religious music on the yellowing paper are unknown.
Employees of bankrupt investment bank Lehman Bros have been offered free theatre tickets by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.(Advertisement) An estimated 5,000 London staff lost their jobs on Monday but they now have until October 15 to view some of the biggest shows on the West End.
Employees of bankrupt investment bank Lehman Bros have been offered free theatre tickets by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.(Advertisement)
An estimated 5,000 London staff lost their jobs on Monday but they now have until October 15 to view some of the biggest shows on the West End.
A good little film to start the day off.
ScienceDaily (Sep. 18, 2008) -- Vital components of modern medicine such as major surgery, organ transplantation, and cancer chemotherapy will be threatened if antibiotic resistance is not tackled urgently, warn experts on bmj.com. A concerted global response is needed to address rising rates of bacterial resistance caused by the use and abuse of antibiotics or "we will return to the pre-antibiotic era", write Professor Otto Cars and colleagues in an editorial. All antibiotic use "uses up" some of the effectiveness of that antibiotic, diminishing the ability to use it in the future, write the authors, and antibiotics can no longer be considered as a renewable source. They point out that existing antibiotics are losing their effect at an alarming pace, while the development of new antibiotics is declining. More than a dozen new classes of antibiotics were developed between 1930 and 1970, but only two new classes have been developed since then. According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the most important disease threat in Europe is from micro-organisms that have become resistant to antibiotics. As far back as 2000, the World Health Organisation was calling for a massive effort to address the problem of antimicrobial resistance to prevent the "health catastrophe of tomorrow".
A concerted global response is needed to address rising rates of bacterial resistance caused by the use and abuse of antibiotics or "we will return to the pre-antibiotic era", write Professor Otto Cars and colleagues in an editorial.
All antibiotic use "uses up" some of the effectiveness of that antibiotic, diminishing the ability to use it in the future, write the authors, and antibiotics can no longer be considered as a renewable source.
They point out that existing antibiotics are losing their effect at an alarming pace, while the development of new antibiotics is declining. More than a dozen new classes of antibiotics were developed between 1930 and 1970, but only two new classes have been developed since then.
According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the most important disease threat in Europe is from micro-organisms that have become resistant to antibiotics. As far back as 2000, the World Health Organisation was calling for a massive effort to address the problem of antimicrobial resistance to prevent the "health catastrophe of tomorrow".
