Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
The rise in the cost of train tickets has led to the first £1,000 rail fare, it was revealed today.The fare - of £1,002 - is for a turn-up-and-go, first-class return from Newquay in Cornwall to the Kyle of Lochalsh in the Scottish Highlands.Unearthed in a survey of fares by rail expert Barry Doe, the Cornwall to Scotland return trip would cover about 1,700 miles. Tickets can be bought from the CrossCountry train company.Doe's research also showed that some standard-class, turn-up-and go return fares have risen 100% in price since the mid-1990s.
The rise in the cost of train tickets has led to the first £1,000 rail fare, it was revealed today.
The fare - of £1,002 - is for a turn-up-and-go, first-class return from Newquay in Cornwall to the Kyle of Lochalsh in the Scottish Highlands.
Unearthed in a survey of fares by rail expert Barry Doe, the Cornwall to Scotland return trip would cover about 1,700 miles. Tickets can be bought from the CrossCountry train company.
Doe's research also showed that some standard-class, turn-up-and go return fares have risen 100% in price since the mid-1990s.
Giant jellyfish have capsized a 10-tonne fishing boat after its crew tried to haul in a net full of the stinging creatures off the eastern coast of Japan.
The organisms can weigh up to 440lbs and grow up to 6ft in diameter.
A man has been told he can take his employer to tribunal on the grounds he was unfairly dismissed because of his views on climate change.Tim Nicholson, 42, of Oxford, was made redundant in 2008 by Grainger Plc in Didcot, as head of sustainability. He said his beliefs had contributed to his dismissal and in March a judge ruled he could use employment equality laws to claim it was unfair. But the firm appealed against this as it believed his views were political.
A man has been told he can take his employer to tribunal on the grounds he was unfairly dismissed because of his views on climate change.
Tim Nicholson, 42, of Oxford, was made redundant in 2008 by Grainger Plc in Didcot, as head of sustainability.
He said his beliefs had contributed to his dismissal and in March a judge ruled he could use employment equality laws to claim it was unfair.
But the firm appealed against this as it believed his views were political.
In the US state of Virginia the talk is of revolution. In the basement of a restaurant in Richmond we met 100 or so American patriots -ordinary people who claim to be the vanguard of a great new movement, a movement for American liberty. "Lower taxes, less government, more freedom", is their rallying cry. The words of Patrick Henry, a son of Virginia and one of the founding fathers of the United States, ricocheted around the room: "Give me liberty, or give me death." The echo of the American Revolution is deliberate. This movement takes as its manifesto the Declaration of Independence itself. Many supporters say they carry a copy of it with them at all times.
In the US state of Virginia the talk is of revolution. In the basement of a restaurant in Richmond we met 100 or so American patriots -ordinary people who claim to be the vanguard of a great new movement, a movement for American liberty.
"Lower taxes, less government, more freedom", is their rallying cry.
The words of Patrick Henry, a son of Virginia and one of the founding fathers of the United States, ricocheted around the room: "Give me liberty, or give me death."
The echo of the American Revolution is deliberate. This movement takes as its manifesto the Declaration of Independence itself. Many supporters say they carry a copy of it with them at all times.
I assume that means close all overseas bases and bring home our troops and don't get involved in pointless foreign wars that feed the coffers of the military industrial complex.
RIGHT!!!???? "Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne
Money paid by rich countries to fight global warming will have to "be scaled up" from the $100bn a year on offer, the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said today.Finance is the key, said Ban, to successful negotations on a global treaty to fight climate change, due to conclude at UN talks next month in Copenhagen.Ban also revealed that he will next week meet all the US Senators involved in deliberations over the energy and climate bill. Agreement on that bill is seen as vital to negotiations, as without it the US team in Copenhagen will have little domestic mandate to agree a deal. The announcement of the personal intervention of the secretary general is a clear sign of the importance of the matter.
Money paid by rich countries to fight global warming will have to "be scaled up" from the $100bn a year on offer, the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said today.
Finance is the key, said Ban, to successful negotations on a global treaty to fight climate change, due to conclude at UN talks next month in Copenhagen.
Ban also revealed that he will next week meet all the US Senators involved in deliberations over the energy and climate bill. Agreement on that bill is seen as vital to negotiations, as without it the US team in Copenhagen will have little domestic mandate to agree a deal. The announcement of the personal intervention of the secretary general is a clear sign of the importance of the matter.
Boris Johnson came to the rescue of a high profile climate change activist and filmmaker who was being attacked by a group of young girls brandishing an iron bar, it was revealed today.Franny Armstrong, the director of The Age of Stupid, described the mayor of London as her "knight in a shining bicycle" after he came to her defence as she was walking home in Camden, north London, last night.She called out for help to a passing cyclist after being surrounded by a group of hoodie-wearing young girls who pushed her against a car, one holding an iron bar.The cyclist turned out to be none other than Johnson, who has made tackling youth crime a key mayoral priority.
Boris Johnson came to the rescue of a high profile climate change activist and filmmaker who was being attacked by a group of young girls brandishing an iron bar, it was revealed today.
Franny Armstrong, the director of The Age of Stupid, described the mayor of London as her "knight in a shining bicycle" after he came to her defence as she was walking home in Camden, north London, last night.
She called out for help to a passing cyclist after being surrounded by a group of hoodie-wearing young girls who pushed her against a car, one holding an iron bar.
The cyclist turned out to be none other than Johnson, who has made tackling youth crime a key mayoral priority.
the director of The Age of Stupid, described the mayor of London as her "knight in a shining bicycle"
Oh, right, it's in living off the planet :P En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
Deforestation left nothing to hinder ancient floodwaters on the desert plain, researchers find. In the Ica Valley, about 120 miles south of Lima, "the wind has blown away the topsoil," one researcher said, "so that features such as canals that were once cut into the landscape are now standing up above it, preserved in hard calcite." The Nazca people of Peru -- famous for their huge line drawings on an arid plateau that are fully visible only from the air -- set the stage for their demise by deforesting the plain, allowing a huge El Niño-fueled flood to ravage the Ica Valley about AD 500, researchers have found. "They died out because they destroyed their natural ecosystem," said archaeologist Alex J. Chepstow-Lusty of the French Institute of Andean Studies in Lima, coauthor of a paper in the current issue of Latin American Antiquity. "As the population expanded, they put in too many fields and didn't protect the landscape. The El Niño wiped away society." Chepstow-Lusty, David Beresford-Jones of the University of Cambridge and their colleagues used pollen in the soil to trace the horticultural history of the valley, revealing environmental depredation. The Ica Valley, about 120 miles south of Lima, is barren today but was once a riverine oasis -- a fertile landscape capable of supporting many people. The key to that fertility was a tree called the huarango, or algarrobo. A member of the Prosopis family, the huarango is a massive, slow-growing relative of mesquite that can live for more than 1,000 years and has roots as deep as 180 feet. The trees have dense wood ideal for construction and fuel, and they trap water from morning mists that waft in from the Pacific.
In the Ica Valley, about 120 miles south of Lima, "the wind has blown away the topsoil," one researcher said, "so that features such as canals that were once cut into the landscape are now standing up above it, preserved in hard calcite."
The Nazca people of Peru -- famous for their huge line drawings on an arid plateau that are fully visible only from the air -- set the stage for their demise by deforesting the plain, allowing a huge El Niño-fueled flood to ravage the Ica Valley about AD 500, researchers have found.
"They died out because they destroyed their natural ecosystem," said archaeologist Alex J. Chepstow-Lusty of the French Institute of Andean Studies in Lima, coauthor of a paper in the current issue of Latin American Antiquity. "As the population expanded, they put in too many fields and didn't protect the landscape. The El Niño wiped away society."
Chepstow-Lusty, David Beresford-Jones of the University of Cambridge and their colleagues used pollen in the soil to trace the horticultural history of the valley, revealing environmental depredation.
The Ica Valley, about 120 miles south of Lima, is barren today but was once a riverine oasis -- a fertile landscape capable of supporting many people. The key to that fertility was a tree called the huarango, or algarrobo.
A member of the Prosopis family, the huarango is a massive, slow-growing relative of mesquite that can live for more than 1,000 years and has roots as deep as 180 feet. The trees have dense wood ideal for construction and fuel, and they trap water from morning mists that waft in from the Pacific.
