35869¨Signatures

Berlusconi vows to stay on despite losing immunity | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 08.10.2009

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has ruled out that he might step down after the country's highest court stripped him of immunity while in office. The verdict could reopen criminal trials against him. 

Reacting to the decision, Berlusconi accused the Constitutional Court of being primarily "left-wing" and said he was determined to stay in power for his five-year mandate. His cabinet ministers have also expressed their continued support for the prime minister.

 

On Wednesday, the highest Italian court overturned a law granting Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immunity from prosecution while in office, arguing that the law violates the principle that all citizens are equal before the law.

The legislation was passed soon after Berlusconi came to power last year. Berlusconi has argued the immunity allowed him to govern without being "distracted" by the judiciary.

"We must govern for five years with or without the law," the billionaire prime minister told reporters outside his Rome office. He added that he had expected the ruling, saying the Constitutional Court was filled with "11 left wing judges."

Polish ministers resign over gambling scandal | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 08.10.2009

Two ministers have resigned and another has been dismissed in an affair over inappropriate lobbying by casino and slot machine owners. The industry objects to the higher taxes a new gambling law would introduce. 

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has fired Mariusz Kaminski, the head of the anti-corruption office and the ministers of the interior and justice departments have tendered their resignations over a gambling scandal that has already claimed the sports minister Miroslaw Drzewiecki's job.

In a meeting with reporters, Prime Minister Tusk said that Andrzej Czuma, the justice minister had submitted his resignation "in order to clear any doubts that he is involved in this matter."

Tusk added that the situation had to be examined thoroughly.

Czech Republic plagued by doubts about future path | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 07.10.2009

With the fate of the EU resting in the hands of the Czech Republic, the country has become the focus of media attention. But as it parades in the limelight, the young democracy cannot hide its many troubles.  

For years, the Czech Republic was hailed as the wunderkind of the former East Bloc countries, the shining economic example and leader of the pack. In record time, it appeared to have shed its past to become a fully-fledged member of the Western world.

But now, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, much of the glitter has fallen off Europe's brightest new star, and it has become tangled up in a mess of domestic political infighting and an apparent inability to decide what it wants and where it wants to stand on the international stage.

So what went wrong?

EUobserver / MEPs call for anti-Italian sanctions in press freedom row

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The nasty brawl over press freedom in Italy came to Brussels on Wednesday (7 October), as left-leaning MEPs called for punitive EU measures against Rome, while right-leaning deputies threw around accusations of subversion and interference in domestic affairs.

"We are extremely worried. The EU was set up to defend common values of peace and freedom, not to intimidate people with regard to press and media freedom," Liberal group leader and former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt told reporters at a press conference.

Prime Minister Berlusconi won the backing of Europe's centre-right, who say there is no threat to press freedom in Italy

"This is why this very press room was named after Anna Politkovskaya," he added, referring to the EU's tribute to a crusading Russian journalist, murdered in 2006 because of her work.

Sitting alongside Mr Verhofstadt, Dutch Green MEP Judith Sargentini explained that under Article 7 of the EU treaty, member states should hold a probe into the situation in Italy. "And if they don't shape up, then they should take away their voting rights in the Council," she said.

Fired Over a Burger: Secretary Sacked After Nibbling From Boss' Buffet - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

A German woman who worked at the same company for more than three decades recently got fired for pilfering a small burger from her boss' buffet. Her supervisors say she abused the trust they had in her. The case will soon be heard by a labor court.

Magdalene H.* is fighting for her job -- and her reputation. The secretary had worked at a building association in Dortmund for 34 years when she was given her notice over a burger she took from the boss' buffet.

The case, which dates from last July, is now being considered by a labor court in the western German city. And the media are not letting it pass quietly: "How heartless can a boss be?" raged the Bild tabloid on Wednesday.

And the case adds to public outrage over a recent string of German firings over minutiae. First, a 50-year-old supermarket cashier lost her job after taking bottle deposit slips worth a handful of pocket change. Then came the case of a bakery worker in Friedrichshafen who was fired after €1.36 ($1.99) was found to be missing from the till. A trash collector in Mannheim who recently got fired after salvaging a child's bed out of the garbage.

Spain's Popular Party faces corruption charges - Scandal : news, world | euronews

Spain's opposition Popular Party has been hit by allegations of corruption in its ranks. A court is investigating charges that a number of senior party members received expensive gifts from businessman Francisco Correa, nicknamed `Don Vito' after "The Godfather" films. The gifts allegedly included new cars, expensive suits and cash for politicians. Correa is charged with eliciting favours for contracts to organise PP events, and a Madrid judge has lifted a secrecy order on 17,000 pages of evidence.

French minister under fire in gay sex tourism row | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 08.10.2009

French opposition parties have called on Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand to resign for having written a book about paying boys for sex in Thailand.  

The book, called "The Bad Life," was written four years ago before Frederic Mitterand joined the government. At the time it attracted little attention.

But it's back in the news again ever since the minister spoke out in defense of director Roman Polanski who was arrested in Switzerland recently on a decades-old sex charge.

Polanski, who has dual French and Polish nationality, faces deportation to the US for having sex with an underage girl in 1977.

Mitterrand, a nephew of former French President Francois Mitterrand, called Polanski's arrest in Switzerland "horrific." He said the US had shown a "frightening side" in its persecution of the Oscar-winning filmmaker.

The Eternal Outsider: Guido Westerwelle's Struggle for Popularity - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Guido Westerwelle, the leader of the business-friendly Free Democratic Party, is set to become Germany's new foreign minister after his party scored its best-ever result in national elections. But does a politician best-known for his ever-changing roles and campaign stunts have the gravitas to be the country's top diplomat?

He knows it's important to control his feelings now, not to smile too broadly. A subtle smile is all Guido Westerwelle allows to appear on his face as he emerges from the conference room. The parliamentary group of his party, the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP), has just unanimously voted him into office as its new floor leader. It is yet another triumph, but he is being careful not to flaunt it. Westerwelle knows that it's time to be a statesman.

He appears before the press, his hands folded together and his pale gold tie shimmering in the light. Two days earlier, on Sunday, Sept. 27, the FDP achieved its best result ever in a national parliamentary election. The previous day, Westerwelle met with Chancellor Angela Merkel, his future coalition partner. A journalist asks whether champagne was served at the meeting. Westerwelle, looking serious, replies: "There was tea."

France 24 | Poland to sign on Saturday, says presidential aide | France 24

After a series of contradictory statements over Polish plans to sign the EU's Lisbon Treaty, an aide to President Lech Kaczynski (photo) said the signing ceremony would take place on Saturday.

AFP - Polish President Lech Kaczynski will sign the European Union's Lisbon Treaty on Saturday at noon (1000 GMT), his chief of staff Waldyslaw Stasiak said Thursday.
  
"The president will sign the treaty on Saturday at noon," Stasiak told TVN24 television.
  

State funding for royal family to be scrutinised | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

The jetset life of Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and his spouse, Argentian-born Princess Máxima, is causing mounting irritation among Dutch politicians.

Earlier this year, the queen's sister Princess Christina was discovered to be running a tax evasion fund on the Channel Islands, using the address of the queen's palace in The Hague. Add to that the mounting murmur in parliament about everyone having to accept salary cuts, except Queen Beatrix and her family, and the scene is set for a vigorous debate in the lower house. A debate about the tax-funded budget for the Royal Family has been scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

Ministers are responsible
The lower house has called Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende to the chamber to account for the luxury holiday villa which Prince Willem-Alexander is having built in Mozambique. The home is part of a holiday resort project for the wealthy, and the developer promised to let the poor local community benefit from it.

Under the Netherlands' constitution, the cabinet is accountable for the behaviour of the royal family. The argument is that the royals are not in a position to defend themselves - that has to be done by their ministers. The Dutch royals may not be able to defend themselves, but they appear pretty good at avoiding political scrutiny, according to the venerable historian and royalty watcher, Jan Kikkert. He told BNR Radio, "it depends whether the house was purchased with public or private money. I think the latter." If the prince used the royal family's considerable private wealth for the scheme, the prime minister cannot be held responsible. But that is only part of the problem. "It also appears that the Crown Prince was quite slow in informing the minister about his building project," Mr Kikkert added.

FT.com / Asia-Pacific - Asia steps in to support dollar

Asian central banks intervened heavily in the currency markets on Thursday to stem the appreciation of their currencies against the US dollar amid fears that their exports could be losing ground against China.

The mainly south-east Asian countries have been spurred to defend the competitiveness of their currencies by China's decision to in effect re-peg the renminbi to the dollar since July last year.
...
After allowing the renminbi to appreciate by about 20 per against the US dollar from mid-2005, Beijing re-pegged its currency to the greenback when export growth contracted.

The greenback hit one-year lows against a raft of regional currencies. The dollar index, which tracks its value against a basket of six main currencies, hit a 14-month low in afternoon trading in New York.

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Warning: Capital Controls Are in Your Future « naked capitalism

Despite the hue and cry that we must keep trade and capital flows open, I have long believed that they would be restricted as financial reforms moved forward. The Carmen Reinhart-Kenneth Rogoff work shows convincingly that periods of high international capital mobility are associated with frequent banking crises. They do not assert that the relationship is causal, but I suspect it is. Capital that can move easily across borders is by nature difficult to regulate. It would require a considerable sacrifice of national sovereignity to devise rules and organizations that could do an adequate job of supervision. So a high level of international investment flows means lawless or seriously underregulated financial firms and activities. And we have just seen that this lawlessness eventually exacts unacceptably high costs to the real economy.

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

FT.com | Willem Buiter's Maverecon | After subverting bank insolvency, our leaders are now about to make a mess of liquidity

Unless there is a major change of direction among global economic and financial officialdom, we are at risk of ending up with a world in which liquidity provision is privatised and insolvency risk for banks is socialised.  This would be the exact opposite of what makes sense: solvency is (or should be) a private good and liquidity is (or should be) a public good.

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Imbalances, Schmalances « The Baseline Scenario

The time is here for our nation to actually do something about the recent financial crisis -- that is, do something to prevent it from happening again. But instead, many people are finding it easier to pass the buck than to, say, regulate the financial sector effectively.

The recent Group of 20 conference in Pittsburgh was replete with talk about "global imbalances," which means -- in the spirit of the "South Park" movie -- "blame China!"

According to this story, the global financial crisis was caused by hardworking Chinese factory workers who committed the sin of over-saving, which created a glut of money that needed to be invested, conceptualized in a great episode of public radio's "This American Life" as the "giant pool of money." (Japan and the oil exporters also had large surpluses, but for political reasons, the finger generally gets pointed at China.)

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Too Politically Connected To Fail In Any Crisis « The Baseline Scenario

Over the past 30 years Wall Street captured the thinking of official Washington, persuading policymakers on both sides of the aisle not to regulate (derivatives), to deregulate (Gramm-Leach-Bliley), not enforce existing safety and soundness regulations (VaR), and to stand idly by while millions of consumers were misled into life-ruining financial decisions (Alan Greenspan).

This was pervasive cultural capture or, to be blunter, mind control.  But when the crisis broke it was not enough.  Having powerful people generally on your side is not what you need when all hell breaks loose in financial markets.  Official decisions will be made fast, under great pressure, and by a small group of people standing up in the Oval Office. 

If you run a big troubled bank, you need a man on the inside - someone who will take your calls late at night and rely on you for on the ground knowledge.
...
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Citigroup, we learn today, have such a person: Tim Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury.

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

The Life Cycle Hypothesis (and other considerations for sustainable recovery.)  

We all know that a large wave of Baby Boomers in the US are approaching retirement. But what about the rest of the world? And what happens when those retirees need to spend out of savings? There is more than just a credit crisis and a government deficit crisis in our future. A rising level of retirees to workers is happening even as I write. And the US is not, for once, the center of the problem. As this week's writer of your Outside the Box Niels Jensen explains, we cannot all export our way out of the problem. There is a global adjustment that must happen and when it does, it will have serious consequences for all.

My story begins with Franco Modigliani. In 1985 he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his life cycle hypothesis which (somewhat simplified) states that spending and savings patterns are predictable and largely a function of demographics. When you are in your 20s and 30s, savings are low as much of your income is spent on establishing a family, buying and furnishing your home, putting the children through education, etc. Then comes a phase, from your early to mid 40s until just before you reach retirement age, where your savings grow significantly. The outgoings are smaller during this phase of your life as the kids have left home, and you focus on accumulating wealth to pay for your retirement. Eventually, when you retire, your savings rate turns negative as you begin to live on your life savings1.

Empirical evidence has since shown that this is generally true both for the individual and for society at large. Obviously, you don't win the Nobel Prize for pointing out something that can hardly be classified as original thinking, but Modigliani's claim to fame was to demonstrate the effect this pattern has on the general economy as the population ages. Let me introduce you to a chart constructed by fellow Dane Claus Vistesen who is an economist and active blogger. He has made a solid attempt to graphically illustrate the consequences of Modigliani's work (chart 1).

The blue line represents the current account - it is in surplus when above the red line and in deficit when below. As you can see, when a country's population is relatively young, the country should (all other things being equal) run a current account deficit. As the population grows older, and the savings rate rises for the reasons described above, the deficit turns into a surplus until such time that the elderly begin to dominate the young at which point the surplus turns into a deficit yet again.
Our export dependency

Why is all this important? Well, take another look at chart 1, but focus on the purple line instead, which represents the country's export dependency. Translated into plain English, Modigliani's work implies that a country with an ageing population must grow its exports aggressively in order not to build up an unsustainably large current account deficit. Unfortunately, as you can see from the shape of the curve, it is not a linear function. The problem gets progressively worse as the population ages.

Now, with most OECD countries fast approaching the danger zone where an uncomfortably large part of the population consists of old-age pensioners, how do we get out of this pickle? We can't all export our way out of the problem. Somebody needs to buy our products.

Jensen notes that Japan faces the most severe impact from demographic shifts and that Europe also will likely be severely impacted, while the USA will not be so severely impacted.  This is hardly something we have never before heard. But at least he sees a solution, (one similar to that discussed by Brazilian economist André Lara Resende in a guest column in Wm. Buiter's Maverecon column on June 6, 2009):

The only way out, if we want to maintain economic growth, is for the younger and more dynamic emerging economies to become net importers. This will require a sea change in policy, and attitude, in those countries. Most importantly, it will require the exchange rate cheating to stop once and for all. There is no alternative, unless you are prepared to accept negative GDP growth year-in year-out. And that is no fun.

But capital always doesn't seem to flow of its own accord to where it might best be employed, (shocking but true!), even presently, let alone as required to provide a sustainable retirement for those in countries with large retired populations, as he proceeds to illustrate:

A great growth story like China will always attract plenty of capital but, in the case of China, you can actually argue that too much capital has been attracted. As I was taught at university, economic growth loses its momentum if capital spending outgrows labour because of the diminishing return on capital. BCA has illustrated this graphically (chart 5), and it is obvious that China is attracting too much capital for its own good. You want to invest where capital is scarce, not plentiful.

Given the foregoing, it would appear that the seemingly Herculean effort to wrest control of nations from the grasp of cabals of corporate pirates must first succeed, be followed by effective international rules that prevent, or at least inhibit, currency manipulation by all countries and then be capped by agreement to direct capital and exports to areas that can best use it for development.  Sorta like doing well by doing good. Unfortunately, this is highly counter-intuitive to the Masters of the Universe, so it may be necessary that they have previously been securely locked away in Davy Jones' Locker, or some functional equivalent.  


As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

Gold and Economic Freedom: Did Greenspan Know What He Was Doing?   by Gordon_Gekko on Zero Hedge

With Gold reaching new heights in dollar terms, I think this is an appropriate time to post an article on the subject circa 1967 by none other than the famed former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan. In this article Greenspan, a former Goldbug, waxes eloquent on the role of Gold in our society, although it is debatable whether he can be classified as a "former" Goldbug. I, for one, think he's still a Goldbug. This is what he said in a recent speech at an investment conference in New York -

   "What is fascinating is the extent to which gold still holds reign over the financial system as the ultimate source of payment".

and

   Rising prices of precious metals and other commodities are "an indication of a very early stage of an endeavor to move away from paper currencies".

Questions have been raised by some commenters on ZH recently whether Greenspan did what he did on purpose. Reading the article below and considering the fact that he is a devotee of Ayn Rand (who by the way was at his side when he was sworn in as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in 1974), it's pretty hard to argue that Greenspan did not know what he was doing. Of course, some might say what a horrible way to bring about change but the fact remains that Greenspan did not do anything that would not have happened otherwise - he just accelerated the process by giving the corrupt bankers (who control everything, including the Fed) enough rope to hang themselves. Also, in my humble opinion, human beings do not change until pushed to desperation. The beauty of this is that the people are not only becoming more aware about our financial system and heretofore obscure subjects such as monetary policy but are themselves demanding change - things like abolition of the fed, return to sound money, etc. Do you think any of this would have happened if everyone was fat and happy using the corrupt Fed-controlled fiat money system? I think not. This is a more sustainable way of changing things - i.e. from the grassroots level - as opposed to somebody at the top dictating what needs to be done, which almost always ends in failure. Indeed, the best protection against criminal organizations such as the Federal Reserve taking over our society is vigilant and informed citizens. Read this and figure out for yourselves whether this is someone who hates Gold or does not understand it. Greenspan might indeed be John Galt - the man who stopped the motor of the world.

From the editor's preface to a re-publication in Gilded Opinion of Alan Greenspan's essay, Gold and Economic Freedom:

[Editor's note - It may surprise more than a few gold devotees to learn they have an ideological friend in none other than Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan. Starting in the 1950s, in fact, Greenspan was a stalwart member of Ayn Rand's intellectual inner circle. A self-designated "objectivist", Rand preached a strongly libertarian view, applying it to politics and economics, as well as to religion and popular culture. Under her influence, Greenspan wrote for the first issue of what was to become the widely-circulated Objectivist Newsletter. When Gerald Ford appointed him to the Council of Economic Advisors, Greenspan invited Rand to his swearing-in ceremony. He even attended her funeral in 1982.

In 1967, Rand published her non-fiction book, Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal. In it, she included Gold and Economic Freedom, the essay by Alan Greenspan which appears below. Drawing heavily from Murray Rothbard's much longer The Mystery of Banking, Greenspan argues persuasively in favor of a gold standard and against the concept of a central bank.

Can this be the same Alan Greenspan who today chairs the most important central bank of them all? Again, you might be surprised. R.W. Bradford writes in Liberty magazine that, as Fed chairman, "Greenspan (once) recommended to a Senate committee that all economic regulations should have fixed lifespans. Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) accused him of 'playing with fire, or indeed throwing gasoline on the fire,' and asked him whether he favored a similar provision in the Fed's authorization. Greenspan coolly answered that he did. Do you actually mean, demanded the senator, that the Fed 'should cease to function unless affirmatively continued?' 'That is correct, sir,' Greenspan responded."

Bradford continues, "The Senator could scarcely believe his ears. 'Now my next question is, is it your intention that the report of this hearing should be that Greenspan recommends a return to the gold standard?' Greenspan responded, 'I've been recommending that for years, there's nothing new about that. It would probably mean there is only one vote in the Federal Open Market Committee for that, but it is mine.'" -- Editor, The Gilded Opinion ]

Many on Zero Hedge, Gordon Gecko and commentators, appear to believe a return to a gold standard is what is needed.  Regardless, this puts Greenspan's actions and beliefs in an interesting context. It would appear that he believed that the very existence of the organization he led for decades was the result of bad policy. One does not have to be a goldbug or advocate a return to the gold standard to agree with that.

See also  Greenspan Shrugged by MICHAEL KINSLEY in the NYT Sunday Book Review

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

Obama humiliated by IOC plot - Politiken.dk

President Obama's visit to Copenhagen to canvas for Chicago's candidacy as Olympic City 2016 was doomed to failure before the president even arrived in the Danish capital - a group of IOC nations had already decided to reject the city, Politiken has learned.

Voting on the choice between Chicago, Madrid, Rio or Tokyo had been decided beforehand as a result of what several major IOC organisations perceived as the American Olympic Committee's greed. Chicago had been touted by bookmakers and many so-called experts as the favourite to win the voting sweepstake.

According to Politiken's information, the coordinated action in rejecting Chicago came as a result of dissatisfaction with the fact that the American Olympic Committee is to receive a DKK 2.3 billion grant in the four-year period up to 2012 as a result of a permanent contract with the IOC.

The grant is the result of a contract between the two parties in connection with a loan to the IOC in the 1980s, at which time the IOC was in dire financial straits.

Slightly old - from September 23

Sexual offences upsurge 'cause for concern' - Mail & Guardian Online: The smart news source

A 10,1% upsurge in sexual offences last year was cause for concern, the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) said on Wednesday in reaction to the police's latest crime statistics.

"The CGE has noted with concern various trends of crimes that are being committed," it said in a statement.

"The increase in sexual offences is a cause for concern and such cannot go unabated as the majority of people who suffer from this form of crime are women and children," it said.

It urged communities to act with renewed vigour to help the police deal with sexual offences by reporting the crimes.

Also, sexual offence victims should also speak out so their attackers could be dealt with.

"The CGE calls upon all victims of gendered crimes to report those as they will be assisting society in getting rid of perpetrators ... [by putting] them in jails where they belong.

Hamas Finds Gaza Tunnels' $500 Million Loss Worse Than Madoff - Bloomberg.com

She was one of about 4,000 Gazans who gave cash to middlemen and tunnel operators in 2008 as Israel blocked the overland passage of goods. Then Israeli warplanes bombed the tunnels before and during the Dec. 27 to Jan. 18 Gaza offensive and the investments collapsed.

Now investors, who lost as much as $500 million, want their money back from Hamas, which runs Gaza. Hamas Economics Minister Ziad Zaza says about 200 people were taken into custody in connection with the tunnel investments; most have been released. Hamas is offering a partial repayment of 16.5 cents on the dollar using money recovered from Ihab al-Kurd, the biggest tunnel operator.

The imbroglio over the 800 to 1,000 tunnels has deepened Hamas's decline in public opinion in Gaza and highlights the Wild West nature of the underground economy that supports this jammed enclave of 1.4 million people.

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Obama wins Peace Nobel Prize

w00t!

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu

Barack Obama prix Nobel de la Paix, Culture - Information NouvelObs.com		Barack Obama Nobel Peace Rize - NouvelObs.com
Le président américain, élu il y a moins d'un an, est récompensé "pour ses efforts extraordinaires en vue de renforcer la diplomatie internationale et la coopération entre les peuples".		Elected less than a year ago, the American president is awared the Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation among peoples."

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Opt-out public option - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com

So the new idea seems to be a public option offered at a national level, but with states having the right to opt out -- that is, make it not available to their own residents.

At first blush, that sounds good.

What?

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

Swine Flu: 'Britain could have had a 'lucky break' ' - Telegraph

Britain could have had a "lucky break" with the second wave of swine flu with cases rising much slower than expected, the Chief Medical Officer has said.

The number of new cases a week rose from around 14,000 to around 18,000 over the last seven days, far less than the weekly doubling of infected patients seen during the first wave this summer.

The slow rise in cases could offer officials more time to use the swine flu vaccine, Sir Liam Donaldson said.

Saudis Want Aid if World Kicks the Oil Habit « naked capitalism

You cannot make this stuff up. The Saudis are lobbying for foreign aid in anticipation of declining oil revenues. Hat tip reader Michael:

Saudi Arabia has led a quiet campaign....demanding behind closed doors that oil-producing nations get special financial assistance if a new climate pact calls for substantial reductions in the use of fossil fuels.

That campaign comes despite an International Energy Agency report released this week showing that OPEC revenues would still increase $23 trillion between 2008 and 2030 -- a fourfold increase compared to the period from 1985 to 2007 -- if countries agree to significantly slash emissions and thereby cut their use of oil.....

The head of the Saudi delegation Mohammad S. Al Sabban dismissed the IEA figures as "biased" and said OPEC's own calculations showed that Saudi Arabia would lose $19 billion a year starting in 2012 under a new climate pact....

Al Sabban accused Western nations of pursuing an agenda against oil producers, under the guise of protecting the planet.

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Sarkozy seeks to railroad his grand vision for Paris - Europe, World - The Independent

A pharaonic plan to construct 80 miles of new Metro to bind Paris closer to its troubled suburbs in just over a decade was approved by the French cabinet yesterday.

The €22bn (£20bn) plan - which has caused a deep rift within the ruling centre-right party - is the first stage of Nicolas Sarkozy's declared ambition to create a unified, eco-friendly, thriving "Greater Paris" as a monument to his presidency.

The President's vision has been hailed by supporters as a 21st-century version of the rebuilding of medieval Paris by Emperor Napoleon III and Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann in the 1850s and 1860s.

New university league table betrays Anglo-Saxon bias | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 08.10.2009

A new international university league table published Thursday by the London Times shows only one non-Anglo-Saxon university in its top 20. A new ranking system commissioned by the EU aims to offer an alternative. 

The London Times' Higher Education supplement merely reshuffled the top 10 of its new university league table, published Thursday. As in previous years, the world's best universities, according to the Times, are only to be found in two countries: the United Kingdom and the United States. Harvard came first for the sixth year in succession, while Britain's Cambridge University has overtaken Yale in second place.

The Australian National University, McGill University in Canada and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich are the only colleges outside those two nations to break into the top 20, which offered little comfort to the non-English institutions striving for international recognition.

"There aren't really any surprises in it," Petra Giebisch of the Center for Higher Education Development (CHE) in Guetersloh told Deutsche Welle. Giebisch is currently leading a project aimed at creating a better ranking system that does not favor English speaking universities. "That was one of the thoughts behind our pilot project," she said.

Climate change believer takes firm to tribunal | Environment | The Guardian

A man who claims he was unfairly dismissed from his job because he believes in climate change is attempting to have his environmental views recognised under religious law.

Tim Nicholson, 42, says his beliefs on the environment are so strong they led to clashes with other senior staff at Grainger, one of the UK's biggest property companies.

He said the chief executive, Rupert Dickinson, showed contempt for his concerns and once flew a member of staff to Ireland to deliver his BlackBerry, which he had left in London.

In March, employment judge David Neath gave Nicholson permission to take the firm to a tribunal over his treatment. The company is challenging the ruling, arguing that environmental beliefs are not the same as religious or philosophical ones.

Rich guy dislikes poor people, wants local kids to "lose sleep" over plan to shut library - Boing Boing

Constantine "Connie" Xinos is the president of the home-owners' association in a gated community in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook. He dislikes being near poor people (he successfully blocked a permit for a senior's home, stating, "I don't want to live next to poor people. I don't want poor people in my town"). He reportedly worked to elect an Oak Brook village council who would shut down the town library, which he also campaigned against. When local kids showed up at town meetings to ask that their library be left open, he is quoted as saying, "I don't care that you guys miss the librarian, and she was nice, and she helped you find books;" and to the library staff to "stop whining."

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

AP: Report: Global Muslim population hits 1.57 billion

The global Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly 1 in 4 people in the world practice Islam, according to a report Wednesday billed as the most comprehensive of its kind.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report provides a precise number for a population whose size has long has been subject to guesswork, with estimates ranging anywhere from 1 billion to 1.8 billion.

The project, three years in the making, also presents a portrait of the Muslim world that might surprise some. For instance, Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon, China has more Muslims than Syria, Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined, and Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan.

"This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report," said Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University who reviewed an advance copy.

APOD: 2009 October 4 - The Same Color Illusion

Are square A and B the same color? They are. Are too. To verify this, click here to see them connected. The above illusion, called the same color illusion, illustrates that purely human observations in science may be ambiguous or inaccurate. Even such a seemingly direct perception as relative color. Similar illusions exist on the sky, such as the size of the Moon near the horizon, or the apparent shapes of astronomical objects. The advent of automated, reproducible, measuring devices such as CCDs have made science in general and astronomy in particular less prone to, but not free of, human-biased illusions.

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Seawater plants yield green aviation fuel in new research - UPI.com

Boeing and international academic and business partners are looking into ways of producing commercially viable aviation fuel from saltwater plants in a push toward reducing carbon emissions from air travel.

The Boeing Co. said scientific studies were focused on salicornia bigelovii and saltwater mangroves -- plants known as halophytes.

Research conducted in the United States, Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates and other locations showed the plants thrive when irrigated with seawater and can be produced in large quantities to extract biofuel suitable for aircraft.
...
Boeing says biofuel development is focused on plant sources that do not distort the global food chain, compete with freshwater resources or lead to unintended land use change.

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Herta Müller takes Nobel prize for literature | Books | guardian.co.uk

Romanian-born German novelist, essayist and poet Herta Müller has been named winner of the 2009 Nobel prize for literature, praised by the judges for depicting the "landscape of the dispossessed" with "the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose".

Müller becomes only the 12th woman to have won the Nobel since it launched in 1901; in 2007 British novelist Doris Lessing won for her "scepticism, fire and visionary power ... [which] subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny". In a statement this afternoon Müller said she was "delighted" by the award, and "still couldn't believe it".

Worth 10m Swedish kronor (£893,000), the Nobel is awarded to "the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction", as described in Alfred Nobel's will of 1895.

Cocaine Survivors Losing London Bonus See End to Bubble's Binge - Bloomberg.com

Professionals in the detox business say bankers have swamped them with calls since the financial crisis widened a year ago. The Causeway Retreat, an addiction and mental health hospital for professionals on a secluded island 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of London, has 15 people on the waiting list for its 18-bed facility.
...
Scientists say it's no accident that trading and cocaine sometimes go together. Both involve taking risks and have a similar effect on the brain. Each activity raises dopamine levels, the organ's feel-good chemical, according to Trevor Robbins, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Cambridge. Dopamine surges when we take risks, such as going sky diving, betting on stock price movements or hiding in an office rest room and snorting a line of coke.

I chose it for the title...

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet