European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 15 July

by afew
Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 04:00:04 PM EST

 A Daily Review Of International Online Media 


Europeans on this date in history:

1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte surrendered aboard HMS Bellerophon at Rochefort in the final act of the Napoleonic Wars.

More here and here

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by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 11:59:43 AM EST
EU fails to reach deal on financial supervision | Reuters

(Reuters) - Efforts to clinch a deal on the way banks, insurers and markets in the European Union are supervised failed on Wednesday and talks will resume in late August or early September, EU sources said.

"Talks have not led to an agreement this morning. Negotiations have now been postponed until the end of August, early September," a European Parliament source said.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:21:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]
EUobserver / Slovakia resists EU pressure on bail-outs

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The newly-minted Slovak Prime Minister, Iveta Radicova, left the EU capital on Tuesday (13 July) without agreeing to sign up to the eurozone bail-out fund or a separate loan for Greece.

After two days of talks with EU leaders, Ms Radicova said the Slovak government will discuss the two questions at its cabinet meeting in Bratislava on Wednesday.

The Slovak parliament will later have to approve the eurozone bail-out deal as well. But the government's signature would already allow the other participants in the mechanism to start issuing bond guarantees.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:21:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]
New cross-border divorce rules for 14 EU countries | EurActiv
Fourteen EU member states earlier this week (12 July) used a pioneering cooperation law to press ahead with plans to simplify divorce rules for couples of different nationalities.

 European Union governments gave the 14 states the go-ahead on Monday, a moment described as "historic" by EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding.

Couples in these countries will be able to choose which country's law applies to their divorce, helping them avoid potentially long and expensive proceedings. The countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Spain.

Enhanced cooperation

It is the first time the EU has used an "enhanced cooperation" clause, foreseen in the treaties and that allows a group of at least nine countries to take joint steps in an area where they cannot secure the agreement of all 27 member states.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:33:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]
MEPs warn against looming fight on EU budget reform | EurActiv
The Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament yesterday (13 July) warned against quarrelling over numbers and figures in the EU assembly's newly-formed committee on budget reform. 

 Presenting a paper to the press, Goran Färm, S&D spokesperson for budget policy, said the group had decided that the current political and economic context would make it difficult to increase the EU's own resources and address budget reform in the right manner.

"We need to prove that EU spending is good for all," Färm said, adding that a majority of citizens view negotiating the EU budget as a process imbued with political horse-trading and vested interests rather than one which addresses the needs of ordinary Europeans.

The economic crisis has prompted many member states to call for a more restrictive approach to the EU budget, despite having given the Union new competences with the Lisbon Treaty and new policy priorities with the Europe 2020 strategy.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:35:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Medvedev in Urals for talks with Merkel | Russia | RIA Novosti

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on Wednesday for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

A memorandum of understanding between the Skolkovo foundation, which supervises the eponymous innovation hub outside of Moscow, and Germany's Siemens AG is expected to be signed during the two-day talks.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:53:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
perhaps due to desire to put brave face after string of defeats at home.

What was unusual this time was Merkel's promise to eliminate visas between Russia and EU but stressed "it wouldn't happen overnight". Der Spiegel heavily criticized her apathy at dealing with Russia:

The Troubles of an Aging Marriage
In Russia, Merkel Will Find Old Spark Is Gone

Not so long ago, senior German politicians made frequent visits to Russia. But few in Chancellor Angela Merkel's government have made any effort to deepen German-Russian relations. Berlin is in danger of losing the political and economic initiative to other countries courting Moscow.

At this moment media reports little of the fate of proposed strategic security partnership between Moscow and Berlin which raised brows in the West. She however stressed "there was no prospect of this replacing the NATO western alliance" but how it was discussed in private? The main idea behind current Germans' "Drang Nach Osten" is crystal clear, Germany wants to export more to Russia and China. At least in Russia madam Bundeskanzlerin did not seem dissappointed.

by FarEasterner (avdavydov@yandex.ru) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 12:06:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The expressions on their faces by themselves are just a bit revealing.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer at eurotrib.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 11:01:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]
BBC News - French MPs vote to ban Islamic full veil in public

France's lower house of parliament has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would ban wearing the Islamic full veil in public.

There were 335 votes for the bill and only one against in the 557-seat National Assembly.

It must now be ratified by the Senate in September to become law.

The ban has strong public support but critics point out that only a tiny minority of French Muslims wear the full veil.

Many of the opposition Socialists, who originally wanted the ban limited only to public buildings, abstained from voting after coming under pressure from feminist supporters of the bill.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has backed the ban as part of a wider debate on French identity but critics say the government is pandering to far-right voters.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 01:00:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Tycoon plans €1m fund to fight French niqab ban | World news | guardian.co.uk

A French property tycoon enraged at his government's plans to ban women from wearing the full veil in public has promised a fund of €1m (£830,000) to help any Muslim who is fined for wearing the niqab in the street.

Rachid Nekkaz, a businessman of Algerian origin who launched a short-lived campaign in the 2007 presidential elections, has already put €200,000 into a bank account aimed at bailing out women who find themselves on the wrong side of the new law.

He insists that the ban, which was approved by the lower house of parliament on Tuesday and is set to be ratified by the senate in September, is "anti-constitutional" and a move that could put France on a slippery slope towards greater intolerance.

While he has no problem - like most of the French population - with an idea initially mooted by MPs of banning the full veil in state areas such as town halls and post offices, he is vehemently against a law that applies to women simply walking down the street.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 01:01:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Violence flares in Northern Ireland - Europe - Al Jazeera English

Shots have been fired at police in Northern Ireland during a third night of rioting in Irish-nationalist parts of Belfast.

Police said on Wednesday that a lone attacker armed with a handgun fired four to six shots overnight as riot police fought groups of masked protesters in Ardoyne, in the north of the city.

Demonstrators also hurled petrol bombs and a pipe bomb at police officers, who deployed water cannon in response.

Around 82 police officers have been injured during the three days of rioting, which began on Sunday night when three officers were hit with gun pellets.



never let desperation get in the way of judgement.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 01:12:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Anger at France Bastille Day parade - Europe - Al Jazeera English

France has staged its traditional Bastille Day parade amid criticism from human rights groups at the invitation of some African leaders.

Soldiers from 13 African nations marched through Paris on Wednesday to mark 50 years of independence from French colonial rule.

Protesters denounced France's ties to its former colonies in a demonstration on the eve of the parade, condemning some of the African leaders invited to the ceremony of committing atrocities.

"We are scandalised by the presence on the official stand, among the heads of state invited by [French president] Nicolas Sarkozy, of dictators who fire
on their own people," Odile Tobner of Survie, one of the groups leading the protest, said.



never let desperation get in the way of judgement.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 01:13:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]
New Governor for North Rhine-Westphalia: Blow for Merkel as Key State Elects Center-Left Government - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

In a further setback for Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right coalition, power in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, shifted to the center-left on Wednesday. The state assembly elected Social Democrat Hannelore Kraft as regional governor at the head of minority government.

The center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens took control of Germany's most populous state on Wednesday with the election of a minority government in North Rhine-Wesphalia that spells further trouble for Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The state -- Germany's most-populous, with some 18 million people -- had been ruled since 2005 by a center-right coalition of Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats and the pro-business Free Democrats headed by former Governor Jürgen Rüttgers, but it lost its majority in a regional election on May 9 and failed to build a workable coalition after weeks of negotiations with other parties.

Regional SPD leader Hannelore Kraft, a 49-year-old former business consultant, couldn't muster an absolute majority of her own either but decided to form a minority government with her preferred partner, the Greens. It took two rounds of voting in the state assembly on Wednesday but she won the required simple majority in the second round with 90 deputies voting for her, 80 against and 11 abstaining.

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 11:31:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I mean to put together a short diary unless dvx does.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
by DoDo on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 12:20:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The Road to a Professional Army: German Foreign Minister Supports Abandoning Conscription - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Several top German politicians have expressed their support in recent months for abandoning the country's decades-old system of conscription. Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle is the latest to support the shift.

Should Germany discard its conscription army? It is a question which was taboo for decades, particularly given the country's erstwhile position on the Cold War's front line. Even since the fall of communism, while the period of conscription has been repeatedly shortened, few have seriously considered converting the Bundeswehr into an exclusively professional army.

In recent months, however, an increasing number of leading politicians in Germany have begun considering a fundamental reform of the country's military -- including the abolishment of conscription. In an interview with the daily Hamburger Abendblatt, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, head of Merkel's coalition partner the pro-business Free Democrats, reiterated his support for eliminating the draft.

"I am convinced that we should turn the Bundeswehr into a professional army," Westerwelle said. "It would be the correct decision to end conscription as quickly as possible." He said he thinks it would be possible to end Germany's system of conscription before the next general elections, currently set for 2013.

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 11:33:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]
From the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung: Air conditioning in ICE  trains is only guaranteed to work at temperatures up to 32 degrees.
Der Präsident des Eisenbahnbundesamtes, Gerald Hörster, warnt in einem Schreiben vom 14. Juli, das dieser Zeitung vorliegt, den Vorstand der Bahn vor einer Verletzung seiner gesetzlichen ,,Sicherheitsverpflichtung". Wörtlich schreibt Hörster: ,,Die Vorfälle geben hinreichenden Anlass zu der Annahme, dass nicht gewährleistet werden konnte, dass die Risiken für die Fahrgäste auf ein verantwortbares und rechtlich zulässiges Maß beschränkt geblieben sind." Hörster rekapituliert in dem Brief Auskünfte des Bahnvorstands, die er auf eine Anfrage vom 12. Juli bekam. Danach sei ein Abkühlen bei höheren Temperaturen als 32 Grad nicht gewährleistet, und ,,durch unglückliche Umstände" habe überdies ,,die Luftzufuhr versagt".
by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 03:50:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Were they designed in Britain ?

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 09:50:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Yet another example of the idiotic cost-saving culture in effect at least since the Dürr times.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
by DoDo on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 12:47:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:00:17 PM EST
BBC News - Credit Suisse offices raided by tax officials

German prosecutors have raided 13 branches of the Swiss bank Credit Suisse in connection with an inquiry into tax fraud.

The prosecutor's office in Dusseldorf said on Wednesday that about 150 investigators took part in searches.

The search is focusing on allegations that bank staff assisted clients to evade taxes.

Tax officials bought a CD in February that reportedly contained information on about 1,100 wealthy Germans.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:14:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Germans Show No Way to Give Up on Euro Spurring Boom (Update2) - Bloomberg.com

July 14 (Bloomberg) -- For Germany, bailing out its neighbors to save the euro is proving a price worth paying.

Rising share prices and foreign sales at Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and Siemens AG show why it may be worth keeping the single currency even as some voters balk at the cost of rescuing Greece and demand a return to the deutsche mark. As exporters benefit from the lower labor costs and currency stability fostered by the euro's 1999 introduction, unemployment has dropped close to an 18-year low and the DAX Index is the 16- nation bloc's best performing major benchmark this year.

That's reinforcing Germany's status as a pillar of euro stability rather than a weak link as European policy makers scramble to stop the region lurching back into recession.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:25:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Railway Gazette: Barcelona metro network exceeds 100 km
SPAIN: Following the opening of a 0·6 km section of Line 2 from Pep Ventura to Badalona Pompeu Fabra on July 11, the Barcelona metro network now exceeds 100 km in length. The new station opened to the public at 15.00 after the official inauguration ceremony.

The network is now 100·2 km long with 137 stations. In total 15·6 km of tunnel and 14 stations have entered service in the last two years...


*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
by DoDo on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 02:59:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
have you ever seen a list of route kms / person?  barcelona must be pretty high up that list.  for comparison, melbourne has a population of 4.5M and about 1000km of rail, giving 22cm/person.  Barcelona has 100 + 20?(tram) / 1.5M = 7.5cm/person.

Of course coverage is also important.

by njh on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 07:40:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
have you ever seen a list of route kms / person?

No, but such comparisons can be very tricky: different networks have different extents within the respective agglomeration, and different types of transit have different typical density.

For your comparison, I note that for Barcelona (wider metropolitan area population: 4-5 million), you could add commuter rail (two operators: RENFE and FGC), with a network length around 900 km.

If we compare metros only, Barcelona is clearly exceeded by Madrid (network length almost three times for a metropolitan area of 5.2-6.1 million).

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 12:18:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Railway Gazette: Series E6 mini-Shinkansen trainset unveiled

JAPAN: The: prototype Series E6 mini-Shinkansen trainset for East Japan Railway's Akita route was unveiled to the public at Sendai depot on July 9...

...The maximum speed in commercial service will be 320 km/h between Tokyo and Morioka on the Tohoku Shinkansen, and 130 km/h between Morioka and Akita on the mini-Shinkansen section of upgraded conventional line.

The Series E6 features a nose around 13 m long to reduce noise and pressure pulses at tunnels...



*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
by DoDo on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 03:02:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Where have I seen that shape before?

I love the smell of roast chicken in the morning!
by THE Twank (yatta blah blah @ blah.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 07:04:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]
FT.com / Europe - Weak euro boosts eurozone industrial output

In spite of fiscal and monetary woes, eurozone industrial production continued to grow in May, helped by a weak euro and inventory restocking.

Industrial output rose 0.9 per cent in May, according to the European Union's statistical arm. Paired with strong data in March and April, the three-month moving average preferred by analysts stands at 1.2 per cent, the highest since data were first gathered in 1990.

But the headline figure once again masked stark divergences between the so-called "core" and "peripheral" economies of the eurozone. Whereas Germany grew 2.9 per cent over April, and France 1.9 per cent, Spain contracted by 0.3 per cent and Portugal 0.7 per cent.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 03:45:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Guest Post: Lies Divide, Truth Unites  
by Dylan Ratigan  Zero Hedge

There is at least Dylan Ratigan on MSNBC telling some hard truths about our economy and financial system. In Zero Hedge he cites a Barry Ritholtz article describing a Bloomberg poll:

Almost four out of five Americans surveyed in a Bloomberg National Poll this month say they have just a little or no confidence that the measure being championed by congressional Democrats will prevent or significantly soften a future crisis. More than three-quarters say they don't have much or any confidence the proposal will make their savings and financial assets more secure.

A plurality -- 47 percent -- says the bill will do more to protect the financial industry than consumers; 38 percent say consumers would benefit more.

"Banks and the government are making out, not the ordinary person," says Lenore Critzer, a 70-year-old retiree and poll participant who lives in Nelson, Ohio, about 40 miles from Cleveland. "We're going to have another crisis and worse."

While skeptical about the bill's benefits, Americans don't want a return to the days before the financial markets suffered their biggest turmoil since the Great Depression: A plurality of respondents says they have become more supportive in recent months of tougher regulations. By a three-to-one margin, Americans have grown more favorable to stronger regulation rather than less.

Ratigan goes on to describe what the bankers have accomplished as "corporate communism" and asserts that they will "use what I call the Big Tarp Lie to pander for the vote of Senator Scott Brown and others." He continues:

This lie must be beaten back by all of us like whack-a-mole every time it rears its ugly head.  Please help me by sending this information to any Politician, Media Figure, Banker, Neighbor or Robot that you find repeating it - they can take our money, but they don't own the truth.

Let's break it down:

  1.  TARP itself hasn't even made money.  AIG alone still owes us $75.6 billion.  However, they always add the caveat "Other than AIG..." when they say that the bailouts were "profitable".  But the AIG money was DIRECTLY PAID to many of these same banks that "paid back their TARP" at an outrageous 100 cents on the dollar!  Mind you, this was done by government officials that were the former employees and current shareholders of the very banks they were helping.  Let's make the banks like Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Societe Generale pay back the $105 billion of stolen taxpayer money before we let anyone say "TARP was paid back."

  2.   TARP is a tiny little part of a massive amount of taxpayer support.  TARP is actually less than 10% of your tax dollars that have been handed to the banks.  And now the banks "paid back" the tiny slice that is TARP with OUR money and you are supposed cheer them for savvy.  At this very moment, the taxpayer is still owed $2.02 Trillion dollars for the bailout by our Politicians and Banksters, and that number is growing every day.

Never mind the money that these same banks make getting endless 0% interest loans from the Federal Reserve (aka You) while either they lend it back to you at 14% or just lend it right to back the government and pocket the yield.  Never mind the multitude of benefits they get from being Too Big Too Fail.  But you're not supposed to pay attention to that; you're only supposed to notice how fast they paid back TARP!


As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer at eurotrib.com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 08:41:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Responsable ICO dice que se desechó creación banca pública por falta tiempo - ABC.es - Noticias AgenciasA cadre from [Spain's state credit agency] ICO says the creation of a public bank was discarded for lack of time - ABC.es, agency news
La directora general de Planificación y Relaciones Externas del Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), Olga García, ha señalado hoy que el Gobierno barajó la posibilidad al inicio de la crisis de crear una banca pública, aunque desechó la idea porque habría llevado varias años y "no había tiempo".The director general for Planning and External Relations at [Spain's] Institute for Official Credit (ICO), Olga García, indicated today that the Government considered the possibility of creating a public bank at the start of the crisis, though it discarded the idea because it would have taken several years and "there was no time".

ICO is the agency through which the government lends directly, mostly to businesses.

García hizo estas declaraciones tras reunirse, junto al delegado del Gobierno en Murcia, Rafael González Tovar, con empresarios murcianos en la Cámara de Comercio de esta ciudad para explicarles las diferentes líneas de inversión que se ofertan desde el ICO.García made these statements after meeting, alongside the Government's delegate in Murcia, Rafael González Tovar, with Murcian businessmen at the city's Chamber of Commerce to explain the various investment lines offered by ICO

ICO loans are originated by commercial banks and cajas, as service providers.

La directora general de Planificación y Relaciones Externas del Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) ha señalado que la petición de una banca pública se ha hecho desde varios sectores y por parte de reputados expertos desde el inicio de la crisis, entre ellos el premio Nobel de Economía Joseph Stiglitz, quien abogó ayer por este tipo de instituciones ante la negativa de los bancos privados a prestar dinero.The director general ... indicated that the request for a public bank has been made from various quarters and by reputed experts since the start of the crisis, such as the Nobel [memorial] prize in Economics winner Joseph Stiglitz, who advocated yesterday for these kinds of institutions given the banks' reluctance to lend.

Given that many OECD countries including Spain have bailed out or put into receivership banks over the past 3 years, those could have been nationalised (General Motors was nationalised, but not the failing banks!). This would have reduced the time needed to set up a "public bank" from years to months.

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 04:18:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Reuters: Former CEO of German bank IKB fined, avoids jail

Stefan Ortseifen, the former chief executive of German bank IKB (IKBG.DE), was convicted of market manipulation on Wednesday but avoided going to jail in one of the few criminal cases to be prosecuted in the aftermath of the global banking crisis.

IKB, one of the highest-profile casualties of the collapse in the U.S. subprime mortgage market, required billions of euros in bailout money and is involved in a current case in the United States brought against Goldman Sachs (GS.N) over a complicated subprime-related financial product which it sold to IKB in 2007.

Ortseifen was fined 100,000 euros ($127,100) and received a 10-month suspended jail sentence for market manipulation, with the court ruling that investors were misled about the parlous state of IKB's finances two years ago. At the time Ortseifen was earning around 1.6 million euros a year, according to IKB's annual report for 2006/07.



By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 10:39:03 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I was wondering why the "suspended" jail sentence, and then I found this:

FT.com / Companies / Banks - Ex-IKB chief guilty of market manipulation

Ortseifen, who left IKB at the time of the crisis, faces the 10-month suspended sentence that prosecutors asked for and must pay a €100,000 ($127,000) fine.
With prosecutors like these, who needs defence attorneys?

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 10:42:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The crime of the prosecutors was not even the setting of the level of punishment, but to drop the accusation of embezzlement (which would have led to a prison term), and only bring him to court over a misinformation of stockholders prior to the crash. FTD speculates that the prosecutors wanted quick success, because the dropped embezzlement accusation would have required them to dwell deeper into the arcane details of the financial instruments... FTD closes with the hope that other prosecutors could pick up the case of embezzlement.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
by DoDo on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 12:59:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]
FT.com / Companies / Banks - Ackermann to testify in German case

The SEC alleged last week that Goldman sold a synthetic collateralised debt obligation to IKB without revealing that the portfolio behind the CDO had been partly selected by a hedge fund investor betting against the instrument.

Other banks including Deutsche sold structured credits to an off-balance sheet conduit that was supported by liquidity from IKB. Deutsche has not been accused of wrongdoing.

The allegations against Goldman have added a twist to the trial of Mr Ortseifen, former IKB chief executive, which began in March and is the first trial of a leading banker in Germany stemming from the financial crisis.



By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 10:44:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:01:14 PM EST
BBC News - US soldiers die in Afghanistan as Nato toll soars

Five more US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, sending Nato's death toll to 11 in 24 hours.

Four soldiers belonging to the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) were killed by a bomb in southern Afghanistan, Nato said.

Another US soldier died in a separate attack also in the south of the country.

It comes a day after three US soldiers and five Afghan civilians died in a suicide attack in Kandahar province.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:07:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]
BBC News - Row over African leaders at French parade

France has staged its annual Bastille Day parade, amid criticism at the presence of some African leaders.

Armies from former colonies celebrating 50 years of independence were invited to join the military parade.

A human rights group has said that some of the troops and leaders should instead be facing trial for war crimes.

Critics also said the move gave the false impression that France granted them independence, when many fought against French rule.

...

Heads of state and troops from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Chad and Togo watched from the official stand.

...

A Gabonese activist, Marc Ona, compared African leaders at the parade to "colonial governors who find themselves together with chief colonialist Nicolas Sarkozy to celebrate keeping Africa in international penury".

However, Mr Sarkozy has strenuously denied being guilty of "colonial nostalgia", and said the African troops who attended the parade were a testament to the "strength of the ties" that united France and its former colonies.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:14:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Call in Le Professionel!



*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 04:09:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Kenya hands over al Shabab suspect to Ugandan police

KAMPALA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Kenya has handed over a suspected member of Somalia's hard-lined faction al Shabab to Uganda after three bomb blasts killed 73 people in the Ugandan capital of Kampala, Ugandan official said here on Wednesday.

Fred Opolot, Ugandan government spokesman, said the suspect named Ali Isa Ssenkumba was arrested by Kenyan police in Nairobi last week and handed over to Uganda on Tuesday.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:56:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Israelis inciting anti-Israel boycotts could soon be forced to pay dearly - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
The Knesset approved on Wednesday an initial reading of a bill calling for heavy fines to be imposed on Israeli citizens who initiate or incite boycotts against Israel. If approved into law, the fines would apply to anyone boycotting Israeli individuals, companies, factories, and organizations.

"In the U.S. there is are laws aimed at preventing Americans from boycotting U.S. allies, including Israel. It appears that in light of the reality in Israel, we need a similar law that applies to Israeli citizens," said the bill's sponsors - coalition chairman Zeev Elkin (Likud), MK Arieh Eldad (National Union) and MK Dalia Itzik (Kadima).

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 03:40:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]
In the U.S. there is are laws aimed at preventing Americans from boycotting U.S. allies

So much for Freedom Fries and all the rest of the anti-French protests. Is there any basis at all for this claim?

by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 04:19:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Any basis? Why, yes!

results = search(boycott)

There's always...

TITLE 10 > Subtitle A > PART IV > CHAPTER 141 > § 2410i
§ 2410i. Prohibition on contracting with entities that comply with the secondary Arab boycott of Israel

(a) Policy.-- Under section 3(5)(A) of the Export Administration Act of 1979 (50 App. U.S.C. 2402 (5)(A)), it is the policy of the United States to oppose restrictive trade practices or boycotts fostered or imposed by foreign countries against other countries friendly to the United States or against any other United States person....

or

TITLE 26 > Subtitle A > CHAPTER 1 > Subchapter N > PART III > Subpart A > § 908

§ 908. Reduction of credit for participation in or cooperation with an international boycott

(a) In general
If a person, or a member of a controlled group (within the meaning of section 993 (a)(3)) which includes such person, participates in or cooperates with an international boycott during the taxable year (within the meaning of section 999 (b)), the amount of the credit allowable under section 901 to such person, or under section 902 or 960 to United States shareholders of such person, for foreign taxes paid during the taxable year shall be reduced by an amount equal to the product of--
...

or

TITLE 50, APPENDIX App. > EXPORT > § 2407

§ 2407. Foreign boycotts

(a) Prohibitions and exceptions
(1) For the purpose of implementing the policies set forth in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (5) of section 3 of this Act [section 2402 (5)(A) or (B) of this Appendix], the President shall issue regulations prohibiting any United States person, with respect to his activities in the interstate or foreign commerce of the United States, from taking or knowingly agreeing to take any of the following actions with intent to comply with, further, or support any boycott fostered or imposed by a foreign country against a country which is friendly to the United States and which is not itself the object of any form of boycott pursuant to United States law or regulation:

(A) Refusing, or requiring any other person to refuse, to do business with or in the boycotted country, with any business concern organized under the laws of the boycotted country, with any national or resident of the boycotted country, or with any other person, pursuant to an agreement with, a requirement of, or a request from or on behalf of the boycotting country. The mere absence of a business relationship with or in the boycotted country with any business concern organized under the laws of the boycotted country, with any national or resident of the boycotted country, or with any other person, does not indicate the existence of the intent required to establish a violation of regulations issued to carry out this subparagraph....

etc etc

für ejemplo

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 01:08:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The first and last refer to boycotts organized by a foreign country, not ones organized by non-government groups such as BDS.
by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 01:21:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]
True and, however, taken together with other prohibitions may satisfy the atty's commission to implicate an individual or class of US citizen in acts alleged criminal by you-know-who.

The question was "any basis."

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 01:30:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Attorney General Jerry Brown fights for PACE energy efficiency program  LA Times

A week after federal regulators blocked financing programs for home energy efficiency retrofits around the country, California officials are using different tactics to try to change their minds. Some, like state utility officials, have sent pleading letters. But California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said Wednesday that he is taking the government straight to court.

Brown is initiating "major action" against the Federal Housing Finance Agency to restart the stalled Property Assessed Clean Energy programs, known as PACE. The programs encouraged homeowners to use bond-backed property tax assessments to install solar panels and make insulation improvements. The funds are paid back over a decade or more through a senior lien attached to the property, which takes precedence over an existing mortgage in the case of a foreclosure.

But on July 6, the Federal Housing Finance Agency issued a statement saying that PACE loans presented "unusual and difficult risk management challenges" for lenders, servicers and mortgage securities investors in a "fragile housing finance market."

The decision, which effectively suspended all PACE programs nationwide, agreed with concerns voiced by federally controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in May. The federal agency directed the lenders to avoid the programs.

Calling the move a "regulatory strangulation of the state's grass-roots program," Brown is suing the agency and the lenders to allow PACE programs to proceed. In the complaint, to be filed in U.S. District Court in Oakland, Brown says that the programs were mischaracterized as "loans" instead of "assessments" and improperly portrayed as violating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's standard lending procedures.


AS IF a PACE assessment would be close to the biggest problem with any loan on Fanny and Freddie's books!

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer at eurotrib.com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 05:46:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Jamaica:
Christopher `Dudus' Coke, alleged drug lord and leader of Jamaican gang, the Shower Posse, was arrested on 22 June. Coke's arrest, writes Horace Campbell, opens up the possibility to `reveal the full extent of the corruption of the politics of Jamaica and the Caribbean by their rulers in collaboration with the intelligence, commercial and banking infrastructures of the United States'.

More here.

Honduras:

Several leading Honduran businessmen have suggested that Honduras place an economic embargo on Nicaragua to protest the country's unwillingness to recognize the Lobo government. In a role reversal, Honduras may now place some economic pressure on the Ortega government to make it change its policies. (La Tribuna, El Nuevo Diario)

Well, with so much focus on the release of Cuban political prisoners, the US release of a Puerto Rican nationalist, scheduled to arrive here tomorrow, has flown beneath the radar:

Carlos Alberto Torres (born September 19, 1952) is a Puerto Rican nationalist who was convicted and sentenced to 78 years in prison for seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States. Torres was linked to the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN), which claimed responsibility for numerous bombings.[1]  He was not included in the 1999 Clinton clemency offer  to others FALN members.[2] (...) Several human rights organization including the American Association of Jurists has called for the release of Alberto Torres.[5]  ...Carlos was granted parole in May 2010. His release date is in July 2010.

Colombia:

On July 13, 2000 - 10 years ago yesterday - President Bill Clinton signed into law a special $1.3 billion appropriation of mostly military aid to Colombia. Known as "Plan Colombia," it became the framework for U.S. assistance to the hemisphere's largest aid recipient for the following decade.  The Washington Office on Latin America commemorates this anniversary with a new online publication, "Don't Call it a Model," a copy of which is hosted here at the Just the Facts website.


"Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne
by maracatu on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 06:19:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Errata - Carlos Alberto Torres is due to arrive on 27 July.

"Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne
by maracatu on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 06:37:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Oops,...forgot this one:
Costa Rica: In a controversial decision that is likely to fan the flames of regional tensions in Latin America, Costa Rica recently granted the US permission to move 7,000 troops and 46 warships (along with their accompanying planes and helicopters) into Costa Rican waters. Officially, the act is considered to be part of the "Drug War," which appears to be increasingly more war-like in nature due to such actions and mounting violence in Mexico and Colombia. Costa Rica's neighbors, however, see the massive military presence as a potential base for regional strikes.


"Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne
by maracatu on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 09:00:58 AM EST
[ Parent ]
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:01:53 PM EST
BBC News - Rare mushroom blamed for mystery deaths in China

A tiny mushroom, little known to scientists, is behind some 400 sudden deaths in China, experts say.

For 30 years, during the rainy season, scores of villagers in Yunnan province have died suddenly of cardiac arrest.

Following a five-year investigation, researchers from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Beijing say they have the culprit.

The mushroom, know as Little White, belongs to the Trogia genus and has three toxic amino acids, experts say.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:16:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]
EUROPE: 'No' to GM Could Conceal a 'Yes' - IPS ipsnews.net
BRUSSELS, Jul 14, 2010 (IPS) - Genetically modified (GM) foods will be introduced more quickly in Europe as a result of a new proposal, some Brussels officials fear.

Over the past 12 years, the European Union has effectively observed a moratorium on the cultivation of new GM crops because of widespread opposition to biotechnology among both the public and some of the EU's governments.

In a paper published Jul. 13, the Union's executive, the European Commission, superficially recognised that governments have the right to keep the territories they administer GM-free. But privately officials say that the aim of the initiative is to speed up the approval process for GM foods.

John Dalli, the EU's commissioner for food safety, said that the proposal would not allow individual governments to ban GM foods on health or environmental grounds as central EU bodies are tasked with assessing any risk that such crops may pose. But the governments would be allowed to cite moral or ethical considerations when imposing unilateral bans.

Lawyers advising the organisation Friends of the Earth have found that such grounds would be legally intangible and could easily be challenged by biotechnology companies in courts.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:27:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
EU GMO proposals draw widespread criticism | EurActiv
EU member states will be able to ban GMO cultivation on their territory under new proposals tabled yesterday (13 July), but will need the EU institutions' approval to act if their decision is not based on scientific evidence.

...

The proposals have sparked a wave of criticism, with biotech firms fearing that the measures could jeopardise the internal market and undermine farmers' choice of technology, as well as give rise to legal disputes between farmers, crop companies and national authorities.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:50:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]
GM, the field is open | Presseurop - English

In a bid to overcome deadlock on the issue of genetically modified organisms (GMO), the European Commission has proposed that member states rule on their cultivation on their national territories. However the European press remains convinced that Brussels is still planning to push for the introduction of a wide range of new products.

"Truce to end battle over GMO in Europe," announces the Vanguardia headline. On 13 July, the European Commission proposed to confer to member states the right to allow, restrict or ban the cultivation of GMO on all or part of their territories. The Barcelona daily notes that "the new proposals, will allow member states to impose GMO bans for agricultural and scientific reasons -- a practice that has often been criticised in Brussels -- and also pave the way for bans citing ethical and social concerns." La Vanguardia adds that the  European Commission is hoping that "member states whose long-standing opposition has prevented the introduction of GMO will now allow genetically modified crops to be grown in Europe." Spain, which produces 80% of Europe's Monsato corn, "is in favour of a common set of regulations for the EU," while countries like the Netherlands, which is one of the leaders in the field, "want agreement on a solution to put an end to the current deadlock." The daily emphasises that "the current system of authorisation [by an experts' committee of experts appointed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)] will not change, nor will the rules on the coexistence of GMO with other crops" -- a point that was "one of the environmentalists' hobby horses and a controversial issue in border regions."

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 11:34:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]
GM, the field is open | Presseurop - English
Die Presse: "In Europe, agriculture has long been an industry, and organic farming cannot produce enough food for everyone. That is why it is so worrying to see the Commission hand over responsibility for decisions to member states. Instead of attempting to engage the public in enlightened debate about genetic engineering, the politicians [...] have been swayed by crude lobbying and alarmist speeches -- and short-term advantage has taken precedence over good politics."

Perhaps the enlightened Die Presse can explain to us how GM crops are going to produce more food (they don't, yields are lower than conventional cultivars), what precise need GM crops address (beyond those of the seedsmen/chemists), and who exactly is "everyone" anyway. Are we still talking about "feeding the world" with subsidised staples that destroy local agriculture in importing countries?

But not to worry, Die Presse. What the Commission is trying to do is open the back door to GM crops. The horrible anti-scientists will lose in the end and progress will resume its triumphant march towards a brighter tomorrow.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 02:08:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Google climate map offers a glimpse of a 4C world | Adam Vaughan | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Think it's hot this summer? Wait until you see Google's simulation of a world with an average global temperature rise of 4C.

Using a map that was first launched by the former Labour administration in October 2009, the coalition government has taken temperature data from the Met Office Hadley Centre and other climate research centres and imposed it on to a Google Earth layer.

It's a timely arrival, with warnings this month that current international carbon pledges will lead to a rise of nearly 4C and the Muir Russell report censuring some climate scientists for not being more open with their data (but exonerating them of manipulating the scientific evidence).



never let desperation get in the way of judgement.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 01:09:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Toyota tests show 'driver error' - Business - Al Jazeera English

Tests of Toyota vehicles by the US transportation department have revealed that many accidents blamed on sudden acceleration were actually caused by drivers mistakenly pressing the accelerator instead of the brake.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that "dozens" of data recorders were tested as part of a broad federal investigation into Toyota's recalls, placing blame on driver error rather than vehicle malfunction.

"The early results suggest that some drivers who said their Toyotas and Lexuses surged out of control were mistakenly flooring the accelerator when they intended to jam on the brakes," the report said.



never let desperation get in the way of judgement.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 01:23:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Very bad reporting. No data. Some of this and some of that. Kinda like something else, but different study shows, sometimes. Maybe.

Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.

Frank Delaney ~ Ireland

by siegestate (siegestate or beyondwarispeace.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 08:16:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]
How Many Oil-Spill Victims Is BP Cutting Compensation To? | Mother Jones

On Saturday, the head of Louisiana's Department of Children and Family Services sent a letter to Ken Feinberg, the federal government's oil-spill compensation czar, informing him that BP has slashed its payments to 40,000 Gulf Coast residents who have taken an economic hit from the disaster. This morning, BP issued a statement saying that news reports citing the 40,000 figure were inaccurate; the actual number, it said, was 4,000. 

Those news reports got their stats right out of the DCFS letter to Feinberg. So where did DCFS get the 40,000 figure? From BP. "It was in a face-to-face meeting," Trey Williams, DCFS's communications director, told me after I read him BP's statement. (BP sent it to me after repeated requests for comment; Williams hadn't yet heard from the company.) When I pointed out that it seemed that BP was implying the DCFS people present at that meeting had misheard, he thought that was pretty funny, in a sad and frustrating way.

BP spokesman John Curry says he doesn't know whether the company originally gave DCFS a bad estimate or if DCFS just misunderstood. Either way, he says, "We've taken a look, and it's only about 4,000 that will be affected." The company says it is only cutting off claimants who haven't turned in required paperwork.



never let desperation get in the way of judgement.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 02:57:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
PARAGUAY: Women Manage Dairy for Self-Sufficiency - IPS ipsnews.net
ASUNCIÓN, Jul 14, 2010 (IPS) - A year ago, Ramona Pereira was stuck with humdrum domestic drudgery in a rural village in Paraguay. Now she is the leader of a committee of women dairy producers in her community, and at 38 she feels like a new woman.

"This is where I work," Pereira told IPS with a mixture of pride and shyness, as she opened the door to the small dairy in Aveiro, a village 40 kilometres southeast of the capital city, near the town of Itá.

The "tambo", the term used in the southern cone of South America for a small dairy farm which sells unpackaged milk directly, is run by a partnership of a dozen women working in three shifts.

These women mow and chop hay and mix it with a supplement to provide balanced nutrition for the cows. They milk the cows twice a day, feed them and keep the community "tambo" spic and span, as well as selling the surplus milk that their families do not consume to neighbouring villagers.

Every day they strive to strengthen their committee, named "Jaikove Porlâ Rekávo" ("Aiming for Wellbeing") in Guaraní, which is spoken by 94 percent of Paraguayans and is an official language, alongside Spanish. The committee was created in August 2009 by 30 women from Aveiro, ultimately reduced to 12 partners, all of whom have children.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 03:30:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Tonnes of fat dug out from London's sewers | The Observers

Next time you're tempted to pour leftover cooking oil down the sink, think again. A team of British sewer flushers is up against what they describe as "solid wall of fat" under London's Leicester square, the result of years of careless flushing by the city's inhabitants.

Thames Water, the company responsible for London sewers, estimates that over 1,000 tonnes of fat and waste are being removed from under Leicester Square, "enough to fill nine London Double Decker buses". According to the company, the build-up, which they nickname "fatbergs",  is the result of accumulated "sewer abuse": when anything other than water, human waste or toilet paper is put down drains. The company has launched a new campaign, "Bin it, don't Block it", to highlight the scale of the problem.

If you've ever had cooking fat solidify in your kitchen sink, you'll know how hard the stuff is to get rid of. Imagine the muck multiplied by several thousands, and you'll get an idea of how colossal - and stomach-turning - the cleanup mission is. 

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 03:37:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]
enough biodiesel raw material to run all london's double-deckers for a year probably.

have tony haywood personally supervise the dig.

what a waste...

" Nothing can bring you peace but yourself." R.W.Emerson

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 04:51:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]
have tony haywood personally supervise the dig

Do you really want to risk having everything within a 1km radius covered with a millimeter of fat from the sewer?

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer at eurotrib.com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 05:16:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Retirement grease eh?
by njh on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 08:02:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]
FT.com / Europe - Ministers toughen stance on emissions

Europe's targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions should be drastically toughened, three of the European Union's most powerful member states say today in a surprise development that will leave businesses fuming.

Ministers from Germany, France and the UK come together for the first time in the Financial Times to call for the EU to slash emissions by 30 per cent by 2020, instead of the current 20 per cent target.

They say moving to the higher target unilaterally would not be difficult and would prevent Europe from lagging behind in the global race for green technology.

"If we stick to a 20 per cent cut, Europe is likely to lose the race to compete in a low-carbon world to countries such as China, Japan or the US, all of which are looking to create a more attractive environment for low-carbon investment," the ministers said.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 03:42:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
All work to plug BP's spill halted in Gulf  MCClatchey

WASHINGTON -- At the government's insistence, BP postponed crucial testing last night on its most recent effort to cap the well that's been gushing oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico for nearly three months.

....

Although the decision was not specifically prompted by information they've gleaned from a seismic survey in recent days, the results of that survey will be used as they review their options and determine whether to move forward.

The team working on the well doesn't know what condition it's in, BP's senior vice president, Kent Wells, said this morning in a technical briefing. If there's a weakness in the underground pipe, "the integrity loss could be in numerous different places," Wells said, and they'd have little way of knowing exactly where pressure was being relieved.

If the problems are far below the ocean floor, that's less of problem than if there's pressure higher up in the well, more toward the ocean floor. Their fear is that if it is higher up in the well, Wells said, it could put pressure in a place that allows oil to breach the pipe and leak oil to the surface.

....

Rep. Ed Markey, who heads the Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, sent a letter to Allen calling for BP to release information about the integrity of the wellbore and potential sea floor leaks "in light of the delayed attempt to conduct pressure tests on the new containment cap system."




As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer at eurotrib.com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 05:23:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]
BP has the go ahead to resume capping operations  HuPo

After meeting with government officials and assuring them of the safety of the next steps of the oil leak cap, BP has the go ahead to resume capping operations.

See tweet announcements below from @BP_america:

   * Early this afternoon, I briefed President & Cabinet & we will tell BP to proceed w/ well integrity test. -Adm Allen
    * We will start to increase pressure in capping stack in 6 hr intervals to review pressure data as well as sonar & acoustic data. -Adm Allen
    * Well integrity test will run for 48 hrs. Then, we stand down, assess where we are at & what to do next. -Adm Allen
    * We are building out an enhanced containment strategy in case the tests do not go well & we have to continue containment. -Adm Allen

No word on the status of the relief well drilling which was also halted today.



As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer at eurotrib.com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 06:11:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
BP's latest effort diagrammed.  NYT

Since a fire engulfed the Deepwater horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, engineers have attempted a number of techniques to slow or stop the torrent of oil leaking from the wellhead 5,000 feet below the surface.
July 14Testing to See if the Well Is Intact

With the new sealing cap in place, engineers will test the well's pressure to determine its integrity.



At the very least BP excels at the production of detailed illustrations. Similar illustrations for all previous efforts follow the one above at the title link.


As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer at eurotrib.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 10:20:58 AM EST
[ Parent ]
ARGeezer:
engineers will test the well's pressure to determine its integrity
three months after blowout?

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 10:26:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Maybe they've done it earlier, and are rechecking to see if there are any changes lately.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 06:04:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I suspect that the original BOP stack was compromised to the extent they could never be confident of any seal it could provide. They probably got low readings and couldn't tell whether they were due to a poor seal inside the BOP or to leaks down the well. Now that they have another cap on top of the old BOP and have some confidence in the seal it will provide they can test the well and know, if low pressure is found, that it is due to the well and not the BOP + triple ram cap.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer at eurotrib.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 10:33:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Sniffing out the oil

Pascagoula, Miss. -- Robert Downs leads the scientists who sniff at fish.

Each day, his team of seven sensory experts dip their noses into large Pyrex bowls of snapper, tuna and other raw seafood to test for even a whiff of the pungent oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

....

"We use specific terms for the aroma," said Downs, who supervises the seafood smellers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's marine lab here. "Diesel oil. Bunker oil. Asphalt. Rubber-band-like. Tar."

Each olfactory analyst has a super schnoz, able to smell oil diluted to one part per million. That's 40 times more sensitive than your average proboscis.

It's also more sensitive than science can explain. Last month, the team caught a faint scent in a red snapper that chemists and toxicologists could not confirm despite three days of testing at an NOAA marine science lab in Seattle. The result: A rich fishing area off Louisiana's coast stayed off-limits.

"The nose knows," Downs said.




As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer at eurotrib.com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 05:37:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:02:16 PM EST
BBC News - Big hips 'impair' women's memory, a study finds

A woman's body shape may influence how good her memory is, according to US researchers.

Although carrying excess weight anywhere appears to impair older women's brains, carrying it on the hips may make matters worse, they say.

The Northwestern Medicine team found "apple-shaped" women fared better than "pears" on cognitive tests.

But depositing fat around the waist increases the risk of cancer, diabetes and heart disease, experts warn.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:06:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]
re: undocumented fMRI and...

Seeing a celebrity endorse a pair of shoes alters a woman's brain activity - even if she does not drop everything to get her feet into the latest Jimmy Choos, a study suggests.

A Dutch team scanned the brains of 24 women as they looked at pictures of celebrities and attractive non-famous contemporaries sporting certain shoes.

Read more...

... the oddly titled Journal of Economic Psychology...

whoa....

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 10:03:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Cat:
Seeing a celebrity endorse a pair of shoes alters a woman's brain activity
I'm not a woman but I think seeing Sarah Jessica Parker blathering about a pair of manolos changes my brain activity. Should I worry?

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 04:57:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Looks to me like a sensational title to call attention to an otherwise routine paper. Here is the actual abstract.
Celebrity endorsement is omnipresent. However, despite its prevalence, it is unclear why celebrities are more persuasive than (equally attractive) non-famous endorsers. The present study investigates which processes underlie the effect of fame on product memory and purchase intention by the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging methods. We find an increase in activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) underlying the processing of celebrity-product pairings. This finding suggests that the effectiveness of celebrities stems from a transfer of positive affect from celebrity to product. Additional neuroimaging results indicate that this positive affect is elicited by the spontaneous retrieval of explicit memories associated with the celebrity endorser. Also, we demonstrate that neither the activation of implicit memories of earlier exposures nor an increase in attentional processing is essential for a celebrity advertisement to be effective. By explaining the neural mechanism of fame, our results illustrate how neuroscience may contribute to a better understanding of consumer behavior.
More interesting, in the same journal. is an article called "Individual, cognitive and cultural differences in tax compliance: UK and Italy compared":
Five hundred and five Italian psychology and economics students took part in a tax compliance study testing the influence of detection rates (within subjects) and the between subjects variables of framing effects, instructions to behave instrumentally or not, degree choice and gender. The sample was an improvement on a previous study conducted in the UK where the effects of gender and degree choice were entangled. The results from the Italian sample showed highly significant effects for detection rates, framing effects, gender and degree choice. Participants declared more as detection rates rose and when tax was framed as a gain. Males and economists declared the least. The instruction to maximise income (instrumentality) encouraged psychologists to declare less, while economists behaved instrumentally whether they were asked to or not. The influence of culture was examined by comparing the two data sets. Although the tax systems of these two countries are very similar, tax evasion is much more common in Italy. As anticipated Italian students declared less than UK students and the results for the Italian sample were more pronounced (e.g. the significant framing effect) but otherwise all are in the same direction. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed as the prospects for future empirical studies.
by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 05:12:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The celebrity effect is interesting, but this doesn't explain why the effect exists.

Additional neuroimaging results indicate that this positive affect is elicited by the spontaneous retrieval of explicit memories associated with the celebrity endorser.

What does that mean, exactly?

And it's not just women, obviously - see also Tiger Woods, product placement in movies, and many, many more.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 05:27:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Must have something to do with emulation of high-status individuals by primates...

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 05:58:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]
ThatBritGuy:
What does that mean, exactly?

it means that fame is rescue from the dread hell of anonymity, that we are all nobodies until we attain the rare level of somebodies, that from the stagnant pool of mediocrity some climb out of the slime and grime of unfame and....sparkle with individuality, autonomy, untold disposable income and other such exemplary qualities.

the more you train your consciousness to meditate upon such fundamentals, the more faery dust sprinkles on you, and magically alchemises your dreary being into something less direly nonentical.

iconolatry 101.

" Nothing can bring you peace but yourself." R.W.Emerson

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 06:05:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]
In a very real way, you and Migeru said the same thing.

If you never fail, you're not trying hard enough.
by ATinNM on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 10:43:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The mental phenomenon that the researchers attempt to expose (literally, with fMRI) is known in the ad biz as borrowed interest. That is a tendency among subjects to vest sympathy for or the desirable characteristics of one known object in another, typically unknown, when an agent manages to construct a path of association between a sign and a symbol by progressive identification with intimacy to proximity to equivalence. Ms Parker may as well be a puppy or baby, kitteh or tropical sunset related to the new model shoe; it is not clear to me that design of the experiment accommodated such contingencies of preference among the subjects or controls for age, e.g. IQ or hip diameter, among response. It seems unlikely given the sample size. Among certain academics of the pecuniary persuasion borrowed interest is known as goodwill so that the propensity demonstrated by individuals to transfer an indeterminate value (judgement) from one object to another may be accounted for in terms of cash equivalence of premium ("interest") added to book value. You may or may not located innerboobs references associating these terms in any meaningful way or at all.

In The Fall of Public Man Richard Sennett discusses historical events describing the audience problem arising during the earliest decades of the industrial revolution, the transition from mores dictated by an ancien regime to those of suitable to negotiating business among strangers. His thesis investigates the dissolution of contents of Romanticism, in which the concept theatrum mundi dominated the literature of Enlightened aristocrats and their clients concerning urban planning, or civil engineering. The instrumentality of "belief" is of course a touchstone of the discussion and examples of charisma and celebrity.

The entrance of personlaity into the public realm in the 19th Century prepared the ground for this intimate society. It did so by inducing people to believe that interchanges in society were disclosures of personality. lt did so by framing the perception of personality in such a way that the contents of personality never crystallized, thus engaging men in an obsessive and endless search for clues as to what others, and themselves, were "really" like. Over the course of the hundred years, social bonds and social engagement have receded in the face of inquiry about "what am I feeling?" Indeed, the tasks of developing personality have come to appear antithetical to the tasks of social action.

The differences between the last century and our own lie in the fact that the last century believed that certain tasks of personality, above all the arousal of spontaneous feeling, occurred only in an impersonal milieu, even if this arousal did not occur through a process of active social participation. Maintenance of a belief in the public realm was linked to a strong desire to escape the family and its rigors. We may today condemn this escape into impersonality, because men were given much more freedom to do it than women, but as the public itself has been erased from our minds and our behavior, the family has become steadily more demanding. It is our only model for defining what emotionally "real" relationships are like. Except for those of us who are very rich, we know no cosmopolitan alternatives. The voyeuristic escape from the family available in the last century should not, therefore, be totally dismissed: at least some people got to escape.

Intimate society is organized around two principles, one which I have defined as narcissism, the other which I shall define in the course of this chapter as destructive gemeinshaft. This social-science barbarism has, unfortunately, a useful but non-translatable meaning. The entrance of personality into the public life of the last century paved the way for each one....

Lamartine at work was like De Gaulle at work in the Fifth Republic or, in a bastardized form, Richard Nixon at work defending himself against charges of corruption. If the leader can focus attention on this capacity to feel in public, he can delegitimize the demands of those who press in upon him. But the parallel is inexact in one way. In this 19th Century revolutionary upheaval, the leader succeeded in imposing what were middle-class standards of propriety --that is, silence in the face of art-- on a working-class audience, outside the theater and at a moment when the working classes were thoroughly aroused. The modern politicians worked the same suppression on an audience diverse in its class structure. Moreover, no longer is flowery rhetoric itself the fashion; but it is the use, the function, of this rhetoric which connects past and present. What we are seeing in Lamartine during these early fierce days is the power of the culture of personality over class interest. Marx made an appalling error ....  [1977: 219-230]



Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 10:06:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Cat:
Among certain academics of the pecuniary persuasion borrowed interest is known as goodwill so that the propensity demonstrated by individuals to transfer an indeterminate value (judgement) from one object to another may be accounted for in terms of cash equivalence of premium ("interest") added to book value.
This is very good... Couple it with Veblen's observation that the entire market capitalization of firms tends to be made up of goodwill and you get an explanation of Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Warren Buffett...

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 10:25:24 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Cat:
Except for those of us who are very rich, we know no cosmopolitan alternatives.

Written before the tubes. But that's an interesting quote overall.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Fri Jul 16th, 2010 at 02:09:13 AM EST
[ Parent ]
gk:
economists behaved instrumentally whether they were asked to or not
The influence of culture indeed...

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 05:59:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Theoretical and practical implications are discussed

I looked up the paper itself. The most obvious practical implication is not mentioned: audit economists' tax returns.

by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 06:16:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]
It's been said - to the point of nausea - a primate's frontal cortex can be predicted by knowing the size of its band or troop, thus point of the frontal cortex is "social" rather than "cognitive" -- although these are, operationally, intertwined.  

The orbitalfrontal cortex is an 'intermediary' between the frontal cortex (cognition) and the limbic system (emotion.)  So much so of the latter some claim it to be part of the limbic system.  Also one finds a wide variety of individual variation(s) within a target species.

I've said - to the point of nausea - one aspect of decision making is the weighing of and between the various factors and inputs.  Associating emotions is a big smacking weight attached to a factor or input.  The stronger the emotion to a single input or the more widespread the emotions are across the range of inputs the more likely the cognitive processing will decide 'in favor of' that/those.  

I'm not much of a fan of Just So stories.  The evolutionary trajectory and practice of social interaction of humans is unknown - I've never heard of a grooming fossil - and conclusions reached from comparative analysis of our fellow anthropoids (chimps and bonobos) are rife with Just So stories.  Caution is the watchword.  We don't know how necessary it was to kowtow to the Alpha Males so to apply my watchword we can tentatively conclude (through Social Psychology's Obedience to Authority experiments and Dominance Theory) it was necessary but not vital.  Thus we can, weakly, conclude advertisements (narrative) using a person with a high social rank with invoke a high emotive content to the product the advertisement is pushing (message.)  

This process is concurrent to and within the specifics of a the social and cultural milieu: a nation-state, for example.  Italy is not "the same" as Britain.  Education, the act of formally acquiring knowledge, also has a role to play.  It is known college students deeply embedded in learning economics have a greater degree of selfishness than their peers.  

If you never fail, you're not trying hard enough.

by ATinNM on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 11:34:55 AM EST
[ Parent ]
An ad is an assemblage of symbols though. This becomes apparent during even the most unsophisticated test of one (intended) "message" among subjects of diverse experiences and ages. The reader supplies the "narrative" (I prefer "story") about coding the symbol(s) especially in the absence of written, spoken, or musical text.

The ad guy attempts to replicate the story that recurs most frequently. Typically, the tail does not wag the dog.

One is assuming a lot, when one ascribes some kind of genetic response to "high social rank" symbolism if a subject cannot recall an appropriate, that is expected, referent(s) needed to situate him or herself according to hierarchy and fulfill a "message" of subordination or obedience or whathaveyou.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 04:44:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes one is.

Another bit of data is in Tournament Species the sexual active Alpha Male(s) -- and that needs hedging as well  -- have been observed to kill offspring that didn't 'smell' (?) right or as soon as they get to the top to bring the females into estrus quicker.  

Females expend much more energy raising the young then males.  If she hits the jackpot and her son becomes Top Banana her genes will 'Conquer All.'  Either way, it's worth it, for her, to abide by the Rules as her offspring will have a better chance of adulthood and reproducing.  How much of that is genetically programmed and how much social learning I leave to the student to analyze.  (The essay must be a minimum of 5,000 words not including the bibliography and footnotes.  Due next Thursday.  :-)

All this skates close to Mr. Kipling, I concede.  But it does make some kind of sense and its a better answer than its current competitors.  

If you never fail, you're not trying hard enough.

by ATinNM on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 09:19:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
<squint>

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Fri Jul 16th, 2010 at 08:24:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]
COLOMBIA: Midwives Seek Legal Recognition, Respect - IPS ipsnews.net
BOGOTÁ, Jul 13, 2010 (IPS) - In Colombia, western medicine has nearly succeeded in pushing midwives -- "parteras" or "comadronas," as they are known in Spanish -- out of existence. But some tenacious practitioners are pushing for a law to formalise the role of midwife as a health worker.

"Through 2009 and so far in 2010, there have been no deaths of women attended by a member of the United Midwives of the Pacific Association," said Liceth Quiñones, 22, who works as a midwife in Buenaventura, the principal Colombian port on the Pacific coast.

Daughter of 60-year-old midwife Rosmilda Quiñones, Liceth was three in 1991 when her mother founded the association, which she still heads. With the acronym ASOPARUPA, it has 250 members in the western departments (provinces) of Chocó, Valle, Cauca and Nariño.

At six, Liceth was already assisting her mother. "Midwifery is learned through the oral tradition and through practice," she explained to IPS. When she was 13 she recognised when a placenta did not come out completely and knew it was urgent to get the mother and newborn to the hospital.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:28:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]
LIBERIA: Men in Testing New Role as Midwives - IPS ipsnews.net
ZWEDRU, Liberia, Jul 14, 2010 (IPS) - Henry Teh gently slides down a blue hospital sheet to expose the bare belly of a pregnant woman. As he pokes around to feel the position of the foetus, the midwife-in-training knows he is breaking tradition and changing the face of obstetric care in Liberia.

"In our setting, there are some women who are not really comfortable with men to check them... because of the private parts," he says, fiddling with his stethoscope.

In 2009, Teh became one of the first men to be admitted to a midwifery training program in Liberia's southeast. The rural midwifery school, closed for 20 years due to war, was reopened by the British medical aid agency Merlin and Liberia's Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.

Shortage of qualified trainees

School officials quickly discovered that there was a shortage of qualified female candidates in the remote region. Few young women in Liberia graduated from high school in the past few decades because parents preferred to send their sons to school.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:29:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Former Presidents Denounce Drug War Ahead of AIDS Meet - IPS ipsnews.net
BERLIN, Jul 14, 2010 (IPS) - The failed "war on drugs" has not only badly damaged countries where it is waged, it is responsible for driving up HIV infection rates in some countries, says an official declaration endorsed Wednesday by three former Latin American presidents in advance of the XVIII International AIDS Conference that begins Jul. 18 in Vienna.

In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, injecting drug use is the primary cause of new HIV infections. Outside of sub- Saharan Africa, injecting drug use accounts for approximately one in three new cases of HIV, experts will report at the week-long meeting.

"The war on drugs has failed...Instead of sticking to failed policies with disastrous consequences, we must direct our efforts to the reduction of consumption and the reduction of the harm caused by drugs to people and society," said former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

"Repressive policies are firmly rooted in prejudices, fears and ideological visions. The way forward to safeguard human rights, security and health is a strategy of peace not war," said Cardoso.

Cardoso, along with former presidents Ernesto Zedillo of México and César Gaviria of Colombia, have endorsed the Vienna Declaration that lists a range of harms stemming from the war on drugs, and notes that the criminalisation of people who use drugs has resulted in record high incarceration rates, placing a massive burden on taxpayers.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:30:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Bloxwich Tories hide the school cuts | Tom Watson MP
There's a by-election in Walsall tomorrow. The Conservative candidate has either reproduced a leaflet from May, or misprinted the leaflet and bodged two important amendments. If you look at the black blotches on the page you will see two things.


never let desperation get in the way of judgement.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 01:10:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]
How to build a paywall | Analysis & Opinion |
Circumventability, then, is a sign of a sensible paywall, not a sign of a badly-designed one. People will get around any paywall if they really want -- just pasting the headline into Google News will often work fine. Newspapers shouldn't worry about the people who do that; instead, they should be flattered. And spend their efforts instead on improving their relationships with their paying customers.


never let desperation get in the way of judgement.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 01:10:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Recording Industry vs. The People
he RIAA's "business plan" is even worse than I'd guessed it was.

The RIAA paid Holmes Roberts & Owen $9,364,901 in 2008, Jenner & Block more than $7,000,000, and Cravath Swain & Moore $1.25 million, to pursue its "copyright infringement" claims, in order to recover a mere $391,000. [ps there were many other law firms feeding at the trough too; these were just the ones listed among the top 5 independent contractors.]

Embarrassing.


never let desperation get in the way of judgement.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 01:57:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The first question waiting to be asked/answered is: how much money, if any, did the law firms funnel to decision makers at RIAA? The second would be: do the record company executives and artists involved believe they have gotten value for the money spent? It is generally a bad idea to expect policing to pay for itself.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer at eurotrib.com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 04:06:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Gillian McKeith should have a PhD in how not to use Twitter - Telegraph Blogs
If you're looking for a textbook example of how not to use social media, it's your lucky day. Gillian McKeith - nutritionist, television presenter, celebrity poo enthusiast  - has given a lesson that should be taught in primary schools.


never let desperation get in the way of judgement.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 03:46:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
re: free cash flow

Even if they never figure out how to turn Foursquare into a profitable enterprise, they have a real shot at offloading it on Google or stock market investors, at least if history as any guide. Think of the pre-profit payment to Foursquare's co-founders, then, as a reward for their ability to talk people out of their money.

Read more...

Possibly related PR:
Feb 2010
Mar 2010
Jul 2010

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 09:27:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
A new line? Classy!... soon, soon Newshour will be calling. Prepare your shiny, shiny heads, my pritties, for asssssssimilation.

"Prospective investors competed so fiercely over Twitter's last funding round that the company was able to raise $100 million at a reported $1 billion valuation." Read more...

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 10:20:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]
jesis deah gawd,


source

george needs a new manager...

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 09:37:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 12:02:41 PM EST
France24 - Thierry Henry signs with New York Red Bulls

France striker Thierry Henry has signed for New York Red Bulls, the Major League Soccer (MLS) team announced on Wednesday.
 
The Red Bulls said that 32-year-old Henry, who will quit Barcelona, has signed a "multi-year" contract with the club.

Henry will be joining England's David Beckham and Sweden's Freddie Ljungberg in taking his career "across the pond". As with these other European players, Henry will not be restricted by the strict MLS salary cap.

"It is without question that Thierry Henry is one of the most successful and recognisable soccer players over the past 15 years," said Red Bulls Global Soccer boss Dietmar Beiersdorfer.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 03:35:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I thought it was the New York Giants who handle the ball, which seems more suited to his talents.

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 10:02:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Female Czech MPs pose for calendar - Telegraph
Female members of the Czech parliament have posed for a glamorous calendar to highlight the growing presence of women in Czech politics.

The 2011 calendar features four women MPs from the Public Affairs party wearing little in the way of clothing in a series of images that dispatch the traditional image of staid and serious parliamentarians. The country returned its highest ever number of women MPs at the last general election.

Two other women, one the party's candidate for the mayor of Prague, make up the numbers, with each politician photographed twice for the calendar, which will be sold for charity.

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jul 14th, 2010 at 11:37:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Fran:
a glamorous calendar to highlight the growing presence of women in Czech politics

Words fail...

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 02:15:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Almost as fun as Miss Atom.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 05:36:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]

LOL

" Nothing can bring you peace but yourself." R.W.Emerson

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 02:48:03 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Oh, yes.
by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 04:25:01 AM EST
[ Parent ]
OK, got your attention.  Now, we all know that there was a time when German engineering was superior, and it may still be true. But now there's evidence that German medical research has reached the higher orders of the universe.

Stare at Boobs for Longer Life


Frankfurt, Germany, December 6 -- A rather bizarre study carried out by German researchers suggests that staring at women's breasts is good for men's health and increases their life expectancy.
...
She added, "Just 10 minutes of staring at the charms of a well-endowed female, is roughly equivalent to a 30-minute aerobics work-out."

We at the editorial board of this comment take note that yes, that's the word "she" above; the intensive research program (of which we're a lifelong member) was run by a woman doctor, likely with breasts.

We also note that the study was conducted in Frankfurt, with a higher percentage of financial professionals likely skewing the results.

In Wales and other ET'ers are possibly aware that some of the pioneering research in this crucial area has been conducted on Parisian subways, or on pub crawls, with surprising results.  Now confirmed.

The ET editorial cabal should of course take note that no jpegs of the subject matter were linked to in the creation of this comment.

Skennah Kowa

by Crazy Horse on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 03:51:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Sorry, but I can't eliminate the picture from the following link, but it is a very similar article on "Dr. Franz Epping" (presumably without breasts) from the "Weekly World News" of March 21, 2000. I suspect a hoax...
by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 04:01:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]
You mean like "Man with X-Ray Eyes Sentenced to Public Whipping" or "Brits Prefer Smoking to Sex"?

Skennah Kowa
by Crazy Horse on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 04:20:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Crazy Horse:
staring at women's breasts is good for men's health and increases their life expectancy
Elsewhere in this Salon,

afew:

Big hips 'impair' women's memory, a study finds

Cat:

Seeing a celebrity endorse a pair of shoes alters a woman's brain activity
Is this what passes for "science" these days?

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 04:51:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Yep.
by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 04:52:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]
heh, it's what passes for successful research grant material. think about it, you want gvt funding, what's not to love about research about tits, taxes, consumer confidence (haha), market fashionista trends, and merch-flogging celebs?

now that's deeply important, wouldn't you say? how can you steer economies without such data?

get serious, please. the wheel needs constant turning or we all... gurgle gurgle aaargh!

" Nothing can bring you peace but yourself." R.W.Emerson

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 05:54:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]
melo:
successful research grant material
Touche...

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 05:57:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The side effects weren't well studied. After all, it's been medically proven that Spain lost to Switzerland because Casillas was distracted by properly evolved mammarial nodes.

Skennah Kowa
by Crazy Horse on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 06:18:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Mojoceratops.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 11:02:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]
At least they aren't investigating sub-atomic particles to build a better bomb.

Or cybernetic data processing to build killer robots.

Or using animal psychology to train dolphins to carry weapons to attack ships.

Or using microbiology to develop super bugs.

etc, etc, etc.

Applied Scientists and Research Engineers have a lot to answer for.

If you never fail, you're not trying hard enough.

by ATinNM on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 11:45:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I suppose this explains why I stay reasonably thin without much exercise.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Thu Jul 15th, 2010 at 05:38:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]


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