We start by saying we address you only as chancellor of Germany. We did not vote for you and do not acknowledge the existence of a chancellor of Europe. We, the subscribers of this open letter, write to you as free citizens. Citizens of a country you wish to visit on the next 12th of November, as well as citizens in solidarity with all the countries attacked by austerity. Due to the character of the announced visit, those who have to struggle daily with the dire economic and social situation in Portugal, must stress that you are not welcome. You should be considered persona non grata in Portuguese territory because you clearly come to interfere with the Portuguese State's decisions without being democratically mandated by those who live here.

Even so, because our government has of late ceased to obide with the laws of this country and its Republican constitution, we address this letter directly to you. The presence of many great businessman in your entourage is an outrage. Under the guise of "foreign investment", you will bring a group of people that will come to plunder the ruins in which your policies have left the Portuguese economy, as well as those of Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain. Your delegation is composed not only by those who have coerced the Portuguese state, with the connivance of its government, to privatize it's property and most valuable assets, but also by the potential beneficiaries of those properties and assets, bought today at fire-sale prices.

This letter cannot and should not be seen as any sort of nationalist of chauvinist vindication - it's a direct address to you as the chief promoter of the Neoliberal doctrine which is ruining Europe. We do not address the German people who have all the democratic legitimacy to elect whomever they want for their representative offices. However, in this country where we live, your name was never on any ballot. We did not elect you. As such, we do not recognize you the right to represent us and even less the right to make political decisions on our behalf.

I love Science "reporting."

Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias I've started seeing it everywhere

ABB Announces World's First Circuit Breaker for HVDC

Switzerland-based ABB today announced that it has developed the world's first circuit breaker for high voltage direct current (HVDC), solving what it says has been "a 100-year-old electrical engineering puzzle and paving the way for a more efficient and reliable electricity supply system." The breakthrough holds promise not just for renewables development but also for all types of generation that nations and regions wish to transmit over long distances, including under large bodies of water.

The HVDC circuit breaker combines very fast mechanics with power electronics, and will be capable of "interrupting" power flows equivalent to the output of a large power station within 5 milliseconds, the company says.

The breakthrough removes a 100-year-old barrier to the development of DC transmission grids, which will enable the efficient integration and exchange of renewable energy. DC grids will also improve grid reliability and enhance the capability of existing AC networks, the company says. ABB is in discussions with power utilities to identify pilot projects for the new development.

Eurozone leaders face a new round of brinkmanship over Greece's €174bn bailout after international lenders failed to bridge differences on how to reduce Athens' burgeoning debt levels, pushing the country perilously close to defaulting on a €5bn debt payment due next week.

...

Further complicating negotiations, officials said the IMF is insisting Greek debt levels are reduced to 120 per cent of gross domestic product by 2020, while the European Commission is urging an easing of the target to about 125 per cent by 2022.

One senior official said that if negotiators are forced to accept the IMF's stance, eurozone governments may have to take losses on their existing bailout loans, a politically explosive result that has already been rejected by Berlin and other northern eurozone countries fearful of backlash from their national parliaments.

The worry for Republicans is that Mr. Obama won Colorado by nearly five percentage points (4.7 points was his margin there, to the decimal place). In contrast, Mr. Obama's margin in the national popular vote, as of this writing, is 2.4 percentage points. We estimate that it will grow to 2.5 percentage points once some remaining returns from states like Washington are accounted for, or perhaps slightly higher once provisional ballots in other states are counted. But it seems clear that Mr. Obama had some margin to spare in the Electoral College.

Had the popular vote been a tie - assuming that the margin in each state shifted uniformly - he would still have won re-election with 285 electoral votes, carrying Colorado and Virginia, although losing Florida and Ohio.

In fact, had Mr. Romney won the popular vote by two percentage points, Mr. Obama would still have won the Electoral College, losing Virginia but holding onto Colorado.

"Congratulations everyone!! This country has truly changed, and I believe there will be no going back. Hate lost today. That is amazing in and of itself. And all the women who were elected tonight! A total rebuke of neanderthal attitudes.

Now the real work begins. Millions of us must come together to insist that President Obama and the Democrats stand up and fight and, if the House doesn't want to play ball, do a massive "end run" around them. Likewise, we have to have Obama's back. As he is blocked and attacked by the Right, we need to be there with him. We are the majority. Let's act like it.

And please Mr. President, make the banks and Wall Street pay. You're the boss, not them. Lead the fight to get money out of politics - the spending on this election is shameful and dangerous. Don't wait til 2014 to bring the troops home - bring 'em home now. Stop the drone strikes on civilians. End the senseless war on drugs. Act like a mother*** when it comes to climate change - ignore the nuts and fix this now. Take the profit motive out of things that any civilized country would say, "this is for the common good." Make higher educational affordable for everyone and don't send 22-year olds out into the world already in debt. Order a moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions. There are ways to create good-paying jobs - I have some ideas, if you've got a minute. Make your second term historical!

Finally thanks to the Occupy movement who, a year ago, set the tone of this election heart with "the 1% vs. everybody else" - and inspired Obama and his campaign to realize that there was huge popular sentiment against what the wealthy have done. And that led to Romney's ""47%" remarks which was the beginning of the end of his campaign. Thank you Mother Jones for releasing that secret tape and thank you to the minimum wage worker who did the secret taping. Thank you Sandra Fluke for enduing the insults hurled at you and becoming an important grass-roots leader. Thank you Todd Akin for... well, for just being you. Thank you CEOs of Chrysler and GM for coming out forcefully against a Republican candidate, saying he lived in "an alternate universe" when he lied about Jeep. Thank you for Governor Cristie for being the final nail in the coffin.

And thank you Mother Nature, in all your horrific damage you caused last week, you became, ironically, the undoing of a Party that didn't believe in you or your climate changing powers. Perhaps they'll believe now." Michael Moore

MM joins the 5* moVement, lol

It's a fine line between homage, parody, and consumer opportunism. Jess Walter

Yay!

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

Maybe some relevant people within the GOP have learned a lesson.

I doubt it.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

ha! RT @GovChristieNJ: Oh, come on, Fox News. Is this really necessary? Stop being such sore losers. http://twitpic.com/bbklcu