France's incumbent president has pledged not only to balance the budget but to achieve a surplus if re-elected. He warned that if his Socialist challenger wins, France could go the way of Greece.

Nicolas Sarkozy has promised to deliver a budgetary surplus if he is re-elected in the France's upcoming presidential election.

Speaking at a campaign event to unveil his economic manifesto, Sarkozy warned that if the French elected his Socialist challenger, Francois Hollande, the country would meet a similar fate as countries like Spain or even Greece, which has been forced to accept two international bailouts to save it from going into default.

Right-wing political movements seem to be gaining steam in Europe - that's not just due to the financial crisis, experts say. And it's up to Europe as a whole to address this.

The ongoing financial crisis is often cited as one reason for a swing toward the right among certain European nations. But experts indicate that there are other political, economic and historical reasons for the trend - which is occurring in prosperous and tolerant European nations as well.

It's also a troublesome trend, some think, that needs to be address on a larger scale.

BRUSSELS - Since autumn 2008, the financial crisis and its implications has dictated EU policies. The pressure on EU governments to control expenditure continue to be enormous. Defence spending has not been immune. This raises important questions about how the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) of the EU can function in this new environment and if it can even survive austerity.

BRUSSELS - A pensioner committed suicide in the centre of Athens Wednesday (4 April) giving a public face to the hardship endured by many Greeks as the country slashes spending to satisfy international creditors.

The man, a 77-year-old pharmacist, shot himself in Syntagma Square with some reports saying that he had shouted that he did not want to leave debts to his children.

It later emerged that he had left a suicide note.

AFP - Russia's ex-finance chief Alexei Kudrin formed a policy centre Thursday that cemented his return to politics and positioned him for a possible post under president-elect Vladimir Putin.

The liberal and widely respected minister's government comeback has been rumoured ever since his ouster by outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev in September.

Housing charities and campaign groups have been outraged by an idea floated by Downing Street to strip housing benefits from under-25s and make them move in with "mum and dad" as a way to "make work pay" and save the UK from growing welfare expenditure.

The proposal - which was floated by No 10 earlier this week but is yet to be developed into a concrete proposal - was announced just before a speech on Thursday in which David Cameron praised recent changes to the benefits system as "the most radical, long-term reform" in the UK for a generation. A Downing Street source said: "We are always looking at ways to change the welfare system to reward hard work and make work pay."

The source said that there were many young people who are "low paid are living with their parents and can't afford to move out" and questioned if it was fair to allow unemployed young people to be able to live independently supported by housing benefits.

Thousands of the poorest working families in Britain will see their household incomes fall by up to £4,000 a year through changes to tax credits introduced on Friday.

While the Institute of Fiscal Studies calculated that up to 850,000 families - including many from the "squeezed middle" - will lose all their child tax credit, worth at least £545, those on the lowest incomes will be hit much harder. An estimated 212,000 working couples with children who earn less than £17,000 a year will lose all their working tax credit - worth up to £3,870 - unless they can work up to eight hours extra a week. From Friday, couples with children will be required to work at least 24 hours between them, with one person working at least 16 hours a week to continue to qualify for WTC. The limit before was 16 hours between them.

The losses, if they are unable to increase their hours, will dwarf the comparatively small gains of a few hundred pounds from increases to personal tax allowances also implemented on Friday.

Two years after losing office, the SPD hopes its three-day party conference can finally heal the scars of its grand coalition experiment with the Christian Democrats (CDU).

Beneath the scars lingers a resentment among left-wingers at the Schröder-era reform programme that cut welfare and hiked the retirement age.

SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel, a protege of Gerhard Schröder, is torn between the best way to get out of opposition - to give in to party pressure and allow the party to move left or to challenge Angela Merkel's CDU in the political centre.

Mr Gabriel's hope of taking Dr Merkel in 2013 is far from a given: former finance minister Peer Steinbrück, now a backbencher, has designs on that role, although the loathing of party left-wingers could yet dash his hopes.

The third hopeful is SPD parliamentary leader Frank Walter Steinmeier, who failed to unseat Dr Merkel in 2009.

German and Swiss officials have signed a revised treaty designed to combat tax evasion. Berlin hopes the deal will generate billions of euros in revenue. But opposition parties could still scupper the agreement.

German and Swiss government officials on Thursday signed an amendment to a treaty designed to allow Berlin to collect billions of euros in evaded taxes. The German government hopes to have the agreement, which was signed at a ceremony in the Swiss capital, Berne, implemented by next year.

"The ratification of the Swiss-German tax agreement should be completed this year, so that it can come into force starting on January 1, 2013," the Bundestag wrote in a press release. "[The government] considers the deal to be compliant with the German Constitution."

The euro crisis keeps dominating the headlines. But the EU is facing problems far greater than just the current financial turmoil. And the solutions are not getting any easier.

After numerous crisis summits, EU ministers' meetings and rescue funds, it seems as if the worst part of the eurozone crisis is over. Both German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi have expressed cautious optimism. But there's no all-clear for the EU. Many politicians and experts agree that things are far from over yet.

Behind closed doors, many an EU diplomat will admit that the euro crisis has only scratched the surface of what actually are much bigger problems. The real crisis is not merely economic or financial but rather social and political.

Whatever one thinks about Lord Wolfson's euro-skeptical meddling, it certainly has been entertaining. The British baron's offer of a £250,000 prize for the best ideas to deal with a possible breakup of the eurozone has brought all sorts of people out of the woodwork. (Including this precocious 11-year old.) But one of the most fascinating ideas on the shortlist has come from Neil Record -- although I'm not sure that my takeaway was his main intent.

....

Some of the economists on Lord Wolfson's shortlist imagine a scenario where, even post-breakup, all euros are equal. This is not the case with Neil Record's plan (PDF). In fact Record, a former economist with the Bank of England, reminds us that this is not really the case even today, in the absence of any breakup.

   It is worth noting, to the surprise of many commentators, that Euro notes are not formally issued by the ECB, but by each member State National Central Bank. Each Euro note is accordingly marked with a prefix letter according to its issuer as follows:

    So a Greek (or indeed any non-German resident) could sort through his or her notes as they acquire them, and pass all non-X prefix notes on to shops or back to the bank, and retain all X prefix notes, perhaps in the safe deposit box in Germany. This is as close to a free financial option that any individual will ever be faced with, since the chance of loss is nil (the cost of holding `X' prefix notes is the same as holding any other prefix banknote), and even compared to a bank account, the lost interest is negligible. The opportunity of gain (even if the probability is small) is very substantial indeed.

....

Record reminds us that

    On 1 Jan 1999, national currency banknotes became `fractional denominations' of the Euro. Exactly the same needs be done in reverse whenever [Record's] Plan comes into force. So Euro banknotes will become `fractional denominations' of new national currencies. This will mean that apparently similar notes (except for the prefix) will become worth different amounts, and the exchange rates between them will be highly variable.

Could X mark the spot?

They need to face up to reality and tell us what the situation is. And things are bad. Really bad. This year, public bonds with a value of 450 billion euro , will fall due. A quarter have been bought mainly by Italian banks thanks in part to the loan of a billion euro from the ECB. There are still bonds to the value of 330 to be placed in 2012 if there is not to be a collapse. The banks are no longer making loans as they have to buy the public debt to stop the country from defaulting. This is why they are not providing finance to the companies. Meanwhile, obviously, we cannot create a new debt to be financed with the issue of more public bonds. And this brings us to the arrival of Rigor Montis' cure between two possible routes: cut costs or increase taxes. He's chosen the latter. An inevitable choice. Anyone who is inside the System cannot reform the System. Thus things that are not on the government's agenda are cutting out the Provinces, cutting the salaries of parliamentarians, cutting out financing to the newspapers and the parties, cutting the Great Useless Public Works (Gronda di Genova, TAV Val di Susa, EXPO 2015 in Milan, etc.), the American fighter bombers, the "peace missions" abroad, bureaucracy. The 30 billion finance package dated December 2011 is hitting the country violently with the reduction in salaries from March and the increase in the prices of electricity, petrol and consumer goods. The IMU property tax and the increase in sales tax will make the situation worse. And we are just at the beginning.
The small and medium sized companies are going bust because of a lack of liquidity. It's a "chain letter". If I'm not paid by my client I cannot pay my supplier who in turn cannot pay his suppliers. And the first one not paying is the State that owes 100 billion to the companies. The State is not honouring its debts for a simple reason: it doesn't have a euro in its coffers. The Italy Machine is grinding to a halt. Anyone producing wealth is closing up shop, is going bust, is committing suicide or is moving abroad.

El Gobierno no quiere que le acusen de falta de reacción o de incomunicación con los ciudadanos en los momentos críticos. El ministro de Economía, Luis de Guindos, no dudó este jueves en dar la cara, desde su retiro en Marbella, donde pasa sus minivacaciones de Semana Santa, para salir al paso de la fuerte subida registrada por la prima de riesgo. A través de la agencia pública Efe, el titular de Economía despejó balones sobre la incertidumbre que despiertan las reformas del Gobierno y atribuyó la escalada del riesgo al "nerviosismo" y a la "volatilidad" que generan en los mercados las "dudas sobre el crecimiento en Europa". "Si no hay crecimiento económico, los mercados empiezan a dudar", aseguró.

Es decir, que el problema "no es estrictamente español" sino de Europa en su conjunto, y que la solución a los ataques de los mercados no es otra que la de insistir "con convicción en las políticas de reducción del déficit público y de reformas económicas para incrementar el potencial de la economía".

Fuentes del Gobierno aseguraron a este periódico que Guindos habló con el comisario europeo de Economía, Olli Rehn, para analizar la sacudida de los mercados. "Es un problema que tiene que ver con la percepción más negativa del crecimiento económico en España, Portugal e Italia", dijo el ministro en la entrevista a Efe. "Este menor crecimiento va a llevar a que las dificultades para reducir el déficit publico sean mayores", añadió.

The Government doesn't want to be accused of lack of reaction or lack of communication with the citizens in critical moments. The economy minister, Luis de Guindos, did not hesitate to face the music this Thursday, from his retreat in Marbella, where he's spending his Easter minivacation, to tackle the strong rise in Spain's risk premium. Through the public news agency EFE, the economy minister shifted blameon the uncertainty that the Government's reforms are arousing and attributed the rise in the risk [sic!] to the "nervousness" generated in the markets by "doubts over growth in Europe". "If there isn't economic growth, markets begin to doubt", he asserted

That is, the problem "isn't strictly Spanish" but of Europe as a whole, and the solution to the market attacks in none other than to insist "with conviction, on policies to reduce the public deficit and economic reforms to increase the economy's potential".

Government sources assured this newspaper that Guindos spoke with the European Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Ollie Rehn, to analyse the market shock. "It's a problem that has to do with the more negative perception of economic growth in Spain, Portugal and Italy", said the minister in the interview with EFE. "This lower growth will lead to greater difficulties to reduce deficits", he added.

The US officer in charge of the ISAF mission in Afghanistan, General John Allen, has said he expects heavy fighting in eastern Afghanistan in the coming months. He said troops would be reassigned accordingly.

General John Allen briefed assembled German journalists in Kabul, saying he expected fierce fighting in the months heading up to the withdrawal of Western combat troops from the country.

The man chosen by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood to run for president in next month's election has officially registered as a candidate. He has pledged to introduce sharia law to the country if elected.

Khairat el-Shater, a leading figure in Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, formally registered himself as a candidate in the presidential election on Thursday amid cheers from supporters.

"The people want Shater for president," the group of about 2,000 supporters chanted.

Shater, 61, a millionaire businessman and leading strategist in the Brotherhood, is now a seen as a leading contender for the presidency.

Seven diplomats are kidnapped in northern Mali as African leaders search for a resolution to the country's current crisis. Meanwhile, Tuareg rebels in the North have declared a unilateral ceasefire.

The Algerian consul and six consular staff have been abducted in the northern Mali town of Gao, the Algerian government said on Thursday, raising fears over the growing crisis in the region following the March 22 coup.

"Algeria's consul in Gao and six consular officials were forced to leave the diplomatic mission building. They are currently under the control of parties which we do not know," Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said.

The United Nations-Arab League peace envoy for Syria has briefed the UN General Assembly about a ceasefire meant to come into force on April 12. Kofi Annan said both sides had expressed their commitment to the plan.

United Nations-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan told the UN General Assembly on Thursday that both Syrian government forces and the rebels had committed to a ceasefire starting April 12.

Syrian forces are meant to halt new troop movements and end the use of heavy weapons by April 10, and the rebels have indicated they will cease attacks within 48 hours of that, by 6:00 a.m. local time on April 12.

Turkey seeks to develop ties with China. On the first visit of a Turkish prime minister in 27 years, Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also try to convince Chinese leaders to pressure Syria to put an end to violence.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to make a landmark visit to China on Sunday.

His first stop is expected to be Xinjiang province in western China, which is dominated by the Uighur people. China's crackdown on this predominantly Muslim minority during the riots in 2009 damaged bilateral relations between China and Turkey.

The US has announced it will ease sanctions on Myanmar, which observers say will help the isolated country regain part of its former significance and exploit its rich potential.

There have been celebrations on the streets of Myanmar and relief across the world. With Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) winning 43 seats in the recent by-elections, there is little cause to think that the polls were not free and fair, said Markus Löning, the German government's human rights commissioner, who acted as an election observer.

AP - The rebel group that recently seized control of Mali's remote north in a maneuver that effectively partitioned the country in two announced a cease-fire Thursday, saying they had reached their military goal.

Moussa Ag Assarid, a spokesman for the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, said the group was declaring the cease-fire to allow humanitarian aid to resume in the north, where shops were looted.

In Ivory Coast, the military chiefs of the nations bordering Mali met Thursday to hash out their plan for a military intervention. Deputy Ivorian Defense Minister Paul Koffi Koffi said military action is being considered both to reverse the coup that deposed Mali's president last month, as well as to preserve Mali's territorial integrity after the rebel advance in the north.

AFP - Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika, 78, was unconscious in hospital Thursday after suffering a heart attack, a medical source said.

"He had a cardiac arrest, he is still unconscious since 9:00 am (0700 GMT)," a senior official at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe said on condition of anonymity.

Mutharika, a former World Bank economist, was re-elected in 2009 as president of the poor southern African country.

REUTERS - Accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four suspected co-conspirators were directed on Wednesday to stand trial before a Guantanamo war crimes tribunal on charges that could carry the death penalty, the Pentagon said.

The five are accused of planning and executing the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked airliner attacks on New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, resulting in the deaths of 2,976 people.

They are charged with terrorism, hijacking aircraft, conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war and other counts, and were referred to a capital military tribunal, meaning they could be sentenced to death if convicted, the Pentagon said.

Rising numbers of civilian justifiable homicides across the US are closely linked to states with both weak gun controls and stand-your-ground laws, according to a Guardian analysis of FBI and other data, which show a 25% increase in such killings since the controversial self-defence laws started being introduced around 2005.

In February of 2006, Philip Zelikow, counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, authored a memo opposing the Bush administration's torture practices (though he employed the infamous obfuscation of "enhanced interrogation techniques"). The White House tried to collect and destroy all copies of the memo, but one survived in the State Department's bowels and was declassified yesterday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the National Security Archive.

The memo argues that the Convention Against Torture, and the Constitution's prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment, do indeed apply to the CIA's use of "waterboard[ing], walling, dousing, stress positions, and cramped confinement." Zelikow further wrote in the memo that "we are unaware of any precedent in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, or any subsequent conflict for authorized, systematic interrogation practices similar to those in question here, even when the prisoners were presumed to be unlawful combatants." According to the memo, the techniques are legally prohibited, even if there is a compelling state interest to justify them, since they should be considered cruel and unusual punishment and "shock the conscience."

Support for National has slumped while support for the Greens has reached a record high, according to a new poll.

National would likely be able to form another government, according to today's Roy Morgan Poll, but a Labour-Greens coalition would also have a shot if it could attract support partners.

The poll shows support for National fell 4.5 per cent, to 44 per cent, while support for Labour rose 0.5 per cent, to 30.5 per cent.

The Greens picked up 4.5 per cent, boosting its support to a record high of 17 per cent.

It's just a shame the election was three months ago.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

Firefighters put out two fires blaze after smoke alarm triggered the shut down of a French nuclear reactor. Officials said there were no injuries or consequences for the environment.

Firefighters battled two blazes at a nuclear reactor in northern France after smoke triggered the alarms and automatically shut down the reactor, operator EDF said.

The firefighters "went into the building housing the reactor of the number two production unit of the Penly nuclear power plant to extinguish two fires," EDF said in a statement.

"There were no injuries, and the incident has no consequences for the environment," it said, adding that an emergency team had checked the plant to ensure the fires were extinguished.

London's air is so toxic that it has been linked to nearly one in five deaths a year. Responsibility for the capital's air quality lies at the door of Boris Johnson, who has responded with shocking languor to this public health emergency. The mayor's flagship solution is to literally glue the pollution to the ground.

His specially adapted gritting lorries have been haunting our highways for the past few months, spraying adhesive up and down our worst pollution hotspots and sticking exhaust fumes to the asphalt. Rather than tackling the problem at its source, by tampering and gluing around air pollution monitors Johnson's aim is to avoid a £300m EU fine for failing to comply with air quality standards.

Chile's supreme court has green-lit a controversial dam project in the Patagonia that could generate up to 20% of the country's electricity demand in 2020, but is opposed by environmentalists and local groups for the damage it will cause the region.

The highest legal authority in Chile rejected seven appeals filed against Project HidroAysén, which plans to build five dams, flooding 6,000 hectares. The government had approved the project last year but the case was taken to the supreme court after objections were raised over the environmental impact study.

Companies making devices that generate renewable energy from the ebb and flow of tides and waves around the UK could win a share of a new £20m government prize announced on Thursday.

It is hoped the scheme, the Marine Energy Array Demonstrator (Mead), will encourage growth in the industry, which has been struggling to create a commercially viable projects. Ministers believe wave and tidal power could in the future generate up to 20% of Britain's energy needs and create 10,000 jobs in the sector.

California Governor Jerry Brown announced a $120 million settlement last week with utility company NRG. The funds will be used to develop a large scale infrastructure effort for electric vehicles. This statewide charging network will include at least 200 fast-charging stations and another 10,000 plug-in units at 1,000 locations across the state.

The U.S. Coast Guard says it has unleashed cannon fire at a Japanese vessel set adrift by last year's tsunami, stopping the ship's long, lonely voyage across the Pacific Ocean.

Spokesman Paul Webb says a Coast Guard cutter fired Thursday on the abandoned 164-foot Ryou-Un Maru in the waters of the Gulf of Alaska and more than 150 miles from land.

The Japanese ship was destined for scrapping when the Japan earthquake struck so there is no cargo on board.

A little over 30 years ago, a teenager named Jadav "Molai" Payeng began burying seeds along a barren sandbar near his birthplace in northern India's Assam region to grow a refuge for wildlife. Not long after, he decided to dedicate his life to this endeavor, so he moved to the site where he could work full-time creating a lush new forest ecosystem. Incredibly, the spot today hosts a sprawling 1,360 acre of jungle that Payeng planted single-handedly.

great story, h/t steve hynd @ agonist

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

UPDATE: Today (2/22/12), the USDA extended the public comment period on this issue until April 27, 2012.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is currently deciding whether or not to approve an application by Dow Chemical for its controversial genetically engineered (GE) corn crop that is resistant to the highly toxic herbicide 2,4-D, one of the main ingredients in Agent Orange.

On February 22nd, just 5 days before the close of the comment period, the USDA extended the public comment period on this issue until the end of April 2012. The Center for Food Safety (CFS), the nation's leading organization in the fight against GE crops, was one of the groups that requested this extension from USDA, and we are pleased the agency responded accordingly. If approved, CFS has vowed to challenge USDA's decision in court, as this novel GE crop provides no public benefit and will only cause serious harm to human health, the environment, and threaten American farms.

It's ok to criticize or start a debate. But Günter Grass should have written a political essay rather than a poem, says DW's Bettina Marx.

Günter Grass has done a disservice to all those who warn of an Israeli attack on Iran. Now they must all be made culpable for his overblown rhetoric. With his curious poem he has overshot the mark to such an extent that one can only shake one's head.

The Israeli government is not planning its first atomic strike against Iran, as he suggests in his verses. And Israel harbors no fantasies regarding the annihilation of the Islamic republic, which itself denies the Jewish state the right to existence.

BRUSSELS - A top scientist within the EU agency authorising new drugs resigned on Wednesday (4 April) after being fired from France's national regulator, itself embroiled in scandals over poisonous diabetes drugs and failing breast implants.

Eric Abadie, a French specialist in diabetes and heart-related diseases, had for the past five years been chaired a panel of experts giving scientific advice to the European Medicines Agency on authorising the sale of new drugs on the EU market.

AP - China was struggling Thursday to restore several government websites that international hacking group Anonymous says it attacked in an apparent protest against Chinese Internet restrictions.

On a Twitter account established in late March, Anonymous China listed the websites it says it hacked over the last several days. They include government bureaus in several Chinese cities, including in Chengdu, a provincial capital in southwest China.

Some of the sites were still blocked Thursday, with error messages shown.

AFP - Deadly malaria that is resistant to drug treatment has spread rapidly to the border between Thailand and Myanmar, raising concerns of an uncontrollable epidemic, scientists said Thursday.

A pair of studies published in The Lancet and the journal Science showed how the disease is moving fast into new territory and identified a region of the parasite's genome that may be responsible for mutating in order to survive.

AFP - A Tunisian court has sentenced two youths to seven years in prison for publishing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, the justice ministry said Thursday.

"They were sentenced, one of them in absentia, to seven years in prison, for transgressing morality, defamation and disrupting public order," ministry spokesman Chokri Nefti told AFP.

The sentences were handed down on March 28 and defence lawyers have appealed the decision.

One of the two young men was jailed but the other was not in court for the verdict. They are both from the town of Mahdia, around 200 kilometres (120 miles) south of Tunis.

AP - A wildly popular Internet video turned African warlord Joseph Kony into a household name and boosted the international hunt for the brutal rebel leader. Can a sequel do more?

That's the burning question for the small California advocacy group Invisible Children and its follow-up effort, "Kony 2012 Part II." The Associated Press was given a copy of the sequel before its Thursday release.

Part II repeats some of the same slick, inspiring shots as the original of a young global community mobilizing into action. But noticeably missing is the voice of the organization's co-founder, Jason Russell, who directed the first video.

A dust devil is a term for a relatively small swirl of air with dust trapped in it so that it is visible. They are normally not very big. A Martian dust devil roughly 12 miles high was captured whirling its way along the Amazonis Planitia region of Northern Mars on March 14. It was imaged by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Despite its height, the plume is little more than three-quarters of a football field wide (70 yards, or 70 meters).

Goat, girl, Google goggles. Gee, gee, gee.

Google Project Glass: will we really wear digital goggles? | Technology | guardian.co.uk

The tricky questions are whether anyone actually wants a head-mounted display. If you were a soldier, for example, you would want to know if there were snipers hiding behind a wall, and if you could bring in a drone (pilotless aircraft) to fire at them. As a pedestrian crossing the street, the sudden appearance of a special offer from a nearby carpet retailer might have less happy consequences (since this is Google, you can bet ads are part of the master plan).

The designer of the iconic and aerodynamic Porsche 911 has passed away at the age 76. Ferdinand Alexander Porsche was the grandson of the founder of the Stuttgart-based carmaker.

Car lovers the world over are mourning the death of Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, the famed designer of the Porsche 911.

"As creator of the Porsche 911, he established a design culture in our company that still leaves its mark on our sports cars," the head of Porsche's supervisory board, Matthias Müller, said.

Porsche died on Thursday in Salzburg, Austria, at age 76. He was the third generation of Ferdinand Porsches to design cars. His father founded the well-known sports car company based in Stuttgart.

AFP - French film director, producer and screenwriter Claude Miller, whose works include "The Best Way to Walk" and "Class Trip", has died aged 70, his production company said Thursday.

Miller died Wednesday in Paris after a long illness, said Les Films du 24, one of his production companies.

"A sad day, Claude Miller is dead," tweeted the Cannes Film Festival, at which Miller was awarded the special jury prize in 1998 for "Class Trip."

(hat tip cloudfront.net)

Ad astra per aspera

Well, now we've seen it all: Scientists from UC Davis and San Diego State University have released a video of a venomous rattlesnake attacking a robotic squirrel....The video was made by Rulon Clark, a biology professor at San Diego State who is trying to determine how squirrels and rattlesnakes communicate in the wild.

When a squirrel thinks a rattlesnake is nearby, rather than running away, it will raise its tail, heat it up, and wag it. Scientists call this "flagging behavior." It seems that the rattlesnake is less likely to strike a squirrel that is exhibiting flagging behavior, but scientists are not entirely sure why.

One hypothesis: The flagging behavior may indicate what Clark calls "squirrel vigilence, or squirrel awareness," which might tell the snake that it no longer has the element of surprise on its side. But is it the heating of the tail that the snake is responding to, or the back and forth movement? Or is there something else going on?

?