Liberal Democrat accounts show 25% drop in party membership in one year: 48,934 members at end of 2011, compared with 65,038 a year before

The Wall Street Journal: Dismissing Environmental Threats Since 1976

To forestall policy on climate change, the Wall Street Journal editorial board routinely downplays scientific consensus, overstates the cost of taking action, and claims that politics, not science, motivate those concerned about the climate. But an analysis of more than 100 editorials from 1976 to present shows that the Wall Street Journal used these same rhetorical tactics in previous decades on acid rain and ozone depletion and they did not stand the test of time.

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For decades the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board has campaigned with industry against government action to address major environmental threats. Regardless of the specific issue, the editorials offer this familiar refrain:

'We Don't Know Enough': The Journal makes claims that are out of step with the weight of scientific evidence, seizes on uncertainties, and argues for further study before any action is taken to mitigate the risk.

'It Will Cost Too Much': The Journal claims regulations would have enormous economic costs, often citing unreliable industry-backed studies.

'It's All Politics': To sidestep the science showing a clear threat, the Journal claims that those who want to address the problem are motivated by politics, not science.

$10 million a minute.

That's about how much the trading problem that set off turmoil on the stock market on Wednesday morning is already costing the trading firm.

The Knight Capital Group announced on Thursday that it lost $440 million when it sold all the stocks it accidentally bought Wednesday morning because a computer glitch.

After all the previous foul-ups, the Finance Sector still doesn't know how to program Real Time Control Systems.


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

Soy sauce ice cream invented in Japan - Telegraph

A Japanese confectionary company has invented a cream puff stuffed with soy sauce flavoured ice cream - for a distinctly unique taste.

Fund raised from sales of the new ice cream will go towards helping to revitalise a city in northeastern Japan that was virtually wiped out by the March 11, 2011 tsunami.

"It's a mixture of soy sauce and ice cream, producing a well-balanced salty, yet sweet, ice cream which is perfect for the summer," said Kunihiko Shirokawa at Tokyo-based confectioner Hirota, one of the developers.

"We are planning another product for the autumn."

Harvard psychologist Jerome Kagan is one of the world's leading experts in child development. In a SPIEGEL interview, he offers a scathing critique of the mental-health establishment and pharmaceutical companies, accusing them of incorrectly classifying millions as mentally ill out of self-interest and greed.

Jerome Kagan can look back on a brilliant career as a researcher in psychology. Still, when he contemplates his field today, he is overcome with melancholy and unease. He compares it with a wonderful antique wooden chest: Once, as a student, he had taken it upon himself to restore the chest with his colleagues.

OAS_RICH('Middle2'); He took one of its drawers home himself and spent his entire professional life whittling, shaping and sanding it. Finally, he wanted to return the drawer to the chest, only to realize that the piece of furniture had rotted in the meantime.

If anyone has the professional expertise and moral authority to compare psychology to a rotten piece of furniture, it is Kagan. A ranking of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century published by a group of US academics in 2002 put Kagan in 22nd place, even above Carl Jung (23rd), the founder of analytical psychology, and Ivan Pavlov (24th), who discovered the reflex bearing his name.

Kristina Schröder, Germany's Federal Minister of Family Affairs, is making waves with her controversial stance on mothers in the workforce. In a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview, Schröder has criticized new Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, arguing she should take a longer maternity leave when she gives birth later this year.

Both are high-profile women in their mid-30s for whom childbirth has come as their careers soar to new heights. But with those pregnancies comes the perpetual debate over how much maternity leave is appropriate for women in leadership positions.

OAS_RICH('Middle2'); One, German Family Minister Kristina Schröder, who turns 35 this week, is criticizing the other -- new Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, 37 -- for saying that she plans to take only a few weeks of maternity leave and continue to carry out her work even while she is out of the office.

"I respect this personal step being taken by Ms. Mayer," Schröder told SPIEGEL ONLINE in an interview. "But I regard it with major concern when prominent women give the public impression that maternity leave is something that is not important. Maternity leave is absolutely important and not just from a medical point of view."

Utrecht University students are learning to become sustainable entrepreneurs with a serious game called Solar Tycoon. But serious games a substitute for real experience?

It all started when Geoscience professors at the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands discovered that their students were missing a link. They were having trouble connecting theory about innovation and sustainable technologies with real life situations on the market. They lacked the practical experience.

This, in part, had to do with the limited number of work experience placements available to students.

So - almost paradoxically - the faculty decided to develop a virtual marketplace to teach students about the realities of selling green technology. Together with a design firm called Digital Dreams, they developed the serious game, Solar Tycoon.

[Esplora il significato del termine: One in two Italians takes too little exercise. Maltese, British and Japanese even less active. Expert says: "We need to start motivating young people at school to take exercise"] One in two Italians takes too little exercise. Maltese, British and Japanese even less active. Expert says: "We need to start motivating young people at school to take exercise"

Italians are champions, but in the laziness stakes. The claim is made by a group of researchers, led by Pedro C. Hallal from the University of Pelotas in Brazil, in a study published in The Lancet, the bible of medical journals. Professor Hallal and his team compared data for physical activity levels in adults aged 15 and over in 122 countries, representing 89% of the world's population, to produce an inactivity index. The results show that Malta tops the laziness league while Italy is tucked comfortably into the top twenty in 17th place with an index of 54.7%, against a world average of 31.1%. Italy's dominance is even clearer within the EU. In a lazy Europe, couch potato Italy is outclassed only by world wooden spoon-holder Malta, Cyprus, Serbia and the UK. Italian women are less active than men (59.8% vs 49.6%). The national average falls far short of Greece's 15.6% but is not so distant from the USA's 40.5% or Japan's 60%.

The Chief Judge of the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court, Rabbi Eliyahu Abergel, has ruled that in cases where a man has not fathered any children, and his wife cannot or does not want to bear children, the man may take a concubine.