"Germany has a firm target that the government has even spelled out in its coalition agreement to cut its emissions by 40 percent," Schellnhuber told a news conference. "That's unconditional. Germany will continue to be a driving force."
" Anyone convicted of violating the ban on homosexuality could face a prison sentence of up to 14 years. The couple's defence team argued in court Monday that their arrest on the basis of their perceived sexual orientation 'amounts to discrimination, a violation of their rights to freedom of expression, conscience and expression as enshrined in our republican constitution.'
"Our prayer is for a constitutional review of the laws in the penal code that criminalise homosexuality in the country and are inconsistent with the constitution," lawyer Noel Supedi told a packed court.
Chief resident magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwausiwa, presiding over a case that has generated widespread public debate in the country, agreed with the plea for a constitutional review but ruled the case could be moved to the constitutional court only with the consent of the chief justice."
Copenhagen January Cycling - Your Country from Copenhagenize on Vimeo.
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"To Whom It May Concern: China is currently building 12 high-speed rail lines that will go upwards of 250 miles per hour across thousands of miles and will open by 2012 effectively making air-travel across short distances a thing of the past. In America we're building a two-mile long subway extension in New York that was first proposed in 1920 and will open in 2017 (maybe), and even that is only partly funded and could be halted (for the fourth time).
If you want crumbling highways and bridges packed with traffic and slow Amtrak trains that take two full days to get from New York to Florida, America is the country for you. For the love of all things, can we invest in rail infrastructure! And by invest, I don't mean talk about it for years and spend millions on "studies" only to delay actual construction for it to eventually be derailed by the automobile industry lobby. France, Germany and Sweden have managed to create the most comprehensive rail systems in the world, and I don't think our being a huge country is a good enough reason for us to not be investing in this stuff. We USED to have fancy things and amazing pieces of engineering and infrastructure in the early parts of the last century. Then we stopped investing and sold off thousands of miles of railroad rights-of-way so that "developers" could replace them with strip malls, and McMansion gated communities with no sidewalks and only cars to get to and from anywhere. Ohh and before that GM bought all of our clean electrified light rail and trolley lines across the country, decreased service to make them unattractive, and then ripped them up so they could be replaced with slow smog-producing GM-made buses. But I digress...Thanks. -Andy"
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"Badger tickling: proceed with caution"
"Vampire penguins? Zombie guinea pigs? We're done for.... done for."
". . . in a market society, since when are people responsible for the economic effects of their actions? Every oil speculator helps to drive up gasoline prices. Every hedge fund that speculated against a bank by purchasing credit-default swaps on its bonds signaled skepticism about the bank’s creditworthiness and helped to make it more costly for the bank to borrow, and thus to issue loans. We are all economic pinballs, insensibly colliding for better or worse."So let's all act like the banks and just walk away! An interesting perspective from John Courson at the NYTimes . . . full article HERE.
