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happyHey!
Anyone want to take @ look @ my desktop?
*
Hey, anyone interested in seeing my latest video?
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lyricalAs a great scientist one said in an esssay called 'The World as I see It'.
"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious."
suaveYou know ...
Schengen zone enlarges on Dec. 21
Private security guards will patrol the nightly streets of the village Deutschkreuz near the Austro-Hungarian border
Austrian village hires private security for Schengen enlargement
Visitors to UK face tough new visa rules
.....there was a time when a country called Finland vowed to use its position of Presidency of the European Union to disallow non-potato or grain based vodkas to call themselves: "vodka".
This would have meant that many European vodkas made from molasses, sugar beet or grapes (mainly produced by UK, Hungary and the Czech Republic) would have to re-name themselves: 'spirit drink' .
At the time, the Finnish State Secretary for Agriculture, was "~very confident~" Finland would succeed in legally restricting the use of the name 'vodka'.
Part of the argument against such a change, in addition to forcing up the price of certain brands as they switched raw ingredients or require producers to change their labels, was the sentiment stated by EU Corporate Relations Director Alan Butler on the company's premium brand Ciroc ( made from French grapes)
"I can't envisage any British people going into a bar and proudly asking for a 'white spirit/martini'.."
But now, almost two and half years later,
liquor companies including Diageo Plc will retain the right to label spirits made from grapes as ``vodka'' under a European Union accord
EU Rules `Vodka' Can Be Made From Grapes in Victory for Diageo
--
".... it's in the potato"
Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2007
All eyes on Russia as UN Security Council takes up Kosovo talks
EU decides to deploy police mission to Kosovo
Kosovo, Serbia to Square Off at UN
German Ambassador Wolfram Maas says, for his country, Serbia’s EU integration and Kosovo are completely separate issues.
Issue and analysts say Vladimir Putin's backing of Belgrade is likely to make it more difficult for western nations to push through Kosovo's secession .
China, and especially Russia, oppose independence for Kosovo against Belgrade’s wishes and argue that more talks should be held.
(Russia calls EU Kosovo mission illegal: Interfax )
cool
spotted
shopping
In 2005, a small Perth company, Range Resources Limited, signed a mysterious deal with the Somali government for exclusive mineral and oil rights, but now, with the a dissolving of cabinet recently
and soon after the Somali state created an oil ministry amid renewed clamour for resources.
It was kind of interesting especially along with news reports that the 'Business as usual’ approach to a country called Somalia
- - - - - -
And what with sea pirates ,
children dead now in the country from war shelling
and Somali drugs(khat) maybe funding terrorism
in a country where war is followed by disease
See also :
and (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071030220112.htm )
and at least one French journo hostage
and journos facing persecution or worse ,
(Harassed, Arrested, Gagged: A Report From Somalia)theres a combat raging on in Somalia that is no better than Darfur
And a year after the US-backed Ethiopian army toppled a hard-line Islamist regime in Somalia, the country has become a country where no place is a safe haven for families
... - -but, (BUT?) now
Saudi could lead new Somali peace drive-UN official
Reuters South Africa, South Africa - 17 Dec 2007
See also Somalia: A nation in ruins
. .
Belgium opens first European embassy in Somalia since 1991
Health tourism booming in Belgium
caffeinatedThe FTC may be sued over conflict of interest in approving the Double-Click and Google merger.
Privacy groups: FTC has obligation in Google deal
But the tougher fight for Google and DoubleClick could be in Europe, where the EC could take to heart a strongly worded objection from dissenting commissioners.
US Adults Too Busy Googling Each Other to Worry Much About Privacy
Looks like Flaggers are asleep on this one. Of course with France's
Sarkozy previously been accused of blurring France's traditional boundaries between public and private life and with now
France wanting to cut off pirates from the Internet
with a name like "The Balck Flag Cafe", I doubt very much that the owners and denizens and users there feel very prone to be drawn into the age of civility.
Why? Because its so yesterday and were talking revolution.
In France, in October 2002, France’s Supreme Court held in Nikon France v. Onos that an employee has a right to privacy at the workplace during working
French auction houses sue eBay
on fireTunnels dug under the border of Gaza and Egypt gets guns through.
"In the past we could smuggle weapons in for both Fatah and Hamas, when they were fighting each other, but now there is no internal fighting and Hamas controls everything. Nobody wants weapons any more,"
RYP head to this hell hole and report gas shortage, children who need care
http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.1891492.0.0.php
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accident prone
Have invented(invented?) these huge expensive windsails, they look like kites to pull ships in order to cut down on pollution.
Kite Sails is a German company that ...
http://www.steadywinds.com
But look at this guy
http://www.jeanpierreblanchard.fr/emotionp.html
Those French!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Those Belgians!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Belgium, a test field for Europe?
 AFP |
a-okAnyone remember a star politician named Belinda Stronach?
The woman National Posts once called: " most powerful businesswoman in Canada"?
The same one who earned the World Economic Forums title a "Global Leader of Tomorrow" ?
Fortune Magazines ranking her #2 in its list of the world's most powerful women in business in 2002?
One of Canada's "Top 40 Under 40"? One of Time Magazines world's 100 most influential people?
They almost seemed to bleed the virtual ink from politico-tab style
reporting rags dry
with their marriage imbroglio followed by, (or in tandem with? I ferget) Belindas crossing of the Parliament floor over to the Liberals.
Since all that has passed Stronach announced that she would not seek re-election, but will remain in Parliament until the next election before returning to her fathers company as Exec Vice Chair and to spend more time with her growing children, and the creation of a personal foundation to end poverty and disease in Africa.
But a vacant spot would still be left in the Toronto area riding that was hers.
Well, at least that vacant position was still open as of yesterday.
Because as of now
it has been filled by Tim Jones, a municipal political and government veteran.
http://www.yorkregion.com/article/65268
Meanwhile in another far off corner of the political field call if left if youre game
but another former Conservative is considering the same course as Belinda.
This one was ousted from the PC's apparently for choosing to speak out on policy
matters that were "at odds" with the the priorities with Stephen Harpers minority government.
Hmh. Maybe poverty, AIDS and homelessness are not exactly priorities with
the new government which is always constantly drawing its comparisons for progress against the old one. What a margin.
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/280572
So we'll all have to wait and see if theres going to be a new star in the race.
But I imagine that the prospect of election 2008 no longer is starting to look like such a daunting task to many Liberals.
In fact I'll bet theres lots of young up and comers willing to rise to the occasion.
But can we get them to actually vote? Or run?
- -- - - - - -
While North East'er storms might be one for the weather record books, heres one for the historical recordbooks. IN the footnotes
categories that is...
Mon, December 17, 2007
Bad weather and cancelled flights combine to keep him from today's Canadian Club session.
In a Toronto Star interview published January 8, 2005, Stronach confirmed that she was dating deputy Conservative leader Peter MacKay. After she left the Conservative Party, the Canadian Press reported that she and MacKay were taking "a break from their relationship". The National Post reported that MacKay was "gobsmacked" by her decision to join the Liberals. In October 2006, there was further fallout from this relationship, when backbench MP Mark Holland said that a Liberal colleague, David McGuinty asked MacKay about the impact of pollution on humans and animals by asking, "What about your dog?", in a joking manner (MacKay had been featured allegedly "posing" with his dog in the National Post newspaper after Stronach's defection). That is when Holland claims that MacKay made reference to Stronach's empty chair (as she was absent that day) and said "You already have her". Holland lodged a complaint with the Commons Speaker and demanded an apology be made by MacKay. In an interview with the press the following day, Stronach said that the comment is disrespectful not only to her, but to women and Canadians. She demanded an apology herself, which she would accept if given. MacKay has denied directly referring to Stronach as a "dog".[3] The alleged comment was not heard by Speaker of the House Peter Milliken and it was not recorded in the official Hansard. Afterwards, Milliken and his staff said that he could not hear the remarks on the tape recording.[4].- Thanks Wik.
