frank::SmallTalk

The people of Haiti are facing a long and difficult road to recovery.  Their power infrastructure has been demolished and fuel for generators and cooking is scarce, but they do have one thing on their side:  abundant sunshine.  Many solar power companies and non-profits are focusing on that resource and bringing solar-powered equipment capable of providing essential needs like drinkable water, cooking surfaces and mobile phones to the Haitian people.

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered--combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web--have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences. We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today. We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues raised.

If you read only one politics/internet related news item in 2010, this is the one!

Medemblik Yacht Service (MYS) is de eerste in Nederland die binnen de jachtbouw gebruik gaat maken van Kebony hout, een duurzaam alternatief voor teakhout. Kebony hout is afkomstig van loofbossen in West-Europa. Dankzij een innovatieve milieuvriendelijke behandeling is Kebony veel harder dan teakhout. Op het oog is er bovendien geen verschil te zien tussen de twee houtsoorten en daarmee is Kebony de eerste echte duurzame houtvervanger voor teak.

Let's make the best estimate of what everyone's 2010-2020 emissions would be without a treaty. Subtract desired percentage. That's how much permits everyone gets, now go and trade.

Yes, it means rich countries get to emit a lot more than poor countries. And less efficient countries like Australia get to emit more than more efficient counties like Japan. And countries which were going to cut anyway like EU get to emit less than countries which weren't that committed like USA. It really sucks. But do you think you can have them agree to such limits otherwise? If poor countries want to increase their emissions - and they'd all love to do that, they will have to buy emission permits, with hard money. By the way targeting 2020's emissions or such is necessary as there's no way to get India to agree to 2010's emissions, let alone EU's favourite 1990's level - well we could bribe them, but then we can as well give them emission permits as a bribe.

The man has a point. It's an ugly solution, but it might be the only way to get a real treaty, agreed by the USA, China, India and the EU.

At the back entrance on 35th Street, awaiting trash haulers, were bags of garments that appear to have never been worn. And to make sure that they never would be worn or sold, someone had slashed most of them with box cutters or razors, a familiar sight outside H & M’s back door. The man and woman were there to salvage what had not been destroyed.