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From today’s Guardian: The European Union is preparing plans to allow pig remains to be used to feed poultry. The practice – banned in Europe after the BSE crisis 10 years ago – would save farmers millions of pounds as prices of cereal feed for chickens soar, say officials in Brussels. More > The . . . → Read More: EU to allow chicken-feed to contain pig remains Next time we drive past Maastricht, we are going to take a look at Selexyz Dominicanen. There’s an article in the Guardian architecture section about this book shop in a converted church, and it looks spectacular. The architects were Merkx + Girod, and the photo above is from their . . . → Read More: Selexyz Dominicanen In Germany, if something is ridiculously expensive for what it is, we refer to it having an Apothekenpreis (pharmacy price). If you’ve seen a typical Germany pharmacy (or chemist), you’ll understand why. They are usually fitted out with the top-of-the-market shop fittings and very well-staffed. Which means that we pay 2 or 3 times . . . → Read More: ‘Apothekenpreise’ – soon history? When I read this in today’s Guardian, my first reaction was “but it’s not the 1st of April yet”. One the one hand data privacy experts in the EU has been fighting tooth and nail over the last years to prevent the USA getting a pile of personal data each time someone flies to . . . → Read More: 1984 has been delayed, not cancelled Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates issued a stark warning on Sunday to Europeans, saying that their safety from terrorist attack by Islamic extremists is directly linked to NATO’s success in stabilizing Afghanistan. After weeks of calling on NATO governments to send more combat troops and trainers to Afghanistan, Mr. Gates made his case directly . . . → Read More: Robert M. Gates marches in the wrong direction Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic all join the Schengen Zone tonight. That is the part of the EU where the member countries trust each other enough to abolish the visa- and border controls (But beware! At airports, the new members won’t benefit from the abolition of . . . → Read More: The fog clears in Europe The Economist has its regular table showing how property prices world wide have developed: Graph from this week’s Economist As you’d expect, given the US sub-prime crisis, the US prices have dropped by around 5% in the last 12 months. More surprisingly, the UK prices, despite the concern in the British press about their . . . → Read More: The latest global house price trends While the New Yorker pontificates on whether more fuel-efficient cars will ever happen, and the British government appears to be about to go back on recent commitments to increase the use of renewable energy, the European Commission has published several papers and maps on their website showing how they expect the average precipitation, average . . . → Read More: Heating up Europe Europeans consistently regard the US as the biggest threat to world stability, a new poll revealed in the Financial Times today: …Inhabitants of Spain are most concerned about the US, with 46 per cent of respondents naming America as the biggest threat. European poll respondents – who also come from France, Germany, Italy and . . . → Read More: 32% of Europeans see USA as biggest rogue nation The BBC reports (my emphasis in the following quote): There are calls for the European Union to ban the making of cars that can go at more than 101mph (162km/h). The proposal comes in a report to the European Parliament on EU plans for a law to curb CO2 emissions from cars. The . . . → Read More: Paying lip-service to curbing pollution? |
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