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It seems a US missile defence system similar to that intended for Poland that is upsetting Russia at the moment can only shoot down modern weapons: The Pentagon was forced to abort a bid to shoot down a long-range missile over the Pacific Friday when it failed to fly high enough to engage . . . → Read More: Proposed missile system can only shoot down modern rockets The Economist has regularly published reports on how property prices are developing in different countries, and it has been very frustrating for us to see that while in the last 25 years, the average price of a house in the UK has increased from £23 000 to £158 000 (a factor of over six times), property prices in Germany have remained stagnant. (If you live in Germany, you might find that a little difficult to believe, but you can download an Excel sheet of UK prices since 1952 from the Nationwide Building Society and check the UK figures yourself). In fact, when we sold an apartment we bought in Munich in 1982 a couple of years ago, we sold it for 20% less than we paid for it. If only we’d kept our money invested in property in the UK, instead of transfering it to Germany… What I haven’t understood until now was why the German market was performing so abysmally, when the USA, Australia and most European countries have been behaving like the UK market. However, this week the Wirtschaftswoche published an article (WiWo Nr. 27, 2006-07-03: Konjunkturkommentar – Kräftig durchluften) pushing for deregulation of the German property market and things became a little clearer. What is different between Germany and the rest of those countries where the market has boomed for 25 years or more? Dr Leon Bennun, Director of Science, Policy and Information for BirdLife International, raises an interesting possibility in the BBC’s Green Room series – he points out that the outbreaks lie mainly on major trade routes, rather than on the routes taken by migrating birds. And countries which have implemented strict controls on importing and . . . → Read More: Is bird-flu being spread by intensive poultry farming? Greenland’s glaciers seem to be melting down fast: the giant Jakobshavn glacier, which is four miles wide and 300 m thick is now moving towards the sea at a rate of 34 meters a year; the normal annual speed of a glacier is just 30 cm per year. And the front of the Helheim . . . → Read More: Glacier caught speeding – 100 times too fast A proposal to introduce flat-rate income tax in Germany may have contributed to the completely unexpected failure of the CDU/CSU to win a workable majority in the recent elections. The proposal was fought tooth and nail by Gerhard Schröder, arguing that it would mean that an industry boss would be paying the same rate . . . → Read More: Why flat-rate tax is a bad idea The FBI appears to have al-Qa’ida and the Mafia sewn up and has reset it’s target on eco-terrorism, reports The Independent, quoting John Lewis, the agency’s deputy assistant director for counter-terrorism: “There is nothing else going on in this country over the past several years that is racking up the high number of violent . . . → Read More: Eco-militants the biggest threat, says FBI I was googling topics related to the EU, mainly looking for information on the EU Consitution (PDF file, 1 MB), when I stumbled across this link which plays the EU anthem (MP3 file recorded at 320 bps). I didn’t even know the EU had an anthem. Actually, it is part of the Ninth Symphony . . . → Read More: The EU anthem This is really going to improve Italian public opinion about being involved in the Coalition of the Willing: March 4 (Bloomberg) — Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi demanded the U.S. explain the shooting death of an Italian officer at a U.S.-controlled Baghdad checkpoint who was escorting a journalist freed in Iraq after a month . . . → Read More: How to win friends and influence people |
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