 - Last login: 2 hours agoOrangeguru
- orangeguru is a 41 year old single guy from Munich, Germany.
- Likes 790 pages, 79 videos, 22 photos • 77 fans • Received 24 reviews
- Member since Sep 19, 2007
Thinker, designer, writer and homo digitalis. SU is not my main blog - come and visit my ultraorange.net for many more postings and images.
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BBC NEWS | Europe | Diverging paths on gender equality
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May 11, 3:50am
2 reviews
politics, europe, italy, equality, woman-s-rights
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7375230.stm
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Italy's new Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi joked that his Spanish counterpart's cabinet line-up looked "too pink" for his liking. The Italian cabinet includes four women but they will have a tough task on their hands, says David Willey in Rome.
It could not be more different in Spain. Danny Wood reports that Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is at the very forefront of the struggle to achieve gender equality in politics.
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Flexing Muscles in Moscow: Russia Displays its Military Pomp on Red Square - Int…
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May 11, 3:49am
1 review
military, politics, russia, putin
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,552557,00.html
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For the first time since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow has put on an arms parade to celebrate the defeat of Nazi Germany. Russians are impressed with the military show of strength, but in Eastern Europe the parade has reawakened old fears.
In the days running up to the parade, things in Moscow looked a bit strange. Tanks rolled down the streets in the direction of Red Square while fighter jets flew over the office blocks in the heart of the Russian capital. To Western observers, these scenes were anachronistic. If it weren't for the hundreds of billboards and luxury boutiques, it would almost seem as if things had jumped back in time to the Soviet Union in 1990.
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Food prices and protest | Taking the strain | Economist.com
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May 11, 3:48am
1 review
politics, poverty, food, farm-subsidies, developing-nation
http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11334420
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Political fallout has been limited--so far
AP
WHEN Haiti's prime minister resigned last month after a week of food riots, it seemed to confirm a warning that Bob Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, had given ten days before. He said 100m people were being pushed into hunger and malnutrition--and 30-odd countries faced social upheaval unless food policy improved and the rich world got its act together to help. A month on, policy has not improved, and the rich world's response has mostly been muddled--yet surprisingly, poor countries have been able to contain the unrest, albeit at heavy cost.
Simon Maxwell, head of Britain's Overseas Development Institute, a think-tank, says one problem is that donors need a single, simple guide on how and where to help, not a clamour of competing United Nations bureaucracies with different plans. There are moves in this direction. The first priority has been to finance the World Food Programme (WFP), the world's largest distributor of food aid. The WFP asked for $750m this year and has so far got about two-thirds of that.
The UN is also trying to make the international response more coherent. Ban Ki-moon, its secretary-general, has set up a task-force to co-ordinate what the UN agencies are doing and has called a food summit in early June to work out a plan.
Rich countries are already managing to be fairly incoherent without any UN infighting. The hope, at least among economists, was that higher prices would induce rich countries to cut state aid to farmers and--says Paul Collier, a development expert at Oxford University--"lead people to question their pleasant fantasies about GM [genetically-modified] food in Europe and biofuels in America." So far, there are few signs of that.
The current American farm bill proposes only modest cuts in ethanol subsidies. The EU has not changed its biofuels target (10% of all fuel by 2020); it continues to bully developing countries not to plant GM crops and this week refused permission to grow varieties of GM maize and GM potatoes in Europe.
While donors squabble, poor countries face riots. But so far, these have had less political impact than many expected. Around 30 countries have suffered protests but only Haiti has seen its government fall. In the Middle East, the part of the world most dependent on food imports, there have been demonstrations and strikes in Egypt, Morocco and Jordan. But all three countries withstood more serious food riots in the late 1970s and 1980s.
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BBC NEWS | Africa | Anxious Zimbabweans await re-run
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May 4, 5:00am
1 review
politics, africa, fraud, zimbabwe, elections
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7382319.stm
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After a month of not-so-subtle suspense, the results of the long-awaited presidential elections were finally released.
The days that preceded the announcement were dark ones - broken limbs, burned huts, dead bodies and unofficial curfews were widely reported.
The people were cynical from the beginning.
Missing results, they said, meant the mother of all election riggings was underway.
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World economy | The glass half empty | Economist.com
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May 2, 3:27am
2 reviews
economy, industry, gdp, economic-growth
http://www.economist.com/daily/chartgallery/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11288241
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AS THE effects of the credit crunch spread, economic forecasters have become more pessimistic. A report published on Thursday May 1st by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister company to The Economist, considers a riskier economic future for the world as a result of the crunch. Its central forecast sees a 60% chance of a slowdown in growth in 2009, but it now predicts a 30% likelihood that things will get really nasty, with the dollar falling to new lows against the yen and euro and commodity prices plunging as demand slows. America could see GDP growth contract by 1.5%, while growth in the big developing economies could slip to the lowest levels in years.
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YouTube - Mission Impossible Theme - Sungha Jung
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Apr 26, 7:06am
2 reviews
kids, music, video, themes, talent
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IXa2pNGVj8
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Right now I feel very old and untalented ...
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BBC NEWS | Americas | Has US abstinence policy failed?
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Apr 26, 1:45am
8 reviews
education, usa, news, abstinence, religious-education
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7368219.stm
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US lawmakers are investigating whether to cut government funding for health education programmes that promote sexual abstinence until marriage.
The move follows a report earlier this year from America's leading health agency, the Center for Disease Control, which revealed one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease.
Opponents of abstinence education say the approach ignores the fact that teenagers are sexually active and fails to give them accurate medical information or advice on safer sex.
"We get sex-ed classes in school and that should be where teens get the right information - but that isn't happening," says 15-year-old Mildred, from Arizona, who volunteers as a peer educator with the pro-choice organisation Planned Parenthood.
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YouTube - Real Time Opening April 25, 2008
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Apr 26, 1:42am
1 review
politics, satire, video, real-time, bill-maher
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntiD1_gjyeY
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The newest episode. This week's guest were Arianna Huffington, Garry Shandling, Phil Donahue and Matt Taibbi.
Garry Shandling is extremely annoying. Please no more additional "funny people" on the show.
youtube.com/watch [youtube.com/watch]
youtube.com/watch [youtube.com/watch] (Jeffrey Sachs Interview)
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youtube.com/watch [youtube.com/watch] (New Rules)
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Stephen Fry and the Gutenberg Press : Other & Other - Mininova
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Apr 26, 1:33am
1 review
history, bbc, torrent, documentary
http://www.mininova.org/tor/1327508
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In this revealing documentary, Stephen Fry investigates the story of one of the most important machines ever invented - the Gutenberg Press.
The printing press was the world's first mass-production machine. Its invention in the 1450s changed the world as dramatically as splitting the atom or sending men into space, sparking a cultural revolution that shaped the modern age. It is the machine that made us who we are today.
Stephen's investigation combines historical detective work and a hands-on challenge. He travels to France and Germany on the trail of Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press and early media entrepreneur. Along the way he discovers the lengths Gutenberg went to keep his project secret, explores the role of avaricious investors and unscrupulous competitors, and discovers why printing mattered so much in medieval Europe.
But to really understand the man and his machine, Stephen gets his hands dirty - assembling a team of craftsmen and helping them build a working replica of Gutenberg's original press. He learns how to make paper the 15th-century way and works as an apprentice in a metal foundry in preparation for the experiment to put the replica press through its paces. Can Stephen's modern-day team match the achievement of Gutenberg's medieval craftsmen?
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Merchandise trade | Shipping out | Economist.com
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Apr 25, 6:39am
4 reviews
business, economy, industry, economist, exports
http://www.economist.com/daily/chartgallery/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11081148
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GERMANY was the world's biggest exporter in 2007, raking in some $1.3 trillion from exports and accounting for 9.5% of all merchandise exports, according to preliminary figures from the World Trade Organisation. China and America were close behind. Together the three account for a quarter of the world's exports. America was by some way the biggest importer, sucking in a staggering $2 trillion of merchandise from abroad, nearly twice as much as its nearest rival, Germany. Growth in merchandise exports fell to 5.5% from 8.5% in 2006 as demand weakened in developed economies.
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