Controversy erupts over German Anarchist Pogo Party’s campaign ad

Thursday, September 8, 2005

The German Anarchist Pogo Party ran a campaign ad (Download here — NSFW) which, instead of discussing the party’s politics, featured various party scenes set to a heavy metal soundtrack. The spot included revellers smashing furniture, pouring beer down each other’s throats, and women dancing topless. The spot ends with the proclamation: “My vote for the rubbish”.

The ARD refused to air the ad because it “violates the human dignity” and showed only a heavily censored version at an earlier airtime. The Party then sued the station and got an injuction by an appeal court in Münster only minutes before the next ad was due, forcing the ARD to air the spot uncensored, right before their evening news flagship.

The ad has offended a number of people, but has likely gained the party nationwide attention among its younger demographics who could access campaign websites online (appd.de). The Hamburg-based APPD and every other party is entitled by law to free television airtime on Germany’s public TV Station ARD and ZDF for its advertisements because it is an officially registered political party competing for the upcoming federal elections. Its next ad is scheduled for Monday night, although broadcasting authorities may again censor the ad.

The party has a membership of approximately 750 — German newspapers posit that the ads will have little impact on the upcoming election.

Oil in Alberta spill may be carcinogenic

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

The province of Alberta, Canada is considering legal action against Canadian National Railway for failing to warn that a derailment last week contaminated Wabamun Lake with a hazardous chemical.

The 700,000 litres of heavy Bunker C fuel oil that spilled into the lake asphyxiated birds and killed fish.

In addition, one of the ruptured tanker cars sent 70,000 liters of Imperial Pole Treating Oil into the lake. This oil is a yellow mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and aliphatic hydrocarbons. Naphthalene, a component of this “very toxic material” is suspected of causing skin cancer if touched and lung or other cancers if inhaled.[1] Inhalation is promoted by actions that cause splashing or foaming. The mineral oil is used in connection with pentachlorophenol for preserving wooden utility poles.

Wabamun Lake is a popular summertime recreational area about 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Edmonton, Alberta.

The 766-megawatt Keephills power generating plant, one of 3 in Wabamun, was shut down because the coal-fired plant uses water from the lake. Edmonton’s health authority ordered people not to swim, boat or rescue animals in the lake and to stop using its water or any water from nearby wells for cooking, drinking, showering or brushing teeth. These warnings came 3 days after many residents, including children, had been wading into the oil slick without protective clothing to save wildlife injured by the spill and others had been routinely depending on the lakewater for home use. Why the alert was not issued sooner remains under investigation and may result in criminal charges. Canadian National Railway had been informed of the nature of the oil when it was loaded by Imperial Oil Ltd., Canada’s largest petroleum company. Imperial Oil is posting informational updates on a special website [2]. In addition The Wabamun Residents Committee has established an information website [3].

Airplane in Nigeria crashes during mock rescue exercise

Saturday, March 13, 2010

A Nigerian airplane crashed in the city of Port Harcourt yesterday, resulting in several minor injuries.

The plane was supposed to be taking part in a mock rescue exercise, and was carrying 30 members from the National Emergency Management Agency and other emergency workers, when it slid off the runway and into some bushes after landing at Port Harcourt International Airport.

The rescue workers on the ground, intended to participate in the emergency drill, instead had to deal with a real emergency; however, only a few people on board the aircraft sustained minor wounds.

A spokeswoman for the police, Rita Inoma-Abbey, commented today that “[n]o life was lost, but the aircraft was severely damaged.”

SEPTA buys rail cars from NJ Transit to deal with crowding

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

As gas prices have risen in the United States, the regional transport authority for southeastern Pennsylvania, SEPTA, has seen a sharp increase in ridership, which has caused overcrowding on the trains.

“As fuel prices have continued to rise, SEPTA ridership has steadily increased and is the highest in 18 years,” said SEPTA General Manager Joseph Casey. Monthly ridership was 22 percent higher last month than a year ago.

“They have crushed loads on their rail lines, already where people are standing, and there’s not enough seats,” said Rich Bickel, the director of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

“At peak times some railcars are standing room only and commuter parking lots are nearly full. All Regional Rail lines are running near full capacity and the train station parking lots are at about 90 percent capacity or more,” SEPTA spokesperson Felipe Suarez said.

While SEPTA awaits new Silverliner V trains from Hyundai Rotem, which begin arriving in 2009, it had hoped to lease eight rail cars from New Jersey Transit, at an agreed-upon rate of US$10,000 per month. However, due to problems with insurance and liability indemnification, the deal fell through, according to Casey.

SEPTA has entered a new agreement to purchase the eight rail cars from NJ Transit. The transit authority will pay US$670,000 for the cars and assorted supplies plus one additional inoperative car which will be used for spare parts. The rail cars will be operated using a SEPTA provided locomotive as they are not self-propelled.

The cars are being disposed of by NJ Transit because it has switched from single-floor cars to double-decker cars.

SEPTA is expecting to raise US$3.1 million by selling rail that has been out of service since 1981 at auction.

U.S. Housing prices down 9% since February

Sunday, June 26, 2005

The median house price in the United States plunged 6.5% in May to $217,000. In February of 2005, the median price of a home was $237,300.

The Economist newspaper said in its June 16th issue; “In other words, it looks like the biggest bubble in history.” by way of reference to what is happening with housing prices in the USA and much of Europe.

Japan provides an example of how a boom can turn to bust. Property prices have dropped for 14 years in a row (40% from their peak in 1991); and yet, the rise in prices in Japan during the decade before 1991 was less than the increase over the past ten years in most of today’s “housing boom” countries.

The total value of residential property rose by more than $30 trillion over the past five years in developed economies, an increase equivalent to 100% of the combined GDPs of those countries. This increase dwarfs all previous house-price booms and is greater than the global stockmarket bubble in the late 1990s. Much of the recent housing activity is being driven by speculative demand. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that 23% of all American houses bought in 2004 were for investment, not for owners to live in. Another 13% were bought as second homes. NAR also found that 42% of all first-time buyers made no down-payment on their home purchase last year.

Many investors are buying solely because they think prices will keep rising, which is a warning sign of a financial bubble. In Miami, Florida, as many as half of the original buyers resell new apartments even before they are built, and properties can change hands two or three times before somebody finally moves in.

Britain’s Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) reported prices have been falling for ten consecutive months. Forty nine percent of their surveyors reported falling prices in May. This was the weakest report since 1992 during Britain’s previous house-price bust.

Two bomb blasts kill at least 17 in Istanbul, Turkey

Monday, July 28, 2008

Two bombs detonated in the Güngören district of Istanbul, Turkey Sunday evening, killing at least 17 people and wounding over 150. The neighborhood targeted is mainly residential, and the victims were civilians. At least five of those killed were children, according to local officials.

This bombing was the worst terrorist attack in Istanbul since the 2003 Istanbul Bombings, in which truck bombs exploded outside two Istanbul synagogues, killing 23 and wounding more than 300. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the 2003 attack.

The initial explosion caused little damage, but attracted crowds of onlookers. The second more lethal blast occurred 10 minutes later, about 50 metres away.

“After the first explosion, I rushed outside to check on my two sons, found both of them. But my elder son insisted on going back to find his father,” said Nimet Arslan to International Herald Tribune. Following the second bomb, she said, “a dark smoke filled the air and all I could see or hear was people screaming.” The elder son suffered a broken leg.

Turkish President Abdullah Gül said in a statement, “Nothing can be achieved by terror, violently claiming lives of the innocent. These attacks show the inhumanity and misery of the assailants.”

It is not yet clear who is responsible, but Turkish authorities suspect the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatist group. “Of course, there are links with the separatist organization,” the governor of Istanbul province, Muammer Güler said, “It’s surely a terror attack, there’s no doubt.” This follows a recent shooting attack on the United States consulate in Istanbul. The US embassy is in Ankara.

On Sunday, the Turkish military announced that its fighter jets had raided twelve PKK settlements in Northern Iraq, which the PKK uses as a base to launch attacks on Turkey, raising speculation of PKK involvement in this attack. However Zubeyir Aydar, a senior Kurdish militant, denied any involvement in the attacks in a statement to a pro-PKK news agency.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an visited the site on Monday, calling for calm and nationwide solidarity.

Genuine Work From Home Jobs They Do Exist}

Genuine Work From Home Jobs They Do Exist

by

Peter Alderton

There are genuine work from home jobs that do not require you to set up a website and they pay well. This allows you to work from home and set your own hours. Most of the genuine work from home jobs are on contract basis, where you work as a freelancer. This way you set your own fees without setting up your own business.

When you want to find jobs that let you work from home, your first concern is that they are legit work at home jobs. You want to take advantage of the benefits of working at home, but you dont want to lose your hard-earned money through scams. Lets face it, there are scams out there and many people think that all work at home opportunities fall into this category. However, there are many genuine work from home jobs that you can take advantage of and make a nice salary.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haKzg2wfQr0[/youtube]

The thing is that when most people do find genuine work from home jobs, they dont advertise it so they can take advantage of the opportunity it presents. There are many companies that will gladly pay you to work from home because this frees up capital for them. They do offer legit work at home jobs because they do not have to purchase equipment and they only pay for the work that gets done.

Medical billing, for example, is one of the many legit work at home jobs that you can have. Doctors will send you the list of bills that have to be sent out and with only the purchase of accounting software, you can do all the billing they need from home. Then when the bills are paid, you enter it in the system and deposit the money in the proper account. You get paid either a flat rate per bill you send out and collect on or a percentage of the money collected. As with all genuine work from home jobs, with medical billing you get paid to work at home.

Legal transcription is another of the genuine work from home jobs that are available. As with any job, these legit work from home jobs do require that you have training and expertise in the position you apply for. Companies will probably give you a trial assignment to see how well you work out and to make sure that you can do the job from home. Once you get started and build up a reputation, it wont be long before you have offers for genuine work from home jobs.

There are many genuine work from home jobs that you can find if you look.

To download a free copy of Peter’s

A Successful Home Business

visit Peter’s Website Work From Home Solutions and find out about

Work From Home Businesses

and more, including Internet Home Business.

Article Source:

Genuine Work From Home Jobs They Do Exist }

Factors To Consider When Buying Men Adidas Superstar Ii Shoes}

Submitted by: Vikram KR

When getting sporting shoes from Adidas you will be up for the best selection. The company is a big brand renowned for some of the best shoes known to man. The Adidas Superstars, for example, is a huge line of shoes that will certainly take you long periods of time to choose from. The shoes are all nice in their own capacities and functional in their own way and so it all comes to your preferences and tastes. The sports shoes manufacturer has various collections for athletics, basketball and football among other sporting activities. However, as a buyer you need to make an informed purchase and this article will help you with just that.

The Considerations

Adidas largely makes sporting shoes than the casual counterparts. Choosing the best shoe out of the Mens Adidas Superstar II shoes requires that you be specific and thorough as well. While it is blatantly obvious that football, basketball and tennis require different kinds of shoes, some qualities and features remain the same. For example, strength of the shoes is paramount as it helps in determining the durability of shoes. You wouldnt go to a basketball court with spike shoes but you will certainly need strong shoes which guarantee your safety in the court even as you will save more because the shoes will last longer. A wrong decision will not befall you if you decide the type of shoes you need prior to the purchase so do not overlook that.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK_SGAiG_c8[/youtube]

Prices

Adidas Superstar shoe line contains varieties of shoes with different modifications. It is the modifications that make the shoes unique in their own way and the determinant of the prices. Even though you will certainly need the best shoes from the company, consider the price and your capabilities. Generally, Mens Adidas Superstar II shoes are fairly priced compared to other brands. The prices are in line with other important shoe qualities like comfort. You certainly have to go for fitting shoes and not loose shoes which will jeopardize how you move around. Even though you can buy shoes online, buying at the shop is a better option because the attendant will take you through your best fits and help you make a sound decision on the same.

If you are a sports personality then the best shoe is that which gives you zeal in the field. Having any form of negativity in form of uncomfortable shoes can be disastrous. Adidas superstar shoes are tailor made and so you can always make orders with your specific requirements which will all be met unless impossible. There are countless bogus brands that are just after money and wont offer you any quality. Therefore, if you are not careful you might just be swindled into making bad buys and fake shoes. For you to avoid your money going into the drain ensure you make your purchases wisely at all times.

Mens Adidas superstar II is exceptional and equally unique compared to other brands. The quality is undoubted and durability is key. Ensure that you are simply perfect in all aspects when buying the shoes.

About the Author: Whether you are a sports personality or a casual person consider

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mens Adidas superstar II shoes will guarantee you durability and functionality. You can always get the shoes at stores in your nearest town or you can order for some in online stores. You must be careful and ensure the pair of

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Adidas Superstars are Adidas and branded well.

Source:

isnare.com

Permanent Link:

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}

Donald Trump plans £300m “golfing paradise” for rural Scotland

Saturday, April 1, 2006

American multi-billionaire Donald Trump has announced plans to build a massive golf complex on an 800-acre site just north of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Speaking last night from the Trump Tower in New York, Trump said that the development will be akin to a “homecoming” for him. The ginger-haired property tycoon’s mother is from the Western Isles of Scotland.

The £300m project at Menie in Aberdeenshire will include both a links course and an inland course, and a 400-bedroom hotel as well as a golfing academy and holiday homes. The facilities are being built with the intention of attracting the Open Championship to the site, officially dubbed Trump International Golf Links, Scotland.

Fields and sand-dunes make up the landscape of the coastal site. Trump said of the location, “As soon as I saw it there was no question about it. I looked at 211 fantastic sites all over Europe, but here it is – the dune size and the ocean front. There is no piece of land that I have ever seen that is comparable to this.” The billionaire claims that the complex, set to be his only development outside the United States, will be the “best course in the world.”

Local and national political figures, including Scottish First Minister Jack McConnell, have welcomed the announcement with open arms, as the project is expected to bring in an additional £157m to the region’s economy within the first ten years. Scottish tourism company VisitScotland is also optimistic, expecting an influx of international visitors to play on (or simply visit) the site. Plans to expand the A90 road running past the site in the near future will enable more road traffic to and around the area. An £60m expansion of Aberdeen Airport will also allow for vastly increased international air links, akin to those operated using Boeing 767 aircraft.

Work on the golf complex itself is set to begin in September this year, with the Trump Organisation hopeful for a Spring 2008 opening date.