That guy there, with the face tattoo … he could be the next president of the Czech Republic. Seriously. Do yourself a favor, read this.
Moving to Eastern Europe just so I can vote for this guy.
The EU is currently undergoing grave economic difficulties and considerable social unrest. The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to focus on what it sees as the EU’s most important result: the successful struggle for peace and reconciliation and for democracy and human rights.Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland • Discussing why, exactly, an entire continent, with millions of people, is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize — he says it’s because the continent has converted “from a continent of wars to a continent of peace.” Does this mean we have to preface any time someone does something terrible on the continent with a phrase like “Nobel Peace Prize winning dictator”? The union will now split the $1.2 million prize between roughly 500 million people — though we’re assuming a few hundred million will be left out.
» A year and a half without clear choice: Although Microsoft claims that the missing screen was replaced as soon as the issue was brought to the company’s attention, European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia has announced that the EU is once again on the case. “We are now opening formal proceedings against the company,” said Almunia in a press release, adding, “If following our investigation, this breach is confirmed – and Microsoft seems to acknowledge the facts here – this could have severe consequences.”
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We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature. The discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson opens the way to more detailed studies, requiring larger statistics, which will pin down the new particle’s properties, and is likely to shed light on other mysteries of our universe.CERN director general Rolf Heuer • Saying that his group has discovered the “God particle,” also known as Higgs boson, in a speech on Wednesday. The boson, conjured and named for theoretical physicist Peter Higgs 50 years ago, was found while Higgs himself was still alive — which is a feat amazing in and of itself. “It is an incredible thing that it has happened in my lifetime,” Higgs said.
Prime Minister David Cameron accidentally left his daughter behind in a country pub after a Sunday lunch with friends following a mix-up over which car she was meant to be going home in, his Downing Street office said on Monday.
Cameron was swiftly reunited with 8-year-old Nancy, one of his three young children, but the incident will add fuel to critics who accuse him of being overly fond of relaxing, or “chillaxing” as he has called it, when not dealing with affairs of state.
Its disclosure in the Sun newspaper has the potential to embarrass Cameron, coming on the day the government launched a fresh drive to tackle “problem families” who lead chaotic lives and cost taxpayers millions of pounds in policing and welfare costs.
Cameron and his wife Samantha only discovered their eldest child was missing when they returned to their official country residence, Chequers in Buckinghamshire, 40 miles northwest of London.
This sounds like something Hugh Grant would do. Seriously, this could’ve been a deleted scene in “Love, Actually.”
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The wife of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is expected to join 114 other Syrians as the target of a fresh round of sanctions from the European Union. Al-Assad’s assets are expected to be frozen after a confirmation vote of EU ministers during a meeting in Brussels on Friday. The reports come amid news that Asma was caught boasting, about her standing in the regime and President Bashar al-Assad’s plans to crush his opposition, by hackers who released a collection of messages from Bashar, Asma, and several members of their inner-circle.
» What a record to break! One year removed from bankruptcy, American automaker General Motors posted record-setting earnings for the 2011 fiscal year. In recent weeks/months many investors worried that GM’s overseas operations would drag down the company’s year-end totals. GM lost a total of $747 million in European markets, with $562 million of the losses occurring in the fourth quarter alone. In South America, where the company reported $818 million in earnings for 2010, GM reported a net loss of $122 million. However, not only did the company defy global expectations, GM managed to break its former $6.7 billion earnings record, set in 1996.
![reuters:
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrives at the Supreme Court in London February 1, 2012.
Assange was detained in Britain in December 2010 on a European arrest warrant issued by a Swedish prosecutor after two female former WikiLeaks volunteers accused him of sexual assault. [REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth]
Read more: Julian Assange appeals extradition to UK’s top court
In case you’d like to follow along at home, ABC (Australia) has live video from the event.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lypxwcgr781qmaoalo1_500.jpg)
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrives at the Supreme Court in London February 1, 2012.
Assange was detained in Britain in December 2010 on a European arrest warrant issued by a Swedish prosecutor after two female former WikiLeaks volunteers accused him of sexual assault. [REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth]
Read more: Julian Assange appeals extradition to UK’s top court
In case you’d like to follow along at home, ABC (Australia) has live video from the event.
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
We also have this constant denigration of “what Europe has become”. Does Romney know that unemployment in Germany is 5.5 percent? Or is all this just abstract @(&!((!7?Andrew Sullivan goes after Mitt’s criticisms of Europe in his New Hampshire victory speech tonight.
This week’s euro-meteor is just the latest of many Economist covers devoted to the impending European debt crisis. The first was in May last year—no few inventive depictions of doom and despair have followed. Browse more (and read the stories) at this link.
Today in reminding people that yes, The Economist actually does cover “boring” international news on its cover. A reminder that suddenly seems relevant because of this whole fracas.
…we will most likely bail out Europe, which will be a real tragedy.Ron Paul, making clear his bleak long-term assessment of the euro zone debt crisis.
Over a period of 17 months, everything was strictly regimented. Now they are returning to a life where they must deal with family and professional problems.Mars500 project director Boris Morukov • Talking about the crew of “astronauts” after a 520 day simulated mission to Mars. The mission intended to answer the question: “ can people stay healthy and sane during six months rocketing to the Red Planet?” The participants, from countries like Europe, Russia and China, are expected to have problems adjusting to the “noise and activity of ordinary life.” Still, it seemed to go much better than this experiment in 2000, which ended “in drunken disaster when two participants got into a fistfight and a third tried to forcibly kiss a female crew member.” We would be a little frazzled, too, after hundreds of days of isolation and terrible food. source (via • follow)
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