Swiss elections

A summary of what happened in the Swiss elections yesterday (Oct. 22) can be found in he San Fancisco Chronicle (copied below).
I believe that the nationalist party and the Greens, increased their support because they had a simple and clear message to the voters (different messages of course). The socialist lost big, because they did not have such a message. And this is the problem that the socialists faced in other countries too(e.g France, Greece etc).
Can the progressives change that? They should probably listen to Lakoff. They don't seem to have found other approaches so far.

The nationalist Swiss People's Party received the highest vote ever recorded for an individual political party in Switzerland after a bitter campaign blaming foreigners for much of the country's crime.
But although many saw the campaign as tainted by racism or xenophobia, the Swiss also elected their first black parliament member Sunday.
The Federal Statistics Office put the People's Party at 29 percent after the national parliamentary elections. That topped the 1919 performance of 28 percent achieved by the pro-business Radical Democrats when Swiss elections were reorganized immediately after World War I.
The Social Democrats were the big losers, dropping to 19.5 percent from 23.3 percent.
The People's Party added seven seats to bring to 62 its total in the 200-seat National Council, the lower house of parliament, also edging out the Radical Democrats' 1919 record of 60.
People's Party president Ueli Maurer and other party leaders pledged to continue working among the four major parties in the long-standing Swiss system of consensus politics that covers the wide range from Social Democrats on the left to People's Party on the right. All four parties share in the governing Cabinet, without a prime minister and with the president only a figurehead.
The People's Party claims foreigners are responsible for much of the crime in the country. In the campaign, the People's Party called for a law to throw out entire immigrant families if a child violates Swiss laws — the most recent variation of the party's anti-foreigner theme.
Party posters featuring white sheep kicking out a black sheep sparked outrage that was blamed in part for a riot two weeks before the election.
Despite the tension, Ricardo Lumengo of the Social Democrats, an Angolan who arrived in Switzerland as an asylum seeker the 1980s and subsequently became a legal expert, became the first black parliament member elected by the Swiss.
Switzerland's population of 7.5 million includes about 1.6 million foreigners, including many workers from southern Europe and refugees from the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Applicants for Swiss citizenship typically must wait years and clear administrative hurdles before they are granted Swiss passports.
The Social Democrats have 43 seats, a drop of nine. The Green Party added six to its 2003 performance, bringing its total to the party's best showing of 20 seats, reflecting concerns for the environment on the left.
"I'm very happy with the result," said Ruth Genner, president of the Greens. But she noted that the party appeared to be just short of its goal of 10 percent. If it had reached that figure, it had said it would ask to join the four major parties in the Cabinet.
The two center-right parties, the Radical Democrats and the Christian Democrats, each had about 15 percent of the vote — about the same as in 2003 — but the Radical Democrats will lose five seats for a total of 31. The Christian Democrats will gain three seats for the same total.
Nearly 4.8 million Swiss voters were eligible to cast ballots Sunday for the two-chamber National Assembly: the National Council and the 46-seat Council of States. Results for the upper chamber were incomplete because a runoff will be held Nov. 25. The full assembly will then determine the makeup of the seven-member Cabinet on Dec. 12.

___

A country that works

I got the following from a friend:

Sunday in Lausanne Switzerland. Not much going on and it seems like a sleepy town.
A car leaking oil has just passed through a small stret leaving a slippery trail of oil behind it. Within half an hour, a police car has blocked the entry to the road, and a municipal truck is unloading sand on the oil trail for slippage avoidance. About an hour later, a cleaning van from the mnunicipality is cleaning the mess. All this at 16.00 on a Sunday!

Turkey's Lobbyists Fund Presidential Campaign

On FARA online one can find the text of the contract in which DLA Piper agrees, for a fee of $1.2 million/year, to provide lobbying and governmental relations services to Turkey including, but not limited to: “Preventing the introduction, debate, and passage of legislation that harms turkey’s interest or image.”
Preventing the debate? How about this for a country that wants to be a member of the European Union. I wonder of course how the US law allows this.
The contract.
I found -and I copy below-the following interesting information on the contract and the donations of the company.
The contract is signed by Matthew Bernstein who has (according to OpenSecrets) given $8,900 to Presidential candidates this year ($4,600 to Clinton, $2,000 to Dodd, $2,300 to Biden)[here I corrected a previous error--I initially wrote that he gave $1000 to Edwards, which he has not], and John Merrigan, who has given $11,500 to the campaigns ($4600 to Clinton, $4600 to Dodd, $2,300 to Biden). All told, DLA Piper has given half a million to candidates in the 2008 cycle—I didn’t parse out the Presidential ones. Dick Gephardt and his wife have donated $4,600 to Hillary Clinton. David Mercer, named in the contract, has given $4,600 to Clinton. John Zentay, whose name is also on the contract, has given $2,000 to Clinton.
In fact, DLA Piper has given nearly $300,000 to Clinton’s campaign, and I’m sure that number undershoots it—when I looked up John Merrigan, only some of his contributions were tagged as DLA Piper contributions. He has personally bundled over $100,000 for Clinton.
It is, of course, illegal for a foreign principal “directly or through another person” to contribute to an electoral campaign in the United States. But what is “through another person,” really?
Is it possible that John, Matt, and Dick acted on their own?
And as for the inflammatory headline...I thought about it, but I decided to keep it, because its true. I welcome the world into our political conversation, but I think the laws limiting foreign contributions to political campaigns are necessary for self-government, and when it looks like they might be using campaign contributions to do a runaround on those limitations, we should note it.
DLA Piper also represents the UAE, Ethiopia, and Afghanistan, in separate contracts.
Thanks to those who have been working to get FARA online. It truly transforms the role of the citizen in digging deeper, and a model for how a general lobbying database could work.

Nobel prize 2007 in Economics

Three Americans have won the 2007 Nobel Prize for economics: Leo Hurwicz from the University of Minnesota; Eric Maskin of Princeton University; and Roger Myerson of the University of Chicago. The U.S. academics won for their work in Mechanism Design Theory, which studies the efficiency of the marketplace by looking at factors such as the quality of information made available to market participants.

The Nobel committee has published a document called "Information for the Public" that attempts to explain their accomplishments in laymen's terms. A more academic background paper on Mechanism Design Theory is also available online.

If you're really interested, the Nobel committee has also published citations for the key academic papers that brought the winners to prominence.
The link for the above information.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2007

What does George W. Bush have to say about this?
Mario R. Capecchi,USA, University of Utah; Howard Hughes Medical Institute Salt Lake City, UT,USA Sir Martin J. Evans, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom Oliver Smithies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
"for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells"

Gordon Brown

I received the following from a friend and I thought it was very good!

A young man named Gordon bought a donkey from an old farmer for £50.
The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day, but when the farmer drove up he said, "Sorry son, but I have some bad news... the donkey is on my truck, but unfortunately he's dead. Gordon replied, "Well then, just give me my money back."
The farmer said, "I can't do that, because I've spent it already. Gordon said, "OK then, well just unload the donkey anyway. The farmer asked, "What are you going to do with him?" Gordon answered, "I'm going to raffle him off."
To which the farmer exclaimed, "Surely you can't raffle off a dead donkey!"
But Gordon, with a wicked smile on his face said, "Of course I can, you watch me. I just won't bother to tell anybody that he's dead."
A month later the farmer met up with Gordon and asked, "What happened with that dead donkey?"
Gordon said, "I raffled him off, sold 500 tickets at two pounds a piece, and made a huge, fat profit!!"
Totally amazed, the farmer asked, "Didn't anyone complain that you had stolen their money because you lied about the donkey being dead?" To which Gordon replied, "The guy who was the raffle winner only found out about the donkey being dead when he came to claim his prize. So I gave him his £2 raffle ticket money back plus an extra £100, which as you know is double the going rate for a donkey, so he thought I was great guy!!
Gordon grew up and eventually became the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and no matter how many times he lied, or how much money he stole from the British voters, as long as he gave them back some of the stolen money, most of them, unfortunately, still thought he was a great guy.
The moral of this story is that, if you think Gordon is about to play fair and do something for the everyday people of the country for once in his miserable, lying life, think again my friend, because you'll be better off flogging a dead donkey.

Money in Switzerland

I was told by a Swiss banker that 27% of the money available in the world is located in bank accounts in Switzerland. Is this correct?

More on the Reader's Digest rating

Some more info from this study.

How Countries Rate
Top 5
1. Finland
2. Iceland
3. Norway
4. Sweden
5. Austria

Bottom 5
137. Chad
138. Burkina Faso
139. Sierra Leone
140. Niger
141. Ethiopia

Air Quality
Rates concentration of several pollutants in urban areas
1. Moldova
8. Finland
63. United States
126. Ethiopia
141. Guatemala

The World's Greenest, Most Livable Cities
Using different data, we analyzed 72 major international cities and ranked them in terms of being green and livable. The sources included The Millennium Cities Database for Sustainable Transport (2001) by Jeff Kenworthy and Felix Laube of Australia's Murdoch University, the World Bank's Development Economic Research Group Estimates, and our own reporting on local environmental laws, energy prices, garbage production and disposal, and parkland.

5 Best
1. Stockholm
2. Oslo
3. Munich
4. Paris
5. Frankfurt

5 Worst
68. Bangkok
69. Guangzhou
70. Mumbai
71. Shanghai
72. Beijing

How U.S. Cities Rate
15. New York
22. Washington, D.C.
23. Chicago
26. San Francisco
36. Atlanta
43. Denver
46. Houston
55. San Diego
57. Los Angeles
60. Phoenix

Water Quality
Rates pollutant levels as well as other factors that affect water purity
1. Norway
2. Finland
22. United States
127. Ethiopia
141. Morocco

Greenhouse Gases
Rates carbon emissions per capita and by GDP
1. Chad
18. Ethiopia
75. Finland
107. United States
141. Turkmenistan

Energy Efficiency
Rates conservation efforts and use of renewables such as hydropower
1. D.R. Congo
17. Ethiopia
66. Finland
106. United States
141. Trinidad & Tobago

Environmental Health
Rates childhood mortality, disease; deaths from intestinal infections
1. Austria
8. Finland
125. Ethiopia
16. United States
141. Turkmenistan

Best countries to live in

From reader' s digest
The first 51 greenest, most livable places.
Countries Overall
1. Finland
2. Iceland
3. Norway
4. Sweden
5. Austria
6. Switzerland
7. Ireland
8. Australia
9. Uruguay
10. Denmark
11. Canada
12. Japan
13. Israel
14. Italy
15. Slovenia
16. France
17. Netherlands
18. Portugal
19. New Zealand
20. Greece
21. Germany
22. Latvia
23. United States
24. Lithuania
25. United Kingdom
26. Belgium
27. Argentina
28. Croatia
29. Spain
30. Hungary
31. Albania
32. Estonia
33. Slovakia
34. Costa Rica
35. South Korea
36. Cuba
37. Belarus
38. Czech Republic
39. Bosnia and Herzegovina
40. Brazil
41. Panama
42. Armenia
43. Chile
44. Paraguay
45. United Arab Emirates
46. Macedonia
47. Bulgaria
48. Poland
49. Kuwait
50. Oman
51. Russia

Kythera weather, Monthly averages

Monthly Normals

January February March April May June July August September October November December
High Temperature (F/C)
55/13 55/13 58/14 63/17 71/22 79/26 84/29 83/28 78/26 70/21 64/18 58/15
Low Temperature (F/C)
48/9 48/9 50/10 54/12 61/16 68/20 72/22 72/22 69/20 62/17 57/14 51/11
Precipitation (in/mm)
4.07/103.3 2.67/67.7 2.34/59.5 1.11/28.1 0.41/10.5 0.07/1.9 0.09/2.4 0.09/2.3 0.44/ 11.2 2.13 / 54.2 3.37 / 85.6 4.54 / 115.2
Cloud Cover (out of 8) 4.9 4.9 4.4 3.9 3.1 1.6 0.7 0.7 1.6 3.3 4.3 4.8

Plagiarism on the web?

Facebook, the US-based social networking website, attempts to get a lawsuit against it thrown out of court in Boston. Three founders of a rival site, ConnectU, say Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for the site while they were all at Harvard.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/6929165.stm

Academics oppose Israel boycott

When academics get into real politics…(A news item from the BBC). (For more information on the vote see haaretz).
The complete list of those who have signed the petition can be found on the SPME website).

Thousands of academics from around the world have condemned plans for a UK boycott of Israeli institutions over its treatment of the Palestinians. More than 10,000 academics have signed a declaration saying they would not join any project which barred Israelis. The group, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME), said the boycott plans attacked academic freedoms. The UK's University and College Union voted in May to debate a boycott, and suspects this has been misunderstood. Thirty-two Nobel prize winners were among the thousands who signed the condemnation of the UCU boycott plan. Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who drafted the statement for SPME, said the signatories represented a cross-section of academics from around the world. "The message of the signatories is crystal clear," Mr Dershowitz said. "Should the UCU go forward with a boycott of Israeli academics and institutions, the end result will be a self-inflicted wound on British academia." At its annual conference in May, union members were urged to consider the "moral implications" of links with Israeli universities. UCU general secretary Sally Hunt had urged delegates not to support the boycott call, saying she did not believe the majority of UCU members supported an academic boycott of Israel. But delegates voted in favour of a motion to further discuss an all-out boycott. Ms Hunt has since written to UCU members outlining the process needed to conduct a debate over the proposed boycott, including nationwide appearances by Palestinian and Israeli academics.

Bush, Public Health and Education by Fidel Castro

On many sites, ( e.g. this),one can find a very interesting article by Fidel Castro written on July 14, 2007, with the above title.
He makes some very impressive claims about the results of Cuba’s policies in public health and education. We should probably study these policies and their financing more closely.

Some extracts from the article:
The International Labour Organization has indicated that "47 percent of people born abroad that complete their Doctorate in the United States stay in that country." Yet another example of the plunder: "There are more Ethiopian physicians in Chicago than in all of Ethiopia."
In Cuba, where healthcare is not a commodity. Third World countries do not have the resources to set up scientific research centers, while Cuba has created these even if her own professionals have often been enticed and encouraged to defect.
Our Yes I Can method of teaching people to read and write is today available to all Latin American countries, free of charge, and the countries that choose to use the program receive support to adapt it to their own characteristics and to produce the printed materials and the corresponding videos. Countries such as Bolivia are implementing the program in Spanish, Quechua and Aymara. The numbers of those who have learned to read and write there in just one year exceed the number of those who have been taught to read and write by the empire in all of Latin America, if indeed there is anyone.
Yes I Can is of benefit to other societies outside the Western Hemisphere. Suffice it to say that New Zealand is using the program to eradicate illiteracy in their Maori population.
Instead of having one training center for medical professionals in
Central America, which has trained about 100 -and we're glad for this-- our country today has tens of thousands of students from Latin America and the Caribbean on full scholarships who spend six years training as doctors in Cuba, free of charge.
We cooperate with Venezuela in the education of more than 20,000 youths, who study medicine and train in clinics in the poor neighborhoods, tutored by Cuban specialists, so that they can get acquainted with their future and difficult job.
The Comfort, with over 800 people on board, that is, medical staff
and crew, will not be able to look after great numbers of people. It
is impossible to carry out medical programs episodically. Physical therapy, for example, in many cases requires months of work. Cuba provides permanent services to people in polyclinics and well-equipped hospitals, and the patients can be cared for any time of day or night. We have also trained the necessary physical therapy specialists.
The eye surgery also requires special skills. In our country ophthalmologic centers perform more than 50,000 eye surgeries on Cubans each year and look after 27 kinds of diseases. There are no waiting lists for cornea transplants which need special arrangements. Let an active investigation be done in the United States and you will see how many people really need to be operated on there; since they have never been examined by an ophthalmologist they will attribute their eye problems to other causes and run the risk of becoming blind or of having their vision seriously impaired. You would find out that there are millions.
In the abovementioned figure I did not include the hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans and Caribbean people some of whom are operated on in Cuba, but most in their respective countries, by Cuban ophthalmologists. In Bolivia alone, they are more than 100,000 each year. In this instance, Bolivian doctors educated in the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) take part in the surgeries alongside our Cuban specialists.
Let's just see how the Comfort will make out in Haiti, providing health services for a week. There, in 123 of the country's 134 communes there are Cuban doctors working alongside ELAM graduates, or Haitian students in the last year of medical school, fighting AIDS and various tropical diseases.

Kenyan deputy ministers 'bored'

Why is this BBC item newsworthy? I am sure thare are many governments in the world with the same problem...

At least 30 assistant Kenyan ministers have written a letter to the president, complaining they have no work to do. "I just go to the office and read newspapers," said Abu Chiaba, an assistant fisheries minister. His counterpart in the wildlife and tourism ministry said he learnt of policy decision in the press.
President Mwai Kibaki promised a lean government when he took power in 2002, but instead increased the number of jobs to reward his coalition partners. Kenya has 50 assistant ministers serving in 33 ministries, as some ministries have two appointed assistants. The government spends more than $9m a year to meet salaries and allowances for the assistant ministers.

David Miliband's blog

A very nice personal blog of the new British Foreign Minister. Unfortunately, "We have suspended the ability to comment on this blog for the time being" .

E-vote 'threat' to UK democracy

An interesting article in the BBC

British democracy could be undermined by moves to use electronic voting in elections, warns a report.

The risks involved in swapping paper ballots for touch screens far outweigh any benefits they may have, says the Open Rights Group report.

It based its conclusions on reports from observers who watched e-voting trials in May's local elections.

The group called for a halt to e-voting until it is reliable, easy to oversee and has proven its integrity.

...continues here!

Joe Trippi with John Edwards

The internet guru of political campaigns Joe Trippi has joint John Edwards campaign team. Will the success of Trippi as campaign manager of Howard Dean, mainly because of the use of the internet campaign, help Edwards too? It will be interesting to see the effect he will have this time. Will he be able to win the netroots for JE?
It has been reported that former Bush Campaign webmaster Patrick Ruffini argues that bringing Trippi on board effectively "solidifies Edwards as the candidate of the netroots."

Gordon Brown on Education

The following refers to the views of Gordon Brown on Education. Important point are the setting up of a Council of Education, the emphasis on discipline in schools, and the diversity in schools. (from the BBC).

Prime Minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown has outlined plans to make British education "world class", in order to meet the challenges of globalisation. In his Mansion House speech to the City, Mr Brown said businesses should be involved in every school and backed the city academies programme. The chancellor pledged more focus on discipline, setting by ability and to review literacy and numeracy teaching. He said there was "too much potential untapped, too much talent wasted". The chancellor had said that if Britain was to meet the challenges of globalisation, improving education and skills had to be the priority.
There would be "no place in the new Britain we seek for complacency and no room for inadequate skills, low aspirations". "I want a Britain where there is no cap on ambition, no ceiling on talent, no limit to where your potential will take you and how far you can rise," he added. To achieve this he outlined plans to keep children in schools or training until 18, and offer them a "clear pathway" to a career - either through further education or through an apprenticeship.
Business partners
A National Council for Education Excellence is being set up to bring together business, education and voluntary sector leaders, he said, to see how businesses and universities can help schools. "In future every single secondary school and primary school should have a business partner - and I invite you all to participate," he said. BBC political editor Nick Robinson said it appeared Mr Brown was "ploughing on in much the same direction as Tony Blair".
Setting by ability
Education policy would focus on "standards and rigour" in teaching - particularly literacy and numeracy. There should be more "setting by ability" in maths, English, science and languages in all schools, he said. While "setting" groups pupils in terms of ability for certain lessons only, "streaming", favoured by Conservative leader David Cameron, puts them in hierarchical groups for all lessons. Plans for small group after-school tuition for pupils with a particular interest in certain subjects, extra support for gifted pupils and business "mentors" for those at risk of dropping out, were also outlined by Mr Brown.
Teachers 'in control'
And he pledged to champion "greater diversity" in education, adding he "applauded" city academies and wanted to make it easier to expand them. He also said he would consider "employer led" skills academies to improve vocational provision. The government would champion "excellence in teaching" and try to attract more "inspirational graduates" into teaching. And Mr Brown added teachers had to be "in control in every classroom". Further steps would be taken to "stamp out" bullying and Ofsted would be asked to "raise the bar" on what is considered acceptable behaviour. Mr Brown said: "We will champion discipline. I know parents and employers expect us to do more to help schools recognise the vital role of discipline in developing children and young people and they are right to do so."

Efron wins National Medal of Science

Efron, the Max H. Stein Professor and Professor of Statistics and of Health Research and Policy, was cited "for his contributions to theoretical and applied statistics, especially the bootstrap sampling technique; for his extraordinary geometric insight into nonlinear statistical problems; and for applications in medicine, physics and astronomy."

He invented the bootstrap method, a general computer-based way of attaching plus-or-minus values to a statistical estimate (as in, for example, "57 percent of the public plus or minus 3 percent are in favor of subsidizing public utilities"). His focus on methodologies useful in diverse fields has helped make Stanford's Department of Statistics America's top-ranked department in the discipline.

Efron, 69, is one of the world's most often-cited mathematical scientists. He earned his doctorate in statistics from Stanford in 1964 and joined the Stanford faculty in 1965. Winner of a 1983 MacArthur Prize, he has served as president of the American Statistical Association and of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.

The other 2005 National Medal of Science laureates are Jan D. Achenbach (Northwestern University), Ralph A. Alpher (Dudley Observatory), Anthony S. Fauci (National Institutes of Health), Tobin J. Marks (Northwestern University), Lonnie G. Thompson (Ohio State University) and Torsten N. Wiesel (Rockefeller University).

"The National Medal of Science honors individuals for pioneering scientific research in a range of fields, including physical, biological, mathematical, social, behavioral and engineering sciences, that enhances our understanding of the world and leads to innovations and technologies that give the United States its global economic edge," said a White House statement.

Clinton opens campaign song vote

US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton is asking the public to choose her 2008 campaign song in an online vote. Now the New York senator has posted nine songs on her website, asking people to select their favourite tune.
U2 - City of Blinding Lights
U2 - Beautiful Day
KT Tunstall - Suddenly I See
Smash Mouth - I'm a Believer
The Temptations - Get Ready
Dixie Chicks - Ready to Run
Shania Twain - Rock This Country
Jesus Jones - Right Here Right Now
The Staple Singers - I'll Take You There

Obama's Internet Campaign

(From the SF Chronicle)

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has raised $25 million in the first quarter of 2007, bolstered by an innovative Internet campaign that has helped him expand his appeal to a wider base of donors than his Democratic presidential rivals.
The Illinois senator's fundraising between Jan. 1 and March 31 brought in nearly as much as the $26 million raised by Democratic front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. But his base of 100,000 supporters surpasses the combined donors of Clinton, with a reported 50,000, and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, whose campaign announced he had raised $14 million from 40,000 donors.
Though the Obama campaign has not released official numbers, sources close to the campaign say the senator raised considerable cash in California -- as much as $1.2 million in the Bay Area and surrounding counties, $2 million in Southern California and another $300,000 elsewhere in the state for a total of about $3.5 million during the first three months of 2007.
Official campaign finance reports are not due to be filed with the Federal Election Commission until April 15. Many of the other candidates released their overall fundraising amounts earlier this week. Obama's campaign released its numbers on Wednesday.
Leading Silicon Valley insiders noted that Obama raised nearly $7 million on the Internet thanks to an aggressive effort involving bloggers, social networking and other activities that far outpaced the endeavors of other leading Democratic candidates. It includes 4,000 My.BarackObama.com groups, 9,000 Obama bloggers and 50,000 online donors.
Experts say Obama's strategy in California, the ATM of political fundraising, helped make him a surprising contender in the first-quarter "money primary,'' a crucial measure of strength and viability in the early presidential race.

Text of the Berlin Declaration

Declaration on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the signature of the Treaties of Rome

For centuries Europe has been an idea, holding out hope of peace and understanding. That hope has been fulfilled. European unification has made peace and prosperity possible. It has brought about a sense of community and overcome differences. Each Member State has helped to unite Europe and to strengthen democracy and the rule of law. Thanks to the yearning for freedom of the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe the unnatural division of Europe is now consigned to the past. European unification shows that we have learnt the painful lessons of a history marked by bloody conflict. Today we live together as was never possible before.
We, the citizens of the European Union, have united for the better.

In the European Union, we are turning our common ideals into reality: for us, the individual is paramount. His dignity is inviolable. His rights are inalienable. Men and women enjoy equal rights. We are striving for peace and freedom, for democracy and the rule of law, for mutual respect and shared responsibility, for prosperity and security, for tolerance and participation, for justice and solidarity.
We have a unique way of living and working together in the European Union. This is expressed through the democratic interaction of the Member States and the European institutions. The European Union is founded on equal rights and mutually supportive co-operation. This enables us to strike a fair balance between Member States' interests.
We preserve in the European Union the identities and diverse traditions of its Member States. We are enriched by open borders and a lively variety of languages, cultures and regions. There are many goals which we cannot achieve on our own, but only in concert. Tasks are shared between the European Union, the Member States and their regions and local authorities.

II

We are facing major challenges which do not stop at national borders. The European Union is our response to these challenges. Only together can we continue to preserve our ideal of European society in future for the good of all European Union citizens, This European model combines economic success and social responsibility. The common market and the euro make us strong. We can thus shape the increasing interdependence of the global economy and ever-growing competition on international markets according to our values. Europe's wealth lies in the knowledge and ability of its people; that is the key to growth, employment and social cohesion.

We will fight terrorism and organised crime together. We stand up for liberties and civil rights also in the struggle against those who oppose them. Racism and xenophobia must never again be given any rein.

We are committed to the peaceful resolution of conflicts in the world and to ensuring that people do not become victims of war, Terrorism and violence. The European Union wants to promote freedom and development in the world. We want to drive back poverty, hunger and disease. We want to continue to take a leading role in that fight.

We intend jointly to lead the way in energy policy and climate protection and make our contribution to averting the global threat of climate change.

III

The European Union will continue to thrive both on openness and on the will of its Member States to consolidate the Union's internal development. The European Union will continue to promote democracy, stability and prosperity beyond its borders.

With European unification a dream of earlier generations has become a reality. Our history reminds us that we must protect this for the good of future generations. For that reason we must always renew the political shape of Europe in keeping with the times. That is why today, 50 years after the signing of the Treaties of Rome, we are united in our aim of placing the European Union on a renewed common basis before the European Parliament elections in 2009.

For we know, Europe is our common future.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6491487.stm

Bill Gates keeps close eye on kids' computer time

Is this the result of the evaluation of evidence?

The following piece of news in not conclusive.

Just because you're the daughter of Bill Gates does not mean you get to play on your computer all day long.
The Microsoft founder said his 10-year-old daughter, his oldest child, was not a hard-core Internet and computer user until this year, when she started at a school where the students use tablet computers for almost everything.
"She became very avid and discovered a lot of computer games, including one that runs on the Xbox 360 called Viva Pinata, where you take care of your garden," he told a business audience in Ottawa.
"She could spend two or three hours a day on this Viva Pinata, because it's kind of engaging and fun."
Gates said he and his wife Melinda decided to set a limit of 45 minutes a day of total screen time for games and an hour a day on weekends, plus what time she needs for homework.

Obesity in the world. WHO ranking

There are currently 1.6 billion overweight adults in the world, according to the World Health Organization. That number is projected to grow by 40% over the next 10 years. The following list reflects the percentage of overweight adults aged 15 and over. These are individuals who have individual body mass indexes, which measures weight relative to height, greater than or equal to 25. Obese is defined as having a BMI greater than or equal to 30.
Rank Country %
1. Nauru 94.5
2. Micronesia, Federated States of 91.1
3. Cook Islands 90.9
4. Tonga 90.8
5. Niue 81.7
6. Samoa 80.4
7. Palau 78.4
8. Kuwait 74.2
9. United States 74.1
10. Kiribati 73.6
11. Dominica 71.0
12. Barbados 69.7
13. Argentina 69.4
14. Egypt 69.4
15. Malta 68.7
16. Greece 68.5
17. New Zealand 68.4
18. United Arab Emirates 68.3
19. Mexico 68.1
20. Trinidad and Tobago 67.9
21. Australia 67.4
22. Belarus 66.8
23. Chile 65.3
24. Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) 65.2
25. Seychelles 64.6
26. Bahrain 64.1
27. Andorra 63.8
28. United Kingdom 63.8
29. Saudi Arabia 63.5
30. Monaco 62.4
31. Bolivia 62.2
32. San Marino 62.1
33. Guatemala 61.2
34. Mongolia 61.2
35. Canada 61.1
36. Qatar 61.0
37. Uruguay 60.9
38. Jordan 60.5
39. Bahamas 60.4
40. Iceland 60.4
41. Nicaragua 60.4
42. Cuba 60.1
43. Germany 60.1
44. Brunei Darussalam 59.8
45. Slovenia 59.8
46. Peru 59.6
47. Vanuatu 59.6
48. Finland 58.7
49. Jamaica 57.4

50. Israel 57.3
51. Saint Lucia 57.3
52. Austria 57.1
53. Azerbaijan 57.1
54. Turkey 56.8
55. Tuvalu 56.6
56. Dominican Republic 56.5
57. Slovakia 56.3
58. Cyprus 56.2
59. Saint Kitts and Nevis 56.1
60. Costa Rica 55.8
61. Colombia 55.6
62. Antigua and Barbuda 55.5
63. Switzerland 55.4
64. Montenegro 54.9
65. Serbia 54.9
66. Serbia and Montenegro (The former state union of) 54.9
67. Albania 54.8
68. Fiji 54.8
69. Bulgaria 54.2
70. Luxembourg 54.2
71. Croatia 53.9
72. Bosnia and Herzegovina 53.8
73. Portugal 53.8
74. Armenia 53.3
75. Grenada 53.3
76. South Africa 53.3
77. Iran (Islamic Republic of) 53.2
78. Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 53.2
79. Lithuania 53.1
80. Lebanon 53.0
81. Czech Republic 52.9
82. Syrian Arab Republic 52.8
83. Spain 51.8
84. Hungary 51.6
85. Panama 51.4
86. Tunisia 51.0
87. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 50.6
88. Brazil 50.5
89. Belize 49.8
90. Sweden 49.7
91. Norway 49.1
92. Russian Federation 49.1
93. El Salvador 48.7
94. Lesotho 48.5
95. Suriname 47.8
96. Paraguay 47.7
97. Guyana 47.5
98. Poland 47.5
99. Latvia 47.3
100. The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 47.2
101. Ecuador 47.1
102. Turkmenistan 46.8
103. Ireland 46.6
104. Belgium 46.3
105. Marshall Islands 46.2
106. Netherlands 46.0
107. Uzbekistan 46.0
108. Denmark 45.8
109. Mauritius 45.6
110. Oman 45.6
111. Italy 45.5
112. Iraq 45.4
113. Georgia 44.8
114. Ukraine 44.8
115. Solomon Islands 44.0
116. Botswana 43.6
117. Honduras 43.5
118. Equatorial Guinea 43.0
119. Morocco 42.9
120. Dem. Republic of Timor-Leste 42.7
121. Mauritania 42.5
122. Estonia 42.2
123. Republic of Korea 42.0
124. Swaziland 41.8
125. Kazakhstan 41.4
126. Republic of Moldova 41.1
127. Bhutan 40.9
128. France 40.1
129. Cameroon 39.9
130. Maldives 39.9
131. Algeria 39.8
132. Dem. People's Republic of Korea 39.4
133. Kyrgyzstan 39.2
134. Romania 39.1
135. Lao People's Democratic Republic 38.9
136. Cape Verde 38.2
137. Tajikistan 37.3
138. Gabon 36.5
139. Myanmar 36.3
140. Liberia 35.6
141. Sierra Leone 33.4
142. Haiti 32.8
143. Zimbabwe 32.1
144. Thailand 31.6
145. Papua New Guinea 30.2
146. Malaysia 29.9
147. Ghana 29.2
148. China 28.9
149. Benin 28.5
150. Comoros 28.0
151. Angola 27.5
152. Nigeria 27.1
153. Yemen 27.0
154. Senegal 26.4
155. Philippines 25.2
156. Djibouti 24.9
157. Mali 24.1
158. Togo 24.0
159. Guinea 23.5
160. Sudan 23.1
161. Cote d'Ivoire 22.9
162. Singapore 22.9
163. Japan 22.6
164. Namibia 22.5
165. Pakistan 22.2
166. Sao Tome and Principe 21.4
167. United Republic of Tanzania 21.2
168. Malawi 19.3
169. Congo 18.9
170. Niger 17.6
171. Madagascar 17.4
172. Mozambique 17.3
173. Guinea-Bissau 16.7
174. Gambia 16.6
175. Indonesia 16.2
176. India 16.0
177. Somalia 15.8
178. Chad 15.6
179. Afghanistan 15.1
180. Uganda 14.8
181. Kenya 14.3
182. Burkina Faso 14.1
183. Rwanda 13.7
184. Zambia 13.0
185. Burundi 12.9
186. Central African Republic 12.9
187. Cambodia 11.3
188. Dem. Republic of the Congo 9.1
189. Nepal 8.4
190. Sri Lanka 7.4
191. Viet Nam 6.4
192. Bangladesh 6.1
193. Ethiopia 5.6
194. Eritrea 4.4

Berkeley and BP: A partnership of a public University and a Private Company

A new partnership led by UC Berkeley has been selected to receive an unprecedented $500 million from global energy firm BP to lead the way in research to develop new,
clean, renewable sources of energy. With this remarkable support, the work Berkeley will undertake will be transformative for the US and, indeed, our planet.
The UC campus will partner with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in this 10-year effort, which was announced this morning at a campus press conference by Robert A. Malone, chairman and president of BP America Inc., along with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
This new research effort -- the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) -- will focus initially on biotechnology to produce biofuels, that is, transportation fuels that are made from plants. Berkeley and its partners will bring the most creative science, innovative technologies, and astute understanding of social sciences to bear to
develop viable solutions to global energy challenges, among the most
fundamental problems facing us today.

A bitter family saga is at an end

Could the article by the same title in the BBC web site by By Matt Frei give the anser to the question I posed in my brevious post?
On one level, the hanging of Saddam Hussein is the end of a dramatic family saga that has pitted the Bushes of Texas against the Husseins of Tikrit.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6219767.stm
If this is true, then politics could be much simpler that we think it is...

Saddam's execution

I have not figured out what is the political message the US tried to send by the execution of Saddam.
And one oservation: Of the three nations that welcomed the event (USA, UK and Iran), the only one consistent in its views about Sadam is Iran.

Internet addiction in the US

Is it really a problem?

The US could be rife with "internet addicts" who are as clinically ill as alcoholics, according to psychiatrists involved in a nationwide study.

The study, carried out by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in California, US, indicates that more than one in eight US residents show signs of "problematic internet use".

The Stanford researchers interviewed 2513 adults in a nationwide survey. Because internet addiction is not a clinically defined medical condition, the questions used were based on analysis of other addiction disorders.

Most disturbing, according to the study's lead author Elias Aboujaoude, is the discovery that some people hide their internet surfing, or go online to cure foul moods – behaviour that mirrors the way alcoholics behave.

"In a sense, they're using the internet to self-medicate," Aboujaoude says. "And, obviously, something is wrong when people go out of their way to hide their internet activity."

A typical addict is a single, white college-educated male in his 30s, who spends more than 30 hours a week on "non-essential" computer use.
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn10322-us-internet-addicts-as-ill-as-alcoholics.html

The best cities in the world to live in

Mercer Consulting,10 April 2006

The analysis is part of Mercer Consulting's annual 'World-wide Quality of Living Survey', covering more than 350 cities. Each city is based on an evaluation of 39 criteria, including political, social, economic and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, transport, and other public services. Cities are ranked against New York as the base city, which has an index score of 100.
The world's top cities offering the best quality of life
(New York is the base city with a score of 100 points)

2006 Rank	2005 Rank	City	Country	Points
1	1	Zurich	Switzerland	108.2
2	2	Geneva	Switzerland	108.1
3	3	Vancouver	Canada	107.7
4	3	Vienna	Austria	107.5
5	8	Auckland	New Zealand	107.3
6	5	Düsseldorf	Germany	107.2
7	6	Frankfurt	Germany	107.0
8	7	Munich	Germany	106.8
9	9	Bern	Switzerland	106.5
9	9	Sydney	Australia	106.5
11	11	Copenhagen	Denmark	106.2
12	14	Wellington	New Zealand	105.8
13	12	Amsterdam	Netherlands	105.7
14	13	Brussels	Belgium	105.6
15	16	Toronto	Canada	105.4
16	16	Berlin	Germany	105.1
17	14	Melbourne	Australia	105.0
18	18	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	104.8
18	21	Ottawa	Canada	104.8
20	19	Stockholm	Sweden	104.7
21	20	Perth	Australia	104.5
22	22	Montreal	Canada	104.3
23	22	Nürnberg	Germany	104.1
24	22	Dublin	Ireland	103.8
25	25	Calgary	Canada	103.6
26	25	Hamburg	Germany	103.4
27	25	Honolulu	USA	103.3
28	28	San Francisco	USA	103.2
29	29	Adelaide	Australia	103.1
29	29	Helsinki	Finland	103.1
31	31	Brisbane	Australia	102.8
31	32	Oslo	Norway	102.8
33	33	Paris	France	102.7
34	35	Singapore	Singapore	102.5
35	34	Tokyo	Japan	102.3
36	36	Boston	USA	101.9
37	37	Lyon	France	101.6
37	37	Yokohama	Japan	101.6
39	39	London	UK	101.2
40	40	Kobe	Japan	101.0
41	41	Washington	USA	100.4
41	52	Chicago	USA	100.4
43	42	Portland	USA	100.3
44	43	Barcelona	Spain	100.2
45	44	Madrid	Spain	100.1
46	46	New York City	USA	100.0
47	46	Seattle	USA	99.9
48	47	Lexington	USA	99.8
49	48	Winston Salem	USA	99.7
51	50	Osaka	Japan	99.6
51	51	Milan	Italy	99.6
51	50	Milan	Italy	98
53	52	Lisbon	Portugal	97.5
53	52	Tsukuba	Japan	97.5

TIME, person of the year: You

I am so glad of this year's choice of TIME magazine!

Top 50 Restaurants in the World (2006)

Restaurant magazine produces an annual list of the 50 best restaurants in the world based on a poll of international chefs and critics. In 2006 El Bulli in (Spain) pushed the 2005 winner The Fat Duck down to second place. The two top restaurants are forerunners of molecular gastronomy. Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California is listed as the #20.

Unfortunately, there is not any Greek restaurant in the list (nor was there one in the 2004 list). So, is the good Greek food only cooked in private houses? Or do we have a case similar to the Greek Universities not making it to the top 200 list of Universities world-wide?

Berkeley vs Stanford, Computer Science Departments

The following article in the Dec 1^st issue of the Daily Californian (http://dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=22478), is indicative of the strength of these two institutions that have achieved a marvelous mix of competition and cooperation. And one of them is public, the other is private. ...continues here!

Smoking banned in England

Smoking in enclosed public places will be banned in England from 1 July next year, the government has announced. The ban covers virtually all enclosed public places including offices, factories, pubs and bars, but not outdoors or in private homes. It follows similar bans in the Irish Republic and Scotland - a ban in Wales starts on 2 April. ...continues here!