Only after the last tree has been cut down;
Only after the last river has been poisoned;
Only after the last fish has been caught;
Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.
– Cree Prophecy
(Stop destroying the environment. Think about our planet. We have only but one.)

The World This Week

– that Donald Rumsfool said the U.S. military is too strong to lose the war in Iraq, but ultimately political solutions will be needed to win. (Famous last words?)

– that while ‘home-grown’ terror cells remain a concern of U.S. law officers, who cite several disrupted plots since 9/11, the suspects’ unsophisticated planning and tiny numbers have led some security analysts to conclude that America, for all its imperfections, is not fertile ground for producing jihadist terrorists. (Maybe they just deliberately blunder to shield your eyes from the real McCoy?)

– that Afro-American Senator Barack Obama, a rising star of the Democratic Party, said he is considering running for the U.S. presidency in 2008. Asked on NBC television’s ‘Meet the Press’ program if it was fair to say he is thinking about running in 2008, the Illinois lawmaker answered: “It’s fair, yes.” (Better Obama than Hillary Clinton! Go, Obama!!)

– that Dick-head Cheney said he thought Hillary Clinton could win the White House in 2008 and that a potential Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, was too inexperienced. Clinton, a New York Democrat who is running for re-election, is considered a likely contender for the White House in 2008. Obama, serving his first term as a U.S. senator from Illinois, has been touted recently as a possible candidate, something he said he would consider. (I am feeling sick already.)

– that Donald Rumsfool said that anyone demanding deadlines for progress in Iraq should ‘just back off’, because it is too difficult to predict when Iraqis will resume control of their country. During an often-combative Pentagon news conference, Rumsfool said that while benchmarks for security, political and economic progress are valuable, “it’s difficult. We’re looking out into the future. No one can predict the future with absolute certainty.” He said the goals have no specific deadlines or consequences if they are not met by specific dates. (i.e. No exit strategy. They are stuck and they have no clue.)

– that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet allegedly has at least US$180 million worth of gold stashed at HSBC’s regional bank in Hong Kong, the authorities have discovered according to local media reports. Chilean Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley told a radio station that ‘the information is not yet official’ but he said the gover-min had alerted the judicial authorities. (This guy should just leave Chile and visit Soeharto.)

– that Argentine prosecutors asked a federal judge to order the arrest of former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani and seven others for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center that killed scores of people. The decision to attack the center ‘was undertaken in 1993 by the highest authorities of the then-gover-min of Iran’, prosecutor Alberto Nisman said at a news conference. He said the actual attack was entrusted to the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah. (It’s unlikely they’ll ever get to him.)

– that Australia’s Environment Minister Ian Campbell says Iceland is sticking two fingers in the air to the international community by killing a whale species listed as close to extinction. Icelandic whalers reportedly broke a 21-year-old international ban on whaling when they harpooned the first fin whale since a moratorium was imposed in 1985. Fin whales, the second largest species on the planet, are rated an endangered species on a red list compiled by the World Conservation Union but Iceland says they are plentiful in the north Atlantic. (It’s time for Green Peace to arm itself with submarines and ‘harpoon’ whalers with torpedoes.)

– that John Howard is under pressure to fast-track reforms to remove legal ‘discrimination’ against same-sex couples as the federal gover-min considers a new ban on civil partnerships for homosexuals and lesbians in the nation’s capital. The Australian Coalition for Equality, has welcomed moves by the Prime Minister to review federal legislation on the issue, but urged Mr Howard to commit to a timetable to removing ‘discrimination’. (Do what is right, Howard. And that doesn’t mean being ‘politically right’.)

– that a senior Muslim cleric touched off outrage in Australia for likening women who dress immodestly to meat that is left out for prey – a comment critics said excused rape. John Howard called the remarks ‘appalling and reprehensible’. “The idea that women are to blame for rapes is preposterous,” he told reporters. (They just can’t accept responsibility for failing to control their itchy dicks.)

– that the cleric has refused to resign for remarks comparing scantily-clad women to ‘uncovered meat’ as John Howard urged Muslims to act to defend their image. Sheikh Shit Taj Aldin al-Hilali, who has been forced to stop preaching for up to three months amid a firestorm of criticism, said he would only step down when the world was ‘clean’ of the White House. (Shitheads like him thinks he is most holy and righteous simply by growing a beard, shouting some religious slogans and misquoting and misusing some verses of the divine scriptures. He is no better than that moron sitting in the White House.)

– that a heated debate over veils that cover the faces of some British Muslim women is growing ugly and could trigger riots, the head of Britain’s race relations watchdog warned. Britons are becoming increasingly polarized along racial and religious lines, and if they don’t talk respectfully about their differences, bad feeling will mount and could fuel unrest, Commission for Racial Equality chairman Trevor Phillips wrote in The Sunday Times newspaper. (When respect is expected by one side to only go one way, then violence is inevitable.)

– that the cost of residents’ parking permits could be linked to car emissions under plans being considered in one of the country’s most affluent areas. A Lib Dem council in London wants owners of gas-guzzling vehicles to pay more to park outside their homes. (Want to show off your big fuel guzzling SUV? Then pay more and pay until you die lah.)

– that France 2, a French television company won a libel case over accusations that it faked a report into the killing of a ‘Palestinian’ boy whose death in 2000 became a symbol of the uprising known as the second intifada. A court in Paris ordered Philippe Karsenty, the director of the Media Ratings website, to pay France 2 and its Israel correspondent, Charles Enderlin, symbolic damages of 1 each. (A most perverse ruling by the Paris court. The French does not want to aknowlege the Fench responsability in the resulting violence and deaths in the ‘Palestinian’ territories that followed this cooked-up report. It simply says it is perfectly alright to slander the Israeli military, but it was not alright to expose the deception of the al-Durra video.)

– that around a dozen Japanese tourists a year need psychological treatment after visiting Paris, as the reality of unfriendly locals and scruffy streets clashes with their expectations. Already this year, Japan’s embassy in Paris has had to repatriate at least four visitors, including two women who believed their hotel room was being bugged. (There’s really nothing romantic in Paris for these poor Japanese.)

– that ex-German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has written in a new book that Warmonger Bush’s frequent references to God in their meetings before the Iraq war had made him wary of those political decisions. Schroeder wrote in an advance excerpt of his memoirs that Germany had stood by its vow of ‘unlimited solidarity’ after the September 11 attacks in 2001. But Germany stayed out of Iraq, causing a breach in U.S.-German ties. He said in ‘Decisions: My Life in Politics’, published in Der Spiegel magazine, he was alarmed by Warmonger’s talk of God, which made him fear religion influenced decisions. (It is hard to believe that Warmonger has God in his mind for all his political decisions. He is just saying it to play up to certain constituents in the U.S. to back the war.)

– that Russian authorities are investigating claims a bear shot by King Juan Carlos of Spain in August was a tame animal that had been fed honey and vodka, before being released near where the king was to be hunting. (Poor bear. And we all thought such toadying is only done during the days of Soviet Union.)

– that Vladimir Putin reaffirmed that he would not try to run for another term, but said he would retain influence over Russia even after leaving office in 2008. The immensely popular Putin is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term, but supporters have called for a referendum on amending the country’s laws to allow him to stay in power. (Maybe he should just make a post for himself so he can continue to wield some power. Say, President-Mentor.)

– that Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak questioned whether Muslims had done enough to change the West’s ‘wrong perceptions’ about Islam, which he said was under ‘ferocious attack’. He also said Islam needed a fresh religious discourse to promote tolerance and uproot extremist views. (They have simply done too much to ‘change’ the West’s perception. They should just have done more to stop themselves from reinforcing those perceptions.)

– that an investigation into France’s alleged role in the genocide in Rwanda is due to begin. France has been accused by gover-min officials in Rwanda of being complicit in the killing of 800,000 people. A panel of respected Rwandans will hear claims that French soldiers stationed in Rwanda allowed or even encouraged the killings of thousands of Tutsis. France has denied playing any role in the 100-day frenzy of killing that took place in 1994. (Seems like past evils are finally catching up.)

– that Israel’s prime minister delivered his strongest comments yet on Iran’s nuclear program, warning that Tehran would have ‘a price to pay’ if it does not back down from its atomic ambitions and hinting that Israel might be forced to take action. (Like what? Bomb Iran? Or use your nukes on them?)

– that Hamas wants to ‘liberate the “Palestinians”‘ not to destroy Israel, Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy chief, told The Jerusalem Post. (To Hamas, destroying Israeli is ‘liberating the “Palestinians”‘. So, wake up!)

– that in an interview following his talks in Tel Aviv with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Solana insisted that it was ‘not impossible’ for Hamas to change and ‘recognize the existence of Israel’. History had shown that people and nations ‘adapt to reality’, he said. (The EU would ‘adapt’ to the ‘reality’ in which Hamas ‘recognised’ an Israel that is nothing but a memory.)

– that Mahmoud Abbas hopes to beef up his loyalist forces with PLO troops stationed in Jordan, ‘Palestinian’ officials said, as rival factions bolstered their ranks in anticipation of a feared civil war. Israel has objected in the past to letting members of the Jordan-based Badr Brigade enter ‘Palestinian’ areas. But with clashes intensifying between Abbas’ Fatah Party and forces loyal to the Hamas gover-min, Israeli officials said they would consider allowing them in, the ‘Palestinian’ officials said. (Remember the story of the trojan horse, O Israel. Remember that Abbas also said he didn’t need to recognise Israel.)

– that Mahmoud Mahbouk Ahmadinejad has reportedly delivered a scathing attack on Warmonger Bush, saying he is inspired by Satan. Speaking to a group of supporters, Mr Ahmadinejad said he himself had inspirational links to God, Iranian media reports. (Both of these fu*kwits should just get in a ring and kill one another.)

– that Iran’s supreme lea-duh, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged Arab and Muslim nations to be vigilant and stay united to stave off what he described as the ‘treacherous plots’ of the U.S. and Israel. (There’s nothing more treacherous than political lea-duhs in the guise of a pious religionist.)

– that in another message from the Iranian lea-duhship to the Persian nation, Mahbouk Ahmadinejad has called on Muslims to create a baby boom to double his country’s population. He said birth control policies should be scrapped, and that women should work less so they can spend more time on the ‘main mission’ of raising children. (So you can have cheap ‘guided-bombs’ when you can’t feed them and put them in schools? In his sick mind, women have no other purpose other than be wrapped up like rice-dumplings and as a children-making factory.)

– that Condom-leezza Rice urged China to fully implement the UN resolution against North Korea, particularly the requirement to inspect cargo from the nuclear-armed state. In a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing in Beijing, Rice said she discussed how Beijing should abide by the Council’s resolution that was approved to punish North Korea for its October 9 atomic test. (China has more to fear from Kim’s nuke than the Americans, who are out of range and far away.)

– that a move by health workers in China to offer AIDS education to sex workers has triggered heated discussion in the country. Some say this will only serve to encourage the sex trade. But health authorities say sex workers need AIDS prevention information to curb the spread of the disease. (Why has no one consider options to get them out of the trade?)

– that Japan and the U.S. agreed in top-level talks to strengthen their military alliance and step up work on missile defence due to the threat from nuclear neighbour North Korea. Shinzo Schizo Abe, backed a tough line on North Korea as he met with U.S. Secretary of State Condom-leezza Rice, who is on a four-nation tour in the wake of Pyongyang’s nuclear test. (There’s no shield that a well designed warhead wouldn’t get through.)

– that the policy chief of the Japanese ruling party has renewed his calls for a debate over whether Japan should acquire nuclear weapons capability in the face of nuclear threat from North Korea. Shoichi Nakagawa, a close ally of Shinzo Schizo Abe, has argued that Japan should not shy away from discussing the nuclear option, long regarded as taboo in Japan, the world’s only nation to come under nuclear attack at the end of the World War II. Nakagawa’s remarks, originally made shortly after North Korea’s nuclear test this month, have triggered a debate on the issue, with Foreign Minister Taro Aso Arsehole echoing the sentiment. (The last thing the world can trust Japan with, is nuclear bombs.)

– that Kim Jong-Il has expressed regret about his country’s nuclear test and willingness to return to disarmament talks if the U.S. eases the pressure, a South Korean newspaper has reported. Chosun Ilbo, quoting an unidentified diplomatic source in China, said Kim made the remarks to a high-level Chinese delegation visiting Pyongyang. (Kim Jong Il’s been learning ‘Japanese Diplomatic Speak’. I regret… I felt remorseful… but I just ain’t gonna stop doing it.)

– that Kim Jong-Il has told Chinese envoy Tang Jiaxuan that no more atom bomb tests are on the way, according to reports from South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. Mr Kim has told Mr Tang that North Korea has ‘no plan for an additional nuclear test’, the report has said. (I’ll trust Kim as far as I can throw him.)

– that reports that North Korea had apologized for conducting a nuclear test were ‘inaccurate’, China said, adding there was no guarantee the reclusive state would not test again. The remarks from Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao were China’s first official reaction to media reports that Kim Jong-il told a visiting Chinese envoy that Pyongyang regretted the difficulties its October 9 nuclear test had caused its neighbor and did not plan another test. (Like I was saying earlier… there’s no reason to trust Kim Jong Il and the blasted North Koreans.)

– that fresh reports have emerged that nuclear-armed North Korea may be ready for compromise as the top U.S. diplomat headed home from Moscow after a mission to increase pressure on the reclusive communist state. Talk of progress in the stand-off came as thousands of South Korean anti-war activists rallied in downtown Seoul, demanding US-North Korean direct talks to ease tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear test earlier this month. (Pyongyang will always be ready to compromi$e as long as the $ keeps coming.)

– that condom sales and bookings at several of South Korea’s pay-by-the-hour ‘love motels’ surged in the aftermath of North Korea’s nuclear test earlier this month, according to statistics released. (Perhaps there are many Koreans who believe they shouldn’t die a virgin.)

– that investigators had failed to uncover solid evidence of corruption by Thaksin Tham-sim Shinawatra, the country’s coup lea-duh said, undermining the main rationale for the takeover. However, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin advised Tham-sim against returning in the near future and warned the military was on the alert for any risk of a counter-coup by his supporters. (He isn’t corrupted. But he sure is greedy.)

– that the lea-duh of last month’s military coup says any airplane carrying toppled Tham-sim Shinawatra back to Thailand would not be allowed to land. Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratkalin indicated that Tham-sim, now staying in London, was apparently trying to use his immense wealth to stage a political comeback. (Some people just never give up, do they? Can’t blame them. Power is addictive.)

– that Abdullah Badawi has upped the ante in a bitter feud with Mama-thir, hitting out at the vociferous mamak for the first time, officials said. But even as Abdullah signalled a gloves-off approach, Mama-thir issued a stinging assault over the Internet, saying a ‘climate of fear has enveloped the country’ and asserting his right to criticise Abdullah. (Abdullah should deal with Mama-thir the same way Mama-thir deals with those who criticised him.)

– that in an unusual riposte, Abdullah said during the talks he refuted Mama-thir’s claims of nepotism involving his son Kamaluddin and Malaysian company Scomi, and accused Mama-thir’s sons of benefiting more under the ex-premier’s tenure. (啊，撕破脸啦！阿都拉终于都忍无可忍，’肚烂’啦！)

– that Mama-thir, who has accused Abdullah of running a ‘police state’ and curbing his right to speak, warned anyone criticising Abdullah would be blocked and accused the police and gover-min of issuing threats to critics. The threats includes ‘sacking, transfer to remote areas like in Sabah, retraction or cancellation of contracts, harassment by the banks, call-up by the police, the Anti-Corruption Agency and other gover-min enforcement agencies’, he said. (Well, compared to the black-eye and jail sentence that Anwar got, this is ‘sup-sup-sway’ [small matter].)

Singapore This Week

– that this year’s Speak Mandarin Campaign will be continuing with its theme of ‘Mandarin Cool’. It hopes to reach out to the post-65 generation of English speaking Chinese especially through the popular medium of Mandarin songs. (Nothing so cool about it when most people can’t kriffing read the Chinese characters.)

– that SMRT has posted a 10% growth in its first half profit to S$58.8 million. For the three months to September, it booked a slightly bigger increase of 13% to S$31.6 million. (And next year will still raise fares.)

– that SMRT said higher revenue and interest income helped to offset the jump in operating expenses. It expects ridership to move up marginally this quarter compared to a year ago but this will still be lower than the last quarter as a result of seasonal fluctuations. Operating expenses are seen escalating due to the bigger electricity bills and higher depreciation of its taxi fleet and trains. (And I thought higher depreciation goes towards giving them tax exemptions as well?)

– that we should expect to see more full-day bus lanes in Singapore as a review of the public transport system gets underway. The special lanes, which currently give buses priority during the morning and evening rush hour, are already in use in Orchard Road only. But the gover-min intends to expand them to other areas – as part of its plans to make public transport more attractive. (For starters, before they come up with any new ideas, why don’t these clowns start using public transport for a year, at least 2 times every working day?)

– that in a speech that spelt out Singapore’s public transport road map for the next 10 to 15 years, Raymond Lemon Lim, transport mini$ter, said: “We must make a concerted effort to aggressively promote public transport, which is an efficient mass carrier, and which plays a central role in most First World cities.” (Efficient, it is. Effective, it is not.)

– that in 1997, there were 355,503 private cars on the roads and this rose by 9.5% to 389,282 in 2004. However, the number of daily car trips over the same period increased by 23% – more than double the rate of cars on the road. “In other words, there has been a growing trend that once a car is bought, it is used very intensively,” Lemon said. Lemon said the increase is ‘not surprising, as having paid heavily upfront for a car, with a limited period of use before it has to be scrapped, owners tend to drive as much as they can’. (They paid him a million bucks a year to figure that out? BTW Lemon, you make parking expensive they will also keep driving it and create more illegal parking problems.)

– that the chairman of the Gover-min Parliamentary Committee for Tran$port, Mr Cedric Fool, agreed with the thrust of Lemon’s speech, but said more can be done to make public transport attractive. One area that could see improvement is closer collaboration with the Tran$port Ministry and the Ministry of National Development. (Then it is doomed to failure.)

– that public tran$port in Singapore gets tops marks compared to Los Angeles, San Jose and Cairo, says permanent resident Alaa Sidhom, who has lived in all these cities. Buses and trains arrive on time here, stop near his home, are easy to access, and are well-connected to one another, said the engineer from Egypt. He said he was amazed by Singapore’s public transport when he arrived. Buses and trains took him to within metres of his flat in Woodlands. (No wonder this gover-min tells us we needed more ‘foreign talents’. Look bozo, move to Punggol or SengKang to a block which requires you to make a short walk to the bus stop to a feeder bus which takes you to the MRT. Then tell me about it.)

– that people in Singapore are not using public transport enough. This perturbs the gover-min, which has invested over $10 billion in public funds on bus and rail infrastructure in the past decade. Despite that, just less than half the daily 8.3 million trips here are made via buses and trains – a dip from 51% when the 1996 ‘World Class Land Transport System’ White Paper was published. In that White Paper, produced when the LTA was formed, the gove-min envisaged raising the share of public transport to 75% of all trips – a benchmark against downtown Zurich, the Swiss city renowned for its public transport system. (There’s nothing to be perturbed about. Commuters have simply given up writing about their complaints about the ‘Worst’ Class Tran$port system and simply voted with their ‘cars’. Pun intended. [‘Car’ in Hokkien dialect means leg (脚).])

– that Lemon Lim indicated that few stones will be left unturned in the gover-min’s quest to make public transport ‘a choice mode’. (You do not need to turn too many stones, Lemon. Just read the newspapers, dude. Our gripes are there all the time: Train frequency. Fare increments. Bus bunching. Routes removal. Ineffectiveness [i.e. inconvenience] resulting from efficient – profitable – public tran$port ‘competition’, or should I say, complement of one another. It is common sense while it is efficient to have one train filled up to 85% and everyone to use the train, how is it effective transport when I need to incur extra cost to take a bus to get to the MRT?! Do we need to pay you another million bucks to figure that out?!)

– that the 1996 White Paper cited major unhappiness with public buses: long waiting times, unknown waiting times, and long journeys. As for trains, the criticisms included overcrowding and inaccessible stations. Little has changed. A 2005 PTC survey found that long waits and overcrowded buses were top grouses. Likewise for polls in 2004 and 2003. (And long trips. Try going Harbour Front to Boon Lay interchange. Either bus 30 which takes forever, or 97 to Jurong East to change, or take the MRT back to Outram. In this case, too damned convenient. But is it at all efficient?)

– that in Zurich, car ownership in the Swiss financial capital is among the highest in Europe, with one car for every 1.6 residents in 2004. And yet, almost everybody there uses public transport – even political lea-duhs. (And that’s why they succeeded and we failed. The fact that our political lea-duh$ hardly used our own public transport systems would perhaps be a telltale sign of their own confidence in their tran$port policy and their much touted ‘Worst’ Class Tran$port. Come join us and use it. Come experience it yourself and you would have a better idea on how to improve it. Or else just give up.)

-that Tharman Thumby Shanmugaratnam said that, in order to foster genius akin to that at the Nobel prize level, a planned system must be in place to encourage as much creativity as possible. He said the Education Ministry is trying to do that in several ways. “But we also have to leave space for serendipity, for surprising successes, at the intellectual and non-intellectual level”, he said, noting that some Nobel laureates did not start off as academic successes. (And that’s perhaps why we still do not yet have genius at the Nobel prize level. I don’t recall Einstein, or even Edison, being creatures of a planned system.)

– that Ang Mo Kio is about four months away from having a new mega mall, a development seen to bring a new buzz to one of Singapore’s oldest HDB estates. Billed as a one-stop retail and entertainment experience, the four-storey AMK Hub with 262 shops will also be a focal point for a range of services provided by National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) cooperatives. These include a 2,000-sq-ft lounge where the elderly can meet in air-conditioned comfort; a 4,400-sq-ft childcare centre; and an NTUC Club entertainment centre with an eight-screen cineplex. It will also house FairPrice’s first-ever hypermarket and have a mega pharmacy run by NTUC Healthcare, the labour movement’s health-care arm. The 19.3ha complex will also be connected to an air-conditioned bus interchange, slated for completion early next year, and an underpass to Ang Mo Kio MRT station. (Finally! Does anyone remember when the old Interchange was taken down and how many years the land was left to fester before they did something about it?)

– that Tali-PAP (NOTE!!) MP Wee Siew Kim has said sorry for remarks he and his 18-year-old daughter, Shu Min, made about Singaporeans who worry about jobs. In a statement issued, he apologised for the comments he made in an earlier interview on his daughter’s criticism of another blogger, Mr Derek Wee, 35, on her blog. “We both apologise to the people whom we have offended, and especially Mr Derek Wee,” the MP said. (The only apology I will accept from both of you: Resign and get your sickening elitist f*ck face off mine + giving back the scholarship your unworthy daughter has taken from some more deserving soul. Yes, get off my uncaring vengeful face, both you leeches!)

– that Wee originally said he stood by his daughter’s ‘basic point’, saying well-educated Singaporeans such as Mr Derek Wee should ‘get on with the challenges in life’ rather than complain to the gover-min about them. “I think if you cut through the insensitivity of the language, her basic point is reasonable,” he had said. “Some people cannot take the brutal truth and that sort of language, so she ought to learn from it,” he added. (So if you are well fed you should just shut up and let other people rot, is that what you mean? Is it a surprise why lots of Singaporeans are turning into uncivilised, inconsiderate ‘pigs’, as one Aussie friend of a ST forum writer said to him?)

– that Wee’s comments drew further criticism, especially online. In his apology, he said: “I should not have said what I did about people’s inability to take the brutal truth and strong language.” (Sorry also must explain!!)

Trivial, Jokes and Thoughts from Discussions

– that some of Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod digital music players shipped carry a computer virus, according to a posting on Apple’s technical support Web site. Apple said since September 12, less than 1%of Video iPods – pocket-sized devices that can play music files and video clips – left its contract manufacturer carrying the virus RavMonE.exe, which affects computers running Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system. (Insidious! Evil!)

– that copyright laws are ‘out of date’ and must be updated so MP3 player users can make copies of CDs without breaking the law, according to a think tank. The Institute for Public Policy Research argues that consumers’ rights should be improved with a ‘new private right to copy’. It is also calling on the UK gover-min to reject demands for the music copyright term to be extended beyond 50 years. The IPPR recommendations are ahead of a review of intellectual property laws. (A balance between protecting intellectual rights and preventing it from being a money grabbing tool is to be found.)

– that Google Inc.’s third-quarter profit nearly doubled in the latest demonstration of the Internet search lea-duh’s phenomenal financial firepower. The company earned $733.4 million, or $2.36 per share, for the three months ended in September. That represented a 92% increase from net income of $381.2 million, or $1.32 per share, at the same time last year. (For $400/share it earned $1.32/share – roughly 0.33% – and it went up $30++ dollars in after-hours trading. For a $24/share stock, AMD earned $0.27/share – 1.125% – and it plunged a good 10% at least. Talk about the insanity of the stock market and well, bad mathematics.)

– that for several years, China’s loans have helped to keep prices and interest rates low in the U.S., and to finance big tax cuts. If the lending began to dry up – because Chinese officials decided to diversify into other currencies or to spend more at home – prices, interest rates and taxes in the U.S. would very likely rise. If the loans dried up quickly – a worst-case scenario – the result could be a sharp financial crisis. A gradual shift could mean a long downward trend in American living standards as a higher cost of living took its toll. (Still wanna say so much about China’s human rights abuse and currency exchange rates?)

that Paul Wolfowitz was quoted as saying China and its banks were ignoring human rights and environmental standards when lending to developing countries in Africa. Large Chinese banks ignored the ‘Equator Principles’, a voluntary code of conduct under which projects financed by private banks meet social and environmental standards, he told Les Echos, Paris-based sister newspaper of the Financial Times. (China should stop lending to America too.)

– that according to statement released by a London law firm, Vince Vaughn would be filing a ‘legal complaint’ against a tabloid trio – the New York Post and the Britain-based Daily Mirror and The Sun – that said he was seen kissing a ‘mystery blonde’ at a charity event in London and had called it quits with Aniston. (Why stop at the tabloids? Maybe do an NKF – sue everyone who has a copy of that news too.)

– that Madonna told Oprah Winfrey she was surprised by the firestorm surrounding her efforts to adopt a 13-month-old boy from the African country of Malawi. And she blamed the media for it. (After she had been such a media whore, she now blames the very people who gave her the attention she craves.)

– that the Aero-Club de France, a Paris-based federation that was set up in 1905 to rule on the veracity of first-in-flight claims, confirmed that Santos-Dumont was flying’s pioneer. The federation awarded a trophy cup to Brazil’s Santos-Dumont after the Wright Brothers refused to provide evidence that they flew unaided at Kitty Hawk in 1903. (Well, doesn’t matter who flew first when the Brazilians didn’t capitalise on it.)

– that men who glue themselves to mobile phones for hours a day may be seriously endangering their fertility, research has revealed. A U.S. study presented to an international reproductive conference in New Orleans found that heavy mobile phone users have up to 40% lower sperm counts than lighter users. But an Australian fertility expert has cautioned the findings, saying similar research undertaken here does not support the results. (Coming up next, mobile phones as contraceptives, and the top 10 ‘sperm-killer’ mobile phones.)

– that humans are stripping nature at an unprecedented rate and will need two planets’ worth of natural resources every year by 2050 if current trends continue, according to a report published by the World Wildlife Fund and the Global Footprint Network. (The nearest available earth-like planet is well… erm… we don’t know where it is.)