Portugal is weeping, Geert Wilders Says Netherlands Would Be Better Off if It Left 28-Nation Bloc, France can't compete with Germany, Merkel is pissed at Obama, Belgium is ousting Afgans. Is anybody happy?

Portugal is weeping

Always ridiculous, is that a trade mark of yours?
I see... just a psychiatric obsession... good, that way there's no copyright laws

Portugal is weeping, Geert Wilders Says Netherlands Would Be Better Off if It Left 28-Nation Bloc, France can't compete with Germany, Merkel is pissed at Obama, Belgium is ousting Afgans.

To add insult to injury:

Fuck the EU

Victoria Nuland - Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs at the United States Department of State

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSxaa-67yGM#t=89

Switzerland is making cuckoo clocks.

Scotland votes on Independence this year, correct, @String?


Also, I am considering a short vacation to Europe in the coming months. Beware, fellow European DnD'ers!  :trollface:

Scotland votes on Independence this year, correct, @String?

That's what the SNP call Separation. At this point in time Separation does not look like happening, but one can never be certain about emotive things like that.

IMF says oops. IMF admits: we failed to realise the damage austerity would do to Greece

While the report says a deep recession was unavoidable, it is critical of senior officials in Brussels and European capitals who said Greece would fare better outside the euro. Concerns that Greece could be ejected from the euro and return to the drachma intensified an already febrile situation.

"Confidence was also badly affected by domestic social and political turmoil and talk of a Greek exit from the euro by European policymakers," it said.

Brussels also struggled to co-ordinate its policies with the ECB in Frankfurt, according to the report.

"The Fund made decisions in a structured fashion, while decision-making in the eurozone spanned heads of state and multiple agencies and was more fragmented."

The Greek media recently quoted IMF managing director Christine Lagarde describing 2011 as a "lost year" partly because of miscalculations by the EU and IMF.

The authoritative Kathimerini newspaper said the report identified a number of "mistakes" including the failure of creditors to agree to a restructuring of Greece's debt burden earlier - a failure that had had a disastrous effect on its macroeconomic assumptions.

Scotland votes on Independence this year, correct, @String?


Also, I am considering a short vacation to Europe in the coming months. Beware, fellow European DnD'ers!  :trollface:

Back from Canada already!

Scotland votes on Independence this year, correct, @String?

That's what the SNP call Separation. At this point in time Separation does not look like happening, but one can never be certain about emotive things like that.

I'm taking bets. Alex will come back whimpering, tail between legs. Rjhowie will crow like a rooster. 

Scotland votes on Independence this year, correct, @String?

Who's @String?

Back from Canada already!

Go Quebec! Vive le Québec libre!

Who's @String?

That would be an array of string.

Who's @String?

That would be an array of string.

That's a string theory...don't know if it describes the universe, though.

Knit one, perl two. 

Plucking strings sometimes cheers the Universe up (where's UP in the Universe???).

The universe doesn't go up; it gets down.

The universe doesn't go up; it gets down.

They're lip syncing!

They're lip syncing!

I didn't even check if the video had audio.

I've heard more Backstreet Boys than I ever wanted to around the turn of the century. Consider yourself Backstreet Rolled. 

They're lip syncing!

I didn't even check if the video had audio.

It did, but I must say that I like Luciano Pavarotti's version better even though the lyrics are in Italian.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Fh2Vh8jwyQA

Unfortunate what is going on in Europe but there are deep problems in America too. It is a world-wide kind of sadness going on. However I must admit that i am now planning a visit to Ulster in Spring and then the Netherlands maybe July. Not sure of where my autumn break will be. So often I have went away for a break and bump into someone I know so maybe this year I may be more lucky.

Kiruna is going on. Formerly the world's largest city is moving.

Kiruna: How to move a town two miles east

From an anthropological point of view, there is one major concern - the "people in Kiruna who are stuck in old memories", as Walldin puts it.

"You have to find a way to both respect the memories and take care of the people who have been living in limbo in this city for over a decade," she says. "People who had their first kiss on that bench or their first child in that hospital will now see these things totally disappear."

Before anyone can move, LKAB has to buy their existing property, so that they can buy a new one in the new town. But the sums are nightmarish.

"The general idea is for LKAB to purchase people's homes from them at market value plus 25%, and then sell them a property in the new city," says Stenqvist. "But how do you work out what the market value is for a house in a city that doesn't even exist?"

Anthropological is the wrong word there. The problem is social and economic, pretty holistic, and requires a solution accordingly. The market value in this case is the price that buys a new equivalent home in the new place.

Kiruna is going on. Formerly the world's largest city is moving.

Talk about living on the edge.

€1=$1.3917 today. Information from my Firefox toolbar;)

€1=$1.3765

European economy guide: Taking Europe's pulse
EU figures and forecasts.

GDP growth 2014 & 2015



Public debt