BP in the Arctic: There goes the neighbourhood:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12195576

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Locals borrow every book in a Buckinghamshire library as a campaign against its closure:

The library at Stony Stratford, on the outskirts of Milton Keynes, looks like the aftermath of a crime, its shell-shocked staff presiding over an expanse of emptied shelves. Only a few days ago they held 16,000 volumes.

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A very good summary of the 2010 wikileaks, grouped by region. Examples:

– A storage facility housing Yemen’s radioactive material was unsecured for up to a week after its lone guard was removed and its surveillance camera was broken, a secret U.S. State Department cable released by WikiLeaks revealed Monday. “Very little now stands between the bad guys and Yemen’s nuclear material,” a Yemeni official said on January 9 in the cable.

– Pope Benedict impeded an investigation into alleged child sex abuse within the Catholic Church, according to a leaked diplomatic cable. Not only did Pope Benedict refuse to allow Vatican officials to testify in an investigation by an Irish commission into alleged child sex abuse by priests, he was also reportedly furious when Vatican officials were called upon in Rome.

– Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC has infiltrated the highest levels of government in Nigeria.

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Went to Alresford to check out a house share C is interested in. She thinks she’ll take it, come early February. Then a short driving session before lunch. In the afternoon, reading, conversation, yoga.

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Today’s question is: If you had a time machine that only let you spend one hour in a different time, what date would you go to?

I don’t want to go to any time. To go to now would be the real miracle.