TheQuiltedLlama

Got a product key i can't use yo.

Welcome to Simtropolis' First offical Jan Ype fanclub! Here you will be able to join all the fun. Exclusive news on Jan Ype's latest exploits. Debates, such as 'How Awesome is Jan Ype?' and 'Which pronunciation of 'Ype' gives the best tonal qualities?'. On top of this, there will be opertunities to voice your love for JanYpe and a live debate with Saltandsauce on the benefits that the European Union brings to himself and the whole of the European community.

This is worth reading. The Niger delta: some perspective on the BP oil spill Posted by Samira Shackle - 14 June 2010 13:04 There is a shocking disparity in the media and political response to oil disasters in different parts of the world. Water splashes from burst oil pipelines, destroyed with dynamite by separatists. Niger delta, July 2009. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images The response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has, understandably for such a catastrophe, been huge -- from international condemnation of BP, to a narrowly-missed diplomatic row between Britain and the US. No-one denies that the oil spill is a disaster that is having a devastating effect on ecosystems in the affected areas, as well as on the fishing and tourism industries. But what about a little sense of proportion? Receiving somewhat less attention in the international press is the environmental outrage that has been inflicted on the Niger delta over the last 50 years. To give a recent example, on 1 May 2010, a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline spilled more than a million gallons into the delta over seven days before the leak was stopped. There was not so much reporting about that. This is just the tip of the iceberg. While exact figures are hard to come by, because oil companies and the Nigerian government are secretive about oil spills, a 2006 report by WWF UK, the World Conservation Union, and Nigerian representatives found that up to 1.5m tons of oil had been spilled in the area over the preceding 50 years. This is 50 times the amount spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. A 2009 report by Amnesty calculated that at least 9m barrels of oil had been spilled. These figures suggest that every year, an equivalent amount to that lost in the Gulf of Mexico is spilled in the delta. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation says that an average of 300 individual spills each year equals nearly 2,300 cubic meters. This does not take into account "minor" spills, and the World Bank suggests that the real quantity is as much as ten times higher. The delta is now one of the most polluted spots in the world. It is estimated that leaking crude oil -- which the oil companies blame on thieves and separatists, and campaigners blame on rusting equipment -- costs Nigeria $10m (£5.3m) daily. The Niger delta provides 40 per cent of all the crude oil imported by the US. Over two generations, life expectancy in the region's rural communities -- where many people cannot access clean water -- has fallen to just over 40 years. Obama is right to recognise the scale of the disaster in the gulf (which, he said today, echoes "9/11"), but it is rather sobering to take note of this disparity. Yet again, it seems to be one rule for the west, and one for the rest of the world. [/Q] http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/06/oil-delta-world-spilled

Originally posted by: Merlin of Flyote Just a point to note. Britain has had more years of Conservative government than Labour, nothing new there then! The conservatives believe in small government, low taxes, paying off the country's debts. Labour believe in Centralised government, high taxes, borrowing more, and state spending. (Communism by another name).quote> I'm really hoping you're joking or something. Otherwise you're just an idiot.

Aaah! As if this is still going. Love your work, it is simply amazing.

Interestingly the current polls which put Labour in 3rd place would actually result in Labour winning the most the number of seats, thanks to the nature of the First Past the Post system. But with no overall majority and such a low percentage of the popular vote I doubt the Labour party would be able to form government. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8609989.stm (Click on the Poll of Polls for 20 April to see an estimation of the distribution of seats.)

Originally posted by: mightygoose I will vote BNP in direct protest to my disapproval of the overall centrelining of the major mparties.quote> Well you're a ----.

C is for the Constant of Integration. Oh the marks I have lost for missing out that +C.

Congratulations!

My first uploaded BAT you can download here. My new BAT i started today: It is based of this building, in Oslo. I am planning to make just this main tower, not the other lower section.

bump! Click for full size.

EU reform treaty passes last test The president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, has signed the EU's Lisbon Treaty, the final step in the charter's ratification. The treaty was drawn up to streamline decision-making in the EU, and is a watered-down version of a draft EU constitution rejected four years ago. Among its measures, it creates a European Council president and alters the way member states vote. The treaty could now come into force as early as December. The Lisbon Treaty's supporters say it will allow the EU to operate more efficiently and give it greater influence in world affairs. Critics say it will cede too many national powers to Brussels. Speaking in Washington ahead of an EU-US summit, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso welcomed the removal of the "last hurdle" to the treaty's passage. "I think that the transformational potential that is there, the new external profile for the European Union, will be felt immediately," he said. In the UK, William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary for the opposition Conservatives, said it would no longer be possible to hold a referendum on the treaty if his party won a general election next year. The party had previously argued that the treaty should be put to a popular vote. Court 'bias' British Prime Minister Gordon Brown welcomed the ratification, and said it marked the end of years of debate. "Today is a day when Europe looks forward," he said. The Czech Republic was the last of the EU's 27 member states to ratify the treaty. Mr Klaus signed it shortly after the Czech constitutional court rejected a complaint against it, ruling that it was in line with the Czech constitution. Announcing in Prague that he had signed the treaty, the Czech leader accused the court of bias and said the Czech Republic would "cease to be a sovereign state". The Eurosceptic Mr Klaus had recently said he would no longer attempt to block the treaty, after receiving the promise of an opt-out from the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights. Mr Klaus said the opt-out was needed to avoid property claims from ethnic Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia after World War II. The Lisbon Treaty replaced an earlier draft constitution that was rejected in referendums in France and the Netherlands in 2005. The treaty was initially rejected in a referendum in Ireland, before being endorsed in a second Irish referendum last month. It would create two major new posts: a new European Council president who would serve a term of two-and-a-half years, and a new foreign policy chief whose role would combine those of the existing foreign affairs representative and external affairs commissioner. In addition, the treaty will alter voting procedures, with national vetoes to become the exception rather than the rule in most policy areas. For the first time, it will also offer a way out to any member states that decide to leave the EU. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/8340664.stm Published: 2009/11/03 18:07:02 GMT © BBC MMIX quote>

Originally posted by: LivingInThePast About him and the NFL...I don't see a legal problem with that. The media is trying tquote> Was the end of your sentence censored by all these socialists in the mainstream media?