IT’S time to abandon Liverpool, ther;s just no need for it:

THE Policy Exchange, a “centre right” think tank, has suggested in a new report that people in Liverpool and some other places in the north should abandon their cities, which are “beyond revival”, and move down south.

While that is undoubtedly a daft suggestion aimed at stirring up controversy, the fact remains that Liverpool is a city in a place where, in the 21st century at least, nobody really needs a city. I love Liverpool (some of my close relatives are Scousers) but it’s out on a limb and can’t compete with Manchester. Until the day when the docks make a comeback, that isn’t going to change.

As the report’s co-author, Dr Tim Leunig of the London School of Economics puts it:

People in Liverpool are better off than ever before. But they have only got better off at the same rate as the rest of the country, so Liverpool is not catching up with London or the south east. It is not because people [in Liverpool] are lazy or feckless. It is because Liverpool is less well-placed to do business. The chance of Liverpool catching up with the UK average in the foreseeable future is close to zero.

Predictably, the Liverpool Echo doesn’t quite see things that way. Grabbing enthusiastically at the bait, it dismisses the “boffin” and focuses on Liverpool’s new shopping centre (which, incidentally, lost its developer £190m before it opened), concert arena, cruise liner terminal and “Capital of Culture-led rebirth”.

What will become of Liverpool without the people?

IN Australia, Sydney is burning in a global warming nightmare made true:

Scorched is a major new 90-minute tele-feature and multi-platform drama for the Nine Network and ninemsn set in a climate change ravaged Sydney in 2012.

After 240 days without rain, the city has only two weeks water left. When the city is then ringed by severe bushfires, the question becomes, how do you fight fire when you have no water?

The picture on the left is of Sydney…Harbour…

Spotter

ALL hail the environmentally friendly bombs. Know that after everyone has been blown to smithereens, the planet can live on:

New explosives could be more powerful and safer to handle than TNT and other conventional explosives and would also be more environmentally friendly.

TNT, RDX and other explosives commonly used in military and industrial applications often generate toxic gases upon detonation that pollute the environment. Moreover, the explosives themselves are toxic and can find their way into the environment due to incomplete detonation and as unexploded ordnance. They are also extremely dangerous to handle, as they are highly sensitive to physical shock, such as hard impacts and electric sparks.

To make safer, more environmentally friendly explosives, scientists in Germany turned to a recently explored class of materials called tetrazoles. These derive most of their explosive energy from nitrogen instead of carbon as TNT and others do.

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IN Melbourne the air is thick with fear and anticipation. Writes The Age:

Rising temperatures are likely to bring increased levels of violence to Melbourne by 2010, and are highly likely to by 2030, a report being considered by the city council finds.

2010: Neighbours, the Australian slice-of-life soap set in Melbourne, where everyone is white, everyone is nice, and every jogs along, will erupt in a flurry of ultra violence.

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THE summer is here, and with comes the seasonal tales of shark stories. But Anorak detects a sinister twist:

DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Damien Hirst auction expected to fetch £65 million - An auction of new works by Damien Hirst - including a pickled zebra, a unicorn and a calf with 18-carat gold hooves - is expected to fetch over £65 million…”

Hirst will also present a pickled tiger shark (£4 million - £6 million), zebra (£2 million - £3 million) and ‘unicorn’ (£2 million - £3 million) - the latter is a foal with a resin horn. All are new works created this year.

DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Rare marble shark stolen from shed aquarium”

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BIODIESEL is safer for the environment:

Man blows up garage trying to make biodiesel - A man was airlifted to hospital after he blew up his garage attempting to make biodiesel - Daily Telegraph

Says Transport Secretary Alastair Darling:

“The government is keen to support the development of renewable, low carbon transport fuels and all the more so where these are produced in the UK, bringing benefits to the UK economy.”

Want to know how to make the stuff?

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HEAR ye. Hear ye:

Global warming may boost kitten population - Chicago Sun Times

Oh:

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THE health of the planet is improving…

“DRUNKS become irritants because they slow people’s progress towards their goal,” says study leader Simon Moore, from the University of Cardiff, who presented the findings at the International Crime Science Conference in London. “They may then become targets of violence.”

Moore and his team of researchers attempted to learn more about drunken behaviour by making 24 visits to the city centre between 11pm and 3am on Friday and Saturday nights, breathalysing people and monitoring their gait.

The aim:

They hope to come up with street designs that direct late-night revellers safely home to their beds instead of into the path of trouble.

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COME on mum, jump up and down. It’s milk shakes for tea!

Says the Star: “Nursing mothers have been told how to produce banana milkshake from their breasts. All they have to do is eat a banana an hour or less before feeding time, say Danish scientists.”

Easy-peasy, banana squeezy.

Breast milk can be given other flavours in the same way. In tests, women also made their milk taste of menthol, caraway seeds and liquorice.

Or how about alcopop, Bacardi Breezeer and crème de menthe frappe on a bed of crushed ice, lager and kebab a la mode?

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BRENDAN O’Neill on Mad George Monbiot:

How is it that Monbiot, who still writes the same old apocalyptic nonsense (think Book of Revelations but without the hot pokers or sex), can now pose – more than that, be hailed – as a scientific visionary? His metamorphosis from green-tinted despiser of all things modern to man with a dazzling command of science reveals a great deal about the politics of environmentalism, and how it has added a gloss of ‘scientific fact’ to long-standing middle-class prejudices against mass modern society.

Indeed…

REP. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) is chairman of the House (Select) Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee.

He tells high school students gathered at the U.S. Capitol that climate change caused Hurricane Katrina and the conflict in Darfur, which led to the “black hawk down” battle between U.S. troops and Somali rebels.

“In Somalia back in 1993, climate change, according to 11 three- and four-star generals, resulted in a drought which led to famine,” said Markey.

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CLIMATE Change Delusion - A round up:

It’s environmentalism on LSD. It’s like he read Al Gore’s propaganda rant, Earth in the Balance, which itself already read like the Unabomber manifesto, and then dropped acid - Matthew Vadum

Is ‘climate change delusion’ the next epidemic?

The backlash against evidence of climate change as fear-mongering is just “thoughtless commentary,” said Scienceblog’s Corpus Callosum blog. The physicians who wrote the case report were “[describing] manifestations of illness.” This case is about a sick teenager, not about the extensive debate on climate change.

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IN Argentina researchers are investigating global warming by collecting gas from the stomachs of cattle.

The Argentine researchers discovered methane from cows accounts for more than 30 per cent of the country’s total greenhouse emissions…

Guillermo Berra, a researcher at the National Institute of Agricultural Technology, said every cow produces between 8000 to 1,000 litres of emissions every day.

Methane, which is also released from landfills, coal mines and leaking gas pipes, is 23 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

Source