Remember the wind-powered rotating skyscrapers of Dubai? Well, the building boom in the Emirates is over, thanks to the financial crisis. Most of the huge and expensive construction projects have been cancelled or are on hold. Not only that, foreign laborers are being laid off at an astounding rate ...

by Chris Hedges Truthdig (March 08 2009) All measures to thwart the degradation and destruction of our ecosystem will be useless if we do not cut population growth. By 2050, if we continue to reproduce at the current rate, the planet will have between eight billion and ten billion people, according ...

China's massive tree-planting scheme masks disastrous deforestation and damage to biodiversity thanks to the country's insatiable desire for wood Viewed from the snow-covered hills of Tangwanghe, the forests of China's Great Green Wall seem to stretch out endlessly towards the horizon. The man-made ...

March 10 EMI’s Outrageous Lawsuit Against Developer Takes Its Toll Tech Crunch Last month I wrote about a lawsuit filed by major record label EMI against Seeqpod, the questionably-legal free streaming music site. The suit isn’t Seeqpod’s first (Warner sued them last year), but it is notable fo...

There is yet another adventure game coming to your Nintendo DS, Wii and PC: Secret Files 2 - Puritas Cordis . Now, if you couldn’t tell, this is the sequel to Secret Files: Tunguska , which was the top selling adventure game of 2006 according to the website. When you have sequels to best selle...

Ministry Sounds Warning On Manufacturing Growth Jakarta Globe, Indonesia Minister Fahmi had said during a hearing with the House last year that it was expected that growth in the manufacturing industry would be lower than last year, due to the fact that export-oriented firms would have to work ...

Last October, Almond, the unpretentious French bistro that's become a Bridgehampton hotspot, boldly expanded to Manhattan with an outpost in the Flatiron district. But even before the city's economy drifted into its current deep funk, chef/co-owner Jason Weiner faced a daunting task: finding a way t...

Somalia’s governing council has voted to institute Islamic law (sharia). There are also stories tonight about the effects of Islamic law in Afghanistan and Algeria. Despite the protests of Islam’s apologists, the Muslim world is becoming more radical, not less. Thanks to Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni,...

I have started a Myspace page for my new book MUSIC TO DIE FOR and it’s here: http://www.myspace.com/musictodieforbymickmercer Obviously I plan to contact all bands in the book to let them know the book is out and to ask if they will add to this page and then include it in their Top Friends becaus...

Just saw this chart in an FT article about Malaysia: Not good! Also, they seem to have taken a bigger hit than Brazil as well: But Brazilians might beat their own record in the first quarter of 2009, as a thrifty American consumer and less demand for oil have hit Brazil hard. Overall exports fe...