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"Dubai World was established as an independent company, it is true that the government is the owner, but given that the company has various activities and is exposed to various types of risks, the decision, since its establishment, has been that the company is not guaranteed by the (Dubai) government," Abdulrahman al-Saleh, director general of Dubai's Finance Department, said on Dubai TV.

"Consequently, the company's dealing with the various parties has been on this basis," he said.

COMMENT ---it is true that the government is the owner, but --- it is true that the government is the owner, but --- it is true that the government is the owner, but --- it is true that the government is the owner, but --- it is true that the government is the owner, but --- it is true that the government is the owner, but --- it is true that the government is the owner, but ----

The IDFA Award for First Appearance ( €5,000) was presented to the Irish team of Ross McDonnell and Carter Gunn for Colony (Ireland/USA), which deals with the phenomenon Colony Collapse Disorder, whereby bee colonies disappear without trace after swarming.

Comment from Professor Phil Jones, Director of the Climatic Research Unit:

The following email, which I can confirm is genuine, has caused a great deal of ill-informed comment, but has been taken completely out of context and I want to put the record straight.

"I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline. Mike's series got the annual land and marine values while the other two got April-Sept for NH land N of 20N. The latter two are real for 1999, while the estimate for 1999 for NH combined is +0.44C wrt 61-90. The Global estimate for 1999 with data through Oct +is 0.35C cf. 0.57 for 1998."
The first thing to point out is that this refers to one diagram - not a scientific paper - which was used in the World Meteorological Organisation's statement on the status of the global climate in 1999 (WMO-no.913).

The diagram consisted of three curves showing 50-year average temperature variations for the last 1000 years. Each curve referred to a scientific paper and a key gives their details.

Climate records consist of actual temperature records from the mid-19th century and proxy data (tree rings, coral, ice cores, etc) which go back much further. The green curve on the diagram included proxy data up to 1960 but only actual temperatures from 1961 onwards. This is what is being discussed in the email.

The word 'trick' was used here colloquially as in a clever thing to do. It is ludicrous to suggest that it refers to anything untoward.

HOTPIXEL'S COMMENT: From my reading of the email and as a native speaker of British English, I cannot see how anyone could believe the word 'trick' was used anything other than to mean a clever thing to do.

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* Because they live in small nests, bumblebees never swarm, so you can encourage nesting in your garden without fear of this happening. The bumblebee generally considers a suitable place for nesting to be on the ground, beneath a flat object. An old mouse hole or similar hole in the ground is preferred, especially if it is underneath an old tarp, flat stone or man-made object such as a deck.

* Bumblebees do not produce enough honey for commercial use, just a few grams at a time to feed their young.

* A bumblebee's biggest enemy, by far, is... CONTINUE READING AT....

Even in the force and road of casualty.
I will not choose what many men desire,(30)
Because I will not jump with common spirits,
And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.

to make sure my site is definitely the first site Google picks the content up on, I’ll hit publish, go to Feedburner, sync my feed in Troublehootize and pull it in in my Feedreader just to be sure Google knows exactly where it found it first.

This is from Hobo and you can find him on Twitter here