Tiny Planet

The Saudi pirates who captured a Saudi oil tanker are now only asking $15m in ransom, down from $25m.

The Moroccan cities of Rabat and Salé are inching ever close to becoming one, a project 800 years in the making if you’re feeling poetic, two years if you’re feeling realistic.

Either way, it’s a fairly huge undertaking and an indication of how urban sprawl and economic necessity can bring about major changes in the demographic and political spheres. It isn’t one absorbing the other through growth and authority — I’m sure we all know at least suburb that has become part of a city proper in our lifetimes — but an indication of how highly the government considers having a capital that’s big enough to compete on both economic and prestige fronts.

And what interests me as well is that Morocco either had an inkling of a global recession, or were simply prudent enough to cover the possibility: it has a $3.25bn emergency fund in case investors pull out of the project.

Morocco broke ground on the US$4 billion Bouregreg project in 2006 and plans to complete major work in 2010. New breakwaters have appeared, the estuary sports a new marina and corniche, and the grinding of heavy machinery echoes through Rabat as workers lay rails for a tram system spanning the river.

The river flats will be covered in swish new houses and business parks, and resort hotels will stud the coastline. UAE firms Sama Dubai and Sorouh Real Estate are supplying investment and building expertise, but the government promises Moroccans that their capital will not become a Gulf-style megalopolis.

I’m not sure if it will be called Rabat or Bouregreg, after the river that flows between the two cities. I’m just fascinated by urban transformation.

It’s not the first example of cities merging — there’s Budapest — but it’s one of the bigger ones in recent history, perhaps even the biggest if my memory is accurate. I also like motivation behind it; whereas Budapest was formed from three cities to be the capital of Hungary, in Morocco it is a natural progression, as the two cities are quite intertwined as it is.

The program for a supermajority. (Crooked Timber)

Ctrl-Alt-Del. (Robert Cringley)

Florida woman goes to jail over $7.45 bill. (AP)

Inconsistency irks with letter of the law. (Football365)

Reviving the fine art of cafe culture. (The Irish Times)

European economic weather map. (FT.com)

Group says US used Ethiopia for dirty work. (The National)

And special mention for behind-the-times headline of the day:

Greens, greens, they’re good for your heart: study (AFP)

Diets worldwide that are rich in fried and salty foods increase heart attack risk, while eating lots of fruit, leafy greens and other vegetables reduces that risk, a groundbreaking study showed.

(The study was groundbreaking because it included developing countries, but this information is buried in the story.)

Rogue ass jailed in Egypt. (RTÉ)

Palin lookalike strippers to strut in pageant. (AP)

RIAA appeals mistrial in file-sharing case. (CNet)

Its native tongue facing extinction, Native American tribe teaches the young. (International Herald Tribune)

Bee Gees song Stayin’ Alive helps doctors perform CPR. (The Daily Telegraph)

Your bottled water may be no purer than tap. (Lifehacker)

Space smells of steak, says Nasa. (The Sun)

Again, the bar on politics comes into play. However, CNN has a nice little backgrounder on the Zimbabwean president, who was once (and still is to many) a hero.

Malawi has gone from famine-stricken to exporting food in just a couple of years. The secret? It ignored what the experts told it to do and instead did what was best for its people.

Over the past 20 years, the World Bank and some rich nations Malawi depends on for aid have periodically pressed this small, landlocked country to adhere to free market policies and cut back or eliminate fertilizer subsidies, even as the United States and Europe extensively subsidized their own farmers. But after the 2005 harvest, the worst in a decade, Bingu wa Mutharika, Malawi’s newly elected president, decided to follow what the West practiced, not what it preached.

Stung by the humiliation of pleading for charity, he led the way to reinstating and deepening fertilizer subsidies despite a skeptical reception from the United States and Britain. Malawi’s soil, like that across sub-Saharan Africa, is gravely depleted, and many, if not most, of its farmers are too poor to afford fertilizer at market prices.

Corn production is 3.4bn tonnes, more than twice what it was in 2005. The World Bank and others have expressed doubts over whether or not these figures have been inflated, but it is nonetheless exporting to its neighbours while not depending on international aid.

Misleading headline of the day: How a boozy dinner led Dunphy to finger Bertie. The Sindo in scintillating form.

Windbelt — Third World power. Shawn Frayne has developed a smallscale wind turbine that can power lights and radios, etc. You might never power your house on such technology but it could make a difference after night falls.

Nigeria asks Bill Gates if he is a mooch. Superbillionaire computer boy Bill was initially denied a visa to enter the country after it “required proof he would not reside in Nigeria indefinitely, causing a strain on social services and a general nuisance for immigration”.

Israeli planes struck nuclear site inside Syria, analysts say. Israeli and US analysts that is, seeming to confirm rumours that have abounded since the incident. And courtesy of Gavin, here’s how the aircraft were able to evade detection.

Meanwhile, Sarah Carey does a good job of taking Ireland’s millionaire tax exiles to task:

As long as we have a political system that is run by rich men’s rules, our society will continue to condemn some children to life-long disadvantage and treat others to a lifetime of opportunity simply because one is born in Moyross and the other in Merrion… The tax exile can operate a private form of justice that comforts him, but it does nothing to make the fundamental changes our society needs. In fact, it’s in their interests that unfairness is perpetuated because the system suits them as it is.

Two out of three Irish who surf the net log onto social networking sites. They’re bloody addictive. (Irish Examiner)

The future of news: rational business decisions. Some US publications are making the conscious decision to scale back on some services because it costs too much per subscriber — with consequences for the quality of journalism. (Scholars and Rogues)

The Kennewick Men. Catholicgauze continues his look at the pre-Columban settlers of North America with a post on Kennewick Man, who was of Caucasoid rather than paleo-Indian origin.

Band releases album on floppy disk. It’s 74 minutes of music compressed to fit into 1.44mb. (PC Pro)

Egypt plan to green Sahara desert stirs controversy. Well it was grassland and forest a few thousand years ago… though it may deplete already sparse water sources. (Reuters)

O’Dea denies offering to fight in pub row. Said offer was allegedly declined because of the minister’s short stature. The latest screw-up from Wonder Willie the Great Defence Minister, his most prominent being posing with a pistol. (Irish Examiner)

Toy manufacture in China. The hands that make the dolls you pay too much for. (Mazm, via Crooked Timber)

13 scifi mental illnesses. I think I suffer from vacuuphobia. I’m not the only one… am I? (SciFiChick.com)

Group renames asteroid for George Takei. Sulu is an asteroid! (MSNBC)

Mary-Kate Olsen is seven lattes tall. She does not look well. (UnaRocks)

Last survivor of the War of Independence dies at 105. I hope I don’t get fired for linking to this. (The Irish Times)

Single case could reignite ebola epidemic in DRCongo: WHO. We never seem to catch a break. (AFP)

Somalia, Burma, Iraq top corruption blacklist. I’m not surprised. Denmark, Finland and New Zealand are the least corrupt nations while Ireland comes in at 17th. (AFP/Transparency International)

New snake and orchids discovered in Vietnam. Let us never think we have seen all we can see on this planet. (Reuters/Environmental News Network)

Did they not look at the blueprints? A US naval barracks in California — built in the 60s — is shaped like a swastika. Huzzah for Google Earth! (CNN)

Russian woman’s 12th baby weighs in at 7.75kg. That’s about 17lbs if you’re thinking imperial. (Reuters)

Delegating: The case for personal outsourcing. Hmm. (Lifehacker)

The shooting won’t stop. “I say give the Gardaí whatever weapons they want. Bazookas, flame throwers, whatever. Just don’t send them out with sticks.” (Twenty Major)