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lava and sunset wallpaper size.

Hat-tip to Conservation Finance for this story, Obituary: Hans Wegner, groundbreaking designer of Danish Modern furniture

Hans Wegner, whose Danish Modern furniture, most famously his chairs, helped change the course of design history in the 1950s and ’60s by sanding Modernism’s sharp edges and giving aesthetes a comfortable seat, died Jan. 26 in Copenhagen. He was 92. (some of his designs here)

China’s Poison for the Planet 

Can the environment withstand China’s growing economic might? As one of the planet’s worst polluters, Beijing’s ecological sins are creating problems on a global scale. Many countries are now feeling the consequences.

The cloud of dirt was hard to make out from the ground, but at an altitude of 10,000 meters (32,808 feet), the scientists could see the gigantic mass of ozone, dust and soot with the naked eye. In a specially outfitted aircraft taking off from Munich airport, they surveyed a brownish mixture stretching from Germany all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.

These kinds of clouds float above Europe for most of the year and they’ve traveled far to get there. By analyzing the makeup of particles in the cloud, European scientists were able to identify its origin. “There was a whole bunch from China in there,” says Andreas Stohl, a 38-year-old from the Norwegian Institute for Air Research.

China has embraced to some degree a capitalistic economy which in general is better then the alternative, ending up like the old Soviet Empire. Unfortunately they’re also adopting the dark side of capitalism seeking short term cost saving at the sacrifice of prudent environmental standards. While China needs to address its environmental problems and lighten the hell up on the political repression we have our problems here, Two Years (Sigh) of Living Dangerously

Bush, of course, stiffed us and repealed the “Responsible Contractor” regulations. At the time it appeared to be another irresponsible and reckless act, but not, on the grander scheme, terribly important. What emerged, however, was that enabling criminal companies to get federal contracts on a massive scale, without oversight and regard for competence, was an essential foundation stone of the Administration’s strategy to seize and hold power at any cost.

Among the first items on the ignore list for these contractors was to side step labor and environmental laws.