Song: The First Thing You Know Lyrics
God made the mountains
God made the sky
God made the people
God knows why

He fixed up the planet
As best as He could
Then in come the people
And gum it up good

LONDON (Reuters) - A study of cities across the world shows pedestrians are upping their pace at an alarming rate as they scurry from place to place, determined to cram as much as possible into each day.

Scientists say it is symptomatic of a modern life driven by e-mail, text messages and a need to be available 24 hours a day.

The most dramatic increases were found in Asia among the fast-growing "tiger" economies.

Pedestrians in Singapore were crowned the world's fastest movers, walking 30 percent faster than they did in the early 1990s, and in China, the pace of life in Guangzhou has increased by more than 20 percent.

Copenhagen and Madrid were the fastest European cities, beating Paris and London. And despite its reputation as "the city that never sleeps," New York ranked only eighth in the pace race, behind Dublin and Berlin.

Richard Wiseman, a professor of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire who helped conduct the research, used a 1994 study of pedestrians' speed as a comparison and found that on average city dwellers now move 10 percent faster.

"The pace of life in our major cities is now much quicker than before," he said. "This increase in speed will affect more people than ever, because for the first time in history the majority of the world's population are now living in urban centers."

Wiseman is worried by the rising need for speed.

"We just have this feeling that we should be producing and active all of the time," he said. "That is fuelled by the email, text, mobile phone culture."

"But there has to be an upper limit, because if this trend continues, we will arriving places before we have set off."

The study was carried out with the help of the British Council, which promotes British cultural links with countries around the world.

Why oh why is the world so surprised to see that when we (the U.S.) give in and reward North Korea (dollars, food or oil) and expect reciprocation in kind that North Korea doesn't honor it's obligations? It's a no-brainer that they are gonna screw us. They do it every time. What kind of loons do the same stupid thing over and over again and expect a different result?

It is amazing to me that there are diplomats representing the free world who operate in circles so high that their brain cells are dying from lack of use. These people who are so devoid of basic intelligence and common sense are a case study in upper-crust ignorance of reality masked as civil behavior while giving away the farm to the enemy and leaving America without the strong shield she deserves.

Now... they are surprised at having been screwed once again.

Go figure.

 An old family saying is that when you clutch a snake to your breast, you should expect to be bitten.

Perhaps the wishes and pipe dreams of these idealists have clouded their realism and ability to make hard hitting and effective decisions.

North Korea is run by a rotten bunch of sons-a-biotches. There is no getting around it. And caving in and being a pack of wussies on our side is going to get us nowhere. Frankly, if we and the idiotic U.N. (United Nothing) expect anything different from North Korea, Syria and Iran, we are sadly mistaken.

When you clutch a snake to your breast, don't be surprised that you are bitten... Old family saying

25 million dollars was freed up the other day and given to North Korea in return for shutting down their nuclear reactor that is making more and more plutonium.

Guess what? Surprise! North Korea, as usual, didn't keep it's word. Frankly, I don't blame them. The enemy can be counted on to do what is in their own interest. Who should be blamed are the pack of liberal wussies who expect rats to keep their word and then act all surprised when they get screwed! One has to wonder at the real agenda at work here.