The shine has similarly worn off the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China).

Yet there is perhaps a silver lining in the clouds over New Orleans.

DAVOS The World Economic Forum s annual meeting in Davos has lost some of its pre crisis panache.

Ants vary in colour most ants are red or black, but a few species are green and some tropical species have a metallic lustre.

But if not an office, then where? flashed through my head. So I went down to the local police department and I said, Hi, I want to work for you.

It was hard to believe that what I had imagined was now built, permanent and had lost nothing in translation.

Yet, even as the luster of the China miracle dazzles the world, the Chinese seem loath leave behind their dark feelings of victimization.

But the prospect of war in Europe now seems like a remote threat, and the varnish of the EU s past success seems to have faded, even to those who have not forgotten the bloodstains beneath.

For a time, we shared the stage with our distant cousins, Neanderthal, who clearly had some spark of awareness, but whether it was the increase in the size of the brain, or the development of language, or some other evolutionary catalyst we quickly left Neanderthal gasping for survival.

Perhaps America, and especially Bush, will be persuaded to join the rest of the world in the fight against poverty and to protect our planet s environment. In facing and planning for disasters, whether natural or man made, we must do more than hope and pray for the best.