Je Suis Charlie ~ Keep Fighting Intolerant Evil...

Gunmen of unknown origin or affiliation shouting "Allāhu Akbar" -- meaning "God is great" in Arabic -- slaughtered a dozen people at and near offices of satire magazine publisher Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

This is absolutely unacceptable.

We must keep fighting for modern, civilized human rights -- freedoms such as life, liberty, and speech, including the right to mock and laugh at stupid religious ideas and spoof any so-called "prophet".  In solidarity, R.I.P. Charb, Cabu, and other victims... P.S. See fellow cartoonist's drawn tributes, eg David Pope...
P.P.S. Yes, it's now clear that our entire planet Earth is full of free-thinking and rational people who reject violent virulent swine... P.P.P.S. The perpetrators of this vicious and unforgivable crime are said to be: Said Kouachi, born in 1980, Cherif Kouachi, born in 1982. If you know or see them, beware of the allegations and report them to authorities. (Addendum: They're now dead.)
P.P.P.P.S. And all this I say knowing that Charlie Hebdo has represented uncompelling aspects of the political spectrum, from my point of view. But I absolutely respect their right to spew their spleen. As Evelyn Beatrice Hall wrote: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
P.P.P.P.P.S. This includes all of these "blasphemous" cartoons.

Protecting NYC ~ Engineering For Resiliency...

Alan Feuer in NYTimes writes Protecting the City, Before Next Time...

"What is the way forward? Does the city continue to build ever-sturdier and ever-higher sea walls? Or does it accept the uncomfortable idea that parts of New York will occasionally flood and that the smarter method is to make the local infrastructure more elastic and better able to recover? [...] some experts in the field who have thought deeply about how to protect New York from huge storms like Hurricane Sandy -- and especially from the coastal surges they produce -- suggested that less intrusive forms of so-called soft infrastructure might prove more effective in sheltering the city than mammoth Venetian sea walls. [...] According to the experts -- architects, environmentalists and civil engineers -- large-scale projects like underwater gates are expensive, cumbersome and difficult to build. More important, they say, such undertakings are binary projects that work just fine until the moment they do not."

See the article for three fairly bold proposals.  And see Reuters infographic...

Debottlenecking ~ Brazil's Batista on Strategy...

In Reuters interview, Brazilian Eike Batista on Africa, Indonesia, India, China, Asia generally on urbanization, the developing middle class, and the "debottlenecking" of economic growth back home...

Ngozi's Back! ~ Again Nigeria's Finance Minister

Rumors confirmed! MIT alumna and stateswoman Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala returns to Nigeria as Minister of Finance in President Goodluck Jonathan's cabinet! Be sure to watch this Reuters clip where she recollects facing up to the Generals during her last stint as MoF! And here she is speaking about the World Bank's New Africa Strategy...

Mobile Harbor ~ Container (Un)Loading @ Sea

Rob Muir at Reuters reports on Mobile harbor delivers the goods for container ships at sea...

"South Korea has unveiled a mobile harbor designed to allow the loading and unloading of container ships at sea. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) says the harbor combines two technologies that could revolutionize port systems around the world. [...] If the ship can't come into the harbor, the harbor can now come out to the ship."