Pressure is piled onto the [EMU PERIPHERY] as the BoJ notes that Greece was in worse shape than Russia & Argentina at debt crisis times

AN RAF veteran recounted how he cheered when Britain declared war on Germany on the 71st anniversary of the Second World War announcement.

• From left, Sgt Ian Anderson, Cpl Tony Moore, who lost a leg during a training accident, and Sgt Mark Fairbrother from 2 Scots (Royal Highland Fusiliers) run repeated laps round Glasgow’s George Square to raise funds for the troops Picture: Robert Perry

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Joe Parker, 89, served with 602 Glasgow City Squadron throughout the conflict after joining the RAF as a 16-year-old.

He recalled cheering as then prime minister Neville Chamberlain announced that Britain was at war with Germany.

He said: “Myself and my mates were in the canteen having a cup of tea when the announcement came over the radio by the prime minister (Neville Chamberlain) that we were now at war with Germany and we all cheered.

“We thought it was great. We thought it would be a great adventure.

“It is sad to think we sat and cheered and thought it was going to be a wonderful time when you think of all the sons and daughters and fathers and mothers that gave their life because of this war.

“It was a terrible time. It seemed glorious and glamorous and funny things happened at times, but it was an experience I don’t wish on anyone.”

And he described the loss of British service personnel in the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as “terrible”.

He added: “It is my experience that war has to be avoided if at all possible.”

TORY rebels are set to hold talks with Labour on Monday to thrash out a deal to overturn Nick Clegg’s plans to hold a referendum on changing the voting system on the same day as the Holyrood election.

Mr Clegg wants to hold the referendum introducing the alternative vote system (AV) on 5 May next year.

Opponents of the plan point out that it could distort the result of the referendum, because elections are not taking place across the UK. It als

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o goes against recommendation about holding different votes on the same day, following the 2007 fiasco in Scotland, when 147,000 ballot papers were spoiled because of confusion between the Holyrood and council elections.

An amendment seeking a change of date by Dunfermline and West Fife MP Thomas Docherty will be laid down on Monday, as the government tries to push through the second stage of its constitutional reform bill.

While the amendment is unlikely to succeed next week, with Tory rebels abstaining, it is understood that they are planning to use it to force Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg into a humiliating climbdown.

One discontented Tory of up to 70 back-bench rebels said: “We have decided that the committee stage and third reading are the points to force to changes. We want to approach this constructively.”

Mr Docherty, who has the backing of his party’s leadership, who are putting a three-line whip on the votes, will hold talks on Monday with the SNP, as well as Tory rebels, to agree an alternative date.

He told The Scotsman: “The respect agenda is not just about knowing the name of the First Ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – it also means knowing what their phone numbers are and being prepared to speak to them before taking steps that will directly impact on these elections.”

Curious about Project Sword, the new Epic Games RPG for iOS demonstrated at Apple’s event on Wednesday? Lucky for you, the company has released a free app that allows users to explore the castle environment showcased during the demo.

The app, called simply Epic Citadel, allows users to walk–using a various combination of taps and swipes–from “the circus bazaar on the outskirts of the castle grounds to the mysterious cathedral at the center of town.” Powered by Epic Games’s Unreal Engine 3, the exquisitely crafted 3D environment gives a tantalizing taste of things to come in the full version of Project Sword, which is due out this holiday season.

Sadly, unlike the demonstration during the event, there’s no combat system built into the demo–you’ll have to wait until the game’s release in December for that.

Epic Citadel is a free 82.2MB download compatible with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, and the iPod Touch (3rd generation). iOS devices must be running 3.1 or later.

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The execution room in a Texas prison. (AP)

An anesthesia drug sold by Hospira Inc. that is used by several states to execute prisoners on death row may not be available until early next year due to supply issues.

The drug, sodium thiopental, is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug administration for use in lethal injections, so it is not sold by Hospira for such uses. But like other prescriptions, physicians are known to provide drugs  to patients in off-label form, and the product is known to be used as part of a cocktail of prescriptions used to put inmates to death.

USA Today reported last week that the shortage of several anesthesia drugs may delay executions in at least two states. Federal agencies and some hospitals have also reported that elective surgeries are also being delayed because of the shortage of such products.

Hospira said sodium thiopental is an anesthetic agent used by hospitals. Hospira said the drug “isn’t indicated for capital punishment, and Hospira does not support its use in this procedure,” the company said in a statement to the Tribune. “Hospira has communicated with departments of corrections in the United States to advise them of this position.”

The drug is not a big seller for the company, so Hospira does not disclose its sales. Hospira said the shortage was “due to a supply issue with the active pharmaceutical ingredient, which is supplied by a third party” — one the company would not name.

“We are working to get it back onto the market, and anticipate it will be by early 2011,” Hospira said in its statement.

Magna International said Tuesday it will move ahead with a deal worth nearly $1 billion to have founder Frank Stronach give up control over the auto parts giant.

Dissident shareholders opposed to the plan have notified the Aurora, Ont.-based company that they do not intend further legal appeals, Magna said in a release.

Magna says it plans to implement a deal after the close of markets Tuesday to relieve founder Frank Stronach of control. (Markus Leodolter/Associated Press)

A day earlier, the Ontario Divisional Court upheld a lower-court ruling approving the proposal.

The dissident shareholders included the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, OMERS, the Alberta Investment Management Corp. and British Columbia Investment Management Corp.

They had opposed the size of the premium over the present value of the company’s shares — about 18-fold — to be paid to the Stronach family trust, and argued it would set a dangerous precedent for similar, future deals in terms of the loss of shareholder value.

The deal provides for Stronach to receive $300 million US in cash, $120 million in consulting fees over the next four years, nine million single-vote shares of Magna and control over a new joint venture focused on electric vehicles.

Shares rise

Magna shares closed up $3.43, or 4.3 per cent, to $83.04 Tuesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Magna said it planned to implement the change after the close of markets Tuesday.

“We are very pleased with the court’s decision and that we are finally in a position to close the arrangement, which has received strong support from Magna’s shareholders,” Magna CFO Vince Galifi said.

“With the transaction completed, we can refocus on pursuing our long-term growth strategy, including further investments in both innovation and emerging markets, in order to continue to serve our customers around the world.”

Note: The Skinny blog is written by Rick Smith, editor and co-founder of Local Tech Wire and business editor of WRAL.com.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – A new study reaffirms a fact known for many years but it also manages to relocate UNC from Chapel Hill to Raleigh and N.C. State to Chapel Hill from Raleigh.

Tobacco Road redrawn!

How brainy is this study, anyway?

We all make mistakes. Heaven knows The Skinny has made plenty over the years. However …

Richard Florida, the man behind the “creative class” literature, recently surveyed the U.S. to find where the “brainiacs” live. The Triangle fares well with Durham-Chapel Hill ranking second and Raleigh-Cary 12th.

But here’s how the blogpost about the “Brainiest Metros”reads:

“America’s Brainiest Metros are a mix of large metros with a significant presence of technology and knowledge-based businesses and the nation’s premiere college and university towns. Not surprisingly, the presence of a major research university appears to be one of the most decisive variables. Durham or Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina, home to Duke University and North Carolina State, takes second place, with neighboring Raleigh-Cary (home to the University of North Carolina) in 12th. Both are part of the famed North Carolina Research Triangle. …”

The post later was corrected. UNC and NCSU are now back home.

It’s been a matter of record for many years that the Triangle is home to a very high percentage of PhDs. The universities, high-tech and life science firms make the RTP area a huge creative hub.

So, the brainiac survey is a nice once to add to the region’s growing resume of accolades – from best place to live and work to many more.

The Brainiest Metros Index was calculated on three factors:

1. Share of adults 25 or over with PhD, master’s or professional degree

2. Computer scientists and mathematicians as a share of employment

3. Scientists as a share of total metro employment

For the full report, read here.

[PRE RBA] There is a zero chance RBA will hike rates tdy. However volatile trade could ensue on the tone of the 4.30GMT statement, given that the curve remains mildly negative, with less than one hike now priced over the next 12mths. An increasingly uncertain global outlook, especially for the US and Europe, combined with Q2's subdued inflation backdrop, will have provided RBA enough leeway to leave rates on hold. However with Q2's strong GDP figures in hand, booming terms of trade, firms robust CAPEX plans and ongoing labour mkt strength; the statement could well be peppered with a hawkish bias, in which prospects for demand and inflation will need to be watched closely. In this case, expect ylds and the Aussie to be pressured higher

Sentiment twds the [EURO] has turned clearly bearish as debt concerns are suddenly revived left, right and center in the Press after a seeming Summer vacation of calm. A TIME article is also now warning that the respite in Europe's debt crisis appears to have been only temporary, with renewed jitters having showed up in widening sovereign bonds ylds. It notes that the core problems facing the Eurozone from a housing-bubble fallout to fiscal deficits to current account imbalances, will prove slow to unwind, keeping financial pressure on Europe's govts. Meanwhile another test of investor sentiment towards Eurozone sovgns is seen around the corner with EU Govts planning to raise more than $100 bln in bond auctions in Sept- roughly twice the amt sought in Aug. We continue to view the default of a peripheral Eurozone state such as Greece as the biggest & most highly likely risk for Europe in the 2nd half

MONDAY, Sept. 6 (HealthDay News) — Money can help buy happiness — at least if you’re bringing in about $75,000 a year, new research shows.

While happiness increases along with annual household incomes up to about $75,000, beyond that, earning more money has no effect on day-to-day contentment, according to the study.

But that doesn’t mean you should give up trying to get that promotion. While making more won’t help your emotional state on any given day, people who had household incomes above $75,000 were more apt to say they were satisfied overall with their life.

Those who made, say, $120,000 reported more satisfaction with their lives and had a higher assessment of their life overall than those who made less, while those who made $160,000 evaluated their lives even better still.

“It’s really important to recognize that the word ‘happiness’ covers a lot of ground,” said study author Angus Deaton, a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University. “There is your overall evaluation of how your life is going, while the other has to do more with emotional well-being at the moment. Higher incomes don’t seem to have any effect on well-being after around $75,000, whereas your evaluation of your life keeps going up along with income.”

The study is in the Sept. 6 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers used data from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which surveyed 450,000 Americans in 2008 and 2009 about their household income, emotional state during the prior day and overall feelings about their life and well-being.

Both measures of happiness are getting at something different, Deaton noted. You might be feeling blue or unhappy one day because your boss hassled you or you got a speeding ticket, but overall, you think life is going pretty well.

Conversely, you might have felt happy, even joyful, on an outing with your friends and family, but are overall not satisfied with your life or the direction it’s going.

So which measure of happiness matters more?

That’s a philosophical question and perhaps one only the individual can answer, Deaton said. “That’s a really deep, hard question. [Both measures] are important. But if you’re unhappy now, the fact your life may be going well doesn’t make up for that.”

Social scientists and psychologists have long grappled with how to measure happiness, said James Maddux, a psychology professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., who was not involved with the study.

The new study does a good job teasing apart the different aspects of emotional well-being, including more immediate emotions vs. bigger-picture life evaluations, Maddux said.

“This study is consistent with a lot of other studies on the relationship between income and happiness or overall life satisfaction,” Maddux said. “What other studies have also shown is that money matters up to a point. But after a certain point, having additional money doesn’t make people like their lives better or feel better about themselves on a day to day basis.”

This holds true in other countries around the world as well, he noted. Once per capita GDP rises to a point in which people are no longer struggling to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter and healthcare, additional increases in overall national wealth don’t seem to make much of a difference in happiness, Maddux said.

Maddux urged America’s beleaguered workers not to get too hung up on the $75,000 figure. That income level can mean very different things depending on how many people are in the family, what sorts of financial responsibilities you have and where you live, he said.

“$75,000 is not a magical figure people need to achieve to be at their happiest,” Maddux said. “The point is there is a threshold at which people probably are not going to be substantially happier if they keep making more money.”

In 2008, average U.S household income was about $71,500, while the median — or the point at which half of incomes are higher and half are lower — was $52,000. The average skews higher than the median because of a few very high incomes, Deaton explained.

While people with household incomes of more than $75,000 probably won’t feel an enduring happiness boost if they are able to earn more, losing substantial income would likely not be good for their emotional well being, the study suggested. As income dropped, respondents reported declining happiness and increased sadness and stress.

And,according to the study, poverty exacerbated the emotional impact of negative life events such as illness and divorce. Nor did the poor get as much of a happiness boost from weekends as those who were better-off, according to the researchers.

“Life is unfair for the poor in all sort of dimensions,” Deaton said.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more information on anxiety and other mental health conditions.