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PODCAST: The cruise ship industry, more euro downgrades

World leaders are meeting in Abu Dhabi today to discuss the future of renewable energy, especially in developing countries. What would the the planet look like if other countries caught up to the rate of car ownership we have here in the U.S.? And yet another Standard and Poor's downgrade has hit Europe.

Firemen patrol near the Costa Concordia cruiseship on January 16, 2012 in the harbor of the Tuscan island of Giglio after it ran aground and keeled over off the Isola del Giglio after hitting underwater rocks on January 13.
Firemen patrol near the Costa Concordia cruiseship on January 16, 2012 in the harbor of the Tuscan island of Giglio after it ran aground and keeled over off the Isola del Giglio after hitting underwater rocks on January 13.
ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images

Greece sent senior officials to Washington on Monday for meetings with the International Monetary Fund as it raced against the clock to break a deadlock in debt talks that has prompted new fears of an unruly default.

Ratings agency Moody’s says it is maintaining France’s top-tier AAA credit rating for now after the country was downgraded by rival Standard & Poor’s.

Here’s something that’s up: Hulu’s investment in original programming. The online video site, which is partly owned by Disney and News Corporation says it’ll roll out two new shows by summer.

To a new mobile phone app, for dating… aliens. The intergalactic dating app will send radio frequencies from your phone into outer space so you can communicate with other life forms and perhaps find a mate. The first version — hich is still in development — isn’t quite “universal” though. It’ll only be accessible to aliens up to one light year or 6 trillion miles from Earth.

To Chicago, which has been auctioning off un-needed city property to make ends meet. Everything from cars to Xerox copier toners. According to the Chicago Sun Times, the city raked in $3.6 million from the auctions last year — twice what it made in 2010. That’s in part thanks to a big sale of standalone fax machines to an unnamed South American government, which apparently still communicates by fax.

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