The results include a common sewage-treatment plant in Gubin, and a school in Guben where classes are taught in both German and Polish.

ECONOMIST: The German-Polish border

Lining the roadside are rosettes of Aeonium ciliatum, a succulent green plant more common to the Canaries than Cornwall, and towering fronds of agapanthus, or the lily of the Nile.

BBC: The last piece of England

Add in legal and institutional barriers (Germany is a federal state, Poland a centralised one, something that almost killed the sewage plant), and the road to a common future for the two cities looks bumpy.

ECONOMIST: The German-Polish border

And, as is all too common with the construction of nuclear reactors, the Olkiluoto plant has soared over budget and left the parties involved openly squabbling over who's going to foot the substantial additions to the bill.

CNN: Opinion: Nuclear is 'a spanner in the works'

The Kempton Agassi and Huber proposals have this in common: They take advantage of the fact that energy bought from a central station power plant is cheaper than energy bought from a gasoline pump.

FORBES: Magazine Article

An equally common reaction would be to get angry with the owner and possibly even try to harm the plant or its products in some way before the closing.

FORBES: Shutting Down a Business Tests Your Leadership

One common method was to cover small gold particles with genetic material and shoot them into the nucleus of the plant cell with a pressure gun.

FORBES: Revolutionaries