It was not by chance that Chancellor Angela Merkel devoted so much time to discussing the Greek crisis with President Obama in Washington.

BBC: Greek Bail-out II - the backlash

For the 25 other innocent children and devoted educators who had so much left to give.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Introduces a Plan to Reduce Gun Violence

Now the potential after-effects of such changes are all too clear - which is why so much effort has been devoted to stopping any more.

BBC: Analysis: Motives behind Yugoslavia's demise

But regular corn-based ethanol is unlikely to be the fuel choice of American motorists anytime soon--not least because only so much farmland can be devoted to growing corn for ethanol without denting food production.

FORBES: Magazine Article

When so much time and effort is devoted to crunching the numbers, it's a wonder there can be such divergence over a simple question about how well an economy is performing.

BBC: Quantifying economic success

Some might wonder why so much effort and money is being devoted to fight a disease that is contracted by fewer people than can fit on a commercial airplane.

WSJ: Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg: Our Plan to Eradicate Polio

So much of my young interrailing experience had been devoted to finding somewhere to sleep, to faffing about changing money, to working out just how little I could exist on a day.

BBC: Is interrailing still a rite of passage?