first things first:

NYMEX Light Sweet Crude     $61.02
IPE Brent $58.98
NYMEX Natural Gas    $11.223

It seems Meteor Blades won the bet on 2005 endyear prices!

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Gazprom back in the news this morning:
BBC News:

Anything new here, Jerome?

World's skies light up to greet the new year

The new year was greeted in characteristically jubilant style across Britain into the early hours of today as many thousands of people gathered in Trafalgar Square to watch a spectacular fireworks display.

Threats of a 24-hour strike on London Underground failed to deter partygoers from gathering across the capital. More than 150,000 revellers were expected to watch the spectacular sound-and-light display launched from the London Eye, followed by £1 million-worth of fireworks lighting up the capital as the clock struck midnight.

Despite the threat of industrial action, most Tube services carried on running, with just 30 out of 275 stations closed by the early evening.

The RMT union, which has called another strike next weekend, claims the way new work rosters are being drawn up would leave some Tube stops 'dangerously understaffed'.

In France, there were fears that the rioting which swept the country in October could be repeated. More than 25,000 police were put on alert to deal with any arson attacks.

Several thousand police were expected to keep order along the Champs-Elysees in Paris, where up to half a million tourists were expected to watch the traditional fireworks.

President Jacques Chirac gave his traditional new year address, issuing a rallying cry to a population suffering a crisis in morale.

The 73-year-old leader called on his 'dear compatriots' to rise to the challenge of globalisation. 'France has always met any challenge that she has faced and has come out stronger', he said.

In Sydney, thousands crowded near the harbour to watch a stunning fireworks display heralding 2006.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Markets Drop in Last Session of 2005 (LA Times)

Wall Street couldn't muster a rally on the last trading day of the year, leaving major market indexes at their December lows.

The Dow Jones industrials finished the year slightly in the red, but nearly all other indexes posted gains for 2005.

(...)

The Dow fell 67.32 points, or 0.6%, to 10,717.50. It also was down 0.6% for the year, the first annual decline since 2002, which was the final year of the last bear market.

Broader stock indicators also lost ground Friday. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 6.13 points, or 0.5%, to 1,248.29 but was up 3% for the year.

The technology-dominated Nasdaq composite fell 12.84 points, or 0.6%, to 2,205.32. For the year, it rose 1.4%.

Still, it wasn't as tough to make decent money in stocks as the well-known indexes might imply. The market's stars were small and mid-size stocks, energy-related shares and foreign issues.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/PA_NEWA27443781136052785A0?source=PA%20Feed">Blair should go for "awful Brown' (Evening Standard)

Tory leader David Cameron branded Gordon Brown "extreme", "awful" and "a creature of the past", in a stinging personal attack on the man he expects to face in the next General Election.

In spite of his promise to move away from "Punch and Judy-style" confrontational politics, Mr Cameron used a New Year interview to make a string of personal criticisms of the Chancellor.

And he insisted he was keen for battle with Brown to commence, calling on Prime Minister Tony Blair to "get on" and quit 10 Downing Street.

He also fleshed out his plans for the economy, refusing to rule out tax rises if times are tough and making clear that his tax-cutting ambitions do not commit him to making reductions every year of a Conservative administration.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

2006 postponed by one (leap) second

LONDON. December 30. KAZINFORM - The world's top timekeepers will insert an extra second--or leap second--just before midnight in coordinated universal time (UTC) on New Year's Eve. (That's the same as 6:59:59 p.m. eastern time on December 31.) UTC is determined by atomic clocks and is five hours ahead of eastern time.

For those of you counting the seconds until 2006, add one.

Earth's rotation is ever so slightly slowing down, but atomic clocks remain unwaveringly consistent. The extra second will allow Earth to stay in sync with the ultraprecise clocks, which mark time based on the vibration of atoms, Kazinform cites John Roach for National Geographic News.
The planet's slowing is mostly due to the friction of tides raised by the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon. In fact, a day is now about two-thousandths of a second longer than it was a couple centuries ago, scientists say.

To keep today's atomic clocks synchronized with time as measured by Earth's rotation, timekeepers insert a leap second whenever the difference between the two clocks exceeds nine-tenths of a second.

The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems, near Frankfurt, Germany, coordinates the additions of leap seconds.

This year's "extra" second will be the 23rd leap second added since 1972. In that year atomic timekeeping became the world standard. Before then, authorities relied on the movement of stars.

The most recent leap second was added seven years ago, in 1998.

"For the last several years Earth has behaved well," explained Geoff Chester, a spokesperson for the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. Together with the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, the observatory keeps official time for the country.

But Earth is predicted to slow down "on a nearly exponential scale" in the decades to come as tidal friction increases, Chester says. And this is a conundrum that has sparked debate among the world's clock-watchers.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Something strange, administrators. A diary I submitted several days ago suddenly popped back up on the rec list with a date of Dec 31. ????????

.
Best Wishes to all - especially in Good Health or Sustainability in recovering from any illness at present.

In The Hague a lot of fireworks displayed throughout the city center and suburbs.  To avoid nasty crowd troubles, the city is now renowned for supporting neighborhood party coordination.  To avoid large bon fires in city streets, the city council has given permission for large bon fires on the beach of the North Sea. Nasty rioting has been prevented in the last ten years!

Eurovision television has the traditional

• New Year's wishes from the Vatican at noon
  
• Beautiful New Year's Johann Strauss Concert from Vienna
  
• Ski Jump competition from Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Austria

Johann Strauss Waltz Concerts

Austria btw will haveEU Presidency first six months and Putin's Russia will lead the G8 Nations on Finance and Economy. First item for discussion: democratic content of member nations and gas & oil distribution throughout the World - read U.S. and all Western energy consumers. I wonder whether there is any knowledge of assets to be found in the environment, climate and ecology.

Let 2006 be an EARTH YEAR :: have people unite globally to retake true democracy, whereby its leaders represent voters and not corporations.

● Eisenhower's Message to his country!

Listeners all around the world can experience the New Year's Concert live on the internet by way of Live-Stream beginning at 11:15 CET.

"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."

▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY

I woke up, ate the traditional New Years' Day lentil pottage, and just by accident had the fortune to catch a TV re-run of the early Louis de Funès classic Ni vu... ni connu...

Can any of the French here tell me or find out which lovely town it was filmed in? ('Montpaillard' is a fictious name, I take it.)

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

...from another thread:

Who knows who started the Seven Years' War?

(Whithout looking it up?)

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

The White House and National Security Agency have been caught tracking visitors to their websites in ways that may violate official US guidelines.

The organisations have been using different techniques to spot return visitors and monitor what they are looking at.

Although widely used on commercial websites, US federal guidelines prohibit official use of such tools.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4569184.stm

A happy, healthy and peaceful New Year to everyone!

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within." Cicero

El Pais: 60% of Spaniards defends immigrant's right to vote (30-12-2005)

A majority believe only those [immigrants] having a job offer should be allowed entry, according to the CIS

A majority of Spaniards support voting rights for immigrants. 60,8% believe they should be able to vote in municipal elections, and 53,4% thinks that, in addition, they should do it in general elections, according to the November Barómetro from the Center for Sociological Research (CIS). Currently, only EU citizens can vote in municipal, but not general elections.

Well, it seems that I am not that out of tune with Spanish opinion after all... But, pray tell, if you can vote in general elections without being a citizen, and your civil liberties and human rights are protected, and you have a work/residence permit, what difference would citizenship make? And what is the Spanish Nation, then?

Interestingly, I found this article chasing the following, more worrying headline from Google News:
Diario Córdoba: El 60% de los españoles creen que hay demasiados extranjeros (30/12/2005)

The increase in the number of immigrants is the second most important problem in [Spain]. Gypsies make up the minority group that [Spanish] citizens value the worst.

The November barómetro from _CIS_reveals that 3 in 5 Spaniards think there are too many foreigners in Spain. Nevertheless, the same survey hghlights that over half favour that those [immigrants] who are settled can vote in general elections.

A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith

One more joke for the New Year (from the Street Prophets)...

We all know that President George W. Bush is taking instructions from no less than God himself.

But did the Almighty really tell W to "invade Iraq"?

Find out for yourself...

Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.