Taking a break - and will enjoy the sun with a cup of tea for a while, then back to do some more work (bookkeeping, not one of my favorits).

Here you can find a link to watch the Obama speech live in English - its supposed to be at 18:45 CET(or 19:00 - I am not sure as the German and the English transmission have different start times). You can change the player on the lower left hand site. I had to set it to Windows medial player, because Quicktime didn't work.

In my new digs in the Paris office...too bad the weather isn't always nice here...it's almost as nice as Marseille!

But where are all the parties?

"C'est un scandale !"

Challenging post on DKos today by a Mr johnnygunn

The author considers the oil price of 140$ as a result of a bubble and predicts a slow down to 100-80$/bbl in the near future, due to a decline in demand as a result of the current oil price, and as new capacity would come on line (with some delay due to the time needed for investments to be finalized). As the price is set (according to this author) by the marginal demand/supply price, he assumes that a small decrease in demand could trigger a major decrease in price.
He compares also the price curves to some previous price bubbles.

This is only a very short summary of the article, so please don't snap at me, but I would welcom a return on the article.

There's also a special mention to Jérôme in the comments.

BBC SPORT | Olympics | Iraq banned from Beijing Olympics

Athletes from Iraq have been banned from taking part at this summer's Beijing Games, the International Olympic Committee has announced.

The team was already the subject of an interim ban after the Iraqi government replaced the country's Olympic committee with its own appointees.

Under the IOC charter, all committees must be free of political influence.

As a result the team of two rowers, two sprinters, one archer, one weightlifter and one judo competitor cannot attend.

Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.

All of this Obama in Berlin hubbub has got me thinking.  In addition to general wide-spread Obamamania in the states, the African American community is deeply invested in his campaign.  To the extent that anyone in Europe would care who the US President is, how big of a deal is Obama's candidacy among African and other "minority" Europeans?  When I first thought about it, I paused, because the experience of Africans in say France, isn't exactly the same as that of African Americans.  But then, Obama's own experience is probably closer to that of African immigrants to Europe than that of most African Americans, who can hardly be described as immigrants.  So, do the non-white non-ruling class folks in Europe appear particularly interested in Obama?  

When I was watching Obama and Karzai and Malaki, I was caught off guard by my reaction.  I know skin color really means nothing.  But that the leader-to-be of this huge bullying imperialist hegemonic country will look a lot more like the people said country is used to pushing around or marginalizing or enslaving gives me some kind of weird hope.  The clash of civilizations narrative, the colonialism narrative persists in part due to perceptions (even if actions are at the heart of it).  We don't LOOK alike.  The whole stupid "white Christain civilized man v. dark-skinned exotic savage" narrative is problematic when the one doing the pillaging is dark-skinned and thought by some to be Muslim.  I'm in no way suggesting that an Obama presidency would put an end to American hegemony.  But that it might drive us to look more deeply to explain its nature since it will be more difficult to categorize it as the status quo in a world where the white people have all the power and the dark skinned people are under their thumbs.  And the image we will have may not be reflective of reality - even if Obama is elected, the status quo won't change overnight or even maybe at all.  But don't underestimate the power of images.  It is very easy to got the "us/them" route when people look different.  White terrorists or a group of white kids roaming the streets don't scare many white people in the same way dark-skinned people doing the exact same thing does.  So what happens when the person you idolize looks more like your enemy than you, or when the person you demonize looks more like you than your enemy?  You can't then just let the imagery do all the work.  You have to begin to think of things more critically.  I hope I'm making sense.  Kcurie knows what I'm saying.

The symbolic imagery that connotes all kinds of historical injustice and division will dissipate.  A lot of Americans have complained (I don't think there will be much more after this trip) that they just struggle to "see" Obama as President.  There's nothing to reference for "young black man as US President." A paradigm shift is occurring the US.  I wonder if it's also being experienced abroad as a result of Obama's candidacy.

"This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."

Arctic has 90bn barrels of crude

The Arctic holds as much as 90bn barrels of undiscovered oil and has as much undiscovered gas as all the reserves known to exist in Russia, US government scientists have said in the first governmental assessment of the region's resources.

The report is likely to add impetus to the race among polar nations, such as Russia, the US, Denmark, Norway and Canada, for control of the region.

The US Geological Survey believes the Arctic holds 13 per cent of the world's undiscovered oil, while 1,669,000bn cubic feet of natural gas is equivalent to 30 per cent of the world's undiscovered gas reserves.

"The extensive Arctic continental shelves may constitute the geographically largest unexplored prospective area for petroleum remaining on earth," the USGS said.

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

Shorter Stephen Moore: "Exploiting immigrants is the awesomest thang evah".

Who let this asshole in?

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

Funny comments in the Chicago Tribune's blog about Obama's Germany visit:

• Again....I can't for the life of me understand why the media would cover this and not some millionare telling us the price of milk in the aisle of the handi mart.

• Why wouldn't they love him, they're socialists...

• Ich bin ein Obamer

• Cups! Cups! We need more cups! We have all this Kool-Aid but we've run out of cups!

"This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."

I've got the internet back(!)

Strictly, I suppose, I was never without a connection.

It's just that the laptop and the PC both broke down.

I haven't suffered...I could give it up any time I want....gibber....

I can get on okay with conservative Reps and their lot, and Chuck Hagel is one of my boys.  He and I would disagree about almost everything, but he's coming out and protecting Obama on the surge.

Cheers to Chuck.  A true patriot.

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

I found something for her:

Eating the pancakes!

There is no wrong way to do this. The classic approach is to pile up 2-3 and pour syrup over them. Which kind of syrup is entirely your choice. For fun, you can sprinkle fruit, like blueberries or sliced strawberries over the top. Kids love chocolate chips placed between the layers. If you layer pancake-chocolate chips-pancake as they are coming off the pan, the chips melt nicely.

No mention of lemon ...