Ippoippo

10 Types of Republicans…

Have to admit, the choice of Palin as Vice-Presidential candidate seems somewhat mad… but if it means McCain not becoming president, then it get’s a thumbs up from me.

There was a report in the FT today, with more ‘bad news’ being slowly leaked out by the IEA.

“Structural demand growth in developing countries and ongoing supply constraints continue to paint a tight market picture over the medium-term,” the IEA said in its Medium-Term Oil Market Report, released on Tuesday in Madrid.

“Poor supply-side performance since 2004, in the face of strong demand pressures from developing countries, has forced oil prices up sharply to curb demand,” the watchdog added.

Crude oil prices surged on Wednesday more than $2.50 to $142.73 a barrel, but still below Monday’s record high of $143.67 a barrel. The report also said that current oil prices were “justified by fundamentals.”

You can also read what The Energy Bulletin say about that report in the FT.

Japan is a market pioneer again: the first industrialised nation with no butter

Is this the first signs of Market failure?
As the article sub heading states…

An explosion in grain prices and a slide away from self-sufficiency is causing global crisis. And wealth is no guarantee of insulation

Another story, which also mentioned in passing

Yesterday, Japan was forced to secure emergency butter shipments as the rocketing price of feed and resulting drop in milk production has left the country’s supermarkets with sudden shortages of a basic foodstuff.

There has been a fair bit of coverage in the British press recently by the increases in stabbings and knife crime in London.

However, on Sunday, Tokyo was hit my a mass stabbing. The BBC coverage is here, MDN Coverage (in English) here, and there is some blog coverage here. (Warning, the blog report has slightly more graphic pictures).

It’s all pretty horrific, and seems a lot worse in way because this kind of crime is relatively rare in Japan.

Meanwhile, there is a 2-ch (Ni-Channel, a large Japanese chat forum) backlash now, because of the somewhat idiotic actions of bystanders in the background of live TV reports who were mucking around.
Whilst those people being somewhat insensitive is pretty depressing, the 2-ch mob reaction is pretty unpleasant too.

Other Japan links

Talking of mob reactions, the Times newspaper reported on mob behaviour by parents of Japanese school kids.

The stage was set, the lights went down and in a suburban Japanese primary school everyone prepared to enjoy a performance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The only snag was that the entire cast was playing the part of Snow White.

An alternative approach to spreading Peak Oil theory to the masses???

Here and here.

Ahh, the sex sells approach ehhh?

‘Oily Cassandra’ (the second link above), has done some other videos, and she really is quite the ‘doomer’ (she’s done other videos.)