Wednesday-Night

See Canada-U.S. post 2008 elections ; The best countries for business, 2009
(RCI) The Alberta government ran a budget deficit of $852 million in the fiscal year that ended in March, the energy-rich province’s first deficit in 15 years. The government had predicted a surplus of $8.5 billion. That prediction was wrecked by plummeting […]

More on aviation and airlines and Wednesday-night.com ; Financial Times December 2008
France had banned Yemeni crash plane
(FT) Second air tragedy for French in matter of weeks after Yemenia Air jet accident kills 66 nationals out of 153 on board
Round-world flight planned for solar-powered plane 
A solar-powered plane its inventor hopes will […]

East Asia looks to lead on green power
Asia is leading the charge to develop more eco-friendly technology, with Japan and South Korea partnering with Beijing to combine their engineering prowess with China’s manufacturing capabilities. The three have individually put significant investment into new technologies, outpacing the U.S. TIME (6/25)
What a […]

‘Hopenhagen’
Brilliant Greenpeace spoof of IHT
Ban has made climate change his signature issue. In September 2007, Ban invited world leaders, ranging from Nicolas Sarkozy to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to Al Gore to the United Nations headquarters for a climate change summit. (Foreign Policy even covered the event!) And there will be a repeat of […]

Schott’s Vocab
A new blog by Ben Schott on the words and phrases that encapsulate the times in which we live.
Cramer vs. Not Cramer
The Stewart–Cramer feud over “Mad Money” and CNBC’s coverage of the economic collapse culminated in a “Daily Show” interview billed as “Cramer vs. Not Cramer: Basic Cable Personality Clash Skirmish ’09!”
13 March
Jon Stewart’s […]

See Part I of this topic/saga ; The evolving bailout plan ; The world after the (bailout) vote
Reversal of Fortune
How ideology, special-interest pressure, populist politics, and sheer incompetence have left the U.S. economy on life support, Joseph E. Stiglitz puts forth a clear, commonsense plan to reverse the Bush-era follies and regain America’s […]

Where is money safe today? Where should the investor be? Cash? What currency? To whom can you turn for advice that is not tinged with self-interest? What institution can you trust? We have heard that even proverbial Swiss banks may not be that safe (ex.UBS) …. One Wednesday Nighter suggests that we should start each […]

China, Beijing Olympics ; Tibet
Official website
The Official Mascots of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
The Olympic Emblem

August 7
Athletes pay price for IOC riches
This is the most extreme case of a longstanding phenomenon of holding Olympics just when sensible citizens (as in Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Athens 2004), are heading for the hills. It […]

July 27
Thomas Friedman
What would happen if you cross-bred J. R. Ewing of “Dallas” and Carl Pope, the head of the Sierra Club? You’d get T. Boone Pickens. What would happen if you cross-bred Henry Ford and Yitzhak Rabin? You’d get Shai Agassi. And what would happen if you put together T. Boone Pickens, the green […]

June 9
China Issue to Live on After US Carbon Bill Death
(Planet Ark/Reuters) NEW YORK - The US climate bill may be dead but one thorny element of it — possible tariffs on energy-intensive imports from rapidly developing countries like China — will fester as lawmakers form new greenhouse legislation.
Introduced to the US Congress by industrial […]