Global oil supply will peak in 2020, says IEA, The Guardian: 'Global oil production will peak much earlier than expected amid a collapse in petroleum investment due to the credit crunch, one of the world's foremost experts has revealed ( Read more... )

Salon's Sexiest Man Living 2008: Matthew Mitcham:
'The Olympic diver Matthew Mitcham, the 20-year-old phenom from Brisbane, Australia, probably would have passed us by if it weren't for three things. 1) His riveting gold medal win in Beijing, in which he surprised nearly everybody, including himself, by capturing his country's first gold diving ( Read more... )

Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at New York University's Stern School of Business, on Charlie Rose (Oct. 14, 2008):

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Stephen Mihm, "Dr. Doom":
'On Sept. 7, 2006, Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at New York University, stood before an audience of economists at the International Monetary Fund and announced that a crisis was brewing ( Read more... )

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Matthew Mitcham Médaille d'or
by GayClicOlympic gold medalist Matthew Mitcham's 6 dives in the men's 10m, plus the medal ceremony. As well as scoring the highest single dive in Olympic history (112.10 out of a possible 114), and being the only non-Chinese diver to win gold at Beijing, Mitcham was also one of only five openly gay athletes at the 2008 ( Read more... )

China Digital Times translates a long interview with director Zhang Yimou, the General Director of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony, from South Weekend. (Part 2)
'Each time when we make modifications, I say to my team: The audience throughout China only cares about the results, not the process. No one will care why you made those modifications ( Read more... )

China Digital Times translates the reactions of three Chinese bloggers to filmmaker Zhang Yimou's (Hero, Curse of the Golden Flower) direction of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony:
'Zhang Yimou’s ability to create pompous scenes in blockbusters has made him a favorite artist of the era. This is an era in which people need grand scenes to ( Read more... )

Starbucks will close 72% of its stores in Australia, deemed to be "under-performing".
The decision to shut 61 of Australia's 84 Starbucks outlets is the first mass closure outside the U.S. after the July 1 announcement that the company would close 600 U.S. outlets, eliminating as many as 12,000 jobs. The coffee chain came face to face in Australia ( Read more... )

Caught on security camera - 49 year old woman convulses and dies on the floor of a New York City hospital waiting room. Comments at Chicago Tribune, AlterNet, Black Political Thought.

Results of a resent study on inequality in America are published in Harvard Magazine - what it says should be old news to anyone with common sense, but it doesn't ( Read more... )

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