Missed this story over the weekend. Apparently the oil squeeze is being felt around the globe:

JAPAN and China were due to hold “peace talks” this weekend amid rising tensions over violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China and a mounting dispute over oil and gas reserves.
Nobutaka Machimura, the Japanese foreign minister who is due to visit Beijing tomorrow, said he hoped the trip would defuse tensions, but the bitter rivalry between the two countries looked set to intensify after Japan announced plans to drill for oil in a disputed area of the East China sea.
. . .
Protesters in Beijing are threatening a further mass demonstration against Japan this weekend, after a rally last week in which several thousand demonstrators pelted the Japanese embassy with stones and bottles, and smashed the windows of Japanese shops.

Not the same thing, but wasn’t oil a contributing factor in a war way back when? I don’t suspect we’ll go there, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see oil strain international relations on a number of fronts in the next 20 years.

I saw my first firefly of the season (not pictured) floating around a tree this evening. I was a bit surprised because I didn’t think think they came out until May.
I like fireflies. They conjure up memories of long summer evenings–my favorite time of the year.

Clearly this smoke from the Sistene Chapel chimney thing wasn’t developed with live media coverage in mind. Perhaps they should update to fireworks or something else less ambiguous. But it is entertaining listening to these news anchors try to figure out what color the smoke is.
UPDATE: Bells are now ringing. Befuddled anchors and reporters breathe a sigh of relief.
UPDATE: Pope Hitler Youth, if the NY Post can be trusted.

I sometimes wonder how people who conduct forward-looking studies come up with their estimates. Here’s another example:

At least one politician or public official would be busted every other year if the ethics legislation that passed the state Senate last week becomes law.
That’s not the estimation of some cynical statehouse ob-server or disenchanted activist. That’s the estimate of the state legislature’s own staff.
The ethics bill, which has different House and Senate versions but generally aims for greater public disclosure of lawmakers’ consulting work and connections to lobbyists, would apply to state lawmakers, the appointed members of the governor’s cabinet, and local elected officials to the city council level.

Seems to me that if you change the rules, most people inclined to take money–at least at the state level–will simply get more creative in their means of obtaining it. There are rules against taking money in other areas, and people rarely get caught unless one of the parties admits to doing it or is very careless.

I was flipping through the news channels as they were covering the Oklahoma City bombing memorial service. The ceremony included 168 seconds of silence for the victims. I flipped over to Fox News and the anchor was jabbering through 70% of the silence time.
Kind of defeats the purpose of the coverage, doesn’t it?
I guess if you really want to watch these events, you should watch C-SPAN anyway. You’re much less likely to be subjected to some windbag making up stuff about how “hopeful” a city is.
Anyway, best wishes to those remembering victims of the bombing.