The week that was

Just catching up with Harper's Weekly Review... (Its a great weekly wrap-up, written often with a subtle sarcastic tone...so subscribe to the weekly updates if you like)...and here are a few interesting snippets from last week.

In a week when oil prices flirt with 100$/barrel and causes all kinds of agonizing....

At the third OPEC summit in 47 years, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that the price of crude oil could reach $200 a barrel. “The basis of all aggression,” said Chavez, “is oil.” During a private meeting that was accidentally televised, the oil minister of Venezuela suggested to the oil minister of Iran that OPEC stop using the crippled dollar for pricing; the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia countered that public discussion of the weak dollar would cause U.S. currency to lose value. “Kill the cable!” shouted a security guard as he ran into the meeting room, “Kill the cable!”^{1 2}

An economist with financial services firm UBS AG put the odds of a U.S. recession at 45 percent.³

I think he means mangrove...not mango :)

Cyclone Sidr killed 3,000 Bangladeshis even though the cyclone's fury was dampened by mango forests near the coast,⁶

haha...the Chinese trying hard in their own inimitable way to win back the confidence of the world ;)

Pork provider Pengcheng held a public pig-carcass-shaving to demonstrate that its meat would be sanitary and safe to eat at next year's Olympic Games; rival meat purveyors Qianxihe Group were raising special organic-fed Olympic pigs that are treated with traditional herbal medicines and given two hours of exercise each day.²

I had heard San Fransisco Bay oil spill was pretty bad...had not heard of this other one!

Ships carrying at least 2,000 tons of oil and 6,000 tons of sulfur sank in a storm in the straits between the Black Sea and the Azov Sea, killing at least three sailors and 30,000 birds.⁷

Had read about the poor Polish immigrant who died after being tasered in Vancouver airport recently and then the 20 year old Baltimore kid who died after being tasered last weekend...but had not read about this guy! In this one case, i say...GOOD RIDDANCE to bad rubbish!!

Former minister Amon Paul Carlock, also known as Klutzo the Clown, who was arrested after photos of naked Filipino orphans were found on his laptop, died in a Springfield, Illinois, prison after he was Tasered by a corrections officer.^{1 2}