Hilary Clinton speaks the unspeakable.... the possibility of Obama being assassinated.

And here is the analysis of the whole thing... of which the following is an edit:

Paul Keating called him recalcitrant. But Dr Mahatir Mohammed, the ex PM of Malaysia, certainly knows how to hit the rational high notes when he gets going...

Here he is talking about the US:

The real cost of war is the amount we are all paying to fill our cars right now.

Here is what one of the leading oil economists has to say about it...

Why are they called theories when so many of them are actually facts?!

Here is a very interesting take. Why? Because it is really about the people who have been put into place to do things, rather than about the events themselves. When you get the people being appointed to positions of power it is rarely, if ever, by accident.

This story is about the guy who is Hank Paulson's chief of staff. Very interesting history he has too...

Who do you think was one of the Bush Administration's key players on the economy?

If you say Paulson or Bernanke, you might be half right. But there's another no-name lurking around in the background who tends to be doing the wrong thing at every key moment in the covert history of the Bush (or should we day "Bush League") Republic.

His name is Jim Wilkinson. He helped organize the GOP "protest"/obstruction of the Miami election recount in 2000. He was the White House's key media spinner at the Doha Coalition Media Center in 2003. A reporter from Texas said he used techniques first perfected by Stalin. He was an architect of the Republican convention in New York in 2004. He was later dispatched to keep an eye on, and act as "dissembler-in-chief" for Condi Rice.

But at a crucial moment in the history of the Western world, Mr. "I work in the shadows" Wilkinson became chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, the Goldman Sachs embed in the Cabinet.

Read the rest of the story here.

I was talking to a friend over the weekend who had been in Japan during the week at a relatively high level meeting in which the aging of countries was discussed.

Apparently Japan has taken the view that they will not allow immigration of foreign nationals to provide support for their increasingly aging population. Their view is that their culture would be damaged and that the solution is in robots.

This has got to mean that there will be a tremendous amount of investment in all kinds of associated technologies, and an opportunity to establish global leadership in this area of business.

I think that this has very important implications for countries like Australia where we have a greying population, a phenomenal potential for continuing wealth generation as a result of the ongoing demand for resources and a limited amount of carrying power for the land itself because of water shortages.

I came across a blog today that has some fantastically mangled English.

Here is a Cisco Data Sheet for a product that you probably want to have in your system... an Ether Lord Fucking Net...

Seems like there are a lot of people following a lot of other people on Twitter these days.

So a big hello to anyone who gets updates of this blog via Twitter.

And now back to our normal broadcast....

Climate warming is expected to increase the amount of ice melt this northern summer according to scientists.

All the evidence points toward human-made changes at both poles, she said, a conclusion that "further depletes the arsenals of those who insist that human-caused climate change is nothing to worry about."

Climatologist Gareth Marshall of the British Antarctic Survey said that while the term global warming is widely used, things are more complicated at the regional level.

In the Antarctic, he explained, climate change strengthened winds blowing around the continent, helping trap colder air. But that will decrease in the future, allowing warmer conditions to begin, he said.

And, Marshall added, all studies now show that human activities are the drivers of climate change in the Antarctic.

Asked if this summer will match last year's record low sea ice in the North, Overland that is likely.

"The tea leaves point to a minimal amount of sea ice next September, that would be the same as we had last summer, 40 percent loss compared to 20 years ago," he said. Overland added that the winter freeze got a late start last fall.

Looks like the price of putting solar into your home is about to get a whole lot cheaper... The shortage in the kind of silicon used in solar panels is coming to an end.

Now all we need is for the governments - state and federal - to do what should have been done years ago - to put a premium on home generated solar energy that goes into the grid, so that home owners are encouraged to install solar. If this was done instead of a subsidy payment for the installation there would be a lot more investment in solar in this country.

There is apparently growing demand for camels in India according to a report in the Financial Times.

Its all based on the rising price of oil.... Apparently feeding camels is cheaper than paying for petrol!