Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

• Criticism of United States’ Mideast Policy Increasingly Comes From Allies - NYTimes.com

  "ROME — As the United States grapples with some of the most intractable problems in the Middle East, it has run into a buzz saw of criticism, not from traditional enemies but from two of its strongest allies. "

  tags: unitedstates politics rome paris london europe obama

• Obama Can Safely Ignore Saudi Tantrums - Bloomberg

  "Saudi Arabia has been throwing a diplomatic temper tantrum lately, threatening a “major shift” away from the U.S. over differences on Iran, Syria and other issues. The Obama administration can relax. "

  tags: ksa saudiarabia gcc obama middleeast politics

• Foreign investors chase Spanish ‘bad loans’ - FT.com

  "Foreign investors are scrambling to buy Spanish banks’ bad loans in the latest sign that the health of the eurozone economy is improving. "

  tags: spain investment europe euro finance loans crisis

• Russian puzzle proves hard to crack - FT.com

  "There are number of things that do not add up about Krinum, a company based in the West Siberian village of Barsovo that, according to its registration documents, is a provider of janitorial services. First, there is the address, obtained from the corporate register, which leads to an industrial warehouse park called “Surgut Furniture”. The guard has no record of the company. Oil production in Russia Major producers and their cash holdings More ON THIS STORY ‘Red director’ Bogdanov sticks to old ways Rosneft-CNPC getting cosy Russia the 37th most tech-savvy country in Europe… Ukraine one way to escape Russia’s grip – just use less gas Credit cards Russia’s first London IPO of the year IN OIL & GAS Grangemouth move reflects poorly on UK GDF Suez to fund fracking in the UK Pearl consortium seeks $1bn from Kurdistan Halliburton revenues match US peers Then there is the matter of its balance sheet – Rbs35bn, or $1.1bn, in long-term assets as of December 31, 2012, according to figures it must supply to Russia’s state statistics agency every year. Not bad, given that it is a cleaning company and does not appear to physically exist."

  tags: russia oil shady corruption gas energy

• Singh Spends $2.2 Billion to Triple Oil Reserve: Corporate India - Bloomberg

  "India, Asia’s second-largest energy user, will spend $2.2 billion to more than triple its proposed emergency crude oil reserves as it seeks to protect the economy against supply disruptions. "

  tags: oil energy india

• Emirates sets out plan to fly 70m passengers in 2020 - Transport - ArabianBusiness.com

  "Emirates Airline said on Wednesday it expects to fly 70 million passengers in 2020, adding that it is already progressing on plans to ensure the right infrastructure are in place to support and capitalise on this growth. "

  tags: emirates travel airlines airport dubai uae

• Google's Original X-Man | Foreign Affairs

  "Sebastian Thrun is one of the world’s leading experts on robotics and artificial intelligence. Born in Solingen, Germany, in 1967, he received his undergraduate education at the University of Hildesheim and his graduate education at the University of Bonn. He joined the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon University in 1995 and moved to Stanford University in 2003. Thrun led the team that won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, a driverless car competition sponsored by the U.S. Defense Department, and in 2007, he joined the staff of Google, eventually becoming the first head of Google X, the company’s secretive big-think research lab. He co-founded the online-education start-up Udacity in 2012. In late August, he spoke to Foreign Affairs editor Gideon Rose in the Udacity offices."

  tags: google technology robots robotics innovation

• The Indie Beer Business Is About to Boom | TIME.com

  "After a popular American craft brewer sold out to the “devil,” some are wondering if more mergers and acquisitions will inevitably follow. And what might that mean to the thriving, vehemently independent craft beer scene? "

  tags: beer unitedstates belgium beverages

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.