Obamamania!

Yes, you're probably already aware of it, but just to let you know for hundredth time, Barak Obama has formed an exploratory committee for a Presidential bid. Needless to say, he's generated the most amount of press and is a clear front-runner on the Democratic side. However, now the real questioning begins - is he the real deal, or are we looking at another version of Howard Dean? I'm hopeful that it's not the later.

Germany is moving forward in a number of different areas now that they are the head of the EU. First, Chancellor Merkel is proposing to put the EU Constitution back on track, hoping to approve it by 2009. Second, they are seriously looking at pushing the EU to make strides toward opening up their labour markets for African workers promoting 'circular migration,' hopefully without the negative consequences of their previous 'guest worker' programs. Though not EU related, an article in Der Spiegel notes how, unlike France, Germany is not worried about the 'degradation' of their language from foreign words, noting all the German words that have crept into many world languages.

Also:
- Ahmadinejad is facing increasing pressure at home.
- CSM explains the Shiite-Sunni split.
- NYT examines what $1.2 trillion can do, other than funding the Iraq War. Welcome to opportunity cost.
- A poll taken in Britain shows that most people support the creation of an English Parliament.
- Astronomers have found eight new 'hobbit galaxies' in the Local Group.
- A picture of Earth from 4 billion miles away.
- Choosing between Equate brand and a name brand? Guess what? They're exactly the same.
- Dion stresses the importance of environmental policy.
- Psychology Today looks at how the role of humour is differentiated between the sexes.
- The Telegraph on the decline of the trophy wife.
- A new way to map music using non-Euclidean geometry.
- A picture of the United States labelled with countries most equating each state's GDP.