I’ve switched back to Haloscan. It turns out, Blogger’s new commenting system offers limited free service when compared to Haloscan.
And, just now at approximately 1800 hours, I think I saw a cicada. This is bad news. The invasion has begun.
It looks harmless but, Robin, to the Batmobile! Hurry! Gotham needs us! I mean, Annarbour needs us!
Ajax Amsterdam 2 – 0 NAC Breda. The 29th title baby! I am currently celebrating Ajax’s victory at Soccerpages.
At the same time, Arsenal beat Fulham to still stay unbeaten for the whole season while Manchester F-United is officially third whatever happens after this.
In Spain, Valencia has its hand on the crown.
Fenerbahce rules Turkey.
Red Star Belgrade is the new Serbian champion.
Werder Bremen has unseated Bayern Munich in Germany.
In Italy, AC Milan will probably win the Serie A despite AS Roma being on Milan’s ass.
And finally, from Russia to Portugal, Porto – Monaco will be the one match to rule them all.
But let’s forget about that and let’s celebrate this glorious day. From Ajax.nl:
Een enorme mensenmassa was zondagavond op de been om landskampioen Ajax te huldigen op het Leidseplein. De spelers van Ajax gingen samen met de supporters volledig uit hun dak. Johnny Heitinga, de talentvolle verdediger die zo goed terugkwam van een zware blessure, kon het allemaal maar nauwelijks bevatten. Hier krijg je kippenvel van, en tranen in je ogen.
I have no idea what does that mean but who cares? We won! We are the champion!
p/s – Louis van Gaal, the legendary Ajacied that brought the European Cup to Amsterdam in 1995 and currently Ajax’s technical director, has been hinted to replace Ranieri at Chelsea according to a report at ESPN’s Soccernet.com. What is this? Last year, we had the Italian having a Dutch fetish. This year, the English is longing for Dutch fetish. Sheesh…
But if van Gaal switches to Chelsea, of I hope he won’t, I’ll switch my allegiance from Arsenal to Chelsea in the English Premier League. For God’s sake, it’s Louis van Gaal!
pp/s – I’ve dumped Haloscan in favor of Blogger’s new commenting system. Well, there goes my plan to move to Movable Type. Evhead rocks!
The gas prices in Ann Arbor seem to have taken a rest today but yesterday, on average it went higher by a few cents when compared to the day before. On that day, Shell and BP probably had the highest price. I got picture of it for you!
Can’t wait to see the day when the average gas price hits $3.00 per gallon. Why am I excited? So that I could see more of this:
And yeah:
So what should we be doing? Here’s a hint: We can neither drill nor conquer our way out of the problem. Whatever we do, oil prices are going up. What we have to do is adapt.
It’s Krugman on gas prices. To my understanding, the crux is, the demand curve is shifting up and the supply curve is going down.
Alternative energy now!
The gas prices here are crazily high. The last time I checked, it was around $1.95 per gallon. The lowest was probably $1.85 per gallon and that was in Ypsilanti. I can’t imagine the gas price in California; it has probably long passed beyond the $2.00 per gallon benchmark. I believe the cheapest gas price would be in Indiana, somewhere near Michigan City.
Earlier this week, Reuters reported that the OPEC President Purnomo Yusgiantoro believed there is an oversupply of oil in the market. Of course, Saudi Arabia and a few others oil producing nations have been saying the same thing in the past few months.
I on the other hand am not so convinced. Seeing the rising gas price certainly signals shortage of supply. Saying otherwise is anything but the truth unless the traditional downward sloping demand and the upward sloping supply curves are somehow wrong.
There are only three ways price could go up; the increase of the generic demand curve while everything is constant, the fall of the generic supply curve while the demand curve is unchanged or when both of the previous cases happen at the same time.
At the same time, despite the talk of inflation, I believe inflation has nothing to do with this; the only explanation is the supply and demand graph.
Therefore, OPEC is not telling the truth, or at least they are not telling the whole story. In my opinion, there are only two viable explanations and one conspiracy theory.
One, the quantity of crude oil is fast declining and they do not want to alarm the world. And thus, they are keeping saying the opposite of the obvious – there is an old saying that goes if you keep telling a lie, it becomes the truth – there is an oversupply of crude oil.
Second, OPEC is simply trying to capitalize on its monopoly power by charging the consumers above its marginal revenue. Before the rise of price, I am sure OPEC charges the consumers above its marginal revenue. Right now, if the second scenario is true, I am sure that they are increasing the distance between their marginal revenue and demand curve and thus, gaining great profit.
The conspiracy theory is that the Muslims countries, which make up the majority power in OPEC, jack up the price in order to punish the US. Yet, this sounds too fictionous if you ask me.
In any case, we the environmentalists are laughing our ass out seeing those SUV drivers pumping up the increasingly expensive gas into their tanks. And hey, it is fun to utilize the economic theory that describes the income and substitution effect of these SUV drivers. It is economics at work for us and cruel humor to savor by us.
Alternative energy now!
AFC Ajax Amsterdam is one point away from its 29th Eredivisie title. Currently, with only two more matches to go, Ajax has six points clear of the nearest team, PSV Eindhoven.
Feyenoord lingers at third and has no chance of gaining a higher spot.
As the season closes to its finale, all in all, it has been in every direction a disappointing season relative to last year performance. The primary cause of letdown is Ajax failure to qualify beyond the Champions League group stage. This season, Ajax was grouped with Celta, Club Brugge and Inter Milan. It was supposed to be an easy group and Ajax should have had no trouble passing through the stage with a breeze. However, strength written on paper is apparently different from strength shown on the field. Ajax was humiliated by Celta and Club Brugge. As a result, Ajax failed to meet up with most pundits’ expectation and crashed out of the Champions League after six painful matches. This however probably shouldn’t have been a shock since during the Champions League qualifiying stage, Ajax couldn’t capitalize on the much unknown Grazer AK of Austria. In fact, Ajax could have easily missed out the Champions League entirely.
Another source of frustration is Ajax inconsistency in the local arena. In the Amstel Cup, the Dutch do-it-or-die competition, Ajax was defeated by NAC Breda and there was nothing to rue about. During that match, Ajax looked like some team from some unknown Dutch region. In the Eredivisie itself, of lately, Ajax failed to win against even one of the worst Dutch teams. Perhaps, the fact that Feyenoord has a problem of itself and PSV losing Kezman, Robben and a few other keys players to booking and injury has helped Ajax secures the first place. Ajax inconsistency is further exemplified when Ajax watched helplessly as it once 12 point lead was reduced to merely six point lead in the last few matches.
Nevertheless, looking at the bright side, this might be what Ajax needs in order to keep its player from leaving. All players, excluding Trabelsi according the media should be staying for at least another season or two. Trabelsi is probably leaving for Manchester F-United once his contract is done.
Futhermore, this year, Ajax found two new faces that I consider as Ajax new great asset. They are youngster Wesley Sneijder and the Romanian Nicolae Mitea. Sneijder has already been debut in the Dutch national team and will be playing under Dick Advocaat for Euro 2004 in Portugal.
In Rotterdam and Eindhoven, two major transfers are on the way. The PSV youngster Arjen Robben is set for Abrahamovich’s Chelsea, or rather Chelski while Feyenoord winger Robin van Persie is set for Arsenal. The prolific PSV striker Mateja Kezman is rumored to be linked with Fulham. Unless PSV and Feyenoord gets new players, the loss of their influencial players will hurt them.
In conclusion, I expect a tougher Ajax next season; an Ajax that is capable of defending/capturing the 2004/05 crown inspite of a few major disappointments this season. In the mean time, I will be crossing my finger in hope of Ajax will at least earn a point against NAC Breda this weekend or against Willen II Tilburg the week after.
In any case, this year Amsterdam Tournament will feature Ajax Amsterdam (obviously), Arsenal FC, Panathinaikos and River Plate.
p/s – Porto has beaten Deportivo La Coruna to advance to the Champions’ League Final. Porto will face either Chelsea or Monaco. From the look of it, the Final would probably be the Battle of Iberia. Isn’t it beautiful to see no Italian team in the Final?