I guess it might be an inevitable sign of me getting older when I for the second year in a row actually recognise some of the Nobel prize laureates and somewhat understands what they are getting awarded for. In fact, this year I have even previously read books written by one of them. And no, I'm of course not talking about the literature prize, but the economics one (Ellinor Ostrom to be exact, and I like her). If I remember correctly I even referenced her in an old exam thesis somewhere.

*Sigh* I'm such a grown-up sometimes. Luckily not all that often though.

*Reading Danish/south Swedish news.*

The biggest international airport in Scandinavia closed for traffic, rail and road traffic between Copenhagen and Malmö stopped between 7.30-8.30 and 11.30-12.30, mail in Copenhagen will be delayed and "big parts of Copenhagen will be subjected to shorter and longer closures of traffic". And the reason? The US president is in town on a blitz visit to promote Chicago's bid for the Olympic Games. Such an important mission! I'm sure the job commuters, air travellers, and common danes trying to get to work are totally overjoyed...

Sometimes you really can't help but wonder if maybe the US president ought to follow the example of the British queen and never go abroad except for official state visits.

And that's even without including how good it looks from a climate responsibility viewpoint to take a Boeing 747 on a transatlantic trip for some four hours of Olympic lobbying.

Because the headline caught my eye by succeeding in having that humourous cynical wit I so love.

Call me a liberal, a leftist, or even an anti-capitalist if you want - for once I don't mind -, but this doesn't really has anything to do with any of that; my total approval of this editorial is entirely based on - what do they call it - oh yes, common sense. Or fundamental ethical principles, maybe.

Plus, it has Michael Eisner's name in it.

Cycling is my new favourite sport in the olympics, and no, I don't care very much for the actual sport, but last Sunday when I happened to catch it on TV I noticed that it provided some nice footage of the northeast Chinese landscape. A landscape that looks pretty nice in all its lush, mountainous and semi-exotic style. So that's why I now favours it, even if I sometimes get a little irritated when they focus too much on the competitors. I want to see sweeping road footage from a distance please, not closeups of the cyclists. In fact, today when the commentators kept babbling about the silver medalist - who happened to be a Swede, but who cares, I have no more relation to him than to the Swiss who got the gold - I muted the TV for a while since it disturbed my landscape studies...