Video: Kid's wonderful motivational speech after first successful bike ride

Adorable.

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There's a strong chance the economy will get worse

There is no end of indication that we're entering a phase-two downturn. Two to mention: the recent new low in the housing index and the latest, dismal jobs report. A number of economics commenters are talking double dip, many without using that phrase.

Here's one who does, Robert Reich (my emphasis throughout):

The May jobs report is a disaster — the weakest reading since September. Non-farm payrolls grew only 54,000 last month, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Private employment rose only 83,000 — the smallest growth since last June. Government payrolls dropped 29,000.

The overall jobless rate rose to 9.1 percent.

Together with plummeting housing prices, falling wages for non-supervisory workers, a paltry 1.8 percent growth in the first quarter, and a precipitous drop in consumer confidence, the picture should be clear to anyone able to see clearly.

The recovery has stalled.

We’re not in a double dip yet, but the odds are increasing.

And here's one who doesn't, Paul Krugman:

Earlier this week, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York published a blog post about the “mistake of 1937,” the premature fiscal and monetary pullback that aborted an ongoing economic recovery and prolonged the Great Depression. ... [I]n important ways we have already repeated the mistake of 1937. Call it the mistake of 2010: a “pivot” away from jobs to other concerns, whose wrongheadedness has been highlighted by recent economic data.

To be sure, things could be worse — and there’s a strong chance that they will, indeed, get worse.

That "pivot away from jobs" is truly bipartisan. After all, Obama got exactly the stimulus he wanted, and not a dime less.

Which, despite what Nate Silver may say, could put not just the economy — but the billion-dollar victory tour that mortals call the 2012 election — into "hey, what happened?" mode.

Just sayin'.

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Video: Cool NASA photos of earth taken from orbit

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Yemen's president survives missile attack

If only he could have agreed to the peace terms that everyone else agreed to earlier, he could have avoided this. This situation will not turn out well for anyone. The Guardian:

Yemen's embattled president survived an apparent attempt to kill him on Friday as fighting intensified in Sana'a amid warnings that the country is sliding inexorably into all-out war.

Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled Yemen for 32 years, emerged lightly injured but defiant from his compound in the capital after shells or a missile hit a mosque inside, killing three guards and a cleric and injuring two other senior government figures.

The incident fuelled growing anxieties that the Arab uprisings, which have brought dramatic changes to Egypt and Tunisia, are turning Yemen – the Arab world's poorest country – into something far more volatile and dangerous.

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NATO attack helicopters used in Libya

It's great that the defense contractors are getting another joy ride but are the NATO countries all facing economic challenges? Age of austerity and all of that? It's incredible to think that it's so easy to round up cash for military interventions yet so hard to help our own people during tough times. Al Jazeera:

NATO has for the first time used attack helicopters in Libya, striking military vehicles, military equipment and forces backing embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi, the military alliance has announced.

"Attack helicopters under NATO command were used for the first time on 4 June 2011 in military operations over Libya as part of Operation Unified Protector," NATO said in a statement on Saturday.

"The targets struck included military vehicles, military equipment and fielded forces" of the Gaddafi regime, said the statement, without detailing exactly where the strikes had taken place.

“This successful engagement demonstrates the unique capabilities brought to bear by attack helicopters,” Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard, commander in chief of the NATO mission in Libya, said.

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Jefferson Airplane - Somebody to Love, Live at Monterey

Was Grace Slick great or what?

It looks like today is going to be our last day of sunshine for a while so I'm heading out to catch a 9AM train out to Melun for some cycling to the east in brie country. It's not really the best brie season but then again, we won't have any room to carry extras either. The weather is due to turn later in the afternoon and then rain through until next weekend. As much as I don't want to ride during the week in the rain, we really need it. The drought has been a problem in much of France. Read the rest of this post...

E. coli outbreak wanes as scientists dismiss vegetables as source

Germany may have overplayed its hand when the government blamed Spain and their vegetables for the source of the E. coli outbreak. It was convenient since so many in Germany are obsessed with bashing southern Europeans but the facts aren't there to support the attacks. It will be interesting to see what is the source of the problem and if it has nothing to do with Spain, Germany should be reprimanded. And then fined. A lot. Who knows, they may even stop bashing the Greeks and every other country that they find is beneath them, which would be most of them.

Remind me again who thought the European Union was a good idea?

German officials have set up a task force to hunt the source of a highly toxic strain of E-coli that has left at least 19 people dead in 12 countries across Europe.

Health authorities repeated warnings on Friday to avoid some raw vegetables in northern Germany, as officials said 199 new cases of the rare strain of the bacteria had been reported in the past two days.

But the warnings came as a European Union laboratory in Rome said there was no scientific evidence that vegetables were the source of the infection.

E-coli 0104 bacteria has claimed the lives of 19 people across Europe, the World Health Organisation [WHO] said on Friday, in a strain it said has "never [been] seen before".

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