Six in the Middle of the Night

Hoooo man am I ever late getting this done. If I dawdle any longer it'll be a Six in the Wee Hours of Tomorrow Morning....

1. TED KENNEDY RIP: Sad news I just read about.... Yeah.... I've been in a media vacuum today. (New York Times)

2. ALTA IN HOCK FOR $7 BILLION: Thanks to natural gas prices plummeting by half this year, the days of rosy surpluses are past.... for a time, anyway. (CBC)

3. UK CONSIDERS TAXING SOCIALLY USELESS BANKS: In an effort to curb the culture of mega bonuses for executives within their financial sector, the head financial regulator in the UK is publicly contemplating a tax on many of their banks, calling them "socially useless." Hear, hear. Let's hope that kind of moxie is catching. (Guardian)

4. HARPER STACKS SENATE SOME MORE: A couple more Tory faithful are expected to be sent to the senate this week. Remember, Harper's not a hypocrite, he's a realist. (Globe and Mail)

5. WATER SHORTAGES IN IRAQ: The Euphrates is drying up, leaving millions without electricity and drinking water. (Guardian)

6. LIFE IS BETTER WHEN YOU SKIM WHEN YOU READ: There is no reason to read this story from the Guardian, unless education criticisms from the UK's conservative party interest you. I post on it only because the short headline on the Guardian webpage was: "Tories want education divide – Balls" and if that hyphen had been a comma, that'd be the funniest thing I'd read all day. Incidentally, while "Balls" is a pretty unfortunate last name to be saddled with, I once worked with a guy whose last name was "Bagges". His first name was Harold. No fooling. (Guardian)