Why high oil prices are not squeezing us more: The “energy intensity” of growth – the amount of oil, coal and gas needed to produce an increase in gross domestic product – has halved since the 1970s, reflecting greater energy efficiency and the shift away from heavy manufacturing.

If you have four and a half minutes to spare, watch this: Alisa Miller, head of Public Radio International, talks about why -- though we want to know more about the world than ever -- the US media is actually showing less. Eye-opening stats and graphs.

10 ways the Chinese Internet is different from yours.

A new poll shows that 85% of U.S. adults agree that the presidential candidates should participate in a debate on how science can be used to tackle America's major challenges. The poll found no difference between Democrats and Republicans on this question.

That China has yet to grasp the downside of its imminent superpower status is evident from a plaintive e-mail doing the rounds of internet forums.

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Links to interesting articles for ThePanelist.com readers...

Poverty and a billion starving people in Africa? Whisked away like dust. Overpopulation and water shortages? Waft, waft. Global warming and climate change? A little brush and they're gone. Jeffrey Sachs explains how to save the world.

The Earth's temperature may stay roughly the same for a decade, as natural climate cycles enter a cooling phase, scientists have predicted.

The financial crises of capitalism, written by Samuel Brittan at The Financial Times.

Economic Recession? It's a Guy Thing.

The global free market for food and energy is facing its biggest threat in decades as a host of countries push through draconian measures to hold down prices, raising fears of a new "resource nationalism" that could endanger world food security, says Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at The Telegraph.

Have a great weekend!

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Links to must-read articles for ThePanelist.com readers. Enjoy!

Going green doesn't have to be as complicated as it sounds: 50 ways to help the planet.

The Rockefellers want ExxonMobil to think again on green issues but increasingly oil giants look to government for leadership.

Polluted, poisonous and immune to popular efforts to enforce a clean-up: Tai Lake is a metaphor for the state of China's politics, says The Economist.

"This contrast between the official government statistics and day-to-day reality has led to a boomlet in skepticism about what the government is up to," says David Leonhardt at The New York Times. "So when the new inflation numbers come out next week, they will indeed be misleading. They will be artificially high."

A cartoon explaining the stimulus package...

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Links to must-read articles for ThePanelist.com readers...

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The bad news is that as markets stabilize, chances for fundamental financial reform may be slipping away. As a result, the next crisis will probably be worse than this one, says Paul Krugman at The New York Times.

Graphic: An Average Consumer's Spending.

We are not as powerful as we used to be because over the past three decades the Asian values of our parents’ generation — work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means — have given way to subprime values, says Thomas Friedman of The New York Times.

Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits. In fact, the more new things we try, the more we step outside our comfort zone, the more inherently creative we become, both in the workplace and in our personal lives.

Sales of scotch whisky are regarded by some as a fair, if unusual, barometer of economic prospects and how confident people feel about the present and the future.

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This is one of the best pieces of financial journalism you're ever going to read. The next bubble: Priming the markets for tomorrow's big crash, published by Harpers Magazine.

According to George Will: "The future has a way of arriving unannounced". That was before equity analysts, says Satyajit Das.

Tiger economies are snapping at U.S. heels: Observers expect the US to deepen its ties with India, which Washington views as a counterweight to China.

Coal has long been a cheap and plentiful fuel source for utilities and their customers, helping to keep American electric bills relatively low. But rising worldwide demand is turning American coal into another hot global commodity, with domestic buyers having to compete with buyers from countries like Germany and Japan.

A funny take on the economic stimuls package.

Have a great week!

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It’s a myth that the world’s oil is running out, says Irwin Stelzer at The London Times.

Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer’s travel season. This is not an energy policy, says Thomas Friedman in the New York Times

Do Americans worry more about climate change, America’s dependence on foreign oil or the cost of filling their petrol tanks?

The Fed is trying to promote the notion that it is not entirely useless, that its actions do achieve a reaction, says Alan Kohler at BusinessSpectator.com.

Why conservatives are happier than liberals.

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What excessive pay package? CEO compensation gone wild...

The notion that two consecutive quarters of negative growth spell the descent into economic recession is a big myth, says Gerard Barker at The London Times.

Only 18% of the world's population have access to a free press according to Freedom House, an American think-tank.

Climate change is already affecting the prospects for children in the world's poorer countries, according to Unicef.

Bernanke must take on genuine banking reform and currency and trade policies, or his job is impossible.

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