Going to forego (mostly) even cursory comments, as it is ye old scribe’s day off. Just a grouping of tidbits of info or stories found of interest enough to share.

#1:

…on October 2, 2007, Mohammad-Ali Khatibi, deputy head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), in charge of the marketing announced that Iran has drastically lowered the use of the U.S. dollar in payment for its oil export by 15%. Khatibi was reported as saying that “Iran is selling about 85% of its oil in the non-dollar currencies,” nearly 65% in euro and soon 20% in yen. In July, the NIOC requested from its customers in Japan who import over 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian oil, to pay in yen. A switch in currency by Nippon Oil and other Japanese oil refiners to yen has helped Iran to achieve its goal of reducing its exposure to the dollar and as a result, in the period over the last two years it has avoided the loss emanating from the constant depreciation of the dollar. The switch from dollar to yen was not an easy decision for Japan to make, knowing that the U.S. applies all sorts of pressures on the world financial markets and threats against individual state apparatuses, wanting them to dump the idea and refrain from paying in currencies other than the dollar, although paying in their own national currency is naturally in their best interest. Article

#2:

The Russian defense budget has grown at double-digit rates for the last five years, albeit from a very low base. New investment has gone into the development of new strategic weapons, specifically the Topol-M, designed to defeat U.S. strategic defense systems, and the S-400 anti-missile system. Defense outlays for 2007 are at a post-Soviet high of $32.4 billion, rising 23 percent in the past year and four times expenditures of 2001. Source

#3:

The skeleton of what is believed to be a new dinosaur species - a 105-foot plant-eater that is among the largest dinosaurs ever found - has been uncovered in Argentina, scientists said Monday.

Scientists from Argentina and Brazil said the Patagonian dinosaur appears to represent a previously unknown species of Titanosaur because of the unique structure of its neck. They named it Futalognkosaurus dukei after the Mapuche Indian words for “giant” and “chief,” and for Duke Energy Argentina, which helped fund the skeleton’s excavation.

[snip]

“I’m pretty certain it’s a new species,” agreed Peter Mackovicky, associate curator for dinosaurs at Chicago’s Field Museum, who was not involved with the discovery. “I’ve seen some of the remains of Futalognkosaurus and it is truly gigantic.”

Calvo said the neck alone must have been 56 feet long, and by studying the vertebrae, they figured the tail probably measured 49 feet. The dinosaur reached over 43 feet tall, and the excavated spinal column weighed about 9 tons when excavated. One neck vertebra alone measured more than 3 feet high.

[snip]

Patagonia also was home to the other two largest dinosaur skeletons found to date - Argentinosaurus, at around 115 feet long, and Puertasaurus reuili, 115 feet to 131 feet long.

[snip]

North America’s dinosaurs don’t even compare in size, Mackovicky added in a phone interview. “Dinosaurs do get big here, but nothing near the proportions we see in South America.” Article

#4 — Maybe more than you cared to know about splashback and dribbling.