Interesting, I just noticed that what is known (and has been for like a decade or so) as the “Opel Astra” in Europe is sold here in the US under the Saturn brand name, making it the Saturn Astra:

Both Saturn and Opel are brands under the hood of General Motors, so there’s no big surprise here. What’s more interesting is that 4-dollars-a-gallon seem to be making American car buyers interested in smaller European-style cars quite a bit more than they used to.

Also, the very same cars (sold under the same or a different brand name, doesn’t matter) are much more affordable over here. The abovementioned Astra can be bought for 18.000 US dollars on this side of the big pond, while you’ll have to cough up 20.000 Euros (that’s about 30.000 dollars) easily for the same car in continental Europe.

The usual excuse for higher car prices in Europe used to be “the European customer wants higher quality than the American one” — when the very same car is concerned though, this argument is hardly convincing.

Yay! Apparently, the Euro 2008 soccer games are going to be broadcast on ESPN. Lucky me that I just moved into my new place that comes with a full cable package Phew!

Looks like I now have an important appointment today at 2:30pm!

Update: Jean Pierre mentioned that zdf.de actually also offers a live stream of the Euro 2008 soccer games on the web. Awesome! So far I haven’t been able to try out if it works in the US too though, as my internet connection is not quite strong here.

Update 2: Well hello, there’s a live stream for the US too on uefa.com. (Thanks for the link, Tim!) And it even seems to have quite a bit more games on it than the German stream which only covers Germany’s games. Tomorrow afternoon, I’ll check it out!

Kevin Rudd, who just became Prime Minister of Australia on Monday, immediately got to work and just today ratified the Kyoto Protocol (an amendment to the United Nations convention on climate change).

Now there is only one industry nation in the world left who did not formally commit to a common effort on climate change. You probably know who it is…

Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee made an interesting election commercial featuring nobody less than the actor that all other actors are merely imitating, everybody’s favorite idol and the guy whose fists are faster than light: Chuck Norris.

I know what you’re thinking now: “Where can I vote for Chuck, and who’s that other guy in the commercial anyway?” (after all, you American voters have made an actor president before, and the Californians have made one governor, so this seems to be the logical career step for American actors). Maybe next time he’ll have a heart and roundhouse kick his way to the Oval Office?

(Thanks for the link, Tara!)