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Mr. Universal

By Christopher BeamPosted Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2007, at 6:06 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

At energy blog The Oil Drum, "Heading Out" contends that these events "show the clear benefits of having some form of a strategic reserve of fuel. And in this case it appears that all the countries affected have got sufficient oil set aside that it will not be a serious problem for a while."

Libertarian law professor Daniel Drezner predicts that if the standoff lasts more than a week, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko won't: "The big question here is whether Western Europe will force Russia to turn the oil tap back on before Lukashenka is ousted by someone not stupid enough to annoy Belarus' only ally. From a human rights perspective, it would seem hard to believe that anyone in Belarus could be worse than Lukashenko. On the other hand, it's not clear that a replacement would be much better, either—and there's the pesky problem of heating homes and such."

Read more about the oil cutoff.

Sell phone: Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the new iPhone, which combines video, music, communications, and a touch screen. The company's stock jumped 7 percent after the announcement. Bloggers are jumping as well.

Gadget blog Gizmodo's wall-to-wall iPhone coverage includes running updates on the Macworld convention, plus photos and a video of what they dub "the Jesus Phone." Engadget also provides running commentary and excerpts Jobs' keynote address: " 'There's an old Wayne Gretsky quote I love—"I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it's been." That's what we try to do at Apple. Thank you very, very much.' Huge, huge applause, standing ovation."

CaveMonkey50 wishes Jobs had talked less about the phone and more about the Mac: "Kind of hard to swallow when Vista is being released in three weeks. You usually use the time before your competitor's product release to talk about how good your product is."

Read more about the iPhone.

Questions or comments? Please e-mail . (Reader e-mail may be quoted by name unless author stipulates otherwise.)

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Christopher Beam is a Slate political reporter. Follow him on Twitter.
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