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If I had any loyal readers, they'd know that I like to post BS from time to time. Side effect: I'm pretty good at identifying BS, too. So let's have a look at the signs for the imminent return of the Deutsche Mark (DM), shall we?

These signs can be divided into two groups:

1. Stuff that someone said: informants close to Merkel, overheard conversations between bankers, etc. Well guess what, I can't verify this and those who could are not making any efforts to do so.

2. Concrete signs:

2a. The new bank notes (which look just like the old ones), ready for distribution: fake, original image is here. Got to admire the effort, though.

2b. KITCO's "half-ready" page listing precious metals in DM? Wayback machine says that this page has been around for years. It's obviously not "half-ready", but "half broken" because it's a ghost page that's not maintained anymore.

2c. Gysi's comment. He's criticizing that politicians are just reacting to the developments, running around and throwing money at every new hole that opens in the ground [my words]. That's the context. Then he says: "There's a lot of confusion and I don't know what will happen next Friday, but something's going to happen so I'll see you again then." Something is going to happen, again, like it does all the time. What exactly? He doesn't know, nobody knows.

2d. Invoices which show the former currency in anticipation of its return together with the euro (like this one): some companies never stopped writing invoices like this, particularly in France (Pixmania is a French company). Also: old exchange rate.

I have friends who still calculate in LUF. OMG, that means they're in on the top secret plan! I'll go interrogate them later and should they eventually just turn around and walk
away this can only mean one thing: they know everything but were sworn to secrecy!

2e. Armored convoy transporting money: I don't see any DM in that video.

2f. DENIC name server meltdown on Wednesday: I admit it, for a moment I thought about running to the BCL and buying whatever gold coins they still have. However, after an hour and a half the German internet was back to normal. Sure, if you're planning something like a surprise currency replacement it'd be nice to have an internet blackout. However, you wouldn't want to try this out a few days earlier, first upsetting all the crazies and then giving them a chance to write down the IP addresses of their favorite websites so that they won't be affected when you repeat the procedure a few days later. Makes no sense. Nice adrenaline spike, though.

I'm absolutely not saying that the Euro's going to last forever. There is, however, no proof and no convincing indication that the DM is about to return this weekend. What we're witnessing here is what psychologists call "scenario fulfillment"- people see what they expect.

"The Humble Indie Bundle" includes the well-known* and highly rated "World of Goo" as well as four other indie games: Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD and Penumbra Overture.

This video explains everything:

I'm going to buy the games right now before the euro falls an further.

Update: After you pay, you can download DRM-free versions of the games for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux!

Here's what you'd currently have to pay for "World of Goo" (PC version) on Amazon:

* Which means "even I have heard about it". I'm sure the other games are awesome, too.

Where would you rather be stuck, unable to travel back home by air, in Greece or - let's say - in Spain? Let me rephrase this: Would you prefer to drive home through France or Serbia*?

I usually get a bit nervous during the last days of any trip that relies on air travel, anyhow (a consequence of making it home twice on the last flight before the airline/tour operator went bust, I guess). The volcano just added another vulnerability to consider (and it's not like this is the only volcano they have in Iceland).

Now what does this mean for Greece? They're screwed. The tourism sector directly contributes about 18% to the Greek GDP and employs 20% of the workforce**. The disruptions right now are bad enough, but what could be even worse is the long-term effect of people booking their vacations in countries which are more accessible by road or rail.

BTW, the yield on Greek 10-year-bonds has just reached a new record high at almost 7.7%.

* Yes, you can take a ferry to Italy instead, unless everyone else wants to do this, too.

** Source, might be outdated but since we're talking about Greek statistics I don't see the point in trying to find more "accurate" figures.

If you've ever taken the tourist bus tour in Luxembourg, you probably know that there's an European Parliament building here (shown above). If you've had the pleasure of taking the tour as many times as I had to, you might also remember that this building is rarely used anymore. Instead, the MEPs prefer to meet in Brussels or Strasbourg.

Why then does the "draft budget proposed by the European Parliament" contain "€586 million to renovate and extend the European Parliament building in Luxembourg"?

I don't know, but I can make a few guesses:

• The MEPs have finally decided to stop wasting hundreds of millions of euros every year traveling between Strasbourg and Brussels. Since they couldn't decide between these two cities they chose a third one, Luxembourg. No, wait, this makes far too much sense to be true.
  
  
• It's a consolation price for Juncker (€586 million is an investment of €1200 per Luxembourgish resident) because what's-his-name from Belgium became EU president.
  
  
• The MEPs are scared of crime and social unrest and remembered they have a building in a peaceful, stable country where the worst problem with immigrants is that some of them only speak one instead of all three official languages. Indeed, if you mention to someone here that you're a MEP you won't get mugged, though you might have to answer a few questions about the best way to get a supposedly safe job working for the EU. Furthermore, the MEPs' lavish lifestyle would not be particularly noteworthy in a country with one of the highest GDPs per capita in the world.

Do you have a better explanation?

Warning: You were not supposed to see this and if it weren't for "a number of military whistleblowers" and Wikileaks, you wouldn't be able to. This video is very violent (several persons are killed) and disturbing, though - sadly - probably nothing far out of the ordinary. Once you've seen it, you cannot unsee it.

• Long unedited version (I recommend watching this first)
• Short version with explanations
• Official website for the video with further information
• Wikileaks website
• Wikileaks twitter account
• Feel the need to discuss this? Head on over to Reddit, your friendly social news aggregator

Updates:

• The Guardian has published an article with a textual description of the video
• Go to Google news to find other media reports
• Spot the difference: CNN (U.S. edition) vs. Al Jazeera (as seen on Reddit)
• The Video: A perspective from a liberal veteran