10:04 – Oddly, given all of the hundreds of science kits we’ve shipped, today was the first time we got an order for a kit to be shipped to an APO address. Shipping it was just like shipping any other kit, with two exceptions. First, the city was “APO” and the state was “AE”, and second I had to fill out a customs declaration, which seems strange. Oh, yeah, and USPS doesn’t give a delivery estimate for Priority Mail APO shipments. Express Mail would be delivered Friday, so I’m guessing that Priority Mail will get the box to the customer sometime next week.
It appears that Spain is likely to request a second bailout this coming weekend. Germany may be a problem, as many of its politicians are loathe to approve a second bailout so close on the heels of the €100 billion they approved for the Spanish bank bailout a couple months ago. At this point, it’s pretty clear even to committed europhiles that Spain is going down the toilet, with Italy likely to follow soon thereafter. Germany is finally waking up to the fact that its taxpayers are already on the hook for as much as €1 trillion, less whatever minor amounts they can recover after the crash. They must realize that providing additional funding in the hopes of delaying the final crash of the euro is simply throwing good money after bad. Germany, Holland, Finland, and now Austria are all sending strong signals that they’ve had enough.