First, the news of the day. Al Jazeera  says excessive U.S. demands led to failure of talks. BBC  indicated that oil prices are rising?   Are they? Checking American WTI crude for the past month, the price seems to have recently stabilized in the mid $95/barrel range. Interesting that European Brent Crude prices are now around $12/barrel higher than the WTI price . The other newsworthy item is that the  2-hour marathon threshold was finally attained, twice. The first marathon over the official distance was won by American   Johnny Hayes   at the   1908 Summer Olympics , with a time of 2:55:18.4. [ 17 ] This distance of 26 miles plus 385 yards was established in 1921. Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya lowered the record in the 2011 Boston Marathon to 2:03:02, followed by countryman Moses Mosoc in 2:03:06. In  2019, Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge ran a specially tailored race in Vienna called the .50 Challenge, arranged by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe....