A Saudi Prince isn’t hiding his fear of the rising North American energy juggernaut, and is publicly calling for his country to start working on diversifying its economy away from a near-total dependence on crude. This isn’t the first time that billionaire Prince al-Waleed bin Talal has aired these concerns, and this persistence underscores his belief that the House of Saud is ignoring American shale at its own peril.

France’s oil behemoth Total will reveal a sizable $50 million investment in British shale tomorrow, in what the FT is calling a “vote of confidence” on the UK’s shale prospects. Total is keen on tapping some of the UK’s estimated 1.3 quadrillion cubic feet of shale gas and will explore two areas in east England for natural gas trapped in shale.

China is officially setting targets to reduce air pollution across its provinces. The central government outlined the expectations, which vary by region, as part of its push to clear its smoggy skies. Unfortunately, this naming and shaming strategy is unlikely to work as intended. Local Chinese politicians have a strong incentive to encourage economic (and more often than not that means industrial) growth as a path for political advancement; there will still remain a desire to fudge the numbers.

Surprise, surprise: now that Affordable Care Act insurance has gone into effect, people are having trouble using it at hospitals.Even if these problems are solved, the almost unending streams of obstacles, challenges, and screw-ups associated with the law’s launch will leave a lingering bad taste in people’s mouths into the foreseeable future. The longer the ACA continues to provide access in name only, the more likely people are to form a settled negative opinion about it that will be difficult to overturn.

Happy Saturday AI staff! Here’s what we’ve been reading this week:

1. Pillbilly wampum

2. Quick-refreshing underwear.

3. The rumors of Al Qaeda’s death are greatly exaggerated.

4. Then the burnings started.

5. “I don’t know what perversity impelled me to raise my hand.”

6. A solar quirk.

As always, use the comments to share your own links!

Residents of a northwestern suburb of London will be riding electric buses about town for the next few years—vehicles that will use the same technology used in electronic toothbrushes to recharge wirelessly. The experiment in Milton Keynes is expected to help prove the viability—or folly—of electric buses as a form of public transportation.

If you’re a nation tightly squeezed by deficits and spending commitments, The Economist has a smart solution: sell your property. In a pair of pieces, The Economist’s latest lays out the extent of national land and building holdings and argues forcefully for a new wave of privatization. If there were any time when a one-time revenue generating policy like this might make sense it is now. As the Boomers age while birth rates decline in many Western nations, governments are going to be faced with large bills and not a big enough tax base to pay for them.

Defenders of the higher-ed status quo are fond of defending sky high tuition by noting that “almost nobody pays full price for college.” This may have been true, but at many public schools “almost nobody” is beginning to cover an an increasingly large group of people. Although the concept of “set-asides,” where tuition rises on wealthier students to subsidize financial aid programs for poorer ones, is nothing new, cutbacks in state aid have decreased the money available to schools to the point where the students of increasingly modest means are being asked to pay for these subsides.

The most popular man in India right now is the 45-year-old former tax administrator and now Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal. Kejriwal is two weeks into his service as the head of the Delhi assembly and is already making headlines as he struggles against the political corruption that is so widespread in India. Meanwhile, officials and volunteers from his Aam Aadmi (“Common Man”) party tour the country, gathering thousands of new members and drumming up an impressive showing of support. Not many people would have put money on any of this 15 months ago when the AAP was founded.

Changes in the higher-ed marketplace are forcing colleges to radically rethink their approach to education, and those struggling with the challenge may find inspiration in Southern New Hampshire University, a small private school that has turned itself into an online-ed giant.