I don't know what palm this is but when I saw the bunch of inflorescences, I couldn't help but took the photos for reference.What was obvious was there were quite a lot of spines along the base of the petiole.
NB on 18 Jan 11: Sometimes I find myself to be so stupid. I obviously know this Phoenix roebelenii (common name: Pygmy Date Palm, Miniature Date Palm; Family: Arecaceae) especially since I used it so frequently in landscaping the parks and roadsides in my early days on the job. Anyway, these are the male flowers and a link on this fairly common palm is attached below:
