Headlines from February 29, 2008
- Jolie: What we cannot afford, in my view, is to squander the progress that has been made [in Iraq].
- Turkey yanks troops after eight-day fight with Kurdish guerillas--but not because the U.S. said so.
- Clinton's new ad: It's three a.m., your children are safe and sound--but not for long if you vote for Obama.
- Obama's middle name: the H-word only supporters are allowed to say.
- Hey, Americans! Danes! Estonians! Kosovo thanks you!
- Nicole Pasulka looks back on the month in beef news; Meave Gallagher takes a video tour through Castro's rise.
- Idiom shortage leaves nation all sewed up in horse pies.
- Print for the commute: Social networks are like the eye, or, biology and Facebook.
- Finding where Tocqueville's thoughts on poetry and the American jury system intersect.
- Study finds native French speakers don't agree on the genders of French nouns.
- An outsider's view of touring through Montana.
- PDF: "Human Terrain Mapping" in the March/April Military Review.
- Researchers believe that they have identified the cognitive neural substrate of jazz improvisation.
- What happens when you play "The Ultimate Game" with chimps.
- People experience reality not as it is, but as they expect it to be. Expectations can change the way wine tastes, alter the effectiveness of medication.
- Alter your expectations: Seattle's controversial new landmark: a Denny's.
- Twenty-nine leap facts for February 29th; U.K. leap-year babies; three siblings born on leap year day, in separate years.
- Care to make it interesting: Coudal.com and a bunch of other sites want to buy kids books when you gamble on ToB novels.
- An "exemplary" soldier, Prince Harry has been fighting "Terry Taliban" in Afghanistan.
- An Australian magazine is under fire for leaking the news about Harry; now Harry's been withdrawn from combat.
- Shipwrecked fisherman survives a 12-hour swim off the coast of Australia.
- The movement from one "tradition" to another may even suggest a kind of promiscuity--a faithless pursuit of faith.
- U.S. prison numbers at an all-time high--more than one in 100 adults are behind bars.
- Voter turnout at its highest in 40 years--officials are concerned they'll need more machines, workers in November.
- "Has turnout declined? It all depends on your reference point." Voting numbers don't lie, nor do they parse easily.
- Donations of used tea bags become recycled tea-bag art.
- Near the North Pole, the Global Seed Vault received its first shipment containing millions of seeds and sprouts.
- Germany has a new celebrity polar bear.
- It's Leap Day, and if this country were heading in the right direction, today would be Pizza Party U.S.A.; 29 more ways to celebrate.
- Tony Robbins, Ja Rule, and other well-known Leaplings--people born on Feb. 29. (more here)
- A comprehensive list of obsolete skills--"list making" isn't on there.
- Jacques Chirac studied his face anxiously in the mirror. Political slash-fiction.