- Op: Despite the global-economy rhetoric, the G20 is at work on a more inclusive, pro-regulation financial system.
- Before Magellan, pre-Balboa, a mapmaking cleric discovered the Pacific from a landlocked city in France.
- A decade ago, real rock stars wouldn't license their songs for commercial use; after Moby, it's now common practice.
- At 12:01 a.m. on 01/01/00, the Y2K virus will spread throughout all the world's computers. Emails that preclude me from Obama's cabinet.
- Scientists from Religulous speak out on their faith, misrepresentation in Maher's movie.
- Following Obama win, a rise in racial hate crimes, traffic to white supremacy sites.
- At a time of political turmoil, baseball diplomacy in Nicaragua emphasizes the power of shared civic interests.
- After painstaking discovery of new pyramids in Egypt, citizens patiently wait for modernity, change.
- The physical manifestation of change is powerful--after years of infrastructure neglect, monuments would testify to a new New Deal.
- A-bomb testing left a permanent record in tree trunks, humans raised in the atomic age.
- What a 2009 depression would look like: Trade soup lines for ER lines, selling apples with watching flat-screen TVs.
- "They both just reply 'meh' and keep watching TV." The dictionary welcomes an unenthusiastic word.
- The man in the iron lung--who came as the incapacitated father of the brat who steals the Dude's car--picked up his costume prize with a White Russian balanced on his apparatus.
- Lieberman gets slap on the wrist rather than losing his homeland security leadership post.
- Iraqi government quietly firing its oversight officials.
- All options are on the table. Spiegel interview with Israeli Air Force general on Iran's nuclear program.
- Army Times on how Obama may live up to his promises to the military.
Chavez's ex-wife runs for mayor on opposition ticket, makes ground with Venezuelan women turned off by "testosterone-pumped politics."
- Historians
swoon after Obama mentions new F.D.R. book on 60 Minutes.
- Why telling ourselves that the Obama story could only happen here, in our time, is hooey.
- "You make your own luck" may be scientifically true.
- For more frequent, better ideas, you may periodically want to quit coffee.
- Clever business card idea for a circumciser.
- Big Picture photos of the California wildfires.
- Video: Random strangers welcomed back at the airport.
- Baghdad Metro begins service again despite herds of cows on tracks, stone-throwing youth.
- Lengthy interview with Spike Jonze about his film version of Where the Wild Things Are.
