New York’s currently: spores in the air conditioner

 As over 1,000 Iraqis convene in Baghdad to determine new election processes, delegates fire up protests over U.S. strikes in Najaf, and mortars explode outside.

 Hurricane Charley devastates Florida, leaving thousands homeless, a half-million without water, and over a million without electricity. And this is only the beginning of an active hurricane season.

 F.B.I. preps for Republican National Convention by detaining, and in some cases, subpoenaing potential demonstrators.

 Julia Child, 1912–2004: Julie Powell of Julie/Julia says goodbye to the chef who transformed our culinary landscape, and the one who changed her life; 1976 New Yorker profile.

 U.S. places increased pressure on Pakistan to find Osama bin Laden before November elections.

 Dream team creamed: U.S. men’s basketball team downed by Puerto Rico in Olympics. [Apologies for the NY Post-y headline.]

 A handy primer on your basic Icelandic pop music.

 Decried as a show of pomp, new memo orders on-duty air marshals into coats and ties during Republican convention.

 What the…? “Nothing better than waking up in the country and getting a cup of coffee and getting in the pickup truck and driving around and looking at the cows.”

 Warner Brothers causes stir when asking MP3 bloggers to promote a new Secret Machines song, then posting comments about how great it is.

 With federal dollars tightening up at the end of the fiscal year, dozens of Superfund sites will see little if any of the money they need for cleanup operations.

 Interviews with the cast of Office Space, five years on.

 Where are we, really, in stopping the production of weapons of mass destruction?

 Silliness, the good kind: Don’t let it get your cursor!

 The chemist is where you’d go to buy pharmaceutical drugs. Americans call it a straight drugstore, which implies to Brits that you could just buy Class A narcotics over the counter. English words with American meanings.

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