One nation is an autocratic behemoth with one of the world's largest militaries, not to mention 800+ missiles pointed directly at a tiny island off its coast.The other nation is that tiny democratic island, living constantly under those 800+ miss

The headline alone is worth a look:"Head-banging snakes may predict quakes." What? Did the newspaper really say "head-banging"? I had no idea snakes loved heavy metal music! Hey, do the serpents like crowd surfin

Blog announcement: I'll be traveling abroad with the Sibling for the next few days. I don't know how frequently I'll have Internet access, but I'll be taking my faithful laptop along -- this is a working vacation! If I do find g

Hello, gentle reader!The holiday break between school terms is a great chance to catch up on some reading, so I thought it might be fun to share some books on my table. These are some of the things I'm reading right now -- a few are for aca

Oh, boo hoo! What I find rather ironic is that the whining about Chinese culture being "under threat" is the whining by a British journalist. Some actual Chinese don't seem to be too concerned, if the laughing ladies in the photo

The Mystic Nativity by Sandro Botticelli (c. 1500) Merry Christmas, gentle reader! Last year we had Ghirlandaio ; this year we have Botticelli! Have a wonderful holiday!

I do this every Christmas Eve. Silly? Maybe. But it's fun! I always think it's kind of cute and sweet that NORAD would take time to play with children for Christmas. Here's the post fom last year , just for o

Nowadays, everybody's a victim. And if there's a problem, it must surely be some kind of disease or ailment, not an outgrowth of human error, failure, or fault. Nobody can be held responsible for their own actions!So, since this i

The Postmodernism Generator is simply fantastic! Read the impenetrable prose and then scroll all the way to the explanation at the bottom of the page. Reload the page for new "articles" of randomly generated text that -- in all honest

Tomorrow is Christmas, gentle reader, so I won't be blogging very much at all. Neither should YOU, actually -- you should be enjoying the day with friends, family, food, and lots of presents!But for today...My Sibling showed me this hilario

Blog friend Atlantic Review notes a new book that may be worth your time to read: Anti-Americanisms in World Politics, written by two experts in international relations (Cornell University Press, 2006). Here is the publisher's link , notin

This hilarious video is making its way around the Web -- I found it at Normblog , PooterGeek , and Between Worlds while surfing around the blogosphere this morning.Do take a look! (And do you remember this previous look at Pachelbel?) &nbs

Gentle reader, all I have to say is . . .Calamari is now on the menu!  

Hilarious!

I found this fun little quiz over at the Ninme blog. As for me, well . . . I'm a Ferrari 360 Modena! You've got it all. Power, passion, precision, and style. You're sensuous, exotic, and temperamental. Sure, you're expensive and high-m

A few days ago, I criticized Jimmy Carter for refusing to debate his new book -- specifically, for refusing to debate Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law. I thought the refusal itself spoke volumes.And, well, now in the Boston Globe I read Dershowitz'

You must be joking! Robots could one day demand the same citizen's rights as humans, according to a study by the British government. If granted, countries would be obligated to provide social benefits including housing and even "robo-

My Sibling has sent me the link to this amusing T-shirt. Basically, it pokes fun at haiku's pattern of syllables (5-7-5). See, it's easy enough to make words that have the right number of syllables, but maybe the words together don'

No, really!  I'm not making this up.Chaucer rap!You'll never look at "The Canterbury Tales" in the same way again.  I wonder what Chaucer the blogger thinks!

Hey, check this out!An obsession with healthy eating can in itself be . . . you guessed it . . . a mental disorder!  Yep, orthorexia.Well, I don't know about you, but I feel a LOT better.  Aren't you tired of every nanny-government

Ahmadinejad is talking again, and every time I think he's said something so completely insane that he couldn't be madder, he says something else. Like this:Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sent a greeting to the world's Christians

Of course the Vatican has its share of soccer fanatics, and one of them, a cardinal, is dreaming of a Vatican soccer team.What a fun idea!

Hilarious.Which is your favorite, gentle reader?

Read this for one individual's perspective.Sobering.

Here's an interesting and/or weird tale: some politicians in France have called for the return of the franc.Well, disenchantment and unhappiness with the euro currency in general seems more common nowadays.  I remember not too long ago