Der Spiegel has recently interviewed the Taiwanese president.  (Also, it is my imagination, or does the interviewer seem a little...combative at times?) Anyway, the conversation focused in large part on Taiwan's ongoing effort to join the UN

Law professors Vikram Amar (University of California at Davis School of Law) and Richard Sander (UCLA) have written a very interesting editorial in the Los Angeles Times. They ask, among other things, the question: "Does affirmative actio

Take a look at this crazy advertisement:

Check out Anne Applebaum's op-ed piece in today's Washington Post.Blurb:His goal is not merely to hold power in Iran through sheer force, or even through a standard 20th-century personality cult: His goal is to undermine the American and Wes

Take a look at this very nice compilation of "Simpsons" cartoon scenes and the famous movie scenes to which they refer.Enjoy, movie fans!

Take a look at this final lecture by Professor Randy Pausch, who teaches computer science at Carnegie Mellon University.A video clip is available through the link, or you can see the full lecture via the university website. Pausch is an expert

I'm extra-busy, but I feel compelled to note this.Within the last few days, we've seen two events which, deeply distressing in themselves, are even worse when taken together. Event 1: Former Harvard president Larry Summers was first inv

If this news story is correct, then I will be absolutely disgusted.Quote: "...HarperCollins is to publish a guide entitled Travel Around China to coincide with 2008's Beijing Olympics that will make no mention of the Tiananmen Square massac

This is absolutely hilarious.Let's put Belgium on eBay! (Since I am a history nerd, I can't help but recall something that King Richard the Lionheart was supposed to have said -- that he would sell London if he could find a buyer.

Does this kind of silliness count as "news" or "serious journalism"? I don't think so, but the news outlets are all talking nonstop about O.J. Simpson and the crazy college student who was tasered at a John Kerry speech

AHOY!!!  Fun, silly trivia and entertainment for the day, folks!  Today is September 19, International Talk Like a Pirate Day! I have the sudden urge to watch my DVD of "Pirates of the Caribbean."   Or . . . Hey!  H

I don't mean the Harvard campus.  Look at this:"Under pressure from a group of female professors concerned about gender and racial prejudice, the University of California has rescinded a speaking invitation to former Harvard president L

Take a look at this recent op-ed by Shieh Jhy-Wey on why Taiwan has been repeatedly shut out of the UN.Here is one piece of it, but do go read the whole thing.The UN Charter guarantees the right of all states to membership. Why, then, does the United

Kung fu peacekeepers? Well, you don't see that in a headline everyday!   Also take a look at the goofy news photo, grasshopper.

If you have the opportunity, do go see the famous terra cotta soldiers!  They are currently on exhibit in the British Museum.The Times of London has an interesting article about these astonishing artifacts. The exhibit opened on September

You have to see it to believe it. Here's the terrifying/hilarious photo.The caption reads (I'm not joking): "Chiayi City policemen perform a dance yesterday consisting of traffic direction gestures set to music."Note too the v

Yes, gentle reader, a university is now offering a class in YouTube.Here's a quote for you:Pitzer College this fall began offering what may be the first course about the video-sharing site. About 35 students meet in a classroom but work mostly on

OK, OK, I know, I know. What am I doing, sneaking off to see movies when I have so much school work and research to do? I'll tell you what I was doing. I was misbehaving. AND I LIKED IT.Anyway, I left campus early yesterda

I'm not sure what to think of this news story.Apparently, an Albanian soccer fan was so angry that his team lost its game (to the Dutch team, by the way), that he set his own car on fire.  Oh, my!To make the news report even stranger, the fi

No, really!A truck driver on the autobahn reported that he was having trouble because he had 18 tons of hams hanging in his trailer . . . and they started swinging.Achtung!  Swinging hams are a road risk! Yes, yes, I'm smiling because t

The op-ed reminds the reader about the volatile state of social/cultural/political Europe and European Muslims in the ongoing international struggle against jihadist terrorism.I think Garton Ash is wrong on his analysis of the role of Iraq (he says

Perhaps I am just an evil person, but the sight of two people in silly, fuzzy animal suits is funny . . . and the sight of them having a fight is even funnier.Watch the University of Oregon duck mascot and the University of Houston cougar mascot rumb

Interesting...interesting... A British op-ed actually dares to argue that gun-control laws don't always work. The writer proceeds to unload this quote:"It is with a measure of bitter irony that we recall Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Univ

Hello, gentle reader!Life is ridiculously busy at school right now, but I hope to be back blogging soon!Have a great weekend and fantastic week ahead, everybody! 

Yep, the UN International Labour Organization's new report says that American and Norwegian workers are the most productive in the world. Amazingly enough, the same report finds that the average American worker works more than the average J