I stumble on a lot of fascinating stuff on the net, and I know there's a few around here who share similar interests. So I've decided to create an ongoing thread that will cover global political economy, science, technology, art, culture, law, commentary, reviews, and just about anything else I find interesting.

To kick things off, I'm posting links to two talks from the TED conference. The talks at TED are limited to 20 minutes.

The first link is an incredible talk from a brain scientist conveying her own experience with a stroke. The second, "one buttock playing" is a humorous and passionate look into classical music. He finishes with a story of immense pathos.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html

Enjoy!

Mur

I caught a good part of Bolte-Taylor's interview on NPR. It was riveting. I have pre-ordered her book in audio format from Amazon (out 7/3). Thanks for the link.

Let me add my own:

http://www.q-and-a.org/Video/?ProgramID=1186.

It's a CSPAN interview of the maker of a documentary film "King Corn". There are numerous excerpts from the film itself incorporated in the interview. The video is available on Amazon or from kingcorn.net.

The ongoing travails of Yahoo have been well-publicized. Recently the founder of Flickr, which was swallowed by Yahoo, joined the exodus of executives. His resignation letter has attained something close to cult status. Read it here:

http://valleywag.com/5017424/stewart-butterfields-bizarre-resignation-letter-to-yahoo

And shortly after his letter was made public, some brilliant wit created this form Yahoo! resignation letter. Be sure to read all the pulldown options. This is hilarious:

http://yahoorezinr.com/

SF, I didn't know she had a book coming out. I'm going to have to check it out. Her talk is utterly fascinating. If she is the one reading the audio version, that may be the way to go.

What I found amazing, was that she's a neurologist (?), but didn't call for medical help as soon as she realized she was having a stroke (although she apparently had the capacity to do so). I couldn't help but wonder WTF?

Murasaki,

I visit TED often but have not seen these videos. The first video is simply brilliant. I watched it twice and probably watch it again. The interesting part is that I think I actual understand what she was going through. I have been to la la land many times and also there are other relevant aspects of her presentation that are so familiar to me. This is what creative and critical thinking is all about and understand the difference of normal vs. not normal. Not sure if I making any sense here but it was great to watch her presentation and will definitely buy her book.

Thanks for the link.

PhD

Love the TED site. It's great to see what happens when you tell someone to encapsulate a body of work they've spent their life creating into a 20 minute talk. Some of the talks are amazing, some less so, but most are very informative.

I'll be the skunk at the picnic, though, and just say that while I find Bolte-Taylor to be a terrifically entertaining speaker, I'm really put off by her characterization of brain science. It's hard to deny her amazing experience, but neuroscientists roll their eyes at her characterization of the phenomenology of a stroke. Very dramatic, yes, but not necessarily accurate.

I was at a meeting this past week with several neuroscientists and her name came up. All were respectful of her as a person, but felt that she vastly oversimplifies and mystifies (rather than de-mystifies) brain functioning and consciousness. I had to agree. While I'm not a neuroscientist, I've had enough courses in neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and brain-and-behavior function that I could recognize her presentations (at TED, on Fresh Air) as better performance art than science.

I don't blame her for running with this issue. She had an amazing experience, and it's amazing she recovered as fully as she has. But she never was much of a "brain scientist." She graduated from a third-tier program, and had a couple of postdocs where she didn't even work with the main scientists in the labs. She produced very little during her postdocs.

So, what I'm saying is she puts on a good show, but I wouldn't put a lot of faith in her characterization of the neuroscience underlying her experiences as she describes it. Even I recognized the gross oversimplifications and significant exaggerations in her talks.

A couple of interesting science items today. First, a short piece on how gene editing could bring about immunity to HIV.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/gene-editing-co.html

Followed by something on the opposite end of the spectrum: Louisiana's anti-evolution "academic freedom" law, signed by governor Jindal, considered in some quarters as a potential McCain running mate.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080627-louisiana-passes-first-antievolution-academic-freedom-law.html

Ironically, Jindall is a former university president. Granted, that university was LSU, which was appropriately memorialized in song by Randy Newman: "Good ol' boys from LSU. Went in dumb, come out dumb too."

What has happened in Louisiana is a good illustration of the dumbing-down of life in America. I highly recommend a very thought-provoking book by Susan Jacoby titled "The Age of American Unreason." It is a very enlightening but depressing read.

http://www.susanjacoby.com/

Bwana, it never ceases to amaze me just how dumbed down things can get in this country. It also never ceases to amaze how the anti-evolution crowd never stops to think about how much of what they rely upon in their daily lives exists because of the scientific method and in many cases the theory of evolution itself. And yet they still oppose it....

Here is an interesting economic report (the link opens into a PDF) not only predicting $7 gallon gas, but focuses on the impact of that price on traffic in the US. It predicts 10 million cars will be coming off the road. Read the summary on the first page and then the full article starting on page 4 of the PDF.

http://research.cibcwm.com/economic_public/download/sjun08.pdf

How can anyone not believe in evolution when we SEE bacteria doing it (developing drug resistance) right before our very eyes?

As for Big Bang vs Creationism - there's evidence to support the Big Bang theory, but a few little questions still perplex me:

1) Where did all this matter and energy around us come from? (If you're thinking of answering "the big bang", you'll then need to answer the question of where did that come from?)

2) Given the 2nd law of thermodynamics and the inexorable trend we observe toward disorder - how could it all possibly become so ordered to begin with?

This is an interesting and very long article about the Scientology cult. I knew they were into some wacky stuff, but I never knew exactly how far out there these people are until I read this.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-06-24/news/Scientologys-Crushing-Defeat/

Scientologists are among the great whackjobs of the modern era. It's appalling that they have tax-exempt status.

I must confess to being extremely curious as to how they managed to browbeat the IRS, of all institutions, into getting that status. They must have had the goods on somebody...

Somewhat ironically, they've been supported by the extreme religious Right, who don't trust the IRS at all and want the criteria for religious exemption to be almost complete, so that all their fruitcake denominations will be exempt.

They also are extremely litigious.

Well, having been in a professional situation in Clearwater Fl. when the Scientologists bought the old Clearwater Hotel, The Bank of Clearwater, several nearby blocks of other decaying businesses and then announced their intent to file for religious exemption (and almost crush the tax income of the City of Clearwater); seeing Lisa Marie Pressley, Tom Cruise, John Travolta and other celebrities in local restaurants; watching their members parade around downtown in their uniforms; hearing horror stories and local news reports of people rescuing/snatching their friends and loved ones from the grips of these people I can tell you one thing...they are very scary and as LA guy said...VERY litigous.

They are a CULT, plain and simple. They brainwash their members. They extract huge sums of money from them. Their members live in fear of reprisals, beatings, torture, mind games and worse.

There were many reports of new female members being attacked by Sr. officials and yet they were allowed to continue in their weird ways because they were a "Religion".

Since it was so close to home, I actually bought and read a copy of Dianetics. About like reading The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Far out but very believable. You get immersed in it but have to come back to reality before going to bed or to work or you could easily get sucked into it. (I didn't sleep for 3 days reading the Trilogy).

I also had a professional desire to understand their philosphies because they were a customer. Slow pay and always asking for additional discounts, extended credit terms, freebies or anything else they could get. I stuck to my guns and they actually admired me for it.

Yes, they tried to recruit me and to get me to recruit other members of my company. I refused and kept it on a professional level, cringing everytime they would call me for a meeting but going none the less because it was my job.

When I changed companies, they called me and asked me to come by to say goodbye. I finally had the pleasure of telling them, "Go fuck yourself"

Just picked up and read "The Age of American Unreason" I'll second Bwana's recommendation of the book. It's not light reading by any stretch of the word, but it is very thought-provoking.

While I don't agree with everything she wrote, Jacoby hit enough nails on the head to help me understand in part, why America is getting dumber. Now I may have to read her other book "Free-Thinkers" just so I can go after my religious friends!

EA

I've placed both of those Jacoby books in my Amazon wishlist. So much to read, so little time.

I don't pay too much attention to Scientology.

But one site I know that is critical of the organization is Operation Clambake.

http://www.xenu.net/

Time for a couple of updates from the Economist. First off is a very interesting edition of the "Lexington" column on freedom in America. Meant to post it earlier and kept forgetting to.

http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=3856663&story_id=11332246

Following up that in an ironically related way is an article on international taxation, and how Americans get screwed. MX had mentioned to me last year the bit mentioned in this article about the IRS charging you 10 years worth of taxes if you renounce your citizenship. Land of the free indeed.

http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11554721&CFID=13870584&CFTOKEN=98592417

And one more. A pro-prostitution measure has made it onto the ballot for the November San Francisco elections. I can only hope....

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/18/BA6011RI18.DTL&tsp=1

The article on freedom in the US was very on-target. After reading it I felt compelled to share the following photo from a few years ago, taking at the 4th of July parade in Huntington Beach. The banner the Boy Scout is holding says it all.



(Message edited by BWana_dik on July 20, 2008)

(Message edited by BWana_dik on July 20, 2008)

Something's wrong with the photo upload. I'll try later.

(Message edited by Bwana_dik on July 20, 2008)

One more try...

I'm surprised the spelling wasn't "freedumb."

That photo says it all. I hope they got a badge for their prescient sign.

Notice the "102th" also. I was flabbergasted!

Given that the "scout" in the photo looks like his vocabulary is limited to "dude, surf's up," "102th" comes as no surprise.

My gf suggested that the banner was probably printed by a Vietnamese-run firm in Garden Grove. The Boy Scout Dude was too dull to pick up the mistake. I pointed it out and his reaction was "What?", as in "I don't see a problem." This, btw, was the opening banner for the whole parade.

Evolutionist think bacteria is doing something called "micro" evolution.

Where did all this matter and energy around us come from? The big bang, of course. The big bang might have been the result of a whole lot of matter coming together and reaching critical mass (from a previous big bang).

The trend toward disorder is true, but that refers to the whole system. Seeds don't tend toward disorder when they become flowers and trees, but they're taking energy from the sun. Planets are all life on them have taken energy from their stars.

Any other explanations as to how "freedon" and "102th" ended up on the sign? Or should we just go with Wombat's?

The past 12 months, economically speaking, have been the most fascinating in my life time. They represent a literal interpretation of the old Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." So here comes so more material on the economy.

First up is an extremely thought-provoking article that appeared in Harper's Weekly back in May. Written by Kevin Phillips, it discusses why government figures are essentially worthless.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/05/0082023

Following this is a series of charts, updated through the end of 2007, from the old Perot web site. These are well done, and explain the US government's situation. There are a large number of slides here. I recommend at least reviewing the first seven, up to when they cover the overall size of the debt.

http://perotcharts.com/category/challenges-charts/

And I couldn't resist adding a little color.

I've had very little web time lately, so not much interesting surfing to share. But today I did find this piece on why McCain would make a mediocre president, on Marketwatch. It reminded me of a comment someone who lives in Arizona made on another thread on this board in the last few days about his qualifications.

So shifting from all the economic stuff I've been posting lately, here's a toe-dip into politics.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/why-mccain-would-mediocre-president/story.aspx?guid=%7B4914192B%2D12AF%2D4623%2DAB18%2D5EFE91204B04%7D

Nice read on the last article Murasaki. Thanks.

Murasaki,
Just caught up on these posts. I was busy fucking in Brazil . The piece by Kevin Phillips was interesting. Folks may not realize that Phillips was a Republican strategist for many years. His book, American Theocracy, was one of my favorites of the last few years.

That Phillips article is a good one. Really makes one sit up and take note in many ways. It caused something of a stir in certain quarters when it was published in May in Harper's. I believe he also worked in the Nixon administration, if memory serves me correct.

Memory serves you correctly. He wrote speeches for Nixon.

He also wrote "The Emerging Republican Majority," which correctly predicted the ascendancy of the Republican Party in U.S. politics.

I am now looking forward to the updated version titled "The Shriveling Republican Dicks."

From Gizmodo, aerial shots of the Burj Dubai, the world's tallest building. Some are unreal. Check them out.

http://gizmodo.com/5038788/tallest-skyscraper-in-the-world-almost-completed-defies-belief

And sticking with today's aerial theme, here is a little trifecta of videos involving St. Maarten airport. Apparently the runway at this airport is not so long, so the big boys need to hit close to the end of the runway... which is at the beach... where a lot of people gather to watch. Watch a 747 do it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGrBLSeyPBA&feature=related

And since the runway is so short, when the big boys take off, they need to really rev up the engines before releasing that brake and bolting down the runway. Watch the people get blown into the water from the jetblast, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdUVHaZGDcY&feature=related

And finally, if you'd like to know what the view of landing at St. Maarten looks like from the cockpit of a 747, watch this. It's pretty cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksmDuXO_k6E

Here's an interesting commentary piece in the Financial Times by Nouriel Roubini. If you're not familiar with this economist, he has been predicting with uncanny accuracy everything that has been transpiring in the economy and markets over the last year.

See what he has to say at the end of this piece about what the future holds:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/622acc9e-87f1-11dd-b114-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1

A very sobering analysis. I'm meeting with my financial advisor next week, and I don't think it will be an enjoyable meeting for either of us.

The Economist has a fascinating graph up at the moment, covering a theoretical "global electoral college." The premise is that everyone in the world gets to vote for the US president, and it shows how each country is leaning with its electoral votes.

Click to see just how laughably lopsided it is. I'm happy to note that out of the major mongering destinations, Obama leads McCain by his biggest margin anywhere in the world (97% to 3%) in both Indonesia and Thailand (they are tied with Kenya). McCain supporters can find solace in Columbia, where Obama leads by only 63% to 37%.

http://www.economist.com/vote2008/index.cfm


On a more depressing note, here is a very short but striking summary of how this decade is on track, with one year left, to be the worst performing (stock market returns) since the 1930's.

http://bespokeinvest.typepad.com/bespoke/2008/10/the-worst-decad.html

Oooh, this just in. Had to share it. National debt clock runs out of digits:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/10/08/national/a174517D30.DTL&tsp=1

I’m surprised no one has mentioned Peak Oil on this thread. If you haven’t already heard of Peak Oil, you will soon. In fact, the implications are far more frightening and extend way beyond the present credit crisis.

For those who don’t know, there are two basic schools of thought on the subject: the “soft landing” optimists and the “hard landing” pessimists. The soft landing theory holds that natural gas will transition us during the global production decline, and that alternative fuels will fill the gaps, negating the need for any major lifestyle changes. The hard landing theory holds that any mitigating measures will be too feeble and come too late, and that major lifestyle changes and hardship are on the way within our lifetimes.

If you’re curious, start with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil

I've heard about the notion of peak oil for several years. Any regular reader of the Economist or similar magazine will be familiar with the concept. It's not here (from me) simply because I've yet to run across an interesting web page about it since I began this thread. Thanks for the link.

Chris Buckley endorses Obama, resigns from National Review. Really:

http://www.ktla.com/landing_entertainment/?Oh-dear-this-isnt-my-daddys-GOP-A-Buckle=1&blockID=99422&feedID=14

A couple of items today that caught my eye.

First off, two from the Telegraph in the UK. Europe on the brink of a currency crisis meltdown (and people wonder why the dollar is strengthening so much): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/3260052/Europe-on-the-brink-of-currency-crisis-meltdown.html

Next is a piece about the imminent failure of thousands of hedge funds:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3248965/GLG-chief-Emmanuel-Roman-warns-thousands-of-hedge-funds-on-brink-of-failure-financial-crisis.html

And lastly an interesting visual comparison of the presidential election returns in 1928 (Hoover vs. Smith) and 1932 (Hoover vs. Roosevelt). Big turnaround there.
http://politicalirony.com/2008/10/12/us-electoral-maps-before-and-after-great-depression/

Very interesting. I was talking with a Wall Street banker earlier this month about the credit mess in the US, and he said, "this is nothing. Wait until the situation in Eastern Europe blows up, which it will soon."

I'm very happy I ignored the pleading of some friends to dive into "emerging economy" funds. They have tanked phenomenally.

On another note entirely, as we work through the final week of the campaign, take a look at The Economist's "Global Electoral College Map."
http://www.economist.com/vote2008/index.cfm?source=most_commented

With Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic approved for visa-waiver and possibly going active as early as November, there could be a nice sudden migration of tall, leggy Eastern European girls if their economies tank. Of course, the Argentines were visa-waiver for a while until their currency crashed and very quickly they were off the list, but the possibilities are interesting.

Morgan Stanley analysts believe the dollar will continue to strengthen, and here is why. At last some news to warm our hearts:

http://www.morganstanley.com/views/gef/archive/2008/20081103-Mon.html#anchor7112

Had to share a couple of cartoons. The Halloween one makes me giggle every time I see it, despite the horror of the truth.

Well, Murasaki a stronger dollar has both good and bad aspects to it. Assuming you were as dumb as me and still have a stock portfolio heavy on foreign ETFs, a strong dollar is not in the aggregate going to help us much, at least on the exchange rate end of things.

(Message edited by LAguy on November 03, 2008)

Here is a fascinating look at the 2008 election results using cartograms. Check it out:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2008/

Next up is a piece in the New York Review of Books by George Soros on the credit crisis, worth a read:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22113

And lastly for something truly close to our hearts, Ryanair puts out a "scantily clad cabin crew" calendar. I dibs Miss March.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1084741/Ryanair-flies-storm-sexist-charity-calendar-featuring-scantily-clad-cabin-crew.html

All I can say about this op-ed piece on Obama and intellectualism in the white house is "Amen."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/opinion/09kristof.html?ex=1242018000&en=c718778512439969&ei=5087&WT.mc_id=OP-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M069-ROS-1108-L1&WT.mc_ev=click

Probably my last post in this thread for a while, as Murasaki is about to embark on another mega-trip.

Just discovered this thread, so belatedly....

1) ted.com is addictive!

2) re oil:
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

3) Legend has it that Hubbard's regular drinking buddies, including Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon and other sci-fi luminaries, challenged him to prove it when he asserted the the way to get rich was to start a religion.

Hubbard's son (Jr.) and his longtime editor, John Sanborne, both asserted that, just to inflame the communist hysteria of the 1950s, Hubbard also conceived and wrote "Brainwashing: A Synthesis of the Russian Textbook on Psychopolitics" and (says Jr.) "snuck it into the Library of Congress". The tract included a spurious quote attributed to Lavrenti Beria, head of Soviet secret police: "By pschopolitics create chaos. Leave a nation leaderless. Kill our enemies. And bring to Earth, through Communism, the greatest peace Man has ever known."

Right wingers picked it up and ran with it, citing it in opposition to an Alaskan Mental Health bill, which former-nutball-Communist-turned-nutball-right-winger Kenneth Goff proclaimed a Communist plot to establish a concentration camp in Alaska for patriotic anti-communists. Some believe that Sarah Palin was born there :-)

Ok, time to kick off a new year.

A long and quite interesting essay about Darwinism, "Why we are, as we are", from the Economist. Definitely worth reading.

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12795581

Interesting indeed.

That article discusses several topics that intersect with the writings of Richard Dawkins, whose books offer lots of fascinating discourse on evolutionary psychology.

What I love about it is that every point raised in the article is potentially contentious. It runs contrary to a lot of conservative and liberal beliefs that are, at least among their respective camps, sacrosanct.

Thanks for the link!

I read Dawkins' "The God Delusion" last year, and liked it so much I bought "The Selfish Gene" afterwards. That is sitting on my book shelf in the "soon to be read" section.

Bookshelf?? Particularly, for a traveler like you Murasaki, you need an electronic book reader. I would have recommended the Kindle by Amazon but now that I have decided I hate that company maybe a Sony will do.

Get with the program man. It's the 21st Century! Bookshelves are obsolete!!

Great minds think alike. I also read "The God Delusion" last year. Prior to reading it I was comfortable calling myself an agnostic. Having read it, I’m leaning more toward atheism. In total, the case he makes in favor of atheism is incredibly persuasive. No wonder the religious right thinks Dawkins is the anti-Christ.

"The Selfish Gene" is a paradigm-smashing reads that calls into question the importance of all human cultural achievement. Even if you don’t agree with all his arguments, you’ve got to respect the guy for being an unapologetic heretic.

Here are two articles from Foreign Policy, from their "Axis of Upheaval" series.

The first discusses what is going on with the sudden change of fortune for Russia.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4683&page=0

The second looks at the drug war in Mexico, and how much of a war it has actually become.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4684&page=0

How long until the violence that is wracking Mexico spills over into our own country?

How long until the "social conservatives" realize that the blood of all of those Colombians and Mexicans killed in the narco-wars is on their hands.

Drug abuse is not a criminal problem, it's a public health problem.

The only thing MORE hare-brained than the "War on Terror" is the "War on Drugs". Both have done ENORMOUS damage.

Anyway... to stay on topic. HBO is running what amounts to a left wing hatchet job on the wackos in the McCain/Palin campaign (made by Nancy Pelosi's daughter). Right America: Feeling Wronged

While viscerally fun for a while, it does not really illuminate or inform. It just panders with stereotypes. Sorta like it's easy for a zeitgeist change to be mistaken. Has anything really changed?

Anybody see it?

Mura, Smito, thanks for the links.

I posted one about a Rolling Stone article re: Mexico's drug-related crisis last week:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/24012731/the_war_next_door/print

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20090218/pl_ynews/ynews_pl246

An article about nationalizing banks in the US -- makes a great point, getting rid of the shareholder-beholden/comp'd up the ying yang banking execs would enable the financial system to actually focus on long term goals? WHAT A CONCEPT!

Hell, do it to the auto industry too if they wanna help themselves to 10's of billions MORE to can 45,000 workers? Nice "stimulus" there!

Benevolent communism is now our friend?

Here's an article from Wired that discusses the current economic crisis from a very different perspective - that of the mathematical formula that made much of it possible. It's an intriguing read.
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-03/wp_quant?currentPage=all

Also of interest is this interview with Niall Ferguson, the financial historian and author of "The Ascent of Money."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090223.wferguson0223/BNStory/crashandrecovery/home/?pageRequested=all

I just finished reading Bill McKibben’s Deep Economy. Early on, the book delves into the foundation of contemporary economics as embodied by Adam Smith. It then proposes a new economics based on some as-yet-to-be-defined quantitative measure of human happiness as opposed to the strictly material measures that are currently used.

It starts out fairly strong in terms of the ideas it espouses, but later on it becomes repetitive, laboring the virtues of community supported agriculture and innumerable references to Vermont, where McKibben lives.

The book makes a fairly strong case for a sustainable, local economy as a new paradigm to replace the current model based on unsustainable growth and consumption of non-renewable resources.

Topically, the book moves from rational argument based on cutting-edge social science to speculation based on anecdotal example. It was an enjoyable read, but I found his countless references to Vermont rather tiresome.

That reminds me that I've been meaning to post a few suggestions for great reads. Following are a few of the books I read last year that warrant a special recommendation.

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
by Jack Weatherford
(Breezy read on this guy and why his hordes kicked ass)

The God Delusion
by Richard Dawkins
(Atheism rocks)

Confederates in the Attic
by Tony Horowitz
(Hilarious look at Civil War re-enactors)

Crossing the Rubicon: The Fall of the Roman Republic
by Tom Holland
(Ceasar has enough)

The Snow Leopard
by Peter Matthiessen
(Incredible book, beautifully written. Can't recommend highly enough.)

The World Without Us
by Alan Weisman
(What would happen if all humans suddenly disappeared)

A War Like No Other
by Victor Hanson
(The Peloponnesian War)

Time to clear out some saved items in the browser.

First up, a very intriguing take on the dark side of Dubai. I have no way to judge how accurate much of this article is, but I can believe at least some parts of it based on what I've read from other sources. Give it a gander:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html

Next, a very brief blog post on HIV and genetics: Darwin's Radio
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/04/by-annalee-newitz-500-pm-on-mon-apr-27-2009-10350-views-edit-post-set-to-draft-slurpcopy-this-whole-post-to-another-s.html

And finally for this post, a long but worthwhile summary of a forum sponsored by the New York Review focusing on the financial crisis. They had a ton of big names participate, and everyone had some very interesting points. Read through it all:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22756

Just read The Snow Leopard by Peter Mattheissen. Enjoyed it a lot. Thanks for the recommendation.