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Choosers Can Be Beggars: Can Too Much Choice Be A Bad Thing? So many options, so little time to choose! So many potential mistakes to be made. Here's a good set of relevant links, for those who'd like to read more. [More inside.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:20 PM PST - 19 comments

Someone finally has the guts to save the environment. The dangers of using harmful chemicals can easily outweight the benefits. Use your head!
posted by Krrrlson at 10:34 PM PST - 24 comments

Lafcadio Hearn to Yakumo Koizumi. One hundred years ago there was a Japanese writer from the West.
posted by the fire you left me at 9:29 PM PST - 6 comments

The Best Educational Film...Period! (hoisted from filmgoerjuan)
posted by ColdChef at 8:07 PM PST - 39 comments

Riots in Iran have started, apparently over the recent elections. The revolution, it seems, will be blogged (with pictures). But not televised? Has anyone seen anything on CBSNBCBBCABCFOXESPN about this? If the riots are over the election, why are we hearing from the BBC (and others, presumably) that the election went smoothly? Does anyone have more information about what's happening with these pro-democracy riots? (Via Roger L. Simon).
posted by swerdloff at 5:53 PM PST - 16 comments

Now Toyota enters the robot race. Honda's humanoid robot, ASIMO, is such a splash, Toyota is entering the race, making robots designed to assist the elderly and incapacitated, and play trumpet with artificial lips. Shouldn't the US be making humanoid robots too? What do you really want your robot to do?
posted by kablam at 5:01 PM PST - 21 comments

"The story of the Passion is the story of a human sacrifice, done unknowingly, and yet according to Roman ritual sacrifice structure."
posted by pandaharma at 3:47 PM PST - 32 comments

An unusual solar object is the subject of a NASA news conference on Monday. The mothership? Or a 10th planet? Thanks to MemeFirst. (Related reading: Is Pluto really a planet?)
posted by Slagman at 1:59 PM PST - 34 comments

Al-Qaeda behind Madrid massacre? One piece of evidence I've only seen mentioned in Norway is a document a terrorist research group at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment found on an Islamist website. The document surveys strategies for forcing the coalition out of Iraq. It mentions Spain as a convenient target, and the election this week as a convenient time to carry it out
posted by Postroad at 1:31 PM PST - 12 comments

opposition party wins spanish elections. democracy can be somewhat irritating when decisions made against the will of the majority come back to haunt you. especially when trying to fool your people with baseless arguments, such as moral convictions that eta were behind the attacks. ever more curious about those wmd, or imminent threats, or, er, the intent of developing nuclear capabilities, in november.
posted by coyroy at 12:35 PM PST - 192 comments

Do you have special skills? If so, Uncle Sam may want to speak with you. "The government is taking the first steps toward a targeted military draft of Americans with special skills in computers and foreign languages." Nobody sees a need for a large scale draft like Vietnam, "But they thought that if we have any kind of a draft, it will probably be a special skills draft." The folks at SSS stress that this possibility is likely far off. It could take about two years to "to have all the kinks worked out." Is the draft in our future?
posted by madamjujujive at 10:45 AM PST - 31 comments

Christian Slave, Muslim Master: A new book claims over 1 million white Europeans where enslaved by North Africans between 1500 and 1800. Entire villages de-populated and pressed into slavery from Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Britain, Ireland and Iceland. While the numbers are smaller than the 10 to 12 million Africans sent to North America it is a little known tragic story of Africans subjugating Europeans.
posted by stbalbach at 9:02 AM PST - 15 comments

Black ships and samurai In 1853 four ships under Commodore Perry anchored off the coast of Japan against the wishes of the Japanese. According to historian John Dower, "This initial encounter between the United States and Japan was eye-opening for all concerned, involving a dramatic confrontation between peoples of different racial, cultural, and historical backgrounds. We can literally see this encounter of "East" and "West" unfold through the splendid, yet little known, artwork produced by each side at the time." This beautiful exhibition includes many examples of this artwork, juxtaposing scenes of the encounter from Japanese and American artists' points of view. (Part of MIT's open courseware initiative.)
posted by carter at 7:30 AM PST - 18 comments

"You love life and we love death" Al Qaeda video found in Spain claims responsibility for Madrid bombings. (NY Times on first link.) How can we tell if a group claiming a terror act actually were the bastards who did it?
posted by zaelic at 5:10 AM PST - 17 comments

The Story of a Czech SuperStar Contestant. The Czech version of Pop Idol (or American Idol, if you prefer) is finally starting to get good. But it may not be for the reasons the show's creators wanted. Anna, known also by her SuperStar number 3469 or better yet as "Dajdou," has become the most famous of all the contestants so far, precisely because she is what the Czechs refer to as an "antitalent." (via Living in Europe)
posted by Ljubljana at 4:42 AM PST - 9 comments

Betrayed by Europe: An Expatriate’s Lament Journalist, novelist, and translator Nidra Poller, an American ex-pat who has been living in Paris with her family since 1972, writes in the latest issue of Commentary about her painful decision to leave her adopted homeland for the US. The main reason? Poller and her family are Jewish and scared for their lives. Her poignant essay is not just another report on the disturbing levels of anti-semitism in France or yet another French Jew abandoning the country for safer turf, but an examination of the power of hope (and inertia) in our lives, even when intellectually one sees no reason for hope: I'm being treated to a poignant lesson in European and Jewish history. The 30's: why did they stay? Why didn’t they run for their lives? Couldn’t they see what was happening? I see before me a vivid demonstration of the deep roots we dig to make our lives bloom, the intricate biology of a human life, irrigated with the lifeblood of a community, inextricably connected to a society, born of life to give life to keep life alive. Leaving is not packing up and tipping your hat goodbye. It is tearing live flesh out of a living matrix. A powerful and disturbing testimony.
posted by Asparagirl at 1:33 AM PST - 74 comments