This is really kind of brilliant: a good, clear guide to the subprime mess, in a pretty funny and direct style. http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?docid=ddp4zq7n_0cdjsr4fn&skipauth=true&pli=1 (Via David Levinger)

I mean, I remember one case in which a person engaging in intelligence activities had his kids in the room with him when he was meeting with someone. And you’ve never, you can’t imagine how unattractive it would be to present in court espionage in the background and two kids watching TV in the foreground. [...]

The east African country of Somalia has been without a functioning central government since the overthrow of its aging ruler, General Mohamed Siad Barre, in 1991. Since the dictator fled, the country has been victim to a horrific clan-based conflict, and has become the archetype of a failed state. … Yet, despite the chaos, and [...]

The Divorce Pill? Women generally prefer the smell of men whose MHC gene complements are different from theirs, setting the stage for the best biological match. But Wedekind’s T-shirt study revealed one notable exception to this rule: women on the birth-control pill. When the pill users among his subjects sniffed the array of pre-worn T-shirts, [...]

Bill Mollison, the founding father of the Permaculture movement, gives us a quick tour of one of his many projects. This time we’re in central India, a couple of hours north of Hyderabad — walking amongst mangoes, bananas and a wide variety of other fruit and vegetables. What’s special about it is this ‘food forest’ [...]