What a tale. I really don't like over-enthusiastic bureaucrats! Blurb: Baker Val Temple was stunned when barmy bureaucrats forced her to rename her novelty Robin Tarts - because they don't contain the red breasted birds. &n

It looks good! I'm looking forward to both this and the release of the seventh and last Potter book in July!The official movie website is here.The official book website is here.(And, yes, in case you were wondering, I've always identifi

I couldn't read this news story without thinking inevitably of the heedless, massive destruction and depredation of the Cultural Revolution.Beijing is busy building for the 2008 Summer Games . . . and it's busy destroying historical location

Harvard history professor Niall Ferguson has a new editorial about the power of denial.Here is a distressingly clear, concise statement from it: ". . . Americans don't want to face the reality that they are at war - and about to admit

Here's a little follow-up to a previous post on Beijing-Taipei argument over the traveling route of the Olympic flame. Taiwan does not want the flame to travel directly from China to Taiwan, as this could be interpreted as a statement that Taiwan

Fausta has the detailed notes from "Al Qaeda: Past, Present, and Future," a recent campus lecture by Lawrence Wright, won a Pulitzer Prize for his 2006 book on Al Qaeda. Take a look! Blogging is wonderful, isn't it -- now yo

This little video is simply FABULOUS!Besides playing very wittily with the Star Wars phenomenon (it'll be 30 years old on May 25!), it's a great, light-hearted reminder to be courteous with your cell phone -- turn it off during meetings and

Interesting look at professors teaching international relations.Take a peek inside the "ivory tower," no? A cautionary note, though: academic consensus opinion, just like other forms of consensus, should not be treated as definitive o

It's movie madness here at Mad Minerva! (Hey, and a nice bit of alliteration there too!)This morning, I posted about "Formosa Betrayed," and now I have another Asian movie preview for you. My source is, again, my cinematica

Foreign Policy has this pithy opinion (I've boldfaced it): "Iran’s president denies the Holocaust, Hugo Chávez tells Western leaders to go to hell, and Vladimir Putin is cracking the whip. Why? They know that the price of oil an

If you recall the media coverage of the Hezbollah-Lebanon-Israel conflict last summer, you may recall that the coverage was often not very . . . er, objective or dispassionate. At times the media seemed (to me, anyway) to be actively taking si

I had not heard about this movie, but my Sibling told me about it yesterday. (How does he always know the latest news about the film industry?)Anyway, the movie in question is an independently-made film helmed by a Taiwanese-American producer, and it

It begins, and by "it" I mean the inevitable squabbling, arguing, and general unpleasantness that we can all expect as we approach 2008. In fact, hm, I think I'll start a series about the upcoming 2008 Beijing Summer Games . . . s

There are still quiet unsung heroes in academia.  Take a look at the response of some Iraqi college students of Baghdad Technology University.  Read the whole thing.Here are the quotes of the day from some of those students:"We have l

April 23!It is the day that Shakespeare fans celebrate the Bard's Birthday! So, what to do? You can of course read some Shakespeare or go visit the Folger Shakespeare Library or even go to Stratford-upon-Avon or maybe go to the new

Hello, hello! Today is Earth Day!For those of you gentle readers who are expecting me to take a sarcastic potshot at extreme examples of eco-silliness, fear not! I give you . . . "Earth Day, the Festivus of the environmental movement

April 21, 753 BC is the traditional date for the founding of Rome, and, well, modern Romans don't need an excuse to have fun on any day, so April 21 is a fantastic excuse!As usual, there will be sorts of festivities, with the annual fireworks dis

Virginia Tech engineering professor Liviu Librescu was buried today in Israel. As you all know by now, the 76-year-old Romanian-born Holocaust survivor gave his own life to save his students' by bodily blocking his classroom door.The Romani

The Far East Economic Review has an interesting piece in its latest issue.Professor Carsten Holz of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology wonders, "Have China Scholars All Been Bought?" Here is an example of what he means:&q

Some alcohol producers in China are being criticized for making a drink called "tiger wine."Why? Apparently actual tigers are harmed in the production of this wine!Look at this blurb from the BBC report:"China has come under fire

I give you:Barbara Oakley, a professor of engineering at Oakland University: ". . . most of the broad social “lessons” we are being told we must learn from the Virginia Tech shootings have little to do with what allowed the horrors t

I rather liked "300" while I didn't much like "Anchorman," but the following YouTube entertaining is simply too funny to ignore. The incongruous combination of these two very different films is really . . . well, just

It's a cold Friday with chilly rain and a winter storm (possibly including snow) in the forecast for the weekend (where's that global warming when you want it?).I'm completely exhausted, and all I want to do is crawl back to my apartment

Gentle reader, if you're in the mood for a serious dose of sophisticated, nuanced French political thought and discourse, take a look at the exquisite campaigning for the upcoming French presidential elections. Truly, this casts all of us A

Some time ago, I posted about how the British government has launched an official website at which British citizens may create and sign petitions for various causes of their choosing.Vox populi, vox Dei? Well, not in this day and age and not i