We've all heard about the Chinese moaning over Japan's new history textbooks.But Japan isn't the only place where history's being rewritten in the textbooks.  Check out this news article about rewriting Russian history.The really disturbing bit?  T

More great moments in Chinese freedom of the press -- oh wait, there isn't any!  Never mind.The trouble right now is the arrest of a Hong Kong journalist working for a Singaporean paper.  Here is the quick blurb:The International Federation of Jour

The bloggers over at Winds of Change did it much better than I can.Enjoy your Memorial Day!

No surprise here, gentle reader.  According to Le Monde, France says a big fat "Non" to the tune of 54.8% "non" to  45% "oui" with nearly 70% voter turnout.Europe is in turmoil.  Check out this political cartoon.  Th

The family's come up to visit me here on the East/Left/Nerd Coast, so I'm going to be out and about for a few days.Real blogging will resume once their visit's over.  The only politics I'll have time for right now are family politics. (And you know

I remember watching Jacques Chirac's recent televised train wreck of an attempt to convince a roomful of French young people that they should vote Yes to the EU Constitution.  The 80+ skeptics, all about my age, didn't look convinced and kept pelt

Here's a follow-up to a previous post on satire-singing troops.I finally found the video spoof by the Brits.  Here it is, the hilarious file that crashed the Ministry of Defence computer network!  PS: You'll have to tell me if you like the British

Here's the latest in Sino-Japanese "relations."The Japanese have just told the Chinese to learn some manners.Ooooooooooo, THEM'S FIGHTIN' WORDS!Here is the news story:An outraged Japan said yesterday that China needed to learn better manner

Sorry, sci-fi fans!But the latest science seems to say that wormholes aren't any good for time travel.Well, there go a million plot devices . . .

I'm finally finished with all the grading.My eyeballs are burning.  Next time I'm going to tell the students flatly that if I can't read what they've written, I'm marking it WRONG.  I'm tired of a million smears, squiggles, chicken scratches, and/o

I am up to my eyes in work.I am tired.I am grumpy.  I mean, grumpy as in the most vitriolic, intense grumpification you can imagine.  I mean, grading-endless-exams-GRUMPY.  I mean, grumpy as all-out enraged that some students have obviously been s

I've just about finished grading a million piles of undergrad term papers.Some of the papers were really good.  Some were fit only for kindling.  Overall, I'm absolutely appalled at the collapse of English skills on campus -- Ivy League or not, peo

I. Can't. Make. This. Stuff. Up.When the police have to show up to restore order at a movie theater, you know your fans have crossed a line!

What are the Tokyo police up to these days?Monkey business, of course!Contrast that with Beijing, where I hear there's an actual crackdown on hanky-panky.

Finally, some good news to report. (as I grade endless piles of student exams . . . Somebody save me!)I've been frothing for a long time about  the European Union's plans to resume arms sales to Beijing.  You'll recall, of course, that the arms em

They make music videos spoofing pop songs.   Turn up your speakers, gentle reader, and check out the British and the Norwegians:Absolutely hilarious.And be sure to check out the spoofy, spiffy new lyrics to "Kokomo," as done by the Norwe

The women of Kuwait have just won the right to vote. Chalk up another one for democracy.  And make that democracy in the Middle East, please.Here's a blurb:KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwaiti women hailed as historic a decision to allow them to vote and run

Gentle reader, I can't make this stuff up.Here's the headline from Italy: "Viagra-fueled Italian stallions seized by police."And they do mean Italian stallions of the four-legged kind.

Saturday was, for those of you who missed it, National Assembly elections in Taiwan.  Voter turnout was at an all-time low, but . . .Results?  Chen's DPP party won handily enough (42.5% of the vote), with the KMT coming in second with 38.9%. James

In the wake of Lien Chan and James Soong's infuriating (to me, anyway) visits to Beijing, here is some news from the real, actual, democratically elected leader of Taiwan -- President Chen Shui-Bian.In stark contrast to the other oily politicians' v

And oh, yeah, while I was grading term papers (undergrads apparently have ZERO grasp of grammar and punctuation, Ivy League or not), I was watching the last episode of "Enterprise."The Sibling had put me up to it.  He still seems to think

History repeats itself!Paris falls to the latest well-dressed overlord with imperial ambitions, masses of storm troopers, and a contempt for republican ideals!Only this time around, the overlord is . . . Darth Vader.

Some enterprising students at Princeton have been busy protesting politics with a filibuster.The stunt has gotten a lot of attention here in the Ivies, and the filibustering Tigers have gone to DC with their demonstration:WASHINGTON, D.C. — After

As a history nerd, few things get me more annoyed faster than revisionist history.I've lately gone on a soapbox about the Crusades.  Today's soapbox is about World War II, spotlighted since we just celebrated the 60th anniversary of VE (Victory in

Amid all my end-of-semester nerd moaning, here's a historical note about the real world off-campus: today is Yom Ha'atzma'ut, Israeli Independence Day, celebrating independence declared in 1948, 57 years ago.Check out the headlines from 1948!  Pret