12 January 2009: Morning

Mr. Faux-Bama's entire inaugural speech consisted of six words: "My fellow Americans," he said. "God bless America."

The real president-elect: Unless there's evidence of malfeasance, there will be no broad inquiry into the Bush administration's policies.

Gaza is a maze of booby traps and tunnels, with lethal tricks conducted by both sides.

Nowhere is safe, because everybody in Gaza happens to live next to Hamas headquarters. Account of the fighting from a UNICEF worker.

TMN's Clay Risen will be in Washington, D.C., tomorrow night to promote his new book, A Nation on Fire. (more dates here)

Cambridge, Mass., mayor wants to declare Jan. 25 Junot Díaz Day.

Given the author and illustrator, the new Choose Your Own Adventure is suspicious: You Are George Bush.

If we were reporting the 18th-century slave trade, I said, we wouldn't give equal time to the slave ship captain in our dispatches.

It's an invitation to destruction. But there is no shortage of miners, big and small, who are willing to accept. Gold's monetary and human costs rise.

George, a 140-year-old lobster, was set free from City Crab in Manhattan on Saturday.

MetroCards, arted up; an ASCII subway map.

A couple of Google searches uses the energy required to boil a kettle.

In fact, let me Google that for you.