24 August 2009: Afternoon By The Morning News — 24 Aug 2009 To prevent H1N1 from spreading, Japanese politicians stop shaking hands and spitting on audiences. The Americans cannot bring peace, not if they stay for 50 years. Measuring the pace of decline and insurgency in Afghanistan. The Post's POTUS tracker shows which issues receive the most of Obama's time. Deeper polling on birthers discovers 10 percent of Americans don't believe Hawaii is a state. Eyeing socialism through spymaster Ambler's works and seeing that not much has changed. Beck's new project remakes classic albums and shares them for free (see here). Instapaper for the commute: Empower women, save the world. Messages in the boys' room and other "soft" indicators of a school's troubles. "Blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks. Op: Scientists generally are blind to their research being used for hostile purposes. Scientific study tests garlic's effectiveness against vampires; lacking vampires, leeches used instead. Bolivia's cocaine tourism--floating cocaine bars--entrance Europe's backpacking class. Pictures of the world's most enviable rooftop gardens. Brief ode to GeoCities, which will be shuttered forever on Oct. 26. Linebreak, a poetry journal updated weekly (see also, Swindle, a daily aggregator of contemporary poetry).