Headlines from August 11, 2008

President Saakashvili: If Georgia falls, this will also mean the fall of the West in the entire former Soviet Union and beyond.
Medvedev: Give us a minute, we'll be done in Georgia soon.
Medium-length primer on the history of the Georgia-Russia conflict.
Considering Putin's gains in Georgia.
Anticipating the week in news in Russia, Georgia, elsewhere.
First-hand knowledge of comfortable lives in "the most dangerous nation on earth," Pakistan.
If U.S. officials want to bandy war-like phrases, couldn't they call a linguist first?
If you think the McCain-Obama race has been hostile so far, wait until after the conventions.
Obama prefers Batman to Iron Man, the Stones to the Beatles.
Denmark as model actor in achieving energy independence.
Considering a built-in snowball effect for the obesity epidemic: babies predisposed to obesity.
Losing weight may be easier if you treat it like a role-playing dungeon crawler.
Godard's greatness is cemented, but are his films any good?
Print for the commute: Dark inclinations are what make us endlessly fascinating--and essentially human.
McCain's "3 a.m." moment regarding Georgia puts him in line with Bush on American exceptionalism.
Op: Georgia fights for its survival as Russia takes advantage of Western indecision.
Georgia, Russia embrace on Olympic podium, face off on Wednesday in beach volleyball.
"There's almost the feeling of the 'Anticlimactic Games.'" How will we remember the Olympics?
Au revoir democracy, bonjour ancien regime. Sarkozy's privatization of power evident in commoditization of national symbols.
Weekend losses: Bernie Mac (NSFW video), Isaac Hayes (mp3: "Walk on By").
The historigraphical reasons why we'll never have a comprehensive history of pop music.
Link bio of Nell James, prog prodigy, and 2006 ToB judge.
Video: Documentary about the Smiths' 1986 third album, The Queen is Dead.
Related: Andrew Womack on the other nine top albums of 1986.
It pains me to see so many people being pseudo-intellectual in the wrong way. You have failed to keep pace with the current code of intellectual one-upsmanship.
Kafka's stash of explicit pornography is discovered, Ph.D. students around the world revise their theses.
Video: Thank you, slaves.