* Biggest strike in 30 years disrupts UK; 58% of schools closed. * Obamas take their daughters book shopping; the girls buy the President Everyone Poops. * Professional lobbyist Gingrich splits hairs over being a lobbyist. * Free speech rights of federal employees to be decided soon. * Audubon's Birds of America now
* Iranian students storm British embassy in Tehran; semi-official news agency says protesters "conquered." * Dahlia Lithwick profile of Justice Kagan after a year on the bench. * John Stuart Mill, dead thinker of 2011. * Arab revolutionaries top Foreign Policy's list of top 100 global thinkers. * Stories you
* Korea's president channels Carter and dons long underwear to conserve energy. * Patagonia ad urges customers to buy less of its clothing, less in general. * Kenya yet to wipe out jihadist militia in Somalia. * Gingrich's Belgian Congo dissertation mashed up with Tintin au Congo. * Keith Gessen, n+
* Military folk keep their jobs secret to avoid hero-worship, being looked on as victims, or simply the questions. * Pakistan's PM says "no more business as usual" with U.S. after NATO aircraft kill two dozen Pakistan troops. * Publishers quite aware that, for the first time
* Interactive history in photographs of recent uprisings in the Middle East. * Voters line up in Egypt, beginning an election timetable that lasts until March. * China has many female entrepreneurs and high-flying managers, though male attitudes about family haven't changed. * Beijing graffiti advertises jobs. * Drought in the South
* State Dept. fingers Egypt's military rulers—"a government in power that the U.S. largely supports." * Story of the American torturer on trial in Guadalupe that's being ignored by the American media. * Q&A with the new Times comedy critic. * For female writers,
* Latitude mystery in Europe—why high unemployment, low productivity, low investment are mostly found in the south. * South African legislators pass secrets bill to protect corrupt officials from press scrutiny. * Putin's secretary says boos were for an American fighter, not Putin; Russians tell American fighter, No, we were
The view from Oakland, Calif.
* U.S. embassy in Beijing embarrassed by private groups' ability to out-produce cultural exchanges. * Pictures of the ongoing meme "Casually pepper spraying everything cop." * Making a meme of pepper-spray cop doesn't trivialize the event—it spreads the news. * Other things the internet can
* Tahrir Square braces for crowds as protests in Egyptian cities enter fourth day of demonstrations. * Q&A for Egypt's new protests. * "Every cycle, the U.S. political system becomes more polarized and more dysfunctional, at greater human cost." * The chances of anyone existing are one
