Silvio Berlusconi watched the recent economic volatility from his Sardinian villa. He is taking a seaside view of the crisis, says the Financial Times, noting that Italian economic policy is “in effect being dictated from outside as Italy becomes the latest front line in the battle to save the euro
* Chait: Westen's complaint against Obama is rooted primarily in a lack of factual understanding of what Obama has done. * NASA says it's found a spacecraft, lost since 1967, on the dark side of the moon. * Cataloging the things we've left in space, e.g.
* Riots liveblog: British Parliament recalled, 16,000 police on streets tonight, but no army or curfew. * Young London rioters lack a legitimate future—nothing to lose, no reason to obey. * Watching the riots, Egyptian bloggers debate the differences between looting and protesting. * Riots organized not through social media, but on
From 2011, an ode to the pleasures of vulgarity, in which a bookseller tries to give every customer one unsafe moment. And, yes—that’s what she said.
* Grim outlook for the U.S. economy, with high odds for a double dip—and it's all our politicians' fault. * With his positions largely unknown, Obama stared into the eyes of history and averted his gaze. * Police threaten to arrest people inciting violence in London via Twitter.
Planning a wedding is weird, wonderful, and hard. Here are 10 things I learned—not necessarily directly—from planning my own wedding that don’t seem to get addressed much in the bridezillasphere. 1. If you really want cash, don’t register for gifts. Enlist your parents and siblings to
On the outskirts of a Ghana slum, young people work in toxic conditions to extract metal from melted-down computers—technology that we've discarded, and shipped elsewhere for the dirty work of recycling.
* A U.S. ban on conflict minerals has helped the Congolese warlords it intended to depose. * Researchers find that birds abused as chicks grow up to abuse others. * In Chile, anti-government protestors accuse rescued miners of selling out, throw fruit. * After 12 years of diminished hauls, Long Island lobstermen
* After ferocious assault, Syria claims to have put down revolt in Hama, hundreds of civilians feared dead. * Standard and Poor's math mistake miscalculated debt projection by $2 trillion. * Timely Kickstarter project: "Is Capitalism Working for You," interactive public art strapped to a truck. * Five-star hotel
* New York bank soon to start charging negative interest, or fees to hold your cash. * Video: A trip to the wilds of Brooklyn, where the bodega cat reigns supreme. * Air France reportedly staffs Paris-bound Strauss-Kahn flight with all-male cabin crew. * Internal Stasi photos shows masters--and sometimes
