What's in a name? Playwright David Mamet explores the psychological and subconscious reasons why we like buzzwords and nicknames. Plus: disfluencies! (...and we're not talking about Bushisms)

The latest Brandt Travel Guide has a section on visiting North Korea. Little does John Fund know, however, that one can find plenty on the DPRK from the Pyongyang Metro website and of course Kim Jong-Il's blog. =P

Are you Asian, Arab, Black, or Hispanic? Been dissed by A&F lately? Join the club.

Mayor Mike "I live here too" Bloomberg sounds like a new man in his State of the City address.

With the repeal of anti-Asian, particularly anti-Chinese, immigration laws in the 1960's, Mandarin usage by new mainland and Taiwanese immigrants is poised to dethrone the traditional Cantonese strongholds of Chinese-American society.

"Mars... I can't believe I'm back on Mars." Out of the 36 spacecraft that humans have lobbed (or tried to lob) at Mars, 20 never quite made it. Thankfully, the Spirit rover beat the odds.

The Columbia Journalism Review is lying to get laid. And, Congress is full of baloney.

Hey Arnold! California's new budget depends on a mammoth $15 billion bond issue that voters gotta approve. Plus, the "Governator" adopts Davis-esque tactics to help shore up finances.

And speaking of Arnold, remember the Judgment Day dream sequence from Terminator 2? Here's what it'll be like to actually be at ground zero.

Cool! Everyone's favorite fat cat Garfield is gonna be in a live action movie coming out in June, starring Bill Murray! =P

Some guardians of literary respectability decry the colon cancer that's seeped into the titling of academic books. Speaking of punctuation, Eats, Shoots & Leaves is the sleeper bestseller of the season.

Eliot Spitzer wants to be the next governor of New York. He also wants to revitalize the state's Democratic Party. And he's taking no chances with either task.

When an oil tanker goes down, causing a spill, who can be held responsible? What a naive question...

I've had to read Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War for 2 different, but related, classes in college. Both focused on the Athenians' use of their power, one couse on Athens' hubris and the other on Athens' realpolitik.