Nukes, Burma, and Republicans

Nuclear war between, say, India and Pakistan would be really bad, says the New Scientist. Like, a-billion-people-dead bad.

Tim Patterson hands us some first-person narratives of travel to Burma from his new seat as editor of Brave New Traveler. It's not every day you get to see a revolution in progress, so may as well get a sense for the country.

Daily Kos gives a nice crystallization of the reason private armies like Blackwater (and many other government-provided services) logically don't work. Hint - it has to do with incentives. I thought Republicans were supposed to be good at that kind of stuff.

On a roll, Daily Kos tells how Bush made the awesome decision to veto a bill that would have taxed cigarette companies to pay for health insurance for poor children. On the way out of the Oval Office, he clubbed a baby seal and gave smallpox-infected blankets to several war veterans. Seriously, sometimes I can't think of any explanation for this guy's behavior other than that he's trying to be a dick.

Finally, Slate tells you how to sound intelligent when talking about the baseball playoffs.