In this Boston Globe article, Steven Johnson explains the connection between mindreading, which is "the complex yet taken-for-granted talent most people have for detecting the inner emotional states of others," and autism.

Last week Twin Cities Babelogue, the City Pages Online Blog Community, honored Blogenheimer as the Minnesota Blog of the Day. Twin Cities Babelogue called Blogenheimer "your gateway to discussions on politics and pop culture. The announcement is here. Scroll down. It's between the Death Row Cookbook and the Gay Penguin for President links.

A British newspaper obtained a secret U.S. Defense Department report that they said predicted catastrophic climate change in the next 20 years. This climate change would cause rioting and nuclear war, and would give Britain a "Siberian" climate. The story quickly spread on the Internet.

However, the report isn't very secret (you can read it here), and the authors write that it describes a "plausible" but "not very likely" scenario.

This Oakland Tribune article explains how all this happened.

In this Boston Globe article, Mitchell Rofksy explains why, "[n]o matter who wins the presidency this year, the last century went to liberals -- and there's no going back".

Here are two articles from this weekend's New York Times on war and history. First, Frank Rich discusses the effect of the Vietnam War on the current presidential election. Second, Benjamin Schwartz reports on how the end of the cold war changes our understanding of World War II's eastern front.

Use this table to determine where you fit on the Geek Hierarchy.

William Gibson discusses his career as a science fiction writer in this Philadelphia Inquirer interview.

"I remember [in the early '80s] seeing posters for the small, semi-portable version of the Apple IIc," he says. "Quite a lot of what I subsequently imagined in my early science fiction simply came from seeing that ad in a bus stop. I didn't know anything about it technologically. I just thought if it's that small and that nicely styled, everything is changing."

Ben Chandler has won the special election in Kentucky's 6th congressional district. Chandler is the first Democrat since 1991 to win a Republican-held seat in a special election. Talking Points Memo explains the significance of this election here.

The Village Voice has released its 30th (or 31st) annual Pazz and Jop Critics Poll of the best music of 2003. The poll is a compilation of the ballots of 732 music critics. The results include lists of 2003's Best Albums and 2003's Best Singles, as well as an introductory essay by Robert Christgau, the "Dean of American Music Critics."

The CBGB Shrine is a link to everything you would want to know about the New York underground music club, including the club's written history and photographic history .

Here's Calpundit on the President's recent political difficulties:

BAD TIMES....It's been a rough few weeks for President Bush, hasn't it? Let us count the ways.

Last Sunday President Bush agreed to release the records of his service in the National Guard. However, the White House has been very selective in what it has released. For example, they have refused to release Bush's medical records, except for his dental records. This suspicious behavior seems to have finally awakened the press, who are now investigating both Bush's time in the National Guard and what happened to his service records.

Dave Moniz and Jim Drinkard of the USA Today are reporting that:

"As Texas Gov. George W. Bush prepared to run for president in the late 1990s, top-ranking Texas National Guard officers and Bush advisers discussed ways to limit the release of potentially embarrassing details from Bush's military records, a former senior officer of the Texas Guard said Wednesday.

A second former Texas Guard official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, was told by a participant that commanders and Bush advisers were particularly worried about mentions in the records of arrests of Bush before he joined the National Guard in 1968, the second official said."

The blogger Calpundit has the best information on the Bush military service story. Calpundit summarizes the story here. He tries to understand the records released so far in this post.

Do you know someone who really, really, really, really, really likes Stevie Nicks? If you do, then here's a great gift idea. This website offers drawings of you or a friend and Stevie. You can even get the portrait on a tambourine.

The Pixies make it official. The reunion is real.

According to this Reuters story, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani survived an assassination attempt today. This Slate article explains who Sistani is and why he's important to the future of Iraq.

Nathan Radke explains why Charlie Brown is an existentialist in this article from Philosophy Now.

The competition during the 19th century between the British and Russians for influence in Central Asia was known as the "Great Game." As Lutz Kleveman explains in this article from The Nation, the combination of the war on terrorism and large oil reserves has created a new "Great Game" in Central Asia.

Philip Gourevitch examines how the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is shaking out in this New Yorker article.

Darrin McMahon looks at the history of conspiracy theories in this article from the Boston Globe.