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Cloud of Atlases by The Editors

via www.themorningnews.org

"If you’ve ever picked up an old globe in a thrift store, you already know the sport of trying to determine its age based on where certain borders are demarcated and how territories are designated. And if testing your combined knowledge of history, culture, and cartography sounds like your kind of fun (it’s our kind of fun), you may enjoy what we’ve got in store.

We’ve removed the legends and all other telltale labels from the maps below, and challenge you to guess what each map depicts using only clues contained within the maps: the color-coding, names, landmarks, and whatever else you can detect. Here’s one clue to get you started: None of the maps represent gross national anything."

Excellent.

Paris from the Eiffel Tower

Paris from the Eiffel Tower, originally uploaded by Ben Heine.

Incredible photostitch of Paris taken from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

David documents the moment

David documents the moment, originally uploaded by msippey.

Hadn't seen this.

Why Obama Should Not Have Received the Peace Prize — Yet

President Obama's only real diplomatic accomplishment so far has been to change the direction and tone of American foreign policy from unilateral bullying to multilateral listening and cooperating. That's important, to be sure, but not nearly enough. The Prize is really more of Booby Prize for Obama's predecessor. Had the world not suffered eight years of George W. Bush, Obama would not be receiving the Prize. He's prizeworthy and praiseworthy only by comparison.

-Robert Reich

This is an odd award. You'd expect it to come later in Obama's presidency and tied to some particular event or accomplishment. But the unmistakable message of the award is one of the consequences of a period in which the most powerful country in the world, the 'hyper-power' as the French have it, became the focus of destabilization and in real if limited ways lawlessness. A harsh judgment, yes. But a dark period. And Obama has begun, if fitfully and very imperfectly to many of his supporters, to steer the ship of state in a different direction. If that seems like a meager accomplishment to many of the usual Washington types it's a profound reflection of their own enablement of the Bush era and how compromised they are by it, how much they perpetuated the belief that it was 'normal history' rather than dark aberration.

-Josh Marshall

This is soooo awkward. This is like when someone gives you a $400 vacuum cleaner that you can't return. Actually? Worse. This is a horrible, misguided, not-bright idea by THOSE MEDDLING SWEDES that has just entirely disrupted our political conversations and plans for most of the next month.

-Choire Sicha

One thing is certain - President Obama won't be receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action.

-Michael Steele (this guy should make Republicans wish Bush & Rove were still around - what an idiot!)

The Nobel Prize fallout will be the tipping point for Obama to start plowing through cigs again. Lock it down.

-Bill Simmons

Well, in that case, let's just give Matt Wieters the 2009 MVP award!

-Keith Law

So, the internet is exploding this morning with the news that President Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The President says he's "humbled," some pundits say he should turn it down, everyone's got an opinion. What's yours?

How arrogant of anyone to see this from a U.S. perspective, it is just proof of how desperate the Bush/Cheney junta made the rest of the world.

It's not Obama's prize. This prize is for the people of the United States for showing the world how a cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic democracy can work.

I'm a big supporter of the President, but along the prestige continuum, the Nobel just moved away from the Congressional-Medal-of-Honor type award and a lot closer to the Mira-Sorvino-Winning-an-Oscar end of things.

I think the popular media meme is missing the point. Is Obama being awarded for his accomplishments as President? Or is he being awarded for changing the international climate? Obama did not start gathering the world's attention on January 20, 2009. As the first serious African American presidential candidate, the first presidential nominee of a major American political party, and during his campaign, he was a voice of reason, a supporter of peace. Let's not buy into the ridiculous idea that his eligibility for this award started on Jan. 20.

-Andrew Golis first, then Open Thread Contributors. Also follow TPM's live reaction wire.

I’m really excited that the Birfers, Becks, Oxycontin abusers, and pseudo-plumbers in Wingnuttia will now give me enough material to post on Cyn-C for the next few months. Put your ponchos on Cynics, the spittle is about to fly.

-Cynical C

President Obama is gambling that America is now mature enough to understand that machismo is not foreign policy, and that grandstanding on the global stage just won't succeed. In a new world, with other countries more powerful and confident, America's success — its security, its prosperity — depends on working with others. It's a big, bold gambit. The Nobel committee wanted to encourage this sentiment. I hope Americans will see that and encourage the path President Obama is taking

-Fareed Zakaria (This "article" is simply a transcript of Zakaria's talking head appearance - pathetic.)

What's with all these Kanye-Taylor Swift-President Obama jokes?

-Paolo Lim (amen)

The French have got all kinds of wild descriptions for eggs cooked to various degrees of doneness, but in American culinary terms, in the ideal soft-boiled egg, the white should be completely opaque, but not to the point of rubberiness (somewhere in the range of 155 to 180 degrees), and the yolk should be completely liquid (no hotter than 158 degrees). In this way, with each spoonful, you get tender bites of soft, velvety-smooth white, bathed in a sauce of glorious, bright golden, rich, flavorful yolk. These are the type of soft boiled eggs that'll get you laid.

-Serious Eats: How to cook the perfect egg (this is important!)

A Library to Last Forever

But the vast majority of books ever written are not accessible to anyone except the most tenacious researchers at premier academic libraries. Books written after 1923 quickly disappear into a literary black hole. With rare exceptions, one can buy them only for the small number of years they are in print. After that, they are found only in a vanishing number of libraries and used book stores. As the years pass, contracts get lost and forgotten, authors and publishers disappear, the rights holders become impossible to track down.

via www.nytimes.com

The spectre of the spectre of lost books is horrifying. Google is in a better position to solve this problem then Amazon, but Google has squandered the public trust (even moreso than Apple and Microsoft, which is shocking). Sergey makes an impassioned defense of books and by proxy, of his company.

Sicha yesterday, Brin today. The news business should not be hit driven, but good job by the Times nonetheless.

It Could Be Worse

On Cooking

And it wouldn’t be surprising if, with a little exposure to the kitchen, Mrs. Obama took to cooking herself. Her progress could be our progress. After all, great cooking involves a blend of curiosity, determination and style, all traits she possesses. And with those arms, she could out-whisk anyone.

Wonderful op-ed from Amanda Hesser about the importance of cooking. Ed Levine agrees, but they share a common blindspot - why wouldn't Barack be the chef?

Bottle Rocket

Bottle Rocket
Originally uploaded by finn.

Mike Monteiro, please do not forget friend Finn and his fan ♫ღ Ameer Macro ♫ღ, who initially brought the golden unicorn into our Internet kingdom.

Drinks and Film

Drinks and Film
Originally uploaded by Alaina B..

Rebecca's Pocket: Want to avoid Alzheimer's? Become more conscientious.