Arabic under fire | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
A child on Hamas TV talked of annihilating the Jews … or did she?

Last Rites
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has finally said publicly what everybody has assumed for a long time: NATO is dead. It's not dead in the sense that it doesn't exist anymore, but it is definitely moribund, and even if there continues to be an organization called "NATO," it will have no purpose other than the perpetuation of the disused bureaucracy that has been the sole reason for its existence in the last few decades.

Bright Lights Film Journal :: Tarantino’s Transformations: Inglorious Basterds’ Dizzying Array of Sources
In which Tarantino reshapes Shakespeare, World War II movies, Leni Riefenstahl, Spaghetti Westerns, and more, under the deft guidance of that Italian master Ovid

Bright Lights Film Journal :: Ben-Hur
When photographed in a long shot, the disaster has a near documentary quality, made even more vivid because it is a real disaster. Unplanned, one of the ships has caught fire and burns uncontrollably; the wind sends it to the other, rammed ship, and flames and black smoke are everywhere. Dozens of people jump from the ship into the choppy sea, not because some assistant director tells them to, but because the flames are licking at their pirate costumes.

YouTube – Michael Buble – This is Michael Buble (Clip)
Watch 15 year old Sam get up on stage with Michael to sing 'Feeling Good'

Michele Bachmann Said What!? | Mother Jones
Bill Adair, editor of PolitiFact, recently told Minnesota Public Radio that he has never researched a Bachmann quote and found it to be true (the only major politician for which that's the case).

Originally invented by Ben Franklin to mess with Thomas Jefferson on his birthday …
Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns takes on the untold story of The Vowels. Part 2.