Senegal’s Posted in Almost Seven Wonders

And I’m sure you’re hearing all about it in the US press.  Probably can’t even turn on the TV or the radio without seeing something about it.  Ahem.

Sigh.

PS, added as a somewhat crass but fully sincere afterthought: Come to think of it, picking up a copy of Who Hates Whom might not be a bad thing for the day. Can’t solve a problem without taking the time to try to understand it.

Whole reason I wrote the book, actually.

(Well, that, and the paycheck. But the other reason was bigger. You’d believe that if you saw the check.)

As you may have seen mentioned here before, this site’s tiny mascot has also been chosen as the symbol of the Chilean version of the One Laptop Per Child movement, which is using these a series of adorable little soft figures as part of the campaign.

Turns out the talented source of this cuteness is named Lizette Greco, and her Flickr set of puduitude is presented in slide show form here.  Prepare to want one for yourself. 

Thing is, the money you’d spend on it could help put a laptop in a kid’s hands.  So that would be even cooler and cuter.

My new book is available next week, although you can order right this second if you want to:

Who Hates Whom: Well Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts, And Various Things Blowing Up — A Woefully Incomplete Guide™.

It’s exactly what it sounds like — a brief, pocket-sized paperback guide to about 35 of the world’s major conflict zones, complete with original maps, illustrations, and photographs.

Frankly, if you’ve ever wished for a book that allows you to look up who’s who in Sudan in one trip to the can, here it is.

Is it any good? I have no idea, honestly. There were a kajillion compromises in getting this thing down to pocket size.* But I worked hard on it, and so far, WHW has picked up some kind praise from John Hodgman of The Daily Show, Ken Jennings from Jeopardy!, comedian Emo Philips, and — of all things — Men’s Health magazine, which chose it as a “Must Have” in their September issue. (Will reading Who Hates Whom therefore give you tighter abs? Possibly.)

If you enjoy the occasional political stuff on this blog, or if you liked the general vibe of last year’s Prisoner of Trebekistan, you might dig it.  I hope you will.

*It’s not up yet, but I’ll have WhoHatesWhom.com at least partially up sometime next week with extras, deleted stuff, source notes, errata, etc.

Again substituting puffins for pudus, since puffins may be the pudus of the tiny-aquatic-bird world anyway…

Forwarded by alert reader Billie after my Iceland trip, specifically this post about the annual Puffin Rescue on the island of Heimaey:

I just hope the one on the right isn’t thinking this is some sort of mating ritual.

Because, well, splinters.

Lots more Iceland stuff I’d like to post if I ever get a minute.  In the meantime, if you ever get the chance, just go.