Wow, racist Germans

German army in new racism row - CNN.com

What are the odds?

The instructor tells the soldier, "You are in the Bronx. A black van is stopping in front of you. Three African-Americans are getting out and they are insulting your mother in the worst ways ... Act."

The soldier fires his machine gun several times and yells an obscenity several times in English. The instructor then tells the soldier to curse even louder.

I mean, he's no Don Imus, but at some point you'd think that people would at least learn not to do this stuff on camera. You'd think.

Ketchup?

Whaling: A Japanese Obsession With American Roots - New York Times

Apparently, Japanese schools are now serving delicious whale meat stewed in... ketchup.

Anyway, as I've noted in the past, the Japanese are positively obsessed with whale meat. Not quite so much as they are with, say, giant robots, but obsessed. This article has the goods on why. Since this is the Times, of course it's all our fault.