Pop singer and former model Carla Bruni is impressing the French as a first lady.

Washington Post‘s Michael Alison Chandler reports:

Asian American students will outnumber white classmates for the first time in the freshman class at the region’s most prestigious public magnet school this fall, a milestone reached as the number of African Americans and Hispanics has remained low and the Fairfax County School Board prepares to review the school’s admission policy.

Way to go, Asian kids!

McCain hated the gooks and now bloggers too. What about a gook who blogs?

A little history of “American The Beautiful” from NPR:

America the Beautiful” didn’t start out as an American anthem. It was first a poem written in 1893 by a teacher, Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929), after a visit to Pike’s Peak in Colorado. It first appeared in print in 1895. Since then, more than 60 musical settings have been made of its words.

The music we typically associate with those words is by Samuel Augustus Ward (1847-1903). It was originally a hymn called “Materna” and was composed before Katharine Lee Bates took her trip to Pike’s Peak. Even though Bates did not have the melody in her mind, the words fit the music perfectly, and it has become the version we know today.

Check out Ray Charles’s live, soulful rendition.

From The Economist‘s “Of sommeliers and stomachs“:

a group of researchers led by Joseph Kanner of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has discovered that pairing red wines like these with red meat appears to be more than just a matter of taste. If the two mix in the stomach, compounds in the wine thwart the formation of harmful chemicals that are released when meat is digested.

Enjoying Dao Duc Quan’s erotic nude work. (via KCA)

After a graduation speech delivered in partial Vietnamese by Cindy Vo and Hieu Vo to express their respect for their parents, the school officials in Terrebonne Parish are calling for speeches to be address in English only. Cindy Vo said: “Co len minh khong bang ai, co suon khong ai bang minh.” I am not sure what she is saying. Is it misquoted? Could someone rewrite it with proper accents? In any rate, it is fucking absurd not to be able to say a line in foreign language during a speech.

An essay by Kim Phuoc, the naked girl who ran down the road during a Vietnam War’s bombing attack:

Napalm is very powerful but faith, forgiveness and love are much more powerful. We would not have war at all if everyone could learn how to live with true love, hope and forgiveness.

I used to love Chinese TV series, particularly the martial art episodes like The Legend of Condor Heroes. Not only the flying fantasies, but also the pure romances were captivating. The most intimacy moment is when a girl placed her face on a man’s chest and he held her around his arms.

In the early days in the States, I didn’t have the luxury of TV and VCR. So I used to go to my cousin’s house, which is a block from my apartment, to glue myself to the TV instead of learning English, especially in the summertime when I didn’t have anything to do. My cousin ran an oriental grocery store downstairs and lived upstairs. So it was quite convenient to hang out. I just went upstairs, popped in the tape and enjoyed myself.

One summer my cousin’s brother got divorced and moved back into the house. He stayed at the room where the TV and VCR were. Like usual, I went into the room to kill my time with those Chinese tapes, but there was a tape still stayed in the VCR. So I just pressed played and my whole life changed forever.

The movie began with a girl wearing short skirt strolling down the street in her roller skate along with the 70s music. She stopped by a house and peeped into a crack. Behind the wall, a man and a woman appeared naked. As they were kissing, she moved down toward his private part. I was shocked when she put the whole thing into her mouth. The camera switched back to the peeping girl as she started to rub her breasts. Back into the hot action, the couple switched turn. He started to lick her G-spot.

I have never seen anything like this before except when she bent over and he stroked himself in behind her. I saw two dogs did that several times in Viet Nam. At this point, the skating girl already worked her way down into her private area with her fingers. My most outrageous reaction was when he shot all over her face. I didn’t even know what that white stuff was.

I was panicking and hoping my cousin wouldn’t go upstairs. Part of me wanted to watch more, but part of me didn’t want to get caught. I rewind the tape back to where I first saw the clip so that no one knew I was watching it. I ran straight home and the only things played on my mind were those graphical actions. I even had a fever. That was the first time I was exposed to pornography.

Love the simplicity of Build design.