- US airport security: \'As far as I know, the vast airport apparatus has not stopped a single incident of mayhem; the foiling of plots comes from other forces, such as advance intelligence or actions on board.\'
- Interview with a photographer who spent two years with Japan\'s yakusa organised crime families (good photos too). (H/t Kottke.)
- The Canadian magazine Policy Options has a special China issue out.
- Great minds think alike: the FT says China\'s currency won\'t replace the US dollar anytime soon. Alistair Thornton came to similar conclusions in his recent Lowy Analysis, Anaemic Ascent.
- Foreign Affairs article on the South China Sea dispute. New drilling technology, which brings previously inaccessible resources into play, is exacerbating the tension.
- Excerpt from a new history of the Bush-Blair relationship and the genesis of the Iraq war.
- Clint Eastwood gives his first post-convention interview to his local rag:
\"There was a stool there, and some fella kept asking me if I wanted to sit down,” Eastwood said. “When I saw the stool sitting there, it gave me the idea...\"