Social networks around the globe

Interesting map (h/t Sullivan) showing which social networking sites are popular around the world. Facebook is easily the most dominant (not bad for something started in a Harvard dormroom) while MySpace has taken a serious hit and ranks first nowhere. Also interesting to see that Brazil and India share a site. I'm not sure how much this kind of stuff actually matters except as something fun to know but it's noteworthy that the places where Facebook has dominated seems to those places that get the vast majority of gap year and student travelers. Where those people like to go, i.e. Australia, South America, Europe, Facebook has taken over.

NYT learns COIN

Yesterday's Times editorial discussed American policy for Afghanistan policy and specifically addressed the issue of metrics and how the United States should be evaluating the success or failure of that new policy over the next year. Now it's not perfect but the editorial displays an impressive level of understanding of the tenets of counterinsurgency that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Perhaps they read Abu M's new report! Wherever they got their insights, they're good ones and outline pretty much exactly what the US should be doing in terms of understanding whether the new strategy is working in Afghanistan.

Dept of Amazing Jobs

Repossession men tend to have a bad reputation, sneaking off with someone's car or forcing them to leave their house. But what about a repo man who takes airplanes and yachts--taking back the toys of the rich from their delinquent owners who aren't paying for their learjet? We can get behind him, particularly when he's been doing it for 20 years, has repo'd over 1300 airplanes and has landed in jail in Haiti and other less than lovable countries. Read the whole thing in Salon, it's a fantastic story--particularly the bit about the 240 helicopters....