Periscope: How Hot Money Is Pushing Oil To $100 a Barrel And Beyond

The Kims About Town
North Korea's young Kims aren't exactly homebodies. Last year one of supremo Kim Jong Il's three sons was seen at Eric Clapton's European tour. And Kim Jong-Nam, 36, the eldest son—once caught en route to Tokyo Disneyland on a fake passport—was spotted last week in Paris. "I just went to the dentist and I can't talk much. I'm sorry," he said. He reminded reporters surprised by his fluent French that he went to a Swiss boarding school. But he's now in a key government post at home after a few years in Macao's high life. Back in the running for Kim Senior's job? One can only guess, but if another Kim does take power, he'll be more worldly than the last.
—Christian Caryl

Funny Maps Of The World
I love maps. they're useful. They're pretty. And quite often, they're free. I love all kinds of maps—old, new, Mercator, treasure, you name it. And after poring over The Onion's latest parody, "Our Dumb World: Atlas of the Planet Earth," I've decided I like funny maps best of all.

The Onion's map of the United Kingdom, for example, shows the burial site of Mother Goose, a literature mine and the world's grayest building. Ukraine's includes the location of a "headless-doll factory." Like any regular atlas, "Our Dumb World" includes lots of facts, or "facts." Wales is the birthplace of the "oldest, longest, least pronounceable language in the world. When spoken, it sounds like a beautiful song, but when written, it looks like the alphabet just vomited."

This is the best parody since the National Lampoon published its phony newspaper, "The Dacron Republican-Democrat," in 1978. But The Onion's atlas is not merely parody. Coupling rage with humor, it transcends its own silliness with Swiftian satire. Take the entry on the Democratic Republic of Congo, which "has endured decades of brutal civil war, in which rebel forces have adopted the gruesome practices of raping women with machetes, decapitating babies, and even … they, they just … with their teeth, they … Jesus f––-ing Christ you don't want to know what goes on here." The Onion's picture of our world is not factual, fair or balanced. But it certainly rings true.
—Malcolm Jones

Reality Check
Former child soldiers are portrayed in films, books and newspapers as psychologically damaged killers, likely to threaten a country's security long after a war is over. But even though many were brainwashed and forced to kill, there is little evidence these boys suffer lingering emotional distress. A UNICEF study of former child soldiers in northern Uganda reported that more than 90 percent have good social skills and are not aggressive. Other research also suggests they are quite resilient, and usually settle well back into civilian life.

By the Numbers
Canadian researchers probing the online drug industry collected spam for a month, then went back to the e-mails to place orders. The most striking finding: most of the spam sites had already disappeared.