From luxury goods for less to local products fairly priced, these international airports help you both burn time and save it, and give you an excellent opportunity to find that last special something

In the wake of the Mumbai, India attacks, Pauline Frommer visits CNN.com to discuss best practices for avoiding danger when you're traveling.

This week's roundup of budget fares, special offers, and industry news includes a today-only sale from Air New Zealand, spring and summer deals from Eurofly, domestic holiday bargains from AirTran, an

Harness the magic of bacteria-induced coagulation to produce a low-cost, healthy snack in your own home. Crafting your own cream cheese is a great way to learn about cheesemaking, and you'll be an expert in no time by following our guide.

From the VECONA Fashion Show in Brugge -- an octopus dress for all your tentacle fetish needs. VECONA Fashion Show BACKSTAGE: Cabaret Gothique Brugge Nov 2008 (via JWZ)...

Salim sez, "Studley was an 1800s organ and piano maker, as well as a carpenter and mason, who worked for the Smith Organ Co. He built this amazing tool-chest which packs in just about every device and instrument an organ tuner might need on location."' Studley Toolchest, ideal for the inventor or scientist (Thanks, Salim!)...

Updates to Left 4 Dead have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Left 4 Dead

• Finding a dedicated server when starting the game from a lobby is now faster and more reliable

Democracy Now! interviews Matthew Alexander, author of How to Break a Terrorist: The US Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq. Alexander is a former US military interrogator who deplores the use of torture in interrogation as ineffective at extracting intelligence -- and he argues that it's very effective at outraging potential enemies and turning them into murderous extremists. Yeah, you know, torture, it’s so narrowly or broadly defined depending on who you’re talking to these days. I would say torture, to me, is just unethical behavior. And you can do things that are legal, within the rules, that are unethical. And so, I just know, me, by my gut feeling, based on the principles that I was raised on, you know, that my parents gave to me, that there’s things I’ll never do, because I know it feels wrong and it is wrong. And so, you know, others felt comfortable either pushing all the way up to the limits and doing things that were unethical, but were legal, or breaking the rules. I felt that was not something I was ever going to do and I wasn’t going to allow my team to do. I think what’s more important at this point is we know that torture has cost us American lives. We know that it’s ineffective. And we know that it’s wrong, and it’s damaged our image. I think, you know, for me as a military officer, my job isn’t to identify broken wheels, it’s to fix them. And so, the approach that I took and that I talk about in the book is, how do we move forward? You know, we’re given this choice of either terrorist attacks or torture. But maybe there’s a third way. Maybe there’s a better way to do interrogations that has nothing to do with torture. And in the book, I describe the process of coming up with these new ways and how my team, together, we were able to come up with the new methods. US Interrogator in Iraq Says Torture Policy Has Led to Deaths of Thousands of American Soldiers, How to Break a Terrorist: The US Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq on Amazon (Thanks, Denver Jewelry Guy!)...

Sacred 2

• Implemented a new ingame options menu.
  
• Added new bosses to reward exploration.
  
• Added eight new portals for more convenient travelling around Ancaria.
  

NOTE: Follow Mortgage Rates with our Daily Rate Commentary Homeowners may soon enjoy mortgage rates as low as 4.5 percent if the Treasury Department has its way. According to The Wall Street Journal '

Stef sez, "During the BBC's flagship morning radio news show, The Today programme, there's a religious segment called 'Thought for the Day.' Its rotating presenters are multi-faith, but humanists, agnostics and atheists or followers of specialist faiths such as the Cult of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, are barred. Platitudes.org.uk provides a daily parody of the broadcast piece and the site explains itself, thusly: The BBC's department of Religion & More Religion, recognises that only those who commune with their invisible magic friend can possibly have any morality. Atheists, agnostics, humanists and other amoral non-believers are therefore excluded from the pure and godly Platitude of the Day, broadcast Monday to Saturday at 07.45 (but obviously not Sundays). For your further edification and spiritual improvement, we therefore present these concise, bite-size summaries of the wisdom of their presenters. Platitude of the Day (Thanks, Stef!)...

I am prone to fits of lust over really, really beautiful books, and no one gets me lustier faster than Sunday Press, publishers of the gigantic, marvellous "Little Nemo: Splendid Sundays" collections. These books collect the Sunday Little Nemo comics of Winsor McCay, a surrealist watercolor genius whose weekly strips were lush, gigantic paintings that took us through the dreamscape of Little Nemo, a charming and enigmatic boy living in turn-of-the-century America. And now there's a second volume: "Little Nemo in Slumberland, Many More Splendid Sundays." I grew up seeing the Little Nemo strips reproduced in "large-format" hardcovers, typically 8.5x11, and I confess that I didn't really get what the fuss was about. The strips were small and smudgy, the type spidery and illegible. Then I saw the first Sunday Press collection, "So Many Splendid Sundays," and I experienced enlightenment. Publisher Peter Maresca has scanned, cleaned up and reproduced his favorite Nemo pages, at full size, 21" by 16", and at that size, Nemo is a completely different experience. First of all, you can't read a book this big the way that you normally would. I couldn't read it at my desk chair -- even in my reading chair I barely fit (as you can see from these photos). The only way to really read these books is lying on your stomach on the carpet, the book open, chin propped on your hands, and you are, once again, 10 years old, reading the funnies on a lazy Sunday. This second volume is every bit as charming and magic as the first. Mostly, of course, it's made of Nemo strips (120 of them!), but there are a handful of sweet little essays describing McCay's relationship to Coney Island (it was his muse) and to William Randolph Hearst, his publisher (and nemesis). There's also a Dinosaur Gertie flip book for you to cut and assemble, the perfect aperitif for your lazy Sunday with the funnies. Little Nemo in Slumberland, Many More Splendid Sundays on Amazon, Little Nemo in Slumberland, Many More Splendid Sundays, Sunday Press publishing, Sample pages Previously: Expirable copyright makes giant-sized Little Nemo possible - Boing ... Titles from Little Nemo in Slumberland - Boing Boing Little Sammy Sneeze: Winsor McCay's anarchic precurson to Little ... Gigantic Little Nemo book does justice to the loveliest comic ever ......

FDIC chairman Sheila Bair said the government has been behind the curve when it comes to preventing foreclosures, and she called for regulators to use their authority in creating flexible rules for making free loan modifications a top priority.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said market failure is inhibiting loan modifications and that the Fed may start buying securities to help drive down the mortgage rate. Speaking about the housing

If mortgage rates keep up their current pattern of decline, the forced rate reduction allegedly under discussion at the Department of the Treasury may not be necessary. After showing a net loss of 23

If mortgage rates keep up their current pattern of decline, the forced rate reduction allegedly under discussion at the Department of the Treasury may not be necessary. After showing a net loss of 23

I have been beefing up my websites. I also have been working on some external projects hard. But all of that came to a crashing halt last week.

Why? I got sick.

I felt this illness coming down on Monday (Nov. 24th). I didn't think much of it, but after my Podcast on Tuesday, I pretty much knew I should take some downtime and relax a bit while ingesting something like lots of Liquids. (Here is a keynote - If you have a fever and your lips start to dry out quick, you might want to get some water in your system. )