"Music to cook to"

That's what I asked monshu for last night as I was preparing the couscous and this is what he came up with:

Some things I learned this week

• Via monshu: The General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments of the United Arab Emirates issues a fatwah against vuvuzelas.
• Via Wikipedia: The Rehoboth Basters are a community of mixed Dutch and Khoi origin led by a democratically-elected Kaptein who migrated to Namibia to preserve their autonomy. (I stumbled across their name in a list of members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization.)
• Via niemandsrose: The moon is "100% SUPER HOMOSEXUAL".
• Via some lady at a Levantine restaurant on Rosenmontag: American Mardi Gras got its start in Mobile. When I heard her explain this to the waiter, I thought, This is crazy talk! Mobile was like...uhm Spanish or something. But no! It was the capital of French Louisiana until 1723. How did I not know this before? As a nerdy St Louis boy I read up on French colonial history--I even remember a carnival exhibit at the Art Museum!
• Via Wikipedia again: The South Koreans were guilty of numerous massacres in Vietnam. Why would I have heard of them before? I barely heard of US atrocities in Vietnam. In fact, I stumbled across these incidents from going to read up My Lai, since I realised it was little more than a name to me.