What we know about Iraq: Bombs are going off daily and more than a thousand people have died since the beginning of May. At the same time, the newly elected government and the American military seem to be incapable of slowing down the violence. The chaos is getting so bad that some are even beginning to refer to the violence as a nascent civil war. But why, exactly, has the United States lost the battle for the hearts and minds of the Iraqis? An exhaustive new report, published by the Project on Defense Alternatives,  puts the US occupation under a microscope and provides an in-depth analysis of public sentiment among Iraqis relative to the US.

And, on a related topic, a new report by the World Policy Institute  shows that a majority of US weapons sold to the developing world go to regimes that America's own State Department has on its list of undemocratic governments. Even more concerning, US arms play a role in a majority of active conflicts the world over.

Extreme Bar Hopping in New York

Now here's a challenge: A New Yorker, in the prime of his life, has vowed to tour 1,000 bars across the city.  And even more impressive, he wants to do it within one year. Having started his monumental binge in January, he has just recently managed his 500th bar. By all accounts, he is still going strong. He says. But, however his health, he isn't just sitting in dark bar corners bent over his pints. Rather, he is opening his quest to the world in the form of a ... well ... bar blog. He is reviewing each stop on his "Treck of a Thousand Bars."