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• To give you an idea of how bad this could be, Christchurch is the second largest city in the country. Fingers crossed. source

• People care about what Tony Blair has to say. Well, at least in the U.K., the U.S. and Canada. In the U.K., the book is breaking sales records, and is currently the fastest-selling autobiography in publisher Waterstone’s history. In the U.S. and Canada, it’s also making a killing. While Waterstone isn’t naming exact numbers yet, they’ve called the success of “A Journey” unprecedented. Not bad for a former prime minister. source

• There is no Plan B. Obama is Plan B.
• Amjad Atallah, co-director of the New America’s Middle Eastern Task Force • Regarding the precarious nature of the upcoming peace talks, initiated by Obama, between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. We really hope, by the way, that this quote resurfaces ten years from now in an action movie about the Obama presidency. source

• Their servers are going to live like kings. This lair, 98 feet down within the Pionen White Mountains in Sweden, will be holding some of the Wikileaks servers, which need a cool spot to hide from evil governments. You don’t get much cooler than a nuclear bunker that looks like it was designed by Ikea on the weekends. (By the way, they won’t be alone: The space also doubles as a home for colocation provider Banhof.) source

• (hat tip Charles Apple)

• 18 deaths in Italy as a result of careless mushroom hunting source

• » A local Italian paper dubbed it “The Massacre of the Mushroom Hunters.” But the source of the deaths isn’t toxins; it’s negligence. Mushroom-lovers have been ignoring safety precautions during their hunts, falling to their deaths off of “steep, damp slopes” as a result. And although the victims couldn’t be bothered to follow basic safety procedure, they did apparently have time to purchase camouflage clothing for their hunts (presumably so the mushrooms don’t spot them coming).

• We don’t know yet if these two end up being bad guys or are just really strange people.
• A U.S. official • Speaking about the detention of two people who had some really weird crap in their checked luggage on a flight from Chicago to Amsterdam. (They were detained by Dutch police after the end of the flight, by the way.) One dude had $7,000 in cash for no good reason. The other had a cell phone taped to a bottle of Pepto-Bismol (which isn’t a bomb, by the way), a bunch of cell phones taped together (also not a bomb) and a bunch of watches taped together (not a bomb, either). ABC News has reported that it appeared to be a dry run for a bombing attack, to check how secure the system was, but officials don’t know yet. Let’s hope they were just idiots who were holding a bottle of Pepto-Bismol for ransom. source