Berkeley economics professor Pradab Bardhan has an interesting piece about the recent rise of Russia's and China's economies, and how they affect the attitudes of developing countries toward democracy.

Blame Russia? Perhaps: Russian forces continue to pummel Georgia in spite of international pleas for restraint. But, as usual, the situation is far more complicated than what most media describe.

Climbers brought the Olympic flame to the top of Mt. Everest, a location that China had no trouble keeping under control. Indeed, Kerry Brown at OpenDemocracy observes that, with the coming weeks entirely stage managed, China has acheived a PR coup by getting the bad news over with before the event, and as such lowering expectations.