The media chastises itself for hyping up Palin's climatological theories, Ethan and Joe learn the word "anthropogenic", Israel and Sweden trade barbs, Obama justifies his war in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Price, Mark Sanford is still an idiot, and Roni has severe internet troubles in the disconnected backwater nation of France.

Obama unveils plans for The Surge II, the Swiss decide that four minarets are enough, the GOP keeps engineering its own demise, Lou Dobbs banks on the Mexican vote, NoKo loses its life savings in style, Mark Sanford is still an idiot, Tiger Woods provides joke opportunities to all, and we podcast about these things and others.

Dear Leader returns from his absence to join Roni for a bloated, off-topic conversation about urbanism, marijuana, and the soul-sucking detachment of modern life.

Alok joins the podcast as Van Rompuy and Lady Ashton seize control of the EU, Qaddafi seeks to convert leggy Italian women to Islam, Somalia pirates battle North Korean arms dealers, Hugo Chavez seeks to control the weather and L. Paul Bremer takes up landscape painting. Dear Leader Ethan Cheng will be back next week, we swear.

The podcast overcomes myriad technical difficulties, Nouri al-Maliki orders newspapers not to call him autocratic, Sarah Palin goes on book tour, and crazy people like Mike Tyson, New Zealand cheese thieves, Kim Jong Il, the British Nationalist Party and perfidious food-fighting middle schoolers run amok.

So perhaps you've noticed that the previous entry, for Episode 55, doesn't have an actual episode in it. If this disappoints you, fear not! The episode was recorded yesterday and will be posted as soon as Dear Leader tells me how. So probably tomorrow. Have a nice day.

Fixed. –Ed.