Neighborhood Watch: Monday, Dec. 15

The New York Times has a story on Majora Carter's new for-profit environmental consulting company, the Majora Carter Group.Parts of the Taj Mahal and Oberoi, the two hotels attacked in last month's terrorist siege, are scheduled to reopen this coming Sunday.In case you haven't seen the weekend's biggest display of uncivil disobedience, here's the video of the Iraqi journo heaving his shoes at President Bush.The U.S. is running out of time to host its own pavilion at the 2010 World's Fair in Shanghai. The blog Shanghaiist says the snubcould severely affect Chinese/American relations.Japanese people are living longer than ever. Meet the island nation's "Genkinarians," or super elderly. (Via The Daily Beast)Eight alleged Somali pirates found themselves in a Kenyan court late last week. They were charged with piracy and will stand trial in January.Need a terse alternative to Gawker for media-related rubernecking? Try themediaisdying's Twitter feed.From the GOOD Community: Will Etling (an all-star GOOD contributor) shows love to hitta.se, Sweden's answer to Google's Street View.(Photo: The fourth-place winner in the 2008 Olympus Bioscapes contest, a "larval 'brainbow' zebrafish" shot by Albert Pan at Harvard University.)