For more Last Look, watch GPS, Sundays at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET on CNN.
Everything old is new again. And capitalist Russia is seemingly catching socialist Stalin fever all over again.
Sixty years after the death of the dictator who murdered millions, his reputation seems to be having a bit of a “rehabilitation.”
In a recent poll, 47 percent of Russians said Stalin was a "wise leader who brought the Soviet Union to might and prosperity.” And on Wednesday, May Day parades in Russia celebrated Stalin – and none other than President Putin invoked his legacy in a ceremony.
You see, Stalin was the first to be named a Soviet “Hero of Socialist Labor.”
Some 20,000 people were so honored after him. But then, like the USSR, the awards ended abruptly in 1991. But 22 years later, this May Day, Putin revived the tradition, bestowing honors now simply called “Hero of Labor.”
Mr. Putin said recently of his own regime "I don't see any elements of Stalinism here."
Well, we could point to one.
For more Last Look, watch GPS, Sundays at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET on CNN
Watch the video for a first look at the new $100 bill. When the government released a sneak peek last week, critics in America were less than thrilled about the new Franklin. It seems Americans like their greenbacks green, and many were taken aback by the shades of purple and orange.
But perhaps Ben Franklin's more important constituency today is overseas. After all, almost two-thirds of all $100 bills circulate overseas, not stateside, according to a study by one of the government's own economists.
And perhaps that's fitting for a bill festooned with images of a man who lived and loved the ex-pat life, first in London to represent colonial Pennsylvania and then in Paris to represent the young United States.
But what would Franklin, a printer, make of the high-tech anti-counterfeiting measures that are meant to stop people from printing his image?
Last week, lawmakers in New Zealand did something remarkable after a vote. No, there wasn't a mass walkout. No, the place didn't erupt into fisticuffs. No, the members didn't call each other names.
Instead, when a measure passed that will make New Zealand the 13th nation to recognize gay marriage, the parliament erupted in song.
A special song, a Maori love song called “Pokarekare Ana.” One solo voice started spontaneously; then almost all joined in. Perhaps it might serve to remind the U.S. Congress of what I think is the most memorable time they all sang together and the unity and sense of purpose they felt on September 11, 2001.
For more Last Look, watch GPS, Sundays at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET on CNN
Good science sometimes takes a very long time. It was 11 years after NASA was founded that we landed on the moon. The human genome project took 13 years. It's been almost 50 years since the Higgs Boson particle was first proposed...and it still hasn't been conclusively proven.
But Australia is home to the world's longest running lab experiment...it's on the verge of a breakthrough of sorts. Eighty-six years ago, a professor at the University of Queensland initiated this "pitch drop" experiment, wanting to show that some things that look solid can actually be a little bit fluid.
Pitch, you see, is a derivative of tar. And it's so solid, you can crack it with a hammer. But it can also drip and drop.
Over the past 86 years, 8 drops have fallen. And the current custodian of the experiment thinks the ninth drop is coming soon. They've set up a webcam so you can watch here.
The webcam is only a little less exciting than watching grass grow. But there is an upside to watching: nobody has ever seen a drop actually fall. You could be the first!
When the shuttle program ended almost a year ago, America became unable to send a man to space, so now the U.S. has to rely on others, and that means the Russians. And that can be a little scary.
In the past year Russia's space program has had a series of close calls and even crashes. So before a recent liftoff, Russia invoked a higher power. OK. But that is far from the only superstition that comes into play at Russia's Cosmodrome.
Tradition says that the crew gets haircuts two days before launch and they drink a glass of champagne on launch day. And the final superstition, as Yuri Gagarin did before he became the first man in space in 1961, they relieve themselves on the wheels of the bus that carries them to the launch pad.
Let's see if it works.
Related: Unmanned private rocket launches
You might think Chinese social networks would be all a-Twitter (yes, pun intended) with mentions of the Bo and Chen scandals, but the censors continue to make heroic efforts to tamp that talk down.
So what has been trending there? Talk of "American French Fry Brother" — otherwise known as Jason Loose. FULL POST
In today's globalized world, we sometimes forget how intense the hostility between nations can be - especially when one of them is a paranoid dictatorship.
But watch the above video from North Korean state television of an angry mob in Pyongyang. What are they angry about? The crimes of this poor effigy, which happens to be that of South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak.
But, no, death by hanging isn't even enough for the dummy. So they set attack dogs on it. Not enough? Try a big bad military tank. Didn't do the job? Throw rocks at the dismembered head. (Don't worry, this isn't a human it's just plastic.) Finally, job done, one hopes.
It is a mysterious country, North Korea. We rarely get pictures from there, but I guess this is how they want the world to see them.
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By Fareed Zakaria, CNN
When the movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan premiered in 2006, Kazakhstan's government banned the film and threatened to sue its star. Six years later, Kazakhstan's foreign minister is thanking Borat, crediting the film with a large tourism boost. He called it a 'great victory' as the number of applications for tourist visas to Kazakhstan has grown tenfold.
Travelers can't look to Borat as an accurate depiction of the country. So how should they prepare for a trip?
Well, they could watch a 67-minute promotional film about the glorious country's history and recent achievements entitled In the Stirrups of Time. This one stars a different Brit, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The film features carefully selected clips from an interview with Blair who applauds the nation's diversity and progress.
It proudly celebrates Kazakhstan's recent accomplishments - political, educational, industrial, economic. Grab your passports, you are now an expert on Kazakhstan.
There were a few statistics that could not fit into the 67-minute video.
Kazakhstan ranks 172nd out of 196 countries in terms of press freedoms, 120 out of 183 in terms of corruption, 137 of 167 in The Economist's 2011 democracy index. Kazakhstan's president won the election with over 95% of the vote.
On second thought, maybe there is a Lonely Planet guide out there somewhere.
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By Fareed Zakaria, CNN
A new danger for politicians, not only do they have to be careful of whom they consort with, what they say, and the promises they don't keep, they now need to look out for what they wear on their wrists.
Take a look at Nicolas Sarkozy at what should have been a standard political event shaking hands at a rope line. But it turned into a scandal thanks to this little move. You see, he has a watch in this photo, and in this one taken just after he has no watch. What happened? He took off his watch and he put it in his pocket. The French press speculated whether he was worried about somebody stealing it or whether he was worried that he would get flack for its reported $75,000 price tag. Well, he got flack all right. FULL POST
By Fareed Zakaria, CNN
It's not all missiles and mischief in Pyongyang these days. Despite the dire state of the nation, the North Koreans have had time for fun. Earlier this month they threw a food festival replete with sturgeon, soft-shell crab, bullfrog and other "famous dishes." The sign says, in English, "Cook Festival of Holiday of April."
Check out the video above. This ridiculous display was put on by the government in a nation where as many as 3 million people are at risk of starvation. And to make matters worse, North Korea recently got cut off from American food aid.
North Korea: The land of unique tastes and dreadful policies.
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By Fareed Zakaria, CNN
What caught my eye last week was an art installation by the Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei. He put surveillance cameras up in his house in Beijing, four of them in all, and earlier this week he began streaming them live on a website call Weiweicam.
This was a protest against another form of surveillance, this one by the Chinese government - the police cameras trained on his house, the frequent searches Ai says he is forced to endure and the monitoring of his phone and computer.
But in a move that may not surprise you, four days later the Chinese government told Ai Weiwei to take down the website.
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By Fareed Zakaria, CNN
Calcutta, the city of joy, is best remembered in black and white as the one-time capital of the British Raj. It's a city also associated with the color red. After all, it was ruled by the Communist Party for 34 years. But last year, they were voted out. In its place is a populist leader who is promising a new city with new policies.
Forget about black and white or red. She wants to paint the city blue. Yes, literally.
All the official buildings of Calcutta are to be painted blue - even the iconic yellow taxis. Her party says it's because they see blue as the color of optimism. It's the color of the sky.
I think it's probably much simpler than that: It is the opposite of red, in a sense.
The next time you worry about how polarized America is - divided into red and blue states - it could be worse. Just think of Calcutta.
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