Headlines from April 22, 2009
- Investigations show none of the officials who approved the use of torture bothered to learn about their nation's long-standing opposition to it.
- If the U.S. doesn't prosecute C.I.A. and Bush administration officials for torture crimes at home, Europe will, says the U.N.
- Hitchens: The Turkish government really doesn't like Denmark, jeopardizing its entry into the E.U.--for good reason.
- International overachievers Sweden, North Korea, and Singapore punch well above their weight, while Japan does not.
- China has been working on a standardized list of characters for people. China suggests people with unique names adopt common ones.
- To take part in this month's Of Recent Note, send us your write-ups for your favorite print periodicals by tonight, 9 p.m. Eastern.
- "Respect," "Wonderwall," and 21 other songs that should never be covered again.
- Ballard proves you should live a bit before writing.
- We have become the channels or mediums for what appears to be an unstoppable force. "Susan Boyle and The Beauty of Crochet," by Margaret Wertheim.
- New Guinea tribesman portrayed as "blood-thirsty warrior" to sue Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar over New Yorker article.
- As a teenager, I found that I was attracted both to serving Our Lord and to Jimmy Wiggins, the assistant coach of my high-school soccer team.
- Cut-up and pasted-together photos of locations in New York depict unseen herds.
- Oh, and: Google has been disabled on this post.
- Geithner tells Congress bank report cards need to be kept secret for public's own good.
- They see it as a story where one man can have a vision and successfully complete it. Indian business students find Mein Kampf inspirational.
- South Africans will vote for the ANC, but they're deeply disappointed; poll finds fewer than half think they're better off now than under apartheid.
- Instapaper for the commute: Obama's political philosophy and the logic of nudges.
- Russia's future in global affairs: Kantian partner or Hobbesian gladiator?
- In a witch hunt, the witches have feelings, too. New York's giant therapy session for shocked Wall Street-ers.
- Former New York editor says the rich-people story epitomizes the magazine's worst side.
- Veterans connect with a "pussy" magazine writer during a bike ride from San Antonio to Dallas.
- Video: Laid-back Indian motorcycling.
- Tour from within a British asylum for untreatable anti-social personalities (psychopathic paedophiles, etc.).
- Jonah Lehrer and Teller on the neuroscience of magic.
- Ads versus the reality of fast food.
- The prospect of solar-sailing to other stars lacks popular vision, not technological know-how.
- An infinite bookstore at your fingertips is great news for book sales, but not so great for that most finite of 21st-century resources: attention.
- Interview with Neil Gaiman about writing the final chapters of Batman.