Headlines from August 20, 2009
- Times reports on how in 2004 the C.I.A. hired Blackwater in a secret assassination program--though no missions were carried out.
- Election day in Afghanistan: Some polling sites have been closed due to attacks; overall voter turnout is low.
- "We have to wait to be asked now." In Iraq, U.S. troops stood by helplessly during Wednesday's insurgent attacks.
- How three "vaguely nerdy" Democrats came to control New York's political campaigns--and dislike each other in the process.
- In China's second incidence of mass lead poisoning in the past month, more than 1,300 children fall ill in the Hunan province.
- The naming rules of Renaissance Italy, and why we rarely use Galileo's surname.
- At Infinite Summer, Kevin Guilfoile wonders if anybody will still be reading Infinite Jest 100 years from now. (It really does take that long.)
- A group of Swiss robots learn the art of deception to procure a good meal.
- College leagues see bloggers, independent media types as a threat to potential revenue.
- Tumultuous union politics threaten to throw a wrench in the future of the labor movement.
- Interactive map of U.S. hate groups.
- The humans and the monsters worked together to take a harmful situation and turn it into a positive one.
- U.S. "deeply regrets" Scotland's release of the Lockerbie bomber; U.K. survivors more sympathetic.
- Graph of U.S. population distribution by age shows the passing wave of the baby boom.
- Wealthy Americans who dodged taxes in Swiss accounts now seeking leniency, or crossing their fingers.
- Gallery of politicians' abandoned MySpace pages; Tom Tancredo hasn't logged on since March 6.
- Choice Tom DeLay quotations.
- Map of destinations and messages during Clinton's visit to Africa.
- Survey of images by the Bang Bang Club, South Africa's legendary photographers.
- Iceland: Too small too succeed? An argument for joining the E.U.
- Notes on appearances by a man whose cancer has left him totally disfigured.
- The most miserable, stressful thing you can spend your time doing. The agony and the ecstasy of creating the Onion.
- Pynchon described by Penguin as a "publicist's dream."
- They are very nice people. They just don't understand how to do business. Infighting among the Alamo's defenders.
- The genetic differences between a pluot and a plumcot; video on varieties of salt.
- Video: 1933 surgery to remove a brain tumor.