Headlines from November 16, 2009
- G.M. reports $1.15 billion loss, will repay bailout five years early, due to "performing modestly above expectations."
- Mexicans reverse the fortune, sending much-needed funds to out-of-work relatives in the U.S.
- #mathowielove: The Metafilter founder tells how his brain tumor was discovered and treated, and how the internet helps when you need it most.
- Those of us who grew up after the Wall fell may never completely understand what it was like before November 9th, 1989.
- The coming battleground in the war against smoking in New York: your living room.
- What it would look like if New York and Tokyo flooded.
- German architect aims to build world's largest fake mountain.
- Interactive map shows the changing American electorate since 1960.
- "What's the recipe?" you ask the weary pro chef, and he gives you a weary-pro-chef look. Adam Gopnik on our fascination with cookbooks.
- As we enter the holiday season, Ben Schott queries his readers about their favorite terms for being Dean Martoonied.
- Also helpful: Our most dependable hangover cures.
- They tried to persuade housewives to bake cookies in the shape of a sun wheel, a form similar to the swastika. How the Nazis stole Christmas.
- The recording of a star-packed audio version of the Bible, and the "troubleble with Zerubbabel."
- First international flight to leave Chechnya in 15 years takes off from Grozny, headed for Muslim holy sites.
- There were martyrs on 9/11. They were the firefighters. Profiles of British Islamic fanatics who have given up jihad.
- Missing Labrador found after a year lost in the Afghan desert.
- Undersea gliders track whales through clicks and squeals.
- Nepal's caste of musicians--untouchables and oral historians--race to catch up with modern times, even if it means wandering less.
- Notes on France's spending a billion euros annually to keep its press alive.
- Tour through the "background players" of Obama's family in Kenya.
- South Carolina prisons sell playing cards with unsolved cases as the faces; article finishes with killer closer.
- Heavy multitasking impedes efficiency, light multitasking OK.
- Slot machines go interactive.
- Former prostitute and anonymous blogger Belle du Jour unmasks herself; turns out she's a doctor in neurotoxicology.
- What's odder than a doctor in neurotoxicology? A link blogger.
- Audio: Calvin Trillin eats poutine.
- New Yorker writer goes to lunch with a Michelin inspector.
- Video: Perhaps the world's funniest pullback, or, What to Eat at the Pyramids.