Headlines from February 18, 2010
- Haitian judge releases eight U.S. missionaries; two are still being held for further questioning.
- Living in a Riyadh ghost town, the sprawling, opulent--and empty--Diplomatic Quarter; some photos of the DQ.
- Angela Merkel moves to buy stolen Swiss data.
- As the U.S. Mint rolls out a Millard Fillmore coin, Buffalo and Moravia, N.Y., stake their claims to the president who symbolized mediocrity.
- For this month's Of Recent Note, tell us: Who is your favorite President of the United States?
- "I don't even know that I have a career or have ever had one." The profile of Tucker Carlson that will make you actually like the guy.
- King Tut's official cause of death: malaria.
- A 3D map shows how your memory works.
- The Plastic Ono Band reforms (with many special guests) for Yoko Ono's birthday this week.
- John Lydon struggles with his decision not to perform with Pink Floyd, worried he would appear "pretentious."
- Folk covers of the Talking Heads.
- First known video of the Malaysian clouded leopard captured.
- California cargo traffic on the rise.
- Play-by-play reconstruction of the Hamas-commander assassination in Dubai.
- Do spies and assassins really wear fake beards? Yes.
- Sullivan on why war is always evil, even when it's necessary, but torture is never justified.
- Op: Conservatives would never dare return the stimulus; it's brought them too much prosperity.
- Half a million Britons wash their bed sheets only three times a year.
- Fascinatingly bureacratic: Newly released files on UFOs and "flying Toblerones" in the U.K., 1994-2003.
- To achieve transcendence, forget study--"just have surgery on your parietal cortex and give it three days to a week."
- Instapaper for the flight: The struggles of salmon.
- Profile of Yuichiro Miura, the man who skied down Everest 40 years ago.
- Flattery--even the patently insincere type--is especially effective on folks who are down on their luck.
- The mean game that editors talk about punishing plagiarists is just that. Talk. The universal rules of plagiarists.
- Photo of a tempting array of cheeses set aside for the nation of Latvia.
- Pictures of wooden churches in the Russian north.
- What costs more: the Silverdome or the number of peanuts needed to build a life-size replica of the Silverdome?