Headlines from July 19, 2010
- How the pound sign--aka the "number key" or the "hash"--got its name.
- Scientists say cooking is responsible for brain development.
- Ben Folds and Nick Hornby collaborate on "Levi Johnston's Blues."
- From the attic: "The Secret Journal of Levi Johnston" by Sarah Hepola.
- Skeptics and believers battle over the role of homeopathy in health care.
- A transcript of Cecil B. DeMille's B.Y.U. commencement address--and how Mormon paintings influenced The Ten Commandments.
- How Caravaggio saw in the dark.
- Interviews with former debt collectors.
- Tolstoy envisioned a justice system whose decisions were made with love, rather than through impersonal processes.
- How negative behavior may improve unhappy marriages.
- "That's a piece of foam with glitter on it." Young fantasy readers--the progeny of humans and Norse gods--raid Prospect Park.
- Analysis of the efficiency of mowing your lawn in rows versus spirals.
- When plugged into "I Write Like," David Foster Wallace writes like Ian Fleming.
- Also: A Q&A with the creator of "I Write Like."
- A list of common misconceptions.
- Last month was the warmest June on record globally; extreme heat boils the United States and Europe.
- France did not say it would reimburse Haiti for its independence fee, says France, repudiating hoax.
- Gallery director explains why Berlin is more serious than other cities and there's no reason to learn German.
- Boulder, Colo., named best place to raise abducted children.
- Explanation of the Saudi line of succession and which of 5,000 princes will become king.
- Sonic profile of North Korea, where accordions dominate.
- How $1,475 can guarantee Chinese couples U.S. citizenship for their babies.
- Debate ignited over genetic-testing oversight after 23andMe mixes up customer information and 87 people receive wrong results.
- More mothers are donating umbilical cord blood, the latest life-saving fluid.
- Skin-lightening market expands 18% a year in India; Vaseline launches a Facebook avatar-lightening app.
- Prison manual describes violent methods used to subdue youth in private U.K. jails.
- Movies use inflatable crowds in lieu of extras; inflatables' creators irked when extras seek revenge.
- Awesome? Or appalling? Semi-serious profile of ROFL culture.
- Questionable-content reviewers suffer depression and occasionally cry or vomit at unpleasant images.
- When a mother won't quit smoking and a daughter won't stop trying to help her quit, by TMN's Jessica Francis Kane.
- Birnbaum on Joseph Epstein's new stories; TMN's Kevin Guilfoile caught gazing.
- After writing a surprise third volume to his best-selling recent novels, Murakami suggests he may also write parts four and zero.