Headlines from November 18, 2011
- Political reform underway in Burma—“they are looking for steady progress from now on.”
- Abramoff: Vast majority of lobbyists start on the Hill; the link between serving the public and cashing in must be severed.
- Obama said his visit to Australia was not about China—but that’s exactly what it was about.
- Map of world’s biggest Chinese and Indian immigrant communities.
- New theory explains vast “chaos terrains” on Jupiter’s moon Europa as tips of subsurface lakes.
- Captivating report on thinning Antarctic ice from diver who spends a lot of time under it.
- Interview with designer Terence Conran about overhauling the ways Britons eat, live, and sleep. #video
- Circulation records from the Muncie (Indiana) Public Library from 11/5/1891-12/3/1902.
- Related: What this wondrous database reveals about America.
- Related to nothing, just fun: A stroll across Fire Island, with photographs.
- We think of “muppets” as TV characters, but the word once meant “squid,” “cop,” and more.
- Report from a bead “expo.”
- Also crafty: Films about muffins.
- Criterion Collection divided by themes—Amour Fou, Blue Christmases, Heists.
- In American “breakpoint” conversations—when someone’s about to die—ignorance rules.
- Profile of a sex-ed teacher who openly, intelligently discusses sex “in all its glory and complications” with students who have seen tons of porn. #longreads
- City-by-city round-up of Occupy marches and arrests.
- Fifty-seven members of Congress among America’s 1%.
- Pictures of the 99% Batman logo projected in New York last night.
- Flickr photo of the day: Hong Kong Island and Kowloon seen from the window of a plane.
- “Ditch Taiwan” op-ed writer says he intended to compose satire.
- Man charged with trying to assassinate the president said to be Obama-obsessed.
- Charts show corporate income tax as nearing-zero share of corporate profits and percentage of the GDP.
- Portraits of poverty in America.
- The players in Zuccotti Park are an embarrassment to the lumpenproletariat park-dwellers of New York City. Gambling over chess at Occupy Wall Street.
- Syracuse associate head coach suspended over accusations of molesting boys.
- Ten times as many girls are trafficked into brothels annually as African slaves were transported in the peak years of the slave trade.
- Should you find that statistic revolting: The Somaly Mam Foundation.
- Fascinating notes about Shakespeare writing parts based on the players available to him.
- The underlying mechanism by which swearing increases pain tolerance is the provocation of an emotional response.
- To get your morning going on the right foot: lovely owls. #video