Headlines from January 6, 2012

Britain bashes London’s financial might and excess; financiers would prefer an attitude like California’s toward Silicon Valley.
Poster: Visual history of financial crises.
January is a bad month for fast-food restaurants, so deals abound, including KFC’s new $11 “Weekend Bucket,” with 10 pieces of chicken.
Political reporters pray for strangeness in the coming months and put their hopes in Ron Paul.
Muslim countries have nine scientists, engineers, and technicians per thousand people, compared with a world average of 41.
Scientists at Cornell develop an invisibility cloak—that works for 40 trillionths of a second.
In other news this week, scientists successfully bend space and time to erase history.
Those sliding Japanese walls have been in my head for 23 years. Reading Barry Lopez’s Arctic Dreams 25 years later.
A look at the book said to have spurred young Isaac Newton onto the scientific path, The Mysteries of Nature and Art by John Bate.
Archive of links and things about Stanley Kubrick.
Shot-by-shot comparison of Raiders of the Lost Ark vs. scenes from 30 different adventure films, 1919-1973.
Recess Stories: short movies for children.
Large link dump of movies and articles about the history of cities and bicycles.
Pictures of worlds captured in liquid. #photography
Tokyo tour notes from Dean Wareham, formerly of Galaxie 500 and Luna.
Multiple identities are natural; citizenship laws—like those that curtail multiple passports and residency-based voting—should catch up. #opinions
The Supreme Court should defend the fundamental right of Americans to have a democracy that is for, of, and by them—not foreigners. #opinions
Rick Santorum says the West Bank belongs to Israel, which not even Israel itself would claim.
Santorum embodies how politicians become wealthy out of office—getting cash from those they helped enrich.
China’s leaders make little money, but wear Rolexes; Singapore’s top leader makes tons of money, but stays clean.
Brief economist’s guide to gauging which celebrity chef-branded restaurants are better than others.
The case against pepper, with notes on which spices might better play the role of salt’s companion.
Final words at Jonestown in 1978.
To make it to the top, you need a wife. If that wife happens to be a husband, and increasingly it is, so be it. On the lives of powerful wives’ chief domestic officers.
Magnum photographs by Eve Arnold.
Video compilation of photographs from apartheid South Africa by Jürgen Schadeberg.
Good Fresh Air interview with Californication’s Pamela Adlon on being and sounding boyish from the start.
Hockney uses artist’s note to bash Damien Hirst and others who hire assistants to produce their work.
Which e-books are downloaded most from libraries and why.
Total of art trading worldwide grew close to $80 billion last year—about the same as in 2006-2007, before the meltdown.
In the 2009-10 season, the average Broadway theatergoer was 48.