Headlines from April 18, 2012
- Afghan school administrators claim drinking water poisoned to keep girls out of class.
- Odds considered on when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will travel abroad, and whether Myanmar will let her back in.
- Evidence weighed in the case of a man who believes a stroke made him gay.
- Everyday objects broken down to their inner parts. #photography #tmn
- People who don’t use Facebook are akin to anyone who rejected having a telephone at home.
- Writers: Jonathan Franzen will drop your book if you use the word “then” as a conjunction without a subject following it.
- Musing on internet-speak and how written language may evolve to increase information density—i.e., saying more with less characters.
- Pop quiz: Is it a quote from Edith Wharton or a line from a review of Girls?
- The “manners and meanings” of the Obama era won’t be shown on TV until the 2050s, when 40-somethings become nostalgic.
- Twitter feed of the 1912 diary of a London Symphony timpanist.
- In London, exhibit of 1,001 analog TV sets marks today’s switch to digital TV.
- The astonishing “Hologram Tupac” is only one in a long line of singing ghosts.
- Buffett’s cancer diagnosis refuels conversation about succession for Berkshire Hathaway.
- Investigation finds records of colonial crimes were destroyed during the waning years of the British empire.
- In his Kremlin-owned TV debut, Julian Assange awkwardly interviews Hezbollah leader.
- You know, he is what he is. Stuck with each other, Mitt Romney and the Tea Party look for common ground.
- Genetic testing enables a writer to trace her lineage back to a Neanderthal forebeat.
- And now a few minutes with Andy Rooney’s Homo Erectus ancestor. #tmn
- Most of Kenya’s Olympic medal winners come from a single tribe, the Kalenjin, of whom there are only 4.4 million.
- While video chatting, some realize they want face lifts—few would get a face lift to look better for video chats.
- All that stands between you and testifying in court as a certified forensic consultant is $500, an open-book test, and 90 minutes of online instruction.
- All the board is asked to do is to read three top novels that we’ve given to them. Pulitzer judges angered over AWOL fiction award.
- Ultimately, nominating the best musical instrument is like nominating the best position for sex. There’s no “best.”
- Psychologists observe link between glucose depletion and decision fatigue or loss of self-control.
- In Singapore, Coke debuts a drink machine that requires patrons hug it to get their beverage.