Headlines from July 24, 2012
- Fighter jets bomb areas of Syria’s second city of Aleppo; Russia expects Syria not to use chemical weapons.
- Man in goat suit seen living among goats in Utah mountains.
- Serbia becomes global hub for sex-change surgery.
- Writer looks for Fitzgerald’s first love in Lake Forest, Ill., to find the origins of Daisy Buchanan.
- It took 13 years to build the original bread-slicing machine.
- Forty years of satellite photography from the Landsat program.
- The spot that maximizes the chance of a field goal is 2.8 inches behind the center of the basket. Data on putting balls through hoops.
- Tennis’s wacky scoring system stems from eggs and clocks, perhaps.
- A humane punishment for Penn State would have been a one-year death penalty—not a sentence of perpetual losing. #opinions
- How to attend this summer’s Olympic Games in London without dying.
- Ruminations on a candid photo from a recent Team USA dinner.
- Domestic airlines generated $3.4 billion in revenue from checked bags last year.
- Sarah Hepola on why every woman should travel alone. #opinions
- See also: Pictures from Hepola’s trip across the country. #tmn
- Gear chosen by tech expert Brian Lam for your next big road trip.
- In light of Penn State’s punishment, it’s time to reread “The Shame of College Sports.” #longreads
- Physicists say you should run, not walk, to avoid the rain.
- Sally Ride, first American woman to fly in space, dies at 61 from pancreatic cancer.
- Brief report on the once-a-day pill that can reduce substantially the risk of catching HIV.
- Mitt Romney cites no former presidents as businessmen models because none were any good.
- Notes from Miles Davis responding to records in a blind listening test.
- Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander on the Constitutionality of owning assault rifles.
- David Remnick profile of Bruce Springsteen at 62. #longreads
- See also: On the no-beer relationship between The Boss and New Jersey’s Boss.
- Did you know that in Jamaica, Céline is loved most of all by the badasses? Excerpt from new Nick Hornby book about loving art.
- Double-decker London bus transformed into one that does push-ups.
- On “the endowment effect”—so strong that even imagined ownership can increase something’s value.
- Cause of the week: Davy Rothbart’s “Washington to Washington” hike for city kids.
- She was fat the first time we saw her, large, brilliantly beautiful, fat. Review of Billie Holiday.