Headlines from December 11, 2012
- Spending earned political capital in a new way, Obama’s “permacampaign” could change Washington from the outside.
- The UN wants control of the internet to ensure member nations’ security—but it’s not possible.
- Afghan design student creates wind-powered spheres that detonate land mines.
- HSBC to pay $1.92 billion in money-laundering settlement over money transfers for U.S.-sanctioned nations, Mexican drug cartels.
- If you take money from the federal government, you have to abide by the terms. Dept. of Justice may sue Lance Armstrong.
- When the going gets tough, you need to reach down and find those obscure, untested, oxygen-boosting drugs nobody has ever heard of. #tmn
- Interactive map depicts Westchester County if African-American households were near white households of the same income.
- So surprising that at first researchers didn’t believe it: signs the childhood obesity epidemic may be reversing.
- We are too often motivated by a craving to put an end to the inevitable surprises in our lives. The power of negative thinking.
- How to determine whether you’re living in a computer simulation.
- Subject parks at a lookout point, presenting with several symptoms including sweating, hand tremors and global rigidity.
- Related: A writer journeys to the wild to confront her panic attacks. #tmn
- The Smiths: band of the century or band of the millennium? #music
- From “Amercia” to “crypto-fascists,” 2012’s most memorable typos and corrections.
- On Eugene Ionesco’s little-known career as a children’s book writer. #books
- My fans have made it very clear that they would like to read my novels…faster than I can write them. The long history of novelists’ co-authors.
- Krugman pays homage to Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, whose lessons can still be applied. #scifi
- Looking for ways to turn down human-made ocean noise, NOAA develops massive sound maps. #science
- Frank Ocean sings Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees.” #video
- As many as 12 million people around the world are not citizens of any country.
- Cairo prepares for rival rallies ahead of a referendum ordered by President Morsi.
- New Gazan cologne, M-75, named after Hamas’ rockets, costs twice as much as other perfumes.
- Genomic study confirms Europe’s Roma came from a single group that left India “about 1,500 years ago.”
- Iris-scanning ID systems reduce corruption where universal identification systems are lacking.
- Denmark, Finland, and New Zealand ranked the least-corrupt countries; United States places 19th.
- TV show about Danish politics, Borgen, becomes global phenomenon.
- New NBA statistics: The Kobe Pass and the Kobe Assist, i.e., the missed shots that become rebounds.
- Novak Djokovic buys entire 2013 supply of world’s most expensive cheese derived from donkeys.
- Photographs of highlights from the Miami Basel art fair.
- Eighty-one-year-old scientist looks back on testing chemical weapons on hundreds of healthy soldiers. #longreads
- British rapper addresses his battle with schizophrenia. #audio
- Floppy disks, reel-to-reel tapes, and other computer icons that mean nothing to young people.
- Koalas are now going through something our ancestors experienced 31 times over the past 60 million years.
- How to make snowman deviled eggs.
- My family does not use colored lights. That’s for people who are warm-blooded. What your Christmas tree says about you. #tmn