Headlines from January 7, 2013
- The White House is plotting a surprisingly broad and aggressive gun control agenda.
- A society that is relying on guys with guns to stop violence is a sign of a society where institutions have broken down.
- How weapon technology like biometrics and grip detection could help prevent future massacres.
- Math-based rebuttal to the “end of history illusion” article about how we don’t think we’ll ever change.
- Our fixation with security hasn’t helped much—maybe it’s time we tried something different. #books
- In a new book, Jeff Bridges teams up with a Zen master to teach others the way of the Dude.
- California’s amateur vintners are making waves and winning awards with their homemade wine.
- Pickpocket Apollo Robbins demonstrates his amazing sleight of hand. #video
- How Marcel Duchamp’s informal dinner forever altered the New York avant-garde scene. #art
- The only way to escape narcissism entirely may be to stop making television. #tv
- Digging into the data to figure out whether Thriller really sold 100 million copies. #music
- There is no use crying over spilt milk. The milk was likely to be sour in any case. Conservatives debate the Romney loss. #politics
- The practice of buying Twitter followers and YouTube views is both affordable and rampant. via
- Tumblr of the Day: “Academic Men Explain Things to Me.”
- The original Star Wars trilogy in map form. #movies
- Lines from Neruda poems, as told by cats.
- Obama to nominate counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan as next director of the CIA.
- First CIA officer faces prison for a press leak—“one of an unprecedented string of six prosecutions under President Obama.” #longreads
- Ethical questions appear when patients with dementia find romance in nursing homes, and spouses outside complain.
- Due to the outsize influence of narrow interest groups, America has become Europe, with the Democrats playing France.
- See also: Round-up of France-bashing from covers of the Economist.
- Tokyo’s last street-level view of Mount Fuji is about to be obscured by new construction.
- Guide to New York’s newest literary magazines, grown in the wake of n+1.
- With seemingly limitless sex in big cities, online dating may render marriage, or at least commitment, undesirable.
- Jamie Kennedy’s chaotic New Year’s broadcast, hoax or not, was decidedly a big failure.
- The most-visited page on Wikipedia in 2012 was for Facebook—suggesting many people still don’t know how to use the internet.
- My unit did not come with instructions, and I cannot find the switch. Amazon.com reviews for the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer. via
- Girl fights Iceland for right to be named after a character from a Halldor Laxness novel.
- Melissa Ann Pinney’s photographs of American girls growing up. #tmn
- Study: People with prudish disgust-sensitivity have a superior ability to detect impurities (i.e., dirt).
- GQ correspondent gets high and eats lunch with Snoop Lion, Snoop Dogg’s latest incarnation.
- Speculative guide to the consumption of dinosaur meat.
- The most exciting thing on the internet right now: Sports camera attached to trombone slide creates silliness. #video