Headlines from February 20, 2013
- To turn Texas blue, Democrats will need a vision of Hispanic voters that goes beyond immigration reform. #opinions
- America retains the right of nuclear first use—against nations who don’t adhere to various nonproliferation strictures—and it should not.
- Being able to handle life in Israel is one thing; actually wanting to do it is another. #tmn
- Photographic analysis of President Obama as a writer and editor.
- Tips on how to get the most out of a handshake, including the “upper-hand,” the “double-hander,” and the “left-side advantage.”
- Drivers hate cyclists not because they’re annoying, but because they violate a deep-seated moral order. #opinions
- See also: How to not kill a cyclist. #tmn #advice
- Hungarian physicist says it only takes 19 clicks to get from here to anywhere else on the internet.
- If you’re headed to SXSW, catch TMN’s Andrew Womack on publishing long-form work on the web.
- Churchill backed a plan to fight the Nazis from aircraft carriers made of ice that wouldn’t melt.
- Pictures of Ghana’s Agbogbloshie tech dump—a 21st-century pastoral badlands. #photography #tmn
- Top Sherlock scholar wants court to say Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson are no longer protected by federal copyright laws.
- Why does Orwell love it when a poet like Shakespeare renews a reader’s sensation of the surface of the earth, but hate it when Big Brother does the same thing to Winston?
- Russia’s Babushka Pushkina is a reality-style televised competition for poets.
- I lost my leg because of a preventable error… My work as a physician has been put on hold.
- Louis C.K., “whose tours have become a kind of yearly medical checkup,” has become America’s Gogol.
- Pitchfork presents hour-long oral history of If You’re Feeling Sinister by Belle & Sebastian. #video
- Ahead of spending-cuts crisis, White House plans shame campaign to make the GOP’s position indefensible.
- Two weeks ago, as a result of Spielberg’s Lincoln, Mississippi officially ratified the 13th amendment to ban slavery.
- Greece to reach true primary surplus this year, taking in more revenue than it spends; Greeks may react by punishing the government.
- New TV show about cutting, stacking, and burning firewood arouses passions of Norwegians.
- Weather forecasters generally know squat about climate; those who do are inspired by meteorologists who actually educate their audiences.
- The only thing worse than a unique identifier is a seemingly unique identifier. Choire Sicha (pronounced Corey Seeka—ed.) on how to name your baby.
- See also: Sicha on which census questions to avoid in order to steer clear of government detection. #tmn
- Tony Horwitz tells Robert Birnbaum what John Brown means to America in these days of drones and terrorism. #longreads
- Lesbian tells story of the night her mom wanted to visit a gay bar, representing light years of family progress.
- Playboy reporter heads abroad to investigate sex and the seedier side of the Arab Spring.
- Report from This American Life on Harper High School in Chicago, where last year alone 29 current and recent students were shot. #audio
- Since the Newtown massacre in December, 1,999 people have been killed by guns in America.
- Writer offers nine lessons learned from a mini-lifetime lived in New York City. #tmn
- “Seagull With Diarrhea Barely Makes It To Crowded Beach In Time.”