Headlines from July 16, 2013

Even a short prison term would scare any rational person, and exile is a profound punishment. What happens when we catch Snowden.
Making sense of China’s GDP growth: Thanks to Wikileaks, we can guess the numbers are artificial.
Most fake negative reviews of products on the web are written by devoted customers who want to vent.
A catalog of natural and man-made sinkholes. #photos
Anti-immigration Italian senator insists comparing a black minister to an orangutan isn’t racist.
An unemployed Londoner, Gonshaw had already served three prison terms on egg-collecting charges.
A survey shows there are more domestic servants in London than there were 200 years ago—and they’re not just working for the wealthy.
Tokyo spa introduces “snail facial” in which organically fed snails crawl over patron’s face, leaving a trail of slime.
Swimming monkeys, walking catfish, giant snails of cultish origin: Florida has more invasive species than any other state.
Related: Because no one else seems willing, Erik Bryan defends his much-maligned hometown of Tallahassee. #tmn
The passion and the melancholy: Dancing the tango and being Finnish go together as naturally as ham and eggs.
Why Thom Yorke pulling his songs from Spotify won’t help new artists: Like movies, music now relies on tentpole acts.
Radiohead’s manager: “I…look at new technology developments such as Spotify as a good thing.”
For the 25th anniversary of Die Hard, a compendium of essential links.
Shaq holding things. #photos
A few weeks later, on Mother’s Day, nightly visitations started. #tmn
George Zimmerman faces at least three more trials in the death of Trayvon Martin—but it’s likely he won’t lose any of them.
Abortion is unlike any other issue: Both sides have equal support and face their share of internal challenges
It’s evidence that the terror threat was never as great as we thought. Let’s abolish the Dept. of Homeland Security.
The world’s rice supply is at a 12-year high. #food
Australian consumer group pushes water bottlers to quit calling their product “organic,” because it’s not agricultural.
Tougher to get into than Princeton, Harvard, or Yale, the Wienermobile offers a unique view of America.
In 1973 I won a contest run by George Plimpton for the New York Yankees. #baseball
Researchers study the metadata of The Odyssey to map the characters’ relationships.
Geolocated tweets yield maps of where iPhone users live versus Android users.
I’m not that funny on my feet. Jack Handey isn’t Al Franken. #longreads
Starless planets are hardly “rogue”—in fact, Earth could be more of an exception to the rule than we once believed. #space
Hubble discovers Neptune’s 14th moon, so small Voyager missed it and 100 million times dimmer than the faintest star we can see unaided.
The money involved will dwarf everything else. Beneath Guinea, one of the world’s poorest countries, may be a fortune in iron ore. #longreads
Though most Indian farmers have never seen or heard of olives before, India plans to be a leading producer of olive oil.
Forensic linguist explains how he figured out Robert Galbraith was J.K. Rowling.