The Morning News

Our current era of on-demand television series does more than facilitate binge-watching—it encourages it. David Foster Wallace already told us what happens next.

May 21, 2013: Morning

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:23:51 GMT

Fashion models are almost twice as likely as computer programmers to get visas to enter the U.S.

Era of private space travel begins within the year, with more than 800 people signed up to blast off from New Mexico.

America’s collective sense of shock over Oklahoma’s devastation due to helicopters’ quick coverage of destruction.

Death toll from the tornado expected to climb toward 100 as rescuers continue searching for survivors.

Collection of large pictures of devastation in Moore, Okla. #photography

Oklahoma senator Coburn insists any federal disaster aid will be paid for with cuts elsewhere.

“Moral Monday” protests over North Carolina’s barrage of conservative legislation see increasing number of arrests.

Georgia Tech scientists re-create conditions of life on Earth three billion years ago and verify RNA’s role as a catalyst.

Blogger explains how she wound up playing a key role in The Office finale.

New Liz Entman Harper column for costume junkies who need things to watch when Downtown Abbey’s off the air. #tmn

To legalize marijuana, serious reformers imagine something like the wine industry—“a fragmented market, many producers, none dominant.”

From teetotalers to all-out drunks, a brief history of presidents and their preferred libations. #tmn

Real caveman diet includes edible insects, which could fight famine problems if it weren’t for taboos.

I want nothing more than to open the door, but the screen is a mass of black bodies. There is no way out. Writer connects a fear of cicadas to her father’s abuse.

Siam, I Am (Not)

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:28:54 GMT

by Liz Entman Harper

Small-screen post-Downton satisfaction for costume connoisseurs.

It’s a dark time for the non-cable subscriber craving sartorial escape on the small screen: Downton Abbey is long over for the year, and it’ll probably be another six months to a year before the latest seasons of Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire are released for purchase. But thanks to Netflix and Apple TV, there is still plenty for the costume junkie to choose from.

The King and I (1956) is a two-run Technicolor homer of a costume film because not only is it set in the past, it’s also set in a foreign country: In 1862, the widow Anna and her young son traveled from England to what was then Siam, where she became the governess to the children and wives of King Mongkut. Cultures inevitably clash, hilarity and heartbreak ensue, and, because it’s a Rogers and Hammerstein production, there’s always a song and a dance around the corner.

And the costumes are no mere set dressing. The contrast between Anna’s high-necked, long-sleeved dresses, with hoop skirts wider than she is tall, and the slim, sari-like chong kraben and sbai worn by the royal wives is vast. Naturally, the wives can’t help but try to sneak a peek belowdecks when they help Anna settle in to her apartment. “They think you dress that way because you shape that way,” explains the head wife, Lady Thiang.

Credit: Period Movie Review & Costume Capture

That line may have just been dropped in to give Western audiences a chance to giggle at Eastern naïveté, but there’s actually a little parable of imperialism in it. Just as Anna occupies far more floor than she actually stands upon, so does Britain occupy much more land than it peoples. And indeed, Anna’s dresses are so big they are practically habitats—as if she were physically bringing as much of England with her as she could. (Anna apparently also never sweats, no matter how close to the equator she is.)

That was the one thing that bugged me about Anna. I liked and admired her, but she seemed to be insulating herself from the real Siam with all that excess baggage. I was convinced Anna was Doing It Wrong.

After college, I proudly squeezed everything I would need for a two-month trip to Mexico into a backpack and a daypack. Though I would never blend in, I reasoned, I at least would not travel like a conqueror—the less space I took up, the more respectful a visitor I would be. Meanwhile, my traveling companion brought 27 pairs of jeans and a suitcase you could have stashed two adults inside. And it didn’t really take any longer to drag it from point A to Point B than it took to carry my backpack. In the end, I think the main difference between our experiences was that I spent a lot more of my summer doing laundry.

It took a second trip—with only a carry-on for three weeks touring Spain and its laundromats—to convince me that the virtues of traveling super-light were possibly overrated. As Anna already knew.

May 20, 2013: Afternoon

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:30:14 GMT

If we take the future at all seriously…then we need to leave a big percentage of the planet’s coal and oil and natural gas in the ground.

Working-class white citizens in South Africa face levels of deprivation as bad as black South Africans faced under apartheid.

Denmark’s Emmelie de Forest bests competitors from 26 other countries to win the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest.

Philologists date the golden age of gibberish from the collapse of the Communist bloc. Anthony Lane on Eurovision 2010. #longreads

The harrowing story of how, in 1959, William Rankin piloted his F-8 Crusader into a violent storm, then parachuted over 65 miles.

Deciphering the actions of Qworty, and other Wikipedians who “revenge edit.”

It’s also a way of mocking creative-writing workshops. At the New School, a suicide-note writing class.

The [shipping] container has been more of a driver of globalization than all trade agreements in the past 50 years taken together.

Sex, birth, death, and taxes were all linked together. In Ancient Egypt, July and August were peak conception months.

Thousand-year-old coins found in Australia suggest the continent may not have been founded in 1770 by James Cook.

Early entries in the 2013 National Geographic Traveler photo contest. #photos

Takuma Nakahira’s photos of Paris in the ‘70s, along with his 1973 essay, “Looking at the City or the Look From the City.” #tmn

Without the paint tube, invented in 1841, the French Impressionists would have been less able to find inspiration outside their studios.

The vents are little notches that extend up away from the mouth. Advances in beer container tech.

Hitchens: “Not everybody likes wine as much as I do.”

May 20, 2013: Morning

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:51:42 GMT

After Tennessee Rep. Debra Maggart, a lifelong NRA member, voted against a pro-gun bill, her onetime allies destroyed her. #guns

Vertical timeline of congressional leanings on gun control. #chart

If you have a famous ancestor far enough back that finding out about them is a surprise, you share them with a small city of other people.

Luo Gang was kidnapped at five; at 28, he used Google maps to track down his long-lost family.

What families around the world eat in a week, and how much they spend. #photos

From “throw shade” to “tweak” to “hunty,” at some point everyone starting using gay slang. #language

If I had a bike I could go anywhere. The stunt cyclists from E.T. helped spawn a generation of BMX enthusiasts.

I remember the day I knew that the white spaces on the map were the places for me.

“Crazy” ants that eat other insects and can short out electric wiring set up massive colonies in Florida, Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

I got to meet my icons, piss off power brokers, and write whatever I wanted. After nearly 30 years at the Village Voice, Michael Musto bids adieu.

It was so bizarre seeing food lines in 1980′s rural America.

Your last words are going to be a lie. When you find out your plane is about to crash.

If Wes Anderson wrote the Bible.

Paris in the Seventies

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:22:47 GMT

From his new solo show in the United States, black-and-white selections from Takuma Nakahira’s “Circulation: Date, Place, Events,” plus a reprint of his 1973 essay, “Looking at the City or the Look From the City.”

May 17, 2013: Afternoon

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:31:32 GMT

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the deficit crisis is solved for the next decade, and sequestration is dumb.

If you can’t get a cast like that together, you can forget changing anything in a great big way.

Four hours, 50 minutes, and 31 days. Boston Marathon runners—two wheelchair-bound—return to cross the finish line.

Swapping direct language for more innocuous terms helps diminish the reality of horrific events as we process them.

Declassified documents from 1983 reveal how a U.S. missile simulation nearly ended in nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

From 1968, the Howard Johnson’s children’s menu featured a 2001: A Space Odyssey theme.

Fourth-grader secretly films school cafeteria to prove what’s on the menu isn’t exactly what’s served. #video

According to a new study, small electrical shocks to the brain may improve arithmetic skills.

With the help of cell phones, West Africa’s pirate fishing problem is coming to an end.

Engineer launches initiative to turn climbers’ feces into biogas to power Sherpa villages.

In short, going number one makes it that much worse when someone else goes number two.

How a virus invades your body. #video

May 17, 2013: Morning

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:13:31 GMT

Russia ships sophisticated anti-ship missiles to Syria, fulfilling order placed in 2007.

Putin installs helipad at the Kremlin to appease Muscovites’ fury over politicians skirting traffic laws.

Business booming in “Gun Valley,” aka “the swath of Western Massachusetts and Connecticut where industrial gun making in America began.”

Texas gunmaker debuts new “smart rifle,” which uses built-in laser range finder and ballistics computer to never miss.

In the middle of the Mojave Desert, the Defense department has built 15 simulated towns for training soldiers, populated by 350 civilian role-players. #photography

After shortages of milk, butter, cornmeal, coffee, sugar, and flour, Venezuela now faces a dearth of toilet paper.

Syrian rebel who ate a pro-Assad soldier’s lung on camera explains himself.

Somewhere behind this blank expression is a latent anger. Thorough reviews of the Mr. Men series of children’s books.

Publisher threatens critic with $1 billion lawsuit after being accused of preying on needy academics.

In Janet Malcolm’s case, “imperfect objectivity is a selling point.”

Nashville’s Connie Britton says the best way to destroy a sex tape is with a wood chipper—“a no-fail sort of a thing.”

Calendar made from pressed tea leaves features pages to tear off and brew.

Of all the bulls in Costa Rica, the most celebrated and revered is the bull people call “Malacrianza.” Translation? “Badass.”

Travel writer reports on America’s least-visited national park: Alaska’s Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve.

The user of Glass has the option to be permanently not-there. John Lanchester explains the mechanics and appeal of Fitbit and Google Glass for non-techies.

Determined 11-year-old uses his 3D printer to make jewelry for his sister. #video

Wooden pinhole cameras sold to photographers who’d like to retire their smartphones occasionally.

List of five-hundred-plus great works of cinema to watch for free online.

Inlandia

Thu, 16 May 2013 22:52:11 GMT

by The Morning News

It's not all just New York and Los Angeles with Mayberry in between.

While it’s easy to think of the United States as either New York (urban) or Los Angeles (sprawl) with nothing but Mayberry in between, the truth is that there’s a lot of character to be found between the coasts of these United States. Exhibit No. 1: the Mark Binelli profile of Detroit that ran this week, Crack Rock City.

So this weekend, enjoy TMN’s tales from inland America, ready to read here on TMN or in an e-book you can export to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, etc.

May 16, 2013: Afternoon

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:35:20 GMT

The New Orleans Mother’s Day shooting should be a “national tragedy,” except it isn’t. #opinions

Activist protests Abercrombie CEO’s opinion that his brand is not for “unattractive people” by donating its merchandise to the homeless.

Chuck Hagel orders retraining of military personnel who work in sexual assault prevention.

Chinese censors discuss what it’s like to watch 700 pornographic movies a week. #video

A picture of a large pair of eyes triggers feelings of surveillance in potential thieves, making them less likely to break the rules.

Using underground tunnels, smugglers bring KFC into Gaza from Egypt.

Motorcycle saviors, heroin that’s not coke, and Detroit lingerie hell, by Rolling Stone‘s Mark Binelli #longreads #tmn

How do I land? Comedian hires pilot to skywrite jokes.

Freakonomics: What do medieval nuns and Bo Jackson have in common? #podcast

Scientist Jaak Panksepp set out to discern animals’ emotions and ultimately learned even more about humans’. #longreads

Images of food cut in half. #photos

“You will meet a tall, dark stranger” was removed when people complained they found it sinister.

On playing GeoGuessr and thinking you’re in one place when you’re really in another.

A disaster, basically, but somehow it works. What’s wrong with the accents in Game of Thrones. #language

List of famous orphans and foundlings.

Crack Rock City

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:13:59 GMT

by Mark Binelli

This week, Detroit’s new emergency manager released his first report on the city’s dire affairs. But residents have long been accustomed to life in what’s essentially a failed state. A native author meets the motorcycle men working hard to save Detroit, one fiend at a time.

May 16, 2013: Morning

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:58:12 GMT

Dept. of Homeland Security seizes funds from the largest Bitcoin exchange.

Aaron Swartz was not yet a legend when, almost two years ago, I asked him to build an open-source, anonymous in-box.

Pneumatic tubes, and other reasons libraries will fail—from 1864. #humor

The Kepler space telescope’s greatest hits. #photos

By cloning human skin cells into stem cells, the controversy over cloning whole people is once again brought into view.

African clawed frogs, used in pregnancy tests pre-1950, now spread deadly fungus that could eradicate hundreds of amphibian species.

Pollan: We’ve spent most of the past century trying to kill our best friends—bacteria. #longreads

World Press Photo finds no evidence of “significant photo manipulation” in award-winning image of mourners in Gaza.

Numbers of stranded sea lion pups are declining—and again, no one knows why.

Walkway in Poland is named after Irena Sendler, who saved 2,500 Jewish children from the Holocaust.

Though frightened, James unlocked the door to an alarming sight. Tales of heroic teens.

Sudden explosions of blocks and ash are possible with little or no warning.

May 15, 2013: Afternoon

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:54:46 GMT

Scientists announce $1 vaccine for rotavirus infections—which kill half a million children worldwide every year.

Politicians endlessly debate debts and deficits with little regard for the human costs of their decisions. #opinions

Reacting to Time‘s cover story, discerning whether it’s even possible to measure narcissism.

Why Jimmy Connors shouldn’t be talking about Chris Evert’s abortion in his new memoir.

I have daughters and a wife, so I knew right away what that look meant. On being groped on the subway.

Some do walk in Los Angeles, but the challenge is discovering where it’s viable.

Related: How to walk in New York. #tmn

Artist displays £175,000 worth of ecstasy in new works at a London gallery.

Cary Grant’s tie dimple, and how to tie one on yourself.

Public calls foul after Disney Barbie-fies Brave‘s Merida.

OED asks public to help locate a “mysterious, possibly pornographic, 19th-century book.”

The man is so vanilla that he must be part-descended from orchids. Reviews of Dan Brown’s Inferno.

The Canberra Skywhale, a city-commissioned hot-air balloon resembling a whale, flies over Australia’s capital city. #photos

May 15, 2013: Morning

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:40:35 GMT

Massacres and grisly killings in Syria, filmed for the world to see, show gap between diplomacy efforts and events on the ground.

Kofi Annan’s “Africa Progress Report” says resource-rich countries must work together to make tax avoidance harder.

The ‘00s were a decade for people to laugh at overweight teenage boys. Ghyslain Raza, formerly known as “Star Wars kid,” speaks out against cyber-bullying.

It takes living in Leipzig to realize The Lives of Others can now be classified as a film about 21st-century America. #longreads #tmn

Wealthy New York parents hire black-market disabled guides to help their children cut lines at Disney World.

Hotel veteran explains why you should never pay for your minibar expenses (because no one else does).

Gordon Ramsay walks off episode of Kitchen Nightmares after restauranteurs prove to be too horrible—and then the social-media explosion begins.

Online game Social Roulette features a one-in-six chance of deleting your Facebook account.

One year after debating a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, Minnesota approves marriage equality.

But here, in this church, will you take me? Tom Stoppard’s classic play revisited now that gay marriage is all the rage. #tmn

Publishing’s chick-lit genre, synonymous with $16 appletinis and urban glitz, has been almost entirely replaced by “farm lit.”

Maps of astonishing place names found on the islands of Orkney and Shetland.

“Hiking the Appalachian Trail,” “discussing Uganda,” and other political euphemisms.

Accounting for the speed-of-light delay, a map of Earth’s jokes and catchphrases that are currently popular in other star systems.

May 14, 2013: Afternoon

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:52:44 GMT

I’d been struggling with whether to do it for nearly two years, ever since I learned I carry the BRCA1 genetic mutation. #tmn

In light of Gov. Christie’s recent gastric bypass, recalling Taft’s weight-loss regimen. #health

Over a two-and-a-half-year period, device and drug companies shelled out over $76 million just to physicians licensed in Massachusetts.

I can’t tell you enough about how good the beer is. TMN’s Alexander Chee returns from Leipzig. #tmn

In trustworthiness, arrogance, and compassion, Germans are associated with the best and worst European stereotypes. #chart

Steven Spielberg’s techniques and themes. #video

The one item that sends fear into the hearts of all dry cleaners: the sari.

Poachers aim for another record-setting year in slaughtering rhinos, whose horns are worth their weight in gold.

The more militant members of the NRA and most of its leaders may be un-American. #guns

The next meme? Getting dunked on. #video

The future of education is online—it’s been a long walk to get here, with longer yet to go.

University researcher explains why he quit email a month ago: to save more time, live life more.

There has been one email per day since April 16th, 2012. The luck of the listserve.

Newt Gingrich puzzles over his “cell phone.” #video

Everything in This City Must

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:48:41 GMT

by Alexander Chee

After six months in Leipzig, a German reporter asks the novelist what he’ll miss. But it’s back here in the United States where more dangerous questions take shape, none easily answered with good beer.

May 14, 2013: Morning

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:32:57 GMT

As the Bering Sea makes its way further inland, residents of Newtok, Alaska, could become America’s first climate refugees.

Our best hope for the future is not to get people to think of all humanity as family—that’s impossible.

Over the last 18 years, Nature’s family has shrunk from five to one. Why did Jodon Romero kill himself on live TV? #longreads

Series of female mugshots from the 1960s. #photos

What it’s like for musicians who want to release new music—except their label won’t let them.

Liberace had taken me out of a situation with a father who was very abusive, a mother who was mentally ill. Scott Thorson tells his story.

In 1955, Dr. Joyce Brothers—who died yesterday at 85—won The $64,000 Question. #video

Obama administration angers journalists by seizing the AP’s confidential phone records.

Developers bulldoze 2,300-year-old Mayan pyramid—the largest offense of an endemic problem in Belize.

Voluptuousness, once the ideal of feminine beauty in Sudan, is rapidly losing its allure.

LinkedIn bans users from promoting prostitution and/or escort services, even in countries where it is legal.

Psychedelically painted cargo trucks add vibrancy to the bleak and rugged landscapes of Pakistan. #photos

It is really over and he should just let her go. Bob Powers explains why the subway isn’t moving.

May 13, 2013: Afternoon

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:23:13 GMT

People close to Obama noticed two telltale signs he’s been a little down—his low-energy April 30 news conference…and his demand for more campaign-style road trips.

Recent additions to the literary subgenre of Texas secessionist fantasy. #books

Regardless of how you look at it, at all levels, institutions were willing to pay a greater rate for coaching salaries. #sports

Studies show people care more about where their coffee is grown than where their clothes are made, though that may be changing.

Hot-air balloons once ruled the skies, until the dawn of airplanes, which were “primarily weapons of war.”

Sub-Saharan Africa is the riskiest place to be born—it accounts for 38% of the world’s first-day deaths.

India’s rape problem may be part and parcel of a larger problem concerning the lack of toilets and basic sanitation.

Former Guatemalan dictator sentenced to 80 years for genocide that killed more than 200,000 in the 1980s.

Protests in Tel Aviv over Netanyahu’s spending, which includes a $137,744 airplane bed and $2,500 annual ice cream budget.

This is one of the dumbest things people have done. NJ cupcake brand unveils 35,800-calorie model in honor of Bloomberg.

Colorado announces marijuana sales tax: less than cigarettes, more than beer and wine. #drugs

New closed-captioning glasses provide breakthrough way for the hearing-impaired to watch movies in theaters.

Microphones changed everything. “How Bing Crosby and the Nazis helped to create Silicon Valley” by Paul Ford.

An analysis of words used on Twitter reveals the happiness difference between Saturdays and Tuesdays. #video

Portraits of community, recreation, and environmental abuse along the riverbanks of Washington, DC’s, Anacostia neighborhood. #tmn

It would be pretty cool to have a whole county named after your great-grandfather. The “Vows” section, explained.

The difference between photojournalism and photography is ethics.

May 13, 2013: Morning

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:49:40 GMT

IRS scandal grows from targeting not just “tea party”-branded groups, but also nonprofits critical of the government.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield says goodbye to the International Space Station with a cover of “Space Oddity.” #video

Last week, atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide reached their highest level in human history. #globalwarming

Photos from the village southwest of Buenos Aires that was underwater for 25 years.

“If what these [alien] abductees are saying is happening to them isn’t happening,” Mack demanded, “what is?”

“The internet has made kidnapping easier” and other myths about missing children.

Boston Children’s Hospital psychiatrist barred from practicing medicine after “diagnosing” his patient with “evil spirits.”

Because really, what is there to be afraid of? Behind Chris Ware’s Mother’s Day cover for the New Yorker.

Infidelity site AshleyMadison.com says they see a spike in registrations after Mother’s Day. via

Where economic crisis hits, explosions in egg donation and IVF may follow—such is the case with Cyprus and Spain today.

New legal arguments for how plaintiffs can fight revenge porn.

The new engine behind Google Chrome is named, ironically, after the HTML tag—which it will never support.

I…lack patience with PowerPoint presentations that convey obvious information. Donald Rumsfeld’s meeting rules.

The short workout—“about seven minutes of steady discomfort”—that offers the same benefits as a long run and strength training.

We need radio edits because we need the freedom to create, but also to have the wherewithal to know when to say when. #music

Like most declarations of artistic freedom, it was commercial suicide. The rise and fall and rise and fall and rise of OMD.

At North Korea’s soccer matches, crowds are silent even after goals—the halftime brass bands provide the only sound.

Anacostia

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:16:10 GMT

Portraits of community, recreation, and environmental abuse along the riverbanks of Washington, DC’s, Anacostia neighborhood.

May 10, 2013: Afternoon

Fri, 10 May 2013 15:29:39 GMT

Federal prosecutors indict eight people for stealing $45 million from thousands of ATMs in just a few hours.

For many, Twitter verification is badge of self-worth—but with good reason, others have rejected the offer.

Entomologists inject mosquitos with bacteria that could permanently rid the insects and their offspring of malaria.

Cultural interpretations of morning: breakfast platters from around the world. #photos

Publishers in Africa envision cell phones, not e-readers, as the primary channel for literature.

It made people visible to each other. Like Google, the Whole Earth Catalog changed the world.

A teenager won a coding competition for inventing software that blocks TV spoilers from Twitter.

They whisper the title across the table, because…no one else knows this yet, and because with Daft Punk nearly everything is a secret.

My trousers changed the world. Ian Buruma’s review of “David Bowie Is” at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In 1969, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, and Paul McCartney almost formed a supergroup. #music

Geoguessr: Get dropped into a random Google Earth location, then guess where you are. #diversions

Let the names of the same sorte of things begin with the same letter. Isaac Newton’s unsuccessful foray into linguistics.

“This Is Water”: a video reimagining of David Foster Wallace’s 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College #video

It’s Complicated

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:49:59 GMT

by David Comfort

Though mothers may gnash their teeth at forgotten flowers and missing brunches, the poets still sing of the worst Mother’s Day ever: that of Oedipus and his bride.