The Morning News

We had a lot of fun at TMN putting together our New York Elsewhere feature, trying to work out which neighborhoods in other cities corresponded to neighborhoods we knew, loved, and sometimes hated in New York.

But there were no perfect matches, of course. 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 13:14:39 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 11:48:50 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.

May 10, 2013: Morning

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:21:39 GMT

Republicans use Benghazi to attack Clinton’s fitness to lead the country after Obama’s term. #politics

Klein: The Senate runs on norms rather than rules, and now that we’ve broken the norms, they’re broken forever.

Fueled by a race-baiting, national marketing campaign and the missionary-like evangelism of its affiliates, Care Net has turned the complex reality behind black abortion rates into a single, fictional story.

For young Americans, finding their passion is of utmost concern, but for young people without a passion, interesting work and cash is still available.

Credited with “douche-ifying” the wine world, critic Robert Parker enters bourbon appreciation, striking fear into the hearts of bourbon enthusiasts.

Extremely romantic note found left behind in a coffee shop.

Extreme medieval fighting contest “Battle of the Nations” sees contestants frequently injured with dislodged teeth, broken or severed fingers.

Scientists develop seven-minute workout to fulfill the latest mandates for high-intensity effort.

National Design Awards give lifetime achievement award to James Wines, founder and president of SITE.

Forty-thousand stolpersteine feature in European streets—“stumbling stones” honoring people murdered during the Holocaust.

Cycle of paintings and drawings depicts scenes from The Big Lebowski.

Oldie but goodie: John Grisham’s “Faulkner Things” from the very first issue of the Oxford American.

May 9, 2013: Afternoon

Thu, 09 May 2013 15:57:22 GMT

The Indian government’s new monitoring system can access all its citizens’ phone calls, texts, emails, and social media exchanges.

Cholera victims in Haiti threaten to sue UN for negligence in allowing appointed peacekeepers to contaminate water supply. #health

Scientists invent microparticle that, when injected, can keep a person alive for up to 30 minutes after respiratory failure.

They also sprayed the exterior of the complex with baby bottles containing human blood. Nuns break into nuclear plant to protest lax security.

Michigan high school students build a robotic locker opener for their disabled classmate. #kidstoday

Texas Senate approves the Tim Tebow Bill, which would allow homeschooled athletes to play for high schools.

New U.S. treasury secretary redraws his signature.

Eritrea’s political prisoner count is 10,000—it’s second to North Korea in worst countries for press freedom.

My intentions are genuine and no amount of money could buy my integrity. Collected quotations from Silk Road’s founder. #drugs

Nineteen emotions that cannot be expressed in English. #chart

Tumblr of the day: “The Worst Room” chronicles the worst of New York City’s affordable housing.

Skateboarding is a way of learning how to redefine the world around you. Highlights from Ian MacKaye’s Library of Congress lecture.

Watch 12 Years of DFA: Too Old to Be New, Too New to Be Classic, a documentary narrated by Marc Maron. #video

Creation Records’ Alan McGee returns from the country, announces new label, invites artists to send mp3s. #music

Once everyone else was doing it, it was safe for the final demographic, the Cool Dads. #celebrities #tmn

Give everyone else instructions on how to write an Amazon or Goodreads review. TMN’s Jessica Francis Kane hosts a genre-reveal party.

How Amanda Bynes and the Teens Saved the Human Race

Thu, 09 May 2013 13:03:18 GMT

by Kevin Fanning

It seems weird now to think that there was a time when the internet was extremely worried about Amanda Bynes. But the internet was different—we were different—before she joined Twitter. Before she began to show us who we really are.

We were still used to who Amanda had been. We did not understand who she was becoming. We expected her to be that skinny little girl with the impossibly loud voice we remembered from All That and What I Like About You. The budding comedian, the next Lucille Ball, so fearless in front of the camera.

Art of the Steal

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:41:14 GMT

by Kristy Eldredge

Western museums aren’t exactly known for possessing sterling records when it comes to acquiring the treasures of foreign countries. So when the Met is pressured to return its valuables, a mea culpa seems due.

May 9, 2013: Morning

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:36:34 GMT

Wisconsin approves bill to require recipients of food stamps to spend at least two-thirds of monthly benefits on food that’s not junk.

Photographs of Chinese farmers’, engineers’, and businessmen’s do-it-yourself projects.

Fewer than 1,000 natural-gas fueling stations exist around the U.S., and many of them are closed to the public

The average conservative reformist output consists of about three articles bashing liberal statism for every one questioning Republican dogma.

Google results show Americans remain far more interested in the Benghazi hearings than the Benghazi attacks.

NASA launches rockets to observe “neutral winds” in the ionosphere.

Learning techniques evaluated and compared; prepare to quit highlighting, summarizing, employing imagery.

Historic pictures of early science labs. #photography

Instructions for East Coast residents on how to build a cicada sensor.

Introduction to the arcane world of eels and eel migration—“probably the most miraculous example of migratory evolution on the planet.”

New studies employing huge, previously unavailable data sets suggest that, in some instances, “hot hands” are real.

Mark Bowden on the detection used to solve a real-life locked-room mystery in Texas.

Covers for well-known books redesigned as if the author of that book was of the opposite gender.

May 8, 2013: Afternoon

Wed, 08 May 2013 15:26:01 GMT

They were not properly shot. Nigerians morgues are flooded with evidence—in the form of corpses—of the military’s war against Islamists.

Bristling at U.S. accusations of hacking, China claims Washington is the “real hacking empire.”

To have a constructive conversation about drones, maybe don’t call them “drones.”

Congress doesn’t have the authority to force the president to violate the laws of war. How Obama can close Gitmo.

Rodman: “I’m calling on the Supreme Leader of North Korea or as I call him ‘Kim’, to do me a solid.”

Following two months of investigation, authorities in Belgium, France, and Switzerland detain 31 suspects in a $50 million diamond heist.

Those two wiggly orange glows are actually the leftover burned-out trails (called trains) from previous meteors! #photography

David Bowie’s latest video is for “The Next Day” and stars Gary Oldman and Marion Cotillard. #video

I’ve gone through many phases in my life. Talking punk at the Met gala. #celebrities

Bad posture can change your skeleton—and your brain. #health

A trip to the research facility in Abkhazia where, in the 1920s, a Soviet biologist tried to inseminate humans with chimp sperm.

May 8, 2013: Morning

Wed, 08 May 2013 10:39:44 GMT

Critics of Keynes say because he was childless he didn’t care about “the long run”—but they don’t understand what he meant by “the long run.”

The law student behind the world’s first 3D-printable gun is a “principled” anarchist who confounds the likes of Glenn Beck.

Elizabeth I might have straightened her hair in a powerful yet stylish short cropped style. Historical figures today.

First representation of Native Americans in Western art discovered in the Vatican’s Borgia Apartment.

It is true that our technology is exploited as part of a stack of technologies used for piracy.

Recent deaths in hip-hop—where youth is worshipped and legends die young—bring new attention to health.

Macklemore and Tyler, the Creator, are the new faces of rap sobriety.

In 1995, future Half Baked co-stars Dave Chappelle and Jim Breuer made a Home Improvement spinoff.

It also implies a work ethic. Women are more attracted to a man holding a guitar.

New study correlates sleep-deprived students in affluent countries to laptops and cell phones.

These are glorious days to run in New York City.

An interactive tool compares Major League Baseball team salaries.

She is survived…by her children Mark, Matt, Lisa, and Maggie. Margaret Ruth (née Wiggum) Groening dies, age 94. #obit

Inside the food-truck business: “This sort of dynamic more or less sums up the economies of the third world.”

May 7, 2013: Afternoon

Tue, 07 May 2013 15:24:12 GMT

The black hole of North Korea intelligence gathering is getting blacker.

Daniel C. Dennett tests a theory that “surely” signals a weak philosophical argument.

Long-tongued bat uses the hair on its tongue—which can extend 50% past its tip—to feed on nectar. #video

If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. Schmidt’s arrogance presaged the Glass backlash.

Thoughts after a week of Glass: It’s a camera with potential.

Minnesota school district introduces bulletproof whiteboards as “an additional layer of protection” for students and teachers.

It’s like throwing a Lolita-themed children’s birthday party. Why contemporizing The Great Gatsby contradicts Fitzgerald’s message.

Oldie but goodie: Obama’s addiction to “is is.” #language

Linguists believe we have around two dozen words that have survived for 150 centuries.

Retired interior designer transcribes 788,000-word King James Bible by hand.

In this week’s gallery, photos from the edges of one of the last true wilderness areas in Western Europe. #tmn

My father…had left the home of his wife and four children in order to find out more about the love he had for another woman.

A train car implodes after filling it with steam and allowing it to cool. #video

Get this look, Twin Peaks edition: the Log Lady, the Giant, and Special Agent Dale Cooper.

A camera-mounted Peregrine Falcon dives and kills a duck in mid-air. #video