Brooks: Geithner and Obama saved the global economy and deserve credit.

The case for This American Life as the newest propaganda arm of the conservative movement.

Positive correlation found between a country’s belief in hell and the strength of its economy.

Will Ferrell rated by Forbes as Hollywood’s worst investment property.

Senator Santorum enjoys laughing, but he doesn’t know any jokes. Comedian poses as 10-year-old to get politicians to share jokes.

Louis Armstrong’s memoir of a Jewish family shows his take on the moral failings of his own people.

Analysis of various superheroes’ powers’ scientific properties.

Christo committed to honoring the promise he and Jeanne-Claude made to each other: to continue the work.

Weekend activity: Tell us about your nontraditional holiday traditions.

Long, nuanced account of renegade whaling and contemporary American Indian law.

Slideshow: Death masks of Keats, Robespierre, Lincoln.

Profile of “the world’s most problematic political prisoner,” Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, now its most famous prisoner.

Irish program where young criminals apologize in lieu of imprisonment sees decrease in reoffenders.

Shanghai is obsessed with real estate like New York, and like New York it’s unlike the rest of its country.

Costa Rican scientists build rocket to pick up space garbage.

Op: Now that water’s been discovered on the moon, we can start building our new homes.

Ten senators draw their own states; Saxby Chambliss has no idea what Georgia looks like.

High-falutin’ rock-and-roll dust-up between Radiohead, Fiery Furnaces, and Beck.

Bates Gill, Bill Gates; Milton Glaser discusses drawing while drawing; many bookshelves.

Marines’ PowerPoint, made for other marines, about the softer side of counterinsurgency.

Instapaper for the commute: Riveting story of the feared Texas judge indicted for sex crimes.

See also: Is it wrong to wear your football team’s jersey to church?

Op: Women’s ski jumping is an indicator of cohesive democracy.

Palin’s stylist comes forward to protect her retail honor.

Emeril got bam, I got Shaka. Extended interview with Coolio about cooking.

Story of the single most desired artwork of all time—neither under-protected, nor portable, yet frequently stolen.

Useful general-audience story on how to proactively guard against identity fraud online.

Greater proportion of black people than white people among the internet-using population on Twitter.

Catalog of sources for pictures of hipsters’ interiors.

Minnesota father only spoke Klingon to his child for three years—he’s not a Trekkie, just a businessman selling translation.

Father tells his son the second-worst swearword in the world.

Philip Roth, Nick Cave shortlisted for this year’s Bad Sex prize.

Argument for much more sex to be shown if publishers insist on creating video trailers for new books.

Warhol’s foray into children’s literature: The Little Red Hen.

Some claim doctors’ neckties harbor disease; for physicians who don’t want to lose the air of formality, there is now antimicrobial neckwear.

Exercise makes you less anxious; heavy alcohol consumption reduces risk of heart disease.

Scientists give mummies CT scans, find ancient heart disease.

The five hot dogs that will kill you.

Tell us your unusual, your unique, your nontraditional holiday traditions.

New research says that fearless toddlers are more likely to commit crimes later in life.

I’m at the Brooklyn Bridge, intent on stalking rogue, tour-guideless tourists. TMN’s Leah Finnegan finds out who’s traveling to Brooklyn.

This week, H&H Bagels and B&H Electronics headed into New York courts on unrelated charges.

New York police and prosecutors investigate newspaper delivery union for bribery, favoritism.

Colum McCann wins the National Book Award for fiction; Robert Birnbaum’s 2007 chat with McCann.

Bookmaking illustrated in 3,000 photos.

Sexting takes hold of the elderly.

I invariably observe that the majority of the other hydro-phobes keeping pace with me are firmly in the females-over-fifty set.

Baldwin, Alec, preference for Stephen over, 314. Index for Going Rogue.

Winning in Aghanistan means thinking like an Afghan politician, not a peacebuilder; i.e., think bribes.

The case for suspending mail on Saturdays, seeing how the U.S.P.S. may soon be eliminated entirely.

An E.U. anthem will likely need to avoid its members’ own soldier-y lyrics.

Op: The occupation has eroded Israel’s moral fiber, and now its leaders can slough off charges of war crimes.

Maersk Alabama attacked again by Somali pirates.

Merticus, spokesperson for the Atlanta Vampire Alliance, says vampires “are mostly like anyone else.”

In Pakistan, conspiracy rumors are the currency of people completely locked out of power.

Video: Trailer for Slackistan.

Upset about noise in libraries, gasbag professor of Renaissance studies can’t stop complaining.

Inside the molecular gastronomy lab of Microsoft’s Myhrvold, soon-to-be cookbook author.

Op: Millions spent to market drugs yields billions for Pfizer & Co.—and this disgusting practice needs to stop.

Mega-marathoners: obsessives who run hundreds of marathons, age be damned.

The list doesn’t destroy culture; it creates it. Umberto Eco on lists.

Blockbuster would like its movies back, please.

Op: At best, Palin’s misunderstanding of the Israeli settlement debate is alarming; at worst, it’s dangerous.

Running and losing for vice president has never been a promising route to the Oval Office. History shows why Palin won’t be president.

Slideshow: Insane asylums through the years.

Photos of the H1N1 pandemic—especially worth seeing are the eggs.

Due to heavy rains in the Midwest, pumpkins are in short supply and may not last beyond Thanksgiving.

For this month’s “Of Recent Note,” tell us: What are your nontraditional holiday traditions?

Christoph Niemann finds unusual examples of biodiversity in fallen leaves.

A blog devoted to faux obis: things that are (k)not wood.

Was the movie cheesy, tacky, or corny? English offers more words, more opportunities for nuance.

Video: Visualizing the decline of the British, French, Portuguese, and Spanish empires.

The best books for girls and young women, a companion to the best books for boys and young men.

Most subway riders will give up their seats if you just ask—though the less reason given, the higher your chance of success.

The economics of pinball.

A brief guide to the different ways to tie a scarf.

Slideshow of potential candidates for our next president.

Op: Egyptians playing political games are too stupid to appreciate the artifacts we stole.

Citizen disarmament in Yemen threatens to dull the fun of shooting guns at weddings.

Now that porn is portable, public viewing is increasingly popular, making many uncomfortable.

The game’s perverse achievement was to make me feel bad about myself. The anti-war case for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Evidence shows you shouldn’t trust wine critics, mutual fund managers, or political experts—but you will anyway.

Gladwell calls Pinker a Google wank in a muscly and polite reply to Pinker’s recent critique.

Op: Plagiarism online is called aggregation.

Africa’s frequently called a single country by outsiders—shades on the conundrum from a conference of African writers.

Lovely Paula Fox on New York real estate and L.J. Davis.

A walk through an English cardboard factory.

A map you do not want to possess for your vacation home.

Brooks: China has faith in its future, and it seems to be working—why don’t we?

It is not known why, but West Indian men are three times more likely to die of prostate cancer than white men here in the U.K.

Though emergency rooms can’t discriminate based on ability to pay, the uninsured are 80 percent more likely to die from traumatic injuries.

A woman marries her fiance a year after he died; legal in France, there are dozens of posthumous weddings each year.

This year’s Oxford Word of the Year is “unfriend”: To remove someone as a “friend” on a social networking site such as Facebook.

Tell us: What are your nontraditional holiday traditions?

Geological apocalypse is a better bet. Physicist looks at 2012 prognostications, recommends you continue paying your mortgage.

Illustrator renders Shakespearean plays as graphic novels.

Polish children’s books; the most botched adaptations of children’s books.

TMN’s Sarah Hepola investigates the phenomena of 30-something, book-loving, romance-novel-eschewing women addicted to Twilight.

Man-wolves plague Wisconsin.

There were martyrs on 9/11. They were the firefighters. Profiles of British Islamic fanatics who have given up jihad.

Missing Labrador found after a year lost in the Afghan desert.

Undersea gliders track whales through clicks and squeals.

Nepal’s caste of musicians—untouchables and oral historians—race to catch up with modern times, even if it means wandering less.

Notes on France’s spending a billion euros annually to keep its press alive.

Tour through the “background players” of Obama’s family in Kenya.

South Carolina prisons sell playing cards with unsolved cases as the faces; article finishes with killer closer.

Heavy multitasking impedes efficiency, light multitasking OK.

Slot machines go interactive.

Former prostitute and anonymous blogger Belle du Jour unmasks herself; turns out she’s a doctor in neurotoxicology.

What’s odder than a doctor in neurotoxicology? A link blogger.

Audio: Calvin Trillin eats poutine.

New Yorker writer goes to lunch with a Michelin inspector.

Video: Perhaps the world’s funniest pullback, or, What to Eat at the Pyramids.

Mexicans reverse the fortune, sending much-needed funds to out-of-work relatives in the U.S.

#mathowielove: The Metafilter founder tells how his brain tumor was discovered and treated, and how the internet helps when you need it most.

Those of us who grew up after the Wall fell may never completely understand what it was like before November 9th, 1989.

The coming battleground in the war against smoking in New York: your living room.

What it would look like if New York and Tokyo flooded.

German architect aims to build world’s largest fake mountain.

Interactive map shows the changing American electorate since 1960.

“What’s the recipe?” you ask the weary pro chef, and he gives you a weary-pro-chef look. Adam Gopnik on our fascination with cookbooks.

As we enter the holiday season, Ben Schott queries his readers about their favorite terms for being Dean Martoonied.

Also helpful: Our most dependable hangover cures.

They tried to persuade housewives to bake cookies in the shape of a sun wheel, a form similar to the swastika. How the Nazis stole Christmas.

The recording of a star-packed audio version of the Bible, and the “troubleble with Zerubbabel.”

New wealth tactic: Invest in the companies that make you angriest.

Op: At the very least, it should be government’s job to say what’s inherently governmental (e.g., assassination).

Commie Obama T-shirts banned in Beijing.

Indonesia’s hamburger king turns 13 McDonald’s into Toni Jack’s outlets, complete with pirate logos.

Survey of wristwatches worn by Russian officials.

Before holiday shopping begins, a method for improving all of your online passwords in a few minutes.

It’s one thing to be contrarian about minor things like the economics of sumo wrestling. Clay Risen on the downfall of Freakonomics.

Newly revealed Nazi sympathies may endanger the validity of Hannah Arendt’s work.

Liberia’s laws are being held for ransom by former justice minister.

When it comes to folklore in Indiana, and perhaps beyond, Google’s book-scanning program serves the side of good.

You’ve got to admit that Pluto really pioneered the exploration of that icy zone of the solar system. Ode to Pluto.

Scientist reflects on the first troubled year of the Large Hadron Collider.

Scenes from an alternate universe where The Beatles accepted Lorne Michaels’s offer to be on SNL.

On the set with Octomom—the Catch-22 of needing media attention to support your family.

Sven Birkerts on Updike and Wallace: “two Pisces, their element water, their salient quality mutability.”

Time to kill: Fifty best inventions of 2009; Quizipedia.