2 November 2009: Afternoon

Karzai gets new term after second round of voting is scrapped, and dubious congratulations flitter down.

News events to anticipate for the week ahead.

Taliban assessment: can't be flipped against al Qaeda, and fully aware the U.S. will soon depart.

Profile of Perimeter, the not-exactly-autonomous Soviet doomsday device.

This museum is my school, my magazine, my film, my politics. Pamuk creates a museum for his new novel.

Training journal followed Kenyan runners in New York prior to the marathon.

Genetic variation tied to bad driving.

Zoomable chart of cell size and scale.

Op: If the G.O.P. remains the party of prohibition (on gay marriage and weed), it will increasingly lose "freedom" as part of its DNA.

Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham is the third-highest-earning comedian in America; in 2009, he's grossed $38 million in ticket sales.

Time-lapse photography of one man's Halloween vigil, including data on kids' costumes.

Brief encounter with Stephen King's gore consultant.

There is very little one can say to capture its horror or its brilliance. What it's like to be psychotic.

Study of amputees shows that the brain can move phantom limbs in impossible ways.

Instapaper for the commute: History of murder in America.

Agassi on hating tennis and his father, and beating Jim Brown.

Due to hair loss, Agassi's mullet in the 1990 French Open was a wig.