A man sits on a couch
The Pentagon reports a second suspected Chinese spy balloon flying over Latin America. / The Guardian
Residents in North Carolina are asked not to take potshots at the first balloon. / Twitter
On the China-Russia border, locals explain why Putin isn't a pariah to them. / The Economist
Esteban Almiron (from December): Argentina has been trapped for two centuries in unpayable external debt owed to foreign imperial powers. / Geopolitical Economy
Unrelated: Baroque paper wigs host fleets of ships. / Colossal
In California, twice as many voters think it's more important to control gun ownership than it is to protect gun rights. / The Los Angeles Times
Analyses find the primary benefits from the Democrats' big green energy investment are flowing to Republican red-state strongholds. / Noema
Two teams of physicists have made photons act as if time were simultaneously flowing in two directions. / Quanta Magazine
When you drink coffee, caffeine's effect is "more a loan of the awake feeling, rather than a creation of any new energy." / The Conversation
From 1792: "A Treatise Concerning the Properties and Effects of Coffee." / Public Domain Review
The best review we've seen of the Prince Harry book has a good opening paragraph about penguins. / The London Review of Books
Looking ahead at some of the big questions facing generative AI app companies. / a16z
What it's like to work as an account manager at OnlyFans: "It's so gross, but it's also kind of easy." / Words From Eliza
A favorite weird website of the week: A man asks a camera to surveil him for a year and interpret his actions. / A Man Sitting on a Couch Looking at Something
See also: The Wikipedia poem "Growing" by Olly Bromham, via WebCurios. / Olly Bromham, WebCurios
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Your headlines are sourced and written by Andrew Womack and Rosecrans Baldwin, Monday through Saturday. View this edition and the latest headlines at TMN.