Headlines from September 6, 2011

Over a thousand homes in Texas destroyed by wildfires; 23 fires and counting.
The scandal around Chirac isn’t about him skipping court for being sick; it’s about French justice avoiding him for so long.
Teddy Wayne interprets Dick Cheney’s post-9/11 dreams.
See also: Teddy Wayne exists in Bret Easton Ellis’s orbit.
“Mexican military helicopters have permission to use Texas as a staging ground for missions into Mexico to fight drug traffickers.”
Celebrity testimonials and unproven treatments push sports medicine into the realm of pseudoscience.
Push style to the extreme and it becomes substance. Oregon’s football power attributed to uniform design.
New favorite celebrity-interviewing format: “7 Minutes in Heaven,” e.g., with Kristen Wiig. #video
Non-hugger attends cuddling workshop.
1776 Britons spoke more like Americans than today’s Britons.
We may not know the etymology of “nerd”, but short form of ne’er-do-well isn’t a terrible guess.
Best way to reduce stress of replying to email or crafting perfect messages: use the phone.
The Thousand, by TMN’s Kevin Guilfoile, out today in paperback with a kick-ass new cover.
See also: New cover for You Lost Me There, by TMN’s Rosecrans Baldwin.
Americans are good at vacationing. We can vacation our pants off. (It literally happens with us middle-age men.) P.J. O’Rourke condemns summer.
Physics, effects of different tennis court surfaces.
Luc Sante defends his enormous library.
August becomes first month with no U.S. military deaths in Iraq since 2003.
Interpol chief says the web has replaced Afghanistan as terrorists’ main training ground.
Hatfields and McCoys feuded from the Civil War until 1890, and again in 1947; but 9/11 brought them together.
Remnick: This tenth anniversary is a marker, not an end.
Forget New York: Singapore is the world’s greatest city, and the ideal capital of a federal world. #opinions
Texas battles worst fire season in state history.
Researchers debate existence of Zomia, anarchist Asian state where people are “barbarians by design.”
Being driven crazy by others’ eating noises now has a name: misophonia.
Scientists discover what part of the brain to stimulate in order to reduce conformity.
Long mocked, the bassoon is having a comeback in Gaga and Kanye’s music, all-“oonist” bands.
Ten years ago, there were half a dozen M.D./M.B.A. programs; now there are 65.
Bankers in the U.S. have been paid $2.2 trillion over the past five years; investors would do better to reward productive companies.
Advice for teenagers from Joss Whedon, Jack Black, Zooey Deschanel.
Letters written from professional animators to amateur animators.
Hourly differences in words used on Twitter.
Jaron Lanier on Marxism, information sharing, and the internet making the middle class poor. #longreads
Wealthy attendees at Burning Man redefine “radical self-reliance” with private jets, chefs, and RVs.