Headlines from December 5, 2011

Notes on Pakistan’s “memo-gate,” where Zardari is accused of knowing beforehand about the bin Laden raid.
Secrets of the Taliban’s success: America’s mistakes, Pakistan’s support, unending supply of fighters.
Scientists recommend—for environmental reasons, and for better bills—a four-minute shower.
Every human is home to 100 trillion microbes, but what if one of yours yields a new antibiotic? Do you deserve a cut of the profits?
Looking abroad to find various ways that people think about personhood—what if psychology had begun in Korea?
Skateboard perspective of Tokyo streets. #video
Basejumping in Norway. #video
Monday poem (about real estate, sort of): “Developers,” by Alice Lyons.
Trailer for new Wenders’ tribute to Pina Bausch. via #video
Sundance to screen documentary on LCD Soundsystem’s final show.
Publishers don’t shy from using gilded covers to demonstrate the value of hardback books.
Pictures of the Christmas season; #15, of an Amazon fulfillment center, is wild. #photography
It took the English-speaking world nearly 200 years to rediscover Christmas fully, and it happened largely through the songs. History of carols.
“Handy guide to getting just drunk enough at your company’s holiday party.”
With Cain out of the race, Republican critics of Newt Gingrich turn silent.
Catalog of Gingrich’s 156 Amazon reviews.
Early results show Putin’s United Russia party clinging to majority.
Catalog of snooping tools available to governments obtained from attendees of recent surveillance conference.
Obama offers “condolences” to Pakistan’s Zardari over deaths of two dozen soldiers.
FHM India cover stirs pot with nude Pakistani actress wearing an ISI tattoo. (One cover story: seven drinks, 14 nuts.)
Could the double agent not have turned triple, and become a rampant Thatcherite? Anthony Lane on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
Time to end the reign of Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” before it damages us further. #opinions
Oldie but goodie: Excerpt from Ted Conover’s book about being a prison guard. #longreads
White criminals seeking presidential pardons over the past decade have been nearly four times as likely to succeed as minorities.
Half-Norwegian, half-Taiwanese applicant to Harvard increases her chances by clicking the “white” box.
Why nice guys really do finish last, or at least make significantly less money.
Brief history of America’s ways of mourning and ideas about death.
Eight Ferraris, Lamborghini in $4 Million Pile-Up; two Mercedes passing by injured by flying parts.
Vintage maps of New York annotated.