Headlines from February 16, 2012

Frantic gestures by top Iranian officials arrive at tense time, and are read by some as provocations.
Fake news of Putin’s arrest goes viral.
Italy’s financial reforms can be praised, but political reform must follow.
Sarkozy joins Twitter.
“Isn’t Xi Lovely?” (Or “Xi Will Be Loved.”) Headlines editors shouldn’t use to discuss Xi Jinping’s visit to America.
Sports reporter gets away with saying Jeremy Lin has a small penis.
Gawker explains Jeremy Lin’s rise and why you should care.
The NBA’s style of scouting talent could be just as lucky relying on a coin flip.
Chomsky: American decline can perhaps be stemmed if we abandon hope for decent survival.
Free copies offered (limited time) for book billed as In Cold Blood meets contemporary Tokyo.
Chart shows how many Americans over 50 can perform division (very few).
Chart: Dickens’s sales figures in his lifetime.
People are less grudging of entrepreneurs’, artists’, and athletes’ wealth, whereas bankers’ bonuses seem ludicrous.
Notes on how to scare a tree into giving you fruit.
Conversation in MMS on the merits of Las Vegas, New York, and having sex with sharks.
Do they eat each other’s faces? No! Sophia Loren says young actors should kiss like Bergman and Grant in Notorious.
Pew finds electronic registration would trim two million deceased voters from U.S. rolls.
Groups hope to recycle the 25 million pounds of beads thrown at Mardi Gras every year.
Trustees may revive a 40-year-old “urban laboratory” in the Arizona desert as a retirement resort.
With vast natural resources and a leadership that may be open to new ideas, businesses hunger for North Korea.
Pre-revolutionary Iran: jet-setters’ destination of choice, rife with inequality. #photography
Tracing the history of library sex, from dirty 1526 manuscripts to today’s paperbacks.
MRIs and willing participants show it’s possible to prove that you love someone more.
The 1982 video-game guide—with a foreword by Spielberg—that Martin Amis disowns.
Outtakes from The Beatles’ Abbey Road cover shoot.
Researchers find a connection between slow walking and developing dementia later in life.
We don’t know the exact etymology of “balderdash,” but we know it probably meant something bad.