Headlines from May 29, 2013

Interviews with Syrians who say they’ve witnessed atrocities. #video
Some manufacturers are absolutely swapping in cheap Chinese materials. Solar industry faces quality concerns.
China is building a city in Belarus as a manufacturing gateway between Russia and the EU.
With North America set to dominate the world’s energy production by 2020, Saudi Arabia must respond carefully in order to survive.
How Jeffrey Katzenberg and his money helped the Democrats destroy Mitt Romney.
Depending on what you care most about, Australia is the happiest country in the world.
The defeat did not, as pundits predicted, cause the activists’ momentum to dissipate. The end of the NRA. #longreads
The invisible knife in my gut was not psychosomatic; my nerves had simply been cut too often, the doctors explained.
But, like most kids, she adapted. The girl who turned to bone. #longreads
The Longform guide to adaptations.
TMN’s Jessica Francis Kane on Marcus Aurelius: “His words helped me get to the desk, and stay there.”
Related: Jessica Francis Kane explains how to take a vacation while keeping your family and your work ethic intact. #tmn
It’s also one of the smallest terrestrial flowers in the world. Newly discovered species from 2012. #photos
Elizabeth Kiem remembers when cicadas invaded the Eastern Coast—and her sister’s wedding. #tmn
Flouting safety warnings, contestants meet near Glouster to roll cheese down a hill, as they’ve done for at least 200 years. #photos
The full game from Dennis Rodman and the Harlem Globetrotters’ trip to North Korea. #video
The next stage in “sad Keanu” is 3D-printed sad Keanu.
After 70 years, U.S. recognizes army volunteers who fought in Alaska during World War II as veterans.
Carbon dating tests show mislabeled Torah in Bologna is actually 850 years old—possibly the world’s oldest.
Disturbing treatise from 1543 reveals Martin Luther as an anti-Semite whose beliefs propagated the Holocaust.
Some speculate anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis could be behind historical descriptions of what was believed to be demonic possession.
It’s the single biggest threat to vertebrate diversity in the world. A fungus is wiping out amphibian species.
What happens inside the cocoon when a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. #video
Photographer Kerényi Zoltán overlays anachronistic photos of places with his own photos of the exact same locales.
Related: Julien Donada sends postcards to himself from the past, then revisits what the cards depict in the present. #tmn
In China, exact replicas of European towns are viewed as “a form of mastery” rather than kitsch.
This is not Chopin’s exciting polonaise happening in the moment with everything on the line. On Liberace’s musical substance.
I raise my beers toward him and head back to the music, nodding at the man with the machine gun as I enter.
The video for Ai Weiwei’s heavy metal song “Dumbass” depicts an “inch-accurate” version of his cell. #video
On Monday, his 91st birthday, actor Christopher Lee released a heavy metal album, Charlemagne: The Omens of Death.
Fretboard heatmaps depict how often musicians play certain notes on guitar. #charts
Why some hand gestures survive while others die out—and why, eventually, we may not need any at all.
A compendium of celebrities’ middle fingers. #photos
If frogs drank beer, this might well be it. Pairing classic video games with craft brews.
How to take the boring out of Monopoly: Play it as it was originally intended. via