Headlines from August 5, 2013

Sharia committee bans croissants for their shape, which has been said to celebrate European victory over Muslims.
Successful scientific PR is not necessarily antithetical to valid science, but there’s good evidence of a negative correlation.
Why serial tardiness is ruining your life—and how to turn yourself around. #selfhelp
Surowiecki: To survive in today’s U.S. economy, it’s going to take more than a higher minimum wage.
Because you need a $550 margarita machine: the most expensive kitchen appliances.
See also: In the 1940s, once visions of the future were accepted as absurd, prediction parody began.
TMN’s Mike Deri Smith on tracking down a rape-threatening Twitter troll. #video
An ancient coin discovered in Israel portends what might have happened had Marc Antony won at Actium.
Until 2002, the BBC had banned broadcast of the song “Gloomy Sunday” over concerns that it could cause a suicide epidemic.
Chinese media cracks down on singing-contest programs and their associated melodrama.
Across the U.S., many police budgets depend on assets suspects have forfeited—legally—in exchange for freedom.
I say it tastes like chicken. Jacob says it’s beany. Three Brits take an “epic” road trip from Vegas to Denver. #travel
Photographer Mishka Henner captures Texas’s feedlots and oilfields from above. #photos
What’s fun about video games is not the winning and the losing, but the relief that comes with obedience.
Related: New Yorkers kind of hate Citi Bike because humans are supposed to hate cheaters. #tmn
Wendy Davis succeeded against endemic misogyny to make her voice heard in the male-dominated Texas Capitol. #longreads
Though women are represented at the state level, just one woman, sworn in on Friday, holds office in the entire LA government.
If we cannot face the root issue—that we let people die because we did not like them—AIDS will become a blip on our moral radar.
Hall of Fame defensive tackle Art Donovan, who died yesterday at 89, was one of Letterman’s most popular guests in the ‘80s. #video
A thorough explanation of why New York’s good-intentioned ban on shark fins likely won’t reduce illegal trade.
Designed for astronaut companionship, Kirobo is the first talking humanoid robot to fly into space.
India to halt production of Mumbai’s iconic yellow-capped taxis. #photos
Interesting but ineffective product boycotts.
Artist packs luxurious 12-course meal, including pickled kobe beef and vanilla tuile, into a can.
Australian zoologist-turned-baker makes scientifically realistic cakes that actually look like planets.
Why not just stay at home and look at some exchange student’s Facebook photos? Toby Barlow and TMN’s Rosecrans Baldwin talk Paris.
Many people look at President Bush and see a trajectory that’s not dissimilar from the reappraisal that Harry Truman went through.
Slackers won the American Revolution, and the other reasons why Gen X needs to fix the nation all over again. #tmn
How Brewster’s Millions took the power away from auteurs and placed it back in the hands of studios.
Since the ‘80s, Huntington Beach has changed from a surfer/skater paradise to a neo-Nazi hotbed to a walking ad for sex. #photos