Headlines from October 16, 2013

Liveblogging the debt negotiations as tomorrow morning’s default deadline looms.
It’s a problem, and it’s going to affect us. Nations with a history of default weigh in on America’s debacle.
Every day the NSA collects an estimated half-million address lists from live-chat services and web-based email.
The government has kept using Windows XP and Server 2003 despite warnings from the National Security Agency.
See also: Paul Ford divines the Healthcare.gov moral—transparency won’t thrive behind closed doors.
It’s well known that women in tech earn less; it’s not as well known that in 1842, Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer program.
Eight years after spending $5 billion on a new camo pattern, the U.S. Army plans to replace it for another $4 billion.
See also: The federal government’s official color palette—yes, it has one—controls much of what we see. #tmn
The contrast between the constitutionally protected free speech of the USA and the many legal restraints on speech in the UK is really striking.
After three were charged with rifles at a San Antonio Starbucks, gun advocates plan an open-carry protest at the Alamo.
A Tunisian pro tennis player’s withdrawal from a match with an Israeli isn’t over a tender knee, but rather his country’s politics.
Related: Roddick and Blake are headed to the senior circuit—putting it that way is more about snappy headlines than age.
On their way to becoming entirely spherical, American males are getting heavier and shorter. #health
In the early 1960s, BBC Talent Selection Group called Elton John “a wonky singer” and David Bowie tuneless.
Answering machine recordings set to a nostalgic musical score.
The recipient of a calligraphy pen turns texting into an art form.
I think that the internet helped save my life. Nearly two years ago, Xeni Jardin tweeted her breast cancer diagnosis.
The peculiar effects of the knavish lad cupid. A brief history of lust intercepting foreign policy.
The journey to Mecca is not what it was 100 years ago; hotels dot the landscape, one so grand it towers over the Kaaba. #photos
Snorkeler finds carcass of 18-foot-long oarfish, a creature that normally roams 3,000 feet under the ocean surface.
Overfishing by humans has turned the food chain upside down, and it’s jellyfish that are floating to the top.
Sea creatures—e.g., sea pigs, wolf-bird whales—on pre-17th century maps reflect shifting perceptions of the sea.
Archaeological dig finds the English were eating frogs’ legs 8,000 years before the French.
In a highly improbable find, a 46-million-year-old mosquito fossil with blood in its abdomen is discovered in Montana.
Study measuring handprints on cave paintings suggests most neolithic artwork was drawn by women.
In the Micronesian island of Yap, limestone discs can be used as currency.
You know that this is purely a financial transaction. UK bureau suspects one in five urban marriages are shams.
Report: More than five million babies have now been born through assisted reproductive technologies.
Neil Gaiman: “There is no such a thing as a bad book for children.”
See also: Young readers from across the globe talk about their latest read. #tmn
He’s Dating Who?!? and other popular books if they had clickbait titles.
Bike sculptures hover over a French canal, casting dramatic shadows in the water.
Hans Riegel, Haribo founder and inventor of the gummy bear, dies at 90. #obit