August 27, 2013: Morning
- UK draws up contingency plans for military action in Syria; Russia warns of "catastrophic consequences."
- Kerry's speech marked the harshest American condemnation of the slaughter in Syria to date; it didn't mean we're going to war.
- Assad's use of chemical weapons has been gradual—for internal reasons and to test Western reaction.
- Zurich installs drive-in zone for prostitutes to move sex business away from the city center.
- Related: Nordic hotel magnate replaces porn-on-demand with performance art videos in anti-trafficking campaign.
- Report from Tokyo's co-sleeping café, where ¥3,000 buys 40 minutes; add-ons include eye contact and head pats.
- New cameras installed on Ford assembly lines can spot a single speck of dust on a new car.
- Investigation into the big business of buying and selling blood after you've donated it at a local blood bank.
- Multiple buyers and sellers mean six liters of saltwater can cost $546 by the time you get an IV at the hospital.
- See also: "Things They Don’t Tell You When You Check Yourself Into a Mental Hospital."
- Cartoon shows Bruce Wayne to be an irrational philanthropist prior to becoming Batman.
- Madonna's latest world tour made her 2013's top-earning celebrity with $125 million.
- Elements of a tennis ball used at Wimbledon stop at 11 countries and travel more than 50,000 miles before reaching a court.
- New York Times archive of tennis writing since 1928.
- Reviewing Djokovic's career, the New Yorker finds, among other things, "a much more polite Kanye West."
- Billie Jean King says ESPN report's claim that the Battle of the Sexes was fixed is ridiculous.
- Tracking down an overhead on opening day, Nadal may have already hit this year's U.S. Open's best shot.