* Most areas of the U.S. are the coldest in nearly 20 years—some cities are 30 to 50 degrees below average. * Not that you'll need it today, but: A guide to where you should put your sunglasses when you head inside. * Mountains in areas without glaciers get
* Indonesian miners' use of mercury to expedite gold production takes a devastating environmental, human toll. * Cocaine trafficking has claimed more lives than the Spanish Inquisition—ongoing deaths are equal to Nazi Germany. * Developing countries' obesity rates far exceed industrial nations'; China and Mexico's figures have
* In China, one in five children—about 61 million kids—live in rural villages without their parents. * Wal-Mart China's latest scandal. * Photos document the new identities of buildings that used to be Pizza Huts. * Twenty years after the Zapatista rebellion, indigenous Mexican tribes still denied entry or
We gathered writers and thinkers to consider everything that happened over the past 12 months and asked them: What were the most important events of 2013—and what were the least?
* Charity Navigator offers a holiday giving guide and tools to evaluate charities' ethics and effectiveness. * The Equal Justice Initiative believes the opposite of poverty is not wealth—it's justice. * Habitat for Humanity Greater Los Angeles works everyday to fight the affordable housing crisis. * GiveDirectly will, as its
* Marks & Spencer prompts outrage after allowing Muslim employees to refuse selling customers pork and alcohol. * Following the Target breach, Chase would rather limit cardholders' purchases than invest in real security. * Why Snapchat matters: Because an erasable internet is a comfort that's the polar opposite of Facebook.
* Obama stays home and instead sends three openly gay athletes as part of his Olympic delegation to Sochi. * Billboard in Coimbatore, India commemorates Morgan Freeman instead of Nelson Mandela. * Lapham: "All jokes are inside jokes and the butts of them are us, the only animal that laughs, but also
* Obama's panel says the NSA shouldn't collect phone data, but critics see a path to continue untargeted spying. * Drone strike kills a dozen and injures more at a wedding in Yemen—the kind of strike that fuels rather than diminishes al Qaeda. * Patriarch of Duck Dynasty
* This November was the warmest one since 1880; in fact, the 10 warmest Novembers on record have happened in the past 15 years. * Map of mishaps that have occurred so far during the 2014 Sochi Olympic torch relay. * Unsuccessfully marketed as an American patriot, Snowden has now rebranded himself as
* Federal district judge says the NSA's program of tracking all Americans’ phone calls most likely violates the Constitution. * The Pentagon's JROTC program recruits future soldiers from high schools in struggling neighborhoods. * Detroit-area high school is nation's first entirely "flipped" school. * U.
