* A new Gallup poll finds most Americans feel dysfunctional government is the top problem America faces. * Nations' internet populations juxtaposed with the size of their actual populations. * Mexican drug cartel kidnaps Spanish band Delorean for 30 hours; John Talabot and Pional cancel tours over safety concerns. * See also: Talabot
* Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons wins Nobel Peace Prize as inspectors begin arriving in Syria. * See also: Photographic visits to the offices of Nobel Laureates. * Credit accorded to the Nobel Academy and Alice Munro for finally rewarding "a genuinely popular" writer. * China's top whistleblowers
* Single chart shows the Republicans' shifting demands before they refund the federal government. * See also: Cartoon explains the purpose and colorful history of the debt ceiling. * The government shutdown is basically the best news ever for money launderers. * Just because you don’t want to pay for health insurance
* Scenario of what a default could look like, especially if John Boehner gets into a car accident on October 16. * Yay, let's end the U.S. government and move back to the old worlds from which the majority of us came. * Janet Yellen, nominated to lead the Federal
* A government shutdown worst-case scenario is happening as a Salmonella outbreak reaches 18 states. * Especially at a time of war, any threat to the Treasury's financing is a threat to national security. * See also: Everything you need to know—in cartoon form—about debt-ceiling fiascos, from
* Main NSA data center in Utah, which uses enough energy to power 33,000 houses, experiences electrical issues. * MI5 agent defends British surveillance. * See also: Apology notes from the NSA to private citizens. * Kuwait claims it has the technology to detect homosexuals—an actual gaydar—and will use it to
* Q&A with Assad. * See also: Pictures from 2012-2013 by a photojournalist embedded with a Free Syrian Army militia in Aleppo. * Banksy parodies Syrian rebel videos as part of his monthlong New York residency. * Related: Banksy converts a New York delivery truck into a mobile garden—complete with
* Pro-shutdown House Republicans are holed up in a conservative narrative that isn't entirely crazy—but it's close enough. * Surowiecki: For small businesses and entrepreneurs, the benefits of Obamacare are enormous. * Area family putting a little money away to one day blow on single health scare.
* An uninsured physician's assistant faces a health crisis. * In response to a grassroots movement, Swiss government to vote whether to introduce an unconditional income for all adults. * During the 1950s, the average French person worked 300 more hours a year more than the average American. * Inside the exclusion
* U.S. credits Assad for eliminating Syria's chemical weapons. * Hallway, bathroom, and other informal talks between Congress members offer hope for an end to the government shutdown. * We won't actually know if the Tripoli raid counts as any sort of a triumph either until we see.
