* 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. * Snorkeler finds carcass of 18-foot-long oarfish, a creature that normally roams 3,000 feet under the
* White House rejects House Republicans' counterproposal that tacks on more changes to Obamacare. * After the Balkans and before the war on terror, a military guide to PsyOps. * When a woman kisses a man, she might be subconsciously detecting and scrutinizing his chemical signals. * Doctors worry a new wave of
* The deal to end the shutdown, and how it could still go wrong. * The shutdown halts NIH's ability to approve new treatment in drug trials for 200 people a week, many of them fatally ill children. * Since the shutdown began, the White House's vegetable garden has
* Columbus Day does not commemorate discovery, but, rather, the ambiguous "landing." * Vent your shutdown frustrations: Take a drink, enter your number, and drunk dial Congress. * While you sleep, your brain moves memories from short-term to long-term storage. * In a very short period Mozambique saw colonialism, post-
* More Snowden fallout as all major internet organizations unanimously move to end U.S. online dominance. * Buzzfeed is going global by crowdsourcing the translation of its content to foreign-language speakers learning English. * A new report finds only a third of the global population between 15 and 24 are true
* 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
