* Ahmadinejad says he's ready to be the first human sent into orbit by Iran's space program. * Economist debuts interactive Big Mac Index, a tool "to make exchange-rate theory more digestible." * Tyler Cowen reads every word in a late December issue of India Today.
* It was a lovely photograph, but there is a sense of privacy in a moment like that, and they didn't ask. * How the ancient Greeks viewed weapons. * Hemingway probably never wrote the six-word story "for sale, baby shoes, never worn." * British jails identify food distributor
* Since President Obama took office, the U.S. has executed more than 300 covert drone attacks in Pakistan; now the drones are coming home. * Worth remembering: If Canada exploits its tar sands' oil, and we do nothing, it will be game over for the climate. * In New York, 65%
* Der Spiegel: Germany's continued failure to return Nazi-looted property is "a moral disaster." * After flubbing a Holocaust question on TV, Russian twins visit Auschwitz. * Author Teddy Wayne records a cover version of a song written by a character in his new novel. * National Review columnists
* Fourteen-year-old student wounded in a shooting yesterday outside a middle school in Atlanta. * Fifteen-year-old honors student, shot and killed after school on Tuesday, previously starred in a video urging fellow students to avoid gangs. * Study: "Stand your ground" gun laws increase manslaughters and murders
* Breakdown of recent arguments around a favorite conservative concept: the hidden prosperity of the poor. * Photos from Hillary Clinton's 956,733 miles traveled as secretary of state. * Chinese court finds two Tibetans guilty of urging self-immolation, sentences one to death, the other to prison for 10 years.
* While Giffords and the NRA's LaPierre addressed the Senate, another mass shooting took place in Arizona. * NRA admits it doesn't support the idea of extending background checks to gun shows. * As of 1998, for every time a woman used a handgun to kill in self-defense,
* Updated Google Maps of North Korea reveal gulags, nuclear complex. * Related: "North Korea Won't Be Liberated in a Day" by Mike Deri Smith. * More of 2012 best nonfiction in Conor Friedersdorf's annual journalism roundup. * Why Palestine should take Israel to the International Criminal Court
* Brief guide to players, groups, and motivating factors in Mali's political crisis. * Four issues about "securing the border" that won't figure in the debate—like increased drug trafficking not leading to "spillover" violence. * Brazil's nightclub tragedy—230 dead—has some
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