December 22, 2011: Morning
By The Morning News
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- Fourteen coordinated blasts kill at least 63 during Baghdad rush hour, injure around 185.
- Death toll from last week's massive flash flooding in two southern Philippine cities tops 1,000.
- Tropical Storm Washi in pictures.
- China says Christian Bale should be embarrassed; critics say director Zhang continues to look like a propagandist.
- Renditions of famous works by Japanese artist contain thousands of whimsical characters.
- IPad app lets humans play with real pigs—possible because the EU requires farmers to keep their livestock entertained.
- Why Anne Sinclair, Strauss-Kahn's wife, became France's Woman of the Year, or, How French women think.
- For holiday break couch reading: Refresher on how airplanes fly.
- Holiday-appropriate: William Faulkner's hot toddy recipe and other writers' drinks.
- 'Twas a (drunk) night before Christmas, with Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes, and Jim Carrey.
- Economist's guide to gift-giving.
- The gift that keeps on giving: Elif Batuman goes three for three in 2011 for working penis jokes into the New Yorker.
- Helen DeWitt wrote her most recent book, about corporate screwing, because “she felt like she was getting fucked from behind through a hole in the wall” by publishers.
- If you don't see the dead books, turning down a $525,000 deal looks strange.
- Grumpy guide to Christmas.
- Lovely Economist history of "the Amen break"—from tossed-off B-side to the foundation of drum-and-bass.
- Samples of the best Amen breaks.
