January 29, 2014
- Obama delivers modest State of the Union address, vowing solo action for remainder of his term.
- Fact-checking the State of the Union.
- The GOP's replacement plan for Obamacare is actually the party's first step away from the idea that it's going to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
- Mexico integrates vigilante groups into official forces to combat cartels in western state of Michoacan.
- Axolotl, or Mexican walking fish, are most likely completely extinct; in 2003, there were 1000 per square kilometer.
- UK monarchy's household finances are at a historic low of £1 million—a loss of £25 million over the last decade.
- Life expectancy in India jumps five years within a decade, a result of better healthcare and nutrition.
- Political parties in India prefer candidates with criminal backgrounds because they often can fund their own campaigns.
- In urban neighborhoods, McDonald’s restaurants are ready-made NORCs—Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities.
- Northwestern University football players attempt to form a labor union for college athletes.
- Eugenie Bouchard is the latest female athlete to experience the media's focus on sex and the Twitter world's misogyny.
- Bruce Springsteen's birthday tribute to Pete Seeger.
- Allan Seager: One of America’s greatest writers ever to be forgotten, despite being Hemingway's superior.
- The $1 bill has had the same design since 1929, partly because the vending machine industry might collapse if it changed.
- Excerpts from an 1897 Sears-Roebuck Catalog.
- Digital retouching has its origins in the 1500s, with Medici court painters and El Greco modifying form for style.
- Will collections of today’s authors’ correspondence include emoticons? A look at the last gasps of letter writing.