May 2, 2014

• Ukraine launches assault on pro-Russian rebels, leading to two helicopters being shot down.
• Russia celebrates the annexation of Crimea with a May Day parade, observed for the first time since the Soviet era.
• A third of international air passengers' passports aren't screened against Interpol's database.
• Despite "soft and cuddly" workplaces, companies are still focused on profitability, not workers' lives and sanity.
• Life as a New York train operator.
• Forty percent of shootings in New York City are linked to gangs of teenagers.
• White House staffers' daily clip packets have been replaced by email alerts from a 24-year-old.
• Grantland's Bill Simmons, internet shit-stirrer and "the most emo sportswriter around," in profile.
• The chastity belt is not a medieval relic, but an innovation of the Victorian era, when masturbation was considered sinful.
• Coates: Elegant racism is alive and well in America; too bad no one told Sterling.
• See also: "House Rules," by This American Life.
• Louis C.K.'s blast against the Common Core—federally approved education standards—resonates with parents who are sick of tests.
• Acid in the Pacific Ocean begins dissolving the shells of sea snails, a major food source for fish that humans like to eat.
• John Jeremiah Sullivan loses a friend to canning.
• Health and Human Services expected to lift a Medicare ban on sex-reassignment surgery.
• Related: Comparative study of teenaged girls and adult male-to-female transsexuals.
• IMDb's worst film is "a movie that’s been sentenced by an angry mob, and is unlikely to shed its apparent punishment any time soon."
• Japanese TV show pits three expert fencers against 50 amateurs.