October 31, 2013: Morning
- Google and Yahoo outraged yesterday at reports the NSA can collect information "at will" from hundreds of millions of user accounts.
- Dick Cheney re-emerges in order to support the Tea Party and his daughter's campaign for Senate.
- Boston wins the World Series at home for the first time in 95 years.
- In case you missed it: Gassy photographers set off methane-gas detectors at Busch stadium the other night.
- Scientists discover a very close cousin of the SARS virus that lives in bats and can likely jump directly to people.
- Genetics entrepreneur enrolls 400 top physicists and mathematicians to sequence their genomes and find the roots of math genius.
- The huge success of K-pop is overseen by three management companies, who train artists for three years before letting them perform.
- Officials in St. Petersburg find "spy" microchips in tea kettles shipped from China.
- Daughter reminisces about needing to lock away her Halloween candy from her hungry, dieting father.
- NASA captures infrared photograph of Witch Head nebula in Orion, named for its resemblance to a wicked witch.
- Round-up of last-minute, cheap-o Halloween costume ideas for adults.
- You celebrate Halloween by nibbling on candy; you celebrate Samhain by pouring whiskey over a bonfire.
- New trend in Tokyo cafés lets customers drink coffee and relax near owls, and sometimes pet them.
- If you listen to the New York Times dining section, you can spend 8+ hours and $68.11 to make 2½ cups of pub cheese.
- Excellent essay about 12 Years a Slave—"a rare sugarless movie about racial inequality."
- In case you haven't been following, TMN's Matthew Baldwin has spent a month writing about his autistic son.