The ICC's warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant sent shockwaves, but don't expect the Court to rock American Exceptionalism, an "assertion of who the rules apply to and who they don't." / Forever Wars

The first known H5N1 infection in a child in the US was confirmed last week, marking the 55th human case so far this year. / CDC

A database of the Federal Reserve board's meeting minutes from 1967 to 1973 uncovers a secret history that's often humdrum, but sometimes nearly disastrous. / Notes on the Crises

Unrelated: "Anyone can buy data tracking US soldiers and spies to nuclear vaults and brothels in Germany." / WIRED

Whether to get rich or simply to make music, people use Suno for different reasons, but one thing seems clear: Copyright laws need updating. / Can't Get Much Higher

If podcasts are your thing, it's because of the people behind the microphones. So how could AI podcasts ever be a thing for anyone? / Internal Exile

How the "cozy gaming" trend is influencing AI device makers, who want us to feel our digital companions are more than tools. / The New Yorker

See also: "Several AI-based study tools are capitalizing on a 'PDF to Brainrot' trend, which will read the text of a document you upload over 'oddly satisfying' videos." / TechCrunch

More than a decade after the Times spent months covering the troubled teens on a Tennessee basketball team, checking in with the Lady Jaguars. / The New York Times [+]

A six-and-a-half-hour supercut of Tom Verlaine's guitar solos stitched together from 50 different bootlegs of "Marquee Moon." / Ty Burr's Watch List

Hundreds of Beavers, the indie slapstick Everything Everywhere All at Once's co-director called "the future of cinema"—is now streaming for free and you need to see it. / AP, YouTube

"How queuing for stuff became just as important as buying it." / The Face

A chilling, immersive remembrance of Kristallnacht through the eyes of those who were there, 86 years later. / Inside Kristallnacht

"This coming Thanksgiving will be the first without her." Alice Brock of Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant" dies at 83. / WBUR

After 800 years of dormancy, Iceland's geological systems reactivated in 2021; since then, a volcano near Reykjavík has erupted 10 times. / Reuters

The discovery of a mummified saber-toothed tiger cub is providing scientists a first-ever glimpse of the species, and providing answers to long-held questions. / National Geographic

To understand the debate over fluoridated water, look to Portland, Ore., where the water remains fluoride-free, and the locals are still divided on the topic. / The Washington Post [+]

It may be nice to think science should be apolitical, but at this moment it isn't, and that's why the removal of Scientific American's editor-in-chief is such a loss. / Defector

Related: Do California teachers have the right to slam Donald Trump? / Los Angeles Times

"The backlash against incumbents is real, but it is only indirectly related to factual information about inflation and the economy." / Econbrowser

A Q&A with the author of a book about the secret worlds that exist only for the super-rich, who make their own laws and rarely abide by them. / Coda

Did AI art just pass the Turing test? Only if you're comparing AI output to "JPEGs of photographs of paintings." / Read Max

See also: A visit to the Met's staff art show, "the most enjoyable exhibition I've seen in recent memory." / The Loaf

New to us, but, German Chocolate Cake isn't German and Baker's Chocolate isn't for bakers—both were instead named after people. / Kottke.org

You know the disclaimer movies include that states the film isn't based on anyone living or dead? It's there because of a lawsuit over the death of Rasputin. / Interconnected

"You experience a decrease in dopamine and norepinephrine, due to the decreased activity of the reward system cells." The neuroscience of heartbreak. / Mapping Ignorance

Rooster fans rejoice: Here it is, the 2025 Tournament of Books long list. / The Tournament of Books

"All you could see were toys, toys, and toys, like a fabulous toy land." New Yorkers recall shopping before the internet. / New York Magazine

The International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Israel's prime minister and former defence minister, and Hamas's military commander. / BBC News

A recap of Gaza resolutions the UN's Security Council has voted on since last October. / Al Jazeera

Consulting firm McKinsey is said to have a client list "that reads as the 'whodunit' of the climate crisis." / The Guardian

Unrelated: Confessions of a repentant Wagner disinformation agent from the Central African Republic. / Le Monde

Roughly 57% of the world's population is now connected to the mobile internet, though the rate of growth is slowing. / rest of world

An investigative journalist who's never had a smartphone considers getting one that was previously only available to the military. / 404 Media

Regarding yesterday's news about robot dogs, one just completed a full-course marathon. / The Register

See also: A developer released what he's billing "the world's first AI street hawker." / Ted Benson

In the 1930's young, working women divided a week into "48 hours working, 56 hours sleeping, 31 hours on home obligations, and 24 hours eating or running errands." / The One Percent Rule

Explaining what the "women in male fields" TikTok trend is about. / Screenshot

A video report from Europe's recent Tramdriver Championship. / YouTube

The great sports writer Louisa Thomas on Rafael Nadal's legacy: "No match was over until it was over; and then it was over." / The New Yorker

Footage from 1910 shows Leo Tolstoy's final days, right to his deathbed. / Open Culture

See also: A calculator can tell you a famous person's "net elevation" from birth to death. / Avi Bagla

Negotiators at COP29 are stalled on how much money to raise for climate action in developing countries, "and how to raise it." / Semafor

A new generation of cheaper batteries is increasingly popular with EV automakers. / Canary Media

The TSA expects to screen 18.3 million travelers next week. / The Points Guy

Singapore is said to be the only global city that meets the "3+30+300 rule" for greener and more heat tolerant cities. / The Conversation

Trump wants to expand fossil fuel production—a breakdown of how he can accomplish it. / Vox 

See also: A new gas plant is being proposed to power a $5 billion Louisiana data center. / floodlight

Some old and new theories on whether we're accidentally building a planetary brain. / Noema

"AI pimping" refers to AI-generated influencers that are created from videos of adult content creators. / 404 Media

Unrelated: Mar-a-Lago is being patrolled by robot dogs. / BBC News

A Magritte painting sells for $121 million at Christie's. At Phillips, a Basquiat self-portrait doesn't sell at all. / artsy, The Art Newspaper

What is it like to be an art detective? "When they find out you lied to them, they shoot you." / Atlas Obscura

When is it okay to send wine back? When "it smells like a waterlogged cellar." / Esquire

From September, what if the United States had stuck with Art Deco? "It was the last ornamental architectural style before an infestation of austere cubes." / Fashionably Late Takes

A photo series highlights horse culture in South Africa. / Booooooom

San Marino, the world's bottom ranked soccer team, wins its first away game ever. / BBC Sport

"I'm not a very superstitious person, but you took it to the next level." Roger Federer sends Rafael Nadal a nice note for his final tournament. / NPR

Ukraine fires "longer-range" ballistic missiles into Russia on the 1,000th day of war. / CNN

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country may face 100,000 North Korean troops. / The Guardian

How has the Assad government maintained control in Syria despite 13 years of civil war? By becoming a "narco state" dependent on captagon. / The New Yorker

China is moving quickly to ramp up domestic production of semiconductors. / Nikkei Asia

AI-generated police reports are said to be a sign of what's to come. / MIT Technology Review

Related: A leak shows what "Graykey," a phone-unlocking tool used by law enforcement, can get from your iPhone. / 404 Media

"Planet Nine" refers to a potential planet orbiting 10 times farther from the sun than Neptune. / Phys.org

Three trends to explain a supposed decline in scientific innovation—and the answer is "epistemic anarchy?" / City Journal

A Utah forest of 47,000 aspen trees—named Pando—is actually a single interconnected organism. / Nature

See also: Audio recordings from the world's first certified "wilderness quiet park" in Ecuador. / Quiet Parks

Americans aren't just buying more toys for their kids than they used to, "they're also buying them differently." / Vox

Allison Willmore: Men are unwell, but they deserve better than Gladiator II. / Vulture

Unrelated: Photos of Eric Wareheim's loft apartment. / Domino

Layered photographs of starling murmurations. / Colossal

An explanation for how magician David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear in 1983. / Open Culture

In trade journals, agriculture experts worry Trump's combination of RFK Jr. and tariffs could chill their $1.5 trillion industry. / NPR

See also: Under Trump, the future of Medicare drug price negotiations—one of Biden's key domestic policy achievements—is now uncertain. / Roll Call

Polls indicate Americans favor deporting undocumented immigrants—but only when the question doesn't mention people who've lived here a long time, work, and have no criminal record. / CNN

"Apparently some people think it makes us look like Nazis." Trump allies have been told to stop referring to their planned immigration detention facilities as "camps." / Rolling Stone

There must be merits to boredom; after all, examples abound for all the ways capitalism treats it as a threat to society. / The Flaw

See also: From an OSS handbook, how ordinary citizens can disrupt enemy operations—or, the art of doing dumb shit. / ZINE

"There are just too many people walking too slow, filming themselves, or waiting on long lines that I have to push past because they want to try some mid bagel place." Missing a lonely New York. / The Melt

It's estimated that around four percent of the world's population hear the Hum—a persistent, rumbling noise that remains a mystery to scientists. / The Independent

A new solar-powered desalination system provides drinking water at lower costs by adjusting to changes in sunlight, requiring no extra batteries. / MIT

Genetic analysis of the quaking aspen tree Pando, one of the world's largest and oldest plants, shows it's between 16,000 and 80,000 years old. / Nature

Fifty years after scientists transmitted the Arecibo Message to prove a radio message could traverse the galaxy, it's still on its way to the star cluster Messier 13. / JSTOR Daily

In a single day, more music is released now than it was in all of 1989, and music software companies are cashing in through recurring subscriptions. / MusicRadar

See also: Re-listen to the Hood Internet's mashup of 50 songs from 1989 into a single three-minute track. / YouTube

Clips from TV pilots that didn't make it past the first episode, even with some really big names attached. / Ironic Sans

Screenshots of personal epiphanies in the Notes app. / Dirt

A bankruptcy judge has halted The Onion's purchase of Infowars, claiming concerns over the transparency of the auction. / Bloomberg Law

How the planned construction of a Trump golf course near Hanoi might affect Vietnam's relations with the incoming administration. / The Diplomat

Now that the election is over, lifestyle influencers are free to admit they were MAGA all along. / Defector

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear warns Democrats against abandoning LGBTQ causes in hopes of winning over voters. / them

Between 2020 and 2023, about 63% of counties classified as rural or in small metros saw an increase in arrivals aged 25 to 44, compared to 27% between a decade prior. / Business Insider

"For science to be effective, it simply cannot be efficient." When efficiency experts come for science, science doesn't happen. / Slate

According to a new study, poorer nations will need at least $1 trillion a year to cut emissions and deal with climate disasters. / The Guardian

On an expedition to the Solomon Islands, scientists have discovered what's thought to be the world's largest coral—it's about the size of five tennis courts. / ABC

In 1916, just one year after the first transcontinental phone call, the first teleconference occurred, simultaneously connecting 5,100 engineers across the US. / IEEE Spectrum

See also: "When she got home in the morning it indicated that she had danced enough to cover thirty-one miles." Pedometers were once a form of surveillance tech. / The MIT Press Reader

The Texas Funeral Service Commission says a state medical school's practice of liquefying cadavers after training and research is illegal. / NBC News

Unrelated: Families spread loved ones' ashes at college football stadiums more often than you think. / ESPN

"We did have a new album come out this year, and I feel like it's detracting from that." When musicians realize AI slop is masquerading as them on Spotify. / The Verge

Music critic Philip Sherburne finds a fraudster has been using his name in attempts to bilk money from new artists. / Futurism Restated

Inside the origins of Makaton, a trademarked version of British Sign Language, and the fight to end the commodification of deaf communication. / The Baffler

"Library employees can read people as fluently as bartenders." Elizabeth McCracken visits every branch of the Austin Public Library. / Texas Highways

India's Supreme Court forbids "bulldozer justice," i.e., when the government demolishes someone's home affter they've been accused of a crime. / BBC News

The GOP retains its House majority, giving Republicans full control of Congress and the White House. / Politico

Some Republican Senators seem alarmed by some of Donald Trump's nominations for key posts. / NBC News

Young people are avoiding the red heart emoji (❤️) for fear of seeming MAGA. / Usermag

Jia Tolentino on the far right's new phrase "your body, my choice" and how "posting now creates political reality." / The New Yorker

Sex educators say parents need to counterprogram against pornography. One possibility is a family "sex scene night." / The Cut 

The "great stuff transfer" refers to Baby Boomers passing things down to their children who often don't want them. / Metafilter 

John Jervis: I love mid-century modern, but it makes me sad. / dezeen

A new infection called "Valley fever" may be caused by unchecked development in desert landscapes. / Noema

"It is likely that his psychotic visions had something to do with his professional exile." Some notes on Carl Jung's midlife crisis. / Noted

Some theories on why people often didn't smile in early photographs. / Upworthy

Unrelated: From September, how to combine 143 World War II movies into a 12-hour series. / ww2supercut

An essay to explain what it's like to be a professional outdoor gear tester. / Patagonia

How Machiavelli described his evening reading hours: "I feed on the food that alone is mine." / Public Domain Review 

See also: One example of how to write a story entirely in monosyllables. / Futility Closet

Russian lawmakers vote to ban all content that promotes "a child-free lifestyle," including social media. / Semafor

Since the 1990s, deaths have nearly always outnumbered births in Russia. / The Washington Post [+]

What can President Biden do prior to Donald Trump's new term? "Use his clemency power to empty the federal death row." / Slate

Tim Snyder on Trump: "We should expect him to try to cling to power until death, and create a cult of January 6th martyrs." / The New Yorker

See also: An updated guide to protecting yourself from government surveillance. / WIRED

Wealthier nations want Saudi Arabia, China, and the private sector to contribute more to help lower-income countries adapt and cope to the climate crisis. / The New York Times [+]

Pakistan's smog is visible from space. / Goats and Soda

Global sales of electric and plug-in hybrid cars are up 35% from October last year. / Reuters

Unrelated: Fourteen percent of urban road miles nationwide are under state control, but two-thirds of all crash deaths in the 101 largest metro areas occur there. / Vox

The iconic SS United States, "once the pride of America's maritime fleet," is about to become the world's largest artificial reef. / gCaptain

What is it like to experience polar night in the world's northernmost town? "I savor the calm it brings." / Smithsonian Magazine

A history of Black Mountain College's weaving tradition. / Hyperallergic

A review of a new biography of writer Sanora Babb, known for her bad luck "of now-legendary proportions." / The New Republic

Tracing the King James Bible's influence on Ernest Hemingway's "principle of the iceberg." / Slant Books

RIP, Alvin Ailey star and artistic director Judith Jamison. / The New York Times

See also: During the pandemic, different Ailey dancers performed Ailey's "Cry."  / YouTube

Israel says there will be no ceasefire or pause until its war objectives are met. / The Times of Israel 

A video round-up of what's happened in northern Gaza siege since the US gave its 30-day warning a month ago. / Al Jazeera

Between news-averse voters and Twitter disinformation, "Donald Trump was returned to power by the most badly informed electorate in modern American history." / The Philadelphia Inquirer

See also: The mirror of fascism in big tech. / Dead Simple Tech

Hannah Ritchie: The fact that researchers can't keep up with developments in low-carbon energy is, in many ways, a good thing. / Sustainability by numbers

Difficult-to-pronounce names are found to be negatively related to the probability of landing academic jobs. / American Economic Association

A scientist with breast cancer self-experimented with lab-grown viruses—and though the treatment was a success, she doesn't recommend just anyone try it. / Nature

Only 0.8% of American women live in an area that has an abortion facility that doesn't also have a nearby anti-abortion "crisis pregnancy center." / NBC News

"Spiritual bars"—alcohol plus tarot readings—are said to be booming in China. / Radii

More migratory birds passing through New York City means more skyscraper collisions.  / The Guardian

Unrelated: Some thoughts about rethinking your commuting route. / The Los Angeles Times

Authorities dismantle a criminal group responsible for forging over 2,000 artworks attributed to more than 30 known artists. / artsy

A review of a $420,000 electric car says the best feature is the sound it makes. / The Verge

Watch: A short film about the custodians of an emergency airport in Australia. / Colossal

Residents of Coulsdon, England, find their Facebook posts deleted by an algorithm that flags the word "LSD" in their town's name. / Inside Croydon

Is social media an oral culture? "I actually don't know if any of this is right." / X

Baby boomers think the love song is dying—and they're wrong, but that's because the categories have changed. / The Pudding

For the first time in history, every incumbent party in a developed nation this year lost vote share in elections. / Financial Times

See also: A German far-right party won a regional election in September, which hasn't happened since the Nazi era—a result of 30 years of ignoring a lurking problem. / The Baffler

The good news is that the US political system is too complex for Trump to destroy it. The bad news is he's going to try anyway. / The Guardian

We blamed Facebook for Trump winning in 2016, so it tracks that we'd blame TikTok this time around—except the squirrel thing was not nothing. / Read Max 

An explanation of 4B, the South Korean feminism movement that bans men, and that's been taking hold this week among American women. / Vox

"Ten percent of American workers today are union members, meaning that 90% of 'the working class' are not union members." To unfuck politics, create more union members. / How Things Work

Life after landing your dream job as a lighthouse keeper on a remote Australian island, where your only company for a month at a time is a colony of penguins. / BBC News

See also: From an 1860 John Ruskin letter, "One feels everything in the world so sympathetically ridiculous, one can't be angry when one looks at a Penguin." / Instagram

An emperor penguin has arrived on the southern coast of Western Australia, the furthest north the species has ever been recorded. / ABC

Ten years after legislation to curtail stores' and restaurants' seafood mislabeling, an investigation finds 18% of salmon sold as wild is actually farmed. / Gizmodo

Unrelated: Webfishing, a game that combines fishing, relaxing, chatting, and little else, could not have come at a better moment. / VICE

Or if smashing fascists sounds more appealing, the allure of Wolfenstein remains. / Kotaku

See also: From 1941, "It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one's acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi." / Harper's

A vibrant journey through the colorful world of mushrooms, comprising more than 800 shades. / Mushroom Color Atlas

The United States and Somalia sign an agreement formalizing debt cancellation worth $1.14 billion. / The South China Morning Post

Cuba's power grid fails again as Hurricane Rafael crosses the island. / The Guardian

Germany's ruling coalition collapses, triggering political chaos in Europe's largest economy. / DW

A round-up of how global leaders are responding to Donald Trump's reelection. / NPR

Related: The return of Trumponomics gets markets excited "but frightens the world." / The Economist

Yesterday, Democratic Senate candidates outperformed Harris—or, put another way, Republican Senate candidates are doing worse than Trump. / Vox

California plans to lead "the liberal resistance" against the new administration. / The Los Angeles Times

Heather Cox Richardson recalls the pamphlets supplied to soldiers in WWII explaining fascism. / Letters From an American 

See also: Remembering the Guerrilla Girls' call for a return to "traditional values" on abortion. / Guerrilla Girls

Recent studies suggest the presence of armed officers has no impact on school safety or day-to-day crime. / Undark Magazine

A study finds cancer cases and deaths are expected to rise by 77% and 90% in 2050, respectively. / JAMA Network

Interviews with more than 100 older Japanese women and men suggest working less during your life leads to a much better retirement. / The Conversation

Scientists find that rainforests can rapidly regrow if left alone. / Grist

Some thoughts on what people lose by no longer relying on their memory. "I suspect we're losing a lot." / The Base Camp

Researchers spot a black hole that appears to have been "feeding" at 40 times the theoretical limit for millions of years. / Ars Technica

A diminutive Japanese satellite made of wood makes it into space. / Quartz 

For some weekly wanderlust, TMN's Rosecrans Baldwin bike-tours an island off southern Japan. / Travel + Leisure

Do dogs know what art is? "Canine perception is collaborative. Dogs are pack animals; they are always among." / The Paris Review

An exclusive Italian club devoted to Verdi requires a member to die before a new one can join. / The New York Times [+]

Hi. We're trying to track down a technical issue. If you receive an "access denied" message at any point after clicking our links, please reply and let us know. Thanks!

Before any political news, some wanderlust to kick things off: pictures of a modern cabin in Vermont. / The New York Times [+]

Also, some fashion illustrations from the roaring twenties in Très Parisien magazine. / Flashbak

(Fwiw, today's clothes are made using enormous amounts of petrochemicals and fossil fuels.) (Clothes have long been political.) / The Walrus, X

Donald Trump wins the American presidency despite a 34-count felony conviction and two assassination attempts. / Politico

Susan Glasser: Rule number one in politics is never underestimate your enemy. / The New Yorker

Trump is also the first Republican to (likely) win the popular vote since George W. Bush's reelection in 2004. / The Hill

Unrelated: Let's begin by assuming that "no 'cosmic purpose' or divine intention is at work." / Plankton Valhalla

Non-white non-college-educated voters moved 13 points toward Trump. It was the GOP's best presidential performance among Latino voters in modern times. / ABC News, Slate

The new president will have a Republican Senate, and possibly a GOP House. / BBC News, The New York Times

Meanwhile, a right-wing site allows anyone to search for a voter's physical address and party affiliation. / 404 Media

Seven ballot measures protecting abortion rights also won. For Democrats, six reasons to feel hopeful. / Vox, The Cut

See also: A few short fantasy stories about strangers joining forces to save each other. / Metafilter

There could be more continents than you think. Case in point: New Zealand may be part of its own continent, separate from Australia. / The New York Times [+]

The Greenland Ice Sheet temporarily stores a large amount of meltwater in the summer, a discovery that may aid in accurately forecasting future sea-level rise. / Phys.org

"Where can I get crystals that are less toxic, locally sourced, and ethical?" / Sierra

Small farms lose out as billionaires prove to be the "ultimate beneficiaries" of the EU's farming subsidies. / The Guardian

See also: Jeff Bezos's justification for a non-endorsement is another in a long sequence of evidence for why the future of journalism can't be billionaires. / 404 Media

In an election that's been rife with misinformation, Perplexity AI's new election hub is a bad idea at the worst possible time. / Gizmodo

See also: "Washington has to wake up and realize that in fact, Silicon Valley is in the midst of a huge power grab." How technology ruined democracy. / Foreign Policy

In election predictions: Polymarket wants you to think it has all the answers (it doesn't); and we are 100% certain that anything could fucking happen. / The Baffler, McSweeney's

Unrelated: "If you can become lucid during a nightmare you can change your response or do something that empowers you in real time and improve your capacity to cope." / Atlas Obscura

From 2021 and so necessary this week: Yuki Kawae's meditative zen gardens are an antidote to doomscrolling. / Colossal

"Google says I need an abortion." Diana Weymar's abortion embroideries document the state of post-Roe America. / Hyperallergic

According to a new investigation, dental chains are pulling healthy or treatable teeth in order to profit from implants. / KFF Health News

"What once looked like a generational change to public space in the American city has instead returned to a bunch of curb parking." Why NYC's outdoor dining fell apart. / Slate

Typical habanero peppers reach 100,000 to 350,000 units on the Scoville heat scale, while a newly created variety tops out at 1,000. / Oregon Public Radio

"Where was 'the hexagram of the heavens' I loved from the opening verse of the album?" Listening to Joni Mitchell's demos and hearing a narrative evolve. / Dada Drummer Almanach

More than 200 people have now died from the flooding in Valencia, Spain, in Europe's deadliest weather disaster since the 1970s. / Reuters

Long a crime that targeted Black and Latino people, jaywalking is now legal in New York City. / HuffPost

"Even liberal yuppies in my Brooklyn neighborhood lined up at a community board meeting in May to complain that there were just too many migrants at local shelters." The crime of human movement. / The New York Review

See also: Contrary to what Republicans are campaigning on, Biden and Harris worked behind the scenes to get the border crisis under control. / The New York Times [+]

The history of Electrical Audio, legendary recording engineer Steve Albini's studio, which is searching for a way forward after its founder's death. / Inc.

See also: "Anyone who has streamed a song on their phone for free can sense that something has changed." The decline of the working musician. / The New Yorker

Instagram allows male nipples but not female nipples—but in cases of transition when and how is that distinction drawn? / 404 Media

In response to a fake, AI-generated ad, thousands of people showed up for a Halloween parade in Dublin that never happened. / Engadget

Retail stores may soon have access to facial-recognition technology that can detect shoppers who "sweetheart" workers in hopes of scoring discounts. / Gizmodo

Mathematicians calculate there's not enough time left in our universe for monkeys to ever randomly type out the complete works of Shakespeare. / BBC News

Black plastic kitchen utensils contain high levels of fire retardants, which have a nasty habit of leaching into food. / The Atlantic

Legalized gambling is turning football upside down for fans, gamblers, and players alike. / Wide Left

It's the end of an era as the last in-flight magazine for a major carrier goes digital-only. / Columbia Journalism Review

"In a quiet, unremarkable town in Ohio, everything has begun to disappear: first shoes, then street signs, then pets." A links-based mystery game. / Question Mark, Ohio

North Korea launches an intercontinental ballistic missile, perhaps looking for attention prior to the US presidential election. / USA Today

The Economist magazine endorses Kamala Harris, saying "being independent and being opinionated" aren't in conflict with each other. / Semafor

Election officials in battleground states are trying—and mostly failing—to fact-check Elon Musk in real time. / CNN

An argument that social scientists don't seem to know how to incorporate the nonlinearity of chaos. / Aeon

Unrelated: Dodgers fans set a Metro bus on fire after their team wins the World Series. / KTLA

Facebook is auto-generating militia group pages. / WIRED

Users report still being able to use Microsoft's controversial AI-powered gender classifier. / 404 Media

Schools are banning Crocs because the shoes are said to be a distraction, and dangerous. / Fortune

Related: How the font Comic Sans became the Crocs of typefaces. / FastCompany

An eating tour of eastern France's choucroute garnie, pretzels, and pork knuckles. / The Financial Times [+]

Diwali and Halloween overlap this year, producing "Diwalloween." / The Washington Post [+] 

An annual favorite, a round-up of "mundane" Halloween costumes from Japan. / Spoon & Tamago

Foreign interference in this year's election is said to be far more sophisticated, and far more difficult to track. / The New York Times [+]

China is considering approving $1.4 trillion in extra debt to revive its economy. / Reuters

Related: If "Xi Jinping Thought" is not a vision for a genuine socialist movement driving toward a communist utopia, what is it? / China Books Review

An explainer for why forecasts continue to miss the pace and persistence of falling birth rates. / The Financial Times [+]

The United States' Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) is a group of volunteers who have high-level security clearances. / NPR

Personal assistants for billionaires earn around $250,000 a year—and the job is a logistics nightmare. / The Cut

Related: "Private rail cars were, and still are, very much a high-end luxury." / Why is this interesting?

Regarding yesterday's news about the art market, Maurizio Cattelan's Comedian—a banana fixed to a wall with duct tape—is estimated to sell for $1.5 million. / Artsy

A brief video about the tumbleweed's 19th-century arrival in America. / YouTube

A short film about two brothers traveling alone from Boston to the 1967 World's Fair in Montreal by pony cart. / The New York Times [+]

Britain's cheese world suffers the loss of over £300,000 worth of clothbound Cheddar. / NPR


How do different species respond to death? "In ways that are learned rather than instinctive, not rigidly responsive to specific stimuli, and highly variable." / The New Yorker

European scientists develop an algorithm capable of interpreting pig sounds. / Reuters

Examples of people who cultivate "divine discontent." "The tendency to revise, in particular, seems especially common." / Personal Canon

Saudi Arabia and Iran conducted a joint military drill last week in the Sea of Oman. / TRT World

A good summary of current conflicts in the Middle East from Spencer Ackerman. / Forever Wars

Oren Yiftachel: "Apartheid is not only a moral abyss and a crime against humanity; it is also an unstable regime." / +972 Magazine

President Biden waits in line for 40 minutes to cast his vote in the election. / The Associated Press

Philadelphia's District Attorney sues Elon Musk over his million-dollar sweepstakes for voters in  battleground states. / Deadline

Unrelated: SpaceX wins a new round of military contracts worth $733 million. / Ars Technica

The term "clippers" refers to people influencing the political news cycle by making snappy videos for social media. / CNN 

Related: A brief online test to check your susceptibility to misinformation. / University of Cambridge

A deep dive into how Chinese firms are evading US controls on advanced technologies. / Semianalysis 

Collectors spent roughly a third less on art in 2023 than in 2022, with the largest decrease in spending at the highest levels. / Artsy

A book review connects recent novels about women's midlife crises to older stories about witches. / The New Yorker

United Airlines prints its final in-flight magazine, the last connected to a major US carrier. / Columbia Journalism Review

See also: A short film about the States' last fabric flower factory. / YouTube

Analysis of baseball's minor leagues finds persistent bias against Black and Latino players dating back to 1950. / The Guardian

An argument for enjoying the World Series aurally: "Listening to baseball on the radio requires a patience—and provides a catharsis." / GQ

Confessions of a Spotify vandal. / Hearing Things

Some thoughts on what exactly is human spirit. "Our energies often come from a combination of neurotic drive and positive response." / Lapham's Quarterly

"Donald Trump held a rally at Madison Square Garden last night that was so racist it got the New York Times to dust off the actual word 'racist' and use it in a headline." / Welcome to Hell World

A look at the billionaires and businesses getting in line for Trump, who's vowed to punish dissenters. / The Washington Post [+]

Why a longtime LA Times editorial writer resigned after the spiked Harris endorsement: A non-endorsement on Harris's home turf is an un-endorsement. / The Hollywood Reporter

Bird flu tracking among humans couldn't be timed worse, with researchers trying to discern whether someone's "flu-like symptoms" are a cold, Covid, influenza, or actually bird flu. / STAT

The 18th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, a stalwart of editorial citation, has a hell of a job, landing amid an era of digital misinformation and disinformation. / Los Angeles Review of Books

A video of someone destroying ballots marked for Trump in Bucks County, Pa., is a fake planted by Russia, according to US officials. / NPR

See also: Maricopa County officials are contacting around 20 voters whose mail-in ballots were damaged after someone set a mailbox on fire (but not for political reasons). / The Gazette

In a review of BBQ joints in a small Texas town, a restaurant loses a recommendation over its owner's use of racist language. / Texas Monthly

A USGS model of more than 1,200 groundwater samples shows millions of people in California, Florida, and Massachusetts may be drinking forever chemicals. / Gizmodo

See also: Tesla's engineering headquarters in Palo Alto released some kind of lime-green liquid—purportedly a nonhazardous coolant—into a storm drain. / SFGATE

The US Copyright Office ends a longstanding frustration for fast-food restaurants, granting them the right to repair the soft-serve machines at their locations. / Ars Technica

Related: From 2021, hacking McDonald's always-broken soft-serve machines so restaurants could repair them. / WIRED

When Google Street View data is incorrect, either by accident or intention, hardware store interiors can appear in the middle of the Atlantic. / Futurism

Thirteen years later, a scandal-laden development of Disney-style palaces in Turkey remains unfinished and deteriorating. / The Guardian

Before buying a domain name, check to see if it's haunted—in other words, whether something terrible happened there in the past. / Bryan Braun