* Picking apart the case for drones against Americans. * The presence of armed drones in Germany's arsenal would come in handy the next time a NATO ally requests backup. * How the Taliban is using promises of sex as a tool for recruitment. * Ted Cruz of Texas is now the
Pad Thai is the most misunderstood noodle. Its best incarnations are difficult to find outside of Thailand, even as the basic ingredients are now readily available abroad. I think back to the Pad Thais of my childhood, freshly made at a Bangkok street stall and packaged to go in banana
* French claim killing "hundreds" of Islamist militants in Mali ahead of next month's withdrawal. * Confidential memo says the U.S. can kill American citizens if they're believed to be senior members of al-Qaida or an “associated force.” * North Korea releases video showing nuclear
When your life is opened in front of you, all your old attachments shucked off, the task of finding a new ending can be as simple as handing over a bag of guns.
* A proposed think tank, the Center for the Study of Existential Risk, would study scenarios that result in the end of humanity. * Sedentary lifestyles reduce sperm counts—as does running in tight clothing and too much time on a bike. * Qantas asks passenger to remove T-shirt bearing an Inigio
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Selections from the monumental but unknown “Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio,” an amateur’s attempt to illustrate the nests and eggs omitted from John James Audubon’s “Birds of America.”
* Ahmadinejad says he's ready to be the first human sent into orbit by Iran's space program. * Economist debuts interactive Big Mac Index, a tool "to make exchange-rate theory more digestible." * Tyler Cowen reads every word in a late December issue of India Today.
* It was a lovely photograph, but there is a sense of privacy in a moment like that, and they didn't ask. * How the ancient Greeks viewed weapons. * Hemingway probably never wrote the six-word story "for sale, baby shoes, never worn." * British jails identify food distributor
Timbuktu’s annual Festival in the Desert was ready to rock as a “Festival in Exile.” Now, with liberation, it is a festival in limbo. A listening guide to what should be heard outside Timbuktu when the fighting is over.
