* The economic case for bribery. * Complete our 2012 Reader Survey, and you could win a TMN Prize Pack. * Happiness is statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities. * Pretexting, baiting, and other social engineering techniques scammers use to exploit "bugs
* Western journalists, including Pulitzer-winning Peter Arnett, on what it's like to move to China to teach journalism. * Notes on the under-researched phenomenon that is drunk speech. * Roundtable with the creators of Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and Deadwood (aka The Milch Man) on the art of current
* Wifi owners engage in amateur campaigning through network naming. * Google warns Chinese users when a search term is likely to get their internet disconnected. * Shanghai stock exchange falls 64.89 on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square—China blocks searches for news of today's market close. * Related: Jonathan Gourlay
Bye-bye Williams sisters and all that. It’s week two of the French Open now, and almost no American players are left. But just yesterday, there she was: Sloane Stephens, a 19-year-old sunbeam straight out of Florida and one of the last Americans standing. She’s black,
Our man in Boston talks to the Pulitzer-winning novelist about his new memoir, Thoughts Without Cigarettes, as well as nights in New York, parks in Berlin, how publishing currently compares to Indian restaurants, what life would be like if Mambo Kings hadn't hit it big, and the difficulties of writ
* U.S. and Pakistan locked in negotiations while drone "blitz" continues. * Mick Jagger and Arcade Fire help Saturday Night Live say goodbye to Kristen Wiig. * Pop music is longer, slower, sadder—only 43.5% of recent hits are written in a major mode. * Round-up from the New
* Architect Anish Kapoor assesses London's Olympic Tower. * A refreshingly old-fashioned spat between linguists and the New Yorker about the purpose of a dictionary. * Placement explains why Guinness bubbles sink instead of rise. * Clamshell packaging declared worse than NYC parking signs, pull handles on push doors. * Crab-tapping-
We open the bunker on doomsayers preparing for the end of civilization—but not all them will survive the first hour of armageddon.
* Obama guns for the failures of "Romney economics" in Massachusetts. * Ladies, if you experience discrimination in an "open" or "wild" office, keep quiet and profit. * Elites in Egypt would like this election to be the revolution's end; Tahrir youth see further. * Aaron
