* Mosquitoes and other pests can now be engineered to exterminate themselves. * Forget hurricanes—the East Coast is in for longest, strongest allergy season on record. * How faulty memory, alleged wrongful conviction, and a subpoena battle drove away Northwestern's star prof. * Welcome to college and sorry to burst your
My doctor says I should exercise three to four times per week. He told me walking to the subway doesn’t count (neither does walking home from it).
* In his first public address, Libya's interim leader asks rebels to shun anger and forgive. * Though still invisible in leadership, Libyan women are eager to maintain influence, respect gained during revolution. * Obama proposes to finance his job bill by ending some tax breaks for oil companies, the rich.
When someone has experienced a traumatic event, it seems like the least helpful advice you can give is, “Get over it.” But sometimes it isn’t. When “Repress Yourself” was published in the New York Times magazine in February 2003, it had been 18 months since Sept. 11, and someone
* Supercomputer looks backwards at news articles, predicts Arab Spring, bin Laden's location. * Viewing Contagion as an argument for big government in times of crisis. * Contagion consulting epidemiologist on the reality of Soderbergh's fictional bug. * Researchers discover young bats learn to hunt by eavesdropping on experienced bats&
* How to end the 9/11 era and beat terrorism: Secure nukes and refuse to be terrorized. * To help the dying cope with the reality of death, dignity therapists ask them to tell a story of their life. * It's a strange assumption that novelists good at storytelling are
Animated images inspired by Carl Sagan that show humans made from stars.
* Libyan rebels' assault on remaining loyalist strongholds meets heavy resistance, slows. * Increasingly desperate, Syrian protestors take to the streets to ask for international intervention. * Syrian soldiers executed for refusing to fire on protestors—defectors increase, but no senior officers. * Guatemalans grudgingly embrace once-vicious military due to powerful drug
I’m in Brooklyn again this week, working on a theater installation called Chaos Manor, which is part of the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sept. 16 and 17. The installation makes use of tapes and photographs made by W. Eugene Smith in a dilapidated loft building in Manhattan’s flower
* Libertarian lawyers and DC hipsters join forces to fight for the rights of food trucks. * Bay Area restaurant reviews in the style of Cormac McCarthy. * You say "macaron," I say "macaroon." * America's surprise export to Japan: high-quality hay. * Researchers conclude fiction builds empathy.
