Crucial UN climate talks next month are likely to fall short of the global target for cutting coal, gas, and oil emissions. / The Associated Press

Nearly half the homes in the US use natural gas for heat, and they may end up paying 30% more than a year ago. / The Guardian

IBM and airlines won't comply with the Texas governor's ban on vaccine mandates. / Ars Technica

Much of the GOP's rhetoric is about how it's wrong to mandate vaccines. So, how do you make that argument "and then still mandate other vaccines?" / The Washington Post

See also: The French doctor who believed that shipwrecked sailors could survive by drinking seawater. / The Austerity Kitchen 

Armed clashes erupt in Beirut at demonstrations demanding an end to a judge's investigation of last year's big blast. / The Guardian

Mexico City's most populous neighborhood is particularly dangerous for women—and a new lighting and art project can only do so much. / The New York Times

Mike Pearl: Covid showed us how inequalities in Los Angeles are killing the city. / The LAnd Magazine

Unrelated: Christchurch, New Zealand, will stop paying its municipal wizard after more than two decades on the public payroll. / stuff

In a different side of the statue-removal conversation, Beijing wants gone Hong Kong's memorial to victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre. / Vox

A new building in Harlem features a furniture system, designed by former Apple and Tesla engineers, to whisk away your stuff. / designboom

If the human body were a building, our neck would arguably be "the most poorly conceived room in the house." / Salon

Unrelated/related: A club-inspired line of melted disco balls. / Surface

Roxane Gay on Dave Chapelle: "If we don't like his routine, the message is, we are the problem, not him." The New York Times

A kid explains how he rickrolled every network display in his high school district, then avoided getting into trouble. / WhiteHoodHacker

A true Halloween story involving real estate, violence, and excavated human remains in North Carolina. / The Bitter Southerner