Wish you were ear.
A trio of drone incidents amplifies concerns that Russia's war may spill over into NATO countries, if unintentionally. / CNN
Russia's attacks on Ukraine's hospitals are part of "a terrible wartime tradition." / Goats and Soda
In countries friendly toward Putin, some people think he has a point, or at least that the West is being deeply hypocritical. / The New York Times
Analysis: China has one to two weeks before it loses its wiggle room. Meanwhile, America returns to Cold War containment thinking. / The Guardian, The Economist
Profile of a Kharkiv bakery producing 110 loaves of bread a day for Ukrainian soldiers. / VICE
A Ukrainian photographer documents the invasion of his country. See more photos, and more, and more. / TIME, The Los Angeles Times, CNN
Related: The war diary of Yevgenia Belorusets. / Isolarii
Unemployment benefit rolls in the United States are the smallest in 52 years. / Reuters
Unrelated: Coffee consumption in the US is at the highest it's been in two decades. / Sprudge
Experts say Americans need to prepare for another spike in Covid-19 cases, even if it turns out to be a minor one. / STAT
At MIT, you're no longer allowed to ask other people to wear masks. / Twitter
In perhaps five years or less, your smartphone will have a sense of smell, which means it'll be able to detect cancer and other diseases. / Vox
TropeTrainer was software taught "to sing the words of God." Then its developer died. / Input
A ride-along on Brazil's Highway 319, which runs more than 500 miles through the core of the (rapidly deforested) Amazon. / The Washington Post
Tokyo will no longer require public schoolchildren to dye their hair black. / CNN
Rosa Lyster oversees a major upset in yesterday's Tournament of Books match. / The Tournament of Books
Twenty-five years after chewing on Evander Holyfield's ear, Mike Tyson is selling ear-shaped cannabis gummies. / Uncrate
And now a brief chat with a recent Sustaining Member, Neil R.
Hey, Neil! I know we've chatted before, but how did you discover TMN? I must have started reading in 2003 or 2004. Once y’all started the Tournament of Books, I became a bigger fan and that’s been the driving force of my fiction reading for at least a third of the year for many years now. Never read all 18 books, though.
Thank you for reading all this time. Any TMN-adjacent anecdotes you could share? 1) Many moons ago, I bought a TMN collection in hardback or made a donation or something, and you sent me a wonderful T-shirt of a giant squirrel attacking a city. It was too small for me but I put it in my son’s closet, and 10 years later he’d grown big enough to wear it, which he did on a flight from London back to Dallas. 2) Emily St. John Mandel came to SMU, where I work, in 2015, when Station Eleven was read by all incoming first-year students. (I led one of the discussion groups during orientation week.) I had a chance to have her sign my copy and I asked her if she accepted an actual rooster when her book won the ToB. Her answer. 3) TMN was kind enough to include me in four pieces where you invited reader submissions in 2008 and 2009, giving me the opportunity to promote a friend’s freelance writing and Elbow’s song “One Day Like This” a month before its official release (still a favorite of mine), to bemoan the decline of local newspapers (still subscribed!), and to remember the film Alligator. These were all thrills for me. 4) TMN turned me onto Sarah Hepola, and when my niece went to college, I gave her a copy of Blackout to read, and then bought three more copies to give my two kids and my other niece when they graduate from high school.
Wow! That is way more than we expected—fantastic! So, why did you decide to support today? Reading the Tournament this year, I thought, “Hey, I should make sure I am a Sustaining Member,” then I checked my records and realized I didn’t give you my new credit card number. I so appreciate all you do. Thanks for nearly 20 years (from my perspective) of amazing work!
TMN is fueled by supporters like Neil—and you! If you haven't yet, please consider becoming a Sustaining Member or making a one-time donation (crypto, too). Thank you. 🐊
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