Police in Missouri kill an unarmed teenager, the U.S. government expands its terrorist database, and Justin Bieber saves a Russian fisherman

Christopher Beha discusses sex tapes as literary vehicle, the celebrity impulse, and the problematic absence of religion in American literature

The U.S. Supreme Court weakens the ACA’s contraception mandate; ISIL attempts to legitimize its territorial gains in the Middle East; and Facebook gives you feelings 

The Obama Administration tries to publicize climate change, secessionists stage a referendum in eastern Ukraine, and teenage boys hold a prom-date draft in California 

Crisis in Crimea, corruption in Turkey, and the inadequate diversity of Google Doodles

Photographic evidence of war crimes in Syria, ominous Ukrainian texting, and a South Korean tower of jawbones

Romance writers, Jennifer Weiner, and the future of publishing

Walmart celebrates Black Friday with protests and police reports, Amazon experiments with drone delivery, and Republicans salute the end of racism 

“Little boys” negotiate the U.S. government shutdown and debt ceiling, Bashar al-Assad wants his Nobel Peace Prize, and the Vatican tells the world about Lesus

The Syria debate continues, the NSA breaks encryption routines, and a Windischeschenbach tubist complains about sex

Detroit files for bankruptcy, prison breaks outside Baghdad, and snail-mucus makeup in France

Big Barack is watching, Turkish winter is coming, and Sunday Swett is winning

A Bangladeshi building collapses, George W. Bush’s presidential library opens, and koala chlamydia ravages Australia

Chávez cancer conspiracy theories, drone droning, and coitus leo interruptus

Inauguration week politics, Aramaic vowel preservation, and Canadian foreskin awareness

"[T]o be an artist . . . you really have to blast the launch pad to get liftoff, scorching everything and everyone around you, and you cause a lot of damage sometimes."