Who the Fuck Don’t We Spy On? Spain is demanding details on US NSA spying, following reports that our government has eavesdropped on 60 million Spanish telephone calls in a month.
Two Dead and a Giant Beach Ball on the Loose: The Guardian has updates—and amazing pictures—on the huge storm wreaking havoc across Europe.
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Flooded with Forgeries: It’s nearly impossible to tell what art pieces are real and what are classy reproductions in China’s booming art market, which prompts sentences like this: “Even more embarrassing was the government’s decision last July to close a private museum in Hebei because of suspicions that nearly everything in it — all 40,000 artifacts, including a Tang dynasty porcelain vase — were fake.” In other news, Sylvester Stallone is an artist, according to Russia.
Good Luck with That: Amazon is producing an original teevee series about four Republican congressmen who share a house in DC, to compete with Netflix. The premise sounds horrendous—how the fuck do you make Republicans funny and empathetic?—but the series was created by “Doonesbury” cartoonist Garry Trudeau and stars Hollywood veteran John Goodman, so perhaps it will be less than awful?
The Burka Avenger: Should a female Muslim superhero, who heroically battles villains with books and smarts, be garbed in a burka?
Just Saying No: The Wenatchee city council votes to keep pot out of its town; the Yakima Nation warns “those that want to grow, sell and distribute that they are not welcome on Yakama Nation lands,” explains tribal attorney George Colby Colby.
Fill in the Blank: Protect and __________? The Washington state police academy, which trains all law enforcement officers in the state aside from state patrol, is investigating the circulation of test questions and answers that’s been passed among recruits for god knows how long.
Lou Reed, Dead: The 71-year-old musician died yesterday at home from liver disease. Here’s how the NYTimes eulogizes him:
Mr. Reed confidently made artistic decisions that other musicians would not have even considered. He was an aesthetic primitivist with high-end audio obsessions. He was an English major who understood his work as a form of literature, though he distrusted overly poetic pop lyrics, and though distorted electric guitars and drums sometimes drowned out his words.
The Last Horse Breeder of Fukushima: Meet the man who refuses to leave his generations-old horse farm, which lies just in an evacuated town just 25 miles north-west of the radioactive Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, because to do so means that many of his beloved horses will starve to death.
Devour That Devil Horse! An extreme cake shop called Feed the Beast just opened in London and celebrated with a full-sized, edible demon horse that shoots Kraken rum from its nose, just like the horses in my fantasies.
“I’m more upset that Julianne Hough dressed like a good actress”: The internet reacts to 25-year-old Hough’s decision to dress up as the Orange is the New Black character Crazy Eyes for Halloween, complete with blackface. “What Hough’s serious case of poor judgment may point to is a lack of historical awareness among younger generations, or specifically those in the isolated Hollywood bubble of fame and fortune,” notes Fox News. Hough has apologized. Still, being less culturally sensitive than Fox News is pretty embarrassing.
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