Because banning all tourist visits was apparently not enough to reassure reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that, no, he will not get Ebola, the country has now decided to quarantine any and all of the few visitors it does allow into the country. And in North Korea, there's no CDC to urge them to pull back on the panic.
Daily Intelligencer
Black Bears Brawl in the Mean Streets of Suburban New Jersey
By Jessica RoySuburban New Jersey has always been insanely dangerous, its mean streets littered with Dunkin Donuts drive-throughs and the tears of Real Housewives. Now two bears have ratcheted up the danger level, taking their fight from the woods to the neighborhood.
What’s Behind the Great Podcast Renaissance?
By Kevin RooseIn 2001, Steve Jobs announced the original iPod, a music player that would make it possible for people to carry their entire album collections in their pockets. Over the next few years, a genre of narrative audio that took the device's name — "podcasting" — became a thriving mini-industry. There were podcasts about politics, sports, literature, comedy. There were podcasts that sounded like NPR, and ones that sounded like Rush Limbaugh. Many lacked polish, but most had a kind of energy to them that suited their audiences well.
And then, sometime around 2009 or 2010, the podcast scene seemed to wither. The stalwarts ("This American Life," "Radiolab") stayed around at the top of the iTunes charts, but there wasn't much else happening. Download numbers fell. Interest waned. People moved on to online video and streaming music services as a way to pass the time.
Mattress-Carrying Rape Protesters Take Columbia by Storm
By Katie Van Syckle and Amy LombardHundreds of Columbia students darted across Amsterdam Avenue in the rain yesterday evening to stack 28 soggy mattresses at Columbia president Lee Bollinger's doorstep. (They left a little room in front of the door, so as not to create a fire hazard.)
"Presbo, Presbo, you can't hide ... Be the leader on our side," they chanted, as they taped a list of demands for how Columbia should reform its sexual-assault policies to the president’s door.
The action was one of approximately 130 similar protests taking place across the globe, from Hungary’s Central European University to Berkeley, to raise attention to the struggles of sexual-assault victims on campuses and beyond. The mattresses represented 28 complainants in Columbia’s Title IX case, and were inspired by Emma Sulkowicz’s senior thesis project, Carry That Weight. Giving an outlet to ongoing frustration among Columbia and Barnard students, as well as providing support for Sulkowicz, Wednesday's event had the tagline "Carrying the Weight Together."
Michael Jordan Thinks Obama Is a ‘Shitty’ Golfer
By Joe CoscarelliAsked for his ideal foursome on the course, the King of Trash Talk told Ahmad Rashad, “I’ve never played with Obama, but I would.” Then he had second thoughts. “No, that’s okay. I’d take him out. He’s a hack.”
“He’s the president of the United States — he’s a hack?” Rashad responded.
“I never said he wasn’t a great politician,” Jordan shot back. “I’m just saying he’s a shitty golfer.”
New Study Links Stop-and-Frisk With Anxiety
By Melissa DahlYoung men in New York City who’ve been stopped and questioned or searched by police, as part of the city police department’s stop-and-frisk policy, are more likely to show signs of anxiety or PTSD, according to new research. And the more times they’ve been stopped by police, the more anxiety they tend to have, finds the paper published this month in the American Journal of Public Health.
Take a Walking Tour of Taylor Swift’s New York City
By Nate JonesLike many acts of political patronage, Taylor Swift's recent ascension to the office of New York City Global Welcome Ambassador was met with populist outcry. And it's true: Taylor's slice of New York life is about as large as a (second semester) NYU freshman's. She lives in Tribeca, hangs out in Soho, and occasionally ventures as deep into the East Village as Second Avenue. (In three months, she'll discover those flashing-light Indian places on First and 6th and decide to have her 19th birthday there.) But while Taylor's limited geographic range has left her incapable of writing a good song about New York, it also means that it's fairly easy to get a reasonable facsimile of her Manhattan life in one whole afternoon. Here's our walking tour of Taylor's New York City. You can do it an hour!
Talking to Serial’s Sarah Koenig About Her Hit Podcast and Whether There Will Ever Be an Answer
By Rachel SymeFifteen years ago, a high-school student named Hae Min Lee was found dead in Baltimore’s woody Leakin Park, her black hair barely visible among the dirt and leaves. Detectives concluded that Lee had been strangled, and soon suspicion shifted to her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, who was found guilty of the crime after a trial and sentenced to life in a maximum-security prison, where he still sits today. Syed claimed innocence in 1999 and still does now, as do his friends and family, which is how Sarah Koenig got tangled up in all of this. Koenig was working as a reporter on the public-radio show This American Life during the summer of 2013 when Rabia Chaudry, a friend of the Syed family, contacted her with a request to tell his story.
The World Series of Hugging
By Jessica RoyEverybody knows the best part of sports is when one of the teams wins a big championship and the players get all excited and happy and hug each other and pat each other's butts. Last night, the San Francisco Giants beat the Kansas City Royals to win their third World Series championship in five years, but something even more important happened: hugs. Lots of them.
Longtime Boston Mayor Thomas Menino Dead at 71
"At just after 9:00 a.m. this morning the Honorable Thomas M. Menino passed into eternal rest after a courageous battle with cancer," according to an announcement from his family. The lovable everyman and longest-serving mayor in Boston's history left office earlier this year after two decades in charge. He was then diagnosed with advanced cancer of the liver and lymph nodes. The Boston Globe's obituary begins with a representative quote: "Visionaries don't get things done," Menino once said.
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