There can be no grand bargain with the Taliban, because there is no "Grand Taliban" with whom you can bargain.

Iran's "the Blogfather" arrested in Tehran, accused of spying for Israel.

Military to Iraqi interpreters: Drop dead.

Your daily drip of neuroscience: Breaking down the "bullies like bullying" story.

Five physics lessons for Obama.

Karl Rove's 10-point plan for the GOP to reclaim power.

The generations of girls who have inhabited the White House compose a sort of underground society.

How country music lost the election, and why this should make for better country music.

Live piracy map.

Instapaper for the commute: The why, how, and when behind crash-avoiding cars.

Study guide: Translator of 2666 supplies helpful notes and annotations.

Guide to New York that depends on how you're feeling.

Massive pre-Helvetica history of signs in the New York City Subway.

The longest serving Republican in Senate history, Ted Stevens, is defeated, giving Dems a 58th seat.

Initial review of Obama's guiding light, a history book on Lincoln's "Team of Rivals": narrative, narrative, narrative.

Dowd: Though 42 may always be miffed at 44, he's finally making real concessions.

Map of cotton production--and thus, slave labor--correlates to map of Obama votes.

Review: Science, spirituality together alleviate suffering--here Buddhism is useful, especially in considering consciousness.

You're filled with a vague dread despite being in the presence of happiness. Carrie Brownstein plays Wii Music.

Arcade: Super Obama World, Robokill.

Video: Bike Hero--a real-life, cycling Guitar Hero.

A tribute to Dallas's Longhorn Ballroom, host to everyone from George Jones to the Sex Pistols.

One of the very few places in the world where the words "financial meltdown" can be used without fear of exaggeration. A few greedy financiers dismantled Iceland's economy.

Op: Beijing will be forced to break word with its people--with education rate, global image at stake, unrest may result.

Will: After being restructured through bankruptcy, the Detroit Two, or One, might flourish. Let's find out.

Photos: Big-box stores that have been recycled into museums, schools, and churches.

Lieberman gets slap on the wrist rather than losing his homeland security leadership post.

Iraqi government quietly firing its oversight officials.

All options are on the table. Spiegel interview with Israeli Air Force general on Iran's nuclear program.

Army Times on how Obama may live up to his promises to the military.

Chavez's ex-wife runs for mayor on opposition ticket, makes ground with Venezuelan women turned off by "testosterone-pumped politics."

Historians swoon after Obama mentions new F.D.R. book on 60 Minutes.

Why telling ourselves that the Obama story could only happen here, in our time, is hooey.

"You make your own luck" may be scientifically true.

For more frequent, better ideas, you may periodically want to quit coffee.

Clever business card idea for a circumciser.

Big Picture photos of the California wildfires.

Video: Random strangers welcomed back at the airport.

Baghdad Metro begins service again despite herds of cows on tracks, stone-throwing youth.

Lengthy interview with Spike Jonze about his film version of Where the Wild Things Are.

Op: Despite the global-economy rhetoric, the G20 is at work on a more inclusive, pro-regulation financial system.

Before Magellan, pre-Balboa, a mapmaking cleric discovered the Pacific from a landlocked city in France.

A decade ago, real rock stars wouldn't license their songs for commercial use; after Moby, it's now common practice.

At 12:01 a.m. on 01/01/00, the Y2K virus will spread throughout all the world's computers. Emails that preclude me from Obama's cabinet.

Scientists from Religulous speak out on their faith, misrepresentation in Maher's movie.

Following Obama win, a rise in racial hate crimes, traffic to white supremacy sites.

At a time of political turmoil, baseball diplomacy in Nicaragua emphasizes the power of shared civic interests.

After painstaking discovery of new pyramids in Egypt, citizens patiently wait for modernity, change.

The physical manifestation of change is powerful--after years of infrastructure neglect, monuments would testify to a new New Deal.

A-bomb testing left a permanent record in tree trunks, humans raised in the atomic age.

What a 2009 depression would look like: Trade soup lines for ER lines, selling apples with watching flat-screen TVs.

"They both just reply 'meh' and keep watching TV." The dictionary welcomes an unenthusiastic word.

The man in the iron lung--who came as the incapacitated father of the brat who steals the Dude's car--picked up his costume prize with a White Russian balanced on his apparatus.

"Five myths about an election of mythic proportions."

Instapaper for the commute: Nussbaum hopes Obama will start with a clean slate regarding India.

The very idea that Obama should transform African Americans into the black Waltons is flawed.

Architects and designers imagine a new Oval Office for Obama.

Not impressed: Goldman top executives forgoing their 2008 bonuses.

Rationale from the neuroscience world on why credit-card spending doesn't feel bad.

Your daily dose of neuroscience: On rats, light-sensitive genes, and on-off switches.

Shortage that illuminates the global crisis: steel shipping containers.

Inside Nigeria's politicians' waiting game as President Yar'Adua holds onto power.

Op: Alert to Western writers: "Africa" doesn't exist; you made it up.

Slavoj Zizek on Obama's win; Slavoj Zizek welcomes you to the gym.

In case the book's size scares you off, five of 2666's "most unskippable" passages.

TMN's Anthony Doerr on "superorganisms."

Get thee to North Adams: Great web site for Sol LeWitt's new MASS MoCA retrospective.

Obama advisers are reviewing Bill Clinton's finances, activities to vet Hillary as a candidate for secretary of state.

Obama, McCain to meet today in Chicago; Obama could sway bipartisan support, McCain could reclaim the mantle of "maverick."

Not likely to become the first emailing president, Obama may have to surrender his BlackBerry.

Video: Peter Schiff predicts the banking crisis in 2006, is ridiculed by fellow talking heads.

The monkeys must grab the bags of money and not just shriek and go running all over the place. Jack Handey plans a heist.

Women who wear a bikini in the presence of James Bond have a 45 percent chance of being dead by the end of the film.

Storyboards from Star Wars from when it was The Star Wars.

"God forbid someone take a chance by having more than three chord changes in a song." Donald Fagen defends Steely Dan to friends.

A history of drugs in music; a history of drugs in literature.

There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Faulkner's Nobel speech.

Another perfect replica of the Times hit New York streets in October 1978, then more prescient comedy than biting commentary.

Barbecue fanatic Calvin Trillin travels to Lexington, Texas, to taste the best Texas BBQ in the world.

A list of stylish clothing that's made in the U.S.A.

Notes on how Obama can maintain a productive relationship with the military.

If you didn't hear, Putin wants to hang Georgia's Saakashvili "by the balls."

Lawrence Weschler on being the medium between Robert Irwin and David Hockney.

"When Alzheimer's Hits at 40," a look at early-onset sufferers.

It's difficult to describe this link except to say: No one blogs like Errol Morris blogs.

For Saturday-morning reading: The philosopher who got himself a wolf.

"Who Stole My Volcano? Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dematerialisation of Supervillain Architecture."

Gallery of the finest doomsday devices.

How and why the Pentagon is getting into the flying-car business.

Photos from a train trip to Beijing via Moscow.

TMN Talks: with Radio Lab's Jad Abumrad today at four p.m.

In this week's This American Life, a great segment on Studs Terkel's recorded interviews during the depression.

Advisers are split over what to do with Obama's network of supporters, who are now a proven grassroots army.

How to tell when your consumer confidence is shaken: when that fancy bean grinder doesn't seem worth it.

The math on the Starbucks Gold Card: How many cups until you break even?

Send in your question for this afternoon's TMN Talks with Jad Abrumrad, co-host of Radio Lab.

With black stereotypes inapplicable, white comics just don't get how to poke fun at Obama.

Sustainable food and agriculture experts on what they'd say if they had five minutes with the president-elect.

Researchers turn tequila into diamonds.

The public may have misgivings about a silent and invisible weapon that would boil the body's fluids before tearing it apart in a burst of vapor.

Upcoming book features musicians' most-loved instruments, the stories behind them. (pdf here)

Not much has changed in the [fantasy] genre since the invention of Bilbo Baggins.

The house from A Christmas Story is open to tours--this month it's host to the movie's 25th anniversary celebration.

The Nirvana baby, now 17, recreates the Nevermind cover photo.

So far, Washington's on the hook for $5 trillion to fight the financial crisis.

Favor for Detroit bailout package to swing on demanded conditions.

Op: If G.M. needs to be bribed to innovate, at least don't hand over a blank check.

Breaking down Guantanamo: easier said than done, particularly if Obama wants some convictions.

Instapaper for the commute: The world according to Rice.

Having sought talks with the U.S. since 2006, Iran backs away, fearing improved relations with "the great Satan."

Mr. Cameron's candidacy was built on a simple premise: modernize or die. Lessons for Republicans from Tories.

Democrats raise concerns over Cheney's records, ask him to please not destroy them.

Mitch Mitchell, drummer of Jimi Hendrix Experience, found dead (see drum solo here).

Paglia: Palin's speech is pure joy, with the "jumps, breaks and rippling momentum of a be-bop saxophonist."

See also: Paglia (sort of) on Ultimate Fighting.

Journalists may not cite Wikipedia very often, but that doesn't mean it's not widely used.

The car you drive may contain steel from the core of a cyclotron. How serious science hardware gets recycled.

A field guide to lifehacking for those who don't know what lifehacking is.

Gawker identifies the Times-hacking group that passed out fake newspapers around New York (see web version here).

Treasury Dept. changes bailout focus from banks to consumers, whose banks won't lend them money now anyway.

With $290 billion of the bailout plan already committed, independent oversight still isn't in place and no monitoring reports have been filed.

"Unless some insider got all of this down on paper, I figured, no future human would believe that it happened." Lewis from Liar's Poker predicts the end of Wall St., worse than it ever was.

Feeling a post-election low with no data to gorge on? Sprint delivers all; who knows why.

Hoax McCain consultant, responsible for Palin's "Africa is a country" rumor, was outed months before the media sucked up his stories.

Together now, a sigh of relief: It's not going to be Lieberman! Which minority group will win the White House next?

There was no watershed moment for immigration policies this election; troublemakers have taken over the minutemen.

Meet the presumptive White House press secretary, who's willing to venture where few dare: the blogs.

Gallery of Nissan concept cars from 1956...to the future!

As a New Yorker, you're already used to living in ridiculously small quarters--now you can live that way wherever you may dwell.

Writers have cats; we know this because their bios never omit this fact.

Photo: Catnapping next to godliness.

Chart for tracking Obama's transition to the White House.

What other 1600 Pennsylvania Avenues look like around the country.

"We realize we are late, and America has regained the torch of a moral revolution." Obama win prompts Europe to reevaulate its own race relations.

For the hedonists: Breathtaking display of Obama newspaper covers; videos of crowds erupting after CNN's countdown to election win.

In surprise upset, Jerusalem elects secular mayor.

Backhanded goodbye to Gov. Palin, "a gift to feminism. Seriously."

P.J. O'Rourke on the many ways conservatism was failed this year.

This isn't the first time a woman has carried her own grandkids. It isn't even the fourth.

Fascinating account of how South Korea changes on college-entrance exam day.

Today's long read: Gore Vidal on his three-year correspondence with Timothy McVeigh.

TMN's Rosecrans Baldwin tracks contemporary Paris around the web.

The top five "crazy" Michael Crichton ideas that came true, including replicating machines.

See also: Giles Turnbull's profile of a scientist behind a replicating machine.

SEED talk between a mathematician and an architect on how cities can be shaped.

Top intelligence officials expect to be replaced early on by Obama, but are counting on the economic crisis to buy some time.

As bailout cash flows, lobbyists now pleading their cases find nobody's especially interested.

Obama sets rules for lobbyists: No donations to the transition will be accepted, and they can't work in subjects they've lobbied in.

Visiting the White House is one thing; occupying the White House is quite another. Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Obama's win.

Nobody knows what was served at the first Thanksgiving, but cranberries were everywhere--here's what to do with them.

In the early 1950s, Family Circle included a recipe for bageles (their spelling). A short history of the bagel and its many travels.

Stop by TMN this Friday to talk with Radio Lab's Jad Abumrad; send in your questions now!

Google is tracking flu-related searches to predict outbreaks--follow the results here.

Map of where things in Cloverfield happen; map of Marvel Comics characters' NYC dwellings.

Obama collects Conan and Spider-Man comics, and other facts you didn't know about President Fanboy.

Video: Whodunnit? You'll have to watch twice to see.

Conan Doyle bio: "All our lives have been but a preparation for this supreme moment."

Hidden since 1945, a collection of recently discovered photographs from Hiroshima and the story behind them.

McCartney offers auctionable proof that Eleanor Rigby really existed.

Veterans Day is celebrated significantly differently across the borders of Europe.

Son analyzes the codes his father used in postcards home from World War II.

Sudan has offered India a surprising free run of its economy--although there is a quid pro quo attached.

Decent hyperlink brief on the French-Rwanda conflict.

Analyzing the conservatives' and reformists' shifting reactions to Ahmadinejad's letter to Obama.

Exactly how leaders place phone calls to one another.

Instapaper for the commute: Five days in Afghanistan from the perspective of a movie-lover.

Brazil offers free Botox, skin peels, laser hair removal to the poor.

Environmentally, it's greener to heat your house with oil than wood.

Fish on why psychology lagged to forbid its members from participating in U.S. prisoner interrogations.

Obama inauguration tickets already touted on the internet for as high as $40,000; Feinstein calls it "unconscionable."

Leading pro-democratic blogger is jailed for 20 years in Myanmar.

In Mexico, border-crossing simulation draws thrill-seeking tourists, raises their understanding.

Ultra-left anarchists shut down France's railway system in attempt to block transport of nuclear waste.

The recession will reduce trade, strain U.S. foreign policy--the "axis of diesel" will similarly struggle.

The Bush administration has diluted science with toxic legislation--"poisoned communities" need EPA help, not the Defense Dept.

This year's Oxford Word of the Year: Hypermiling.

Video: Declassified reports indicate the U.S. lost a nuclear missile under Greenland ice.

New Zealand's politics may be dull, but lack of excitability makes for good governance.

Video: Following rumors of Kim Jong-Il's health troubles, S. Korea sends balloons north to airdrop propaganda.

New Texas legislation would require whiskey bottles to be shot out of air immediately after being emptied.

The Hopeful Hearts Club is Sgt. Pepper with new luminaries: Obamas, Bidens, David Sedaris.

Real ad execs talk about the realism of Mad Men.

Wherever, they always fuck with your copy. John Leonard, who died last week, writes in 2000 about the life of a critic.

One of Orwell's worst works is one that guided my life, an author writes.

"For many of us [this] will be akin to a kind of spiritual pilgrimage." D.C. prepares for a massive inauguration audience.

Inspired by Obama, Carla Bruni wants to rid France of racism; after Berlusconi's "joke," she's glad she's French now.

Op: The world appears ready to give Obama a long honeymoon; he should not return the favor.

Harvard economist's four points for Obama to consider.

Instapaper for the commute: How Obama won, how McCain chose.

Muslim Indian artist who's painted Hindu goddesses nude chooses to exile himself among luxury apartments, Ferraris.

Worry not about global urbanization; be concerned for countries that lack big cities.

Gore: The same bold steps will save the climate crisis, economic cricis, and security crisis all in one.

In bad business times, Santa bookings are down, and Santa groups are planning strategic responses.

Schwarzenegger to backers of gay marriage: "Don't give up."

New: TMN Talks with Jad Abumrad; send us your questions about Radio Lab.

Wonderful profile of David Foster Wallace from 1987.

I have done well as a parasite. But I'm still a parasite. Gladwell says he can't control his own success, and you can't control yours.

Video: The devil-horns technique for storing your earbuds.

Since 2004, a classified order has permitted the U.S. military to carry out secret attacks in Syria, Pakistan, elsewhere.

While Obama visits the White House, his transition team will review how to undo Bush policies: stem-cell limits, drilling expansion, etc.

Op: The economic crisis is based in deflation, not inflation--which means Obama can be a Roosevelt, not a Carter.

Angell: Now that Obama is president, we're all the Greatest Generation--an appellation undeserved before now.

Black comedians retire schticks, test new material for an Obama age.

There were two full bars set up in the suite, one Democratic, one Republican. The former featured spiked Hawaiian punch and Tusker beer, from Kenya.

"Democrats had supported her but they watched her for two months call the president-elect of the United States a terrorist sympathizer." The return of Alaska's governor.

Video: You've been wondering where to buy a bedside gun rack, and now you know.

Study finds statins could reduce the heart-attack risk of those with normal cholesterol--where half of all heart attacks occur.

Cakewrecks, where cakes gone wrong go to die.

A timeline of Lego Minifigs--by now, by far, the world's largest population.

Video: Electric Light Orchestra, "Secret Messages."

Op: Washington's new "Death with Dignity" act does make some people somewhat freer, but not enough.

South Africa is facing a period of protracted instability, perhaps leading to civil war.

Spain faces big changes to avoid "Italy's fate of seemingly remorseless decline."

Lessons Obama can learn from other presidential rookies.

Profile of investigative journalist extraordinaire Seymour Hersh, "the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist."

New Ze Frank project brings together Obama voters and McCain voters with pictures of support.

Arguments for cynicism when confronting the Obama hope explosion.

Instapaper for Saturday morning: Inside the mind of a pro-life assassin; see also: "After the Imperial Presidency."

Study finds standard plastic lab equipment may be inadvertently affecting research.

Gambling odds offered on God's existence: 4-1.

One man's mission to raise 100 head of (miniature) cattle on the internet.

Op: Really want to save the planet? Forget local food and eat some New Zealand apples.

If visiting New York this weekend: William Eggleston at the Whitney.

Stevie Wonder, Martha Reeves, and others on the history of Motown.

New accounts suggest Georgia's military attacked separatist capital, that it wasn't acting in defense of Russian aggression.

Bernard-Henri Lévy: Anti-Americanism will not suddenly, magically disappear. But it will have a harder time surviving...

Colson Whitehead: Not since Sammy Davis Jr. have Skinny Black Guys had so much to hope for.

A photo set of Obama and the family backstage on election night.

It begins: Pelosi promises bipartisanship; G.O.P. criticizes "broken promise" of bipartisanship.

As he shouted each name, he stabbed the table with his steak knife: "Nat Landow! Dead! Cliff Jackson! Dead." The new chief of staff's most infamous moments.

How the satire industry can survive the next four years.

Daring "inner-tube" robber nabbed through DNA from chewing-tobacco spit.

Demise of Chinese dynasties linked to monsoon changes.

Votes cast for Democrats have been on a steady rise for 28 years; however, Republican voting varies.

Photos from the set of Star Wars.

Medvedev backs constitutional reforms that would allow Putin to be president again--possibly until 2021.

It may be more difficult for Iran to demonize the U.S. in forthcoming elections--Obama's election could give reformers a chance.

Global to-do list that Obama can put off for 74 more days.

Completely wrong predictions made this year by political pundits.

Gallery: Microscopic faces of Obama made using nanotechnology.

Bizarre facts about previous White House pets (Coolidge's pygmy hippo, Hoover's alligators, Abigail Adams's dog named Satan).

All my anticipation is really around the girls. Michelle Obama on moving to the White House.

Missed connections from the big Chicago Obama party.

President-elect Barack Obama will soon be one of the most heavily guarded men in the world, if he is not already.

Berlusconi says only "imbeciles" don't understand his joke about Obama being "young, handsome, and also tanned."

The presidential transition FAQ.

Reading into the Obama moment with 96-point newspaper type.

Will: "McCain's loss was sterile, containing no seeds of intellectual rebirth."

"I wish I had been wiser." Remnick talks to Bill Ayers.

TMN's Sarah Hepola sits down with 30 Rock's Jack McBrayer, i.e., Kenneth the Page.

Ten ways the world could end from an astronomical point of view.

"Full-blown disaster" threatens the Democratic Republic of Congo (see primer); Horn of Africa remains a hunger zone.

Obama's "hard-hitting" transition team signals a plan to demonstrate toughness.

Sachs: The U.S. needs a new kind of macroeconomics to save the poor and sustain the rest.

It says to me we are abandoning the old ways we have been doing things. Seeming to go for Obama, North Carolina considers what that says about its soul.

Newspapers couldn't handle the demand for historic front pages.

Op: "When girls grow up to love princesses, they deserve to live happily ever after too."

Top black executives respond to the election: good for symbolism, good for brass-tacks business.

How to double a Lincoln Continental's horsepower while also getting 100 miles per gallon.

Lunch-time reading: Cheney's highly functioning role in making policy.

As D.C. considers its new First Family, Christopher Buckley actually says this: "He's a cool cat, and I think he's going to bring cool catness back."

Emily's List says it was women who put Obama over the top.

Michelle Obama's style mixes Hillary with Jackie (see various looks), and may replace Carla Bruni's, even if not everyone loved the dress.

For a half-hour's break: The history of visual communication.