The Baffler

• At The Nib, Ted Rall writes about the power of political cartoons, the risks that every political cartoonist takes in making them, and why they do it. • Cartoonist Tommy Dessine’s dark and perfect response to Wednesday’s murders at Charlie Hedbo (the text ...

• Did you know? You can anonymously send someone poop in a box? Plain old cow dung is only $15.95 per quart, but for gorilla doo, you have to pay a little bit more. (Via the Harpers’ Weekly Review.) • Revenge is best served on a plate, not in a bag: the Korean Air ...

• Mars, here we come—sort of. A historic rocket launch by SpaceX—part of which would send supplies to the International Space Station, part of which would land on an ocean barge (“autonomous spaceport drone ship”)—was called off at the last minute this ...

• A new San Francisco startup aims to “print” the DNA designed by its customers on a computer program. “Anyone in the world that has a few dollars can make a creature, and that changes the game,” the company’s founder told the San Francisco Chronicle. ...

• This AP report on the controversial “opossum drop” in North Carolina just absolutely must be read in full. Happy New Year! • “As art was institutionalized, so, inevitably, was the artist,” writes William Deresiewicz in a brief history of the ...

• Today in Billionaires: two self-made billionaires (sorry, “producers”) have a new book out that shares the secrets of their success. Billionaires, you see, “cannot predict the exact time to make an investment…they are willing to operate ...

• Which one are you going to? We haven’t decided yet: “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich are planning ­rival New Year’s Eve parties on the ritzy island of St. Barts,” reports Page Six. Diddy’s will have Kim ...

Towards the end of every year, magazines and newspapers fill up their copy quotas—and woo their most lucrative advertisers—with the help of bright and shiny holiday gift guides. They are almost always at least a little absurd. This year, a thirty-second video ad that ...