For an explanation of this project, read here.

Americans catch an estimated 1 billion colds each year. It’s not often that two stories about rape — one in India and one here in the U.S. — get so much attention at the same time. It is as predictable as a heartbeat: when crucial medical results are at hand, cardiologist Jean-Luc Vachiery knows that the hedge-fund managers will come calling. On 20 November, the U.S. government unveiled what it called the largest insider-trading scheme in its history. It’s just like clockwork. Cigarette taxes have been in the news lately, and not just because politicians keep raising them. More than a third of the cigarettes that are smoked in California have been smuggled from other jurisdictions, according to an updated study by the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Last week, about 40 members of the CNET editorial staff met in the CNET trailer in the parking lot of the Las Vegas Convention Center to vote on our official Best of CES winner. There are companies with divisions that spend billions of dollars on entertainment. Are news and reviews subject to different ethical standards? In contrast to official temperature records showing a consistent warming trend, Fox Business reporters have claimed that the “temperature basically hasn’t changed much since the ice age” and that it’s actually “getting colder.” Global warming is already changing America from sea to rising sea and is affecting how Americans live, a massive new federally commissioned report says. Climate change is already affecting how Americans live and work, and evidence is mounting that the burning of fossil fuels has roughly doubled the probability of extreme heat waves, the Obama administration said Friday. Future generations of Americans can expect to spend 25 days a year sweltering in temperatures above 100F (38C), with climate change on course to turn the country into a hotter, drier, and more disaster-prone place. The consequences of climate change are now hitting the United States on several fronts, including health, infrastructure, water supply, agriculture and especially more frequent severe weather, a congressionally mandated study has concluded. Justin Gillis has filed a post on the Green Blog summarizing the main points in a new and voluminous draft federal report on current and anticipated impacts from greenhouse-driven global warming on the United States. Just reading about the government’s massive new report outlining what climate change has in store for the U.S. is sobering. The difficulties in debunking blatant antireality are legion.