During a recent press conference to promote his sci-fi thriller-drama Gravity, director Alfonso Cuarón was finally asked the one question reporters have bizarrely neglected to put forward: What was it like filming a movie in space?

With less than a month before New York City chooses its next mayor, Republican candidate and non-frontrunner Joe Lhota has begun airing attack ads portraying opponent (and Democrat) Bill de Blasio as so soft on crime—indeed, very possibly pro-crime, because why not?—that his election would deliver Gotham to its dark, stormy, vaguely apocalyptic perdition. Case in point:

Julian Proctor Van Winkle III and his son Julian Preston Van Winkle are the proprietors of Kentucky's Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery, and they make the best bourbon in the world at a rate of roughly 7,000 cases per year. Which is why you can't find any of it, anywhere. Sighting a bottle of the 20-year-old Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve, which retails at $130, in a liquor store is like spotting a Scaly-Sided Merganser in the wild. The Van Winkles are personally beset by desperate high-class drunks seeking an in. Personal assistants have wasted days trying to track down bottles for well-heeled bosses. Pappy is furtively deployed to seal multi-million-dollar business deals. Leads are whispered about among aficionados: "I heard about a warehouse in Jersey that just got a shipment."

Banksy's newest NYC piece is a silhouette work in East Williamsburg. A graffiti writer who tagged the piece was "caught and beaten up."

In his post-budget deal speech this morning, President Obama outlined the necessity of an effective federal government and thanked the Democrats and Republicans who worked together to end the shutdown while criticizing, without specifically naming, the conservatives responsible for the closure.

Dick "Dick" Cheney, the defining political figure of 21st century America, is publishing a book next week called Heart: An American Medical Odyssey, about his own health problems. Cheney had the first of his five heart attacks in 1978. What if he had not survived?

A Florida man attempting to burn a cross as part of an ill-conceived "prank" suffered severe injuries after accidentally setting himself on fire in the process.

After nearly a week of outcry over a rape case in Maryville, Mo., prosecutors have announced a plan to reopen the investigation—spurred on by a television appearance made by one of the victims.

Richard Posner, the relentlessly rationalist federal judge and legal scholar, has identified an error in his output product, and a fairly important one: In a new book (on his stack of four or five dozen previous titles) and follow-up interviews, he has announced his conclusion that his 2007 decision in Crawford vs. Marion County Election Board, upholding Indiana's then-new voter-identification law, was wrong.

"Who discovered America?" "Obama."

With Wes Anderson releasing a brand new full-length feature less than two years after Moonrise Kingdom, you might be understandably concerned that the mise-en-scène master could be phoning it in (or, in his case, telegraphing it to a calligraphist).

Anthony Graves, who spent 18 years in prison–12 of them on death row–for murder before he was exonerated in 2010, wanted to use some of his $1.45 million settlement to repay Nicole Cásarez, the Houston attorney and journalism professor who spent eight years working for his freedom. But he knew it would be tough to convince her to take a gift from him.

Last week, Chris Peak shared his story of becoming homeless and living in his car. Today, he tells another true story, about a friend who lost a Wall Street job and started stashing money for drug dealers to pay the bills. It's good. Read it below.

Yesterday, a previously mild-mannered House stenographer unexpectedly seized the Speaker's microphone and began ranting about God and Freemasons as Republicans and Democrats were voting on a deal to end the shutdown.

Marshall Sella of Gentlemen’s Quarterly just got back from trailing Anthony Weiner’s mayoral campaign (including the candidate’s near-immediate meltdown) for several agonizing months. A few weeks after his final exit, Weiner shared with Sella a few thoughts about his resounding defeat in September’s Democratic primary. Hoo boy, here we go:

[Vice President Joe Biden arrives at the EPA, muffins in hand, to welcome staffers back to work. Photo by Jacquelyn Martin via AP]

"A Relationship in 5 Minutes," the latest short film from Restless Short Films, does exactly what it says on the tin.

Scientific American, not normally thought of as a hotbed of media scandal, is currently embroiled in a wave of sexual harassment allegations against a top editor. The science journalism world is in a low-grade uproar.

Davion Navar Henry Only is a teenager with a troubled past who wants nothing more than to be part of a family. Any family.