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On her Hyperbole and a Half blog, Allie Brosh writes stories about her life illustrated with a "very precise crudeness." Most are lighthearted — about her dog or her favorite grammatical mistake ("a lot" vs. "alot) — but her most popular posts have also been the most upsetting, about her crippling depression.

Staffers at Bloomberg News accused editors of spiking an investigative story to avoid the wrath of the Communist Party. But analysts say accusations of self-censorship go far beyond this one case. One American academic compares China's censorial authority to a "giant anaconda" — its mere presence enough to make people limit their behavior.

Alex Sugiura says he understands why people ask. "I have always thought I've had a particularly strange face," he explains. And the query, he says, gives him a chance to really talk about what it means to be mixed-race in America.

Joe Sacco has made a career of tackling difficult subjects through imagery. He's a journalist and cartoonist who has reported on the Middle East and Bosnia — in both written and comic form. In his latest book, The Great War, Sacco turns to history, producing a 24-foot-long depiction of the horrifying first day of the Battle of the Somme.

New public opinion polls show distaste for National Security Agency surveillance does not break cleanly across party lines. Despite the administration's attempts otherwise, one new study finds that the more people know about the NSA, the more they dislike it.

A likely change in obscure rules governing the Affordable Care Act could save unions a bundle. A fee that starts at $63 for each person covered by union insurance in 2014 would be waived if the administration proceeds as expected.

Tax-exempt social welfare groups have become the vehicle of choice for big political contributions.

The U.N.'s top envoy on Syria says diplomats have failed to agree on a date for a peace conference. Lakhdar Brahimi says he's still hoping such a meeting could take place in Geneva before the end of the year. He had been hoping it would take place this month, but the Syrian rebels aren't ready to attend, the U.S. and Russia have yet to agree on whether Iran should take part and there are many other roadblocks. Brahimi is raising the alarms about a conflict that has affected half of the population, with 6,000 people fleeing every day.

The International Crisis Group is calling on the United Nations to push the Syrian government to open pathways for humanitarian aid. Melissa Block talks to the group's Peter Harling, who regularly visits Damascus to access the situation there.

Leaders from tech giants like Google and PayPal say that the password as we know it is dead. So what's the future of authentication online? Apple is implementing fingerprint protection on iPhones, but questions linger about the security and feasibility of biometrics.