Taiwan slows its own internet to a crawl — on purpose. A Russian ghost ship bleeds oil across a whale sanctuary off Oman. Thailand bans the shotgun raffle.

A derecho tears across the Midwest. A two-dollar ticket takes a billion.

It took an army to move the avocados. A drought in Rome hands back a two-thousand-year-old bridge. And two goats board a city bus in Portland, fare status unknown.

Art Sterling. Weekdays.