“Hello, everybody, I’m Huang Xi. Huang like a cucumber, Xi like a watermelon … That wasn’t a joke.” NYT Mag’s Christopher Beam looks at the state of stand-up comedy in China, where it’s catching on, even if people still aren’t sure quite when to laugh. (So our cultures have more in common than we thought…)

+ “It’s a place that forces me to reach for comparisons from fiction: It’s Lord of the Rings, I tell people. It’s Mordor crossed with the Shire.” In SB Nation, Eva Holland takes you on a climb that can best be described as Unclimbable.

+ “Today he stands alone as the record-holder for most retractions by a single author, at a breathtaking 183, representing roughly 7 percent of all retracted papers between 1980 and 2011. His story represents a dramatic fall from grace, but also the arrival of a new dimension to scholarly publishing.” From Nautilus: How the Biggest Fabricator in Science Got Caught.

+ “My guest today is me.” Here’s a weekend listen. Mark Maron interviews Terry Gross on Fresh Air.