• At a press conference set for later today, President Obama will announce the nominations of John Brennan and Chuck Hagel as CIA Chief and Secretary of Defense respectively. Let the games begin. [NYT]
• New wide-reaching sanctions against Iran’s industrial infrastructure have been passed by Congress and approved by President Obama. [WaPo]
• Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a new appointee to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, arrived in Israel and immediately called for a reduction of U.S. foreign assistance…to countries like Israel. [JTA]
• A wise-cracking letter written by director Stanley Kubrick to IBM in the summer of 1966, citing fears about psychotic computers. Included along is IBM’s response. [Letters of Note]
• A guided tour through the West Village apartment of Jamie Shupak and Brian Stetler, two big media figures in New York, yields a ton of impressive DIY-art and some homemade Shabbat candles. [HuffPo]
Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.