"But the cost of the move could run as high as $130m, according to government estimates. For the villagers of Newtok, finding the cash, and finding their way through the government bureaucracy, is proving the challenge of their lives." An epic, multi-part story from Alaska by Suzanne Goldenberg on America's first climate refugees, Yup'ik people whose village is predicted to be completely submerged by 2017.
"Outside, the building is shearing away from the pavement, with a crack running horizontally, at some points as wide as the length of one finger." From Louisa Lim at NPR, the relocated survivors of the 2008 Chinese earthquake point to evidence that, thanks to corruption-fueled substandard building practices, their new city is just as much at risk as the old, destroyed one.
"The ranks of the conventional Syrian army — weary, depleted and demoralized by defections, casualties and more than a year of continuous fighting — are being swelled by the deployment of some 60,000 militia irregulars trained at least in part by Hezbollah and Iranian advisers." Liz Sly at The Washington Post on recent successes by forces loyal to Syrian President Assad in that country's civil war. In the meantime, Abigail Hauslohner reports for The Washington Post from Iraq: "The prospect of a regional power shift driven by the bloody civil war next door, where a mostly Sunni rebel movement is struggling to topple the Shiite-dominated regime, has emboldened Iraq’s Sunni minority to challenge its own Shiite government and amplified fears within Maliki’s administration that Iraq may soon be swept up in a spillover war."
"Even beyond the outrageous and overreaching action against the journalists, this is a blatant attempt to avoid the oversight function of the courts." The New Yorker turns to its general counsel, Lynn Oberlander, to provide an explanation of why the Justice Department's seizure of phone records from the AP has been greeted by outrage.
"Die from street violence and you may be remembered by a wooden cross and a few teddy bears set to rest on the sidewalk by your neighbors. You may get a t-shirt printed with your name. Die in a terror attack and there will be stone, marble and speeches to remember you with." Ariella Coleman at Next City interrogating what separates the mass shooting at a New Orleans Mother's Day parade from the violence at the Boston Marathon. (Via Sarah Goodyear.)
Carol Rosenberg at The Miami Herald continues covering the hunger strikes at Guantánamo, including a letter sent this week from twenty human rights groups asking that the policy of force-feeding prisoners be abandoned.
"Texas overall has the highest rate of workplace fatalities in the country and a high rate of fires and explosions, which come with very high costs: The fires and explosions at Texas’s chemical and industrial plants cost as much in property damages as in all other states combined." Bryce Covert at Think Progress reports on the so far inconclusive investigation into the causes of the devastating explosion of a fertilizer plant in West, Texas.
"To clarify, Hagel was speaking after Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, who headed the Air Force’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response, was charged with sexual battery, but before an equal opportunity adviser and coordinator of a sexual harassment-assault prevention program was charged with pandering, abusive sexual contact, assault and maltreatment of subordinates." Irin Carmon at Salon on the cluster of military sexual assault scandals this week that may finally drive Congress to effect change.
"It’s because one company, Myriad Genetics, owns the patent to the two genes that indicate an increased risk of breast or ovarian cancer. You read that right: The genes themselves, not the procedure to test for them." Also from Irin Carmon, an eye-opening look at why one company's stock price has gone up in the wake of Angelina Jolie's mastectomy op-ed at the NYT.
"Fortune's account of what occurred inside Ranbaxy and how the FDA responded to it raises serious questions about whether our government can effectively safeguard a drug supply that last year was 84% generic, according to the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, much of that manufactured in distant places." Katherine Eban's incredible piece about fraud in the generic drug industry will make you question the provenance of every medication you've ever taken. Yikes. (Via Maryn McKenna.)
Even if the medications actually are what they say they are, there's no guarantee they're being prescribed correctly and safely. Tracy Weber, Charles Ornstein, and Jennifer LaFleur at ProPublica on Medicare data showing that physicians who write tens of thousands of questionable or potentially hazardous prescriptions for elderly patients each year are rarely if ever called to account for their prescribing patterns.
"'It is unusual to have such a degree of uncertainty at this stage in an outbreak,' the European health agency's statement noted. It called the information that has been shared about the cases, including the current Saudi outbreak, 'insufficient.'" Helen Branswell, who is, if you'll remember, your non-alarmist source about this sort of thing, sounding fairly alarmed about the prospects for the spread of a coronavirus that has thus far killed 20 people.
"The battle for this estuary has become far more than a fight about an oyster farm — it’s become a flashpoint in the debate over what we want out of the natural world, and what we can afford." Great illustrated piece by Susie Cagle for Grist on agriculture and conservation at Point Reyes National Seashore.
"'But what's the point of having seven fairy maidens if you can't educate them properly?' he asked me." Leslie T. Chang at China File on the winding down of China's One-Child Policy — and why its end is not likely to result in a baby boom. (Via Angilee Shah.)
"Yet Howard didn’t just belong to the civil rights movement. Like black physicians and midwives before him, he belonged also to the abortion rights movement." At Dissent, Cynthia Greenlee looks at the complex forgotten legacy of Dr. T.R.M. Howard.
"A portable tool that could quickly identify any species anywhere would be a game changer for science." Maggie Koerth-Baker at Boing Boing on how Star Trek technology is slowly making itself real via DNA barcoding.
"Sometimes they’re playing tag, but mostly they’re just running, they hardly touch earth, they’re all but airborne. What is it about spring?" Ann Finkbeiner on spring at The Last Word on Nothing.
Has a new messiah been born in the form of an immaculately conceived baby anteater? Lisa Chamoff reports for Greenwich Time. You decide. (Via Emma Carmichael at The Hairpin.)
"The teenage baby sitter has been straddling the fault lines of feminism ever since the term gained popularity just after World War II. Great little piece from Charlotte Alter at The Wall Street Journal making the case for why teenage boys should have babysitting experience. (Via Atossa Abrahamian.)
The headline on this piece pretty much says it all. "So This Is How It Begins: Guy Refuses to Stop Drone-Spying on Seattle Woman." By Rebecca J. Rosen at The Atlantic.
"But the fact of the matter is there was a thing on your face that also had that attention." Hilarious account of the first Google Glass date in Portland, OR, by Taylor Hatmaker for ReadWrite. (Via Amanda Katz.)
If you read Judith Shulevitz's piece on loneliness at TNR, you will probably answer YES to Maria Bustillos at The Hairpin as she explores the eternal question: "Do You Need a Hug?"
"On the drive through Key West, Blume checks in constantly: Do you have on sunblock? Do you need to borrow a hat? Is your seat belt on and secure?" If you really need a hug, maybe you should arrange to interview Judy Blume? At Entertainment Weekly, Sara Vikomerson reports on the upcoming release of the first film based on one of Blume's books. (Via Rebecca Traister.)
This one's for my fellow Ravelers! My local library now has a yarn bombing group. No word yet on whether it has secret plans to yarn-bomb anything quite so epic as this, from Virginia C. McGuire at Mental Floss.
"Savannah is a 26-year-old woman who grew up believing that she was the reincarnation of her dead aunt Laura." Creepy, thoughtful, and funny interview by Jia Tolentino at The Hairpin.
"Provided with a hut or grotto to call his own and a few simple meals a day, a garden hermit might live for years on a picturesque corner of the property." Alice Gregory at The Boston Globe on the 18th century English fashion for purchasing a live person to serve as a garden ornament. (Via Kathryn Schulz.)
"That constraint is so startling to read about today that, in a sense, Fox has written another obituary here—not to a dead language but to a bygone era of problem-solving." A wonderful review of NYT obituary writer Margalit Fox's new book on the decoding of clay tablets from ancient Crete, by Kathryn Schulz at Vulture.
"My youth feels like a ghost town, an abandoned and dilapidated house I don’t have the keys to anymore." Finally, from Lindsay King-Miller (whose Ask a Queer Chick column at The Hairpin is always worth reading), a gorgeous heartbreaker of an essay about the death of a childhood friend. At The Rumpus. (Via Stephen Burt.)
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Links for the week ending 12 May 2013
"A secret CIA agenda was in conflict with the agenda of much of the rest of the U.S. government. And with no one able to explicitly arbitrate this contradiction, the CIA's agenda won out." Sarah Chayes at Foreign Policy on how the CIA destroyed anti-corruption campaigns in Afghanistan. (Via Heather Hurlburt.)
"If there’s any value in the current debate over Ramsey’s 'checkered past,' to me, it is that so many people are daring to suggest that a man who went to prison for a series of violent crimes can be more than that; that people are more than the worst things they have ever done." Essential reading about "Race, Redemption and Charles Ramsey," from Liliana Segura at The Nation.
"For Joe, it could all fall apart tomorrow. He might decide his new life isn’t worth the effort. Or he could do everything right, and still find himself sitting on a bus with the wrong person. He’s not naive enough to think good intentions will protect him." Yvonne Abraham at The Boston Globe on one Boston community organization where former gang members can find refuge. (Via Martine Powers.)
"'We have to encourage prosecutors, DAs, and judges to actually look at cases rather than just push people through the system and assume they're all guilty and deserving of this. So money helps. But I don't think money is the only answer: You also have to be interested in doing the right thing.' Hannah Levintova at Mother Jones on the crisis of public defense in America.
"'You're disadvantaging young people, African-Americans, the poor — that's the policy of the Obama administration?'" It will do your heart good to read this account of righteously pissed-off Reagan-appointed white-guy Judge Edward Korman calling out the administration over its right-wing policies on emergency contraception. By (who else?) Irin Carmon at Salon.
"'I’ll tell you that this has been a healing and exciting experience for us and for a lot of African-American friends we’re working with,' she tells me, with her voice wavering and her default smile widening." Akiba Solomon at Colorlines on the grand opening of an evangelical "crisis pregnancy center" in a poor, black neighborhood of Kansas City, MO.
"Food stamps can't be used to buy diapers. Mothers cannot get diapers from a major federal source of support for poor families, the Women Infants and Children Program, either." Joanne Samuel Goldblum of the National Diaper Bank Network, at CNN.com. (Via E.J. Graff.)
Meanwhile, back in privilege-land, men will now be able to buy Viagra directly online from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. By Linda A. Johnson for the AP. (Via @saltypepper.)
"Flu vaccine experts say H7 viruses appear to be the least immunogenic (immune-response inducing) of the bird flu viruses. In fact, in studies using killed virus vaccine -- the type of vaccine used in seasonal flu shots -- massive doses of serum failed to produce a protective response in most people. Helen Branswell for The Canadian Press delivers bad news about the prospects for a vaccine against the H7N9 bird flu now circulating in China. (Via Laurie Garrett.)
"Instead of an act of bioterrorism, however, it was determined that the anthrax appearance was the result of aural terrorism." At Discover, Rebecca Kreston gives you "a scientific reason to hate drum circles. You're welcome."(Via Maryn McKenna.)
Scicurious outed herself at SciAm this week. You all have been reading her forever, right? If not, hey, why not start with this week's entry in Friday Weird Science: "Are Boobs Better Braless?"
"'That tells you we're not cutting nature at its joints, that it's not an accurate way to categorize,' says Insel." Maia Szalavitz at Time on why the National Institute on Mental Health has announced that it will not use the new edition of the DSM, the mental health diagnostic tome, to guide its research funding.
"Maybe everything isn't hopeless bullshit." Allie Brosh returns to the most-missed place on the internets, Hyperbole and a Half, with a slogan for the ages. Emily Nagoski at the dirty normal calls it "the most amazing pedagogical device in the history of the earth" for teaching about depression.
"Women are looked at. But as an artist, I had permission to look back." Molly Crabapple on drawing, at VICE.
"Do you know how much I read about aging men and their penises and their lust for younger women and their hatred of their castrating wives? I read enough stories about male writing professors having midlife crises and lusting after young students to last me seven lifetimes." Maureen Johnson's fine essay on gendered book covers, accompanied by an absolutely brilliant series of famous book covers redone as they might appear if authored by someone of the opposite gender. If you crave more, here's further discussion of the issue by Allison Flood at The Guardian.
"That’s the way I write. It’s never going to stop. And the more it makes people annoyed the more I will do it. And it’s actually really good writing. I’m a good writer. They should just say that: 'She’s a great writer.' I am." Jamaica Kincaid interviewed by Alyssa Loh at The American Reader. (Via Sarah McCarry.)
Wow, The Hairpin this week. Yi Shun Lai: "For old hands like me, well-meaning bigots are easy to spot, if only because they never know they're doing anything wrong." Nadine Sander-Green: "My parents raised me with such confidence that I didn't notice the years in my late teens when my body ballooned into what my older brother called a big girl figure." And, from Mara Cohen Marks, an incredibly affecting essay: "My Brother, My Mother, and a Call Girl."
Buzzfeed's Jessica Testa with a blazing longform essay about the context behind a televised car chase that led to a live on-air suicide — and her own role in making the video of that suicide go viral: "Why Did Jodon Romero Kill Himself On Live Television?" (Via Susie Cagle.)
"I find Gatsby aesthetically overrated, psychologically vacant, and morally complacent; I think we kid ourselves about the lessons it contains." Kathryn Schulz with what is likely to be the best takedown of a classic novel you'll read this year.
Finally, for Mother's Day (a holiday which, if you've been around for awhile, you already know what I think about it), the late, great Marjorie Williams at The Washington Post with "A mother's story: The moon to his sun." (Via Elizabeth Lower-Basch.)
"If there’s any value in the current debate over Ramsey’s 'checkered past,' to me, it is that so many people are daring to suggest that a man who went to prison for a series of violent crimes can be more than that; that people are more than the worst things they have ever done." Essential reading about "Race, Redemption and Charles Ramsey," from Liliana Segura at The Nation.
"For Joe, it could all fall apart tomorrow. He might decide his new life isn’t worth the effort. Or he could do everything right, and still find himself sitting on a bus with the wrong person. He’s not naive enough to think good intentions will protect him." Yvonne Abraham at The Boston Globe on one Boston community organization where former gang members can find refuge. (Via Martine Powers.)
"'We have to encourage prosecutors, DAs, and judges to actually look at cases rather than just push people through the system and assume they're all guilty and deserving of this. So money helps. But I don't think money is the only answer: You also have to be interested in doing the right thing.' Hannah Levintova at Mother Jones on the crisis of public defense in America.
"'You're disadvantaging young people, African-Americans, the poor — that's the policy of the Obama administration?'" It will do your heart good to read this account of righteously pissed-off Reagan-appointed white-guy Judge Edward Korman calling out the administration over its right-wing policies on emergency contraception. By (who else?) Irin Carmon at Salon.
"'I’ll tell you that this has been a healing and exciting experience for us and for a lot of African-American friends we’re working with,' she tells me, with her voice wavering and her default smile widening." Akiba Solomon at Colorlines on the grand opening of an evangelical "crisis pregnancy center" in a poor, black neighborhood of Kansas City, MO.
"Food stamps can't be used to buy diapers. Mothers cannot get diapers from a major federal source of support for poor families, the Women Infants and Children Program, either." Joanne Samuel Goldblum of the National Diaper Bank Network, at CNN.com. (Via E.J. Graff.)
Meanwhile, back in privilege-land, men will now be able to buy Viagra directly online from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. By Linda A. Johnson for the AP. (Via @saltypepper.)
"Flu vaccine experts say H7 viruses appear to be the least immunogenic (immune-response inducing) of the bird flu viruses. In fact, in studies using killed virus vaccine -- the type of vaccine used in seasonal flu shots -- massive doses of serum failed to produce a protective response in most people. Helen Branswell for The Canadian Press delivers bad news about the prospects for a vaccine against the H7N9 bird flu now circulating in China. (Via Laurie Garrett.)
"Instead of an act of bioterrorism, however, it was determined that the anthrax appearance was the result of aural terrorism." At Discover, Rebecca Kreston gives you "a scientific reason to hate drum circles. You're welcome."(Via Maryn McKenna.)
Scicurious outed herself at SciAm this week. You all have been reading her forever, right? If not, hey, why not start with this week's entry in Friday Weird Science: "Are Boobs Better Braless?"
"'That tells you we're not cutting nature at its joints, that it's not an accurate way to categorize,' says Insel." Maia Szalavitz at Time on why the National Institute on Mental Health has announced that it will not use the new edition of the DSM, the mental health diagnostic tome, to guide its research funding.
"Maybe everything isn't hopeless bullshit." Allie Brosh returns to the most-missed place on the internets, Hyperbole and a Half, with a slogan for the ages. Emily Nagoski at the dirty normal calls it "the most amazing pedagogical device in the history of the earth" for teaching about depression.
"Women are looked at. But as an artist, I had permission to look back." Molly Crabapple on drawing, at VICE.
"Do you know how much I read about aging men and their penises and their lust for younger women and their hatred of their castrating wives? I read enough stories about male writing professors having midlife crises and lusting after young students to last me seven lifetimes." Maureen Johnson's fine essay on gendered book covers, accompanied by an absolutely brilliant series of famous book covers redone as they might appear if authored by someone of the opposite gender. If you crave more, here's further discussion of the issue by Allison Flood at The Guardian.
"That’s the way I write. It’s never going to stop. And the more it makes people annoyed the more I will do it. And it’s actually really good writing. I’m a good writer. They should just say that: 'She’s a great writer.' I am." Jamaica Kincaid interviewed by Alyssa Loh at The American Reader. (Via Sarah McCarry.)
Wow, The Hairpin this week. Yi Shun Lai: "For old hands like me, well-meaning bigots are easy to spot, if only because they never know they're doing anything wrong." Nadine Sander-Green: "My parents raised me with such confidence that I didn't notice the years in my late teens when my body ballooned into what my older brother called a big girl figure." And, from Mara Cohen Marks, an incredibly affecting essay: "My Brother, My Mother, and a Call Girl."
Buzzfeed's Jessica Testa with a blazing longform essay about the context behind a televised car chase that led to a live on-air suicide — and her own role in making the video of that suicide go viral: "Why Did Jodon Romero Kill Himself On Live Television?" (Via Susie Cagle.)
"I find Gatsby aesthetically overrated, psychologically vacant, and morally complacent; I think we kid ourselves about the lessons it contains." Kathryn Schulz with what is likely to be the best takedown of a classic novel you'll read this year.
Finally, for Mother's Day (a holiday which, if you've been around for awhile, you already know what I think about it), the late, great Marjorie Williams at The Washington Post with "A mother's story: The moon to his sun." (Via Elizabeth Lower-Basch.)
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Links for the week ending 5 May 2013
The internet was off its game this week, so here's an abbreviated list for your reading perusal.
From Mac McClelland at Mother Jones, an incredible piece about schizophrenia, violence, the defunding of treatment of the severely mentally ill — and her own extended family's tragedies.
"At least four of the captives being force-fed at Guantánamo were cleared for release years ago." The lede on this Carol Rosenberg story at the Miami Herald says it all.
Another profile in courage from the Mexican drug wars: "The Priest Who Travels With Bodyguards," by Melissa del Bosque for The Texas Observer.
"'We didn't hate white people,' she said softly. 'We didn't even know any. We hated the system. That's what we were protesting about.'" At The New Yorker, Charlayne Hunter-Gault writes about the 50th anniversary of the Birmingham Children's Crusade.
"'And that's when I realized: We are crushing whatever little destruction the bombers caused — we are crushing it.'" Profile of five blue-collar childhood friends from Stoneham, MA, who were wounded together and swear to recover together. By Sarah Schweitzer and Patricia Wen for The Boston Globe.
"'Mom,' he cried, 'it will be my last call — I'm dying for sure. I am sorry. I tried my best. I cannot breathe.'" Sarah Stillman at The New Yorker on the Bangladesh garment-factory disasters.
"Lawyer Robert Miller has visited five prisons and 17 jails in his lifetime, but he has reviewed only three of them on Yelp." From Caitlin Dewey at The Washington Post. (Via Sarah Zhang.)
From Wendy Kaufman at NPR, a story on how Harvey Mudd College is addressing the computer science gender gap with one brilliantly simple solution: different introductory classes for students with computer experience versus those that have none. (Via Jennifer 8 Lee.)
"Celebrities post banalities because they know people will find it interesting, and teenagers post banalities because they don't know yet that people won't." Great piece by Helena Fitzgerald at The New Inquiry on #followateen. (Via Shani O. Hilton.)
"The Victorian marriage plot is not about celebrating love, but rather about working through a terrifying, risky switch to a brand new idea about marriage." Fascinating essay by Talia Schaffer at Berfrois on how gay marriage is a natural step in a transformation of marriage that has been underway since the 17th century. (Via Maryn McKenna.)
Should you take that criticism seriously? Consult Ann Friedman's Disapproval Matrix to help you decide. (Via Cheryl Strayed.)
Moving piece at Columbia Journalism Review by Sara Morrison on the astonishing body of work produced over the all-too-brief career of multimedia journalist Jessica Lum, who died a few months ago at the age of 25. (Via Marian Wang.)
Heather Havrilesky's Ask Polly column was genuinely great answering the eternal question of how to handle it when one's best friend falls in love with one's sister. At The Awl.
"Though she's unfailingly polite, being in the spotlight makes Ms. Harris uncomfortable. It still surprises her when she's recognized by strangers—'I look like everybody's aunt,' she says, accurately." Alexandra Alter at The Wall Street Journal with a wonderful article about the travails of a best-selling genre author: "How to Kill a Vampire (Series)." (Via Rachel Hartman.)
"At night we dreamed the same dreams of being created, or sea voyages, of hands to smooth our hair." Jia Tolentino single-handedly redeems the internets this week with "The Love Song of the Banana With Dreadlocks." At The Billfold.
From Mac McClelland at Mother Jones, an incredible piece about schizophrenia, violence, the defunding of treatment of the severely mentally ill — and her own extended family's tragedies.
"At least four of the captives being force-fed at Guantánamo were cleared for release years ago." The lede on this Carol Rosenberg story at the Miami Herald says it all.
Another profile in courage from the Mexican drug wars: "The Priest Who Travels With Bodyguards," by Melissa del Bosque for The Texas Observer.
"'We didn't hate white people,' she said softly. 'We didn't even know any. We hated the system. That's what we were protesting about.'" At The New Yorker, Charlayne Hunter-Gault writes about the 50th anniversary of the Birmingham Children's Crusade.
"'And that's when I realized: We are crushing whatever little destruction the bombers caused — we are crushing it.'" Profile of five blue-collar childhood friends from Stoneham, MA, who were wounded together and swear to recover together. By Sarah Schweitzer and Patricia Wen for The Boston Globe.
"'Mom,' he cried, 'it will be my last call — I'm dying for sure. I am sorry. I tried my best. I cannot breathe.'" Sarah Stillman at The New Yorker on the Bangladesh garment-factory disasters.
"Lawyer Robert Miller has visited five prisons and 17 jails in his lifetime, but he has reviewed only three of them on Yelp." From Caitlin Dewey at The Washington Post. (Via Sarah Zhang.)
From Wendy Kaufman at NPR, a story on how Harvey Mudd College is addressing the computer science gender gap with one brilliantly simple solution: different introductory classes for students with computer experience versus those that have none. (Via Jennifer 8 Lee.)
"Celebrities post banalities because they know people will find it interesting, and teenagers post banalities because they don't know yet that people won't." Great piece by Helena Fitzgerald at The New Inquiry on #followateen. (Via Shani O. Hilton.)
"The Victorian marriage plot is not about celebrating love, but rather about working through a terrifying, risky switch to a brand new idea about marriage." Fascinating essay by Talia Schaffer at Berfrois on how gay marriage is a natural step in a transformation of marriage that has been underway since the 17th century. (Via Maryn McKenna.)
Should you take that criticism seriously? Consult Ann Friedman's Disapproval Matrix to help you decide. (Via Cheryl Strayed.)
Moving piece at Columbia Journalism Review by Sara Morrison on the astonishing body of work produced over the all-too-brief career of multimedia journalist Jessica Lum, who died a few months ago at the age of 25. (Via Marian Wang.)
Heather Havrilesky's Ask Polly column was genuinely great answering the eternal question of how to handle it when one's best friend falls in love with one's sister. At The Awl.
"Though she's unfailingly polite, being in the spotlight makes Ms. Harris uncomfortable. It still surprises her when she's recognized by strangers—'I look like everybody's aunt,' she says, accurately." Alexandra Alter at The Wall Street Journal with a wonderful article about the travails of a best-selling genre author: "How to Kill a Vampire (Series)." (Via Rachel Hartman.)
"At night we dreamed the same dreams of being created, or sea voyages, of hands to smooth our hair." Jia Tolentino single-handedly redeems the internets this week with "The Love Song of the Banana With Dreadlocks." At The Billfold.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Links for the week ending 28 April 2013
National treasure Carol Rosenberg at the Miami Herald has been covering Guantánamo for a long time now. Read any one of her stories on the growing number of hunger strikers, some of whom are being force-fed, or check the chart that tracks it by day.
"But without running water, a curfew from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., and some homes lacking electricity, they don’t know when they’ll be able to return to their homes to live." For the Waco Tribune, Kirsten Crow reports on families displaced by the explosion of a fertilizer factory in West, Texas. Jessica Luther of Austinist reports, "In a town of 2800, roughly 8% of the entire population was either injured or killed with 14 people dying (10 of them first responders) and nearly 200 injured." (Second link via Aaron Bady.)
"'The most disturbing thing for me in treating these patients is that they were awake after it happened and looked down and saw these terrible wounds,'" Abby Goodnough reports for The New York Times on the long road to recovery for the most severely injured victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. (Via Jennifer Steinhauer.)
"Death is always unexpected in America and death by a terrorist attack more so than in any other place." At Guernica, Pakistani columnist Rafia Zakaria writes about why terror attacks on the United States command worldwide attention even from places long accustomed to violence. (Via Marian Wang.)
"That economy of disaster, built of paper and tape and shoe leather, now seems of another era." A thoughtful essay by Amanda Katz at The Boston Globe on how the experience of disaster has changed in the nearly 12 years since the twin towers collapsed.
"'When you have level upon level of surveillance of highly vulnerable populations, kids grow up with very strange notions of a free society and a Democratic process,' he says. 'There's a paranoia that's justified, and for many of them, it's the beginning of the American nightmare.'" Jamilah King at The Prospect reporting on the way that the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy has warped the city's culture. (Via Christie Thompson.)
"In several men’s prisons across California, colored signs hang above cell doors: blue for black inmates, white for white, red, green or pink for Hispanic, yellow for everyone else. From earlier this month, Christie Thompson at ProPublica on prisons that color-code — and punish — prisoners by race and ethnicity.
"If you’re a white middle or high school student, and you don’t have a disability, your odds of being suspended from school are one in fourteen. If you’re a black middle or high school student without a disability, your odds are one in four." Chloe Angyal at The Nation on a new study showing the ubiquity of discriminatory punishments in our schools as well as our streets. (Via Audrey Watters.)
"Had American unions secured tangible benefits for the public at large, it’s possible that they would still be a force to reckon with. Instead, the dramatic difference between the job security and livable wages of union members and non-unionized employees is now a significant obstacle to uniting workers in the struggle against punitive austerity measures.. Illuminating essay by Megan Erickson on the recent failure of NYC school bus drivers strike, and the history of how teachers' unions turned their backs on social justice issues that had historically rallied communities to them. (Via Dana Goldstein.)
"'A lot of them are just barely making it," he said. "Transportation is a challenge. Eating is a challenge. For them, coming up with $140 for an assessment, it's basically telling them, "Forget about ever getting this part of your life complete."'" For-profit behemoth Pearson takes over the GED Testing Service, doubles the price of the exam, and eliminates a paper-and-pencil version. Heather Hollingsworth for the AP reports on how states are lining up to abandon the GED exam in consequence. (Via Audrey Watters.)
"When I take a state test, I am not myself. I feel as if I need to do everything the way the state thinks it should be." Incredibly awesome New York 13-year-old makes up her own standardized test to protest standardized tests. By Valerie Strauss for The Washington Post. (Via Janine DeBaise.)
In some states the base salary of restaurant waitstaff remains at the level set by the federal government in 1991: $2.13 per hour. Jeanna Smialek for Bloomberg on new legislation that would raise base salary for tipped employees. (Via Cora Currier.)
The Billfold continues its amazing series of interviews with "A Conversation With a Single Mom Living on $40,000 a Year." Warning: this one is going to make you want to throw things, preferably in the direction of the woman's ex-husband.
"It was time to witness that $5 hot dog being slaughtered for myself." Mac McClelland reports for Modern Farmer on humane slaughtering practices at one of the most progressive small ranches in the country, and asks, "Is It Good Enough?"
Meanwhile, at Grist, cartoonist/reporter Susie Cagle has a multipart series this week about "ag-gag" state laws forbidding undercover investigations of animal welfare and health issues at all stages of meat production.
"'I think if evangelicals weren't driving a lot of the adoption business, there would be no international adoption, period.'" Disturbing longread on adoptions of Liberian children by American evangelical families wedded to an obedience-first model of parenting, by Kathryn Joyce at Mother Jones. Here is also a response to the book by Alisa Harris at Patrol magazine, "No, Kathryn Joyce is Not Attacking Good Christian Parents." (First link via Nicole Cliffe; second link via Ruth Graham.)
"'This is probably the most profound change we've had in drug policy ever.'" Carla K. Johnson for the AP reports on how the Affordable Care Act will put drug addiction treatment within reach for millions of people with drug and alcohol problems — and may overwhelm existing services in the process. (Via Christie Thompson.)
""NPR likes to brag about its 'driveway moments,' when a story is so good you sit in the driveway listening rather than going into the house. Me, I had a 'drive the car into the bushes' moment while listening to the Mantel interview." At VIDA, Lorraine Berry asks around and collects awful questions lobbed at women writers in interviews. But, wow, this conversation between Martha Bayne and Zoe Zolbrod at The Rumpus about Bayne's failed interview with Terry Gross takes the whole question of interviews — and writing personal narratives — to a much more profound level.
Oy gevalt. Peggy Orenstein at The Atlantic on the sexualization of that hoary old board game, Candy Land. (If they find a way to sexualize Sorry, please, don't tell me.) (Via Anne Jefferson.)
"In the entrance hall of a fairly ordinary house in ancient Pompeii, buried beneath layers of later paint, are the faint traces of an intriguing sketch of two men fighting on horseback." So begins Mary Beard's wonderful piece for the NYRB about what little can be actually known about the historical figure of Spartacus.
Randa Jarrar at The Rumpus: "'Have you been to Boston?' my friend J. says. 'Every corner of that place is historically a war zone.'"
Finally, at Aeon, Mary H K Choi: "I love my mom and it's a secret. I love her so much it kills me, and you bet I'd sooner die than tell her. (Via Nicole Cliffe.)"
"But without running water, a curfew from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., and some homes lacking electricity, they don’t know when they’ll be able to return to their homes to live." For the Waco Tribune, Kirsten Crow reports on families displaced by the explosion of a fertilizer factory in West, Texas. Jessica Luther of Austinist reports, "In a town of 2800, roughly 8% of the entire population was either injured or killed with 14 people dying (10 of them first responders) and nearly 200 injured." (Second link via Aaron Bady.)
"'The most disturbing thing for me in treating these patients is that they were awake after it happened and looked down and saw these terrible wounds,'" Abby Goodnough reports for The New York Times on the long road to recovery for the most severely injured victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. (Via Jennifer Steinhauer.)
"Death is always unexpected in America and death by a terrorist attack more so than in any other place." At Guernica, Pakistani columnist Rafia Zakaria writes about why terror attacks on the United States command worldwide attention even from places long accustomed to violence. (Via Marian Wang.)
"That economy of disaster, built of paper and tape and shoe leather, now seems of another era." A thoughtful essay by Amanda Katz at The Boston Globe on how the experience of disaster has changed in the nearly 12 years since the twin towers collapsed.
"'When you have level upon level of surveillance of highly vulnerable populations, kids grow up with very strange notions of a free society and a Democratic process,' he says. 'There's a paranoia that's justified, and for many of them, it's the beginning of the American nightmare.'" Jamilah King at The Prospect reporting on the way that the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy has warped the city's culture. (Via Christie Thompson.)
"In several men’s prisons across California, colored signs hang above cell doors: blue for black inmates, white for white, red, green or pink for Hispanic, yellow for everyone else. From earlier this month, Christie Thompson at ProPublica on prisons that color-code — and punish — prisoners by race and ethnicity.
"If you’re a white middle or high school student, and you don’t have a disability, your odds of being suspended from school are one in fourteen. If you’re a black middle or high school student without a disability, your odds are one in four." Chloe Angyal at The Nation on a new study showing the ubiquity of discriminatory punishments in our schools as well as our streets. (Via Audrey Watters.)
"Had American unions secured tangible benefits for the public at large, it’s possible that they would still be a force to reckon with. Instead, the dramatic difference between the job security and livable wages of union members and non-unionized employees is now a significant obstacle to uniting workers in the struggle against punitive austerity measures.. Illuminating essay by Megan Erickson on the recent failure of NYC school bus drivers strike, and the history of how teachers' unions turned their backs on social justice issues that had historically rallied communities to them. (Via Dana Goldstein.)
"'A lot of them are just barely making it," he said. "Transportation is a challenge. Eating is a challenge. For them, coming up with $140 for an assessment, it's basically telling them, "Forget about ever getting this part of your life complete."'" For-profit behemoth Pearson takes over the GED Testing Service, doubles the price of the exam, and eliminates a paper-and-pencil version. Heather Hollingsworth for the AP reports on how states are lining up to abandon the GED exam in consequence. (Via Audrey Watters.)
"When I take a state test, I am not myself. I feel as if I need to do everything the way the state thinks it should be." Incredibly awesome New York 13-year-old makes up her own standardized test to protest standardized tests. By Valerie Strauss for The Washington Post. (Via Janine DeBaise.)
In some states the base salary of restaurant waitstaff remains at the level set by the federal government in 1991: $2.13 per hour. Jeanna Smialek for Bloomberg on new legislation that would raise base salary for tipped employees. (Via Cora Currier.)
The Billfold continues its amazing series of interviews with "A Conversation With a Single Mom Living on $40,000 a Year." Warning: this one is going to make you want to throw things, preferably in the direction of the woman's ex-husband.
"It was time to witness that $5 hot dog being slaughtered for myself." Mac McClelland reports for Modern Farmer on humane slaughtering practices at one of the most progressive small ranches in the country, and asks, "Is It Good Enough?"
Meanwhile, at Grist, cartoonist/reporter Susie Cagle has a multipart series this week about "ag-gag" state laws forbidding undercover investigations of animal welfare and health issues at all stages of meat production.
"'I think if evangelicals weren't driving a lot of the adoption business, there would be no international adoption, period.'" Disturbing longread on adoptions of Liberian children by American evangelical families wedded to an obedience-first model of parenting, by Kathryn Joyce at Mother Jones. Here is also a response to the book by Alisa Harris at Patrol magazine, "No, Kathryn Joyce is Not Attacking Good Christian Parents." (First link via Nicole Cliffe; second link via Ruth Graham.)
"'This is probably the most profound change we've had in drug policy ever.'" Carla K. Johnson for the AP reports on how the Affordable Care Act will put drug addiction treatment within reach for millions of people with drug and alcohol problems — and may overwhelm existing services in the process. (Via Christie Thompson.)
""NPR likes to brag about its 'driveway moments,' when a story is so good you sit in the driveway listening rather than going into the house. Me, I had a 'drive the car into the bushes' moment while listening to the Mantel interview." At VIDA, Lorraine Berry asks around and collects awful questions lobbed at women writers in interviews. But, wow, this conversation between Martha Bayne and Zoe Zolbrod at The Rumpus about Bayne's failed interview with Terry Gross takes the whole question of interviews — and writing personal narratives — to a much more profound level.
Oy gevalt. Peggy Orenstein at The Atlantic on the sexualization of that hoary old board game, Candy Land. (If they find a way to sexualize Sorry, please, don't tell me.) (Via Anne Jefferson.)
"In the entrance hall of a fairly ordinary house in ancient Pompeii, buried beneath layers of later paint, are the faint traces of an intriguing sketch of two men fighting on horseback." So begins Mary Beard's wonderful piece for the NYRB about what little can be actually known about the historical figure of Spartacus.
Randa Jarrar at The Rumpus: "'Have you been to Boston?' my friend J. says. 'Every corner of that place is historically a war zone.'"
Finally, at Aeon, Mary H K Choi: "I love my mom and it's a secret. I love her so much it kills me, and you bet I'd sooner die than tell her. (Via Nicole Cliffe.)"
Sunday, April 21, 2013
No links for the week ending 21 April 2013
My apologies, faithful readers. I was not up to the task of recapping the news this week. The list will be back next week.
Many thanks to all of you who said kind things about my piece about the marathon up at ye olde homestead.
Here's to a new week with rather less news in it.
Many thanks to all of you who said kind things about my piece about the marathon up at ye olde homestead.
Here's to a new week with rather less news in it.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Links for the week ending 14 April 2013
"The Asahi Shimbun, one of the biggest newspapers in Japan, called the Fukushima plant 'a toxic water production facility' in an editorial this week." Mari Saito for Reuters on the ongoing crisis concerning leaks of ever-growing amounts radioactive water. You know. Just another little indicator that perhaps humans should first figure out how to stop being inveterate fuck-ups, and then try again with nuclear power. (Via Jim Roberts.)
"Whatever one feels about the drone program, one would think that it shouldn't result in bodies that have to be sorted into a category that basically means 'miscellaneous' or even just 'some guys who struck us as kind of shady.'" As usual, no one does outrage quite so well as Amy Davidson at The New Yorker.
At NPR, Marie McGrory on the striking pictures of Afghan photojournalist Farzana Wahidy. (Via Erin Cunningham.)
There's plenty to quarrel with in this Caroline Stauffer story for Reuters about conflicts surrounding the Brazilian government's eviction of 7,000 settlers as part of restitution to the Xavante Indians who were forced off their traditional land by the government in 1966. But it's a fascinating story nonetheless.
"The ad rests on the image of a black man screaming, 'Get your free government phone today!' from a car." From Jamilah King at Colorlines, a deconstruction of a race-based attack by Republicans of a Reagan-era program to subsidize phone service for rural, elderly, and very poor people.
"On Monday nights when shaggy-haired young men with restless video-game thumbs hustle off the bus at the recruit depot in San Diego, one of the first Marines they see is a woman." Such a great lede in Gretel C. Kovach's story at The San Diego Union-Tribune about the Marine Corps' efforts to comply with new directives to address gender discrimination and sexual assault. (Via Anne-Marie Slaughter.)
"Businesses are encouraged to keep fixed costs, such as labor and rent, as low as possible. That has paid off: The amount of profit companies make per employee has risen 34% since 2004." Alana Semuels for the Los Angeles Times on how efficiency and precarity grind down workers in every industry, from the factory floor to Manhattan trading firms. (Via Atossa Abrahamian.)
This week in Health Care and the Free Market: "The same year that naloxone became so critical to saving lives, one pharmaceutical company secured a monopoly on its production and jacked up the prices by 1,100%." By Tessie Castillo at AlterNet. (Via Kristen Gwynne.)
"He said the physician told him that Nevada had no place for him. 'Pick a state,' he said the doctor told him. 'How about sunny California? They have excellent health care and more benefits than you could ever get in Nevada.'" Sensitive but hard-hitting reporting by Cynthia Hubert for the Sacramento Bee about Nevada dumping mentally ill patients on neighboring states via Greyhound bus. An amazing piece. (Via Marian Wang.)
"Paper unicorns pop up in surprising nooks around the lab, bearing Technicolor testament to the demanding hours the scientists have spent underground." Fun profile of the lab team running the Large Underground Xenon experiment to search for dark matter in an old South Dakota gold mine. By Amina Khan for the Los Angeles Times.(Via Eryn Brown.)
Excellent bird flu explainer by epidemiologist Tara C. Smith at Slate.
"This spring, greening is being blamed for an unprecedented 'fruit drop,' in which eighteen million boxes of oranges and grapefruit fell prematurely." At The New Yorker, Michelle Nijhuis writes about the apocalypse facing Florida's citrus groves.
"'We think it might be a very general phenomenon,' McFall-Ngai says. Our microscopic passengers, that is, might be helping to steer the spaceship." On the circadian rhythms of luminous squid, and what they might tell us more generally about life. By Elizabeth Preston at Inkfish. (Via @zoobiquity.)
At The Awl, "The Great Nobel Prize Cash-In Begins With A Big Bang," by Alexis Coe, on the decision of DNA co-discoverer Francis Crick's heir to sell his Nobel Prize and other effects at auction to private bidders. Don't worry, folks! This stuff will be up for public display again just as soon as the heirs of the magnate who acquires it all go bankrupt in their turn.
This is just so damn fabulous. Grandma Got STEM, a blog collecting histories of women in science, technology, engineering, and math. There are a lot of people out there with awesome grandmas.
Also fabulous: the "Let's Talk About Names" series being co-hosted by Are Women Human? and Flyover Feminism. I arrived via Kristin Rawls' piece, and promptly fell down the rabbit hole following earlier links.
"Eden Foods, which did not respond to a request for comment, says in its filing that the company believes of birth control that 'these procedures almost always involve immoral and unnatural practices.'" Irin Carmon reports for Salon on how an organic food staple brand of co-ops and Whole Foods belies its conservative legal activism. I hear the sweet sounds of a spontaneous boycott, don't you?
"The cover that the publisher designs has a naked cartoon torso against a pink background with a camera covering the genitalia. I tell them it's usually my eye behind the camera, not my vagina." Deborah Copaken Kogan takes no prisoners in "My So-Called 'Post-Feminist' Life in Arts and Letters." At The Nation.
Jennifer Weiner's commentary on Kogan's piece is also well worth reading. (Via VIDA.)
Though it's also worth remembering that there's more to art than prestige. Another knock-out piece by Molly Crabapple, this week in Jacobin, on her journey to making political, activism-driven art.
"Surfer, rock climber, musician, yogi — all were common self-identifiers in a community of waitresses and bartenders." At The Billfold, Mary Mann writes about her post-college life in San Diego's tourist economy (and makes me all not-nostalgic for my post-college life in Maine's short-season tourist industry, where the underpaid bubble always bursts by Columbus Day).
"But they're adults. They came here to get fucked up — and your relationship to them is temporary at best. It's your job to be polite, to make conversation, and to make sure they don't kill themselves, or anyone else." Wonderful prose piece from Martha Bayne about bar life, the sometimes dicey ethics of bartending, and the rage of grief.
"When I told friends I was going to be a bridesmaid in my ex's wedding, however, the look given to me was a look often reserved for telling someone their face is on fire." Sweet and funny essay by Anna Pulley at Salon. (Via Marian Wang.)
"They can still recall the pebbles that became their toys and the hard wooden bunks where they slept with dozens of other children, most of whom would die." Breathtaking profile by Emily Langer and Ellen Belcher of two Italian sisters believed to be some of the youngest survivors with memories of Auschwitz. (Via Jim Roberts.)
Finishing up in two different directions this week. Filed under, "Things that will make you glad you exist at this moment in human history," a new book called Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology, reviewed at the LARB by Jillian Steinhauer. (Via Niljana Roy.)
Filed under, "Things that will make your heart hurt," Susan Faludi's masterful account of the life and early death of feminist revolutionary Shulamith Firestone. At The New Yorker.
"Whatever one feels about the drone program, one would think that it shouldn't result in bodies that have to be sorted into a category that basically means 'miscellaneous' or even just 'some guys who struck us as kind of shady.'" As usual, no one does outrage quite so well as Amy Davidson at The New Yorker.
At NPR, Marie McGrory on the striking pictures of Afghan photojournalist Farzana Wahidy. (Via Erin Cunningham.)
There's plenty to quarrel with in this Caroline Stauffer story for Reuters about conflicts surrounding the Brazilian government's eviction of 7,000 settlers as part of restitution to the Xavante Indians who were forced off their traditional land by the government in 1966. But it's a fascinating story nonetheless.
"The ad rests on the image of a black man screaming, 'Get your free government phone today!' from a car." From Jamilah King at Colorlines, a deconstruction of a race-based attack by Republicans of a Reagan-era program to subsidize phone service for rural, elderly, and very poor people.
"On Monday nights when shaggy-haired young men with restless video-game thumbs hustle off the bus at the recruit depot in San Diego, one of the first Marines they see is a woman." Such a great lede in Gretel C. Kovach's story at The San Diego Union-Tribune about the Marine Corps' efforts to comply with new directives to address gender discrimination and sexual assault. (Via Anne-Marie Slaughter.)
"Businesses are encouraged to keep fixed costs, such as labor and rent, as low as possible. That has paid off: The amount of profit companies make per employee has risen 34% since 2004." Alana Semuels for the Los Angeles Times on how efficiency and precarity grind down workers in every industry, from the factory floor to Manhattan trading firms. (Via Atossa Abrahamian.)
This week in Health Care and the Free Market: "The same year that naloxone became so critical to saving lives, one pharmaceutical company secured a monopoly on its production and jacked up the prices by 1,100%." By Tessie Castillo at AlterNet. (Via Kristen Gwynne.)
"He said the physician told him that Nevada had no place for him. 'Pick a state,' he said the doctor told him. 'How about sunny California? They have excellent health care and more benefits than you could ever get in Nevada.'" Sensitive but hard-hitting reporting by Cynthia Hubert for the Sacramento Bee about Nevada dumping mentally ill patients on neighboring states via Greyhound bus. An amazing piece. (Via Marian Wang.)
"Paper unicorns pop up in surprising nooks around the lab, bearing Technicolor testament to the demanding hours the scientists have spent underground." Fun profile of the lab team running the Large Underground Xenon experiment to search for dark matter in an old South Dakota gold mine. By Amina Khan for the Los Angeles Times.(Via Eryn Brown.)
Excellent bird flu explainer by epidemiologist Tara C. Smith at Slate.
"This spring, greening is being blamed for an unprecedented 'fruit drop,' in which eighteen million boxes of oranges and grapefruit fell prematurely." At The New Yorker, Michelle Nijhuis writes about the apocalypse facing Florida's citrus groves.
"'We think it might be a very general phenomenon,' McFall-Ngai says. Our microscopic passengers, that is, might be helping to steer the spaceship." On the circadian rhythms of luminous squid, and what they might tell us more generally about life. By Elizabeth Preston at Inkfish. (Via @zoobiquity.)
At The Awl, "The Great Nobel Prize Cash-In Begins With A Big Bang," by Alexis Coe, on the decision of DNA co-discoverer Francis Crick's heir to sell his Nobel Prize and other effects at auction to private bidders. Don't worry, folks! This stuff will be up for public display again just as soon as the heirs of the magnate who acquires it all go bankrupt in their turn.
This is just so damn fabulous. Grandma Got STEM, a blog collecting histories of women in science, technology, engineering, and math. There are a lot of people out there with awesome grandmas.
Also fabulous: the "Let's Talk About Names" series being co-hosted by Are Women Human? and Flyover Feminism. I arrived via Kristin Rawls' piece, and promptly fell down the rabbit hole following earlier links.
"Eden Foods, which did not respond to a request for comment, says in its filing that the company believes of birth control that 'these procedures almost always involve immoral and unnatural practices.'" Irin Carmon reports for Salon on how an organic food staple brand of co-ops and Whole Foods belies its conservative legal activism. I hear the sweet sounds of a spontaneous boycott, don't you?
"The cover that the publisher designs has a naked cartoon torso against a pink background with a camera covering the genitalia. I tell them it's usually my eye behind the camera, not my vagina." Deborah Copaken Kogan takes no prisoners in "My So-Called 'Post-Feminist' Life in Arts and Letters." At The Nation.
Jennifer Weiner's commentary on Kogan's piece is also well worth reading. (Via VIDA.)
Though it's also worth remembering that there's more to art than prestige. Another knock-out piece by Molly Crabapple, this week in Jacobin, on her journey to making political, activism-driven art.
"Surfer, rock climber, musician, yogi — all were common self-identifiers in a community of waitresses and bartenders." At The Billfold, Mary Mann writes about her post-college life in San Diego's tourist economy (and makes me all not-nostalgic for my post-college life in Maine's short-season tourist industry, where the underpaid bubble always bursts by Columbus Day).
"But they're adults. They came here to get fucked up — and your relationship to them is temporary at best. It's your job to be polite, to make conversation, and to make sure they don't kill themselves, or anyone else." Wonderful prose piece from Martha Bayne about bar life, the sometimes dicey ethics of bartending, and the rage of grief.
"When I told friends I was going to be a bridesmaid in my ex's wedding, however, the look given to me was a look often reserved for telling someone their face is on fire." Sweet and funny essay by Anna Pulley at Salon. (Via Marian Wang.)
"They can still recall the pebbles that became their toys and the hard wooden bunks where they slept with dozens of other children, most of whom would die." Breathtaking profile by Emily Langer and Ellen Belcher of two Italian sisters believed to be some of the youngest survivors with memories of Auschwitz. (Via Jim Roberts.)
Finishing up in two different directions this week. Filed under, "Things that will make you glad you exist at this moment in human history," a new book called Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology, reviewed at the LARB by Jillian Steinhauer. (Via Niljana Roy.)
Filed under, "Things that will make your heart hurt," Susan Faludi's masterful account of the life and early death of feminist revolutionary Shulamith Firestone. At The New Yorker.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Links for the week ending 7 April 2013
Oh hai bird flu! Helen Branswell is your non-alarmist source for All Things Pandemic, as usual. Laurie Garrett is your alarmist source, also as usual. And Maryn McKenna at Wired has a handy guide, in case you have trouble telling alarmist and non-alarmist strains apart.
"'If we treated the patients receiving the most expensive drugs, we'd be out of business in six months to a year.'" Sarah Kliff at the Washington Post with a short profile of doctors who have TOTALLY FORGOTTEN THAT MEDICINE IS ABOUT HELPING PATIENTS, NOT FINANCIAL BUSINESS MODELS. (Oh, whoops. Is that not how the article is framed? I'm sure that was just an oversight on the part of the Post, right?) (Via Suzy Khimm.)
This, on the other hand, is EXACTLY how you do it when you're leading with what actually matters. Sarah Stillman at The New Yorker with a report from Mexico's drug war agonies: "What We Want Is the Head of the Friar." (Via Cora Currier.)
"'This is a religious banner, not a country's flag.'" Another report from Rania Abouzeid, this week at The New Yorker, on the struggle to determine whether Islamists will take control of the Syrian revolution.
Also from Syria, an article at The Atlantic by advocate Lauren Wolfe, director of Women Under Siege, on the systematic use of rape as a weapon in the conflict. (Another cranky editorial aside after attempting to look at the reporting data myself: if your site for the reporting and tracking of rape requires visitors to accept cookies, how are you not needlessly compromising the safety of the people who view this data from the conflict zones???)
Speaking of needless tracking! Kim Zetter at Wired reports from a U.S. district court in Arizona about the federal government's defense of the use of a "stingray" device, which spoofs a cellphone tower and allows the government to collect data about all mobile phones and air cards in the vicinity.
Meanwhile, back in Arkansas, Susan White reports for InsideClimate News about how Exxon is strictly limiting all access to the site of a recent major oil pipeline spill, including no-fly zones and the threatened arrest of a reporter who attempted to speak with an EPA spokesman at the site. (Via Kate Sheppard.)
"The message is clear: whether or not a protest is peaceful and legal is entirely up to the police and judiciary to decide, so if you want to play it safe, stay at home and sign a petition." Laurie Penny at The Guardian explaining why recent austerity measures in the UK have not been met by public protests.
At The New Yorker's new science and technology blog! Maria Bustillos explains how austerity — and its associated global banking shenanigans — appears to have begotten a boom in Bitcoin, a virtual currency that is "mined" using computer power to solve mathematical problems.
In a 2010 interview, Chaz Ebert said that she may be in denial, "but hope is a strategy." So let us strategize for a few minutes. At Foreign Policy, Heather Hurlbut looks at the surprising success of the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty in the face of the National Rifle Association's full-bore opposition and concludes that U.N. conventions are an effective "'tool for civil society to beat their governments on the head.'" (Ebert link via Irin Carmon.)
Also this week in hope: Cara Maresca for MSNBC on Connecticut's new gun control law. And Lynn Bartels at The Denver Post on the courage of Colorado lawmakers who introduced gun-control laws: "'If making Colorado safer from gun violence costs me my political career, it's an amazingly small price to pay.'" (First link via Natasha Lennard; second link via Lois Beckett.)
Sort of semi-hopeful? Julia Whitty at Mother Jones explains how the introduction of an invasive European crab species may actually help restore some balance to Cape Cod's degraded salt marshes.
From Melissa Dribben at the Philadelphia Inquirer, a quiet piece that lets its quotes speak for themselves: on white resistance to one small sign that "the language of bigotry is no longer acceptable." (Via Marian Wang.)
"On the job he found out that the district, while ostensibly integrated, was still running separate school buses for black and white students." Julianne Hing looks at the history and culture that underlies — and limits — the Department of Justice's consent decree to end the school-to-prison pipeline in Meridian, Mississippi.
"But on the road to the revolution let us not forget that folks still got to live." Tressie McMillan Cottom writes an excellent piece about how "Don't Go To Graduate School" warnings come from a particular position of racial and class privilege, and don't recognize how expensive credentialing procedures are still a rational choice for people who know they won't get a chance otherwise.
"I define the feminist moment as that moment when that bias registers in your mind as unacceptable, and very importantly, something in you resists." Fascinating interview with feminist blogger and author Rita Banerji at Women's Web. (Via Genderlog India.)
"It might sound like a compliment, but it still counts as sexism." Melanie Tannenbaum at SciAm reruns an essential piece about the steep social costs of "benevolent sexism." (Via Rachel Hartman.)
"'I stand before you as a writer without any ground of being out of which to write: really blown about from country to country, culture to culture till I feel — till I am — nothing.'" An obituary at The Guardian by Janet Watts for the writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. (No beef stroganoff in evidence.)
"She wanted to learn everything. 'How to open the dome! How to fill the instrument with liquid nitrogen! Develop the plates! Reduce the data! Coding!'" From last month, Ann Finkbeiner at Nature displays her eponymous test in action in this profile of pioneering astronomer Andrea Ghez.
"Earlier in the day when he dripped gastric acid on a superworm, it seemed like a friendly thing to do." Mary Roach at Boing Boing, you guys. (That's all I have to say, right? MARY ROACH.)
"In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Edward Korman called Sebelius's decision 'arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable.'" Jessica Dye for Reuters on the ruling that makes emergency contraception pills available without prescription without restrictions on age. (Via Debra Sherman.)
"Unwanted pregnancy feels like womanhood at its most hateful and cowlike — the broodmare inside the bombshell." Molly Crabapple with a powerful piece about abortion at VICE.
"In 2002, the rate of antenatal mothers testing positive — a figure often used by epidemiologists to extrapolate infection rates in general populations — was 8 percent. Anything over 1 percent is considered a generalised epidemic." Nida Najar at Caravan with the story of the one-man battle to reduce HIV infection rates in Nagaland. (Via Ruthie Baron.)
"'Here we are at the end of everything. I have a beard, you have a wig! HAHAHAHAHAHA!'" Joyful essay by Carrie Frye at The Awl about the best of Surrealist friends, Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo. (Via Nicole Cliffe.)
Finally, Leslie Jamison wins the internets this week with an essay in the Oxford American, "Fog Count," which I could describe as a profile of ultramarathoner Charlie Engle, currently in prison for mortgage fraud, or as a meditation on the way we live now: "because a powerful rhetoric insists that we can only be delivered from our old scars by tolerating new ones." (Via Nicole Cliffe, who was clearly batting 1.000 this week.)
"'If we treated the patients receiving the most expensive drugs, we'd be out of business in six months to a year.'" Sarah Kliff at the Washington Post with a short profile of doctors who have TOTALLY FORGOTTEN THAT MEDICINE IS ABOUT HELPING PATIENTS, NOT FINANCIAL BUSINESS MODELS. (Oh, whoops. Is that not how the article is framed? I'm sure that was just an oversight on the part of the Post, right?) (Via Suzy Khimm.)
This, on the other hand, is EXACTLY how you do it when you're leading with what actually matters. Sarah Stillman at The New Yorker with a report from Mexico's drug war agonies: "What We Want Is the Head of the Friar." (Via Cora Currier.)
"'This is a religious banner, not a country's flag.'" Another report from Rania Abouzeid, this week at The New Yorker, on the struggle to determine whether Islamists will take control of the Syrian revolution.
Also from Syria, an article at The Atlantic by advocate Lauren Wolfe, director of Women Under Siege, on the systematic use of rape as a weapon in the conflict. (Another cranky editorial aside after attempting to look at the reporting data myself: if your site for the reporting and tracking of rape requires visitors to accept cookies, how are you not needlessly compromising the safety of the people who view this data from the conflict zones???)
Speaking of needless tracking! Kim Zetter at Wired reports from a U.S. district court in Arizona about the federal government's defense of the use of a "stingray" device, which spoofs a cellphone tower and allows the government to collect data about all mobile phones and air cards in the vicinity.
Meanwhile, back in Arkansas, Susan White reports for InsideClimate News about how Exxon is strictly limiting all access to the site of a recent major oil pipeline spill, including no-fly zones and the threatened arrest of a reporter who attempted to speak with an EPA spokesman at the site. (Via Kate Sheppard.)
"The message is clear: whether or not a protest is peaceful and legal is entirely up to the police and judiciary to decide, so if you want to play it safe, stay at home and sign a petition." Laurie Penny at The Guardian explaining why recent austerity measures in the UK have not been met by public protests.
At The New Yorker's new science and technology blog! Maria Bustillos explains how austerity — and its associated global banking shenanigans — appears to have begotten a boom in Bitcoin, a virtual currency that is "mined" using computer power to solve mathematical problems.
In a 2010 interview, Chaz Ebert said that she may be in denial, "but hope is a strategy." So let us strategize for a few minutes. At Foreign Policy, Heather Hurlbut looks at the surprising success of the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty in the face of the National Rifle Association's full-bore opposition and concludes that U.N. conventions are an effective "'tool for civil society to beat their governments on the head.'" (Ebert link via Irin Carmon.)
Also this week in hope: Cara Maresca for MSNBC on Connecticut's new gun control law. And Lynn Bartels at The Denver Post on the courage of Colorado lawmakers who introduced gun-control laws: "'If making Colorado safer from gun violence costs me my political career, it's an amazingly small price to pay.'" (First link via Natasha Lennard; second link via Lois Beckett.)
Sort of semi-hopeful? Julia Whitty at Mother Jones explains how the introduction of an invasive European crab species may actually help restore some balance to Cape Cod's degraded salt marshes.
From Melissa Dribben at the Philadelphia Inquirer, a quiet piece that lets its quotes speak for themselves: on white resistance to one small sign that "the language of bigotry is no longer acceptable." (Via Marian Wang.)
"On the job he found out that the district, while ostensibly integrated, was still running separate school buses for black and white students." Julianne Hing looks at the history and culture that underlies — and limits — the Department of Justice's consent decree to end the school-to-prison pipeline in Meridian, Mississippi.
"But on the road to the revolution let us not forget that folks still got to live." Tressie McMillan Cottom writes an excellent piece about how "Don't Go To Graduate School" warnings come from a particular position of racial and class privilege, and don't recognize how expensive credentialing procedures are still a rational choice for people who know they won't get a chance otherwise.
"I define the feminist moment as that moment when that bias registers in your mind as unacceptable, and very importantly, something in you resists." Fascinating interview with feminist blogger and author Rita Banerji at Women's Web. (Via Genderlog India.)
"It might sound like a compliment, but it still counts as sexism." Melanie Tannenbaum at SciAm reruns an essential piece about the steep social costs of "benevolent sexism." (Via Rachel Hartman.)
"'I stand before you as a writer without any ground of being out of which to write: really blown about from country to country, culture to culture till I feel — till I am — nothing.'" An obituary at The Guardian by Janet Watts for the writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. (No beef stroganoff in evidence.)
"She wanted to learn everything. 'How to open the dome! How to fill the instrument with liquid nitrogen! Develop the plates! Reduce the data! Coding!'" From last month, Ann Finkbeiner at Nature displays her eponymous test in action in this profile of pioneering astronomer Andrea Ghez.
"Earlier in the day when he dripped gastric acid on a superworm, it seemed like a friendly thing to do." Mary Roach at Boing Boing, you guys. (That's all I have to say, right? MARY ROACH.)
"In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Edward Korman called Sebelius's decision 'arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable.'" Jessica Dye for Reuters on the ruling that makes emergency contraception pills available without prescription without restrictions on age. (Via Debra Sherman.)
"Unwanted pregnancy feels like womanhood at its most hateful and cowlike — the broodmare inside the bombshell." Molly Crabapple with a powerful piece about abortion at VICE.
"In 2002, the rate of antenatal mothers testing positive — a figure often used by epidemiologists to extrapolate infection rates in general populations — was 8 percent. Anything over 1 percent is considered a generalised epidemic." Nida Najar at Caravan with the story of the one-man battle to reduce HIV infection rates in Nagaland. (Via Ruthie Baron.)
"'Here we are at the end of everything. I have a beard, you have a wig! HAHAHAHAHAHA!'" Joyful essay by Carrie Frye at The Awl about the best of Surrealist friends, Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo. (Via Nicole Cliffe.)
Finally, Leslie Jamison wins the internets this week with an essay in the Oxford American, "Fog Count," which I could describe as a profile of ultramarathoner Charlie Engle, currently in prison for mortgage fraud, or as a meditation on the way we live now: "because a powerful rhetoric insists that we can only be delivered from our old scars by tolerating new ones." (Via Nicole Cliffe, who was clearly batting 1.000 this week.)
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