SATURDAY SET:
* Just a reminder that inflation is still hella down, and nothing to worry about.
* In defense of President Obama as a progressive.
* The racial aspect of the 'war on women.'
* Reading between the lines: 'recreational sex is a rich person's game.'
* Before touching down on a comet, the Rosetta spacecraft takes a selfie* Band jokes ( Read more... )

FRIDAY FIVE:
* Good read: the quiet legacy of the first Gulf War.
* The Pentagon speaks out on climate change as a 'threat multiplier.'
* On socialism and big data.
* America, 2014: on the ground in a fracking boomtown in North Dakota.
* All you need to know about the conspiracy theorists' obsession with JFK's 'umbrella man.'

THE THURSDAY SET:
* "This is not 'hypocrisy.' That is too mild a word. This is the regulatory capture of the government for personal benefit."
* A new face of activism in the wake of Ferguson?
* Nation-building: why the new Iraqi army failed in the face of ISIS.
* In defense of 'yes means yes.'
* Why make a movie sequel when you can make a shared ( Read more... )

SOME NEWS:
* Really good read: "the conservative case against the suburbs."
* Climate change in action: the Dust Bowl was the worst drought in 1,000 years.
* For some fun schadenfreude, check in with Rod Dreher on the latest from the Vatican.
* Sure would be nice if the Republicans weren't blocking the nominee for the Surgeon General right about ( Read more... )

"In both major religions, the rise of ultra-orthodox revival movements - and within them a tendency toward apocalyptic violence - represents a rearguard action, an attempt to regain the ground lost to science, pop culture, consumerism and other irreligious influences. Viewed through the long lens of history, fundamentalism is almost certainly a ( Read more... )

Republicans are targeting the NSF. ( See also.) (EDIT: OK, one more.)

SATURDAY NEWS:
* No, there's not much e can do about ISIS. Compelling corollary: a lack of willing allies in the region.
* The failure of global health security.
* Diversity has no place in Congress, it seems.
* Millennials, undereducated and underemployed.
* Nice! xkcd on the acceptance of marriage equality, then and now.

"American workers have been receiving meager pay increases for so long now that it’s reasonable to talk in sweeping terms about the trend. It is the great wage slowdown of the 21st century."

"A Field Guide to American Truthers"

"If Hongkongers succeed in attaining universal suffrage, they will be the only Chinese city with this democratic right. If they succeed in protecting the freedoms so vital to their hearts and minds, they will be the only Chinese city to do so. And if this spirit of freedom seeps into the consciousness of the Mainland Chinese despite the government’ ( Read more... )