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Over the past 25 years, the giant meatpacking company Tyson Foods has taken a lead in pushing for changes in workers’ comp in state after state—often to the detriment of workers. ... Tyson’s story also tells a broader one about American politics: How time after time, one determined company, facing a challenge to its profits, can bend government and the law to its will. Over the past year, ProPublica and NPR have examined how many states have been quietly dismantling their workers’ comp systems.
comment posted at 2:45 PM on Dec-22-15

"Preschool classrooms have become increasingly fraught spaces, with teachers cajoling their charges to finish their 'work' before they can go play. And yet, even as preschoolers are learning more pre-academic skills at earlier ages, I’ve heard many teachers say that they seem somehow—is it possible?—less inquisitive and less engaged than the kids of earlier generations." [Atlantic]
comment posted at 8:07 AM on Dec-20-15

Hitler really did have only one testicle, German researcher claims. [The Guardian]

The song sung in schoolyards by generations of British children mocking Adolf Hitler for only having “one ball” might be accurate after all. A German historian has unearthed the Nazi leader’s long-lost medical records, which seem to confirm the urban legend that he only had one testicle. The records, taken during a medical exam following Hitler’s arrest over the failed Beer hall putsch in 1923, show that he suffered from “right-side cryptorchidism”, or an undescended right testicle. Notes written by Dr Josef Steiner Brin, the medical officer at Landsberg prison, state “Adolf Hitler, artist, recently writer” was otherwise “healthy and strong”.

comment posted at 6:59 AM on Dec-19-15

In 2007, the Pinellas County, Florida School Board abandoned integration, joining hundreds of US school districts in former Confederacy states that have resegregated since 2000. The Board justified the vote with bold promises: Schools in poor, black neighborhoods would get more money, more staff, more resources -- none of which happened. This past August, the Tampa Bay Times published an exposé, revealing how district leaders turned five once-average schools into Failure Factories.
comment posted at 12:39 PM on Dec-18-15

China Miéville: On Social Sadism.
comment posted at 1:41 PM on Dec-17-15

The extensive catalog of complaints against officers appears to bear out the theory of a few bad apples: Among the 7,758 police officers who received a complaint during that time period, more than half received less than one per year (officers with zero complaints do not appear in the database). Meanwhile, the bad apples seem to be the ones racking up the grievances.
comment posted at 12:53 PM on Dec-17-15

Navy SEALs, a Beating Death and Claims of a Cover-Up by Nicholas Kulish, Christopher Drew and Matthew Rosenberg [The New York Times] U.S. soldiers accused Afghan police and Navy SEALs of abusing detainees. But the SEAL command opted against a court-martial and cleared its men of wrongdoing.

Abuse of detainees is among the most serious offenses an American service member can commit. Several military justice experts, who reviewed a Naval Criminal Investigative Service report on the case at the request of The Times, said that it had been inappropriate for the SEAL command to treat such allegations as an internal disciplinary matter and that it should have referred the case for an Article 32 review, the equivalent of a grand jury, to consider a court-martial.

comment posted at 8:21 AM on Dec-17-15

Associate Professor Larycia Hawkins has been suspended by Wheaton College, an evangelical Christian school near Chicago. Some say that it's because she has chosen to wear a hijab as a gesture of solidarity with Muslims, but the school says it's because she posted on Facebook:

I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.

comment posted at 1:17 PM on Dec-16-15
comment posted at 4:05 PM on Dec-16-15

Tent cities are now so common that advocates are campaigning to make them semi-permanent settlements of micro-housing. But is this a genuine solution or merely a quick fix? Chris Herring for Places Journal.
comment posted at 10:39 AM on Dec-16-15

Lolita Turns Sixty by Lolita Book Club [New Republic] Ten writers reconsider Nabokov’s novel, page by page.

Though Vladimir Nabokov was living in America when he wrote Lolita, the novel was first published in Paris in 1955—by Olympia Press, whose list included many pornographic titles. On the sixtieth anniversary of Lolita’s first publication, we asked ten writers to reflect on their changing experiences with the novel in the course of their reading lives. Each day for five days, we are posting two reflections, each revisiting a section of pages from the book—we are using Vintage’s 2005 edition, a complete, unexpurgated text.

comment posted at 6:23 AM on Dec-16-15

"And then he utters the words. The words that are responsible for nothing less than emotional, spiritual and psychological violence: Everything happens for a reason. That this was something that had to happen in order for her to grow. That's the kind of bullshit that destroys lives. And it is categorically untrue. "
comment posted at 3:52 PM on Dec-15-15

Thoughts on Honor, Service, and Memory by Michael B. Klein.
comment posted at 12:49 PM on Dec-15-15

In the wake of the recent casting controversies over Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop and Lloyd Suh’s Jesus in India, there have been a number of online commenters who have cited Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical Hamilton as a justification for their position in the debate. What’s intriguing is that Hamilton has been offered up both as evidence of why actors of color must have the opportunity to play both characters or color and characters not necessarily written as characters of color – but it has also been used to say that anything goes, and white actors should be able to play characters of color as well. What does Lin-Manuel Miranda have to say? After all, it's not like he hasn't been been very deliberate about his casting.
comment posted at 12:59 PM on Dec-14-15
comment posted at 2:39 PM on Dec-14-15

The Washington Post has updated its style guide: "e-mail" is now "email", "Web sites" are now "websites", and perhaps most significantly, "they/them/their" will now be used as gender-neutral third-person singular personal pronouns, instead of defaulting to "he/him/his" or recasting to make a sentence plural (e.g. "Readers will have their own opinions" will now be the more precise "Each reader will have their own opinion."). Post copy editor (and proprietor of The Slot) Bill Walsh notes "I suspect that the singular they will go largely unnoticed even by those who oppose it on principle. We’ve used it before, if inadvertently, and I’ve never heard a complaint."
comment posted at 8:44 AM on Dec-14-15

The year 2050 is right around the corner, and yet it​ is hard to imagine the sweeping changes the world will confront by then. In a multimedia series, The Wall Street Journal helps readers ​envision how we will work, how we will age and how we will live.
comment posted at 9:27 AM on Dec-14-15

From 1983, and in honor of the centennial of the birth of America's greatest interpreter of popular song, here is Twyla Tharp's Sinatra Suite, as performed at the Kennedy Center, starring Mikhail Baryshnikov and Elaine Kudo.
comment posted at 6:09 AM on Dec-13-15

The American middle class is losing ground. A bonus CBC story in which those of us in Canada can calculate how we compare to the US middle class.
comment posted at 9:25 AM on Dec-10-15

Abigail Fisher, the white student who is challenging the use of race in admissions at the university which rejected her application in 2008, was back at the Supreme Court again, as she was for the first round of arguments in her case in October 2012.
comment posted at 8:08 AM on Dec-10-15

Four-day marathon public reading of War and Peace begins in Russia. [The Guardian]

A marathon four-day Russian public reading of Leo Tolstoy’s vast classic novel War and Peace kicked off on Tuesday morning, with more than 1,300 people in more than 30 cities preparing to make their contributions to the record-breaking project. Coordinated by Tolstoy’s great-great-granddaughter Fekla Tolstaya, and featuring a number of cultural luminaries including the Polish film director Andrzej Wajda, the readings are being streamed by Russian state television channel Kultura. One volume of Tolstoy’s fictionalised history of Russia during the Napoleonic campaign will be read each day.

comment posted at 9:39 AM on Dec-8-15

How a tax haven goes bust. Guardian long-read describing the rise and fall of Jersey as an offshore tax haven.
comment posted at 6:53 AM on Dec-8-15

Robert Loggia, Rugged but Versatile Character Actor, Dies at 85 [New York Times]

Robert Loggia, an Oscar-nominated actor who had a durable career in television and movies, notably in Brian De Palma’s gangster film “Scarface” and Penny Marshall’s comedy “Big,” died on Friday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 85. His wife, Audrey Loggia, said the cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease. “He struggled with Alzheimer’s disease for five years,” she said. “It just took its natural progression.”

comment posted at 9:14 AM on Dec-6-15

Are you smarter than an 8th grader?
comment posted at 1:43 PM on Dec-5-15

The Generation That Doesn't Remember Life Before Smartphones
comment posted at 10:21 AM on Dec-5-15

Because of ongoing problems with racism, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has temporarily closed comments on all articles about indigenous peoples.
comment posted at 8:25 AM on Dec-5-15

Surf The Old Web!
comment posted at 10:12 AM on Dec-4-15

What do student protestors want? College students have for weeks led protests over race relations on campuses across the country after well-publicized confrontations at the University of Missouri and Yale University. A list of formal demands made at 51 U.S. campuses has been collected on a website called The Demands.
comment posted at 9:42 AM on Dec-4-15
comment posted at 1:04 PM on Dec-4-15

Is this the most emotionally moving holiday commercial ever, or is it "the worst thing I’ve ever, ever seen"? You decide.
comment posted at 6:25 AM on Dec-4-15

"[If] his story were true – and even if it were not – the faceless intruder of his imagination had to have had a black face." Jacqueline Rose carefully disentangles the threads of gender, disability, and race (yes, race) in the Oscar Pistorius trial.
comment posted at 10:27 AM on Dec-3-15

The Malaysian Government is rushing through an anti-terrorism bill that has already been likened to a draconian dictatorship - providing the Prime Minister and a group of other Ministers with special powers such as seizing property, curfews with hefty fines, demolishing unoccupied buildings, arresting anyone threatening "national security", and various other emergency measures enacted without safeguards. Many groups have denounced the bill and called for its repeal, including the main Opposition coalition, the Malaysian Bar and other lawmakers, and human rights organizations.
comment posted at 7:52 AM on Dec-3-15

The Birth and Death of Privacy
comment posted at 8:13 AM on Dec-1-15

National Education Association president Lily Eskelsen García on what teachers do
comment posted at 11:20 AM on Nov-30-15

The deadly shooting at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic is part of a disturbing trend.

Three people were shot dead and nine injured Friday at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic, the first time since 2009 that anyone has been killed in an incident linked to activity at an abortion clinic. The attack comes amid an exponential increase in threats and violence against abortion providers since the release of a series of viral—and widely debunked—videos.

comment posted at 9:26 AM on Nov-28-15

In the early 1960's, drugs like LSD and psilocybin found their way out of university labs and onto the street -- and their value as medicine was lost as their status as protest and party drugs emerged. Mass recreational use, conservative political forces and a continuing media frenzy ensured the vilification of hallucinogens – until drugs like LSD and magic mushrooms were completely outlawed in 1970. Serious medical research would not begin again until the early 21st century, four decades later.

Turn on, tune in, and heal thyself - CBC's Ideas presents High Culture, a 3-hour (2--3) series examining the use of psychedelics to curb anxiety, alcoholism, and depression.
comment posted at 5:34 PM on Nov-26-15

The Organization for Transformative Works, a fan-run organization that hosts significant fandom-culture projects including one of the biggest fanfiction archives around, a fandom wiki, and a peer-reviewed academic journal, just had their 2015 Board elections, the first since 2011 - and, like its predecessor, was very contentious before, during, and after the election.
comment posted at 9:17 AM on Nov-25-15

10 ways to map Northern Virginia. 12 ways to map the midwest. Which states are in "The South?"
comment posted at 2:52 PM on Nov-24-15

Photos: A Look Inside The 128-Year-Old Eldridge Street Synagogue
comment posted at 12:49 PM on Nov-24-15
comment posted at 1:45 PM on Nov-24-15

This time of year, many of us will make a pilgrimage to see our families. Halls will be decked, candles will be lit, and ancient stories will be told. Hopefully everything for you will be hugs, warmth, light, and reconnection with the people you love. But if you are dreading dealing with that one jerk relative or bracing yourself for an onslaught of intrusive questions and and awkward topics, here’s a guide to keeping your cool and choosing your battles when everyone around you is making it weird.
comment posted at 7:04 AM on Nov-24-15

We asked former Republican speechwriter [for Mark Sanford, an experience he describes in The Speechwriter] Barton Swaim to write a ​totally pandering stump speech for an imaginary GOP presidential candidate — one who ​espouses only positions that a majority of Republicans agree with. ​Here’s the speech he wrote, including notes to explain his phrasing, behind-the-scenes pro tips on appealing to Republican voters and the data he used to decide which positions to take.
comment posted at 12:47 PM on Nov-23-15

Donald Trump isn't funny anymore. Currently leading the polls in part due to a reaction to the Paris attacks that saw him inciting hatred against Muslim Americans with defamatory lies, Trump has eased off calls for a database of Muslims in favor of a new target, Black Americans, retweeting fake crime statistics provided by neo-nazis and supporting the beating of black protestors at his rallies. Let’s be clear, millions of Americans love Trump and are perfectly fine with him advancing racist lies. writes activist Shaun King, It’s ugly, but this, ladies and gentlemen, is America. 2015.
comment posted at 10:18 AM on Nov-23-15

Politics and the New Machine, Jill Lepore, New Yorker-"What the turn from polls to data science means for democracy."
comment posted at 1:08 PM on Nov-22-15

Your Social Media Posts Are Fueling the Future of Police Surveillance - Any posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any other location-tagged social media uploaded in [an] area will appear on a display at police headquarters. An uploaded Vine from one block away could show someone running away, and give the cops a starting point for their investigation. How long until that hypothetical situation is a reality? “We’re 100 percent there,” says Lee Guthman, head of business development at Geofeedia, a location-based social media monitoring site.
comment posted at 7:56 AM on Nov-22-15
comment posted at 10:59 AM on Nov-22-15

The ultrasonic pitches are embedded into TV commercials or are played when a user encounters an ad displayed in a computer browser. While the sound can't be heard by the human ear, nearby tablets and smartphones can detect it. When they do, browser cookies can now pair a single user to multiple devices and keep track of what TV commercials the person sees, how long the person watches the ads, and whether the person acts on the ads by doing a Web search or buying a product. Dan Goodin reports for Ars Technica on cross-device tracking software already in use today.
comment posted at 11:06 AM on Nov-17-15

Let's Get Crunning: The New, More Humiliating Version Of Running
comment posted at 11:08 AM on Nov-17-15

Anthony Bourdain goes to a Waffle House.
comment posted at 9:01 AM on Nov-15-15

After more than a decade of decline, Baltimore's homicide rate spikes up. Tonight it just broke the 300 mark.
comment posted at 5:53 AM on Nov-15-15