April 9, 2015

• White House backs state-level plan to end LGBT “conversion therapy.”
• Critics accuse California of Ferguson's crimes: extracting big revenue from minor traffic violations.
• Malawi police told to shoot anyone attacking albinos, whose body parts are prized by witch doctors.
• Tens of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent may be deported for "bureaucratic mistake" with racist undertones.
• Between half and 75% of US teachers wrongly cite states' rights as the main reason for Southern secession.
• See also: London's Daily Express accused of "evil" statistics manipulation.
• Sociologists prove that a neighborhood's stigma has a direct impact on economic transactions.
• Galchen: Earthquakes in Oklahoma are now a daily problem, (possibly) thanks to the oil industry.
• Burma's eerily empty capital has six times the area of New York, with fewer than a million people.
• Lottery winners can buy thousands of losing tickets to offset their winnings come tax time.
• The case against austerity: Jamaica's debt payments restrict its ability to make meaningful public investments.
• Formerly homeless student-athlete ruled ineligible for accepting "improper benefits," i.e., food and shelter.
• For storing dead bodies in outer space: the "Body Back," essentially "a vibrating Gore-Tex sleeping bag for the deceased."
• Theories around the origins of allergies concern worms and human survival.
• Citation rate of papers rapidly declining.
• What's obvious to One Direction fans but nobody else: It’s possible to be both Muslim and a pop star.
• The worst thing to be called is a really good assistant.
• Bill Murray asked to explain what it's like to be Bill Murray.
• Serial story to continue in new podcast from Syed defenders.
• See also: World's worst Kindle covers.