December 14, 2016

A state judge in Texas ordered hundreds of women and children freed from a CoreCivic (formerly known as CCA)-run ICE “family detention” facility. / HuffPost

The story of Cormac McCarthy, editor and writer for the Harvard Business Review. / andrewbatson.com

The story of the first two people, back in 1937, who were arrested in America for weed possession—in Denver, no less—and Uncle Mike, the anonymous researcher who unearthed their pioneering acts. / leafly.com

The Obamas leave the White House even stronger than when they arrived / TMN

If Republicans want to create a Muslim registry, they’ll need a massive database capable of tracking more than three million people. Donald Trump sure as hell doesn’t know how to code in SQL, but Silicon Valley engineers are pledging en masse not to collaborate with such a project, even if their employers do (as IBM did during the Holocaust). / vocativ.com, The New York Times

For your Wednesday armchair traveling: What it’s like to captain a freighter through the Welland Canal (h/t coudal). / Wikipedia, coudal.com

In The Captured Project, inmates draw white collar criminals they think should be in jail. Pictured: Rex Tillerson, who’s on his way to Foggy Bottom, not federal prison. / The Captured Project

A flurry of deals between rights management authorities and streaming platforms, also including Spotify and Apple Music, legitimizes a gray area in music law. / thefader.com

“There are three important factors that make transactions between kidnappers and ransomers difficult—problems of trust, problems of bargaining and problems of execution.” How kidnapping for ransom works like a market. / Monkey Cage

Check out this killer reading list associated with a PEN Live talk featuring authors building “authentically diverse worlds.” / pen.org

“If the boundary between science and fiction turns on the difference between truth and falsehood, the genre of science fiction might represent our post-truth regime more accurately than either disjointed discipline.” From the introductory note to The New Inquiry’s latest edition, Science/Fiction, which features essays on the microbiome, techno-utopianism, explainerism, and more. / The New Inquiry

A photo essay from the West Calumet Housing Complex in East Chicago, a southern suburb where 1,200 residents were just told they have a year to move elsewhere. / Alyssa Schukar, Chicago Tribune

See also: More coverage of Chicago’s widespread lead contamination in homes, schools, and parks. / South Side Weekly