June 26, 2014

• Detroit water authority turns off water at 3,000 households; residents ask the UN to intervene.
• The traditional medicines of human rights activism—exposés, media attention, and pressure...are falling short.
• More than 100 cities and counties have refused to honor the ICE's requests to detain undocumented immigrants.
• North Korea saber-rattles over The Interview; if it premieres, "a merciless counter-measure will be taken."
• On the people's Pope.
• What if being less of a douchebag was good for your career? The case against self-promotion.
• In 2006, tiny World Cup flags on cars resulted in an extra 3 million kilograms of carbon emissions in England.
• Amazon pushes for new conditions that would cripple the publishing industry.
• Zoos are drugging animals to combat mental illness brought on by the unnatural habitat.
• FDA recalls food.
• Stunning photographs of grand European ruins, taken by a Polish history teacher.
• Columbusing: When white people "discover" things.
• Neanderthals, they're just like us: 50,000-year-old poop reveals that our ancestors ate a balanced diet.
• Using the Bechdel Test and describing characters as "manic pixie dream girls" is reductive and not useful.
• The Vision Festival is an epicenter of avant-garde jazz, but to thrive they'll need a younger audience.
• Cain claims that Prince asked if it was okay that "Purple Rain" makes use of the same chords as "Faithfully."
• The Economist's editorial cartoonist on creating 140 covers for the magazine in his career.
• Gregg shorthand, a long out-of-use way of compressing language, is quick and nearly flawless.
• Diane has always been nervous, self-deprecating, so maybe in the world of character, this communitarian gesture...is also in character.