To pass exemptions for Texas's abortion ban, a new state law—which focuses on how the previous legislation threatens mothers' lives—avoids the word "abortion." / NPR

In history and experiments, randomly chosen leaders perform more democratically than elected officials. / The New York Times

See also: Americans vote too much. / The Atlantic

A reason to think of life in semesters: Once out of school, adults often don't have formal ways to structure their futures. / Vox

"This cannot all be blamed on Reagan and Thatcher." A requiem for Gen X. / Harper's

Nessie enthusiasts are heading to Loch Ness for what is expected to be the largest surface watch in 50 years. / The Guardian

A searchable catalog of all 8,291 available options for American license plates. / Beautiful Public Data

See also: Studying drivers across the country for signs of license-plate prejudice—or, why everyone loves Vermont drivers and hates Texans. / The Morning News

"Increased levels of C-reactive protein, which the liver makes in response to inflammation in the body, can promote social media use." / University at Buffalo

Big tech isn't just training AI on books without authors' consent—it's also using pirated copies of the books. / Quartz

"Long time readers of this blog will not be surprised at all to discover that my solution for this is to put it all in a Git repo." How to build your own digital music service. / Curly Tail, Curly Braces

See also: The least-streamed songs by some of the most-streamed artists. / Rolling Stone