September 21, 2016

“Of the nearly 3,000 non-fatal shootings, only 10% of the assailants were charged, which means that you have a pretty good chance of shooting someone in Chicago and getting away with it.” When murders go unsolved in Chicago, the result is distrust and contempt—and more murders. To prevent future homicide, solve present crimes. / The New Yorker

The professor is in: Angelina Jolie’s announcement of divorce from Brad Pitt was a master class in controlling the narrative. “Pitt, from this point forward, is on defense—and always has been in the case of Jolie’s career. Because Jolie, if anything, has always been the primary architect of the way others view her.” / BuzzFeed

And from the New Yorker: “Critics in earlier eras uninhibitedly insulted the appearance and the personality of actors as if they were writing about the taste of breakfast cereals or the design of cars. Now it’s generally recognized that the product of actors is a performance, and critics’ attention to their performances, not to their physiques, is an exemplary form of progress.” / The New Yorker

State prosecutors were already putting heat on Exxon for systematically misrepresenting the severity of climate science to the public to avoid bothersome carbon regulation. / Scientific American

“Marx the materialist does not matter as he once did. But the Marx who imagined capitalism liberating humanity from the bonds of tradition still might.” A new biography of Marx doesn’t forgive his faults, but it does underscore his importance. / The New Republic

Facebook may be eating the news, but it’s spilling a lot of crumbs with several recent blunders, such as banning the famous photo of a napalm victim in Vietnam and bungling the editorial might of its newsfeed, which is now Americans’ second-most-trusted source of news. / CNBC, bjr.org.uk

The CEO of Wells Fargo was grilled in Congress on Tuesday, and Hillary Clinton took it as an opportunity to cheerlead for the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, which Republicans have variously sought to disjoin. / NPR, americanbanker.com, Los Angeles Times

Your Wednesday macroeconomics lecture: “What Have We Learned From the Crisis.” / webspace.princeton.edu

What’s visual to sighted people is spatial to the blind. Since math is spatial, it stands to reason that blind people might use the part of their brain that in sighted people is reserved for vision to do math. / The Atlantic

“Wealth is how much you have. Wages are how much you earn. It’s hard to close the gap in wealth when the group with far less wealth is also earning far less than the group with more wealth.” How income inequality sustains the wealth gap. / The Concourse

The more corporate campaign contributions state Supreme Court justices receive, the more likely they are to rule in favor of corporations arguing cases before them. / cdn.americanprogress.org

Japanese food should be tasted with a rich understanding of its five Mother Sauces. / luckypeach.com

“She didn’t say she was going to do it. She just did it.” / Vimeo

Pharmaceutical companies contend the Pain Care Forum doesn’t take policy positions. On the contrary, it architected a pro-opioid echo chamber that kept Washington’s attention off side effects, with its talking points repeated by high-ranking officials even as the jaws of crisis closed. / Center for Public Integrity

Competing for attention on busy bookstore shelves, publishers are out-designing each other within the lucrative classics market. / The Guardian