11/13

Terry Gross had a fantastic interview with historian Jill Lepore on birth control, abortion, and the history of Planned Parenthood. Unfortunately, the New Yorker article they spoke about is behind a pay-wall.
What climate change will mean for California.

We're not going to like the world of extremes that massive climate change will bring us. So it'd behoove us to act now, before it's too late:

[T]he direction of the trends is precisely why urgent steps are needed. As the new I.E.A. report points out, delaying action on climate change is a “false economy”; every dollar we don’t spend today, we will end up spending several times over in a much hotter, more dangerous world.

 

Tracking the rise in CO2 over time; timescale matters.

A time-lapse view of Earth from the International Space Station.

Happy hour is illegal in Massachusetts. And the efforts to roll back those restrictions is causing some people to lose their minds:

In 1984, Mr. Dukakis signed the happy hour ban as part of a broader effort to crack down on drunken driving. In a recent interview, Mr. Dukakis described the amendment as “outrageous.”

“Unquestionably, people will lose their lives if this happens,” he said.

Michael DiZio, a resident of Arlington, offered a more graphic prediction in a letter to The Boston Globe, writing, “This will give badly needed employment to people in many sectors of our economy, including emergency room staffs, funeral home employees, grave diggers, and monument makers.”

The destruction of campaign finance laws basically means it's a free-for-all for those with the most money to buy a candidate's gratitude:

Limits on spending used to prevent donations from becoming outright bribes, but now the limits are gone, and the path to corruption is clear. 

A three-part interview with Michael Pollan in the WaPo. He had a nice appearance on Colbert recently, too.

Snake-handling for Jesus.

The growing income gap by age group.

Would you prefer to distort area? Shape? Distance? What does your preferred map projection say about you? Gall-Peters equal area projection, baby!

John Cage: writer.

Björk shares her favorite albums with Alex Ross.