Let's clear out a week-old backlog, shall we?

[conuly]

If any of this is super old news to you, I apologize now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kurds say they have ejected Islamic State militants from large area in northern Iraq

New Senate Environment Chair Gets His Gavel, Goes On Rant Arguing Climate Science Is A Hoax

In post-Snowden era, NSA maintains surprisingly favorable image

The children of the rich and powerful are increasingly well suited to earning wealth and power themselves. That’s a problem

Wikipedia Purged a Group of Feminist Editors Because of Gamergate

Ebola Has Crushed Gorilla and Chimp Populations

Police Departments Issuing Body Cameras Discover Drawbacks

U.S., Cuba discuss opening of embassies, more talks needed

To Some in California, Founder of Church Missions Is Far From Saint

Yemen crisis disrupts U.S. counterterrorism operations, officials say

Yemen crisis: Thousands march against rebels in Sanaa

This metal surface wants absolutely nothing to do with water

Drone carrying drugs crashes near US-Mexico border

Ukraine's forces hold line against Russian troops, rebels: Poroshenko

Eastern Ukraine's main rebel leader says he has launched an offensive against the port city of Mariupol.

Human-Like Hands Came Before Actual Humans

Thousands to receive experimental Ebola vaccines in West Africa

The right’s home-school conspiracy: How I helped GOP launch a religious war

CIA torture report architect denounces Republican attempt to claw back copies

For monarch butterflies, loss of migration means more disease

Gold rush threat to tropical forests

The coalition fighting ISIS has killed more than 6,000 fighters, including half of the top command of the terror group, U.S. diplomatic officials said Thursday.

Secret school for Aleppo's children

Supreme Court Upholds Auto Stop With No Traffic Violation

Republicans target Social Security disability

High-value Guantanamo detainees call home for the first time in nearly a decade

Post-traumatic stress 'evident in 1300BC'

Underwater Photographer Gets Caught in a Sperm Whale 'Poopnado,' Brings Back Photos

Comments

[crystalpyramid]

Re the Wikipedia/Gamergate thing — my husband, who's spent a lot of time editing and been pretty involved in the editors' community, says that yes, it's unfair that only the feminists got banned and the Gamergate dudes didn't. But the problem was that from Wikipedia's perspective, while both sides were demonstrating bad behavior/violation of rules/policies/civility, the feminists had a prior history of such behavior, and the Gamergate dudes didn't. It's probably only a matter of time before they get themselves banned too, but it will probably be an unpleasant wait in the meantime.

I'm impressed that the article about failing class mobility is coming from The Economist. Usually they're pretty tone-deaf about this kind of stuff. (We are trying to cancel our subscription at some point because they make me so frustrated sometimes.)

Oh, wait, actually reading the article, "More than ever before, America’s elite is producing children who not only get ahead, but deserve to do so: they meet the standards of meritocracy better than their peers, and are thus worthy of the status they inherit." Still tone-deaf, even if what they're trying to say is worth saying.

But having them point out that "America is one of only three advanced countries that spends more on richer pupils than poor ones, according to the OECD (the other two are Turkey and Israel)" may make it worth it. Wow.

[conuly]

Re: the last paragraph

That was exactly my thought. Also - Israel? Seriously???

[crystalpyramid]

Well if the poor children in Israel are Palestinian, that would make a certain amount of sense. I'm curious what percentage of Israelis are American-Israelis (as opposed to Israeli-Americans) — if that's large, it might also have an effect.