Ryan Cooper

1. The NYT won a Pulitzer for this story . Really cool. 2. All of time, in a few clicks . 3. The flight deck of Discovery . 4. You need Chrome to look at this one, but it's still neat . 5. Cool documentary about the Cuban Missile Crisis . 6. Rather ordinary profile of Daft Punk commemorating their new album, but with some nifty graphics . Not sure how much of these things are just gimmicry, but they're worth checking out anyway.

This is mostly for my mother, but she's right that I need to be keeping better track of my stuff. To wit: 1. I got a piece published in Grist  for the first time, about DC food trucks and young conservatives . 2. Here's my print piece about "reformish" conservatives . Paul Krugman and Mike Konczal think I'm full of it. Response forthcoming. 3. Defending Paul Krugman from Clive Crook . Brad DeLong reprints . 4. Explaining why Michael Kinsley is wrong about austerity . DeLong kind of steps on my toes tone-wise , but in a fun way. 5. My debut on DC's sorry excuse for a gossip blog . Beware kids, get between me and my highlighter box and bad things will happen. The strangest thing about that is that it's actually quite a fair piece—she reprinted my email in full, and it basically deflates the story. The thing that strikes me is that this   is someone's job . Some media critics write really compelling stuff about vicious backstabbery ...

Here's what I managed to wring out of my brain today: How cats always land on their feet. Behind a mysterious greenhouse gas that is 14,800 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The actual media has arrived. Elite lawbreaking roundup. Sorry I called you a gargoyle, Tyler Cowen, but you're still wrong about morality and monetary policy. Will France's ultra-wealthy go Galt?? Yep, hedge funds are a ripoff. Will the media punish Mitt Romney for bald-faced lying? It's time for The People to have some free money! Tomorrow I'll be over there as well, so check it out!

Sorry for the downtime, folks, the power has been out at my place. Above you see my backyard, featuring a victim from the DC storm. Trees fall over surprisingly easily here. In case you didn't notice, I was blogging at Political Animal over the weekend. Here are a few of the better posts: 1. A view from our dystopian future . The power was (and is!) out at my place, and I had to hunt around for a cafe that wasn't packed. Thus, a bit of a rant about climate change. 2. Drug policy and argumentative positioning . Self-proclaimed moderates should recognize the value of the wings. 3. Generational warfare . Trying to find some common ground between young and old. 4. Batman as financial regulator . The banksters are the real lawbreakers in this world. 5. Better ways to promote public health . Liberals should lay off the elitist paternalism. It's annoying. Hope everyone made it through the storm okay. Regularly scheduled posting should resume soon.

1. Could geo-engineering really prevent climate change ? 2. Why is there something rather than nothing ? 3. More Republican governance by hostage-taking . 4. How will the future change your politics ? 5. Fascinating story on infinite airline passes . 6. Decent profile of Mark Zuckerberg .

1. I do miss some of these things from Mzanzi . Not the bogobe, though. 2. Can psychedelics help people face the fear of death ? 3. Why immigration matters for America's well-being . 4. Conor Friedersdorf says people are justified to be paranoid of the new "cybersecurity" bill, given the government's track record . 5. " There's an Anomaly in the Crotch Area ."

1. Texas Monthly has a big report on GW Bush and the Texas Air National Guard years . Read it quick, they're supposedly going to paywall it soon. 2. Lovely profile of Robert Caro . 3. Will gated communities like Facebook and the Apple app store destroy the free internet ? It's from Google's Sergey Brin, but he makes a good case. Apple's dictator mentality towards their customers is the reason I don't own and will not buy any Apple products. 4. Can ibogaine cure addiction ? Not proved by any means, but intriguing. 5. Blog of the week . Physics' limitations on economics.

1. What's eating the NYPD ? 2. Being a Pakistani woman is tough . 3. Colleges will probably regret the enormous debt they've inflicted on the young . 4. The Mystery of Marine Noah Pippin Going AWOL 5. Yegads .

1. Good review of a couple books on the marijuana industry . 2. How to save the Earth from an asteroid . Few think about this kind of thing enough. 3. Andrew Sullivan has an interesting cover piece in Newsweek  about a de-politicized Christianity . 4. A quantum theory of Mitt Romney . Very funny and well written, by someone who knows his physics. 5. Zakaria on the US prison state .

1. Check out this sweet solar-powered plane, about to make its longest flight yet . 2. Diagnosing the Republican brain . 3. Peter Beinart responds to the critics of his new book (which calls for a boycott of Israeli settlements). 4. Colorado is already on fire!?  Better get used to it, I guess. 5. Economists need to get over their physics envy .

I've been meaning to put this up for ages. But here is some background on my Peace Corps article--things that I referenced, or things that got left out of the article. 1. Read about the group that got the ball rolling on that 20/20 report . The group is called First Response Action, and it's dedicated to improving the situation of Peace Corps volunteers who were victims of rape and sexual assault. It was founded by another South Africa volunteer named Casey Frazee, who I have since met online. I've always supported that group wholeheartedly. I wanted to put a nod to them in the article, but couldn't find a good spot for it. 2. Read about the law FRA got passed in November . This was a big step forward for rape and sexual assault, certainly, but didn't completely address the general oversight issue. I again wanted to stick that in the article somewhere, but couldn't find a good spot. 3. Read the post that got me kicked out of PST . 4. Finally, if you...

1. I think we should just start assuming that every single electronic communication of any kind is being read by the NSA . 2. Brainstorming is bullshit . 3. Matt Taibbi goes after Bank of America . Fun piece. 4. In favor of OTC birth control . Count me in. 5. The New Yorker  on Tyler Clementi's suicide . Disturbing, but important. This case is much more complicated than people thought at first.

1. Prison makes you crazy . 2. Good piece on partisanship in churches . 3. Why we should care more about blowback . It used to be uncontroversial to think that people might be driven mad when our government blows up dozens of innocent civilians. 4. The online privacy debate is also about power . This is a great way of looking at the issue. Each person is not giving up all that much, but together, we are ceding corporations astounding influence. 5. Why 4G and 3G are bogus terms .

1. A great piece from GOOD  on the service jobs where my generation works . 2. I'm skeptical, but it looks like the MEK shills might get in some trouble . 3. The solar system is real big . 4. RIP otter foster mom . 5. Ezra Klein hits the even bigger time . 6. Before and after pictures of Japan and the tsunami damage .

1. Read the Derrick Bell short story that has the Brietbart swamps screaming racism . It's not too shabby, if a bit un-subtle. Racist, though? Not in the slightest. 2. A co-founder of Facebook just bought The New Republic. This is good news . 3. Some really interesting statistics on watchers of porn . 4. Carl Zimmer's latest piece on amateur biologists and mutant viruses . 5. The lunar orbiter has an amazing blog . High-res pictures of the moon landing sites!

1. Pretty . 2. Krugman with another wide-scale diagnosis of what went wrong in economics . 3. When innocence isn't enough . 4. What are your most captivating books ? If you've got some, by all means post suggestions. 5. Inside Japan's nuclear meltdown . Yikes.

1. Tony Judt's wife on his last book . 2. Country music and the culture war . 3. The TED talk phenomenon dissected . 4. The new Lorax movie is a piece of shit . Also, too . 5. Another review of Ferguson .

1. A strain of MRSA has been definitely tied to pig farming . The question of "which gift from God have we squandered most outrageously?" has some stiff competition, but tossing away antibiotics, surely one of the greatest discoveries in history,  so we can eat slightly cheaper meat for a few decades at most  takes the crown for me. Tossing pearls before swine, you might say. 2. The new Romer & Romer paper on marginal tax rate incentive effects . 3. Ferociously critical look at Steve Jobs . The shine is definitely coming off the old Jobs mystique. 4. The fall of Scott Ritter . 5. John Sullivan on DFW and his last book, The Pale King .

1. Big NYT  piece on Iran and war . Much better than the last go-round. 2. The rise of muscle culture . 3. Mark Kleiman has a basically reasonable piece on Mexico and the drug war . 4. Matt Yglesias' new book is coming out March 6th . Reserve your automatically delivered e-copy now, only $4! 5. Conor Friedersdorf has a magnificent piece on beer in his life . Utterly wonderful.

1. Science has spoken: the rich really are more morally depraved . 2. Chunks of virus DNA has been found in critical human genes . 3. Physics have built a "single atom transistor." Not quite as miraculous as that headline sounds, but still cool. 4. Christina Romer's favorite books . 5. Obama's idiotic, and inexplicable, hard turn against medical marijuana . WTF, man?