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How A Troublesome Inheritance Gets Human Genetics Wrong

Jeremy Yoder The Molecular Ecologist
Time and again, data that refutes Nicholas Wade's arguments in A Troublesome Inheritance is not only available and widely cited in the population genetics literature—it is often in the text of the papers listed in his endnotes.

Walter Dean Myers, Children's Author, Dies at 76

Felicia R. Lee The New York Times
Walter Dean Myers was lauded for his work, which often centered on young black people struggling in tough environments. Myers, a best-selling children's book author whose crystalline prose often depicted the gritty lives of young people, died on Tuesday in Manhattan.

Is There a Ma Joad for the Piketty Era?

Katie Baker Daily Beast
In the 75 years since novelist John Steinbeck published his masterpiece about the Okie migration, the towering Ma Joad has faded from archetype to anachronism. Ever since Steinbeck published his opus on the plight of the Dust Bowl migrants in 1939, readers have warmed to Ma as a paragon of folksy integrity - "an unforgettably vigorous figure, like Mother Courage without the corruption or rapacity," - and, more recently, praised her as a feminist icon...

Tidbits - July 3, 2014

Portside
Reader Comments - Detroit denied water access; Whither the Socialist Left? Round 2; Dead Young Men: Mississippi, Israel, Palestine; Music Changes the Way You Think; Whole Foods Busts Unions; SCOTUS; Harris v. Quinn; Education - Obama's Failed Approach; Karl Marx Is Making a Comeback; Verify Nuclear Weapons-With Math; Ruby Dee; Friday Nite Videos

Six Groups That Are Reinventing Organized Labor

Josh Israel ThinkProgress
Through workers associations, work centers, and “alt-labor” groups, millions of workers — along with part-time workers, temporary workers, and those who work for employers that have no union — are using new tactics to fight against that inequality of bargaining power. The groups are not competing with traditional unions, but rather working alongside them and in tandem.

Christie’s New Jersey Window on American Recovery

By Bob Hennelly WhoWhatWhy
New Jersey is among the prime specimens of post-recession America’s lasting political and economic malaise. . . . Most importantly, it’s a bellwether of who, in the final accounting, is going to foot the bills when things go wrong.