How Health and Housing Relate to Crime in Chicago

Whet Moser Chicago Magazine
Low birth weight, childhood lead poisoning, pre-term births, and infant mortality rate all go hand in hand with the crime rate—but there are significant differences in how neighboring communities are affected.

Building Not Rebulding Public Education

Lois Weiner Jacobin
Adapted from a longer piece in the current issue of New Politics (see link below). Fighting corporate education reform is less about restoring the old system to its former glory than building a just one for the first time.

Arctic Games

Emily Schwing, Photos by Hans Petter Sørensen Al Jazeera
People of circumpolar north meet for first time to celebrate ancestral feats of agility and strength

How to Fix Venezuela's Troubled Exchange Rate

Mark Weisbrot Fortune
Even though the country’s black market for U.S. dollars has stabilized, the government will need to bring inflation down in order to maintain a stable exchange rate.

Thousands of Palestinians March in Support of Gaza

+972 Blog +972 Magazine
In the largest protest in decades, Palestinians throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem marched in solidarity with the people of Gaza. At least two protestors were killed and more than 100 wounded in clashes with Israeli Security Forces.

Friday Nite Videos -- July 25, 2014

Portside
Quantum Entanglement: A Poem. Why Do We Sleep? Buffy Sainte-Marie - The Universal Soldier. Meet Jibo, a Social Robot for the Home. Immigrant America: The Worst Job In New York.

Russell Foster: Why Do We Sleep?

Russell Foster studies the sleep cycles of the brain. What do we know about sleep? Not a lot, it turns out, for something we do one-third of our lives. Foster shares popular theories about sleep, busts some myths and hints at some bold new uses of sleep.