Quick hits (part I)

1) More on how Kansas is sticking it to poor people.  Surely this is what Jesus would have wanted.

2) The best way to end the gender pay gap in salary negotiations?  Ban salary negotiations.

3) A really, really cool way to address iron deficiency in developing countries.

4) Is too much math ruining economics?

5) Doesn’t quite cover all the grey areas, but this is a great little video on sexual consent using tea as a metaphor.

6) Great long read on how an intrepid graduate student uncovered the fraudulent nature of the gay marriage study.  And a nice take on the matter from Dan Drezner.

7) Robert Draper says the Democratic party is in big trouble.  He’s got some good points, but I will say that whenever the Democratic party is compared to semi-recent history, we’ve got to remember that the Southern Democratic party was always a conservative party.

8) You always here about the incredible bonding that takes place between men during war.  It’s a lot harder for that bonding to take place when you are a woman.

9) Nice piece in the Atlantic on Nebraska’s repeal of the death penalty:

“At the end of the day, this is just another big government program that’s really dangerous and expensive but doesn’t achieve any of its goals,” Hyden told me, summarizing his pitch to Republicans. “They don’t need to ask themselves, ‘Do some people deserve to die?’ The question they need to ask themselves is, do they trust an error-prone government to fairly, efficiently and properly administer a program that metes out death to its citizens? I think the answer to that is a resounding no.”

10) Alabama’s turn to find out what happens when you cut government revenues to the bone.

11) Vox on how just how horrible some animals can be (I did know about dolphins and sea otters).

12) A friend was recently in town to officiate at a wedding.  I got curious and did a little googling.  Turns out that when you get married by a friend with on-line certification, this can lead to big trouble in certain states with more restrictive laws on the matter.

13) I’ve been teaching Evan how to ride a bike.  It’s slow going because he’s full of anxiety and has temporarily given up since it doesn’t come easy.  Could be worse– could be teaching him how to ride this bike.

14) So glad somebody, i.e., the US Department of Justice, is finally standing up to FIFA.   How democracy is at the root of Fifa’s problems (seriously, the smallest countries in the world have equal influence to soccer powers such as Brazil and Germany– and those small countries are easily bought off).  Mark Joseph Stern on the legal strategy behind the bust.