Adjudication doesn't always come with elucidation. Photo by Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images If you haven’t, you should read my colleague Emily Bazelon on the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Michigan’s ban on affirmative action if you want to understand the ruling and its implications . For this…

Meh: http://t.co/rfZob2gy5s This is the better take on Captain America: http://t.co/zQEMIwXFFJ

An Irish girl guarding her family’s last few possessions after eviction for nonpayment of rent, during the potato famine. A wood engraving from The Illustrated London News, April 1886. Print Collector/Getty Images IN advance of St. Patrick’s Day, I went time traveling, back to the 1840s and…

The Awl Be less stupid. The Awl Be less stupid.

Absolutely brilliant piece by @hayleycampbelly for the @NewStatesman on the Hugo awards and twitter’s witchhunt: http://t.co/ilp38VTrfr

I like warnings. I really do. It reminds me that the compiler loves me and is looking out for me. (OK, the compiler at least tolerates me.) What is a warning? It’s when the compiler notices that you’re doing something that might not be what you really intend. The compiler’s job, ultimately, is to do…

The Toast’s [Nicole’s] ongoing Benedict Cumberbatch coverage can be found here . Bandicoot Cabbagepatch, Bandersnatch Cumberbund, and even Wimbledon Tennismatch: there seem to be endless variations on the name of Benedict Cumberbatch. In fact, even street signs have gotten into the action: (image…

.@mattyglesias writes the definitive piece on how Wall Street is making Amazon unstoppable: http://t.co/NJ7SgUq3l3

After casually dating a man for a month, my friend Holly was ready to cease interaction. They hadn’t communicated in a week, which she thought signalled a “ fadeaway ” breakup. But then he texted: “Hey hey.” “First, kill anyone who says ‘hey hey,’” I instructed, bristling at the casual pose. (Other…

The State Department today released its long-awaited environmental impact analysis of the Keystone XL pipeline. The analysis is key because President Obama announced last summer he would not approve the pipeline unless it was found to have no significant impact on climate change. And that’s what the…

The National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Md. Photo by Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images I t’s a good bet that, in the next few weeks, President Obama will impose some serious reforms—and ask Congress to enact a few more—on how the National Security Agency scoops up and stores data from the phone…

Anything that’s any good seems to be about pretty much everything. “Inside Llewyn Davis” isn’t a documentary about the folk-music scene; it’s about the existential tricks of time—the terrible, subtle blow that knocks a person from the vanguard to the sidelines, from the promise of youth to the…

Wow. Very glad I read this. "Most of you have no idea what Martin Luther King actually did." #MLK http://t.co/YcZcYM3uLa

What is Anxiety? Louis Menand explains, complete with a history of the concept, in a terrific @newyorker piece: http://t.co/eU12A5HwP5

MT @rortybomb on the proper definition of "bailout" -- and why it does not describe Obamacare http://t.co/q7NBtVgB1S

When “Life Hacking” Is Really White Privilege Personal Development gurus can get away with whatever they want, so why can’t you? Dreamstime stock photo The line at the post office was 18 people deep. I’d been waiting awhile, and was thinking about something I’d read: that in Europe, public services…

One of the aspects of traditional test management that has always troubled me has been the obsession with counting test cases at some places. If you don’t understand what’s going on, if you don’t really understand what software testing is all about then start counting, and you’ve immediately got…

Illustration by Kelsey Dake At 10 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, I hailed a taxi outside my apartment in Adams Morgan and directed it to a friend’s apartment in Shaw, a nearby neighborhood, also in Northwest Washington. It took a mere minute to find an open car, and the traffic-clogged two-mile trip cost…

Chaz: Why the Wolf of Wall Street DOESN'T glorify excess. Omer Mozaffar weighs in http://t.co/iRBvGJlYjo

The filmmaker Michael Moore has, through his fine documentary Sicko and other public arguments, done a great deal to bring attention to the deficiencies of the American health-care system. His New York Times op-ed on the occasion of the first day of the Affordable Care Act's exchanges repeats some…

Agree with @BrianBeutler, the Duck Dynasty fracas genuinely cut to the heart of contemporary American politics: http://t.co/l9aWNP6SqP

The chocolate-chip cookie celebrated its seventy-fifth birthday this year. Unlike the anonymous inventors of such American staples as the hot dog, the grilled-cheese sandwich, and the milkshake, the creator of the chocolate-chip cookie has always been known to us. Ruth Wakefield, who ran the popular…

1 “She Used 80 Names” R onald Reagan loved to tell stories. When he ran for president in 1976, many of Reagan’s anecdotes converged on a single point: The welfare state is broken, and I’m the man to fix it. On the trail, the Republican candidate told a tale about a fancy public housing complex with…

want to get really, really angry about bankers again? - http://t.co/CWhWO6GjNS

Dahlia Lithwick nails it here: How to Talk to Republican Congressmen: A Guide for Women http://t.co/qw5RcVqpSB via @slate

“The question is less why Snapchat is able to turn down $3B than why and how attention has come to be so valuable” http://t.co/fAeKPxt7En

We hates us some poor people. First, they insist on being poor when it is so easy to not be poor. They do things like buy expensive designer belts and $2500 luxury handbags. To be fair, this isn’t about Eroll Louis. His is a belief held by many people, including lots of black people , poor people,…

Poli-Sci Perspective is a weekly Wonkblog feature in which Georgetown University's Dan Hopkins and George Washington University's Danny Hayes and John Sides offer an empirical perspective on the issues dominating Washington. In this edition, Sides looks at why gerrymandering doesn't explain the…

Montana district Judge G. Todd Baugh Photo courtesy KTVQ Be careful what you wish for. At least, when it comes to the judicial branch. Last week, we flagged a truly hideous incident in which a Montana judge, sentencing a convicted rapist for acts committed with his then-14-year-old student, made all…

My assumption going into this, sixth iteration, of the iPhone was that we would see the expansion of the iPhone into two distinctly positioned products: a low-end C and a high-end S. The assumption was based on what what we saw with the iPad: the regular iPad and the mini iPad. By using the iPad as…

When companies focus on pleasing customers, rather than just shareholders, everybody can win. Just ask Apple, Procter & Gamble, and Johnson & Johnson. (Aly Song/Reuters) In the recent history of management ideas, few have had a more profound — or pernicious — effect than the one that says…