Weekend Reading (April 24-26)

Sometimes I worry that skimming and posting these things mean I'll never actually reflect and write on them:

Getting Smarter About IQ The American Prospect
Simple advances, like adequate vision and dental care, can do more for the nation's children than theoretical debates about education inequality.

Woman Hires Stripper To Take Her Place At High School Reunion Jezebel
Wachner, class of 1995, decided that instead of returning to her high school, which she notes was "a pressure cooker"...decided she'd send a representative on her behalf—a stripper she hired to assume her identity and shock her former classmates. 

Obama Tactic Shields Health Care Bill From a Filibuster NYT
The tentative agreement would also apply reconciliation rules to a less-partisan fight over student lending, but does not include filibuster protection for energy or climate-change legislation.

Fighting Deadly Flu, Mexico Shuts Schools NYT
Mexican officials, scrambling to control a swine flu outbreak that has killed as many as 61 people and infected possibly hundreds more in recent weeks, closed museums and shuttered schools for millions of students in and around the capital on Friday, and urged people with flu symptoms to stay home from work.

Brain Gain The New Yorker
Unlike many hypothetical scenarios that bioethicists worry about—human clones, “designer babies”—cognitive enhancement is already in full swing.

Moving Beyond Bias.The New Republic
Which falls more into the spirit of black uplift that you could explain to a foreigner in less than three minutes: teaching black candidates how to show what they are made of despite obstacles, or banning a test of mental agility as inappropriate to impose on black candidates?

Columbine Questions We Still Don’t Ponder In These Times
Neither the availability of firearms nor of Grand Theft Auto creates the original desire for violence.

Comment Is King NY Times Magazine
Most journalists hate to read it [reader commentary], because it’s stinging and distracting, and readers rarely plow through long comments sections unless they intend to post something themselves.

The Supreme Court takes failing to get it to a new level. Slate
That the school in question was looking for a prescription pill with the mind-altering force of a pair of Advil—and couldn't be bothered to call the child's mother first—hardly matters.

Is Gum Chewing Really Good For Your Health?
In yet another study touting the benefits of chewing gum, researchers suggest it may boost academic performance in teens.