The Data-Driven Life
by Gary Wolf

New York Times Magazine

Humans make errors. We make errors of fact and errors of judgment. We have blind spots in our field of vision and gaps in our stream of attention. Sometimes we can’t even answer the simplest questions. Where was I last week at this time? How long have I had this pain in my knee? How much money do I typically spend in a day? These weaknesses put us at a disadvantage. We make decisions with partial information. We are forced to steer by guesswork. We go with our gut.

How Dad's Yelling Can Spawn an Office Tyrant
by Sue Shellenbarger

Wall Street Journal

Lars Dalgaard used to act like a jerk at work. As a young manager rising through the ranks years ago at a consumer-products company, he was so brutally blunt with subordinates that a coach pulled him aside and told him to be more considerate, says Mr. Dalgaard, founder and chief executive of SuccessFactors, a San Mateo, Calif.-based software company.

FACT SHEET: Young Adults and the Affordable Care Act
Preventing Coverage Gaps, Lowering Administrative Costs and Eliminating Burdens on Businesses and Families

The White House

The Affordable Care Act raises the age for children who can be covered tax-free on their parents' health insurance policy and provides incentives for employers to immediately extend health insurance coverage to children up to age 27. Today, the IRS posted new guidance for employers, employees, health insurers and other interested taxpayers regarding this provision of the new law. (IRS’s press release is here; a blog post from Nancy-Ann DeParle is here.)

Deepwater Horizon Incident, Gulf of Mexico
Updated each evening
Situation: Thursday 29 April

NOAA

Today the Deepwater Horizon incident declared a Spill of National Significance (SONS). A SONS is defined as, "a spill that, due to its severity, size, location, actual or potential impact on the public health and welfare or the environment, or the necessary response effort, is so complex that it requires extraordinary coordination of federal, state, local, and responsible party resources to contain and clean up the discharge" and allows greater federal involvement. Estimates of the release rate increased to 5000 barrels (210,000 gallons) per day based on surface observations and reports of a newly discovered leak in the damaged piping on the sea floor.

Did you know that a store can sell food past the expiration date?

Food & Drug Administration (FDA)

With the exception of infant formula, the laws that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) administers do not preclude the sale of food that is past the expiration date indicated on the label. FDA does not require food firms to place "expired by", "use by" or "best before" dates on food products. This information is entirely at the discretion of the manufacturer.

The Corner: Immigration: The Other View

byJonah Goldberg

National Review Online (NRO)

As some longtime readers know, I'm not 100 percent on board with NR's editorial positions on immigration. If tomorrow we truly solved the problem of illegal immigration, I'm sure I would be one of the loudest voices for a more generous — or liberal, if you prefer — policy on legal immigration. I think immigration is good for America, and the world. Politically, I think it is/would be crazy for conservatives to completely cede the nation-of-immigrants narrative to liberals. I'm proud, very proud, of America's immigration story. It drives me crazy that so many American Hispanics have decided that supporting or being soft on illegal immigration is their make-or-break issue. From where I sit, American Hispanics should be extremely receptive to both economic and social conservatism. But their priorities are for them to decide.

To Beat the Heat, Drink a Slushie First
By Gina Kolata

New York Times

It’s no surprise that it’s hard to exercise on a hot day. You go slower. An easy workout is grueling. You have no endurance.

The reasons are also no surprise. Blood is directed to the skin for cooling, which means it is diverted from working muscles. The hotter it is, and the harder the effort, the harder exercise becomes. Eventually, you slow down or stop, unable to go on. Exercise physiologists debate why. It could be that muscles are starved for blood. It could be that the brain gets too hot. It could be that the heart eventually can’t beat fast enough to satisfy all the demands for blood. But even without knowing why, researchers have found they can delay the time to utter exhaustion by getting people a bit chilled before they start.

Mind Over Meds
By Daniel Carlat

New York Times



One day several years ago, I was reaching the end of my first visit with a patient, J.J., who had come to see me for anxiety andinsomnia. He was a salesman for a struggling telecommunications company, and he was having trouble managing the strain on his finances and his family. He was sleeping poorly, and as soon as he opened his eyes in the early morning, the worries began. “I wake up with a list of things to worry about,” he said. “I just go through the list, and it seems to get longer every day.”

Coyote vs. Greyhound: The Battle Lines Are Drawn
By Juliet Macur
New York Times

ELGIN, Okla. — One morning in an otherwise quiet corner of the Great Plains, high-pitched yips and deep growls sprang from a cluster of trees. Two greyhounds were fighting a pack of coyotes.

Post-it, the little square that changed lives, turns 30
By Virginie Montet

AFP

WASHINGTON — VHS tapes and walkmans may have been firmly cast into oblivion but another 1980s invention, the Post-it Note, is marking its 30th anniversary this month as popular as ever.

U.S. students suffering from Internet addiction: study

by Waldon Siew
Reuters

American college students are hooked on cellphones, social media and the Internet and showing symptoms similar to drug and alcohol addictions, according to a new study.

Eruptions and Disruptions
 by James P. Sterba
Wall Street Journal

Iceland's volcano pales before giants that may have sped U.S. settlers and led to 'Frankenstein'

On the evening of April 5, 1815, on the island of Sumbawa in what's now Indonesia, a volcano named Tambora began to rumble and cough. It sputtered on and off for days. Then on the 11th and 12th, eruptions shook houses and boats hundreds of miles away. Over 10 days, Tambora belched 24 cubic miles of lava and pulverized rock (try to imagine a cubic mile of anything), and created a crater more than three miles wide and nearly a mile deep.

In Lean Times, Police Cuts Spark Debate Over Safety
by Stephanie Simon
Wall Street Journal


TULSA, Okla.—It has become a recession mantra: Do more with less.

Now, this heartland city is testing whether that's possible when it comes to public safety.

Since January, Tulsa has laid off 89 police officers, 11% of its force. That has pushed the city to the forefront of a national movement, spurred by hard times, to revamp long-held policing strategies.

Existential Crisis of a Plastic Bag
by Sindya N. Bhanoo
New York Times


An 18-minute film chronicling the life of a plastic bag has gone viral on the Internet.

“The Plastic Bag” questions the environmental impact of consumerism in a world that treats it like trash.