- I thought this essay (PDF) by Chris Blattman was excellent. It's a summary of three recent books (two by scholars, one by a former general) on issues surrounding children and warfare, mixed in with some of Blattman's observations about working in such a charged field.
- GiveWell on needs in meta-research. But meta-research isn't everything: see this recent post by Jed Friedman on the "tyranny of the known" and the Copenhagen Consensus.
- Adam Ozimek and Noah Smith argue that we should have more immigration of high-education workers to the US.
- What was the environmental impact of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
In 1990, some 250,000 turtles were imported into Britain to feed the demand of young Turtles fans who wanted them as pets. For only a few pounds, kids could easily buy a small turtle, not knowing that it would grow to be the size of a dinner plate. When the kids no longer wanted to take care of the animals, they were often dumped in rivers and ponds, where they devastated native ecosystems. The problem became so severe that the European Union banned the sale of the most popular breed, red-eared terrapins, in 1997.