Ferguson
The running blog from Ferguson‘s latest: Ben Mathis-Lilley and Elliot Hannon, “Officer Who Stopped Michael Brown Did Not Know He Was a Robbery Suspect.”
Robert Stephens II, “In Defense of the Ferguson Riots.”
An open letter from David Simon.
Rembert Browne, “The Front Lines of Ferguson.”
“This Time, For Once, What It Is, It Is.”
Daniel Politti, “After a Day of Calm, Ferguson Reignites: Looting, Clashes with Police and Tear Gas.”
Jack Mirkinson, “Police Threaten to Shoot, Mace Reporters in Ferguson.”
Dylan Scott, “Mayor Defends Police: I Can’t Second-Guess These Officers.”
Jamelle Bouie, “The Militarization of the Police.”
The militarization of US Police.
Sahil Kapur, “House Democrat Unveils Bill to Demilitarize Local Police.”
Rand Paul, “We Must Demilitarize the Police.”
“There’s a Police Coup Going on Right Now in Ferguson, MO.”
Matthew Yglesias, “Enough is Enough in Ferguson.”
Mychal Denzel Smith, “The Death of Michael Brown and the Search for Justice in Black America.”
LaDoris Hazzard Cordell, “Policing the Police.”
Joe Coscorelli, “Obama Treads Lightly, Again, on Ferguson: ‘Listen and Heal,’ Don’t ‘Holler and Shout.'”
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, “The Coming Race War Won’t Be About Race.”
And a must see: John Oliver on Ferguson.
Nuclear and Environment
Laura Bliss, “Atomic Tests Were a Tourist Draw in 1950s Las Vegas.”
Anya Litvak, “Pennsylvania Gas Production Hits Another Peak.”
International
Helene Cooper and Michael D. Shear, “Militants’ Siege on Mountain in Iraq is Over, Pentagon Says.”
Economic
Neil Johnson, “The High-Tech Arms Race That’s Causing Stock Market ‘Tsunamis.'”
Alan J. Lichtman, “Who Rules America?”
Hyperarchival
Caleb Garling, “Tricking Facebook’s Algorithm.”
Literature and Culture
Mike Miley is going through David Foster Wallace’s archive, reading all the notes Wallace wrote in books.
Grant Morrison’s Multiversity debuts tomorrow! I’ve been chomping at the bit for this one. And the “map” of the multiverse is gorgeous.
Daniel Coluccielo Barber reviews Lessons in Secular Criticism by Stathis Gourgouris at the LARB.
Nathaniel Rich, “The Mystery of Murakami.”
Rebecca Mead, “The Pleasure of Reading to Impress Yourself.”
Steve Almond, “John Oliver Won’t Be Your Therapist: How He Torpedoed the Reassuring Tropes of Fake News.”
Manohla Dargis reviews The Giver in “If You Want to Remember, You Have to Ask the Old Guy.”
Laura Miller, “Portrait of a Self-Published Author: Drac Van Stoller’s Invisible Literary Empire.”
Zach Friedman, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
More on Robin Williams. Chris Gethard, “The Art of the Obituary.” Alex Pappademas, “Knight Takes King: Remembering Robin Williams, 1951-2014.” Andrew SoClomon, “Suicide, a Crime of Loneliness.” Anthony Lane, “Postscript: Robin Williams, 1951-2014.”
And Gabino Iglesias has an interview with my friend David James Keaton.
Humanities and Higher Education
Ian Bogost, “Academic Paydom: Tactical Lessons from the Steven Salaita Situation.”
Paul Bové, “Steven Salaita–My Letter to the Chancellor.”
An open letter from untenured faculty to Chancellor Wise of UIUC.
Getting some push back: Nicholas Kristof, “Don’t Dismiss the Humanities.”
Colleen Flaherty, “Pulling Rank: Is Northeastern Denying Professors Tenure to Improve Its National Rankings?”
William Deresiewicz, “Spirit Guides,” on the things that teachers can provide that parents can’t.
Robert J. McKee, “The Age(ism) of Diversity.”
The Hyperarchival Parallax 
