With the health care reform battle behind them, Democrats turn to the next beast: regulatory reform… with less resistance than expected

Nasa said this would cost them millions, but one man did it with £500 (thanks Derek)

The X-Woman’s Fingerbone – possible undiscovered species by Carl Zimmer

Curiosity leads to discovery and Sonic in space

by Matt Herron

In a welcome break from the political spectacle, I bring you a personal narrative. Consider yourself warned.

I used to get the strangest ideas in my head when I was a kid. For instance, I worried that human beings would soon overpopulate the world. Where would we live? Sure, there was enough space now, but what happens when we build on all of it? When people call dibs on every piece of land available? And when there’s ten times as many people?

I could have sworn there wasn’t enough room for all of us. I asked a trusted grown-up and he told me that there was, in fact, plenty of space, more than I could possibly realize. The world is bigger than you think, he said. Some reassurance that was. How can he know how big I think the world is? —Read on »

Will Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution save our lives?

‘Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: a Road Trip with David Foster Wallace’ by David Lipsky — an excellent book review at the Awl

Paul Ford and the Tale of an Inebriated Butthole Surfer

The Awl interviews Paul Ford, former editor of Harper’s. I can see where he’s coming from. I live for a good puzzle,

“[Paul:] I could have been a respected editor instead of a huge nerd. But all the editing in the world can’t compare to building little websites and mangling text and writing things and messing around in spreadsheets and figuring out what’s wrong with comments. I wake up thinking about how all the pieces fit together and I want to do more of it and with lots of people. I plan to be scared and exhausted most of the time. So far that’s working.”

Now, I haven’t got a clue what Alex Chilton or the Butthole Surfers has to do with Paul Ford resigning from Harper’s (typical Awl: off-topic yet entertaining), but don’t forget to read about the Butthole Surfers misbehaving in The Netherlands. If the Dutch can deal with alcohol-induced madness of that caliber — and ask for more — it proves beyond reasonable doubt that their culture is, in fact, more tolerant than most. That probably doesn’t come as a surprise to most of you, but it’s worth mentioning.

Hyperlocal Journalism ventures in the Czech Republic — looks like I’ll be taking a drive to check this out