
Reality Checks:Wage Gap, Gabbard vs Clinton, Glass Brains, and Pettifogging
22 men are richer than all of Africa’s women. (via Al Jazeera) Tulsi Gabbard sues Hilary Clinton. (via Reuters) Glass brains from Vesuvius, (via Ars Technica) History of pettifogging. (via NPR) Featured image credit: flickr

Reality Checks: MLK for the Discomfort of White People, More Plastic, Diving Neanderthals, and Fertility Fraud
Celebrating the MLK who makes white people uncomfortable. (via Teen Vogue) New plastic about to hit the planet. (via Wired) Neanderthals may have been divers. (via Ars Technica) Fertility fraud, in which doctors substitute their own sperm. Which seems rather rape adjacent. (via NPR) Featured image credit: flickr

Reality Checks: Insects and Gravity, Old Stardust, Trying to end Vaccine exemptions, and Consequences of Racist Housing
Insects vs Gravity. (via Cosmos) 7 Billion year old stardust. (via Gizmodo) Pro Vaccine bill fails in NJ. (via Ars Technica) Racist housing practices lead to hotter neighborhoods. (via NPR) Featured image credit: flickr

Reality Checks: Frog Robots, Fertility, Minimum Wages vs Suicide, and 10 Most Popular NYPL Books
Building robots from frog stem cells. (via Guardian) Historic low in US fertility. (via Vox) Higher minimum wage linked to reduced suicide rate. (via Ars Technica) Top 10 most checked out books at the NYPL. (via NPR) Featured image credit: flickr

Reality Checks: Trump, Trust, and War, a Circular Economy, and Testing Wifi Gear
Trump seems to be refraining from further military conflict with Iran, thank reason. (via NYT) Building a circular economy. (via Vox) How to test wifi gear (via Ars Technica) Much of the world distrusts Trump. (via NPR) Featured image credit: flickr

Reality Checks: NATO Reviewing Iraq Mission, Howler Monkey Testicals, Where there is no GPS, and Weinstein Trial
NATO reviewing Iraq mission following killing of Soleimani. (via al Jazeera) Testical size and volume of calls are inversely proportional in howler monkeys. Researchers warn against anthropomophizing results. (via Vice) Navigation pre GPS. (via Ars Technica) Harvey Weinstein goes to trial. (via NPR) Featured image credit: flickr

A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam: A Review and some Embryology
Recently I went to Egypt (!!) which was a joy and a delight, and outside several mosques people were distributing literature about Islam. Since I normally spend my time making fun of Christian Tracts, let’s have a change of pace and critique Muslim tracts instead. We will start with A Brief …

Reality Checks: New Dark Energy Theory, Fossil Parenting, the Apollo 11 Control Room, and Book Recap of 2019
New theory of Dark Energy. (via ScitechDaily) Fossil evidence that appears to show postnatal care. (via phys.org) Guide to the Apollo 11 control room. (via Ars Technica) NPR’s best books of 2019. (via NPR) Featured image credit: flickr