Slate Articles

The Highly Effective Idiot

Philip Preville — Wed, 22 May 2013 22:50:15 GMT

It’s been a full five days since the world learned of a video allegedly showing Toronto’s mayor, Rob Ford, smoking crack cocaine, and Ford has yet to answer a single question about the allegation. On Wednesday, Ford’s older brother, Toronto councilor Doug Ford, told the media that he believes what his brother tells him, which is that the accusations are ridiculous. “I don’t know how much more he can say,” he added.

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Wed, 22 May 2013 22:50:15 GMT

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Culinary Racism

Jesse Bering — Wed, 22 May 2013 22:15:00 GMT

Pro golfer Sergio Garcia has now apologized twice for saying, at a European Tour players’ dinner in London, that he would serve Tiger Woods fried chicken for dinner during next month’s U.S. Open. In 1997, Fuzzy Zoeller made a similar comment about Woods, saying that the golfer would serve fried chicken at the Masters’ champions dinner. Back in 2011, Jesse Bering wrote about other racially charged incidents involving fried chicken and explained why remarks like these elicit such raw feelings. The article is reprinted below.

Don’t Pray for Oklahoma

Mark Joseph Stern — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:44:05 GMT

Yesterday, while trekking through the rubble from Monday’s horrific tornado in Moore, Okla., CNN’s Wolf Blitzer stopped to interview a survivor holding her young child in her arms.

Obama’s 301 Drone Strikes

Chris Kirk — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:30:00 GMT

Update, May 22, 2013: The Obama administration formally acknowledged on Wednesday that U.S. drones strikes in Pakistan and Yemen have killed four Americans. The disclosure appeared in a letter to members of Congress that was obtained by the New York Times. Since Obama took office, his administration has conducted at least 301 drone strikes in Pakistan alone, according to data, mapped above, that the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think-tank, collected from media reports. See the NAF’s website for more information on the U.S.’s drone wars in Yemen and Pakistan.

Stop Aid to Africa Now

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:27:00 GMT

When President Obama visits Africa in late June, one of the main agenda items will be how the U.S. can help foster economic growth in the sub-Sahara. He may want to grab a copy of Dambisa Moyo’s book Dead Aid before he goes. A Zambian-born, Oxford-educated international economist, Moyo argues that the international aid model is broken and that aid programs actually leave recipients worse off.

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Wed, 22 May 2013 21:27:00 GMT

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Game of Thrones, Season 3

Rachael Larimore — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:24:00 GMT

This season’s lack of a single dominant character—as we had with Ned in Season 1 and Tyrion last year—has left room for some of the lesser characters to command our attention, and we’re all luckier for it. Brienne of Tarth. Sam and Gilly. And, though he’s been in but a handful of scenes, Sandor Clegane, the Hound.

The Beauty of Bounded Gaps

Jordan Ellenberg — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:44:35 GMT

Last week, Yitang “Tom” Zhang, a popular math professor at the University of New Hampshire, stunned the world of pure mathematics when he announced that he had proven the “bounded gaps” conjecture about the distribution of prime numbers—a crucial milestone on the way to the even more elusive twin primes conjecture, and a major achievement in itself.

For the People, by the People

Amy Crawford — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:17:44 GMT

We tend to ignore local government until something goes wrong—municipal bankruptcy, perhaps, or unplowed streets after a mishandled blizzard. Turnout in local elections is notoriously low, and attendance at city-council and school-board meetings is usually negligible. Most Americans have become accustomed to putting our communities in the hands of a few purported experts and leaving well enough alone.

“A Peculiar Moaning Sound”

Brian Palmer — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:03:47 GMT

Many survivors of the recent Oklahoma tornado compared the sound of the twister to that of a train. Before the advent of railroads, how did people describe the sound of a tornado?

You Do Not Have Asperger’s

Amy S.F. Lutz — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:00:44 GMT

The autism community is a fractious bunch. We argue over the causes of autism, the best treatments, or even if it should be treated at all. But we do share a common anxiety: the DSM-5. This latest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, released by the American Psychiatric Association this month, officially eliminates many familiar autism spectrum diagnoses. Asperger’s syndrome (typically applied to those with no intellectual disability or language deficit); pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified (generally given to higher-functioning individuals who may not meet all the criteria for autism); and childhood disintegrative disorder (attached to kids who develop typically and then experience severe regression after the age of 3) are now incorporated into the single diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. This anxiety ranges from a mild concern on the part of some parents to angry protest: More than 8,000 people signed an online petition circulated by the Global and Regional Asperger’s Syndrome Partnership; another petition sponsored by Asperger’s Association of New England received 5,400 signatures.