Quick Friday evening roundup

I'd love to discuss these very interesting and very interconnected articles more but I have to run in a minute.

How does microfinance help if many studies show it doesn't? Is it filling voids that governments should be addressing? What are those voids? Is military intervention and law enforcement inherently more of a job for government than public health? Environmental protection (which, by the way, is not unrelated to public health)? On that note, a couple of Republicans defend the EPA and its successes.

The average bus-rider is lighter than the average boat passenger is lighter than the average flier... but we're all getting heavier.