Tuesday roundup

How ebola came to decimate entire families, villages, cities.

James Fallows' long read on the military. The tl;dr version:

The harshest [assessments] came not from people who mistrusted the military but from those who, like Webb, had devoted much of their lives to it. A man who worked for decades overseeing Pentagon contracts told me this past summer, “The system is based on lies and self-interest, purely toward the end of keeping money moving.” What kept the system running, he said, was that “the services get their budgets, the contractors get their deals, the congressmen get jobs in their districts, and no one who’s not part of the deal bothers to find out what is going on.”

Father Yakunin has left this world.

I had to have this conversation with my parents (i.e., the "there's a lot to worry about with regard to our oceans, and radiation from Fukushima isn't it). But who are you calling a nuclear power nerd? Oh, who am I kidding.

Ah, another mom who doesn't think her kids are capable of their own reactions and feelings. It's been a while since mom pulled that on me, but it's hard to forget all those "you're tired? what do you have to be tired about?" and "you're hot, take off your jacket,"

Had I thought about it, there would have been no doubt that the very mediocre Alexandra Petri was basic. Does she still have a column, and if so, why?

FWIW, I'm not normcore.

Eat mushrooms, they're good for you.