The doctor who had been leading the fight against the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone was desperately ill with the disease. The doctors treating him had to decide whether to treat him with drug, ZMapp, that had never been tested on people. They decided not to — and a few days later he died. The unused doses were eventually sent to Liberia, where other doctors made a different decision and treated two American aid workers. Both survived. Via the New York Times.
#iftheygunnedmedown. The anger in Ferguson: The details of Michael Brown’s death, writes Jelani Cobb in the New Yorker, “blur into a longer narrative.” We know the narrative all too well.
Long read: Go to Alabama to see civil rights in reverse. This is how the civil rights movement ends. Via Jason Zengerle in the New Republic.
James Fallows: Two ways to look at the Hillary Clinton interview. Via the Atlantic.
Dick Cavett says Robin Williams won’t be the last performer taken by depression and suicide. The actor can act his way through depression, and that’s the worst possible thing. Via Time magazine.
Suicide risk: Older white men with depression. Via the Washington Post.
Lauren Bacall was “a legend from the very first minute.” She dies at 89. Via the Los Angeles Times.
Does the prospect of an election discourage women from running for office? One experiment suggests that might explain the relative lack of females candidates. Via the New York Times.
In the early 1970s, Republican President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with its main facilities in Boulder. In 1990, House Republicans earned an average 40-point rating from the League of Conservation Voters. This year, the group awarded House Republicans an average rating of just 5 points. More than 58 percent of congressional Republicans refuse to accept the science of climate change. So, when did Republicans turn on the environment? Recent reports written up by Mother Jones say somewhere right around 1991.
A new era: What happens when both candidates believe in science? Carl DeMaio is a gay Republican from San Diego running for Congress, and he says he believes in man-made climate change. “I’m frustrated that the Republican Party has not offered more positive solutions-oriented proposals on the environment. My hope is to change that and become a leading voice within the Party on these important environmental issues.” San Diego voters like that. Problem is, DeMaio has a voting record as a public official that has earned him a steady stream of failing marks from environmental groups. “The councilman… has managed to be a reliable opponent of responsible environmental policy across the board.” Via ThinkProgess.
[Scanning electron micrograph of Ebola virus budding from the surface of a Vero cell (African green monkey kidney epithelial cell line.) NIAID image via Flickr/Creative Commons.]
