Tombstone, AZ residents told their water supply could be cut in order to protect Mexican owls [CNN]

"Things I Learned from People Who Tried to Kill Me" [Small Wars Journal]

In between wars the British army is an S&M holiday camp for men [Taki's]

The psychology of lying [Wired]

Post smug vacation statuses on Facebook, get your house burgled [Ars Technica]

To feel like a man, act like a man [Brett McKay]

The Cuban revolution's "American Commandante" [New Yorker]

Detroit's countdown to bankruptcy; This too is "what democracy looks like"  [Detroit Metro-Times]

Making education a commodity: A master's degree for around $100 [I Programmer.info]

Well-to-do types using SF's rent control law for their personal benefit [SF Chronicle]

E-book revenues beat hardcovers for the first time [TechCrunch]

Political opinion from a double-life sentence serving convicted murderer in VA [Washington Post]

Stealing a Watch, Made Easy: How to harness the psychology of inattention [WSJ]

There are plenty of things Detroit needs more than a parade [Detroit News]

Marring street art with graffiti in Hamtramck [Detroit Metro Times]

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti

Why have I never heard of this book before? It's about an experiment done at the (now closed) Ypsilanti State Hospital located near Ann Arbor, MI in 1959. Three men who all claimed to be Jesus Christ were put in a room together during the day to interact while being observed. It was a study of delusional behavior when confronted by reality. Spoiler: Each considered the other two to be delusional. Go figure? 

Psychologist's finding: "Self-control is like a muscle."

An interesting idea. Roy Baumeister of Florida State University seems to conclude that the "mental energy" (my term for it, not his) needed for conscious and deliberate behavior is the same phenomenon as an athlete who has to pace themselves so they don't burn through their physical reserves too fast to compete effectively. Like the athlete a person's self-control energy can become depleted just like a runner's glucose or oxygen levels. If Baumeister turns out to be correct his findings sure do explain a lot about how people act.

weblog

Lt. Governor of paper clips - LA Weekly
A cynical look at what passes for political leadership in the People's Republic of Kalifornia.
Studying memory formation by dosing snails with meth - New Scientist
Springtime for Stalin - NYRB blog (Timothy Snyder)
Russia's version of the greatest generation waxes nostalgic for the tyrant. Go figure?
Human progress: Man invents box that keeps plants hydrated without added water - Popular Science
Even works in the desert.
Drug Store Cowboy author arrested for robbing a drug store - Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Wave-powered desalinization plant approved -CNet