Weekend Reads 6/27/15

How people convince themselves that the Confederate flag represents freedom, not slavery

This “Confederately correct” orthodoxy that the South fought for independence, not slavery, rankled a few southern realists, including the editors of the Richmond-based Southern Punch in 1864:

” ‘The people of the South,’ says a contemporary, ‘are not fighting for slavery but for independence.’ Let us look into this matter. It is an easy task, we think, to show up this new-fangled heresy — a heresy calculated to do us no good, for it cannot deceive foreign statesmen nor peoples, nor mislead any one here nor in Yankeeland."

The Abortion Rate Is Falling Because Fewer Women Are Getting Pregnant

Although it’s impossible to attribute the decline to a single factor, the data shows that better contraception — combined with a bad economy and a falling teen pregnancy rate — is largely responsible.

It’s not about mental illness: The big lie that always follows mass shootings by white males

We’ve successfully created a world so topsy-turvy that seeking medical help for depression or anxiety is apparently stronger evidence of violent tendencies than going out and purchasing a weapon whose only purpose is committing acts of violence. We’ve got a narrative going where doing the former is something we’re OK with stigmatizing but not the latter.

New Research Suggests There Are Active Volcanoes on Venus

"We have now seen several events where a spot on the surface suddenly gets much hotter, and then cools down again," Eugene Shalygin, lead author of the study, said. 

And he means a lot hotter. Venus is typically a scorching 896 degrees Fahrenheit. Over the course of the study, at least one spot observed by the Venus Express peaked at a temperature of 1526 degrees Fahrenheit. The scientists believe that these temperature spikes, which were contained to four specific areas and lasted just a few days, are the result of hot magma boiling up to the surface from inside the planet—in other words, active volcanic eruptions.