County Will Pay $15.5 Million To Man Who Spent 22 Months In Solitary Confinement
“When he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and other charges in 2005, Stephen Slevin had no way of knowing that an opinion about his mental state would put him on a path to spend more than 22 months of solitary confinement in a New Mexico county jail, despite never having his day in court. This week, he reached a $15.5 million settlement with Dona Ana County.”

On Kids, Cancer, and an Unwavering Optimism
“Ryan, their eight year old daughter, had come home from school with a headache. She rested while waiting to go see the doctor, but when Dorie went to wake Ryan, she found her unresponsive. What followed was a week-long nightmare of seizures, resuscitations, temporary brain injury, and testing. Lots of testing. Finally, after too much imaging, poking, and prodding, there was an answer: it was cancer. It was a very uncommon type, but most cancers that attack kids are rare. In Ryan’s case, it was adrenal cortical carcinoma, an aggressive small cell cancer affecting just one in three million kids.”

The babies who nap in sub-zero temperatures
“Would you put your baby or toddler outside in the freezing cold for their lunchtime nap? Most Nordic parents wouldn’t give it a second thought. For them it’s part of their daily routine.”

Making, and Eating, the 1950s’ Most Nauseating Jell-O Soaked Recipes
“So when Ruth Clark took the obvious, and daring, step of actually making these retro recipes for her fascinating website The Mid-Century Menu, it’s not surprising she received a bit of hate mail. Clark typically cooks one vintage meal per week, which she documents through scans of the original recipe, photos of her re-creation, and detailed tasting notes (often featuring amusing photos of her husband, Tom, attempting his first few bites). Her blog is an everyday cook’s version of the Julie & Julia project, featuring the food that real people made in mid-century America.”

Krulwich Wonders: Nature Has A Formula That Tells Us When It’s Time To Die
“Life is short for small creatures, longer in big ones. So algae die sooner than oak trees; elephants live longer than mayflies, but you know that. Here’s the surprise: There is a mathematical formula which says if you tell me how big something is, I can tell you — with some variation, but not a lot — how long it will live. This doesn’t apply to individuals, only to groups, to species. The formula is a simple quarter-power exercise: You take the mass of a plant or an animal, and its metabolic rate is equal to its mass taken to the three-fourths power. I’ll explain how this works down below, but the point is, this rule seems to govern all life.”