What We’re Reading: April 28, 2016

Obama administration urges states to curb use of solitary confinement (Guardian)
by Ed Pilkington
“This year Barack Obama announced far-reaching reforms that would dramatically reduce the use of solitary, or ‘restrictive housing’, within the federal prison system. He said the practice of placing inmates in tiny cells with virtually no human contact was overused and an ‘affront to our common humanity’.”

War In The Time of Selfies (Guernica Magazine)
by Nicholas Miriello
“The crudely staged terror-porn of Abu Ghraib has evolved into the highly stylized and sun-kissed wartime selfie.”

How to persuade rich people to pay more in taxes: remind them how lucky they are (Vox)
by Robert H. Frank
“Hatred of taxes by the wealthy has had real consequences. Due in part to lobbying efforts on the part of high earners, for example, top marginal tax rates around the world have gone down dramatically since the 1970s. Rich people paying lower taxes means there’s less money for public investment in infrastructure and education. And less public investment is bad for everyone, including rich people.”

Shut Up About Harvard (FiveThirtyEight)
by Ben Casselman
“It’s college admissions season, which means it’s time once again for the annual flood of stories that badly misrepresent what higher education looks like for most American students — and skew the public debate over everything from student debt to the purpose of college in the process.”

Video: Empathy Doesn’t Make You a Good Person (Atlantic)