There Was Such a Thing as Jujutsuffragettes, and They Kicked Serious Butt

The women’s rights movement in Great Britain had a martial arts-trained group that few knew about; a writer ponders how to get people to read about climate change when it’s so depressing; and a look into how abolitionist Frederick Douglass became the most photographed man in America. These discoveries and more below.

A Matter of Taste: Inside the Edible Sex Toy Industry Eating and sex have a lot in common: they’re both necessary human activities that we’ve managed to find pleasure in.

The Suffragettes Who Learned Martial Arts to Fight for Votes Beneath the folds of their Victorian dresses, the jujutsuffragettes concealed wooden clubs—preparation for hand-to-hand combat with the London police.

Should A Self-Driving Car Kill Its Passengers In A ‘Greater Good’ Scenario? Picture the scene: You’re in a self-driving car and, after turning a corner, find that you are on course for an unavoidable collision with a group of 10 people in the road with walls on either side.

The Ottoman Empire’s First Map of the Newly Minted United States What did the United States look like to Ottoman observers in 1803?

The Unmaking of America A new history asks: Has all the progress of the past 100 years come undone?

The Return of Socialism Capitalism, as readers well know, hasn’t been doing very well in recent years.

Drawing Dissent: Interview with Ted Rall The political cartoonist on his new biography of Edward Snowden and living in an Orwellian age.

Climate Change Is Depressing and Horrible. Is There a Way to Make People Read About It? “A lot of coverage goes straight for the ‘we are 100 percent doomed’ jugular.”

That G.O.P. Debate: Two Footnotes The reverberations from last Wednesday’s CNBC Republican debate continue to rattle the political china.

Frederick Douglass’s Faith in Photography How the former slave and abolitionist became the most photographed man in America.

Harvard’s Groundbreaking Project Documenting Online Content Removals Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society is pleased to announce exciting changes to our pioneering Chilling Effects project, including an expanded mission and a new set of international research partnerships.

Why We Need to Cut the Trash—and Cut the Smartphone After demonstrating that Americans are the waste royalty of the planet, we examine whether new communications technologies can counter this tendency by generating smarter people and smarter consumption.

Why Justice in Paris is Unlikely The COP21 conference in Paris (November 30 to December 11, 2015) is being heralded as the greatest hope for global action on climate change.

Facebook Relaxes ‘Real Name’ Policy in Face of Protest After complaints from civil liberties groups, company promises more awareness of context of real-name complaints

There Are Whales Alive Today Who Were Born Before Moby Dick Was Written Some of the bowhead whales in the icy waters off of Alaska today are over 200 years old.

The Closest Look Yet at Gentrification and Displacement A new study finds that gentrification improves Philadelphia neighborhoods, but its ripple effects hurt the most vulnerable.