Evening link round-up

In the news today:

• Brian Beutler reminds history buffs that in "the median experience of tyranny" life doesn't change much right away.
• Paul Krugman mines the data to understand why gold prices have soared in the last couple of months. But, he argues, "holding gold isn’t an alternative to holding currency. It is, instead, an alternative to holding bonds, which pay interest."
• Jeff Maurer reminds the smitten that, no matter how well-intentioned, activists are just "dumb assholes like you and me:" "[T]he actions of some progressive groups become less baffling when you imagine that their goal isn’t to advance for their cause, but rather to appear to advance their cause while keeping their job and improving their social standing."

Finally, the Post examines the age-old question, why is there always one side of town no one wants to live in, and why is it always downwind of the 19th- and 20th-century factories?