HISTORY: The Fiduciary Foundations of Federal Equal Protection.

EMPOWERING WOMEN: Texas organization will arm and train 500 mothers to use guns during ‘National Empowerment Day.’

THE ETHICS OF AUTONOMOUS CARS: I’m test-driving an Audi A8L (full review next week) with the radar adaptive cruise control, and it’s amazingly good. It makes me feel like autonomous cars are closer than I thought, though there are many bugs to iron out before we get that far.

LIST: 7 Real Natural Events that Inspired Works of Science Fiction. Via David Brin on Facebook.

AT AMAZON, up to 40% off on Back-to-School Clothing. For men, women, and kids.

Also, save up to 70% in the Summer Automotive Clearance.

YOU’D THINK MIKE BLOOMBERG WOULD BE ON TOP OF THIS, THEN: “It’s almost always short people.”

TIME: Creator of xkcd Reveals Secret Backstory of His Epic 3,099-Panel Comic.

After more than four months of hourly updates, the journey finally came to an end last week, and the final product is 3,099 panels long–so long that the Youtube video compiling them (above) runs more than 40 minutes from start to finish. Even better, Munroe is finally talking about the elaborate backstory behind the minimalistic and seemingly ancient world of “Time,” which he reveals was set not in the past, but 11,000 years in the future.

“In my comic, our civilization is long gone. Every civilization with written records has existed for less than 5,000 years; it seems optimistic to hope that the current one will last for 10,000 more,” Munroe told WIRED. “And as astronomer Fred Hoyle has pointed out, since we’ve stripped away the easily-accessed fossil fuels, whatever civilization comes along next won’t be able to jump-start an industrial revolution the way we did.”

Which is why we need to spread civilization beyond Earth — and, really, the Solar system..

VAGUENESS AND FREE SPEECH at the University of Tennessee.

IT’S COME TO THIS: AZ Dem Gubernatorial Candidate Darkens Skin for Commercials to Appear Hispanic.

INFRASONICS: 5 Things We Can Learn From Sounds We Can’t Hear.

THIS DOESN’T SOUND GOOD: Japan nuclear body says radioactive water at Fukushima an ’emergency.’

BUILDING A MEDIA EMPIRE: Bezos Buys Washington Post for $250 Million. “Mr. Bezos is buying the publishing business as an individual, and not in his capacity as CEO of Amazon.” The profitable parts of the Post Corporation, like Kaplan, aren’t included in the deal. Neither are Slate, The Root, or Foreign Policy.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Should I Buy Up to US Airways Chairman Status to Convert to AA Executive Platinum After the Merger?

AT AMAZON, Digital Deals Galore!

Also, markdowns on select Transcend SD memory cards.

POLITICO: Bobby Jindal turns up heat on Terry McAuliffe. “Republican Governors Association Chairman Bobby Jindal called on Democrats on Sunday to drop Terry McAuliffe as their nominee for governor of Virginia. The governor of Louisiana seized on a report that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating GreenTech Automotive, the electric car company McAuliffe co-founded, over its conduct in soliciting foreign investors.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How to Successfully Self-Publish a Kindle eBook.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: For some, college not worth the debt. My latest USA Today column is now online.

THE IRS SCANDAL, DAY 88: From TaxProf.

IF THE GOVERNMENT DOES IT, IT’S NOT ILLEGAL: Feds are Suspects in New Malware That Attacks Tor Anonymity. “The malware showed up Sunday morning on multiple websites hosted by the anonymous hosting company Freedom Hosting. That would normally be considered a blatantly criminal ‘drive-by’ hack attack, but nobody’s calling in the FBI this time. The FBI is the prime suspect.”

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: I’ve been sleeping with an older man in my field. Can I ask him for career advice?

NEWS YOU CAN USE: What the inside of a spacesuit looks like.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Do We Really Need Car Dealerships Anymore? “Visiting a car dealership is a miserable experience that probably ranks somewhere between an IRS audit and a colonoscopy on many people’s activities’ list.”

READER BOOK RECOMMENDATION: From Jay Posey, Three. Recommended by his sister, Celeste.

THE COST OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OVERREACH: The Hole in Our Collective Memory: How Copyright Made Mid-Century Books Vanish. “A book published during the presidency of Chester A. Arthur has a greater chance of being in print today than one published during the time of Reagan.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Be Your Own Spaceship: How We Can Adapt Human Bodies for Alien Worlds.