Following the mass shooting in Charleston, a serious debate on the wide availability of guns was run up the national flagpole. It didn't stick. But running the Confederate Flag down the South Carolina flagpole has gained considerable momentum. Statements by several South Carolina officials (including Governor Nikki Haley) have dramatically changed the political landscape. And moves by retailers -- including the nation of Wal-Mart -- make it likely the flags will be both down the pole and off the shelves in short order. (Here's a list of other places where a Confederate Flag ban is on the way.)

+ In this case and others, if you want to see the direction America is headed, then watch Wal-Mart.

"You wouldn't believe what we're extracting out of poop. We found that the guys here in the gut make neurochemicals. We didn't know that. Now, if they make this stuff here, does it have an influence there? Guess what? We make the same stuff. Maybe all this communication has an influence on our behavior." We all know that funny feeling we get when we're nervous. So it doesn't seem all that surprising that there's strong connection between your mood and your gut. From NYT Magazine's Peter Andrey Smith: The rich array of microbiota in our intestines can tell us more than you might think.

In a subtle but critical shift in policy, the White House is set to announce that families who offer or pay ransoms for the return of American hostages will no longer face the threat of prosecution. "The new directive will not include a formal change to existing laws. But administration officials will state publicly, for the first time, that ransom payments will be tolerated."

What does it feel like to be recognized in public. Previously, that was a question usually reserved for actors, pop stars and newsletter writers. But your face is being recorded and recognized in places you might not imagine, from stores to churches.

+ Over the weekend, I'm pretty sure I found the one spot in the world to avoid video surveillance.

+ Facebook's facial recognition software is already so good that it can usually recognize you even if your face is hidden.

+ And (somewhat) related: Maya Rudolph's Rachel Dolezal impression.

"Being collegial is good for both individual workers and for businesses as a whole." Those are the findings from a series of studies examining the behavioral economics of niceness. That said, most of us have little time for such niceties, and as professor Christine Porath writes in the NYT: "Insensitive interactions have a way of whittling away at people's health, performance and souls." Ha, ha, ha. (Oh crap, was that reaction insensitive?)

+ "The paradox of work is that many people hate their jobs, but they are considerably more miserable doing nothing." Derek Thompson imagines a world without work.

+ From Wired: The Essential Guide to Happiness at Work.

+ FastCo: The best time of day to do everything at works. (Later?)

The two escaped convicts (yes, they are still on the loose) may have used tools that were smuggled into the prison in a shipment of hamburger meat. Authorities have focused their manhunt following the discovery of DNA evidence in a cabin owned by corrections officers.

"According to recent figures from six Hawaii high schools, among the ninth and tenth grade students, twenty-nine percent have used electronic smoking devices at least once and eighteen percent use them regularly." Faced with that trend, Hawaii will raise the the smoking age to 21. Will other states follow?

"From his modest classroom at Hobart Boulevard Elementary School in Koreatown, Rafe Esquith became an education superstar. His teaching techniques brought him worldwide recognition, and his books became models for how to engage young students." But since April, Esquith has been banned from his own classroom. And as far as anyone knows, it was because a joke that was entirely harmless. (But it was told in a district that has faced a lot of harm.)

Sean Combs was arrested by UCLA campus police after he allegedly assaulted a school coach (Comb's son plays for the football team) and swung a kettlebell at an intern. Current charges include "three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of making terrorist threats and one count of battery." More kettlebell is the new more cowbell. (You want me to write that he'll try to beat the rap, or that the cops don't have diddy squat, or that investigators will comb the scene; but there's no way I'd produce that kind of puff piece.)

"If the woman had been wearing loose trousers, the calf muscles could have swollen outwards rather than inwards." In other words, yes, skinny jeans are just as dangerous as you feared.

+ Gmail formally introduces its "undo send" feature that enables you to un-send an email up to thirty seconds after hitting the send button. (I'm hoping they'll extend that window to about a decade.)

+ A Spanish town finally decided to change its name from Kill the Jews.