Pinboard

Damning analysis of inequality in the US from the creator of The Wire, and how much of iris caused by lobbying.

The Andys seems to be better than most in this regard, including this year blocking CAH guy.

There are plenty of reasons for Obama to be on the Naughty List.

A reiteration of how far removed some Christian conservatives are from what I would consider Christian ideals.

A lot of federal contracting is apparently really broken. I guess they need some aspects of startup culture?

Emily has some thoughts on the movie and Damon's face.

There are some amusing euphemisms here to avoid reporting negative results.

Neat way to explore their collection.

A bit NIMBY, but I think urban core diversity and affordability are important.

A depressing sample of the sort of sexist feedback a female STEM host gets on YouTube, and a call to action.

Cool anecdote about fixing a relay that could have cancelled a Saturn V launch.

Sounds like Couchsurfing's management engaged in some serious shenanigans, at the very least betraying the user base.

"If warehouse jobs serve as pathways to the middle class, someone forgot to hand out road maps to my co-workers." Capitalism gets depressing fast.

Mmmm... Maillard reaction...

Sad story about why Boxleitner had to take over as captain on B5. I don't buy the bit on fans being more effective than meds, but it probably helped O'Hare to have his character be beloved.

Heh. Style sendup of patriotic country music, in a realistic mood.

I am not generally a rap listener, but Eminem clearly has skills. Just wish he'd lose the homophobic lyrics - this song is full of otherwise excellent nerdy references, especially in the video.

Lovely brief essay. Seeing our "blue marble" clearly changes people.

I didn't realize that they were using 4K somewhat on the recording end, even though there isn't the bandwidth to broadcast it

A sampling of his usual thoughts, in text form.

A bit of a rehash of the PAX East panel I went to earlier this year.

I think their heart is in the right place, but their initial premise remains flawed: "Our first priority is to keep Americans safe from the threat of terrorism."; we have other priorities than perfect safety against a very rare threat, which is impossible anyway.

Some good points. I think Goldieblox was legal but a bit rude, and they seem to have fixed that. A reminder that Weird Al's parody policy always respects the original artist's wishes.

Why hello Carnivore, good to see you again. Not surprised it's not just the NSA operating alone.

"Big things must be built to keep busy the people who build them." Some fascinatingly large infrastructure engineering. I think only China does it bigger?

Of course we're quietly lobbying for this. Le sigh.

Papa B has a nice overview of the five largest religious traditions.

Some initial evidence that free market extremism is bad and progressive pragmatism is good.

You could argue that they're making bad choices (smoking, drinking, too many kids), but in many cases their choices were already limited. We can help take care of them with programs like this.