Behind Tianjin Blast, High Price of Lax Rules - The New York Times

Behind Tianjin Blast, High Price of Lax Rules - The New York Times:



In interviews with more than a dozen of Rui Hai’s former clients and associates — and unusually critical reports in China’s state-controlled news media — a picture has emerged of a company that exploited weak governance in one of the party’s showcase economic districts and used political connections to shield its operations from scrutiny.



'via Blog this'

At War in the Garden of Eden | The New Republic

At War in the Garden of Eden | The New Republic:

Brothers,

We forgive you for your foul deeds. You have robbed our convent. Do you not know that we are virgins? We have no one to support us with money. You even put the refrigerator at the door to steal it at night. [You stole] the blankets, mattresses, gas canisters, and even our clothes. How can you say that you love God while you steal the livelihood of the poor? God does not have mercy on robbers. Unlawful deeds bring calamities upon their doers.

Your mother,

The Nun

'via Blog this'

Just a Phase | Jamie Denbo

Just a Phase | Jamie Denbo: "
But the schools all made us feel like he was a true danger to himself and society and that it was all our fault. They never once reminded me that biters are common. That kids grow at different rates. That I was not actually a terrible mother.
I STILL panic when a phone number comes up that I don't recognize. My heart ALWAYS initially drops. Because I assume that it is a parent/teacher/administrator whose number I don't have calling to tell me that my son has committed some unacceptable act of one kind of another. I have a mild form of PTSD. "



'via Blog this'

That 'Useless' Liberal Arts Degree Has Become Tech's Hottest Ticket - Forbes

That 'Useless' Liberal Arts Degree Has Become Tech's Hottest Ticket - Forbes: " Throughout the major U.S. tech hubs, whether Silicon Valley or Seattle, Boston or Austin, Tex., software companies are discovering that liberal arts thinking makes them stronger.  Engineers may still command the biggest salaries, but at disruptive juggernauts such as Facebook and Uber, the war for talent has moved to nontechnical jobs, particularly sales and marketing. The more that audacious coders dream of changing the world, the more they need to fill their companies with social alchemists who can connect with customers–and make progress seem pleasant."



'via Blog this'

How (and Why) SpaceX Will Colonize Mars - Page 5 of 5 - Wait But Why | Page 5

How (and Why) SpaceX Will Colonize Mars - Page 5 of 5 - Wait But Why | Page 5: "The Solar System could become one vast world for humans. Maybe Jupiter’s moon Europa becomes known as the Solar System’s tech hub, while Saturn’s Titan becomes the place you have to move if you really want to be in the entertainment industry. Maybe some people will spend their whole lives on one heavenly body, while others will be avid travelers and brag that they’ve set foot on 12. Maybe the Solar System’s Grand Congress will make “Earth history” a required class in school, and students all over will grow up yearning to one day visit what they’ll refer to as the Cradle of Civilization, to see its huge animals, famous cities, and ancient ruins.

"



'via Blog this'

How Tesla Will Change The World - Wait But Why

How Tesla Will Change The World - Wait But Why: "Fire joules were hard to harness, but if you sent them into water, they’d get the water molecules to increasingly freak out and bounce around until finally those molecules would fully panic and start flying off the surface, evaporating upwards with the force of the raging fire below. You’d have successfully converted the thermal energy joules of the fire—which we didn’t know how to directly harness—into a powerful jet of steam we could control.

"



'via Blog this'

18F — Announcing the Agile BPA awards: A conversation about the process

18F — Announcing the Agile BPA awards: A conversation about the process: "Over the last few months, the demand for 18F to build products for agencies has been explosive. To meet this demand, we realized that we needed help from outside vendors who work the way we do — using techniques like agile development cycles and user-centered design processes. We’ve also identified the need for a contract vehicle through which agencies can gain access to a pool of vendors that work in this way as well."



'via Blog this'

A Short Lesson in Perspective

A Short Lesson in Perspective:

The Overnight Test only works if you can afford to wait overnight. To sleep on it. Time moved on, and during the nineties technology overran, and transformed the creative industry like it did most others. Exciting new tools. Endless new possibilities. Pressing new deadlines. With the new digital tools at our disposal we could romp over the creative landscape at full tilt. Have an idea, execute it and deliver it in a matter of a few short hours. Or at least a long night. At first it was a great luxury. We could cover so much more ground. Explore all the angles. And having exhausted all the available possibilities, craft a solution we could have complete faith in.

Or as the bean counters upstairs quickly realized, we could just do three times as many jobs in the same amount of time, and make them three times as much money. For the same reason that Jumbo Jets don’t have the grand pianos and palm-court cocktail bars we were originally promised in the brochures, the accountants naturally won the day.

'via Blog this'

A Short Lesson in Perspective

A Short Lesson in Perspective:

The Overnight Test only works if you can afford to wait overnight. To sleep on it. Time moved on, and during the nineties technology overran, and transformed the creative industry like it did most others. Exciting new tools. Endless new possibilities. Pressing new deadlines. With the new digital tools at our disposal we could romp over the creative landscape at full tilt. Have an idea, execute it and deliver it in a matter of a few short hours. Or at least a long night. At first it was a great luxury. We could cover so much more ground. Explore all the angles. And having exhausted all the available possibilities, craft a solution we could have complete faith in.

Or as the bean counters upstairs quickly realized, we could just do three times as many jobs in the same amount of time, and make them three times as much money. For the same reason that Jumbo Jets don’t have the grand pianos and palm-court cocktail bars we were originally promised in the brochures, the accountants naturally won the day.

'via Blog this'

Why Procrastinators Procrastinate - Wait But Why

Why Procrastinators Procrastinate - Wait But Why: "And with the monkey in charge, the procrastinator finds himself spending a lot of time in a place called the Dark Playground.*
The Dark Playground is a place every procrastinator knows well. It’s a place where leisure activities happen at times when leisure activities are not supposed to be happening. The fun you have in the Dark Playground isn’t actually fun because it’s completely unearned and the air is filled with guilt, anxiety, self-hatred, and dread.



Sometimes the Rational Decision-Maker puts his foot down and refuses to let you waste time doing normal leisure things, and since the Instant Gratification Monkey sure as hell isn’t gonna let you work, you find yourself in a bizarre purgatory of weird activities where everyone loses.**"



'via Blog this'

Killings of Journalists Bring Gun Violence to Dark New Level - The New York Times

Killings of Journalists Bring Gun Violence to Dark New Level - The New York Times: "The questioning that follows the shootings that routinely scar, yet only occasionally shock, a nation grown hard to them include the question of motive: Why would he do such a terrible thing? In so many cases, and certainly in this premeditated massacre, the answer seems to be that, amid a mass of unfathomable grievances, the power to be seen killing innocents with one of the guns so easily obtained around the country proves irresistible as the ultimate outlet for an individual’s frustration and rage. In this case, the outlet provided by social media appears to have whetted his murderous appetites.

"



'via Blog this'

Virginia Shooting Gone Viral, in a Well-Planned Rollout on Social Media - The New York Times

Virginia Shooting Gone Viral, in a Well-Planned Rollout on Social Media - The New York Times: "But these questions didn’t really slow anything down, a testament to the power of these networks to tap into each of our subconscious, automatic desires to witness and to share. The videos got out widely, forging a new path for nihilists to gain a moment in the media spotlight: an example that, given its success at garnering wide publicity, will most likely be followed by others."



'via Blog this'

Falcon109 comments on In Space Everyone Can Hear You Poop | Video

Falcon109 comments on In Space Everyone Can Hear You Poop | Video: "Obviously, "Everyone Poops", so naturally many people are interested in how astronauts in space handle this kind of natural bodily function. It really is quite interesting, because although many consider it a less than appealing topic, it is a very necessary one to study and understand, particularly when talking about long duration space missions.
"



'via Blog this'

It Was Easier to Give in Than Keep Running | i believe you | it's not your fault

It Was Easier to Give in Than Keep Running | i believe you | it's not your fault: "I think back to how easy it was for me, in first grade, to feel fearless and strong in my conviction to stomp on John’s glasses. I felt right in reacting how I did, because John’s behavior was wrong. But his was an elementary learning of the wide boundaries his gender would go on to afford him. For me, it would never again be so easy.

"



'via Blog this'

Millennials working in government are at their lowest levels in five years, new report finds - The Washington Post

Millennials working in government are at their lowest levels in five years, new report finds - The Washington Post: "The study found that once they land a job in government, many employees believe their career development is shifted to a slow track, with minimal recognition from their bosses, shrinking opportunities for training and few assignments that really harness their talent.

"



'via Blog this'

round and round the trigger warning maypole | Fredrik deBoer

round and round the trigger warning maypole | Fredrik deBoer: "This strikes me as a classic example of a common progressive category error: this terrible injustice exists (and it does), so therefore you have to get on board with this heavy-handed policy that cannot possibly actually reduce that injustice."



'via Blog this'

Why the Rich Love Burning Man | Jacobin

Why the Rich Love Burning Man | Jacobin: "It is a society that we find ourselves moving closer towards the other 358 (non–Burning Man) days of the year: with a decaying social welfare state, more and more public amenities exist only as the result of the hyper-wealthy donating them. But when the commons are donated by the wealthy, rather than guaranteed by membership in society, the democratic component of civic society is vastly diminished and placed in the hands of the elite few who gained their wealth by using their influence to cut taxes and gut the social welfare state in the first place.

"



'via Blog this'

College student would be sole voter in CID sales tax decision - Columbia Daily Tribune | Columbia Missouri: Local News

College student would be sole voter in CID sales tax decision - Columbia Daily Tribune | Columbia Missouri: Local News: "A mistake by representatives of the Business Loop 70 Community Improvement District means a sales tax increase the district needs to thrive will require approval by a single University of Missouri student.

"



'via Blog this'

Police report unconfirmed, but concerning suicides among those outed Ashley Madison users.

Police report unconfirmed, but concerning suicides among those outed Ashley Madison users.: "There were bound to be consequences after hackers posted two extensive Ashley Madison data dumps last week. Canadian police said on Monday that they have confirmed reports of extortion in which criminals threatened to expose someone whose name is on the user list if they didn’t pay to keep it quiet. Authorities have reported two alleged suicides among Ashley Madison users, though they have not confirmed whether they are connected to the data breach.

"



'via Blog this'

Email from a Married, Female Ashley Madison User

Email from a Married, Female Ashley Madison User: "Mine is a loveless, sexless, parenting marriage. I will care for my husband if his cancer spreads, we manage good will for the sake of the children, but we cannot talk about my emotional or sexual needs without him fixating on his death and crying.



I went on AM out of loneliness and despair, and found friendship, both male and female, with others trapped in terrible marriages trying to do right by their children.

My experiences have led me to soften my views of marriage as my own marriage is a deeply humbling, painful longterm commitment."



'via Blog this'

John McAfee: Ashley Madison database stolen by lone female who worked for Avid Life Media

John McAfee: Ashley Madison database stolen by lone female who worked for Avid Life Media: "A hacker is someone who uses a combination of high-tech cybertools and social engineering to gain illicit access to someone else's data. But this job was done by someone who already had the keys to the Kingdom. It was an inside job.

"



'via Blog this'

The Crackdown on Little Free Library Book Exchanges - The Atlantic

The Crackdown on Little Free Library Book Exchanges - The Atlantic: "The column goes on to note that a city spokesman "said that if there is no clear obstruction, it might be possible to keep the library where it is if Cook is willing to apply for a permit. And it's possible that city arts funds could be tapped to pay for the permit." This is what conservatives and libertarians mean when they talk about overregulation disincentivizing or displacing voluntary activity that benefits people. We've constructed communities where one must obtain prior permission from agents of the state before freely sharing books with one's neighbors! And their proposed solution is to get scarce public art funds to pay for the needless layer of bureaucracy being imposed on the thing already being done for free."



'via Blog this'

The States Show Up Congress on Road Repairs - The New York Times

The States Show Up Congress on Road Repairs - The New York Times: "States still need the federal funds that they rely on for about half their capital expenditures related to transportation. But governors and legislatures, fed up with delay, have been approving higher fuel taxes, vehicle fees and construction bonds with little hesitation, while the Republican Congress remains stuck on its no-new-taxes campaign mantra.



 Indeed, instead of confronting the clear need for durable long-term funding, Congress began its August recess by resorting to another temporary patch to keep the depleted federal highway fund operating through October. This was the 34th such patch since 2009, continuing long years of congressional procrastination; the 18.4-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax has not been raised since 1993, truly a disgrace."

Myanmar

- Album on Imgur:



'via Blog this'

W. E. B. Du Bois: A Black Schoolmaster in the Post-Antebellum South South - The Atlantic

W. E. B. Du Bois: A Black Schoolmaster in the Post-Antebellum South South - The Atlantic: "The mass of those to whom slavery was a dim recollection of childhood found the world a puzzling thing: it asked little of them, and they answered with little, and yet it ridiculed their offering. Such a paradox they could not understand, and therefore sank into listless indifference, or shiftlessness, or reckless bravado. There were, however, some such as Josie, Jim, and Ben,—they to whom War, Hell, and Slavery were but childhood tales, whose young appetites had been whetted to an edge by school and story and half-awakened thought. Ill could they be content, born without and beyond the World. And their weak wings beat against their barriers,—barriers of caste, of youth, of life; at last, in dangerous moments, against everything that opposed even a whim."



'via Blog this'

Should Prison Sentences Be Based On Crimes That Haven’t Been Committed Yet? | FiveThirtyEight

Should Prison Sentences Be Based On Crimes That Haven’t Been Committed Yet? | FiveThirtyEight: "But Pennsylvania is about to take a step most states have until now resisted for adult defendants: using risk assessment in sentencing itself. A state commission is putting the finishing touches on a plan that, if implemented as expected, could allow some offenders considered low risk to get shorter prison sentences than they would otherwise or avoid incarceration entirely. Those deemed high risk could spend more time behind bars.

"



'via Blog this'

The Tricky Ethics of the Lucrative Disaster Rescue Business | WIRED

The Tricky Ethics of the Lucrative Disaster Rescue Business | WIRED: "Global Rescue can’t reasonably be expected to offer pro bono flights to every victim it encounters. As Richards says, it’s not the Red Cross. Still, the experience affected Anderson deeply. “It’s difficult,” he says. “With our background, we want to get in there. We want to help.” The patient made it to Kathmandu the next day. His family reported he’d survived. Whether he’d suffered permanent damage was anyone’s guess. Neither the doctor nor Anderson knew his name."



'via Blog this'

Will Intellectual Combat Ever Top Buckley-Vidal? -- NYMag

Will Intellectual Combat Ever Top Buckley-Vidal? -- NYMag: "Yet there is something paradoxical about this. Why should we rue the disappearance of the “celebrity intellectual” when those who achieved that status so easily pass into cultural oblivion, as Buckley and Vidal are well on their way to doing? If the species were truly important, would its members not leave some sort of enduring legacy?

"



'via Blog this'

The Family with Twenty-Two Kids - The New Yorker

The Family with Twenty-Two Kids - The New Yorker: "And every year there were birthday parties and weddings and graduations; there were grandchildren and great-grandchildren, most of them still living in the same neighborhood within a few blocks of each other and their parents, in and out of each other’s homes all the time, minding each other’s children. And every Easter and Fourth of July and Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year’s the children and the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren gathered with Sue and Hector in the big house they still lived in, although they couldn’t afford it, and ate a meal together. And though some were missing—three dead, two in prison—still, most were there, year after year, and, for everything that had happened, they were a family"



'via Blog this'

The Glory of the Rails by Tony Judt | The New York Review of Books

The Glory of the Rails by Tony Judt | The New York Review of Books: "It is hard today to convey the significance and implications of the timetable, which first appeared in the early 1840s: for the organization of the railways themselves, of course, but also for the daily lives of everyone else. The pre-modern world was space-bound; its modern successor, time-bound. The transition took place in the middle decades of the nineteenth century and with remarkable speed, accompanied by the ubiquitous station clock: on prominent, specially constructed towers at all major stations, inside every station booking hall, on platforms, and (in the pocket form) in the possession of railway employees. Everything that came after—the establishment of nationally and internationally agreed time zones; factory time clocks; the ubiquity of the wristwatch; time schedules for buses, ferries, and planes, for radio and television programs; school timetables; and much else—merely followed suit. Railways were proud of the indomitable place of trains in the organization and command of time—see Gabriel Ferrer’s painted ceiling (1899) in the dining room of the Gare (now Musée) d’Orsay: an “Allegory on Time” reminding diners that their trains will not wait for dessert.

"



'via Blog this'

Dinner and Deception - The New York Times

Dinner and Deception - The New York Times: "NOT everyone can do this kind of work well. Captains joked that it wasn’t worth learning a person’s name until he got promoted at least once. But get promoted and suddenly you were admitted into an inner circle of people who excelled at this sort of thing. Most members of the service staff shared one thing in common — a quiet alliance against our betters: the guests, and our managers. When someone spoke about the “swan” in lineup, a metaphor for the ideal server, churning tirelessly beneath the surface while maintaining the impression of absolute poise to the casual observer, there was never a hint from management that, like us, they understood the psychological dividedness their favorite symbol suggested. But as captains or servers or sommeliers, our job wasn’t just serving food, it was playing a part, and we did it with a degree of self-conscious irony that our bosses seemed incapable of.

"



'via Blog this'

The Creative Apocalypse That Wasn’t - The New York Times

The Creative Apocalypse That Wasn’t - The New York Times: "Of the big four creative industries (music, television, movies and books), music turns out to be the business that has seen the most conspicuous turmoil: None of the other three has seen anywhere near the cratering of recorded-­music revenues. The O.E.S. numbers show that writers and actors each saw their income increase by about 50 percent, well above the national average. According to the Association of American Publishers, total revenues in the fiction and nonfiction book industry were up 17 percent from 2008 to 2014, following the introduction of the Kindle in late 2007. Global television revenues have been projected to grow by 24 percent from 2012 to 2017. For actors and directors and screenwriters, the explosion of long-form television narratives has created a huge number of job opportunities. (Economic Modeling Specialists International reports that the number of self-­employed actors has grown by 45 percent since 2001.) If you were a television actor looking for work on a multiseason drama or comedy in 2001, there were only a handful of potential employers: the big four networks and HBO and Showtime. Today there are Netflix, Amazon, AMC, Syfy, FX and many others."



'via Blog this'

Understanding Why Your Parents Suck [serious] : teenagers

Understanding Why Your Parents Suck [serious] : teenagers: "When I was in college, I had a friend who was 30, he told me how he wished he could be back in school. I thought he was insane. Going to school full time and also working full time was HARD. But see, at age 20 I had 20-year-old sized problems.



They were the same size as me. He was 30. He’s imagining going back and being 30 and having to deal with 20-year-old sized problems. Easy peasy.
But life doesn’t work that way.
Me, I recognize my daughter has 8-year-old sized problems, and I’ve got 40-year-old sized problems. Sure, her problems aren’t a big deal to ME. I’ve already been that age. But they are just as big to HER as mine are to ME.
Nearly all parents I know don’t understand this at all."



'via Blog this'

An Egyption maestro makes a musical instrument from the public - YouTube

An Egyption maestro makes a musical instrument from the public - YouTube:



When they really want to clap....



'via Blog this'

The Dark Side of the Ashley Madison Hack That Nobody's Talking About

The Dark Side of the Ashley Madison Hack That Nobody's Talking About:

When Ashley Madison, the website that facilitates extramarital affairs, did not give in to hackers' July demands of shutting down, a group claiming to be the very same hackers, Impact Team, released a 9.7-gigabyte file on Tuesday that contained users' private information, from their names to their credit cards numbers. 

The debate over the ethics of publicly shaming cheaters continues to wage, but what's often forgotten is this leak can literally put peoples' lives at risk.

Though the vast majority of countries around the world have abolished laws against adultery over the past few decades — South Korea, for example, just repealed this law earlier this year — in a number of countries around the world, such as Taiwan, the Philippines and Pakistan, adultery remains illegal. It can even, in some places, be punishable by death, the Week reports. 

'via Blog this'

2 American Service Members Foil Gunman in Train Attack - The New York Times

2 American Service Members Foil Gunman in Train Attack - The New York Times: "PARIS — The two American service members who tackled a suspected terrorist on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris rushed him even though he was fully armed, then grabbed him by the neck and beat him over the head with his own automatic rifle until he was unconscious, one of them said in television interviews here on Saturday.



 The suspect entered the train car carrying an AK-47 and a handgun, and “I looked over at Spencer and said, ‘Let’s go,’” said Alek Skarlatos, identified as an Oregon National Guardsman returning from Afghanistan. “And he jumped, I followed behind him by about three seconds. Spencer got the guy first, grabbed the guy by the neck, I grabbed the handgun,” said Mr. Skarlatos, referring to Spencer Stone, a friend and member of the Air Force. The Pentagon confirmed their identities."



'via Blog this'

Greek crisis: Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigns and calls new elections - Vox

Greek crisis: Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigns and calls new elections - Vox: "Unless something changes dramatically in the next month, new elections should cement his status as Greece's dominant political figure. Dissident Syriza MPs will be purged from Syriza's electoral lists and replaced with loyalists. The dissidents don't have nearly enough time to organize a new political party. The mainstream parties Syriza crushed in January will be crushed again."



'via Blog this'

Why the New York Times’s Amazon story is so controversial, explained - Vox

Why the New York Times’s Amazon story is so controversial, explained - Vox: "For employees who love what they're doing, are exceptionally talented at it, and find the work rewarding and even fun, Amazon is probably a great place to work — hard, sure, but worth it. But if that doesn't describe you? Then working at Amazon is a nightmare. Your bosses are asking you to do more than you're able to accomplish, in less time than you need to accomplish it, and as you fall behind, they begin questioning your work ethic and demanding ever more ridiculous displays of commitment.

"



'via Blog this'

Why the New York Times’s Amazon story is so controversial, explained - Vox

Why the New York Times’s Amazon story is so controversial, explained - Vox: "For employees who love what they're doing, are exceptionally talented at it, and find the work rewarding and even fun, Amazon is probably a great place to work — hard, sure, but worth it. But if that doesn't describe you? Then working at Amazon is a nightmare. Your bosses are asking you to do more than you're able to accomplish, in less time than you need to accomplish it, and as you fall behind, they begin questioning your work ethic and demanding ever more ridiculous displays of commitment.

"



'via Blog this'

Barbara Mikulski made it okay for women to wear pants in the Senate - The Washington Post

Barbara Mikulski made it okay for women to wear pants in the Senate - The Washington Post: "Once she won, Mikulski, with her very presence, changed long-held ideas about what Senators should look like. And what women should wear.  Mikulski and her fellow Senator Nancy Kassebaum (R-Kan.) mounted a protest one weekend that amounted to something rather simple: they wore pants and told female staffers to do the same. From then on, the rule changed and the pantsuit became routine, but it didn't go over so easy. "The Senate parliamentarian had looked at the rules to see if it was okay," she said in a CNN interview. "So, I walk on that day and you would have thought I was walking on the moon. It caused a big stir."



 It was 1993.



'via Blog this'

Russian Police Get Tough on Illicit Cheese - NYTimes.com

Russian Police Get Tough on Illicit Cheese - NYTimes.com: "Ample evidence was on display, too: giant warehouses and transport trucks stacked with the gang’s shrink-wrapped contraband.

Heroin? Marijuana? Weapons? Nope. More like Edam. That’s right. Cheese."



'via Blog this'

"Why do you overthink everything?"

"Why do you overthink everything?": "I promise that with practice, what you perceive as overthinking eventually just becomes thinking. And when that is the case, when you can move through the world, and you can have this experience of it where you’re just pushing back the layers of things that you think of as being natural, or obvious, the world becomes a different place. And it becomes an awesome place."



'via Blog this'

The Hymn of Joy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Hymn of Joy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"The Hymn of Joy"^[1] (often called "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" after the first line) is a poem written by Henry van Dyke in 1907 with the intention of musically setting it to the famous "Ode to Joy" melody of the final movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's final symphony, Symphony No. 9.^[2]

Van Dyke wrote this poem in 1907 while staying at the home of Williams College president Harry Augustus Garfield. He was serving as a guest preacher at Williams at the time. He told his host that the local Berkshire Mountainshad been his inspiration.^[3] The lyrics were first published in 1911 in Van Dyke's Book of Poems, Third Edition.^[3]

'via Blog this'

Stephen Colbert on Making The Late Show His Own | GQ

Stephen Colbert on Making The Late Show His Own | GQ:

He used to have a note taped to his computer that read, “Joy is the most infallible sign of the existence of God.”

It's hard to imagine any comedian meditating every day on so sincere a message. It's even harder when you know his life story, which bears mentioning here—that he is the youngest of eleven kids and that his father and two of his brothers, Peter and Paul, the two closest to him in age, were killed in a plane crash when he was 10. His elder siblings were all off to school or on with their lives by then, and so it was just him and his mother at home together for years. They moved from James Island to downtown Charleston, and she sent him to a prep school, Porter-Gaud, where for the next several years he did next to nothing academically. “There was no way to threaten me,” he said. “It was like, ‘What? What's that? Oh, okay, I might get a bad grade? Oh no. Wouldn't want that.’ ”

'via Blog this'

The village where men are banned | Global development | The Guardian

The village where men are banned | Global development | The Guardian:

Judia, a talkative, confident 19-year-old, came to Umoja aged 13, having run away from home to avoid being sold into marriage. “Every day I wake and smile to myself because I am surrounded by help and support,” says Judia, her long plaits held back by colourful lengths of beads.

“Outside, women are being ruled by men so they can’t get any change,” says Seita Lengima, an elderly woman I meet in the communal shaded area in the village. “The women in Umoja have freedom.”

Curiously, for an all-woman village, there seems to be a lot of children around. How does this happen? “Ah,” laughs a young woman, “we still like men. They are not allowed here, but we want babies and women have to have children, even if you are unmarried.”

'via Blog this'

TRUMP to Chuck Todd, on his military advisers: ‘Well, I watch the shows’ – On whether to admit Ukraine to NATO: ‘I would not care that much, to be honest’ – May soon rule out third-party bid - POLITICO Playbook - POLITICO

TRUMP to Chuck Todd, on his military advisers: ‘Well, I watch the shows’ – On whether to admit Ukraine to NATO: ‘I would not care that much, to be honest’ – May soon rule out third-party bid - POLITICO Playbook - POLITICO:

CHUCK: “So you wouldn’t allow Ukraine into NATO?

TRUMP: “I would not care that much, to be honest with you. Whether it goes in or doesn’t go in, I wouldn’t care.”

'via Blog this'

Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace - The New York Times

Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace - The New York Times: "Amazon may be singular but perhaps not quite as peculiar as it claims. It has just been quicker in responding to changes that the rest of the work world is now experiencing: data that allows individual performance to be measured continuously, come-and-go relationships between employers and employees, and global competition in which empires rise and fall overnight. Amazon is in the vanguard of where technology wants to take the modern office: more nimble and more productive, but harsher and less forgiving.

"



'via Blog this'

Sesame Street goes to HBO: Practically, it's great. Symbolically, not so much.

Sesame Street goes to HBO: Practically, it's great. Symbolically, not so much.: "On the surface, there is nothing pernicious about the news that HBO will begin providing financial backing for five seasons of Sesame Street, which would air on the premium cable network nine months before reaching PBS viewers. As Emily Steel explained in the New York Times, the nonprofit Sesame Workshop has struggled to keep up a robust production schedule for the long-running children’s educational program, largely due to declining revenues from licensing and DVD sales. What’s more, PBS only accounts for about one-third of Sesame Street’s viewership—most kids stream the show and would be unaffected by HBO’s involvement, which would bring in enough money to produce twice as many new episodes per season and spin off new programming."



'via Blog this'

The Tianjin Explosion - Stabalized - YouTube

The Tianjin Explosion - Stabalized - YouTube:



'via Blog this'

David Simon interview: The Wire creator on his new series, Freddie Gray, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and more.

David Simon interview: The Wire creator on his new series, Freddie Gray, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and more.: "What was it that made people at various publications and blogs reference The Wire just because it was black people in Baltimore? That’s fucked up. It’s almost a shrinking of the human mind. Why don’t you attend to what’s actually happening right now in Baltimore? You don’t need McNulty or whoever to access it."



'via Blog this'

Off The Wall: Rejection Reflection | Mike Rowe

Off The Wall: Rejection Reflection | Mike Rowe:

For me, the trick to handling rejection is to see if for what it is – the most likely result of “trying.” From 1984 to 1990, I auditioned for at least 500 jobs. I booked less than a dozen. That’s one “yes” for every fifty “no’s.” In 1993, after losing my steady job at QVC, (deservedly,) I returned to the freelance life. For the next eight years, I lived in New York and Hollywood, and auditioned for no less than two thousand gigs. I booked roughly three-hundred of those. In other words, I did very well. But along the way, I was rejected two or three times a week. That’s every week, for the better part of a decade. That’s a lot of rejection.

I’m not gonna tell you I never let it bother me. Unless you’re a robot or a psychopath, it’s very hard to not take a personal rejection personally. The hardest one for me to accept is explained in this letter, which I received 17 years ago from a very decent Executive Producer at The Daily Show. It’s one of the nicest rejection letters I’ve ever received, but it was nevertheless devastating, because I knew then with certainty that this was my “dream job.”

'via Blog this'

Roger Ailes to Donald Trump: 'We resolve this now...or go to war' - Aug. 12, 2015

Roger Ailes to Donald Trump: 'We resolve this now...or go to war' - Aug. 12, 2015: "Then came an ugly surprise. Trump said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he thought Kelly should apologize to him.
"This was the final straw for Roger," according to a source close to the situation.
Ailes' office called Trump's office. We "can resolve this now," Ailes said to Trump, "or we can go to war.""

Charlie Hebdo's Money and How It’s Dividing France | Vanity Fair

Charlie Hebdo's Money and How It’s Dividing France | Vanity Fair: "This is a ticklish development. A Catholic country that for decades after the war had one of the West’s largest Communist Parties, France tends to find money dirty. It is associated with guilt. It is something for which it is best to excuse oneself. There have been great French liberals—Montesquieu, Tocqueville, and Raymond Aron among them—but the word “liberal” tends to conjure up the specter of Anglo-Saxon neoliberal capitalism, against which the Gallic world of solidarity must form a bulwark. As Jacques Rupnik, a prominent political scientist, remarked to me, alluding to Max Weber’s classic study on Protestantism, “Nobody has ever written a book called The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.” He laughed. “And now here’s Charlie, with its inherited hatred of money, suddenly sitting on 30 million euros in the bank.”"



'via Blog this'

The Bully’s Pulpit - The Baffler

The Bully’s Pulpit - The Baffler:

The first thing this research reveals is that the overwhelming majority of bullying incidents take place in front of an audience. Lonely, private persecution is relatively rare. Much of bullying is about humiliation, and the effects cannot really be produced without someone to witness them. Sometimes, onlookers actively abet the bully, laughing, goading, or joining in. More often, the audience is passively acquiescent. Only rarely does anyone step in to defend a classmate being threatened, mocked, or physically attacked.

When researchers question children on why they do not intervene, a minority say they felt the victim got what he or she deserved, but the majority say they didn’t like what happened, and certainly didn’t much like the bully, but decided that getting involved might mean ending up on the receiving end of the same treatment—and that would only make things worse. Interestingly, this is not true. Studies also show that in general, if one or two onlookers object, then bullies back off. Yet somehow most onlookers are convinced the opposite will happen. Why?

'via Blog this'

Are Rogue Militants Preparing for War on American Soil? | Rolling Stone

Are Rogue Militants Preparing for War on American Soil? | Rolling Stone: "When officials at the Pentagon unveiled Jade Helm this spring, it triggered an eruption of the Big American Crazy — that recurring paranoia that has attached itself throughout the nation's history to suspected threats like the Masons, the Papists, the Communists, the Islamists and the international banking cartel. Texans, in particular, lost their minds. They worried that the drill was in fact a furtive plot to seize their guns and appeared in droves at community meetings with operational planners to none-too-gently express their disapproval."



'via Blog this'

Tinder and Hookup-Culture Promotion | Vanity Fair

Tinder and Hookup-Culture Promotion | Vanity Fair: "“Tinder sucks,” they say. But they don’t stop swiping.

"



'via Blog this'

Jon Stewart Cements His Legacy in ‘Daily Show’ Finale - The New York Times

Jon Stewart Cements His Legacy in ‘Daily Show’ Finale - The New York Times: "He delivered a monologue on the theme of bullshit, a word he used over and over in the span of a few minutes. He called out public officials who give names like the Patriot Act to their legislation because the Are You Scared Enough to Let Me Look at All of Your Phone Records Act would not have sold. He called out financiers and politicians and assorted others for two-facedness. It was the kind of piece Mr. Black would have screamed while frothing at the mouth. Mr. Stewart skipped the theatrics and delivered it fairly calmly, as if he wanted to make sure we knew it was not a gag.



 Mr. Stewart was returning to the beginning — he was delivering a mission statement. The mere fact that it had a mission is what made “The Daily Show” stand out in the first place"

That Foo Fighters ‘Learn to Fly’ viral by 1,000 Italian fans: how it happened - PSNEurope

That Foo Fighters ‘Learn to Fly’ viral by 1,000 Italian fans: how it happened - PSNEurope:

Penolazzi positioned 48 of his stock of AKG 414 ULS microphones overhead throughout the ‘stage area’ in wide cardioid configuration. (Mic stands were mounted atop wind-up stands to reach the required height.) The band was thus covered in sections, obtaining a more selective compact mix. The consoles used were a Yamaha PM5D + DSP5D (PM5D brain without control surface) and an 01V96.

'via Blog this'

Hiroshima - The New Yorker

Hiroshima - The New Yorker: "A hundred thousand people were killed by the atomic bomb, and these six were among the survivors. They still wonder why they lived when so many others died. Each of them counts many small items of chance or volition—a step taken in time, a decision to go indoors, catching one streetcar instead of the next—that spared him. And now each knows that in the act of survival he lived a dozen lives and saw more death than he ever thought he would see. At the time, none of them knew anything."



'via Blog this'

Jon Stewart and ‘The Daily Show’: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at 9 Essential Moments - The New York Times

Jon Stewart and ‘The Daily Show’: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at 9 Essential Moments - The New York Times: "That Cramer interview was one of the more satisfying ones I can remember at the show -- a rare case where a guest not only capitulated mid-interview, but Jon then refused to let that be the end of it. And, in a true sign of the show's influence: Nothing changed as a result."



'via Blog this'

The reason every meme uses that one font - Vox

The reason every meme uses that one font - Vox: "The reason every meme uses that one font
"



'via Blog this'

Mashup!

Wonderwall You Know (Alone Mix) (Oasis VS Two Door Cinema Club) Fissunix Mashup - YouTube

The extraordinary life of the first American to join China's Communist Party

The extraordinary life of the first American to join China's Communist Party: "Rittenberg believes that American officials' perception of communism as monolithic led to major miscalculations throughout the Cold War. The United States had a golden opportunity to exploit the factionalization of communist governments and movements  —  and failed to take it.



Instead, the Americans' refusal to negotiate sent the Chinese communists down the path of not just closer ties with Stalin's Russia, but toward Stalinist ideas and governance. "History could have been very, very different.""

Forward with Fukuyama | The Point Magazine

Forward with Fukuyama | The Point Magazine: "But Morgan Stanley is not a local chieftain, and the interest groups that dominate contemporary politics are hardly analogous to the kinship groups of non-industrial societies. If the Weberian state is losing its coherence, this may not represent a retreat to the particular, to the local, to some sort of vaguely defined biological sociability. It seems rather to represent a new kind of impersonality, still more impersonal than the territorially rooted governments that it is challenging"



'via Blog this'

How Will You Measure Your Life? - HBR

How Will You Measure Your Life? - HBR: "The theory arrays these tools along two dimensions—the extent to which members of the organization agree on what they want from their participation in the enterprise, and the extent to which they agree on what actions will produce the desired results. When there is little agreement on both axes, you have to use “power tools”—coercion, threats, punishment, and so on—to secure cooperation. Many companies start in this quadrant, which is why the founding executive team must play such an assertive role in defining what must be done and how. If employees’ ways of working together to address those tasks succeed over and over, consensus begins to form. MIT’s Edgar Schein has described this process as the mechanism by which a culture is built. Ultimately, people don’t even think about whether their way of doing things yields success. They embrace priorities and follow procedures by instinct and assumption rather than by explicit decision—which means that they’ve created a culture. Culture, in compelling but unspoken ways, dictates the proven, acceptable methods by which members of the group address recurrent problems. And culture defines the priority given to different types of problems. It can be a powerful management tool."



'via Blog this'

How Will You Measure Your Life? - HBR

How Will You Measure Your Life? - HBR: "The theory arrays these tools along two dimensions—the extent to which members of the organization agree on what they want from their participation in the enterprise, and the extent to which they agree on what actions will produce the desired results. When there is little agreement on both axes, you have to use “power tools”—coercion, threats, punishment, and so on—to secure cooperation. Many companies start in this quadrant, which is why the founding executive team must play such an assertive role in defining what must be done and how. If employees’ ways of working together to address those tasks succeed over and over, consensus begins to form. MIT’s Edgar Schein has described this process as the mechanism by which a culture is built. Ultimately, people don’t even think about whether their way of doing things yields success. They embrace priorities and follow procedures by instinct and assumption rather than by explicit decision—which means that they’ve created a culture. Culture, in compelling but unspoken ways, dictates the proven, acceptable methods by which members of the group address recurrent problems. And culture defines the priority given to different types of problems. It can be a powerful management tool."



'via Blog this'

It’s Not Climate Change — It’s Everything Change — Matter — Medium

It’s Not Climate Change — It’s Everything Change — Matter — Medium: "Planet Earth — the Goldilocks planet we’ve taken for granted, neither too hot or too cold, neither too wet or too dry, with fertile soils that accumulated for millennia before we started to farm them –- that planet is altering. The shift towards the warmer end of the thermometer that was once predicted to happen much later, when the generations now alive had had lots of fun and made lots of money and gobbled up lots of resources and burned lots of fossil fuels and then died, are happening much sooner than anticipated back then. In fact, they’re happening now."



'via Blog this'

We’re Making Life Too Hard for Millennials - The New York Times

We’re Making Life Too Hard for Millennials - The New York Times: "TO some, millennials — those urban-dwelling, ride-sharing indefatigable social networkers — are engaged, upbeat and open to change. To others, they are narcissistic, lazy and self-centered.

I’m in the first camp, but regardless of your opinion, be fretful over their economic well-being and fearful — oh so fearful — for their prospects. The most educated generation in history is on track to becoming less prosperous, at least financially, than its predecessors."

The Flying Machines of Flugtag - The Atlantic

The Flying Machines of Flugtag - The Atlantic: "Since 1992, Red Bull has been organizing Flugtag (“flying day”) events around the world, where participants build and pilot homemade flying machines off a 28-foot-high flight deck above a body of water. Entries are judged for distance, creativity, and showmanship. The aerodynamic qualities of many of the creatively built aircraft are questionable, and most do not so much fly as... plummet. In 2013, the team “The Chicken Whisperers” set a distance record of  258 feet (78.64 meters) in Long Beach, California. Gathered here are images of Flugtag events over the past several years.
"



'via Blog this'

7 Muslim-American Actors on Hollywood's Terrorist Typecasting | GQ

7 Muslim-American Actors on Hollywood's Terrorist Typecasting | GQ: "Here's another irony in the lives of these men: While they profoundly wish they didn't have to play terrorists, much of our lunch is taken up with them swapping tips on clever ways to stand out at terrorist auditions.



"If I'm going in for the role of a nice father, I'll talk to everybody," Sayed tells the table. "But if you're going for a terrorist role, don't fucking smile at all those white people sitting there. Treat them like shit. The minute you say hello, you break character.""



'via Blog this'

Farewell to America | Gary Younge | US news | The Guardian

Farewell to America | Gary Younge | US news | The Guardian: "To even try to have the kind of gilded black life to which these detractors alluded, we would have to do far more than just revel in our bank accounts and leverage our cultural capital. We would have to live in an area with few other black people, since black neighbourhoods are policed with insufficient respect for life or liberty; send our children to a school with few other black students, since majority-black schools are underfunded; tell them not to wear anything that would associate them with black culture, since doing so would make them more vulnerable to profiling; tell them not to mix with other black children, since they are likely to live in the very areas and go to the very schools from which we would be trying to escape; and not let the children go out after dark, since being young and black after sunset makes the police suspect that you have done or are about to do something.

"



'via Blog this'

Corpuscle comments on ELI5: Entropy.

Corpuscle comments on ELI5: Entropy.: "In nature, systems always tend to move from low-entropy to high-entropy states. In the most abstract sense, this is just because of pure dumb luck: There are more combinations of coins that add up to "some of each" than either "all up" or "all down," so pure random chance dictates that we're far more likely to go from the all-up state to the some-of-each state than the other way around … and furthermore, that as we continue to shake the box, we're far more likely to stay in the some-of-each state, because the odds against getting all the coins to land heads-side-up are enormous.
"



'via Blog this'

What Voters See in Donald Trump - WSJ

What Voters See in Donald Trump - WSJ: "His rise is not due to his supporters’ anger at government. It is a gesture of contempt for government, for the men and women in Congress, the White House, the agencies. It is precisely because people have lost their awe for the presidency that they imagine Mr. Trump as a viable president. American political establishment, take note: In the past 20 years you have turned America into a nation a third of whose people would make Donald Trump their president. Look on your wonders and despair.

"



'via Blog this'

Kentucky man shoots down drone spying on 16-year-old daughter

Kentucky man shoots down drone spying on 16-year-old daughter: "Merideth claims that the drone was first spotted hovering over his neighbor's house—a claim his neighbor confirms—and he had no intentions of taking any actions against it until it entered onto his own property. Merideth's 16-year-old daughter was laying out by their pool at the time, and when the drone pilot decided to stop his vehicle and get an electronic eyeful, he decided enough was enough. 

"



'via Blog this'