'Naive and Gravely Mistaken': Analysts Rebut Snowden Claims - NBC News.com

'Naive and Gravely Mistaken': Analysts Rebut Snowden Claims - NBC News.com: Snowden, defending himself during an exclusive NBC News interview with Brian Williams, said that the government had never shown “a single individual who’s been harmed in any way” by his disclosures.



But Michael McFaul, who left the ambassadorship earlier this year to teach at Stanford University, said that the revelations had damaged American diplomatic relationships with friendly countries who were upset by National Security Agency surveillance.



“That’s damage to the United States,” McFaul said. “If you’re a patriot, you don’t want to damage our relationships with our allies.”

Your Newfangled Media Algorithms are Bullshit — LadyBits on Medium — Medium

Your Newfangled Media Algorithms are Bullshit — LadyBits on Medium — Medium: I’m only getting paid two and a half cents per click on this story. That’s more than what 99.9% of contributors on Medium get paid. I have a $60,000 graduate journalism degree from Medill, nearly a decade of writing experience, and, let’s be honest, I’m super smart and seriously good at what I do. I can write and report a kickass story with my eyes closed and one hand tied behind my back. But the algorithm that decides how much I get paid for all that badass-ness doesn’t put any value on how good I am. It cares not at all how well written this story is or how much experience I have. All that’s important is how many times you guys click.

Want to Know If Your Food Is Genetically Modified? - The Atlantic

Want to Know If Your Food Is Genetically Modified? - The Atlantic: No widely accepted science supports the idea that GMOs are inherently dangerous to people’s health or the environment. To proponents, including many in the agribusiness industry, opposition to GMOs is nothing more than a dangerous mania, and the people in the grip of it are akin to those who refuse to vaccinate their children or who deny that human activity is changing the Earth’s climate.

Yet the grassroots fervor around the topic—driven by Internet rumors, liberal anti-corporatism, and mothers concerned about their children—is undeniable. More than a million people have signed a petition to the Food and Drug Administration asking it to label GMOs, the most of any petition in the agency’s history. “Members of Congress are being asked by their constituents to take a stand on this issue,” says Colin O’Neil, director of government affairs for the pro-labeling Center for Food Safety in Washington, D.C.

Alien Baby: Is Your Zygote American Enough? - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society

Alien Baby: Is Your Zygote American Enough? - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society: Millions of U.S. citizens live abroad. In 2012, the State Department registered 64,991 American babies born overseas. Consular and embassy officials looked to the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Manual for guidance when it came to granting those kids citizenship. The manual draws its strength from Section 301 of the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952—which says that a child must be “born of” a U.S. citizen—and guides officials to be sure that the parent who is the citizen has “spent enough time in the United States to absorb American customs and values.” The thinking is that these, in turn, would be transmitted to the child. The State Department has historically interpreted “born of” to mean a genetic connection.



In Montreal, no official asked if my daughter came from my own egg because for heterosexual couples a genetic connection is usually presumed. That doesn’t hold true for same-sex couples.



Laura Fielden’s daughter was denied U.S. citizenship because the child
didn’t have a genetic or gestational connection to her American parent.

What influence do women wield in African governments?

What influence do women wield in African governments?: But the growth of women in African governance has not necessarily translated into real influence. Previous scholarship has shown that women around the world typically receive appointments to less prestigious, more “feminine,” ministerial portfolios like women’s affairs, which are rarely launching pads for greater authority. This remains true in much of Africa. Based on data from 43 African countries between 1980 and 2005, we find that women are significantly less likely than men to receive high prestige appointments in areas such as finance or defense. Women are more likely to be found in medium prestige portfolios like education, which may have sizable personnel and resources but little influence, or low prestige portfolios like culture with small budgets and narrow constituencies.

WHY THE MONA LISA STANDS OUT | More Intelligent Life

WHY THE MONA LISA STANDS OUT | More Intelligent Life: The French public was electrified. The Italians hailed Peruggia as a patriot who wanted to return the painting home. Newspapers around the world repro�duced it, making it the first work of art to achieve global fame. From then on, the “Mona Lisa” came to represent Western culture itself. In 1919, when Marcel Duchamp wanted to perform a symbolic defacing of high art, he put a goatee on the “Mona Lisa”, which only reinforced its status in the popular mind as the epitome of great art (or as the critic Kenneth Clark later put it, “the supreme example of perfection”). Throughout the 20th century, musicians, advertisers and film-makers used the painting’s fame for their own purposes, while the painting, in Watts’s words, “used them back”. Peruggia failed to repatriate the “Mona Lisa”, but he succeeded in making it an icon.

The Causes and Consequences of Political Polarization - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society

The Causes and Consequences of Political Polarization - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society: We also saw further evidence of Congressional polarization, with Congress increasingly hamstringing presidents of the other party and making it more and more difficult to pass anything. Frances Lee offered some interesting evidence that the Senate has become less about policymaking and more about messaging, as the percentage of Senate staffers hired to do communications work has gone from about zero to close to 50 percent over the past half century. We saw evidence that the Supreme Court has become more polarized and that the media are contributing to this as well. Boris Shor demonstrated that many (although not all) state legislatures are becoming more polarized, and I devoted my talk to showing how many reforms designed to lessen partisanship basically don’t work.

What happened to Jill Abramson shows everything that sucks about being a woman leader - Vox

What happened to Jill Abramson shows everything that sucks about being a woman leader - Vox: That echoes reports that Abramson's brusque leadership style clashed with leadership and reporters alike (criticisms that are near impossible to read as non-gendered, particularly in the news world, where pushiness is often seen as a virtue in men). In a controversial 2013 piece in Politico, Dylan Byers wrote: "At times, [staffers] say, her attitude toward editors and reporters leaves everyone feeling demoralized; on other occasions, she can seem disengaged or uncaring."

But a look at the examples he gave shows just how gendered these discussions can get. In one instance, Abramson reportedly ordered an editor to leave a meeting to change a stale photo on the newspaper's homepage. That was played in the article as proof of Abramson's brusque, demoralizing style.



But compare that to this anecdote about how Tim Cook, head of Apple, dealt with a manufacturing problem in China:

"This is really bad," Cook told the group. "Someone should be in China driving this." Thirty minutes into that meeting Cook looked at Sabih Khan, a key operations executive, and abruptly asked, without a trace of emotion, "Why are you still here?"

Since Denver legalized pot sales, revenue is up and crime is down - Vox

Since Denver legalized pot sales, revenue is up and crime is down - Vox: Violent and property crimes are down in Denver

The Denver Police Department's crime data shows that violent crime from January through April dropped by 5.6 percent compared to the same time period last year, and robberies in particular fell by 4.8 percent.

Sweden's Ice Hotel told to get fire alarms - The Local

Sweden's Ice Hotel told to get fire alarms - The Local: The Ice Hotel, which is rebuilt every year in northern Sweden out of enormous chunks of ice from the Torne River in Jukkasj�rvi, Kiruna, will this year come equipped with fire alarms - and the irony isn't lost on the staff.

Get Comic Neue

Get Comic Neue: Comic Sans wasn’t designed to be the world’s most ubiquitous casual typeface1. Comic Neue aspires to be the casual script choice for everyone including the typographically savvy.

The squashed, wonky, and weird glyphs of Comic Sans have been beaten into shape while maintaining the honesty that made Comic Sans so popular.

It's perfect as a display face, for marking up comments, and writing passive aggressive office memos.

Top Companies for Compensation and Benefits | Glassdoor

Top Companies for Compensation and Benefits | Glassdoor: Want to work for a company where employees are satisfied with their compensation and benefits? Glassdoor has announced its report of the Top 25 Companies for Compensation & Benefits, based on workplace insights shared by the people who know these companies best — their employees. The following companies stand out for high compensation & benefits ratings and insightful reviews.

Report reveals America’s top companies for pay and benefits | Daily Digest News

Report reveals America’s top companies for pay and benefits | Daily Digest News: Google tops the list, with Cotsco coming in a close second. Facebook, Adobe, and Epic Systems round out the top five, while eBay claimed the list’s final spot at number 25.

Elon Musk says he lost a multi-billion-dollar contract when SpaceX didn’t hire a public official - Quartz

Elon Musk says he lost a multi-billion-dollar contract when SpaceX didn’t hire a public official - Quartz: He’d like to expand his franchise to the defense department, but his company has faced a more challenging time displacing the incumbents there: In a no-bid process, United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, received a bulk contract worth billions of dollars for 36 rocket launches earlier this year, despite plans to introduce more competition and other cost-saving measures.


Musk’s tweets yesterday focused on what happened next: The man who awarded ULA the contract, defense official Roger “Scott” Correll, was hired soon after his retirement to handle government relations at Aerojet Rocketdyne, a company that builds rocket engines for ULA.

The beverage curve: How to get the most buzz for your buck

The beverage curve: How to get the most buzz for your buck: Let's say you're hosting a Memorial Day barbecue for a bunch of your neighbors. You like most of them well enough to want them to have a good time. But let's be honest. You're not about to break out the Patron for that guy down the street who's always mowing his lawn at 5:30 AM. How do you maximize the overall buzz, while minimizing the impact on your checking account?



Here's how: I took current liquor pricing data from the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, which sets prices for booze (excluding beer and wine) sold in the state's liquor stores. Their data file handily includes price, volume, and proof. I set a standard "shot equivalent" volume of alcohol, equal to the amount of pure alcohol in a 1.5-ounce shot of 40-proof liquor (roughly 17 ml).

For NPR's Carl Kassell, retirement will wait wait no longer - chicagotribune.com

For NPR's Carl Kassell, retirement will wait wait no longer - chicagotribune.com: We knew Carl Kasell's last taping of "Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me" was going to be a big deal, which is so not Carl. After 16 years as official judge and scorekeeper of the NPR quiz show, and 60 years in radio, he wanted his last show to be just like any other.

As if. Sprinkled throughout the hour were tributes from Stephen Colbert, Tom Hanks, Katie Couric and President Barack Obama, which caused the 80-year-old veteran newsman and the 1,800 people packed into the Warner Theatre on Thursday to get all verklempt. (You can hear the broadcast this weekend on public radio; check your local station for times and re-broadcasts.)

Soldiers, selfies and a coup: Thailand's tourism industry suffers - CNN.com

Soldiers, selfies and a coup: Thailand's tourism industry suffers - CNN.com:

In most capital cities, waking up to images of armed soldiers,
military vehicles and blockades on the streets -- as the army gears up
for what it would later declare a coup -- might be cause for alarm.

But Bangkok isn't your average city.

Since 1932 -- the year
Thailand became a constitutional monarchy -- there have been at least 18
actual or attempted military takeovers.

Since November 2013,
widespread protests and the threat of violence have been a constant
presence in Bangkok, as two divided sides passionately battle over the
country's future leadership.

As a result, very little surprises residents in this city.

The Case for Reparations - The Atlantic

The Case for Reparations - The Atlantic: Terrorism carried the day. Federal troops withdrew from the South in 1877. The dream of Reconstruction died. For the next century, political violence was visited upon blacks wantonly, with special treatment meted out toward black people of ambition. Black schools and churches were burned to the ground. Black voters and the political candidates who attempted to rally them were intimidated, and some were murdered. At the end of World War I, black veterans returning to their homes were assaulted for daring to wear the American uniform. The demobilization of soldiers after the war, which put white and black veterans into competition for scarce jobs, produced the Red Summer of 1919: a succession of racist pogroms against dozens of cities ranging from Longview, Texas, to Chicago to Washington, D.C. Organized white violence against blacks continued into the 1920s—in 1921 a white mob leveled Tulsa’s “Black Wall Street,” and in 1923 another one razed the black town of Rosewood, Florida—and virtually no one was punished.

Young Iranians Arrested for Being Too 'Happy in Tehran' - NYTimes.com

Young Iranians Arrested for Being Too 'Happy in Tehran' - NYTimes.com: Just days after Iran’s president denounced Internet censorship as “cowardly,” six young Iranians were arrested and forced to repent on state television Tuesday for the grievous offense of proclaiming themselves to be “Happy in Tehran,” in a homemade music video they posted on YouTube last month.
An image of the "Happy in Tehran" dancers posted on Instagram.An image of the “Happy in Tehran” dancers posted on Instagram.

By uploading their video, recorded on an iPhone and promoted on Facebook and Instagram, the group was taking part in a global online phenomenon, which has resulted, so far, in hundreds of cover versions of the Pharrell Williams song “Happy” recorded in more than 140 countries.

“Happy in Tehran” was viewed more than 165,000 times on YouTube before it attracted the attention of the police and was made private.

A useful reddit comment

0x10000 comments on A fifty pence coin I got as change explains the offside rule:

• When you point your flashlight at the wall and turn it on, it seems
  the light ray reaches the wall instantaneously, and so "speed of light for everyone watching" = c = ∞. Or equivalently c⁻¹ = 1/c = 1/∞ = 0.

But careful observation of Nature shows us that in fact: c⁻¹ ≠ 0, c⁻¹ = 1 (or something else if you prefer another unit system, but never 0). Speed of light is finite and the same for everyone watching. Surprising, yes, but it works for really fast things and that's proven. No biggie.

• When you cut a stick in half, then cut the half in half, then get a
  knife, cut the rest into something even smaller, sharpen the knife, and
  so on, it feels like you can do this for ever, and with infinite time
  "it makes sense to have something infinitely small to almost size zero" and we note this idea ħ = 0.

But careful observation of Nature shows us that in fact: ħ ≠ 0, ħ = 1 (or something else if you prefer another unit system, but never 0). It doesn't make sense
to have laws governing something infinitely small. Surprising, yes, but
it works for really small things and that's proven. No biggie.

• When a needle falls to the ground, it is pulled down by the gravity
  from entire Earth (and that's really really big). But you can pick it up
  with a tiny magnet. So gravity seems so ridiculously small compared to
  other forces that in this perspective, we are almost tempted to ignore
  it as if it didn't exist: G = 0.

But observation of Nature shows us that it obviously does exist: G ≠ 0, G = 1 (or something else if you prefer another unit system, but never 0).This is not so surprising since you see an apple fall. No biggie.



So we thought that c⁻¹ = 0, ħ = 0 and G = 0, but we now know that c⁻¹ = 1, ħ = 1 and G = 1 and we want one consistent theory starting from there.



The theory behind c⁻¹ = 1, ħ = 0 and G = 0 is called Special Relativity.



The theory behind c⁻¹ = 0, ħ = 1 and G = 0 is called Quantum Mechanics.



The theory behind c⁻¹ = 0, ħ = 0 and G = 1 is called Newton's law of universal gravitation.



The theory behind c⁻¹ = 1, ħ = 0 and G = 1 is called General Relativity.



Other combinations have different theory names, but the one you asked for was:



The theory behind c⁻¹ = 1, ħ = 1 and G = 0 is called Relativistic Quantum Mechanics.



We have no consistent theory for c⁻¹ = 1, ħ = 1 and G = 1, even
though we know it is true. This problem is called "quantization of
gravity". A candidate theory is Loop Quantum Gravity. Another, more famous one is String Theory.