Sunday Morning Reading Material (Second Sunday in November.)
It’s Sunday morning. Sunday mornings are for waking up on a friend’s couch and thinking “Well, I guess I’m only 32. Still not too old for this.” Alternately, Sundays are for recovering from a nasty bout of flu. On the other wrist, Sunday mornings could be for hustling off to take some kick-ass photos– because you’re a pro and that’s what it takes to do the job you love. Or it could mean doing homework.
This week, we Americans celebrated our veterans. President Obama went to India and suggested that they should have a seat on the UN Security Council. Also this week Netanyahu agreed to maybe think about possibly freezing the west-bank settlement building. Maybe. And the Shuttle didn’t launch.
Shall we start off light? Legal Rulings can be valid– even when they’re in free verse.
It’s been a week, but San Francisco’s dearest sibling (Oakland) Still doesn’t know who the next mayor will be. This is a fascinating case where the rules for electing people changed, but not campaign styles. Rules for elections matter at least as much as candidates. In fact, rules for elections are so important that changing them can shift and destroy entire parties. Two sets of rules can both be “fair”, but lead to wildly divergent outcomes. Arrow’s theorem says that both outcomes will be equally valid. Fun, eh?
There’s a really big volcano going on in Indonesia. Here are some pictures.
Speaking of things that make a permenent mark on the geography Overthinking It wonders what makes Minecraft so addictive. I’ve never played it, but I’ve heard it’s ridiculously good. I’m having a lot of fun with Civilization 5 right now. I know, I’m political guy: why should I play with diplomacy that don’t matter? Unlimited Budget. Anyway minecraft is like lego, but on a PC.
While America was busy celebrating those who served during all times of military conflict, the rest of the world celebrated the end of the Great War. At 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month, the guns fell silent. Called the War to End War, this day would mark a promise that never again would there be a Somme, or Verdun. Even after the artillery stopped firing, men would be driven mad by the memories. And a generation would know the lie of Dulce et Decorum Est.
In case my introduction to the theme wasn’t hideous enough: Here’s a bit more about The last hours of war.
Speaking of war: proper intel is important before you launch an operation. Google Map’s disclaimer is important!
Karl Smith has the perfect name for an Economist: the first name is like Karl Marx, and the last name is like Adam Smith. Bipartisan! Anyway: he proves Keynes correct, with graphs and stuff. Anyone, by this point in history, who doesn’t believe that Keynes had some directly applicable insights into how to fix our economics is deeply unserious. And not in a funny way.
If we can’t fix our economy, perhaps we should move to the cheese standard. It’s better than the gold standard, and way better than Central Standard Time.
If you went back to dying grounds of France and Flanders and told the everyone that someday there would be a huge underground laboratory that was so big it had to be dug under the border between France and Switzerland… the assumption would probably be that you’d seen too much combat. But the idea that such a laboratory could be built by an unconquered but unified Europe and exist for peaceful purposes would be laughable. Anyway. This week scientists created a small big bang in the Large Hadron Collider.
Possibly the weirdest weapon ever wielded by the CIA.
I’m a Californian. That means that I simply don’t care about Earthquakes that are below a certain size. The San Francisco Citizen declares that size to be 3.0. I’d place it at 5.0, myself.
A Spanish town 1ups the Metron’s “Walk of Game”– They’re going to name an entire neighborhood in honor of awesome games. Mario!
I love the idea of using my last words to exact vengeance on my political enemies. Beloved British advice columnist threatens Cameron with a haunting if he harms the NHS. And that’s why Obamacare is here to stay.
Bipartisanship and Healthcare Reform. This happens a lot. Remember that “Cap and Trade” was the Republican- conservative- alternative to strong environmental regulation. Now, of course, it’s thought of as one step worse than death panels.
I don’t like to link to articles from the same publication twice on the same week, but Overthinking it has a collection of the best ‘Dis Tracks’ of all time. Of ALL TIME.
Brick and mortar games retailers threaten to boycott games that use Steam to serve player needs. In order for this threat to mean anything, games retailers would have to first get back into the PC market. As Conan said to Crom: “to hell with you.”
Mr. Coates talks about cops. I’ve tried to have this conversation with actual cops– they hate being reminded that they’re fallible human beings. But really: any of us who think that the judgement of a police officer should be given deference to that of a citizen– or a victim of a police officer– is at least partially to blame in police abuse.
As early as tomorrow, Facebook could be rolling out Email. Facebook has made no secret of the fact that they want to monetize your every personal action. They constantly change their privacy policies to allow themselves greater access to the things you had declared off limits. They are among the worst of the “legitimate” internet services around. Sadly, I think they’re probably going to offer a compelling experience for a lot of people, who will decide to hop on into the facebook walled garden.
Those were some depressing thoughts. This is a funny link. It will take you 20 seconds. Click it and laugh.
The most adorable and incredible story you’ll read all day.
Tweed rap! (I don’t think it’s true, but I’m told you may want to watch this first
Question of the week: Who was the worst general in Roman history? Leave your response in the comments section below!
