The Fount of Useless Information
Your place for useless information that just might possibly be interesting.
Forgetting a key lesson from Watergate?
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/04/politics/watergate-reform/index.html?hpt=hp_c3
Yes, corrupt money will find its way around any roadblock you care to put in front of it, power attracts the corruptible after all. However, when you legalize corruption, as we have done …
at least when there isn’t fraud involved…
Arsenic-based life finding fails follow-up
Tests see no evidence that microbe uses element in cellular machinery
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/338090/title/Arsenic-based_life_finding_fails_follow-up
It was really interesting when it was first reported that an organism could thrive in an …
The privatization trap
From schools to prisons, outsourcing government’s works typically ends with cronyism, waste and unaccountability
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/05/the_privatization_trap/singleton/
Once again I have had to resist the urge to copy the post in its entirety and embedding it here. I strongly …
Thanks to bls for pointing this out:
..about using gambling to encourage saving (and then banning it)?
http://johnpapola.com/2010/11/gambling-to-encourage-savings/
It seems clear to me that lotteries were put in place by our government as a way to levy a substantial regressive …
Just when you think your government can’t make you even more disgusted…
U.S. drones targeting rescuers and mourners
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/05/u_s_drones_targeting_rescuers_and_mourners/singleton/
So, not only are we in a police state and run by Constitution-shredding oligarchy, our government has taken to committing the …
Are high-tech classrooms better classrooms?
Despite the hype over Apple’s new iPad textbooks, there’s little proof that gadgets do much to improve education
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/03/are_high_tech_classrooms_better_classrooms/singleton/
A good friend and I started work on an idea for educational games years ago (we …
Lieberman, Cantor defend Capitol Hill’s inside traders
Wall Street’s favorites resist the effort to ban profiteering on non-public information
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/02/lieberman_cantor_defend_capitol_hills_inside_traders/singleton/
I hesitated in posting this because it is so boringly predictable it is hardly worth mentioning. However, some people (but …
For those of you not yet tired of me babbling on and on and on an on about our police state here is another fascinating look at it:
ACLU sues Obama administration over assassination secrecy
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/02/aclu_sues_obama_administration_over_assassination_secrecy/singleton/
I like Glenn, but …
The “education crisis” myth
Ignore the media spin. Wages and working conditions — not skills — are the real reasons jobs get outsourced
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/30/the_education_crisis_myth/singleton/
In my experience our educational system is quite dysfunctional and apparently incapable of churning out people …
The End of Health Insurance Companies
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/30/the-end-of-health-insurance-companies/
I had never heard of the “Accountable Care Organization” before reading this article, but it appears on the surface to be a really good direction for us to go toward. Having …