The Fount of Useless Information
Your place for useless information that just might possibly be interesting.
The Benefits of the Safety Net, Part 2
http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/the-benefits-of-the-safety-net-part-2/
I have talked about the “greatest good for the greatest number” before (that blog entry is more or less a link to here). It is my firm belief …
The Last Mystery of the Financial Crisis
It’s long been suspected that ratings agencies like Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s helped trigger the meltdown. A new trove of embarrassing documents shows how they did it
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-last-mystery-of-the-financial-crisis-20130619
In this case, the …
Vitamins: Too much of a not-so-good thing?
http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/19/health/vitamins-offit/index.html?hpt=hp_c4
This is an interesting issue. Much like the flu vaccine having dubious efficacy (where ‘dubious’ is being kind) over the last couple of decades mega doses of vitamins have been increasingly shown …
Employment is still near a 30-year low
http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/06/news/economy/employment-rate/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
Using the most generous measurement of employment in the article (for workers ages 25 to 54 — those who should be in the prime of their careers) there is an employment rate …
TSA drops effort to allow small knives on planes
http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2013/06/05/tsa-knives/2393139/
As if more proof were needed of the anti-science attitude of the US population, the TSA, in a laudable effort to reduce (however slightly) the security theater that it is …
Potemkin Stimulus: One Way to Offset Austerity
http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/potemkin-stimulus-one-way-to-offset-austerity/
How far away are we from doing this? I doubt it is very. At the moment we rush around and spend huge dollars replacing broken things (like bridges, cities; generally with borrowed …
Biometric Database of All Adult Americans Hidden in Immigration Reform
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/05/immigration-reform-dossiers/
I think what bothers many people is that 1984 was in the past and they expected it to stay that way. However, Big Brother just needed some more time …
The 5 Ugly Lessons Hiding in Every Superhero Movie
http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-ugly-lessons-hiding-in-every-superhero-movie/
I haven’t read Cracked in a while (work is actually taking up most of my time, thankfully!) but went over there this morning as my subconscious works on a problem …
Trust your memory? Maybe you shouldn’t
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/18/health/lifeswork-loftus-memory-malleability/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
I talk about my thoughts on the uselessness of human memory here and when I read the article linked above I found a whole lot of parallels. I was particularly interested in the …
Washington gets explicit: its ‘war on terror’ is permanent
Senior Obama officials tell the US Senate: the ‘war’, in limitless form, will continue for ‘at least’ another decade – or two
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/17/endless-war-on-terror-obama
I almost didn’t blog on this, it is …