life is a thrill

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Thu, 10 May 2012 04:36:22 GMT

Licenses do ill

Thu, 10 May 2012 04:04:00 GMT

Forty-seven states find it unnecessary to license interior designers, and yet the four that do find it necessary to receive 2,190 days of training to become one. This is a joke, and congressmen in those four states should be ashamed of themselves for this obvious and egregious handout.

How government red tape keeps poor people out of jobs

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Tue, 08 May 2012 16:57:27 GMT

I love James Harden and his Old Testament beard.

Mon, 07 May 2012 02:54:10 GMT

I love James Harden and his Old Testament beard.

Top 5 artists this week

Sun, 06 May 2012 12:00:00 GMT

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Sun, 06 May 2012 03:26:56 GMT

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Sun, 06 May 2012 03:26:25 GMT

(via Illustrations that made Edgar Allan Poe’s stories even more horrifying)

Sun, 06 May 2012 03:24:58 GMT

(via Illustrations that made Edgar Allan Poe’s stories even more horrifying)

"I can’t imagine I have to explain this to anyone in 2012, but if you find you..."

Thu, 03 May 2012 12:56:49 GMT

"I can’t imagine I have to explain this to anyone in 2012, but if you find yourself putting brown makeup on a white person in 2012 so they can do a bad funny accent in order to sell potato chips, you are on the wrong course."

–

How To Fix Popchips’ Racist Ad Campaign - Anil Dash

I think there’s another side to this Dash doesn’t mention or that he’s perhaps mentioned before elsewhere. But I think there’s an attitude in white American culture that it’s okay to have racist attitudes about “successful” immigrant cultures (e.g., Indian, Asian). Because you’re not kicking them when they’re down. You’re just making fun of how they talk and dress.

Not to say it’s defensible. It is not. But having been a white person for many years now, I can tell you this is a predominant notion among our people. And if the people Dash calls out actually had the suggested root-cause-analysis, I suspect it would come up pretty early in the conversation.

IT’S A SECRET TO EVERYBODY.

Wed, 02 May 2012 12:18:12 GMT

IT’S A SECRET TO EVERYBODY.

Quotes from the Legend of Zelda. H/T Koree.

Top 5 artists this week

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Moving day (Taken with instagram)

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:31:41 GMT

Moving day (Taken with instagram)

Packing all your belongings is a good time to take stock. This is probably to...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 22:46:57 GMT

Packing all your belongings is a good time to take stock. This is probably too much Kleenex. (Taken with instagram)

Tomorrow’s moving day! (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:43:18 GMT

Tomorrow’s moving day! (Taken with instagram)

Used Pontiac on Craigslist

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:19:13 GMT

Used Pontiac on Craigslist
blameitonthevoices.com

From Craigslist Seattle comes this ad for an awesome extremely manly 1995 Pontiac Grand Am GT.
The post has been unfortunately flagged for removal since it became viral.

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Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:14:00 GMT

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Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:38:50 GMT

First Listen: Lower Dens, ‘Nootropics’ : NPR

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:22:54 GMT

First Listen: Lower Dens, ‘Nootropics’ : NPR

Although I know a few people in this band, I wasn’t all that into the last record. This one’s really much better. Excellent, in fact.

Judging by the pre-release buzz, I’d say the music blogosphere agrees. Click above to stream free on NPR.

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Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:59:50 GMT

Top 5 artists this week

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 12:00:00 GMT

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Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:59:44 GMT

The most amazing Supreme Court chart. Maybe ever. - The Washington Post

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:40:00 GMT

The most amazing Supreme Court chart. Maybe ever. - The Washington Post

28% knowing who the Chief Justice is, well, that’s better than I would have thought. The other responses, though, are hilarious.

Everythings Amazing & Nobodys Happy

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 03:38:53 GMT

Everythings Amazing & Nobodys Happy

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Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:12:22 GMT

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Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:02:26 GMT

superpunch2:

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 03:49:13 GMT

superpunch2:

juliavickerman:

newsweek:

Nepotism!

Who gives a shit? You could make this ‘hilarious joke poster’ about 75% of TV shows/movies. Why is this show special? Who is it hurting? Chill out, weirdos.

Not sure why this show is getting so much hate. I thought it was pretty good.

What still matters is whether the show is any good. Agreed that this is true for most TV (and a lot of music too). It shouldn’t be surprising that rich & famous people are able to secure similar access for their kids. It also doesn’t surprise me when talented parents have talented offspring.

Get over it, people.

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Wed, 18 Apr 2012 03:45:14 GMT

Copyright: Forever Less One Day

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:53:48 GMT

A rich guy’s case for (much) higher taxes http://bit.ly/gsMJzK

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:21:44 GMT

A rich guy’s case for (much) higher taxes http://bit.ly/gsMJzK

Lamborghini CEO hints at SUV for 2017: Concept to appear at Beijing Auto Show

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 03:02:24 GMT

Lamborghini CEO hints at SUV for 2017: Concept to appear at Beijing Auto Show

Looks like we’ll soon have a replacement for Hummer in the “car awful people like to drive” category.

"Having spent multiple years with the company, I feel it is my duty to report ..."

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 02:46:50 GMT

"Having spent multiple years with the company, I feel it is my duty to report the failed operations of this multinational corporation and how their greed affects the entire gaming industry from all of us as customers to the people that craft our beloved entertainment,” wrote the unnamed current employee. “I’m not even going to go into hardware trade-ins (the current trade-in value of the just-released Playstation Vita is $100 and they sell it used for $200, talk about a profit margin), but simply put it’s an even worse racket, something that would be illegal if it involved something the government regulated."

–

Gamestop employee says Gamestop should be illegal

The first page of the article is ridiculous. As if gamers are unsavvy about the market in which they spend nearly every waking hour. Yes, GameStop is by all accounts a hilariously unethical racket. But the kids figure this out soon enough, and they end up using GameStop in the way GameStop uses them: as a great way to reliably rent new blockbuster releases for half the price of buying one.

Yes, the game companies would love GameStop to be regulated. This is all you need to know to understand that regulating GameStop would actually hurt gamers and help game makers who don’t want to think hard about their business models. As the same unnamed gamer says:

My advice to the developers is that they stop whining and continue looking for solutions. Think about one of the reasons there is a used game market in the first place…because there are too many crappy games that people don’t want to keep. If publishers and developers alike would stop spending money on pointless projects and focus on creating only substantial IPs, that might just help to corner a bit of the market.

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Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:38:18 GMT

"Whether competition among governments is good or bad comes down to the philos..."

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 16:15:23 GMT

"Whether competition among governments is good or bad comes down to the philosophical questions of what you want government to do and how much you fear government power. If the government’s job is merely to provide services, like roads, schools and courts, competition among governmental producers may be as good a discipline as competition among private producers. But if government’s job is also to remedy many of life’s inequities, you may want a stronger centralized government, unchecked by competition. These are two fundamentally different visions. The next election, and to some degree every election, is about which one voters find more compelling."

–

Competition Is Good for Governments, Too - Economic View - NYTimes.com

Mankiw is right of course, but the people of the US, including conservatives, regularly choose the second option: which is to say they want both. You can see this in Medicare. In agricultural subsidies. In the federal flood insurance program. In continuing support for rising military spending (most of which remains a Republican-flavored jobs program). All of these have bi-partisan support.

Pennsylvania high school is shaped like the Millennium Falcon

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 15:47:33 GMT

Pennsylvania high school is shaped like the Millennium Falcon

Top 5 artists this week

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Einer Elhauge: If Health Insurance Mandates Are Unconstitutional, Why Did The Founding Fathers Back Them? | The New Republic

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 03:52:44 GMT

(via Instapaper)

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/102620/individual-mandate-history-affordable-care-act

"Rather than being a scheme to insure against the risk posed by younger person..."

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 12:44:33 GMT

"Rather than being a scheme to insure against the risk posed by younger persons, the Affordable Care Act creates a system of a government-mandated privately-administered redistribution of wealth from the young and healthy to older baby boomers."

–

Constitutional Law scholar Randy Barnett has a laughable A-HA! moment.

Uh, Randy, the government already did this. It’s called Medicare. And Social Security.

What the ACA does is indeed redistribute money from the healthy to the sick. That’s what health insurance does. But Barnett is incorrect to suggest it’s just a distribution from the young to the old. The redistribution expands the risk pool to almost everyone of any age.

To the extent that Barnett’s correcting the notion that people can satisfy the individual mandate buy simply buying catastrophic coverage, well, duh. It doesn’t work that way. Not sure why anyone who’s paid attention would say otherwise.

Monopsony

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:02:46 GMT

This is a word you must understand to see the flipside of the government’s case against Apple. Yes, Apple likely colluded with publishers to raise prices. And that’s very bad.

But in the long run, a world in which Amazon alone rules e-books might not be such a great place either. Although, I’m grateful they defined the initial market. God knows, the publishers would have messed things all up left to their own devices.

redsuspenders:

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:12:26 GMT

redsuspenders:

marxism = not advertising on rush limbaugh’s show

Wow. A 2 to 1 margin? They must be kicking themselves for voluntarily handing the election to Obama four years ago. And voting for Romney.

Court revives Rosetta Stone suit vs Google | Reuters

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 02:12:35 GMT

Rosetta Stone’s claims make less sense once you realize they’re trying to get preferential placement within a private party’s site for free. Mostly because of that site’s market share.

Put another way, what if you accepted money from a competing product to review Rosetta Stone, but still actually made Rosetta Stone the top result, while also mentioning competing products. Suddenly you’re violating Rosetta Stone’s trademark. Google’s approach is even more automated and more disclosure friendly. Yet, somehow they’re losing.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/09/net-us-rosetta-stone-google-idUSBRE8380ND20120409