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"The (Minneapolis - St.Paul) Metro Transit system has turned on great composers in hope of turning off loiterers, vagrants and other troublemakers (YT) attracted to the station.' Eighteen- to 25-year-olds are generally the folks who are committing the most crime on our transit system,' Scruggs said. 'As a group, they tend to not like classical music (YT).'"
comment posted at 8:42 AM on Feb-3-12

The Story of a Suicide: a fantastic array of updates about Tyler Clementi’s death (Previously on MeFi) and Dharun Ravi’s trial.
comment posted at 6:51 PM on Jan-30-12
comment posted at 8:17 PM on Jan-30-12

"Hong Kong people are dogs," mainland professor Kong Qingdong said (video in Mandarin with English subtitles; "dog" comments are around 1:06) in response to a widely-viewed video (Cantonese/Mandarin, no subtitles, but a English-subtitled news report is here) of mainland tourists eating on the Hong Kong subway, where eating is banned. This has incited an uproar in the former British colony, but is not the only flare-up between Hong Kong and the mainland recently.
comment posted at 1:33 AM on Jan-24-12

Hari Kunzru: Reading The Satanic Verses in Jaipur: Why the novelist read from Salman Rushdie’s banned book The Satanic Verses to protest against the cancellation of Rushdie’s visit to the Jaipur Literature Festival.
comment posted at 10:01 AM on Jan-23-12
comment posted at 10:04 AM on Jan-23-12
comment posted at 12:02 PM on Jan-24-12

A much anticipated birth is expected by many Chinese families after the New Moon on Monday, 23rd January ushers in the auspicious Year of the Dragon. The only mythological beast in the Chinese Zodiac, the Dragon as a symbol in China dates back to 3000 BC and stands for happiness, immortality, procreation, fertility and activity. This year's babies will be Black Water Dragons, considered to be calmer, more flexible and even more charismatic than other elements. In previous dragon years, countries such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore have all experienced baby booms, and preparations are in place for this year's influx of baby dragons.
comment posted at 8:02 AM on Jan-21-12
comment posted at 10:35 AM on Jan-21-12

The 5 Stupidest Habits You Develop Growing Up Poor (sl Cracked list)
comment posted at 8:46 AM on Jan-20-12

Cruise Captain says he 'tripped' into lifeboat and couldn't get out. Audio recording of an Italian Coast Guard Captain telling him to get back on board [Transcript]
comment posted at 2:06 AM on Jan-19-12
comment posted at 2:27 AM on Jan-19-12
comment posted at 2:36 AM on Jan-19-12

Unanimous SCOTUS ruling: Anti-discrimination laws (such as the ADA) do not apply to church employees with religious duties. Full ruling: PDF, HTML
comment posted at 5:14 PM on Jan-13-12

Is Pakistan’s cricket star-turned-politician for real? What does Pakistan see in Imran Khan? Will there be a Pakistani Spring?
comment posted at 5:36 PM on Jan-12-12

An incessantly ringing iPhone in the front row prompted NY Philharmonic conductor Alan Gilbert to halt last night's concert.
comment posted at 9:09 AM on Jan-11-12

Extinct Galapagos tortoise may just be hiding
comment posted at 4:33 PM on Jan-9-12

I Am tells the stories of 36 Sri Lankan elders, about their lives and work, and their connections to their hometown. ... With the movement of people away from their hometowns, particularly from Jaffna and Galle, I also spoke to the so called 'internal diaspora', about their longing for their hometowns and their sense of belonging to their adoptive homes."
comment posted at 3:15 PM on Jan-6-12

"He doesn’t leave anything on the table, does he?" John Hammergren is the CEO of McKesson, a major healthcare system and pharmaceutical provider. He earned $145 million last year, not including an employer-contributed $13 million to his executive pension plan (the employee pension plan was shuttered in 1997, before Hammergren's tenure began), unlimited personal use of a corporate private jet, car and chauffeur, and other perks like a lifetime personal assistant and office and financial counselor. In his ten years with McKesson, Hammergren has earned over $500 million. The Daily Beast dives into the extraordinary compensation of the 0.01%. If you're so inclined, the EDGAR filing has the excruciating detail, including bits like this:
comment posted at 12:25 PM on Jan-4-12

"I'll tell you why movie revenue is dropping" SLREP
comment posted at 5:11 AM on Dec-30-11

In one of the year's closely watched stories, American hikers Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer were released from prison in Iran, following the release of a third hiker, Sarah Shourd. Here, Shourd explains for the first time why she thanked Iran after her ordeal—and the response from global Iranians.
comment posted at 6:09 PM on Dec-27-11

What is it like to have an understanding of very advanced mathematics? A naive Quora question gets a remarkably long, thorough answer from an anonymous respondent. The answer cites, among many other things, Tim Gowers's influential essay "The Two Cultures of Mathematics," about the tension between problem-solving and theory-building. Related: Terry Tao asks "Does one have to be a genius to do maths?" (Spoiler: he says no.)
comment posted at 12:27 AM on Dec-25-11

Julian spent 1 year in São Paulo, this is what he saw. [SLVimeo]
comment posted at 8:28 AM on Dec-23-11

10 Things Our Kids Will Never Worry About Thanks to the Information Revolution. An optimist's take on how the lives of future generations will improve based on technology.
comment posted at 11:20 AM on Dec-20-11

Christopher Plummer, playing a man who comes out of the closet in his 70s, might have won Best Supporting Performance, but at least four people voted for a dog. The results for the crazy free-for-all that is the Indiewire Annual Survey, which polled 168 critics this year, came out today. The Tree of Life swept Best Film and Best Director, but the choices that only got a handful of votes are often the most interesting, including three different cast members from The Three Musketeers for Best Supporting and a vote for Transformers: Dark of the Moon for Best Film. You can see the complete results and links to all of the critics ballots here.
comment posted at 12:12 PM on Dec-19-11

After 176+ episodes, satirical podcast The Bugle with John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman will no longer be published by The Times.
comment posted at 6:02 AM on Dec-19-11

"A year after a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself ablaze, dissent has spread across the Middle East, to Europe and the US, reshaping global politics and redefining people power." The Protester is Time's 2011 Person of the Year.
comment posted at 7:27 AM on Dec-14-11

Samir Zia Chowhan, sensing a prime opportunity in this down economy, set out to hire a secretary who could not only do the typing and filing, but could also engage in group sex with Chowhan and his law partner. The Illinois Supreme Court found that this is conduct unbecoming of an attorney and suspended Chowhan's law license.
comment posted at 12:29 PM on Dec-13-11
comment posted at 3:35 PM on Dec-13-11

Comparing airlines' Airbus A380s. Seven commercial carriers fly the A380. Here's a look at how each has used the space aboard the superjumbo jet. [LATimes photogallery].
comment posted at 2:14 AM on Dec-13-11

The European Union said Friday that 26 of its 27 member countries are open to joining a new treaty tying their finances together to solve the euro crisis. Only Britain remains opposed, creating a deep rift in the union. In all, just 23 of the 27 EU countries signed on outright to draft a new treaty binding them to a uniform regime of deficit controls and budget regulation. Only one country said no: Britain. Three more say they are open to the idea.
comment posted at 3:06 AM on Dec-11-11
comment posted at 3:16 AM on Dec-11-11
comment posted at 4:48 PM on Dec-11-11

Amazon has recently declared that tomorrow is Price Check day. If you go into a brick and mortar retail store with Amazon’s new Price Check App on your smart phone, and scan a barcode with the location settings active, and then report back to Amazon on the price of that product, Amazon will deduct $5 from your online purchase of that product. Amazon claims it’s trying to keep prices low for consumers, but others attribute the move to a less innocuous agenda.
comment posted at 7:36 PM on Dec-9-11

Nobody was surprised when Italy Prime Minister Mario Monti presented a draconian "save Italy" emergency Budget decree on Sunday - that's what he had been nominated to do. But the full impact of the measures, especially hitting pensioners, became stunningly clear when Welfare Minister Elsa Fornero, invited by Monti to present her ministry's section of the decree to the press and TV, broke down (SLYT) and was unable to bring out the word "sacrifice".
comment posted at 2:29 AM on Dec-5-11
comment posted at 6:08 AM on Dec-5-11

The House of the Rising Sun, on old Computer Equipment
comment posted at 11:14 AM on Dec-3-11

Berg London's Little Printer is a small, net-connected printer for your home that will print you a small, daily newspaper with content you add or subscribe to via a phone app.
comment posted at 10:17 AM on Nov-29-11

Lots of countries have never won an Olympic medal. And they aren't all micro-states, either.
comment posted at 12:00 PM on Nov-28-11

The Caravan magazine takes a long, hard look at the Formula 1 inaugural enterprise in India.
comment posted at 12:27 AM on Nov-28-11

TIME magazine really dumbs it down for American subscribers.
comment posted at 4:00 AM on Nov-27-11

Yo boys. I am sing song. Soup song. Flop song. "It's not meant to be anti-anything. Director [Aishwarya Dhanush] said the situation demanded a light-hearted fun song about love failure. I came up with a tune in ten minutes. I don't know what kind of mood Dhanush was in… he started singing in broken English and came up with this in 20 minutes. It just happened". Presenting India's newest music phenomenon, a Tamil-English dada-ist patische eulogizing unrequited love through Madras street-slang, and hypnotic earthy drums.
comment posted at 3:20 AM on Nov-24-11
comment posted at 12:56 PM on Nov-24-11

Scott Walker, Michele Bachmann, Robin Vos, Karl Rove, Joe Moore, Ron Paul, Scott Serota, Newt Gingrich, Rahm Emanuel, Eric Cantor, and, today, Barack Obama
comment posted at 4:22 AM on Nov-23-11

Indian talent show Warriors of Goja SLYT
comment posted at 9:57 PM on Nov-21-11

What Randall Munroe did for Radiation, he does again for Money.
comment posted at 9:50 AM on Nov-21-11
comment posted at 9:54 AM on Nov-21-11
comment posted at 10:01 AM on Nov-21-11

Around the World in 80 Days is a BBC television travel series first broadcast in 1989. It was presented by comedian and actor Michael Palin.The show was inspired by Jules Verne's classic novel Around the World in Eighty Days, in which a character named Phileas Fogg accepts a wager to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days or less. Palin was given the same deadline... Here's Episode 1 - The Challenge.
comment posted at 9:10 AM on Nov-21-11

Sociologist Lauren Rivera of Northwestern spent two years researching the way elite financial and law firms really select their new hires. The original paper is behind a sciencedirect paywall, but Bryan Caplan has a nice write-up about the results. You're much better off with a degree from a tippy-top school than just any Ivy -- but they don't actually care about what you learned there. Your grades don't matter that much as long as they're not bad. Climbing a famous mountain or making a varsity team, especially if you're nationally competitive, would be wise. And oh yeah -- they do care what you got on your SATs. More reax from the Chronicle of Higher Ed and physicist Steve Hsu.
comment posted at 5:18 AM on Nov-21-11