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Why does the South have such ugly credit scores? You may already know that airlines are really credit-card rewards companies with a side gig of flying planes. Economists S. Agarwal, A. Presbitero, A. Silva and C. Wix used credit card rewards programs to look more closely at the monetary redistribution that results from credit card rewards use: they showed that poorer users pay for those programs, while wealthier users benefit. Agarwal et al. also noted a geographical distribution of credit that roughly follows the Mason-Dixon line. Andrew Van Dam of the WaPo's Department of Data then took a deeper dive into credit, debt, and health.
comment posted at 4:27 AM on Feb-22-23

A plain-language primer on US health insurance billing terminology like "copay," "deductible," and "premium," and on coordinating benefits between multiple insurance policies. If your insurer has denied coverage for a test or treatment, a possible way to shame them into reversing their decision. And a public service announcement for US Medicaid members: "For the last three years – since the start of the pandemic – the federal government had the states stop checking the financial eligibility of Medicaid enrollees. They're going to resume doing that in April. This means, if you (or your kids) are on Medicaid, at some point in April or as soon as your state gets around to you, you're going to be required to do a bunch of paperwork to keep your Medicaid."
comment posted at 4:33 AM on Feb-22-23

After seven years, Joel Golby's VICE column London Rental Opportunity of the Week reaches an end; half polemic, half retrospective: 'Landlords Are a Scum Class': Everything I've Learnt About London Renting
comment posted at 4:42 AM on Feb-18-23

The Rezvani Vengeance is a quarter-million dollar SUV designed exclusively for idiots [Kotaku.com] “You know where you’re going wrong? After a long day indiscriminately firing your Beretta 1301 in the desert, you’re home chugging back your InfoWars Ultimate Bone Broth Plus, when you discover you’re all out of SSI Sight-Rite chamber cartridge laser bore sights. So you jump into your SUV to head to the nearest Dick’s Sporting Goods, right? Only, in that SUV? Is it bulletproof? Does it fire pepper spray out the wing mirrors? Does it even come with gas masks? No I don’t think it does. Which is why you want to get yourself a Rezvani Vengeance, designed by video game vehicle artist, Milen Ivanov. [...] This laughably silly vehicle, yours starting at $285,000, is made to order, and thanks to bizarre TikTok influencer videos, a demonstrably extant creation. Based on the Cadillac Escalade, your standard model comes with all the features you’d expect in your bog-standard quarter-million dollar car.”
comment posted at 2:23 PM on Jan-27-23

The little-known student loan middlemen who are threatening debt forgiveness (MarketWatch) For decades, lawmakers shaped policy to benefit entities that earned money from the federal student-loan system, sometimes to the detriment of borrowers. Now, they are at the center of legal efforts to stop Biden’s cancellation plans (currently on hold).
comment posted at 5:56 AM on Dec-6-22

It's official: The world's biggest 4-day workweek trial proves there's no reason to work five days a week [ungated] - "The pandemic has proven that our modern notions of how the office and our week should look are not as set in stone as we might think, exposing our ideas of what is needed to ensure productivity. Now that we've discovered that work can be done from home just as effectively, the next step is questioning how many working days are actually needed."[1,2]
comment posted at 4:09 AM on Dec-2-22

The Long and Winding Road to Eukaryotic Cells - "Despite recent advances in the study of eukaryogenesis, much remains unresolved about the origin and evolution of the most complex domain of life." (via)
comment posted at 5:58 AM on Nov-12-22

What we have here is what we call a non-repeating phantasm, or a class-5 free roaming thread, real nasty one too.
comment posted at 4:44 AM on Oct-31-22

After the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago on August 8th (previously), the DOJ released the search warrant and property receipt on August 12th, and a redacted search warrant affidavit on August 26th. On August 26th, the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines sent a letter to the House Intelligence and House Oversight committee chairs, saying the intelligence community and the DOJ are conducting a damage assessment of the recovered documents. An August 29th court filing by the DOJ said that a review of seized materials had already been completed. On August 30th, the DOJ filed a 36-page rebuttal to Trump's August 22nd motion requesting a special master, along with a detailed timeline of events leading up to the search. On September 1st, Judge Aileen Cannon said she would release her decision regarding appointing a special master "in due course", and ordered the DOJ to release the detailed property list, which the DOJ did on September 2nd.
comment posted at 9:44 AM on Sep-4-22

"You're expected to work 10 hours a day, seven days a week, all for a whopping 20 cents an hour. On top of this, there's an hourly quota of license plate tags that you're expected to reach. If you can do this adequately enough on a consistent basis, then you'll be eligible for a raise every six months. The raise is (drumroll, please) … a nickel. You can get a nickel raise every six months up until you reach the maximum threshold of 55 cents per hour. " The Marshall Project asked prisoners to track their earning and spending — and bartering and side hustles — for 30 days.
comment posted at 3:40 AM on Aug-6-22

Even tyrants would be foolish to pass down an iron law when a low-key change of norms would lead to the same results. And there is no question that changes of norms in Western countries since the beginning of the pandemic have given rise to a form of life plainly convergent with the Chinese model. Again, it might take more time to get there, and when we arrive, we might find that a subset of people are still enjoying themselves in a way they take to be an expression of freedom. But all this is spin, and what is occurring in both cases, the liberal-democratic and the overtly authoritarian alike, is the same: a transition to digitally and algorithmically calculated social credit, and the demise of most forms of community life outside the lens of the state and its corporate subcontractors. from Permanent Pandemic by Justin E.H. Smith [Harpers; Archive]
comment posted at 4:57 AM on May-31-22

(CW - rats) Dickens picked up on the qualities of HEROrats a while back, it seems. Magawa was a very fine fellow and even won a gold medal for being a fine stealthy and secret public servant. More about the organisation who trained Magawa. More about Magawa's folks.
comment posted at 12:31 PM on Jan-12-22

World's first living robots can now reproduce, scientists say. Bongard said they found that the xenobots, which were initially sphere-shaped and made from around 3,000 cells, could replicate. But it happened rarely and only in specific circumstances. The xenobots used "kinetic replication" -- a process that is known to occur at the molecular level but has never been observed before at the scale of whole cells or organisms.
comment posted at 4:18 PM on Nov-29-21

New York Times: Youngkin Wins Virginia Governor’s Race, Dealing Blow to Democrats on Telling Election Day. Politico: The Surprising Strategy Behind Youngkin’s Stunner - an interview with two of Youngkin's strategists.
comment posted at 3:47 PM on Nov-7-21

In a pop world ruled by Harry Styles, some hard rockers are going Trumpy. Politico spends a medium-length read examining the evolution of the image of men in the music world and what it might imply for politics. It's an interesting prism through which to view the present moment, certainly.
comment posted at 5:00 PM on Oct-31-21

The Story of Native American Metal Band Winterhawk. “The way we would get in the door at these boarding schools—and it would take some time for the faculty to grasp the idea—was [that] we used the tool of music, mainly heavy metal, because at the time, that was the music of choice,” Kolb continues. “Through that key, we opened the door to access the children to get them to open up to us. And [Nik] would tell me, ‘You’ve gotta be good at your stuff. You’ve gotta practice, because when we go there, they’re going to be amazed at the way you drum and the way I play guitar. That’s what’s gonna take down the walls, and they’re gonna wanna talk to us, and that’s when we’ll get to hear their problems, because no one else is listening to them.’”
comment posted at 2:21 PM on Oct-25-21

Are you lost in the world like me? CW: Images of Suicide
comment posted at 4:35 AM on Oct-19-21

And here is Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew
comment posted at 6:24 PM on Feb-15-21

Landmine detection rat Magawa receives the PDSA Gold Medal for his life-saving work in Cambodia as a HeroRat. Magawa is the first non-dog to receive this award.
comment posted at 4:53 PM on Sep-28-20

Last week, Chuck Feeney completed his goal of giving away his entire $8 billion fortune in his lifetime.
comment posted at 3:27 PM on Sep-25-20

How common is moral grandstanding? There is ample empirical evidence to show that people really are often motivated to use moral talk to impress others. Social scientists have found that we tend to judge ourselves as superior to others in a host of areas: intelligence, friendliness and ambition, for example....

comment posted at 5:19 PM on Sep-10-20

Out of toilet paper? No problem. Take a page from female ultralight hikers and use a bandanna after peeing. Launder as needed. Long-distance hikers have a tradition of finding ways to lighten the load. No t.p.? No problem for female hikers. Wipe with a bandanna after peeing, tie discretely to the backpack (sunlight helps to kill germs and reduce odors), and launder when back in civilization. (More below the fold.)
comment posted at 2:21 PM on Mar-16-20

You should just never do that, because we can all see you and feel a bit defiled by what we are witnessing, but even if you don’t care about how creepy you seem, you should still never, ever, ever do it, because as well as being bizarrely aggressive and somewhat frightening, it is undignified, and the margin of error here simply does not allow for it. Know that for the rest of your days you are going to feel hotly embarrassed about this thing you are doing now on the plane. Have some respect for your future self, and do not do it.
comment posted at 3:12 PM on Feb-20-20
comment posted at 4:45 PM on Feb-20-20

The truth about hydration: should you drink eight glasses of water a day? Why drinking water all day long is not the best way to stay hydrated. Should you drink water out of a chocolate syrup bottle? Why you should drink water first thing every day. The wellness influencers who never drink water. Why don't men drink water? Does drinking water make you sweat more or less? This is what you should know. Why do we drink so much bottled water? Can you drink expired bottled water? Does drinking more water help you hydrate your dry skin? How long you can live without water? Hate drinking water? There's an app for that. Am I drinking too much seltzer water? Drinking too much water will kill me, and I don’t care. Is your pet drinking more than normal? The Rock drinks a truly unfathomable amount of water every day. There’s a persistent myth that you shouldn’t drink water while eating. You can disregard it. A quarter of humanity faces looming water crises.
comment posted at 1:36 PM on Feb-18-20

Lawrence Ray arrested, previously on the blue... In 2019, the blue linked to an expose that was published about abuse at a small college in Westchester. Finally, it seems the wheels of justice are turning, thanks in most part to that expose. Victims family find some relief.... Warnings for sexual abuse of teenagers and cult-like behavior.
comment posted at 5:38 AM on Feb-13-20

Rachel Bitecofer came into the world of political forecasting with a bold pitch, predicting that Democrats would pick up 42 House seats in 2018 (Christopher Newport University), some four months out from the election, compared to other predictions calling for less than 30 (The Crosstab). They took 41 (Wikipedia). With 16 Months to go, Negative Partisanship Predicts the 2020 Presidential Election (CNU.edu) (spoiler: Democrats are a near lock for the presidency, are likely to gain House seats and have a decent shot at retaking the Senate). If she’s right, it wouldn’t just blow up the conventional wisdom; it would mean that [...] whole industry of experts is generally wrong. An Unsettling New Theory: There Is No Swing Voter (Politico)
comment posted at 3:58 PM on Feb-9-20

Explaining the Executive Order Proposing to Hand Design Authority Over to President Trump
comment posted at 6:54 PM on Feb-6-20

“gonna do a blog-style open thread here by asking: what is the business in your area that is a transparent front for organised crime” [SL Twitter open comment thread]
comment posted at 5:22 PM on Jan-16-20

If You've Eaten 38/54 Of These Foods, You're An Adventurous Eater It's just some light relief, we all love food and food fights, don't we? The post title is the whole text of one of the comments
comment posted at 12:19 PM on Jan-5-20

Two days into the 2020 election year, Republicans are staking their ground: They’re coming for Roe v. Wade. In an amicus curie brief released Thursday, 205 Republican lawmakers, including 39 senators, asked the Supreme Court to consider whether Roe, the 1973 landmark Supreme Court case protecting the right to an abortion, “should be reconsidered and, if appropriate, overruled.” They’re weighing in on June Medical Services v. Gee, a key abortion-related case set to be heard in early March determining whether the state of Louisiana can require abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. Advocates predict that, if the Louisiana law is upheld, two of the remaining three abortion clinics in the state will close down. Abortion rights advocates sounded the alarm Thursday, warning that the legal battle over Roe is now in full swing. “The anti-choice movement is no longer trying to hide their real agenda,” said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, in a statement. “They are gunning to end Roe, criminalize abortion and punish women. If it wasn’t clear why we fought like hell to stop [Supreme Court justice] Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation before, it should be crystal clear now.”
comment posted at 12:50 PM on Jan-3-20

“I can’t think of a single person who has come to me to avoid estate recovery,” Gregory Wilcox[, an elder-law attorney,] says, “because they’re usually not aware of it.” Instead, those who do find out [...] “come to me for estate planning. I tell them, ‘I’ve got good news for you: I can help you avoid probate, and if you avoid that you can also avoid Medicaid estate recovery.’ They’re not even aware of the need to do that.” (SLAtlantic)
comment posted at 5:57 PM on Jan-1-20

Some fear the rules, soon to be finalized, will essentially destroy the process of campus Title IX hearings. The final rules, expected to be released before the end of the year, are likely to include a controversial provision requiring schools to allow in-person cross-examination of students who report assault and harassment, as well as accused students. Many activists, as well as school administrators, say cross-examination is traumatic for a survivor of sexual violence; Jordan Draper, assistant vice president for student affairs at the College of New Jersey, called it “completely terrifying” in an interview with Vox earlier this year. She and others say their schools may have to scrap formal sexual assault hearings entirely if cross-examination is required.
comment posted at 6:58 PM on Nov-27-19

False witness: why is the US still using hypnosis to convict criminals? "For decades, US law enforcement has used ‘forensic hypnosis’ to help solve crimes – yet despite growing evidence that it is junk science, this method is still being used to send people to death row." [The Guardian]
comment posted at 4:14 PM on Nov-13-19

Can a Burger Help Solve Climate Change? - "Eating meat creates huge environmental costs. Impossible Foods thinks it has a solution."
comment posted at 6:32 AM on Oct-1-19

ThinkProgress is shutting down today (Daily Beast), after failing to find a new publisher.
comment posted at 7:09 PM on Sep-6-19
comment posted at 9:49 AM on Sep-7-19

I found Bigfoot ... maybe -- I spent a weekend with the Bigfoot Field Research Organization searching for the large primate. We didn’t find the elusive creature. Or did we? Matt Blitz writes for Popular Mechanics, documenting his experiences, and recapping the research efforts of others, to find Bigfoot in Ohio, home to Bigfoot enthusiasts (Cincinnati Refined), if not the sasquatches themselves. Ohio is "teeming" with sightings (Travel Channel), from amateurs and the Sasquatch Research Team at Bigfoot Ohio.
comment posted at 1:15 PM on Jul-24-19

If domestic abuse is one of the most underreported crimes, domestic abuse by police officers is virtually an invisible one. It is frighteningly difficult to track or prevent—and it has escaped America’s most recent awakening to the many ways in which some police misuse their considerable powers. Very few people in the United States understand what really happens when an officer is accused of harassing, stalking, or assaulting a partner.
comment posted at 1:41 PM on May-26-19

Is it a Farm if it Doesn’t Sell Food? Civil Eats on "The latest Census of Agriculture, released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) [...] The new census shows that nearly 604,000 farms reported sales below $1,000, a slight increase from 2012. It's not known how many of those farms had zero sales, since that data isn't published by the USDA".
comment posted at 1:01 PM on May-15-19

Toby Keith (and lots of other Country artists) have recently released songs that, rather being about traditional country music subjects, explain to the listener just how "country" the singer is. Because nothing is cooler than authenticity police with a hectoring tone and a checklist.
comment posted at 11:51 AM on May-8-19

Women Who Terminate Their Pregnancies Would Receive Life in Prison. On Tuesday, Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed a “fetal heartbeat” bill that seeks to outlaw abortion after about six weeks. The measure, HB 481, is the most extreme abortion ban in the country—not just because it would impose severe limitations on women’s reproductive rights, but also because it would subject women who get illegal abortions to life imprisonment and the death penalty.
comment posted at 2:17 PM on May-7-19

Who is now in the business of training young journalists? Why the Charles Koch Institute, that's who, along with the (potentially puzzling) assistance of the Poynter Institute. "The Media and Journalism Fellowship program is for aspiring and entrepreneurial journalists and storytellers. Our program offers media and creative professionals the opportunity to refine their skills and accelerate their careers while learning about the crucial role of free speech and a free press in our society. The year-long fellowship starts its next session in June 2019."
comment posted at 3:41 PM on Apr-13-19

80% of women living in communist East Germany always reached orgasm during sex, according to the Hamburg magazine Neue Revue in 1990. For West German women that figure was only 63%. [...] In short, they claimed, women had better sex under socialism than under capitalism because socialism treated women better.
comment posted at 3:01 PM on Apr-9-19

The Barely Hidden Flaws in Jordan Peterson's Scholarship "Simply reading the books you find in the religion section of your local used bookstore does not make you a religious scholar, no matter how many YouTube videos you post." [SLMedium]
comment posted at 4:04 PM on Apr-7-19
comment posted at 4:09 PM on Apr-8-19

The IRS Tried to Take on the Ultrawealthy. It Didn’t Go Well. Ten years ago, the tax agency formed a special team to unravel the complex tax-lowering strategies of the nation’s wealthiest people. But with big money — and Congress — arrayed against the team, it never had a chance. (SLProPublica by Jesse Eisinger and Paul Kiel; previously in this series)
comment posted at 5:52 PM on Apr-5-19

“Hayes and Burton want to create a service that not only offers more humane treatment of its creative community but also gives leftist and left-curious viewers a single home for everything from animated comedy to scripted and reality shows to quick explainers, produced explicitly without the kind of restrictions or corporate watering down more prevalent elsewhere. Means TV will be a subscription streaming service that will cost $10 per month, but it plans to publish content across social and YouTube to counter the legions of right-wing content creators on those platforms.” The team behind Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s viral campaign is aiming to create a home for quality leftist entertainment and media without a corporate leash. (Fast Company) “ “Basically, it’s a cooperatively-run, anti-capitalist Netflix,” said co-founder Naomi Burton, the goal of which is “to help create the cultural foundation and support needed to build socialism in the U.S.” (The Intercept) MEANS TV: For All Of Us - Parenting under Capitalism - Slavery, Colonizlism, And Capitalism - Lifehacks! How to literally stay alive! - Health Justice Is What We Deserve - Freedom Under Capitalism with Streetfight Radio - Youtube Channel
comment posted at 6:05 PM on Apr-4-19

The Daily Beast: Trump Diehards Create Their Own Yelp for MAGA-Friendly Restaurants. If you find yourself constantly afraid of being shouted at while trying to have a nice dinner out with your fellow Conservatives while drinking Liberal Tears, then there's an app for that.
comment posted at 2:25 PM on Mar-11-19

The Heavily Armed Millennials of Instagram

Beyond the bunnies and the operators, the tactical world breaks down into a handful of smaller niche categories: competition shooters, “Don’t Tread on Me” 2A defenders, ’Merica-loving irony bros, young bearded dads, legitimate preppers, YouTube stunt shooters, self-defense feminists, conceal-carry exhibitionists (gun in waistband, bellybutton exposed), religious operators (meet @pewpewpreacher), fashionista tactigals.

comment posted at 1:04 PM on Mar-4-19