Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
A small rebellion against the American higher education system is gaining steam. On Tuesday, a group of strikers and organizers who call themselves “the Corinthian 100” met with officials from the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Education and the Department of Treasury to demand that their federal student loans be forgiven. The…
Sterling Archer of FX’s “Archer” is practically a walking AP Literature text book. As the world’s most well-read secret-service agent, he knows the texts of “Animal Farm” and “Of Mice and Men” — even the works of French Philosopher Peter Abelard dating back to the 12th century — like the back of his hand. Or, well…
The Blurst of Times A genetic algorithm experiment — @joshmillard This script creates a series of virtual monkeys, each with its own genetic pre-disposition to whack certain sets of keys on a typewriter in a certain order. Each generation of monkeys competes to see who can produce output closest to the target sentence;…
Apple Watch and the induced demand of communication APR 08 2015 Some sort of embargo seems to have lifted because here come the Apple Watch reviews! As I’m unanointed by Apple, I haven’t experienced Apple Watch in the flesh, but I do have a few random thoughts and guesses. John Gruber notes that why Apple…
TIME World Greece Greece Seeks $305 Billion in WWII Reparations From Germany Louisa Gouliamaki—AFP/Getty Images Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis arrives to present his ministry’s new secretaries at a press conference in Athens on March 4, 2015. Amid a continuing negotiation over debt relief from the European Union bailout Greece released its first quantifiable demand…
<![endif][if gt IE 9]>><![endif][if IE 9]>< ![endif][if IE 8]>< ![endif][if gt IE 8]>><![endif][if lt IE 9]>< ![endif][if lt IE 9]>< ![endif] USA TODAY investigation revealed that a secret program collecting phone call data for international calls started in 1992. USA TODAY Starting in 1992, the Justice Department amassed logs of virtually all telephone calls from…
Credit ILLUSTRATION BY ELLEN SURREY Not long ago, I walked into a friend’s kitchen and found her opening one of those evil, impossible-to-breach plastic blister packages with a can opener. This worked, and struck me as brilliant, but I mention it only to illustrate a characteristic that I admire in our species: given almost any entity, we…
Earlier this month, in the middle of the night, a pair of Minnesota parents heard strange music coming from their baby’s room. When they investigated, they were horrified to find that the sound was coming from their Foscam baby camera. The camera had been hacked, and its live-feed of their baby’s crib had been posted…
150 years after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Americans are still fighting over the great issues at the heart of the conflict. Wikimedia Commons On this 150th anniversary of the surrender at Appomattox, Americans mark the end of the Civil War. The questions at the heart of the war, though, still occupy the nation,…
The controversial TV presenter was recently sacked from the motoring series after a “fracas” over hot dinner sent producer Oisin Tymon to A&E with a split lip in early March. More than a million people signed an online petition to see Clarkson return to Top Gear, but BBC Director General Tony Hall came to the…