Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Chris Blattman cites a recent estimate that Americans own 42% of the civilian guns in the world. You’ll also see estimates that America accounts for about half of the world’s defense spending. I believe those numbers are a misuse of purchasing power parity comparisons, but with proper adjustments it is not implausible to believe that…
One night, about 10 months ago, I got an email from a friend in Vermont, with the subject line “Is this you!?” I clicked it open, and the friend had sent me a link to a website called “Youredoingitwrong.com,” which is a site of all viewer-submitted photos of people doing things hilariously, ignorantly wrong in public….
Like all good things, it started at brunch. It was a bitter January, before Empire even premiered and the idea that I would ever wear a leopard-print fedora was even a possibility. I was sitting in a restaurant, sipping my tea and absentmindedly checking my email, patting myself on the back for the biggest accomplishment…
The freelance life. (Photo by flickr user @eekim, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License) Rachel Northrop shouldn’t have to use her credit card to buy groceries. She’s a successful young professional, after all, freelancing for several trade journals about tea and coffee production after having published a book on the subject in 2013. But…
The word for debt in German also means guilt. A friend who used to live in Munich mentioned this to me recently. I took note because I’m newly in debt, quite a lot of it, from buying a house. So far, my debt is surprisingly comfortable, and that’s one quality of debt that I’ve been…
*** CONTENT STARTS HERE *** START END LEDE W/TEXT UNDER FULL-WIDTH IMG The CEO Paying Everyone $70,000 Salaries Has Something to Hide Inside the viral story of Gravity CEO Dan Price. By Karen Weise | December 1, 2015 Photographs by Nathanael Turner From BODY COPY CENTERED It seemed too good to be true. On April 13,…
It was an abrupt and unambiguous declaration to her 226,000 Twitter followers — and her countless more fans. On Saturday, adult actress, writer and entrepreneur Stoya announced on Twitter, “That thing where you log in to the internet for a second and see people idolizing the guy who raped you as a feminist. That thing sucks.”…
Politics This French Philosopher Is The Only One Who Can Explain The Donald Trump Phenomenon by Judd Legum Sep 14, 2015 8:40am Donald Trump has political pundits stumped. They’ve been predicting his imminent downfall for months. Every “gaffe” that was supposed to destroy his support has only made him stronger. “DON VOYAGE: Trump Toast…
A CNN article detailing the first day in the trial of one of six Baltimore police officers indicted in the death of Freddie Gray has sparked outrage online. Why? Because of the manner in which CNN journalists Ann O’Neill and Aaron Cooper referred to Gray’s mother. Following an otherwise straightforward lede, O’Neill and Cooper described the deceased…
Police have launched an investigation into the distribution of abusive cards on the London Underground purporting to be from a group calling itself Overweight Haters Ltd. A number of people have reported seeing passengers being handed the cards, said to come from an organisation that “hates and resents fat people”. A Twitter user named Kara…