Kelsey H. Data invades our everyday lives whether we recognize it or not. You absolutely MUST read the amazing coverage by Wired about digital journalism professor Jonathan Albright, who is behind all the meta discoveries on fake news, namely the Internet Research Agency of Russia. This story has me reeling. More important, the man and … Read more
Eric Sierra magazine profiles one of the heroes of the Thin Green Line, “The Unstoppable Don Steinke.” Increasingly, archeological evidence indicates that ancient peoples didn’t necessarily live short lives. To the contrary, they commonly were vigorous and healthy right through their 60s and into their 70s. Kelsey H. Full disclosure: as a very-recently previous female … Read more
Anna Zero tolerance? Did Mexican-American border policing actually unintentionally lead to an illegal immigration problem that didn’t exist when the border was more porous? And what does it have to do with border security failures during the Vietnam war? Malcolm Gladwell profiles General Leonard Chapman’s relentless, by-the-book border enforcement in a recent episode of his … Read more
Alan Durning This brilliant piece strikingly illustrates how building more homes—of all shapes and sizes—is a solution to our climate-changing cities’ problems, and also to our surging homelessness problems, and our deepening economic apartheid problems, and our traffic congestion problems, and our racial inequality problems, and our opioid abuse problems, and our access to job … Read more
Eric Freight trains may someday soon stretch as long as three miles. Writing for the Washington Post, David Moscrop makes the case that Canada is not your utopia. It’s good context for American readers who may be struggling to make sense of Justin Trudeau’s grotesque support for the Trans Mountain Pipeline (which isn’t mentioned in … Read more
Kelsey H. It’s important to keep tabs on the ways in which politics interact with trade in very deliberate ways. In this case, the interaction is directly tied to the journalism industry and democracy. While the printed newspaper is pretty much already dead, this move to make newspaper costs substantially increase by the Trump administration … Read more
Eric I’ve been hopscotching around the essays at Quillette this past week and thoroughly enjoying myself. The platform seems largely dedicated to dissent-style pieces taking aim at a perceived loss of intellectual diversity in American political discourse and to tweaking centrist conventional wisdom. (Check out, “Who’s Afraid of Tribalism?” for example.) Quilette’s bent is largely, … Read more
Eric Public subsidies for professional sports probably aren’t one of society’s top challenges, but good grief they are annoying. In the latest installment, King County may spend $190 million over 20 years for upgrades to Safeco Field (home of the Mariners), much of which will be justified as providing public benefits. The Cut has a … Read more
Kristin Remote workers tend to be more satisfied with their jobs; feel less time pressure, exhaustion, and stress from meetings; and experience less work-life conflict. But they also have a lower sense of inclusion and get less feedback and social support. Here are three ways that workplaces can use technology to help minimize the disadvantages of working outside an office. Gen X’ers—America’s neglected middle … Read more
Kristin Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom ran a two-year randomized experiment tracking 500 employees of CTRIP: half were assigned to work from home and other half to continue working in the office. Guess what? Working from home massively improved employees’ productivity. And their job satisfaction—quit rates decreased by 50 percent in the work from home group. … Read more
