From across the pond

A friend of mine across the pond pointed me at an article in the Washington Post by Charles Krauthammer (who I’d never heard of before), discussing anxiety-induced Obama Underappreciation Syndrome. The condition he describes is oddly familiar from our last lot of glorious rulers, if only we understood the wonderful things they were doing we’d stop complaining. “Opening a whole new branch of cognitive science — liberal psychology — Obama has discovered a new principle: The fearful brain is hard-wired to act befuddled, i.e., vote Republican. But of course. Here Obama has spent two years bestowing upon the peasantry the … Continue reading

Mortgage fuelled shit fan interface

Via LegIron I came across this, which if true is terrifying. If you’re not even vaguely aware of what’s going on with mortgages in the US then be prepared for a hell of a shock. The bottom line of the article is: Long story short (since this is the short version): A lot of the foreclosed properties might not have been foreclosed legally. The people evicted might still have a right to their old houses. The new buyers might not actually own the REO’s they bought off the banks. The banks could be on the hook for trillions of dollars, … Continue reading

Warning labels for journalism

Once more just redirecting you to someone else’s genius idea (or less honestly sharing a link), but the idea of warning labels for journalism is just too excellent not to share. Tom Scott has produced a set of warning labels for sticking onto news reports and has made them downloadable as a PDF for avery labels. As he puts it: “It seems a bit strange to me that the media carefully warn about and label any content that involves sex, violence or strong language — but there’s no similar labelling system for, say, sloppy journalism and other questionable content. I … Continue reading