John Picerne is a hereditary one-percenter whose contribution to his family legacy of "real estate development" was to spend millions on lobbying, which landed him millions more in government loans… Read the rest of the article: How a millionaire slumlord got sweetheart government deals to maintain armed forces housing and then left them to rot

In 2002, a mysterious man is arrested for illegally occupying a hotel room: he says his name is Ed Stone, and that he was kidnapped by aliens from the same… Read the rest of the article: Why Do Birds: Damon Knight's amazing, underappreciated science fiction novel about putting all of humanity in a box

While mass-shootings are the most visible and spectacular consequence of America's love affair with guns, the person most likely to shoot you is you (either accidentally or deliberately), with a… Read the rest of the article: Gun suicides rise to highest level in 40 years

Filmmakers turned a writing prompt from Reddit user WaFromWa into a stellar short film whose premise includes Santa as a deadly, covert super-assassin. Superb! (via JWZ)

In 2013, San Bernardino Sheriff's Deputy Luis Ortiz took the decision to arrest a group of seventh grade girls — 12 and 13 year olds — because they wouldn't speak… Read the rest of the article: San Bernardino will pay $390k to settle suit against cop who arrested 7th graders "to prove a point"

As is the case every year Maximum Fun's Jesse Thorn has posted a special episode (MP3) of the Bullseye podcast, anthologizing excerpts from the best comedy albums of the year.

Eve (AKA Talismana Designs) carves these $32 bird skull rings out of slaughterhouse surplus cow-bones, custom carved to your size. (via Creepbay)

Juul just handed out $2 billion in dividends, making 1,500 employees into overnight millionaires; the cash came from Altria-Marlboro's 35%, $12.8 billion buyout of the company — and everything about… Read the rest of the article: Carcinogens, monopolies, influence-peddling: Juul is a microcosm with everything wrong in the world

After a successful phishing attack that captured over 50 accounts, hackers stole 500,000 records from the San Diego Unified School District, for staff, current students, and past students going all… Read the rest of the article: Phishers steal San Diego school data going back to 2008 — UPDATED

Techcrunch's Greg Kumparak started agitating for phones to have standard 3.5mm jacks in the 2000s, rejoicing when the original Iphone shipped with one; now, two years after Apple took away… Read the rest of the article: Phones without headphone jacks suck

Generally, the DNC is a fucking pro-establishment dumpster fire (which may explain why it's foundering), but things are (finally) looking up.

ORG — the UK Open Rights Group (disclosure: I am a co-founder and volunteers on its advisory board) is hiring a Data and Democracy Project Officer: "responsible for delivering our… Read the rest of the article: Help Wanted: a Data and Democracy specialist for for the UK Open Rights Group

Bruce Sterling's two-hour talk/Q&A at The Interval, a club for members of the Long Now foundation, may seem like a daunting load for a holiday week, but honestly, it's worth… Read the rest of the article: Bruce Sterling's Long Now talk: what it means to perform futurism

Fizz Buzz is the word-game in which players in a circle count from 1 up, substituting multiples of three with "fizz" and multiples of five with "buzz" ("1, 2, Fizz,… Read the rest of the article: Teaching test-driven development and continuous integration with "Evil Fizz Buzz"

Retired Cambridge professor Peter Smith has distilled his experience in teaching philosophers and mathematicians about formal logic into a free, frequently updated (last updated: 2017) study guide to logic, constructed… Read the rest of the article: Independent study guide to logic for philosophers and mathematicians

The New York Times has published an investigation into infamous American mass shootings and found that a significant proportion of mass shooters go on credit-card fueled spending sprees prior to… Read the rest of the article: Credit card activity as a predictor of mass shootings

In 2009, Obama signed an executive order requiring the administrative branch to embrace the broadest, most liberal approach to the Freedom of Information Act, reversing John Ashcroft's 2001 memo that… Read the rest of the article: In a huge win for open data, Congress passes the Open, Public, Electronic, and Necessary Government Data Act

An annual tradition (MP3)! Poesy is now 10 — nearly 11! — and this year, she's decided to offer us a detailed makeup tutorial, with some bonus horseback riding advice.… Read the rest of the article: Christmas podcast with Poesy, 2018 edition

In 2017, Reality Winner, a 25-year-old Air Force veteran and intelligence contractor was arrested for leaking confirmation of 2016 Russian election meddling to The Intercept; Winner seems to have been… Read the rest of the article: Air Force veteran Reality Winner is serving 5 years for blowing the whistle on Russian election interference, while Trump's Russia-dealing cronies are going free

For two decades, adolescent smoking has been on the decline, but thanks to vaping products like Juul (which has 75% of the market), teen smoking just jumped by levels not… Read the rest of the article: Thanks to vaping, decades of anti-smoking progress in teens has been wiped out