8/2/14 Today's Inquiries

Plenty to see and do. Heavy on the videos because reasons.

The Links:

Michael Keaton plays a washed up actor who is best known for his role as a superhero two decades earlier.



An Illustrated History of the Console Wars. Warning, this is a slideshow. I do, however, love reminiscing about the very first time I played a console. I was a little kid visiting my grandparents. They had a Nintendo. The game was called Zelda II: The Adventures of Link.

Another trailer:



Kinda looks like The Cube for teens.

American firms are getting older. Moreover, the "entrenched" firms have figured out how to rig the game. Why compete when you can capture the regulatory and legislative apparatus?

White people are still way, way richer than everyone else. Even more so if you look at married whites.

Moody's Analytics thinks there's a connection between declining mobility and workers dropping out of the workforce. I think the costs associated with relocating have increased. I also think there's been a decline in regional employment uniqueness. Think about it this way. If you're a low skilled worker with, say, an English degree, what are the odd's you'll get a job in Atlanta vs Dallas vs LA vs Seattle? Probably about the same. In the past, maybe you'd be able to go to a region with lots of growth in publishing or some such thing. In the past, high school dropouts could move to the rust belt and work in factories. That world doesn't exist anymore. The same shitty employment opportunities are everywhere.

The Economist notes that people are starting to worry that hedge funds are going to tank the world economy.

Helpful advice: How to tell a sociopath from a psychopath. I like to try and apply this to each character of Always Sunny.

Here's a question: Is poverty mostly structural or mostly individual? The post links several other people's arguments but they're all strictly from an economic perspective and a fairly macro one at that.

Wonkblog says that the best way to live longer is to send your children to college. I'm just going to mumble something about correlation and causation here.

Also at Wonkblog, suddenly Obamacare is more unpopular than ever. Why? Nobody knows. However, maybe the uptick is related to recent court rulings?

I'm shocked, SHOCKED, to find out that law schools are responding to changing demands in the lawyer market. Law takes a back seat to business and technology as the lawyers are again reminded that they are only pawns for the truly rich and powerful. Sorry Laura.

With all the crazy swirling around the Facebook and stuff, I figured this article is a good counterpoint.
Why You're not going to get Ebola in the US.

Yup, we tortured "folks".

And we use metadata to kill people.

Which makes this product look a little less crazy. Only a little, though.



I anticipate the shooting down of drones ending poorly.

So, this animated chart mostly focuses on men of European ancestry. It's obviously incomplete. But still very cool.



Climate change strikes again! Toledo Ohio's water is full of toxic algae from Lake Erie. Boil it!

So, since we're obviously going to burn every last bit of hydrocarbon on the planet, and global warming is an unavoidable reality, where should we live to avoid it's worst consequences? This blog says The Pacific Northwest. I'd go a little further, like, say, Vancouver. Are they still Homesteading Crown Lands in northern Canada? Winnipeg might be a good place to go.

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