NLIHC From the ‘Out of Reach’ report: “In no state can an individual working a typical 40-hour workweek at the federal minimum wage afford a one- or two-bedroom apartment for his or her family.” The gap between wages and rents is an uncomfortably familiar source of constant, low-level panic for many Americans, but the National […]
BRENDAN KILEY
Posted in?!?!?
Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma? (I do.)
Your theme song for this post: Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma? Not Vampire Weekend and not the University of Oxford. Galleycat has reprinted a bit of their style guide: As a general rule, do not use the serial/Oxford comma: so write ‘a, b and c’ not ‘a, b, and c’. But when […]
Posted inPolitics
"Bypassing that system is illegal for a reason."
Google engineer Mike Hearn, one of many who are expressing outrage and disbelief about the NSA breaking into their house, might have summed up his colleagues’ feelings best: There’s no ambiguity here. The warrant system with skeptical judges, paths for appeal, and rules of evidence was built from centuries of hard won experience. When it […]
Posted inNews
Today in the Surveillance State: The Virtues of Police Cameras
Surveillance is inevitable—I don’t write about it because I think there’s any real chance of it going away, but because the smarter we are about how we let it get introduced into our lives (and the more we know about how it’s being introduced without our participation, permission, or consent), the better off we’ll be […]
Posted inNews
Feds Conclude That Limits on Surveillance Powers Prevented Them from Preventing the Boston Bombings
A few days ago, the New York Times reported on the FBI excusing itself for not preventing the Boston bombings: WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. has concluded that there was little its agents could have done to prevent the Boston Marathon bombings, according to law enforcement officials, rejecting criticism that it could have better monitored one […]
Posted inNews
An Interview with the Former Government Contractor Who Leaked Information About NSA Surveillance
Edward Snowden, the former government contractor who leaked top-secret documents about the NSA’s extraordinarily broad digital surveillance program, intended to release his identity all along. Here’s an interview he conducted with journalist Glenn Greenwald—about why he did what he did—at his current refuge in Hong Kong. You can read the transcript here. An excerpt: Snowden: […]
Posted inPolitics
Why Drones Matter
Lots of recent articles (including ones in The Stranger) have been writing around the edges of domestic surveillance drones, clumsily stumbling through the ethics and implications of this new technology. Why the clumsiness? Because this technology is so new, moving faster than the laws or philosophical underpinning that should govern it, that anyone who’s trying […]
Posted inCats
“A Cat Knows What Anarchy Is”
So says legendary photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson: The French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson was a photojournalist for Life and other publications for over three decades. He is widely considered to be the master of street photography and the father of modern photojournalism. Henri loved cats and was once quoted as saying “I’m an anarchist, yes. Because I’m […]
Posted in$$$
“Mad Men” and Taxes
Good morning! On the occasion of the new season of Mad Men, the New York Times would like to remind you: In a certain sense, wealthy people could live with a justifiable guiltlessness in “Mad Men” New York. Not because they were blind to the city’s mounting racial crisis or to the perils of smoking […]
Posted inOccupy
Giving Occupy a Bum Name
A new police strategy for messing with/discrediting Occupy encampments—this one in Tampa last month: About a dozen Occupy Tampa demonstrators were having a meeting around the campfire last night when four patrol cars pulled up across the street. A smiling police officer opened one back door, and out stepped a disgruntled 40ish-year-old woman in a […]
Posted inPolitics
Got Tattoos? You Might Be a Terrorist!
Publicintelligence.net has posted several FBI bulletins to employees in various fields (hobby shops, rental trucking companies, hardware stores) about how to spot suspicious/terrorist-y behavior. But my favorite one is to the tattoo artists of America. Under the “What Should I Consider Suspicious?” header, the FBI advises: At the bottom of the bulletin, the FBI reminds […]
Posted inTV
X-Factor Pakistan
As hot tipper Paul says, “Makes the Jackass guys look like preening debutantes.” Some of those are old tricks—florescent bulbs are dramatic but relatively mild, as are the brittle blocks—asbestos?—you break over people’s bodies. (Though I worry a little about the stuntmen’s long-term respiratory health.) And the bed o’ nails is an old one. I […]