Who is Your Favorite President (v2) (by FairVote MN) An...

Who is Your Favorite President (v2) (by FairVote MN)

An excellent, brief description of ranked-choice voting, a better method to elect people.

Let Me Explain Why Miley Cyrus’ VMA Performance Was Our Top Story This Morning | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Let Me Explain Why Miley Cyrus’ VMA Performance Was Our Top Story This Morning | The Onion - America's Finest News Source:

The disappointment in this story is that it’s from the Onion, but it’s true.

No, thanks: Stop saying “support the troops” - Salon.com

No, thanks: Stop saying “support the troops” - Salon.com:

He uses a lot of big words, but the general notion is that we should think carefully about who ‘the troops’ are and what we are ‘supporting’.  A seemingly apolitical slogan actually has a lot of political baggage.

A City Invokes Seizure Laws to Save Homes - NYTimes.com

A City Invokes Seizure Laws to Save Homes - NYTimes.com:

Summary: rich bankers get angry when people decide to ask for a square deal.

A Shuffle of Aluminum, but to Banks, Pure Gold - NYTimes.com

A Shuffle of Aluminum, but to Banks, Pure Gold - NYTimes.com:

Activity of no value, costing consumers billions.  Big banks are the enemy of the common (wo)man.

'Ban the box': a major milepost on a long road | MinnPost

'Ban the box': a major milepost on a long road | MinnPost

"a run-up in housing prices that is artificial, fueled by speculation from Wall Street investors,..."

“a run-up in housing prices that is artificial, fueled by speculation from Wall Street investors, setting up the affected regions for yet another crash.”

- Will Rising Mortgage Rates Put an End to the Housing Recovery? -

How Long Can You Wait to Have a Baby? - Jean Twenge - The Atlantic

How Long Can You Wait to Have a Baby? - Jean Twenge - The Atlantic:

A very good, evidence-based analysis of how long a woman can wait - biologically - to have children. 

It might be worth pointing out that raising children requires a lot of physical and emotional stamina, and that those things also decline with age. 

It may be possible to conceive children at 40, but how will you feel about still raising them in your late 50s?

Monopolistic Too-Big-to-Fail Banks Try to Crush Credit Unions as Competition by Removing Tax Exemption

Monopolistic Too-Big-to-Fail Banks Try to Crush Credit Unions as Competition by Removing Tax Exemption

Workaround for Disk Utility "Unable to write to the last block of the device"

I got a new Mushkin solid state disk (SSD) for my 2011-era Macbook Pro running OS X 10.7.5 and when I went to format the thing, Disk Utility kept returning: “Unable to write to the last block of the device".

I got the same error when I booted up in recovery mode (holding Option and then picking the Recovery HD). 

However, when I put the SSD in a USB enclosure and connected it to a 2007-era Macbook (running the exact same version of the OS, however), Disk Utility worked just fine.  I was able to format the disk, partition it (for a Recovery partition) and then use Carbon Copy Cloner back in the Macbook Pro to clone over my existing hard drive. 

So if anyone else out there runs into this problem, find yourself an old Macbook?  Not a great solution, but it’s out there.

Schneier on Security: Preventing Cell Phone Theft through Benefit Denial

Schneier on Security: Preventing Cell Phone Theft through Benefit Denial

Inequality Is

Inequality Is:

A powerfully interactive analysis of economic inequality in the U.S.  Data-rich and yet very accessible.

'Superbugs' push effort to approve new antibiotics

'Superbugs' push effort to approve new antibiotics:

It’s embarrassing that we’re willing to give drug companies more money for antibiotics when we really need to stop feeding them to pigs day and night.

Obamacare’s Other Surprise

Obamacare’s Other Surprise:

Interesting ways that open data will improve health care

The Excel Depression - NYTimes.com

The Excel Depression - NYTimes.com:

I think it’s what psychologists call confirmation bias.  We like to believe in research/data that defends our own point of view.  Governments have slashed spending to cut deficits because politicians wanted to, but the economists that defended that position were actually wrong.  Sigh.

The case of the poison potato - Boing Boing

The case of the poison potato - Boing Boing:

Fascinating look at potato hybrids and how GM crops can actually result in fewer unexpected side effects than traditional cross breeding (since you know which genes you’re messing with).

Soaring Bee Deaths in 2012 Sound Alarm on Malady - NYTimes.com

Soaring Bee Deaths in 2012 Sound Alarm on Malady - NYTimes.com

Government and Medical Costs, Continued - NYTimes.com

Government and Medical Costs, Continued - NYTimes.com

Adding (Multiple) File Attachments to iPad or iPhone emails

For a device that replaces a computer for many (iPad) or that can use cloud-based file syncing (both), it’s amazing that you can’t attach files easily to email in iOS.  But with this $0.99 app – iAttachment – and Dropbox, it’s actually pretty easy.

I’d imagine it also works with apps from other cloud syncing services where you can choose “Open In…” with your files.  If so, leave a comment!

Once you have iAttachment and a cloud file app (Dropbox in this example), here’s what you do:
1) go to Dropbox and find the file you want to attach.  The bottom right option is a little icon with an arrow going into a box.  Tap that and pick “Open In…” and select iAttachment.

Do this for each file you want to send.  It’ll take you to iAttachment after each one, so you’ll have to go back to Dropbox for each additional file.

2) Once you’ve imported all the files you want, open iAttachment.  The files will be in the Imported Files folder. Tap the folder to open it, then check each file you want to attach. 

3) Tap the “attach & mail” icon along the bottom.  It will open a Mail compose window with those files in there.  You can delete the text that says they were attached with iAttachment.

Is Vegetarianism Worth It? - Sierra Daily

Is Vegetarianism Worth It? - Sierra Daily