June 1, 2015

• The Patriot Act is only mostly dead—the USA Freedom Act is mostly the same, without bulk telecom surveillance.
• Rand Paul was ready for his closeup in last night's congressional tussle over spying.
• In a smartphone-connected world, hurdling corporate and cultural roadblocks in the fight for the blind.
• Browser extension shows you the international provenance of your web experience.
• "If the FBI can’t tell how many people were killed by law enforcement last year, what other kinds of criminal-justice data are missing?"
• Citing the Onion, FIFA-ousted politician blames corruption charges on American jealousy.
• Bernie Sanders was probably comparing poverty to deodorant because we have too much of both.
• Web queried about decision to have children; this Google doc contains the honest submissions.
• Climate change is sharpening existing moral paradoxes as well as introducing new ones.
• May's weird weather is because of a stuck jet stream, El Nino, climate change, and/or nothing.
• The creator of the iconic Obama HOPE poster, Shepard Fairey, says he's lost faith in his subject.
• A pre-Obama-poster gallery of Shepard Fairey's street art.
• "One in 10 cigarettes that smokers light up in Europe is counterfeit or contraband."
• When you accidentally become a temporary cigarette bootlegger on the Ukraine-Romania border.
• The story of the hamburger.
• See also: "A cheeseburger cannot exist outside of a highly developed, post-agrarian society."