November 2011
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October 2011
South Dakota Profits When Native Kids Get Thrown... →
A year-long NPR News investigation has found that nearly 700 Native American children in South Dakota are being removed from their homes every year. In South Dakota, Native American children make up less than 15 percent of the child population, yet they make up more than half of the children in foster care. Nearly 90 percent of them are in non-native homes or group homes, according to analysis...
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Feds to allow California to cut millions of... →
The Obama administration will allow California to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from Medi-Cal, a move doctors and experts say will make it harder for the poor to get medical treatment. California plans to reduce rates by 10% to many providers, including physicians, dentists, clinics, pharmacies and most nursing homes, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Thursday.
The...
Steve Jobs - Vampire. Bill Gates - Zombie. →
Vampires are smooth and charismatic. They drink blood as if it were the finest pinot noir. Zombies, on the other hand, are awkward and clumsy, yet un-self-conscious about the fact that their eyeballs are falling out. Vampires prance. Zombies plod. Vampires romance you, then strike quickly, then suck all your blood out of your body. Zombies chase you, very, very slowly, in a pack, then gnaw on...
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it is so weird here
Partial Street Closure Announcement What’s Happening: “Chipmunks” Hand and Footprint Ceremony Date/Time: Tuesday, November 1, 2011 2:00 a.m. - 4:00 a.m. Details: North curb lane of Hollywood Boulevard between Highland Ave. and Orange Dr., and South curb lane of Hollywood Boulevard from Orange Dr. to mid-block crosswalk will be closed from 2:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday,...
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yo person with the desultory attitude towards your...
yes, your half-assed hammering and drilling is still loud enough to wake people up
we are currently being treated to 2 (two) jack-hammer involving serious construction projects that have started at 8am every weekday so this was our day for blissful morning quiet
WHY DO THIS AT 8AM ON A SATURDAY
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yessssssssssssssss cardinals!!!!
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The Science Of Irrationality →
Here’s a simple arithmetic question: “A bat and ball cost $1.10. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?”
The vast majority of people respond quickly and confidently, insisting the ball costs 10 cents. This answer is both incredibly obvious and utterly wrong. (The correct answer is five cents for the ball and $1.05 for the bat.)
When people face an uncertain...
Death Penalty Signature Gathering Begins →
Today a statewide coalition of law enforcement, murder victim family members, exonerees and community groups announced the launch of signature gathering for the SAFE California Act (the Savings, Accountability and Full Enforcement for California Act), a ballot initiative that will replace the death penalty with life in prison without possibility of parole. The SAFE California Act will save...
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Helping States Better Understand Budget Choices →
To understand how a proposed state policy change — say, expanding or restricting Medicaid eligibility — would affect the state’s budget, policymakers and the public need to know the cost of simply continuing the program in its current form, after adjusting for factors like inflation and demographic changes. Yet only 22 states plus the District of Columbia produce the document needed to make...
“I’m just absolutely devastated that someone who did two tours of Iraq and came...”
– Occupy Oakland: Iraq war veteran in critical condition after police clashes / guardian.co.uk (via rachelfershleiser)
This is truly atrocious. Scott Olsen, 23, served in Iraq twice with the Marines and is currently under sedation with a skull fracture and brain swelling after the Oakland police...
Does it matter if you’re black on the Internet? →
Sadly, yes. A field experiment involving baseball card auctions on eBay:
Photographs showed the cards held by either a dark-skinned/African-American hand or a light-skinned/Caucasian hand.
Cards held by African-American sellers sold for approximately 20% ($0.90) less than cards held by Caucasian sellers, and the race effect was more pronounced in sales of minority player cards.
A new...
Invisibility and policy design →
I am arguing that Americans’ awareness of social welfare policies is influenced primarily by the design and delivery of such policies. I draw on Paul Pierson’s conceptual approach to policy feedback, specifically his suggestion that policies must be visible and traceable to government if they are to have an impact on citizens’ subsequent political behavior. Policies vary in this regard. Those...
The Oakland Police Department's War on Citizens |... →
important background/context on police violence in oakland.
Discouraged →
verb \dis-ˈkər-ij, -ˈkə-rij\ dis·cour·aged dis·cour·ag·ing transitive verb 1 : to deprive of courage or confidence : dishearten
Ignorant Citizens Are Not Stupid →
One of the things that I’ll say all the time is people’s opinions are inconsistent: for example, they’ll approve of cutting government spending in the abstract, but support increasing virtually all the individual components of that spending. Or that they don’t know very much, with the classic example being that virtually everyone wants foreign aid cut, but if you ask...
Collateral damage →
When police and prosecutors suppress evidence of innocence in order to obtain and protect a conviction, the innocent defendant isn’t the only victim. The guilty party is left at liberty to strike again. What’s really shocking about the Michael Morton case is the long struggle of the DA’s office to prevent the post-conviction DNA tests that apparently have now identified a double murderer.
Occupy Oakland protestors march through Oakland... →
latimes:
Oakland North is a project by U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. They’ve got a rundown of today’s events, just updated 15 minutes ago.
City's Switch to Google Has Been An Utter Failure... →
The city’s much-ballyhooed switch to Google for official city business two years ago — for e-mail, documents and other Google apps — has been an utter failure for the Los Angeles Police Department, according to documents obtained by the consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog.
The LAPD has not been able to use Google like other city departments, because it has a higher bar for...
Schools rolling out new fundraisers: food truck... →
Outdoor food courts are popping up in the parking lots of at least a dozen high schools across Southern California with more on the way. Financially strapped public schools — hit hard by budget cuts, new fundraising guidelines, and fewer donors — have found a way to capitalize on the food truck craze. Schools typically earn up to $50 per food truck nightly. It’s small change that quickly...
Digital Cameras Reduce Electoral Corruption →
Elections in developing countries commonly fail to deliver accountability because of manipulation, often involving collusion between corrupt election offcials and political candidates. We report the results of an experimental evaluation of Quick Count Photo Capture—a monitoring technology designed to detect the illegal sale of votes by corrupt election offcials to candidates—carried out in 471...
Gender Nondiscrimination and Vital Statistics... →
On October 10, 2011, the Gender Nondiscrimination Act and Vital Statistics Modernization Actpassed in California, making important additions to California’s nondiscrimination laws and ensuring that medical professionals, not the judiciary, are the final arbiters of gender reassignment. Though transgendered people are protected under California’s current nondiscrimination laws, the lack of...
How Steve Jobs Got His 2009 Liver Transplant So... →
He was on the transplant waiting list. Well, he was actually on more than one waiting list. Some have even speculated that he was on all of the waiting lists. So, why doesn’t everyone do this? The rule at the time was that you needed to be within 4 hours of the transplant hospital. For most people, that significantly reduces the number of transplant lists you could be on. But, if you’re a...
