A fascinating story about how MetaFilter helped combat human trafficking. Well, helped out some of the trafficked, anyway.

Richard Florida and Nate Silver think that we’re coming down from the peak of our car-centric culture. Their evidence is pretty thing, though. People under 18 are driving less because there are more restrictions put on their licenses and parents are getting more and more paranoid. The big about declining mileage between 1995 and 2009 is interesting, though.

Fanboyism and Brand Loyalty. Am I the only one that finds myself in a position of really wishing I could like a product but being unable to climb aboard? I want to use Linux, but can’t really. I want to switch to Android, but can’t, really.

If a casino machine malfunctions, why doesn’t the winner get to keep the proceeds? If the machine breaks in the other direction, the casino keeps the proceeds because nobody knows there is a problem (or they don’t until it’s too late). Fair is fair, I say. The McMahons should be millionaires.

Then again, who needs to be a millionaire? Apparently all it takes is $60k a year.

A blog about a guy watching Lost backwards. I wonder if it makes more or less sense that way? Not sure I’m going to find out as he is not being very snappy about it.

Will vanity press mark the end of the publishing industry? I doubt it. Publishers are too valuable as filters. It does have the potential to shake things up, though.

China’s road to economic world dominance promises to be a rocky one.

If America doesn’t like soccer, it’s cause of racism. But if they take enough interest to route for their team? Jingoism. {Via}


Category: Newsroom

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11 Responses to Linkluster XX

  1. web says:

    My lack of enthusiasm for soccer has nothing to do with race, and everything to do with the fact that the international grass-diving festival is simply boring as hell.

  2. Peter says:

    Any discussion of race and sports should take note of the fact that the ultra-popular NFL is something in excess of 70% black. And of course the NBA (not as big as the NFL) is even more heavily black dominated, while blacks and Latins together comprise about half of MLB rosters.

  3. David Alexander says:

    People under 18 are driving less because there are more restrictions put on their licenses and parents are getting more and more paranoid.

    This may barely skirt the ban on certain topics here, but if the youth population is more likely to be non-white, it may also be more likely to be poorer, and thus less able to pay for the capital and operating costs of the car. Plus, I suspect with an increasing number of college students, students are less likely to want a car that they can’t use for two to three years due to limited or non-existent parking at certain schools.

    FWIW, I managed to get my full license after a 6 month driver education course at 17, mind you, we held off on running out to get licenses earlier because we presumed that it would be a waste given that at the time, one had to wait until the age of 17 to get a full license via driver education (not the standard 6 hr driving school class), and our parents didn’t have the cash to buy cars for us.

  4. rob says:

    …international grass-diving festival

    That’s a real problem with soccer. It isn’t just a pansy habit. Pretending to be injured so ref calls a penalty is cheating. To combat the endemic fraud, players who appear severely injured should be removed from the game for their own safety. With no substitutions. After Italy loses a few games 50-0 because every player is out for medical protection, every team will cheat less.

  5. stone says:

    “A fascinating story about how MetaFilter helped combat human trafficking. Well, helped out some of the trafficked, anyway.”

    I think of human trafficking as meaning sold into involuntary prostitution — not as merely working as a stripper or a prostitute at a “seedy nightclub.” Do we have any evidence it was the former and not the latter? Do we have any evidence the latter isn’t exactly what the girls were looking for when they came to America?

    I’m a little worried about the woman whose apartment these strange young women are staying in, frankly.

  6. trumwill says:

    That’s a real problem with soccer. It isn’t just a pansy habit. Pretending to be injured so ref calls a penalty is cheating.

    Last (American) football season, when Southern Tech was playing one of its rivals, the other team kept having their right defensive tackle hurt. Not a single guy. One would get hurt, then his replacement would get hurt. Back and forth. Incidentally, the style of Sotech’s offense is very rhythmic in nature and every injury was basically a free time out and a chance to break out team of its rhythm.

    There was a lot of debate over whether this constituted “gamesmanship” or “cheating” (our offensive coordinator had some harsh words) right up until someone got the rulebook out which explicitly said faking injury was in fact cheating. At that point the other team’s fans (or those that just hate our team) said that the boys really were getting hurt every second or third play.

    In which case, I gotta say, it’s pretty inhuman of their coach to force those kids to keep playing when they can’t seem to get up after just a few plays. There are 80 guys on a roster. Surely there was some right DT that could have stepped in…

  7. Peter says:

    I think of human trafficking as meaning sold into involuntary prostitution — not as merely working as a stripper or a prostitute at a “seedy nightclub.” Do we have any evidence it was the former and not the latter?

    My guess is that because there are enough women willing to do that sort of work there’s no need to force anyone into it.

  8. Kirk says:

    It’s intersting, comparing how hockey players and soccer players react to injuries. I remember when one of the Lightning players got shoved face-first into the boards during Stanley Cup play. He played the rest of the series with a broken face, finally going to the hospital only after the series was done. Again, the dude played three or four games with a broken face!

    It does make the grass-divers look like a bunch of pansies.

  9. Abel says:

    Will vanity press mark the end of the publishing industry? I doubt it. Publishers are too valuable as filters. It does have the potential to shake things up, though.

    Publishers buy only what they think will sell. Period. It doesn’t matter how well written it is. If it’s awful, they’ll have an edtior rework the hell out of it.

    While the ease of self publihing doesn’t means the end of the publishing industry, publishers should be scared. Well-known authors with a following are starting to hire editors on their own and publish their own books and making much more money in the process. Lose enough big name authors and your company will lose money.

  10. Peter says:

    Soccer players don’t writhe around in seeming agony after minor contact because they’re sissies with zero pain tolerance. Diving is a deliberate strategy, aimed at drawing penalties on opposing players. If the rules were changed diving would disappear.

  11. rob says:

    Peter, we know they’re mostly pretending. And it is cheating.

    From the fifa rulebook,

    p117 “There are different circumstances when a player must be cautioned for
    unsporting behaviour…attempts to deceive the referee by feigning injury or pretending to have
    been fouled (simulation)”

    It’s late, so I’m not going to read the whole thing. I’m sure that after some number of cautions, a player can be red carded. I’d also bet that a referee can force an “injured” player off the field for his own protection.

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