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Daily Bafflements

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Daily Bafflements
August 27, 2014
• People don’t like to buy weird-looking fruits and vegetables, so the ugly ones normally get thrown out (tons and tons and tons of them). That is, until a French supermarket came up with a way to make weird and ugly produce fun. • A New York Times article earlier ...

Daily Bafflements
August 26, 2014
• Uber and Lyft are on a “lobbying blitz” to fight safety and insurance regulations, says Valleywag. • In case you missed it, the British Embassy celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Brits burning the White House with a cake, sparklers, a day at the pool, ...

Daily Bafflements
August 25, 2014
• Burning Man is now just another tech conference, says Re/code, which is why they’re sending someone to go cover it this year. Lol. (Via Quartz.) • Today in Advice from Billionaires: according to “Koch 101,” a Q&A in the Kansas City Star, the Koch ...

Daily Bafflements
August 22, 2014
• We talk a lot about the First Amendment and how the Obama administration is threatening press freedom in the United States, but it’s also worth noting that journalists can often be entitled assholes. Reporting the news is an important job, but doesn’t ...

Daily Bafflements
August 21, 2014
• According to reports of the ongoing trial of Virginia’s ex-governor Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen, both of whom face charges of public corruption, “The defense painted Ms. McDonnell as a vitamin-obsessed ‘nutbag.'” • Former Obama operatives ...

Daily Bafflements
August 20, 2014
• While the beginning of the school year has been postponed in Ferguson, Missouri because of ongoing protests there, classes are cancelled today and until further notice in Millville, Pennsylvania because all the teachers have gone on strike. According to WNEP-16, the ...

Daily Bafflements
August 19, 2014
• Dust off your monocle and top hat, New York City’s Metropolitan Opera and two of its unions (representing its orchestra and chorus) have finally come to a deal. • Today in Advice from Billionaires: If you want to make it rich, see where this billionaire ...

Daily Bafflements
August 18, 2014
• New York Times reporter James Risen, who is likely facing prison for refusing to give up an anonymous source for a story and book about the CIA, calls President Obama “the greatest enemy to press freedom in a generation.” • Oh, also, in case ...

Daily Bafflements
August 14, 2014
  • It’s the fifteenth anniversary of ABC gameshow Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? • Today in Fearmongering: Ahead of Florida’s November vote on medical marijuana, an anti-legalization group, “No on 2,” tweeted this: “Will the new face of ...

Daily Bafflements
August 13, 2014
• This is what a bunch of tech hype looks like, all graphed up by Gartner. Entrepreneurs, if you seek to reach the “post-nexus stage” with your digital business, go hard on these technologies: “Smart Workspace; Connected Home; 3D Bioprinting Systems; ...

Daily Bafflements
August 12, 2014
• Today in Pure Coincidences, courtesy Mother Jones: a) A lot of bottled water comes from drought-parched California. b) In California, groundwater’s a property right; extraction is unregulated. (At least for now; stay tuned.) • The living Latin ...

Daily Bafflements
August 11, 2014
  • The NCAA can no longer prohibit compensation for student-athletes, a federal judge ruled Friday. While you wait out the appeals process, see e.g. Matt Hinton’s “Billionaire Ball,” circa Baffler no. 20, 2012. “It’s become steadily harder to use ...