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Daily Bafflements
November 07, 2014
• Today’s Headline Without Context, from Engadget: “Tiny robotic scallops can swim through blood and eyeball fluid to fix you up.” • Today’s Quote Without Context, from the Spectator: “And for those who can’t manage the group sessions, ...

Can Humor Be Revolutionary?
November 06, 2014
In his new book, Russell Brand grandly declares: “The Revolution cannot be boring.” Accordingly, his long and winding Revolution (Ballantine Books, 320 pages, $26) mixes comedy and politics, quoting Monty Python and Louis CK alongside the likes of George Orwell and Noam ...

Daily Bafflements
November 06, 2014
• The private takeover of public spaces continues: Portland will soon allow the company’s utility cabinets for its Google Fiber project in the middle of the city’s sidewalks. But don’t worry; they’ll be painted with funky designs for “artistic ...

The Military’s Latest Enemy: Climate Change
November 05, 2014
To say that the United States military has its hands full right now is a bit of an understatement. We might not have anywhere near the troop deployment levels reached during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—and there have been modest cuts to the defense ...

Daily Bafflements
November 05, 2014
• Voters approved ballot measures yesterday to raise the minimum wage, in Arkansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota (and maybe also in Alaska). • A dispatch from the “East Coast Cannabis Business Expo, Educational Conference and Regulatory Summit” turned out to be ...

Election Day Reading from The Baffler
November 04, 2014
Good morning, all you small-r republicans and patriots. It’s election day today, yessiree. How are you celebrating this iteration of our grand small-d democracy? Here’s an idea: why not ignore the pundits and the pollsters and the nerds and naysayers, and return to some ...

Daily Bafflements
November 04, 2014
• CNN’s online coverage of the midterm elections this morning is a parody of itself. A front page headline explainer-s your very own vote, and the site’s main story as we write this is “7 things that almost definitely will happen tonight,” the first ...

Payday Loans 4 Kids!
November 03, 2014
This week I opened the UK’s first payday loan shop just for children, Pocket Money Loans. The London-based store offers kids an advance on their pocket money at interest rates as low as 5,000 percent APR, (a substantial 853 percent less than market leader wonga.com). I like to ...

Daily Bafflements
November 03, 2014
• This sign that Max Grinnell spotted in Cambridge, Massachusetts (home of The Baffler) says a lot about the changes brewing in our fair city. • “We will elect a whole platoon of empty, defeated men to the Senate on Tuesday, and then, two years from now, we will search ...

Daily Bafflements
October 31, 2014
• Americans are spending $5 billion on disposable costumes and candy this week, $350 million of which will go towards buying pet costumes, reports Kyle Chayka in his piece on the Halloween-Industrial Complex. • Historians describe grass, leaves, bark, clay, and dirt as ...

The Zombie Movie Without Zombies
October 30, 2014
As unlikely as a “zombie apocalypse” remains, earnest discussion of how to prepare for such an event is a long-standing cultural standby. Amid a bloom of supernatural-orientated dramas culled from comics and B-Movies of the 50s, the zombie genre stands out as the most ...