Linkfest 2017-06-30
Interstate Highway System
Yesterday, June 29th, was the 61st anniversary of President Eisenhower's signing of the bill that authorized the construction of the Interstate Highway System.
Minimum wage fight may heat up after new study finds jobs and hours fell in Seattle
This minimum wage study in Seattle is fascinating. It is controversial, because many studies before it have found that minimum wage increases don't affect employment. However, this study has much better data that almost all previous studies, wages and hours worked by individuals, instead of proxies for those things.
That Seattle minimum wage study has some curious results.
A problem with the Seattle minimum wage study is that it only has data on employers with a site in the city. Employers with sites inside and outside Seattle are excluded, which is most of them. I included a data table from the study above so you can see for yourself what the results were, without a model applied.
Young Men Are Playing Video Games Instead of Getting Jobs. That's OK. (For Now.)
The author of the piece points out why I don't play MMOs, despite their popularity: they are work simulators. I play games for fun. While it is true that games in general can be described in similar ways, progress in an MMO is described by an illustrative term: grinding. You have to grind out a repetitive task to move on in the game. A well designed game in another genre never seems repetitive, even when it is. The author is probably about the same age as me, since he references playing Counter-Strike in college in 1999.
How Bad Intellectual Property Laws Hurt Classic Video Game Consumers
This is a reasonable take on why videogames perhaps should have a different term of copyright than books. Alternatively, owners could charge less for older games than they do now.
I understand how this happened, but in a just world he would have been allowed to exercise his hobby without harm.
Why did Greenland’s Vikings disappear?
A re-investigation of the archeology of Greenland. I love archeology in part because it changes every few years. Very dramatic.
NASA ‘sting’ operation against 74-year-old widow of Apollo engineer draws court rebuke
I feel like I may have linked to this already, but it is so shameful it deserves a second link.
That Time the TSA Found a Scientist’s 3-D-Printed Mouse Penis
Science doesn't easily fit into airline security categories.
Comments ()