The Reading List!

Denver’s Solution To Its Housing Crisis: Subsidize Rent For Expensive, Empty Apartments

"Cities want to help essential workers like teachers and nurses live in or near the areas they serve, in spite of rapidly rising housing prices. Denver’s solution will subsidize the rent of vacant high-end apartments already on the market"
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Alternatives to Opioids for Pain Relief

"Pharma is not the only way to approach pain management. Reliance on opioids alone is an outdated and broken one-size-fits-all solution. We need to provide access to a suite of pain relief options for all people, including non-pharma centric options."
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The Esports Observer Receives Significant Investment

"Thrilled to see EchoFox and The Yankees team-up, especially with Sports Business Journal jumping into the eSports arena as well."
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With ‘Open Access,’ the Met Museum’s Digital Operation Has a Bona Fide Hit on its Hands

"The Met’s recent release of all public domain works through their Open Access program has been a boon to photo sharing sites like Wikimedia Commons and Creative Commons, as well as sparking the interest of online creators."
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Why Business Leaders Need to Read More Science Fiction

"We are all for exploring literature that reframes the world in what-ifs, but see no reason limit that exploration to Science Fiction. Fantasy, mythologies, allegories, and poetry also reimagine human experience in way that would get “business leaders,’ or anyone, thinking a little differently about the world."
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Save the Census

"What roll will the census have in the age of fake news and disputed voter fraud accusations casting doubt on government data collection? Can the Census Bureau adapt and solidify its relevance in time for the 2020 collection?"
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Marijuana Shortage Prompts Emergency In Nevada; Tax Officials Weigh Changes

"From Schedule 1 to Top Shelf - Nevada declares a state of emergency as marijuana retailers rapidly run out of stock, and considers filling the distribution gap with liquor wholesalers. Does this signal an inevitable partnership between liquor and marijuana sales?"
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Seattle’s Minimum Wage Hike May Have Gone Too Far

Supreme Court's ruling against PC police a win for free speech

"Where the government’s argument was that censuring “negative” or “disparaging” expressions is sufficient to evade the First Amendment, we would posit that the it exists to protect negative or disparaging expressions perhaps even MORE than supportive ones. We may do well to remember that the rights laid out in the American Constitution are to protect citizens from governmental tyranny rather than protecting government from citizen outrage."
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Comcast’s NBC Sports jumps on Spanish-language esports bandwagon

"Great to see the esports community growing but we’ll be cheering for @EchoFoxgg no matter the language."
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Should You Invest In Bitcoin? 10 Arguments In Favor As Of December 2015

Philadelphia teachers plan 'Black Lives Matter week': Does BLM belong in the classroom?

"In a historical context I think it makes sense at some point in time to talk about the movement in the milieu of the current era, but these things feel like recruitment efforts when it's so contemporary. Students should be made aware of what's going on around them but they should also be made aware of the uptick in the alt-right movement or any other idea(s) that take shape around them but certainly people would be up in arms if there was an alt-right week at school... And I generally don't like when things I support make themselves harder to defend."
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Faces Of Sun Devil Athletics Support

"For me, sports were an outlet growing up. It taught me discipline and a good work ethic. Collegiate athletics offers college students an opportunity to get a great education while pursuing their passion and talents. I am a Sun Devil, and I believe in the programs at ASU in how they shape young lives to better our world."
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Writing a new Pakistan playbook

"It is somewhat intriguing, if not outright surprising, that one of India's most well-respected national security advisors would essentially acknowledge that current Indian leadership has all but accepted the inevitability of a large scale formal war with Pakistan. Reading between the lines of pro-India lenses, the stark commentary that Pakistan "needs" India as a militant enemy for its identity has morphed into Pakistan becoming a larger regional power in regards to state-sponsored terrorism makes the "hyphenation" unnecessary for Pakistan now. Which then means that Pakistan no longer also has an internal MAD calculation vis-a-vis Kashmir or even Jammu. It will be interesting to see how Modi et al deal with India's potential role in Asia and the greater Indian Ocean region."
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Shell Signs Preliminary Iran Oil Deal Despite Uncertainty Over Trump

"I find it bizarre that the lead of the article is a concern from Shell (and later in the article, referencing Total) about Trump's reaction to Iran sanction lifting. Lest we forget, Trump is merely President-elect of the U.S. Neither Shell nor Total are American companies and therefore not bound by American trade agreements. I am unsure if this is cognitive dissonance in the form that any U.S. President's actions in the region are de facto actions by the "rest of the West" that Trump somehow has outsize power from his elected position, that "Big Oil" companies act in concert as Musketeer-esque fashion, or that any company listed on the NYSE or NASDAQ inherently follows U.S. foreign policy laws."
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$100 Million Awarded in Contest to Rethink U.S. High Schools

"I love the ideas coming out of the $100 Million prize. We should embrace the competitive aspects and innovative spirit, but just make sure it doesn’t turn into a “for profit” situation. I am on board with challenging old assumptions on the 100 year model, both in scheduling and how “summer break” even came about."
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WATCH: In TV Interview, Candidate Gary Johnson Asks 'What Is Aleppo?'

"It's cute when journalists try and trip up candidates by asking "gotcha" questions. Make sure you watch the video and don't just read the headlines. #GaryJohnson #LetGaryDebate"
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NBA Legend Rick Fox Talks eSports and League of Legends
"Words of Wisdom from Rick Fox & Echo Fox: "I see Echo Fox continuing to be a leader in eSports and bringing eSports further into the mainstream.""
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10 Things We Learned From ‘Absolutely Fabulous’

"Ahhhh, for comedy to fulfill one of its primary, primeval functions again will be wonderful! I have always held close to the belief that art is necessary to society for a multitude of reasons; one of the chief of which to me is the ability to hold up a mirror to current societal actions and norms. To lampoon celebrity-style culture with the kind of beautifully scathing wit that is rarely matched by any other than the British will be a most welcome event."
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Could Video Gaming Become The Next Olympic Sport?
"Great interview with Jace Hall CEO of Echo Fox about the possibility of eSports in the 2020 Olympic Games. Just a hint to thought, including eSports may help with the lagging viewership the Olympics had with millennials this year"
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This Hyperloop Lawsuit Is Insane

"Top flight ideas invariably generate friction between leaders; that seems to be well reported in the article. The best reporting in it, however, comes to the salient issue of how this kind of vitriol in the internecine fights may chill or even erode investment into something so critical as the future of infrastructure transportation. One other thing that this episode reinforces in my mind is that the worst thing you can do to an entrepreneurial enterprise is not starve it, but rather to smother it with cash."
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The Economist explains: Why sports teams are recruiting video gamers
"Manchester United is adding an eSports player to represent them in FIFA, but will also be part of the team with his own uniform, number, and will challenge fans at the game to play. It will likely become a trend among professional sports teams to get into the eSports arena either by purchasing their own team, or by having players to compete in tournaments representing the brand."
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How to remake the L.A. freeway for a new era? A daring proposal from architect Michael Maltzan
"Happy 60th for the CA Interstate Freeway system! In honor of that, the LA Times design firms to build the "Freeway of the Future." The selected design includes an overlay to reduce traffic noise, a ceiling to catch the auto emissions reducing the carbon footprint, collects rainwater for the hanging plants outside of the tunnel, solar panels...go look at the pictures."
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THE CURIOUS HISTORY OF 'THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC'

"Songs, even the most spiritual, have always been political in nature. We should embrace our culture's relevance in seeking new ways to define message. So that so many can hear the song of freedom no matter how we decided to express it."
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What is it like to fire an AR-15? It’s horrifying, menacing and very very loud

"Milquetoast is sad. What is egregious, however, is to claim that firing an AR-15 gave him "temporary PTSD." Sadly, that level of hyperbolic victimization makes the entire of the reporting on the exercise intellectually dishonest to me."
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Activision Blizzard to Publish Daily Live Programming on Facebook

"I wonder, with the penultimate paragraph commenting that the Activision Blizzard stream is attempting to look like SportsCenter... is the time already ripe for a variety of channels to watch specific video gaming games ala conference networks? Or is this merely Activision Blizzard trying to own the video game streaming space in order to compete with their primary e-sports-producing rivals (Riot, Valve, Square Enix)?"
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Novel Strategy Puts Big Soda Tax Within Philadelphia’s Reach

"While I agree that there are other laws that are in the same vein of paternalistic (or maternalistic, depending on what happens in November!) or seemingly arbitrary settings for other laws, I also do recoil at such laws. I have long argued that the 21-year drinking age is an unnecessary fiction of perceived “safety of minors,” and sadly the MADD lobby has turned to a tyrannical position rather than one that sought to protect innocent victims of drunken driving. Now… I also have proposed, at least on the legal drinking age issue, a certification/licensing requirement to overlay on a reduction of the legal drinking age. This means that in order to buy alcohol, a person would have to be legally licensed to use it – much like driving a car. This would allow for appropriate penalization where it should exist, especially in the realm of DUI behavior. Currently, we can revoke a driving license for DUI behavior. But the problem is the UI, not necessarily that the person is a horrible driver otherwise. If we can revoke the alcohol license, that goes more clearly to penalizing the offensive behavior. In that same vein, the nanny-taxing offends me as it removes citizenry from being responsible and accountable for their own actions. Instead of taxing to change behavior, license/regulate it if you must."
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Do You Take Yourself Seriously?

"You're good enough, you're smart enough and doggonit, people like you. Seriously though."
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Before Hillary Clinton, there was Shirley Chisholm

"No matter your party affiliation, recognize those in history that have blazed a path where none were found. Thank you for the courage to fight for what is right."
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Minnesota Baseball: I Hate Wake Forest...But Why?

NYC Threatens to Ban Artist’s “Problematic” Public Sculpture

"The point of art at times is to specifically be "problematic". If the kind of art that is confrontational is left out of the public sphere, then what is the point of the confrontational art. I would rather see it taken down altogether rather than sanitized and displayed at half mast."
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How gender is trumping religion in American politics

"This is, in my opinion, part of a greater conversation about the very existence of God. Not a proving or disproving, but that a discussion about religion does not have to be a proxy for a discussion of God's existence. Wade and I have spoken often about irrespective of God's existence, what are some of the exponents and indicia of religiosity in America, both good and bad."
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Google Home Is the Potential Nail In Amazon Echo's Coffin

"Wait, what? ALWAYS-LISTENING MICROPHONE? And nobody is reporting on the inherent invasion of privacy by having what now amounts to spy/surveillance equipment in your home? I wonder what it would take to generate a new suite of laws and regs that address privacy invasion from private-sector companies - I envision something akin to a 21st-century anti-trust framework. Certainly food for thought."
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This Man Spent 25 Years Documenting Every Day of Hitler's Life

"I wonder if the Hitler fascination is also the actual comparison to a rise in fascist ideology in both EU and US, especially in terms of nationalistic fascism of isolationism... I may be too generous in my thinking and it could just be appeal ato lowest common denominator or creative laziness. However, each generation needs the history lesson of what results from adherence to any ideology: fascism, communism, industrialism, commercialism, socialism, isolationism, colonialism. As long as the history is honest and Herodotusian in terms of observation bias, these are important viewings to have."
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Dear men of the Internet: Your low opinions of “Sex and the City” are not needed, wanted, or valuable

"I can't help but be amused by this article's entire premise given one of our recent 3-sides regarding the validity (or invalidity) of an outsider/non-target-demographic to comment on created media content. Interestingly to me is that while I initially wanted to change my attitude towards the concept, I cannot. Granted, I become somewhat frustrated with the ascendant meme of "men need to shut up," but... Gooses and Ganders and all that jazz."
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The Craziest Black Market in Russia

"This makes University of Phoenix look like Oxford by comparison. Buying term papers was hardly invented by Russian oligarchs, the sheer volume is astonishing."
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It's Time to Adapt to Megafires

"There are two elephants in the room regarding the increase in megafires that go unheralded or un-commented. Sadly the LCD goes immediately to the Climate Change "root of all evil" trope. (While I certainly am no climate denier, I always caution from ascribing it as the primary causation for all ecological events.) 1) Over the past 20 years, there has been significant debate and argument between the enviro-lobby and the parks/forestry services in the U.S. on how to address wildfires. Up to about 5 years ago, the "new settled consensus" was that fires should be allowed to burn themselves out. This was a natural outpouring of the movement to "let nature be nature" and assuming that human intervention caused more problems by definition. Only recently have the tables turned to reinforcing the idea that fires should be managed (now because the cause has been conveniently shifted to anthropogenic CC). 2) We do not do enough to prescribe infrastructure builds to address natural disasters anymore. Where are the firebreaks built into the landscape akin to the levies, dikes, retaining walls that were so common before? Sadly, I fear that much of the common-sense solutions to prevent, repair and manage natural disasters have little to no political will behind them because of the desire to continue to blame anthropogenic CC as the root of all bad things in the world."
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Want to Beat ISIS? Try Poetry and Negotiation

"Yes. Just... YES! Or, as we also should be wont to paraphrase the Bard, "Yes, yes, and a thousand times yes!""
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How Africa’s Kiro’o Games is Shaking Up the Gaming Industry

"I love that the gaming industry is providing more access to the diaspora of human cultural mythologies. For too long in the gaming community, the focus of fantasy genres has been on some form of medieval European/feudalistic culture or Far Asian cultures (interestingly, a lot of Asian-based fantasy themes draw inordinately heavily on Norse mythologies). The greater demographic trend of gaming to more than just Western/Euro-centric and Far Asian-centric gaming is nothing but a huge net positive to acculturation of more and more different cultures in the fantasy (and potentially sci-fi) genres. I look forward to Kiro'o's take on Afro-centric themes as well as new companies' take on Incan/Mayan/Aztec themes."
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On the anniversary of Brown v. Board, new evidence that US schools are resegregating

"Interesting on the heels of some of Wade's comments yesterday with respect to minimum wage in that historically protected classes of citizens tended to revolve around what we look like and how we associate with one another (gender, race, sexual orientation) which is rather arbitrary (and in my opinion decided at birth). However, class differences which in some parts of our country are anything but arbitrary, are not constitutionally recognized. Wonder what the new Brown will be (no pun intended)."
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OPEC Deal Will Go Ahead Even If Only Russia Commits

"The most telling piece of this article for me is that OPEC is acknowledging, albeit implicitly, that they no longer have true cartel power of price control. Look at their expected numbers. Outside of the magnitude of OPEC-commitments which look large to the layman, they are asking for an additional 50% of their production cuts to be made in the global market by non-OPEC members. Also telling is that this signals a tactical shift in OPEC - one that is forced to now live in the realities of the modern world; Russia is technically one of the largest Petroleum Exporting Countries (PEC of OPEC), and a large number of OPEC's minor members (I'm looking at you Ecuador, UAE, etc) really cannot afford production cuts."
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Chapter IV Investors Sends Letter and Presentation to Board of EQT Corporation

"I find it interesting that an investor that has made a significant statement that they are "not activist investors" but merely "vocal investors" pens an open letter regarding intricate valuation modeling of an M&A request to their company. Regardless of the validity and merits of the points in the letter, I am jarred by the action itself. Perhaps it is simply my old-school business mentality, but I still believe these actions are the sole purview of the Boardroom. Not just for propriety's sake surely; and while a "mere" public investor ostensibly has no more data than anyone else outside of the company, the level of detail in this letter as an Open Letter To the Board raises too much of an eyebrow. It seems to me that this is nothing more than a brazen move to establish brand image for the investor by the investor itself. "I'm smarter than not just the investors in EQT, but probably more than the Board as well; therefore, either put me on Boards to get the benefit of me being smart, or invest with me because I'm smarter than everyone else," seems to be the intent. In the Age of Trump, I wonder if we should expect more brazen shameless self-promotion. Heaven help us all."
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Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

"I'm thoroughly intrigued by the notion of a movement to bring modern experiences into the realm of lingua franca. We have spent decades "explaining" our feelings and understandings of the new modernity in this post-industrial society. At some point the constant explanations of a feeling do become not only tiresome to the explainer, but so easily misunderstood by the other participants in the conversation that we rarely explain our intentions, feelings, motivations, beliefs to people who do not intrinsically "get it." Perhaps linguistic fractionalization is a prime component of the online echo-chambering we've seen come to a head this past year. Kudos to Koenig for attempting to make something that used to be the space occupied by Snigglets to an honest philological point for at least English-speaking culture."
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