A painting of me
  • Is It Better to Rent or Buy? 

    This is a slick calculator. One thing they never seem to take into account is landlords kicking you out of your home. My cousin’s moved 3-4 times in the last two years.

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  • The Case for Reparations. 

    This article is epic in its scope. (As an aside: I have no idea what Harper’s has been getting up to in recent years, but this is the sort of article I expect to see there.)

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  • On the Future of MetaFilter. 

    Matt Haughey dicusses the situation, and the “peak ads” phenomenon. MetaFilter has apparently been in some financial trouble for a little while now. Over on MetaTalk they announced that they have had to reduce their staff by three people.

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  • The Worst Day Of My Life Is Now New York's Hottest Tourist Attraction. 

    Everyone should have a museum dedicated to the worst day of their life and be forced to attend it with a bunch of tourists from Denmark. Annotated divorce papers blown up and mounted, interactive exhibits detailing how your mom’s last round of chemo didn’t take, souvenir T-shirts emblazoned with your best friend’s last words before the car crash. And you should have to see for yourself how little your pain matters to a family of five who need to get some food before the kids melt down. Or maybe worse, watch it be co-opted by people who want, for whatever reason, to feel that connection so acutely.

    Steve Kandell visits the 9/11 museum in New York City, 13 years after his sister’s death in one of the twin towers.

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  • Women in Technology. 

    I recently attended a panel discussion about women in technology. The fun thing about this panel’s thought leaders was how they were all men. I assumed this controversial choice was a canny move on the organizer’s part: You wouldn’t just invite four men to sit on an elevated platform and talk down to an audience of women unless you knew the men had something meaningful to say. Right? No one would create such an event unless they were positive they could execute something with powerful value-add. Foolishly inoculated by this trust, a colleague and I spent the day of the panel writing questions we (wrongly / naively / tragically) hoped would be hilariously obsolete. I’m passing along some of those questions now, in the hopes of helping any other women in technology.

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  • The end of the Guvernment. 

    For some mother fucking condos? All the night clubs in Toronto will be condos soon enough. Everything in Toronto will be a condo.

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  • The Heather Project. 

    Videos of Heather Ogden from the National Ballet of Canada by Christopher Wahl. Ballet is cool and hard.

    (via Kottke) #

Rob Ford Imploding—Again

   1 May 2014, mid-morning

I feel like I can’t last night pass without saying a few words about Rob Ford. A link to the Globe and Mail’s big story about him being caught on video smoking crack again just won’t cut it. Or a link to the Sun’s big story about him getting loaded and saying all sorts of offensive things again just won’t cut it. Or a link to the Star’s big story about him getting belligerent at a club with Justin Bieber just won’t cut it. And this all happened last night! In the middle of the greatest Raptors game ever!

Lots of people are speculating that he’s stepping down so he can come back in 30 days a clean and redeemed man. That’s the game you play the first time you get caught smoking crack. At this point it’s clearly his only move, but I don’t think that narrative is going to earn him any new votes. There are people that will vote for him no mater what: stupid people, homophobes, criminals, etc. They thankfully aren’t a sizeable part of Toronto.

Rob Ford is a drug addict. He acts like a drug addict. Trying to parse his actions as rational is a fools game. He makes poor choices because he’s a crack-head. The situation is just weird because he’s also rich and the mayor of the biggest city in Canada. He’s had a million chances because he is a rich white man and has squandered them all.

To quote Kristyn Wong-Tam:

Ford might rehabilitate his health but 30 days isn’t going to cure his racism, misogyny, homophobia & chronic tendencies to break the law.

Fuck that guy. And his brother.

Comment [2] |  

  • No Exit. 

    Some long-form journalism about startups in Silicon Valley. Is there anything else people write about now?

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You are alone, child. There is only darkness for you, and only death for your people. These ancients are just the beginning. I will command a great and terrible army, and we will sail to a billion worlds. We will sail until every light has been extinguished. You are strong, child, but I am beyond strength. I am the end, and I have come for you, Finn.
— The Lich, Adventure Time.

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