This is what an insurgent looks like

This is happening one state away from me: Pretty scary stuff. I guess at least Americans are bearing arms to overthrow (in their mind) tyrannical government not just shooting at each other out of fear, anger or greed. It shows some holes in many citizens’ view of the social contract though.

Foursquare’s reflections on their design decisions for their v2 API

As we sunset foursquare APIv1 and announce some amazing new milestones for APIv2, now seemed like as good a time as any to reflect on some of the decisions we made in APIv2 and see how they’re holding up. Fortunately, we were able to draw on both our experience with APIv1 and from tight iteration …

Donna Dubinsky struggled to get individual health insurance (NYTimes)

The new health care reform legislation is not perfect. Nothing that complex could be. But I have no doubt that the system is broken and reform is absolutely essential. If we are not going to have universal coverage but are going to rely on employer plans, then we must offer individuals, self-employed people and small …

The Julie Project – moving story of a mother, drug addict and AIDS sufferer

I first met Julie on February 28, 1993. Julie, 18, stood in the lobby of the Ambassador Hotel, barefoot, pants unzipped, and an 8 day-old infant in her arms. She lived in San Francisco’s SRO district, a neighborhood of soup kitchens and cheap rooms. Her room was piled with clothes, overfull ashtrays and trash. She …

Cracking scratch lottery with statistics

“People often assume that I must be some extremely moral person because I didn’t take advantage of the lottery,” he says. “I can assure you that that’s not the case. I’d simply done the math and concluded that beating the game wasn’t worth my time.” via Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code | Magazine. A really interesting story …

How easy is it to get guns without a background check?

Gunshow Undercover – Arizona. New York City investigators found it easy to replicate the arsenal of Jared Loughner at a gun show in Arizona. It’s not really a surprise to me that they were able to, but it’s interesting that New York City is examining other jurisdictions’ gun policies and enforcement as part of their …