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Category Archives for Things

The Payday Lending Empire

It’s hard to imagine that anyone outside of organized crime or banking would see check cashing as a legitimate business model. Nevertheless, their lobbying efforts have secured them protection from the new bureau designed to save consumers from businesses like theirs.

Looking Through the Lens of Surf Culture

It’s hard not to note that this kind of attraction would never have taken root in the surfing-stubborn nineties, where conformity dictated that everyone at the beach rode three-finned shortboards.

Judge Orders City to Evict Seals

The La Jolla Children’s Pool is a coastal landmark that in many ways is representative of other San Diego landmarks: it’s located on a gorgeously scenic spot and as such it generates more controversy than most other public policy issues in San Diego.

The Plastics Industry Fights Back

As for the second idea, that plastics are so valuable that we should recycle them, this connection is truly a difficult stretch of intuition. A valuable thing is meant to be kept around for years and eventually sold on eBay to someone who will pay too much in shipping to receive it.

Predicting the Future of Media Consumption

When music and book producers find the centralized marketplace they need to sell their wares, the prices for consumers will likely plummet to between $1 and $5, mirroring the low-risk prices we see for applications at the App Store.

I Didn’t Sign Up for This: the Hidden Costs of Apple’s Hashing Schemes

At the outset, you might think that having a program archive your files using a secret code is itself an abrogation of your rights as a user of your own files…