Internal Monologue

It requires some irrational decisions and a series of improbable events, but theoretically a 2 player game of Monopoly can be over in 4 turns. Details here .

The specifics are a little dated (from 2009), but still applicable. It was sent to me by Maestro, my super top-secret contact in the State Department, so that must mean it hits somewhere near the truth. It is highly entertaining. And yes, Internal Monologue really does have a super top secret contact in the State Department. It's one of the few things that makes this place something more than links to things on Andrew Sullivan's blog.

Took the class, aced the test with a perfect score (but since the test is currently being evaluated, you pass no matter what your score) and now I'm a Certified ScrumMaster ! What's that, you ask? Scrum is a software development framework in the Agile family of methodologies. The ScrumMaster is a key role in that process. It has some of the functions of a project coordinator or project manager. Many game studios are using Scrum in their development processes. Surely gainful employment is imminent!

"[W]henever I see older people fretting over the sexual proclivities of their children, I can't tell whether I'm seeing genuine concern, or envy and regret." - Ta-Nehisi Coates .

Paul Romer wants to set up charter cities in developing nations to accelerate growth. But it's hard: people don't like ceding their land to foreigners, and colonies can be a big pain in the ass for the foreigners to govern. And folks are rightly suspicious of anything that could lead to exploitative colonialism. But wouldn't lots of countries benefit from having a Hong Kong? Would China be the rising economic powerhouse it is today without it?

This seems to me like a frightening and wrong development: In response to a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse, a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer. Even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to your defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists. Egad. Whenever people with guns and the power to arrest you want to push the cameras away, that seems bad news to me. We need armed police. But we also need them to use their power very carefully and be held accountable when they abuse it. I think these laws should be overturned. Maybe all uses of force by the police should have to be video recorded (by built in cameras that are part of standard police gear) to ensure that violence is used properly. I think they do this with police interrogations to make sure they are following the rules. If individu