Ryan Tomayko

Wall Street's Naked Swindle —

Matt Taibbi in his latest Rolling Stone piece on the banking fiasco: “We’re in a place we haven’t been since the Depression: Our economy is so completely fucked, the rich are running out of things to steal.”

How to Save A Life —

Aaron Swartz with a classic mindfuck. Reader beware: this same basic set of stories was told to me by a friend a few years ago and bothers me to this day.

FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: Why AIG Paid the "Bonuses" —

OMG! Real, actual, research on the AIG bonus situation (from their 2007 10-K filing): “In light of the unrealized market valuation loss related to the AIGFP super senior credit default swap portfolio, to retain and motivate the affected AIGFP employees, a special incentive plan relating to 2007 was established. Under this plan, certain AIGFP employees were granted cash awards vesting over two years and payable in 2013.”

Interesting. So the bonuses were lined up in 2007 because all of their top guys would have left for other, less fucked up securities.

The Pirate’s Dilemma —

“We live in a world where it is legal for a company to patent pigs, or any other living thing except for a full birth human being, but copying a CD you bought onto your hard drive is considered an infringement of someone else’s rights.”

Prohibition Politics —

“Americans in 1920 embarked on a noble experiment to force everyone to give up drinking. Alas, despite its nobility, this experiment was too naive to work… This popular belief is completely mistaken. Here’s what really happened…”

Jonathan Swift - A Modest Proposal —

An oldy but goody :)

The Long Tail: Bring tha noize! —

“It sounds like a paradox, but it isn’t. Much of what you want is in the tail. Most of what you don’t want is also in the tail.”