Spy Chips Guiding CIA Drone Strikes, Locals Say It sounds like a tinfoil hat nightmare, come to life: tiny electronic homing beacons, guiding CIA killer drones to their targets. But local residents and Taliban militants in Pakistan’s tribal wildlands say that’s exactly what’s happening. Tribesman in Waziristan are being paid to “ plant the electronic devices ” near militant safehouses, they tell...

Christopher Bradley writes I'm not a fan of lotteries for a whole lot of reasons, but they're pretty regressive and they're also gambling. It's regressive because millionaires don't play the lottery - it is designed to take advantage of poor people's hopes and desperation. Which I think stinks. State lotteries are callous attempts by the state to capitalize on poverty by tricking the poor into shouldering...

cpxbrex   has an interesting post on grading and education up. The context is a critique of PZ Meyers , but I found the post thought-provoking in and of itself. I definitely agree that the motivation of "getting a good grade" tends to relegate the actual mastery of information and skills to secondary importance. And I think that there are so many inconsistencies with regard to how grades...