Pro Publica has built an incredibly impressive app for comparing public school districts

“ProPublica analyzed new data from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights along with other federal education data to examine whether states provide students equal access to programs — such as Advanced Placement or higher-level math and sciences classes — that researchers say will help them later in life. We found that in some states, high-poverty schools are less likely than wealthier schools to have students enrolled those programs.”

Really excellent work. This is what news organizations should be doing more and more of. Don’t forget to donate and support Pro Publica.

Is it worse for a child to see pornography or graphic violence?

Slate tries to offer some insight on the dangers of exposing kids to sex and violence, in light of this week’s supreme court ruling. This may end up being one of those unknowable things since researchers are willing to sit a kid down in front of a violent video game for the purpose of research, not so much for porn.

Also, Slate may have already won best headline of the year.

Google releases Swiffy, a tool to convert SWF files into HTML5, SVG, JavaScript and CSS

This is stunning, technically, but it’s certainly telling that two of the examples are converting ads from Flash

American McCarver. Your Sports Blog.

If I was the kinda guy who was really into sports, I’d be all over American McCarver. As someone who is, at best, a casual baseball and college basketball fan, I still love it. Sharp design and smart writing from some of the best out there.

Longshot Issue #2

Even being kicked around by Les Moonves won’t stop Mat Honan from putting out another Longshot magazine. Bless his soul.

What sense does it make to forbid selling to a 13-year-old boy a magazine with an image of a nude woman, while protecting a sale to that 13­ year-old of an interactive video game in which he actively, but virtually, binds and gags the woman, then tortures and kills her? What kind of First Amendment would permit the government to protect children by restrict-ing sales of that extremely violent video game only when the woman-bound, gagged, tortured, and killed-is also topless?

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Justice Stephen Breyer’s dissent in today’s Supreme Court decision that overturned a California law forbidding the sale of violent video games to minors.

While I’m generally a fan of anything that strengthens the protections of the First Amendment, this decision strikes me as funny. On the one hand, everything I know about the case (which is admittedly little) suggests that the California law was overly broad and treated video games as somehow different from other forms of speech. On the other, the court seems to be making a pretty arbitrary distinction between sex and violence. Why are violent video games protected but porn not?

curiositycounts:

Archival gold from the intersection of art and commerce: Letter from Campbell Soup product manager to Andy Warhol (1964)

In 2011, Campbell would’ve sued Warhol’s ass for derivative infrigement

Should Jay have the right to claim the derived image isn’t fair use and ask for a cease and desist? Yes. He’s not, as many are saying, a dick for his opinion. Should Andy have the ability to defend his stance that it is fair use. Of course. Should it take the kind of money that only either corporations or the very rich can easily afford to spend in order to get a judge’s ruling and find out? Definitely not. That’s the real problem here.

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James Duncan Davidson nails it on why the Kind of Bloop fight is such a mess – I really wish I’d written that, it so perfectly encapsulates the problem. As someone who values both creative work and people’s ability to profit from doing creative work, I find this whole thing so maddening and the brokenness of our legal framework infuriating.

At the end of the day, the current copyright system puts more power in the hands of the already powerful, essentially corporations and rich people. It’s a travesty that they get to decide how the rest of us get to be creative.

What I Imagine “Game Of Thrones” Is Like Based On Never Having Seen An Episode Of “Game Of Thrones” & Only Hearing My…

saltandfat:

America is enjoying a minor food renaissance, and one of its masters is David Chang of Momofuku. He’s an outspoken and overachieving fella, so you may not be surprised that in addition to running five restaurants, he is starting a magazine called Lucky Peach.

You should also not be surprised to hear that it’s a completely wonderful publication. Published by McSweeney’s (but of course), it’s a 174-page exploration of food, cooking, and eating. No ads, no crazy gimmicks, just a bunch of writing and honest, person-to-person recipes. 

The first issue is all about ramen (and poached eggs) so if you like ramen, eggs, Japanese food, or good writing, you’d be crazy not to pick this up. Highly recommended! (Duh.)

Did I just reblog a post from my food blog partner in crime? When Neven “highly recommends” something, you bet your sweet ass I did.