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Bill de Blasio gets all the ink, but maybe Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto is the real city-redefiner

Bill de Blasio became Mayor of NYC and within literally moments, people were tapping him as a VP candidate down the road. He’s a new kind of liberal! It’s going to be a progressive revolution! All this makes sense — de Blasio is… Continue Reading

Is the next big thing going to be a solar-powered Macbook from Apple?

Apple’s new patent — U.S. number 8,638,549 — concerns a rear plate for the MacBook. It could be used to house solar cells. (The correct term is photovoltaic, but I’m trying to keep things relatively clean here.) From Apple Insider: Finally, Apple… Continue Reading

This President Obama State of the Union word cloud is all about America and unity

Here’s the word cloud from last night’s State of the Union address. Some of the top words: “America” and “American” and “Americans.” See a theme here? Other key ones: “people” and “jobs” and “help” and “work.” Again, see a theme? Here’s… Continue Reading

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Performance reviews / evaluations are mostly a train wreck that everyone hates. So what do we do?

Here’s some new research on ‘performance appraisal satisfaction,’ or, phrased in more layman’s terms, “how people feel about the idea of performance reviews.” To avoid traipsing in the deep end of academia, let’s turn to The Washington Post to let us know… Continue Reading

Scarlett Johansson, Daniel Defense, and how the banned Super Bowl ad culture seems to work

The above ad features ScarJo hawking SodaStream. It was targeted as a Super Bowl ad — considering it features a highly-paid movie actress — but was banned from airing by FOX, who’s televising the game. Go ahead and watch the… Continue Reading

What will Obama discuss in the State of the Union address tonight?

Logically you’d assume some of the following things need to come up: gay rights, privacy, marijuana, inequality, job creation, student loan debt, and ObamaCare. On the last one, he needs to showcase its recent successes while also taking credit for… Continue Reading

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36 million tons of food waste goes to landfills every year (just in the U.S.) That’s about 30-40 percent of all food. Can we do something?

From PBS NewsHour: basically, about 30 percent of the food produced in the United States ends up as waste. 36 million tons goes to landfills, which is bad news for the environment — food waste ultimately converts to methane, which is… Continue Reading

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Interested in social mobility? Move to Salt Lake City, San Jose, or Pittsburgh. Don’t move to Atlanta or Charlotte.

Salt Lake City has already been recognized for having way-above-expectations public transportation, and the Milken Institute called it out as a great place to live and work, but now … it might be the city most representative of the American… Continue Reading