Via kottke.org-A territorial history of the U.S.: Every month for 400 years.

Data-modeling:

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Claudia Rosett on the corruption of a former U.N. official (it’s almost as if the ideals are too idealistic, and many incentives wrong):

‘In the grand casino of UN corruption cases, here we go again. This time the news is the arrest on Tuesday, in Dobbs Ferry, New York, of a former president of the United Nations General Assembly, John W. Ashe. Along with five others, Ashe, who also served for years as ambassador to the UN for the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, has been charged in the Southern District of New York with taking part in a $1.3 million bribery scheme.’

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Peter Suderman at Reason-‘Obamacare Could Have Been Worse:’

‘To keep the private-sector insurers “honest,” the president proposed a system of nonprofit, government-run health insurance plans dubbed the “public option.” The public option would keep traditional insurers in check by offering lower premiums, made possible due to lower overhead and administrative costs. Taxpayers, Obama promised, would not end up subsidizing these plans.’

***Check out Jim Epstein’s part I, II, and III on the questionable journalism found at the New York Times on nail salons in NYC. A pretty thorough fisking.