Key Studies on Big-Box Retail

A survey of studies of the economics of big-box retail and its impact on communities.

Innovation depends on government programs

New book with an interesting thesis. (Review at the Financial Times)

Shuffling aluminum makes Goldman-Sachs a lot of money

Economics is weird.

Snowden

A Metafilter post about Edward Snowden and reflections on American journalism.

A concise description of the 11 American nations (and a partial map)

Colin Woodard summarizes his 11 American nations as lead-in for a little editorial on gun control and why America can't unify on it.

Early modern texts in philosophy

This is neat: the history of philosophy, with some exegesis.

How science got paywalled

Interesting historical overview.

Mapping D&D onto 60's politics

This is an interesting exercise in ... domains of thought? I'm not sure what it's an interesting exercise in, but I am quite sure the exercise is interesting, anyway.