Star Wars:

Image by eshplagami

[SW1] Daniel Drezner writes of the catastrophic success of the Rebel Alliance, as revealed by the new Star Wars trailers.

[SW2] Trumwill favorite Jonathan Last, famous for making the original pro-Empire argument, explains why the Jedi are the bad guys. Ted Cruz, however, sides with the Rebels. Ever the politician, Marco Rubio seems wishy-washy on the whole thing, as does Drezner.

[SW3] The hardest thing to justify about the Empire is the destruction of Alderaan. Sonny Bunch is on it. Trumwill favorite Lyman Stone disagrees.

[SW4] Roland Dodds pointed to this theory of Jarjar Binks as a villain. Jacob Brogan and Alexandra Petri aren’t buying it.

[SW5] Our own CK Macleod responded to Roland’s original post about Star Wars with his own, touching on Star Wars, leprous ideology, and alternate looks at the history and present through different eyes.

Progress:

Image by Paul Keller

[Pr1] Technology Review writes about the emerging science of human computation.

[Pr2] Spinal chord simulation and robotic exoskeletons.

[Pr3] GMOs: Myth vs. Fact

[Pr4] Stowe Boyd writes of the emergence of algorithmic HR.

[Pr5] BBC asks why we are the only human species still around. Relatedly, where might evolution take humanity?

Politics:

Image by DonkeyHotey

[Po1] Former Alabama Democrat turn Virginia Republican turn Alabama Independent Artur Davis is not eligible to become an Alabama Democrat again right away.

[Po2] Will electoral reform come to Canada? Trudeau favors it, but its time may have passed.

[Po3] Hillary Clinton is fun.

[Po4] Peter Beinart argues that Jeb Bush’s tumble is proof that democracy is winning. I think the most underreported story this cycle is that campaign finance reform has worked so impressively this cycle.

[Po5] If Attorney General Katherine Kane (D-PA) is going down, she’s not going alone.

Labor:

Image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

[L1] Woohoo! This is what the economy has long needed.

[L2] CVS is (at least temporarily) is scaling back its experiment with self-checkout. Virginia Postrel outlines why self-checkout is going to be an uphill climb.

[L3] This stands to reason: If your job is routine, there’s a good chance it’s going to disappear.

[L4] The oil slump has hit the petroleum engineering community hard. My Man in Texas says that this is a mistake, because they’re going to be needed down the road.

[L5] Steve Denning takes the consistent argument that the jobless future is a myth. Nobody should be worried about there not being work or things to do. What I’m worried about is that there work that is of enough value that the amount people are willing to pay for it can provide people with a reasonably comfortable life.

[L6] “Do what you love” is still terrible advice. As always.

Society:

Image by KRB events

[S1] Rugby… a game that makes soldiers, can honor indigenous culture, and has limited prospects in the US.

[S2] All he could say is that his life was pretty lame. I’m not sure any song captured the moment better than that one.

[S3] Christopher Orr is unimpressed with Truth, the movie that pretends the TANG documents might have been real.

[S4] Raising Baby Hitler.

[S5] It looks like we will have Phil Collins to kick around again soon.

World:

[W1] I’m not gonna lie, a McDonald’s burger with a grey bun sounds intriguing to me.

[W2] I hope that Anonymous might consider leaving UK than the medical profession. Montana and Idaho need you!

[W3] In an interview with Russian astronauts, of course you ask how they will cope without men and makeup because that’s the important thing.

[W4] Not good: Masked gangs are going after Syrians in Germany.

[W5] The Dark, Haunted Joe Biden Center. “This table was just full of old alarm clocks and printed rules for the Biden Center.” I don’t know if I’d rather go there or to Dismaland.

Coming Soon: Technology, Education, Crime, and North and South America