Business:

[B1] From Tod Kelly: Alice Hines explores why Utah, of all places, has become the nation’s go-to place for get-rich-quick schemes.

[B2] From Oscar Gordon: Why startups succeed: It’s all in the timing

[B3] From Oscar Gordon: Black market innovation!

[B4] If Firefox is worried about staying relevant in a mobile world, they ought to think less about having their own OS and more on making an Android browser that’s awesome. There are some good Android browsers out there, but no great ones. Make it happen, Firefox. (Or don’t worry about it, and make your desktop browser better.)

Athletics:

[A1] UAB Football program, terminated last year sparking a lot of anger, is coming back. It has a tough road ahead of it, and ifthis is true the university itself as it exists may be doomed.

[A2] The Connecticut Huskies went 2-10 last year, with its only FBS-level victory against UCF. So what they did they do? They made UCF a rival and gave themselves a trophy. UCF is scratching its head, but UConn says that UCF’s permission is not necessary in the declaration of a rivalry. The two schools have played each other three times.

[A3] I don’t know whether the SEC was more obnoxious when they were full of themselves for winning championships, or when they whine when they don’t.

[A4] St. Thomas University has a pitcher who weighs in at three-hundred pounds.

[A5] HBCUs are having a lot of trouble meeting NCAA academic requirements.

[A6] From Tod Kelly: Sometimes — times few and far between, to be sure — the little guy triumphs over Evil.

[A7] Vice argues that the next president of FIFA should be… Mitt Romney, but Mark Thompson tweets explanations as to why that can’t happen.

[A8] Former Green Bay Packers and Texas A&M football coach Mike Sherman has taken a new job… at a Massachusetts high school.

Politics:

[Po1] It has been making the news lately, and here’s an article on what makes Nebraska’s legislature different.

[Po2] Rick Perry is kicking off his presidential campaign with a BBQ. Though I hope not to be in a position to vote for Perry or Jindal, I might want to fly down and attend the latter’s kickoff if it includes a crawfish boil.

[Po3] Will Wilkinson defends Rick Perry’s glasses. I still say Jeb Bush did a better job picking glasses out than Perry’s wife did.

[Po4] Robert Mann explains why Bobby Jindal is so unpopular, and Tunku Varadarajan explains his uncomfortable relationship with his race.

[Po5] As a general advocate of school choice Nevada’s bill makes me nervous in the same way that some of the aggressive minimum wage increases should make advocates nervous.

Europe:

[E1] In the UK, Nick Cohen says Labour doesn’t realize why it lost, and in Alberta, people – such as myself – may be underestimating the NDP victory.

[E2] The Cameron government wants to ban pleasure. Well, not quite, but they’re drafting some laws so broad that it’s hard to tell.

[E3] From Tod Kelly: Last year the Twitterverse fell for a hoax about a massive chemical refinery disaster in Louisiana. Adrian Chen traveled to find Russia to find the perpetrators of this and many other hoaxes — working in an nice office building and being paid very well to be professional Internet trolls.

[E4] From Tod Kelly: I honestly can’t decide if this European welfare program for the unemployed is one conservatives would embrace or see as the final straw.

Planet(s):

[Pl1] From Oscar Gordon: Color me intrigued: Plan to be running on renewables in 35 years

[Pl2] From Oscar Gordon: California sinking: It’s like California dreaming, but more depressing.

[Pl3] It’s like a pimple that showed up on the planet earth, except it’s an 800C pit of fire.

[Pl4] Pluto & her dance partners

[Pl5] When looking for interstellar life, maybe we should look less for water and more at icy planets.

Society:

[S1] Erik Kain takes serious issue with how Jonathan McIntosh and Anita Sarkeesian and the Feminist Frequency have characterized a recent video game release.

[S2] From Vikram Bath: Scott Adams says he has old white guy privilege.

[S3] A snake person quest, in cartoon form.

[S4] If you want to know why the words “snake people” have started appearing in my text “snake person” should go, this is why.

[S5] From Oscar Gordon: King Fury is so bad, so deliciously, awesomely bad: