/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/45219540/461539386.0.jpg)
1. Socialized internet
-
President Obama is calling for the Federal Communications Commission to overturn state laws that hamper municipal broadband.
[Vox / Tim Lee]
-
"Municipal broadband" just means cities and towns providing high-speed internet access, usually via fiber.
[Vox / Tim Lee]
-
You can think of it as a public option for the internet.
[Vox / Ezra Klein and Susan Crawford]
-
Chattanooga, Tennessee and Lafayette, Louisiana have municipal fiber systems and boast some of the fastest internet connections in the world (at lower cost than many other cities).
[Vox / Matt Yglesias]
-
But the cable industry has succeeded in getting laws passed in 19 states, limiting the practice in various ways.
[Washington Post / Brian Fung]
-
Critics argue that municipal broadband represents unfair government interference in private markets.
[Technology Liberation Front / Braden Cox]
-
FCC chair Tom Wheeler has suggested that he's open to the idea of blocking the state laws.
[Ars Technica / Jon Brodkin]
-
Last summer, the House voted to take away his power to do that. But that has no chance of making it past Obama.
[The Hill / Cristina Marcos and Kate Tummarello]
2. Misc.
-
The case for having the government buy up lots of stocks and distibute the proceeds to everyone as checks, no strings attached.
[Project Syndicate / Dani Rodrik]
-
A 15th century church in Milan uses an optical illusion to look much bigger on the inside than it actually is.
[Atlas Obscura / Stane]
-
Let us now praise Kaitlin Olson, the most underrated comedic actor on TV.
[Slate / Mark Peters]
-
Poor kids in Denmark get 2.6 times as much money from the government as poor kids in America do.
[Demos / Matt Bruenig]
-
The Fed's impending rate hike is like deficit reduction: everyone in DC wants it, even when it would probably hurt the economy.
[Jared Bernstein]
3. Verbatim
-
"Abbi and Ilana on the show allow us, the businesswomen, writers, and creators, to make mistakes and think they are funny, rather than flog ourselves."
[Ilana Glazer to Vox / Kelsey McKinney]
-
"It's not everyone who can write about modern art or Dionysus who has a PhD in mathematics from MIT."
[Ian Malcolm to New Republic / Jeet Heer]
-
"You start with the concept that force-feeding is not a nice thing to do."
[John Burton to Eater / Wyatt Williams]
-
"After all these years under state protection, I almost feel guilty for still being alive."
[The Guardian / Roberto Saviano]
-
"Carry bolt cutters everywhere."
[Werner Herzog via Jason Kottke]
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