Boom!

Poke around on the site and you will see that inbound links only carry something slightly under a .25 correlation with page rank. What does it say when Facebook activity (likes, shares, etc.) has over a .25 correlation with page rank? In conjunction (and this is where it gets super cool) these metrics indicate that page rank is slowly democratizing. This carries all of the good and bad of any democratic system, but I think this will provide start ups and people with genuinely great content an even better chance at competing with giants.

Pastries present unique challenges that are entirely absent from bread baking. The temperature control, the cutting and rolling of the dough, and the artist flourishes of frosting or filling, make the process quite dissimilar from producing a baguette. I've had a bit of trouble lately and I am starting to think that I have not been taking the baking process seriously enough. Despite approaching one year of baking (at least one batch a week), I am still very much a novice and I often catch myself failing to plan and execute the finer points of bread and pastry making. For instance, my old yeast and inferior American-style rolling pin produced an under-proofed danish dough that I then failed to roll out to a sufficient thin layer. The shaping went alright, but the oven spring deformed my danishes and the puffy dough was far too bready. Also, when a stuffed dessert expands more than you expect, you lose your filling-to-dough ratio, which is a significant determinant of texture and taste. This is all to say, I need to get serious. I plan on posting more bread and pastry pictures on here as a way to hold myself accountable... to myself.

Teen gets 40 years for killing his four year old sister because he thought she was being abused. He calls 911 afterwards and turns himself in, confesses, and says he will accept whatever punishment they give him.

This man has mental issues and made a rash and severely poor decision that will cause significant emotional harm to many people. He committed a premeditated murder on a toddler. The whole thing is horrible, but he does not belong in jail for 40 years. Jail will not rehabilitate him and will not provide him with the mental health treatment he needs. In fact, the only thing we can be sure of is that his life will become a living hell and depression, abuse, and total isolation from friends and family will turn a sick young man into a sick and dangerous older man. When he gets out of prison, he will be 59, but with the life experience of a nineteen year old.

Our brains do not fully form until we are 25. Teenagers make bad decisions because they literally lack the ability, as well as the hormonal stability and life experience, necessary to make mature and thoughtful decisions. Juvenile detention facilities can hold youths until they are 21 and, in some situations, can decide at that time whether the youth can be rehabilitated or whether the youth must be transferred to adult prison. There are also mental health facilities that can hold this man while trying to rehabilitate him.

When we send someone to prison, we are saying that you don't get to have these years of your life and will forever wear the mark of an ex-con. We are saying you don't deserve a steady or sufficient job, that you don't deserve the respect of society, and that you don't deserve to live in a safe neighborhood. Now, there are plenty of people who deserve those things, but how can we be sure about a nineteen year old when we are willingly passing up our opportunity to try to rehabilitate him?

Kobe Bryant gets fined $100K for using an anti-gay slur. Also, Charles Barkley is pro-gay-marriage. Good to know.

Axiom Crux remix of Jimmy Edgar's New Touch. Super glitchy dubstep.

Boddika's "When I Dip" is such a simple song but it takes a sample from one of those seminal and ephemeral songs from my youth (Freak Nasty's "The Dip") and hence earns a special place in my heart. The Dip is a ball of ridiculous. I would never have heard a heavy drum and bass song in it. Credit to Boddika.