dangerousmeta!, the original new mexican miscellany, offering eclectic linkage since 1999.

Atlantic: Facebook, One Year Later: What Really Happened in the Biggest IPO Flop Ever.

“The consensus among hedge funds on the West Coast was to short the stock on day one.” Gawd. After missing out on various other tech IPOs, I actually contemplated dropping some coin this time around. So glad I didn’t.

The Economist: Microcredit—Put to the test.

100% interest?

IKEA Hackers: Closet Toolshed.

I love this concept. Except I don’t want to take up valuable interior space. I’ll keep my eye out for old gym lockers at the thrift store, stuff a couple in my garage!

TNDP.org: U.S. House Republican Majority Votes to Axe 40-Hour Work Week.

A den of vipers and thieves. I’ve got some tar … anyone got a supply of feathers and a railroad tie?

Guardian.UK: The dark side of home schooling.

“The Christian home school subculture isn’t a children-first movement. It is, for all intents and purposes, an ideology-first movement. There is a massive, well-oiled machine of ideology that is churning out soldiers for the culture war.”

Guardian.UK: On yer bike! New York Nimbys saddle up to fight cycle-share scheme.

What a shame. It’s a wonderfully bikeable place. Just carry a frame-pump (or some other large, heavy object) to whack cabbies with.

FT: The cost of hand-to-mouth living.

“If you were to ask wealthy Americans to visualise the future, they might well describe it as a carefully calibrated road along which they expect to travel. But if you ask poorer Americans, who are scrambling from pay check to pay check, they are more likely to perceive the future as a chaotic series of short-term cycles.”

Guardian.UK: No Patriot Act II—Americans choose civil liberties over security laws.

“The latest CNN/Time/ORC poll finds that 49% of Americans are not willing to give up civil liberties in order curb terrorism, while only 40% are. In fact, 61% of Americans are more fearful that the government will overreact to the Boston bombing, compared to 31% who are worried that the government won’t act strongly enough.” Avoid the terrible recrudescence of fear & panic. The first time did enough damage.

The Atlantic: How Oil Made Working Class North Dakota a Whole Lot Richer.

This, in the current economy, is why it’s terribly hard to push an environmental agenda (or even a clear public health agenda).

Later: Speaking of public health …

CJR: Untangling Obamacare—Rate shock!?

“In her remarks admitting rate increases would be coming, Sebelius said she is ‘a believer in the market strategies that will minimize the rate impact.’” The more I learn about it, the more I expect a swift kick in the wallet. Esp. when anyone mentions “market strategies” as an ameliorating influence.

Atlantic: Can This Graph Change Your Opinion About Income Inequality and Taxes?

Do parse the last paragraphs. Even with incontrovertible proof, people remain fact-averse. The best narrative, the most attractive story — repeated 24/7 and framed as ‘given’ hardens into social myth, and wins.

Politico: Lawmakers, aides may get Obamacare exemption.

“There is concern in some quarters that the provision requiring lawmakers and staffers to join the exchanges, if it isn’t revised, could lead to a “brain drain” on Capitol Hill, as several sources close to the talks put it. The problem stems from whether members and aides set to enter the exchanges would have their health insurance premiums subsidized by their employer — in this case, the federal government. If not, aides and lawmakers in both parties fear that staffers — especially low-paid junior aides — could be hit with thousands of dollars in new health care costs, prompting them to seek jobs elsewhere.”

CJR: The Chained CPI in people terms.

Good. Read.

Dissent: Low-Wage Workers Walk out in Chicago.

“The work stoppage follows similar strikes by New York City fast food workers and by Wal-Mart retail employees across the country, and marks the latest escalation in the struggle between an embattled labor movement and two industries that increasingly dominate and define the new economy.”

NY Times: Cooper Union Will Charge Tuition in 2014.

“But beginning in fall 2014, it will charge students based on what the college described as a steeply sliding scale, with those deemed able paying around $20,000, and many others, including those ‘with the greatest needs,’ paying nothing. The change would not apply to undergraduates enrolled as of this fall.”

CNN: Dozens of Okla. dentist’s patients positive for hepatitis.

“Health officials in Oklahoma are notifying 57 patients who tested positive for hepatitis C and three patients who tested positive for hepatitis B after visiting oral surgeon W. Scott Harrington’s office in Tulsa and a city suburb, according to a joint statement issued Wednesday by the Oklahoma State Department of Health and the Tulsa Health Department. At least one positive HIV result was also reported, but policy prohibits the Oklahoma State Department of Health from releasing the number if it’s less than three.” In every way, horrible.

Guardian.UK: Is there anything wrong with living with your parents into your 30s?

Check the polling numbers. I don’t know where to begin.

Texas Observer: Texas on the Brink.

Yes, but if they secede, would it help the deficit? [Facetious.]

NY Times: A Tax System Stacked Against the 99 Percent.

“We’ve drawn our most talented young people into financial shenanigans, rather than into creating real businesses, making real discoveries, providing real services to others. More efforts go into ‘rent-seeking’ — getting a larger slice of the country’s economic pie — than into enlarging the size of the pie.” Just as folks dropped quality content for gaming search engines, back a while ago.

Atlantic: Myth of Low-Tax America — Why Americans Aren’t Getting Their Money’s Worth.

“But in most of the rest of the developed world these dilemmas have been more or less settled, and with a different outcome. For the most part, people don’t view taxes as collectivism steamrolling over the individual. Rather, taxes are viewed as a kind of membership dues that self-interested individuals pay to be in a club from which they all mutually benefit.”

Youtube: Elizabeth Warren On Illegal Foreclosures.

Give ‘em hell, Liz.

Grist: Solar panels could destroy U.S. utilities, according to U.S. utilities.

Writing’s on the wall.

NakedCap: Obama Moves Forward w/Cutting Social Security and Medicare while we lecture EU.

“Kos waded in yesterday and in all seriousness wrote, ‘I can’t imagine President Barack Obama actually wants to cut Social Security. I’m not that cynical.’ I don’t even have to shred it. Go read his comments section. His readers cite chapter, book and verse the overwhelming evidence that this is exactly what Obama wants to do.” #$@$@#%$^@^@$.

NPR: Will You Be Chained To A Smaller Check In Retirement?

“Would the chained CPI measure only be used to cut benefits? No, it could be used to boost revenues as well.” Ah.

SF New Mexican: ‘Ask This Old House’ coming to Santa Fe.

Will they film some of the really interesting stuff, or just cover ‘the mundane’? Have to wait and see, I suppose.