Bell Labs may have invented something that will blow Google Fiber out of the water. Google, meanwhile, looks to use satellites to blow satellite Internet away.

Employers are using Big Data to find employees who are less likely to leave, and have discovered (among other things) that members of two social networks are likely to stay but four or more aren’t. Xerox took the data and cancelled recruitment drives at gaming conventions.

How much should bankrupt Detroit pay to keep its wonderful art? Does $185,000,000 seem right?

Northeastern Illinois is facing enrollment problems, so naturally they respond by spending money to gussy itself up with on-campus housing.

Barbara Ellen argues that instead of sneering at the overweight, the government should be fitting them with gastric bands.

The increase of the college premium is largely the result of incomes plunging for those who didn’t go to college.

I didn’t know this, but the IRS charges a penalty if you pay your taxes with cash. This has created a problem for marijuana shops since the same government has created the circumstances that keep them unbanked.

I’ve long thought that we need to do away with summer vacation. I should have, but didn’t, consider that this argument is made stronger by a class component.

Noah Smith argues that liberals are rescuing marriage with their views on premarital sex, cohabitation, and so on. This is an argument that has an empirical basis. So what does the data say? (Note: I’m not referring to overly broad state-to-state data.)

How to talk to babies about Marxist theory.

Anti-STEM people often point to the comparatively low rate of STEM people who don’t actually work STEM jobs. That’s interesting, but more important – to me, anyway – is that whether they work in STEM or not they still have low unemployment rates.

Beware hookah! It’s like smoking 40 cigarettes! Actually, there is some cause for alarm here, though I find it funny that one area they are better than cigarettes is that they deliver less nicotine, and we’ve recently learned that nicotine is the only bad thing in cigarettes (because ecigarettes are “just as bad” as cigarettes, because both contain nicotine).

I hope Alpha House takes this story and makes a subplot with it: The former congressman who won’t go away.

Teens are having a harder time getting summer jobs. Raising the minimum wage will help, no doubt. More seriously, I suspect that the “future job prospects” aspect cited in the article is comparative, so if none of the teens can get jobs, it’s not necessarily a social loss.