Last week, Burt Likko showed off the flags under consideration for New Zealand:

Of the four, I rank #3 (bottom left) the best, followed by #2, then #1 and #4.

For those of you who do not know such things, here are the five rules of flags:

1. Keep it simple.
2. Use meaningful symbolism.
3. Use 2 or 3 basic colors.
4. No lettering or seals.
5. Be distinctive or be related. (Avoid duplicating other flags, but use similarities to show connections.)

Here are how the four score:
Flag #1 (top left): 5/5
Flag #2 (top right): 3/5, losing points for simplicity and being four colors.
Flag #3 (bottom left): 4/5, losing points for simplicity.
Flag #4 (bottom right): 5/5

So by pure vexillological standards, #1 and #4 are the best. Yet I prefer #3, followed by #2 and then #1 and #4.

To be honest, #4 has a weird almost fascist feel to it. I’m not sure why exactly. I’m also not sure about the black and white. But if you are going to have black and white, #1 one looks pretty cool. Even though the stars make it a little too complex, I still prefer the other two on account that they stand out. Even apart from the rules, I’m not a big fan of the four colors on #2. If you were to take the red out of the stars, though, I might prefer it to #3.

You can see New Zealand’s current flag to the right. Since it exists apart from the UK, other than the monarchy, it may seem odd that it has the Union Jack. I mean, Canada doesn’t ever since they got rid of the Red Ensign. However, it’s really not that unusual. Of course, among those that have kept the flag is Hawaii, which I can’t say I approve of.

I wonder what Australia would have done if the republican referendum a little over a decade ago had passed. As the Queen of England remains their queen, there is no pressing reason that it should be changed. But that applies to New Zealand as well.

Sweden’s tumble in the international education rankings has been blamed on school choice, but could at least some of it be immigration?

Nima Sanandaji argues that Scandinavia’s success as a social democracy is exaggerated, and it’s success was despite rather than because of its welfare state.

As oil prices tumble, drillers are finding ways to cut costs. The refrain, though, never changes.

From a consumer standpoint, I’m glad that they’re making breakthroughs in storage space… but memory is the bigger hold-up lately and given the industry trends towards streaming that’s likely to remain the case. On the other hand, presumably cheaper storage will allow for better cloud usage and the like, maybe?

Julia Belluz looks at the evidence we do and do not have surrounding ecigarettes, and the different approaches between the US and UK.

The “Gig Economy” thing may be more myth than fact, as there has been no increase in self-employment among Millenials.

Will Boisvert makes the case for California keeping its last nuclear plant.

Oh thank god.

The high cost of cheap pork.

One of the arguments that confounds me is “Who cares if the threshold of proof is low and the standards of evidence are stacked against you when the only consequence you face is getting kicked out of a college?” The logical next step, though, is that it not be just one college.

Amy Tuteur argues that obstetricians may have gone too far in trying to prevent elective early deliveries.

How can those left behind rebound?

Maybe the solution for Puerto Rico is to ditch the US and rejoin Spain.

Astronaut Edgar Mitchell believes that nuclear war was averted by peace-loving aliens. (Also, Buzz Aldrin, nailing it.)

Sarah Kliff of Vox watched all of the Planned Parenthood videos (up through 8/13) and put together a surprisingly fair report. I hope she does so again after they were all released.

Chris Cuomo put his finger on the real problem with the ISIS/sex slavery story… it feeds negative stereotypes.

The EPA holds polluters accountable, but who holds the EPA accountable?

I tend to assume those politicians that talk about keeping Chick-Fil-E and such out of their town are chest-pounding for the cameras. Turns out, looks like they mean it.

I will absolutely watch Dante’s Devine Comedy film(s), but I will absolutely go into it with low expectations.

“Unless the doctor’s pay is somehow linked to performance, there is a good chance that the quality of care in the public sector would be worse than in the private sector.”

This makes sense: Vox reports that during recessions, college students pick money-making majors.

A look at data and elections, from Texas.

If you’re worried about political self-segregation online, it’s apparently nothing compared to real life.

An all-important question has been answered: On Friends, how much does Joey owe Chandler.

Well, I suppose bribery may indeed be an inelastic good.

Tina Rosenberg looks at the kidney market in Iran.

Razib Khan looks at the history of the British and the Caste System of India.

Meet Moore’s Law’s evil twin.

Sonny Bunch blames the rise of Donald Trump on pop culture and professional wrestling.

In Ferguson, some Oath Keepers decided to arm black protesters in solidarity.

Vice asks the very Vicey question: What are things going to be like for Jared Fogle behind bars?

When more than half of the stadium was empty, I thought that might register with media depiction of the event, but the media keeps letting him pretend the stadium was full.

Contrary to the claims of Trump and other lefty weirdos, Jeb Bush’s PAC did not actually photoshop him on to a black guy, and it was kind of a weird theory to begin with.

In the tenth anniversary of Katrina, Owen Courreges wishes that people would stop calling New Orleans better after the disaster.

I’m on board with re-evaluating the Confederate Flag and other things, but this is silly.

A bear poking its head through a doggie door? I’m going with scary.

A millionaire in the UK is fined after recycling gravestones for his patio.

South Carolina passed some rigid laws to prevent pesky calls, but a recent court decision has placed it in jeopardy.

George Orwell recently turned 110, and a Dutch Artist celebrated by putting party hats in surveillance cameras.

Even if they’ve made the long transition from scourge to the cute mascot of anti-global warming efforts, maybe you should hunt polar bears because polar bears will hunt you.

A couple that was getting it on fell in a moat and died.

You have maybe seen the videos of the bears playing in the pool. Uncle Steve makes a good point, which is that while it may be an exotic novelty to most, it’s probably a common plague to them.

Libertarianism, mapped.

Alia Wong looks at the history of Sesame Street, and what we did and didn’t learn from it.

As someone for whom DSL is the only broadband option available, reports of the demise of DSL are disturbing.

Women are less likely to be exonerated of their crimes. Why? Sometimes, there was no crime.

The Yakuza has an age problem.

Wolf-Coyote Hybrids are migrating to cities.

School districts are scrambling to hire teachers.

“About fifty-four per cent of [liberal arts] graduate students report feeling so depressed they have “a hard time functioning, as opposed to ten per cent of the general population.”

Evidently, your cell phone battery can be used to track you.

Aww, Canada, we 2/3 like you, too! Philippines! And Germany, you break my heart.

An… enterprising individual figured out how to use 23andme’s website to allow webmasters to block people from websites on the basis of their ancestry.

Vox has some interesting energy maps.

Unleash the power of your brain using brain drumps.

Good news! Colonizing the moon may be easier than expected!

Kristin Wilcox looks at ways liberal arts colleges need to try to sell themselves. (Not sure if I got this from Hanley or I need to forward this to him.)

Uncle Steve applies Moynihan’s Law to a recent David Leonhardt and Bradford Wilcox pieces on marital success and family in red and blue states.

Dan Kahan writes about the problem he sees with consensus messaging in the climate change debate.

Tyler Cowen looks at the economic states in Kansas and Louisiana. Scott Sumner tackles Louisiana.

Italy promised pain if the EU didn’t agree to distribute the superstate’s refugees, but France and Germany are not so sure about the solution.

Rivals Apple and Samsung are teaming up to replace SIM cards.

Police officers are taking advantage of superpowered comrades to fight crime. No masks and capes, alas.

Dick Tracy wasn’t a particularly good movie, but it was visually marvelous.

Rent-controlled apartments in Sweden are less segregated by income, but more segregated by ethnicity.

Canadian oil fields are looking at self-driving trucks.

Will Germany’s demographic crunch knock it off its perch at the top of the EU?

There are some stories with happy endings of people who use technology to locate their lost or stolen smartphone or laptop. This is not one of those stories.

If oil extraction is causing earthquakes in Oklahoma, it may not be an issue of fracking as much as salt water disposal.

The LDS Church is showing off the stone that Joseph Smith allegedly used to translate the Book of Mormon.

Ross Douthat argues that there is no pro-life case for Planned Parenthood. The results of the Colorado experiment have been oversold, but it’s still something I’d like to see pursued.

Did Hiroshima and Nagasaki save Hokkaido from Soviet rule?

A World War II vet and Walmart employee celebrates his 103rd birthday.

Vox explains Sesame Street’s move to HBO. Boy, mixed feelings about that. But more episodes is good. I had no idea that they produced so few a year.

The joke writes itself: The daughter of the Governor of Oklahoma had to disconnect her trailer from the Governor’s Mansion.

A paper that boosted Golden Rice has been retracted over concerns of subject consent. (There is, it should be added, no evidence of falsification or fabrication.)

To quote Jesse Walker: “No!”

A judge in Texas ordered a 20 year old man to marry his 19 year old girlfriend within 18 days.

By ending up on the sex offender registry, Zach Anderson (the 19 year old who slept with the 14 year old who represented herself as being 17) was prohibited by an animal shelter from getting a dog.

A bounty hunter in Arizona raided the wrong house. No, I mean he really raided the wrong house.

Some pictures on a cell phone in a town dump lead to the arrest of a sailor.

I’m trying to imagine how this guy explains the gap in his resume. “I cared about the success of my clients a little too much, it turns out.”

Come on, Jared, all you had to do was keep your weight off and not be a creep, and you were pretty much set for life.

Here’s something interesting from Hanley about printing a bridge from those 3D printers… in mid-air.

A deep undercover agent in London went a little too deep, and a woman won a $685,737 judgment.

The courts in the UK have ruled that making private copies of your music is illegal.

The New York Times reports that manufacturing is making a comeback in the South, but Adam Ozimek says “Not so.”

Despite some bad news recently, Ben Thompson argues that ESPN is going to be okay.

Well, this sounds like a pleasant working environment.

As it turns out, giving people health insurance doesn’t save money. (“But long term, preventive care saves money!” Not exactly.)

Moody Analytic’s model suggest the slightest of slight victories for Hillary Clinton a Democrat next year. 270.

Yeah, this is pretty much what almost every middle school kid wants to hear. Truthfully, at my middle school, most of the worst flamed out by high school. I don’t think that’s especially typical, though.

UberX could be responsible for saving lives.

Will there be a restaurant at which we can watch? Or will we have to make due with charts?

New eye drops may be able to combat cataracts without the need for surgery.

There is an island off India – that is technically a part of India – where the inhabitants will apparently try to kill anybody who enters.

Some research indicates the driverless cars could produce enormous emission reductions.

Hadn’t thought about it, but it makes sense: Gay marriage is still illegal in Navajo Nation.

I find it hard to disagree with this: The Samsung whistle really is horrible and it’s the first thing I change when personalizing a Samsung device.

There is a class divide when it comes to choosing one’s major. It corresponds with my experience this it tends to be wealthier kids studying English, to the point that you can almost see a class divide at extended family gatherings.

The Columbia Journalism Review looks at the cult of Vice.

According to a report from the FRB-NY, federal student loans and grants don’t increase enrollment, but do increase price tags.

Reihan Salam argues that Mexican immigrants have more to fear from the US than vice-versa. Or as Orin Judd likes to say, we’re importing the superior culture. (An old college professor had a similar line, that immigrants are wonderfully used until we drag them down to our level.)

Some Russian Nationalists want to fly the flag of the Tsarist imperial standard. I can’t speak to the history, but it’s certainly a cooler flag than their present one. (For that matter, the so was the Soviet flag.

Here’s an interesting idea: An Oklahoma school system seeks to deal with a budget crunch and a teacher shortage by condensing the school schedule.

This is the #1 reason – and indicator – that it will be a very, very long time before we see a United States of Europe.

War or no war, the Slave Economy was in for a lot of hurt.

Tom Selleck and the White Tattoo Guy have been vindicated!

David Whitlock makes the case against foul ball nets in baseball. I think #2 and #4 are especially strong points, and that #2 helps push along #1 and #3.

Idaho is down to one full-time federal judge.

A woman in the UK had to legally change her name to be able to log in to Facebook.

The TPP could have some bad consequences for generic drug availability.

Desperate migrants are trying and dying to swim across the English Channel from France to England. I asked Matt Feeney, who gave supplied the link, why immigrants consider the UK so much better than France, and he sent me this.

Some people seem rather upset that Charlie Hebdo has announced that it won’t be doing anymore Mohammed cartoons. I am glad that they didn’t back down at the time, but the attacks did not impose a requirement that they produce these comics indefinitely.

It’s really quite remarkable to me that they’re going forward with the movie valorizing the Bush-TANG debacle. What has me a bit concerned is that it might work.

Color me a bit surprised: In the UK, seven in ten homes that had the decision to filter out pornographic content chose to do so.

If you’re looking for a post that has a strong and cohesive thesis with supporting paragraphs and all that, this isn’t that post. (You may well be at the wrong blog, for that matter.)

Late lest week, the law office of one Collier & Radcliff was bombed in Mocum, Deseret. This was relevant to me because Edmund Collier was the chief legal counsel at Falstaff, where I worked when Hit Coffee was started. Edmund is one of three lawyers at Falstaff I remember and he is the only one I remember particularly warmly. Eldon Cooper (no relation) was okay, I guess, but I remember him more as being my boss’s boss by the time I left. Eric Forrester, The Coffee Shop Cowboy, was rather snooty.

Forester was also gay. And he was fired for it, when it came to light. This was just after Collier and almost all of the rest of the legal staff (except Cooper) was let go, leaving a real shortage of legal talent in a business that was very law-oriented.

Whatever role Collier may have played in that firing, though, I still remember him warmly. He was a pretty big deal, and really nice to everybody including me when I had just been hired.

What’s interesting to think about is if it had been the law offices of Forester that had been bombed, I’d be wondering if it was some anti-gay hate crime or something. In fact, there’s a decent chance that would be the assumption. It might even be in the national news. Except, of course, that it wasn’t because Forester wasn’t the target.

It’s something that comes to mind with the coverage of black church fires. There was the immediate assumption that it was related to Dylann Roof and the Confederate Flag. That was my assumption until some scrutiny was applied. I’m old enough to remember the alleged rash of black church fires back in the 90’s that also turned out to be less than meets the eye. Something grabs the attention of the media, and then each one gets coverage. It was actually during that spell that my own church (largely white) was burned to the ground. Little news coverage of that. Which isn’t a complaint (absent a larger trend, why would it get coverage) but probably feeding in to the perception that it was specifically black churches being burned down.

The number of racially-motivated burnings in both cases were, as I understand it, non-zero. And any time that happens – whether racially-motivated or not but especially when it is – it’s a tragedy. Though relatively a minor thing, it’s kind of frustrating that it gets hard to view except in a dichotomy where a segment of the population believes that none of it is racial and another side is irate that race is not applied to every instance until demonstrated otherwise.

Anyway, hopefully they will find whoever it is that bombed Edmund’s office. If they find them and report why, I’ll relay that information to you. Maybe it’s like a similar bombing in Winnipeg where it was an ugly divorce case. And two is a trend…