"Irrelevant."

WIL WHEATON dot TUMBLR: "annabellioncourt: SHAKESPEARE WROTE THAT ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE. HIS THEATER WAS CALLED THE GLOBE. NOT ONLY WAS THAT LINE PHILOSOPHICAL AND DEEP, BUT IT WAS ALSO A FUCKING PUN."

 Japan creates new national holiday for ‘overworked’ population | The Sideshow - Yahoo News: "Around this time each year, millions of Americans are enjoying a three-day weekend heading into Memorial Day. It’s one of just 10 national holidays for a country that prides itself on a world-renowned work ethic. But in Japan, the country’s government just unveiled their 16th national holiday. So, is Japan a holiday happy nation compared to its American counterparts? Not exactly. Officially beginning on August 11 2016, “Mountain Day” was ostensibly created to recognize Japan’s culturally significant mountainous regions. But The Diplomat reports that the holiday was actually most likely created to put a dent in Japan’s “overworked” population that largely refuses to use its government protected vacation time. A recent Wall Street Journal claims that the average Japanese worker only uses 8.6 of their paid vacation days each year....  

In Japan, there is of course paid vacation, but people don't take it," Seishiro Eto, a member of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party that led support for the new holiday, told the WSJ. "I hope with Mountain Day, people will be able to take more of their vacation." By comparison, workers in the U.S. use an average of 10 of their 14 paid vacation days each year. However, a 2013 “ Vacation Deprivation Study” from Expedia.com says that still amounts to a staggering 577,212,000 unused annual vacation days in the U.S. And the workaholic approach may not even be as effective as some think. After all, French workers have the largest amount of guaranteed time off of any major industrialized nation yet their worker productivity is also amongst the world’s highest...

The concept of being overworked is so prevalent in Japan that the country has its own word for people who die of heart attacks and other ailments directly attributed to excessive labor – Karoshi. The word literally translates to mean “death from over work.” In recent years, Karoshi has broadened its meaning to include Japanese “salarymen” who commit suicide as a result of the emotional distress from working too much and under uncertain conditions."

 The New York Post Perfectly Trolls Kim Kardashian and Kanye West on Their Wedding Day - BroBible.com

 Nothing Left to Cut? - Reason.com: "According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), from 2004 to 2012 the federal government improperly allocated somewhere between $38 billion and $121 billion in taxpayer funds each year, amounting to a total $799 billion over an eight-year period. Such misallocations range from misattributed tax credits to disability insurance payments being made to non-disabled people. And the problem is getting worse: Improper payments averaged $42 billion a year from 2004 to 2007, then jumped to $105 billion between 2008 and 2012. These pockets of waste could be squeezed out by restricting program eligibility to those who needed it most, thus keeping the list of recipients small and manageable. This in turn would make oversight more effective. Waste could also be reduced by forcing programs to recover their own misspent funds through audits or more careful review systems. Unfortunately, not even a sharp increase in government mis-expenditure has provoked much reform beyond some tired political promises, usually accompanying proposals to jack up spending elsewhere, to magically get rid of "waste, fraud, and abuse." 

 A Response to Michael Kinsley - The Intercept: "So let’s recap: The New York Times chose someone to review my book about the Snowden leaks who has a record of suggesting that journalists may be committing crimes when publishing information against the government’s wishes. That journalist then proceeded to strongly suggest that my prosecution could be warranted. Other prominent journalists —including the one who hosts Meet the Press–then heralded that review without noting the slightest objection to Kinsley’s argument. Do I need to continue to participate in the debate over whether many U.S. journalists are pitifully obeisant to the U.S. government? Did they not just resolve that debate for me? What better evidence can that argument find than multiple influential American journalists standing up and cheering while a fellow journalist is given space in The New York Times to argue that those who publish information against the government’s wishes are not only acting immorally but criminally?"

Eating Out at a Home Restaurant: Should the Gov't Regulate Paid Dinner Parties?

"Ai is a master chef, and about twice a week, she and her boyfriend, Matt, host a group of strangers at their home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to enjoy a gourmet Japanese meal. Their guests find them through a website called EatWith, which makes it possible for diners to book a reservation, not in a restaurant, but in the home of a chef."

Cheeseburger with Fries (and a Permit) - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "But why should the government have any say over what people eat—or charge for—in the privacy of their own dining rooms? Unlike at a restaurant, EatWith guests get to socialize with the person cooking their meal, and the kitchen is often wide open for everyone to see how the food is being handled and prepared. "The sharing economy is changing paradigms," says Katz. "I have no doubt that there's a real hunger for more human interactions, and it's those real connecting experiences that will linger with a guest for much longer after the dinner is ended."