"...the real secret of magic is that the world is made of words."

The Whole "Veronica Mars" Gang Is Coming Back For A New Web Series: "When Play It Again, Dick — a web series revolving around Ryan Hansen’s fan favorite Veronica Mars character, Dick Casablancas — was announced in January 2014, creator Rob Thomas described the project like this: “The web series will have more in common with Party Down tonally, but it will be about Ryan Hansen, or at least a version of Ryan Hansen, deciding to capitalize on the current Veronica Mars heat to get his own series on the air. He’ll try to pull his actor pals into the venture with varying degrees of success.” In the subsequent seven months, Thomas has been silent on the series. But with filming on the eight-episode series recently completed, BuzzFeed can now reveal the actors who will join Ryan Hansen — who plays Dick Casablancas and a fictionalized version of himself — in the super-meta series."

Making economics interesting by discovering the obvious.  Prostitution and the internet: More bang for your buck | The Economist:

 "Appearance matters a great deal. The customers who reported encounters to the website we analysed clearly value the stereotypical features of Western beauty: women they describe as slim but not scrawny, or as having long blonde hair or full breasts, can charge the highest hourly rates (see chart 3). Hair that is bleached too unconvincingly to be described as blonde attracts a lower premium, but is still more marketable than any other colour. For those not naturally well endowed, breast implants may make economic sense: going from flat-chested to a D-cup increases hourly rates by approximately $40, meaning that at a typical price of $3,700, surgery could pay for itself after around 90 hours. The 12% share of women featured on the site who are described both as athletic, slim or thin, and as being at least a D-cup, suggests that quite a few have already taken this route." 

  

Ron the Brawler:

"Now if you think you do have rights, one last assignment for you. Next time you're at the computer, get on the internet, go to Wikipedia. When you get to Wikipedia, in the search field for Wikipedia, I want you to type in "Japanese Americans 1942" and you'll find out all about your precious fucking rights, Okay?" - George Carlin

Flickr: manitou2121's Photostream:

Huh, it's almost as if people are biologically hardwired to find certain traits attractive and beautiful.  Nah, that can't be right.  I mean you have different looking people from all over the world who...  Oh.  Wait.  Nevermind.

So close. 

 Still funny.

  

RAWIllumination.net: RAW, from anarchism to libertarianism: " I'm not an anarchist any longer, because I've concluded that anarchism is an impractical ideal. Nowadays, I regard myself as a libertarian. I suppose an anarchist would say, paraphrasing what Marx said about agnostics being "frightened atheists," that libertarians are simply frightened anarchists. Having just stated the case for the opposition, I will go along and agree with them: yes, I am frightened. I'm a libertarian because I don't trust the people as much as anarchists do. I want to see government limited as much as possible; I would like to see it reduced back to where it was in Jefferson's time, or even smaller. But I would not like to see it abolished. I think the average American, if left totally free, would act exactly like Idi Amin. I don't trust the people any more than I trust the government."

RAWIllumination.net: Zine interview with RAW: "The underlying theme is that there are a lot of available realities, and you don't have to live your life in the one your parents bought. There are plenty of  hucksters out there selling alternative realities, and you can buy any one you want for yourself. Or, you don't have to buy any of them -- you can look at them all as an anthropologist does. Or you can rent them and go from one reality to another, trying various ones out, until you find one you like best. Or  you can keep on moving forever without tunneling in any of them."