Gideon Lichfield

Venezuela’s grand plan to fix its toilet-paper shortage: $79 million and a warning to stop eating so much

qz.com — Venezuela's lawmakers are rolling out plans to import toilet paper and allot a $79 million trade credit to help alleviate the country's shortages on many basic goods. Last week, commerce minister Alejandro Fleming promised he'd import 50 million rolls of toilet paper, but the recent overture comes in more than 10 million short, at 39 million rolls.

Greens are blue about Brown raiding their gold to keep California in the black

qz.com — "Governor Moonbeam" has definitely left the building. Jerry Brown's spacey-techno New Age musings during his first stint as California governor in the 1970s earned him that enduring sobriquet. Brown, who dated singer Linda Ronstadt and refused to live in the governor's mansion, pushed then-exotic technologies like solar energy, and proposed that the state launch its own...

Free information, as great as it sounds, will enslave us all

qz.com — Imagine our world later in this century, when machines have gotten better. Cars and trucks drive themselves, and there's hardly ever an accident. Robots root through the earth for raw materials, and miners are never trapped. Robotic surgeons rarely make errors. Clothes are always brand new designs that day, and always fit perfectly, because your...

If American corporations are people, why aren’t they taxed like people?

qz.com — In the United States, it seems, corporations are people too-except when it suits them not to be. In this week's Congressional brouhaha over Apple's overseas tax-avoidance schemes, the chief solutions proffered have been either to give firms like Apple a one-time tax holiday so they can bring some of their cash back home, or else stop...

Daily Kos: I need a job

dailykos.com — It's that simple. After my Fox interview everyone said "You should write a book", so that is what I've been doing for the last few months. With the help of a kind benefactor I have been able to ...

LordGrimdark: Sometimes the accidental truths ...

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Was the London machete killing of a British soldier 'terrorism'?

guardian.co.uk — Two men yesterday engaged in a horrific act of violence on the streets of London by using a machete to hack to death a British soldier.