A study tracking the outcomes of punishing unemployed Britons by cutting their unemployment benefits found that it rarely leads anyone into getting a job, but it pushed many of them into poverty or crime.

The article does not report on how effective these policies have been at leading people to demonize the unemployed.

If the government wants poor people to work more hours, it should think about laws to require companies to give workers predictable work schedules, notifying them well in advance.

Prison thugs in Australia have admitted beating up a prisoner for no reason, then lying about it.

One of their coworkers was a corrections officer rather than a thug. Bravo for his commitment to honesty. If not for him, they might have maimed the prisoner.

The Taliban and PIS are capturing mines in Afghanistan and selling the minerals.

Purdue Pharma was convicted of fraud in connection with OxyContin, but then the US government made a deal with Purdue to allow it to continue selling the drug. Rudy Giuliani obtained this deal for Purdue.

It seems that OxyContin's special characteristics are responsible for the current problem of opioids. Some of it could have been prevented, if not for that deal.

There is no justification for lurching to the other extreme and making the less dangerous approved opioid medicines so hard to get.

"Data is the new oil" — but if so, what does that imply?

Humanity, and most other species of life, would be better off if we made most of the buried oil and gas disappear instantly.

We would likewise be better off if we made most of the present and future databases of personal data disappear.