>> How to uncrowd our prisons: First, learn what the myths are. “Myth No. 1: Long sentences drive prison population growth….. It is easy to focus on the people who are serving decades-long sentences for life or life without parole, but they make up only about 10 percent and 2.5 percent of the total prison population, respectively.” Earlier: Shakespeare Behind Bars
>> How can people be convinced to pay for web content? In Slate, Jack Shafer names 3 attributes for websites that successfully charge for content: “1) They are so amazing as to be irreplaceable. 2) They are beautifully designed and executed and extremely easy to use. 3) They are stupendously authoritative.” Earlier: Dead green mags and the future of journalism
>> Unrelatedly: Who owns Trader Joe’s? Apparently, it’s a German discount grocery chain called Aldi. This was news to me –
Photo by Still Burning
Aldi actually has some stores in the Chicago area. It’s seriously no frills (they don’t provide free grocery bags which is good, really, but they also don’t pay living wages to employees which is bad). I actually did know that (although I’m realizing that my RSS subscription to freakonomics seems to not be working…)
Comment by Don Hosek — February 19, 2009 @ 2:18 pm