The Independent Variable
The Independent Variable
Kevin Humdrum
Welcome to The Independent Variable, the official linkblog of the interwebs covering culture, politics, sports, and tech since 2012.
Latest Posts
YouTubeA living legend and at nearly 90 years old, he’s still got it. I’ve been lucky enough to see him live twice, both times over a decade ago, at Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, and then at Buddy’s Legends club in Chicago....
NY Times“Two of our most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems,” Mr. Altman said. “The DoW agrees with these...
YouTubeThey knocked this little short film/music video out of the park. I haven’t listened to the whole album yet, but I’m hopeful this might reverse course from their more recent dance albums and return to the greatness that was Plastic...
collaborative markdown editorI’ve talked before about my desire for a Google Docs alternative—one where I could share docs with writers, suggest changes, etc.—and I even wrote up some requirements for it in the hopes that someone might...
AuthortunitiesGlad to see that “Space & Time” is sticking around.It's a storied publication and well worth a trip to the archive. The switch to monthly keeps things fresh, though theme calls are only as interesting as the tenders who...
Miniroll + MinishipThese are two brand new webapps from Chris Hannah that I absolutely adore already. Miniroll is a simple and sleek way to make an embeddable blogroll and Miniship does the same, but for changelogs. They are both super...
Kansas CitySB 244, which Republican supermajorities in the Kansas Legislature voted last week to enact into law over Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto, will go into effect on Thursday upon the publication of the Kansas Register. The legislation...
The AthleticImagine going from winning a gold medal to having to listen to this imbecile ramble like an incoherent madman do 2+ hours. Even if most of these guys are Trump supporters, I guarantee you none of them were planning on...
by Grigory Lukin
ReutersIn China, censorship relates to red lines. You cannot cross some red lines. It’s about state policy and discussions (about) state power. It’s also related to what they would call minority or religious issues, which can be very...
BBCMeanwhile, in China…This isn’t a “count your blessings” moment. It’s a preview.Fun FAKE NEWS Fact: During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln curbed freedom of speech by suspending habeaus corpus.
AthleticThe last thing I need right now is hope in the Cubs chances…
ReutersThe device had already been on the market for about three years. Until then, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had received unconfirmed reports of seven instances in which the device malfunctioned and another report of a...
UCSDOf course they’re using bots to play D&D. Who wants to have fun with their own imagination? We’re only on this rock to track metrics, increase productivity, and shape our blobby flesh into copyrighted bionic cogs.Key phrase in the...
When you're reading this, you may already know what has happened at the Super Bowl on Sunday. Hopefully, the Patriots lose and ICE doesn't do anything idiotic like try to detain Bad Bunny—or anyone at the game... but they are just crazy...