Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Link roundup

1. BB:
The publicly funded, $35B cleanup of radioactive soil around Fukishima is staffed by homeless men recruited from Sendai subway stations. They are preferentially sent to the most radioactive zones, and work for less than minimum wage. Mobbed-up subcontractors confiscate as much as two thirds of their pay in "fees."
2. BBC:
One in five Irish homes is unoccupied.
If the country immediately used them to house every person on the social housing list, there would still be hundreds of thousands left over.
3. How did last night's college basketball 104-point blowout happen?
The NCAA's rules for what constitutes a legal opponent are shockingly brief: If a school offers a four-year degree and plays the majority of its games against U.S.-based college varsity teams, it counts as a legal opponent for a Division I basketball team.
4. Playing Fable 2 with the goal of marrying as many towncriers as possible.