Link roundup

1. "Professor Who Helped Expose Crisis in Flint Says Public Science Is Broken"

In 2003 the Virginia Tech civil-engineering professor said that there was lead in the Washington, D.C., water supply, and that the city had been poisoning its residents. He was right.

Last fall he said there was lead in the water in Flint, Mich., despite the reassurances of state and local authorities that the water was safe. He was right about that, too.

...

Q. Do you have any sense that perverse incentive structures prevented scientists from exposing the problem in Flint sooner?

A. Yes, I do. In Flint the agencies paid to protect these people weren’t solving the problem. They were the problem. What faculty person out there is going to take on their state, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency?

2. Stills from Return to Oz.

3. "Santorum was made an honorary Pizza Ranch employee."

His campaign chairman noted that he had been to 120 of the chain’s locations. He was presented with a Pizza Ranch T-shirt – a fleece, too.

4. "Top paralympic sprinter banned for doping violation"

Grayson #16 pages

By Mikel Janin.

Link roundup

1. "Burger King employees break windows after prank call about gas leak, Morro Bay police say"

Employees of the Burger King on 781 Quintana Road received a call from someone who indicated that they were a representative from the fire department advising of an emergency, according to reports. The caller said that the business’ windows needed to be broken for ventilation

2. "So much for the 'Oprah effect,' as Weight Watchers stock fades"

the Oprah tweet surge is already fading, displaying the half-life of a typical New Year's resolution to lose weight.

3. "I had never heard of Okhlos before playing it at PAX South today, but it quickly got my attention. It plays sort of like a twin-stick shooter, but instead of aiming a gun you're directing an ever growing mob of angry, Greek citizens that continues to grow more raucous until they are able to level buildings and kill the gods themselves."

Link roundup

1. "Is this the perfect save icon?"

We’re now approaching an era in which the predominant user base interacting with this are young teens. Users with little or no experience in ever using a floppy disk.

2. "One of Africa’s Biggest Dams Is Falling Apart"

Mosul Dam’s predicament is partly a result of the ongoing war; many maintenance workers have not returned there since August of 2014, when ISIS fighters briefly took control. (Iraqi and Kurdish forces soon regained it.) But the main issue is that, like many such dams, the project shouldn’t exist in the first place. Opened in 1986, it was built on unstable gypsum bedrock, requiring grout to be constantly injected into the foundation to prevent the dam’s collapse. That work has ceased. In 2006, long before ISIS began making headlines, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers called Mosul Dam “the most dangerous dam in the world.”

Kariba’s difficulties are more complicated.

3. Adventure Time crew made cameos in the latest episode.

Link roundup

1. "San Francisco Welcomed Super Bowl on Handshake Deal; No Contract, No Public Review"

This method allowed the bid terms — including agreeing to never bill the NFL for public services — to go forward without a public review at the Board of Supervisors. By contrast, Santa Clara's City Council scrutinized the hosting agreement and voted on it publicly.

2. "The Abortion Rights Dystopia Brought On by the Zika Crisis"

After all, the element that brings this crisis from “emergency” into “totally fucking dystopian” realm is the fact that the virus is wreaking havoc in countries with dismal, even draconian approaches to abortion and contraception.

3. "Deadpool was originally a ripoff of a DC Comics villain ... and it worked out OK"

So, Nicieza wasn't insinuating that Liefeld may not have known about a similar character at a competing company — it was patently impossible for Liefeld to not have been aware of Deathstroke. Here's Deathstroke over on the left.

Liefeld was proposing they create a very similar looking, similarly named, supernaturally agile assassin character, who even used the same weapons as a character who belonged to Marvel's biggest competitor.

What did the two young creators do in the face of this problem? Honestly, this is where the story reaches its wackiest point. They decided to lean into it.

Deathstroke's real name is Slade Wilson. So they named Deadpool "Wade Wilson."

4. There's a lot going on in this headline.

"the story of a wife who lured an Orange County fugitive out of Iran"

LA Times:

When three men escaped from the Orange County jail, officials quickly decided only one of the escapees possessed the cunning and resourcefulness to mastermind it: Hossein Nayeri, a 37-year-old ex-Marine who faced charges in a grisly kidnapping and torture plot.

Around Nayeri's former wife, 29-year-old Cortney Shegerian, the anxiety was extreme. She was rushed into hiding. She assumed a fake name. During the eight days Nayeri was on the run — from his escape on Jan. 22 to his capture Saturday morning — the people around her feared for her life.

As the manhunt dragged on, authorities were convinced that if Nayeri remained in California, it was to stalk and kill her. Her lawyers, and the district attorney's office, implored the media not to mention her name, for fear of inflaming him.

The source of Nayeri's rage? Shegerian had played a central role in putting him behind bars in the first place, participating in an elaborate law-enforcement scheme to lure him out of Iran — and into an extradition-friendly country — in November 2013.

"Benoît Violier’s Death Shines Light on High-Pressure Restaurant World"

NYT:

In the rarefied galaxy of restaurants that have received the Michelin guide’s highest honor, three stars, Benoît Violier’s, in Switzerland, was by one measure the most glittering.

Only two months ago his establishment, the Restaurant de l’Hôtel de Ville in Crissier, near Lausanne, was designated the best restaurant in the world in La Liste, rankings commissioned by the French Foreign Ministry — an honor that only added luster to the glory of French chefs (he was born in France) in the face of competition from plucky foreign rivals.

But on Monday, his friends and associates in the restaurant industry were groping to understand why Mr. Violier, at 44, had apparently shot himself to death