• The Strange Story of Cisco’s (Sort of) Beloved Hold Music (The Atlantic) I always wondered where this came from.
• D.B. Cooper: Investigators Claim They’ve Discovered Skyjacker’s Identity (Rolling Stone) I went to high school in the Pacific Northwest, an obsession with the guy is a part of that.
• The Evils of Cultural Appropriation (Tablet Magazine) A nice take-down of this exercise in moral masturbation.  Draws an analogy to sumptuary laws.
• I’ve spoken to hundreds of voters in “flyover country.” Socialism is an easy sell. (Vox) Illinois Socialists.  I love Illinois Socialists.  (Apologies to Jake and Elwood Blues)
• The Entire History of Steel (Scientific American) Getting my history of technology geek on.
• The Flawed Legend of Preet Bharara (The Nation) “After being fired by Trump, the former US Attorney wears a halo of martyrdom. But he failed to prosecute the Wall Street banksters who brought us the financial crisis.”
• How the Dominant Business Paradigm Turns Nice People into Psychopaths (Evonomics) The normalization of perversion.
• Why It’s So Hard to Junk Bad Decisions–Edging Closer to Understanding “Sunk Cost” (Scientific American) Even rats suffer from the sunk cost fallacy.

Here is the hold music in question: