From rape survivor to Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Amanda Nguyễn shares her personal story on the Makers.

David Dayen writes in the Intercept:

According to the affiliation agreement, all of Mercatus’s activities and programs “shall be carried out consistently with the educational and research missions” of the university, including cooperation with other units of the university on “projects of mutual interest.” While Mercatus employees are explicitly not to be designated as employees of George Mason, Mercatus leases office space on the George Mason campus in Arlington, Virginia (for the low price of $1 for a 28-year lease, according to a space usage agreement reviewed by The Intercept); employees of Mercatus receive ID cards from George Mason; employees are eligible to be appointed as “affiliate faculty members” of George Mason (Blahous does not appear to be an affiliate faculty member); and the university pays tuition costs for any Mercatus employees who want to take classes, as it does for George Mason employees.

Wow, $1 for a 28-year lease a huge building that looks like an high-end hotel. What a deal.

Noam Cohen writes in the New Yorker:

The e-mails of the celebrated programmer Linus Torvalds land like thunderbolts from on high onto public lists, full of invective, insults, and demeaning language. “Please just kill yourself now. The world will be a better place,” he wrote in one. “Guys, this is not a dick-sucking contest,” he observed in another. “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” he began in a third.

Just wow!

Mark O’Connell writes in the New Yorker:

Twitter, as everyone knows, is Hell. Its most hellish aspect is a twofold, self-reinforcing contradiction: you know that you could leave at any time and you know that you will not. (Its pleasures, in this sense, are largely masochistic.) My relationship with the Web site, which has, for years now, been the platform most deeply embedded in my daily—hourly, minutely—routine, has come to feel increasingly perverse. It mostly seems to offer a relentless confirmation that everything is both as awful as possible and somehow getting worse. And everyone else on Twitter appears to feel the same way.

He concludes:

To be alive and online in our time is to feel at once incensed and stultified by the onrush of information, helpless against the rising tide of bad news and worse opinions. Nobody understands anything: not the global economy governed by the unknowable whims of algorithms, not our increasingly volatile and fragile political systems, not the implications of the impending climate catastrophe that forms the backdrop of it all. We have created a world that defies our capacity to understand it—though not, of course, the capacity of a small number of people to profit from it. Deleting your social-media accounts might be a means of making it more bearable, and even of maintaining your sanity. But one way or another, the world being what it is, we are going to have to learn to live in it.

Eric Klinenberg writes in the New York Times:

Libraries are an example of what I call “social infrastructure”: the physical spaces and organizations that shape the way people interact. Libraries don’t just provide free access to books and other cultural materials, they also offer things like companionship for older adults, de facto child care for busy parents, language instruction for immigrants and welcoming public spaces for the poor, the homeless and young people.

These days, I am using our wonderful public libraries more than ever. Most books, Vietnamese in particular, I have read were checked out from Fairfax libraries. Libraries cannot be obsolete. They provide crucial resources for our mind and spirit. I would do anything to save them.

Tim Herrera writes in the New York Times:

Open discussion of salaries among peers and co-workers, experts said, is a powerful tool to fight pay inequity. Not only does it serve both selfish and altruistic means — it simultaneously puts you and your co-workers in a better position during salary negotiations — but pay transparency can even protect companies by “minimizing the risk of disparate treatment claims and increasing job satisfaction for workers,” Ms. Cornell said.

I recent asked a former colleague his salary while we were having lunch. In reciprocal, I told him mine. The openness let us know where we are at in the industry. If we make around the same amount then we are good. If one is way more than the other, the lower one should think about his current position. I was so glad we were honest about it. I have no problem telling people my salary if they ask. I have nothing to hide. Besides, I work for a public university, my salary is public. If you are curious, you can search for it.

Steven Kurutz write in the New York Times:

Millennials especially have embraced this so-called FIRE movement — the acronym stands for financial independence, retire early — seeing it as a way out of soul-sucking, time-stealing work and an economy fueled by consumerism.

Followers of FIRE tend to be male and work in the tech industry, left-brained engineer-types who geek out on calculating compound interest over 40 years, or the return on investment (R.O.I.) on low-fee index funds versus real estate rentals.

Fascinating piece on retiring in your 30s.

Katie Benner reports in the New York Times:

The filing said that Harvard “uses a vague ‘personal rating’ that harms Asian-American applicants’ chances for admission and may be infected with racial bias; engages in unlawful racial balancing; and has never seriously considered race-neutral alternatives in its more than 45 years of using race to make admissions decisions.”

After dealing with Priority Toyota in Springfield, I have understood its brand. Priority puts its own priority over customers.

In our negotiation for a brand new 2018 Toyota Sienna, a sales manager accused me of milking the dealer. Sure, a small-time customer is milking a multi-million dollar dealership. I walked out, but a sale consultant ran after me and settled the price. He was a nice guy.

After driving the car home, I could not find any of the paper work a finance manager provided me. I called him to request another copy. I had to call five times to finally reached him. He told me to come to the dealer and he would print me everything. When I came in, a receptionist said he was with a customer. I left my name, phone number, and address so he could send me a copy. A couple days later, I emailed him and copied the general manager to follow up on the paperwork. I received no reply. Nothing. Fortunately, Đạo found the paperwork I left inside of the car.

The temporary license plates will expire tomorrow. The sale guy told me, they will be ready to be picked up within three weeks. On Monday, my wife got nervous and told me to call the dealer. I called about 20 times and left at least 4 messages. I heard nothing back. Yesterday, I drove to the dealer and requested the plates in person.

True to is name, Priority serves its own priority first, especially after it takes your money. Priority even attach its brand on my license plates and the back of my minivan. I obviously took them all off. Part of the deal with Priority is free oil change for life. I don’t know if I can put up with its service department. We’ll see.

If you live in Virginia and interested in purchasing a Toyota at a dealership, you might want to avoid Priority. It does not put your priority over its own.

Star Wars’ actress Loan Trần speaks on race and sexism:

I want to live in a world where children of color don’t spend their entire adolescence wishing to be white. I want to live in a world where women are not subjected to scrutiny for their appearance, or their actions, or their general existence. I want to live in a world where people of all races, religions, socioeconomic classes, sexual orientations, gender identities and abilities are seen as what they have always been: human beings.

This is the world I want to live in. And this is the world that I will continue to work toward.