📺 "House of Cards" Chapter 67 | Netflix

Watched "House of Cards" Chapter 67 from Netflix
Directed by Ami Canaan Mann. With Robin Wright, Michael Kelly, Diane Lane, Campbell Scott. Claire clashes with the Shepherds and Mark Usher, who pressure her to sign the Future Act. Doug makes an unexpected move.

📺 “The West Wing” The Leadership Breakfast | Netflix

Watched "The West Wing" The Leadership Breakfast from Netflix
Directed by Scott Winant. With Rob Lowe, Dulé Hill, Allison Janney, Janel Moloney. Toby wants to use a bipartisan breakfast to discuss real issues instead of making it a staged event; Sam floats the idea of moving the press room across the street; Leo wants Josh to apologize to a columnist on his behalf; Leo and Toby realize they need to start thinking about reelection.

📺 “The West Wing” Noël | Netflix

Watched "The West Wing" Noël from Netflix
Directed by Thomas Schlamme. With Rob Lowe, Dulé Hill, Allison Janney, Janel Moloney. Josh speaks to a psychiatrist about the events of the last three weeks: Toby hired musicians for the foyer, an Air Force pilot disobeyed orders, Yo-Yo Ma performed at the White House, and Josh managed to cut his hand quite badly.

📺 “The West Wing” Galileo | Netflix

Watched "The West Wing" Galileo from Netflix
Directed by Alex Graves. With Rob Lowe, Dulé Hill, Allison Janney, Janel Moloney. The President and NASA plan a TV event for a probe's landing on Mars; satellite photographs show a suspicious-looking fire in Russia; Leo asks Toby and Josh to decide on the next postage stamp; Sam and C.J. have personal reasons for not wanting to accompany the President to a concert.

📺 "The West Wing" Shibboleth | Netflix

Watched "The West Wing" Shibboleth from Netflix
Directed by Laura Innes. With Rob Lowe, Dulé Hill, Allison Janney, Janel Moloney. Dozens of Chinese stowaways are discovered in a container ship in California; Toby looks to pick a fight over school prayer with a recess appointment; Thanksgiving at the White House sees C.J. in charge of turkeys and Charlie looking for the ultimate carving knife.
I was in a West Wing sort of mood, but thought I’d watch one of the Thanksgiving episodes in honor of the day.

👓 Why Most of America Is Terrible at Making Biscuits | The Atlantic

Read Why Most of America Is Terrible at Making Biscuits (The Atlantic)
There’s a scientific reason no one outside the South can nail them.
Anyone who follows Jeremy CherfasEat This Podcast (or specifically his excellent microcast series Our Daily Bread) would have seen this one coming from a mile away. One can get some reasonably flaky and tender biscuits (and not hockey pucks as she describes) with all purpose flour using harder wheat, but having the alternate version certainly makes a nice difference. Of course this would use a more laminated/pastry sort of method than the sort of cloudlike fluffiness that one typically gets in the South with a more generic mixing method that is usually employed.

👓 Stakhanovite movement | Wikipedia

Read Stakhanovite movement (Wikipedia)
The term Stakhanovite originated in the Soviet Union and referred to workers who modelled themselves after Alexey Stakhanov. These workers took pride in their ability to produce more than was required, by working harder and more efficiently, thus strengthening the Communist state. The Stakhanovite Movement was encouraged due to the idea of socialist emulation. It began in the coal industry but later spread to many other industries in the Soviet Union. The movement eventually encountered resistance as the increased productivity led to increased demands on workers.

👓 Alexey Stakhanov | Wikipedia

Read Alexey Stakhanov (Wikipedia)
Alexsei Grigoryevich Stakhanov (Russian: Алексе́й Григо́рьевич Стаха́нов; 3 January 1906 – 5 November 1977) was a Russian Soviet miner, Hero of Socialist Labor (1970), and a member of the CPSU (1936). He became a celebrity in 1935 as part of what became known as the Stakhanovite movement – a campaign intended to increase worker productivity and to demonstrate the superiority of the socialist economic system.

👓 Unhappy Would-Be Shopper Goes on Rampage in Local Best Buy | Pasadena Now

Read Unhappy Would-Be Shopper Goes on Rampage in Local Best Buy (Pasadena Now)
Pasadena police officers arrested a 32-year-old Pasadena man who reportedly went on a rampage at a local Best Buy store Tuesday afternoon, yelling and tossing items, after a store employee refused to run his credit for purchase of several smartphones. The incident happened at about 3:44 p.m. in the store located in the 3300 block of East Foothill Blvd., police Lt. Pete Hettema said.

📺 "The West Wing" Take This Sabbath Day | Netflix

Watched "The West Wing" Take This Sabbath Day from Netflix
Directed by Thomas Schlamme. With Rob Lowe, Moira Kelly, Dulé Hill, Allison Janney. A drug dealer's appeal of the federal death penalty is rejected by the Supreme Court, which upholds the death sentence with execution scheduled for the following Monday. One of the defense lawyers on the case is Sam's old high school bully, and he appeals directly to Sam to involve the president. During a weekend in which he was supposed to be in a yacht race, Sam opts to stay at the W.H. and try...

👓 Beyond fiction | Scott Aaronson

Read Beyond fiction by Scott Aaronson (Shtetl-Optimized)
I now know firsthand what it’s like to be arrested by armed police officers, handcuffed, and sharply interrogated, while one’s wife and children look on helplessly. This is not a prank post. It happened in Philadelphia International Airport. As someone who was born in Philadelphia, and who’s since visited ~40 countries on 6 continents and flies every week or two, I’ve long considered PHL possibly the most depressing airport on the planet (and the competition is fierce).