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What's your state's stereotype? Plus, the best of the web this week.

Ever wish someone would read the entire Internet and give you a list of the best articles? Well, you're welcome! The best of the Web this week includes a map of American state stereotypes, an article about how the ancient Greeks would have dealt with Obamacare, a look at a startup with a surprising approach to helping young entrepreneurs get funding, and four simple steps to avoid getting hacked. Enjoy!


Arts and Culture

Why Are Americans So ... / Reena DiResta / No Upside

"A map of American state stereotypes, generated by Google autocomplete."(via Varina)




Hear, All Ye People; Hearken O Earth / Errol Morris / The New York Times

Brilliant: Errol Morris runs an experiment on Times readers to test whether our perceptions of the truth can be affected by fonts.




Call Me Maybe — Carly Rae Jepsen (Chatroulette Version) / Steve Kardynal / YouTube

Just when you thought you were getting sick of "Call Me Maybe," this comes along ...




Write Your Own Academic Sentence / Writing Program / University of Chicago

You're just four clicks away from writing like a PhD! Sample sentence: "The construction of post-capitalist hegemony is, and yet is not, the poetics of the gendered body."




Politics and World Affairs

Fussbudget / Ryan Lizza / New Yorker

Meet Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's new running mate, in this in-depth profile from earlier this year.




Top Ten Differences Between White Terrorists And Others / Juan Cole / Informed Comment

Sadly relevant after last week's massacre at a Sikh temple. Number 6: "White terrorists are random events, like tornadoes. Other terrorists are long-running conspiracies."




What Pericles Would Say About Obamacare / Paul Woodruff / Oxford University Press Blog

Democracy, the ancient Greek way: "Imagine a council of 500 citizens chosen at random ... with no worries about reelection to find a solution to our health care problem."




Romney's Side Course Of Culture / Ta-Nehisi Coates / The New York Times

As usual, Coates manages to be both interesting and original where others are dull and predictable; be sure to click through to Ron Swanson's Pyramid of Greatness. (via Charley)




Addressing Poverty In Schools / Joe Nocera / New York Times

Can even good teachers make a difference when their students' lives are defined by poverty? One organization is trying to equip schools to deal with poverty head on, with promising results. (via Bo)




Business and Economics

New Crowdfunding Twist: Invest In A College Grad / Christina DesMarais / Inc

A new startup, Upstart, allows young entrepreneurs to raise capital by selling a share of their future earnings.




Japan Inc. Tests A New Survival Skill: English / Chico Harlan / The Washington Post

A Japanese billionaire worried about competitiveness decides his 6,000 employees need to speak English—and gives them two years to learn it, or face demotions.




No More Growth Miracles / Dani Rodrik / Project Syndicate

Argues that gains from rapid industrialization — which drove the growth of China, India, and others — will be more difficult to come by, and that future gains will have to come from improved institutions and governance.




Why Investors Should Avoid Hedge Funds / Felix Salmon / Reuters

Ouch: "If all the money that's ever been invested in hedge funds had been put in Treasury bills instead, the results would have been twice as good."




Science and Technology

How Not To Get Hacked / Farhad Manjoo / Slate

The crazy story of how a writer for Wired got hacked, and four simple steps you should take to safeguard your digital life; if you haven't done these yet, you're being reckless.




The Art Of The Passive-Aggressive Redesign / Russell Brandom / BuzzFeed

Fun roundup of unsolicited redesigns of popular websites, including Amazon, American Airlines, IMDB, and Wikipedia.




Back To The (Far-Fetched) Future / The New York Times

An enjoyable look back at predictions from 1964 on what New York would look like in 2000, with some fun graphs and a lovely tribute to the city by its then-mayor.




Terms Of Service; Didn't Read

"'I have read and agree to the Terms' is the biggest lie on the web. We aim to fix that," declares a new site that summarizes and rates different companies' terms of service.




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Time travel back to 1905.

Back in 1905, a book called "The Apples of New York" was published by the New York State Department of Agriculture. It featured hundreds of apple varieties of all shapes, colors, and sizes, including Thomas Jefferson's personal favorite, the Esopus Spitzenburg.






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via Pexels

Millennials are now old enough to seriously reflect on life.

It seems like only yesterday a millennial was a college kid that baby boomers chided for being entitled and Gen Xers thought were way too sincere and needed to learn how to take a joke. Today, the oldest millennials, those born around 1980, have hit their 40s and have lived long enough to have some serious regrets.

They also have enough experience to take some pride in decisions that, in hindsight, were the right moves.

The good news is that at 40 there is still plenty of time to learn from our successes and failures to set ourselves up for a great second half of life. These lessons are also valuable to the Gen Zers coming up who can avoid the pitfalls of the older generation.

A Reddit user who has since deleted their profile asked millennials nearing 40 “what were your biggest mistakes at this point in life?” and they received more than 2,200 responses. The biggest regrets these millennials have are being flippant about their health and not saving enough money when they were younger.

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Family

Mom calls out teacher who gave her son a 'zero' grade for not providing class with supplies

Her viral video sparked a debate as to whether or not providing school supplies should be mandatory for parents.

@shanittanicole/TikTok

A zero grade for not providing school supplies?

The debate as to whether or not parents should supply classroom supplies is not new. But as prices continue to rise, parents are growing more baffled as to how they can be expected by teachers to provide all the various glue sticks, colored pencils, rulers and other various items the incoming students might need.

What’s even more perplexing, however, is penalizing the children of parents who won’t (or can’t) provide them.

This was the case for Shanitta Nicole, who discovered her son received a zero grade in his new school for not bringing school supplies for the entire classroom.
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via Wikimedia Commons and Jerry Woody/Wikimedia Commons

Two Victoria gentleman and a shilling from 1894.

If you had a time machine and woke up in Victorian-era London (1837-1901), you would have difficulty breathing because of the air quality. You'd also walk around plugging your nose because of the poor sanitation and probably be very confused when purchasing anything because of the monetary system.

J. Draper, a London historian and tour guide, explained why money was so different in the Victorian era in a popular YouTube video with nearly 300,000 views. “Let me try and explain how pounds, shillings and pence worked,” J Draper opens her video.

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Man hears stepdaughter call him "Dad" for the first time.

Being a parent is often a thankless job, and being a stepparent is usually even more thankless. But most parents show up and do their best to make sure their kids have what they need and feel loved. So when our kids do or say something to show appreciation, it melts our hearts—but nothing melts it faster than a stepchild calling their bonus parent "Mom" or "Dad" for the first time.

A creator named Shane posted a clip from a longer video showing his reaction to hearing his stepdaughter call him "Dad" for the first time. The full video is about three years old, but when it was reposted as a clip recently, it pulled on everyone's heartstrings.

Shane and his wife, Liana, run the social media pages Shane and Liana where they post silly videos pranking each other. But this video wasn't a prank. His stepdaughter, London, wanted to surprise him after wanting to call him "Dad" for a long time.

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Dog refuses to walk with Mom, but her legs work with Grandma.

What gives dogs the right to have such big and hilarious personalities? It seems like these dogs have found a way to make their humans laugh while also annoying them until they're ready to come apart. It's truly a skill that only dogs and toddlers seem to possess in great quantities.

Zoe is a pit bull with a bombastic side-eye that makes it clear that she only tolerates her mother, Raven, but adores her grandmother, Yonika. There is no confusion about who her favorite person is, and Zoe's grandmother only seems to encourage the behavior. The two of them are the best of friends, and Mom...well, she's the third wheel.

Sure, Zoe likes her mom a little—she does feed her, after all—but the verdict is still being determined if love can be claimed. Raven can't even convince the sassy pittie to go on a walk with her.

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