Just like it says, Popcorn Shorts is about the kind of things we think are really interesting, but don’t really need a large article to explain them.  From the sublime to the ridiculous, check in here for crunchy bits of info you’ll love to munch.  By the way, much (but not quite all) of our delicious Popcorn comes from articles we’ve posted on our Facebook page.  If you’re on Facebook, please stop by and “Like” us and we’ll keep a fairly-constant-but-not-frequent-enough-to-be-annoying stream of these coming to your virtual door!

Inequality Quiz- Can you beat the Dwyer guinea pig?

Jesus Christ said “the poor will be with you always”, and he was right.  No matter how our society (or any society) tries to structure itself, there will always be a gap between the poorest and the richest.  But how big can that gap get before it causes real structural problems?  How big is it now?  This 15-question quiz will give you some idea of how the vast our gap is, and how it’s continuing to grow.  All stats in it are sourced so you can check them out.   We uncrated the Dwyer Guinea Pig to take the quiz, and he got 12 out of 15.  Can you do better?

Happy Kirby Delauter Day to us all!

Kirby Delauter is a county councilman in Maryland who didn’t like a local paper’s story about how parking spaces were reserved at the capitol.  What would you do?  Kirby threatened the reporter with a lawsuit for using his name without getting his permission.  The paper backed her up, writing a great editorial that used the Kirbster’s name over twenty times, and even worked his name into an anagram in the first letter of each paragraph.  We didn’t know about Kirby before and we won’t care about him tomorrow, but this little kerfluffle made for an entertaining read.

Weird science.   Very, very weird science.

It’s getting harder and harder to keep up with reality.  In last month’s News To Make You Furious, we talked about the House Science and Technology Committee and their dangerous antipathy to the science they’re supposed to oversee.  This week, we learned that Ted Cruz, who doesn’t believe in manned space flight and denies the reality of climate change, will be the next chair of the committee.   Welcome to the future!

Accountability returns for a cameo

Political, military, social, economic… it seems that in every facet of our world, no matter what sins are committed, no one is ever held accountable (at the top, at least).  Here are two stories that offer a glimmer of hope that basic accountability isn’t dead.  In Nigeria, Royal Dutch Shell agreed to pay $83 million for destroying much of the Nigerian Delta with oil spills.  In New Mexico, the cops who shot a homeless man (in a video that went viral) will face murder charges.  The only way we will EVER stop these abuses in our world is to hold the people responsible accountable for their actions, and these two stories are a good start.

And without further ado, here’s all our Popcorn from 2014…