Xavier Shay: Citizen

☰

Archives

  1. Reviews

  2. 2017 Reading List

    I read forty-seven books this year, far fewer than normal but skewed by a much higher average length driven primarily...

  3. 2016 Reading List

    I read fifty-seven books this year, the least of the last five years. I did watch more films and series though, as we...

  4. 2015 Reading List

    I read seventy-eight books this year, seventeen more than last. That’s somewhat misleading, as I did more easy readin...

  5. 2014 Reading List

    I read sixty-one books this year, five fewer than last. You can find the full list over at Good Reads. Here are my to...

  6. Capital In The Twenty-First Century: A Review

    Piketty has done his research. His 685-page book Capital In The Twenty-First Century collates substantial income and ...

  7. If A Tree Falls: A Review

    If A Tree Falls is a documentary on the origin, expansion, and collapse of an Earth Liberation Front (ELF) cell in Po...

  8. The Glass Cage: A Review

    What if the cost of machines that think is people who don’t?The Glass Cage is an important counterpoint to the domi...

  9. 2013 Reading List

    I read sixty-six books this year, one more than last. You can find the full list over at Good Reads. Here are my top ...

  1. Politics

  2. San Francisco Proposition Voting Guide 2015

    It’s ballot time again! I’ve lived in San Francisco for four years, though as a non-permanent resident I can’t vote. ...

  3. New powers for ASIO

    Australian Parliament recently passed the National Security LegislationAmendment Bill, and it the last couple of days...

  4. Victorian State Election 2014

    The Victorian State Election is just six weeks away. In my electorate of Melbourne, four candidates are running repre...

  5. San Francisco Proposition Voting Guide 2014

    As a non-permanent resident I can’t vote in San Francisco. I have lived here for three years though so have some opin...

  6. San Francisco Soda Tax

    This November San Fracisco residents will vote on Proposition E, a measure that would impose a 24¢ tax on cans of Cok...

  7. California Proposition Voting Guide 2014

    I can’t even vote here, but this is where I live so I have opinions. I’m no expert on any of these issues, so am open...

  8. Melbourne's East West Link

    Tonight I’m reading about East West Link and Melbourne Rail. This was triggered by news that Napthine signed a secret...

  9. Deaths at Morwell

    Local residents of Morwell were concerned about pollution deaths caused by fire at Hazelwood coal mine. They worked w...

  1. Law

  2. The US Judiciary: From Weak to Strong

    This essay was written as part of an online course on the US Constitution, in response to questions about the formati...

  3. Lessons From Lavabit

    Late last year, Lavabit’s owner Ladar Levison was held in civil contempt forfailing to cooperate with FBI investigati...

  4. Golf In The Supreme Court

    Not sure how I stumbled across this, but yesterday I read a 2001 Supreme Court case involving the Americans with Disa...

  5. Hobby Lobby Supreme Court Ruling

    Today I read through the controversial and rather lengthy US Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling. Reading it is like w...

  1. Other

  2. Trip Report: Kings Canyon

    Having visited Yosemite a number of times, this season I decided to head south and check out Kings Canyon National Pa...

  3. Running Long in San Francisco

    You’ve just moved to the city, deep into marathon training. Time for the weekend long run, you lace up your shoes, st...

  4. Introduction to Cubing

    In 1974 Ernő Rubik accidentally invented a puzzle he couldn’t solve. It took him a month of tinkering to unscramble t...

  5. Race Report: North Face 50mi

    “We should run the 50K in December?”“Yeah! Doesn’t feel that scary though?”“50 mile then?”“Deal.”And so it was, back ...

  6. Trip Report: Yosemite Wilderness

    Over the Independence Day weekend and into the following week, I went on a solo backcountry trip through the Yosemite...

  7. Race Report: Walnut Creek Half Marathon

    I first tried to run a sub-90 minute half marathon six(!) years ago, off three days a week training and two weeks of ...

  8. Race Report: Bend Half Marathon

    I’m three beers in so now seems as good a time as any to write up a race report.Let me start with this: Bend is fucki...

  9. Activism and the Melbourne Cup

    On Facebook Drew asks, in relation to yesterday’s Melbourne Cup: Given that the average Australian pays to eat dozen...

  10. The Moral Hazard of Dominated Contracts

    Martin recently refered me to a fascinating article and study, Self-Control at Work.Over 13 months, pay-by-the-field ...

  11. Fracking

    This weekend I spent many hours learning about hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking”. I watched Gasland,...