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More than a few times now with a reputable agency, I've been brought in for face-to-face quick interviews, only to hear that I didn't get the job. Okay. But I'm told by the recruiter that no one else has gotten it either, and then a day or two later the hiring company ends up posting the job on LinkedIn or elsewhere. But since I've been introduced by the agency the company can't hire me for some time without paying them, so I'm out of the running. Why aren't these companies submitting online first instead of going the agency route?

Could we consider increasing the frequency of the polls? The April Fools' Day one is pretty dated now. Once a week would be pretty groovy.

I've got a Who is Going to Buy Yahoo!? story in the queue, but it will be pretty worthless in a few days, as the current bidding deadline is Monday the 18th. The timing is a detail I should have included in the story, so hopefully someday we'll get an edit-submission option for logged in users (as requested on the Rehash page).

I glanced at yet another smartphone article. The specs table lists support for up to 200 GB of expandable storage for the Samsung Galaxy S7, and 2 TB for the HTC 10 and LG G5. 2 TB SD cards don't exist yet.

2 TB (actually 2 TiB) has been the theoretical maximum capacity for the SD standard for some years now. Although there was an update to the standard recently, it only specified larger block sizes and faster speeds, not capacities greater than 2 TiB. Newer SD cards could hit the limit soon... think 3D QLC (4 bits per cell) NAND, or just the 3D TLC which will become ubiquitous in SSDs soon. Currently, the largest SD card is 512 GB, and the largest MicroSD card is 200 GB. A Falcon 9 Heavy full of 512 GB SD cards would make for some fast data transmission.

All three of the smartphones I mentioned come with a 2560x1440 screen and 4 GB of RAM. Samsung could be the first manufacturer to bump that to 6 GB as soon as next year. With unnecessary specs like these, it's inevitable that they will market smartphones as VR inserts or desktop replacements.

There’s a loud corner of Reddit where millennials look to get rich or die tryin’

“Y-O-F**KING-LO,” the teen wrote, flashing his trading statement. “900 to 55K in 12 days!”

On Reddit, he’s known as “World Chaos,” a Florida high schooler who earlier this year multiplied his money by betting against the S&P 500. His real name is Jeffrey Rozanski, and the 18-year-old’s appetite for risk would make many seasoned market players facepalm.

In one corner of the Internet, though, praise rained down. “You magnificent bastard,” read one reply. “Sailing away on your yacht while the rest of us f**kers who went long are looking for the nearest window.”

That was peak “WallStreetBets,” the Reddit forum where “YOLO” is the war cry, Martin Shkreli is a role model, and irreverent traders trawl for tickets to quick wealth. It has become what one member calls “the beating heart of millennial day traders.”

“It’s tasteless, hilarious and subversive,” said Erik Johnson, a 28-year-old manufacturing worker and forum regular from Boston. “And you definitely need to have a thick skin to partake.”

Recently a big-name placement agency reached out to me because I had worked with them nearly a decade ago, looking to fill a role I had done some time ago. In the middle of that process, another guy from the same agency reaches out. As soon as I mention working with the first guy, he kindly drops me. I was later told the second guy wouldn't make as much money on placing me because I "belong" to the first guy and he'll get a cut. What a load of crap. And companies pay scummy recruiters like these, to hide qualified candidates?

A different agency called me about two decent jobs, but when I got the company names I had to tell him I already applied directly to both. While that's frustrating, I think it's worse that the HR departments at these places aren't even humanly reviewing the submissions they have already gotten before turning to an external recruiter. A recommendation from one of your own employees isn't enough to skip the filter process? Is the 10-15% commission paid to these external guys worth it when they add nothing in most cases?

I can't say that all external recruiters are bad, as there are a few exceptional ones. Sadly, the industry isn't self-policing, so short of using Yelp and Glassdoor you have little idea how they will be to deal with. This entire process is frustrating as playing an FPS with a gamepad.

France prostitution: MPs outlaw paying for sex

French MPs have passed a law that makes it illegal to pay for sex and imposes fines of up to €3,750 (£3,027, $4,274) for those buying sexual acts. Those convicted would also have to attend classes to learn about the conditions faced by prostitutes.

It has taken more than two years to pass the controversial legislation because of differences between the two houses of parliament over the issue.

Some sex workers protested against the law during the final debate. The demonstrators outside parliament in Paris, numbering about 60, carried banners and placards one of which read: "Don't liberate me, I'll take care of myself", the AFP news agency reports.

I've been getting hit with a lot of these today:

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, admin[at]soylentnews.org and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

It only seems to happen on trying to post comments or story submissions, maybe every other attempt?

The Culture That Created Donald Trump Was Liberal, Not Conservative

EgyptAir hijack: Man surrenders at Larnaca airport

Falkland Islands fears new ruling expanding Argentina's sea control

Can Micro Bit replicate BBC Micro success?

Pet insurance claims hit record number

US pulls Tanzanian aid worth $470m over Zanzibar vote

White House to commit $116m to heroin and opioid abuse epidemic

Iraq dossier looms over lone MI6 Eurosceptic

Debate-Ducking Hillary Clinton in '08: Candidates Should Be Tough Enough to Debate "Anytime, Anywhere"

Last week I had another first date. I met this girl on OkCupid. We met in the afternoon at a local pub and shared a meat and cheese platter. She was visibly nervous when she arrived. I found her nervousness charming, and it put me at ease. Once the nerves calmed down, we had some great conversation as we picked at the cheese and meat tray.

She is recently out of a multi-year relationship, and isn't looking to get right back into one, so she thought that dating a married person would be a good way to avoid being locked down again. We chatted about stuff and things, and wrapped it up after a couple hours. As we parted ways, we hugged and I went in for the kiss. Her lips were soft and I ended up floating back to my car.

We arranged for a second date a couple days later. We went for drinks and appetizers at a somewhat trendy restaurant downtown. She is new to non-monogamy, so I brought her a present -- a book called "The Ethical Slut". This book is considered by some as the bible for non-monogamous relationships, and as she is new to the scene, I thought it would help. We chatted, ate, drank, and eventually made it back to her place for some fooling around.

This girl has really done a number on me. I can't stop thinking about her. I can't wait to see her again.

A Former Nixon Aide Admitted the 'War on Drugs' Was Designed to Screw Over Blacks and Hippies

According to Watergate mastermind and former Richard Nixon aide John Ehrlichman, the then-president launched the notorious (and ongoing) war on drugs in 1971 to disrupt that administration's two greatest perceived threats: black people and antiwar leftists.

The brazen quote surfaced in the April cover story of Harper's magazine that was written by Dan Baum and went online Tuesday. The reporter recalls an interview back in 1994 in which Ehrlichman bluntly explained the whole thing.

"The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying?" Ehrlichman told Baum. "We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."

Obvious? Sure. But it's important to get this kind of history explicitly out in the open so that mistakes can be corrected.

Here's the article at Harper's Magazine.