June 2009
Why are there 60 minutes in an hour? →
ascendingcoherence:
To understand the units of time we need to investigate the number systems of ancient civilizations. How did the Sumerians count to 12 on one hand and to 60 on two? What advances did the Babylonians make and how did they use this number system for measurement? And what refinements did the Egyptians make to time measurement to give us the system we still use today?
via Special...
The Cost of Life →
The Baseline Scenario: “at what point is the cost of medical care to extend life not justified?”
After Michael Jackson, Fame May Never Be the Same →
But even if nobody achieves album sales on a Jacksonian scale, couldn’t he or she be an artist every bit as popular, every bit as loved, every bit as listened to?
Probably not. The pop-idol field — like every field that can lead to super-fame — is more crowded than it has ever been, and the varietyof routes to stardom keep growing.
Michael Jackson's death hit Glastonbury hard – and... →
I was at Glastonbury when Jacko died. That’s not a factual statement, but a T-shirt slogan. The day after his death, souvenir tops with “I was at Glasto 09 when Jacko died” printed on them were already on sale around the site. In fact, when Jacko died, I was at home playing Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on a Nintendo DSi. I am 38 years old.
“May the world continue to struggle with fame and fortune, and the premature loss...”
– R.I.P. Michael Jackson, the King of Pop (A reluctant tribute from a reluctant fan)*plus an MJ tribute roundup from the coverblogs!* — Cover Lay Down. A rather ridiculous amount of download-ready remixes, covers, mashups and more in the links.
The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (The... →
An article by William Deresiewicz about how universities should exist to make minds, not careers.
“We cannot establish society on a rational basis because society exists to serve...”
– The Ruricolist: Societal contract
ABX - Billie “Wildcat” Jean (Michael...
“…fundamentally frontend work is different from backend work, because we...”
– ericmiraglia.com » Transcript — Nate Koechley: “Professional Frontend Engineering”
syska:
Cameo - Rigor Mortis
Now get on...
“I call that man rich,” Henry James’s Ralph Touchett observes in “Portrait of a...”
– The Joy of Less
WatchDesigning with Psychology in Mind (AEA slide deck) - Bokardo
McSweeney's: An Overheard Conversation at the... →
The revealed name of Mom 1 pretty much seals the vision of my future.
“The Senate urged President Barack Obama Wednesday to pardon the late black...”
– House weighs resolution to pardon Jack Johnson - ESPN
WatchAs noted by many others, weirdest “I’m having an affair” press conference ever.
On dead frogs in SEC filings… (footnoted.org) →
When you come from a frame of reference, as we do, where $0 spent on legal expense would be the most preferred alternative, having to predict anything beyond that, by its nature, would become inherently and incredibly biased towards our own wants, desires and expectations. To us, this is somewhat akin to being asked to predict how many minutes after being force fed a dead frog we would...
“Clearly enjoying the freedom that can only from being a politician not seeking...”
– Francesco Explains It All: Revelations from Dick Cheney’s Upcoming Simon & Schuster Memoir via ascendingcoherence
Slapped in the Face by the Invisible Hand: Banking... →
The current panic involved financial firms ‘running’ on other financial firms by not renewing sale and repurchase agreements (repo) or increasing the repo margin (‘haircut’), forcing massive deleveraging, and resulting in the banking system being insolvent. The earlier episodes have many features in common with the current crisis, and examination of history can help...
Watchvia justinhook, thedailywhat
Oh, no. Please, please don’t ruin one a great cartoon. (p.s. - Thumbs up for Dev Patel as Zuko, though I’m eager to see the digital Appa and how the hell you tone down Sokka. And who gets to play Bumi?)
Email patterns can predict impending doom (New... →
Menezes thinks he and Collingsworth may have identified a characteristic change that occurs as stress builds within a company: employees start talking directly to people they feel comfortable with, and stop sharing information more widely. They presented their findings at the International Workshop on Complex Networks, held last month in Catania, Italy.
Gilbert Peterson at the Air Force...
“Using tools has lots of interesting effects on our perception. In one [study],...”
– Mind Hacks: Tooling up the body
Small LEDs on the volunteers’ hands allowed Cardinali to track their movements and calculate the speed and acceleration of their arms. She found that they reached for the block differently after they had been accustomed to the grabber, taking longer to...
The Price of Planning (hugeasscity) →
So that leaves us at the mercy of privately funded planning, like with the Roosevelt Development Group. Even in the case of South Lake Union, an area that comprises about 2% of the city’s land base and is expected to accommodate nearly 20% of the city’s growth in the next dozen years, the city has no money to move forward with the necessary EIS to consider upzones. So until Vulcan and others pony...
Commentary by David Simon, Creator of The Wire,... →
Via McSweeney’s and ‘The Women Of McSweeneys’ on The Rumpus Days of sudden-snort-inducing reading material…all ladies. Rad.
The Women Of McSweeneys.net - The Rumpus.net →
“Why are men, taken on average and as a whole, funnier than women?” inquired Christopher Hitchens in “Why Women Aren’t Funny,” Vanity Fair, January 2007.
That’s a good question. And by that I mean, fuck you.
Infinite Jest, page 694
datatimesemotion:
sometimesagreatnotion:
It’s of some interest that the lively arts of the millenial U.S.A. treat anhedonia and internal emptiness as hip and cool. It’s maybe the vestiges of the Romantic glorification of Weltschmerz, which means world-weariness or hip ennui. Maybe it’s the fact that most of the arts here are produced by world-weary and sophisticated older people and then...
The McAllen Problem « The Baseline Scenario →
Remember all the people who said that you can’t blame mortgage brokers and investment bankers for being greedy, because that’s how a capitalist economy works? Well, you could make the same defense for the McAllen doctors. We long ago stopped expecting lawyers and accountants to behave contrary to their economic interests; now we simply expect them to conform to the law and to certain professional...
Shadow Banking for Beginners (Baseline Scenario) →
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