November 2010
Dan Ariely » An Irrational Guide to Gifts →
Case 1*: Imagine that you are walking by a storefront and you notice a beautiful coat that is just the right cut and color. You walk in to check it out, and up close it is even more beautiful. But then, you look at the price tag and you discover that it is about twice as expensive as you originally guessed, and after 30 seconds of painful deliberation you decide that you can’t possibly justify...
“We got sideways snow. We’ve got snow that’s going up, stuck up under...”
– Storm slams Northwest; next up, the Rockies - Weather - msnbc.com
My favorite quote from this week’s storm.
Science Diction: The Origin Of The Word 'Atom' :... →
The British poet and alchemist Thomas Norton used the word “attoms” in his 1477 poem, The Ordinal of Alchemy. Historian Howard Markel explains how Norton came to use the word, and points out earlier philosophers who raised the concept of indivisible units of matter.
Audio linked from the original post.
McSweeney's Lists: Hemingway's Blonde Jokes. →
Q. Why was the blonde staring at the frozen orange juice container? A. The container brought to mind the Sunday breakfasts with her mother in the days before she took her life.
Hellbox. Damage. Smelt. Recast.: Scarlet Torture →
hellbox:
Urban Dictionary: The Scarlet Letter. A horrific torture device devised by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. Since then, English teachers across America have been using it to mentally maim their students, as this book can cause brain anuerisms and seizures within five minutes of reading. The only …
WatchThe Complete Timelapse | A House By The Park
Roof hatch open. Roof hatch closed. Roof hatch open. Roof hatch closed.
On-task
@hellbox: Did you know that you have to opt-in to the TSA's security? Airports could use private security.
Me: What'd be interesting is if *airlines* provided their own security, rather than airports. I could see Virgin America having a laid-back, "come on through, we know all about you on the internet" vibe.
@hellbox: A pat-down by really good-looking people. In a purple-neon-lined egg.
Budos: If you flew Southwest, you'd have to pat down the person in front of you.
[lots of laughter and pantomime about patting down the person ahead of you in Seating Group B, 30-60]
Google at the Friday night dump… →
footnoted.com:
Just last week, Google caused a bit of a stir when the WSJ broke this news that Google planned to give staffers a 10% raise, which seemed pretty generous, until you realize that these top four executives are getting 30% raises.
That wasn’t the only interesting thing in the 8-K. The filing also noted that target bonuses for top executives would be increasing from 150% of base pay...
On Twitter
Shans: can't help noticing people respond a lot quicker when an email comes from my Harvard account than from my Gmail account.
Jaime: the electronic communication equivalent of cleavage?
Shans: That's the perfect way of putting it. Like going from an A cup to a D in terms of attention received.
Woman Suffrage Crusade, 1848-1920 --... →
hellbox:
One hundred years ago today, women gained the right to vote in Washington State, the fifth state in the nation (after having the right recognized in the state in 1883 and then watching it revoked in 1888). It wasn’t until 1920 that the 19th Amendment passed, saying that no state could withhold voting based on gender.
“The Wright brothers deserve their fame, not be cause they were the first to lob...”
– The Ruricolist: Descent
One small part of a wonderful review of a video game.
ebooks: trading digital rights, not files | Monday... →
The true revolution will be a shift from a files transaction system to a rights transaction system. This transformation involves radical changes in the way we think of digital content, books, videos or even games.
For now, let’s focus on books. Here is how it could work.
The White House Needs Elizabeth Warren, Now More... →
The Baseline Scenario:
The premise – and central mistake – of the Obama administration in 2009-10 can be summed up in what the president said to leading bankers on that fateful day, March 27, 2009: “My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks”.
The organizing notion then, provided by Larry Summers and presumably Tim Geithner, was that the “responsible” administration...
The Sorrows Of Young Werther and The Rise of... →
…the simplicity and brevity of Werther is what made it ripe for mass consumption, which also made it ripe for parody. People could read it fast, and it could be printed fast. Unofficial –- since there wasn’t such a thing as “official” –- Werther merchandise filled the cultural landscape. Tailors sold outfits that let men look like Werther, the Edward Cullen of the story. Guys began...
