September 2010
McSweeney's Lists: Sad Hayao Miyazaki Movies. →
“My Landlord Totoro”
U.S. Wants to Make It Easier to Wiretap the... →
infoneer-pulse:
Federal law enforcement and national security officials are preparing to seek sweeping new regulations for the Internet, arguing that their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is “going dark” as people increasingly communicate online instead of by telephone.
Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including...
This is Your Brain on Food § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM →
Author and Ohio State University professor Gary Wenk:
The distinction between what is considered a food (something that your body wants or needs in order to function optimally) or a drug (something that your brain wants or needs in order to function optimally) is becoming increasingly difficult to define. Indeed, the routine use of some substances, such as stimulants and depressants, is so...
Stephen Colbert to Testify Before House... →
His testimony will relate to his experience participating in the Take Our Jobs initiative put on by the United Farm Workers union. The initiative invited people to come and try the jobs that illegal immigrants do now, like farm work, to see if they’re really taking jobs that Americans want. Since Colbert was one of only 4 people who took them up on the offer, he’ll be testifying about it.
...
Here Comes A Double Dip Recession... →
As discussed in our May 2010 Insight, in the typical post-World War II economic recovery, four cylinders fire to push the economic vehicle out of the recessionary mud and back out on to the highway of economic growth. At present, only one - the ending of inventory liquidation - is generating significant power. The other three - employment gains, consumer spending growth and a revival in...
Credit Suisse downgrades entire US entertainment... →
mikehudack:
broadcastassassin:
Credit Suisse downgrades rating on ENTIRE US ENTERTAINMENT SECTOR due to threat of online media to cable, TV
Spencer Wang, the analyst at Credit Suisse who made this call, is brilliant. He’s seriously smart.
Seattle Fire Department tweets from active stories →
lostremote:
A big three-alarm fire broke out on Monday afternoon in Seattle’s industrial district, and as usual, the Seattle Fire Department’s public information officers responded to the scene.
…
“Bank capital cannot be measured. Think about that until you really get it.”
– interfluidity » Capital can’t be measured (via colin)
The End of Management - WSJ.com →
What will the replacement for the corporation look like? Even Mr. Hamel doesn’t have an answer for that one. “The thing that limits us,” he admits, “is that we are extraordinarily familiar with the old model, but the new model, we haven’t even seen yet.”
This much, though, is clear: The new model will have to be more like the marketplace, and less like...
“The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer.”
– Ken Kesey (born 75 years ago today)
“I always assume that a good book is more intelligent than its author. It can say...”
– Umberto Eco (via theparisreview)
How We Drive: Traffic and Algorithms in Seattle →
Bill Beaty, Seattle resident and traffic scientist quoted in Tom Vanderbilt’s “Traffic”, on Seattle’s new Active Traffic Management system at work:
From what I can see, they’re trying to limit the inflow to the daily
northbound jam at I-5 and I-90 interchange. The result is a large slowdown far south of the city, with an empty region right at the location of the daily jam....
Book-Burning Shelved, It's Time To Commit Atheists... →
shezad:
The Texan pastor’s moved on from the Koran to a pyre of The God Delusion.
A spokesman for the Atheist Brotherhood in Australia was quoted as saying: ”We feel strangely unaffected and will seek revenge by raising our eyebrows and shrugging our shoulders.
“The vandals were caught and the handles returned. The pumps are now fully...”
– McSweeney’s Lists: Things Are Looking Up for Bob Dylan.
Income Was Stagnant Way Before The Recession... →
It’s not entirely clear why household income should have remained stagnant during all those years when the U.S. economy was growing and top earners were seeing their incomes rise.
Earlier this summer, the FT laid out three of the leading theories (emphasis added):
The rise of China, India, Brazil and othersn has undercut wages in the west and put America’s unskilled, semi-skilled and...
Elizabeth Warren to Unofficially Lead Consumer... →
CrossingWallStreet.com: At Least Microsoft Thinks... →
Of course, there’s the question of should a company be trying to make money by shifting pieces of paper around. As David Merkel says, “Why pay money for financial engineering? Better you should look for genuine organic growth.” He’s got a good point. When I invest in a company I want them to do what they do best. Let me worry about if their stock is a good buy or not.
Since FY 2006, Microsoft...
Microfinance for students: Making the grade →
infoneer-pulse:
“LENDING to get a student through college is a far better way to fight poverty than making small-business loans,” says Ganhuyag Ch. Hutagt, until recently boss of XacBank, a Mongolian microfinance lender. Graduates are more likely to take jobs that lift them into a far higher income bracket—which is why, five years ago, XacBank started offering higher-education loans, typically...
WatchThe Quantified Self:
[Above] is a wonderful TED talk by Ethan [Zuckerman] about how easy it is to make mistakes about the nature of the media we consume. His ideas about “imaginary cosmopolitanism” tell us something important about how errors in how we understand our own behavior may also blind us to important things going on the world.
KK says that Mr. Zuckerman’s seeking...
“Are you up for a thought experiment? What if we chose to regard the 2,973...”
– David Foster Wallace (via southpol)
Oh, wow, I forgot about this essay. Must re-read.
