January 2012
“the more important point to keep in mind is that a meritocracy is not...”
– What Would Meritocracy Look Like?
“awkwardly for publishers, Amazon is their largest retailer, so they are now in...”
– Amazon’s Hit Man - BusinessWeek
“The idea that visionary geniuses are best-poised for radical innovation is...”
– frogdesign’s Fabio Sergio says blending dissonant goals into harmony is the secret to innovation, emphasizing collaborative environments – a view contrary to certain famous entrepreneurs‘ insistence that working alone is the secret to creativity. (via curiositycounts)
“70% of the Times’ operating profit in 2011 went to pension and interest...”
– The Pay Package For Departed New York Times CEO Janet Robinson Is Much Bigger Than We Thought
We Are Old
yfiles:
Every political junkie under 40 I know thinks it’s hilarious that Google thinks we’re over 65 years old. But there’s interesting information there. The subscriber bases of Ye Old Political Magazines — American Prospect, Nation, New Republic, Washington Monthly — were always legendarily high in their median ages notwithstanding the young staffs. Many have assumed that the Web is...
“I’ve framed this as “in the future your children will be servants and nannies,”...”
– Reihan
“If you know how to use Excel on top of having all of the above cited analytical...”
– thanks, NYTimes comments. (via darushimo)
“The university exchange programme Erasmus is barely mentioned in the business...”
– Umberto Eco (via ayjay)
Umberto Eco favors social engineering on a continental scale! You don’t say!
(I like Eco and have tremendous respect for his voluminous erudition, but he does veer close to de Botton territory sometimes. And he’s way overrated as a fiction writer.)
sex, art, and politics: Buffy the Vampire Slayer... →
sexartandpolitics:
Pie charts are the worst charts. Terrible terrible charts. Willow should know better.
XANDER And what about that nutty ‘all men are created equal’ thing? CORDELIA Propaganda spouted out by the ugly and less deserving. XANDER I think that was Lincoln. CORDELIA Disgusting mole and stupid hat. WILLOW Actually, it was Jefferson. CORDELIA Kept slaves, remember?
Oh, Cordelia....
“The penguin … just defecated on the floor.”
“Actually, senator, I believe...”
– Kentucky Senate President David Williams and Senate President Pro Tem Katie Stine. Stine was presenting a resolution to honor an aquarium. (via officialssay)
sexartandpolitics asked: Liberals and conservatives agree that parking mandates are bad policy... and yet I'm not going to hold my breath that -that- regulation is going to change any time soon.
Je reçois des trucs étranges dans mon inbox #13
problemesdesciencespistes:
HAHAHAHAHAHA
“When you look at those two videos [2010 vs 2012] side by side, it almost appears...”
– “New foursquare intro video distances them from the check-in” sur AboutFoursquare (January 26th, 2012)
My favorite part of running this company is seeing people “get” the transformation from “game mechanics and checkins are cute” to “with 1.5bn checkins, we can change the way you experience your...
“The rule, which requires airlines to roll mandatory per-passenger taxes and fees...”
– Spirit Airlines lashes out against new airfare rule - CNN.com
Well done, DoT. You have me agreeing with AIRLINES.
(via sexartandpolitics)
“Do I want the future of education to be tied to Stanford, Harvard, etc.?...”
– Educational Disintermediation, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty (via felixsalmon)
“The real question, John [of the Cross] suggests, is about what you are really...”
– Rowan Williams, “The Dark Night” (via ayjay)
“When you look at those two videos [2010 vs 2012] side by side, it almost appears...”
– “New foursquare intro video distances them from the check-in” sur AboutFoursquare (January 26th, 2012)
“On December 10, 1810, in a muddy field around 25 miles from London, a fight took...”
– Brian Phillips on the boxing career of freed American slave Tom Molineaux - Grantland. A powerful story, beautifully told. Brian is so, so good. (via ayjay)
“Vladimir Putin has laid out his plans to compile a canon of 100 Russian books...”
– Vladimir Putin plans 100-book Russian canon all students must read | Books | guardian.co.uk (via ayjay)
Like a stopped clock is right once a day, Putin comes up with a completely commendable idea. (My recommendation would be for the experience to be validated by a discussion seminar, but this is...
“Television is a very different experience in the age of video on demand. Even if...”
– Great piece by Tim Carmody (via ayjay)
Great article. (via infectedworldmind)
“A gentleman is simply a patient wolf.”
– Lana Turner (via rulesformyunbornson)
“Before me sits a young woman. I cut off her hair, thick and beautiful, and she...”
– The Last Jew of Treblinka, Chil Rajchman (via demons)
“One sure giveaway of quack medicine is the claim that a product can treat any...”
– As doctors never tire of reminding people, exercise protects against a host of illnesses, from heart attacks and dementia to diabetes and infection. Just why it has such magical properties is, at last, being understood. (via theeconomist)
for anyone who might be interested. . . .
ayjay:
My posts at the Atlantic’s Technology Channel are listed here.
Must read.
“On the contrary: If you think that providing economic equality and security are...”
– Bryan Caplan
“Through most of American history, there were no limits on campaign...”
– Comment: Super PACs: Worse to Come : The New Yorker
“When a genius appears in the world, you can know him by this sign: that all the...”
– Jonathan Swift (via claytoncubitt)
“The home schooling movement, by contrast, has no access to funding nor any...”
– Noah Millman » Textbook Cases (via ayjay)
“Remember the old joke about the dim tailor who makes a loss on each piece of...”
– That describes the market for flat-panel screens for televisions. Why do none of the firms that produce liquid crystal display (LCD) panels make money from it? (via theeconomist)
A competitive market! Price equals marginal cost! So weird!