The Economist: In 2006 EMI, the world’s fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting […]
Continue reading... January 9, 2008
Sigh
Oh well. It’s not over yet. About the polls: IMHO “Strategic” voting doesn’t work. Vote for who you want to win. Trying to game the system always fails. Net-net: The Republicans are relieved, they might get to run against Clinton in the fall. She would lose in a Clinton vs. McCain contest. Finally, they didn’t […]
Continue reading... January 7, 2008
Could Be Game Over
Hillary Clinton sez: Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act,” Mrs. Clinton said […]. “It took a president to get it done.” And a commenter at Andrew Sullivan’s responds: That’s right. It wasn’t the courage of King and local Montgomery residents standing up to legalized white supremacy […]
Continue reading... January 7, 2008
Emotive Politics Mediascape
Beyond his policy positions and rhetorical mad skillz, Barack Obama is setting a new standard for excellence in mass communication propaganda. Go to Barack TV and check out the “Generation Obama” video. It’s just under 15 min long, documentary style, and a fascinating example of aspirational politics. * It opens with organizing a student meeting, […]
Continue reading... January 4, 2008
On The Obama Iowa Win
Nine percentage points. That’s a strength you can’t overlook. Look at the diversity in the slices: * Obama beat Clinton among women 35% to 30% * Obama beat Edwards among voters in union households 30%-24% * Obama beat Clinton and Edwards among voters of almost every income level (Obama and Clinton tied among voters who […]
Continue reading... January 3, 2008
Real-Time Democracy
C-span live at an Iowa caucus! It’s amazing, watching people stand up, hold their hands up, count up a number, point to the next person to count, and drop their hands. Riveting, truly. Update, from NY Times 7:54 p.m. | Our colleague Ashley Parker, who is in Des Moines at the Plymouth Congregational Church, Precinct […]
Continue reading... January 2, 2008
Handmeon Update
Here’s a status (promotional) update (flogging) on (of) my project (startup) to change the world, Handmeon. We got great press during the holiday season, including the Boston Globe, Vermont Public Radio, Seven Days, and the Valley News (broken link; left here for posterity). Jeff had an epiphanette while in dialogue at GiftHub.org which we’re discussing […]
Continue reading... January 2, 2008
Iowa Caucus Closers
I had my hair cut today, and the stylist told me she supported Barack Obama in the NH primary. We chatted about that, and I asked her if she had considered Hillary Clinton. She said, “Well, it’s funny, because when I first heard she was running I got really excited. People came into the salon […]
Continue reading... January 1, 2008
On Holiday Travel
Patrick Smith is a commercial airline pilot, and the author of Salon.com’s weekly Ask the Pilot air travel column (and book of the same name). He’s written an excellent essay for the NY Times on The Airport Security Follies. Gift Hub takes it a step further, pointing out that this is not actually security screening, […]
Continue reading... January 1, 2008
MBA in Guesswork
Good quote from a commencement speech by Bruce Eckel: Management is much harder than technology because it involves virtually no deterministic factors. It’s all guesswork, so if you don’t have good intuition you’ll probably make stupid decisions.
Continue reading... December 28, 2007
The 50 Most Loathsome People In America, 2007
Possibly the most sarcastic link ever posted at Notio. Also probably the funniest; an instant classic. Via Kottke, with whom I post the following excerpt: 9. You Charges: You believe in freedom of speech, until someone says something that offends you. You suddenly give a damn about border integrity, because the automated voice system at […]
Continue reading... December 27, 2007
Shopping As Hero’s Quest
To complete my cultural survey, today we went to the mall. Had this been a comparative cultural survey, we would have also gone to this mall, where they have valet parking, which could be quite handy given the size of mall parking lots. Nintendo has done an amazing job marketing the apparently amazing Wii video […]
Continue reading... December 26, 2007
The Spectacle Has Not Quite Yet Been Supplanted
Based on my suppertime family viewing, I like Jeopardy better than Wheel of Fortune. I also note, based on a one-hour television ad review, that nobody can sleep, everyone has stomach upset, most people have aches and pains, and many people are depressed. You probably couldn’t give away a Buick Lucerne to anyone I know, […]
Continue reading... December 24, 2007
State of the Music
Wired Magazine has done us a public service by hiring David Byrne to report on the current state of the music industry. It results in two feature articles: David Byrne and Thom Yorke on the Real Value of Music (with a striking photo!), and David Byrne’s Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists — and Megastars. Both […]
Continue reading... December 11, 2007
See Change, Part 1
I remember when I started wearing glasses, in third grade (1970). These days I think they test kids a lot younger, but back in the day that was the first test I took and I needed glasses pretty badly. I used to always sit in the last row of class, and on that first day […]
Continue reading... December 2, 2007
Chocolade Haas
November 29, 2007
Small Cars Can Be Safe
A lot of folks think big cars are safer than small cars. Ever wondered what happens when one of these tiny Smart Cars crashes into a wall at 70mph? Have a look! Summary: It’s all about the engineering, not the size.
Continue reading... November 26, 2007
How the Housing Bubble Worked
If you want to cut to the chase on the “sub-prime mortgage meltdown,” or whatever we’re calling it these days, tune into this post by Berkeley economist Brad DeLong: Let’s look at the loan history on this property…. The property was purchased in January 2005 for $1,157,000. The combined first and second mortgages totalled $1,156,730 […]
Continue reading... November 18, 2007
Quote for the Day
“It is by deferring mediocre actions and by being utterly intent on foreseeing the unforeseeable that we prepare ourselves for being thoroughly contradicted by happiness.” —Gaston Bachelard, The Dialectic of Duration, pg 63. The Unbroken Chain blogging fiesta didn’t materialize (deferring mediocre actions), but it was a rilly rilly great weekend. I met some fine […]
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