January 2009
89 posts
The game changer →
This is a condensed, almost shorthand account of what needs to be done to turn the global economy around. It should give a sense of how difficult a task it is.
How memories form, fade, and persist over time →
Three new studies shed light on the way the brain forms, stores and retrieves memories. Experts say they could have implications for people with certain mental disorders.
Programmers are Tiny Gods →
Programmers are the Gods of their tiny worlds. They create something out of nothing. In their command-line universe, they say when it’s sunny and when it rains. And the tiny universe complies.
Fair's fair →
The Ultimatum Game is so popular because it is simple to explain and simple to run, yet its results involve one of the most complex problems of society: what are we saying when we say something is “fair”?
When No News Is Bad News →
A former managing editor of The Chicago Tribune probes the collapse of the newspaper industry and tries, mostly in vain, to find hope for the future of journalism.
There’s More To Fear Than Fear →
No, we haven’t turned the corner on the banking crisis—we can’t even see the corner. What’s needed is a bold, massive jolt to the system.
A Man for All Seasons →
The misunderstood John Maynard Keynes.
Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story →
The Complete Centerfolds is a coffee-table book compiling every Playboy centerfold published from the magazine’s inception in 1953 until 2007.
Babies Know: A Little Dirt Is Good for You →
The hygiene hypothesis suggests that organisms that enter the body along with “dirt” spur the development of a healthy immune system.
To Buy or Not to Buy: The Origins of Good Taste →
During the 17th century, Britain witnessed the birth of a consumer society. But, as the number of possessions grew, so did the concept of ‘taste’, a subtle and elusive yardstick by which people advertised their social position and sensibilities. Keith Thomas looks at how the pursuit of taste encouraged, as it still does, competition and conformity.
Taming Perfectionism →
Real artists ship.
Joe Biden, Advisor in Chief →
And you may say that Joe Biden’s moment has passed, that he is not the one to help us unfurl our wings. But there is one thing that he knows:
He is who he is, and he likes this shirt.
The Little Unions That Couldn't →
In reality, card check is the least important part of a very important bill. The following story should help explain why.
The Media's Role In The Financial Crisis →
Journalists were grossly deficient when it came to covering the reckless behavior, sleaze and willful ignorance of fundamental economics, much of which was reasonably obvious to anyone who was paying attention, that inflated the housing and credit bubbles of the past decade. Their frequent cheerleading for bad practices — and near-total failure to warn us, repeatedly and relentlessly, of...
The End of Solitude →
As everyone seeks more and broader connectivity, the still, small voice speaks only in silence.
This Is Not a Test →
If you believe in the necessity of a Palestinian state or you love Israel, you’d better start paying attention. We’re getting perilously close to closing the window on a two-state solution.
Google and the Future of Books →
For the last four years, Google has been digitizing millions of books, including many covered by copyright, from the collections of major research libraries, and making the texts searchable online. […] After lengthy negotiations, the plaintiffs and Google agreed on a settlement, which will have a profound effect on the way books reach readers for the foreseeable future. What will that...
Only Makes You Stronger →
Why the recession bolstered America.
After Gaza: What’s behind 21st-century... →
Anti-Israel sentiment is morphing into anti-Jewish sentiment, as more and more people project their disdain for the modern world on to ‘the Jew’.
Judge Obama on Performance Alone →
Let’s not celebrate more ordinary speeches.
Typing Errors →
Why is the keyboard story receiving so much attention from such a variety of sources? The answer is that it is the centerpiece of a theory that argues that market winners will only by the sheerest of coincidences be the best of the available alternatives. By this theory, the first technology that attracts development, the first standard that attracts adopters, or the first product that attracts...
Back Issues →
That ghost story—the fate of the undead newspaper in Revolutionary America—bears telling. Maybe if we knew more about the founding hacks, we’d have a better idea of what we will have lost when the last newspaper rolls off the presses. If the newspaper, at least as a thing printed on paper and delivered to your door, has a doomsday, it may be coming soon. Not so soon as weeks or months, but not...
The American Character →
Obama’s popular narrative, and the way he has told it, promises to revive interest in what scholars term American exceptionalism — the idea that the American story is somehow unique.
Forgive and Forget? →
I’m sorry, but if we don’t have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years — and nearly everyone has taken Mr. Obama’s remarks to mean that we won’t — this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don’t face any consequences if they abuse their power.
The Politics of Cohesion →
Barack Obama’s challenge will be to translate the social repair that has occurred over the past decade into political and governing repair.
The car industry's big chill →
Car sales around the world dried up in the last quarter of 2008. What are the prospects for an industry so reliant on credit and consumer confidence?
A Smarter Stimulus →
The criticism isn’t unwarranted. The record of past tax rebates is checkered, and forty bucks a month doesn’t sound like much. But the very things that seem unusual about Obama’s rebate plan—that it will be handed out by reducing withholding, instead of in one lump sum, and that it will add a small but steady amount to Americans’ take-home pay—are precisely why it’s more likely to succeed.
Technology in the recession: Less is Moore →
There is strong demand for technologies that do the same for less money, rather than more for the same price.
Law v. common sense →
Will Barack Obama protect Americans from his fellow lawyers?
Flat N All That →
When some time ago a friend of mine told me that Thomas Friedman’s new book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, was going to be a kind of environmentalist clarion call against American consumerism, I almost died laughing.
Not Your Father's Censorship →
Quasi-monopolies and wary governments curb Web freedoms.
People of the Screen →
The book is modernity’s quintessential technology—“a means of transportation through the space of experience, at the speed of a turning page,” as the poet Joseph Brodsky put it. But now that the rustle of the book’s turning page competes with the flicker of the screen’s twitching pixel, we must consider the possibility that the book may not be around much longer. If it isn’t—if we choose to...
The Human Element: When Gadgetry Becomes Strategy →
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the political debates concerning the nature and scope of U.S. involvement in those countries, have resurrected the “lessons” of Vietnam once again.
Making Room for Miss Manners Is a Parenting Basic →
The conversations that every pediatrician has, over and over, about “limit setting” and “consistently praising good behavior” are conversations about manners. And when you are in the exam room with a child who seems to have none, you begin to wonder what is going on at home and at school, and questions of family dysfunction or neurodevelopmental problems begin to cross your mind.
Guarding the boundaries →
Since I’ve received no education in philosophy whatever, it is no doubt very rash of me to make a broad generalization concerning the subject, but I shall risk it nonetheless: that in the whole history of philosophy not a single important philosophical problem has ever been solved beyond all possible dispute.
My Dinners with Dubya →
When a college drinking buddy invited C. Brian Smith to hang out with her parents, he tried not to sweat the fact that they lived in the White House. He even had fun—until 9/11 made watching bad movies with the president feel like a guilty pleasure America couldn’t afford.
Lessons of Zimbabwe →
It is hard to think of a figure more reviled in the West than Robert Mugabe.
Not Doing Enough →
Does Barack Obama understand the seriousness of the economic crisis? Yesterday, he laid out his economic agenda, and it was filled with all sorts of important exhortations and proscriptions. He appropriately condemned the “anything goes” policies of the last administration. He declared that government is now the solution to our woes, not the problem. Still, I worry that the...
The Culture of Free, and The Power of Less →
So how do I reconcile selling a book with my philosophy of wanting things to be free, and advocating living frugally?
Why is Marijuana Illegal? →
Many people assume that marijuana was made illegal through some kind of process involving scientific, medical, and government hearings; that it was to protect the citizens from what was determined to be a dangerous drug.
The actual story shows a much different picture.
Nut allergies: a Yuppie invention →
But unless you’re a character on “Heroes,” genes don’t mutate fast enough to have caused an 18% increase in childhood food allergies between 1997 and 2007. And genes certainly don’t cause 25% of parents to believe that their kids have food allergies, when 4% do. Yuppiedom does.
Going Under →
A doctor’s downfall, and a profession’s struggle with addiction.
Obama’s Cheney Dilemma →
Cheney pushed for expanded presidential powers. Now that he’s leaving, what will come of his efforts? The new president won’t have to wait long to tip his hand.
Baby Food →
If breast is best, why are women bottling their milk?
Can Israel Survive Its Assault on Gaza? →
With each passing day, Israel’s war against Hamas grows riskier and more punishing, with the gains appearing to diminish compared to the spiraling costs — to Israel’s moral stature, to the lives of Palestinian civilians and to the world’s hopes that an ancient conflict can ever be resolved.
And the Money Comes Rolling In →
Markus Frind works one hour a day and brings in $10 million a year. How does he do it? He keeps things simple.
Profiling the founder of PlentyOfFish.com.
Why I Would Vote No On Pot →
By Sanjay Gupta.
My visit to American Apparel →
This should embarrass the heck out of any executive who thinks he has to outsource in order to find effective labor. Or at least call into question his fundamental competence as a leader. If American Apparel can manufacture low margin clothing efficiently enough to beat the sweatshops (in California no less), then anyone should be able to. If they try hard enough.
Tax Cuts for Teachers →
You see, even before the current financial crisis, we were already in a deep competitive hole — a long period in which too many people were making money from money, or money from flipping houses or hamburgers, and too few people were making money by making new stuff, with hard-earned science, math, biology and engineering skills.
How America Lost the War on Drugs →
After 35 years and $500 billion, drugs are as cheap and plentiful as ever: an anatomy of a failure.