July 2012
2 posts
March 2012
2 posts
WatchCheck it out: Vin Diesel wrote/directed/produced for the high-pulse series inspired by his time in the brotherhood of NYC bouncers
Watch The Ropes, Episode 1, Season 1, Episode 1... →
Check it out: Vin Diesel wrote/directed/produced for the high-pulse series inspired by his time in the brotherhood of NYC bouncers
February 2012
1 post
December 2011
37 posts
Facebook's timeline
I just flipped the switch on Facebook’s new timeline. When I first heard about this timeline feature I thought it sounded pretty cool. I joined Facebook back in 2005 and a chance to look back and see how everything fell together sounded fun. Where did I pick up that friend? What words did I coo on her wall when we were in the honeymoon phase? How did those words change when we were...
Income Inequality →
Income inequality, by many measures, is now greater than it has been since the 1920s.
The causes of income inequality are hotly debated and tend to fall into two broad categories. There are market forces — like increased trade and technological advances — which have made highly skilled and well-educated workers more productive, thus increasing their pay. And there are institutional...
China’s deserted fake Disneyland →
Along the road to one of China’s most famous tourist landmarks – the Great Wall of China – sits what could potentially have been another such tourist destination, but now stands as an example of modern-day China and the problems facing it.
Why Money Won't Make You Happy. And Other Lessons... →
It may seem that times are tough right now, but there is a generation of Americans who had things were worse. “They’ve been through war, poverty, some the Resistance, some the Holocaust,” says Karl Pillemer, a professor of gerontology at Cornell University. “Many of them grew up in extreme poverty.” Pillemer noticed that older people have higher life satisfaction, a perceived better quality of...
WatchSebastian Thrun: Google’s driverless car
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The National Defense Authorization Act is the... →
If Obama does one thing for the remainder of his presidency let it bea veto of the National Defense Authorization Act – a law recently passed by the Senate currently which would place domestic terror investigations and interrogations into the hands of the military and which would open the door for trial-free, indefinite detention of anyone, including American citizens, so long as the government...
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12 Extremely Disappointing Facts About Popular... →
1. Creed has sold more records in the US than Jimi Hendrix
2. Led Zeppelin, REM, and Depeche Mode have never had a number one single, Rihanna has 10
3. Ke$ha’s “Tik-Tok” sold more copies than ANY Beatles single
4. Flo Rida’s “Low” has sold 8 million copies – the same as The Beatles’ “Hey Jude”
5. The Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” is more popular than any Elvis or...
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NASA's Kepler Mission Confirms Its First Planet in... →
NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet in the “habitable zone,” the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. Kepler also has discovered more than 1,000 new planet candidates, nearly doubling its previously known count. Ten of these candidates are near-Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of their host star. Candidates require follow-up...
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The Absurd Zombie Lie About the Economy... →
Wall Street turned a few million home-loans into what Warren Buffet called “economic weapons of mass destruction,” cratered the global economy and then, when the bubble burst, turned around and insisted on a massive bailout courtesy of the American tax-payer.
That rightly infuriated most Americans, but it has nonetheless become something of an article of faith among conservatives that...
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When an adult took standardized tests forced on... →
A longtime friend on the school board of one of the largest school systems in America did something that few public servants are willing to do. He took versions of his state’s high-stakes standardized math and reading tests for 10th graders, and said he’d make his scores public.
By any reasonable measure, my friend is a success. His now-grown kids are well-educated. He has a big house in a good...
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5 Ways to Make Banks Pay for Their Secret $7... →
Imagine you walked into a bank, applied for a personal line of credit, and filled out all the paperwork claiming to have no debts and an income of $200,000 per year. The bank, based on these representations, extended you the line of credit. Then, three years later, after fighting disclosure all the way, you were forced by a court to tell the truth: At the time you made the statements to the bank,...
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LOS ANGELES POISED TO BE THE FIRST MAJOR U.S. CITY... →
LOS ANGELES, CA – Next week the Los Angeles City Council will vote on a resolution that calls on Congress to amend the Constitution to clearly establish that only living persons — not corporations — are endowed with constitutional rights and that money is not the same as free speech. If this resolution is passed, Los Angeles will be the first major city in the U.S. to call for an end...
Occupy Irrelevance: Is Movement Already Fizzling... →
On Oct. 5, just 18 days after the Occupy Wall Street movement got started, NBC news anchor Brian Williams declared that it had “spread steadily and far beyond Wall Street, and it could well turn out to be the protest of this current era.”
About a month later, Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs wrote in the New York Times that the Occupy movement was “most likely the...
Top Five Regrets of the Dying →
For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives.
People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. I learned never to underestimate someone’s capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of...
Police Voice Concerns about Being Used to Stifle... →
This past week has tacked on more examples of politicians using law enforcement to stifle dissent among unsatisfied constituents. NY’s Mayor Bloomberg, for instance, was quoted referring to the NYPD as his “own army”. “But other facets of this story have been developing behind the scenes. Could Operation SHIELD and Ray Lewis raise the “wind that shakes the parley”?
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November 2011
155 posts
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A Cow based Economics Lesson
SOCIALISM You have 2 cows. You give one to your neighbor. COMMUNISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk. FASCISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk. NAZISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and shoots you. BUREAUCRATISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away. TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM...
