If it sounds complicated…
Aaron Swartz: How do you tell if what someone is saying is smart? Most people’s first instinct is to think that things they can’t understand must be smart… But…...
Category: people
Movies: Duplicity and Prince of the City
Two wonderful, expertly made movies about deception. Duplicity: can professional liars experience love? (Directed by Tony Gilroy of the Bourne movies and Michae...
La familia y la política.
Las relaciones entre los seres humanos jamás son fáciles. Nacemos irresponsables y egoístas y poco a poco aprendemos como esforzarnos a ser humano, gracias a es...
The next phase of the war, our war, in Afghanistan.
The very direct Realism in Afghanistan: Rethinking an Uncertain Case for the War is an excellent supplement to the recent New Yorker report “War by Other ...
Yelp as a catalyst for business growth.
We first went to Al Watan, a great Pakistani restaurant by the airport, in June of 2009. By then, it had been reviewed 34 times on Yelp. It has since been revie...
The iPad as magic. No, really. Magic.
Japanese magician uses iPad as “screen.”
What kind of a girl do you think I am? Oh, that kind of girl.
The ads that turn up during election time are like exquisite pick-up lines. What kind of a girl do you think I am? Oh, that kind of girl. I just read an ad for ...
Israel bites, hook, line and sinker.
Succinct: Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon charged that the mission was simply an attempt to provoke the Israelis. That was certainly the case. The ...
The Knuckle Princess of the Chico Outlaws vs Los Cimarrones de Tijuana
Our national pastime: Yoshida allowed four runs in three innings against Los Cimarrones de Tijuana, and she was hit hard at times; one 70-mile-per-hour fastball...
Playing fetch.
One of our dogs loves to play fetch. The more the object he is fetching behaves like prey (a bouncing ball can change its trajectory in unexpected ways), the mo...
Psyche! (as in Sike!)
I noted last week that the trades which are devoted to the study of the mind appear to be in a race against the trades that are devoted to exploiting the limits...
The rise of the web, short and long term memory and oh
Nicholas Carr’s essay about the deleterious effects of the web is going to be controversial and that controversy could be very productive. Some of the men...
The new LCD Soundsystem album is happening.
This is happening is no Sound of Silver but it might be just as great an album. An instant classic. For example, the layered chorus at the end of “Drunk G...
Multiculturalism: it’s what’s for dinner.
A discussion on Amazon.com of where to get the best / cheapest spices. The consensus: the ethnic food aisle and/or ethnic food stores. Related: the New York Rev...
Models that don’t factor in psychology aren’t very serious.
James Surowiecki warns of political risk in global markets and or the spectre of sovereign capital: Political risk is hard to manage because so much comes down ...
Art appropriate for our times.
the new trompe l’oeil’s: physical spaces that simulate artificial spaces. Digital wallpaper by Strukt Design Studio. ENVISION by SUPERBIEN.
Accidents are a feature not a bug.
I turned on our computerized car the other day and got a pleasant surprise. My wife had set the radio to a local college station and the DJ was playing music I&...
Liberalism + laissez faire + immigration = ?
An excellent discussion of immigration, government neglect and its discontents. In England. But the parallels hold and the differences are enlightening.
Professions that make quick studies of people.
Doctors and con men.
Hating on The Man but providing no alternatives.
A lively and chilling essay on the radical individualism that could, if unchecked by culture and further aided by technology and demagogues, turn America into t...