The last 20 things I᾿ve looked at…
November 20, 2008
The Perils of Efficiency: Financial Page: The New Yorker
"Instead of a more efficient system, we should be trying to build a more reliable one."
November 19, 2008
November 18, 2008
Sip and pay water drive
Money raised from a "token sum" charged during Drink for Change is to be used by the businesses to install water-saving measures, but it has raised concerns that it could be a softening-up step towards making charging for tap water an accepted practice.
So, the business can't make enough of a profit off customers to do this normally, so they'll charge us for the glass of water?
Chamber spokesman Chris James said the campaign had a strong symbolic element.
Symbolic all right. Symbolic of how desperate the owners are to make more money.
Bullies Like Bullying. How did a nonstory based on an iffy study end up in a New York Times blog?
"In a chilling finding," she wrote, "the researchers found aggressive youths appear to enjoy inflicting pain on others." Bullies like bullying? I just felt a shiver run up my spine. Next we'll find out that alcoholics like alcohol. Or that overeaters like to overeat. Hey, I've got an idea for a brain-imaging study of child-molesters that'll just make your skin crawl!
November 17, 2008
November 5, 2008
Election Maps
"As this map makes clear, large portions of the country are quite evenly divided, appearing in various shades of purple, although a number of strongly Democratic (blue) areas are visible too, mostly in the larger cities. There are also some strongly Republican areas, but most of them have relatively small populations and hence appear quite small on this map."
Allco: an investor's tragedy
"It was just a matter of time. Another tranche of bull-market heroes has bitten the dust, victims of leverage and their own greed and ambition." "The Allco boys were pretty special though, some of the smartest guys in the boom, and veritably outdone by their own smarts."