| |
| compos mentis. Concision. Media. Clarity. Memes. Context. Melange. Confluence. Mishmash. Conflation. Mellifluous. Conviviality. Miscellany. Confelicity. Milieu. Cogent. Minty. Concoction. |
|
Why the U.S. Will Always Be Rich |
|
|
|---|
| Topic: Society |
6:31 am EDT, Jun 9, 2002 |
No nation on earth has ever tried as hard, and failed as utterly, in its efforts not to become rich as America has. From the start our great leaders have tried to steer us away from the pitfalls of great wealth. Almost all of our great thinkers and writers have joined the cause. Great wealth leads to decadence and complacency, and hence to corruption and decay. And yet when it comes to leading the simple life, we are utter failures. The average household in America now pulls in about $42,000 a year. The average household headed by someone with a college degree makes $71,400 a year. A professional degree pushes average household income to more than $100,000. If you are, say, a member of one of those college-grad households with a family income of around $75,000, you probably make more than 95 percent of the people on this planet. You are richer than 99.9 percent of the human beings who have ever lived. You are stinking rich. David Brooks, senior editor at The Weekly Standard, in the Sunday New York Times magazine. Why the U.S. Will Always Be Rich |
|
|
|---|
| Topic: Surveillance |
5:53 pm EDT, Jun 8, 2002 |
Ms. Rowley's testimony that the bureau's culture was hostile to computers because many agents could not type or did not like computers only added to the sense that Congress is engaged in a long overdue housecleaning. Feel safe yet? I have to wonder whether or not they like books. Reaction, Then Action |
|
China Paper Publishes Humor Article |
|
|
|---|
| Topic: Humor |
5:35 pm EDT, Jun 8, 2002 |
It was a great story: U.S. Congress wants new building, threatens to leave Washington. So one of Beijing's biggest tabloids published as news the fictional account from the Web site of the American satire newspaper The Onion -- and got an embarrassing lesson in journalism. A Chinese newspaper mistook The Onion as a serious news source and republished one of its articles. As yet, they have been too embarrassed to acknowledge their mistake to readers. Ha! China Paper Publishes Humor Article |
|
'A New Kind of Science': You Know That Space-Time Thing? Never Mind |
|
|
|---|
| Topic: Science |
5:32 pm EDT, Jun 8, 2002 |
Among a small group of very smart people, the publication of "A New Kind of Science," by Stephen Wolfram, has been anticipated with the anxiety aroused in literary circles by, say, Jonathan Franzen's recent novel, "The Corrections." For more than a decade, Wolfram, a theoretical physicist turned millionaire software entrepreneur, has been laboring in solitude on a work that, he has promised, will change the way we see the world. Now, weighing in at 1,263 pages (counting a long, unpaginated index) and 583,313 words, the book could hardly be more intimidating. But that is the price one pays for a first-class intellectual thrill. ... From the very beginning of this meticulously constructed manifesto, the reader is presented with a stunning proposal: all the science we know will be demolished and reassembled. An ancient error will be corrected, one so profoundly misguided that it has led science down the wrong avenue, until it is approaching a cul-de-sac. ... Wolfram contends: the algorithm is the pure, elemental expression of nature; the equation is an artifice. That is because the continuum is a fiction. Time doesn't flow, it ticks. Space is not a surface but a grid. Considering its immense size, Wolfram's book is quite affordable, and it is readily available (alongside Stephen Jay Gould's giant life's-work book) at mainstream bookstores. 'A New Kind of Science': You Know That Space-Time Thing? Never Mind |
|
Counterterror's Management Style |
|
|
|---|
| Topic: Current Events |
3:37 pm EDT, Jun 8, 2002 |
President Bush's proposed new Department of Homeland Security, bringing together scattered agencies with roles in protecting against terrorism, provides laudable managerial tidiness. Its creation will focus these agencies on their new priority of protecting the country. But the basic problem of overall strategy and coordination remains, and inserting a new agency into the mix will not solve it. ... With the Defense Department, FBI and CIA still separate, the reorganization won't remedy what Congressional intelligence committees have been investigating this week: the failure of various agencies to work together effectively in the past to prevent terrorism. ... There is also reason to question whether the Bush administration is prepared for the sheer scale of managerial virtuosity it will take to create this new department. ... Does President Bush have a take-no-prisoners manager ...? If not, we could end up with a system even more chaotic than today's. Ashton Carter, a Harvard professor, former assistant SecDef, and National Academy member, with an editorial in the New York Times. Counterterror's Management Style |
|
Adelphia Said to Inflate Customers and Cash Flow |
|
|
|---|
| Topic: Economics |
3:22 pm EDT, Jun 8, 2002 |
Adelphia overstated its estimated 2001 cash flow (EBITDA) by tens of millions in a complex swap transaction on the purchase of digital set-top boxes from Motorola and Scientific Atlanta. ... In the set-top box transaction, Adelphia would pay $125 for a box that cost $100. That expenditure stayed on the company's balance sheet. But the sellers then agreed to pay Adelphia a $25 fee, which helped increase Adelphia's cash flow because it appeared as revenue without a corresponding cost against it. ... Skepticism about the company's finances has increased on Wall Street, making bankruptcy nearly certain. Adelphia Said to Inflate Customers and Cash Flow |
|
Bush, as Terror Inquiry Swirls, Seeks Cabinet Post on Security |
|
|
|---|
| Topic: Current Events |
6:25 am EDT, Jun 7, 2002 |
Responding to widespread criticism of the government's handling of terrorist threats, President Bush called tonight for the creation of a cabinet department for domestic defense that would combine 22 federal agencies into a single one intended to prevent attacks [crimes] against the United States. ... Mr. Bush asked Americans to "add your eyes and ears" to the counterterrorism effort. [Remember, "only you can prevent terrorism." If it happens again, just blame yourself. Because you've got to blame someone, right? Poster on wall of Nelson's bedroom: "Nuke the whales."
Lisa [to Nelson]: "Nuke the whales?"
Nelson: "Gotta nuke somethin'."
Lisa: "Touchè."] White House official: "They missed it before, and under this structure, there's nothing to suggest they wouldn't miss it again." ... There were considerable signs that the proposal was put together quickly ... And now, for something completely different ... Lisa: Look at all these great ideas for preventing crime!
I know they're oversimplified and can't possibly work, but wow!
Marge: Hmmm, if only we didn't already have a precrime solution.
Bart: Speaking of precrime, I don't care about precrime. I'll meet you ladies back here in half an hour. ftp://ftp.smoovenet.com/pub/lardlad/sounds/season9/york6.mp3 Bush, as Terror Inquiry Swirls, Seeks Cabinet Post on Security |
|
Adelphia Kept 2 Sets of Books |
|
|
|---|
| Topic: Economics |
6:05 am EDT, Jun 7, 2002 |
Investigators have found that Adelphia kept two sets of accounting books for capital expenditures and inflated the size of its subscriber base by as much as 10%. Investigators are also studying the complicity of the company's auditor, Deloitte & Touche. Adelphia Kept 2 Sets of Books |
|
Global Networks, Linked Cities | edited by Saskia Sassen |
|
|
|---|
| Topic: Society |
11:31 pm EDT, Jun 6, 2002 |
In her pioneering book The Global City, Saskia Sassen argued that certain cities in the postindustrial world have become central nodes in the new service economy, strategic sites for the acceleration of capital and information flows as well as spaces of increasing socio-economic polarization. One effect has been that such cities have gained in importance and power relative to nation-states. In this new collection of essays, Sassen and a distinguished group of contributors expand on the author's earlier work in a number of important ways, focusing on two key issues. First, they look at how information flows have bound global cities together in networks, creating a global city web whose constituent cities become "global" through the networks they participate in. Second, they investigate emerging global cities in the developing world -- Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Beirut, the Dubai-Iran corridor, and Buenos Aires. They show how these globalizing zones are not only replicating many features of the top tier of global cities, but are also generating new socio-economic patterns as well. These new patterns of development promise to lead to significant changes in the structure of the global economy, as more and more cities worldwide are integrated into globalization's circuitry. Global Networks, Linked Cities | edited by Saskia Sassen |
|
Robotic fly gets its buzz |
|
|
|---|
| Topic: High Tech Developments |
11:26 pm EDT, Jun 6, 2002 |
Summary from ICT Today: The University of California in Berkeley has made a breakthrough in its programme to develop a robot fly weighing less than a paper clip which can leave the ground and hover in mid-air. Scientists have constructed a wing mechanism that can flap and rotate at 150 times a second. Recent discoveries about the way flies use their wings have helped the project considerably. A real fly has a 'delayed stall' which enables the beating wings to have a high angle of attack and high lift at the same time. 'Wing rotation' at the bottom and top of the stroke gives the insect more lift, and 'wake capture' provides even more lift by swishing back through air it set in motion on the previous stroke. The scientists' version of the wing is made from polyester and a stainless steel strut that flaps and rotates. Still to come is a lightweight power source, a gyroscope to tell up from down, and a light sensor. A microprocessor with a small operating system has already been developed. Eventually it would carry sensors chosen for a specific use. Robotic fly gets its buzz |
|
