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| compos mentis. Concision. Media. Clarity. Memes. Context. Melange. Confluence. Mishmash. Conflation. Mellifluous. Conviviality. Miscellany. Confelicity. Milieu. Cogent. Minty. Concoction. |
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| Topic: Miscellaneous |
4:48 pm EST, Mar 7, 2004 |
] I travel a lot and one of my favorite destination lead
] through poisoned with radiation, so called Chernobyl
] "dead zone" It is 130kms from my home. Why favourite?
] because one can ride there for hours and not meet any
] single car and not to see any single soul. People left
] and nature is blooming, there are beautiful places,
] woods, lakes. There is no newly built roads, but those
] which left from 80th in fairly good condition This is absolutely stunning, spellbinding. Photoblogging Chernobyl |
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Think You Voted in Maryland? Think Again |
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| Topic: Elections |
11:47 am EST, Mar 7, 2004 |
Last Tuesday I went to the polls ... The good news is that there were no lines. The bad news is that the touch-screen voting machines don't always work. ... I persevered long enough to persuade the technician on duty to check my machine. The technician confirmed that the machine was not presenting whole election contests. "Once you've pressed 'cast my vote,' that's it. You can't vote again. ... You should have complained before you pressed the button." Think You Voted in Maryland? Think Again |
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America at Work / America at Leisure, 1894-1915 |
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| Topic: History |
11:34 am EST, Mar 7, 2004 |
The period from 1894 to 1915 was one in which workers in the United States began to have more leisure time than their predecessors. People responded to this increased allowance of free time by attending a variety of leisure activities both within and away from the city. Be sure to check out Edison's 1902 film of "Babies Rolling Eggs." America at Work / America at Leisure, 1894-1915 |
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Maybe We Could All Deliver Pizza ... |
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| Topic: Business |
11:26 am EST, Mar 7, 2004 |
To hear the pessimists tell it, "Snow Crash" is right around the corner. ... Americans excelled at only four things: "music, movies, microcode (software), high-speed pizza delivery." Hey, one out of four ain't so bad ... "Isn't that what investors want from companies?" "Why stop with a jobless recovery? Why don't we actually strive for a jobless economy?" Remember "leisure"? Maybe We Could All Deliver Pizza ... |
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| Topic: Business |
10:45 am EST, Mar 7, 2004 |
America is the greatest engine of innovation that has ever existed, and it can't be duplicated anytime soon, because it is the product of a multitude of factors: extreme freedom of thought, an emphasis on independent thinking, a steady immigration of new minds, a risk-taking culture with no stigma attached to trying and failing, a noncorrupt bureaucracy, and financial markets and a venture capital system that are unrivaled at taking new ideas and turning them into global products. This is America's real edge. Tom Friedman's real secret is that the sauce isn't marinara, as you might expect. It's pesto! The Secret of Our Sauce |
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The War in Iraq: Redefining and Refocusing | Stratfor Weekly |
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| Topic: War on Terrorism |
11:35 pm EST, Mar 6, 2004 |
The war that began Sept. 11, 2001, has entered a new phase. The war in Iraq is reshaping itself, and that is redefining the entire conflict -- and returning attention to Saudi Arabia. This stuff is amazing. As Barron's says, "heady forecasts", indeed. The War in Iraq: Redefining and Refocusing | Stratfor Weekly |
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Market failure in the media sector |
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| Topic: Media |
6:38 pm EST, Mar 6, 2004 |
When the leaders of media, telecommunications, IT and internet companies congregate, the talk is upbeat about new accomplishments but subdued about recent ordeals: the dotcom bubble; the telecoms crash; the music industry bust; the advertising downturn; the e-publishing revenue stagnation; the PC slowdown; the wireless saturation; the semiconductor slump; the newspaper recession; the R&D retrenchment. And the question is, why do these predicaments sweep over the information sector so regularly? We need to recognise that the entire information sector has become subject to a gigantic market failure ... one of the fundamental trends of our time, with far-reaching long-term effects ... happening right in front of our eyes. As countries rely more on information-based activities, their economies become more volatile. Or, in other words, economies become increasingly dependent on blockbuster successes. It is yet another hollowing out of the middle. Case in point: Take Finland. Nokia accounts for 35 per cent of all exports and 15 per cent of GDP, including its secondary impacts. Is intellectual property entering a death spiral? Market failure in the media sector |
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The Five Wars of Globalization |
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| Topic: Society |
5:46 pm EST, Mar 6, 2004 |
The intense media coverage devoted to the war on terrorism obscures five other similar wars that pit governments against agile, well-financed networks of dedicated individuals. These are the fights against the illegal international trade in drugs, arms, intellectual property, people, and money. In one form or another, governments have been fighting these five wars for centuries. And losing them. Indeed, thanks to the changes spurred by globalization over the last decade, their losing streak has become even more pronounced. To be sure, nation-states have benefited from the information revolution, stronger political and economic linkages, and the shrinking importance of geographic distance. Unfortunately, criminal networks have benefited even more. The Five Wars of Globalization |
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| Topic: Politics and Law |
2:40 pm EST, Mar 6, 2004 |
Here in the land of middle-class self-loathing, we want to make sure that the guy we elect to the White House has lived a life nothing like our own. It's a tremendous advantage to have been instilled with the habit of self-assertion since infancy. If you can project a physiological comfort with power, others around you will begin to accept your sense of self-worth. There aren't too many normal people waking up in normal suburban split-levels assuming they should rule the world. But God bless the upper class. They've lost their legitimacy, but they haven't lost their self-confidence. Clash of Titans |
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| Topic: TV |
2:37 pm EST, Mar 6, 2004 |
On ABC's Alias, "Julia Thorne" is a mysterious identity (alias) apparently assumed by Sidney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) during a period in her life that has since been suppressed in her memory. Although this character was first introduced at the outset of the third season, the identity of the "real" Julia Thorne is still unresolved. If you Google for ("Julia Thorne" Alias), you get 373 results, including lots of speculation that "Lauren" is in fact the real Julia. On the other hand, if you Google for ("Julia Thorne" heiress), you'll get 244 results, and you'll learn that John Kerry's first wife is Julia Thorne, "a jet-setting heiress with a family fortune of about $300 million," in the words of the New York Times. If you Google for ("Julia Thorne" Alias heiress), you'll get zero results (until this page enters the index, of course.) I would like to propose that the "real" Julia Thorne is, in fact, John Kerry's first wife. You heard it here first. |
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