December 2010
59 posts
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“New Year’s is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody...”
– Mark Twain
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ThreeWords.me →
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“If he was having a heart attack in the gutter, I wouldn’t call 911.”
– A former True/Slant contributor on founder Lewis DVorkin, who has reportedly been enlisted to replicate a Huffington Post contributor model at Forbes.com.
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Slate.com: Understanding Anarchism is Hard. →
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“Yes, Vick’s crimes were ruthless and nauseating. (I’d stop short of...”
– Jamil Smith, writing on The Maddow Blog.
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“[R]ate regulators cannot lower rates to starve the utility of the capital needed...”
– Richard A. Epstein: Dodd-Frank Act restrictions on debit-card processing fees are unconstitutional.
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"Fat" Ballerinas & The Black Swan Diet: Don't Let... →
layersofme:
When Alastair Macaulay wrote his review of the New York City Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker, he did what mainstream media critics have always done: He made up the rules. In this case, he commented on what ballet dancers and ballerinas are supposed to look like:
This didn’t feel, however, like an opening night. Jenifer Ringer, as the Sugar Plum Fairy, looked as if she’d eaten...
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Think you can’t buy shares of Facebook, LinkedIn, and other tech companies that have absurdly high valuations just because they’re not publicly traded? You’d be wrong. DealBook has a great piece about the Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent inquiries about these secondary trading markets.
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“America’s Army is very proud of the fact that we reflect our society. But...”
– Maj. Gen. Richard Stone says young recruits enter in terrible shape.
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Why much of the $787b deployed in the The American... →
“Part of the answer is that big government (the stimulus) was slowed by good-government requirements (environmental impact reports, competitive bidding and the like) that didn’t exist in the ’30s. Also, strapped state and local governments laid off many of the workers needed to approve the stimulus projects. Layoffs and furloughs in California’s Office of Historic...
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New single-serving Tumblr: Things no one has ever... →
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Let's Hear It for the Unappreciated Heroes of 2010 →
Under-Appreciated Person One: Bradley Manning. While we were all fixated on Julian Assange, the story of the young American soldier who actually leaked the classified documents passed almost unnoticed. If Manning was mentioned at all, it was as to be described an impetuous, angry kid who downloaded the documents onto a CD and leaked them as a result of a “grudge” or “tantrum.”
Here’s what...
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“Sprint doesn’t charge extra for 4G. The required $10 per month Premium Data...”
– A Sprint spokeswoman, in response to a story, which said Sprint charges $10 a month extra for 4G. (via David at cnnmoneytech)
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Frontal Lobe Activation during Object Permanence:... →
A 2002 piece of academia from Harvard University’s Department of Psychology co-authored by Natalie Hershlag, better known by her stage name, Natalie Portman.
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Hard work leads to hardly working
Come the New Year, I aim to progress from freelancer to media consultant by way of a fancy new web site (along with the appropriate IRS/State of New York paperwork). While I’m a good-enough designer to create something that isn’t visually vulgar, I’m profoundly unprepared for writing good marketing copy about what pays the bills. It’s hard! And because of the snow I’m...
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I’m completely floored about the score for Black Swan, which sees composer Clint Mansell create something amazing in between an homage to and adaption of Tchiakovsky’s original.
It’s simultaneously beautiful and terrifying. Mansell’s “A Swan is Born,” for instance, features the original “Danse Hongroise” heavily; it’s one of the film’s...
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“He’s big, he’s mean, he kills lots of bad guys. … No one cares...”
– President Obama quotes a member of the U.S. Special Forces who has been on duty with a gay soldier.
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In things I’m ashamed to have missed until recently, the U.S. Treasury’s blog launched earlier this month. It’s now safely in my Google Reader.
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Foreign Policy: The 10 Worst Predictions for 2010. →
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Which will happen first: A Republican 2012 presidential candidate or the opening of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark?
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“Listen: You don’t have to approve of Assange or his political views; you can...”
– RollingStone.com: Why Shouldn’t Freedom of the Press Apply to WikiLeaks?
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joshsternberg:
My firm represents a terrific non-profit called Common Cents - they help teach kids about the importance of civic responsibility (you may have heard of their Penny Harvest program) - and we’re looking for media and/or corporate sponsors to help with their inaugural 5K walk/run event in 2011. So, if you or your company happen to be interested in doing some good, please contact me.
...
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“A South Carolina retiree has sent the cash-strapped state of California a...”
– Wealthy retiree says receiving unemployment benefits helped him get a good job.
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“Olbermann had no problem with describing the notoriously unruly Anonymous as...”
– Sady Doyle: Keith Olbermann Quit Twitter Because of Me
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Auto David-Caruso-Fails-At-Life reblog.
monodialogue:
I’m reluctant to share this because I’m not wild about admitting how many times a week I go to the Gelson’s deli counter (for roasted vegetables and salmon, because the modern world has rendered me too lazy to make my own), but I was there about an hour ago and the guy in front of me was being a colossal dick. Yelling at the counter guys...
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“There’s nothing particularly outrageous about the health care mandate. The...”
– An actual libertarian writes about the individual mandate.
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Opinion and commentary have been areas of... →
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“If you have access to secrets you’d like to share, you no longer need to...”
– Reason.com: Wikileaks is only the beginning.
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The Strange Case of the Woman who Felt no Fear →
“According to the researchers, she has been robbed at both knife point and gunpoint, nearly killed in a domestic assault, attacked by a woman twice her size, and on multiple occasions had her life threatened. All of these incidents have police reports backing up her account of events, and yet when asked to relate her emotional memories of these incidents she didn’t ever report being...
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“Our goal is justice. Our goal is to have a just civilization. That is sort of a...”
– Julian Assange at the Oslo Free Forum, April 2010.
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“The informal survey found that nearly half — 32 — of the freelancers who...”
– SABEW survey: Freelancer business journalists make $25,000 to $30,000.
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List of public officials and figures who have... →
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Madoff's son found dead in apparent suicide →
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Thank whatever’s holy that I have The New York Times to give me how-to instructions on wedging a bartender into a doghouse-sized apartment as a prerequisite for holiday entertaining. Because, you know, if there’s a type who runs around with people who don’t know how to mix their own margaritas, it’s definitely me. And yes, that’s all dripping with holiday sarcasm!
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One can now visualize data on Google Maps to see where foreclosed properties are for sale. Try it out.
The above are the foreclosures in the neighborhood of The Mark at 25 E. 77th Street in Manhattan, a notoriously and profoundly expensive piece of residential real estate.
View Larger Map
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“If there had been a mechanism like Wikileaks, 9/11 could have been prevented....”
– Coleen Rowley, a former special agent/legal counsel at the FBI’s Minneapolis division, made a rather provocative statement.
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“Let’s remember that information is not yet knowledge—it’s only the object of...”
– In Praise of WikiLeaks (via nplusonemag)
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“There’s so much that needs to be done, it would be better to start now.”
– Mark Zuckerberg on the Giving Pledge, in which 16 billionaires have agreed to give away their fortunes.