News That Stays News

Memento Mori August 24, 2010

Pop Culture Edition August 23, 2010

A starcraft 2 game that could support some kind of literary criticism.

I don’t normally do irony chic, but this is pretty good.

Pop Psychology August 22, 2010

What the Economist thinks of selfless people

Another perspective on vote-buying August 20, 2010

It had never occurred to me that these guys might, in fact, feel like victims.

http://www.slate.com/id/2264403/

Regional Jingoism August 18, 2010

A former quant at Goldman Sachs issues an apology for SF:

New York vs San Francisco

I-Banks vs Startups

Via my girlfriend

LINKED August 16, 2010

1. Floods in Pakistan. Photos. Awful
2. Profile of Chongqing, city of 32 million people in China. The photo essay is especially good.
3. Jon Stewart Grows a Beard; George Lucas decides to immortalized Stewart in Stormtrooper form with and without the beard.
4. New York City Studies Pedestrian Injuries and Deaths Find j-walking to be safer than crossing at an intersection.
5. On Tolerance: Ross Douthat attempts to reconcile Bloomberg and Krauthammer. Also, Ross Douthat’s columns are improving.

Discovery August 14, 2010

I think these folks have the same motto we do:

Lapham’s Quarterly

On Tolerance August 14, 2010

Should we regulate burqas the same way we regulate nudity?

Michael Bloomberg’s speech on the Mosque at Ground Zero

Charles Krauthammer’s reply

LINKED August 13, 2010

1. Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-III. Alternative theory of Episode IV, with a surprising amount of factual evidence and proof. I’m highly doubtful George Lucas planned it out this way, but it makes one think that if people can convincingly over-analyze George Lucas, then who knows what you can do with a real author.
2. A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods Bloody brilliant. Very useful too.
3. Ross sisters–Solid Potato Salad This becomes good a minute in, and only gets more insane. Potentially useful if you have a girlfriend and need to spice up your sex life…
4. Smart Parking Technology in San Francisco Seems almost too good to be true. The technology and infrastructure is there, but I think what it will come down to is will it be convenient and easy for drivers to use?

Funny Sentence of the Day August 9, 2010

From a New York Times profile on The Economist:

“They’ve always implied that if you read The Economist, you’ll be just a little bit wiser and smarter than the average guy,” said Joseph Plummer, an adjunct professor of marketing at Columbia Business School and a former executive at McCann Worldgroup. “People want to get better most of the time. And I think in the case of The Economist, what they’re doing is adding a little bit of a wrinkle by appealing to a second emotion: competitiveness.”

What are the chances that a guy whose name is a pun on Joe the Plumber would give this quote?