January 2012
8 posts
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Kill Hollywood →
Paul Graham and Y Combinator are looking to fund startups that will compete with movies and TV:
The main reason we want to fund such startups is not to protect the world from more SOPAs, but because SOPA brought it to our attention that Hollywood is dying. They must be dying if they’re resorting to such tactics. If movies and TV were growing rapidly, that growth would take up all their...
“Make good stuff, then make it easy for people to buy it. There’s your...”
– Jonathan Coulton (via Merlin Mann)
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“This map exhibits remarkable structural features that delight topologists.”
– Rida Farouki on the Hopf map
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The President’s challenge →
Nat Torkington lays the smack down on the Obama administration’s bullshit challenge to the tech community (see also Tim O’Reilly’s posts: 1, 2, 3).
(via Daring Fireball)
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50 States and 50 Metros →
Who wrote the infamous Ron Paul newsletters? →
Gene Callahan has a pretty convincing theory.
How Doctors Die →
Ken Murray:
It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little.
(via Kottke)
December 2011
12 posts
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“In the September 2008 meeting at which Paulson and Bernanke briefed lawmakers on...”
– Bloomberg
Need a Course So That You Don’t Molest Kids? →
Gene Callahan:
And just who is going to be willing to spend the time to take this course? Is it worth taking it to run in the locker room the one or two times a season when your daughter is dawdling? Of course not. But you know what sort of person would be happy to spend the time taking such a course, in order to gain access to locker rooms where adolescents are naked? Think about it.
What Is College For? →
Gary Gutting:
Teaching is not a matter of (as we too often say) “making a subject (poetry, physics, philosophy) interesting” to students but of students coming to see how such subjects are intrinsically interesting. It is more a matter of students moving beyond their interests than of teachers fitting their subjects to interests that students already have. Good teaching does not make a...
Nerdfight! →
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Five Bullshit Things About David Stern’s Bullshit... →
Tommy Craggs:
The owners’ bullshit fear was further stoked by the bullshit specter of Chris Paul strong-arming his way to a perennially successful franchise of his choosing. This is bullshit because the NBA owners created their own bogeyman. Their bullshit lockout of 1998-99 was about controlling maximum salaries, which kept star players from getting paid their full value. Once bullshit...
Recent Developments in Full Disclosure →
Bruce Schneier:
It’s easy to believe that if only people wouldn’t disclose problems, we could pretend they didn’t exist, and everything would be better.
Also:
Security requires transparency and disclosure, and if we willingly give that up, we’re a lot less safe as a society.
Can Anyone Out There Talk About Tim Tebow Without... →
Tommy Craggs:
I’ve said all along that the backlash against Tebow is really a backlash against the way Tebow gets covered in the media. This smarmy little paragraph is as good an example as you’ll find. I mean, who needs St. Thomas Aquinas when you have the Broncos’ five-game winning streak, right?
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Cutting their own throats →
Charles Stross—who has rather a big personal stake in the health of the publishing industry—on DRM:
In the past I’ve muttered and grumbled about the evils of DRM for a variety of reasons. But now, I’ve got a feeling that there’s a more important reason for griping: the strategy of demanding DRM everywhere is going to boomerang, inflicting horrible damage on the very companies...
November 2011
3 posts
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Um, okay →
Stupid ProQuest
fireland:
Do you know what it sounds like when a Big Jenga tower collapses? Which is the inevitable endpoint of that terrible game? … It sounds like the Kool Aid Man busting through your goddamn soul.
October 2011
3 posts
“Republicans who always cheer acts of violence against Muslims are joined by...”
– Glenn Greenwald
“No, you don’t understand. I hate people. I’d rather talk to you.”
– Ed Sikov to his future spouse after 45 minutes of conversation, as quoted in their New York Times wedding announcement (via the inimitable Katie Bakes)
“Impossible!” said Jeffreys. “Completely impossible. The welfare of...”
– from Isaac Asimov’s 1957(!) short story “Let’s Get Together” (via Schneier)
September 2011
2 posts
jasonmustian: If course catalog covers are any indication, “Interracial Frisbee” & “Group Laughing” are among today’s hottest college classes.
“Android isn’t a new product to monetize; it’s a new medium to drive...”
– Google internal document (via Florian Mueller)
August 2011
2 posts
stevenf: If you’ve got $4 billion burning a hole in your pocket and you’re unhappy about patent law, maybe blogging isn’t the most direct solution.
Google are pussies →
Brian S. Hall:
Google has not innovated in a decade. But, they’ve been in many fights. Against relatively tiny, unarmed combatants. Now when they have a real fight on their hand, they run to the government.
Like pussies.
(via Daring Fireball)
July 2011
3 posts
A petty squabble →
Jerry E. Smith’s decision on Sanches v. Carrollton–Farmers Branch Independent School District:
Reduced to its essentials, this is nothing more than a dispute, fueled by a disgruntled cheerleader mom, over whether her daughter should have made the squad. It is a petty squabble, masquerading as a civil rights matter, that has no place in federal court or any other court.
Also, in a...
Operating Profits for NFL Ventures →
Deadspin just published audited financial statements from NFL Ventures. The upshot: the profits of NFL Ventures, which is the NFL’s promotion, licensing, production, and international entity, were up 29 percent in 2010, to almost $1.3 billion.
Tommy Craggs’ take:
Last week, we posted audited financials for the NFL league office, which administers the G-3 stadium fund, offering...
June 2011
6 posts
“Or, if you don’t mind living in a house permeated with oily fox musk, you...”
– Lindy West
“Democrats are channeling their frustration with America’s imminent...”
– Ann Coulter 9½ years ago (via Gene Callahan)
The Crisis in Higher Education →
William Deresiewicz:
Tenured professors enjoy the strongest speech protections in society. It’s time they started using them.
(via Give Me Something to Read)
A Ph.D., paying college athletes and changing my... →
Brian Moritz:
[C]onceptually, I don’t see the difference between me getting paid to get my doctorate and a college athlete getting paid to play his or her sport.
(via Deadspin)
May 2011
4 posts
Bad Education →
Malcolm Harris on the impending student-loan bubble:
The nearly axiomatic good of a university degree in American society has allowed a higher education bubble to expand to the point of bursting. […] The loans and costs are caught in the kind of dangerous loop that occurs when lending becomes both profitable and seemingly risk-free: high and increasing college costs mean students need to...
April 2011
4 posts
“Routinely, officials insist to courts that the nation’s security will be...”
– Jameel Jaffer (via Schneier)
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March 2011
6 posts
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