September 2002
Monday, 30 September 2002
Bubble Troubles Part 3 - “Many of the companies in the Dow and the S&P did not survive the Depression. The indexes are constantly changed to reflect new businesses and replace companies that have gone under or have merged. The S&P 500 is, in effect, a managed index.”
The unfinished recession - “The most recent bubble was not confined to the stockmarket: instead, the whole economy became distorted. Firms overborrowed and overinvested on unrealistic expectations about future profits and the belief that the business cycle was dead. Consumers ran up huge debts and saved too little, believing that an ever rising stockmarket would boost their wealth.”
Hail Bush: A new Roman empire - “Romans revelled in their status as masters of the known world, but few Americans would be as ready to brag of their own imperialism. Most would deny it. But that may come down to the US’s founding myth. For America was established as a rebellion against empire, in the name of freedom and self-government. Raised to see themselves as a rebel nation and plucky underdog, they cannot quite accept their current role as master.”
In Broad Daylight - “If that’s true, FERC caught at least one power company red-handed, in the middle of the crisis, at a time when state officials were begging the agency to take action ? and then suppressed the evidence.”
News Sites Top List of Workplace Time Burners - “most said they would sooner give up coffee than the Internet”
Sunday, 29 September 2002
Cigarettes, Coffee Tied to Lower Parkinson’s Risk
Rings around Earth shaped past climate: study - “The time period, characterized by unusually cool winters, saw the demise of the horse in Europe and plankton in the Caribbean, according to scientists.”
The Japan Problem - “ If the interest rates on their debt rise by as little as 1% then the amount of money they would have to spend annually on ‘National Debt Service’ could easily double or triple and consume over 100% of the tax revenues! This is because interest rates in the last couple years have been in the .25% range so any increase in rates would be devastating to their budge situation.”
We’re Not Turning Japanese - “Stocks, though down nearly 40% from their highs (as measured by the S&P 500), are still overvalued–by a lot. That’s a familiar refrain in Japan, where stocks just hit a 19–we repeat, 19–year low.”
Anglosphere: Declaration of war needed - “War-without-war has proven disastrous for the United States whenever the duration and scale of combat has exceeded the category of small intervention.”
Saturday, 28 September 2002
Wildly optimistic data drove telecoms to build fiber glut - “Nationwide, only 2.7% of the installed fiber is actually being used, according to Telegeography Inc. Much of the remaining fiber – called ‘dark fiber’ in industry parlance – may remain dormant forever.”
The Jack Welch War Plan - “Al Qaeda learns from its mistakes, flexibly adjusting its organization and plans. Do we?”
Friday, 27 September 2002
Economics focus - “Long before the Internet, consumers had plenty of experience adopting better technologies despite network-effect obstacles: cars (you need petrol stations), telephones, fax machines and, most recently, generation upon rapidly succeeding generation of network-dependent consumer-electronics devices.”
Thursday, 26 September 2002
Tough Earth bug may be from Mars: “David Morrison of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute is sceptical that Deinococcus came from Mars, pointing out that its genome looks similar to those of other Earthly bacteria. But he admits that there’s still no obvious explanation for the bug’s resistance to radiation.”
Acidic clouds of Venus could harbour life: “There may be non-biological ways to produce the hydrogen sulphide or carbonyl sulphide that we do not know about, but both reactions need catalysts to proceed efficiently”
Wednesday, 25 September 2002
Earth’s magnetic field ‘boosts gravity’ - “Newton’s constant, which describes the strength of the gravitational pull that bodies exert on each other, is the most poorly determined of the constants of nature. The two most accurate measurements have experimental errors of 1 part in 10,000, yet their values differ by 10 times that amount.”
The Daily Feed: Max Bites AOL - “Inspired by a piece we aired earlier in the year called ‘America on the Line: An AOL Defense’ we decided to offer these Max sound bites along with directions on how to replace the AOL provided sound files with Max’s.” - “Here’s your damn mail”
Monday, 23 September 2002
Thirteen Great Ways to Kill Your Company’s Marketing - “These are the people who have learned to avoid trouble by endlessly delaying what should be done. They are ‘rational obstructionists’ in that they always have what sound like good reasons for not moving forward. In this way, projects and issues either go away on their own or someone else picks them up.” - READ THIS (It’s about more than marketing.)
Jordanian Woman Attacks Harassers - “a Jordanian woman ripped off her enveloping black cloak and veil ? to reveal a traditional long dress that was nearly as enveloping ? and punched and kicked into submission three young men who had been verbally harassing her”
Palestinian girl gets kidney from bomb victim
The Vision Thing - “this is a recovery that, as far as workers are concerned, might as well be a continuing recession”
Sunday, 22 September 2002
The clockwork computer - “Cicero, writing in the first century BC, mentions an instrument ‘recently constructed by our friend Poseidonius, which at each revolution reproduces the same motions of the sun, the moon and the five planets.’”
Tech - Who Needs It? - “As usual, the clever and witty Thoreau completely missed the point of what was going on around him.”
The Power of Optimal Pricing - “The key insight the software helps to provide, Burnside says, is ‘the crossover point between driving sales and giving away margin unnecessarily.’”
Astronomers Find Theory-Affirming Evidence - “contemporary cosmology has many things in it we don’t understand, but we believe in the framework”
Job market collapse has people packing - “The quality of life in the Bay Area has gone. I’ve watched the whole thing go to hell in the last 20 years.”
Saturday, 21 September 2002
Friday, 20 September 2002
Hundreds Show Up For Anti-Hussein Rally - “The demonstrators, most of whom were of Iraqi descent, carried signs and banners denouncing [Saddam] Hussein”
Google and Overture: CPM in Disguise? - “Smart Overture advertisers use the CPC pricing model of Overture’s auction system to their advantage, by writing copy for ads that will prequalify clickers, eliminating those who may not be a good fit.”
Progress Paralysis - “To ensure a coherent site, you have to make it easier for Web producers to do the right thing than it is for them to do their own thing.”
Stop blaming IT for all the problems: “Fix business processes before automating them. A broken business process will remain broken in spite of all the technology in the world.”
Wednesday, 18 September 2002
Signs of Water Found in Atmosphere of Far Planets
Toxic gardens?: “These substances, some of which include potential carcinogens and hormone disrupters, may present hazards to people who apply them and may leach into groundwater”
Frat boys and cheerleaders: “While Silicon Valley could certainly use a shot of morale, positive thinking just isn’t enough. There are a whole host of market conditions that need to be worked through before any kind of recovery occurs.”
Tuesday, 17 September 2002
Coming home: “‘Maybe, when the Messiah comes and all the Palestinians are converted to Judaism and believe in God with complete faith, only then will we allow them to live in the Land of Israel’” - somebody ought try converting Palestinians to Judaism
Moral relativism won’t defeat terrorists - “If American businesses don’t behave better than those from less-enlightened countries, what’s the point of State supporting them in the first place?”
Monday, 16 September 2002
Route of Problem: Bad Online Maps - “‘Once you are lost in your MapQuest directions and you stop to ask a local, you are always told that they would have never sent you that way.’ Others are not as charitable toward the service.”
Long-term managerial joblessness climbs
Sunday, 15 September 2002
Editor’s File | A letter to Coulter - “You’re fired.”
Saturday, 14 September 2002
Danger lurks around the corner - “One thing to remember is that Danger’s users are the people that buy the device, but Danger’s customers, where the real money comes in, are the carriers.”
Features: Things We Lost in the Fire - “COINTELPRO is, for all intents and purposes, back with a vengeance.”
Friday, 13 September 2002
9/11 Lesson Plan: “The plain fact is that our country has, with all our mistakes and blunders, always been and always will be the greatest beacon of freedom, charity, opportunity, and affection in history. If you need proof, open all the borders on Earth and see what happens.”
Thursday, 12 September 2002
In Corporate America It’s Cleanup Time - “To avoid even a passing resemblance to Enron’s notorious partnerships, furthermore, the company has terminated a mutual fund that let executives invest directly in Krispy Kreme franchises–and it returned only the initial, unappreciated sums the executives had invested.”
Months after the hype: Is Segway still it? - “While Segway’s gyroscopes and tilt sensors pick up on what a rider wants to do, the transporter does require some training and some practice on a variety of surfaces: uneven pavement, sand, gravel, and even puddles.”
China Ends Blocking of Internet Search Engine Google - “The Internet has seemed to prevail”
Wednesday, 11 September 2002
Newfound Object Orbiting Earth is Likely Apollo Junk
Dose of Reality - “Until now, he says, no more than a third of all drugs used in children were actually studied in kids.”
New ‘moon’ found around Earth - “If it is determined that J002E2 is natural it will become Earth’s third natural satellite.”
Kids’ best friends: Pets help prevent allergies - “a recent study sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases found that low-to-moderate amounts of cat allergen triggered allergies in children while high amounts had a preventive effect against allergies – and asthma as well”
Tuesday, 10 September 2002
Ferrari’s distinctive red paint proves up to the test of space: “When Mars Express blasts into orbit next May or June at 10,800 kilometers per hour, it will be the fastest that Ferrari’s distinctive red paint has ever traveled.”
Monday, 9 September 2002
Russian officials claim credit for rain
Once Hopeful Family Gathers in Sorrow for Son Who Died in the Andes - I’m not even sure what to say to this. R.I.P. Court (and friend).
Sunday, 8 September 2002
When It Comes to Ethics, B-Schools Get an F - “A subtle but damaging factor in this is the dominance of economists at business schools. While there is no evidence that economists are personally less ethical than members of other disciplines, approaching the world through the dollar sign does make people more cynical. This fact has been documented by data from an oft-cited experiment to test the standard economics teaching that, when offered the possibility, people will take a ‘free ride’ – and that it is ‘rational’ for them to do so.”
Friday, 6 September 2002
Do women have an extra rib because Eve got one of Adam’s? - “The origin of the Adam’s rib story isn’t known for sure, but some think it may stem from a Sumerian joke.”
“Secrets of the Tomb” - CONSPIRACY!
Thursday, 5 September 2002
Java hits obstacle with cell phones - “A developer who wants to write a game for every device would have to do 24 versions just for the different screen sizes.” - or learn to write code which handles variable resolutions like the code which has been in every PC game for the past ten years?
Zbigniew Brzezinski: Confronting Anti-American Grievances
Wednesday, 4 September 2002
House prices - “Historically, houses have been treated more as places to live in than as investments.”
Radio emerges from the electronic soup - “In essence, the evolving circuit had cheated, relaying oscillations generated elsewhere, rather than generating its own.”
Tuesday, 3 September 2002
Michigan man buys “last’ Camaro: “The car Gembinski purchased at an auction by eBay subsidiary Kruse International isn’t the last Camaro to roll off the assembly line – that car is headed for a museum.”
Simple test may predict Alzheimer’s - “Right now, Alzheimer’s, which affects about one in 10 Americans over 65 and nearly half over 85, can only be definitively diagnosed by examining the brain after the patient has died.”
The Extremists Are Losing: “As they lose political appeal, revolutionary movements often turn more violent. The French scholar Gilles Kepel, who documents the failure of political Islam in his excellent book ‘Jihad,’ makes a comparison to communism. It was in the 1960s, after communism had lost any possible appeal to ordinary people – after the revelations about Stalin’s brutality, after the invasion of Hungary, as its economic model was decaying – that communist radicals turned to terror. They became members of the Red Brigades, the Stern Gang, the Naxalites, the Shining Path. Having given up on winning the hearts of people, they hoped that violence would intimidate people into fearing them. That is where radical political Islam is today.”
Of PowerPoint and Pointlessness - “PowerPoint serves largely the same role in the classroom as pre-processed snack food does in the lunchroom: a conveniently packaged morsel that looks good but doesn’t match the intellectual or corporeal nourishment of, say, a critical essay or a plate of steamed spinach.”
Why FBI Computer Force Ain’t Fat: “They will not consider you unless you can carry your M16 through the physical fitness course without killing yourself in the process”