Literal music videos (20)
share
digg
by
jason@kottke.org (1404)
on
kottke.org (1491)
1 week, 1 day
ago
permalink
The literal video version of A Ha's Take On Me...that is, the words of the song are changed to reflect what actually happens in the video. Band montage! Pipe wrench fight! This. Is. Brilliant. (via andre) Update: Here's a slight twist on the theme...a meta song with lyrics about the lyrics. I like the built-in laugh track. (thx, elsa) (link)
-
Jacob W said:
Just to reiterate. This rules.
-
Heids said:
So good ...
-
Brian said:
Much more funny to me than it should be.
Does the free market erode moral character? (2)
share
digg
by
Tyler Cowen (303)
on
Marginal Revolution (460)
1 week, 2 days
ago
permalink
I am honored to share a symposium with Garry Kasparov, among other notables, including Robert Reich, Jagdish Bhagwati, Bernard Henri-Levy, Michael Novak, and others. My answer to the question is "No, on balance" and here is my opening bit:In matters of morality, the free market functions like an amplifier. By placing more wealth and resources at our disposal, it tends to boost and accentuate whatever character tendencies we already possess. The net result is usually ...
-
Hammer said:
"In matters of morality, the free market functions like an amplifier. By placing more wealth and resources at our disposal, it tends to boost and accentuate whatever character tendencies we already possess. "
Remembering Mike Hammer (3)
share
digg
by
Tom Davenport (11)
on
HarvardBusiness.org (160)
1 week, 5 days
ago
permalink
You probably heard that Mike Hammer, often known as the "father of reengineering," died unexpectedly at age 60 few weeks ago. I worked closely with Mike for seven or eight years, and together we started a successful research program on IT management called PRISM. Anyone who writes on the "next big thing" owes him a major debt, and I learned a lot from him. What we owe Mike for most is his relentless focus on ...
311 - Transnistria, A Soviet Fly in Geopolitical Amber (7)
share
digg
by
strangemaps (238)
on
Strange Maps (243)
2 weeks, 4 days
ago
permalink
Now that Russia has recognised the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the improbable phantom nation of Transnistria (1) might be gearing up for its own fifteen minutes of geopolitical fame. Like the aforementioned breakaway regions of Georgia (itself a former Soviet republic), Transnistria is a bizarre splinter off the old Soviet block, and now a client state of Russia. Transnistria occupies the sliver of Moldovan territory hemmed in between the river Dniester (2) in ...
-
J€$$€ said:
wanna know what all that shit in georgia was about?
The Big — Dare I Say, GIGANTIC — Book Sale (2)
share
digg
2 weeks, 5 days
ago
permalink
[Image via.] Well, the 44th annual Big Book Sale hosted by the Friends of the Public Library started yesterday, but have no fear — the sale will continue today and tomorrow from 10 to 8, and on Sunday from 10 to 6. All books on Sunday will be priced down to $1 or less! The Friends contend that it’s the largest book sale on the West Coast, and I’d believe it. It’s being held, as ...
-
Hammer said:
Aaaaaaah books aaaaaaaah
A Handy Map of San Francisco Bay « Strange Maps (19)
share
digg
by
strangemaps (238)
on
Strange Maps (243)
3 weeks
ago
permalink
The metropolitan area surrounding San Francisco Bay, better known as the Bay Area, includes over 100 cities (San Francisco, Oakland and San José being among the most populous) and counts about 7 million people. It is the 4th-largest metropolitan area in the US and the 47th-largest in the world. Many non-locals will be surprised to learn that San José is the largest city in the Bay Area (having surpassed San Francisco in the 1980s). Another ...
-
Isaac said:
very handy
-
Allan said:
So handy!
-
senpi said:
senpi was there
-
kkr said:
two hands make san francisco - clever!
-
Ian said:
neat
-
Doug said:
Another lesser-known fact is that a map of the entire Bay Area can be created using nothing more than two functioning, interlocking hands (preferably your own).
Morgan Friedman, turning flaneurs into planners (3)
share
digg
by
Grant McCracken (34)
on
This Blog Sits at the (34)
4 weeks
ago
permalink
In some circles, the "flaneur" is a key idea. The flaneur is a person walking, watching, stopping to pay attention and otherwise engaging with the city as it presents itself to someone in motion and on foot. It's an idea discussed by some of the most gifted observers of contemporary life: Baudelaire, Simmel, Benjamin, and Sontag. Indeed, it has become so fashionable that it has become a kind of pose. (Baudelaire's great fear realized.) The ...
The good news (3)
share
digg
by
Tyler Cowen (303)
on
Marginal Revolution (460)
4 weeks
ago
permalink
There is some. First, it seems (knock on wood) the Fed and Treasury may make money off the AIG deal, at least over a time horizon of one to two years. Felix Salmon explains some detail. The company has assets and if it needs to borrow money it is paying the Fed at Libor plus 850 (!). Second, the size of a guarantee does not represent the cost of the bailout. I have been getting ...
AIG is Toast (4)
share
digg
by
Alex Tabarrok (157)
on
Marginal Revolution (460)
4 weeks, 1 day
ago
permalink
So says Felix Salmon: AIG's $2.5 billion of 5.85 percent notes due in 2018 plunged 19.5 cents to 33 cents on the dollar as of 9:55 a.m. in New York, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. (quote from here). 33 cents on the dollar? The message is loud and clear: AIG is toast. This is the massive counterparty failure everybody's been scared of, and frankly I'm astonished that ...
-
Hammer said:
Oh, crap. "the failure of AIG is likely to be an order of magnitude more harmful than the failure of LTCM would have been. And it's not even happening on a Friday, where we could have yet another Emergency Weekend to try to work things out."
Michael Hammer: A Tribute to the Guru of Operations (1)
share
digg
1 month, 1 week
ago
permalink
In December 1993, a book smelling like new arrived at my worktable in Delhi, India. Its title, Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution, left me cold initially; I had OD-ed on the word revolution for too long. I needn't have worried, though; the first book co-authored by Michael Hammer--who passed away in Boston on September 4, 2008--lived up to the hype. Companies should redefine the way they do things instead of using computers ...
-
Hammer said:
My father was an amazing man -- his business impact was only one piece of it.
Aaron Sorkin admits he's working on "The Facebook Movie" [Confirmed] (6)
share
digg
by
Nicholas Carlson (337)
on
Valleywag (1225)
1 month, 2 weeks
ago
permalink
Why would anyone not think Aaron Sorkin is working on a movie about Facebook? "You can't handle the truth!" That's the line Sorkin penned for Jack Nicholson in 1992's A Few Good Men. Nicholson might well have been speaking to some of our readers, who reacted poorly to the news that the West Wing writer was working on a movie about Mark Zuckerberg's creation. One begged us to uncover the fraud: "The BBC, the Guardian ...
JetBlue’s Futuristic Food Court in JFK (1)
share
digg
If the Ivy League were a country, their 14 ... (1)
share
digg
by
Clay Travis (6)
on
Deadspin (152)
1 month, 3 weeks
ago
permalink
If the Ivy League were a country, their 14 medals so far would rank as the 12th most Olympic medals. Yep, more than Canada.[Ivies in China]
GIVING: EUROPE GETS THE BUG | More Intelligent Life (2)
share
digg
by
Matthew_Bishop (0)
on
More Intelligent Life - (12)
1 month, 3 weeks
ago
permalink
GIVING IT AWAY | August 19th 2008 American-style philanthropy is finally catching on in Europe. Matthew Bishop explains ... From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, Summer 2008 A couple of hundred wealthy continental Europeans gathered in the achingly modern Philharmonie concert hall in Luxembourg on April 23rd. The reason? To discuss "seizing the opportunity for philanthropy" in a country traditionally known for helping the rich to keep more of their money from the tax man, not for ...
debategraph debate maps (9)
share
digg
on
information aesthetics (305)
1 month, 4 weeks
ago
permalink
a Wiki-style global map of important debates that aims to visualize & deepen the understanding of the ways in which different debates are semantically interrelated. every debate map is provisional and open to iterative improvement by anyone who participates. over time, the debate maps mature into the definitive articulations of each debate. debates range from "Climate Change" over "Obama's Vice President" to "Can Computers Think?" [link: debategraph.org] see also narrating bits.
-
Guillaume said:
Maybe relevant for http://select2008.com?
306 - The Genetic Map of Europe (41)
share
digg
by
strangemaps (238)
on
Strange Maps (243)
1 month, 4 weeks
ago
permalink
Genetically speaking, Finns and Italians are the most atypical Europeans. There is a large degree of overlap between other European ethnicities, but not up to the point where they would be indistinguishable from each other. Which means that forensic scientists now can use DNA to predict the region of origin of otherwise unknown persons (provided they are of European heritage). These are among the conclusions to be drawn from a genetic map of Europe, produced ...
-
Soren said:
wow. that's really really really cool.
-
Isaac said:
Unsurprisingly, the UK is also an outlier
HOW TO CHEAT AT EVERYTHING (10)
share
digg
by
Allison Schrager (2)
on
More Intelligent Life - (12)
1 month, 4 weeks
ago
permalink
TIPS FROM A CON MAN | August 17th 2008 Over lunch with Simon Lovell, a fascinating former card shark, Allison Schrager learns all sorts of things about how swindlers operate ... Special to MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE "I can spot someone's weakness a mile away. In any room I can pick out the best target," says Simon Lovell, reformed con artist and famed magician, when asked over lunch about the root of his talents. "Take that ...
Brand triage: a tale of two perfumes (4)
share
digg
by
Grant McCracken (34)
on
This Blog Sits at the (34)
2 months
ago
permalink
Old Spice was so scorned a few years ago I once heard it referred to as Old Mice. Aqua Velva was actually worse. The idea of perfume for men was just so terribly naff. Scorned as artifice in the 1960s, as middle class in the 80s, and as earnest, clueless, and irony free in the 1990s, these brands were in free fall. (Our cultural concepts of maleness were under reconstruction, and brands were struggling to ...
What happened to our magnetic north? on the decline of the avant garde (2)
share
digg
by
Grant McCracken (34)
on
This Blog Sits at the (34)
2 months
ago
permalink
Phil Sheridan offers a new point of view on the music industry. He rehearses the things the music press has always said about the music industry; that it is tone-def, greedy, payola ridden, crass, manipulative, and exploitative. And then he offers this stunning change of heart:we owe the vile and disgusting record industry a lot more than it's popular to admit. ... [T]here is a certain value in having a structure in place that more ...
-
Hammer said:
This is my new favorite blog.Generalizing a little, we can say that the center now has some of the creativity and risk taking capability of the margin, the middle class sometimes is an artist class, and that increasingly the culture of capitalism beats the drum of innovation so insistently that privilege, tedium and orthodoxy have gone to the margin and all of us must hew to the cause of risk, imagination and departure.
Tomorrow Museum (12) permalink
JetBlue’s Food Court in JFK’s Terminal 5 is beautifully designed. “Deep Blue” in particular.Shared by Hammer (7)Contribute comment
