The classic explanation of the evils of deflation is that it makes individuals and businesses less willing to use money, because the rational way to act when prices are falling is to hold onto cash, which gains in value. But in Japan, nearly a generation of deflation has had a much deeper effect, subconsciously coloring [...]
[16 Oct 2010]
There are three happiness killers — doing work you do not love and are not passionate about, surrounding yourself with people who you do not really like (someone who just fills time), and living somewhere that does not let you be you. Just stop it. Life is far too short. Also, materialism. We know that [...]
[15 Oct 2010]
Kaleidoscope has proved most helpful, Sternberg said, in helping admissions officers choose among the upper middle group of applicants. He noted that the mean SAT scores of the incoming freshman class at Tufts have improved every year since Kaleidoscope was introduced, and so has student body diversity. In the first year of its implementation, for [...]
[19 Sep 2010]
Photo by mclcbooks The Netherlands resembles the United States as a prosperous, technologically advanced nation where a huge share of the population owns automobiles. They simply don’t drive them each and every time they leave home, thanks to common sense transportation policies where biking and transit are promoted as an attractive alternative to the car. [...]
[16 Sep 2010]
I know not everyone feels they are better off since the storm, but I do. Now I can barely recall the restless and unfulfilled person I used to be. Five years ago I spent my time obsessing about my career and ambitions, now I spend it enjoying my family and friends via backyard BBQs, music [...]
[28 Aug 2010]
In most situations where I am with other people of color, white people will try to communicate with me first. I am more likely to appear in the media, especially if my skin affords me the designation “omniracial.” (Hello, Beyonce.) People will think I am pretty. full stop. I am more likely to get a [...]
[27 Aug 2010]
Twitter certainly had such an easy win when, while at a fraction of the scale the service now operates at, one of their engineers rewrote their in-house Ruby-based message queue in Scala. That was great, but it was scaling in the small. Twitter is still fighting an uphill battle to scale in the large, because [...]
[28 Jul 2010]
A short sale is going to be the only way for many people who bought at the peak and who are now underwater to move on with their lives if they have to relocate or downsize. From Jonathan J. Miller, president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel and a market analyst in New York City [...]
[25 Jul 2010]
Big Freedia and Galactic at the Fillmore from Big Freedia on Vimeo. As far back as the ’40s and ’50s, it was a really popular thing. Gay performers have been celebrated forever in New Orleans black culture. Not to mention that in New Orleans there’s the tradition of masking, mummers, carnival, all the weird identity [...]
[24 Jul 2010]
it’s increasingly obvious that western colonial expansion was about people wanting to get drunk, get high, and get rich. Jason to me in an instant message conversation after I mentioned that I had my first pisco sour last night. It’s a yummy drink. That’s also a true statement. Also see On sugar, rum and the [...]
[16 Jul 2010]