Design Altruism Project: POSTprofessional A number of years ago, long after I’d left the Scouts, I penned a self-righteous screed criticizing the inherent myths of expertism. I must confess, at the time I was not armed with the most credible objections, and at least one of my grad-school mentors had trouble accepting the apparent irrationality […]
Category Archives: serious stuff
The political ratchet effect
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
From Stop Me Before I Vote Again: The electoral ratchet permits movement only in the rightward direction. The Republican role is fairly clear; the Republicans apply the torque that rotates the thing rightward. The Democrats’ role is a little less obvious. The Democrats are the pawl. They don’t resist the rightward movement — they let […]
More auto stuff
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
It was a dead heat. General Motors sold 9.37 million vehicles worldwide in 2007 and lost $38.7 billion. Toyota sold 9.37 million vehicles in 2007 and made $17.1 billion.
Hell yeah, put them all in bankruptcy, cause they are
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
A Bridge Loan? U.S. Should Guide G.M. in a Chapter 11 First, let’s recognize that G.M. doesn’t need life support. What it needs is Chapter 11. The bankruptcy process is not a bad thing — indeed, it should be embraced. Bankruptcy allows companies to do tough things they could never do in the normal course […]
Barry Goldwater, the Last Smart Republican
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Daily Kos: State of the Nation ” […] Then something happened. Nixon played to it of course but it really came into play in the 1990’s and even more this past decade. Republicans turned their backs on smart people. Just like that, being smart was less important than being ‘real’. Being qualified was about being […]
New political AI technology
Monday, September 29, 2008
Interview Sarah Palin Can’t get an interview with Sarah Palin? We’ve got you covered. Q: What is the role of the US in Iraq and Afghanistan? Iraq that John McCain has done, that has to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we’re on, reform of government […]
TV is out, Web 2.0 is in
Friday, August 22, 2008
GIN, TELEVISION, AND COGNITIVE SURPLUS: A Talk By Clay Shirky […] People asking, “Where do they find the time?” when they’re looking at things like Wikipedia don’t understand how tiny that entire project is, as a carve-out of the cognitive surplus that’s finally being dragged into what Tim O’Reilly calls an architecture of participation. Now, […]
Because gun control is just that darn dangerous
Thursday, July 31, 2008
There’s Something About Mary: Unmasking a Gun Lobby Mole But these two Marys share a lot in common—a Mother Jones investigation has found that McFate and Sapone are, in fact, the same person. And this discovery has caused the leaders of gun violence prevention organizations to conclude that for years they have been penetrated—at the […]
Nigeria takes over Ebay and eats its brain
Friday, May 9, 2008
It’s Now Completely Impossible To Sell A Laptop On Ebay This time I contacted the Live Chat system. I explained the whole drama, and was told to go on the website and contact eBay’s security team. I did so, […] I received the following response: ?Dear eBay member, If you need help resetting your […]
Epic waste
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
A Crushing Issue: How to Destroy Brand-New Cars – WSJ.com Mazda saw no easy way to guard against these outcomes. So it decided to destroy approximately $100 million worth of factory-new automobiles. This after: High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace “Come on, Marty,” Habib says as they […]
