“If I’m correct — and I think I am — the future for Model X owners won’t involve them being the only drivers of their own cars. It will involve them renting out their cars to everyone else for a price — with Tesla taking a cut — and the car driving itself. “
https://medium.com/@gavinsblog/elon-musk-s-sleight-of-hand-ea2b078ed8e6
“His name is Jeremy England, and at 33, he’s already being called the next Charles Darwin.”
The 101 version of his big idea is this: Under the right conditions, a random group of atoms will self-organize, unbidden, to more effectively use energy. Over time and with just the right amount of, say, sunlight, a cluster of atoms could come remarkably close to what we call life. In fact, here’s a thought: Some things we consider inanimate actually may already be “alive.”
Now take England’s simulation of an opera singer who holds a crystal glass and sings at a certain pitch. Instead of shattering, England predicts that over time, the atoms will rearrange themselves to better absorb the energy the singer’s voice projects, essentially protecting the glass’s livelihood. So how’s a glass distinct from, say, a plankton-type organism that rearranges it self over several generations? Does that make glass a living organism?
“…While Christianity and Darwinism are generally opposed, Judaism doesn’t take issue with the science of life. The Rabbinical Council of America even takes the stance that “evolutionary theory, properly understood, is not incompatible with belief in a Divine Creator.”
For his part, England believes science can give us explanations and predictions, but it can never tell us what we should do with that information. That’s where, he says, the religious teachings come in. “
http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/the-man-who-may-one-up-darwin/39217
“Raymond Chandler said, in any work of art there’s a sense of redemption.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/03/how-steve-jobs-survived-the-sony-hack.html?via=twitter_page
“…Italy has this really amazing thing called Jure Sanguinis that allows you to get dual citizenship if you can trace your ancestry back in a certain way. There’s some fairly complex rules to it, but in brief it says that if your immigrant ancestor had kids before he or she became an American citizen, then the kids were technically born as Italian citizens (according to Italy), and you are eligible to claim Italian citizenship as their descendant.”
https://blog.tomasino.org/moving-to-iceland.html#.VhEhWn0oeKI
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.” — Mark Twain
Mark Twain
“Several studies, most notably by the Harvard Business School and Sysomos, have tried to analyze the user behaviour on microblogging services.[9][10] Several of these studies show that for services such as Twitter, there is a small group of active users contributing to most of the activity.[11] Sysomos’ Inside Twitter [10] survey, based on more than 11 million users, shows that 10% of Twitter users account for 86% of all activity.”
( Reading the above paragraph on Wikipedia, I just realized, the “1” in the 1-9-90 Rule when applied to Twitter, is really the People NOT on Twitter. The “9” are the People who are Linking TO or Tweeting ABOUT the Stuff found off-twitter written/blogged by that “1” Percent of Twitter “Users”. )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogging
Using and Abusing Models in Economics: Book Review of Rodrik’s Economics Rules
http://www.neaydinonat.com/blog/?p=1046
“He’s a politician, so within two minutes he’s your best friend,” Blanchard said.
“Perhaps most fundamentally, the crisis raised serious doubts about the ambitious project that Blanchard and others macroeconomists had been working on for close to 50 years: developing a single, scientifically based model that could be used at all times for all circumstances. To skeptics inside and outside the profession, it was becoming clear that, despite all the gains in computing power and mathematical technique, economies were so complex that the search for one big model was quixotic. As economist Dani Rodrik suggests in a new book, “Economics Rules,” perhaps the best that can be hoped for is for a good set of smaller models — along with economists such as Blanchard who have the experience and intuition to know which ones to use in any particular situation. ”
The tyranny of bad ideas
For an academic who had spent a career searching for economic truth, having to reconcile the supposedly scientific insights of economics with political and bureaucratic realities proved even more challenging than Blanchard had anticipated. What he found most surprising, he said during a relaxing moment on Re, was how quickly a consensus can develop around some question on the basis of what decision-makers read in the press or hear over dinner. People on the outside, he said, have no idea how much time and energy is spent responding to or anticipating the reaction of the media and critics.
There’s a big risk of people agreeing on something without thinking about it or doing the hard analysis,” he said. In the face of incomplete information and genuine uncertainty, he said, it was disquieting “how easily bad ideas become entrenched.”
“It’s a strange process,” he mused, but one he is likely to miss.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-smartest-economist-youve-never-heard-of/2015/10/02/8659bcf2-6786-11e5-8325-a42b5a459b1e_story.html
How Roger Ebert gave Oprah Winfrey her start…
“At about this time, Oprah and I went out on a date. Well, actually two dates, but the one that made history began when we went to the movies. Afterward, we went to the Hamburger Hamlet for dinner, my treat.
“I don’t know what to do,” she told me. “The ABC stations want to syndicate my show. So does King World. The problem with syndication is that if your show isn’t successful, you’re off the air in three months. The ABC stations own themselves, so they can keep you on. Which way do you think I should go?”
I took a napkin and a ballpoint pen, and made some simple calculations.
Line 1: How much I made in a year for doing a syndicated television show.
Line 2: Times 2, because Siskel made the same.
Line 3: Times 2, because Oprah would be on for an hour, instead of half an hour.
Line 4: Times 5, because she would be on five days a week.
Line 5: Times 2, because her ratings would be at least twice as big as “Siskel & Ebert.”
I pushed the napkin across the table. Oprah studied it for 10 seconds.
“Rog, I’m going with King World,” she said.
http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/how-i-gave-oprah-her-start
Work the System Book Review
Copyright © 2025 HïMY SYeD
Lingonberry Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
