Ironic sign of George Orwell

This is quite funny.

Bonfire in my neighborhood last night

I woke up between 11:30-12, soon after I had gone to sleep last night, to hear a fireworks show that lasted for what seemed an hour.  I could hear people screaming/cheering and police sirens coming from nearby in the University District of Seattle, where I live.  For a while, I was also somewhat scared because [...]

Poor incentives for journalism favors Obama

Writing books about the Obama Administration is a lucrative business for journalists, particularly those who can get inside access.  From the Washington Post:

When it comes to pursuing sources, the authors who work for major news organizations have a key advantage. They are in regular touch with Obama aides for their day jobs and can obtain [...]

apt-get install wife

This is funny, unfortunately because it is so often true.

California, Pacific Northwest underprepared for a megaquake

Engineer Peter Yanev writes in the New York Times that the West Coast (in particular, the Pacific Northwest, like Seattle, where I currently reside) of the United States is less prepared than Chile was for a major earthquake.  We should expect much more devastation and more casualties if a quake of a similar magnitude hits [...]

Google, innovation, and listening to your customers

Robert Scoble has an interesting post a while back on how Google is becoming the next Microsoft.  Apparently, Eric Schmidt was quoted as saying, “We don’t want to work on problems that only affect a small number of people,” which Scoble takes as meaning that the chances that Google comes up with the next big [...]

Life, joy, purpose, happiness

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will [...]

Solar activity, electrical grids, and GPS

From the latest edition of Nature:

The findings could help researchers to improve their understanding of the fluctuations in solar activity that can, at their peak, scramble electricity grids and throw Global-Positioning-System devices off by dozens of metres.

Yikes!  Sounds dangerous, considering all the devices that rely on GPS.  Note that coronal mass ejections, a type of [...]

Making non-profits accountable

From Bill Easterly’s blog post:

…extreme dissatisfaction with aid agencies who ignore even the most obvious signs that some aid effort is not working. (Example cited in the Brookings book: a World Bank computer kiosk program in India celebrated as a “success” in its “Empowerment” sourcebook. Except that the computers sat in places without functioning electricty or Internet [...]

Miscellaneous links

1.  Bill Easterly:   Nobody wants your old shoes: How not to help in Haiti

2.  New York Times: Big Benefits Are Seen From Eating Less Salt

3.  Tyler Cowen and The Economist / Free Exchange: The end of Haiti?