December 31
Frank Capra meets Collateralized Debt Obligations:
The idea is simple: If enough people who have money in one of the big four banks move it into smaller, more local, more traditional community banks, then collectively we, the people, will have taken a big step toward re-rigging the financial system so it becomes again the productive, stable engine for growth it's meant to be. It's neither Left nor Right -- it's populism at its best.
Move your money.
posted by Anything at 2:41 AM - 15 comments December 30
MAN is one of a number of animals that make things, but man is the only one that depends for its very survival on the things he has made. That
simple observation is the
starting point for an
ambitious history programme that the BBC will
begin broadcasting on January 18th in which it aims to tell a history of the world through 100 objects in the British Museum (BM). A
joint venture four years in the making between the BM and the BBC, the series features 100 15-minute radio broadcasts, a separate 13 episodes in which
children visit the museum at night and try to unlock its mysteries, a BBC World Service package of tailored omnibus editions for broadcasting around the world and an
interactive digital programme involving 350 museums in Britain which will be available free over the internet. The presenter is
Neil MacGregor, the BM’s director, who has moved from the study of art to the contemplation of things. “Objects take you into the thought world of the past,” he says. “When you think about the skills required to make something you begin to think about the brain that made it.”
via The Economist [more inside]
posted by infini at 8:55 PM - 23 comments Footnoted.org, a blog devoted to pointing out those buried atrocities in SEC filings, is having its annual
worst footnote of the year contest. contenders include Chesapeake Energy disclosing it spent $12.1 million to purchase Aubrey McClendon's antique map collection, Martha Stewart's $3 million retention payment to remain at Martha Stewart Omnimedia and InfoGroup disclosing it really spent $852K on former CEO Gupta's yacht instead of zero. Polls close tomorrow.
posted by krautland at 1:00 PM - 24 comments
Man from the Margin: Cao Cao and the Three Kingdoms You'll perhaps have
read or
watched reports that archaeologists believe they have found the tomb of Cao Cao (曹操) (of course,
not everyone agrees with the identification). Warrior, strategist, statesman and
poe
t, Cao Cao lives on in the cultural memory of China, a
by-word for cunning and of course a central character in the great historical novel
Romance of the Three Kingdoms and hence also recent John Woo blockbuster
Red Cliff. To understand the man in his historical context, there's little better in English than the 1990 George Ernest Morrison Lecture in Ethnology given by now-retired Professor
Rafe de Crespigny, one of the foremost Western scholars of the Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms periods of Chinese history. He makes several of his vastly erudite essays on Chinese history available at the
ANU's website.
posted by Abiezer at 8:57 AM - 20 comments
November 13, 2001: Musical unknown Andrew W.K.
(Previously 1, 2) releases his debut album "I Get Wet." It is a simple rock record of power chords and unabashed, un-ironic party music -- exemplified perfectly both by its first song, "
It's Time To Party," or its lead single, "
Party Hard" -- released during a month of American
depression,
paranoia, and
insincerity that borders on nihilism. The album finds mainstream success,
selling over 30K copies in its first three weeks, with songs from the record
appearing in commercials, movies, and television shows, not to mention heavy rotation on MTV and awesome appearances on
Conan and
Saturday Night Live. [more inside]
posted by Damn That Television at 12:18 AM - 303 comments
December 29
The Mag+ Project A compelling digital magazine concept that resulted from a research collaboration between Swedish publisher
Bonnier and London design firm
BERG. Touchscreen specialists
Kicker Studio in San Francisco are working to expand this into an interactive prototype over the next several months.
posted by Dragonness at 8:41 PM - 2 comments
Questions for John Yoo. Q. Do you regret writing the so-called torture memos, which claimed that President Bush was legally entitled to ignore laws prohibiting torture? A.
No, I had to write them. It was my job. As a lawyer, I had a client. The client needed a legal question answered. NY Times, via Andrew Sullivan [more inside]
posted by fourcheesemac at 5:07 PM - 47 comments
The Genesis 2.0 Project The L.H.C. is not merely the world’s largest particle accelerator but the largest machine ever built. At the center of just one of the four main experimental stations installed around its circumference, and not even the biggest of the four, is a magnet that generates a magnetic field 100,000 times as strong as Earth’s. And because the super-conducting, super-colliding guts of the collider must be cooled by 120 tons of liquid helium, inside the machine it’s one degree colder than outer space, thus making the L.H.C. the coldest place in the universe.
posted by srboisvert at 3:28 PM - 52 comments
December 28
Karsten Nohl and a team of fellow researchers has
cracked the 64-bit encryption used in 80% of the world's GSM phones.
Nohl had previously cracked the encryption in the
MIFARE smartcard system,
demonstrating that the encryption on that device can be cracked in approximately no time whatsoever. These, of course, aren't the first gaping holes in cellphone security to come to light; indeed,
lack of security seems to be part of the design spec. Perhaps all new cellphones should be just be
distributed with a deck of cards.
posted by kaibutsu at 2:14 PM - 50 comments What would happen if aid organizations and other philanthropists embraced the dark arts of marketing spin and psychological persuasion used on Madison Avenue? We'd save millions more lives.
posted by lunit at 12:46 PM - 50 comments
From a simple insight, it has grown to some 4,000 pages. ... Whatever it is (he grudgingly calls it a novel, for legal reasons), [Larry Kramer] believes it to be an entirely true work. Certainly it’s epic. From primordial Florida swamps to the homophilic colony at Jamestown to Lincoln’s male love and the “holocaust” of AIDS, he reframes the country as a gay creation, culminating with the advent of modern antiviral drugs: “the single greatest achievement that gay people have accomplished in history.” (previously)
posted by Joe Beese at 11:17 AM - 126 comments
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