Category Archives: Current History

BBC News – Instagram “suicide note” seeks right to sell access to photos to advertisers

  Instagram signs its “Suicide Note.” They say you “own” your photos, but they can do whatever they want with it. What’s “ownership” without control? A notice updating the privacy policy on the Instagram site said: “We may share your … Continue reading

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Risk Management: The underestimated cost of Lyme disease

The New York Times Magazine has an article on Ina Drew, who was supposed to oversee trading operations at JP Morgan and was reportedly a great risk manager. But her unit lost $5 billion. To me, the underplayed role in … Continue reading

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Simpleminded science questions worthiness of family dinners

In the Sunday Review section of the NY Times, there is an opinion piece about a study that questions whether family dinners are overrated. All previous studies show that kids in families that eat dinner together regularly are more socially … Continue reading

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Testing female athletes for “excess” testosterone

I see that the official international rules regarding who can and can’t compete continue to get more ridiculous. First, there was the ruling that Oscar Pistorius could run on prosthetic legs because no one could prove that he had any … Continue reading

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Glass-Steagall again, at last

I’m really happy to see that there is finally a push among some with influence to revive Glass-Steagall regulations that separate FDIC-backed deposits from Banks’ speculative investments. Look, it seems really simple to me: if you are a bank and … Continue reading

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Journalism is a tough business–get used to it.

Paul Krugman has a post about how the correctional industry demanded retractions to statements he made in his column. Only he didn’t make the statements that they say he made. As Krugman points out, the point is not to get … Continue reading

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The value of journalism

I see that This American Life is retracting their Mike Daisy piece about Apple Computer factories in China because of “significant inaccuracies” and because Daisy “lied” to the TAL producers. Wow. To me this is  lot about the value of … Continue reading

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Stories versus models

I’ve been thinking a lot about this old Paul Krugman post, in which he discusses how hard it is for many, even serious economists, to grapple rationally with the current world financial situation. He ascribes it as a need to … Continue reading

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Revolution images

Wow, great photo by Mauricio Lima in the New York times. Great composition. It reminds me of David’s “Liberty” painting from the French revolution. Although unfortunately there is no bare-breasted Marianne.

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Ubiquitous video and the passing of the kick-ass era

Looking at the videos of the Occupy Wall Street protest and in particular of the “pepper spray incident” I’m actually pretty hopeful. I think that it is now becoming clear to police departments and officers that there is very little … Continue reading

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