The "Tilt" Thing and the Case for Journalist Entrepreneurs
People are all stirred up by my suggestion that the Valley is on "tilt". Lest anyone think otherwise, I'm not convinced it's entirely a bad thing. The Valley takes its biggest risks and does some of its wildest work when there is this "Everyone into th...
The Hardest Exam Ever: Has There Ever Been a Period That Was Not an Information Age?
From Harper's, the All Souls Exam. Some call this the hardest exam ever, with fascinating questions. Some particularly good ones bolded, but first the preamble:
From general subject questions included in the All Souls College examinations between 200...
The Top Ten Signs the Valley is on Tilt Again
It's apparently that time again -- the Valley has gone on tilt. Consider the following top ten signs.
10. Conferences are selling out
9. Venture capitalists are launching blogs
8. Everyone you know has a startup
7. Harvard MBAs are trekking to "hot" ev...
The Kinematics of Misdirection
As a long-time (terrible) amateur magician, I'm endlessly fascinated by magical techniques, especially misdirection. A new PLoS One study of the kinematics of misdirection caught my eye, so to speak:
The Magic Grasp: Motor Expertise in Deception
Backgr...
Field Notes: CRE, Javascript, Oil, Alaska, etc.
Cushman & Wakefield's latest global CRE report (Source)
jStat : a JavaScript statistical library (Source)
Crude's watchdog ready to bark (Source)
Hollywood's Leading Geek (Source)
Janet Malcolm on Sarah Palin's Alaska. Lovely writing. (Source)
Rog...
2011: The Year of the Startup Default
Worthwhile musing about the effect of so much convertible debt in startup land:
Both startups and angels have recently favored convertible debt, particularly in the United States. Startups like debt deals because they are quick and cheap to close by a...
Sarah Kay’s Poetry at TED
Not sure how well this will translate outside the live evening audience at TED, but one of the biggest surprises to me at this year's event was how much I enjoyed Sarah Kay's spoken word poetry. Apropos of nothing, I sat beside Sarah for one of the ear...
There Must Have Been a Moment at the Beginning
Rosencrantz: [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are about to be hanged] That's it then, is it? We've done nothing wrong. We didn't harm anybody, did we?
Guildenstern: I can't remember.
Rosencrantz: All right, then. I don't care. I've had enough. To tell yo...
Video: Liquefaction and Cracking from Sendai/Japan Quake
Incredible video of liquefaction and cracking from the Sendai earthquake:
Reactors, Perrow and Tightly-Coupled Systems: The Lessons of Fukushima
Good comments in Bulletin of Atomic Scientists on risk, Japan's accident and system coupling:
We have now had four grave nuclear reactor accidents: Windscale in Britain in 1957 (the one that is never mentioned), Three Mile Island in the United States ...
Field Notes: Sushi, Flooding, Japan, etc.
The lessons of Fukushima (Source)
Sushi Restaurants Drop Japanese Fish From Menus as Radiation Concerns Grow (Source)
Centre for Food Safety - Nuclear Event and Food Safety (Source)
Don’t Know Squared: “It’s What You Don’t Know You... (Source)...
BW: Crisis in Japan
New BusinessWeek cover is striking. Click for the story.
