April 2011
17 posts
2 tags
Tools to Teach Kids About Personal Finance →
Truly useful list from our 200 plus-year old government, on their one-month old Tumblr site.
Contrast with the top three stories on the front page of Google News at the time of this writing:
GOP takes heat on call to revamp Medicare
Why the PlayStation Network breach is scary
‘Dancing With The Stars’ eliminated contestant: “Judges were harsh”
Won’t someone...
2 tags
Why Not to Invest in Amazon in 1999 →
Or, as John Gruber might say, hopefully Friedman likes the taste of claim chowder.
(Via Paul Graham.)
1 tag
Who Pays Teachers Best for Their Time? →
Hint: it’s not the U.S.
(Via Future Journalism Project.)
(Side note/plea: People, please, source better. I shouldn’t have to scour pages for links, let alone use a site’s internal search engine, to find sources.)
3 tags
'Half Of Federal Agencies Will Be in The Cloud... →
I bet it’ll take half that time.
(Via KurzweilAI.)
2 tags
Hashify Is Neato →
Entire documents contained within shortened URLs. Talk about utter utility (in a good way).
2 tags
Lil Buck and Yo-Yo Ma →
Anybody who says this isn’t beautiful is a communist.
(Via Devour.)
1 tag
Translation: Fuck you, Republicans. →
Wherein Kevin Drum points out his favorite part of Obama’s speech on Thursday: the President spoke “just the simple truth.” And that alone was enough.
1 tag
The Economist: 'Automatic e-mail footers are not... →
There. Done. Finito. No more excuses.
1 tag
Disqus WordPress Plugin 2.61 Trailing Space Bug...
In the 2.61 release of the Disqus WordPress plugin, an extra trailing space was mistakenly appended to the disqus_url variable’s value which sometimes causes the embed not to load.
The next release of our plugin will fix this. You can apply this fix in the meantime:
Navigate to WP Dashboard > Plugins > Editor
Select the Disqus Comment System plugin
Choose comments.php
Change...
2 tags
Messages for Japan →
Outside Japan and want to share your thoughts but don’t speak Japanese? Inside Japan and want to see what the outside world is saying, but only speak Japanese?
Powered by Google.
EDIT: Don’t miss the heart-warming promo ad.
2 tags
23andMe Is Free Today →
23andMe is a genetic testing service that provides information and tools to understand your DNA.
It’s normally $200 if you get the $9/month subscription (for new discoveries about your DNA), or $400 without the subscription.
This sort of service will be de rigueur in 10-20 years, and is just plain smart now.
UPDATE: Expired.
1 tag
Not Everything Should Be Instant →
Bob Woodward:
I think there’s too much emphasis on speed and feeding the impatience people have. … In many ways, journalism is not often enough up to the task of dealing with the dangerous and fragile nature of the world, or the community, or anything you might try to understand. [The world requires] high quality, probing journalism. And there’s just not been enough of it.
(Via Future...
1 tag
How Richard Feynman Thought →
Sanjoy Mahajan, on one of my personal role models:
Before an idea could contribute to [his] worldview, Feynman wanted to turn over the idea, to see why it was true, from any angle that he could find. … In other words, he wanted to connect a new idea to what he already understood and thereby extend his understanding.
Feynman’s approach is a wonderful recipe for becoming more...
2 tags
Federal Budget Impasse Resolution in One Sentence →
Redditor FTR:
The rich people agreed the poor people should get fewer services.
1 tag
David Worthington Interviews His Mom on The Ipad,... →
So precious. My mom, who is an avid iPad lover herself (it’s effectively replaced her Gateway laptop), loved this part:
David: What — if anything–is still confusing to you, or you think could work better?
Mom: Well, it’s too touchy. Even though I’m better with it now… if you happen just to move your hand or something, you know, then all of a sudden you’re out of what you’re in....
4 tags
What Congress Would Look Like If It Were... →
Eye-opening. Two more notable facts that didn’t make it on the chart:
There actually is an Atheist in Congress, Pete Stark.
Wealth. Here’s a proper comparison:
Average American’s net worth: $96,000
Average Senator’s net worth: $13,400,000
Average Representative’s net worth: $5,000,000
(Via Future Journalism Project.)
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Stop Multitasking, Focus on The Single Most... →
This isn’t wishy-washy personal advice. This is something entrepreneurs learn every day from cold, hard experiences. Caleb Elston is learning this right now at Yobongo:
While there are indeed many things to get done, there are usually only one or two that are critical at any point in time. The opportunity cost of sacrificing attention on the high priority tasks just to feel like you are...