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Blog Entries
“Placeholder names are words that can refer to objects or people whose names are either irrelevant or unknown in the context in which it is being discussed.” … gulfstream/2441
Loving piece on the Leica. “Ralph Gibson once went to a meeting of the Leica Historical Society of America and, he claims, listened to a retired Marine … gulfstream/2331
Steven Pinker: Linguistic, historial and sociological aspects of swearing. Many good points in here, e.g. “To hear nigger is to try on, however briefly, … gulfstream/2339
Malcolm Gladwell calls bullshit on crimanal profilers. Are they really any better than psychics? gulfstream/2348
Bruce Schneier answers some questions on security. Not as paranoid as you might think: he uses the same password for low security sites, buys stuff from … gulfstream/2359
Photographing medieval tapestries. gulfstream/1717
On Tony Wheeler, the founder of Lonely Planet. gulfstream/1722
Editing “journalism’s greatest prankster,” Hunter S. Thompson. gulfstream/1773
First-hand account of the Yalta conference. Stalin apparently had a lemon tree flown in so that Roosevelt could serve his martinis with a twist. gulfstream/1776
Good piece on how reality TV shows choose contestants, how the shows are run, and how contestants and failed contestants are affected by the experience. … gulfstream/1946
Great, informative, exchange between Valerie Lawson, the author of a book on the creator of Mary Poppins (Pamela Travers) and The New Yorker. … gulfstream/1956
Not ideal: Annie Proulx’s short story “Brokeback Mountain” apparently used to be at this URL, but it’s (effectively) a 404 now. The … gulfstream/1966
“There’s no substantial business today in charging companies money for the privilege of indexing one’s book …” I do so enjoy Cory Doctorow’s … gulfstream/1976
Audio of Malcolm Gladwell’s Feb 21st talk on a possible prodigies/late bloomers dichotomy. (This reminds me: in A Mathematician’s Apology, G.H. Hardy … gulfstream/2007
On Muzak, the company who make mix tapes for retailers. Former Muzak executive Alvin Collis: “I walked into a store and understood: this is just like … gulfstream/2052
Andrew Sullivan wants to call the view that “religious faith is so important that it must also have a precise political agenda” Christianist (parallels … gulfstream/2085
History of The New Yorker via the recently-released CD anthology. Less than affectionate; attempts to diminish. (e.g. “The New Yorker is the only magazine … gulfstream/2089
Tips for presenting to investors (and for presentations in general). “… as you approach … a description of something that could be anything, the … gulfstream/2138
Malcolm Gladwell: the success of a company (or country) is determined, to a great extent, by the ratio of workers to dependent non-workers. (GM has 453,000 … gulfstream/2141
Jim Holt’s review of two books critical of string theory. (Good overview of the theory and its weaknesses.) I would’ve thought that two books on string … gulfstream/2163
Profile of Malcolm Gladwell. Whilst working at the Washington Post, he won a competition with a fellow reporter over who would be first to get the phrase … gulfstream/2219
How ad agencies would market tap water. (Some silly ideas, but largely provocative.) I don’t think it’s inherently difficult to sell tap water—the … gulfstream/2226
Fun interview/profile of Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, who is frequently described as the happiest man alive. gulfstream/2234
CIA account of two CIA operatives shot down over China on their first mission in 1952, and held captive for 20 years. gulfstream/2270
Apple’s ads—and the artists and commercials they ripped off to get them. gulfstream/2301
