December 2011
28 posts
“I was at a meeting just two days ago at which several well-meaning staff members...”
– via “I Don’t Understand What Anyone Is Saying Anymore” in Harvard Business Review
“Pubic hair is … evolving. Once upon a time, all vulvas were coated in a...”
– from an interesting Atlantic piece about female pubic hair
Facebook Is Making Us Miserable →
Don’t agree with all of this post, but this part is interesting.
Since our Facebook profiles are self-curated, users have a strong bias toward sharing positive milestones and avoid mentioning the more humdrum, negative parts of their lives. Accomplishments like, “Hey, I just got promoted!” or “Take a look at my new sports car,” trump sharing the intricacies of our...
7 Foods You Should Never Eat →
Chemicals, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), in the lining of the bag, are part of a class of compounds that may be linked to infertility in humans, according to a recent study from UCLA. In animal testing, the chemicals cause liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancer. Studies show that microwaving causes the chemicals to vaporize—and migrate into your popcorn. “They stay in...
Why food drives are a terrible idea →
Matt Yglesias breaks it down:
America, after all, is not a country stricken with famine. There’s no objective shortage of food, in other words, that makes it vitally important for you to draw down the stockpile in your kitchen cabinet. Indeed, many of us don’t even have that much food socked away, which leads to us going out to buy extra food in order to give it away. But having 100 different...
“With Italy too big to fail, too big to save, and now at the point of no return,...”
– Nouriel Roubini, an NYU economist who was nicknamed Dr. Doom after predicting the housing meltdown and subsequent 2008 financial crisis, speaking on the current eurozone crisis
“Handedness, as the dominance of one hand over the other is called, provides a...”
– via the Wall Street Journal’s “The Health Risks of Being Left-Handed”
"Facebook News Feed History of the World" →
So, so good. (via I Love Charts)
WatchOver the past two months, I have watched the entire “How the Universe Works” series (most episodes twice), all of Stephen Hawking’s “Into the Universe”, NOVA’s “Fabric of the Cosmos,” the Curiosity episode on parallel universes, and just about every other space-related show that I have seen listed on my TV guide. (Big Bang Theory NOT included.)...
The Economist: "The perils for Nicolas Sarkozy in... →
Excerpt: “As the crisis deepens, an alarming prospect looms: that France’s own status could lapse, and thus its clout at the heart of the euro zone. France is by far the most vulnerable of the zone’s six AAA-rated countries. It has the highest level of debt as a share of GDP. Its banks are particularly exposed to the troubled periphery, especially Italy. The spread of French over German...
“It seems like we’ve not been thinking about the right issues for a long...”
– Peter Thiel, speaking in a New Yorker profile on him “No Death, No Taxes”
"The Sad Truth About the Fight Against Blood...
Edward Zwick on the Kimberly Process. Excerpt:
Unfortunately, the Kimberley Process’s refusal to address the clear links between diamonds, violence and tyranny has rendered it hopelessly ineffectual. In effect, it has become an accomplice to diamond laundering — as well as the corruption and depredations that inevitably follow — by offering the illusion of institutional cover...
"Rumors Of Extramarital Affair End Campaign Of... →
Personality Traits Affect How You Smell
So says some study. Excerpt:
Getting to know someone usually requires at least a little conversation. But a new study suggests you can get a hint of an individual’s personality through his or her scent alone.
Participants in the study assessed, with some degree of accuracy, how outgoing, anxious or dominant people were after only taking a whiff of their clothes. The study is the first to...
“On a rain-smeared cardboard sign near the shattered window of an Oakland coffee...”
– from The New Yorker’s “Pre-Occupied,” a look at the genesis of Occupy Wall Street