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January 22
The Continental Breakup

The Planet Money team takes on the Euro crisis in this week’s This American Life. In typical fashion, they introduce a complicated economic concept through a series of stories.

The markets are up so far this year, but trading volume is low, suggesting that this is unlikely to last. On March 20, as Felix Salmon explains at Reuters, Greece will have a to repay or refinance a  €14.4 billion bond which it simply will not be able to do. The result, unless a miracle happens (Apple Computer donating the funds to Greece?), will be some kind of (almost certainly disorderly) default that will wreck the Euro and, in turn, the world economy. 

If you’re confused as to just how we got here, the most recent This American Life is a good place to start. 

(Source: studio-varnelis-sp12)
October 6
Timothy Leary’s Apple Macintosh LC III. 

Timothy Leary’s Apple Macintosh LC III. 

September 25
"All of life has been utterly, profoundly changed thanks to Facebook’s new features, and nothing will ever be the same, and all I can do is sit here and weep at the beauty and magic that Mark Zuckerberg has brought to this world."

“Why? Why, sky? Why do you look like shit? You look just the same as ever, just blue sky and white clouds. Why can’t you change the way Facebook changes?”


(Source: networkculture2011)
August 28

Hurricane Morning

Looks like we’ll be ok. Local weather stations suggest that we got some 4 inches of rain. At 4 we were woken up by some vicious winds and moved to a lower room that seemed safer. We did lose the top of a tree but it landed on the woodpile. Nevertheless, there are still hours to go. 

August 27

The Storm Starts

The storm is starting even though it is still a very long way off. I know this is only a taste of what we’re going to get later in the night and tomorrow morning. 

Another concern we have is the amount of water we’re going to get. We are on a hillside and we have concerns about how saturated the soil is on that hillside. That said, I think this is a safe place to live, likely the safest I’ve ever lived in.

It is still surprising how many people fervently believe that the augmented city will get them out of this no matter what. So many individuals seem so used to that condition that they forget just how fragile those networks are and don’t have any backup plans for when they fail.  

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We’ve completed our preparations for Hurricane Irene and are getting periodic waves of rain, some of it light, some of it heavy, from the outer arms. Although we’ve taken this as seriously, I’m concerned about the number of windows we have at the new house. I haven’t boarded them up. For one, nobody has suggested doing that around here yet. Second, they’re double paned tempered glass and should resist breakage well and, if they do break, shouldn’t pose a threat. Third, holes in the exterior walls of this house would pretty much ruin the exterior. Still, although I’ve cleared the yard as much as I can, and we’re both on the side of a hill and inland, anything is possible.  

I’ll report in as I can. In the meantime, here’s one of my favorite songs. 

March 22

On Warfare Today

Italian pilot David Cenciotti, blogger, is writing about the military operations in Libya on his site. Not only can readers gain technical insight into the operations there, Cenciotti points to a new relationship between aviation enthusiasts and military forces.

Enthusiasts form an international network that constantly monitors military communications worldwide, thus potentially undoing the element of surprise. In the case of US bombing of Libya by B-2 bombers, the USAF reacted by using misleading communications signals. Later on, however, an enthusiast informed the USAF that one of its aircraft was broadcasting its identity inadvertently through a transponder normally used to broadcast aircraft positions and identities for collision avoidance purposes.

January 21
slavin: Braun Lectron System Kate Carmody, MoMA:  “Dieter Rams and Jurgen Greubel designed the Braun Lectron System (1967- 69) as a teaching tool for use in schools and universities. It is made up of a large range of little bricks, like dominoes, that magnetically connect to one another. Once the blocks are organized on a conductive plate, they can form a variety of functional circuits. See this great article on it from a 1967 issue of Electronics Illustrated, where they discuss “what a drag” it is to make your own circuits, but “now it can be as much fun to put electronic circuits together and to learn fundamentals as it is to put words together when you play Scrabble.”

slavin:

Braun Lectron System

Kate Carmody, MoMA:

 “Dieter Rams and Jurgen Greubel designed the Braun Lectron System (1967- 69) as a teaching tool for use in schools and universities. It is made up of a large range of little bricks, like dominoes, that magnetically connect to one another. Once the blocks are organized on a conductive plate, they can form a variety of functional circuits. See this great article on it from a 1967 issue of Electronics Illustrated, where they discuss “what a drag” it is to make your own circuits, but “now it can be as much fun to put electronic circuits together and to learn fundamentals as it is to put words together when you play Scrabble.”

December 23

Out of Denisova

If there’s a place where information technology is providing massive advances, it’s in paleoanthropology. Genetic analysis is redefining our notion of recent human origins. As a spectator, I’ve been following this material with great interest. If you have any curiosity about where we came from as a species and haven’t read about the recent discoveries involving the Neanderthals and the Denisovans, take a look at this piece by John Hawks as an introduction. 

November 26

From Dublin to Beijing?

Former chief economist at the IMF, Simon Johnson looks at the Irish crisis and assesses it in terms of global geopolitics and the rise of China. Read his article here.