April 2014 Articles

A personal story from the other side of the counter.

“One of the most obscene things I learned as a barista was how eager people are to be liked. NYU sophomores, the ones with Jansport backpacks in full makeup at 9 a.m., stuttered their orders and shyly complimented me on my nose ring. I semi-patiently listened to innumerable Wikipedia-style monologues about the music I was playing from men in their twenties trying to render their business attire invisible with cultural know-how. I was given zines, mixtape-party fliers, home-recorded chillwave demos.”

I would love to read a more in depth article along these lines…

“In today’s world, an appeal to protest via Twitter, Facebook, or text message is sure to attract a crowd, especially if it is to demonstrate against something–anything, really–that outrages us. The problem is what happens after the march. Sometimes it ends in violent confrontation with the police, and more often than not it simply fizzles out. Behind massive street demonstrations there is rarely a well-oiled and more-permanent organization capable of following up on protesters’ demands and undertaking the complex, face-to-face, and dull political work that produces real change in government.”

“Focusing on making a partnership work is more profitable than focusing on making money.

“Love your employees more than you love your clients.

“The best new business is your current business.

“Price projects by asking yourself what the client’s lawyer would charge.

“It’s better to be hired for your work than for your price.

“When it comes to getting paid, the first of the month is better than the thirtieth.

“Making money off mechanicals, printing and computers turns your business into a commodity.

“The books in your library are more important than the numbers on your balance sheet.

“In order to love your work, take vacations.

“Power, in business, comes from sharing money and valuing love.”

“A tediously accurate scale model of the solar system.” Just a hint, the solar system is HUGE.

Commentary from the creator of Romantimatic, an app that helps remind you to get in touch with your sweetheart and send them a text. Many people on the Internet spoke out against the app decrying it as a detractor to meaningful relationships.

“…Which is pretty much the Internet in a nutshell, isn’t it? Exposed to the entire spectrum of human enthusiasms, it’s basically impossible not to judge. Our empathy overloads and gives up and we sit, staring at the screen aghast, that somebody, somewhere might actually believe that what they’re doing is OK, is acceptable, is even appropriate.”

Showtime, Synergy

Matt Siegel · The Awl ·

Matt Siegel’s love story about identity, sex and finding companionship:

“It was an acquaintance and former editor of one of those gay lifestyle magazines who advised twenty-year-old me to tone it down if I ever wanted to find a boyfriend. This coming from a man obsessed with anything Disney-related; the walls of his West Hollywood condo adorned with carefully framed Snow White and Fantasia animation cels. “You don’t need to tell them how much you love Belinda Carlisle on your first date,” he said. “But I do love Belinda Carlisle! That quavering vibrato!” I whined. “Well,” he said, “they’ll find out eventually, and by that point they will love you, Belinda and all.” While I hate(d) him for saying it, I understood the algorithm: gay men are attracted to men, so the more you resemble a man, the more desirable you will be to a gay man. [Insert frowny face emoticon.]”

It is well known that America’s military dominates both the air and the sea. What’s less celebrated is that the US has also dominated the spectrum, a feat that is just as critical to the success of operations. Communications, navigation, battlefield logistics, precision munitions–all of these depend on complete and unfettered access to the spectrum, territory that must be vigilantly defended from enemy combatants. Having command of electromagnetic waves allows US forces to operate drones from a hemisphere away, guide cruise missiles inland from the sea, and alert patrols to danger on the road ahead. Just as important, blocking enemies from using the spectrum is critical to hindering their ability to cause mayhem, from detonating roadside bombs to organizing ambushes. As tablet computers and semiautonomous robots proliferate on battlefields in the years to come, spectrum dominance will only become more critical. Without clear and reliable access to the electromagnetic realm, many of America’s most effective weapons simply won’t work.

“A $25 billion plan, a small town, and a half-century of wrangling over the most important resource in the biggest state”

The definition of innovation is easy to find but it’s one thing to read the definition and another to understand its meaning. Rather than defining it again, I propose using a simple taxonomy of related activities that put it in context.

  • Novelty: Something new
  • Creation: Something new and valuable
  • Invention: Something new, having potential value through utility
  • Innovation: Something new and uniquely useful

The story of Net Neutrality with links to detailed articles describing the history and potential future of Net Neutrality rules.

Consumers generally connect to the internet one of two ways. They can subscribe to a residential broadband service from a company such as Time Warner Cable. Or they can subscribe to wireless internet access from companies such as Sprint.

These companies have spent billions of dollars laying cables in the ground (in the case of residential internet access) or erecting cell phone towers (for wireless access) to ensure that customers have fast, reliable service.

Network neutrality is the idea that these companies should treat all internet traffic equally. It says your ISP shouldn’t be allowed to block or degrade access to certain websites or services, nor should it be allowed to set aside a “fast lane” that allows content favored by the ISP to load more quickly than the rest.

Since the term was coined more than a decade ago, it has been at the center of the debate over internet regulation. Congress, the Federal Communications Commission(FCC), and the courts have all debated whether and how to protect network neutrality.

Advocates argue that network neutrality lowers barriers to entry online, allowing entrepreneurs to create new companies like Google, Facebook, and Dropbox. But critics warn that regulating the broadband market could be counterproductive, discouraging investment in internet infrastructure and limiting the flexibility of ISPs themselves to innovate

In January, an appeals court invalidated FCC regulations designed to protect network neutrality. The agency is currently considering how to respond.

“WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO: Maintain true net neutrality to protect the freedom of information in the United States.”

We drove. I sat on my mother’s lap in the driver’s seat and steered while she did the pedals, keeping us at 15 mph. She held her hands an inch away from the steering wheel, hovering, in case I overestimated one of the turns on our twisted road in Los Trencos, California. It was just the two of us, my mom and me — so nobody told her she was crazy. My mother knew: at five I was coordinated enough to steer the car.

In my aunt Mona Simpson’s book, A Regular Guy, a girl named Jane also drives. Her impoverished mother, Mary di Natali, sends her to find Jane’s rich father, Tom Owens.

There is new reason to respect the diminutive male Y chromosome.

Besides its long-known role of reversing the default state of being female, the Y chromosome includes genes required for the general operation of the genome, according to two new surveys of its evolutionary history. These genes may represent a fundamental difference in how the cells in men’s and women’s bodies read off the information in their genomes.

Along with other members of my rowing club, the Blood Street Sculls, I spent much of last summer moaning about a project to rebuild the dam where Rogers Lake here spills down to become Mill Brook, on route to Long Island Sound and the sea. Construction required dropping the lake level by more than two feet, and that increased the risk for rowers of scraping the bottom or spilling ignominiously on an unexpectedly low patch.

Now, though, the dam is finished, and starting this month, alewives, also known as river herring, are climbing the new fish ladder around the dam so they can return to Rogers Lake from their feeding grounds at sea. The work is part of a coastwide effort to remove or bypass dams in the hope of restoring the alewives to their former glory.