Current Events

Bob Lefsetz on Changing Markets and Jeff Bezos

Posted on August 16, 2013August 16, 2013 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events

I thought this was thoughtful: “You double down in a crisis. When the stock market tanks, you don’t pull your money out, you buy. This was the record labels’ biggest mistake, it haunts them to this day, when Napster hit they should have started spending, getting ready for the new reality, instead they kept cutting and no one under thirty works there anymore, certainly not anybody with any ambition. Just because newspapers are financially challenged, that does not mean there’s no more need for NEWS! And that’s the dirty little secret, despite all the opinionated bloviating online, there’s very little newsgathering going on online, certainly not when it comes to the big issues of the day…finance, politics and international developments.

Obama & Xi Jinping

Posted on June 11, 2013June 11, 2013 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events, Politics

Tigger and Winnie. James Fallows: “According to everyone I know in China, all writing in at once, here is the now-most-wildly-popular image being shared on Sina Weibo (Chinese version of Twitter)”:

“I imagine the Chinese do a better job at spying on Canadians than the Canadians do”

Posted on June 11, 2013June 11, 2013 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events

My friend Paul, a Canadian, in response to the recent NSA events: “[The stories] made me wonder what the Canadian spy agency does. This is one of the stories that came up first: ‘There are reports Canada’s spy agency is appealing for the return of a top-secret document stolen from an agent’s car parked outside a hockey arena in downtown Toronto. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) document was taken by some drug addicts last month, according to police. It was inside a briefcase in the back seat of a vehicle, parked outside the Air Canada Centre, where the Toronto Maple Leafs now play their home games. Police say the thieves were caught a few days later. They had been looking for money

Outsourcing Gavel Production in the US Senate

Posted on June 5, 2013June 5, 2013 by Robin Bose in Current Events, Economics, Politics

The following is a guest post from Robin Bose. Robin went to MIT with me and likes beer almost as much as I do. He’s also a great singer. The United States Senate has a busy 2013 summer schedule: a new farm bill, interest rates on student loans, and comprehensive immigration reform. Immigration reform in particular has thrown off a lot of heat and light, with new entrants into lobbying — led by Facebook and the tech sector — facing an already crowded field of corporate interests, immigrant groups, unions, Tea Partiers, border militia, and lots of local, state, and national officials. For example, we know who the sheriff of Maricopa County AZ is (Joe Arpaio). He makes national immigration news.

Adam Sigel’s Anatomy of a Winning Presentation

Posted on June 4, 2013June 4, 2013 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events

Congrats to my good friend Adam whose company, MyEnergy, just won the Best “Doing Good” Innovation award at the 2013 MTIX awards. Adam helped deliver the winning presentation, and shared some tips on his blog here: Do not stray from the task at hand: I had a very specific goal with my presentation: to convey the social impact of MyEnergy and justify why we deserved to win an award for doing good. I wasn’t trying to win users, customers, or investors. Our user experience and our technology were not the focus, nor was our business model. I only referenced these aspects of the site to support my main argument that MyEnergy had the greatest positive impact on society of all the nominees. It’s

The Case For Vegetarianism, Delivered By A Toddler

Posted on June 3, 2013June 3, 2013 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events

Via my mom via NPR, an interesting look into a young mind’s thought process: While I have no plans to stop eating meat, I appreciate the struggle.

A Few Thoughts to Add on Google Reader

Posted on March 18, 2013March 19, 2013 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events

I was a bit distraught to learn of Google’s planned sun-setting of Google Reader this July as part of their “spring cleaning”. It’s hard to describe the unique and important role it plays in a daily routine to someone who doesn’t use it, but I’ll give it a shot. Reader essentially allows users to subscribe to blogs, websites, columns, or really any other type of internet post using RSS feeds. I won’t get into the mechanics, but what this means is that for the 75 or so feeds I subscribe to, I have an inbox of posts that I can read or flip through at my leisure. Many people have written that Google+, Facebook, and Twitter are better suited to serve this role,

Bucket of Sloths

Posted on February 24, 2013February 24, 2013 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events

Via Ezra Klein: BUCKET OF SLOTHS from Lucy Cooke on Vimeo.

Unbelievable Little Kid Does a Trick Shot Video

Posted on February 5, 2013February 5, 2013 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events

Seriously?

Avan Jogia and Inigo Montoya

Posted on January 27, 2013January 27, 2013 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events, General

My site traffic has surged 500% over the past few days after 20-year old Canadian sensation Avan Jogia tweeted about my post on Mandy Patinkin, Inigo Montoya, and Saul Berenson: Admittedly, I’d never heard of Avan, but I appreciate the tweet and traffic that came with it. He’s known for playing Beck Oliver the Nickelodeon TV series Victorious. He actually looks a bit like Mandy: While I’m on the topic, for any Inigo Montoya fans out there, I found this amazing shirt on Amazon, which I immediately purchased for my girlfriend: