It was my first (and probably last) time seeing the Stones. It was awesome: The iPhone zoom isn’t so bad!
Keith F****** Richards
Obama & Xi Jinping
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”
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
Social Media Explained
This found its way to my inbox today: Source: Unknown
Disruptive Technologies: Advances That Will Transform Life, Business, and the Global Economy
From Mckinsey via The Big Picture, a very thoughtful look at the economic impact of various game changing technologies. Here’s the high-level summary: The rest of the slides are here, and the full report is here.
Outsourcing Gavel Production in the US Senate
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
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
Alert the Queen!
Via What-If xkcd: When (if ever) did the Sun finally set on the British Empire? —Kurt Amundson It hasn’t. Yet. But only because of a few dozen people living in an area smaller than Disney World. The world’s largest empire The British Empire spanned the globe. This led to the saying that the Sun never set on it, since it was always daytime somewhere in the Empire. It’s hard to figure out exactly when this long daylight began. The whole process of claiming a colony (on land already occupied by other people) is awfully arbitrary in the first place. Essentially, the British built their empire by sailing around and sticking flags on random beaches.[1] This makes it hard to decide when
C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon
Daft Punk:
The Case For Vegetarianism, Delivered By A Toddler
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.