I'm reminded of an interesting way babylonian merchants used to do business. They would bargain for a deal while intoxicated on alcohol, thus proving to each other that they are being honest.
Perhaps we should force all politicians to do the same thing? :)
According to a 2007 study by Loughborough University academic, Thomas Jackson, most of us reply to e-mails immediately - many within six seconds. Then it takes at least a minute to recover our thoughts. Not long after, more e-mails arrive, with more checking, and so on.
While reading the article I caught myself not remembering for a while what it is that I am currently working on :)
It's dangerous for the web's videos to rely on a format for which royalties are expected to be paid. Hopefully Google will release the VP8 codec as a royalty-free alternative (as rumour has it) and it becomes the standard.
I don't think that the patent system is bad by itself. There was a time when it did bring value to the innovator. It served as a series of rules to describe a relatively simple system. The negative thing is that it doesn't scale well. It's in need of a serious overhaul or things will only get worse.
I agree with both you and davidw that loyalty towards a country is wrong from a formal point a view, but since humans are not entirely rational beings one cannot deny that the random entity you happen to get born into shapes a big part of who you are. Hence, the loyalty to the group of other people 'like you', whatever that means.
The whole concept of loyalty towards a corporation is off. You can have loyalty to family, to friends, to a country but never to an economic entity whose only purpose (on paper) is profit. I think that professionalism and well-defined internal rules should be the only things expected by employers.
I'm starting to get a disconcerting feeling because of these ubiquitous ads in everything and everywhere. No wonder we become desensitized - it's the only way our brain can cope with the information overload.
A short film (Logorama, Oscar winner in 2009) that explains it much better than I ever could: http://vimeo.com/10149605
Wonderful boomarklet.
While I don't use it often, it's absolutely crucial for some problematic websites, which make your eyes bleed.
It's a good thing that every month or so someone links to it so that others might find out about it.
I think the author makes an extremely far-fetched parallel between prominent people throughout history being excellent poker players. Could it be the other way round: being an extraordinary personality would make one good at activities that require careful reasoning/observation etc. ?
Overplanning will make your choices too selective, thus making you knowledgeable in some areas and totally ignorant in others (most of them).
Underplanning will make your journey unfocused, conferring you some knowledge on everything, but not much else.
So, I guess we should strive for a balance, but what this balance represents is distinct for everyone.