Gregory Lent

like for the art - Gregory Lent

"Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who is in Washington this week to press his foundation's education and global health agenda, said he is keeping an open mind about taking a role aiding the incoming Obama administration." - Karim

if Obama wants to kill the very engine of the momentum that helped bring him to power, sure, that would be a pretty effective move - Michael Bravo

Obama and Gates have so much in common. both came to power on a wave of bullshit... & then attempted to change their image - Ⓝ〄ⒶⒽ ⒹⒶⓋⒾⒹ ⓈⒾⓂ〄Ⓝ

I SUPPOSE I could be described as financially literate. I have a doctorate in economics; my dissertation focused on financial decision-making. I write about economics and finance, and I’ve worked in the financial industry, designing investment strategies. But, when I look at the balance of my brokerage account (those low-fee global-equity index funds do not seem like such a good idea at the moment) or my credit card statement (peppered with frivolous impulse purchases), I question my financial savvy. - Mitchell Tsai via Bookmarklet

Nonetheless, I have volunteered to provide financial-literacy training to young mothers at a local homeless shelter. - Mitchell Tsai

paranoia contest, uk vs. the world, uk winning - Gregory Lent

Here's a random tip for you in the next crisis. While your phone might not be able to get through, if you call 1-800-CALL-ATT (the collect / 3rd party calling number) you can get through to that and from there to wherever. I used that number extensively while running around DC on 9-11. - Andrew Leyden

like for the title .. wonder what it is about - Gregory Lent

"The complexity of human societies of the past few thousand years rivals that of social insect societies. We hypothesize that two sets of social “instincts” underpin and constrain the evolution of complex societies. One set is ancient and shared with other social primate species, and one is derived and unique to our lineage. The latter evolved by the late Pleistocene, and led to the evolution of institutions of intermediate complexity in acephalous societies." - todd

wondering if their are implications for group consciousness and its evolution through time , better go read it - Gregory Lent

link doesnt work - Gregory Lent

Google reader doesn't seem to be helping the reading process: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/ant... - todd

"This article discusses the elements of seduction in many products and experiences, and outlines how these elements can be used to create software that is more enticing and valuable for its users." The steps are: enticement, attention, promise, fulfill promise, end the seduction. - todd

thanks, wondering a bit more deeply about the mechanics of the first, enticement .. better go read the linked article - Gregory Lent

link doesnt work - Gregory Lent

Try http://captology.stanford.edu/... - todd

And how were these numbers determined? - Alex Scoble CISSP

From the pamphlet they gave out at the car show :-) We just figured out (guessed) a likely price and the average MPG and divided them. Some cars, like Hybrid turned out not to be as expensive for the MPG value as we thought originally. The Prius was a very good value. Your Mercedes etc not so much, but you aren't buying those for gas mileage. - todd

Look through the list of recipients of the $8.6 trillion in bailout money committed thus far, and you'll find no true investments in the mix. These are not investments -- they are economic shackles. At best, these bailouts simply mask the enormous debt problem facing our economy and do nothing to fix it; at worst, they magnify the problem and put the burden on future generations of Americans. - Mitchell Tsai

Financial education. - Knowledge is king. - As Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1786: No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness. ... Preach a crusade against ignorance; establish and improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against the evils [of misgovernment]. - Mitchell Tsai

It was truly a lack of education that got us into this mess, and the country's financial aptitude has been on the decline for some time. A 2007 Federal Reserve survey showed that high school seniors, on average, correctly answered just 48% of personal finance and economics questions. That figure has fallen from a still-depressing 52% in 2006, and 57% in 1997. - Mitchell Tsai

Let's make it a high priority, Mr. Bernanke. State school budgets are already strapped, so you can't rely on them to take the initiative. With the entire Department of Education's 2008 budget at $62 billion, why not take another "mere" $62 billion from one of the defunct banks we're supporting, and instead make a serious investment in financial education for the people? - Mitchell Tsai

"Psychologists have long been interested in what happens when people's internal drives are replaced by external motivations. A host of experiments have shown that when threats and rewards enter the picture, they tend to destroy the inner drives. Paychecks and pink slips might be powerful reasons to get out of bed each day, but they turn out to be surprisingly ineffective -- and even counterproductive -- in getting people to perform at their best. " - todd

"Emerging from the original work of Dr. Clare W. Graves' bio-psycho-social systems perspective, and developed by Dr Don Beck, Spiral Dynamics integral is a way to think about complex things, both in organizations and individual lives. The framework offers a fresh, powerful, and comprehensive approach to problem solving, change, and transformation. Spiral Dynamics explores the core intelligences and deep values that flow beneath what we believe and do. The result is a dynamic model of emergent thinking systems that explain, how values arise and spread, why people make decisions in different ways, and what to do with those differences to create a win-win-win outcome." - ~C4Chaos via Bookmarklet

Most of the water that covers 70% of our planet flows at less than 3 knots - too slowly to harvest its power using current technology. Wave and tidal turbines require an average of 5 or 6 knots to operate efficiently, as does the timeless watermill. But Vivace, the technology being developed by Dr. Michael M. Bernitsas at the University of Michigan, is designed to operate at currents of less than 2 knots, opening up a world of possible applications from river power and dam replacement to perpetually powered ocean sensors, uninterruptible power for vulnerable coastal facilities, and the supply of electricity to offshore facilities. - xero via Bookmarklet

From Science News: "A jellyfish-like hydrozoan with a novel power to rewind its life cycle has been spreading rapidly around the world’s oceans without anyone taking much notice, researchers say. The life history of Turritopsis dohrnii takes such twists and turns that only a new genetic analysis has revealed that the creature is invading waters worldwide, says Maria Pia Miglietta of Pennsylvania State University in University Park. The first peculiarity of the seven species of Turritopsis had inspired biologists to describe these hydrozoans as “potentially immortal.” The adults form filmy bells reminiscent of their jellyfish relatives. When times get tough, faced with scarce food or other catastrophe, Turritopsis often don’t die. They just get young again." - Mark Trapp via Bookmarklet

So much for "death and taxes" being the two sure things in life. "Your move," says God. - Mark Trapp

"Hayes brought something else to the table. When he and Hitchcock first discussed Rear Window, Hitchcock said he wanted Grace Kelly to play Jeff’s girlfriend. Hitchcock was then making his first film with Kelly (Dial M for Murder) and told Hayes she was a little “stiff,” which Hayes agreed with. Hayes and his wife Mel spent a week and a half with Kelly and discovered that she was “full of life, bright, and snappy,” as Hayes puts it in the fifteen minute interview that appears on the DVD of Rear Window. Since Mel had been a fashion model, Hayes put Lisa into the world of fashion, and several of Mel’s comments into her mouth. Look at Kelly in Dial M for Murder and then Rear Window. See the difference? That comes from Hayes both understanding Kelly and creating a character for her." - TStowers via Bookmarklet

thanks for sharing, TStowers :) - Anna Haro

tstowers shares some good stuff, an artist? - Gregory Lent

yes, and love your work BTW Gregory - TStowers

Love - Anna Haro

Looking forward to spending some time in Chicago to visit the snow - then hightail it back to SoCal - Nice Fish Films via IM

Forget about passing the problems on to your grandchildren. Why deal with the guilt? Pass them on to someone you'll never meet - like your great-great grandchildren. - Anthony Citrano

my favorite quote of the day - fijidaddy

"A new Firefox extension called Pirates of the Amazon lets users download movies, games, TV shows, and MP3s free of charge by cross referencing Amazon's product pages with torrent files from the Pirate Bay." - Anthony Farrior via Bookmarklet

Hahaha This makes me laugh everytime I see it - Joe Dawson (beta)

rofl! - Anthony Farrior

"To understand how `more aggressive' easing is possible when interest rates are close to zero, a little background is required on how the Fed is `printing' money... How does the Fed get its money? It doesn't need to borrow it; it merely creates an entry into its balance sheet. All the Fed requires to `print' money is a keyboard connected to a computer..." - Anthony Citrano

"... the difference between the Fed and the Treasury issuing money is that the Treasury needs permission from Congress [to sell] bonds. In this context, physical cash (coins, bank notes) are entered as liabilities on the Fed's balance sheets; they are rather unique liabilities, however, as you can never redeem your cash: if you went to a bank, the best you can hope for in return for your dollar bill is a piece of paper that states that the bank owes you one dollar..." - Anthony Citrano

In this paper we make the case for the Capitalism Distribution, a non‐normal distribution with very fat tails that suggests a small minority of stocks have been responsible for virtually all the market’s gains while most stocks have been below average investments. - Mitchell Tsai via Bookmarklet

Both the biggest winners on annualized return and total return basis tended to have one thing in common while they were accumulating market beating gains. Relative to average stocks they spent a disproportionate amount of time making new multi-year highs. Mathematically it makes perfect sense. Stocks that generate thousands of percent returns will hit new highs hundreds of times, usually over the course of many years. - Mitchell Tsai

For detailed results of the trading system that was inspired by this research see the paper, “Does trend following work on stocks?” http://blackstarfunds.com/file... - Mitchell Tsai

"While Wordpress has a user friendly interface it is still blogging focused, and there are some usability enhancements that could be desired when those who are not technically savvy (which fits the bill for most clients) will be the primary users." - David Bisset (sn) via Bookmarklet

The idea of creating an excellent WP theme for people that don't want to learn the technical side is great, however I wonder if the foundation hasn't already been set for that with the Thesis theme. I've not personally used it yet, but I understand it is fantastic and gives so much flexibility through just the configuration settings. - Derek Semmler

Thanks for the link - Shey