February 2010
26 posts
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Mapmaking and Maps →
There are a lot interesting bits in this New Yorker profile of Paul Krugman. But the part I found most appealing was the idea that economic formalization created holes – and opportunities – in our understanding of the world. The process of modeling is compared to mapmaking:
Sixteenth-century maps of Africa were misleading in all kinds of ways, but they contained quite a bit of information about...
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Is Indie Dead? →
How can a sound (or a movement?) be dead that was undefineable in the first place?
My sense is that it matters where you come from at least as much as where you are now. Also we need labels to talk about stuff, a small amount of noise is okay.
Posted with Instapaper (via Marco, I think).
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The Popularity of Healthcare Reform →
Ezra Klein asks if healthcare reform is popular – and it is if you ask people about their support for many of the components of the reform, but not so much if you ask people to stick their thumb up or down to the whole thing.
I think it’s easy to chalk up these sorts of survey results to the common variability and stupid human tricks we often see with polling. However, I think a good...
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Liberal Magazines Suffer Under Obama →
Last week, Seth Masket posted about the disincentives toward winning majority power that some political actors might face. I thought it was a cute argument, but mostly bunk. However, some figures from Vanity Fair make me reconsider (via Political Wire). In the past year, liberal magazines are doing poorly but sales and subscriptions to conservative magazines are up – even in the down economy.
If...
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“Democracy, we often forget, is a process, and thus is continually in the making....”
– John H. Aldrich (1999), “Political Parties in a Critical Era,” American Politics Quarterly, 27(1):9-32.
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Trey Anastasio: “Backwards Down the Number...
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Lincoln Chafee Doesn't Want to Eat Alone at Party →
The Former Republican Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee is now running as an independent for governor of Rhode Island and has his sights set on a John Zogby prediction of a centrist third party. He thinks that’s what is motivating Evan Bayh’s retirement.
Has anyone ever in history predicted the emergence of a third party that’s not wholly representative of their own personal...
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OkTrends →
A blog analyzing an internet dating market (via SVN).
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Wisconsin is 9th in Internet Usage →
Beer, brats, cheese, AND the Internet. What’s not to like?
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The Tea Party is Not a Party →
So says Tea Party movement favorite Sarah Palin (via pwire).
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The Politics of Violence against Animals
Anthony Weiner on not running for mayor of New York City (The Daily Show 2/4/2010):
I would have beaten Bloomberg like a rented mule.
Bill Clinton on the legacy of his impeachment (in The Death of American Virtue):
He stood up to them and beat them. And he beat them like a yard dog.
The Clinton quote is truly disturbing. And I don’t even like pets. But who is beating their own dog? Not...
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It's Sorta like Getting Called up to the... →
The GOP is trying to absorb the nascent Tea Party movement. Shocker, I know.
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“There really is no difference between what Republicans believe in and what the...”
– House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) (via Frank Rich)
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“In November, Democratic fortunes will depend on how voters feel about President...”
– Alan I. Abramowitz on congressional popularity (via @BrendanNyhan)
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“38 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Cuba and 36 percent are...”
– Matthew Yglesias on the popularity of the Tea Party movement
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Revisiting the Marriage Supermarket →
Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution on the non-linearities induced by imbalanced sex ratios in the marriage market.
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The Case is the Trojan Horse →
Adam Lisagor on the iPad and the difficulty implied by computing without a keyboard and mouse. We get have to touch our data.
I think for obvious reasons, most commentators seem to be thinking about how they go about computing today and then picture doing it on a tablet. Apple seems to have taken for granted that tablet computing is going to exist and be it’s own thing. This has led to a...
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Why We Make Home Videos →
David Pogue explains why we should document our lives. The eventual reads are worth far more than the cost of the writes.
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Dan Drezner asks, "is there a way to make... →
My answer: No.
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James Fallows on the American Decline Thesis →
I can’t begin to excerpt this article or even find a great pull quote in a way that would do it justice. You should just rush off and read the whole thing.
The conclusion isn’t super satisfying, but a good diagnosis is better than false cures.
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Thoughts on the iPad
It’s not enough to make a gadget that is critically successful or popular with technology enthusiasts (or even Apple enthusiasts). Like the iPhone, part of the benefit is that the iPad will be a platform that can be extended. This creates a kind of externality. It has to be a commercial success for it to be maximally useful because a larger installed base will attract more developers to...