General

Evaluating my 2012 predictions: The good, the bad, and the hideous

Three hundred and sixty-five days ago, I offered 10 predictions for the year that ends on Monday. How’d I do? In the name of transparency and feedback, I’ve listed my 2012 predictions below — along with a short evaluation indicated in blue. “1. American Politics. In the 2012 presidential race, one candidate will win the popular […]


10 predictions for 2012

The other day, I retrieved my crystal ball from the Pink family self-storage unit. Here’s what I glimpsed through the haze about the coming year. 1. American Politics. In the 2012 presidential race, one candidate will win the popular vote but the other the Electoral College. 2. Economics, I. On Election Day 2012, the US employment rate […]


5 cool holiday gifts for $25 or less

I’m terrible at picking gifts for people. So when I find presents that work, I never let go. Here are five terrific items — all costing no more than $25 and all available online. 1. ARTIFICIAL TURF COASTERS For the baseball fan in your life, get these four drink coasters fashioned from artificial turf. Trust […]


The secret of making it until September

I’ll be taking a hiatus from blogging for the rest of the month, as I finish off a few projects and gear up for a busy fall and winter.If you’re curious about what’s in the works, and why I’ve been squirreled away in the boiler room of Pink, Inc., for much of the last six […]


The future of online news . . . circa. 1981

BoingBoing points to this 1981 report from KRON-TV in San Francisco about the incipient move toward online news. It’s great viewing — especially the breathless factoid that 2,000 to 3,000 people the Bay Area already have a personal computer (!) and the tag identifying one of the interviewees as someone who “Owns A Home Computer.”


Oh, nine.

Thanks for reading in 2008. Here’s to a peaceful and prosperous 2009. 


People of the screen

Today’s must-read, ironically, is an essay by the ever brilliant Kevin Kelly on the decline of word-centered, book-based literacy and the rise of something new.  We are becoming, Kelly says, “people of the screen.”An excerpt:“The fluid and fleeting symbols on a screen pull us away from the classical notions of monumental authors and authority. On the screen, the subjective […]


Word of the year: Cast your ballot

Webster’s New World Dictionary is choosing its word of the year for 2008. The final five candidates are: cyberchondriac leisure sickness overshare selective ignorance youthanasia Just go to the online ballot to cast your vote. But, IMHO, the choice is easy. I’d never heard of two of these words and I’ve never used two others. But one of these words I’ve […]


Mmmmm . . . pie charts

I love pie. And I love charts. So I really like pie charts — especially this one. (HT: Zoomdoggle via Flowing Data)


Thursday miscellany

No deep thoughts today — just a few tantalizing tidbits: The 50 Greatest Arts Videos on Youtube (HT: Arts Journal) Gretchen Rubin asks me 6 tough questions on one tough issue: happiness. School of Everything promises to connect people with stuff to teach with people with stuff to learn. It’s an “eBay for knowledge,” as Boing Boing puts it. Why didn’t I think […]

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