An art gallery inside an accounting firm?
Published April 26th, 2008Don’t laugh. Vitale Caturano in Boston has one.
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Punitive factoid of the day
Published April 23rd, 2008“The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.” (Source: NY Times, 4/23/08)
Bunko Breakfast in Boston — Tuesday 8am
Published April 21st, 2008(cross-posted from JohnnyBunko.com)
One way we’re trying to bring readers together and to talk about Johnny’s six lessons is through a set of informal Bunko breakfasts. At certain stops in my travels, I’ll find a well-located coffee joint, set a date and time, and invite whoever wants to participate to join us for an hour of conversation. (Added bonus #1: The coffee and food is on me. Added bonus #2: Everyone gets free Johnny Bunko chopsticks.)
I’m happy to announce that the first gathering will take place tomorrow (Tuesday April 22) at 8am the Starbucks at 443 Boylston Street in Boston.
Since this is the maiden voyage and since we’ve had only a day or two to pull it together, I don’t expect a huge turnout. But it’s actually easier to have a great conversation with three or four people than with 30 or 40. So if you’ve got time, please join us. And if you’re roaming around Cambridge tonight (Monday, April 21), stop by the Harvard Coop at 1400 Massachusetts Avenue for a 7pm book talk.
Also, the next Bunko breakfast will be Thursday afternoon (at a time and place soon to be announced) in Chicago.
Book industry factoid of the day
Published April 20th, 2008“In 2007 graphic novel sales in the U.S. and Canada were $375 million, a 12% rise from 2006 and quintuple the sales number from 2001.”
(Source: PW, reporting on an ICv2 white paper)
Fashion meets technology?
Published April 18th, 2008
A few months ago, Michael Dell – the newly returned CEO of his eponymous computer company – said, “We are in the fashion business.” Yowza. Add another notch on design’s bed post.
Now, according to the FT, Microsoft has issued a research paper with the unlikely title “Fashion meets technology: Welcome to the future of PCs.” The paper’s author, Nadine Kano, writes: “Product differentiation in the PC industry is getting harder and harder to achieve based on technical specs. People have always wanted power, speed and reliability, but these days they can get comparable disk space, processor speed, and Ram (random access memory) from many PC manufacturers. To get something unique, people are now looking for style.”
Meanwhile, both the research paper and newspaper say that Forrester (perhaps borrowing a page from Virginia Postrel?) predicts that between now and 2012 will be the “Age of Style” for the consumer PC industry, with manufacturers weaving design considerations into every aspect of their business, including research and development, brand management, marketing and retailing.
(HT: Svetlana Shtyster)
Stimulating simulating factoid of the day
Published April 17th, 2008
The Sims game series “has sold more than 100 million copies (including expansion packs) in 22 languages and 60 countries since its introduction in 2000. . . . All told, the franchise has generated about $4 billion in sales or an average of $500 million every year for the last eight years, placing the Sims in the rarefied financial company of other giants of popular culture like ‘American Idol,’ ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Harry Potter.’” (Source: NYT, 4/16/08)
A whole new reason to hit the keyboard
Published April 17th, 2008I may be the least musical person you’ve ever encountered. And that’s something I’ve long regretted. Now comes evidence deepening that regret, but offering a way for my kids to become more whole-minded than their dad.
ScienceNow reports that Harvard’s Gottfried Schlaug and Boston College’s Ellen Winner and Marie Forgeard have used brain scans to produce the best proof yet that “taking music lesson can strengthen connections between the two hemispheres of the brain.” One caveat: The connections emerge only among those who practiced at least 2.5 hours per week.
Quote of the day: As go insects, so go humans
Published April 16th, 2008“Female fruit flies sometimes choose males who win fights, sometimes choose males who do not fight, and sometimes choose males for no obvious reason.” (Source: PLoS via Eureka Alert)
Due(s) Day
Published April 15th, 2008
Like many Americans, I’ve got conflicted feelings about taxes. On the one hand, I recognize that they are the price we pay for civilized society. On the other hand, I cringe (or worse) each time I pay them — because I have, er, serious doubts about the efficacy of handing over my hard-earned money to George Bush and Nancy Pelosi.
I also face a double-whammy since I work for myself. Instead of having taxes withheld from my paycheck – which eventually conditions people into expecting to receive less than they earn – I write eight tax checks a year. (Four checks go to the feds; four go to my local government, the District of Columbia.) For me and my ilk, this changes the psychology of taxation. Taxes are visible in a way they aren’t to people conditioned to withholding.
So it was with both amusement and fascination that I read Richard Coniff’s op-ed in today’s New York Times in which he proposes progressives reframe the tax debate by calling these payments “dues” rather than “taxes.” Interesting. Dues suggest a certain reciprocity; We pay them in order to receive certain benefits. Taxes, meanwhile, sound punitive.
Will it work? I have my doubts. I don’t want Bush and Pelosi spending my “dues” either. Then again, I thought that reframing the estate tax as the “death tax” was a joke. Let me know what you think of this linguistic maneuver.
Not on the test
Published April 11th, 2008Folk songs protesting government policy haven’t been in vogue since I was a toddler. But Tom Chapin, who performs in the video below, might just have singlehandedly revived the tradition.
(Major Hat Tip to Mike Sporer for hipping me to this song)