December 2010
21 posts
a traditional kind of gal
A friend of mine is hosting a New Years party themed around New Years traditions. She’s from Atlanta, so her tradition is to eat black eyed peas and collared greens, symbolizing good luck and good fortune in the new year. As usual, I was curious and researched up on other New Years traditions. Also as usual, I am inspired (crazy?) and am going to try to enact all of them tonight....
austerity
is Merriam Webster’s word of the year for 2010. People are making a big deal out of it for some reason.
These are the past words of the year since 2003 when the site started tracking them.
2009: admonish 2008: bailout 2007: woot 2006: truthiness 2005: integrity 2004: blog 2003: democracy
And perhaps more interesting are the top words that were created this year. Business Insider lists...
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Wall Street... what is it good for? absolutely... →
at least per this New Yorker article.
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Speaking of Taxes, a Tax on Saving?
From Bob Cringley’s Motivating Miss Daisy
“It’s ass-backward, I know, but it would work. Give rich people a short term incentive to spend like poor people, then phase it out over time.”
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A Holiday Message from Ricky Gervais: Why I'm An... →
“I no longer needed a reason for my existence, just a reason to live. And imagination, free will, love, humor, fun, music, sports, beer and pizza are all good enough reasons for living.”
UPDATE: He follows up with a Q&A.
Zuckerberg just cost me $10
Last week, Mark Zuckerberg and 17 more of America’s wealthiest individuals pledged to donate a majority of their wealth to charity over their lifetimes, as part of The Giving Pledge. The Giving Pledge is just that - a campaign, spearheaded this year by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, to invite America’s wealthiest to pledge to give over 50% of their wealth to philanthropy. It now has 58...
Did you know
the inspiration for Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ came from the last words of murderer Gary Gilmore before he was executed by firing squad in 1977. When asked if he had any last words he replied, “Let’s do it.” That phrase became a meme at the time, with references in movies, SNL, later on Seinfeld, even hit songs. Dan Wieden of ad agency Wieden+Kennedy tweaked it to be...
mitch in the kitchen →
My college roommate and bff Michelle has this great blog of her adventures in home cooking. Complete with recipes and photos and funnies. Check it.
TED Talks for Foodies
Carolyn Steel: How food shapes our cities
Peter Reinhart on Bread
Louise Fresco on feeding the whole world
Barton Seaver: Sustainable seafood? Let’s get smart
Dan Barber’s foie gras parable
Christien Meindertsma: How pig parts make the world turn
Ann Cooper talks school lunches
Benjamin Wallace on the price of happiness:
William Li: Can we eat to starve cancer?
Michael Pollan gives a...
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On Income Inequality →
This is a must read. Tyler Cowen, in his latest (long) article in The American Interest, takes us through the evidence of income equality, opines on the actual impact, and then asserts some root causes. While I don’t necessarily agree with it all (mainly his assertion that the root cause is practice of ‘going short on volatility’), it is really a great read. Let’s discuss!
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Discovery
I just had an awesome series of discoveries. I’ll take you through my journey..
I had recently stumbled upon and posted photos of Jonathan Safran Foer’s new innovative novel, Tree of Codes. It is innovative because it is basically a novel cut out of another novel. He literally cuts out words from his favorite novel, The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz, thereby creating a new...
historians discover tiny numbers and letters in... →
A member of Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage found a musty old book in an antique shop which describes how the Mona Lisa’s eyes are full of various signs and symbols. This prompted the committee to examine high res images of the painting. Sure enough - they found symbols and letters in the eyes! There’s an LV in the left eye, and in the right eye are symbols.. or...
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taxes shmaxes
Just kidding - it’s a big deal! So what is the deal with the tax deal? Well I’m sure we’ve all read about the details (just in case, here’s a quick overview):
Bush tax cuts: Most of the current tax rates on income, dividends, and capital gains will be extended for the next two years.
Stimulus programs: These were set to expire this year, but have been expanded and...
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