James Cameron writes in the National Geographic about Descending Into The Mariana Trench.
The Decoy Effect: “Relativity helps us make decisions in life.” [Excerpt]
Read this in a newsletter today, and it piqued my interest:
According to psychologist Daniel Ariely, someone is given a choice between two vacations — a week in either Paris and Rome at the same price with free breakfast each day — where they are equally likely to choose either one. Then further suppose that a third choice is added — Rome at the same price without free breakfast — then that same person will become much more likely to select the option of Rome with the free breakfast.
The most dangerous traffic circle in the world? [Video]
This traffic circle in Ho Chi Minh City wins the dubious award from Rob Whitworth. After that, watch this (not time lapsed) video of traffic in an Indian city. You decide.
Some business reading – strategy [Article]
Popular VC Fred Wilson (him of Union Square Ventures who funded Twitter & Tumblr etc) clarifies what strategy means, and has a few suggested readings to go with it. If you are interested in business, make www.avc.com one site to read – not just the posts but the discussions that follow. Not for the faint-hearted.
Singing Happy Birthday? You might want to check this out first [Article]
Warner/Chappell Music apparently owns the copyright to the popular tune, & earns millions from licensing the song. A lawsuit has been filed to prove that the tune is in the public domain. An interesting case!
From Hope to Fear [Article]
Paul Harris, The Observer’s observer in America, comments on the transmogrification of Barack Obama:
I have watched Barack Obama transform into the security president.
Does coffee really sober you up when drunk? [Article]
According to research ,
Caffeine can counteract the tiredness induced by alcohol, which might explain why a cup of coffee is popular in many places at the end of a meal. But it can’t remove feelings of drunkenness or some of the cognitive deficits alcohol causes.
When work disappears – What do we do with people whose livelihoods are destroyed? [Article]
Megan McArdle worries about the not-so-distant days when work starts to disappear:
In much of the industrial world, it seems to be increasingly difficult for people to earn a decent living without a fairly elite set of skills–or an elite set of credentials that mimic skills, like a BA in English Literature from an Ivy League institution. The ability to earn a decent living, either yourself or as part of a family, is one of the basic criteria for a decent life.
What do you do now that you always should have done? [Article]
David writes this, & it echoed strongly with me, after some recent events in my own life
Everyone has had the experience of making a change in their behavior that gave them an immediate and lasting advantage over the rest of their lives. We’ve all know what it’s like to make a simple change that is so clearly better than the old way that we wonder how it took us so long.
Airlifting performance [Video]
What do you do when your plane is on the tarmac, delayed for three hours? When a group from The Philadelphia Orchestra found itself delayed on the tarmac for three hours waiting for their flight from Beijing to Macao as part of the 2013 Residency & Fortieth Anniversary Tour of China, a quartet of musicians decided to provide a “pop up” performance for the passengers.