constituting political authority
“Once upon a time, the editorial page of the New York Times set the political agenda for the U.S.,” began the old man. That sounds like a highly undemocratic fairy tale in this Age of Digg (AD). Today, Google is offering Australian Federal Election tools, Youtube is running You Choose ’08, Yahoo is mashing up [...]
Tagged: ancient Mesopotamia, China
COB-15: young government leaders
Naturing leaders is important for any bureaucracy. This month the Carnival of the Bureaucrats encourages government bureaucrats to join Young Government Leaders: YGL is a professional organization of young men and women employed by the Federal Government. Our mission is to educate, inspire, and transform the current and future leaders of the Federal Government. … [...]
reflections
The elegance and base allure of this pencil drawing appealed to my impure heart. The drawing appeared as shown above in the Art for Justice section of Washington’s finest paper, Street Sense. But the drawing had been accidentally cropped on the left. In the original drawing, the full reflection of the dancer is visible to [...]
strength of memory
On September 11 in Arlington, Virginia, John Bul Dau spoke about the torments he experienced in Sudan and about his efforts to help others in Sudan have a better life. Many persons at one time or another have agonized, “How can I go on?” Mr. Dau offered an unforgettable testimony of perseverance through dire circumstances, [...]
the poetry business
On the street outside the metro, a man offered to sell me a poem for a dollar. Before I started haggling about the price, I asked to read the poem. It’s the middle of the day. My Drive to be Successful Is in Full Gear. You have Been on My Mind, All Day Long. That’s [...]
ancient lifelogging
The development of writing gave humans technology for storing knowledge and conveying it across time. But, at least in China, storing and transmitting knowledge doesn’t seem to be a good explanation for the earliest writing. The earliest corpus of Chinese writing is oracle-bone inscriptions from the Late Shang Dynasty. The Shang Dynasty arose about 3500 [...]
Tagged: China
pornography
I saw on a woman’s car a bumper sticker that said: “Porn! / It’s cheaper than dating!” As a serious Ph.D. economist, I believe in price elasticity and substitution effects. I also realize that pornography has been the most successful type of paid content on the Internet. But something is missing in that economic analysis. [...]
Tagged: sex differences