This is the main reason I’ve never seen the point of joining twitter. There’s no content there that I’m interested in. That is, until the Iranian protests. But even then it was difficult to find what I was looking for.
…the top 10% of prolific Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets. On a typical online social network, the top 10% of users account for 30% of all production. To put Twitter in perspective, consider an unlikely analogue - Wikipedia. There, the top 15% of the most prolific editors account for 90% of Wikipedia’s edits ii. In other words, the pattern of contributions on Twitter is more concentrated among the few top users than is the case on Wikipedia, even though Wikipedia is clearly not a communications tool. This implies that Twitter’s resembles more of a one-way, one-to-many publishing service more than a two-way, peer-to-peer communication network.
Tukwila is less a building than a machine for computing. “You look at a typical building,” Manos explained, “and the mechanical and electrical infrastructure is probably below 10 percent of the upfront costs. Whereas here it’s 82 percent of the costs.” Little thought is given to exterior appearances; even the word “architecture” in the context of a data center can be confusing: it could refer to the building, the network or the software running on the servers.
Saw this at Lotte mart today, I kind of like it. But I’m not sure I like how narrow the glass is compared to the size and design of the base — creates a little disproportionality that I don’t like. I wonder if there’s a better example of the concept? Maybe if the glass part widened to be the same size as the base…
Caffe Artigiano in Korea has a new location near Gwanghwamun subway station on Line 5 (광화문역). Take exit 7 and head West (I think that’s a left). The tiny, unassuming espresso bar is a minute or two walking distance.
The space is dominated by a huge four group espresso machine. They have a grinder that automatically doses and tamps, which seems to ensure shot quality. Haven’t tried any milk drinks yet. Sadly they only have paper cups, no demitasses for espresso. This is a tiny space for grabbing a drink to go, not for lounging.
This is quite an attractive little container, I love the clean lines of the handle and lever, and the overall proportionality of the piece. Why do things like this have to be $50?
There’s an article in the Korea Times detailing some of the current issues in Korean internet policy. The government is expanding its regulation of internet use, mandating the collection of personal data (equivalent of social security ID) for sites with over 100,000 visitors and increasing the powers of law enforcement to intercept data and invade privacy. This is coming up against companies like Google that refuse to comply with demands for personal information gathering (actually the article states that Google is the only major site that refused…interesting). The end result being a counter-productive incentive to ditch restrictive native web services in favor of foreign competition. Good job.
I’m curious how this is being sold to the public. What rhetoric is being used? Or is it just unashamedly clamping down on political freedom of speech vis-a-vis anonymity online?
These photos by Peter Funch are pretty genius. Looks like multiple shots from the same angle used to create a composite scene amplifying certain features of the urban landscape and life therein.
South Korea narrowly avoided falling into recession during the first quarter of this year, supporting hopes that the economy may at least be bottoming out as stimulus measures take hold.
The South Korean economy, among the biggest in the region, grew 0.1 from the previous three months, rebounding from a previous 5.1 percent quarter-on-quarter contraction, and surprising many analysts who had expected the recent quarter to show another, though slight, decline.
Strong IP is usually branded as “good” for “creators” but the main impact of the digital revolution has been to advantage non-commercial producers relative to commercial producers, and the main impact of strong IP law is to shift the balance of power back to the commercial world. We’re accustomed to thinking of capitalism in opposition to socialism, state-direction production, but in the information realm the main opposition is between capitalism and activity that is simply non-commercial in nature.
The question of how much caffeine is in a cup of coffee is more complicated than it seems. One question I get a lot is: doesn’t espresso have more caffeine than a regular cup? I’ve read mixed answers, but this article in the Atlantic suggests that, given an all arabica blend (preferable), the caffeine content would be considerably lower than a cup of coffee.
Nice. Retro-futuristic throwback synth & crunchy 8-bit sounds. Joker & 2000F — I’m not gonna lie, I don’t know how to talk about this kind of music, but I dig it all the same.
This graph from the NYT makes it very clear how big the wage gap is between men and women in various professions. In some, like surgeons, it’s as much as 40% less.
It would be nice if there was more detail exploring the varied reasons for male-female wage gaps.
A couple months ago I lent $25 to a woman in Peru who wanted to buy more beans to sell at her local farmers’ market.
It’s not charity; she bought the beans for her business and has been slowly paying me back from the profit she makes on that investment - I’ve gotten $12.50 back so far. Lenders like me make no profit, but the organizations managing the loans charge interest to cover operating costs.
Kiva is the microlending site that makes this possible. Microlending is when you make small loans to people, often in developing countries where small amounts go a long way towards providing opportunities to escape poverty. These people are generally trying to start, maintain, or expand a business but lack the funds or availability of credit.
Kiva connects you to in-country organizations that screen applicants and disburse the money. This is different from charity because it provides the means to self-sufficiency and development. I think it also respects the dignity of people that are trying to make it in adverse conditions.
I think Kiva is still relatively young, but this kind of grass-roots, networked style of economic development has a lot of promise. It’s the sort of thing that Obama’s team picked up on with their fundraising tactics, drawing in millions of small donors to raise more than any previous campaign.
Facebook’s “25 Things About Me” meme seems harmless enough; people write 25 facts about themselves and post them on their Facebook pages, just as they do with videos, status updates and photos of last weekend’s party. An estimated 5 million of these notes — that’s 125 million facts — have appeared on the website within the past week. Assuming it takes someone 10 minutes to come up with their list, this recent bout of viral narcissism has sent roughly 800,000 hours of worktime productivity down the drain.
If there is a creative class, in Richard Florida’s phrase, there is also emerging what might be called a fusion class: people positioned to mediate among the multiple societies that claim them.
Cultural education is key in a globalized world. Learning how to negotiate cultures - a skill children of immigrants build by tough necessity - is a definitely a competitive advantage in the global marketplace. However, I think its value outside the market is ultimately much greater. The culture wars, ethnic conflicts, tensions caused by immigration, conflicting religious beliefs, etc. all require us to find a way to relate to each other civilly (lest the clash of civilizations thesis prove accurate), which I think means learning how to replicate the kind of “in-betweenness” that immigrants and especially children of immigrants are forced to negotiate.
Photo: Taking a break from reading @ Yri Cafe in Hongdae
Started reading Yochai Benkler’s Wealth of Networks. It’s pretty comprehensive making the case for the importance of policy change and institutional shift in favor of openness and freedom for information technologies (away from incumbent industries’ and government support for proprietary models that stress ownership and access control). His key argument is that there is potential in the network communications paradigm for advancing justice, democracy, and freedom. How much of this potential will be realized depends on key decisions made now - regarding network neutrality, copyright and patent policy, the DMCA, DRM, etc. etc.
It’s dense though, I’ll write more when I have time to digest it. But so far so good - it makes a lot of points that I was trying to get at in my thesis, but only marginally succeeded in supporting.
The thing I love about teaching in Korea is that a good number of English teachers here are using the opportunity, time, and extra cash to pursue their creative interests on the side. It can be an inspiring environment.
I’ve always thought that learning an instrument would be too hard, but I finally decided to go for it and bought an acoustic guitar yesterday. It turns out that it is actually kinda hard, hahah. But it’ll be fun. Those callouses everyone talks about… I get it now, I can’t feel the tips of my fingers.
