December 2008
35 posts
Malcolm Gladwell on meaningful work and curiosity →
No matter the gladwell naysayers, he has a knack for simple eloquence.
When I spoke at Pop!Tech a few months ago, we had about an hour and a half car ride to Camden, ME from the airport. My friend who accompanied me rode up with Malcolm’s parents. She fell in love with them. One is a mathematician and one is a social scientist.
Now it all makes sense eh?
Facebook Connect
Since it looks as if Facebook will be the go-to social grid for the foreseeable future, I decided to implement Facebook connect as a way to leave comments on my blog. In addition to Disqus, which is a social network for online comments, you can now use your Facebook login information to leave comments on this blog.
Brilliant water-based eyeglasses for the masses:... →
Wow…this is amazing. A simple solution for the developing world with potential for disruption here in the States (that is, if the LensCrafters lobbyists don’t come down hard on the water and syringe industries).
My partner today said he tried on a $1200 pair of glasses today. They probably cost about $10 to make. If there’s ever an industry that needs disruption, it’s...
What do the deaf hear in their heads when they...
mikehudack:
jamesnord:
This question first came to me when I realized it is impossible (at least for me) to read without hearing the words in my head. So, if are deaf, what happens in your head while you read? More importantly, can you think without language?
After some research I found what you might assume, no you cannot think without language. In this way, being deaf can be MORE...
Digital TV Converter Coupons In Short Supply →
So my tax dollars are paying for people to be able to watch Fox News!? When did having a television become damn near a right?
If I don’t watch television, can the government give me a handout so I can buy a couple movies off iTunes?
The television bridge to nowhere.
BuzzMachine- It’s not just an era; it’s a new... →
I think this is spot on. The world is just now experiencing the dying off of the dinosaurs. We’re going to look back at this era and realize that this was the tipping point for a whole new way of transacting and communicating.
The health care industry may be somewhat protected for the next few years but will collapse because we can’t afford as a country to spend 40% of our pre-tax...
The Rise of Cloud Agents - ReadWriteWeb →
Blogger Chris Arkenberg says Twitchboard is a part of the “emerging class of cloud agents.” These cloud agents, as he describes them, will help us sort and search the massive volumes of data we interact with regularly. He envisions that soon we’ll have many of these cloud agents, swarming around us, working on our behalf, helping to parse the data flowing in and providing us...
WatchAin’t life random?
Big Pharma's really crankin' 'em out this year! →
Play this little game for me. Ask anyone—a doctor, a friend, a dude on the street—”How many new drugs were approved by the FDA this year?”
In my unofficial study, most people say hundreds but you get a few who say thousands. While this is absolutely perfect for what the drug companies want you to think about them, it’s far from the truth.
Number of new drugs in 2008 = 21
...
E.Factor : A social network that offers health... →
Awesome. This social network for connecting entrepreneurs with investors offers basic health insurance for its premium members (premium membership is $24.95 a month).
I was waiting for this to happen. It’s illegal to come together as a group for the sole purpose of obtaining health insurance. But it’s not illegal to come together for another reason (using the internet to do so) and...
Movable Type: Motion - Social Networking for... →
Super interesting release today from Movable Type. This is sort of a killer for all those stupid internal business social networking sites that are being sold for over $100,000 to create for just a small business. I know, I talked to the big one last week and almost laughed at how much they charged for their plug and play platform. I love when technology is released, open source, and free!
If Health Care Were Run Like Retail. →
An official, published version of some of the things I mentioned in my recent post.
Dr. Herzlinger is quite a hero. I just hope some of her preachings are actually enacted in the next 8 years.
WatchAgain, Bon Iver…
Funny how video never really captures a moment. But still, it’s worth a shot.
One major cure for health care
Remember when Lasik surgery burst onto the consumer market? The small amount of docs who were performing the “surgery” charged a super hefty premium - damn it was expensive! Then, damn near every ophthalmologist jumped onto the bandwagon and introduced competition in health care! Now, it’s advertised based on price and even quality measures. And guess what? Prices have come down....
“We’ve had one of these before, when the dot-com bubble burst. What I told our...”
– Steve Jobs (via danw ruhi askvero) (via asprettyasasong)
Smart guy, that Steve Jobs.
(via mikehudack)
Writing - Cooking - Life » Blog Archive » I Heart... →
The beautiful thing is that Zappos probably had no idea this person would blog about this truly heartfelt experience and then have this blog post get reblogged all over the internet.
Corporations have souls too.
Blood Bank by Bon Iver…
Just got back from...
“Health insurance is the only kind of insurance in America that people actually...”
“If we thought of health insurance like we think of home insurance, we’d be...”
The future of the "free internet"
So…the NY Times and all the other old school papers are dying. The Times took out a loan on their Manhattan property today. Their stocks are at an all time low. The old world publishing world is as dead as the auto industry.
So what if the Times made all of their content free via RSS? Only text. No pictures, no visualizations, no hyperlinks…NO EXPERIENCE.
The Apple Store provides an...
Best of 2008 – Last.fm - Bon Iver →
So…one of my favorite artists of the year, Bon Iver, that I listen to on an almost daily basis is rated #8 by last.fm. For those that don’t know, last.fm is a service that collects how often you listen to a song on your iTunes and adds them up in context of all last.fm users to see how often songs are listened to on a population level rather than how many CDs that an artist sells or...
StateStats →
One of my favorite new websites. Do a google search. See how popular that search is in each state. Correlate it with various demographic data from that state. Genius. Simple.
Who knew “health insurance” was negatively correlated with the percent of elderly in that state? Of course it is! Their health insurance is “free” via Medicare!
Qitera →
This is pretty awesome. It’s a lot like delicious bookmarks but takes it one step further and takes a page grab of the bookmark and stores it in your own personal library. You can scrapbook your web experience with one click of one button…awesome.
Mon.thly →
Mon.thly.Info is a simple tool to help you keep track of your menstrual cycles.
Awesome. Jezebel says:
“Oh, and it’s free. This is why the internet was invented.”
Yep. Super simple tool to simplify your life.
WatchIran “Buddy EP” Promo on Vimeo (via Vimeo)
A photo of Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio that I took a few years back while living in Baltimore appears in this new video for Iran’s “Buddy” EP. It’s at the 48 second mark along with Osama. Kyp and I became friends probably about 6 years ago when he worked at Verb, one of the coffee shops here in Williamsburg. And now...
UnitedHealth to Insure the Right to Insurance →
Ha! Awesome! United Health is now ensuring that you can get insurance for purchasing health insurance in the future. I don’t know about you, but I feel assured that I am ensured insurance for future insurance.
Tactile Silicon Case for the iPhone 3g by Bruno... →
Awesome. An iPhone for the visually impaired.
Obama Presidency Could Bring Cheaper Medicines,... →
While there’s no clear view yet of the specifics on the health front, a few ideas are pretty much off the table, the LAT writes. Those include a government-run single-payer health care system on the left and, on the right, a system rebuilt largely through tax incentives to individuals for purchasing insurance on their own.
But don’t get your hopes up, reformers. It’s easy to agree on principles...