Coexistence Journal

Life after death – uploaded consciousness

editor — Mon, 14 May 2012 23:50:44 +0000

Information: Hunter-gatherers vs. farmers

editor — Sun, 13 May 2012 02:18:49 +0000

Forbes: Top 10 interview myths

editor — Sun, 13 May 2012 01:59:00 +0000

The interviewer is prepared
The interviewer asks good questions
The interviewer really wants to get you a coffee
The interviewer wants references
There are “right answers”
Keep your answers short
The interviewer doesn’t care about attractiveness
You should demonstrate ambition
The job is still open
The most qualified person gets the job

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mkl45eigk/1-the-interviewer-is-prepared/#gallerycontent

Jessica Hagy’s list of the 9 most dangerous ideas that school taught you

editor — Sun, 13 May 2012 01:50:14 +0000

The people in charge have all the answers
Learning ends when you leave the classroom
The best and brightest follow the rules
What the books say is always true
There is a very clear, single path to success
Behaving yourself is as important as getting good marks
Standardized tests measure your value
Days off are always more fun than sitting in the classroom
The purpose of your education is your future career

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessicahagy/2012/05/02/nine-dangerous-things-you-were-taught-in-school/

How to remember anything and everything: the memory palace

editor — Sun, 13 May 2012 01:24:09 +0000

US natural gas reserves at over 100 years’ supply

editor — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:31:18 +0000

Back in 2000, America had enough accessible natural gas in the ground to provide a little more than 12 years of consumption. But once the country’s shale deposits started to be tapped in earnest, reserves leaped to over a century’s supply. And because output from existing wells is not tapering off as fast as initially expected, the actual reserves could wind up being double present estimates.

The country has become so awash in the stuff since “fracking” (hydraulic fracturing of gas-bearing shale deposits) began barely five years ago that the price has plummeted from $8 per thousand cubic feet to $2.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2012/05/natural-gas?fsrc=nlw|newe|5-4-2012|1634530|37893505|NA

Price premium on electric cars doesn’t yet cover gasoline savings

editor — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:26:28 +0000

It all comes down to the price of the lithium-ion battery, which nowadays costs a shade under $600 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of storage capacity. As an electric car capable of travelling 75 miles or so between charges needs around 24kWh of capacity, the battery alone adds $14,000 to the price of the vehicle. The result is a car that costs way too much for what it offers in fuel savings.

A state-of-the-art electric vehicle like Ford’s forthcoming Focus EV, with a claimed range of 100 miles (say, 70 miles in real-world conditions) and an equivalent fuel economy up there with the Nissan Leaf’s 106mpg, has a base price of $39,200. The petrol-powered version of the same vehicle, which averages around 40mpg, costs just $16,500. In other words, batteries have to come down to less than $200 per kWh before electrics can go mainstream. Clearly, those who buy a plug-in electric like the Ford Focus EV or Nissan Leaf today are making some kind of statement about their green credentials.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2012/04/electric-cars?fsrc=nlw|newe|4-20-2012|1447248|37893505|NA

Bleak prospects for Microsoft and Nokia smartphone partnership?

editor — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:21:23 +0000

People want phones with apps, but developers want to make apps for iPhone and Android that already have a large user base. Microsoft hopes to overcome this by paying app developers to port popular applications to Windows Phone… [However,] no amount of subsidy is going to turn Windows Phone apps into a high priority for any company unless there’s a large installed user base. Dangling cash merely encourages developers to do the minimum and ship half-baked implementations to get the check.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/04/lumia_900_can_the_phone_save_microsoft_nokia_and_at_t_.single.html

Microsoft jumps into the publishing and e-reader businesses

editor — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:15:23 +0000

Barnes & Noble should have strong prospects in the e-book market. It has a decent device, a brand people recognize and associate with books, and longstanding relationships with book publishers. Its problem is that the other two major e-book sellers—Apple and Amazon—are cash-rich, growing technology companies. Barnes & Noble, by contrast, is a big-box retailing business that’s facing structural decline in the digital era. Over the long haul, it simply wouldn’t have the resources to invest in keeping the Nook platform competitive. Microsoft is the perfect partner. While Microsoft no longer strikes fear into the hearts of men the way it did in its late ’90s heyday, selling Windows and Office to PC users continues to be a ridiculously profitable business.

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2012/05/microsoft_barnes_noble_apple_and_amazon_the_new_nook_deal_could_actually_succeed_.html?wpisrc=newsletter_slatest

Is Facebook worth $100 billion?

editor — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:10:18 +0000

[Facebook has] fixed an initial price range for its shares that could value the Silicon Valley firm at between $77 billion and $96 billion in its much-awaited stockmarket flotation… The landmark deal could dwarf the IPO of Google in 2004, which valued the online giant at $23 billion.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/05/facebooks-flotation?fsrc=nlw|newe|5-4-2012|1634530|37893505|NA

Netherlands’ chief of defence rationalizes the state’s monopoly on violence

editor — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:23:09 +0000

TV: Illusions within illusions

editor — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:18:04 +0000

Microsoft invests in Barnes & Noble book chain and Nook tablet

editor — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:13:35 +0000

[Microsoft] is really into partnering with companies. Look at its deals with Facebook, Nokia, and now Barnes & Noble. It’s much better than trying to build out an e-book business.

http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-is-investing-300-million-in-barnes-noble-2012-4?utm_source=inpost&utm_medium=seealso&utm_term=&utm_content=2&utm_campaign=recirc

Stolen art is now the 4th most lucrative black market

editor — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:11:47 +0000

Need to launder your illegal drug money? First, accept a hot painting as a down payment. Piece of cake to sell it at auction to another criminal buyer. The auction house will get a nice slice of the sale, a cool million if it is a $15 million sale, so they are going to look the other way; they can always claim they had no idea the painting was stolen. Now your hot painting has a nice, clean bill of sale from a noted auction house and has moved into the mainstream art market, destined, perhaps, for the collection of a respectable scion of the community, who can then donate it to a public institution in exchange for a fat tax writeoff. No wonder a single 2006 Quebec City drug bust turned up 25 kilos of cocaine … and more than 2,500 stolen paintings.

http://reviewcanada.ca/reviews/2011/12/01/black-market-culture/

10 biggest brand bullies

editor — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:09:51 +0000

“Augmented reality” and magic

editor — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:08:50 +0000

History of the pointless split infinitive rule

editor — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:06:02 +0000

The split infinitive goes back in English literature at least to about the 13th century. It’s a natural part of English, which is the reason everyone does it in speech.

In 1834, according to Jack Lynch, a writer under the pseudonym “P” became the first person to proscribe split infinitives clearly. The “rule” was widely picked up, and has been inflicted on generations of English-learners ever since, despite, to reprise our rule, the fact that it is “pointless”.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2012/03/sticklers?fsrc=nlw%7Cnewe%7C4-2-2012%7Cnew_on_the_economist

Plastic surgery by country

editor — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:30:26 +0000

In 2010 over 3.3m procedures were done in America, more than anywhere else… Chin implants (“chinplants”) alone rose by 71% on the previous year. But when population is accounted for, South Korea tops the list. [O]ne in five women in Seoul had gone under the knife. Beauty is beheld differently in different countries, and this is reflected in the demands made on surgeons’ scalpels. There are seven times more buttock operations in Brazil than the top-25 country average, and five times more vaginal rejuvenations. In Greece, penis enlargements are performed ten times more often than the average.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/04/daily-chart-13?fsrc=nlw|newe|4-23-2012|1479315|37893505|NA

US best performing stock is nuts and bolts manufacturer

editor — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:24:47 +0000

Fastenal is the country’s dominant distributor of nuts and bolts.

According to a recent article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, the company has more than 11,000 sales people in 2,600 stores along with an online catalogue that extends for 10,700 pages. It also has more than 5,500 “fully customized and automated Fastenal stores” on job sites and at customer locations — essentially, vending machines for nuts and bolts. The result of this overwhelming reach is truly overwhelming business performance. According to BusinessWeek, the company’s share price is up 38,565 percent since October 1987. Microsoft, by contrast, is up less than 10,000 percent over that same period (still not bad!), and Apple is up by 5,500 percent.

http://blogs.hbr.org/taylor/2012/04/to_win_big_it_helps_to_be_a_l.html?cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-weekly_hotlist-_-hotlist042312&referral=00202&utm_source=newsletter_weekly_hotlist&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hotlist042312

How to work with a despised colleague

editor — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:19:22 +0000

[I]f there is someone who is annoying or abrasive, don’t think about how the person acts, think about how you react. It’s far more productive to focus on your own behavior because you can control it.

http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2012/01/how-to-work-with-someone-you-h.html?cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-management_tip-_-tip042612&referral=00203&utm_source=newsletter_management_tip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tip042612

China no longer cheap

editor — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:14:38 +0000

China is the world’s largest manufacturing power. Its output of televisions, smartphones, steel pipes and other things you can drop on your foot surpassed America’s in 2010. China now accounts for a fifth of global manufacturing. Its factories have made so much, so cheaply that they have curbed inflation in many of its trading partners. But the era of cheap China may be drawing to a close.

Costs are soaring, starting in the coastal provinces where factories have historically clustered (see map). Increases in land prices, environmental and safety regulations and taxes all play a part. The biggest factor, though, is labour.

http://www.economist.com/node/21549956?fsrc=nlw|pub|4-25-2012|1503018|37893505|NA

3D printing – The 3rd industrial revolution

editor — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:04:53 +0000

Dressing for the role makes you better at performing that role

editor — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:43:20 +0000

A new study from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University shows that when people dress up for a role, they actually become better at it.

In an experiment, a number of people were given a series of cognitive tests to perform. A small group of subjects were given medical lab coats to wear over their clothes. This group made only half as many mistakes on the tests as the subjects wearing their street clothes.

Researchers conclude that clothing “systematically influences wearers’ psychological processes.” That is to say that if you feel like you are dressed smarter and more professionally, you will actually act smarter and more professionally. The subjects in the lab coats took a more methodical and scientific approach to problem solving, and cut their errors in half.

http://www.workopolis.com/content/advice/article/2013-study-it-s-not-who-you-are-it-s-how-you-dress

Why you have “insomnia”: The eight hour sleep is a modern development

editor — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:38:28 +0000

[R]eferences to the first and second sleep started to disappear during the late 17th Century. This started among the urban upper classes in northern Europe and over the course of the next 200 years filtered down to the rest of Western society.

By the 1920s the idea of a first and second sleep had receded entirely from our social consciousness.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

David S. Rose on pitching to venture capitalists

editor — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:28:44 +0000

The career ladder is long gone

editor — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 23:11:25 +0000

Career ladders died out during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when over 85% of Fortune 1000 American companies downsized their white-collar workforce. Downsizing has only escalated from there, however in the 80s and 90s the lost jobs were not in manufacturing but white-collar jobs, including management jobs. As companies thinned out, those leadership positions disappeared — and most haven’t come back since.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/02/there_is_no_career_ladder.html?cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-weekly_hotlist-_-hotlist022012&referral=00202&utm_source=newsletter_weekly_hotlist&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hotlist022012

Daniel Willingham on three “myths” of brain-based learning

editor — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 22:54:32 +0000

Popular Myth 1: School Is Designed for Left-Brained Students

Popular Myth 2: Schools Are Designed to Suit Girls’ Brains

Popular Myth 3: Young Children’s Brains Must Have Lots of Sensory Stimulation—and Classical Music Is Especially Important

http://www.aft.org/newspubs/periodicals/ae/fall2006/willingham.cfm

Daniel Willingham on improving memory

editor — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 22:40:26 +0000

http://www.aft.org/pdfs/americaneducator/winter0809/willingham.pdf

How do you stand out from the crowd?

editor — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 22:23:27 +0000

What great presentations have in common: from Martin Luther King to Steve Jobs

editor — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 22:16:57 +0000

Many of your Facebook friends secretly hate you

editor — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 22:09:36 +0000

The more you value Facebook as a social outlet, the more your Facebook friends probably just wish you’d shut up. A study on confidence, emotional expression, and Facebook curation found that people likely to see Zuckerberg’s virtual community as a haven are also more likely to annoy their contacts.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/02/08/facebook_study_shows_insecure_users_posts_are_more_likely_to_annoy_their_friends_.html

Is Internet dating a good approach to finding love? Research suggests that it isn’t

editor — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 22:08:01 +0000

Dating sites match people based on similarities in personality. However, there are three problems with this approach: 1) Research shows that couples with similar personalities are only 0.5% happier than couples with different personalities. 2) We don’t know what we want. What we say would make us happy changes upon presentation of different choices. 3) Choosing becomes more difficult when one is presented with too many choices.

http://www.economist.com/node/21547217?fsrc=nlw|hig|2-9-2012|editors_highlights

The problems with SOPA

editor — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:42:55 +0000