Captain of our fairy band

from Wonkblog

sqrt(cos(1.5x))*cos(500x) sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(6-x^2), -sqrt(6-x^2) from -2 to 2

It seems that Arrington and Siegler think that speaking from the heart is the ultimate route to the truth, which is a fine thing to believe when you’re young and naive and unfamiliar with the myriad ways that we compartmentalize our thoughts, revise our view of the past and reconstruct a present narrative that suits however we’re feeling about the world and ourselves on that particular day. On one level, I admire this line of reasoning. It’s writing with a voice — and a history and a context and a face — that has revived analysis and even (improbably) the essay in the digital medium, and many of the finest practitioners of this art owe an unacknowledged debt to the deliberately self-unschooled “hacks” who first started throwing brickbats from outside what used to meaningfully be called the mainstream media. But when Siegler and Arrington are going on about how insanely jealous of their success Lyons must be, rather than answering his charge of bias, what their misunderstanding (or misdirection) suggests is that they can only imagine that a writer would be principally motivated, as they are, by what appears to be simple greed.

—What You Should Think of the Controversy Over Silicon Valley’s “Journalism” - Technology Review

from Technology : The Atlantic

If the present agreement holds out, the hope in about eight years’ time is that Greece is in a similar position to that of Italy today. But without Italy’s high level of private wealth.
If that does not sound daunting enough, remember that the previous agreements between Greece and the Troika were not short of over-optimistic projections and unfulfilled promises.

—Willem Buiter: Greece far from safe even after debt swap - FT.com

from International : The Atlantic

The reconstruction of Onagawa and the rest of the coast where the tsunami hit is a preview of what may be the most critical test Japan will face in the decades ahead. In a country where power rests disproportionately among older people, how does Japan, which has the world’s most rapidly aging population, use its dwindling resources to build a society that looks to the future as much as to the past?

—Amid Japan Reconstruction, Generational Rift Opens - NYTimes.com

from Wonkblog

from Gay Voices