2007.08.10
Also: for a while it seemed like the ride home was more crowded than the ride to work, but then I realized that's because boarding at Alewife in the morning means I always have a seat and can than lose myself in a book, blissfully unaware of the crowds hunting for standing room.
Cyborg of the Moment
| --Cyborg Moth, from the first day of Slate's enjoyable coverage of DARPA's "mad-scientist" conference. Maybe those Iranian tales of spying squirrels weren't so far off! |
Exchange of the Moment
"He was in a small band, that was kind of like the Beatles."
"Kind of like? How are you kind of like the Beatles? Do you sing songs like 'I Want To Grab Your Elbow'? Instead of 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' it's 'Bobby on the Floor with Some Empty Beer Cans'?"
Article of Yesterday's Moment
Bush and Giuliani, and advocates of their plans, want to change the dynamic. They want to turn what has been a wholesale, buy-in-bulk business into a retail business. They want to replace a bunch of giant, sophisticated consumers possessing limited bargaining power with a mass of unsophisticated consumers possessing no bargaining power. For some reason, they think you and I can do a better job negotiating with Oxford and Aetna than Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola can.I think it's an interesting example of one of the over-riding issues of free economies, especially ones that have these potentially immortal and immensely virtual people known as corporations...