Sadly, the music app also says plenty about where Twitter is going. They long ago gave up any pretense of subverting the mainstream, cozying up to the likes of MTV and NBC, and are now fully focused on being yet another megaphone for the world’s already over-exposed. Let us welcome our new new media overlords, same as the old overlords, it seems.
Way to read a lot into a music app, guy.
I pretty much agree, though. It’s like streaming Billboard (which I happen to think there’s a place for, Twitter music is now the place where I’ll go to find out what’s popular with the kids these days).
You may have heard of Parkinson’s Law. It is often used in reference to time usage: the more time you’ve been given to do something, the more time it will take you to do it.
I had not heard of this. I have, however, observed it. So yes.
Source: raptitude.com
What a happy, happy time in Canadian politics. It’s been a long while in the making, and there are a lot of people to thank, but we are on the verge of fulfilling the dream of generations of strategists and political operatives: a politics drained of any remaining differences between the parties, or indeed ideas of any kind.
The Bitcoin Bubble and the Future of Currency
I like reading about how economics actually works, once in a while. This is about how trust (or distrust) affects a currency, why Bitcoin is (and isn’t) like gold, and why Bitcoin is doing pretty OK but really can’t be successful.
An uplifting experience – adopting ethnography to study elevator user experience
“More senior men in particular seemed to direct themselves towards the back of the elevator cabins. In front of them were younger men, and in front of them were women of all ages. Men watched the monitors, looked in the side mirrors (in one building) to see themselves, and in the door mirrors (of the other building) to also watch others. Women would watch the monitors and avoid eye contact with other users (unless in conversation) and the mirrors. It was only when the women travelled with other women, and just a few at that, that women elevator users would utilise the mirrors. One interviewee even mentioned that she only looked in the mirrors when there was no one else in the elevator.”
The bible of CBC News is our Journalistic Standards and Practices. It lists our values as accuracy, fairness, balance, impartiality, and integrity. There’s no mention of being first or being fast. Yet I’ve done high-fives in the newsroom when something is on our network before it’s on any other network.
Peter Mansbridge’s blog is actually really good. I don’t know why I’m surprised, but I’m glad I am.
Source: cbc.ca
The 5 Most Persuasive Words in the English Language | Copyblogger
Articles like this weird me out because it makes me realize how much some people/organizations know about the human psyche, and how to exploit it.
The right to seek the floor at any time is the right of each individual Member of Parliament and is not dependent on any other Member of Parliament.
Justin Trudeau taps the ‘retro’ meme — It might pay off
“Here’s the bottom line: Each of the three major parties is, at some level, trying to foster a feeling of nostalgia in the Canadian electorate. The Conservatives do it with the monarchy, the military, and to a lesser extent, Diefenbaker. The NDP does it most obviously with things like medicare, Tommy Douglas, and (increasingly) Jack Layton. What’s important here is not so much that neither of these parties had as much influence or hold on Canadian culture at any point in the past, but that they have so little hold on the collective, frequently romanticized, quasi-memory of Canadian culture as it was at some point in the past. They’re just simply not as capable of it as the Liberals are. (The Liberals know this, for the record. It’s why they sell reprints of old Pearson and Trudeau campaign posters and buttons at their events.)”
I really enjoy this Reality Check series from CBC during the B.C. election.
Source: cbc.ca
As the FBI special agent in charge of the Boston investigation put it, the United States would go “to the ends of the earth” to find two men who killed four people. But the United States senate would not say “aye” to a very modest measure of gun control, even though a large majority of Americans say they are in favour of it, and even though a gun is used to murder someone every hour of the day and night.
Source: cbc.ca
But we know from research on how people actually gain expert levels of performance that the actual state in which you’re getting better is one of strain, and that’s different than flow. It’s a state where you actually feel like you’re being stretched. It’s uncomfortable. You’re doing things beyond your current abilities. It’s not fluid. You’re not necessarily lost. Your mind might be saying, “This is terrible. This is terrible. Check your e-mail. This is terrible. What if there is something on Facebook?“
We avoid that for the most part, but we know that if you just keep doing what you know how to do already, you’ll hit a plateau almost immediately. So I think the avoidance of strain is the biggest mistake people make in trying to get better.
