Things worth reading for December 31st:
Google destroys its brand difference :: CultureBy – Grant McCracken – Grant’s ability to put his finger directly onto a problem consistently impresses me.
Argentina’s Dancing with the Stars Is Pretty Much Straight Up Porn – To say this is “NSFW” is to make the understatement of the century… if “Dancing with the Stars” did this they’d have a 100% share on Nielsen… but only for one episode as they’d be shut down.
More From Jon Stewart’s ‘Fresh Air’ Interview : NPR – I enjoyed this interview between Terry Gross and Jon Stewart a LOT.
Beware of Generational Ethnocentricism – Don’t miss this terrific post by Carol about the actual differences between millennials and, uh, us.
Stephen Hawking’s Radical Philosophy of Science | Big Questions Online – “According to the University of Cambridge cosmologist Stephen Hawking, however, not even science can pull us out of such belief dependency. In his new book, The Grand Design, co-authored with the Caltech mathematician Leonard Mlodinow, Hawking presents a philosophy of science he calls ‘model-dependent realism,’ which is based on the assumption that our brains form models of the world from sensory input, that we use the model most successful at explaining events and assume that the models match reality (even if they do not), and that when more than one model makes accurate predictions ‘we are free to use whichever model is most convenient.’ Employing this method, Hawking and Mlodinow claim that ‘it is pointless to ask whether a model is real, only whether it agrees with observation.’”
Diminishing Returns in Humanities Research – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education – Another in a series of (relatively) recent articles about the deplorable state of humanities education and the corrupt system that supports it.
10 Big Tech Questions for 2011 – Alexis Madrigal & Nicholas Jackson – Technology – The Atlantic – Nice Q&A about the big current hi-tech issues from The Atlantic.
Review: Scholars of the World Unite! | The National Interest – More on the floundering university system, this time in a review of two books in the conservative journal “The National Interest. Worth a read.
YouTube – Denis Dutton: A Darwinian theory of beauty – Dutton died young at 66 this week. Here’s the sort of thing we’ll miss– a TED video that condenses a lifetime of thinking into 15 minutes. You’ll enjoy the animation by Andrew Park, who also (I think) animated Steven Berlin Johnson’s noted TED talk a few months ago.
Apple, Google TV, Foursquare to Face Malware Attacks in 2011, Says McAfee – Security – News & Reviews – eWeek.com – “Researchers at McAfee Labs predicted on Dec. 28 that cyber-criminals will target the latest and talked about online platforms, including Google TV, Apple’s iPhone, and foursquare, in 2011.<br />
“Noting that the threats landscape has “changed considerably” in 2010, McAfee Labs’ 2011 Threat Predictions report said criminals will exploit geo-location services, social networking tools, mobile devices and other online platforms in 2011. The “marked” increase in malware sophistication is also expected to continue, according to the report.”
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