Friday Summa 2, December 6

1. I have audited (i.e. listened to the audiobook) "The Predictably Irrational, The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions" by Dan Ariely (MIT/Duke - Behavioral Economics). If you have fallen from another planet and missed on the Freakonomics school of irrationality studies along with an assortment of blinking Gladwell lights then you might mind it interesting. If you are a regular on NYT, Harpers, New Yorker and the like skip. To listen during my short winter runs (~7km) it was OKish.

2. Clean Coal and Carbon sequestration are topic that interest me both professional and intellectually. I have read on The New Republic a good piece on the subject, with ref to a recent McKinsey report carbon sequestration for Europe.

3. I am proud to be part of it: "The babies born between 1965 and 1970 were historic" says in an article about peak population Alex Steffen in worldchanging.com. This is the generation also of a longevity boom on a global scale and the implications for the economy and the environment can be dramatic if you just continue business as usual.

4. I 'live-by-Google', use most of their tech and absolutely admire the company and their corporate ethos. (with some glitches, cf China censoring, but we have to keep a perspective; not an easy good/bad dichotomy). This presentation dissects Google and their business. I must thank the tweet of Jeremiah Owyang for suggesting it. My kvetch is that it misses out on the scientific/technical aspect and scale of Google's data processing. Thankfully Mark Chu has a nice post about this.

5. I was listening to some ten-odd different covers of 'Hit me baby one more time' ranging from excellent (Travis, Type O Negative, Children of Bodom) to some that make Britney sound artistic.

6. Another very intriguing cover is that of Elena Roger from Argentina covering 'Io Vivro' of Lucio Battisti that was majestically performed in the 70's by the great Mina. Compare and contrast.

7. Lang Lang plays with the China Philharmonic Orchestra on Mozart's Piano Concert nr24 C-moll Kv 491, heard it on youtube and got very impressed. I will try to get hold of a studio reccording. The article that brought this to my attention is also very amusing. It looks like China will also be suppling the world with classical musicians!

bymgpolitis at 20:35  

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