Djchall's Micro Blog

Pinker vs. Gladwell in the World Series of Love

The common thread in Gladwell’s writing is a kind of populism, which seeks to undermine the ideals of talent, intelligence and analytical prowess in favor of luck, opportunity, experience and intuition. For an apolitical writer like Gladwell, this has the advantage of appealing both to the Horatio Alger right and to the egalitarian left. Unfortunately he wildly overstates his empirical case. It is simply not true that a quarter­back’s rank in the draft is uncorrelated with his success in the pros, that cognitive skills don’t predict a teacher’s effectiveness, that intelligence scores are poorly related to job performance or (the major claim in “Outliers”) that above a minimum I.Q. of 120, higher intelligence does not bring greater intellectual achievement

via www.nytimes.com

It's a battle of the modern super-writers! Stephen Pinker reviews Malcolm Gladwell's new book of essays.

B and Not B rocks the Mission with the Immigrant Song

via sfist.com

Can't believe I hadn't about this before. A local band rented a U-Haul truck and drove around the mission, playing "The Immigrant Song" at strategic locations in the Mission, to the delight and puzzlement of locals.

(via Brian Wood)

Beck's Record Club featuring Feist and Wilco

via beck.com

The first installment of the latest Beck's Record Club selection was released today, featuring oddball hippie anthem "Little Hands" by Skip Spence.

(via Pitchfork)

Numb3rs' description of IRC

via www.youtube.com

I forgot how ludicrously overwrought network television can be. This clip is much funnier, though, than the disappointing Simpsons parody of 24 from last season.

(via @mjmalone from, you guessed it, irc)

Confession: I find the interaction of the minor #madmen characters (and inanimate objects, like the Xerox copier) on twitter far more entertaining than episodes of the actual show which focus on Don and Betty Draper's relationship.

"I'm Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire tyrant. And this is my sky-box."

Murdoch and other News Corp. execs have said that they intend to charge readers and viewers. In the past, the company's sites have relied on advertising revenue.

Murdoch made it clear he's no fan of the ad-supported model. "There are no news sites or blog sites making any serious money," he said.

via news.cnet.com

I think Rupert's right (he may be a billionaire tyrant, but he also had the guts to put the Simpson on television, and I doubt any other billionaire tyrant would have done that) but it's not clear to me how shutting off access to Google helps with that. I think one strategy that might be interesting (though giznank) would be if the big content companies created a search engine of their own, a la Hulu, that was tailored to the use case of giving user's a taste of content, but then getting them to pony up to read or view in full.

Edit: I updated the title of the post after doing research in Google. In case you're wondering, it's a Simpsons quote (of course) from the episode "Sunday Cruddy Sunday."

Edit 2: A  likelier scenario than Big Content creating their own search engine is Microsoft (who also like money) adding features to accommodate their needs.

Having now listened to two Them Crooked Vultures songs (New Fang and Mind Eraser, No Chaser) several times, I can say that if someone had played them and told me they were new songs by Queens of the Stone Age, I would have, A, believed them; and B, said "yeah, their new album sounds good."

Twitter / Degy Entertainment: Furthur (Phil Lesh & Bob W ...

Furthur (Phil Lesh & Bob Weir) is available for Northeast schools from Feb 14-28.

via twitter.com

Looks like Furthur is planning a February/March tour. Very much like the old days of the Grateful Dead, touring campuses while school is in session.

Dharma station 72A "the Rainbow"

Victory!

At the top of Koko head.