As marriage rates plummet, and globalisation and rising diversity erodes the sense of common heritage within each nation, a lot of voters in many western nations find themselves hungering for conservative moral cuisine.
Source : The Guardian
Tag: Culture
Quote of the week
In one year, Philip Morris spent $60 million on charitable programs and then another $108 million advertising the fact that they had done so.
– Life Inc : Douglas Rushkoff
The Changing Face of Urban Farming in London
The presence of Spitalfields and other farms not only demonstrates ways in which Londoners are attempting to remain connected to how food is sourced and produced (as evidenced by the rise of boutique markets such as Borough and Brixton), but also serves as a means to maintain a multicultural identity and re-establish communal urbanism in a city that increasingly isolates its citizens.
Source : Polis
The Health-Care Mandate Is Clearly a Taxand Therefore Constitutional
And yet the tax argument is remarkably simple. Start with the Constitution’s text. Congress’s enumerated powers in Article I, section 8 begin with the General Welfare Clause, which gives the federal government the power “[t]o lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States.”
Source : The Atlantic
A Super-Efficient Email Process
As I go through this process, I try not to use email to give someone negative feedback, and I rarely respond to negative feedback over email. Email is a great tool for transactional conversations (Where should we have lunch?), sharing information (Here’s that file, there’s someone I want you to meet), or showing appreciation (You spoke powerfully in that meeting, I’m touched by your support — thank you). For anything else, you’re better off calling or talking to someone face to face. I also do my best never to go back and forth with someone on email about something more than two or three times. If it’s gone that far, it’s usually a better idea to pick up the phone.
Source : HBR
The Army of Technological Slaves
That is Benedikt’s call, cited above: take advantage of the machines, they are made for this! And that means: also creative professionals, mind workers, editors, journalists, should think like hackers. Hacker for me is a neutral to positive term. Hacker make use of technology as completely as possible. Like the famous investigative journalists, they don’t let themselves hold up by arbitrary rules which are supposed to tell us, how we should use information.
Source : Slow media
Coca-Cola and Nestlé target new markets in Africa
iOS app success is a lottery: 60% (or more) of developers don’t break even
“The App Store is very much like the lottery, and very few companies are topping the charts,” Kafasis told Ars. “It’s a hit-based business. Much like music or book sales, there are a few huge winners, a bigger handful of minor successes, and a whole lot of failures.”
Source : Ars Technica
Crisis doctors fastfood deals ban
“Doctors think it’s inherently unlikely that huge companies that make money from selling high-calorie foods and drinks, like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, are going to persuade their customers [to eat more healthily]. It’s like asking the petrol companies to say to people, ‘why not go on your bicycle?’. It just does not seem likely that’s going to happen.”
Source : The Guardian
Wordless Collaboration
The story of the project’s origins is shrouded in mystery, but what is known is that, because the residents couldn’t decide on what they wanted to build, they made three rules. The first was that, not only would they build without any plan or blueprint, they would not discuss the direction of the project at all. Second, when they were on the building site, no one was allowed to speak — at all. Third, the building would never be completed, because anyone at any point could decide to take it in a new direction.
Source : Polis
Collected Reading 