Category Archives: Jack Handy

The Irish experience with the Lisbon Treaty strikes me as representative of a broader problem with democracy. Briefly, the Irish were asked to vote on ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in 2008. They voted against it. They were then asked … Continue reading →

I was poking around the web the other day, and came across this article, which features this remarkable statement in its close: And [the failure of healthcare reform to advance along the author’s preferred lines] means that America’s industrial corporations … Continue reading →

If you care, you probably already know (since this news is 9 months old), but: AMC has put all 17 episodes of the 1967-68 series “The Prisoner” online, viewable for free. If you’re not familiar with this show: It’s quite … Continue reading →

A quick thought experiment. It’s currently a pretty popular notion that: Human activity is causing the climate to change (warm), and therefore We can and should take action to reverse this change Suppose we struck out the first statement, and … Continue reading →

I like spiders. Unfortunately, sometimes they get trapped in sinks or bathtubs from which they cannot escape. Today, a simple tip for performing spider rescue.

Okay, so Seth Godin’s Squidoo is launching a new venture: Brands in Public. There’s a bunch of interesting stuff in Seth’s announcement. It contains some masterful spin, a brazen proposition, and some nice o plata o plomo persuasion. Seth’s a … Continue reading →

“Past Performance Is Not Indicative of Future Results.” This little piece of boilerplate, or some variation on it, will be familiar to anyone who’s ever heard a pitch for an investment or a mutual fund. What I think it worth … Continue reading →

Several people have been nice enough to link to items from this blog, and, in so doing, have brought it to my attention that it’s a little hard to figure out who, exactly, I am. Let me address that now.

A few days ago, Godin made the interesting points that: On the internet, some people are more influential than others It would be valuable to know how influential someone is Quantitative metrics for influence could be developed and computed So … Continue reading →