Sharing most interesting links I’ve found during the last week during research into a wide variety of topics including Geo-Politics, Technology, Finance/Economics, Information Age & Future of Things:
Jon Kudelka Political Cartoon/s of the Week
The Greens member and three out of four independent members holding the balance of power in federal parliament chose to support the Labor party to form government. We are now living in a new paradigm
Geo-Politics
- When you add the “involuntary underemployed”, the real USA jobless rate is 16.7% and rising
- Homing pigeons served in the the RAAF during WWII to carry messages across the English channel
- Australia joins a crowded global club where minorities rule : It may be new to us, but many nations function just fine without a majority party
- Putin aide urges Russians to smoke & drink to save the economy! (bizarre as Russian life expectancy is 11yrs less than EU average)
- BBC World Service: Iraq still crippled by electricity shortages 7 yrs after US-led invasion, leading to frustration, violence
- Wilkie has said his offer wasn’t a trap, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a test
Technology
- Google Music May Be a Smash Hit for Android
- Found a great free windows app CallGraph to use recording Skype phone interviews. Thank goodness as i’m too slow to make handwritten notes.
- Gartner says Android will be #2 worldwide mobile operating system in 2010, challenge Symbian for #1 by 2014
- Hitwise – Number of RSS Reader users fall. Google Reader down 27% , Bloglines down 71%
- Cats and robot vacuum cleaners unite: 12 cute, amusing and feline-filled videos
Finance/Economics
- The Risk Externalities of Too Big to Fail by Nicholas Nassim Taleb & Charles Tapiero (pdf)
- In a world where labor does exactly what it’s told to do, it will be devalued … We say we want insightful and brilliant teachers, but then we insist they do their labor precisely according to a manual invented by a committee…
- What if the Independents start calling the shots on banking?
- Economist Joshua Gans says conservative Coalition deserved to lose for broadband anti-intellectualism & anti-economics
- Study shows high incomes (above $US75000/year) don’t bring you happiness
- College, inc. – PBS Frontline investiges how Wall Street and a new breed of for-profit universities are transforming the way college works in America
- Why parents should not pay kids for doing chores – what’s your opinion?
Information Age
- The Journalists Formerly Known as the Media: Jay Rosen’s Advice to the Next Generation. Focus on user.
- Googles Eric Schmidt drops another quote to haunt him: “We know where you are, we know what you like”
- The Guardian gives outsiders the power to publish for the first time – “A completely new model for us”
- NPR Project Argo launched – Local niche blogs that can dominate a topic
- “The ABC, reliant on bipolar landscape for its view of balance will have to rethink its notions of fair coverage”
- Australian TV viewing rises in 2010 – perhaps unexpectedly. Thanks to new digital niche channels
Future of Things
- A south korean electric car thats cheap (between US$8,000-$16,000) and works well for urban drivers
- Is there a future for the independent bookstore in the digital age of ebooks?
- BBC World Service – Business Daily podcast about cars of the future which talk to you
- Will USA universities fail like its car companies? Higher costs, lower quality and less teaching time in Australian Universities as well
- Bees, Bees, Bees – 3 homages to the gentle, fascinating and misunderstood creature vital to future of our food supply
Please share the most interesting links you’ve read last week in the comments area. Thanks 🙂