Sam's online data stream - a firehose of links, photos, and status updates

Don't show this to conservatives! Deficit calculator

http://www.cepr.net/calculators/calc_deficit.html

Super fantastic.

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Yahoo Announces $3 Billion Stock Buyback Program

Wow, sad sad sad. Yahoo can't even think of ways to buy its way to growth. Just sad.

http://www.businessinsider.com/yahoo-announces-3-billion-stock-buyback-2010-6

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Sent from mobile

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"Solitude and Leadership" : An Address at West Point

William Deresiewicz gave a very interesting address at West Point this past spring, I discovered. I do not always agree with his opinions but his essays -- and, it seems, his speeches -- readily provoke interesting discussions and a great deal of thought. In that regard, they are very valuable indeed, for it is too rare a thing which can provoke a good debate on topics of serious import.

This speech is about leadership, and in it Deresiewicz tackles the problems posed for thosed christened the "future leaders of the world" when faced with mediocre leadership in the here and now. Those who have fought their way into Yale and West Point and Stanford and other places, he observes, are not fully informed on how to navigate the jungle of bureaucracy that threatens to ensnares their ambitions and dreams.

In "Solitude and Leadership," he therefore contends, "If you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts." Ultimately, he writes:

"I started by noting that solitude and leadership would seem to be contradictory things. But it seems to me that solitude is the very essence of leadership. The position of the leader is ultimately an intensely solitary, even intensely lonely one. However many people you may consult, you are the one who has to make the hard decisions. And at such moments, all you really have is yourself."

I recommend giving it a read, as it is an interesting piece. Here it is again, in The American Scholar: http://www.theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership/

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What the...? Good, or exploitation? "David after Dentist" family makes $150k

via gawker / business insider http://gawker.com/5575665/david-after-dentists-family-made-150000-off-their-viral-video

"...Today, the DeVores are asking themselves that same question after raking in close to $150,000 since January 30, 2009 when young David's father—also named David—uploaded the video of his son onto YouTube.

"I'd say about $100,000 of that (is from YouTube)," the elder David DeVore tells us over the phone. "The rest is licensing and merchandise.""

Video again here.

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Chinese knock-off version of Avatar

from chinasmack http://www.chinasmack.com/2010/pictures/alianya-chinese-shanzhai-version-of-a...

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really cool charliecard hack

http://aroraborealis.livejournal.com/902175.html

Click through to find out how these all magically combine into something cool...

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this is adorable

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more on iPhone antennas

I won't say too much more about this, but I did want to send links to some more good analyses and some light tests from people, generally with some background...

http://fscked.co.uk/post/751030001/more-on-the-iphone-4-signal-issue

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/30/detailed-analysis-of-iphone-4-signal-stre...

Again, it's still funny / tragi-comic when people stand up for Apple when they treat their customers poorly for, y'know, wanting to be left-handed -- I'm talking about PR response here, not design. When 'Steve jobs' tells you to 'hold it differently' ... well, thanks, that's helpful. Obviously, this is not a big problem for Apple - still selling millions of the things - but just saying that the treatment is one reason I'm a happy HTC / Verizon customer.

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