@triaphilly #sundayschool February 23, 2014 at 04:44PM
Author Archives: shaun
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In a federal court in Detroit starting Tuesday, in the first trial of its kind in years, the social science research on family structure and child progress will be openly debated, with expert testimony and cross-examination, offering an unusual public dissection of the methods of sociology and the intersection of science and politics.
Scholars testifying in defense of Michigan’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage aim to sow doubt about the wisdom of change. They brandish a few sharply disputed recent studies — the fruits of a concerted and expensive effort by conservatives to sponsor research by sympathetic scholars — to suggest that children of same-sex couples do not fare as well as those raised by married heterosexuals.
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“The study, by Balazs Kovacs of the University of Lugano and Amanda Sharkey of the University of Chicago, compared online reader reviews for 32 pairs of books that either won or were nominated for a major literary prize. They found that winning a prestigious award not only garners more attention for a book, but also more negative reviews.”
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Only a few hours had passed after the $45 billion merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable was announced last week when an early voice emerged endorsing the giant deal.
“Win-win situation for American businesses,” said the statement from the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
It was the start of what Comcast executives acknowledge will be a carefully orchestrated campaign, as the company will seek hundreds of such expressions of support for the deal — from members of Congress, state officials and leaders of nonprofit and minority-led groups — as it tries to nudge federal authorities to approve the merger.
But what the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce did not mention in its statement praising the transaction was that it had collected at least $320,000 over the last five years from Comcast’s charitable foundation, which is run in part by David L. Cohen, the Comcast executive who oversees the corporation’s government affairs operations.
It is a hint, critics say, of just how sophisticated Comcast’s lobbying machine is, an enterprise that, like the company itself, reaches across the United States and has more than 100 registered lobbyists in Washington alone.
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The tragedy is that the technology industry is not a meritocracy. Making great products is often not sufficient for success, and sometimes it’s not even required. In tech, marketing, branding, partnerships and timing can be as important as how well your product works.
What’s more, how a company’s product works is largely dependent on the company’s position in the market. Microsoft and Nokia’s consumer businesses are governed by the vicious rules of network effects — the economic idea that products get better as more people use them. The more people who use a particular operating system, the more likely an app developer is to build for that system. And the more apps that are developed, the more the operating system appeals to consumers. The cycle builds on itself.
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“Paradoxically, a format that hasn’t changed since Mr. Carson codified it (monologue, celebrity, musical guest), is ideally constituted for the cut-and-paste ethos of YouTube and Twitter. Far more than a drama or a reality show, a joke or musical number can be plucked and posted online as a stand-alone. There is no need to DVR: Why record the cow when the Internet and social media can give viewers the milk free?”
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The divergent public views on pay are particularly odd, since today’s excesses are more often in Silicon Valley. When the sequel to the movie “Wall Street” was filmed a few years ago, it was in Eric Schmidt’s apartment, not at a Wall Street executive’s. Mr. Schmidt, by the way, was reported by Business Insider to have a “fabulous life” with a Gulfstream V, a 195-foot yacht and multiple homes across the country including a new $22 million Hollywood mansion. You could write similar things about Google’s co-founders.
Imagine if Mr. Dimon or Mr. Blankfein lived so ostentatiously? Wall Street is certainly known for its high-end consumption, but it is also a place where being conspicuous about it is frowned upon. In Silicon Valley, however, the superwealthy can flaunt their toys and no one says a word.
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It’s a 50/50 split of America’s GDP (or Gross Domestic Product). GDP is the officially recognized monetary value of all goods and services produced by a country within 1 year.
So what this map is showing that 50% of all the money generated in the United States comes from a tiny proportion of the country in geographical terms. It is of course much more of an even split in terms of population.
shaun james bockert 