Jun 30
Israeli military searchers found three bodies believed to be those of the missing Israeli teenagers who disappeared more than two weeks ago in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, senior government officials said Monday.
Jun 30
I sat down recently in London with John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief of “The Economist,” to discuss his new book “The Fourth Revolution: The Global Race to Invent the State.” See more here.
John, in your book you basically think that the notion of the State should be changed and your suggestion, if I am not wrong, is “trim the State and revitalize democracy.” But do you really think that such big change is possible?
Yes, I do, because of two factors: history and technology. Historically speaking the Western State has been through three and a half great revolutions. The first took place in the 17th century, when Europe’s princes constructed centralized States. Then they became trading empires and then entrepreneurial liberal democracies. The second revolution took place in the late 18th and 19th centuries. It began with the American and French revolutions and eventually spread across Europe as liberal reformers replaced regal patronage systems. The third great revolution was the invention of the modern Welfare State and that, beside other changes, is what we in the West live with today.
And what about technology?
The Internet has revolutionized everything that it has touched, from the newspaper business to retail. It would be odd if it did not also revolutionize the State. The internet revolution is robbing the state of what was one of its great sources of power — the fact that it possessed so much more information than anybody else. Education will be delivered in a different way.
Things have to change if you want to serve the poor with a better education, better health care, better welfare.
Go to Singapore and you will get all those public services with higher quality at a fraction of the cost. Today we know so much more about relative school performance. America has a much worse school rating than Sweden, Poland or Singapore.
Do you think that Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi brings a new kind of government?
He talks with punch and aggression. He said he wanted things to change. In France, Hollande said the same, but he did not succeed and he did not even try. For Renzi it may be possible — the rhetoric is good and he has more political subtlety than some others; but the labor laws did not change yet. . . but they may.
Who is changing?
Sweden, Singapore, Quebec, Britain. Yes, in Britain they have reduced the size of the State without obvious cuts. Cities somehow are easier to change. One example is crime. Crime figures came down by a huge amount, burglary dropped enormously, bank robberies dropped dramatically.
What kind of State would you like to have?
I want a liberal State. A pragmatically small State that wants to keep the individual supreme. But it is liberal not libertarian. I am happy with a National Health Service.
But what is going on with States today?
The problem is that the individual has a smaller space and the States are out of money. People are changing on local levels. I am thinking of Sweden, which reduced its expenses from 67 percent of its GDP to 49 percent just by doing sensible things. Angela Merkel’s favorite statistic is that the European Union accounts for 7 percent of the world’s population, 20 percent of its GDP and 50 percent of welfare spending. This is not going to last.
What does your job as Editor of The Economist consist of?
I think that here, if you want to compare me with other editors, your fingers are in the ink. We don’t have extra people outside of our own staff and we don’t individually sign pieces. One has to remember that most good ideas come from below.
But how do you work?
I think that for a weekly magazine it is valuable to have something very curated, that gives you an idea of the world. Our readers have to trust that we will cover everything important and what is going on weekly. We still think that our bundle adds value.
Who are your readers?
People who are interested in ideas. But the same readers can buy The Economist and People magazine. They want a mixture. Today the top end is growing, more people travel, go to university and rely on ideas.
What is your political side?
Liberalism, that is still the backbone here. We pushed gay marriage, we went against Guantanamo first, we were for legalizing drugs…
Are you doing well?
We make 60 million pounds a year because we have a product you can charge for. When I became editor I was convinced that the Internet was like a hurricane and would hit magazines. I was wrong. People wanted a filter, the sales of the paper edition went up. In America today iPad and Kindle readers are more or less as many as the people who prefer print. We know that young people, students, go for print. What is important is to understand that a magazine is finishable. Once you read it, it is over.
You made a great campaign against Berlusconi when he was in power?
We said he was unfit to govern Italy. Some Italians came to tell us that he would change Italy. We accepted the concept but we said that Berlusconi was a dishonest businessman interested only in protecting his own interests. He has been useless for Italy at the end of the day and now nobody speaks in his defense.
What about Putin?
We dislike him. He let his friends steal too much and, besides gas, their industry is ruined.
And China?
I have been impressed by what they did and China is competing again and going in a ‘Singapore direction’.
And America?
Obama is not a disaster, but he is a massive disappointment. When Obama looks back at what he did, he will regret that he rejected the tax and entitlement reform solution put forward by the Simpson-Bowles commission. He had a chance to say yes. He will also regret not intervening in Syria. He made a mistake. If you are a superpower, you cannot stop. Bush did too much, Obama too little. America is recovering, but will have to spend more on defense. As for health care, Obama did not make enough effort to make it work.
And Hillary, is she going to be the next president?
She may make it. She stands an 80 percent chance to be the Democratic candidate, 70 percent to win the elections. It would possibly be the best thing.
Jun 30
Two words: Google Plus.
In their annual summary of the biggest complaints about YouTube, Barely Political nails everything that’s wrong with the site in the age of “First Kiss” videos and endless “Let It Go” covers.
With some help from fellow YouTube stars like Rhett & Link, The Key of Awesome and The Gregory Brothers, the YouTube complaints department takes on 2014’s biggest gripes.
And yes, we’re looking at you, live stream function.
Jun 30
Even before our son Xander turned 5, my husband and I fretted about finding a good school for him. Our concerns extended beyond the fact that good schools are few and hard to get into in San Francisco, where we live. Our main concern was about whether we would be able to find a school that was a good fit for him, given that he is both particularly sensitive and exceptionally bright.
Jun 30
A new poll released just as the Supreme Court dealt significant blows to women and workers finds that Americans’ confidence in the judicial branch is at a record low.
The Gallup survey released Monday found that just 30 percent of respondents have a “great deal” or a “quite a lot” of confidence in the high court, down seven points from the 2012 survey and marking the lowest approval number for the court since Gallup first started tracking confidence in the court in 1973. The court has not received approval ratings above 40 percent since 2007, one year after George W. Bush appointee Samuel Alito’s confirmation.
The poll was conducted June 5 through June 8, well before Monday’s high profile decisions were handed down.
In Harris v. Quinn, the court ruled 5-4 that some government workers are not required to pay dues to public sector unions. And in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the justices decided that closely held corporations cannot be required to provide their employees with contraception coverage.
The survey also found a decrease in confidence in both the presidency and Congress. While 29 percent of voters said they had confidence in the executive branch (down from 36 percent last year), just seven percent of respondents have faith in the U.S. House and Senate.
“While the Supreme Court, with unelected justices serving indefinite terms, is immune to the same public pressures that elected members of Congress and the president must contend with, it is not immune to the drop in confidence in U.S. government institutions that threatens and complicates the U.S. system of government,” Gallup’s Justin McCarthy writes.
Jun 30
Soldiers have found the bodies of 3 Israeli teens who were kidnapped earlier this month, Israeli TV stations reported on Monday.
Gilad Shaar, Naftali Frenkel and Eyal Yifrach were last seen near Gush Etzion, a cluster of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, late on June 12. The young men were students at yeshivas in the kibbutz of Kfar Etzion and the city of Hebron.
In the days after their disappearance, Israel’s security forces launched a massive operation throughout the West Bank to locate the missing teens.
— This is breaking news. Check back later for updates.
Jun 30
As I stood around waiting for my latest marathon to start, I couldn’t help but overhear several conversations going on around me. Perhaps it was because I was running alone and didn’t know anyone, but it was the first time I’d really just listened at a starting line to what was going on around me, instead of being a part of it. I was surprised — and disappointed — in what I heard.
A group of guys immediately to my right were huddled in a circle, jabbering and bouncing excitedly (nervously? It’s always hard to tell). It wasn’t long before someone asked another what his racing strategy was. The reply was a shrug and a simple, “Dunno. Just gonna run and see how I feel.”
I watched the guy continue to bounce lightly from leg to leg while saying this, and all I could think was, “Yeah. Right.” We’ve all heard the “I’m just going to run and have fun” statement. Most of us have said it. But does anyone actually believe it?
The questioner tried again, asking his friend if he was going to do another marathon the following weekend. He received a simple lip-pursed nod.
The questioner tried one more time, “You did great a couple week ago. Wasn’t that a PR?”
“Awww man, that race was brutal! I felt horrible the whole time. I was pretty surprised with my time.” Well then, at least he finally got a real answer.
But what kind of answer was that? I started down the road of judgment thinking to myself: “The guy ran his best time ever, and he couldn’t even say thanks? Wasn’t he proud? Sloppy, unprepared, or whatever, it was still the fastest he’d ever run that distance. How is that not good? If I ran a marathon PR, I’d… um… I’d… um… oh.”
And it hit me. I probably wouldn’t be able to accept the kudos either. Thinking back to my years of running and all the nice things people have said to me after a race, I realize I’m just as bad as that dude at the race. It is a knee-jerk reaction to talk myself down after receiving a compliment.
I heard multiple version of that morning scenario throughout the race that day, and I spent 26.2 miles thinking about it. Why can’t most runners accept compliments? They are worse than a gaggle of women trying to tell one another they look nice and never hearing the compliments through their own self-depreciating jokes or flat out protests that they are too fat, ugly, tall, short, gray, whatever.
Running may be a sport made up of individuals, but it is the collaborative sense of accomplishing great things and reaching new physical and mental limits that binds us as a group. We love to support one another, so why can’t we accept the support from others?
There seem to be a few influences at play here. First, our culture discourages arrogance. Fair enough, but there is a difference between celebrating achievements and bragging or being arrogant about them. Goals met should be celebrated, whether it’s a PR, a new distance, reaching a weekly mileage, or successfully taking a rest day (hey, for some people that is actually hard).
Although I don’t have the precise answer as to why runners have such a hard time accepting compliments, I did want to point out my observance and make a request to my fellow runners: The next time someone acknowledges your success on the road or trails, smile proudly and say “thank you.” You’ve earned it.
Jun 30
We’ve seen Super Mario Bros. dioramas made from paper and from 3D printed sandstone. Now you can make your own Super Mario levels with Bandai’s S.H. Figuarts Super Mario action figure and diorama playsets. In case you’re not familiar with S.H. Figuarts, it’s a line of small action figures that are “designed to perfectly mimic the range of motion of the human body.” They didn’t mess with Mario’s big head though.
The Super Mario release comes in three separate sets. First is the Mario action figure itself, which is 4″ tall and comes with a coin, a question block and a Super Mushroom.
Your options greatly expand when you get the diorama playsets. Playset A consists of another coin and one more question block, two brick blocks, a Goomba as well as transparent stands for Mario and the coin.
Playset B gets you another Goomba and a third coin, two warp pipes, a Koopa shell, a pair of open hands for Mario and more transparent parts for connecting and posing.
If you want to see more of the toys, here’s an in-depth review by Hassan Ahmed of NintendoFuse:
Run and jump to Amazon to order the S.H. Figuarts Super Mario figure and diorama playsets. The action figure bundle costs $24 (USD) while the playsets cost $20 each.
[via NintendoFuse]
Jun 30
As summer rolls in with its heat and its sun, we’re all thinking of fleeing toward the beaches. For New Yorkers, that could soon be a beach on a reclaimed barge, floating along the Hudson River. Could it actually work? We talked to City Beach‘s structural engineer to find out.
Jun 30
United Airlines is working with the Smithsonian on a conservation project that will tag and track the smaller members of the animal kingdom. More specifically, the project will use radio receivers mounted on planes to create a low-altitude network of vanishing species like the monarch butterfly. All while you enjoy your complimentary beverage.
Who's in charge here?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.