Small Sample-Size Theater
Software, politics, economics, baked goods.
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Raspberry Ice
While in Williams-Sonoma a couple of months ago, I spent a moment gazing at a neon-fuschia Kitchenaid mixer. The key to understanding why such a visually assaultive object existed was that Susan G. Komen for the Cure would see 20% of the proceeds. It looked like this:
You may note that the branding on this one, photographed yesterday, says only “raspberry ice.” I asked a sales associate if it wasn’t the same model I’d noticed prior to Komen’s publicity eruption.
He helpfully pointed out that the Raspberry Ice is $50 more expensive than the otherwise-identical gray Kitchenaid next to it on the shelf, that the $50 difference is still earmarked for Komen, and that the box it comes in still displays Komen branding. But if one doesn’t ask, there’s no obvious explanation of why the neon-fuschia model costs more.
To congratulate Williams-Sonoma on their canny judgment of customer sentiment, I may have bought a waffle iron.
Facebook’s IPO: How Mark Zuckerberg plans to retain dictatorial control his company. (Slate)
Matthew Yglesias. The estate planning details were new to me — the class B shares with magnified voting rights lose their mojo if sold to anyone else, with an exception for a designated transfer in the event of Mark Zuckerberg’s death.
The Fireplace Delusion (Sam Harris)
I recently stumbled upon an example of secular intransigence that may give readers a sense of how religious people feel when their beliefs are criticized. It’s not a perfect analogy, as you will see, but the rigorous research I’ve conducted at dinner parties suggests that it is worth thinking about. We can call the phenomenon “the fireplace delusion.”
Via Steven Moffat, via Julian Simpson
Tyson Discrimination Verdict Restored by Appeals Court (nytimes.com)
On Dec. 16, more than a year after the initial decision, the appeals court reversed course. The new ruling was opaque and grudging, but Mr. Clemon said he welcomed it, particularly since it is very unusual for a federal appeals court panel simply to change its mind. “I don’t recall it ever happening,” said Mr. Clemon, who graduated from law school in 1968.
When I Got the Call (The Nation)
Katha Politt talks to God.
Cost of false positives (Laughing Meme)
I’ve had this browser window open for weeks, trying to figure out what I wanted to say about it. It connects the difficulty of eradicating spam (where falsely labeling something as spam is much worse than accidentally letting one through) to the challenge of screening for very rare things in general, whether you’re screening for diseases or trying to identify terrorists.
I went to college with Kellan. I have a clear recollection from ~1995 of walking into a computer lab and gently making fun of him for learning Perl out of a big book. Turned out, he was about eight months ahead of me, and over the years that gap has somewhat widened.
The Benjamin Franklin Effect (You Are Not So Smart)
Marvelous essay, filling in some psychological gaps in my understanding of the Stanford Prison Experiment. I’m going to have to buy that book.
Relative sales of girl-scout cookies (Wired)
Via @rands
Pseudonymity, Privacy and Responsibility on Google+
Kee Nethery stacks up straw men, and burn them down.
A meditation on GlaDOS
Herein find, from before Portal 2 came out, an art-historical analysis of GlaDOS’ motivations and emotional state. It opens up into a spectacular rabbit hole. Via @lostinfont.
Is this thing still on?
How do I flip it over and shake the spiders out of it?
Linda Greenhouse: Justice in Dreamland
Linda Greenhouse, the world’s best Supreme Court reporter, on the worst Supreme Court decision in years.
Philip IV, Restored
Great use of a Flash interface, depicting the before and after restoration of a Velazquez portrait of Philip IV.
The 2010 Seattle Seahawks: Worst. Playoff. Team. Ever? (Nate Silver)
The Seahawks are not any garden-variety 7-9 team: they are an incredibly bad 7-9 team.
Wakemate’s charger
This morning I received an email from Perfect Third, the company making the Wakemate sleep-monitoring gizmo, recommending I desist in using the USB power brick which shipped last week with their hardware. TechCrunch applied their usual levelheaded gloss.
I finally thought to put the Wakemate brick next to an Apple iPhone brick, which it resembles in every physical detail. The resemblance continued:
(Click to embiggen.)
Note the black void where the “JET Apple Japan” box appears, and how Apple’s puzzling warning text is re-rendered as “Caution: for use with infor technology equipment”. The space occupied by Apple’s green dot is empty as well (the dot, I believe, indicates that this charger is from a later batch than the ones Apple sourced with their own problems.)
Apple’s charger says it was designed by Apple, and I haven’t seen any others quite like it until now. Electrical failures notwithstanding, making perfect reproductions of Apple kit seems chancy for a company selling hardware which depends on a counterpart iOS app.