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“Why I Left Goldman Sachs” (VERSION TWO) Home. The last time we redefined what it means to be human. At the very least members of Hominini (humans & chimps) should be referred to as hominids I think you meant hominins?

The last time we redefined what it means to be human

The separation likely remains because it would also mean reclassifying the genus Pan to Homo. Since Hominini already contains multiple genera (e.g., at least one genus of australopithecine), there is little reason to place species currently in Pan into Homo. Bye Bye American Pie: The Challenge of the Productivity Revolution) Here’s the good news.

Bye Bye American Pie: The Challenge of the Productivity Revolution)

The economic pie is growing again. Growth in the 4th quarter last year hit 3 percent on an annualized rate. That’s respectable – although still way too slow to get us back on track given how far we plunged. Here’s the bad news. The share of that growth going to American workers is at a record low. That’s largely because far fewer Americans are working. An Executive Power to Kill? by David Cole. The President of the United States can order the killing of US citizens, far from any battlefield, without charges, a trial, or any form of advance judicial approval.

An Executive Power to Kill? by David Cole

That’s what Attorney General Eric Holder told a group of students at Northwestern Law School yesterday, in a much anticipated speech. The Constitution requires the government to obtain a judicial warrant based on probable cause before it can search your backpack or attach a GPS tracking device to your car, but not, according to Holder, before it kills you. The week our world got changed - Boardroom Talk. From my earliest memory, I’ve been in love with this country.

The week our world got changed - Boardroom Talk

But rarely have I felt so proud to be a South African as right now. It’s been a momentous fortnight. We didn’t win any World Cups or Gold Medals. Joseph Kony, the world's Monster-in-Chief. I promise it wasn’t Captain America’s five-year-old son who made me cry, even though that was the strategy behind getting that cute blonde kid into the movie.

Joseph Kony, the world's Monster-in-Chief

No, it was the original video footage from 2003 of a young Ugandan boy telling of how he would prefer to die and join his brother, who was perhaps in heaven, after having had his throat cut with a panga by one of Joseph Kony’s murderous fighters. The thing is that the phenomenon behind the Invisible Children's slick and rather self-indulgent social media campaign is one of the most ghastly situations I have ever encountered. And if it took the moral indignation sparked by one young American’s exposure to the horror of what was happening in an ignored and quite inexplicable conflict in east central Africa, that’s okay with me. The Browser.

Walt Whitman, First Artist of Finance (Part 1): Robert Shiller. One of the myths surrounding economic inequality in our society is that high incomes are often the result of selfishness and narrow-mindedness, rather than idealism and humanity.

Walt Whitman, First Artist of Finance (Part 1): Robert Shiller

We tend to think that those in careers other than our own are fundamentally different kinds of people. Personality and character differences are, indeed, somewhat associated with occupation. But we tend to attribute the behavior of others to personality differences far more often than is warranted. We tend to think of philosophers, artists or poets as the polar opposite of chief executive officers, bankers or businesspeople. THE MAN WHO STOLE THE MONA LISA: THE GREATEST ART THEFT IN HISTORY. He could scarcely believe the ease with which he carried out the crime.

THE MAN WHO STOLE THE MONA LISA: THE GREATEST ART THEFT IN HISTORY

On Monday 21 August, 1911, an Italian man named Vincenzo Peruggia walked out of the Louvre with the Mona Lisa wrapped inside a white artist's smock. No one saw him steal the world’s most famous painting; no one heard him prise it from the wall. Peruggia slipped out unnoticed and took the painting home to his apartment.

The greatest art theft of the 20th century could scarcely have been more simple. Yoga-for-Trophy-Wives Fitness Fad That’s Alienating Discipline Devotees. I write for myself and I'll say anything I damn well please. Transcripts follow.

I write for myself and I'll say anything I damn well please

(Source: Dexter; Image above, via NME.) Transcript December 2, 1996 Green Day P.O. Box 710 Berkeley, Ca 94701-0710Re: InsomniacTo whom it may concern:I am a parent, and I am very disturbed by the cassette tape my 8 year old son was listening to. 1984 v. Brave New World. In October of 1949, a few months after the release of George Orwell's dystopian masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four, he received a fascinating letter from fellow author Aldous Huxley — a man who, 17 years previous, had seen his own nightmarish vision of society published, in the form of Brave New World.

1984 v. Brave New World

What begins as a letter of praise soon becomes a brief comparison of the two novels, and an explanation as to why Huxley believes his own, earlier work to be a more realistic prediction. Fantastic. Trivia: In 1917, long before he wrote this letter, Aldous Huxley briefly taught Orwell French at Eton. (Source: Letters of Aldous Huxley; Image: George Orwell (via) & Aldous Huxley (via).)