Condorcet came up with a theorem about juries and how, if a group of people share their knowledge on a topic, they will come to a better decision than the average of the decisions each would make as an individual. Of course as soon as this sounds great, they start coming out with limitations: ...
Monthly Archives: February 2009
Not so Taken
Last night I saw Taken with three guy friends. A fourth joined us for dinner, but bailed before the movie started. Something about having to work on President’s Day. Whiner. Anyway, preconception was that it would be a quality action movie. After all, Liam Neeson? But 30 minutes in, I turned to one friend...
Why Realtime Television is Still Good
It seems like we’ve been waiting a long time for Hulu. Or Netflix, Tivo, or YouTube. I don’t have to watch my favorite shows when they’re on anymore. I can watch whatever I want, when it’s convenient for me. Yet I watch Battlestar Galactica on Friday night, at 10p.m. I let other things pass...
Washington Post Endorses World of Warcraft!
Since the mainstream media is often anti-gaming, it’s good to see the Washington Post join the ranks of publications such as Business Week in pointing out that World of Warcraft players really are learning valuable business skills. The Post takes the position that, if it didn’t alarm people so much, you could totally list...
Twitter Dee, Twitter Dum
So I twittered the other day, while watching Saturday Night Live, that the McGrubber segment should just stop. It’s never been funny, and adding McGuyver and Pepsi, all at once, hasn’t helped. Actually, I Twittered. Capital T to indicate the use of the Twitter social posting service that is gaining on pretty much everything. ...
Taken and Torture
During the movie Taken, one of my friends had a strong negative reaction to the torture sequence. Not because it was graphic, or even disturbing. He had a political reaction. Afterwards he said he nearly walked out because “torture never works”. My other friends thought it odd that he picked out that element. After...
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