teenage stock manipulator (nyt)
"I finally came clean with a thought: the S.E.C. let Jonathan Lebed walk away with 500 grand in his pocket because it feared that if it didn't, it would wind up in court and it would lose. And if the law ever declared formally that Jonathan Lebed didn't break it, the S.E.C. would be faced with an impossible situation: millions of small investors plugging their portfolios with abandon, becoming in essence professional financial analysts, generating embarrassing little explosions of unreality in every corner of the capital markets. No central authority could sustain the illusion that stock prices were somehow 'real' or that the market wasn't, for most people, a site of not terribly productive leisure activity. The red dog would be off his leash.

"I might as well have strolled into the office of the drug czar and lit up a joint."
(Monday, February 26, 2001)

analysis about the bush tax cut (nyt)
"In a report to be issued today, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says that Mr. Bush's plan will further increase the share of after- tax income going to the wealthy. That is because the top 1 percent would get 40 percent of the tax breaks, more than their 18.5 percent share of income taxes paid.

"'It is extremely interesting that the largest income gains were among the portion of the population whose marginal tax rates were raised in the 1990's,' said Isaac Shapiro, a policy analyst at the center. 'This suggests that higher marginal tax rates have not been a barrier to economic activity and risk-taking activity within this group.'

"Backers of Mr. Bush's plan say that high marginal tax rates reduce wealth creation by discouraging investment, an effect that has serious long-term economic consequences."

The aticle also notes that the wealthiest 1%, those who would benefit the most from Bush's tax cut, pay a declining share of their income in taxes. If the government really wanted to simplify the tax structure, they could go back to what income tax started as, nearly a hundred years ago: a tax only on the top earners. Then we'd see the broad middle class tax cut that every politician says they'll give.

The tax cut, like the election, shows that the Republicans have far better PR flacks than the Democrats do. They've managed to convince a country, of which 1% pays estate taxes, to repeal the estate tax. One can only imagine that the country at large believes that somehow they will become millionaires, and therefore taxes on the rich should be low. Just in case.
(Monday, February 26, 2001)

schindler! (nyt)
"Today Schindler, who has influenced a new generation of architects, including Frank O. Gehry, was embraced by the art establishment of the city he adored. The Museum of Contemporary Art, in downtown Los Angeles, opened the most comprehensive exhibition of his work to date, with original drawings, scale models, more than 90 photographs and a dozen pieces of furniture he designed. 'You feel that you're participating in not only the revival of a reputation but in the revival of ideas that are tremendously important and very current,' said Jeremy Strick, the museum's director."

It's up until June 3. Sounds like I'll be in Los Angeles sometime before then.
(Monday, February 26, 2001)

workspheres
i'm gonna go to new york so i can see this stuff. love the interface.
(Wednesday, February 21, 2001)

UC to stop using SAT (nyt)
"Mr. Reese said some members of the board of regents would probably seek assurances from Dr. Atkinson that the quality of the student body would not suffer by dropping the SAT requirement.

"Dr. Atkinson oversees nine campuses, eight of them with undergraduates, to which 91,904 high school seniors applied for admission this year. He said the SAT's did not measure mastery of specific subjects required for admission to the school, so much as an ill-defined aptitude. He talked about visiting classrooms where 12-year-old's spent hours studying lists of analogies, a central feature of the SAT.

"'The time involved was not aimed at developing the students' reading and writing abilities but rather their test-taking skills,' Dr. Atkinson wrote. 'I concluded what many others have concluded — that America's overemphasis on the SAT is compromising our educational system.'"
(Saturday, February 17, 2001)

more flight delays coming (nyt)
"Air travel could get yet more frustrating. In testimony on Tuesday, Carol B. Hallett, president of the Air Transport Association, a trade group of the big airlines, said that delays could jump 250 percent in five years without airport improvements. Since the Transportation Department said that 27.5 percent of flights were canceled or delayed at least 15 minutes last year, a 250 percent rise would put the total near 100 percent."

Or airlines could start eliminating the empty flights, making entire airports more efficient. LGA was the worst offender, followed closely by ORD. SFO was far behind these two, in third place.

Also, it is worth noting that while American has a great website, USAir actually shows the on-time information for each flight in their online reservations pages. It's very handy.
(Thursday, February 15, 2001)

lines and splines
full-on typographic blog. awesome.
(Thursday, February 15, 2001)

If you don't start using this right now then you're a big meanie.
Easier GiveQuick! usage at Amazon. Courtesy of John Eklund. He, obviously, rocks.
(Friday, February 9, 2001)

apartment envy (nytoday)
"Apartment envy is a distinctly New York phenomenon. In New York, the saying doesn't go, 'the grass is always greener…'; it's more like, 'the apartment is always bigger/has more sunlight/has bigger closets/is in a better location/has nicer floors/has a better view — in the other building.'"
(Friday, February 9, 2001)

umbrella dos and don'ts (nyt)
"An umbrella should always be opened in a vertical position."
(Friday, February 9, 2001)

sippey
not only one of the smartest people i know, but michael's new entry format is great. it takes one of the nicest things of bruce mau's designs -- the large, very legible type -- and brings it to the web. viva 20pt type!
(Friday, February 9, 2001)

loobylu
great drawings. good design sense, too. yay australia!
(Friday, February 9, 2001)

frank rich on the media (yale daily news)
"[Rich] said although a critic is acting as an agent of the readers, he has less influence over the general public than corporations do. These corporations stage elaborate advertising schemes to seduce consumers, using many of the same techniques that go on behind the curtains of a Broadway show, Rich said.

"'The huge conglomerates have created a pop culture by committee,' he said. 'Disney and other conglomerates have the real power to set the rules.'

"He lamented the 'deadening-effects' of popular culture, saying that 'aiming for the lowest common [cultural] denominator instead of promoting the idiosyncratic seems pernicious.'"
(Friday, February 9, 2001)