Every year, Reuters takes untold numbers of photos covering the news and every year they honour the best from amongst them. Here’s the 55 best for 2010 (note: some of these are quite graphic and depict suffering, so be forewarned). That said, some of these are brilliant and amazing. Love this one from Thailand, though tough pick between it, the guy in Mogadishu wit the sharp and the out of focus Chilean carrying the dog. Amazing.
Fascinating article on Germany , long derided as the sick man of Europe for its economy, got a lot of things right and is now the strongest economy in the world (well, second only to China, but hey, the DE only has 82M people vs. China’s 1B).
I do find it interesting as it brings together a couple of themes that I’ve seen recurring lately, the idea of the small, good businesses (mittelstand) which create real economic value even when they’re not trying to do billion dollar IPOs (most vehemently pushed by 37Signal’s DHH and JF) and a lot of what Umair Haque has been saying about America’s toxic economy full of value destroying, rather than creating, businesses being its problem. Too many people speculating, and shifting inflated value around rather than creating it themselves. And the focus on long term strategy for success, rather than short term tactics.
Fantastic interactive data animation of the scale of the universe you’re currently calling home. Pretty impressive effects. Move the slider back and forth to get a nice interpretation of everything from unimaginably infinitesimal quantum foam to DNA, through to the planets, our local supercluster and the estimated size of the whole thing. Very cool.
Even as a trained economist, I kind of keep wondering what the hell the Federal Reserve is doing in the States. Makes no sense though imagine they are trying to stave off a similar crisis that we’re seeing in Ireland and that is threatening to spread to the rest of Europe. Anyhow, if you’re confused by the whole thing, there’s nothing like cute cartoon animals to explain it to you. Bit long, but great.
Much like cookie monster, I am reviewing new career options myself. Seriously, I’m sooo much more than just a tech guy (And I prefer the term “geekery enthusiast”, ahem… )
Stay tuned!
Oh, and please help get cookie monster on SNL!
Or Keynote, for that matter.
Great “things to avoid” presentation. And great rule of thumb: A killer one hour presentation takes 30 hours of prep. Phew.
via Lifehacker .
Great list of animated films for us, ahem… adults from the always hilarious and entertaining defective yeti (whose blog you should totally be reading if you aren’t already).
Was actually surprised at the number of these I hadn’t seen (and some I’d never heard of). Adding to the list of things to watch now.
Oh, and just a personal one from me. Wallace and Gromit The Curse of the Wererabbit totally needs to be in there.
The always enlightening Umair Haque has a great HBR article on focusing on worst practices . Some good ideas. I notice how companies like Zappos (and even Google) avoid this by internalizing some of these ideas intuitively.
Really like it. Can think of a number of places I’ve worked at that would do well to take the advice on a strategy day or day out (and myself for that matter in reflection and repose.).
You know, one of the things I love best about the Rails community is its sense of fun and how damn helpful everyone is in helping you learn in novel (and yet, really useful) ways. Cause, seriously? Programming shouldn’t be as hard as your first year comp sci class made it out to be.
Enter Rails for Zombies . Check it out, sign up and get learnin'.
Brrraaaaiiinnnnnzzzz…