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Showing posts from February, 2012

Sunday Spectacle CLXIII

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The App Economy: iTunes App Store (as of May 2011; click on each image for larger picture) (source: Infographic by Stefanie Kraus for  148Apps , Chillingo and Chomp . Downloaded from " Apple Approves 500,000 Apps...and counting " at CoolInfoGraphics.com, Dated May 25, 2011.)

Online Social Networks and the Ascent of Facebook

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(source: Facebook ) As bizarre as this sounds, one of the most valuable innovations in technology over the last several decades is Facebook's "Like" button. That's what has propelled the company to a galaxy-orbit valuation for its forthcoming initial public offering, filed Wednesday. This is not only because the word "like" is, like, the identifying word of an entire generation. It's because computing has evolved beyond just taking directions from humans—and instead is cozying up to us and sniffing out our emotions and intent. — Andy Kessler, Wall Street Journal Three decades ago, if someone had told you that a company that didn't make any physical products, had existed for less than a decade, and had less than 3,000 employees would be worth $100 billion, would you have believed it? But here we are, three decades later, and stock market participants appear ready to award a $100 billion valuation to Facebook (FB). Are they crazy? Is

Sunday Spectacle CLXII

History of Radio (click on buttons at bottom left to activate larger infographic) Original source: " The History of Radio ," Sonos. Posted on February 6th, 2012. Embedded infographic from Visualizing.org

Inside Look at Warren Buffett's Office and His Interests & Ideologies

Thanks to CanadianValue for this great find: a video of Warren Buffett's office, as well as him sharing his hobbies and describing some of his ideological views.

Sunday Spectacle CLXI

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Public Transportation - Helsinki, Finland Check it out fullscreen in 720p HD; They should have used more colours but oh well (h/t: " Helsinki Public Transportation Visualized ," By Lauri Vanhala. Visualizing.org)

Financial Crisis Redux - Michael Lewis Talks About Wall Street

I ran across a pretty good, old, video, posted on July 15, 2011, but possibly from an event in 2010(?), of a conversation between Vanity Fair's editor, Graydon Carter, and Michael Lewis. The talk mainly covers the financial crisis, Wall Street culture, and book authorship. It's a really good 8-part interview, lasting approximately 40 minutes, and I recommend it to anyone interested in the culture of Wall Street, the 2008 financial crisis, or is simply interested in writing non-fiction books. Most of you probably know of Michael Lewis as a contributor to Vanity Fair and Bloomberg, and the author of popular books such as Moneyball , The Big Short , and Liar's Poker . Lewis is arguably the most-entertaining American writer covering business culture. He isn't everyone's cup of tea given how he paints with broad brushes and makes stories easy to digest, but I love his writing and his humour. I haven't read The Big Short yet but do plan to do it at some point. (If

Sunday Spectacle CLX

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What is Facebook? (source: " Facebook Revealed ," The Globe and Mail. February 1, 2012. Last updated February 2, 2012.)