February 2012
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“The making of [The Iron Lady] poses a moral question. How fair and right is it...”
– John Howard in today’s AFR
January 2012
4 posts
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“The “rich” in America are not a monolithic, unchanging class. A study by Thomas...”
– “Angry about inequality? Don’t blame the rich” by James Q. Wilson in The Washington Post
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December 2011
13 posts
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“A smugly enamored couple sit in a restaurant, their hands clasped as they fret...”
– ‘Stumptown Girl’, in The New Yorker (Portlandia: “Of the hipsters, by the hipsters, for the hipsters”)
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“Röthig goes on to describe what appeared to be a scrupulous and complicated...”
– “It’s The Economy, Dummkopf!” by Michael Lewis in Vanity Fair
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“It is frustrating to provide food aid to a corrupt, inefficient, militarily...”
– “North Korea’s Hunger”, The New Yorker
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“Musan’s proximity to the Chinese border made it easier for her family to obtain...”
– From this brilliant, heartbreaking 2010 New Yorker article on life in North Korea
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On the value of corporate values
By Alex Campbell
One aspect of modern corporate personality disorder that I’ve never understood is the obsession with codifying an organisation’s ‘values’.
We’ve all seen the annual reports emblazoned with stock images of multi-ethnic people holding hands alongside headings that say things like “Working together with shared values”.
We’ve all marvelled at the clumsy propaganda that lines the walls...
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“You know, one of the things that really hurt Apple was after I left John Sculley...”
– Steve Jobs: The parable of the stones - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Tech (via ninakix)
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“Under the rule of Julia Gillard (from the Left), the Left has felt left out, a...”
– Once again, Annabel Crabb makes Australian politics not only interesting but also funny: “Today’s ALP: left and right make for queer bedfellows”
Those of you who are familiar with Australian politics will understand what an extraordinary feat this is.
November 2011
2 posts
1 tag
“Not long after Steve Jobs got married, in 1991, he moved with his wife to a...”
– “Steve Jobs’s Real Genius” - Malcolm Gladwell in The New Yorker (I am reading the Walter Isaacson biography right now and it is brilliant)
October 2011
4 posts
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“If you’d told me in January 2009 that the banks would pay us back the entire...”
– Andrew Sullivan (via ericmortensen)
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What the Occupy protests are all about (no, I...
Let me start with a disclaimer. I consider myself a reasonable, moderately left-leaning kinda guy. I enjoy The West Wing, The Monthly, and the editorial pages of the Sydney Morning Herald.
But I just can’t get on board with the Occupy movement. I started out thinking that the protesters are fringe lunatics who would be better off trying to save the world by getting a haircut and a job. This was...
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The lucky country's double standard
Alex Campbell, 9th October 2011
Australians have no trouble getting worked up into a slather of moral outrage. This is never more true than when one of our citizens finds themselves in trouble with the laws of a foreign land.
Last week’s arrest by Indonesian police of a 14-year-old Lake Macquarie boy on drug charges is without doubt a terrible tragedy. Our instinctive and heartfelt sympathy for...
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September 2011
11 posts
“The prices for the flowers, as for all the fresh fruits and vegetables, are...”
– How Whole Foods “Primes” You To Shop (via Nextness)
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“The fact is that the Libyan operation has been remarkably cost-effective. The...”
– ‘How the lessons of Iraq paid off in Libya’ by Fareed Zakaria in TIME
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“The junior executives’ office at Thinkscope Visioncloud was nicer than any room...”
– ‘Flick Chicks’, by Mindy Kaling in The New Yorker
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“I regard romantic comedies as a subgenre of sci-fi, in which the world operates...”
– ‘Flick Chicks’, by Mindy Kaling in The New Yorker
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“This is just a more volatile world. I mean, there really hasn’t been a...”
– “Leaders must drive change”, Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO of General Electric
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“The colourful Vietnamese restaurants lining Victoria Street were created by the first wave of boat people - refugees who fled in thousands of rickety boats at the end of the Vietnam War in a desperate bid to escape the victorious communist regime.
The restaurants are their great gift to Melbourne, but they came at the cost of dreadful danger and suffering.
Countless Vietnamese boat...
August 2011
9 posts
1 tag
“Retro-fitting a prime minister with an identity is extremely tricky. Kevin Rudd...”
– Amidst endless critiques of Labor’s woes, Annabel Crabb’s analysis in The Monthly is the most compelling and incisive yet (sadly subscriber only, but it’s worth buying the print issue just for this article and Don Watson’s)
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“The other possibility is that the wretchedness of Gillard signifies a more...”
– ‘The Nation Reviewed’, Don Watson in The Monthly
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“While passionate conviction and shrewd pragmatism are characteristics of great...”
– ‘The Nation Reviewed’, Don Watson in The Monthly
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“A designer is trying to create order out of chaos, while an art director is...”
– John Hegarty, Hegarty on Advertising: Turning intelligence into magic. (via nextness)
“I asked him if he would come up with a few options. And he said, ‘No, I will...”
– Steve Jobs on iconic designer Paul Rand (via curiositycounts, STW Nextness)
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“In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White...”
– Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush by Ron Suskind for NYT Magazine October 17, 2004
July 2011
6 posts
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“Further confusion is created by equating strategy with success or with ambition....”
– Good strategy, Bad strategy by Richard Rumelt
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“[Murdoch] dropped the BBC from his satellite over Hong Kong, he published a...”
– ‘Murdoch’s Chinese Adventure’, The New York Review of Books
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“If you look at the price earnings ratio for technology companies relative to the...”
– Another priceless quote from this interview with Larry Summers
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“Look, I think the biggest problem the country has right now is not the budget...”
– From this fascinating interview with Larry Summers. Yes, the same interview in which he calls the Winklevoss twins assholes.
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