Technology – Page 7 – Jeremiah Stanghini

Twitter: Who I’m Following, Part 8

It’s been quite awhile since I last did a post in my series of ”Who I’m Following” on Twitter. In fact, it’s been 6 months! That’s almost half as long as I’ve been participating on Twitter. In looking at the some of these old posts (see below) of who I’m following, I seemed to have unfollowed a number of folks. I wish I had kept a list of the people I’ve unfollowed, so I could offer reasons as to why I decided to unfollow some folks. Briefly, I can say that sometimes the reason is because the person isn’t very active on Twitter. Other times, it’s because I became frustrated with the amount of negativity (sometimes in the form of the person retweeting “trolls” or people being unnecessarily negative in the form of ad hominem attacks). I most certainly won’t be able to get to all the new people I’m following on Twitter (it’s approximately doubled!), so look for a few of these posts in the coming weeks (or months).

If you missed any of the earlier posts in this series, here they are:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7

Here we go!

@bigthink: Big Think aims to, “help you move above and beyond random information, toward real knowledge, offering big ideas from fields outside your own that you can apply toward the questions and challenges in your own life.”

@wired: Wired is the digital home of Wired Magazine and it acts as a daily technology site.

@Austan_Goolsbee: Goolsbee is a Professor of economics and Economics at the Booth School of Business (University of Chicago). He is also the former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

@R_Thaler: Thaler is a Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the Booth School of Business (University of Chicago) and the co-author of Nudge.

@brainpicker: “Brain Pickings is a human-powered discovery engine for interestingness, culling and curating cross-disciplinary curiosity-quenchers, and separating the signal from the noise to bring you things you didnt know you were interested in until you are.”

@changemakers: “The latest in innovation, social entrepreneurship, and how you can make a difference. Why? Everyone Can Be a Changemaker.”

@Ashoka: “Ashoka is an international citizen-sector organization that is leading the way to an Everyone a Changemaker World.”

@rickmercer: Mercer is a Canadian comedian and political satirist. He’s an alumnus of This Hour Has 22 Minutes and is currently the host of the Rick Mercer Report.

@jbarro: “I write on fiscal and economic policy issues at all levels of government. Areas of particular interest for me include tax policy, entitlements and public employee compensation.”

@mattyglesias: “Matthew Yglesias is Slate‘s business and economics correspondent. Before joining the magazine he worked for ThinkProgress, the Atlantic, TPM Media, and the American Prospect.”

@lifehacker: “Lifehacker curates tips, tricks, and technology for living better in the digital age.”

@TPCarney: “Timothy P. Carney is the Washington Examiner‘s senior political columnist.” Carney is also a prominent conservative voice.

@TheStalwart: Joe Weisenthal is the Deputy Editor Of Business Insider. “He previously was a writer and analyst for Techdirt.com, and before that worked as an analyst for money management firm Prentiss Smith & Co.”

@bobraeMP: Bob Rae is the current (interim) Leader of the Liberal Party (of Canada). He was previously the leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party.

@mediaite: “The site for news, info and smart opinions about print, online and broadcast media.”

@AmbassadorRice: Susan Rice is the US Ambassador to the United Nations. According to Wikipedia, she is not related to Condoleezza Rice.

@joshrogin: “Josh Rogin reports on national security and foreign policy from the Pentagon to Foggy Bottom, the White House to Embassy Row, for The Cable.”

@abumuqawama: “Andrew Exum is a Senior Fellow with the Center for a New American Security,” and “Abu Muqawama is a blog that focuses on small wars and insurgencies in addition to regional issues in the Middle East.”

@SlaughterAM: “Princeton Professor. Director of Policy Planning, U.S. State Dept 2009-2011. Foreign policy curator.”

@librarycongress: “We are the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in our collections.”

@TheScienceGuy: “‘Bill Nye the Science Guy’ is an American science educator, comedian, television host, actor, mechanical engineer, and scientist.”

@BillCosby: “Bill Cosby is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist.”

@levyj413: “Jeffrey Levy is the EPA Director of Web Communications, Co-Chair of the Federal Web Managers Council, and Gov’t 2.0er.”

@Ed_Husain: “Ed Husain is a Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of ‘The Islamist.'”

@dandrezner: “Daniel W. Drezner is professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.”

@realjohngreen: I just wrote a post about John Green’s Crash Course in World History. Check it out!

@AmazingPics: This Twitter feed regularly posts some of the best photographs. You’ll want to see these.

@kellyoxford: Kelly Oxford’s current Twitter Bio: “Writer. Designed to make you feel like everything is going well. I am your Perestroika.”

@Randazzoj: “Joe Randazzo is currently the editor of the satirical newspaper, The Onion.” As you might think, his tweets are often sarcastic (and funny).

@KenJennings: Of Jeopardy! fame. He’s written a bunch of books, including Maphead. His tweets are often intended to be funny.

@sethmeyers21: “Seth Meyers currently serves as the head writer for Saturday Night Live and hosts its news parody program segment Weekend Update.”

@anjeanette: I found Anjeanette’s twitter feed as a result of this article. “The aspiring actress isnt afraid to let the sarcasm fly and sometimes thats just the sort of thing you need to pop up on your screen.”

@acarvin: “Senior strategist at NPR. Online community organizer since 1994. Former director of the Digital Divide Network. Writer. Photographer. Dad.”

@AJELive: “Breaking news alerts and updates from Al Jazeera English, a 24-hour news and current affairs channel.” By now, you should all know that I’m a big fan of different perspectives (here or here).

@brianstetler: A really good person to follow if you enjoy things in “meta.” Stetler reports on TV & Media for the New York Times.

@johmaeda: “President, Rhode Island School of Design, RISD, College, Museum, USA, 1877, Laws of Simplicity, MIT, Design, Art, Business, Technology, Life.”

@OMGFacts: As you might expect, this Twitter feed specializes in tweets that are facts that might “knock your socks off.”

@BuzzFeed: “BuzzFeed is a website that combines a technology platform for detecting viral content with an editorial selection process to provide a snapshot of “the viral web in realtime.”

@timoreilly: “Founder and CEO, O’Reilly Media. Watching the alpha geeks, sharing their stories, helping the future unfold.”

@jayrosen_nyu: “I teach journalism at NYU, direct the Studio 20 program there, critique the press and study new media. I don’t do lifecasting but mindcasting on Twitter.”

@daveweigel: Dave Weigel is a political reporter for Slate. While his main focus is politics, his tweets are often laced with humor.

@markknoller: Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House Correspondent. Similar to Stetler, he sometimes comments on what other networks are reporting.

I’m well past my self-imposed 1000 word limit, but I wanted to begin to squeeze a bunch more feeds into one post (because I have a lot to make up in this series). As always, I welcome your suggestions in the comments or tweet me!

Art Imitating (Rather, Predicting?) Life

I was reading this past week’s edition of The Economist and came across an article on 3D printing. Specifically, the article was addressing how 3D printing was (or could) change the face of manufacturing. If you’re not familiar with 3D printing, it is exactly like it sounds: printing in 3D. From Wikipedia: “3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three-dimensional solid objects from a digital file.”

As I sat there listening to my dog gnaw on a stick, I found myself looking beyond the yard where my eyes landed on the railroad tracks. Tracks that have been there for nearly 150 years. Tracks that were the focal point of commerce for quite some time. Then I thought, how the railroad was a revolution in its day — how it took over for the horse and buggy. But the railroad wasn’t the end of the evolution of transportation. Later came the invention of the car and the invention of the plane.

In briefly reflecting on how transportation has changed, I couldn’t help but think of how 3D printing could be just as revolutionary as some of these other inventions through history. And in thinking about 3D printing — specifically — I couldn’t help but think of Star Trek. Do you remember the Replicator? To refresh your memory, a few of YouTube clips: here, here, and here (though this last one is a clip of it malfunctioning). There’s been a lot written about how Star Trek has presaged inventions that later came to be (here’s one for example). I might add 3D printing to that list (or any), too.

The thing that really got me thinking, though, was when I compared the evolution of the personal computer to the 3D printer (or replicator). People who know what life is like without the computer often express their disbelief for how small the computer is when compared to its ancestor. “It used to take up a whole room! Now,I can put it in my pocket!” They would exclaim. There’s no doubt that the computer has evolved a great deal from its early days, but I wonder if this will be true of 3D printing? Will the cost of having a 3D printer be such that everyone can afford it? Will the speed at which it prints be so fast that people will laugh at how long it used to take for things to print?

The rate at which technology is able to invent something and then invent something that is twice as good at what it first invented is growing exponentially. It’s hard to believe that just over 100 years ago, the Model T was invented. I’m not sure how far 3D printing will go or if it will take off and be as ubiquitous as computers, but I think it most certainly has a chance.

Tying up Loose Ends: Or, a Mishmash of Ideas in one Post

It’s been awhile since I wrote a post (March 14th) and even longer since I wrote consecutive posts (January 16th and January 17th). Obviously, I’d like to have written more, but that’s just not how things have worked out. Regardless, I thought it might be a good idea to write a “post of posts” of sorts. That is, I’ve had a list of “ideas to write about” for over a year. Some of the things on the list are recent (thought of in the last few months) and some have been there for at least 9 months. As a way to inject some fresh energy into that list, I thought I’d write a post where I spent some time talking about a number of things on the list — rather than writing a post about just one of those ideas. Hope you enjoy!

It’s Kind of a Funny Story (IMDb) – I saw this movie awhile back and thought it was rather good. The premise is that a teenager checks himself into an adult psychiatric ward. Some very serious issues are addressed and I think they were done so in an appropriate manner.

Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (IMDb) – This whole list won’t be of movies, but I thought I’d group the two. I saw the “Justin Bieber Movie” sometime this past summer. I didn’t really know too much about Justin Bieber, just that he was pretty famous with the younger age groups. While this movie wasn’t necessarily an unbiased biography, it definitely did showcase how much hard work Justin invested in himself. Hard work (by itself) will not get you where you want to go all the time (for example: Bieber was discovered on YouTube), but it will go a long way to getting you where you want to be.

What if the car (automobile) were invented today? – I wonder if the car were invented today, would we accept it as is? Meaning, given everything that goes into making the car and everything that is affected because of the car (read: environment), I wonder if consumers would accept it as a product.

Nordic spas – This past summer, just before moving to DC, I spent some time at Le Spa Nordik in Quebec. It was the first time that I’d seen the idea of (hot, cold, hot) in an establishment. Growing up in Canada, it was a common thing — in the winter — to sit in the hot tub for awhile, jump in the pool for a minute (or the snow!) and then get back into the hot tub. I remember trying to find some scientific evidence to back this up as a (positive) thing for the human body, but I couldn’t find anything. That’s not to say that there isn’t any out there.

Blowing in a dog’s face – I find it interesting that dog’s don’t like it when someone blows in their face — but — they can’t wait to stick their head out the window when you’re driving down the road. I wonder if this has something to do with carbon dioxide (on the exhale of someone blowing in their face) vs. oxygen (from the car ride).

Jaywalking – Intuitively, I would think that laws against jaywalking would have been written with a focus on keeping pedestrians safe. Believe it or not — this was not the case. I forgot where I heard it (maybe NPR?), but did you know that jaywalking was — in a way — instituted because of the automobile associations lobbying legislators? In doing some research for this (part) of this post, I found this article from three days ago talking about this very thing.

Visioning for a job? – Have you ever noticed how couples plan for a baby? Even before they’ve conceived, (sometimes) they’ve bought the crib, painted the room, and are in a sense, planning for this new part of their lives. I wonder why this is normalized, but doing the same thing for a job is viewed with some disdain. Why shouldn’t someone wake up and get dressed as if they’re going to work (even though they may not be)? They could even go to the “office” (library?) and prepare themselves for work.

Secret to happiness – Short and sweet. The secret to happiness is not wishing things were different from they currently are.

Evolution of the electric car – I wonder if there’s a History Channel special (or one in the works?) on the evolution of the electric car. I remember reading that the electric car was first invented in the 19th century, but fell out of favor when the internal combustion engine was invented (see: Wikipedia).

People’s relationships to their body – It’s interesting to see how people relate to their body (in general) in comparison to how they relate to their body at a place where the body can sometimes be more prominent (at the gym or the beach).

That’s narrowed down my list to four! Three of those are “recurring posts” (quotes, TEDTalks, and personality tests). There is one post that I do want to dedicate some time to, so I didn’t want to shorten it here. Look for it in the next little while.

Twitter: Who I’m Following, Part 7

Finally, finally, finally. I have caught up my ”Who I’m Following” series to the actual people I am following on Twitter. Youll notice a decided conservative-flavor to these Twitter accounts because I noticed I was following a number of liberal folks. As a result, I wanted to make sure I was getting the viewpoint from the conservative side, too. If you missed any of the earlier posts in this series, here they are:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

So, without further adieu, here are the people I have followed since my last post.

@jonahlehrer: Jonah writes on psychology, neuroscience, and the relationship between the humanities and science. You can find his columns/posts on the Wall Street Journaland WIRED Science.

@sciam: Scientific American has been covering science news for the last 165+ years. A reputable source of science news for certain.

@UtneReader: The best of the alternative press are digests of independent ideas and culture. Not right, not left, but forward thinking

@Change: the worlds fastest growing platforms for social change, empowering millions to start and join campaigns for social change in their communities.

@counterparties: Counterparties is a curated snapshot of the best finance news and commentary. It combines what we [Felix Salmon and Ryan McCarthy] find interesting, overlooked, and important.

@jonasTSN1050: Jonas is one of my childhood friends (!) and he covers the Toronto Maple Leafs for TSN Radio 1050.

@RobLowe: Rob Lowe played one of my favorite TV characters, Sam Seaborn, and often tweets about an assortment of things including politics and Parks and Recreation.

@melissa_e_brown: I went to high school with Melissa she’s one of the smartest people I know. Shes just finishing up her MBA at Tuck and who knows what wonderful things shell contribute to the world.

@richardbranson: Richard Branson is probably one of the most successful serial entrepreneurs — ever.

@danecook: A hilarious stand-up comedian. One of my favorites from him was “Vicious Circle.”

@RepresentPledge: One of the most important documentaries — bar none. If you haven’t seen it, go see it — right now.

@LeafsBB20: Brian Burke is the current GM for the Toronto Maple Leafs and he’s got a reputation for disruptive tweets.

@odemagazine: “An international magazine for Intelligent Optimists about the people, passion, & possibilities changing our world for the better.”

@McCainBlogette: Meghan McCain is the daughter of former Republican Presidential Nominee, John McCain.

@JustinWolfers: He is a very reputable economist and has a number of appointments at universities and think-tanks.

@indecision: “Politics, election news and other jokes. From your friends at Comedy Central.”

@ThisIsSethsBlog: Seth Godin is one of the most influential people in business today, especially with regard to marketing.

@wsjgraphics: “Information graphics and data from The Wall Street Journal.” I’ve previously written about my affinity for data (in visual form).

@JenSiebelNewsom: Jen is the writer/director/producer of the documentary I mentioned earlier, Miss Representation.

@NelsonMandela: This is the Twitter account for the Nelson Mandela Foundation… “contributing to a just society by promoting the values, vision, and work of our founder.”

@sdwillia: I went to university with Shane and he currently works in the non-profit industry. He’s sure to do great things!

@AncientProverbs: This Twitter account provides proverbs and quotes. I do enjoy a good quote.

@DavidBrooksNYT: He is… “a political and cultural commentator who considers himself a moderate and writes for the NYT.”

@ReihanSalam: “I write in the hope and expectation that people read people with whom they disagree to challenge their settled views. Suffice it to say, this isnt generally the case, but Im happy to continue behaving as though it is, as it is true of enough people to justify the effort.” (from here)

@KarlRove: Ken Wilber, a modern-day philosopher in his own right, has said that Rove has read Integral Theory.

@RameshPonnuru: “Ramesh Ponnuru is a senior editor for National Review, where he has covered national politics for 15 years.”

@NYTimeskrugman: I have written about following Paul Krugman before. Seems like I unfollowed him and refollowed him.

@gallupnews: “Gallup news and tracking data on politics, business, wellbeing, and the world.”

@DeepakChopra: Do I really need to tell you who Deepak Chopra is? Just in case I do, go here.

@sbnation: A sports network of over 300 blogs maintained by part-time writers who love their team.

@JoeNBC: Joe Scarborough is the co-host of Morning Joe and is a former Congressman from Florida.

@biologyofbelief: This is the official Twitter account for Bruce Lipton not to be confused with @brucelipton.

@HamOntCakeLady: Erin Andrews, (one of my sisters-in-law), is affectionately known as Hamilton, Ontario’s Cake Lady.

@cbellatoni: Christina Bellantoni is the Politics Editor for PBS NewsHour. She was also a fellow at the IOP this past fall.

@michaelbd: Michael is a Politics Editor for Business Insider and is a noted conservative voice.

@davidfrum: Frum is a former economic speechwriter for George W. Bush and clearly, is a noted conservative.

@TEDNews: “ALL the news from TED: TEDTalks, TED Conferences, the TED Prize and more.”

@McKQuarterly: “The business journal of McKinsey & Company. Our goal is to offer new ways of thinking about management in the private, public, & nonproft sector.”

@HarvardBiz: “The latest Harvard Business Review blog posts, Management Tips of the Day, Daily Stats, and more.”

And there you have it. You’re all caught up on the the accounts I’m current following on Twitter. As always, if you have any recommendations (based on the flavor of the people I follow in Parts 1 through 7), feel free to leave me a note in the comment section of tweet me.

Twitter: Who I’m Following, Part 6

Its been just about two months since I last updated the list of people Im following on Twitter. I thought today might be a good day to give a brief update. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll try to catch “all the way” up to who I’m following. In case you missed the earlier posts:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

So, without further adieu, here are the people I have followed since my last post.

@LouiseHay: Louise Hay is the author of one of the most the most famous self-help books of all time – You Can Heal Your Life. It lends credence to the idea that your thoughts can affect your biology.

@GreatestQuotes: “A collection of quotes that will challenge, motivate and inspire you to be the best you can be.” Curated by Sinead Duffy, Personal Development Trainer & Coach.

@BuddyRoemer: He is a former Governor & Congressman and is currently running for President in 2012. He has bee notoriously held out of Republican debates, but has some intriguing ideas.

@CNBC: CNBC is a cable television business news channel. They are dedicated to covering business headlines and financial markets.

@levarburton: LeVar Burton played the lovable character Geordi La Forge from Star Trek: The Next Generation. He’s also a big proponent of literacy.

@justinptrudeau: Justin Trudeau is the son of the famous Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau. Justin has gone on to become a politician in his own right.

@nycole_turmel: Since the passing of Jack Layton, Turmel has filled in as the interim leader of the NDP. Shortly, the NDP will pick their leader.

@Dahlialithwick: Dahlia is a Canadian (eh?) and mostly tweets about issues regarding law and the court system.

@Number10gov: This is the account of the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron. I’m not sure, but I think the account will stay with the Prime Minister’s office, regardless of party.

@melindagates: Melinda Gates is the co-founder and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is the largest wealthiest charitable foundation.

@JimCarrey: Jim Carrey was born in Newmarket, Ontario (I lived there when I was younger!) and is one of the funnier comedians of today.

@TheLewisBlack: Lewis Black is a stand-up comedian and is a regular on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. His tweets are often funny.

@wordspy: “Word Spy is devoted to ‘lexpionage,’ the sleuthing of new words and phrases.”

@Steele_Michael: Michael Steele is a former RNC Chairman. He is a contributor to MSNBC (often representing the conservative viewpoint).

@anamariecox: She is currently a Washington correspondent for GQ and often has interesting commentary on the political debates.

@fourthofjulie: Julie is one of my friends from SVSU. She currently works for the American Red Cross.

@DalaiLama: The Dalai Lama is the most influential figure in Tibetan Buddhism. His “reign” has lasted over 60 years!

@MaddowApp: This twitter account is aimed at iPad users, but during “The Rachel Maddow Show,” it often tweets links to articles of which Maddow is referring.

@joestiglitz: Stiglitz won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 and is a very well respected academic.

@AliVelshi: I used to watch Ali back when he was on ROBTv (Report on Business Television). I always found him to be very intelligent.

@gatesfoundation: From the Twitter account: “We work to help all people lead healthy, productive lives, focused on health, poverty, and opportunity.”

@aaker: I listened to a lecture of Prof. Aaker (look for it in my upcoming post in the series “What’s On My iPod, Part 6.”)

@SSIReview: The Stanford Social Innovation Review: Informing and inspiring leaders of social change.

@BillGates: Bill Gates doesn’t tweet very often, but when he does, he often, “shares cool things he’s learning.”

@jack_welch: Jack Welch is one of the preeminent businessmen of our time. It’s great to be able to follow his commentary via Twitter.

@EconBizEd: Tweets to articles in The Economist that have to do with news or insights for business education.

@ECONdailycharts: I like to view information by way of charts, so it’s great that The Economist has an account dedicated solely to charts.

@EconBizFin: Tweets from this account are from The Economist and have to do with business, finance, or economics.

@ModeledBehavior: This is the Twitter account for a blog and there are often tweets about the economy, business, and finance.

@Humblebrag: This account retweets Humblebrags. As is made clear on their about statement, “Humblebrags are different from brags.”

@LaMonicaBuzz: Paul La Monica tweets — often — about stocks (what’s up, what’s down) and the economy. He’s quite a barometer for the market.

@Richard_Florida: Richard writes about social and economic theory. He’s current a Professor at the University of Toronto.

@Nouriel: Roubini is a rather famous economist. In fact, he predicted the collapse of the US housing market and the worldwide recession.

@felixsalmon: Felix Salmon is a noted finance blogger for Reuters. He’s won awards for his scientific reporting.

@GOOD: “GOOD is the global association of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits powering what works.”

As I said earlier in this post, I’ll do my best to catch up to the updated list of who I’m following in the next couple of weeks. As always, if there’s someone you think I might like to follow, leave me a comment, send me an email, or tweet me.

The Most Unifying Global Event: New Year’s Eve & Day

Is there a more unifying global event than New Year’s Eve & Day?

There have been some rather unifying global events in recent memory, but they usually involve some sort of catastrophe (think: tsunamis). In the US, series finales used to be watched by whole lots of people, but with the further development of individual niche markets, even that has tailed off. There likely won’t ever be a TV show that comes close to touching MASH’s record of over 100 million viewers and close to 80% of households watching.

Lost was a pretty well-liked show, (so I’m told), and its series finale only came in at 54th on the same list. TV is ‘nice,’ but it’s not the something that I would want unifying the globe. Of course, there are exceptions. If everyone were watching a TV that was commemorating world peace or the end of world hunger, then sure, I’m in.

As I sat and thought about the various global events that have happened, I wondered if there were a night/day more filled with hope and love than New Year’s Eve/Day. Some may cite holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, or Easter, but those kinds of holidays can be seen as country-specific or denominational. While there are probably lots of people who celebrate these days regardless of their country and/or religion, I was looking for something with a wider scope.

We could go back in time to the Moon Landing, but again, that was country-specific. Of course, the Soviet Union was interested in the event, but I don’t know that it’s fair to say every country was as enveloped with the event. There’s nothing quite like a ‘new year,’ though, is there? All the potential, the hope, the possibility, the dreams.

I think that New Year’s Eve & Day will be, for quite some time, the most unifying global event. Why? Because this event can be completely different things for everyone. Some people can see it as the end of the “old year,” and some people can focus on the beginning of the “new year.” Some folks can use it as a way to springboard to a motivational state that allows them to achieve their goals/dreams, while others just see it as another day. New Year’s is, in a sense, the perfect event to project whatever we want onto it.

Twitter: Who I’m Following, Part 5

It’s been almost 3 months since I last updated the list of people I’m following on Twitter. I thought today might be a good time to begin to update that list. In case you missed the earlier posts:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

So, without further adieu, here are the people I have followed since my last post.

@joshrogin: Rogin covers national security and foreign policy for Foreign Policy (magazine). He often tweets his column and other things that come up in the news that have to do with national security or foreign policy.

@MHarrisPerry: Melissa Harris-Perry is a professor of political science at Tulane University. She guest hosts for Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell from time-to-time. She’s also writes for The Nation.

@DylanRatigan: Dylan Ratigan is the host of The Dylan Ratigan Show. He also, somewhat famously, went on quite a rant about the political system in the US.

@SeumasMilne: Naomi Klein has high praise for Milne. In her book The Shock Doctrine, she said that Milne turned The Guardian‘s comment section into a “truly global debating forum.”

@Thom_Hartmann: He hosts a progressive radio show that has nearly 3 million listeners a week. Interesting to me, before being a nationally syndicated radio host, he was a psychotherapist.

@RBReich: He served in the Ford Administration and as the Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration. Currently, he’s a professor at Berkeley.

@donnabrazile: In 2000, Donna Brazile became the first African-American woman to lead a presidential campaign (Gore). She’s currently a professor at Georgetown University.

@politifact: Politifact is a project where the staff, “fact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists, and interest groups.” This is very helpful in judging the validity (or truth) of some of the things said by people involved in politics.

@NationalDebt: “The National Debt Clock ran out of digits so start following the debt daily on Twitter. (+) or (-) means up or down from previous day’s debt total.”

@BigBang_CBS: This is the Twitter feed for the popular TV series, The Big Bang Theory. I rather enjoy the characters and so too, does famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

@Mason_SOM: I’m currently (2011-2013) a graduate student at George Mason University in the School of Management (MBA program). This is the twitter feed for Mason’s school of management.

@NickKristof: Nick Kristof is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the New York Times. He’s known for “bringing to light human rights abuses in Asia and Africa.”

@wolfblitzercnn: Wolf Blitzer is CNN’s lead political anchor and is often seen as the host of CNN’s The Situation Room, which, in its current iteration, airs from 4pm to 6pm weeknights on CNN.

@jeremyscahill: Scahill is the national security correspondent for The Nation. He also wrote Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.

@David_Gergen: Gergen is a Senior Political Analyst for CNN. He’s also the Director for Public Leadership and a Professor of Public Service at the Harvard Kennedy School.

@Revkin: Revkin writes the Dot Earth blog for the New York Times. “Dot Earth tracks relevant developments from suburbia to Siberia.

@Eugene_Robinson: Robinson is a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the Washington Post. He’s also an MSNBC analyst and author.

@davidaxelrod: David Axelrod was the chief strategist for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Afterwards, he remained a senior advisor to President Obama.

@TheCharter: “The Charter for Compassion is the result of Karen Armstrong’s 2008 TED Prize wish.” Check out the video of the TEDTalk.

@ladygaga: I’m sure you recognize the name (Lady Gaga). I decided to follow (and subsequently look into her message) when I first clicked onto her twitter profile and found that she was quoting Osho.

@Pres_Bartlet: President Bartlet is the fictional character from the television series: The West Wing. Whomever tweets from this account captures the essence of how President Bartlet would tweet, in my opinion.

@NassimHaramein: Nassim Haramein is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. I highly recommend checking out his work. You can start with his website, but if you can, I’d get a copy of “Black Whole.”

@TheFix: Chris Cillizza writes for The Washington Post and is a contributor to MSNBC. He often live-tweets the debates or other important political events.

@chrisrock: Chris Rock is one of my favorite comedians, especially when he does bits like this one that speak to the dysfunctional nature of some of the things in this world.

@johnlegend: I was first introduced to John Legend’s music during my undergraduate degree. I can be quite particular about the music I listen to, but for the most part, I like Legend.

@neiltyson: Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of the more accessible scientists of today. He has made many appearances on talk shows (including The Daily Show) and even a guest spot on “The Big Bang Theory.”

@BillyCrystal: My first introduction to Billy Crystal was in the movie When Harry Met Sally… A great movie, indeed. Interesting fact: Billy Crystal has hosted the Oscar’s the second most number of times (currently 8, soon to be 9, which is well behind Bob Hope with 18).

@farrellybros: The Farrelly Brothers have made some hilarious movies through the years (written and/or directed). I wonder if The Three Stooges (movie) will prove to be as successful.

@MyInfographics: This twitter account focuses on tweeting infographics, particularly those from their own site, which is a collection of the best infographics from around the web.

@hillharper: Hill Harper is best known for playing a character on CSI, but I initially followed him because of his inclination to empowering tweets.

I’m nearing my self-imposed word limit of (1000 words), so I’ll end this post for now. It’s worth noting that I’ve gone through and “purged” some of the accounts I’ve followed in the past (including some of the accounts in this post) and subsequently, added a slew of new accounts. Look for some of them in Part 6 of this series. And as always, if you have suggestions, leave a comment, send me an email, or tweet me.

What’s On My iPod: Lectures, In and Around Metro DC, Part 5

Part 1: Songs, LA to DC
Part 2: Lectures, LA to DC
Part 3: Podcasts, LA to DC
Part 4: Lectures/Podcasts, Ottawa to DC

In the first four parts of this series, I wrote about the various music, podcasts, or lectures that I listened to on my various road trips. Now that I’m in the DC area on a more permanent basis (completing an MBA), I’m not really in need of a vast sum of lectures/podcasts to listen to as I drive across the country (or between countries). As such, I’ve decided to continue this series and continue taking in extra information, while doing an assortment of activities (commuting, working out, etc.). As with the previous lectures, I’ve obtained all of these from iTunes U and highly recommend you check it out, if you haven’t already.

Making the Perfect Pitch – This was a short lecture (15 minutes) and it was provided by Cambridge University. They interviewed Dr. Darrin Disley, who gave some very poignant advice on the infamous “elevator pitch.” He explained the 9 C’s of elevator speeches, in the form of an elevator speech. The one thing that I pulled from this lecture (which happens to be one of the 9 C’s) is that the elevator pitch should be conversational. The purpose of the elevator pitch is to get the person you’re talking to interested in your pitch (not necessarily sell them on a business plan). The point is just to get the ball rolling.

The Art of the Short Sell – This was a lecture that James Chanos, founder and president of Kynikos Associates, gave to an audience at Yale University. Chanos talked about “10 Lessons From the Financial Crisis That Investors Will Soon Forget (If They Haven’t Already!)” As you can see from the powerpoint presentation, there is so much information in this lecture. The one takeaway for me is that financial history has a way of repeating itself. Chanos says, “Some other firm will be the AIG of the next crisis!”

The following lectures were part of a series called “Building a Business” and were hosted by Oxford University:

Negotiation Skills – This isn’t the first negotiation lecture I’ve listened to on the road. When the speaker began the lecture, I was surprised to recognize the activity from the first negotiation lecture I heard. There were minor changes, but it was essentially the same game. The main takeaways from this lecture how important creating value really is to the success of negotiations. Many people enter negotiations thinking that there is a ‘fixed pie’ that will be distributed between the parties. Instead, the two parties can, together, create value and in essence, add to the pie.

Managing People, Managing Teams – This lecture was given by Tim Cook, (not the new CEO of Apple), but the Tim Cook that is associated with Oxford University. Cook comes from a hard sciences background, so I thought it would be rather interesting to hear his take on managing people. He talked about transactional analysis and recommend Eric Berne’s book. I had already read it and would say that it’s one of the many methods out there for understanding human interaction. He also talked about some other skills that were important like interviewing and the relationship between managers (and the people they manage), as well as the people they interact with, but have no direct managerial “control” over, like politicians, accountants, etc.

Marketing: Creating and Keeping Customers – This lecture was given by Jonathan Reynolds, a professor at Oxford. Given my limited experience with the marketing literature, it was very informative to listen to this lecture by Reynolds. He covered a lot of ground from internet marketing to social media to e-commerce. Reynolds explores the ideas and principles that are paramount to the field of marketing. Of course, there are some overlaps with other fields (psychology), but marketing is a field steeped in intricacies and — since it is based on humans — continually evolving.

Do Politics and Economics Mix in School Policy? – This lecture was given by Eric Hanushek and Michael Kirst and contained the perspectives of both politics (Kirst) and economics (Hanushek). It was put on courtesy of Stanford University and one of the speakers boasted that Stanford has one of the best institutions with regard to education policy research. One of the lines that struck me about this lecture was when one of the speakers proclaimed something to the effect that when it comes to education policy, everyone has an opinion. They spoke about some of the pitfalls to teacher’s unions (harder to reward excellent teachers, among other things), and they talked about the idea that education policy, for the most part, would be better served by being a local issue.

The Financial Crisis, the Recession, and the American Political Economy: A Systemic Perspective – This lecture, by far, had the longest introduction (to the speaker) of any of the previous lectures I’ve heard. It was given at MIT. Given the variety of work achieved by the speaker, Charles H. Ferguson, I understood why there was such a long intro. Moreover, when the speaker began, I didn’t realize that he was “the guy” who made the movie Inside Job. (Note: this lecture was given right around the time of the release of Inside Job, which of course, later went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary.) While there are many theories as to how/why things happened the way they did, (my two cents), I always find it fascinating to take in more perspectives. I don’t know that there is (or could be?) a singular answer as to why things happened.

This rounds out the lectures I’ve been listening to since my last post. As always, if you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments section (or through some other form: Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

What’s On My iPod: Lectures/Podcasts From A Road Trip, Ottawa to DC, Part 4

Part 1: Songs, LA to DC
Part 2: Lectures, LA to DC
Part 3: Podcasts, LA to DC

In the first three parts of this series, I wrote about what was on my iPod for the trip from LA to DC (by car). More recently, I drove from Ottawa to DC, which allowed me to listen to a number of new podcasts and lectures. In this post, I’ll go over the lectures/podcasts and some of the knowledge I gleaned from them.

I had two podcasts. One of them was from the Chicago Booth Podcast Series:

Chicago Booth Podcast: Should Executive Pay Be Regulated? (12/02/2009) – I thought I would start with one of the most interesting tracks I listened to on the trip. Given that I’m about to start an MBA, I thought it would be prudent of me to learn about this topic (executive pay). I will say, I was quite surprised to hear the statistics that the speaker, Randall Kroszner, offered on the topic. While he raised the point about athletes who make (equal or more) money than the CEOs, the surprising fact was that executive pay (now) is actually down in relation to executive pay from the ’80s. And maybe more poignant, executives make less money than athletes and entertainers.

The second podcast was from Knowledge@Wharton Interviews:

Nassim Taleb on Living with Black Swans (04/13/2011) – Nassim Taleb has written a number of articles and books, and is affiliated with some very prestigious institutions. He has so many important things to say, but I think the thing that I found the most transferable was the problem with specialization. He didnt actually put it this way, but this is how Im interpreting it. In particular, he talks about how important it is to in an effort to account for randomness and variability diversify. If youre investing, dont invest in just one company. Dont invest in just one industry. Dont invest in just one kind of investment. Or we could relate it to business, specifically, Im reminded of the book Trade-Off, by Kevin Maney. In Maneys book, among other things, he talks about those times within an industry where companies are blind-sided by some sort of innovation (example: think about cameras 20 years ago and now how cell phones have revolutionized the way we take pictures). Taleb would argue the importance of guarding against a Black Swan, which from our example, would be cell phones with cameras.

The remaining 6 tracks were all lectures I downloaded through iTunes U. If you haven’t checked it out, I highly recommend it! The first lecture I listened to came courtesy of the University of Cambridge called:

What’s the Point of Economics? – The text from the website: “Evan Davis, BBC Today presenter, outlines five things everyone should know about economics, Mike Kitson looks at the relevance of economics to everyday life and Professor Willy Brown describes the growing impact of the minimum wage over its first ten years.”

There were two lectures I listened to that came from a class at Yale on Game Theory. I didn’t have the time to listen to every lecture from the course, so I picked two of the higher rated lectures:

02 – Putting Yourselves Into Other People’s Shoes and 03 – Iterative Deletion and the Median-Voter Theorem – I found these lectures highly informative. The first (or should I say second?) lecture gave a really good example of how important it is to put yourself into other people’s shoes. This example is related to how another person would approach a game (the same one that you’re playing) and exemplifies the importance of knowing your “opponent.” Like in one of the podcast, this lesson is very transferable to other parts of life. In the second (or third) lecture, Professor Polak does a great job of explaining the median-voter theorem, and more importantly, uses the example of political positions to make the theorem more accessible to the students.

The last three lectures I listened to all came from Stanford and its Graduate School of Business:

Hire the Right People, Carlos Brito – This was an interesting talk, especially because it came from someone I usually wouldn’t necessarily voluntarily hear from. Brito is the CEO of Anheuser-Busch and he has some intriguing ideas that he has put into practice in many of his offices. He thinks that separate offices foster LESS work. In fact, he talks about how, in his experience, having no walls has actually made work easier and motivated people to do more work. It’s his opinion that offices are for people who want to hide and do no work. With the open concept office, he explains how meetings are much “shorter;” 2- or 5-minute meetings can happen much quicker without having to “schedule” everything.

Dave Blakely on Fostering Innovation – From the description of this lecture’s YouTube video: “In this talk, Dave Blakely presents a set of principles for successful innovation, regardless of an organization’s size, type or location. The heart of any innovation agenda is a carefully chosen interdisciplinary team, typically including members with backgrounds in technology, business, and other relevant industry-specific knowledge. Creative leaps can be inspired by empathetic human research, and insights are distilled in synthesis sessions. Techniques such as brainstorming can help teams to direct their creativity, and prototypes can be used to improve visualization and mitigate risk.”

Changing Behavior and Changing Policies – BJ Fogg runs the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University. To get a better idea of Fogg’s perspective on behavior, I would say (listen to this talk, as it’s only 20 minutes or so), or check out his site: BJ Fogg’s Behavior Model.

I don’t have any “planned” long trips on the horizon, but I am considering integrating podcasts and iTunes U lectures to daily life. If you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them in the comments, via email, or even on Twitter.

Twitter: Who I’m Following, Part 4

This is a continuation of the post I did the other day (Part 3) of the updated list of people I’m following on Twitter. You can find Part 1 (here) and Part 2 (here).

@mental_floss: The profile claims that they tweet “amazing facts from the people at mental_floss magazine.” I wholeheartedly agree with that claim.

@billmckibben: From the Wikipedia article about him: “In 2010, the Boston Globe called him ‘probably the nation’s leading environmentalist’ and Time magazine described him as ‘the world’s best green journalist.'”

@theyesmen: I first learned of these guys from watching the documentary, “The Yes Men Fix the World.” From the Wikipedia article about them: “The Yes Men primarily aim to raise awareness about what they consider problematic social issues.”

@pourmecoffee: I follow this particular Twitter feed because it usually has some sort of quirky or funny thing to say about politics or the news. If it’s not something “funny,” it’s usually some kind of cool fact (similar to @mental_floss).

@freakonomics: If you haven’t read Freakonomics or SuperFreakonomics, I highly recommend it. My post about Economics contained a video with the authors of these two books. This Twitter accounts posts updates to the Freakonomics Blog.

@The_Infographic: I mentioned the other day my inclination towards statistics (and even more so, statistics represented in a visual format). This Twitter account tweets the #dailyinfographic, which is a pictorial representation of a subject and statistics about said subject (the subject varies with each infographic, of course).

@consumerreports: From their profile on Twitter: “Consumer Reports is published by Consumers Union, the worlds largest independent consumer-product testing organization. Our mission: Test, inform, and protect.”

@GreenProgress: This Twitter feed posts updates about green technology and the environment, as well as research and even advice from time-to-time.

@flowingdata: More of the same with regard to data and visual representations of said data. He wrote an excellent book called “Visualize This,” which you can read more about here.

@infobeautiful: Once again, more of the same with regard to data and visual representations of said data. There are some cool things that come from this Twitter feed.

@earthinstitute: This is the Institute that @JeffDSachs is the director of, (whom I mentioned in Part 2). From their Twitter profile: “Mobilizing the sciences, education and public policy to achieve a sustainable earth.”

@JerrySeinfeld: As with Conan, Fallon, and the other comedy-related people I’ve mentioned before, it’s important to laugh. I used to love watching Seinfeld (the show) and now I love following Seinfeld (the Twitter account) because he has some great one-liners.

@twitter: The official Twitter account of Twitter. There are some interesting things about Twitter that are tweeted now and again. For instance, did you know that Twitter is now in Dutch and Indonesian?

@EricStangel: Stangel is the head writer for the Late Show with David Letterman, and according to his profile, he was named one of Time’s 140 Feeds to Follow.

@ResearchBlogs: This feed collects the best blog posts about peer-reviewed research around the internet. Since peer-reviewed research is wide-ranging, there are a variety of subjects that are tweeted about.

@infosthetics: Another data visualization Twitter feed. An interesting fact about this one: the person behind it is an Associate Professor at K.U.Leuven (a University in Belgium).

@GillianDaws: A really smart person who tweets about everything from soccer to food to farmer’s markets and everything in between.

@GeekStats: I love statistics. This particular Twitter account offers up some stats that you probably wouldn’t have otherwise known.

@ThinkTankedWaPo: From its Twitter profile: “Allen McDuffee reports on the world according to think tanks.” I think (ha, no pun intended) that there can be important information gleaned from think tanks.

@lessig: Lawrence Lessig is the the founder of Creative Commons. He’s also a professor at Harvard and is quite the political activist.

@NYTimeskrugman: Paul Krugman is a professor of economics at Princeton University. He also writes for the New York Times. He also won a Nobel Prize in economics in 2008.

@mitchellreports: Andrea Mitchell is the Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for NBC News. She also has a pulse on the happenings in Washington.

@theneweconomics: The New Economic Foundation is an independent think tank and is one of three biggest firms in the UK. This is the organization that launched the Happy Planet Index.

@fixcongress: Fix Congress is part of the “political activism” from @lessig. While I might not necessarily agree with the “hows,” of this movement, I agree with the premise.

@OpenSecretsDC: Open Secrets is the website for the Center for Responsive Politics. The main thing I like about these guys is they write about who donates to which campaign (and how much).

@JoeTrippi: Joe Trippi has worked on numerous presidential campaigns and is the author of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”

@davos: The Twitter feed of the World Economic Forum. There is an annual meeting in (Davos, Switzerland) of business leaders and international leaders, among others, who come together to discuss issues facing the world.

@AlecJRoss: Alec J. Ross is the Secretary Clinton’s Senior Advisor for Innovation. He is affectionately known as Clinton’s “tech guru.”

@davidgregory: David Gregory is the former White House Chief Correspondent for NBC News and is now the host of one of the “Sunday morning talk shows.”

@Ed_Miliband: Ed Miliband is the Leader of the Labour Party in the UK. I tend to lean towards liberal/progressive views, so I tend to be interested in parties in other countries who support these same ideologies.

@LukeRussert: Luke Russert is following in the footsteps of his father, Tim Russert. He covers Capital Hill (in Washington) for NBC News.

@chucktodd: Chuck Todd is the Chief White House Correspondent for NBC News. From his Twitter profile: “And, yes, I tweet about sports too.”

@andrewsorkin: Andrew Ross Sorkin is a financial columnist for the New York Times and in 2009, he wrote the “tell-all” book about the financial collapse called, “Too Big To Fail.”

@ariannahuff: Arianna Huffington is best known for being the co-founder of The Huffington Post. If you get the chance, I’d highly recommend reading her biography.

And there you have it. You’re up to date on the current list of who I’m following. Maybe in another month or so, I’ll do another post (if I’ve accumulated a bunch more people to follow). As always, feel free to follow @JStanghini!

Note: I wrote this post in advance, so look for @joshrogin and @MHarrisPerry in Part 5 of this series.