March 6, 2013
Thomas Frank (b. 1965) is an American political analyst, historian, and journalist. He co-founded and edited ‘The Baffler magazine.’ He is a former columnist for the ‘Wall Street Journal,’ authoring ‘The Tilting Yard’ from 2008 to 2010. Frank is a historian of culture and ideas and analyzes trends in American electoral politics and propaganda, advertising, popular culture, mainstream journalism and economics.
With his writing, he explores the rhetoric and impact of the ‘Culture Wars’ in American political life, and the relationship between politics and culture in the United States. Frank started his political journey as a College Republican, but has come to be highly critical of conservatism, especially the presidency of George W. Bush. Frank summarized the thesis of his book ‘The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule’ as ‘Bad government is the natural product of rule by those who believe government is bad.’
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March 6, 2013
The impact of Native American Gaming varies by tribe and location. In the 1970s, various tribes took unprecedented action to initiate gaming enterprises. In doing so, they created not only a series of legal struggles between the federal, state, and tribal governments but also a groundbreaking way to revitalize the Native American economy.
Native American gaming has grown from bingo parlors to high stakes gaming and is surrounded by controversy on many different levels. There are disputes concerning tribal sovereignty, negative effects of gaming, and a loss of Native American culture. In the US the ‘Indian Gaming Regulatory Act’ (IGRA) was passed in 1988 in order to secure collaboration between the states and tribes and also in order for the federal government to oversee gaming operations.
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March 5, 2013
The Bitch Wars occurred within the Soviet labor camp system between 1945 and 1953 (around the death of Joseph Stalin). The Russian word ‘suka’ (literally, ‘bitch’) has a stronger negative connotation than its English equivalent.
In Russian criminal argot, it specifically refers to a person from the criminal world who had cooperated with law enforcement or the government, or ‘went bitch.’ Within the Russian prison system, there was a historical and social structure that had existed since the Tsarist era. One of the important tenets of the system was that members would not serve or collaborate with the Tsarist and later Soviet government. This rule encompassed any kind of collaboration, not only ‘snitching’ or ‘ratting.’ Continue reading →
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March 5, 2013
Mat is a term for strong obscene profanity in Russian and some other Slavic language communities. Mat is censored in the media and the use of mat in public constitutes a form of disorderly conduct, or mild hooliganism (although, such laws are only enforced episodically, in particular due to the vagueness of the legal definition).
However, despite the public ban, mat is used by Russians of all ages and nearly all social groups, with particular fervor in male-dominated military and the structurally similar social strata. Continue reading →
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March 5, 2013
Sigmund Freud noticed that humor, like dreams, can be related to unconscious content. In the 1905 book ‘The Joke and Its Relation to The Unconscious,’ as well as in the 1928 journal article ‘Humor,’ Freud distinguished contentious jokes from non-contentious or silly humor. In fact, he sorted humor into three categories that could be translated as: joke, comic, and mimetic (imitation).
In Freud’s view, jokes (the verbal and interpersonal form of humor) happened when the conscious allowed the expression of thoughts that society usually suppressed or forbade. The superego (conscience) allowed the ego (self) to generate humor. A benevolent superego allowed a light and comforting type of humor, while a harsh superego created a biting and sarcastic type of humor. A very harsh superego suppressed humor altogether. Continue reading →
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March 5, 2013
A quotation is the repetition of one expression as part of another one, particularly when the quoted expression is well-known or explicitly attributed by citation to its original source, and it is indicated by (punctuated with) quotation marks. A quotation can also refer to the repeated use of units of any other form of expression, especially parts of artistic works: elements of a painting, scenes from a movie or sections from a musical composition.
Quotations are used for a variety of reasons: to illuminate the meaning or to support the arguments of the work in which it is being quoted, to provide direct information about the work being quoted(whether in order to discuss it, positively or negatively), to pay homage to the original work or author, to make the user of the quotation seem well-read, and/or to comply with copyright law. Quotations are also commonly printed as a means of inspiration and to invoke philosophical thoughts from the reader.
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March 5, 2013
‘Shooting the messenger‘ is a metaphoric phrase used to describe the act of lashing out at the (blameless) bearer of bad news. In earlier times, messages were usually delivered in person by a human envoy. Sometimes, as in war, for example, the messenger was sent from the enemy camp.
An easily provoked combatant receiving such an overture could more easily vent anger (or otherwise retaliate) on the deliverer of the unpopular message than on its author. ‘Attacking the messenger’ is a subdivision of the ad hominem logical fallacy (making an argument personally against an opponent instead of against their argument).
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March 5, 2013
Social proof, also known as informational social influence, is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation. This effect is prominent in ambiguous social situations where people are unable to determine the appropriate mode of behavior, and is driven by the assumption that surrounding people possess more knowledge about the situation.
The effects of social influence can be seen in the tendency of large groups to conform to choices which may be either correct or mistaken, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as herd behavior. Although social proof reflects a rational motive to take into account the information possessed by others, formal analysis shows that it can cause people to converge too quickly upon a single choice, so that decisions of even large groups of individuals may be grounded in very little information (i.e. information cascades). Continue reading →
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March 4, 2013
Robert Cialdini is Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. He is best known for his book on persuasion and marketing, ‘Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.’ The book has been translated into 26 languages has also been published as a textbook under the title ‘Influence: Science and Practice.’
In writing the book, he spent three years going ‘undercover’ applying for jobs and training at used car dealerships, fund-raising organizations, and telemarketing firms to observe real-life situations of persuasion. The book also reviews many of the most important theories and experiments in social psychology. Cialdini distills his theory down to six key principles: Reciprocity, Commitment and Consistency, Social Proof, Authority, Liking, and Scarcity.
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March 4, 2013
Charlie Munger (b. 1924) is an American business magnate, lawyer, investor, and philanthropist. He is Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corporation, the diversified investment corporation chaired by Warren Buffett; in that capacity, Buffett describes Munger as ‘my partner.’
Munger served as chairman of Wesco Financial Corporation from 1984 through 2011 (Wesco was approximately 80%-owned by Berkshire-Hathaway during that time). He is also the chairman of the Daily Journal Corporation, based in Los Angeles, and a director of Costco Wholesale Corporation.
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March 4, 2013
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska that oversees and manages a number of partially and wholly owned subsidiary companies. The company owns Geico, Dairy Queen, Fruit of the Loom, Helzberg Diamonds, NetJets, and Heinz and has significant minority holdings in American Express, M&T Bank, Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Proctor & Gamble, and IBM. Berkshire Hathaway averaged an annual growth in book value of 20.3% to its shareholders for the last 44 years, while employing large amounts of capital, and minimal debt.
Berkshire Hathaway stock produced a total return of 76% from 2000–2010 versus a negative 11.3% return for the S&P 500. Warren Buffett owns 32.4% aggregate voting power of Berkshire’s shares outstanding, and vice-chairman Charlie Munger holds a stake big enough to make him a billionaire (early investments in Berkshire by David Gottesman and Franklin Otis Booth, Jr. resulted in their becoming billionaires as well). Bill Gates’ Cascade Investments LLC is the second largest shareholder of Berkshire and owns more than 5% of class B shares. Continue reading →
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March 2, 2013
Eddie Huang (b. 1982) is an Asian American restaurateur, food personality and former lawyer. He is the owner of Baohaus. Huang was born in Washington, D.C., to immigrant parents from Taiwan. He was raised in Orlando, where his father managed a successful group of steak and seafood restaurants. Huang identified with African-American culture, especially hip-hop, at a young age. He received a B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh, Rollins College and a J.D. from Cardozo School of Law.
Not long after graduating from law school, Huang decided for a career change. After being laid off from a New York law firm, he worked as a stand-up comic and as a marijuana dealer. He was interested in food as he had grown up watching his mother cook at home and had learned many skills in the kitchen. He learned management from his father. Continue reading →
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The Daily Omnivore 