Month: October 2011

Ten month-old twins Rachel Song (L) and Julia Song (R) hold American flags while they sleep during the naturalization ceremony of their parents Seong Song and Young Kim, from South Korea, at Liberty Island on October 28, 2011 in New York City. One hundred and twenty five citizens were naturalized in honor of the Statue of Liberty's 125th birthday. By Michael Nagle/Getty Images.

On that note, the Smithsonian blog has compiled a series of archived images showing the evolution of American flight alongside Lady Liberty.

One man's struggle in Vietnam:

There’s a part of me that wishes I had accepted the "happy ending"—I’m sure you can guess which part—but I don’t regret my choice. I was not disgusted by the offer, even though I hadn’t sought it out. Ultimately, though, I couldn’t shake my concerns that, despite her expressions of eagerness, maybe she didn’t really like offering complete strangers handjobs for money and maybe it wasn’t completely her choice.

In theory, I don’t morally object to sex for money, as long as the person selling is completely willing and fairly compensated. In practice, I’ve read a lot more evidence of women being victimized by sex trade than benefitting from it, so in a massage parlor in Vietnam, my theoretical ideal was not met. Even if it had been, though, a handjob (or more) wouldn’t be as inviting if I didn’t feel selected for the privilege.

Sarah Williams Goldhagen writes in praise of the Chinese built environment: 

China’s modernization is often portrayed as one step toward its eventual Westernization. The facts on the ground suggest a much more interesting phenomenon. The Chinese are not prospecting a path toward Western ways but, having borrowed, felicitously and infelicitously, from the West, are now modernizing with means and results that are thoroughly Chinese.

(Photo: From the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center by Flickr user HBarrison.)

A reader writes:

Let me preface this by saying that the last time I moved, I paid someone to do it (not to pack the boxes, just to move them), and it was great. That said, I would like to play the world's tiniest violin for Rod Dreher. Pack up your stuff, rent a damn U-Haul and drive it there yourself, like everyone else does. Moving isn't a luxury. Paying other people to do it for you is.

A reader in the industry offers some advice for moving on a budget:

Moving doesn't have to be a luxury or cost that much. There are tons of companies all over the nation doing labor only (you rent and drive the truck). We load on one end and another company unloads/unpacks on the other. You can even hire drivers and you won't have to pay those tariffs. The most common website is run by U-Haul and is called MovingHelp.com. Just thought it might be helpful to point out that there are still cheap options, without tariffs and plenty of people out there who are ready and able to do the job safely and professionally for less.

Erik Bryonjolfsson claims it's productivity:

[P]roductivity, output per unit input, is by far the most important determinant of our living standards. As Bob Solow showed in his Nobel Prize winning work, the main thing that makes an economy richer is not working harder or even using more capital or other resources. Instead, the main driver is innovations in products, services and business processes that let us create more value without using more inputs.

He admits that "not everyone is benefitting from strong productivity growth," a point he apparently addresses at length in a new ebook he co-authored.

A real-life story.

An interactive tool that reveals your place in the global birth order.

Stephen Budiansky reflects on the "depressing facts about Jobs's meanness, vanity, and narcissism now coming out":

With that same petty and narcissistic fixation that we can control everything in our own personal destiny—and for no other ends than our own betterment—Jobs, we read, first attempted to treat his cancer with mumbo-jumbo fruit juice diets and psychic spiritualism, then by ultrascientifically trying to become his own medical authority, spending $100,000 to have his DNA sequenced, acting altogether as if no one had ever had cancer, or at least such an important cancer, before.

I found myself remembering the story of Einstein's final days on this earth. Hospitalized with a ruptured aneurysm, he refused surgery, explaining, "I want to go when I want. It is in bad taste to prolong life artificially; I have done my share, it is time to go." But then our heroes today are no Einsteins.

The Daily What details:

7-year-old Nana Kyei demonstrates why he’s known as "Mr. Rhythm Machine" in his native Ghana.