A list of the top 50 business intellectuals, as compiled by Accenture in 2002. Initially a list of 300, the top 50 were found using the following rankings:
The top 5:
The Other Side of Outsourcing is a Discovery Channel documentary by Thomas Friedman on high-tech outsourcing to India. In it Friedman visits a call centre in Bangalore to interview the young Indians working there, and then travels to an impoverished rural part of India where he debates the pros and cons of globalization with locals.
This spawned his eventual best-selling book, The World is Flat, which is now being given away as an audiobook.
Annoyingly you have to sign up for a newsletter which will send it to you in 3 parts, but if it’s as good as The Lexus and the Olive Tree or Longitudes and Attitudes, this is a good way to get the book legitimately.
Edit: No need to sign up; the serialised book is on this ‘hidden’ page.
Three years ago Elizabeth Zierah caught a cold; a few weeks later she was back to normal… except that she had lost her sense of smell. In Slate, she writes about the miseries of losing the sense of smell (and in the process, taste).
I lost normal function on the left side of my body from a stroke when I was 30, and although I’ve had a strong recovery, I still have limited fine-motor control in my left hand, I walk with a limp, and I can’t feel much on my affected side. Yet without hesitation I can say that losing my sense of smell has been more traumatic than adapting to the disabling effects of the stroke. As the scentless and flavorless days passed, I felt trapped inside my own head, a kind of bodily claustrophobia, disassociated. It was as though I were watching a movie of my own life. When we see actors in a love scene, we accept that we can’t smell the sweat; when they take a sip of wine, we don’t expect to taste the grapes. That’s how I felt, like an observer watching the character of me.
via Mind Hacks
Sweet, bitter, sour, salt… and umami. The fifth taste.
Psychophysicists have long suggested the existence of four taste ‘primaries’, referred to as the basic tastes. Umami is now accepted as the fifth basic taste, exemplified by the non-salty sensations evoked by some free amino acids such as monosodium glutamate.
Umami is a Japanese word meaning savory, a “deliciousness” factor deriving specifically from detection of the natural amino acid, glutamic acid, or glutamates common in meats, cheese, broth, stock, and other protein-heavy foods. The action of umami receptors explains why foods treated with monosodium glutamate (MSG) often taste “heartier”.
Republican site Barackbook mocks Obama’s Facebook support.
With ‘his’ status set as “Barack is hoping to settle on an Iraq policy before November”, Barackbook attempts to highlight some of Obama’s “more controversial real life ‘friends,’ while cheerfully mocking his much-hailed online sheen”.
In all, the site is a shockingly clever 21st century twist on the age-old political tactic of guilt-by-association. It capitalizes on some of the key attributes of successful communication on the web: Brevity, graphics, and a subtle sense of humor. A related Facebook application even lets people become “fans” of Barackbook, and post comments.
Most of the comments on Tuesday were in support of Obama.
I’m always amazed at how ‘dirty’ American elections are. Amazed. If similar smear campaigns and personal attacks happened in the UK there would be uproar. Barackbook is still a bit much for me, but it’s a step in the right direction.
via Threat Level