Bamboo Innovator

The Joy of Pain: Schadenfreude and the Dark Side of Human Nature

The Joy of Pain: Schadenfreude and the Dark Side of Human Nature [Hardcover]

Richard H. Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 31, 2013 | ISBN-10: 0199734542 | ISBN-13: 978-0199734542 | Edition: 1

Few people will easily admit to taking pleasure in the misfortunes of others. But who doesn’t enjoy it when an arrogant but untalented contestant is humiliated on American Idol, or when the embarrassing vice of a self-righteous politician is exposed, or even when an envied friend suffers a small setback? The truth is that joy in someone else’s pain-known by the German word schadenfreude–permeates our society. Read more of this post

34-Year-Old Mindy Kaling Has A Hilarious But Totally Honest Explanation For All Her Early Success

34-Year-Old Mindy Kaling Has A Hilarious But Totally Honest Explanation For All Her Early Success

NICHOLAS CARLSON

DEC. 23, 2013, 4:03 PM 20,850 9

Mindy Kaling was hired as a writer on “The Office” when she was 24 years old. Nine years later, she’s now writing, producing, and starring in a sitcom on Fox, “The Mindy Project.”  She’s also written a couple books. Kaling is a very funny, very successful person at a very young age. How’d she do it? What advice could she give to aspiring filmmakers, writers, actors, and comedians who want to be like her? Back in March of this year, a USC film student asked Kaling during a panel at the 2013 PaleyFest. Kaling’s answer was classic her: hilarious, honest, and dead on. The student said: “I was wondering if you had any words of advice to [explain] how to make it, because you’re awesome.” HuluKaling answered: “Thank you. I never partied or had boyfriends.” Read more of this post

The Dictator’s Learning Curve: Inside the Global Battle for Democracy

The Dictator’s Learning Curve: Inside the Global Battle for Democracy Paperback

by William J. Dobson  (Author)

In this riveting anatomy of authoritarianism, acclaimed journalist William Dobson takes us inside the battle between dictators and those who would challenge their rule. Recent history has seen an incredible moment in the war between dictators and democracy—with waves of protests sweeping Syria and Yemen, and despots falling in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. But the Arab Spring is only the latest front in a global battle between freedom and repression, a battle that, until recently, dictators have been winning hands-down. The problem is that today’s authoritarians are not like the frozen-in-time, ready-to-crack regimes of Burma and North Korea. They are ever-morphing, technologically savvy, and internationally connected, and have replaced more brutal forms of intimidation with subtle coercion. The Dictator’s Learning Curve explains this historic moment and provides crucial insight into the fight for democracy.

Read more of this post

Financial Scammers Increasingly Target Elderly Americans; One in Every Five Americans 65 or Older Has Been Abused Financially

Financial Scammers Increasingly Target Elderly Americans

One in Every Five Americans 65 or Older Has Been Abused Financially

E.S. BROWNING

Dec. 23, 2013 3:20 p.m. ET

Minnesota State Rep. Joe Atkins spoke at a senior-citizen community last year and asked how many had recently been targeted by scammers. “Every single hand in the room went up, 75 for 75,” Rep. Atkins says. “Every single resident had gotten that same call.” always missed call.. Four told him they had sent money and were ashamed. Read more of this post

The Goals of Traders and Investors Are Light-Years Apart

December 23, 2013

The Goals of Traders and Investors Are Light-Years Apart

By CARL RICHARDS

Last week, I came across a story involving Wall Street, helicopters and the business of collecting and selling private data. It sounds like the perfect setup for an article in The Onion, but it’s true and a perfect example of Wall Street’s obsession with the speed of information. Read more of this post

Christmas Gift-Giving Has a Value Beyond Economics

The Greatest Gift of All (Economically Speaking)

In January 1993, Joel Waldfogel asked 86 undergraduate students whether they liked their Christmas gifts. But Waldfogel is an economist, so he phrased the question more precisely, asking them how much they would’ve paid to buy those items for themselves. Read more of this post

Mikhail Kalashnikov, Whose AK-47 Fuels War Worldwide, Dies at 94

Designer of the Popular Kalashnikov Rifle Dies

AK-47, Created by Mikhail Kalashnikov, Was Designed to ‘Protect the Motherland’ After World War II

LUKAS I. ALPERT And STEPHEN MILLER

Updated Dec. 23, 2013 4:48 p.m. ET

Mikhail Kalashnikov shows a model of his world-famous AK-47 assault rifle at home in the Ural Mountain city of Izhevsk, Russia on Oct. 29, 1997. Associated Press

Acclaimed a hero in the Soviet Union for creating the most popular assault rifle in history, Mikhail Kalashnikov was the namesake of the AK-47. Mr. Kalashnikov died in Izhevsk on Monday at age 94, after a long illness, said Yelena Filatova, a spokeswoman for the gun’s manufacturer, Kalashnikov Concern. She didn’t give further details. Read more of this post

Some inspiring CEOs who made the pages of MetroBiz this year

Updated: Tuesday December 24, 2013 MYT 8:27:22 AM

Some inspiring CEOs who made the pages of MetroBiz this year

BY KARINA FOO, NEVASH NAIR, S. PUSPADEVI, AND JOY LEE

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. And entrepreneurs are a group of people who understand what it means to rise to the occasion in times of challenges. In the past year, Metrobiz has met a number of entrepreneurs who had built businesses from scratch and endeavour to be successful despite facing multiple challenges. Most say it is worth it to follow their passion even when the odds are against them. While some were successful in their first attempt, others had to pick themselves up, dust off the failure and start again. Here are some whose stories stood out and spoke of hard work and perseverance. Read more of this post

How to eulogise the dead and departing

Last updated: December 23, 2013 11:18 pm

How to eulogise the dead and departing

By Sam Leith

There is a lot of talk at funerals: the funerals of politicians especially; the funerals of revered elder statesmen supremely. Nelson Mandela’s burial at Qunu was a case in point. Xhosa tradition says that burial should take place at midday, when the sun is at its highest and shadows at their shortest. Mandela was buried 40 minutes late because the speeches over-ran. Read more of this post

For That Zeus Bug in Your Life; The drive to exchange presents is ancient, transcultural and by no means limited to Homo sapiens

December 23, 2013

For That Zeus Bug in Your Life

By NATALIE ANGIER

Here are some last-minute gift ideas to suit even the most discriminating individuals on your list. For the female scorpionfly: an extremely large, glittering, nutrient-laced ball of spit, equivalent to 5 percent to 10 percent of a male fly’s body mass. Gentlemen: Too worn down by the holidays to cough up such an expensive package? Try giving her a dead insect instead. You can always steal it back later. Read more of this post

The Gospel According to Mary: What we can learn from early Christian texts that are not in the New Testament

December 23, 2013

The Gospel According to Mary

By JOE NOCERA

One Sunday morning a few weeks ago, Hal Taussig, the co-pastor of the Chestnut Hill United Church in Philadelphia, chose one of his favorite bits of scripture to build his sermon upon. It’s called The Thanksgiving Prayer, and the portion of it that Taussig chose goes like this:

“O light of life we have known you/

O womb of all that grows we have known you/

O womb pregnant with the nature of the Father we have known you/

O never-ending endurance of the Father who gives birth, so we worship your goodness.”

If you are thinking that you’ve never come across such a prayer in the New Testament, you’re right, of course. The prayer was part of a treasure trove of early Christian documents, written in Coptic, discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945. The Nag Hammadi find was, in turn, among the 75-plus early Christian documents that have been unearthed over the last century and a half. Collectively, these works were once known as The Gnostic Gospels, and they were viewed by many theologians as the work of early Christian heretics, as their interpretation of the life of Jesus was often quite different than the one recounted in the four gospels of the New Testament. Read more of this post

The 10 myths of Christmas

Updated: Sunday December 22, 2013 MYT 7:47:10 PM

The 10 myths of Christmas

BY WONG CHUN WAI

What we’ve been fed, turkey and all, about this celebration gets dumped down the chimney.

HERE are 10 myths about Christmas and of Malaysians going on holiday this season.

Myth One: Jesus Christ was born on Dec 25 and Christians are celebrating his birthday. 

Definitely not! In fact, for the first three centuries of Christianity, Christmas wasn’t in December or any calendar at all. According to most reports, Western Christians celebrated on Dec 25 after Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the empire’s favoured religion. Eastern Orthodox churches, especially in Russia and much of Eastern Europe, however, mark Jan 7 as the date of Christ’s birth. Read more of this post

From Mikimoto’s pearls to ones of publicity wisdom: Having invented a method for creating cultured pearls in 1893, Meiji Era entrepreneur Kokichi Mikimoto set about selling them to the world

From Mikimoto’s pearls to ones of publicity wisdom

BY EDAN CORKILL

STAFF WRITER

DEC 23, 2013

Having invented a method for creating cultured pearls in 1893, Meiji Era entrepreneur Kokichi Mikimoto set about selling them to the world. Apparently not one for understatement, he once announced he hoped to “adorn the necks of all women around the world with pearls.” But how to achieve such a grand objective from the island nation of Japan — especially back at the turn of the 19th century, without telephones, planes, faxes or the Internet?  Read more of this post

Is it okay for a company to have co-CEOs? Proceed carefully. It doesn’t usually work

Is it okay for a company to have co-CEOs?

December 23, 2013: 1:23 PM ET

Proceed carefully. It doesn’t usually work.

By Verne Harnish

The co-CEO arrangement has worked for Whole Foods, but it certainly doesn’t function well at every business.

FORTUNE — Often at small and midsize companies, founders will have the same top title. Maybe they started out as a husband and wife team or as two friends writing code in a dorm room. Shared leadership is also common at professional services firms, where partners all need to be seen as equals for business reasons. Read more of this post

An investment strategy that is based on finding the legendary managers beforehand has a very low chance of success and a very high chance of excess costs, turnover and frustration

Persistence is a Killer

Joshua M Brown

December 22nd, 2013

I had dinner with a friend who works with advisory clients just like I do but he’s at one of the big wirehouses. His entire book of business is allocated toward active strategies – SMAs, mutual funds, in-house wrap accounts, hedge funds, funds of hedge funds, etc. Philosophically, we are miles apart in terms of the right way to invest, although I know he cares deeply about his clients and takes pride in his craft just as I do. Read more of this post

The meaning of Christmas

Updated: Tuesday December 24, 2013 MYT 7:43:17 AM

The meaning of Christmas

CHRISTIANS all over the world celebrate Christmas on Dec 25. Wong Chun Wai wrote a very interesting article “The 10 myths of Christmas” (The Star, Dec 22) and this got me thinking to write my reflections on what Christmas means to me in contemporary Malaysia. For a majority of people it is the cultural dimensions of celebration and festivity which dominate the day with gifts, food and decorations. Read more of this post

This Map Shows The Most Famous Book Set In Every State

This Map Shows The Most Famous Book Set In Every State

MELISSA STANGER AND MIKE NUDELMAN OCT. 11, 2013, 1:46 PM 567,329 119

Local literature can be a surprising source of home state pride, no matter where you’re from. We found the most famous book set in each state. How many have you read? Check out the annotated map below.

Why we seek solace in dystopian nightmares

December 23, 2013 7:27 pm

Why we seek solace in dystopian nightmares

By Peter Aspden

The outlook in ‘The Hunger Games’ is at least less bleak than in ‘1984’

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen . . . .”

The first, dislocating words of George Orwell’s 1984 were meant to stir readers from postwar complacency. Begun in 1947, during the opening skirmishes of the cold war, the novel illustrated the results of allowing an all-powerful state to rule without regard to the rights of its citizens. Read more of this post