Jason Kottke points out:
An excellent page on groupthink and how it affects the decision-making process of groups. Irving Janis describes eight symptoms of groupthink:
- Illusion of invulnerability
- Stereotyping outsiders
- Bounded rationality and tethered assumptions
- Belief in inherent morality
- Self-censorship
- Direct pressure on dissenters
- Mindguards
- Unanimity
Useful data points for the coming weeks and months.
From ProAudio RX:
Recently, a prominent individual in the recording industry was asked to serve on a panel that would judge the best engineered CD for the Grammy’s. After listening to over 200 CD’s, they couldn’t find a single CD worthy of a Grammy based on the criteria they were given. Everything they listened to was squashed to death with heavy amounts compression. What they wound up doing was selecting the CD that had the least amount of engineering. In reality, the winner didn’t win because of great engineering, he won simply because he had messed with the signal the least. What a way to win a Grammy.
One of the crazy plans that the FBI’s COINTELPRO drew up to subvert the Black Panthers was the Black Panther Coloring Book. Sent to families across the United States, the coloring book was supposed to undermine white support for black civil rights.
Thanks to the Internet, what was once a weird footnote in the Congressional inquiry into COINTELPRO is now downloadable.
A lot of bloggers were commenting on the Minuteman III launch from Vanderberg last night. Anyway, if you were a subscriber to Brian Webb’s “Astronomy/Space Alert for Southern California” list, you would have been ready for it.
Cool list. Great guy. You should join.
Old school 8-bit and 16-bit game and demo music mp3 radio broadcasting C64, Amiga, Atari XL/XE/ST, MSX, console and arcade tracks.
Nice 128kps stream. I’m flashing back.
A poster in this MetaFilter thread reminded me of a thought I had awhile back.
Is anyone keeping track of group photographs with Bush II in them? I’m wondering if politically embarrassing friends are disappearing from the “official archives” (whatever those might be) much like how Stalin purged folks from photographs.
Any Ken Lay-sized holes in the photos?
Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the game Adventure, or as I knew it in my early CP/M days when I started high school, ADVENT.
I spent close to 120 man-hours on ADVENT plopped in front of a GNAT System 9 equipped out with the famous Lear Siegler ADM-3A terminal, dual eight inch floppy drives, running on CP/M. Somewhere in one of my various droppings of stuff I have printouts of two complete Adventure runs along with some hand drawn maps of Colossal Cave and the two mazes (all alike, and all different)
And here I thought that XYZZY was a nonsense word, but it turns out there’s more to it.
Gee big surprise… Bush II renews the executive order that keeps Area 51, the Most Well Known And Not Secret Secret Base, classified for another year. These orders expire every September 18 and need to be renewed to keep a pack of environmental lawyers from filing hazardous waste claims against the government.
R.I.P. Back during the punker days you either drank Strohs or Schaeffer’s (“The beer to have when you’re having more than one”). Strohs was the only beer that tasted better in a can. I tried drinking it from a bottle once and couldn’t do it.
Peter Stroh, a hometown booster who helped his family’s local brewery gain national recognition before it was sold, died Tuesday. Stroh was 74 and had brain cancer. He was the sixth family member to head Stroh Brewery, which great-grandfather Bernhard Stroh founded in 1850 in Detroit.
Rats have invaded Beverly Hills. Keep tabs on the invasion’s progress by checking in with the Los Angeles “Food Facility Closure List”
How did rodents end up in the lap of luxury? After four consecutive mild winters, their population has multiplied, though no study has been undertaken to determine exactly how many rats there are in Los Angeles County. The rule of thumb is one rat for every human, Mr. Honda said. Add in the severe drought and you have rats commuting to the neighborhoods with low-hanging fruit, exotic gardens and patios, with their outdoor parties and exquisite crumbs.
