From “List of confidence tricks” (Wikipedia: 3 July 2009):
Get-rich-quick schemes
Get-rich-quick schemes are extremely varied. For example, fake franchises, real estate “sure things”, get-rich-quick books, wealth-building seminars, self-help gurus, sure-fire inventions, useless products, chain letters, fortune tellers, quack doctors, miracle pharmaceuticals, Nigerian money scams, charms and talismans are all used to separate the mark from his [...]
Posted on July 5th, 2009 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: business, history, law, science, security | No Comments »
From Jake Adelstein’s “This Mob Is Big in Japan” (The Washington Post: 11 May 2008):
Most Americans think of Japan as a law-abiding and peaceful place, as well as our staunch ally, but reporting on the underworld gave me a different perspective. Mobs are legal entities here. Their fan magazines and comic books are sold in [...]
Posted on February 6th, 2009 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: business, history, law, politics, security | No Comments »
From Paul Ingrassia’s “How Detroit Drove Into a Ditch” (The Wall Street Journal: 25 October 2008):
This situation doesn’t stem from the recent meltdown in banking and the markets. GM, Ford and Chrysler have been losing billions since 2005, when the U.S. economy was still healthy. The financial crisis does, however, greatly exacerbate Detroit’s woes. As [...]
Posted on November 27th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: business, history, tech in changing society | No Comments »
From Paul Graham’s “Made in USA” (November 2004):
Americans are good at some things and bad at others. We’re good at making movies and software, and bad at making cars and cities. And I think we may be good at what we’re good at for the same reason we’re bad at what we’re bad at. We’re [...]
Posted on July 7th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: business, history, tech in changing society, technology | Comments Off
From Tim Bray’s “On the Goodness of Unicode” (6 April 2003):
Another problem is that in these parts of the world [China, Japan, Korea], it is not unheard-of to invent new characters. The Japanese word for such charaacters is gaiji; historically they were invented for personal or company names.
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Posted on July 6th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, language & literature, technology | Comments Off
From Hiroshi Matsubara’s “Trial By Prosecutor” (Legal Affairs: March/April 2003):
In 1990, a retired high-court judge gave an influential speech that indicted the criminal justice system [of Japan], citing the nation’s 99.8 percent conviction rate as evidence that prosecutors, not courts, decide the fate of criminals. Criminal trials, he declared, are merely “formal ceremonies” en route [...]
Posted on June 4th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history, law, politics | Comments Off
From Noel Burch’s To the Distant Observer, his study of Japanese films:
… masochistic perseverance in the fulfillment of complex social obligations is a basic cultural trait of Japan.
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The history of solitary confinement
The great divider
The end of days in Slab City
The Creative Class & the health & growth of cities
Taboo acts and language and how [...]
Posted on April 25th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book | Comments Off
