Flicker Fusion

Did we really need a mathematically-ranked, up-to-the-minute amalgamation of the utterances of millions of everyday citizens to give us this snapshot of our collective attention span? Chris Brown, Paranormal Activity, Snow Leopard, Kobe Bryant … man, you could have predicted those topics by lazily wandering down to your local newsstand like once a month and noting the boldface names on the magazines. The overmind appears to be spending a lot of time ZOMGing over the same stuff as the undermind, as it were.

Did we really need a mathematically-ranked, up-to-the-minute amalgamation of the utterances of millions of everyday citizens to give us this snapshot of our collective attention span? Chris Brown, Paranormal Activity, Snow Leopard, Kobe Bryant … man, you could have predicted those topics by lazily wandering down to your local newsstand like once a month and noting the boldface names on the magazines. The overmind appears to be spending a lot of time ZOMGing over the same stuff as the undermind, as it were.

—Clive Thompson discusses the problem of trending topics over on Collision Detection – he’s pointed to some nifty solutions, including Flocking Me.

Nearsightedness has increased 66% in 40 years

Nearsightedness has increased 66% in 40 years

It turns out that myopia isn’t all that well understood – researchers blame both genetic and environmental factors. Certainly, the dramatic increase in people sitting in front of screens for long periods of time can’t help.

This also strikes me as one of those fairly obvious cases of humans actively working against our own evolution. Nearsightedness isn’t being bred out because it’s relatively easy to fix – a pair of glasses or contacts. Even worse, the fix just might be working against evolution in that, at least to some, a pair of glasses is a desirable trait (how else to explain their hipster cachet?). Contacts and even lasik only complicate things further since they fix the symptom but not any root genetic causes without providing any kind of flag to potential mates that your children are going to need an opthamologist.

John McCain wants to reinstate Glass-Steagall

Partnering with one of my own senators, Maria Cantwell, to introduce legislation that would bring tighter regulation to banks. I’ve said before that I think Glass-Steagall, the Depression-era reform law aimed at keeping investment and consumer banks separate, is a good idea. I’m happy to see this despite the long odds and opposition from President Obama and his economic team of Wall Street alums.

Still waiting to hear why reinstating Glass-Steagall is a bad idea. Any thoughts?