Among the things I learned this week:
* Dropbox is a hot destination for Valley talent these days. Perplexing. (Courtesy: Valley insiders, let’s say)
* In India, deities can own property, but they are treated as minorities. (Courtesy: The New Yorker)
* La Muette de Portici‘s role in the formation, and fear of its role in the deformation, of Belgium. (Courtesy: The New Yorker)
Among the things I learned this week:
* Aida lives up to the hype. (Courtesy: The Met)
* NCAA allows the home basketball team to choose which type of ball will be used, creating a slightly unusual homecourt advantage factor. (Courtesy: The New York Times)
* Some universities and colleges, and states in a passive way, consider cutting science, engineering, and healthcare programs a wise move when faced with budgetary issues. (Courtesy: The New York Times)
* Rollovers as Business Start-Ups (ROBS) seem like a great way to to shelter money. (Courtesy: Brainstorming with ZS)
Among the things I learned this week:
* Spotify audio quality isn’t as good as I expected, despite knowing the format. I suspect it is a non-issue for most people. (Courtesy: Spotify)
* Weddings benefit from having Baltimore-based attendees: They know how to dance and they play good music. (Courtesy: MLs)
* According to excellent, interesting, insightful, and important research by Byers, Mitzenmacher, and Zervas, daily deals carry a reputational cost to the sponsoring establishment. Specifically, Yelp reviewers who went to an establishment due to a Groupon or LivingSocial coupon, reviewed the establishment 10 percent lower than non-daily deals reviewers. The paper also sheds light and raises questions about the sales dynamics of daily deals and social network effects on these types of sales. I only wish they had better controlled for the Yelp reviews by comparing daily deal establishments with non-daily deal establishments across the same time; not only is this relevant methodologically, but it is also something of interest to me. (Courtesy: Business Insider)
* Reading Rainbow returns as an iOS app! (Courtesy: TUAW)
* Chinese shadow play is cool, but lacks the unmatchable brilliance of gamelan, the music that accompanies Indonesia’s shadow play–wayang kulit. (Courtesy: Tangshan Shadow Puppet Theatre)
* Karen O, like me, is getting into opera. (Courtesy: Yeah Yeah Yeahs)