Ulysse Sabbagh

If you want to become a vegetarian but waited for something to convince you, watch this. 

If a small tree branch pokes out onto a highway and there’s no incoming traffic, we’d simply drift a little into the opposite lane and drive around it. But an automated car might come to a full stop, as it dutifully observes traffic laws that prohibit crossing a double-yellow line. This unexpected move would avoid bumping the object in front, but then cause a crash with the human drivers behind it.

Interesting problem for contemporary ethics, the problem of driverless cars. Philosophers should join engineers and lawmakers to make this idea a mainstream reality. 

If a small tree branch pokes out onto a highway and there’s no incoming traffic, we’d simply drift a little into the opposite lane and drive around it. But an automated car might come to a full stop, as it dutifully observes traffic laws that prohibit crossing a double-yellow line. This unexpected move would avoid bumping the object in front, but then cause a crash with the human drivers behind it.

“Entree One” was the Tortilla Espanola with garlic & saffron aioli from James Tahhan. It’s made with McDonald’s eggs & hash browns, a mix of chipotle BBQ & honey mustard sauces, and was actually the most transformative dish of the night – you could tell it was McDonald’s ingredients, but it didn’t taste like anything on the actual menu.

McDonald’s invited chefs to transform the ingredients it uses in its burgers into fancy, gourmet dishes. For one night only, in NYC. Follow the source link for more photos. 

Life inside Amazon

Life inside Amazon

www.businessweek.com/printer/a…

It’s one of the contradictions of life inside Amazon: The company relies on metrics to make almost every important decision, such as what features to introduce or kill, or whether a new process will root out an inefficiency in its fulfillment centers. Yet random customer anecdotes, the opposite of cold, hard data, can also alter Amazon’s course.

And:

Amazon has a few well-known peculiarities—the desks are repurposed doors; meetings begin with everyone in the room sitting in silence as they read a six-page document called a narrative. It’s a famously demanding place to work. And yet just how the company works—and what Bezos is like as a person—is difficult to know.

Here are two excerpts from the book THE EVERYTHING STORE: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone and published on Business Week. The rest of the story reveals some interesting tidbits about life inside Amazon. 

Hyper-realistic sculptures by Ron Mueck. Check out the rest of the photos on In Focus. 

Should you check your email? A flowchart. 

Here is a flowchart to choose your religion, courtesy of Lazy Philosophy. 

This is the POV video of Felix Baumgartner when he jumped about 37 kilometers above the Earth in one hell of a leap of faith. 

The integrated data readers in the video are quite nice, and you can see how he crosses 1300 km/h and how his heart stops beating, quite literally. 

This is the POV video of Felix Baumgartner when he jumped about 37 kilometers above the Earth in one hell of a leap of faith. 

The integrated data readers in the video are quite nice, and you can see how he crosses 1300 km/h and how his heart stops beating, quite literally. 

An array of rituals—from deep breathing and then a drink of water before a presentation to spinning the basketball before a free throw—allow people to improve their performance at a crucial moment in their career. Pre-performance rituals can improve confidence, concentration, and emotional stability.

Positive reinforcement, it’s a thing. 

An array of rituals—from deep breathing and then a drink of water before a presentation to spinning the basketball before a free throw—allow people to improve their performance at a crucial moment in their career. Pre-performance rituals can improve confidence, concentration, and emotional stability.

The pulse of London is a video made by the clever engineers at Foursquare, the mobile check-in app. 

Amazing, and there are other cities as well. 

The pulse of London is a video made by the clever engineers at Foursquare, the mobile check-in app. 

Amazing, and there are other cities as well. 

The Quartz Way

The Quartz Way

www.mondaynote.com/2013/10/0…

Quartz, which got the cool qz.com, is a web-only business publication that has been running for about a year. It’s slightly similar to Slate.

Here is what Quartz says of itself:

Like Wired in the 1990s and The Economist in the 1840s, Quartz embodies the era in which it is being created. The financial crisis that recently engulfed much of the world wasn’t just a cyclical decline or a correction or even a bubble bursting. It was a breaking point. And its shockwaves exposed a fundamentally changed economic order with new leaders and ways of doing business.

I’ve been reading for about 8 months now and I must admit it’s delightfully written, always insightful and full of interesting stories. 

I’m linking to an article written by Frédéric Filloux for The Monday Note. In it, Filloux explains why Quartz is different from other, more traditional publications. It’s well worth your time, for Quartz might be the way forward. 

Apple under siege