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My 3-year-old daughter will only tolerate a certain ratio of words to pictures. Generally the pictures win the war for her attention. Looking at the popularity and apparent effectiveness of infographics, adults actually like pictures too (I certainly do).
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It's the morning after 9/11, eleven years later.
As I sat down to write this post yesterday, I began typing up a description of four commercial airplanes hijacked by religious zealots and flown into the heart of the American establishment: two hitting a set of twin towers in the middle of the country's financial district, which when built were the tallest on Earth; another crashing into a five-sided office building—still the largest on Earth by sheer floor area—that housed the nerve center of the mightiest military the world has ever known; and one that was brought down in a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania before it could reach it's final target, believed to be either the White House or the U. S.
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Politicians and the punditry across the country are making a good living discussing America's decline, but no one seems to be doing very much about it other than asking people to "vote for me" or "listen to me. " It seems like every time we turn to the news, it's the same story with a different punchline, usually dictated by what side of the political divide the speaker is coming from.
Robert Atkinson and Stephen Ezell's new book, Innovation Economics: The Race for Global Advantage, is a welcome, wonkish 440 page respite.
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People collect all manner of material goodness—cars, antiques, orchards, and art. . .
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There is nothing that excites me quite as much as the English language when beautifully crafted, burdened with a purpose, and bearing the truth. I find it in my favorite poetry and great works of fiction that expose our human core, in artfully crafted works of nonfiction that explore the human story in all its facets and fascination, and yes, even in the best that business books have to offer.
But, I find it most often when I sit down with The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, or The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel every day over lunch, or when I follow the thread of a story contained in the a link in an email from ProPublica, when I relax with The New Yorker, Fast Company, and Foreign Affairs at home, or when I listen to a well-crafted story on This American Life or a great interview with Charlie Rose.
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