“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.
So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it. Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”
— Neil Gaiman (via thoughtsdetained)
(Source: quotewhore, via thoughtsdetained)
According to recent financial data from the 3rd quarter of 2010, six banks represent 64% of GDP. These are JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley. In 2006, before the financial crisis, that number was 55%. And fifteen years ago, it was 17%.
Dragonfly Covered with Dew, Photo by Martin Amm
Submitted by ladybirdallie
(No…this is not a sculpture, it’s a macro, a close up image of a dragonfly)
Since 2006, one out of every 17 novels bought in the United States was written by James Patterson.
This article covers how Patterson has profited from challenging many of his publisher’s assumptions about how to advertise and release novels and being intimately involved with the production of his books. More stats to go with the one above:
“He is listed in the latest edition of “Guinness World Records,” published last fall, as the author with the most New York Times best sellers, 45, but that number is already out of date: he now has 51 — 35 of which went to No. 1.”
“In addition to his two editors, Patterson has three full-time Hachette [his publisher] employees (plus assistants) devoted exclusively to him.”
“According to Nielsen BookScan, [John] Grisham’s, [Stephen] King’s and [Dan] Brown’s combined U.S. sales in recent years still don’t match Patterson’s.”
“ACCORDING TO FORBES magazine, Patterson earned Hachette about $500 million over the last two years,” which his publisher denies but won’t correct.
“What we witnessed was truly a perverse form of competition,” said Ronald Congemi, the former chief executive of Star Systems, one of the regional PIN-based networks that has struggled to compete with Visa. “They competed on the basis of raising prices. What other industry do you know that gets away with that?” — The Card Game - How Visa, Using Fees Behind Its Debit Card, Dominates a Market - Series - NYTimes.com
Info-graphic comparing countries’ health care spending per person to average life expectancy at birth.
Restaurants Use Menu Psychology to Entice Diners
John Graham-Cumming: Tonight, I’m going to write myself an Aston Martin
Software that detects copy-and-move photo edits and produces images like this to show where the copy came from and went.
Code That Protects Most Cellphone Calls Is Deciphered
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Scaling in Games & Virtual Worlds
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