“New information technologies-including email, the web, and computerized blast-faxes and phone calls-have fundamentally changed the landscape of political competition in modern democracies. They've done so in three ways: by dramatically boosting the access of individuals and special interests to politically potent information, by making it easier for such people to coordinate their activities and exert political power, and by greatly increasing the pace of events within our political systems.” PeopleWayDonePoliticalThreePoliticsIndividualInterestTechnologyDemocracyModernSpecialEventsInformationChangedInternetEasierActivityCompetitionIncludingPhonesAccessLandscapePaceEmailBlastPolitical SystemsPhone CallsInformation TechnologyPolitical PowerSpecial InterestsCoordinatesNew InformationThree WaysFax Author:Thomas Homer-Dixon
“It is easier to study the 'behavior' of rats than people, because rats are smaller and have fewer outside commitments. So modern psychology is mostly about rats” PeopleStudyPsychologyModernEasierBehaviorCommitmentFewerRatsModern Psychology Book:The decline and fall of science Source: The decline and fall of science
“The last few decades have been marked by a special cultivation of the romance of the future. We seem to have made up our minds to misunderstand what has happened; and we turn, with a sort of relief, to stating what will happen-which is apparently much easier...The modern mind is forced towards the future by a certain sense of fatigue, not unmixed with terror, with which it regards the past.” MindHas BeensMadeSeemsHappensLastsPastRomanceCertainTurnsLearningHappenedModernSpecialEasierRegardTerrorDecadesReliefFatigueCultivation Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
“The problem is that, in a world of floating exchange rates, as Italy was before the euro, if one country is subjected to a shock which requires it to cut wages, it cannot do so with a modern kind of control and regulation system. It is much easier to do it by letting the exchange rate change. Only one price has to change, instead of many.” IfsWorldKindCountryProblemCuttingModernEasierRateShockRegulationWagesFloatingEuro Author:Milton Friedman
“I really liked the design aesthetic of the mid-century modern for furniture and the early '60s stuff for the clothes. But then, personally, I'm a huge fan of 1970s muscle cars. Cell phones is just a laziness thing because it's so much easier to have somebody have a cell phone than have to go to a phone booth. So we're sort of, I guess, cherry-picking the best and easiest from several decades.” StuffFansModernCenturyCarDesignHugeEasierClothesPhonesDecadesCellsMusclesAestheticLazinessFurnitureCell PhoneCherriesPhone BoothMuscle Car Author:Adam Reed
“All of which suggested literary translation, and Korean seemed a good bet - barely anything available in English, yet it was a modern, developed country, so the work had to be out there, plus the rarity would make it both easier to secure a student grant and more of a niche when it came to work.” CountryModernStudentsEasierAvailableSecurePlusGrantsTranslationsNicheKoreanRarityDeveloped Country Author:Deborah Smith