Matthew Yglesias makes a pretty convincing argument that the most effective path to slowing down climate change is putting a price on carbon. Right now, carbon emissions are untaxed, so there’s no market mechanism to reward a reduction in carbon emissions other than the price of using energy. Unfortunately, energy prices are largely decoupled from their environmental impact.
Cooks Illustrated editor Christopher Kimball laments the demise of Gourmet in a New York Times op-ed today. Unfortunately, in the process of reminding us what was good about Gourmet, he decides to case aspersions of the darned old Internet along the way:
The shuttering of Gourmet reminds us that in a click-or-die advertising marketplace, one ruled by a million instant pundits, where an anonymous Twitter comment might be seen to pack more resonance and useful content than an article that reflects a lifetime of experience, experts are not created from the top down but from the bottom up. They can no longer be coronated; their voices have to be deemed essential to the lives of their customers. That leaves, I think, little room for the thoughtful, considered editorial with which Gourmet delighted its readers for almost seven decades.
To survive, those of us who believe that inexperience rarely leads to wisdom need to swim against the tide, better define our brands, prove our worth, ask to be paid for what we do, and refuse to climb aboard this ship of fools, the one where everyone has an equal voice. Google “broccoli casserole” and make the first recipe you find. I guarantee it will be disappointing. The world needs fewer opinions and more thoughtful expertise — the kind that comes from real experience, the hard-won blood-on-the-floor kind. I like my reporters, my pilots, my pundits, my doctors, my teachers and my cooking instructors to have graduated from the school of hard knocks.
I’m not sure why I’m linking to this, the latest in a huge long line of ignorant straw man arguments against blogs (and now, Twitter) by people whose lofty perch is threatened by the democratization of the media. In response to his argument, I’d make three points:
One of my favorite old saws is the saying, “Half of life is just showing up.” I like it because it’s true — one of the keys to getting the most out of life is having a large number and variety of experience. Chris Dixon adds a key corollary to that point — don’t forget to ask questions.
I was shocked to read today that Gourmet magazine is ceasing publication, and that the November issue will be the last. We started getting the magazine this year (as a gift) and I have been really impressed with it. It’s interesting from cover to cover, and the photography is beautiful. We’ve made a number of really good recipes we got from Gourmet as well. One of my favorite little things about the magazine is that the subscriber edition doesn’t include any marketing copy on the cover. It’s just the name of the magazine, and the cover photo. I don’t know why more magazines don’t take that approach.
National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry probably has as much experience in Afghanistan as anyone in the West. He describes the problems we face, but doesn’t propose any solutions, probably because there aren’t any. Click on the link for the photos alone.
I particularly liked this sentence:
Maybe one definition of hell is that is the place where more effort produces fewer results.
Top Chef Masters winner Rick Bayless explains what he likes about Twitter:
On Twitter, I can do three things: I share photos of what’s going on in the restaurant (behind the scenes as well as finished dishes I’m really excited about); I share photos of cool food (and food-related things) I find outside my restaurant (markets, restaurants, events either in Chicago or away from home), and I answer some of the questions that are posted to my Twitter account.
Because I love being able to more fully open my world to folks through the Twitter portal and because I love being part of the community Twitter can create, I’ve decided to devote 15 or 20 minutes to it each day. That amount of time is typically what I can find while I’m waiting on a meeting to start or waiting for an elevator or drinking a cup of coffee.
Bayless, who is no doubt incredibly busy running three popular restaurants, writing cook books, and creating a television series on regional Mexican food, seems to have endless energy for answering questions of all kinds for people on Twitter. His output is impressive.
The kind of conservatism I respect is the conservatism that says we should be careful about changing our institutions, because there’s risk in changing things. You sometimes wind up with something worse. This is why the conservative party in the UK is a strong defender of the socialized National Health Service. The conservative impulse is to preserve existing institutions.
So I liked this conservative question from Dan Drezner about Jon Stewart’s legendary Crossfire appearance:
Stewart’s appearance on Crossfire generated quite the navel-gazing among the commentariat, and played no small role in the eventual disappearance of Crossfire, The Capitol Gang, Hannity & Colmes, and shows of that ilk.
So, five years later, I have a half-assed blog question to ask — did Jon Stewart hurt America by driving these shows off the air?
I wish these were the types of questions the Republican opposition were asking in Congress, instead of doing whatever it is they’re doing.
Tomorrow is the Lupus Walk, and I’m only $5 short of my (modest compared to last year) fund raising goal. Between my brother in law, a coworker, and a neighbor, I’ve seen first hand the effect this disease can have. If you take a look at the Mayo Clinic page on Lupus, you’ll see that the treatment options are not great right now, so more research into a cure is vitally important. The good news is that recent research does show promise.
Please give to this very worthy cause.
When you nail it, you nail it. Commenter Chris from Felix Salmon’s blog explained the financial crisis in two sentences:
The person most willing to take on risk is the one unaware he is doing so. He charges no risk premium…
The resulting market equilibrium is that the guy who is unaware of the risk ends up loaded with it. Then the music stops.
Investment banks took risky investments and manipulated them until they looked like safe investments, then sold those “safe” investments to people who didn’t know better. Cynics could argue that this is the only purpose that securitization and derivatives serve.
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The unique economics of entertainment
Nicholas Tabarrok points out that the movie business is unique in that the cost of producing movies does not affect the price customers pay to see a movie:
It’s an interesting observation I’ve never really thought about. The movie business is probably the most extreme example, but as a commenter points out, the music business is similar, and console games aren’t all that different, either. Most cost about the same amount when they are initially released.