RSS
 

Archive for October, 2011

Base22 – Enterprise Web Evolution

24 Oct
I liked a YouTube video: This video provides a brief introduction to Base22 - a look at our people and our passion for creating exceptional web experiences using industry leading platforms such as IBM WebSphere Portal, IBM Content Manager, and IBM Connections.
 
 

Base22 – Enterprise Web Evolution

24 Oct
I liked a YouTube video: This video provides a brief introduction to Base22 - a look at our people and our passion for creating exceptional web experiences using industry leading platforms such as IBM WebSphere Portal, IBM Content Manager, and IBM Connections.
 
 

Dot Mario Cushion is the perfect cushion for Mario fans

24 Oct

Mario cushionThe Japanese Club Nintendo seems to have cooler swag to redeem when compared to the US Club Nintendo, and their latest offerings are no exception. One of the recently revealed redeemable gifts from Club Nintendo Japan is the Dot Mario Cushion: an 8-bit Super Mario cushion which takes gamers back to the year 1985 where Super Mario was a pixilated hero running around on NES-connected TVs.

The other rewards include a Nintendo 2012 desk calendar and five video game soundtracks (Tomodachi Collection, Pilotwings Resort, Star Fox 64 3D, Wii Fit Plus, and Mario Kart Wii). Folks with 400 points can redeem the Dot Mario Cushion, though you’ll need to be a member of the Japanese Club Nintendo. Definitely the perfect addition to any gamer’s couch.

Dot Mario Cushion is the perfect cushion for Mario fans, By Ubergizmo. Top Stories : Epic 4G Touch Review, Galaxy S2 Review,

 
 

Dot Mario Cushion is the perfect cushion for Mario fans

24 Oct

Mario cushionThe Japanese Club Nintendo seems to have cooler swag to redeem when compared to the US Club Nintendo, and their latest offerings are no exception. One of the recently revealed redeemable gifts from Club Nintendo Japan is the Dot Mario Cushion: an 8-bit Super Mario cushion which takes gamers back to the year 1985 where Super Mario was a pixilated hero running around on NES-connected TVs.

The other rewards include a Nintendo 2012 desk calendar and five video game soundtracks (Tomodachi Collection, Pilotwings Resort, Star Fox 64 3D, Wii Fit Plus, and Mario Kart Wii). Folks with 400 points can redeem the Dot Mario Cushion, though you’ll need to be a member of the Japanese Club Nintendo. Definitely the perfect addition to any gamer’s couch.

Dot Mario Cushion is the perfect cushion for Mario fans, By Ubergizmo. Top Stories : Epic 4G Touch Review, Galaxy S2 Review,

 
 

visiondivision: the patient gardener

24 Oct


ten japanese cherry trees will grow into a two story study retreat at the politecnico di milano in italy.

read more
 
 

visiondivision: the patient gardener

24 Oct


ten japanese cherry trees will grow into a two story study retreat at the politecnico di milano in italy.

read more
 
 

Read the Revelations in Full: Book of Jobs Now Available [Steve Jobs]

24 Oct
Almost the entire book has leaked already, but now it's time to read the whole thing cover to cover. Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography is available starting today in hardback with ebooks available since late yesterday. Kindle price is a steep $21.14, with the hardcover version at $17.88 [Amazon via TUAW via Gizmodo UK] More »


 

Read the Revelations in Full: Book of Jobs Now Available [Steve Jobs]

24 Oct
Almost the entire book has leaked already, but now it's time to read the whole thing cover to cover. Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography is available starting today in hardback with ebooks available since late yesterday. Kindle price is a steep $21.14, with the hardcover version at $17.88 [Amazon via TUAW via Gizmodo UK] More »


 

The Mexican Mafia

21 Oct

The Mexican Mafia is a fairly small prison gang (perhaps 150-300 made members) and it has significant operational control only within prisons in Southern California yet the Mexican Mafia is extremely powerful. In fact, the MM taxes hundreds of often larger Southern California street gangs at rates of 10-30% of revenues. How can a prison gang tax street gangs? In Governance and Prison Gangs (also here), a new paper in the APSR, David Skarbek explains the structure, conduct and performance of the Mexican Mafia.

The key to the MM’s power is that most drug dealers will sooner or later, usually sooner, end up in prison. Thus, the MM can credibly threaten drug dealers outside of prison with punishment once they are inside prison. Moreover, prison is the only place where members of many different gangs congregate. Thus, by maintaining control of the prison bottleneck, the MM can tax hundreds of gangs.

One of the most interesting aspects of Skarbek’s analysis is that he shows–consistent with Mancur Olson’s stationary bandit theory–that as the MM grew in power it started to provide public goods, i.e. it became a kind of government. Thus, the MM protects taxpayers both in prison and on the street, it produces property rights by enforcing gang claims to territory and it adjudicates disputes, all to the extent that such actions increase tax revenue of course. The MM is so powerful that it often doesn’t even have to use its own enforcers; instead, the MM can issue what amounts to a letter of marque and reprisal, a signal that a non-taxpaying gang is no longer under its protection, and privateers will do the rest.

The MM even internalizes externalities:

In addition, the Mexican Mafia regulates drive-by shootings…because any particular street gang only suffers a portion of the increased attention of law enforcement from drive-by shootings, each street gang has an incentive to do too-many (Buchanan 1973). In 1992, Mexican Mafia members sent notes throughout the prison system and Sureño neighborhoods that any gang member participating in an unauthorized drive-by shooting would be killed. Shortly after the Mexican Mafia announced this rule, drive by shootings declined.

The Mexican Mafia has much to teach us about crime and governance.

 
 

The Mexican Mafia

21 Oct

The Mexican Mafia is a fairly small prison gang (perhaps 150-300 made members) and it has significant operational control only within prisons in Southern California yet the Mexican Mafia is extremely powerful. In fact, the MM taxes hundreds of often larger Southern California street gangs at rates of 10-30% of revenues. How can a prison gang tax street gangs? In Governance and Prison Gangs (also here), a new paper in the APSR, David Skarbek explains the structure, conduct and performance of the Mexican Mafia.

The key to the MM’s power is that most drug dealers will sooner or later, usually sooner, end up in prison. Thus, the MM can credibly threaten drug dealers outside of prison with punishment once they are inside prison. Moreover, prison is the only place where members of many different gangs congregate. Thus, by maintaining control of the prison bottleneck, the MM can tax hundreds of gangs.

One of the most interesting aspects of Skarbek’s analysis is that he shows–consistent with Mancur Olson’s stationary bandit theory–that as the MM grew in power it started to provide public goods, i.e. it became a kind of government. Thus, the MM protects taxpayers both in prison and on the street, it produces property rights by enforcing gang claims to territory and it adjudicates disputes, all to the extent that such actions increase tax revenue of course. The MM is so powerful that it often doesn’t even have to use its own enforcers; instead, the MM can issue what amounts to a letter of marque and reprisal, a signal that a non-taxpaying gang is no longer under its protection, and privateers will do the rest.

The MM even internalizes externalities:

In addition, the Mexican Mafia regulates drive-by shootings…because any particular street gang only suffers a portion of the increased attention of law enforcement from drive-by shootings, each street gang has an incentive to do too-many (Buchanan 1973). In 1992, Mexican Mafia members sent notes throughout the prison system and Sureño neighborhoods that any gang member participating in an unauthorized drive-by shooting would be killed. Shortly after the Mexican Mafia announced this rule, drive by shootings declined.

The Mexican Mafia has much to teach us about crime and governance.