Chris Makarsky

Some researchers say that even when children don’t read much text, they are picking up skills that can help them thrive in a visually oriented digital world. To be sure, some of the experiments pairing electronic games with books will be little more than marketing gimmicks. But publishers and authors suggest that some projects may push creative boundaries, helping to extend storytelling beyond the traditional covers of a book. - Chris Makarsky

Viral marketing (word-of-mouth marketing) is a really cool thing. Just think about it... instead of spending an insane amount of money on newspapers ads, TV commercials or banner ads, you spent nothing - and let your fans do all the work for you. With viral marketing, your campaigns will suddenly get a life of its own - and start to spread like a virus. Everyone want to see it, and when they do, they all want to share it. - Chris Makarsky

Sarah Palin' post-Couric/Fey comeback at last week’s vice presidential debate was a turning point in the campaign. But if she “won,” as her indulgent partisans and press claque would have it, the loser was not Joe Biden. It was her running mate. With a month to go, the 2008 election is now an Obama-Palin race — about “the future,” as Palin kept saying Thursday night — and the only person who doesn’t seem to know it is Mr. Past, poor old John McCain. - Chris Makarsky

Any president deserves a vice president who will be a sound adviser and trustworthy supporter. But the American people also deserve and need a vice president who understands and respects the balance of power — and the limits of his or her own power. That is fundamental to our democracy. So far, Ms. Palin has it exactly, frighteningly wrong. - Chris Makarsky

Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she's a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power. Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she's the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV — and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. - Chris Makarsky

Never in living memory has an election been more critical than the one fast approaching—that’s the quadrennial cliché, as expected as the balloons and the bombast. And yet when has it ever felt so urgently true? When have so many Americans had so clear a sense that a Presidency has—at the levels of competence, vision, and integrity—undermined the country and its ideals? - Chris Makarsky

One company that has led the charge in shifting the work-life paradigm, especially when it comes to employee relations, is 37signals. Headquartered in Chicago, it's a multi-million dollar organization deeply committed to maintaining a work-life balance for its employees. President Jason Fried says today's employers present the biggest roadblock. "Simply put, employees are treated like children. They are not allowed to think for themselves, and there are too many layers of approval, just too much insulation that prevents anyone from doing anything. The traditional workplace is broken, and until someone realizes that, there's always going to be conflict." - Chris Makarsky

As the science of targeting all voters becomes more precise—Obama voters prefer Starbucks; McCain voters prefer Wal-Mart—identifying voters who are undecided has become even more refined. Instead of focusing on large blocs of swing voters, campaigns can now target blocs within blocks, like gun-owning women with children who live in suburbs. So if you have decided to be a swing voter, don't be surprised if the campaigns already know a lot about you when they come calling. - Chris Makarsky

Although Merus Capital is the beneficiary of a species of buzz, the Merus founders have learned to be skeptical of buzz in general. For example, one of the buzziest little start-ups in the Valley these days is, they think, a lousy business. It's called Twitter. Twitter is just the sort of portfolio-jazzing start-up that some venture capitalists like to name-drop over cocktails, and it has raised $22 million so far. "But it's nothing we would invest in," Dempsey says. "Despite the excitement, we don't see the economics behind it." - Chris Makarsky

Gone are the days when the US could go into debt with abandon, without considering who would end up footing the bill. And gone are the days when it could impose its economic rules of engagement on the rest of the world, rules that emphasized profit above all else -- without ever considering that such returns cannot be achieved by doing business in a respectable way. - Chris Makarsky

Supporters argue that legal highs are a bit of fun with a social conscience - a harm-reduction measure that allows people to experiment safely with psychoactive substances while separating drug use from criminality. Others say no one should be allowed to take such powerful drugs: the risks are too great. Some of the disagreement is down to the dearth of information about the short and long-term health effects of most of these substances, their potential for abuse and their addictiveness. But legal highs are also a battleground between those who see the use of mind-altering drugs as a human right and those who think it is plain wrong. - Chris Makarsky

This is the story of the real John McCain, the one who has been hiding in plain sight. It is the story of a man who has consistently put his own advancement above all else, a man willing to say and do anything to achieve his ultimate ambition: to become commander in chief, ascending to the one position that would finally enable him to outrank his four-star father and grandfather. - Chris Makarsky

For the first week, he seemed happy to be among family and friends, though many said that the light in his eyes had gone. “After that first week,” Cheryl said, “I can honestly say he was nothing but a messed up, confused little boy—man, child, all wrapped into one. Didn’t know—” She paused, gathering herself. “Didn’t know what to do. Couldn’t drive a car really, because driving he was constantly worried about car bombs. You’re not the same after. You’re not the same. He didn’t laugh anymore, he didn’t smile anymore, and if he did, it was phony and it never went to the eyes. He had absolutely no time, no tolerance, no patience for . . .” Cheryl’s voice trailed off. - Chris Makarsky

Spend into the recession, or move. If you have a runway of funding to last out a bleak year, don't panic. But most of all, don't stand still. Go under the radar and build your product. Talk to your potential customers. The clouds will lift eventually--and if not in this economy, then perhaps in another, like China or Dubai. As a friend of mine said: "I go where the construction cranes are." - Chris Makarsky

Unlike in Japan, where videogame soundtracks like Final Fantasy VII are made into top-selling albums, US fans who want to hear their favorite scores have to dig their old cartridges out of storage. And for many Americans, videogame scores were the soundtrack of their youth — so a live performance holds the same nostalgic wallop that a Who reunion tour holds for a baby boomer. Everyone at these shows can probably remember where they were when they first heard the theme to The Legend of Zelda. - Chris Makarsky

In public life, we know how the line is drawn. It's drawn ploddingly by legislative and judicial bodies -- a maddening process often, but theoretically an accountable one. In the public-private sphere of online communities, however, a company like Flickr is only as accountable as it chooses to be. - Chris Makarsky

Sometimes I am asked: How is it that you became a famous minor television personality? My answer is always the same: I went on television. Specifically, I had written a book, and I had been asked to be a guest on a popular television program to promote that book. This went well, and they asked me to come back on the show as a regular. And I did. And next I was asked to audition for a series of ads for a computer company. And I got that job, too. It’s your pretty typical, mundane, overnight Hollywood success story. The only thing that makes it unusual is that it actually happened more or less OVERNIGHT, and largely by accident. And as a result, I am older and fatter and more walleyed and tweedy than most people embarking on a television career. - Chris Makarsky

Now, if you'll please back away quietly without saying anything else—especially about my recent comments regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and how they illustrate my complete lack of even a basic understanding of our economy—I'll forget this whole thing ever happened. And so will my vote-stealing retard baby. - Chris Makarsky

Can we now admit the obvious? Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified to be vice president. She is a feisty, charismatic politician who has done some good things in Alaska. But she has never spent a day thinking about any important national or international issue, and this is a hell of a time to start. - Chris Makarsky

So what do you think is the issue that people will end up voting on? STEWART: Whatever happens that week. It all depends on when that Michelle Obama ''I hate whitey'' tape comes out. If it comes out now, it could dissipate by the election. But if it comes out a couple days before, that could be dangerous. COLBERT: Jon? I have it. - Chris Makarsky

This essay constitutes an introduction to the theory of knots as it has been influenced by developments concurrent with the discovery of the Jones polynomial in 1984 and the subsequent explosion of research that followed this signal event in the mathematics of the twentieth century. - Chris Makarsky

Clinton's declaration of boredom and the various iterations that followed—including shouts of "Bored,""I'm bored,""This is stupid,""This is boring," and "Oh my God, I'm so bored"—were not reportedly targeted at one person in particular but at the entire assembly. According to those senators present, Clinton delivered her unprompted remarks while she slouched in her chair, rested her head atop the back of her seat, and fixed her eyes on the Senate Chamber's ceiling. - Chris Makarsky

Modern technology has changed many things in our lives, including the way we communicate, travel and entertain ourselves. Electronic instruments and computer simulations have revolutionised science. Mathematics, one of the purest forms of human logic and reasoning, has also been changed by computer approaches. Even art has been undergoing a deep upheaval in the way it is created and appreciated, using the fast processing and graphical output of computers. The boundary between artist, computer programmer, and mathematician is becoming ever more blurred. - Chris Makarsky

Although many cultural commentators bemoan the lack of political engagement in the general population, and both the Democrat and Republican campaigns have condemned video games as a negative influence on the young, the fact is that gamers have a significant advantage in understanding the complexities of the Presidency. By playing games across a wide spectrum of genres, a gamer can experience first hand the tough decisions and burning questions that will test the leader of the free world. - Chris Makarsky

Even as fully grown adults we remain secretly starved for guidance and instruction. Many of us are walking around with the uneasy feeling that we missed the first day of class and wondering if there are CliffNotes. Most people desperately want someone to tell them what life's about, what people are for, what we're supposed to do--how to be a human being. But serious literature, at least since the 19th-century, has been disdainful of fulfilling any didactic obligation. Sorry, kids, that isn't what art is for. - Chris Makarsky

The fact is that the Mediterranean diet, which has been associated with longer life spans and lower rates of heart disease and cancer, is in retreat in its home region. Today it is more likely to be found in the upscale restaurants of London and New York than among the young generation in places like Greece, where two-thirds of children are now overweight and the health effects are mounting, health officials say. - Chris Makarsky

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed? - Chris Makarsky

"While we've endorsed hundreds of congressional candidates for election, both Democrats and Republicans, we've never before endorsed a presidential candidate. We have members on the left, in the center, and on the right, and we knew it could be controversial to choose either party's candidate for the top office in the nation. But in an era of sweeping presidential power, we must weigh in on this most important political race in the country. Standing on the sidelines is no longer an option for us." - Chris Makarsky via Bookmarklet

The researchers found that the number of Facebook friends and wallposts that individuals have on their profile pages correlates with narcissism. Buffardi said this is consistent with how narcissists behave in the real-world, with numerous yet shallow relationships. Narcissists are also more likely to choose glamorous, self-promoting pictures for their main profile photos, she said, while others are more likely to use snapshots. - Chris Makarsky

I believe that with the nomination of Sarah Palin for the vice presidency, the silliness of our politics has finally put our nation at risk. The world is growing more complex—and dangerous—with each passing hour, and our position within it growing more precarious. Should she become president, Palin seems capable of enacting policies so detached from the common interests of humanity, and from empirical reality, as to unite the entire world against us. - Chris Makarsky