Jackie Danicki

Adam Smith

Originally uploaded by David Farrer.

First we get him on a £20 note, and now this. Huge congratulations to my friend Dr. Eamonn Butler - of the Adam Smith Institute - for spearheading the successful drive to have a statue of Smith erected in Edinburgh’s city center. The statue was unveiled yesterday on the Royal Mile by Vernon Smith, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize for economics. David Farrer has some good photos from the event up on Flickr.

Of course, I can’t resist offering up some of my favorite Smithisms.

Man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. (The Wealth of Nations, Book I Chapter 1)

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages. (The Wealth of Nations, Book I Chapter II)

It is the highest impertinence and presumption…in kings and ministers, to pretend to watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain their expense… They are themselves always, and without any exception, the greatest spendthrifts in the society. Let them look well after their own expense, and they may safely trust private people with theirs. If their own extravagance does not ruin the state, that of their subjects never will. (The Wealth of Nations, Book II, Chapter III)

To expect, indeed, that the freedom of trade should ever be entirely restored in Great Britain, is as absurd as to expect that an Oceana or Utopia should ever be established in it. Not only the prejudices of the public, but what is much more unconquerable, the private interest of many individuals, irresistibly oppose it. (The Wealth of Nations, Book IV Chapter II)

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Last night, a bunch of Qik team members (and some of their kids and friends) gathered at our HQ to watch the local 4th of July fireworks. They were set off from the park just across the street from our office, over the water, so we had a perfect vantage point from our perch on the 16th floor. Of course, I Qikked it. (But damn, Mike Grehan’s view from the Empire State Building beat ours by a country mile.)

As it happens, I was one of the few people in that room who was born in the US. Most were immigrants, from India, Russia, the Ukraine, and (I think) Japan. Many of the rest of us were first, second or third generation Americans (I didn’t take a poll, but I know that to be true of some of my colleagues).

Today, as much as I despise our government, its offensively intrusive reach and horrifying breadth and scope, I still appreciate the hell out of this place. The US has been very good to my family - I’m third generation American - and there are dozens of reasons I have chosen to live here again.

My feelings about the US are so mixed, but I have no doubt that I was very fortunate to be born in this country, with all of the opportunities it has to offer. I just wish these opportunities were truly open to everyone, regardless of whether or not they won the geographical lottery at birth by being born here.

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Last week in New York, I had the pleasure of having a great conversation with Keith McSpurren, founder of Cover It Live. CiL is the live blogging tool of choice for bloggers and media outlets all over the world, and gets rave reviews from my friends who use it. Even cooler is that Keith has done this with an extremely lean operation, putting out a fantastic product with only a handful of developers.

Over dinner, Keith was extremely candid about the fact that his product development had been directed very much by users. “I wish I could take credit for all of the applications people are finding for it,” he said, “but our users just ran in the most interesting, unexpected directions.” Now, Keith is open sourcing his business model on Twitter. No, he didn’t issue a press release or email bloggers to let them know he was doing this. All it took was one tweet:

What’s a resonable price for using CoveritLive? Users are asking me this question more and more. I think it depends…open to ideas..

Even if I didn’t already know and like Keith and his product, this sort of approach would still make me want to see CiL thrive. There’s something unbearable about an entrepreneur who thinks he knows it all, or that it’s clever to pretend that he does. There’s something refreshing about one who knows better, and respects his customers enough to ask for their input and direction. Well done, Keith.

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This is super-insider-y stuff if you don’t follow a lot of the really dumb crap online that I do, but a) some people do and b) it’s so good that I had to blog it. Gabe Rivera is one of the funniest guys in the Valley, which isn’t saying a lot, but seriously, he’s hilarious. Case in point:

SYNOPSIS: identi.ca, which almost topped Techmeme, should have topped Techmeme, because it’s open source and therefore not just another buggy Twitter clone. This illustrates the problem with Techmeme, which TechJunk will help fix, and site owner Dave Winer should know because he knew 10 years ago what would be true and important today in tech. “Regular people” don’t care about what’s on Techmeme, but do, and should. (That last point was argued by the same person.) Techmeme may or may not be analogous to the Third Reich. Mike Godwin may or may not be Seth Godin.

Dear FriendFeed: Maybe I would use your promising but ultimately underwhelming service if you provided permalinks to comments and nixed the user-hostile grey text on white background.

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Part of me wants to say this is unbelievable, but the fact is that I’m not really shocked. What follows is not satire.

Last night…I watched in bemused fascination as ITV and the BBC both devoted quite a lot of air time to celebrating - that word was used repeatedly - the 60th anniversary of the National Health Service. There has even been a church service, attended by Prince Charles and the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to mark the anniversary of Britain’s monopoly provider of health care, an essentially socialist creation that is hardly emulated anywhere else in the world, and for good reason. None of the major objections to health care that is provided via tax and distributed “free” at the point of use were mentioned. Last night’s stories gave no balancing comments from skeptics or opponents of the NHS to counter the general feel-good presentations.

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Rep. Pelosi’s bill would subsidize the 600 money-losing Starbucks locations by giving away millions of taxpayer dollars in so-called ‘Venti Vouchers’ to residents of these hard-hit neighborhoods. If the effort fails to revive the flagging stores, Rep. Pelosi said Democrats would “seriously consider nationalizing the coffee industry to ensure the free flow of java at fair prices.”

-Shamelessly re-blogged from Jeff Nolan

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I swear, I’m not going to post anything about Twitter for a long time after this. But what Nancy Scola has to say is just too spot-on not to link. I can’t do it justice with a quote, and it’s brief, so just read it for yourself.

My headline is not strictly accurate. The truth is that Twitter doesn’t love us - the software is indifferent to us. But it does provide the pipes through which the love (and the pissiness, and the humor, and the sadness) all flow to us. At the best of times, those pipes are free of congestion and life is sweet. At the worst of times, they aren’t even there. Many of us are putting up with the worst because the best is so good.

Thanks to Mary Hodder for the pointer (via Twitter, of course).

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@jeffnolan:

My relationship with twitter is like that of a wife beater. I stay because next week will be different.

One the one hand, the recent quiet due to frequent downtime and feature revocation has been welcome. I almost stand a chance of catching up on what everyone is up to. On the other hand, the desertions make me a little sad. I think the glory weeks for Twitter were back in March and April, and I don’t think it’ll ever be as fun or useful for me as it was then. Hell, that’s how Jeff and I finally reconnected properly.

Yes, I know: This may be the most pathetic post I’ve ever written - and that’s saying something.

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photo.jpg

Originally uploaded by photomatt.

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MIRANDA
O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in’t!

PROSPERO
‘Tis new to thee.

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@hotdogsladies (aka Merlin Mann of 43 Folders fame):

“Social Media” has become sad shorthand for people who think airlines, hucksters, and Rails programs have the capacity for human friendship.

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Back at Qik HQ

Originally uploaded by dynamist.

I cannot believe what a difference the California sunshine makes to my moods and energy levels. Work trips are always draining, because you’re rushing from one meeting or event to another, grabbing food* where you can, and trying to get proper sleep while also filling every available waking hour with productivity. But I felt a definite dip in my disposition most mornings in New York, and I think the light makes all the difference. If I’d realized, I would have moved to California years ago.

Well, I’m back now. For how long, we shall see.

*I am very happy that I was able to stick to my ridiculously rigid diet while on the road. It can be done. Edamame, apples, and Lara Bars are my best friends now, especially at the airport and on planes.

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…on the same day as TMZ, no less! Sadly, the Secret Service wasn’t keen on Congressman John Culbertson making the demo public (you can keep videos private on Qik), but the demo to TMZ happened while Culbertson was walking from an appropriations committee meeting to his office. I quite liked the shot, inside the offices, of Nancy Pelosi’s staffer scurrying inside and behind closed doors like a frightened cockroach. Might have something to do with what Culbertson refers to in the video - in the conversation with TMZ - about the disinfecting nature of sunlight…

See the video here.

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Helen is a friend as well as a 20+ year veteran of Britain’s nationalized health service. She’s also the director of Nurses for Reform, and has now published a book that covers her study of what leading opinion-formers in the UK really think of the NHS. You can download the book here, and I will be doing so, as it looks like she’s nailed all the various problems with the NHS. A snippet:

One of the most telling responses to the survey was to the question about statutory restrictions on advertising. From the beginning, an important aspect of the NHS has been the use of restrictive practices to reduce information flows to consumers of healthcare – ostensibly for their own protection. It is clear that opinion formers simply do not believe that justification. An overwhelming majority of the sample – 81% - regarded Treasury Ministers as having the most to gain from the statutory restrictions on advertising medicines because they promoted consumer ignorance about the possible range of available treatments. In other words, the banning of advertising of pharmaceutical products is perceived as a measure designed to keep patients in the dark so that they do not demand expensive drugs. In the light of the current controversy about NHS patients not being allowed to purchase additional drugs, this finding is very significant indeed.

People in the US rarely believe me when I tell them that the British government censors and bans information about medicine and healthcare. “What kind of government doesn’t let people make up their own minds about such things?” they ask. Well, if you need me to spell it out for you…

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