The leak of the diplomatic cables, though, is a bit different. I, like most people, don't fully understand how international diplomacy works, and when governments report that the leaks could seriously jeopardize their function, it seems like they might actually have a point. So are these leaks really a net benefit to society?

Seinfeld ran for nine seasons on NBC and became famous as a “show about nothing.” Basically, the show allows viewers to follow the antics of Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer as they move through their daily lives, often encountering interesting people or dealing with special circumstances. It is the simplicity of Seinfeld that makes it so appropriate for use in economics courses. Using these clips (as well as clips from other television shows or movies) makes economic concepts come alive, making them more real for students. Ultimately, students will start seeing economics everywhere – in other TV shows, in popular music, and most importantly, in their own lives.

A bagel-seller who trusted customers to pay made surprising discoveries about dishonesty. In an extract from his book this author looks at the psychology of workplace crime

But they're not. Let’s take a look under the hood and analyze the reasons why fiber is chosen as a medium, then look at the topologies, the architectures, the trade-offs, and the inherent path dependencies of a particular deployment method. Fiber-to-the-curb, fiber-to-the-basement, fiber-to-the-home—truly, not all fiber is created equal.

In fact consumers never really were paying for content, and publishers weren't really selling it either. If the content was what they were selling, why has the price of books or music or movies always depended mostly on the format? Why didn't better content cost more?

Bedrijven die zich de afgelopen vijftien jaar hebben gericht op verhoging van de winst voor hun aandeelhouders, blijken juist slechter te presteren dan bedrijven die zich niet volledig op de aandeelhouders hebben gefocust, constateert Pieter Jan Bezemer (27) in zijn promotieonderzoek dat hij vrijdag verdedigt aan de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam. ‘De structurele onderprestatie van deze bedrijven wordt veroorzaakt doordat zij te veel focussen op de korte termijn en daardoor hun binding met de Nederlandse maatschappij deels verliezen.’

For Apple, which has enjoyed enormous success in recent years, “build it and they will pay” is business as usual. But it’s not a universal business truth. On the contrary, companies like Ikea, H. & M., and the makers of the Flip video camera are flourishing not by selling products or services that are “far better” than anyone else’s but by selling things that aren’t bad and cost a lot less. These products are much better than the cheap stuff you used to buy at Woolworth, and they tend to be appealingly styled, but, unlike Apple, the companies aren’t trying to build the best mousetrap out there. Instead, they’re engaged in what Wired recently christened the “good-enough revolution.” For them, the key to success isn’t excellence. It’s well-priced adequacy.

Daar zijn drie redenen voor. Over een papieren boek betalen we 6 procent BTW, over een e-book 19 procent. Omdat een boek een ‘cultureel goed’ is. Een e-book natuurlijk ook, maar zover is de besluitvorming nog niet. Daarnaast kost het digitaliseren van een boek geld. Denk aan digitale beveiliging, websitekosten en administratieve afwikkeling. Ook moeten schrijver en uitgever hun inspanningen terug verdienen.

We've summarized Young's long address in this post. It was pretty incredible -- not only did Young lay out his idea of a clear plan for building and developing a large portfolio of very profitable App Store titles "at scale" (the company plans to release twenty new freemium products on the iPhone in the near future, as well as six titles on the iPad), but he made it very clear that he fervently believes that freemium and the model he's structured is the future of the video game business.