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Tuesday, June 17, 2014
CNBC's Disruptor 50
In the second annual Disruptor 50 list, CNBC features private companies in 27 industries—from aerospace to enterprise software to retail—whose innovations are revolutionizing the business landscape. These forward-thinking upstarts have identified unexploited niches in the marketplace that have the potential to become billion-dollar businesses, and they rushed to fill them. In the process, they are creating new ecosystems for their products and services. Unseating corporate giants is no easy feat. But we ranked those venture capital–backed companies doing the best job. Already it's hard to think of the world without them. Read more about the list ranking and the methodology.
1 SpaceX The company that wants to send you to space and colonize Mars.
2. Warby Parker Taking on the Luxottica eyewear machine.
3 Etsy A big voice for small artisans.
10 Uber The 21st-century taxi service.
Five of the companies on our Disruptor 50 are from abroad. These areDropbox (Ireland), Fon (Spain), Nexmo and TransferWise (U.K.) andSpotify (Luxembourg).
Ten of the 2013 Disruptor 50 have "graduated" since the list was published last June, with names likeTwitter and Castlight Health going public; and Tumblr, Nest, WhatsApp and more getting big-dollar buyouts from Yahoo, Google, Facebook and others.
Disruption is the only way to stay relevant, meaningful and profitable over the long run. Very few companies disrupt anything at all, but some companies, like Apple and Google, have disrupted markets time and time again. What do they know about the art of disruption that other companies don't? Here are the principles they follow.
1 SpaceX The company that wants to send you to space and colonize Mars.
2. Warby Parker Taking on the Luxottica eyewear machine.
3 Etsy A big voice for small artisans.
10 Uber The 21st-century taxi service.
18 Quirky Crowdsourcing an idea for basement tinkerers.
32 Pinterest The world's bulletin board.
Five of the companies on our Disruptor 50 are from abroad. These areDropbox (Ireland), Fon (Spain), Nexmo and TransferWise (U.K.) andSpotify (Luxembourg).
Ten of the 2013 Disruptor 50 have "graduated" since the list was published last June, with names likeTwitter and Castlight Health going public; and Tumblr, Nest, WhatsApp and more getting big-dollar buyouts from Yahoo, Google, Facebook and others.
Make meaning. The raison d'etre of disruption is the desire to make meaning. This requires powerful perspectives, like "changing the world" and "making the world a better place." For example, Apple changed the world by democratizing computing, and Google made the world a better place by democratizing information.
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Saturday, June 14, 2014
UNCF: A VISION WORTH INVESTING IN.
"A mind is a terrible thing to waste™." For decades, this galvanizing principle has remained at the heart of the UNCF ideal. And now, more than ever, a mind is also "a wonderful thing to invest in."
Brokers use ‘billions’ of data points to profile Americans
The internet has caused a dramatic expansion in individual data; one broker, Acxiom, claims to have files on 10% of the world's population,[1] with about 1500 pieces of information per consumer.[2] Individuals generally cannot find out what data a broker holds on them, how a broker got it, or how it is used.[3]
A growing number of “data brokers” are raking in profits by scouring through the Internet to build profiles of consumers.
By looking at purchasing histories, social media pages and more, the brokers can piece together pictures of individual consumers that can help companies target their advertising with great precision.
Privacy advocates fear the information could be used for more nefarious ends, and the industry has caught the attention of federal regulators.
By looking at purchasing histories, social media pages and more, the brokers can piece together pictures of individual consumers that can help companies target their advertising with great precision.
Privacy advocates fear the information could be used for more nefarious ends, and the industry has caught the attention of federal regulators. Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook
Data brokers Industry
All this information and much, much more is being quietly collected, analyzed and distributed by the nation’s burgeoning data-broker industry, which uses billions of individual data points to produce detailed portraits of virtually every American consumer, the Federal Trade Commission reported
Data brokers’ portraits feature traditional demographics such as age, race and income, as well as political leanings, religious affiliations, Social Security numbers, gun-ownership records, favored movie genres and gambling preferences (casino or state lottery?). Interest in health issues — such as diabetes, HIV infection and depression — can be tracked as well.
With potentially thousands of fields, data brokers segment consumers into dozens of categories such as “Bible Lifestyle,” “Affluent Baby Boomer” or “Biker/Hell’s Angels,” the report said. One category, called “Rural Everlasting,” describes older people with “low educational attainment and low net worths.” Another, “Urban Scramble,” includes concentrations of Latinos and African Americans with low incomes. One company had a field to track buyers of “Novelty Elvis” items.
Meet the Data Brokers Who Help Corporations Sell Your Digital Life
By looking at purchasing histories, social media pages and more, the brokers can piece together pictures of individual consumers that can help companies target their advertising with great precision.
Privacy advocates fear the information could be used for more nefarious ends, and the industry has caught the attention of federal regulators.
By looking at purchasing histories, social media pages and more, the brokers can piece together pictures of individual consumers that can help companies target their advertising with great precision.
Privacy advocates fear the information could be used for more nefarious ends, and the industry has caught the attention of federal regulators. Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook
Data brokers Industry
All this information and much, much more is being quietly collected, analyzed and distributed by the nation’s burgeoning data-broker industry, which uses billions of individual data points to produce detailed portraits of virtually every American consumer, the Federal Trade Commission reported
Data brokers’ portraits feature traditional demographics such as age, race and income, as well as political leanings, religious affiliations, Social Security numbers, gun-ownership records, favored movie genres and gambling preferences (casino or state lottery?). Interest in health issues — such as diabetes, HIV infection and depression — can be tracked as well.
With potentially thousands of fields, data brokers segment consumers into dozens of categories such as “Bible Lifestyle,” “Affluent Baby Boomer” or “Biker/Hell’s Angels,” the report said. One category, called “Rural Everlasting,” describes older people with “low educational attainment and low net worths.” Another, “Urban Scramble,” includes concentrations of Latinos and African Americans with low incomes. One company had a field to track buyers of “Novelty Elvis” items.
Meet the Data Brokers Who Help Corporations Sell Your Digital Life
Companies that sell similar info: Datalogix, Acxiom, Epsilon, BlueKai, V12 Group
FTC Recommends Congress Require the Data Broker Industry to be More Transparent and Give Consumers Greater Control Over Their Personal Information
The reports from the FTC and the Senate Commerce Committee both said data brokers group consumers together into categories for the use of marketers.
The companies build the profiles based on publicly available information on social media platforms, retailers’ records of offline and online purchases made with credit and debit cards and information that consumers volunteer online, such as online surveys, warranty forms and sweepstakes entries.
"The companies collect and sell information about consumer’s race, religion and ethnicity, which “would raise red flags for most people..."
The report skims over one of the major problems of data brokers—the risk of a data breach that could expose all this data—in spite of the fact that less than a decade ago the FTC fined ChoicePoint $15 million for selling personal data to thieves.
Other Readings
Other Readings
The companies build the profiles based on publicly available information on social media platforms, retailers’ records of offline and online purchases made with credit and debit cards and information that consumers volunteer online, such as online surveys, warranty forms and sweepstakes entries.
"The companies collect and sell information about consumer’s race, religion and ethnicity, which “would raise red flags for most people..."
The report skims over one of the major problems of data brokers—the risk of a data breach that could expose all this data—in spite of the fact that less than a decade ago the FTC fined ChoicePoint $15 million for selling personal data to thieves.
Other Readings
Other Readings
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Was Columbus secretly a Jew?
During Columbus' lifetime, Jews became the target of fanatical religious persecution. On March 31, 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella proclaimed that all Jews were to be expelled from Spain. The edict especially targeted the 800,000 Jews who had never converted, and gave them four months to pack up and get out.
Columbus, who was known in Spain as Cristóbal Colón and didn't speak Italian, signed his last will and testament on May 19, 1506, and made five curious -- and revealing -- provisions.
Columbus' voyage was not, as is commonly believed, funded by the deep pockets of Queen Isabella, but rather by two Jewish Conversos and another prominent Jew. Louis de Santangel and Gabriel Sanchez advanced an interest free loan of 17,000 ducats from their own pockets to help pay for the voyage, as did Don Isaac Abrabanel, rabbi and Jewish statesman.
Columbus, who was known in Spain as Cristóbal Colón and didn't speak Italian, signed his last will and testament on May 19, 1506, and made five curious -- and revealing -- provisions.
Columbus' voyage was not, as is commonly believed, funded by the deep pockets of Queen Isabella, but rather by two Jewish Conversos and another prominent Jew. Louis de Santangel and Gabriel Sanchez advanced an interest free loan of 17,000 ducats from their own pockets to help pay for the voyage, as did Don Isaac Abrabanel, rabbi and Jewish statesman.
Estelle Irizarry, a linguistics professor at Georgetown University, ...explains that 15th-century Castilian Spanish was the "Yiddish" of Spanish Jewry, known as "Ladino." At the top left-hand corner of all but one of the 13 letters written by Columbus to his son Diego contained the handwritten Hebrew letters bet-hei, meaning b'ezrat Hashem (with God's help).
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
"The 'Mudsill' Theory," by James Henry Hammond
Hammond carefully outlined the number of months women slaves could nurse their babies, the length of time they could spend each day with their infants, the amount of work they were expected to perform, and even the body temperature they should maintain before nursing.
Speech to the U.S. Senate, March 4, 1858
In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life. That is, a class requiring but a low order of intellect and but little skill. Its requisites are vigor, docility, fidelity. Such a class you must have, or you would not have that other class which leads progress, civilization, and refinement. It constitutes the very mud-sill of society and of political government; and you might as well attempt to build a house in the air, as to build either the one or the other, except on this mud-sill. Fortunately for the South, she found a race adapted to that purpose to her hand. A race inferior to her own, but eminently qualified in temper, in vigor, in docility, in capacity to stand the climate, to answer all her purposes. We use them for our purpose, and call them slaves. We found them slaves by the common "consent of mankind," which, according to Cicero, "lex naturae est." The highest proof of what is Nature's law. We are old-fashioned at the South yet; slave is a word discarded now by "ears polite;" I will not characterize that class at the North by that term; but you have it; it is there; it is everywhere; it is eternal.
James Henry Hammond was a senator and wealthy plantation owner from South Carolina. This excerpt is from a speech he made to the Senate on March 4, 1858, in which he lays out his famous "mudsill theory" and states, "In all societies that must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life." This class, says Hammond, makes it possible for the higher class to move civilization forward.
In the antebellum period, pro-slavery forces moved from defending slavery as a necessary evil to expounding it as a positive good. Some insisted that African Americans were child-like people in need of protection, and that slavery provided a civilizing influence. Others argued that black people were biologically inferior to white people and were incapable of assimilating in free society. Still others claimed that slaves were necessary to maintain the progress of white society.
Foster deep and thoughtful engagement with high-quality literary and informational texts
From Leslie Harris, “Slavery in Colonial New York,” in In the Shadow of Slavery: African
Americans in New York City, 1626-1863 (2003)
African slaves became the most stable element of the New Netherland working class and
population. The Dutch West India Company’s importation and employment of most of the
colony’s slave labor enabled the settlement and survival of the Europeans at New Amsterdam as
well as the limited economic success that the colony experienced. The first eleven African slaves
were imported in 1626. The company, not individuals, owned these slaves who provided labor for
the building and upkeep of the colony’s infrastructure. In addition to aiding in the construction of
Fort Amsterdam, completed in 1635, slaves also built roads, cut timber and firewood, cleared
land, and burned limestone and oyster shells to make the lime used in outhouses and in burying
the dead.
Plantation manual, 1857-58.James Henry Hammond. James Henry Hammond Papers
Speech to the U.S. Senate, March 4, 1858
In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life. That is, a class requiring but a low order of intellect and but little skill. Its requisites are vigor, docility, fidelity. Such a class you must have, or you would not have that other class which leads progress, civilization, and refinement. It constitutes the very mud-sill of society and of political government; and you might as well attempt to build a house in the air, as to build either the one or the other, except on this mud-sill. Fortunately for the South, she found a race adapted to that purpose to her hand. A race inferior to her own, but eminently qualified in temper, in vigor, in docility, in capacity to stand the climate, to answer all her purposes. We use them for our purpose, and call them slaves. We found them slaves by the common "consent of mankind," which, according to Cicero, "lex naturae est." The highest proof of what is Nature's law. We are old-fashioned at the South yet; slave is a word discarded now by "ears polite;" I will not characterize that class at the North by that term; but you have it; it is there; it is everywhere; it is eternal.
James Henry Hammond was a senator and wealthy plantation owner from South Carolina. This excerpt is from a speech he made to the Senate on March 4, 1858, in which he lays out his famous "mudsill theory" and states, "In all societies that must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life." This class, says Hammond, makes it possible for the higher class to move civilization forward.
In the antebellum period, pro-slavery forces moved from defending slavery as a necessary evil to expounding it as a positive good. Some insisted that African Americans were child-like people in need of protection, and that slavery provided a civilizing influence. Others argued that black people were biologically inferior to white people and were incapable of assimilating in free society. Still others claimed that slaves were necessary to maintain the progress of white society.
Foster deep and thoughtful engagement with high-quality literary and informational texts
From Leslie Harris, “Slavery in Colonial New York,” in In the Shadow of Slavery: African
Americans in New York City, 1626-1863 (2003)
African slaves became the most stable element of the New Netherland working class and
population. The Dutch West India Company’s importation and employment of most of the
colony’s slave labor enabled the settlement and survival of the Europeans at New Amsterdam as
well as the limited economic success that the colony experienced. The first eleven African slaves
were imported in 1626. The company, not individuals, owned these slaves who provided labor for
the building and upkeep of the colony’s infrastructure. In addition to aiding in the construction of
Fort Amsterdam, completed in 1635, slaves also built roads, cut timber and firewood, cleared
land, and burned limestone and oyster shells to make the lime used in outhouses and in burying
the dead.
Plantation manual, 1857-58.James Henry Hammond. James Henry Hammond Papers
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