“The present moment…is the most productive in the nation’s history”
Manufacturing retains its powerful hold on the American imagination for good reason. In the years after World War II, factory work created a broadly shared prosperity that helped make the American middle class. People without college degrees could buy a home, raise a family, buy a station wagon, take some nice vacations. It makes perfect […]continued…
“…the most modern technology is providing outreach to people in search of an older, traditional lifestyle”
The use of the internet by orthodox groups also suggests a paradox: the most modern technology is providing outreach to people in search of an older, traditional lifestyle. The Internet provides a forum for the Orthodox movement to create a dialogue with as well as to educate the secular community about their traditions, rituals, values, […]continued…
“Continuous improvement is of no use if you’re not improving the right things”
Customer service seems worse than it once was. Most companies underinvest in it, because they see it purely as a cost center, rather than a source of potential profits, and so workers are undertrained. Customer-service centers have often been set up to maximize the very things—speed and volume—that make for a poor customer experience. Continuous […]continued…
“A good number of voters seem to have decided that the choice this year is between two candidates they don’t like”
A good number of voters seem to have decided that the choice this year is between two candidates they don’t like, one of whom they see as crazy and the other as corrupt. (And, in the American psyche, the winner in that matchup is not always an obvious call.) The dichotomy is infuriating to Clinton’s […]continued…
“Kanye’s career-long fixation on his own contradictions eventually consolidated into an aesthetic…who wallow in soft self-loathing and explain away their loutish behavior as the result of melancholy and bruised ego”
His career-long fixation on his own contradictions eventually consolidated into an aesthetic, one that gave rise to a generation of male artists, such as Drake and The Weeknd, who wallow in soft self-loathing and explain away their loutish behavior as the result of melancholy and bruised ego. As West’s fame has grown, he has seemed […]continued…
“…before 1968, primaries hardly mattered; since 1968, the Conventions have hardly mattered”
The protests at the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968 resulted in a change in the balance of power between the primaries and the Conventions: before 1968, primaries hardly mattered; since 1968, the Conventions have hardly mattered. A report issued in 1968 predicted that “instantaneous polls of the entire electorate” conducted by “central computers from […]continued…
“Oxidation flavors in finished beer are the product of the combined effect of dissolved oxygen, time, and temperature”
Oxidation flavors in finished beer are the product of the combined effect of [dissolved oxygen] DO, time, and temperature. An excess of any of these three oxidative factors can render a wonderful beer undrinkable. The volatility of fresh beer flavors coupled with the popularity of session IPA’s, juicy northwest style IPA’s, and west coast IPA’s […]continued…
“…the meaning of התפלל is to make oneself the object of God’s פלל (assessment, intervention, or judging)”
Most likely, the hitpael form in the case of התפלל is doing the same thing as the hitpael form in the case of התחנן: it is turning the word into a voluntary passive/indirect reflexive. Hence, the meaning of התפלל is to make oneself the object of God’s פלל (assessment, intervention, or judging). This is a […]continued…
“…degrading one’s ideological opponents despite their great Torah knowledge…stands at the root of all the terrible disputes in the haredi world”
A basic feature of “official” haredism, especially in Israel, is the attitude that even if someone is a great posek, he is still disqualified if he doesn’t follow the correct Da’as Torah. It is hard to imagine a greater degrading of respect for Torah scholars than this (which thankfully is not shared by all who […]continued…
“The manufacturing boom of the postwar years was an oddity, and there will be no repeat of the concatenation that made it happen…”
The manufacturing boom of the postwar years was an oddity, and there will be no repeat of the concatenation that made it happen: The backlog of innovations stored up during the Great Depression and World War II; the devastation of other industrial powers, Germany in particular, which gave the United States a competitive edge. Yet […]continued…