By [Chris] Anderson’s calculation, 25% of Amazon’s sales are from its tail … But using another analysis of those numbers … you can show that 2.7% of Amazon’s titles produce a whopping 75% of its revenues … Ecast says 10% of its songs account for roughly 90% of its streams; monthly data from Rhapsody showed the top 10% songs getting 86% of streams … The top 10% of feeds grab 88% of all subscriptions. And 35% have no current subscribers at all — there’s clearly no 98 Percent Rule in the blogosphere.
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Acrylamide, when it was found in food in 2002, seemed to be the ultimate confirmation that everything tasty is bad for you. Here was a compound that was a probable carcinogen and possible neurotoxin, lurking in practically every fried or baked good … produced by the Maillard reaction — the chemical process by which carbohydrates transform, under heat, to golden-brown deliciousness … The answer … lies with a bacterial enzyme called asparaginase, which snips up precursor chemicals called asparagine so that they cannot go on to form acrylamide during baking. All one needs to do is toss a pinch of the stuff into dough while it is being kneaded. This step reduces the amount of acrylamide in foods by up to 80% … without changing the taste.
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The Matrix is the collection of computer systems that is reachable by e-mail from the Internet. While all Internet systems that can receive e-mail are part of the Matrix, the Matrix also includes computers on store and forward networks such as FidoNet, FrEdMail, BITNET, UUCP, WWIVNet, RBBS-Net, OneNet, and RIME. This article summarizes the status of each of these networks, and their relationship to each other as of March, 1994.
Police were searching for four gang members Monday after shots rang out amidst the crowds at Oslo’s popular waterfront complex Aker Brygge … police believe [this] was a clash between Oslo’s so-called “A” and “B” gangs.
Norwegian police are launching a crackdown on [the] gangs, vowing their members will be shadowed and cited for the most minor infractions. “Good,” say Kashiff Hamid and Gulshan Bashir … The two main “A” and “B” gangs are closely tied to the Pakistani community, the majority of which condemns their operations. “The gangs are stamping all Pakistanis as negative”.
It is hard to pretend you’re posing a threat to anything other than your own will to live when you’re surrounded by corporate logos at an event broadcast on the BBC and attended by ex-Big Brother housemates and the cast of Hollyoaks. What self-respecting teenager wouldn’t instead opt for an illegal rave, with its sense of outlaw cool and danger - offering not just drug-fuelled hedonism, but an attendant palaver involving the chance to run across motorways, trespass on private property and the occasional spot of light rioting?
We make an unannounced visit to China’s only retirement home for non-commissioned veterans of the Red Army. It is a Potemkin old people’s home. From an army of millions, fewer than 30 enjoy the comforts of this quiet residence … Liu started her propaganda career in the 4th Army in 1933 and is still committed: ‘The whole purpose of our revolution was to achieve communism. That is what we fought for. In a communist state you can have anything you want and everyone is the same. We are not there yet.’
The VA runs the largest integrated health-care system in the [United States] … this government-managed health-care program–socialized medicine on a small scale–is beating the marketplace … Males 65 years and older receiving VA care had about a 40% lower risk of death than those enrolled in Medicare Advantage, whose care is provided through private health plans or HMOs … The VA’s cost per patient has remained steady during the past 10 years. The cost of private care has jumped about 40% in that same period … Congress has no plans to enlarge the scope of veterans’ health care … it’s becoming more and more “ideologically inconvenient for some to have such a stellar health-delivery system being run by the government”.
In Baghdad these days, not even the hospitals are safe. In growing numbers, sick and wounded Sunnis have been abducted from public hospitals operated by Iraq’s Shiite-run Health Ministry and later killed … the motive for the abductions appeared to be nothing more than religious affiliation. Because public hospitals here are controlled by Shiites, the killings have raised questions about whether hospital staff have allowed Shiite death squads into their facilities to slaughter Sunni Arabs.
At least 20 gunmen and 8 civilians were killed Monday when the Iraqi Army battled fiercely for hours with members of a militia loyal to Moktada al-Sadr … The American military announced Monday the deaths of nine American service members in attacks on Sunday. In Baghdad, a car bomb killed at least 13 people on Monday and wounded dozens at a checkpoint just outside the Interior Ministry headquarters. Over all, more than 100 Iraqis were killed Sunday and Monday.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene in which combatants fought through the streets using machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. At one point during the battle, which began Sunday night and raged into Monday, militiamen executed a dozen Iraqi soldiers who had run out of ammunition.
Monday’s clashes erupted after Iraqi soldiers, backed by Polish troops, attempted to raid three neighborhoods controlled by the Mahdi Army. The fighting began after midnight as explosions and gunfire rattled different parts of the city … By late afternoon, the fighting had subsided. It was soon clear who had won. “The city is fully controlled by [Sadr] now,” said Ahmed Fadhil … “There are no police or Iraqi army in the streets of the city. I can see only the gunmen of Mahdi Army in the streets”.
American helicopters hovered overhead without dropping bombs … The Americans have maintained some distance: even as the fighting raged in Diwaniya on Monday, General Caldwell told reporters he had not been briefed on the battle and could not comment.