Sunday Brunch - December 18, 2011

The links are back!

• Vocal Frey - I had never heard of this before but once I watched the video, it made perfect sense. Very interesting. Wondering if a vocal tic like this spread because of widespread media consumption or are we just noticing it now.
• Amazon Kindle Redirects to Amazon's Version of Android - brilliant move by Amazon. They're trying to make their branch of Android, the only one that matters. Worth paying attention to.
• UC Berkeley to Offer Financial Aid to Middle Class Families - awesome to see my alma mater react to changing economic realities. Of course, I (and many others) believe that widespread student loan availability has resulted in skyrocketing education costs. On balance though, I still think loans are good though because it makes education accessible.
• Playing with Pigs - Lisanti found another amazing link and video.
• Dividend Paying Funds Rock - great article by Kathryn on the importance of dividends in financial performance. I've owned a bunch of high dividend paying stocks for this reason. However, you have to be careful, because some dividend paying companies are really value traps. The dividend is all they really have going for them and Management clings to it while the business degrades.
• Give Me Something to Read 2011 - This blog consistently surfaces the best articles. This is their best of 2011.
• Whatever Happened to the Triangle Offense - the Triangle Offense is a basketball offense that is a little unorthodox but it gets players to move the ball, which creates easy scoring opportunities. 
• Why Quantum Solace Wasn't Any Good - funny story from the making of James Bond movie.
• A Softer World - excellent photo blog with snappy commentary.
• The Day I Saw Van Gogh's Genius in a New Light - fascinating that he had a problem seeing color the way most people do.
• Louis CK's Big Video Experiment - He cut out the middle men, big media companies, and the results have been great. I bought it and it's hilarious. 
• Don't be a Free User - good advice for people who love a service that doesn't charge. It's really hard to stay in business this way. Give them a few bucks.
• Seth Godin on Organizational Acquisitions - great way of looking at why big companies buy small ones. From the outside, it looks like Facebook does a terrific job of this.
• The Trap of Social Media Noise - social media can be so powerful, just look at how we're using it to help raise money for Ben's Friends, but it has a big downside if used incorrectly.
• Why Google is Bending to Verizon on the Google Wallet - Google's version of Android really needs Verizon to be successful.
• Hello Moon - really pretty