Information Curation

The Top 10 Countries Using Geothermal Energy (highest to lowest):

The US is the leader by far in geothermal energy countries, and in 2010 its 77 power plants produced a total of 3,086 megawatts of installed capacity.  A geothermal field in California called The Geysers holds the largest cluster of geothermal power plants on Earth.  The second country after the US is the Philippines, with an online capacity of 1,904 megawatts.  About 18% of the total electricity generated in the Philippines comes from geothermal power.  You may not have expect Kenya to have made this list, but this country is at the forefront in Africa when it comes to renewable energy.  24 countries currently produce power geothermally, but there are currently 70 countries that have geothermal projects under consideration.

Venezuela is #4 in the list of oil exporting countries to the US, after Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico, at more than 900,000 barrels a day.  Just below Venezuela in the rank of oil exporting countries to the US, is Nigeria.  Nigerian oil is known for its excellent quality, perfect for producing high grade gasoline.  But the good news ends there.  Behind Somalia, it is officially the most corrupt country in Africa.  Militants sometimes attack oil refineries and kidnap foreign oil workers.  These local militias and are heavily armed.  Most people in the business consider this source of oil to be particularly unstable.  The 6th biggest oil exporter to the US, with about half a million barrels a day, is Iraq.  Many pundits believe Iraq will break up in the next few years, as violence between different ethnic groups continues.  The combination of external interference and internal fragmentation is unfortunately leading this country to the scrap heap — another huge exporter of oil to the US which is incredibly unstable.

This photo was taken on 26 September 2009 in Papa`anui Ahupua`a, Kula, Hawaii, USA.  For a huge version, go here.  I thought it must be from an airplane or balloon, but no.  Did the photographer climb to the top?  With his gear?  (Perhaps there’s a gondola?)

What might it feel like to fly over the earth?  Millions of people have viewed a variation of this video on YouTube.  (Perhaps it has been broadcast on tv as well — I wouldn’t know anything about that.)  This version has been “smoothed” so it isn’t jerky but is otherwise the same.  The reason I feel it’s worth watching (more than once) is because of the dynamic view it gives of global lightning (the large white splotches to the right in the picture).  The lightning bolts look like neurons firing.

Ficus benjamina, often sold in stores as just “ficus”, is a species of fig tree native to south and southeast Asia and Australia.  It’s a topiary tree reaching 30 metres (98 feet) tall in natural conditions, with gracefully drooping branchlets and glossy leaves.  In its native range, its small fruit are a favourite food of birds such fruit-doves and pigeons.  It’s a popular houseplant in temperate areas due to its elegant growth and tolerance of poor growing conditions; it does best where it’s bright and sunny but will also tolerate considerable shade.  It requires a moderate amount of watering in summer and only enough to keep it from drying out in winter.  The plant is sensitive to cold and should be protected from strong draft.  The leaves are sensitive to small changes in light — when it’s turned around or relocated it reacts by dropping many of its leaves and replacing them with new ones adapted to the new light conditions.  It effectively filters indoor air toxins.  The United States Forest Service states: “Roots grow rapidly, invading gardens, growing under and lifting sidewalks, patios, and driveways.”  They conclude its use in tree form is much too large for residential planting and it should only be used as a hedge or clipped screen or else grown outdoors in a large pot.  I have one outside in a large pot which is doing quite well.  I recently contemplated digging a hole and planting it in the garden.  Perhaps I’ll hold off.  Indefinitely.  (It’s penetrative root system does mean it is seldom blown over.)

The Great Smoky Mountains in the spring.  I don’t know what kind of tree this is, however, it probably won’t matter to anyone.  Unless it’s a sourwood tree and there are bees nearby.  In my opinion, sourwood honey is the best in the world.  Others must think so, too as it’s won “Best Honey in the World” twice at the presitigious Apimondia World Honey Show — but if you don’t live in the area (upland forests of southern Pennsylvania to northern Georgia), you’ve probably never tasted it. It’s so rare that years can go by between good crops.  I bought every bit I could find while I lived in North Carolina and it lasted us for years.  To me, no other honey comes close.

This is a time-lapse video of a tomato plant growing.  You may initially file that into the same category as “watching paint dry” (as I did when first asked to watch it).  But there’s a bit of the same feeling as watching a fire — you can learn something about the underlying nature of a tomato plant (there’s a rhythm to the growth spurts) or maybe just learn something about certain classes of plants in general.  The value of that infomation is uncertain.  (Meaning?  Could be a waste of time but at the least has some amusement value.)

Niagra Falls does sometimes freeze.  Click on the photo for a large image where you can notice the women’s hats, especially the one on the right.  Women’s hats were a good indication of social status or class.  This is one wealthy family, from back when most of the money flowed upward.  There was a small middle class (doctors were the low end of the wealthy, for example), and everyone else was working to survive.  In a pre-FDR world, the 90% or so of “everyone else” disappears, since the subjects (or heroes) are usually upper class in one of its flavours.  The family in the picture likely had money to travel.  And notice that despite the abundance of ice visible, water can still be seen flowing over the falls.  Only once in recorded history has freezing weather actually stopped water from flowing over the falls.  This instance occurred in March 1848, when a preponderance of ice above the falls reduced the flow of water over the falls to a trickle.  As reported in the Buffalo Express newspaper: “The Falls of Niagara can be compared to nothing but a mere mill dam this morning.  In the memory of the oldest inhabitants, never was there so little water running over Niagara’s awful precipice, as at this moment!  Hundreds of people are now witnessing that which never has, and probably never may again be witnessed on the Niagara River.  Last night at 11 o’clock the factories fed from the waters of this majestic river were in full operation, and at 12 o’clock the water was shut off, the wheels suddenly ceased their revolutions, and everything was hushed into silence.  Various are the conjectures as to the cause, the most reasonable of which is that Lake Erie must be making a grand delivery of ice, and the Niagara, although large, is not quite enough to take in the whole at once.”  Much of the Niagara River around the falls was frozen in early 1912 (presumably about when this picture was made) resulting in tragedy when an ice bridge across the river broke free from its shoring as several people were traversing it.  Three people were unable to make it back to shore and were killed as the loosened ice plunged down the river.

— W H Auden, “1 September 1939”

If Auden were around today looking back at the events of 11 September 2001 and considering both the decade that preceded it and the one that followed, he might be tempted to label both the 1990s and the first decades of the 21st century “low dishonest decades.”  The line “We must love one another or die” that concludes Auden’s poem, was deleted from The Collected Poetry of W H Auden, published in 1945.  In fact, Auden would come to distance himself from the entire poem — he came to regard it as trash he was “ashamed to have written.”

“The Jones case (Do the police need a warrant to attach a GPS device to a suspect’s car and track its movements for weeks at a time?) requires the Supreme Court to decide whether modern technology has turned law enforcement into Big Brother, able to monitor and record every move we make outside our homes,” said Susan Freiwald, law professor.  “Repeated visits to a church, gym, bar or bookie tell a story not told by any single visit, as does one’s not visiting any of those places in the course of a month,” wrote Judge Douglas H Ginsburg.  He added: “A person who knows all of another’s travel can deduce whether he is a weekly churchgoer, a heavy drinker, a regular at the gym, an unfaithful husband, an outpatient receiving medical treatment, an associate of particular individuals or political groups — and not just one such fact about a person, but all such facts.” Judge Richard A Posner was cautious regarding institutionalised mass surveillance.  Magistrate Judge James Orenstein of the Federal District Court in Brooklyn wrote last year, “Technology has progressed to the point where a person who wishes to partake in the social, cultural and political affairs of our society has no realistic choice but to expose to others, if not to the public as a whole, a broad range of conduct and communications that would previously have been deemed unquestionably private.”  The Supreme Court warned that “24-hour surveillance of any citizen of the country” using “dragnet-type law enforcement practices” may violate the Fourth Amendment.  A decade ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the police needed a warrant to use thermal imaging technology to measure heat emanating from a home.  The sanctity of the home is at the core of what the Fourth Amendment protects, and imaging technology had not been in widespread use at the time.  But Justice Scalia has observed, “It would be foolish to contend that the degree of privacy secured to citizens by the Fourth Amendment has been entirely unaffected by the advance of technology.”

A year ago, when chemotherapy stopped working against his leukemia, William Ludwig signed up to be the first patient treated in a bold experiment at the University of Pennsylvania.  Mr Ludwig, then 65, a retired corrections officer from Bridgeton, New Jersey, felt his life draining away and thought he had nothing to lose.  Doctors removed a billion of his T-cells — a type of white blood cell that fights viruses and tumours — and gave them new genes that would programme the cells to attack his cancer.  Then the altered cells were dripped back into Mr Ludwig’s veins.  At first, nothing happened.  But after 10 days, hell broke loose in his hospital room.  He began shaking with chills.  His temperature shot up.  His blood pressure shot down.  He became so ill that doctors moved him into intensive care and warned that he might die.  His family gathered at the hospital, fearing the worst.  A few weeks later, the fevers were gone.  And so was the leukemia.  Scientists say the treatment that helped Mr Ludwig may signify a turning point in the long struggle to develop effective gene therapies against cancer — training a person’s own immune system to kill cancer cells.

The Bettmann Archive is a collection of 19 million photographs and images, some going back to the US Civil War and including some of the best known US historic images.  The Archive also includes many images from Europe and elsewhere.  It was founded in 1936 by Otto Bettmann (1903–1998), a German curator who emigrated to the US in 1935 with his personal collection of 15,000 images which he brought with him in suitcases when he escaped from Nazi Germany.  In 1960, Bettmann moved his collection from his apartment in New York City to the Tischman building on West 57th St.  In 1981, he sold the archive to Kraus Thomson.  In 1995, the archive was again sold — this time to Corbis, a digital stock photography company founded by Bill Gates.  Issues arising from this sale regarding the restriction of access to the collection were described in the editorial “Goodbye to All That” in American Heritage magazine, May 2001.  In 2002, to preserve the photos and negatives, Corbis moved the archive from Manhattan to the Iron Mountain National Underground Storage Facility, a former limestone quarry located 220 feet (67 metres) belowground in western Pennsylvania.  The temperature of the storage room is gradually being lowered to -4°F (-20°C), which was determined by film preservationist Harry Wilhelm to be the optimal temperature for the long-term storage of the archive.  At this temperature, the collection will degrade 500 times slower at Iron Mountain than it did in Manhattan.  Meanwhile, Corbis has been scanning the negatives into digital form as copies are ordered by clients.

“Standing in lonely dignity in the midriff of Manhattan, a sentinel by land, a reassuring landmark by air, the Empire State Building is the quadri-faced pharos of the city.  Its 102 floors were the highest in New York.  Though designed at the end of the so-called Art Deco period in the 1920s, when zigzagged appliques were prominent, its exterior shows little of the frippery characteristic of that 'decorated’ period.  It is, moreover, one of the very few skyscrapers with four façades, not just one facing the avenue.  Zoning required several setbacks, but these were given a skillful buildup of scale at the lower levels, while the tower itself rises unflinchingly.  Indented setbacks in the centre of each of the long sides help lateral scale.  An observation platform and a pylon topped by a tv transmission antenna crown all.” — from G E Kidder Smith, Looking at Architecture, page 152.  The project involved 3,400 workers, mostly immigrants from Europe, along with 100s of Mohawk iron workers.  The whole building was completed in only 16 months (a feat that couldn’t be duplicated today, largely due to regulations).  The building’s opening coincided with the Great Depression in the US, so much of its office space went unrented.  In its first year of operation, the observation deck took in over $1,000,000 — as much money as it made in rent that year.  New Yorkers derided the building as the “Empty State Building”.  It didn’t become profitable until 1950.  Its famous 1951 sale was brokered for a record $51 million — at the time the highest price ever paid for a single structure in real estate history.  The building’s spire was originally to be a mooring mast and depot for dirigibles.  The top floor was a landing platform with a dirigible gangplank.  A particular elevator was to transport passengers after they checked in at the observation deck on the 86th floor.  However, the idea proved dangerous after a few attempts with airships, due to powerful updrafts caused by the size of the building itself.  The T-shaped mooring devices remain in place but a broadcast antenna was added to utilise the spire in 1952.

The Empire State Building cost $24.7 million to build in 1931 (not including the cost of the land).  Today, that would be $336.2 million.  What’s it worth?  Rents matter more than legend.  The building has issues, including a decades-long battle to attract tenants.  Owned by a partnership between Peter Malkin and Leona Helmsley, the building is undergoing extensive makeover.  Nevertheless, it’s still the city’s trademark skyscraper — and has 2.77 million square feet.  It could crack the $2 billion sales barrier soon.  Much depends on its looks post-renovation.
Now compare that scenario with this one:
The Brent Spence Bridge is a 48-year-old structure spanning the Ohio River between Kentucky and the state of Ohio.  It lies on a critical commercial route, carrying an average of 172,000 vehicles each day, more than double its designed number.  Authorities have worked for nearly a decade on a plan to replace it with an entirely new structure, part of a broader initiative to alleviate vehicle congestion in the area.  Project analysis began only recently, and its not yet to the public comment stage.  Even if all the necessary funding were in place (which it’s not), the earliest possible start date for construction is estimated to be 2015, with completion in 2022.  Why?  Various noise and environmental studies are still being conducted to ensure compliance with state and federal regulations.  According to a 2004 agreement between Ohio and Kentucky, the “environmental phase” of the project was estimated to cost $18 million.  As for the funding, on its price tag of $2.4 billion, as is typical, the federal government provides 80% (or $1.9 billion), with state and local governments pitching in the remaining $500 million.  So far, only about $90 million of the state and local share has been allocated.  Even if paid tomorrow, actual construction wouldn’t begin for at least another 4 years.  President Obama himself admitted one of the flaws of the stimulus package was the fact that shovel-ready wasn’t as shovel-ready as expected.

Another example — Obama recommended in a recent speech spending billions on refurbishing public school classrooms to make them more energy efficient.  One person replies: “I’ve worked in the construction business for a long time — but I learned the specifics of school district capital spending in the summer of 2008 when we started refurbishing school classrooms to demonstrate energy saving.  We essentially gave the equipment to the first 50 schools, paid contractors to install the equipment, and even provided classroom curriculum on energy conservation and the physics of light.  And then we learned that no matter how good the product, how fast the return on investment, how politically popular we might be — nothing, nothing, could get a capital expenditure through the process in less than 2 school years.  In my opinion — my expert opinion — if Obama’s [Fix America’s Schools Today] FAST plan were to be embraced by Congress tomorrow, you’d be lucky to see more than a handful of jobs by May of 2013, and you would not see 90% of the projects hire a single worker before mid-May of 2014, almost 3 years from now.”

UC Berkeley graduate students held a contest “to redesign the Nutrition Facts Label to make it easier to read and more useful to people who want to consume healthier, more nutritious and wholesome food.”  Renee Walker had this winning entry.  The labels work as a system, using colour to indicate food groups, a mathematically proportionate representation of ingredients by order of listing, and the calling out of important nutrition facts using colour of ingredient to which it references.  Simple iconography is introduced to indicate serving size and a thumbs up or thumbs down for whether an excessive amount of an ingredient is good or bad.  Overall, it’s meant to bring important information to the forefront, closer to an at-a-glance approach.

A familiar tale told many times by writers and filmmakers: A dynamic thinker sets out on a career and makes an impact almost immediately, bringing new ideas to the table, seeing angles others don’t, and shooting up the ranks to become leader.  After experiencing initial success in the new role, however, something happens.  The world begins to change, but this person seems blind to the transformations taking place.  The one-time innovator becomes calcified and defensive, refusing to accept criticism and becoming isolated.  Pretty soon the new empire starts to crumble, and everything accomplished comes crashing down.  In the movies the leader usually fails because “absolute power corrupts absolutely,” a la Charles Foster Kane.  Or, as in the case of Macbeth, the leader is tortured by thoughts of a sin for which he can never atone.  In real life, however, many managers face similar problems even when they have committed no major sins and when their power is far from absolute.  Indeed, becoming isolated and self-obsessed is something every business leader should fear — even middle managers and owners of small companies.  Many cling to techniques that got them to the top — techniques that no longer work.  High achievers, while intelligent and hard working, are often terrible at taking criticism and examining their own weaknesses.  Driven by a need for tangible accomplishments, they end up managing their images at the expense of the company’s overall needs.

Born Melvin Jerome Blank in San Francisco, California, to Jewish parents, when he was 16, he changed the spelling from “Blank” to “Blanc” because a teacher told him that he would amount to nothing and be, like his name, a “blank”.  (Nice teacher!)  Mel Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros during the “Golden Age of American animation” (and later for Hanna-Barbera tv productions) as the voice of such well-known characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Wile E Coyote, Woody Woodpecker, Barney Rubble, Heathcliff, Speedy Gonzales, Tom Cat, and hundreds of others.  He earned the nickname “The Man of a Thousand Voices.” In 1961, a near-fatal head-on collision on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood left Blanc with a triple skull fracture and fractures of both legs and his pelvis.  He received over 15,000 get-well cards from anxious fans, including some addressed only to “Bugs Bunny, Hollywood, USA”.  He was in a coma for 3 weeks.  A clever doctor helped him to come out of his coma by talking to him as if to Bugs Bunny after futile efforts to talk directly to Blanc.  The doctor was inspired to ask him, “How are you today, Bugs Bunny?” and Blanc answered in Bugs’ voice.  Blanc thus credited Bugs with saving his life.  Blanc is regarded as one of the most influential people in the voice-acting industry.  It was estimated that 20 million people heard his voice every day.  He was the first voice actor to get his name in the film’s ending credits; he ushered in a new era for voice actors where they were regarded as a significant part of the creative process, rather than mere easy-to-replace finishing touches.

Okay, you may not enjoy watching this video — it’s a guy modelling a bee.  I was asked to watch it and did, but assumed I would be somewhat bored (and I even like to model in 3D).  The details may not ne riveting, but Andrew Browne is a fantastic modeller, and the bee he ends up with is completely riggable and realistic.  I was way impressed.

This photograph was taken during the tidal surge 11 September 2007.  The couple and their kids got soaked even though the kids got to the top of the steps.  Taken at Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex, UK.

This Curriculum Vitae appears to be authentic.  If not, I hope the job the writer is applying for is stand-up comedy.  An excerpt:
Ever had my own girlfriend, wife or child: I’m not now having, I’ll never have, I’ve never had sex activities with an animal that’s not a female human being, unrelated, weighs under 75 kilograms, is 16 years old or older, is not Down syndrome, is taller than 169 centimetres.  Now I wouldn’t have sex activities with a female that’s older than 40.  I now own none of each.
Criminal History: I’ve never been in jail.  I’ll never go to jail unless to do taxable work.  I’ve done roughly 200 hours of community service work that was given to me with force by a Ministry of Justice court judge.  I’m now not, never will and never did commit a crime that was pre-planned.  I’ve been convicted for drink driving and for urinating on a vacant public bush at night.
Glad we got THAT explained!

This cat, however, is very much alive.  I presume it was sedated — but why put it through that for your own vanity?  It MUST be photoshopped.  Mustn’t it?  Although this site has several more tattooed cat pictures, so it looks to be real.  Apparently it’s become a fad in Russia.  Via Neatorama.

The substance that makes the cat glow in the dark is a version of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) that lights up a US West Coast jellyfish.  By inserting a version of GFP along with the gene of choice they are attempting to insert into cells, scientists can easily see success because the organism then glows.  Researchers have now made many glowing animals, including pigs, mice, dogs, even fish you can buy in the pet store.  GFP inserted into the eggs of a cat produce kittens that glow green.  The glowing cats produce glowing kittens without any further intervention.  Cat owners might find a glow-in-the-dark kitty to be fairly useful — you’ll never trip over the cat at night again.

The Giant Devil’s Flower Mantis, Idolomantis Diabolica, is one of the largest species of praying mantis that mimic flowers.  The video of its defensive posture is fascinating.  It is native to Tanzania.  Via Tywkiwdbi.

New York is a major stopover for migratory birds.  Every year, an estimated 90,000 birds are killed by flying into buildings in NYC.  Often, they strike the lower levels of glass façades after foraging for food in nearby parks.  Some ornithologists and conservationists say such crashes are second to habitat loss for migrating bird death.  At the Morgan mail processing centre in Chelsea, more than 300 dead birds were discovered in 2006 alone.  A row of London plane trees, reflected in the mirror-like, south-facing facade, was luring the birds to their deaths.  There are no easy fixes, however.  A few manufacturers are exploring glass designs that use ultraviolet signals visible only to birds, but they are still in their infancy.  Opaque or translucent films, decals, dot patterns, shades, mesh screens — even nets — are the main options available.  And they’ve been a tough sell in the high-design world.  “I hope there will come a time when putting up an all-glass building is like wearing a fur coat,” said Glenn Phillips, executive director of NYC Audubon.  “Not that no one will do it, but maybe they’ll think twice about it.”  The San Francisco Planning Commission adopted bird-safety standards for new buildings in July, and laws are pending in Washington requiring many federal buildings to incorporate bird-friendly designs.

Are introverts arrogant?  Hardly.  This common misconception has to do with being more intelligent, reflective, independent, level-headed, refined, and sensitive than extroverts.  [Do I see myself as an introvert?  Why, what makes you ask?]  Also, it is probably due to a lack of small talk, a dearth that extroverts often mistake for disdain.  Introverts tend to think before talking, whereas extroverts tend to think by talking.  “Introverts,” writes a perceptive fellow named Thomas Crouser, in a review of a book called Why Should Extroverts Make All the Money?, “are driven to distraction by the semi-internal dialogue extroverts tend to conduct.”  Just so.  The worst of it is that extroverts have no idea of the torment caused by the fog of their 98%-content-free talk.  Do they even listen to themselves?  Introverts can only dream that someday, when the condition is more widely understood, it will not be impolite to say “I’m an introvert.  You’re a wonderful person and I like you.  But now please shush.”  Being an introvert is not a choice.  It’s not a lifestyle.  It’s an orientation.  When you see an introvert lost in thought, don’t say “What’s the matter?” or “Are you all right?”  It’s probably best if you don’t say anything.

“Many people have solved the problem of what to do when a thousand pairs of eyes are looking their way.  And some of them, for whatever reason, are natural performers.  From childhood, they have wanted nothing more than to display their talents to a crowd.  Many of these people are narcissists, of course, and hollowed out in unenviable ways.  Where your self-consciousness has become a dying star, theirs has become a wormhole to a parallel universe.  They don’t suffer much there, perhaps, but they don’t quite make contact here either.  And many natural performers are comfortable only within a certain frame.  It is always interesting, for instance, to see a famous actor wracked by fear while accepting an Academy Award.  Simply being oneself before an audience can be terrifying even for those who perform for a living.  Short answer?  Admit that you have a problem, get some tools (classes on speaking, medication, meditation), agree to speak when the opportunity arises, accept your anxiety, prepare what to say, prepare your delivery (get feedback from someone you trust) and, finally, just do it.  You are merely having a conversation with your fellow human beings.” — Sam Harris

Humans are widely believed to be poor at tracking scents, especially when compared to other mammals such as dogs and rodents.  But few had ever put that idea to the test.  A research team dipped 10 metres of twine in chocolate essence and laid it in a field to form two straight lines connected at a 135° angle.  Then they blindfolded 32 undergraduate students and had them don earmuffs, thick gloves and kneepads to prevent them from using sensory cues other than smell.  When set loose in the field, 2/3rds of the subjects successfully followed the scent, zigzagging back and forth across the path like a dog tracking a pheasant.  People use two strategies to localize smells: comparing the odour intensity between subsequent sniffs and comparing the odour intensity at the two nostrils during single sniffs.

From a review of the book Loyalty: The Vexing Virtue by Eric Felten: Family — built love, shared suffering, history, and biology — is one of the strongest ties between individuals.  Intense familial obligation goes in all directions.  One first learns the value of loyalty from the household.  But if family is above all else, what value do other commitments have?  How does society avoid universal adoption of the Tony Soprano Family and Business Programme?  Is family “the foundation of all other loyalties, or a grubby sort of me-and-mine selfishness?”  Moral treatment of loyalty is of 2 types: Universalists are concerned with justice in its most abstracted sense, the type of impartial reasoning found on the courtroom floor.  Thus, “acting morally requires acting impartially.”  Particularists are those who stay true to their kin regardless of circumstance.  “Loyalty is not impartial” nor should it be.  But this will eventually land one in precarious, possibly illegal situations; loyalty is a virtue that often finds itself on the brink of becoming a vice.  “The virtue of family loyalty,” for example, “remains virtuous only within reasonable bounds.”  Life is a collection of connections of various degrees of fidelity, including including love, war, patriotism, business, and leadership.  Every interaction — whether social, economic, or professional — becomes an exchange in the “loyalty economy.”  Some are profitable in the long run, others land you in moral poverty.  If you’re looking for the answer to whom or to what you ought to be loyal, you won’t find it in this book.  Conflicts can’t be avoided by simply prioritising loyalties.  Loyalty is about finding the right boundaries.  It may be acceptable to stick up for a friend when he has been unfaithful to his wife, but not when he is digging a 6-foot-deep hole in his backyard at midnight.  Invest your loyalty judiciously.