Links for 2009-12-20

"Since 1965, the percentage of graduates of highly-ranked business schools who go into consulting and financial services has doubled, from about one-third to about two-thirds. And while some of these consultants and financiers end up in the manufacturing sector, in some respects that's the problem. Harvard business professor Rakesh Khurana, with whom I discussed these questions at length, observes that most of GM's top executives in recent decades hailed from a finance rather than an operations background. (Outgoing GM CEO Fritz Henderson and his failed predecessor, Rick Wagoner, both worked their way up from the company's vaunted Treasurer's office.) But these executives were frequently numb to the sorts of innovations that enable high-quality production at low cost. As Khurana quips, "That's how you end up with GM rather than Toyota." "

"Geoff Ryman thinks that a lot of science fiction writers, faced by this difficulty, may have given up, and that a lot of science fiction - particularly what appears on TV and film - is little more than cowboys in space. In a courageous and innovative attempt to get genuine frontier science back into science fiction, he has teamed up writers with scientists so they can be brought up to speed on the latest developments and those developments can inform their fiction. The result is a highly engaging and fascinating collection of short stories, each with an enlightening afterword by the story's scientific midwife."

"You've heard of the Shroud of Turin and the many pieces of the True Cross, but unbeknownst to a lot of us, there were -- and in many cases, still are -- bits and pieces of the Holy Family on display and ready for your veneration. Here are my 10 favorites."

"Now this is how the "Carol of the Bells" should be done:"

Badger badger badger badger MUSHROOM