March 2011 Archives

More XKCD

Posted on March 23, 2011March 23, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Cartoons

More awesome XKCD: And this:

Keith Richards is Absolutely Outrageous

Posted on March 22, 2011March 21, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Music

I’m working my way through Keith Richards’ autobiography, ‘Life’, which has been a surprisingly great read so far. It’s helped me to really appreciate what the Stones contributed to the evolution of blues rock, as I previously knew little about their early days, and it has been very entertaining. Keith was a completely ridiculous individual for many years. Here are a couple representative passages about some of his crazier years: “One time in Chicago there was a big party in my room…I was getting sick of it, and I kept telling them to go and they wouldn’t. I wanted to clear the room and no one would listen to me. Get the fuck out. For five minutes I tried. So

The Village of Gruel

Posted on March 21, 2011March 19, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Food

Excellent choice of words in the translation:

Something’s Brewing

Posted on March 21, 2011March 21, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Technology, Travel

I’ve been having problems accessing my Gmail from China. I thought it might have been my internet connection. Or me. But I was wrong.

These Are Brilliant

Posted on March 20, 2011March 17, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Photography

via The Big Picture:

Civilized Shenzhen Warm Homestead

Posted on March 19, 2011March 19, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Technology, Travel

I spent yesterday afternoon in the city of Shenzhen, a manufacturing hub in China where among many other things, iPhones and iPad are made. I was fairly surprised to find no factories at all in the city proper. Instead there were wide newly paved boulevards, endless rows of some of the largest skyscrapers I have ever seen, modern subway stations, offices, shopping malls, city parks, restaurants, and western hotels. It turns out that by some measures, Shenzhen is the 12th largest city in the world. I was there to attend a buyer-manufacturer conference for a research project I’m working on. It was an event held at a Westin hotel, where buyers representing international brands from all over the world come to find

Salt Shortages

Posted on March 18, 2011March 17, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events

A Chinese student I’m working with received a text message from the government that reads (in Mandarin), “Right now China has enough salt in the market. There is no need to worry about a salt shortage.” Apparently Chinese citizens are stockpiling salt to protect against potential radiation exposure from Japan. But according to a Bloomberg article on the topic: Table salt does not contain enough of the type of iodine needed to block radioactive iodine from damaging a person’s thyroid gland and should not be taken as a substitute for potassium iodide pills, according to healthline.com, a U.S.- based health-information Web site.” “I just wanted to buy it for cooking, but I went to six supermarkets and there’s no salt

Month: March 2011