November 2011 Archives

S&P Goofs Up Again

Posted on November 11, 2011January 15, 2018 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events, Markets

Via Kid Dynamite: Just in case you missed the most ridiculous story of the day – the BBC has the details: “Standard & Poor’s accidentally released a message to some of its subscribers on Thursday saying that it had downgraded French debt from its top AAA rating. S&P said it was investigating what had gone wrong and stressed that France still had an AAA rating.” So, Europe is a veritable powder keg right now waiting to blow, and S&P accidentally releases an erroneous message that they downgraded France. Then they said sorry. I’m half surprised that markets weren’t down even more this morning. Beyond absurd. Agreed.

Homemade Spacecraft

Posted on November 11, 2011November 10, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events, Technology

This is just cool:

Lego Street Art

Posted on November 10, 2011November 10, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Photography

The Idiot’s Guide to Buying a Congressman

Posted on November 8, 2011November 8, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events

Via Ezra Klein, this is not entirely surprising, but still fairly disturbing: Disgraced ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff is out of jail. He was released in June. He now works as an accountant at a kosher pizza parlor. And he needs a literary agent. “I was actually thinking of writing a book,” he told “60 Minutes.” “The Idiot’s Guide to Buying a Congressman.” In the interview, Abramoff gives away some of the tricks of his former trade. The big one? Dangle a job, he told Lesley Stahl. “When we would become friendly with an office and they were important to us, and the chief of staff was a competent person, I would say or my staff would say to him or her

Things to Read

Posted on November 8, 2011November 8, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Links

1. Why the Cheapest Maple Syrup Tastes the Best 2. A €20 billion “Berlusconi” Tax 3. Solar Power Moving Down the Curve 4. A Brave Seagull

The General Problem

Posted on November 7, 2011November 7, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Cartoons

Via xkcd: The mouse over is worth quoting: “I find that when someone’s taking time to do something right in the present, they’re a perfectionist with no ability to prioritize, whereas when someone took time to do something right in the past, they’re a master artisan of great foresight.”

Four Interesting Videos on Flying

Posted on November 5, 2011November 5, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events

I came across some interesting videos over the past couple days. They’re all related to flying in some way, but that’s just a coincidence. A Paraglider collides with a vulture: Birds “murmuring”: Whoa! Japan!: A strange new flying machine (a “multicopter”):

The Sugar Myth

Posted on November 4, 2011November 4, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Science

I was happy to read this via Marginal Revolution: Let’s cut to the chase: sugar doesn’t make kids hyper. There have been at least twelve trials of various diets investigating different levels of sugar in children’s diets. That’s more studies than are often done on drugs. None of them detected any differences in behavior between children who had eaten sugar and those who hadn’t. These studies included sugar from candy, chocolate, and natural sources. Some of them were short-term, and some of them were long term. Some of them focused on children with ADHD. Some of them even included only children who were considered “sensitive” to sugar. In all of them, children did not behave differently after eating something full of sugar or

The Rolling Sloans

Posted on November 2, 2011November 2, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Greater Boston, Music

This fall I’ve been playing the guitar with the Rolling Sloans, the MIT Sloan cover band. We had a show a few weeks back at Tommy Doyle’s in Harvard Square. It was a great time, and here are a few clips filmed by Natacha Hardy: All My Loving: Don’t Look Back in Anger Part 1: Don’t Look Back in Anger Part 2 (Sean Lee Kills it): Just a Girl: Say It Ain’t So: The Band is: Robin Bose – Vocals Charlotte Rocker – Vocals Vanessa Kafka – Guitar/Vocals Sean Lee – Guitar/Vocals Eugene Feldman – Keys Robbie Hobbs – Drums Anand Desai – Bass Jamie Fordyce – Bass Antonio Yanez – Guitar Myself – Guitar I’ve heard there are a