Via Colin Whooten, The Economist compares country GDPs with individual US states: I wouldn’t have expected Saudi Arabia to be comparable to Massachusetts. Texas and Russia feels about right.
States and Stuff
Author: Sam Kornstein
Why is Al Jazeera Blacked Out in US ?
Via The Big Picture via the Huffington Post: WTF? Huff Po: Canadian television viewers looking for the most thorough and in-depth coverage of the uprising in Egypt have the option of tuning into Al Jazeera English, whose on-the-ground coverage of the turmoil is unmatched by any other outlet. American viewers, meanwhile, have little choice but to wait until one of the U.S. cable-company-approved networks broadcasts footage from AJE, which the company makes publicly available. What they can’t do is watch the network directly. Other than in a handful of pockets across the U.S. – including Ohio, Vermont and Washington, D.C. – cable carriers do not give viewers the choice of watching Al Jazeera. That corporate censorship comes as American diplomats
A Good Reason To Hang Out With MIT Undergrads
You learn things. “Remember back in the 1990’s when people used, like, disk drives? Yeah, well now they have that for hard drives.” That’s MIT undergrad Iggy Chen as he plugs a 1TB hard drive into a $10 docking station to connect it to his MacBook Pro. Who knew?
I Have A New Home
It’s been one month since I started this blog, and I’ve had a great time with it so far. I expected to write primarily about beer, but the content has taken some unexpected turns. And I think that’s ok. It’s been humbling to see that I have quite a few regular readers. So thanks for stopping by. I’ve really appreciated all the comments and feedback, and I think I’ll keep the blogging up. With that said, I’ve decided to move. A few readers suggested I pick up somethingsbrewing.com. So I did. And if I succeeded in moving my content, you should be on the new site now. The process to move everything was a bit messy, and I’m still working
Date A Sea Captain
Via Tyler Cowen on Marginal Revolution, here’s a dating site for sea captains: seacaptaindate.com. At first it looks like a joke, but, no. It’s real. There’s even a Time Magazine posting on it: Ladies, do you find yourselves home alone on a Friday night, staring wistfully out to sea? Do you enjoy assembling tiny ships inside bottles or making sculptures out of driftwood that you find on the beach? Is your widow’s walk more like a single’s walk? Then NewsFeed has the dating website for you. And then there’s this brilliant promotion: Favorite line: “So when got back to dry land, I logged onto one of them computer terminals, and I, I Googled the internet.” Don’t miss the Captain’s surprised
Arcade Fire Video
This is pretty creative. I’m not positive, but I think you need to be using Google Chrome for it to work.
Really Cambridge?
I stumbled upon the biology and evolution section in a bookstore in Central Square: Hmmm. Dinosaurs.
Mittens or Dinner?
James Kwak has a good posting on behavioral economics and irrational behavior that has led me to conclude I should probably invest in some warmer clothing. Possibly mittens. Here’s part: In your personal life, you should be aware of anchoring, because it can help you use your money more wisely. For example, for several years I would complain about being cold in the winter in New England. I was coldest when I was walking my dog, because then I had to be outside for half an hour at the time, and my hands were one of the coldest parts of my body. Finally I asked my wife to buy me the warmest mittens she could find for Christmas, and since then my
When Ideas Have Sex
I previously posted a link to a remixed TED talk. It’s Matt Ridley talking about innovation mixed over some wackies dub. It’s pretty funny, but it occurred to me that the actual talk, with, you know, the slides and charts Ridley refers to is even better. So here it is:
The Economist, In 1843
Via Marginal Revolution, I came across this volume of “The Economist” from 1843. I’ve only skimmed it, but I usually enjoy reading old publications. On the Irish bullying Canadians: A few days ago, a party of Irish labourers, who had received, as they supposed, some offence from a few Canadians, at Beauharnois, attacked and nearly killed two respectable old inhabitants, who had nothing to do with the affair. That’s the most significant news from Canada that reached London that particular month?