I’m not sure how many of my readers will find this interesting, but I did. Even though the stock market has practically doubled in value since the low in March 2009, when evaluating cumulative returns over the prior 10-year period, we’re only up 1.4%. Which is in the lowest decile of quarterly cumulative 10 year returns over the period 1926-2010. One could interpret this to imply that the market still has a ways to go.
I’ve personally been very skeptical of Twitter’s value, other than for mindless entertainment and time killing, but I’m beginning to change my mind. Here are a few of my reasons: 1. I’ve recently started auto-feeding my blog posts to Twitter, and I’m finding that random people are beginning to follow me. At first this seemed a bit creepy. But most of my random followers appear to have found me by searching for terms in my post titles, and I’ve actually begun to find some interesting and useful links by following them. Is this some modern form of community building based on common interests? Am I late to the game here? Probably. 2. Last week I blogged about a Virgin America
I’m excited to welcome my good friend, James Spector, as a guest contributor to somethingsbrewing. James will be writing occasional posts over the next few weeks. What’s he going to write about? I have no clue, but he’s got lots of interesting ideas, and promised he might even tie them to beer on occasion. For those don’t know James, he’s a current law student, and former child actor, voice actor, magician’s apprentice, writer, producer, and DJ. Quite the impressive background. Until you realize that he doesn’t know how to ride a bike. But we’ll give him a pass on that one. Especially because he can do magic tricks. So keep an eye out for James’ first post later today. It’s going to
Soul seems to be making a huge comeback. The sound has been redubbed, quite originally, indie retro soul. Over the weekend I was listening to a local radio station, WFNX, and heard a song that sounded all too familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Which in retrospect makes sense because I hadn’t heard it before. It turns out it was by Fitz & The Tanrums and just came out last month. Here it is: And then last night I was listening to music with some classmates, and a friend put on some new soul music. I was positive that, he too had just discovered Fitz & The Tantrums. Nope. It was Eli “The Paperboy” Reed, who happens to be from
Roscoe and Surya. “An inter-species: hound-orangutan love story”: I like how Surya rides elephants and wears a life vest when swimming with Rosco in the river. National Geographic has really stepped it up lately. But don’t forget life can be tough too. Mussel vs. Fish:
Clyde Butcher is one of the best black and white landscape photographers I’ve found. Here are a few of my favorites from his portfolio:
Being just over halfway through my first year at Sloan, it’s hard to avoid the fact that recruiting is weighing heavily on the minds of the majority of the people I interact with on a daily basis. I’ve personally never been too attracted to the idea of working in management consulting, but for those who are grappling with consulting decisions, I found James Kwak’s posts on the topic to be extremely insightful. I’d say they provide a fairly balanced and honest perspective from someone who’s worked at McKinsey, but remains critical and objective. For those who don’t know James Kwak, he’s a law student at Yale, and is an author, along with MIT Professor Simon Johnson, at The Baseline Scenario blog. I’ve
A not-so-geeky post from Shtetl-Optimized, a really geeky blog I follow on occasion: Last night, the MIT Egyptian Club hosted a “What’s Going On In Egypt?” event, which included a lecture, a Q&A session with Egyptian students, Egyptian music, and free falafel and baklava. I went, not least because of the falafel. The announcement that Mubarak was leaving came just a few hours before the event, which was planned as a somber discussion but hastily reconfigured as a celebration. As you’d imagine, the mood was ecstatic: some people came draped in Egyptian flags, and there was shouting, embracing, and even blowing of vuvuzelas. Building E51 wasn’t quite Tahrir Square, but it was as close as I was going to get.
I mentioned earlier that I think I need to write more about sex. And of course, whether or not it’s actually true, this blog is supposed to be loosely about beer. So this recent post from the OkCupid blog, whose writers have collected data from millions of people, seems to be particularly relevant. Don’t shoot the messenger: Among all our casual topics, whether someone likes the taste of beer is the single best predictor of if he or she has sex on the first date. No matter their gender or orientation, beer-lovers are 60% more likely to be okay with sleeping with someone they’ve just met. Sadly, this is the only question with a meaningful correlation for women. Interestingly, they also found
I’m in the San Francisco airport, about to board a flight home to Boston. A strange thing just happened. The captain spent half an hour walking around the gate, personally introducing himself to every passenger, asking if anyone has any questions, and assuring us that safety is his number one priority. This shouldn’t be strange, but it’s a first for me. Time go to fly with Lloyd.