General

Guest Magician

Posted on February 17, 2011February 17, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in General

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

Animal Planet Kind of a Morning

Posted on February 16, 2011February 16, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in General

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:

James Kwak On Management Consulting

Posted on February 14, 2011February 14, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in General

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

Virgin America

Posted on February 12, 2011February 12, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in General

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.

Far Side Karate!

Posted on February 10, 2011October 19, 2013 by Sam Kornstein in General, Uncategorized

I’ve always found this to be really funny:

Hedging What?

Posted on February 6, 2011October 19, 2013 by Sam Kornstein in General, Uncategorized

A reader sent me this article about companies betting on snowfall: “With record amounts of snow blanketing even some of the warmest cities across the nation this winter, an increasing number of companies are protecting themselves by betting on …. snow. Unexpected blizzards and snowstorms can cost companies thousands of dollars in lost business each year. “People have tended to have a fatalistic view of weather,” said Tim Andriesen, managing director of Agricultural Commodities at CME Group. “Now more and more people are recognizing that while you can’t control the weather, you can at least manage the financial impact of it.” The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which began offering snow futures in 2006, has already sold five times more contracts this

Angry Dogs

Posted on February 6, 2011February 6, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in General

Earlier today this happened on the deck outside my third-floor bedroom: I have no clue who they are or where they came from.

Site Traffic…Sex!

Posted on February 4, 2011February 4, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in General

I continue to find it really interesting to track my site traffic trends using wordpress and Google analytics. I’m never really sure which posts will generate a lot of traffic, or where it comes from. So now that I’ve been at this for just over a month, I decided to take a look. Here’s what I came up with: Seeing as how I’m not going back to Cambodia, eating more tarantulas, or changing my domain name anytime soon, I’ve concluded that if I want to increase my traffic, I need to talk more about sex, and James Spector needs to keep re-tweeting my posts. But it would be strange in a circular sort of way if he re-tweets this one.

States and Stuff

Posted on February 1, 2011February 2, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in General

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.

Why is Al Jazeera Blacked Out in US ?

Posted on January 31, 2011October 19, 2013 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events, General, Uncategorized

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