Via The Big Picture:
The Global Stock Market
For a while now I’ve been curious to see a time-series chart of global stock market capitalization by region. I’ve looked, and have been unable to find one. So I downloaded some data from the World Federation of Exchanges, and made my own. Whenever someone says “the world stock market,” this is what they’re talking about: And in real 2010 dollars:
Fluffy White Rabbits
Pretty Things has just released their first Spring seasonal. They call it a hoppy tripel. It’s strong, smooth, and is loaded with aroma hops. It’s absolutely delicious. From their website: Our first Spring, we brought you a magical tree full of waving babies… and the Baby Tree has stuck around, we’re happy to say. So the past two years we’ve made a pale gold, hoppy triple called Fluffy White Rabbits. We say White Rabbits in Yorkshire for luck, so here’s a good way to drink some lucky beer and here’s to a fabulous warm season for all of us! The beer is 8.5% abv, with Saaz, Styrian Goldings and Amarillo hops added aplenty. Look for a fluffy mouthfeel, faint sweetness with
This Seems Senisble
Via Ezra Klein, a proposal to provide taxpayers with itemized receipts: I’m glad to see the Taxpayer Receipt gaining some momentum. The center-left think tank Third Way and the liberal journal Democracy have both joined up to promote it (and here), there’s an online tax-receipt calculator that you can test-drive right now, and Sens. Bill Nelson, Scott Brown and Lisa Murkowski have teamed up to introduce the idea in the Senate. So, hopefully, this dead-obvious reform — your grocery store has been hip to it for quite some time — is close to happening. For those in need of a quick refresher on the Taxpayer Receipt, the basic idea is laughably simple to implement but perhaps quite profound once it’s being done. As things
A Prisoner’s Dilemma
From my Game Theory class, a classic (and funny) example of the prisoner’s dilemma: At the risk of being too dorky, here’s the payoff diagram:
Guns for TV
From Bloomberg, via Kid Dynamite: A Montana store is offering a free gun to customers who sign up for satellite-TV service, drawing criticism from an advocacy group and the dealer’s parent RadioShack Corp. (RSH), which is trying to stop the promotion. The shop, located in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana about 50 miles off the highway, has tripled the number of signups for Dish Network Corp. (DISH)’s service since starting the offer in October, store manager Fabian Levy said. When customers sign a Dish contract, they get a gift certificate for a gun that can be redeemed at Frontier Guns & Ammo, about 10 miles from the store. Assuming customers pass an FBI background check at the gun store, the coupons can be
How Many Girls Can Simultaneously Ride A Single Bicycle?
Apparently, the answer is eleven: Filmed at the Beijing Flying Acrobatics show.
The Best Excuse
Via xkcd:
Doughnut Shunting
From The Economist: NEARLY three-quarters of Americans wish China would “just hurry up and overtake America already,” according to a new survey by The Economist Simulation Unit, published on April 1st. Constant worrying about exactly when the superpower will fall into second place is causing anxiety throughout American society, the survey found. “Will it be 2015? 2020? 2025? I wish it would just happen, and then we could all stop agonising about it and get back to dentistry,” said Adam Barnes, a dentist from Iowa. The report examines in detail the relationship between the two countries and finds that in some important fields, China has already surpassed America. A summary of the findings is presented below. Even after googling it,
“Hey Man, Can I Borrow Your Computer?”