Battle of the People Movers

The People Mover.
That kind of boring ride at Disneyland that was strangely cool between a ride on Star Tours and waiting for Captain EO.  Also a place to recouperate after blowing five bucks on Gauntlet at the arcade.  It was cheesy, it was slow, and it was awesome!  Anyway it has been gone for over ten years [...]

Probably a good thing I didn’t eat at Primanti Brothers today

Yeah man, the sandwich with the fries and coleslaw inside!  Like after the doctor tells you your blood pressure is kinda high, this is the last place you want to go.  Also if this is your girlfriend’s idea of a great date, she can probably hold her own against a defensive line.  Anyway I found out [...]

Rebranding the United States as the Non-united Non-states of Independent Rational Actors–The Subprime Fiasco and Insights into Distaste for Government Regulation

*Note: yes, this is a disorganized, rambling rant*  But I’ll leave it up for now…
Why bother having a nation at all–why not just dissolve the US as a nation, as a “People,” and rebrand it as an unassociated office park space for transacting business?
Of course government regulation is a highly controversial topic. Of course [...]

Interesting Post on Comparative Advantage, and Awesome Equations at “What’s Your Formula”

Economist: This week in comparative advantage
Even if Iga is better than Og at both fishing and fruit gathering –
– It takes Og 3 hours to catch a fish and would take 4 hours for him to gather some fruit,
– While it only takes Iga 1 hour to gather some fruit, and 2 hours [...]

Interesting Statistics: Are We Worse Off Financially Than Previous Generations?

All those experts, and we’re still unsure how to really interpret the numbers. It’s amazing to me how statistics can be misrepresented or important figures omitted or overlooked when making claims and comparisons, hence reports like the one cited below, which seem to contradict conventional wisdom and hopefully make people think twice about how [...]

Jay Z, Arthur Verocai, Roc Boys/Roc Boyz, and American Gangster

Okay, so Jay Z’s new track Roc Boys/Roc Boyz, with its jazz/funk horns and drums sounds a bit like Arthur Verocai, Fela Kuti, and ska meets the soul sampling work of Just Blaze. The surprise is that it’s produced by Puff Daddy and the Hitmen, and was recorded using live horn players and other [...]

The Rich Get Richer, While All of Us Ingest More Lead: Globalization, Lack of Regulation, and the Race to the Bottom

More evidence of our sloppy handling of globalization without concerted efforts at orchestrating international safety standards (yes, that would probably count as “regulation,” and it would cost some upfront money, but ultimately it could save lots of money in terms of health costs, greater trust in international trade, etc).
90,000 more Chinese-made toys recalled due to [...]

The new Radiohead album is amazing, unsurprisingly

Lots of fascinating discussion online about the distribution method of Radiohead’s new album, which is pretty damn good. Not as revolutionary as OK Computer or Kid A, but still awesome.
I paid 3 pounds total. How much did you pay?
Read debate & analysis here:
Freakonomics
Lefetz Letter
Mankiw
The Economist

I’m lazy with music now, I just play the retroactive channel on digital cable

Yeah it has come to this.  Of all my 400 some odd CD’s, hundreds of records and various old tapes lying around in shoeboxes somewhere, I just listen to the Retroactive channel on digital cable.  You know if you have digital cable you get like 30 music channels.  Maybe it’s not as hip as satellite [...]

New Country/Alt Country/No Depression with Camper Van Beethoven and the Replacements

Ahh, sometimes I need some relaxing music that isn’t new wave, post punk, frenetic rock, or even soulful jazz rock/funk/fusion. When I get sick of all the drama and the blips and bleeps and high-pitched guitar and funky drums and want something more relaxing (besides, say, classical music), nothing beats a bit of [...]