Economic Analysis

This article (originally from a popular on-line news and analysis site) is a couple years old, but I think it makes a couple of the fine points of the debate over what used to be called the "New Economy" more accesible than any other article I've read.

Game? Not Game?

You could just file this one under "Yeah, the Japanese have always been insane," but there's a chance something like it could catch on over here. It's a program for the hand-held Nintendo DS that has a ridiculously long Japanese name (which apparently starts with "Northeastern University" and ends with the English imported word "Training") that we can condense down to "Brain Training". And the craze isn't limited to kids; their mothers play while they're at school, and Dad apparently goes out in large numbers and buys his own DS to play on the bullet train (I wonder if there's a puzzle where you're a former sumo wrestler who has to fit different-sized passengers into a train car?).

Cutting Costs in Cali

Tom McClintock has a plan for getting by on Gov. Schwarzenegger's vastly non-expanded school budget next year.

Thank God for geeks!

Otherwise I wouldn't know what the Internet was really for. This has got to be one of the funniest things I've seen. Credit goes to Rob for finding it. I have seen other similar videos in the past that people have created using clips from games such as World of Warcraft and Dungeon Siege.

Dinosaurs!

Just don't know how I feel about this one. Amusing on the one hand, awful on the other.

Quicktime VR tours of Italy

OK, of various locations in various cities in Italy.

Check them out: Venice, Rome, et alia.

We have a winner....

For best title for a blog (at least for this month):

http://hitsfromtheblog.blogspot.com/

Gutfeld Strikes Again

The only thing worth reading on the Huffington Post (because it is conscious rather than unconscious self-parody) is Greg Gutfeld. Period.

First, the lead in:

Look, if we're going to execute a man because he wrote children's books, then who's next?
My suggestions below:
-Madonna, for Mr. Peabody's Apples, and Yakov and the Seven Thieves
-Bette Midler for, The Saga of Baby Divine,...

Then the followup (from his double-secret blog):

some commenters to my recent post noted that Tookie Williams was not executed for writing children's books, but for killing four people. Christ, I must have missed that small fact when i was reading about Williams on the Huffington Post. I thought all he did was write children's books!
thanks for the heads up!

Popular German Restaurant is Actually Swedish

From the article:

In 2004 the Swedish company, with its 37 restaurants, managed to reach 11th place in the list of the best-earning eateries in Germany. That put it well ahead of the café stores like Tchibo and the giant bakery chain Kamps, which has 1,000 branches.

Maybe the planets just happened to be aligned for this one...

I guess I got lucky when I decided to read a story on CNN's front paged titled, Olympic favorite Miller: Skiing drunk 'not easy'. In the screen shot below, look at the banner ad at the top...

Poetic Justice

D.C. Council member Marion Barry today urged the two young men who he said robbed him at gunpoint in his own kitchen Monday night to turn themselves in, but ....

[in evidence that he's smoking crack again]

pledged he would ask authorities not to prosecute them.

We are still working on verifying rumors that his statement to police included "Bitch set me up."

Things my... oh, hell, just read the link

First off, Happy New Year!

Second, here's a link I've been hoarding for weeks; before you click on it, swear to yourself you'll only read four or five entries at a time:

http://www.thingsmygirlfriendandihavearguedabout.com/