08 October 2009

Scoot Scoot

Money Quote: BMW Brings Back the C1, and This Time It’s Electric: "Like Arrested Development, the Apple Newton and Tom Waits, the original C1 was an oddball that didn’t quite fit in to an established category but still received critical praise."

hahahaha

15 September 2009

David Byrne’s Perfect City

David Byrne’s Perfect City - WSJ.com

Lyrical and beautiful, like most things that come from the mind of David Byrne.

Broadband Africa

BBC NEWS | Special Reports | Connected Africa

Very interesting compilation of recent stories and progress about finally bringing broadband and more undersea cables to Africa.

10 September 2009

Where's Your Head At?

BASEMENT JAXX: POST-MODERN PIRATES | More Intelligent Life

I love these guys....

Genius

How we use and abuse the word genius. - By Ron Rosenbaum - Slate Magazine

Interesting and provoking, as well as a refreshing tour through the last 200 years of (mostly western) culture.

Snooth

Snooth | Deciphering German wine labels

It's a shame they focus so much on the sweeter varieties, but this is a handy tool for anyone interested in diving into the wonderful world of German (and Austrian) wines.

14 August 2009

Simple. Stunning. Relevant.

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Stuart McMillen

A great, illustrated synopsis that summarizes Orwell & Huxley via Postman. All dear to my brain.

13 August 2009

Record Club

Beck / Record Club

Not a huge fan of most of these remakes, but Record Club's recordings of "All Tomorrow's Parties," "Run, Run, Run," and "Femme Fatale" have an interesting, raw, and haunting quality to them. Nothing will ever match the original... but a fun Beck side project nonetheless.

29 June 2009

Bolivian Wealth

Knowledge@Wharton

Knowledge@Wharton recently published this short, interesting piece about Bolivia's tremendous natural wealth. First, the Spanish dug deep into the Andes for the country's rich silver veins; later, in the early days of independence, tin, copper, and guano came to the fore. Now, we hear much chatter about natural gas, the rain forest, and..... lithium.

Straight out of the latest James Bond in some ways... Let's hope that Morales manages this a bit more sensibly--it would be admirable to demand factories and training for lithium battery production on Bolivian soil now that we stand on the doorstep of the electric car era.

23 June 2009

27 April 2009

A Beautiful Revolution

Dr. Mark Taylor neatly sums up problems with graduate education across America's universities and poses a revolutionary--but necessary--solution:

Op-Ed Contributor - End the University as We Know It - NYTimes.com

On a related note, check out an article from this week's Economist about European universities: Bolognese Sauce

23 April 2009

Tit for Tat Trade Wars

One of my favorite business blogs, the Procurement-centric Spend Matters has a short piece on retaliatory tariffs today that they originally picked up from The Chicago Tribute. Seems like the Obama camp is jumping on board with some of Bush's final actions in office and expanding the retaliatory tariffs aimed at Europe over bans on US beef imports.

As background, the US is taking a stab at Europe for banning our hormone-laden beef by tripling import duties on such delicacies as much-loved Roquefort cheese. And now, the news comes through that Italian mineral waters, like my beloved San Pellegrino, are also targeted. While hardly a national tragedy, this is a serious punch in the gut for gourmands across the country and smacks of small-minded, catty politics. Let's hope we are able to move past this silliness and resume a normal flow of free trade quickly.

SpendMatters: Lose Lose -- Italian Mineral Water vs. U.S. Beef?