2008

The Economics of Popcorn

“The Dark Knight made $155M in opening weekend.” What does that mean? Where does the...

Eating Polar Bears Is Okay in Greenland

Fear of thieves siphoning fuel has made these locking gas...

Prior to big climbs of the Tour de France, riders in the...

Why We Like New Stuff

Our sense of adventure delivers the same rewards as does sex and food. In the ventral striatum of...

“Young friend, God and his people expect much from u because...”
— - Pope Benedict XVI’s...

6 Things You Never Knew About Oil

1. Oil saved the whales from extinction.Oil’s first use was to replace whale blubber in lamps....

Spotlight: Fannie and Freddie

Who (or rather what) They Are:No, they’re not real people.  They are nicknames for...

New York's First Environmental Problem

Was it the automobile? Was it lead from paint? Was it poor water conditions? Nope – it was...

T. Boone Pickens' Energy Plan

The Cheapest Stocks Around

The market is down. Woe as us, right? Well not if you’ve got some money to invest, because now’s the...

t minus one month

With the Olympics just one month away, it’s crunch time for Beijing. It promised eco-friendly “Green...

what the internet is doing to our brains

Blame Oil

What is Microfinance?

Microfinance is a movement to provide poor households permanent access to financial services. It is...

“I write saying, ‘thank you Scarlett for doing what you...”
—  Barack Obama on his...

“the most beautiful news of my life”
— Lorenzo Delloye-Betancourt, on...

The Pros and Cons of Nuclear Power

Oil Prices: Who's to Blame?

The big blame game is really getting to be too much. 77% of Americans blame the government for high...

“In the quest for alternatives to oil, our government has...”
—  McCain, last week at a town...

“When the words ‘financial’ or...”
— Real Time Economics blog in...

The other night the World News cited a Moody’s...

Do you know what's going on in...

I’ve been following the situation in Zimbabwe since March, and am surprised by a. how little...

A: opportunity costs

The opportunity cost of attending the Clapton concert is $10. Right on joojoobee, getlara,...

QQ: opportunity costs

An opportunity cost is what you sacrifice by choosing one option or pursuing one endeavor over...

Photosynth. Pretty cool. It takes a large collection of...

processed foods (should) keep inflation...

Food inflation is all the rage in the news these days. But here’s something I learned today. Only...

The “father of fiscal charts” shows us that the...

The 2004-2006 crisis in the soy sector is over, as prices...

The Mason Dixon Wine Though I don’t typically select my wine...

BP’s 2008 Statistical Review of World Energy is out. Here’s...

Your Something May Be Anything

America's Best Paying Jobs

Per Forbes’ America’s Best and Worst Paying Jobs, the top ten (+1)...

brand tags

What recession? “‘This is the biggest thing...

Barack Obama, John McCain, and The...

I really liked Ricky’s look into the corporate tax rate and its effect on Facebook’s...

This blows my mind. For three reasons. First, and obvious,...

Financial Analysis of Peacekeeping

“Every time a conflict in some poor and chaotic place simmers down to the point where peace has a...

The S Word

There have been four shark attacks in the Pacific in the past couple of months. The first deadly...

Using a Polaroid SX-70 camera, Jamie Livingston took a...

To Drill or Not to Drill

Thursday’s Wall Street Journal displayed the strategy and bias that goes into the layout of a...

Think what you pay is high? Try $9.66 a gallon in France. Or...

Check out the World Clock, created by a poodwaddle, a...

Zappos Bribes New Employees to Quit

That’s right, Zappos offers one-week old employees a $1,000 “Quit Now” bonus if they, well, quit....

Not only has the Burmese government been refusing foreign...

A recent Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast...

$1M bet that gold will trade at $1650 by Jan...

Check out the difference in gas prices throughout the...

The Guru Scene 2008

The Wall Street Journal’s Guru Scene 2008 ranks the most influential business thinkers based on...

Recognize that scarf? If you don’t, take one stop on the L...

twistori

The NYTimes delineates the percentage breakdown of consumer...

“I started this campaign because of the distorted way...

Food Crisis for Thought

“A silent tsunami which knows no borders is sweeping the world,” says the head of the UN...

World’s Oldest Tree! This spruce resides on Fulu Mountain in...

Common vs. Preferred. Stock, that is..

In brief, preferred stockholders get dividends but can’t vote. Common stockholders can vote...

Check out NASA’s Earth As Art, a collection of Landsat...

swimming in plastic

According to a 2006 UNEP study, there are 46,000 pieces of plastic trash per square mile in the...

oh, just some predictions from the first...

“By 1985…air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching the earth by one half” –...

sail away sail away sail away

Today I learned that cruise companies don’t pay income tax because they claim they earn their...

MTA goes green in honor of Earth Day! That’s right, starting...

“If you do bother, you will set an example for other people....”
— Michael Pollan in his...

Ten Easy Ways to be Kind to Earth Today

1. turn off the tap - while brushing, while lathering, while shaving. 2. walk, bike, or carpool...

Happy Earth Day! design for My Green New York, an initiative...

please take this survey..

Pollution inhibits Pollination?

Remember when people thought it was the end of the world because the bees were mysteriously dying...

Space Junk. Since the launch of Sputnik in 1957,...

“No other company has proven as adept at giving customers...”
— How Apple Got Everything Right...

Looking for streetwear that’s both crunchy and...

Desert Survival

The experts (source: Human Synergistics) rank the items: Cosmetic Mirror: the most powerful tool...

need a good presentation deck?

10 Businesses Facing Extinction in 10...

A 2007 article from Entrepreneur.com discusses the odds of survival of ten industries. They...

Desert Survival Case

I did this for a class and it was pretty interesting.. Play along if you’d like. You’ve...

This ad, meant “for Mexican eyes only,” spurred...

"They've got 30 years of people winging it."

“Energy independence is a crock. It’s nothing but...”
— John Hofmeister, CEO of Shell...

Second Cheapest Syndrome

Ever order the second cheapest wine on the menu while dining out? Well, one in four diners do (in...

Above are the answers (taken from various 10-K’s on...

How Much You Think You Know Here’s a little test...

eco-friendly fur?

just came across this gem. get it? if not refer here (Bear...

This Newsday article indicates that inflation worries are...

This is what’s left of part of the rainforest in the...

Says GMU econ professor regarding yesterday’s Earth...

Hour without Power

The World Wildlife Fund sponsored Earth Hour 2008 is tonight from 8 to 9 local time. It started last...

This is what I hate about marketing classes (taken from a...

stalking just got so much easier

“Tibet is not free! Tibet is not free!”
—  Monks at the Jokhang Temple...

Ahh yes, the pending $288B Farm Bill. Subsidies to farmers...

clean tech boom.. maybe

We are at an impasse all too similar to that of the 1970s. The Yom Kippur War in October of 1973 led...

QQ: Is the current boom in clean energy...

I’m writing a paper on this now. Feel free to share your insight via reblog/email.

“We will never be able to anticipate all discontinuities in...”
—  —Alan Greenspan in this...

Back! Chile was great, though a business inspired group trip...

On a Personal Note.. I leave for Chile today. Last time I...

Who the candidates are turning to for advice about the...

DJIA Part Deux

The Editor & Executive Director of the Dow Jones Indexes took issue with my opinions and...

Even The Sartorialist is talking about this picture of a man...

"No man's life, liberty, or property is safe...

DST today? Who knew?

This is the second year the US has moved daylight savings forward from the first Sunday in April,...

Received your reminder letter yet? The IRS is spending $41.8...

Jailhouse Rock

A Penny Saved..

Did you know that the penny costs more than it’s worth? In fact, it costs 1.2 cents to produce...

the price of a slice: going up

Subprime Primer

“We’ve got to get off oil.”
— President Bush at the Irony...

I love graphs like this that delineate our macroeconomic...

Chim-chiminey Chim-chiminey Chim-chim Cher-oo London Fog....

"Quizno's model - with a twist"

On September 10, 2001, al-Qaeda was a name that was hardly recognized. Though the group was founded...

QQ: What is the fastest "0 to global"...

Basically, what brand (company, product, person, any entity that holds a brand identity) do you...

Everything’s bigger in the UAE The United Arab...

$2 barrels of oil

The cost to produce one barrel of oil in Iraq is about $1. In Saudi Arabia it’s $2. Remember...

This video (click on Cheap Meat in “Latest Video...

"Communication, not cleanliness, is next...

says Kevin Kelly of Wired, referencing a home in Tibet which has no toilet, outhouse, or designated...

who loves the sun

if we could capture the energy that we get from the sun in just one hour and turn it into...

What is OPEC?

A day doesn’t go by without OPEC mentioned in the news. So let’s learn. OPEC is the...

The human eye has a blind spot where the optic nerve goes...

I saw this musical last night and it was fantastic....

The Dow Jones Industrial Average

You know it’s at 12311, down 116 points from today’s open. But what do these numbers...

I’m hoping the clear sky holds out long enough to see...

Castro: a “soldier in the battle of ideas”

a different kind of game theory

Allen Iverson – great basketball player, right? I think most people would say he’s one of the...

“Thanks to Facebook, we have created an exponential...

In early Jan, I excel spreadsheeted this list of museums and...

“like giving a drink to an alcoholic”
— NY Mayor Bloomberg’s...

BYOB part deux: Why I don't buy bottled...

Mainly because I don’t like being taken advantage of. The bottled water industry...

don't know much about ...tea

I need to learn about tea: consumer trends, various brands, tea producers, etc. If you’re an...

I saw The Real Dirt on Farmer John last night. It was great...

How do you know that what you know is...

I’ve been told that every seven years, human knowledge doubles. In researching that I also...

Steven Spielberg has decided to withdraw as the artistic...

Exxon 's 2007 annual profit is largest in US...

Branding Yourself

What’s a brand? Basically, it’s how your product or service differentiates itself from...

missing Florida.

Taryn Simon photographs some of America’s “Best...

20,000 people buried under Washington Square Park  Just a...

The studies have been out for years, but a recent NYTimes...

the orange juice futures market is a better predictor of...

This was a memo written by political consultant Frank Luntz...

Sports Illustrated’s Fortunate 50 of 2007 came out...

Super! It’s Tuesday. That means if you live in one of...

Poor Philo. I saw The Farnsworth Invention this weekend....

the espn of stocks

DC: what is the espn of stocks?
me: i'm not sure what you're referring to
DC: like some place where i can see stocks. how they're doing.
DC: read about whose team is doing well. who's hurt. who's not.
me: well, your fidelity account will track the stocks you own. also yahoo or google finance allows you to create a portfolio so whenever you log onto your homepage you can see how your stocks are doing.
me: but the espn is really bloomberg.

MSFT + YHOO vs. GOOG

Apparently, this comment by Google’s Sergey Brin admitting weakness in the social networking...