German dates

"It's 9-9-9 today. Everyone's excited, except apparently the Germans. According to translators, they just keep saying 'No-No-No.' "

Financial Crisis Play-by-Play

Ever wonder how that financial crisis unfolded? I was pretty confused when all that Bear Sterns - Fannie-Freddie - AIG stuff all came down, and it was hard to wrap it up and put it all together in my head.

Luckily, PBS Frontline made a review called Inside the Meltdown of what occurred over the past couple of years, which really a) allowed me to make more sense out of all of it and b) changed my perception of Hank Paulson. So if you're curious, give this hour-long program a shot.

P.S. Also neat were some of their other programs, such as the one on Wal-Mart.

I feel like a tool

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_button#more

My dad said the same thing to me too

He didn't work in an eyeglass factory, but he did work in a casting factory involving lots of lead (I'm referencing the last paragraph of the article).

But the summary of the article is that being a part of the blue collar working class correlates with lower overall well-being.

Article: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/happiness-and-the-working-class/

This is sooooo cool

You ever wonder how people spend their day normally? The NYTimes put out this graph depicting what people do on a given day.

Any interesting observations? I didn't really find anything terribly unexpected except for the difference in working and TV & Movie usage between blacks and whites.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/31/business/20080801-metrics-graphic.html

Remember Cover Flow?

Remember when Apple released that? I feel like so many people were so hyped up about it.

Quick question: who actually uses it now?

By the way, for those who don't know, cover flow is iTune's ability to display songs and album art like the picture below.

From a friend, and sorry it's slightly inappropriate

Friend: And it's not mine! My sister-in-law was watching it and told me that it was funny because she knows I like turtles. And I thought sex wasn't a big deal anymore anyway.

Me: Adults who are like 30 who are married get it on regularly and maybe even go to the bars to supplement their getting it on still think that sex is a big deal. I feel like sex is the biggest deal for human beings, and always will trump drugs, alcohol, music, and possibly even good in the end. Maybe not good for so long as sex is seen as "dirty," but definitely the rest of them.

What brought this exchange about? This video:
http://www.break.com/index/the-north-american-humping-tortoise.html

Twitter as an outlet for... Throwing Down?

So big name restauranteur Stephen Starr (owner of very well known places here in Philadelphia such as Buddakan, Morimoto, Continental, and many more) recently opened up a burger, yes a burger, joint here in Philadelphia. In fact, he's also planning on opening up a pizza restaurant in the near future as well.

Well, as it appears, Mr. Starr has managed to set off a few restaurant owners with his comments about current restaurants in Philadelphia, one of which being "you can't get good pizza [in Philly]".

Obviously, if you're an established restaurant insulted by such comments and wishing to defend your honor, the next step vindication is to challenge Stephen Starr to a burger-off... via twitter. In fact, challenger Tommy Up even writes a declaration of what pretty much amounts to war:

PYT VS Stephen Starr

"War is a continuation of politics by other means"
- Carl von Clausewitz

It's hard to say where the war started. If I had to guess, it would be when Stephen Starr smugly proclaimed, "I can't get really good pizza here in Philadelphia". But to lay that bit of blasephmy [sic] down as the sole cause would be too simple. I think it all started with the pajamas on servers and the conveyor belts for food.

I remember in high school, there was this wrestler who widely thought to be unbeatable. He was a brute. We all heard the stories of how his parents had flown him to Russia to train with the greatest combatants in the world and that he had won 1000 matches before he was 13. He was an unstoppable force and had dominated the state for years. Until he was stopped and pinned to the mat... by a previously unknown 17 year old child. The child had not believed the stories of this prodigy and he trained for a full year, alone, carrying monster truck tires up and down the stadium stairs with only one simple goal in his mind: I will win.

So Stephen Starr, we say to you, and to your legion of SRO minions all wearing identical black suits and black t-shirts that have been washed one too many times: we are your 17 year old unknown. We make a better burger than you and we will prove it.

Going after your latest venture, Nerdburger- sorry, SQUAREburger- makes the most sense. We are both new and are both focused on the burger. But it has been brought to our attention that the burger there is hardly worthy of a challenge. So we extend with confidence the challenge to any burger in any of your many, many venues. Burger VS Burger. Two burgers enter, one burger leaves. You get the picture.

Ignore this challenge if you will...like you have been ducking me all week ( SeeFoobooz or Grub Street ), but you can't duck the truth. I stand here, a simple man, without a conveyor belt or an army of giant buddhas, waiting to beat your burger into the ground. Pun intended.

Tommy Up
PYT

Oh man, I hope nobody gets hurt!

Beef in your French Fries and Frozen Foods better than Fresh Produce?

Quickies from HowStuffWorks.com

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/10-quirky-facts-about-mass-produced-food9.htm

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/10-quirky-facts-about-mass-produced-food10.htm

Hah

http://xkcd.com/612/