Of Length

Of Length #3 – Grups, Muzak, Thrillionaires

kb — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 00:54:55 +0000

Slate explains the Irish pub explosion across the globe. Just don't name your pub "McSwiggins."

"The east coast is stuck in the 1950s. The west coast is stuck in the 1970s." An AskMetaFilter thread on East Coast vs. West Coast stereotypes.

Meet the "Grups." New York Magazine introduces the new class of trendy generation Xers that is still staying up late going to Bloc Part concerts, wearing $200 jeans, and blowing off corporate culture. Does your baby have a Clash tshirt?

Again, Slate asks "Are you a thrillionaire or a realionaire?" Frightenly enough Susan Hirshman, a "wealth strategist", says there are five primary types of millionaires. Some just a little more bizzare than the next. Slate also follows up with some commentary on the recent Forbes list of billionaires.

This Weeks of Length: The effect of Muzak on life, shopping, business, and the mind. Where Muzak came from, and where it is going to redefine, what The New Yorker says is "the soundtrack to your life." Beautiful.

Of Length #2 – Chocolate, Mobs, Pseudoscience

kb — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 20:49:55 +0000

“This evening, I spent two hours eating chocolate“. Alasdair explains his experience with the chocolatier Gerard Coleman and his plunge into the world of artisan chocolates. For some further reading (or shopping) I came across Chocosphere which carries chocolates from a wide variety of chocolatiers, and 70% whch carries reviews, and its own shop as well.

Harper’s Magazine has posted an article by Bill Wasik, the creator of flash mobs. Part one talks about the original idea, and parts two and three discuss the rise and backlash of the movement. A great prospective from its creator.

After coming across ScienceBlogs, I found Orac’s debunking of Airborne. He has just posted a followup on how Airborne does little, if at all, to prevent colds (or as the new packaging says boost your immune system).

Of Length #1

kb — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 02:37:13 +0000

The $39 Experiment, “My name is Tom Locke. I’m not poor; I’m not rich. I’m just an average guy”. Tom Locke puts $39 to use, sending out 100 letters to 100 different companies to see what he can get for free.

The Boston Globe’s profile of Yankee Candle, titled “Sniffing Out New Markets“, gives a very interesting view of how scents go from fragrance brief, to test candles, to a new name.

US Olympic skater Johnny Weir has no qualms in spending $1,330 in two hours on some new clothes. The Washington Post talks about how he splurges to his heart’s content and at almost superhuman levels. The real question is does he even save any money?

This Weeks of Length: The Harvard Magazine (one of my new favorite sources) has an article in the newest issue called The Marketplace of Perceptions. Ten pages of how behavioral economics is changing the world we live and that the typical human does not follow a logicial and economically beneficial pattern of being that many classical economists felt was innate.