Clutter Your Brain

An increasingly timely clip from 1946. "Dimon isn't selling; Dimon's buying! And why? Because the Fed gave him a $30 billion back-stop, that's why..."

More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics is an interesting book by Steven E. Landsburg.

Economics books full of "uncommon sense" are more common after the success of Freakonomics, but this rambling survey of hot-button and quotidian issues viewed from a libertarian economic perspective doesn't measure up. Landsburg (The Armchair Economist) is sometimes pleasantly counterintuitive, but too often simply contentious. In using cost/benefit calculations to argue in favor of racial profiling or why we shouldn't care about the looting of Baghdad's museums, he strains to celebrate "all that is counter, original, spare and strange." While positing multiple solutions to interesting problems, he forces logical readers to confront uncomfortable positions—as in the title essay, urging chaste citizens to sleep around, thereby diluting the pool of potential sex partners with AIDS. But the chapters typically conclude without resolution—at one point, the author shrugs: "It's not easy to sort out causes from effects." One suspects that a rival economist could swiftly debunk many of Landsburg's arguments—for instance, his chapter praising misers (who produce but don't consume) depends on the assumption that all resources are fixed and finite. By the time he makes the head-scratching case that "it's always an occasion for joy when other people have more children," the reader may be in the mood for some plain old common sense.

Available via Amazon.

This Pop Quiz Wall Clock (dimensions: 11.5" diameter) will make some people feel smarter than they realy are ;-) [via nerd approved]

We have seen some amazing LEGO aircrafts in the past, but this F-14 Tomcat has to be the most awesome LEGO plane to date. In fact, it's so technically complex—most parts, including cannons, swing wings, landing gears, brakes, flaps, air intake doors, are electric and pneumatically controlled—that builder Jeroen Ottens got a dream job in Denmark as a Technic designer. Looking at the list of features, we are not surprised:
- Electric controlled
- Canopy
- Cannon
- Swing wings
- Landing gear
- Landing gear bay doors
- Steering of front wheel
- 2 Engines
- Pneumatic compressor
- Pneumatically controlled
- Brakes (main fuselage+wings)
- Arrester hook
- Flaps (front & aft on main wings)
- Glove vanes
- Air Intake Control System doors
- Main landing gear lock
- Manual controlled
- Vertical flaps
- Differentially controlled stabilators
- Air fuel intake nozzle
- Ejection seats

[Via Gizmodo]

You can also find pictures of this Lego F-14 Tomcat at Flickr.

The Empire Poster Quiz is a challenge for cinema lovers and their typography.

Object is to guess the complete titles of the films from only one of the letters of its titles, coming from the original poster.

Bonus: The 46 letters form the complete question that describes of what the game consists.

A photographer and designer shows the photo retouching process in detail with PhotoShop.

Performed by a German known as "the trainrider". He enjoyed his life by surfing on trains. Included Germany's fastest Highspeed train ICE with a top speed of 330 km/h(!) No one did that before.

Music:
1) Enya - Caribbean Blue
2) Roxette - Wish I Could Fly
3) Bob Dylan - Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Is this real of just fake ? As it looks you don't need to be in Hawaii to do surfing.

Via Youtube:

Here's a video of my journey across Texas on my motorcycle set to the tune of Johnny Cash and "I've been everywhere, man". The twist is, Texas singer/songwriter Brian Burns swapped out the towns in the original song for Texas towns, cities and communities.

My journey took 25 distinct trips and I rode 10,641 miles to complete the project. Some towns such as Spring Lake (formally knows as Clabbertown) ceased to exist 100 years or more ago, and others like Mill Creek and Valley Mills were nothing but rural communities with no true city limit signs. In these instances, a post office, church or significant landmark was photographed as proof of visiting that location. Bartleville doesn't exist in the Roads of Texas, atlas, or any mapping programs and there have been lyric references to Bartonville which was secured by photograph.

I hope you enjoy the trip. Hang on, because the ride is fast.....

This is pretty good (via The J-Walk Blog)