unrelated nearly simultaneous threats

I know humans find patterns where none exist but it is spooky how 9/11 and anthrax are echoed in Boston and ricin.

Starbucks black hole

Why are there no Starbucks locations within the rectangle bounded by Park Avenue and the East River from 32nd street up to 41st street?  In comparison, there are TWO locations on a SINGLE block nearby (the block bounded by Madison and Fifth between 35th and 36th).

a period of inefficient utilization of computers

I wonder if the past decade will be seen, oddly enough, as a trough of efficiency and productivity.  I wonder this because we are currently hampered by both our inputs (keyboards are unwieldy, voice is inaccurate, etc.) and outputs (screens are still small and only recently have ultra-high resolutions).  Until I can replicate the massive amount of readily visible and accessible information as I have in an unfolded road map, I think there may be a lot of room for productivity gains from computers.

bond yields

What if people are using bond proceeds to buy bonds (leveraged bond purchases)?  Would it be possible for the demand side of this to result in lower overall rates?  And so reinforce a low rate environment?

Libratone Zipp

This is crazy.  It delivers music over wi-fi using a dedicated network?  Forget connecting to Pandora, etc., even the default music player on an iPhone could be handicapped if it is relying on iTunes in the cloud.  And one could not use any internet-reliant apps (including safari) while playing music.  Unless you feel like using your cellular data connection.

Shame on the NYT (where I first heard about this) for not calling out the severe shortcomings of this device.

Google and Britannica

I wonder why Google hasn't purchased Britannica.  It would seem to fit the bill of putting the world's knowledge online.  And it can't be too expensive.  And is consistent with purchases such as zagat, etc.

gas rationing

Gas rationing with odd-even license plate numbers is not really rationing.

I think it is labeled rationing but is really an interesting form of externally imposed impulse control.  Normally, with a ration, there is a prescribed amount available per person per period.  Here, none of those constraints actually imply.

Instead, by imposing "rationing" what we are really doing is limiting impulse and fear.  Impulse (at least half of consumers will now need to defer purchases by a day and all will need to plan somewhat) and fear (because there is now a plan, the desire to "get gas before they run out" eases as there is less concern about "running out").  I wonder who thought of it.