On the right person, even the lamest T-shirt looks pretty good:
Categories
Category: Life
Found via Space Ghetto, via Certified Bullshit Technician.
Here, courtesy of the Economist, is a chart showing how long it takes for a workers in various cities all over the world, earning the average net wage to earn the price of a Big Mac in their respective cities. Note that Accordion City – sometimes referred to as “Toronto” – is one of the three best places for a Big Mac aficionado to live, since it takes us only 12 minutes to earn two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, onions, pickles on an sesame seed bun:
The Economist’s Big Mac Index was introduced by the magazine in 1986 (the year I started reading it, coincidentally) as a way to make it easier to visualize the differences among different countries economies, in terms of wages and purchasing power. Using Big Macs as an economic yardstick was a clever choice; they’re the same everywhere and available in many countries when it was first published 23 years ago, and McDonald’s has set up in more countries since then (remember, 1986 was before glasnost).
The index isn’t without its flaws. For starters, McDonald’s is perceived differently in different countries. Here in Canada, as with the U.S., it’s a cheap, working-class restaurant, while in other countries, eating there is considerably more expensive and exotic than having the local fare. However, there aren’t too many other products that are available worldwide that are made with local materials and yet universally uniform.
As for actually eating Big Macs: I used to love them as a teenager, but it’s been ages since I had one. Sometime in my late 20s, I noticed that eating just one made me feel nauseated. I suppose it might be because they changed the recipe, but I strongly suspect the real change was in me; I no longer had the same metabolism. I’m happy to spend a little money on a burger and not feel like hurling.
The tornado isn’t all that spectacular (as far as tornadoes go, anyway), nor is the phonecam footage remarkable in any way. What makes this video is the high-larious drama-queen dialogue. I’m downloading this sucker before the guy wises up and yanks it off YouTube.
I hereby give this video the Drama Queen seal of approval:
[Thanks to the Ginger Ninja for the heads-up!]
Chances are, as a reader of this blog, people ask you to explain Twitter to them. If that’s the case you might find this video in which Ben Stiller explains Twitter to Mickey Rooney amusing:
(This article also appears in my personal technical blog, Global Nerdy.)
I gave my father-in-law a good laugh recently when I told him I was a radical centrist. I thought I’d check that assertion by taking OKCupid’s political test. I remember taking it two years (and four jobs!) ago and remember being tagged as a social liberal and economic moderate.
Here are the results I got yesterday:
I rated as:
- 65% socially permissive – a social liberal
- 55% economically permissive – an economic moderate
The summary said:
You are best described as a centrist. You exhibit a very well-developed sense of right and wrong and believe in economic fairness.
Switching the result chart to the “political ideologies” view, my result point puts me on the outer edge of the centrist circle, just tangential to both the libertarian and democrat zones:
The more amusing chart is the “famous people” chart, in which I’m located smack-dab between Donald Trump and Adam Sandler. I have no idea how they derived Sandler’s social and political views:
There’s one face on the “famous people” chart that I can’t place: who’s that in the lower right quadrant behind Hillary Clinton? The one with the nearly completely obscured face?
I think Barack Obama’s placement all the way down in the lower-right corner in deep socialist-land is wrong and based on too much listening to Rush Limbaugh (although I think any listening to him is a bad idea). I think he should be in the same zone as Hillary Clinton.
A Couple of People I Know
I know a couple of people behind WordPress: Matt Mullenweg, whom I’ve met through Rannie and tests positive for “Democrat”:
and Mark Jaquith, with whom I worked at b5media. The test says that Mark is a libertarian bordering on anarchist. He did answer “strongly agree” to the statement that two consenting adults should be allowed to duel to the death. I wonder if he carries a “slappin’ glove” for those moments when someone has insulted his honour:
Where Do YOU Stand?
Gentle Readers! I’m curious to see where you end up on the chart – go take the political test and feel free to post your results in the comments!
Categories
Quick, Set the DVR!
Alternate response: “What, only one?”