Good news from Forbes in their annual moving survey – gleaned from Atlas Van lines:
North Dakota still kickin’ it with their new found oil wealth; Texas still a big draw…and the Mid-Atlantic states doing well. Sitting right there in the middle is our good ol’ Tennessee! Good governance, good tax policy, a great quality of life…these things add up.
Click HERE for the full interactive report.
Ten years after the tragedy of 9/11, a beautiful building has risen in its place. Check out the views by clicking here: WTC Views . The actual site has some pretty cool stuff, including a live webcam of the construction progress: WTC Progress . And, if you are a tweetophile, you can stay up to date with their twitter feed: @wtcprogress .
Here are a couple of teasers:
I confess that I still miss the iconic Twin Towers. I remember standing on the roof of WTC Two in 1984 and feeling the building sway. This looks impressive though and will hopefully be a psychological success as well as a commercial success for New York City.
Let us never forget:
Urban Land Institute is celebrating their 75th birthday and going through their vaults. Here’s one of the items they found – it’s a classic:
Cheery chat with Peter Schiff – yes, the same Peter Schiff that saw the crash coming back in 2005:
Great break over Thanksgiving – I don’t know about you, but I feel like I haven’t sat down in about three months! It was nice to visit with the family and as always glean wisdom from my Dad. One important part of sitting down is watching football and it was a great weekend for that!
The perennially hapless Vanderbilt under the direction of new coach James Franklin is going to a bowl! They thumped my other alma mater, Wake Forest, pretty badly. I couldn’t get too upset though, Wake was already bowl eligible. Then, in a karma like moment, Kentucky rose up and beat Vanderbilt’s arch (and recently unsportsmanlike) rival Tennessee. Justice for the previous week’s bad call and incivility were redeemed. Cap it all off with a Titans victory and all is well.
Back to the sitting – the second good thing to do while sitting is read. Got caught up on a couple of books that had been in the “almost finished” pile for awhile:
Chet Raymo’s “Honey from Stone: A Naturalist’s Search for God” is a wonderful exploration of Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula. I got hooked on Raymo’s columns through my dabbling in backyard astronomy. One of my favorite collections of his is still “The Soul of the Night: An Astronomical Pilgrimage,” but “Honey” does not disappoint.
Beehive huts on Skellig Michael
Raymo’s description of the breathtaking Skellig Rocks off the coast of Ireland brought back fond memories of trudging up those sheer walls to the beehive huts of the Irish monks who arguably saved Western Civilization.
Say, speaking of Western Civilization and declinism – the notion that the United States is doomed and the best we can do is “manage” the decline – here’s a great short piece from Victor Davis Hanson that might make you think that one over again: “What America Does Best?” And if you were in the grasp of declinism , it’s Siamese twin (no pun intended) is that China will bury us…um, think again: “The Fraying of China’s Gilded Age.” But back to my books…
One of the big concerns I have is a nation that chooses its leaders blissfully unaware of how the economy works. I majored in the “dismal science,” thus have an affinity for graphs and odd equations. But I have been looking for an easily readable book that explains how the economy works…I found two:
Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science by Charles Wheelan covers everything from the basic structure of the financial markets to the Fed and trade globalization. Wheelan leans a little left, so to balance that, pull Henry Hazlitt’s “Economics in One Lesson, The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics” off the shelf. You won’t be disappointed in either one…read both and you will have a well rounded understanding of what the heck is happening to us!
One of the other activities over the tryptophan induced lull that I engaged in, was cleaning up my list of “websites to visit.” A couple of jewels emerged from there:
1. Business Model Generation: Got a great idea that you want to bring to market? Take a spin through this site to help you craft a business plan that will make you the next Bill Gates.
2. Zamzar: Ever get an attachment that won’t open and then end up on the phone with the sender asking them to save it in some more common format? Go to this site and they have a free online converter. I had an old Publisher file I couldn’t open on my Mac – Zamzar converted it to a PDF and sent me an e-mail with the download link…very nice!
3. EconTracker: now that you know all about Economics from reading the books I recommended, click on the WSJ’s Econtracker and you will feel like you are behind the wheel of a fine tuned sports car with all the instruments in front of you.
4. The Oatmeal: I got turned onto this site a couple of months ago – it’s not for the kids – but it has wickedly appropriate humor. Two of my favorites are “I Drew Some Tweets,” and “I Love it When Wikipedia Asks for Donations.”
That ought to keep you busy for awhile. If you have any recommendations, comment below or send them to me and I’ll give ‘em a look.
Doing some cleanup on e-mails and websites I had filed in the “look at later” box…found a few gems to share:
1. I teach MBA’s, I have an MBA…this is sound advice for MBA’s.
2. Some good news … AIA is reporting Architect’s billing rates are up (well at least back to 1996 levels!)
3. OK, enough good news…famed hedge funder, Mark Mobius says the end of the world is near.
Remain calm, folks, remain calm!
4. Always thoughtful, Joel Kotkin, has a great piece on what the world will look like after the financial apocalypse…the full report is linked in there and it is worth a browse.
All shall be well. Funny, I say that a lot these days – it’s from Eliot’s “Little Gidding.” Did you know that recordings of him reading his poetry is available on line? Just found this:
Have a good day!
