Springwise: A being space for learning English. a gym-style membership to a language learning lounge. kinda cool.

A Year of Heavy Losses - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com. a good grpahical explanation of the losses.

Diamond and Kashyap on the Recent Financial Upheavals - Freakonomics Blog. on why certain companies got bailed out and others did not.

Canadian Business Blog » $5.7 billion in bonuses. That’s what Lehman Brother employees got in 2007. 9 months later they were broke.

new msft ads

Microsoft launched a new set of ads to follow-up there Jerry Seinfeld sports. The new ads take the Apple “I’m a Mac” ads head-on. All three ads are linked up here in this techcrunch post. Essentially, the ads start with a John Hodgeman look-alike who says “I’m a PC” and then shows a mosaic of people who say they’re also a PC. It includes you’re average person, an astronaut, Bill Gates, Pharell, a hipster, a teacher in Africa, a guy in the Artic, etc.

It’s interesting that Microsoft took on the Apple ads head-on with a message of “Billions of people use PCs and you can be proud to be a PC”. Though I think the ad is well done the problem is that I have never really seen someone be passionate about Microsoft products. The only exception I can think of is game developers who use Visual Studio, people who use Excel for everything (and that’s just cause they’ve used it forever), and people directly or indirectly on MSFT payroll. That said, all of those cases pale in comparison to Mac and iPhone users.

That said, the ad is quite effective if all it does is give someone piece of mind while buying a computer that “Ya, it’s alright to be a PC”.

Obama’s “Unusual” New Ad. unusual because it actually states ideas. make sure you check out the McCain ad below it too.

globeandmail.com: Canada-EU trade proposal rivals scope of NAFTA “also includes the free movement of skilled people”. hell yes. via amr.

The Canadian Press: Williams registers ABC Campaign with Elections Canada to fight Harper. Danny Williams has got to be the craziest dude in canadian politics.

CBC - Election officials poke around Facebook vote-swapping group. honestly, why don’t we have instant run-off voting?

Chrome-fed Googasm bares tech pundit futility • The Register. Another Ted Dziuba rant on the sorry state of tech reporting.

Moneycontrol > Invest in commodities now: Jim Rogers . “I recently bought airline stocks, agriculture, Renminbi, Swiss Francs, and Japanese Yen.” You got to love how contrarian this guy is.


Freestyle Rap Battle Translated - CollegeHumor video. now that’s funny. via josh.

Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes - NYTimes.com. secretive and vindictive… i think her and cheney would get along quite nicely.

2008 Summer Paralympic Games - The Big Picture - Boston.com. some great photos.

Windbelt - Third World Power - Wind Generator - Popular Mechanics. cool demo.

Josef Koudelka Blossomed When Prague Withered - NYTimes.com. Kodeda, i’ll call this photo exhibit to your attention.

reportonbusiness.com: ‘In 1932 these big banks didnt go bankrupt. random comments from bankers, CEOs, and economists on the recent wall street bankruptcies.

Essay - Long-Term Capital - It’s a Short-Term Memory - NYTimes.com. Author of ‘When Genius Failed’ draws comparison to the Bear failure and Fannie/Freddie bailout.

First look: iPhone OS loses beta feel with 2.1 update. i really hope the SMS typing lag has been fixed.

Lehman searches for survival options - Forbes.com. are you fucking kidding me? how did i not hear about this earlier in the week?