Get ready to dance.

The official title of this remix is “On’n’on (Ruined by Rick Rubin),” harking back to the 1991 CD he produced for Queen, “We Will Rock You (Ruined by Rick Rubin).”

via Fader.

Awesomness

From Dann Matthews on Vimeo.

McCain 2008 Oppo File

McCain’s attack playbook from the 2008 primary leaked online via Buzzfeed.  This should make for an interesting read.

This show was nuts.

Earlier this evening, there was a fire in my building.  My buddy and I went out onto my patio when we heard what sounded like the entire FDNY outside my place.  As more trucks showed up and fireman ran into the building, I turned to my buddy and jokingly said, “I should go in and pack my ‘oh shit!’ bag.”  While I was joking, I still went in and threw some clothes in a duffle bag along with my passport and a folder holding other documents like that.  When we checked the hallway, the smell of burning metal rushed into my apartment.  That’s when “oh shit” turned into “oh fuck.”

Like a total geek, I ran around my apartment scooping up all the electronics I could fit into my computer bag.  If I hadn’t packed the clothes already, I would have just grab the computer equipment and left everything else.  The items on my various computers and harddrives are impossible to replace and, even with most of it backed up someplace, I’d be screwed if anything happened to the physical items.

Items packed in both bags:

  • Macbook
  • Mac Mini
  • iPad
  • Two 500gb external harddrives
  • Passport
  • Folder
  • Three days worth of clothing

As we headed out the door, a fireman appeared from the other end of the smoke filled hall saying that there was a fire in the trash chute, but it was under control.  We didn’t need to leave, just open the windows to air the smell out.

While a fire is never fun, good came out of this in two ways: 1) my apartment didn’t burn down and 2) I learned if there was a crisis, I can pack my “oh shit” bag in roughly two minutes.

It’s only fitting that I’m exiting 2011 the way I started it; with the smell of burning metal trapped in my apartment.  Here’s to kicking 2012 off odor-free.

The conventional wisdom is that the United States is borrowing too much. But don’t tell that to the markets. As Daniel Kruger reports in Bloomberg, demand for American debt was stronger in 2011 than in any year since 1995. It’s cheaper for the U.S. to finance its debt today than it was when we last had surpluses. For all that Washington is sure we’re borrowing too much, the signal from the markets is that we’re borrowing too little, that they wish we would borrow more.

This is not, to be fair, a bet on America’s economic strength. It’s a judgment about the rest of the world’s economic weakness. U.S. Treasuries are what savvy investors buy when they’re in a canned-goods-and-ammunition sort of mood and they think gold is overvalued. But though that makes the demand we’re seeing more depressing, it doesn’t make it any less real.

The Treasury Department keeps track of something called “Daily Treasury Real Yield Curve Rates.” It’s the actual rate — the one that takes into account expected inflation — at which the United States can borrow. And something amazing has happened to it in the past year. For three-year, five-year, and 10-year treasuries, the rate has turned negative. That is to say, the market is so afraid of losing money in the dangerous, uncertain world out there, that they’ll pay us to keep their money safe for them.

That’s a sad commentary on the state of the global economy. But it’s an incredible opportunity for us.

via Wonkbook.

Anyone who knows me knows how OCD I am when it comes to organization. I get very flustered when there are things in my life out of order. When I bought my new iPod Classic in 2006, I went through my then 11,000 songs in iTunes and added all the album data to the songs. That’s track numbers, artist features, album number, year it was released, cover art; I think you get the picture.

One thing that I haven’t done a very good job with organizing is Twitter. The service has evolved from being a way for me to meet new people into a newswire, keeping me informed on real-time happenings. But this isn’t really happening for me. I have too many people in my feed that I feel like I’m missing important updates for people I really know and not getting the most of the service. I haven’t really met someone on Twitter in months. Granted, I’ve been pretty bad about this, but my interest in meeting new people has wained. If that makes me sound like a dick, sorry.

A few months ago, I started to create lists based on topics like finance, politics, and fantasy football to make it easier for me to keep track of what’s going on in those worlds. This system has worked great for me so I’m going to implement it across my entire account. I’ve recently started unfollowing a ton of accounts. This doesn’t mean I don’t find value in what you have to say. Instead of following you, I’ll be adding you to a specific list based on what you tweet about most. This way I still track what’s going on in specific verticals while being able see what’s going on in my immediate world.

So long story short, I don’t mean to offend you by unfollowing; I just need to blow up the system and start over again. Hope you understand.

Damn, I miss this show. Spotted at BuzzFeed.