Tag Archives: culture

Things I Learned this Week

Among the things I learned this week:
* Brewery counts during the years. (Courtesy: Bloomberg Brief Reserve)

Number of breweries per year.

Number of breweries per year.

* Potatoes will allow us to colonize Mars. (Courtesy: Ryan Dube/WSJ)

* Prive Porter, its focus, its sales channels, and its thoughts on Chanel. (Courtesy: Christina Binkley/WSJ)

A reseller specializing in Hermès handbags, Privé Porter is on track to sell $24 million of the purses this year, Mr. Berk says. About 90% of his inventory is sold via Instagram, and 60% goes to Asian and Middle Eastern customers.

There is a reason he deals almost exclusively in Hermès. It is the brand most likely to command investment-worthy obsessions. In his experience, “no one is kicking down the door for Chanel,” Mr. Berk says.

* Noma‘s head chef Rene Redzepi made a gin flavored with ants. (Courtesy: Alice Lascelles/FT)

Things I Learned this Week

Among the things I learned this week:
* The Wikipedia post for Chinese Crested Dog should have a dispute banner, perhaps (Courtesy: Personal Experience):
20160329-wikipedia-unbalancedbanner

* Habermas’ take on the Internet (Courtesy: Economist):

Digital communication, he wrote a few years ago, has unequivocal democratic merits only in authoritarian countries, where it undermines the government’s information monopoly. Yet in liberal regimes, online media, with their millions of forums for debate on a vast range of topics, could lead to a “fragmentation of the public” and a “liquefaction of politics”, which would be harmful to democracy.

* We’re so post-PC that reviews of next-gen computer equipment now include commentary on the aesthetics and space challenges of a computer (Courtesy: Brian X. Chen, NYT):

The Rift works with technology that some might find anachronistic: a Windows PC, monitor, keyboard and mouse. With many people shifting away from desktop computers toward laptops, tablets and smartphones, finding a place to install the Rift and those other components may be a challenge. In my modest San Francisco apartment, I set up the system in the living room next to my television set. What an eyesore.

There are other similar aspects to the article, in case you want to learn something this week.