News Cut: November 23, 2012 Archive

The hurricane boom

Posted at 9:15 AM on November 23, 2012 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Tech

There's still plenty of misery to go around in the New Jersey and New York area, thanks to Hurricane Sandy. But economists are often more into numbers than humanity. The Goldman Sachs group says the devastating storm could be quite an economic boon, adding enough money into the economy as a government stimulus program.

All of this is literally cold comfort to people in the Rockaways who still don't have conventional electricity. But ingenuity has taken over. As nature taketh away, it gives, too.

Guns, knives, abandoned toddlers and banjos.

Posted at 4:56 PM on November 23, 2012 by Bob Collins
Filed under: Arts, Economy

Boy, there's not much of a faster way to destroy the spirit of Thanksgiving than just about any story involving after-Thanksgiving shopping.

You know the usual ones, so we can fast-forward right past those cliches and get right to...

The San Antonio man who pulled a gun on someone cutting in line.

The Sacramento person who threatened to stab people in the line he was in.

And the Massachusetts man who left his girlfriend's 2-year-old son in a car while he went shopping. He got his new flat-screen TV home but left the kid behind.

I have no answers for this behavior so will provide an antidote instead that has absolutely nothing to do with shopping. It's a new TED video about kids -- mere babes, really -- who play bluegrass.

As long as there are 10-year-olds who can play a banjo, there's hope for the species.