I was digitally wandering today in search of general randomness and found myself reading blogs posted by other people and organizations. There are a lot of interesting blogs out there to peruse, and at least one that got me curious since it rates in the top 50 but is by invite only. Hmmm...it sounds enticing just to figure out what they have going on. I may as well share some of what I found, good and bad, right? OK, here are three sites to consider
Since I would prefer to end on a positive note, let's start with a 'bad' which also utilizes a tactic that ranks high among my pet peeves. Blogs, and even websites, such as Business Insider will not allow you access to their site if you utilize an ad blocker on your web browser. These types of sites are ones I will usually ignore, if I don't black list them outright. According to the About page for Business Insider, this is a site now owned by the German media company Axel Springer SE. Given this information, I find it amazing that such a site solely relies upon the ads to generate a revenue. I know of plenty of sites that will ask you to white list the site in the ad blocker application but they will still allow you access, even if you decide not to white list it. On a side note too, I was surprised to find that this site is actually classified as a blog. I have visited this site before and thought it was more of a news-feed website since it doesn't appear to be too high quality in comparison to some other news sites.
There is a Ikea store in the valley so even with it being about a 30 minute drive, I have found it to be a good source for furniture pieces that are consistent in design and coloring without the crazy pricing some of the local furniture stores want to charge. With that I stated, one of the blogs I found that I enjoyed was a blog called Ikea Hackers.
This blog is maintained by Jules and it appears that her blog is
comprised of her own posts as well as contributor 'hacks' that they
submit to her. There are a lot of creative ideas contained within this blog. I like the cascading room divider and, of course, the table hack with a city map of your choice. Maybe I should submit my desk/work bench I made with some Ikea file cabinets and a reclaimed laminate desktop from a local Seattle business, where I used to live.
Lastly for today, I was intrigued by Greg Mankiw's Blog. As student subjected to neoclassical economic theory (and yes, I mean subjected), it was very interesting to find this Harvard University Economics professor discusses different economic theories. Now, it has been many years since I have taken economics courses so my math is not nearly up to par for some of his posts but the blog post that caught my attention was the one that points to an article he wrote for the NY Times. In it he discusses a seminar he offers during an academic term for which he purposefully selects a 50/50 ratio of men and women as well as left/right in terms of economic disposition. Professor Mankiw provides a reading list that covers a wide range of economic theories which the students will read, discuss and debate. He states that his purpose is subversive and the goal is to encourage students to understand and appreciate different perspectives no matter how much they may disagree. I would certainly like to see more of that take place in our world. How about you?
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