Podcast of the [insert time period here]

If you live in Chicago, you will become quite familiar with the public transit system. It is quite a nice set of trains and buses, and one of the reasons I don't have a car (the other reason is because of the crazy parking, but parking is outside the scope of this post). While the public transit does take a bit more time, it has a couple significant benefits:
1. Less stress. Yeah, driving through the streets of Chicago isn't necessarily the mostr relaxing activity on the planet. But driving is also outside this topic's scope.
2. More free time. While travelling, one doesn't have to give one's attention to the streets. (Sometimes this can be taken too far and causing the missing of a stop, but of course that hasn't happened to me...right?)

Having this free time has opened me up to the world of podcasts. Previously, I would listen to about one podcast ever month, for instance in the rare event of having a long and solo drive. Now, I probably average at least an hour a day of podcasts. The beauty of this technology is it transforms tasks which would be wearisome to being quite mentally stimulating and educational.

Throughout the course of blogging, I hope to cover my favorite podcasts. When that reservoir of blog-material has emptied, you might hear about favorite individual episodes.

Podcast #1: EconTalk
This is far and away my favorite. Russ Roberts, professor at George Mason University, brings in a guest every week to interview. The fellows range from another econ professor to a CEO of a hospital to authors to Nobel prize winners. Topics vary widely, but largely relate principals of economics to everyday life of which you and I are familiar. Two of my favorite episodes are:
Collier on the Bottom Billion (1/28/08) -- an author, whose book has been taking off in sales, is discussing some root problems with poverty around the world and trying to figure out similarities amoung impoverished peoples.
Caplan on the Myth of the Rational Voter (6/25/07) -- another author discusses politics. A large portion of the conversation is centered around the question: "In other disciplines, such as history, people who don't know much about a subject tend to trust the experts. Why is it that in economic situations people don't trust, through their votes, the advice traditional economic experts give?"

What I love about this podcast is that it exposes a facet of economics which most people, whether having studied economics or not, do not appreciate is that economics goes beyond numbers and self-interest. Dr. Roberts does a great job of asking questions to keep the conversation interesting, and hopefully accessible for non-econ folks.
Maybe you are thinking: "Yeah, Ben, that's you. But that wouldn't interest me at all." I beg to differ. Give it a try. If you just listen to one, check out "Roberts on the Price of Everything" (8/25/08). Let me know how it goes.

So here's my question for you readers: Do any of you listen to podcasts? Please share, because there are a lot of hidden gems out there.

My computer

You know how some people hang on to a clunky car past its lifetime? Eventually it just starts breaking and it might be worthwhile just getting a new one, but they hang onto it?
I am starting to get that way with one of my computers. It is about 4 years old -- about the typical lifespan for computers these days. So what do I do early this year? I get a new hard drive and upgrade my ram. Yay! Much better than having to re-install all my old software.
Just a couple weeks ago, my computer wouldn't boot. As in, the operating system won't load.
By God's providence, there is a complete backup of my harddrive back at home. So come September I'll be able to get that. And a friend of mine is good with hardware (sorry to ruin it for you, but unfortunately just because one received a degree in computer science doesn't mean that person knows all there is to know about computers...or even enough to fix his own notebook).

All this to explain why:
1. There haven't been many blog posts as of late
2. The blog posts that have been posted don't have pictures
3. Any written (typed) communication with you has been brief and to the point

Chicago Event: Air and Water Show

"Welcome to the largest free air and water show in America."
Rumor has it, over 2 million people came to the 2-day event. I'm not sure if it was quite that big of a turnout, but the beaches were packed. In fact, the event became an air show for me because I wasn't close to being able to see the water.
If you like planes or noise, this was the time for you. There were classic military jets, bombers, and even refueling planes. Various bi-planes flew around doing stunts. Even some of the military jets had some neat tricks. My favorite was one by biplane pilot Sean Tucker who had quite an arsenal of stunts, and fully narrated too.
My only complaint is that the whole event seemed a bit stretched out -- about 6 hours in total and they could have crammed it in to something closer to 2 hours.
Overall, the time was well spent. Even upon finding my kneecaps painfully pink later.