Dragon Wars

The How The World Works post begins like this:

WARNING: Under no circumstances should the following post be interpreted as a positive review of the movie "Dragon Wars: D-War." By reading any further, you absolve How the World Works from all potential liability for psychic pain suffered, in this universe or any other, as a consequence of viewing "Dragon Wars."

I'm such a freak, I kind of want to see it.

He goes on to quote Dustin Pittman at The MovieBoy.com:

"Dragon Wars" is destined to go down in history as one of cinema's most blunderingly, catastrophically bad big-budget films of the last few decades. Only worth seeing with a large group of friends and a bottle of hard liquor by your side, the movie bypasses the barest hints of behind-the-scenes sanity and enters a realm where the viewer legitimately wonders if what he or she is watching was made by homo sapiens."

Not likely though. I already got the gf to see another South Korean movie, The Host, with me (which was very good). I doubt I'll have luck on this one too, especially when I can't possibly lie about it maybe being good. 17%!!

Oh, Canada!

Has anyone realized that the Canadian Dollar is almost nearly the same value as the US Dollar? Above is a 6 month chart.

The Canadian Dollar buys you about 96 cents, way up from when I last pondered this, when it was 70 cents.

The Wire shout out

Sudhir Venkatesh, the guy profiled in Freakonomics for spending time with street gangs in Chicago for grad student work, recently fielded questions from readers of the Freakonomics blog.

Q: Do you think the HBO series The Wire gives an accurate portrayal of gang life? It is clear from the show (if it is as real as it seems) that traditional policing strategies are very ineffective.

A: I am a huge fan of The Wire. I actually watched Season Two with a group of high ranking gang leaders/drug dealers in Chicago, who desperately wished that the series producers would make a separate show about Chicago! Everyone in the room agreed that the writers did well to show the nuances in the underground economy.

Remember, season two was with the white people. Of course, the gritty accuracy was not good enough to get an Emmy nomination...

East Village Scene

On CraigsList, via DealBreaker:

Anyway, you brushed by me as I approached the bar--you looked up at me and said "hi, how are you?" I said, "Oh, you know, pretty good, closed an industry-changing M&A deal today. It's likely to double my bonus." Your reaction was not what I expected. I know that inside, you were indeed impressed, but the look on your face didn't quite evince the same sentiment. This, of course, caused me to panic. I quickly retrieved the BlackBerry from its plastic hip holster and began to type furiously. Being engaged in an important email discussion with several important Industry Leaders and DealMakers, I had no time to engage in further human contact. But that's too bad--maybe you could have saved me from this soul-destroying life that I've become hopelessly lost in.

DealBreaker also quoted Ben's article, quoting Ken Langone, re: private equity. He said it was the most clicked article that day. Why? Maybe it has to do with the subtitle - "...Home Depot's co-founder says private equity is pretty simple, 'kind of like sex'"