Give the Gift of Worldliness: The Economist

The Economist has girded the Western World's decision makers in all things economic (of course), political, scientific, and cultural since 1843. Now, through a Thrillist-exclusive offer, a mere $99 will get you a digital subscription loaded with 51 weekly issues and over 100,000 archived articles -- all available on your Android, iPhone, or iPad.

Sign up yourself (and/or a very lucky friend/loved-one), and unless you're in a lead-lined prison in the center of the Earth, you'll be able to gorge yourself on unbiased, intelligent insight such as:

- What happens in Vegas is four times less profitable than what happens in Macau, the new casino capital of the world that's now driving the mass-outsourcing of Liberace impersonators and German tiger-illusionists.

- Jacques Chirac pleaded "mental frailty" against a two-year suspended prison sentence for misuse of public funds that included over-embellished grocery lists not covered by his $2.9 million payback to the city of Paris. That is a lot of crème fraîche.

- The International Court of Justice ruled that Macedonia could finally have its name back from the Greeks, who ultimately found saying "Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia" more annoying than amusing.

- There might be life on newly discovered "planet B" (six million light years away from Earth's surface!) thanks to its "Goldilock Zone", which does not describe the hermitage of a blonde with fulfillment issues, but rather the ideal orbit space between said "exoplanet" to its respective light-source.

Gift yourself or friends with words on Scandinavian modernism, Sub-saharan democracy, and everything else you'll need to convince people that you haven't been living under a rock the past 169 years.