Unusually for me, I did the right thing and took Thursday and Friday off and never checked out the free on-line streaming internet version of the CBS coverage of March Madness last week during work hours:

CBS Corp.'s decision to broadcast the annual March Madness college basketball tournament free of charge over the Internet this year is taking the on-line world by storm. Just four days into the event, the games have already set records for on-line audience numbers and strained the network's capacity. Economists in the United States have long fretted over the toll that events like March Madness take on worker productivity, since many of the early-round games are played during office hours. But CBS's webcasts have made the tournament more disruptive than ever.

General internet access at work has puzzled me for a long time. I recall one former co-worker being unaware that her screen was visible in reflection so she was unaware that we could follow her on-line gambling throughout the day. I am reading Beer in the Middle Ages and Renaissance by R. Unger, a very interesting academic work, and the rise of hopped beer in the North Sea region around 1350 to 1500 seems to me potentially comparable in terms of the disruptive force of the internet. What happened was when hops were added, it could be stored and shipped as hops added a preservative. Trade booms accordingly and an increase genial idleness is one result. But the increase in productivity due to the early industrialization of beer off-sets the loss of productivity due to drinking, maybe. Like free basketball to your workdesk, the net result of the off-set is unclear.