Putting Sex in the Dictionary

"Figuring out how to put sex in the dictionary—which terms to include and how to define them—is actually one of the most challenging tasks we face...The 1960s actually marked the end of a long drought in the inclusion of sexual terms in dictionaries. The word fuck is first found in a dictionary in 1598, when it was one of five synonyms given to translate the Italian word fottere (the others were jape, sard, swive, and occupy)."

Can a Woman "Prong" a Man?
by Jesse Sheidlower
http://www.slate.com/id/2227971/

Do Women Make Better Judges?

Most women, unlike most men, know what it is like to be discriminated against and oppressed and, if they want to succeed, must "learn to see both sides in ways that men do not," as Slate's Dahlia Lithwick put it. Men face no similar pressures and so live in a happy bubble of illusion. Because the job of the judge involves seeing other people's perspectives, female judges have a real, albeit hard-won, advantage...Yet when it comes to performance rather than qualifications, we find no statistically significant differences between the decision-making ability of male and female judges in any of our data sets.

Do Woman Make Better Judges
by Stephen Choi, Mitu Gulati, Mirya Holman, and Eric Posner
http://www.slate.com/id/2231166/

How Doctors Decide What Form a Drug Will Take

"Convenience and necessity. Drug companies cater to their clients' preferences. Adults prefer popping pills, so most medicines for adults come in small capsules. Kids, by contrast, often dislike swallowing tablets, so companies manufacture liquid alternatives. But not every drug can be taken any which way. It's better to take certain cancer medications—like the red-blood-cell booster Epogen—intravenously rather than via intramuscular injection, since the drugs may irritate tissue. Proteins such as human growth hormone or insulin can't be taken orally, since the stomach's acids and digestive enzymes would break these down as if they were food. Other drugs have to be taken orally. For example, if you're trying to treat a gastrointestinal issue like ulcerative colitis, you're going to want a pill rather than an ointment or an IV drip."

Up Your Nose or Down Your Throat?
by Christopher Beam
http://www.slate.com/id/2231174/

How Nice are Humans?

I guess it is possible to be greedy/selfish AND compassionate/empathetic at the same time...

"Lately scientists, from biologists to psychologists—with de Waal at the forefront—have begun suggesting that nature is filled with compassion, too."

Now Nice Are We?
by Christine Kenneally
http://www.slate.com/id/2231320/

How Do I Get in Touch With a Terrorist?

I wonder how much terrorist spokesmen get paid...

"How do news organizations land interviews with militants and terrorist groups? They call them. Each group, from the Taliban to various al-Qaida factions, has its own method for getting its message out. The most media-friendly ones have a designated spokesman. These tend to be trusted devotees—as opposed to hired flacks—who put out communiqués with contact numbers. The Taliban, for example, have two spokesmen covering Afghanistan: Muhammad Yusuf in the western region and Zabiullah Mujahid in the east. For the article about the bombing in Islamabad, the AP contacted a Taliban flack in Pakistan named Azam Tariq."

How Do I Get In Touch With a Terrorist?
by Christopher Beam
http://www.slate.com/id/2231637/

On Blue-Slipping

The House can protect its prerogatives by "blue slipping" measures the leadership does not approve of. (It's called "blue slipping" because the resolution returning the offending bill to the Senate is printed on blue paper. And, we like to think, because their Senate colleagues become sad when this is done to them.

The Invastion of the Bill Snatchers
by John Dickerson
http://www.slate.com/id/2231640/

CIA Center on Climate Change and National Security

https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/center-on-climate-change-and-national-security.html

Cayman Islands - Tax Conundrum

What happens to a tax haven when it has to raise taxes?

Offshore Haven Considers a Heresy: Taxation
by Landon Thomas, Jr.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/business/global/04cayman.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

The Transporation Lobby

http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/transportation_lobby/

Frat Business Guy

http://blogs.jobdig.com/wwds/2009/04/14/frat-business-guy/

Measuring Quality of Life

"Sarkozy urged leaders to move beyond traditional economic measures such as gross domestic product (GDP) in considering their societies' overall well-being. Gallup's global surveys underscore the extent to which life quality relates to a range of factors beyond classical economic measures. Survey results from up to 138 countries indicate that measures not directly related to market production, such as social connectedness and health satisfaction, strongly relate to how respondents rate their lives...The call for a more comprehensive and nuanced approach to measuring a population's economic status has the potential to redirect development resources in ways that more reliably improve the well-being of individuals and communities around the world. "

The eight areas measured:

1. Material living standards
2. Health
3. Education
4. Personal activities
5. Political voice and governance
6. Social connections and relationships
7. Environmental conditions
8. Economic and physical security

http://www.gallup.com:80/poll/123371/Higher-Certain-Conditions-Beyond-GDP.aspx?CSTS=alert

Can You Eat the Wrapper From Trident Gum?

"The offical answer - after calling the Trident company - is that the wrappers on Trident gum are not meant to be eaten along with the gum. It's just regular old wax paper."

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Can_you_eat_the_wrapper_from_Trident_gum

*The same apparently goes for Stride Gum wrappers
http://candyaddict.com/blog/2007/06/19/myth-busted-stride-gum-wrappers-should-not-be-eaten/

How Dentists Think

"In contrast to the surgical specialties of medicine, which are delivered in ambulatory care centers and hospital operating rooms, where the operating expenses and the cost of equipment and support staff are borne by hospitals rather than individual doctors, dental surgeons must pay for equipment, supplies, the electricity that powers drills and X-ray machines, malpractice insurance, rent on office space big enough to house the reception, a waiting room, clinical areas, and—often the biggest expense of all—staff to make appointments, submit insurance claims, and provide support services as dental assistants and dental hygienists.

"Unlike hospitals, which buy in bulk, dentists have very little leverage to negotiate discounts for fixtures and supplies. The economic inefficiency of dentists' working solo is mitigated by other factors. Expensive drugs, frequent technological advancements, and endless tests of dubious diagnostic value—all significant drivers of medical inflation—are largely absent from the dental world. Because every procedure typically incurs only a single charge, billing is much more straightforward and transparent than it is in most areas of medicine.

"Although dentists prefer to leave the money talk to their billing manager, they usually know the cost of every procedure, which isn't necessarily true of physicians."

The American Way of Dentistry: How Dentist Think
by June Thomas
http://www.slate.com/id/2229633/

*Take the Corah Dental Anxiety Scale Questionnaire
http://www.dentalfearcentral.org/media/dental_anxiety_scale.pdf

*Kleinknecht Dental Fear Survey
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6831/7/1

Is Fair Trade Coffee Worthwhile?

"The future of the Fair Trade-coffee movement is in question, as some backers raise concerns about whether it has reached the limit of how much it can help. In a private-industry survey last year of 179 Fair Trade coffee farmers in Central America and Mexico, more than half said their families have still been going hungry for several months a year...For most coffee growers, Fair Trade is still slightly more lucrative than the open market. Two years ago, the Germany-based Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), which sets worldwide prices and standards, raised the minimum per-pound price of nonorganic coffee $o.09 to $1.35. That's $o.15 higher than the current market rate."

What Price for Good Coffee
by Ezra Fieser
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1926007,00.html

On Tariffs

*All but three significant trading economies have permanent tariff systems. (Hong Kong and Libya have none; Singapore imposes tariffs only on beer and a local liquor called samsu. )

*On top of this, the United States and many other countries have laws which, in special circumstances, impose temporary tariffs above permanent rates. These come in three types: "anti-dumping" tariffs are used most frequently, at an average of 166 per year since 2000; "countervailing duties" are second at an 14-per-year average; and "safeguards" are rarest, averaging 8 per year.

*The World Bank calculates the average worldwide tariff on manufactured goods at about 7 percent, and the average U.S. tariff at about 3 percent.

http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=108&subid=900003&contentid=255071

On Michelin Guide Reviewers

It is like the food CIA, or FIA (Food Intelligence Agency)...

"Michelin protects the identities of its reviewers to the point that they generally are not allowed to do interviews with the press, and must invent cover stories about their profession so that even friends and family don’t know what they do."

Michelin Builds a Campaign Around Its Secret Reviewers
by Stephanie Clifford
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/business/media/17adco.html?th&emc=th

*Also check out FamouslyAnonymous.com, a Michelin-run website which includes information about the jobs of reviewers
http://www.michelinguide.com/us/famously_anonymous/index.html

Handicapping Olympic Bids

Where will the 2016 Olympics be? See the BidIndex 2016...

http://www.gamesbids.com/eng/

Video: Table Manners

A five-minute video...

http://www.5min.com/Video/Learn-about-Table-Manners-Etiquette-83227367

*More table etiquette tips from Manners International
http://www.mannersinternational.com/etiquette_tips_table.asp

*10-minute Emily Post video on table manners
http://video.google.com/videosearch?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4RNWN_enUS268US268&q=table+manners&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=6WHCSp-ZI5DSlAfVur38AQ&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4#

*Video: How to Have Top Notch Table Manners
http://video.google.com/videosearch?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4RNWN_enUS268US268&q=table+manners&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=6WHCSp-ZI5DSlAfVur38AQ&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4#

How to Approach US's Wars

Excellent analysis...Here are some key points I liked...

*The counterinsurgency campaign proposed in Gen. Stanely McChrystal's strategic assessment will prolong the war for an additional five to 10 years.

*Instead of fighting an endless hot war in a vain effort to eliminate the jihadist threat, the US should wage a cold war to keep the threat at bay. Such a strategy worked before. It can work again.

*The Long War is a losing proposition; it will break the bank and break the force

*Devising a new course requires accurately identifying the problem, which is not "terrorism" and, despite Washington's current obsession with the place, is certainly not Afghanistan.

*The essential problem is a dispute about God's relationship to politics. The propostion that the two occupy seperate spheres finds particular favor among the democracies of the liberal, developed West. The proposition that God permeates politics finds particular favor in the Islamic world.

*At its root, this is an arguement about what it means to be modern. Power, no matter how imaginatively or ruthlessly wielded, cannot provide a solution.

*In confronting this conflict, the goal of US national security strategy ought to be limited but specific: to insulate Americans from the fallout.

*The strategy should emphasize three principles: decapitate, contain, and compete.

*Decapitation - targeting leaders for elimination - provides the means to suppress immediate threats to our safety. It won't eliminate the threat - Hamas and Hezbollah have survived the Israeli government's targeted assassination campaign - but it can reduce it to manageable levels.

Let's Beat the Extremists Like We Beat the Soviets
by Andrew Bacevich
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/25/AR2009092502011.html

Quote of the Day: On Being Rich

"The man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest."

-Henry David Thoreau

(Obviously, Thoreau never had a chance to try Balik Salmon...)

Stickers on Fruit

*How to decode the information on the stickers
http://www.earthyfamily.com/A-GMO.htm

*Laser labeling coming soon to fruits and veggies
http://www.slashfood.com/2009/09/11/laser-labeling-coming-soon-to-fruits-vegetables/4

*How to wash fruits and vegetables (interestingly, this article says that the stickers on fruits/veggies are edible, although some think otherwise...)
http://www.wikihow.com/Wash-Fruit-and-Vegetables

Are You Too Smart to Be Rich?

Economist Jay Zagorsky ran a study to determine whether brains translate into riches. His conclusion? "Intelligence is not a factor for explaining wealth. Those with low intelligence should not believe they are handicapped, and those with high intelligence should not believe they have an advantage." ... In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell explored example after example of how the successful became so. He concluded that "once someone has reached an IQ of somewhere around 120, having additional IQ points doesn't seem to translate into any measurable real-world advantage." It wasn't excess brains alone that sunk Long Term Capital Management, Enron, and the rest of the Wall Streeters. It was excess arrogance about those excess brains -- believing that because they were smart, they could do no wrong and anyone who questioned them just didn't get it.

Are You Too Smart to Be Rich
by Anand Chokkavelu
http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2009/09/28/are-you-too-smart-to-be-rich.aspx

Dealing With Iran & Afghanistan

"On pure logic, history or politics aside, the best course is to strike Iran and withdraw from Afghanistan."

http://www.stratfor.com:80/weekly/20090928_obamas_move_iran_and_afghanistan?utm_source=GWeeklyS&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=090928&utm_content=readmore

Tracing the Origins of Human Empathy

"Compassion and charity has deep roots in the origin of our species...Recent biomedical studies show that our brains are built to feel another's pain. Like tuning forks, we reflexively repsond to others' moods. We can weep at the plight of people we have never met or, spellbound by fiction, become cuaght up in the lives of people who never existed. Indeed, we may be hardwired for empathy...Most people can't help but yawn reflexively when someone else starts doing it first. No one knowsy why, but researchers recently learned that people better able to identify with anothers' state of mind also yawn more readily in response to others. Children with autism - a condition characterized by an inability to interact socially - don't catch yawns...But monkeys do. Chimpanzees will yawn when shown a computer animation of another monkey yawning."

Tracing The Origins of Human Empathy
by Robert Lee Hotz
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125382470366238705.html

Markup Hell

How does the Senate finance committee get through 564 amendments? Click the link...

Markup Hell
by Christophe Beam
http://www.slate.com/id/2229520/

Why Did Russians Get So Good at Chess?

"Because the Soviets subsidized the game. Chess has long been popular in Russia—Czar Ivan IV is thought to have died while playing a match in 1584. After the Bolsheviks took power in 1917, it became a national pastime. Soon after the revolution, Vladimir Lenin's supreme commander of the Soviet army, Nikolay Krylenko, laid the foundations for state-sponsored chess: He opened chess schools, hosted tournaments, and promoted the game as a vehicle for international dominance."

Red Squares
by Christopher Beam
http://www.slate.com/id/2229515/

Why Does Iran Need So Many Centrifuges?

"Because each one is so small. A centrifuge for enriching uranium consists of a thin vacuum tube with a rotor inside that spins around at tens of thousands of rpm. When uranium gas enters the tube and whips around at high speeds, the useful U-235 isotopes get separated out from their heavier cousins, the U-238 isotopes. The speed of the rotor determines how effectively a centrifuge can enrich uranium, and a rotor's maximum speed depends in part on the dimensions of the centrifuge. Since it's hard to maintain a balanced spin in a long tube, engineers have to keep the devices to less than a few meters in length. That means they can enrich only a few grams of material at a time."

Why Does Iran Need So Many Centrifuges
by Daniel Engber
http://www.slate.com/id/2229769/

The Richer You Are The More Likely Your On a Diet

http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/86/7/1005?ijkey=fcc86dbf3f0bb00d29480b1266ed0f3f779da09a&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha

Does Poverty Make People Fat or Vice Versa?

"As a matter of public health, it might be more important to help poor people than fat people. According to epidemiologist Peter Muennig, the relative risk of mortality for being obese is between 1 and 2. That means that, controlling for other factors, someone who's really fat is up to twice as likely to die early as someone whose body mass index is in the normal range. But if you compare people from the top and bottom of the wage scale (with everything else held constant), the risk ratio goes up to about 3.5. In other words, it's much better for your health to be rich and fat than poor and thin."

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Big Fat Asses
by Daniel Engber
http://www.slate.com/id/2229523/

The Evolution of Overconfidence

"How can such a condition have evolved when overconfidence can lead to destruction of communities and catastrophic loss of life? That's a mystery that many experimental psychologists have wrestled with, but now Johnson and Fowler say they have the answer. By creating a mathematical model of the way overconfident individuals compete against ordinary individuals, they show that there is a clear advantage in overconfidence. In fact, if the potential reward is at least twice as great as the cost of competing, then overconfidence is the best strategy. In fact, overconfidence is actually advantageous on average, because it boosts ambition, resolve, morale, and persistence. In other words, overconfidence is the best way to maximize benefits over costs when risks are uncertain."

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24162/

Vote for the Idea That Will Help the Most People

I wonder if one can vote for population reduction...

http://www.project10tothe100.com/vote.html

What Can $20 Get You?

http://kottke.org/09/09/what-a-well-placed-20-gets-you

Will Sanctions on Iran Work?

"Research on the effect of sanctions is difficult to assess, but some scholars conclude that sanctions work about half the time. They are most effective when applied over a long period of time on small countries that are dependent on the outside world. Iran is a big country with oil, and it can build centrifuges faster than the international community can impose sanctions."

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/09/will-sanctions-work-against-iran.html#more

*NYTimes Blog on Iran Sanctions
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/can-sanctions-work-against-iran/

Video: The End of Training Wheels?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbfe2_2DDc0&feature=player_embedded#t=13

How to Start a Non-Profit Organization

http://money.howstuffworks.com/economics/volunteer/information/start-a-non-profit-organization.htm