God vs. Satan: Who Killed More People in the Bible?

http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/hprajani/phun/god-v-satan.png

What American Accent Do You Have

I have a "midland" accent - the type that newscasters try to immitate. I always tell foreigners that "midland" is the most "normal" accent in America.

http://www.youthink.com/quiz.asp?action=take&quiz_id=9827

You Park Like An Asshole

Site where people can post pictures of people parking like assholes.

http://www.youparklikeanasshole.com/

Care of Employees = Key to Business

Nothing can be more true. If you want productive workers, treat them well. The extra perks, compliments, and care will make up for all the problems and hassles of constant turnover and disgruntled workers...

"He also believed that taking care of employees was the best way to guarantee that they'd give good service to customers, which remains the company's (Marriott) guiding principal to this day."

-From a 6/30/07 article in the Washington Post Magazine on the Marriott family.

Health = Wealth

Don't forget that good health is true wealth. Health is practically immeasurable financially. It is extremely hard to put a price on health. So if you are still alive and still in relatively good health, you are as rich as a billionaire.

After all, what would you rather be, a poor person in good health or a billionaire in poor health? I bet most people would choose poor.

Clearest Ocean Water on Earth

I always wonder which location on Earth has the clearest water. I'm always struck by the beauty of the Carribbean, but perhaps I need to take a trip to the interiors of the Pacific...

"At the clearest point of the south-east Pacific, near to Easter Island, Tedetti found that UV rays could penetrate more than 100 metres below the surface."

http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12162-found-the-clearest-ocean-waters-on-earth.html

Lunch with Buffet Worth $650,100?

Yes, when you have over $600 million in investments and it is going to a good cause...

"To the extent societal rules or the wiring of your brains make it easy to acquire a lot of assets, then to the extent you can, you should try to improve the world."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070630/us_nm/buffett_lunch_dc

Brain Scan Reveals Why Medidation Works

"Brain scans show that putting negative emotions into words calms the brain's emotion center. That could explain meditation’s purported emotional benefits, because people who meditate often label their negative emotions in an effort to 'let them go.'"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070630/sc_livescience/brainscansrevealwhymeditationworks

YouTube Japan

Which country's YouTube has wackier vids? For foodies, YouTube Japan is heaven...

Check out this unique display of Japanese icecream
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=jJvJPBzdeG0


http://jp.youtube.com/

Eat Me Business Cards

"Japan leads he world in bad-ass novelty business cards."

"For people looking to liven up the formal rigamarole surrounding the exchange of business cards in Japan, Arigatou Co., Ltd., a company specializing in the sale of laser-etched food products, offers “Taberu Me” edible business cards printed on peanuts."

Taberu me: Peanuts as Business Cards
http://www.pinktentacle.com/2007/06/taberu-me-peanuts-as-business-cards/

Age of Refinement, Not Revolution

Tenner's great wave theory says that radical innovations come in 30-year cycles. There was one 1885-1915 and from 1945-1975. So in theory, we are at the cusp of the next great wave...

"The persistent techno-hype of this era, however, maska a simple observation: We don't live in particularly inventive or transformative times. This has been an age of scientific refinement, not revolution...As British historian David Edgerton notes in his new book, "The Shcok of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900," much of the basic technology we rely on today was introduced many decades ago, although improved upon in multiple ways since then....Computers, vaccines and antibiotics, nuclear weapons, birth-control pills, television, cell phones - all are the product of early- to mid-20th-century innovation and development. Edward Tenner, the author of "Why Things Bite Back," about the unintended condequences of technology, argues that truly radical innovation has occurred in roughly 30-year cycles - and that our own era isn't one of the radical waves. "

The iPhone As Crowning Achievement? Um, Hel-lo?
by Paul Farhi
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/28/AR2007062802297.html

World Stats Clock

I was wondering if the stat titled "Earth's Temp" - which is creeping up ever so slowly - is measuring real-time temp. or is just programmed to increase at a certain rate...

"This site has stats collected from all over the world, showing population, prison growth, births, US illegal immigrations, divorces, species extinct, forests lost, barrels of oil, and LOADS more, including in depth death stats."

http://www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock.swf

The World Map of Social Networks

I wonder why Mixi was left out of Japan...and man, look at that mega-gap in Africa...

http://valleywag.com/tech/data-junkie/the-world-map-of-social-networks-273201.php

Bike Helmets for Fools?

"His findings, published in the March 2007 issue of Accident Analysis & Prevention, state that when Walker wore a helmet drivers typically drove an average of 3.35 inches closer to his bike than when his noggin wasn't covered. But, if he wore a wig of long, brown locks—appearing to be a woman from behind—he was granted 2.2 inches more room to ride...The implication, Walker says, is that any protection helmets give is canceled out by other mechanisms, such as riders possibly taking more risks and/or changes in how other road users behave towards cyclists."

Strange But True: Helmets Attract Cars to Cyclists
by Nikhil Swaminathan
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa029&articleID=778EF0AB-E7F2-99DF-3594A60E4D9A76B2

100 Straight Days of Sex

Seems to me that 100 straight days of sex would make me even more tired on my wifey...

"Sex is the second basic instinct after survival, that's how important it is."

Finding Love Again With 100 Days of Sex
by Nick Hazell
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3233072&page=1

Facts or Ideas

What is more important: facts or ideas? Or are they equal?

Do You Eat the Best Things First?

Not sure if I agree with this assessment. I do believe that one can be socialized into specific eating patterns, but does that mean that most people are socialized into eating patterns. Do people in families have similar eating patterns? Do those who save the best food for last also save other best things for last?

MR's Alex Tabarrok wrote:

"Do you eat the best thing first or save the best for last? Most people fall into one of these two categories and according to Brian Wansink's Mindless Eating there is a simple economic explanation. The people who eat the best thing first tend to have grown up as younger children from large families. The people who save the best for last are more often first borns."

Americans Spent $15 Billion on Bottled Water

The psychology of bottled water. I agree with the fact that what we really buy is the bottle, not the actual water. It is kind of like vodka (which does an amazing job, along with wine) to provoke interest with colorful labels and cool bottle designs...Of course, we are also buying convenience.

"Americans spent more money last year on bottled water than on ipods or movie tickets: $15 Billion. A journey into the economics--and psychology--of an unlikely business boom. And what it says about our culture of indulgence...At Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFMI), the upscale emporium of the organic and exotic, bottled water is the number-one item by units sold...We've come to pay good money--two or three or four times the cost of gasoline--for a product we have always gotten, and can still get, for free, from taps in our homes."

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/117/features-message-in-a-bottle.html

Price of a Gram of Coke Around the World

"The street price of cocaine varies hugely across the world. No surprise that it is cheapest in Colombia, the world's biggest producer of coca: at $2, a gram costs less than a Big Mac. Geography is an obvious price factor. The farther away a country from the main producers in South and Central America, and the more isolated it is, the higher the cost to traffick there. In far-flung New Zealand, a gram costs a wallet-busting $714.30."

http://economist.com/daily/chartgallery/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9414607

How Many People Have Ever Lived On Earth

106,456,367,669 (Estimate as of 2002)

How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth
by Carl Haub
http://www.prb.org/Articles/2002/HowManyPeopleHaveEverLivedonEarth.aspx

Hypochondriacs Unite

According to WebMD, the top 20 searched medical conditions are (I'm suprised no STI's are on the list...):

*Diabetes
*Shingles
*Gout
*Heart Disease
*Prostate Cancer
*Male Pattern Baldness
*Asthma
*Stroke
*Hearburn/GERD
*Bipolar Disorder
*Insomnia
*Tension headaches
*Strep Throat
*Kidney Stones
*Hernia
*Hemorroids
*Heart Attack
*Back Pain
*Pneumonia
*Flu

WebMD's symtom checker--
http://symptoms.webmd.com/

Bigspy

Check out streaming hot news at Digg Labs --
http://labs.digg.com/bigspy/

This is also a cool link to see popular tags on del.icio.us --
http://del.icio.us/tag/ (popularity by size)

25 Sites We Can't Live Without (And Other Good Recommendations)

It is important to find the best sites on the web because they will save you time and money, two very important things.

*Amazon (Overstock.com)
*BBC
*Citysearch (Yelp!, Attendio)
*Craiglist (Oodle)
*Del.icio.us
*Digg
*Ebay
*Facebook
*Factcheck.org
*Flickr (Shutterfly, KodakEasyShare)
*Google
*HowStuffWorks
*The Internet Movie Database (Rotten Tomatoes)
*iTunes
*Kayak (TripAdvisor)
*National Geographic
*Netflix
*Simple Weather
*Technorati (Blogstorm, Sphere)
*TMZ
*USA.gov
*TelevisionWithoutPity.com
*WebMD
*Wikipedia
*Yahoo

25 Sites We Can't Live Without
by Maryanne Murray Buechner
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1636920,00.html

Rube Goldberg Machine At Its Best

This video kept me on the edge of my seat in anticipation of the "end game."

http://baynhamtyers.com/index.html?http://baynhamtyers.com/Services/Business_Image/image_viral_frameset.html?http://baynhamtyers.com/contraptionII.html

Why America Doesn't Have Electronic Medical Records

Surely the day will come, but why hasn't it already?

Cowen suggests:

1. Most of the benefits are reaped by the patient, and in the long run. Today's suppliers don't realize these benefits in the form of profits.

2. The United States has relatively weak data protection laws. Many people don't want outsiders to know their medical history, and information compilers fear lawsuits if the information leaks out or is hacked.

3. No single provider has an incentive to move first in this game. Why computerize if no one else has?

4. I haven't computerized my office (is Alex laughing?), I worry more about surviving until the next day.


http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/06/why-doesnt-amer.html

Being a Baby

I sometimes wonder how I felt when I was a baby. What was I thinking? What did I care about? What did I observe? What did I like? What did I dislike? Was life really carefree?

"Gopnik argues that babies are not only conscious, they are more conscious than adults...So what is it like to be a baby? According to Gopnik, it's something like attending to everything at once: There's much less of the reflexive and ignored, the non-conscious, the automatic and expert. She suggests that the closest approximation adults typically get to baby-like experience is when they are in completely novel environments, such as very different cultures, where everything is new."

http://schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/2007/06/are-babies-more-conscious-than-adults.html

Why Humans and Their Fur Parted Ways

Pubic hair is the mystery...

"One of the most distinctive evolutionary changes as humans parted company from their fellow apes was their loss of body hair. But why and when human body hair disappeared, together with the matter of when people first started to wear clothes, are questions that have long lain beyond the reach of archaeology and paleontology.

"Ingenious solutions to both issues have now been proposed, independently, by two research groups analyzing changes in DNA. The result, if the dates are accurate, is something of an embarrassment. It implies we were naked for more than a million years before we started wearing clothes.

"Humans lost their body hair, they say, to free themselves of external parasites that infest fur -- blood-sucking lice, fleas and ticks and the diseases they spread. Once hairlessness had evolved through natural selection, Dr. Pagel and Dr. Bodmer suggest, it then became subject to sexual selection, the development of features in one sex that appeal to the other. Among the newly furless humans, bare skin would have served, like the peacock's tail, as a signal of fitness."

Why Humans and Their Fur Parted Ways
by Nicholas Wade
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9C03E0DE1030F93AA2575BC0A9659C8B63

Degree Not Required

A list of hundreds of careers which combine a decent salary, a good job growth rate, and a relatively low requirement for a four-year college degree...

Only 0.6% of crane operators have a college degree. As long as they can understand how to operate heavy machinery, I don't mind one bit...

http://www.citytowninfo.com/studies/best-careers-degree-not-required.html

Need for Speed

I understand why South Dakota has the slowest download speeds in the US, but why does Rhode Island have the fastest?

"The median U.S. download speed now is 1.97 megabits per second — a fraction of the 61 megabits per second enjoyed by consumers in Japan, says the report released Monday. Other speedy countries include South Korea (median 45 megabits), France (17 megabits) and Canada (7 megabits)."

US Net Access Not All That Speedy
by Leslie Cauley
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2007-06-25-net-speeds_N.htm

Elliot Wave Principle & Investing

Add a little spice to your technical analysis:

"...Because man is subject to rhythmical procedure, calculations having to do with his activities can be projected far into the future with a justification and certainty heretofore unattainable..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_wave_principle

Mythbuster Myth Results

Instead of watching days and days of useful Mythbuster episodes, just spend a few minutes/hours reading the final results...

http://mythbustersresults.com/

American Class Divisions: Myspace vs. Facebook

"The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes, or other 'good' kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college. They are part of what we'd call hegemonic society. They are primarily white, but not exclusively. They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities.

"MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, 'burnouts,' 'alternative kids,' 'art fags,' punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn't play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn't go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school. These are the teens who plan to go into the military immediately after schools. Teens who are really into music or in a band are also on MySpace. MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracized at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers."

http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html

Why Fat America? Politics.

"The USDA grossly underfunds the healthiest foods while pouring billions into a farm bill that supports many of the foods its dietary recommendations warn against."

Why Americans Keep Getting Fatter
by Scott Kahan
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/53792

Firstborn Children = Cleverest

A lot of the explanations given for this can be shot down fairly easily, which makes me wonder if something biological is also going on...

"Firstborn children score significantly higher in IQ tests than their younger siblings, according to a large study of 250,000 military draftees in Norway. The researchers say the difference is due to social, not biological, factors, as younger siblings have higher IQs if they are raised as an eldest child following the death of an older brother or sister. The findings could suggest better ways of parenting the youngest children in a family. Sulloway explains that older siblings might have a higher IQ because they act as surrogate parents from time to time, tutoring their younger siblings in certain situations. Another possible explanation is that parents have more time and resources to invest in their firstborn child. As a result of this, the eldest child usually has the most one-on-one time with its parents, and receives greater exposure to their sophisticated vocabulary."

Firstborn Children Are The Cleverest
by Roxanne Khamsi

Guys Look at Faces; Women, Crotch

When humans look at pictures of naked humans, men tend to look at the face before the crotch area. Women tend to look at the crotch area first...

"There are biological and evolutionary reasons for what they found. Women can tell by looking at naked men whether the guys are in the mood, Wallen said, but women's bodies don't reveal much. Which is why men home in on their faces. It's cryptic, but facial expression is one way of showing an indication of interest in and enjoyment of sex, Wallen said."

Study Finds Guys Not So Naughty, Gals Not So Noble
by Bill Hendrick
http://www.ajc.com/search/content/health/stories/2007/06/19/0620LVsexes.html

Connecting the Universe - Information

Modern human life is a struggle of information. With billions of words, facts, ideas, and opinions floating around via humans, books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, radio, TV, Internet, etc...life can get pretty confusing. There is a huge market for people who can collect, interperet, and disseminate information in a timely and readable manner. In fact, that may be the most important skill in the future of science, business, and many other fields.

Once you've mastered that skill, there is the harder step. That step is tying everything together. Can everything in the world even be tied together? If so, how does one do that? I've never seen anyone do it, but I do think that it may be possible to condense the totality of the universe into a readable book...well, I'd at least be happy to pay to see that done.

The Importance of Definitions

Definitions define an arguement. Before one starts arguing, it is important that the same definitions are being used. I would say that most arguements are meaningless merely because one is arguing about definitions without really knowing that one is arguing about definitions. I would say that 90% of arguements would not take place if people were using the same definitions. So whip out that dictionary. http://dictionary.reference.com/

Of course, facts make up another part of arguements. Facts will support an arguement and help make the case. The problem is finding "objective facts." After all, a lot of "facts" are "created" in a hasty or even faulty manner. In today's Information Age, the true genius is the one who can cull through information and determine what is "true fact," or "best fact."

Wealth Creation vs. Wealth Redistribution

Tyler Cowen put in nicely:

"We don't take steps to redress inequalities of looks, friends, or sex life. We don't grab a kidney from you to save someone's life, even though that health difference was unfair brute luck. Redistribution of wealth has some role in maintaining a stable democracy and preventing starvation. But the power of wealth redistribution to produce net value is quite limited. The power of wealth creation to produce net value is extraordinary. Most of America's poor are already among the best-off of all humans in world history. We should be putting our resources, including our advocacy and our intellectual resources, into wealth creation as much as we can."

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/06/what_i_believe.html

What Strippers Can Teach About Sales & Marketing

Most often, "adult industries" do an amazing job of marketing. Perhaps it is partly because things like sex and alcohol sell themselves, and partly because it is a competitive business (creating a need for aggressive "survival" creativity). Here are a few lessons a stripper can teach...

http://www.wisecamel.com/2007/06/20/10-sales-and-marketing-tips-i-learned-from-strippers/

The 50 Who Matter Now

Business 2.0 has compiled its second annual listing of people, products, trends, and ideas that are transforming the world of business...

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/biz2/0706/gallery.50whomatter.biz2/index.html

Living vs. Existing

This article made me question whether I am living or merely "exisiting." In this case, I do not think it is a matter of semantics...

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/06/39-ways-to-live-and-not-merely-exist.html

An Earth Without People

"I raise the question, Wouldn’t it be a sad loss if humanity was extirpated from the planet? ... A new way to examine humanity's impact on the environment is to consider how the world would fare if all the people disappeared..."

An Earth Without People
by Steve Mirsky
http://scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa013&articleID=2691D716-E7F2-99DF-38F54EF6075AAB4D&pageNumber=1&catID=2

Wall Street Journal Blog

"The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country."

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/

Marc Andreeson Blog

Marc is best-known as co-founder of Netscape Communications Corp. He is also an investor in social news website Digg.

http://blog.pmarca.com/

Why Don't We Have Real Chinese Food in the US?

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/06/why_dont_we_hav.html

Tipping Economics

Ever felt rushed out the door at a restaurant or hair cuttery? Here may be why:

"The larger the bill, the smaller the tip percentage that food servers, hair stylists and cab drivers receive, according to Washington University in St. Louis research. So five individual bills of $25 would bring in more tips than one bill for $125."

Bizarre Japanese Drinks

I've never seen a country with "stranger" ideas (put into practice)...

1. Pepsi Ice Cucumber
2. Hot Calpis
3. Coolpis
4. Mother's Milk
5. Black Vinegar Juice Bar
6. Water Salad
7. Diet Water
8. Final Fantasy Potion
9. Canned Coffee
10. Kidsbeer

http://inventorspot.com/ten_bizarre_japanese_soft_drinks

Map: Nations Who Have Not Adopted The Metric System

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Metric_system.png

*US
*Liberia
*Myanmar

As someone pointed out:

"I'm not suprised about Liberia, since it was a drop off point for freed Afro-American slaves. They're the African country most close to the US."

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/usmetric.html
"Proponents of the metric system in the U.S. often claim that "the United States, Liberia, and Burma (or Myanmar) are the only countries that have not adopted the metric system." This statement is not correct with respect to the U.S., and probably it isn't correct with respect to Liberia and Burma, either. The U.S. adopted the metric system in 1866. What the U.S. has failed to do is to restrict or prohibit the use of traditional units in areas touching the ordinary citizen: construction, real estate transactions, retail trade, and education. The U.S. has not made the crucial transition from "soft metric" to "hard metric", so that "1 pint (473 mL)" becomes "500 mL (1.057 pint)", with the traditional equivalent fading into smaller type sizes and finally disappearing."

Priciest City In The World?

If you think London, New York, or Tokyo is the priciest city in the world, think again.

"Moscow is the world's most expensive city for the second year in a row, thanks to an appreciating ruble and rising housing costs, a new survey reports. "

"The survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting ranked 143 cities around the world, measuring the comparative cost of more than 200 areas such as housing, transportation and food. The findings are designed to help multinational employers determine compensation for their expatriate workers."

1. Moscow
2. London
3. South Korea
4. Tokyo
5. Hong Kong

Moscow Ranks as World's Priciest City
by Jackie Farwell
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070618/ap_on_bi_ge/world_s_expensive_cities

Mercer Human Resource Consulting: Cost of Living Survey - Worldwide Ranking 2007
http://www.mercerhr.com/knowledgecenter/reportsummary.jhtml/dynamic/idContent/1095320;jsessionid=GVEQIE5XHJZT2CTGOUGCHPQKMZ0QUJLW

The Science Behind Prediction Markets

"How can we know what's going to happen if we can't even know what's happening now?

Here's how: We can ask the market. "

The Science Behind PPX
by Michael Moyer
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/technology/ea97f2a9d5123110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

*http://www.intrade.com/ (Intrade)
*http://www.biz.uiowa.edu/iem/ (Iowa Electronic Markets)
*http://news.us.newsfutures.com/ (News Futures)
*http://www.casualobserver.net/ (Casual Observer, which is changing to PredictionXChange)

The Problem With Congress

"...Critics deride such directed funding [earmarks] as 'pork barrel spending' - but no Member of Congres ever lost an election by bringing home federal funding..."

-CQToday - June 18, 2007

Happiness - Ultimate Goal? Natural?

Interesting discussion by Robert Bass, Department of Philosophy, Coastal Carolina University

http://personal.bgsu.edu/~roberth/happiness.html

The Happiness Project

Interesting idea...which leads me back to the question - is happiness a goal that humans should strive towards?

"I'm working on a book, THE HAPPINESS PROJECT--a memoir about the year I spent test-driving every principle, tip, theory, and scientific study I could find, whether from Aristotle or St. Therese or Martin Seligman or Oprah. THE HAPPINESS PROJECT will gather these rules for living and report on what works and what doesn’t. On this daily blog, I recount some of my adventures and insights as I grapple with the challenge of being happier."

http://www.happinessproject.typepad.com/

The 10 Most Common Photographic Mistakes

http://www.aguntherphotography.com/the-ten-most-common-photographic-mistakes.html

The Roots of Protectionism

"The fundamental explanation is much simpler: policy is becoming more protectionist because the public is becoming more protectionist, and the public is becoming more protectionist because incomes are stagnating or falling. The integration of the world economy has boosted productivity and wealth creation in the US and much of the rest of the world. But within many countries, and certainly within the US, the benefits of this integration have been unevenly distributed -- and this fact is increasingly being recognized. Individuals are asking themselves, "Is globalization good for me?" and, in a growing number of cases, arriving at the conclusion that it is not."

A New Deal for Globalization
by Kenneth F. Scheve & Matthew J. Slaughter
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070701faessay86403-p10/kenneth-f-scheve-matthew-j-slaughter/a-new-deal-for-globalization.html

Americans & Food Prices

"Americans have been relatively fortunate when it comes to food prices, spending only about 10% of disposable personal income on food. That expense was more than 20 percent is 1951, according to the US Department of Agriculture."

Ethanol-Driven Demand Felt Across the Market
by Michael S. Rosenwald

Interracial Lovin'

The overall percentage of interrracial marriage in the US is 7.5% (it was just 1.9% in 1970). When looking at the starts comparing Black, White, Asian, Hispanic marriages, I find two things interesting:

1. White women are about twice as likely to be married to a black man as white men are to be married to a black women.

2. For every 100 married Asian women in the US, 33.7% married a white guy and for every 100 married Asian men in the US, 25.8% married a white women (2005 stats).

The Asian women / White male marriage ratio is the highest of all the figures...

(Data adapted from Michael J. Rosenfeld's "The Age of Independence: Interracial Unions, Same-Sex Unions and the Changing American Families.")

40% Waste

"The Department of Energy estimates that in the average home, 40 percent of all electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/technology/14basics.html?ex=1339473600&en=09f3f4ee316d0508&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Suprising Food Fact

"Hunter-gatherers in the Australian outback today live on 800 varieties of plant foods. Modern Americans live principally on three: corn, soy and wheat."

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/ART02837

100 Trillion Words on the Net

"Peter Norvig, the director of research at Google, gave an interesting speech about the meaning and power of all of the data that Google is collecting. I was floored by a fact he threw out. His educated guess is that the Internet is the repository of more than 100 trillion words. After the speech, I asked him how much it is growing. He said that it is growing about 10 percent to 20 percent a month. Some parts of it, however, are dying, so the net growth rate is less than that."

A 100 Trillion Words on the Internet; An Afternoon at Google Developer Day
by Dean Takahashi
http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/takahashi/2007/05/31/a-100-trillion-words-on-the-internet-an-afternoon-at-google-developer-day/

Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED)

Hear geniuses speak about cool topics for free...

http://www.ted.com/

1 in 5 Have Internet

"There are more than 1.1 billion of the world's estimated 6.6 billion people online and almost a third of them are now accessing the internet on high-speed lines. According to the internet consultancy Point Topic..."

China overtaking US for fast internet access as Africa gets left behind
by Richard Wray
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2102652,00.html

50 Best Business Blogs

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article1923706.ece

Currency Unions & A Single Global Currency

"...Among the more important of these conditions is the requirement that the individual member countries have similar economic structures, since the more similar were those economies, the less vulnerable would they be to being hit by asymmetric external shocks..."

"...Within the constraints of a currency union, the euro's Mediterranean countries can no longer resort to currency devaluation to restore competitiveness. Nor can they use interest rate policy to stimulate domestic demand. Instead, the rules of the currency union require them to endure deflation or to increase productivity as the only means of restoring their eroded competitiveness..."

http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.26346/pub_detail.asp

How Google Earth Works

Learn more than you ever wanted to know about Google Earth...

http://www.howstuffworks.com/google-earth.htm

Gravity Bookshelves

http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2007/06/12/gravity_bookshe.html

Democrat, Republican, Indpependent, or Economocrat?

Democrat, Republican. What nasty labels. If you are registered as either one, you are stuck in a grouping. If you are registered as an independent, you have almost no voice (hey, just a fact).

Voting is a distant form of influence. If voting Democrat, Republican, or Independent, you are bound to disagree with some of the voices inside your party. So why not be independent from all that and use your inluence in other ways? After all, voting is only one way to influence.

I go by my new political philosophy called Economocrat (yes, another nasty label). Politics is based on choice, and every choice is based on economics. So all of politics is based on economics (including the economic theory of comparative advantage).

Therefore, I base my decisions (social and financial) on economics, not on the whim of my party or the whim of the books I read and the people I talk to. I base decisions on economic fact.

Now you may ask, isn't that just another party under the independent label? No. Instead of voting in the US (a place where the political system is not very flexible to third parties) one must take a different approach.

One must influence through "creation" or lobbying. That is a much more direct way to influence the political system no matter who is in power. (More later...)

Cool Economics Map

US States Renamed for Countries With Similiar GDPs:

http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/06/10/131-us-states-renamed-for-countries-with-similar-gdps/

Cool Economic Blogs

*Greg Mankiw: http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/
*Tyler Cowen: http://www.marginalrevolution.com/
*Freakonomics Bog: http://www.freakonomics.com/blog/
*New Economist: http://neweconomist.blogs.com/new_economist/

Jumping Into Currency Trading

Common Questions About Currency Trading
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/06/SevenFXFAQs.asp

Foreign Exchange Market
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_exchange_market

Exchange Rate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_rate

Top 6 Most Traded Currencies:

1. US Dollar (USD)
2. Eurozone Euro (EUR)
3. Japanese Yen (JPY)
4. British Pound Sterling (GBP)
5./6. Swiss Franc (CHF)
5./6. Australian Dollar (AUD)

Good Mortgage Calculator

http://www.bankrate.com/gookeyword/mortgage-calculator.asp

Love of Books? Live Load vs. Dead Load

Being a passionate book collector, one needs to always plan bookcase strategy. It just came to my attention that not all houses are built to withstand the weight of a personal library.

Things to Consider (for insurance, disaster, conversation...):

Average Weight of a Book: is 0.306 kg (Hayakawa 2001)
Average Number of Books in a Library: (still researching)
Average Cost per Book: (still researching...my best guess for a new paperback book is $16)
Live Load vs. Dead Load: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_load

# of Books in Different Libraries Around the World:
*Australia Museum Research Library: 70, 000 books
*Presidential Libraries?

News Libraries: Preservation and Disaster Control
http://parklibrary.jomc.unc.edu/disaster.html

The World According to the US (Map)

In following with my love of maps...(notice the site is based in the UK). Usually I find that countries tend to "belittle" those they fear and envy...

http://www.doheth.co.uk/funny/misc/US_World.jpg

Japanese Yen to US Dollar Currency Exchange Rate Forecast

http://www.forecasts.org/yen.htm

Best Countries to be an Entrepreneur

Fortune Small Business Writes:

"One quest for startup-friendly countries began with the World Bank's Doing Business reports (doingbusiness.org) which every year measure the entrepreneurial climate of 175 nations in two ways: starting and operating a business. But the lists give an incomplete picture. France, for example, ranks in the top 10% for east of starting a business and in the top fifth for operating one, but it has notoriously low rates of entrepreneurship. Clearly there was a missing dimension. That brought us to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), an annual study produced by Babson College and the London Business School. (gemconsortium.org)...That gave us what we needed: a glimpse at national rates of high-expectation entrepreneurship - how many American-style entrepreneurs a country produces. Our list (fsb.com/bestcountries) gives equal weighting to the World Bank data and the GEM high-expectation ratings."

Top 10 (according to Fortune)

1. New Zealand
2. US
3. Canada
4. Australia
5. Singapore
6. Hong Kong
7. Britain
8. Ireland
9. Denmark
10. Iceland

Bottom 10 (according to Fortune)

44. Poland
45. Croatia
46. India
47. Jordan
48. Uruguay
49. Ecuador
50. Brazil
51. Philippines
52. Greece
53. Indonesia

Top Internet Sites in US

Following are the top Internet sites in the US by traffic, according to Alexa. Search engines tend to dominate, and networking, video, blogging, news, and shopping sites all have strong rankings.

1. Yahoo
2. Google
3. Myspace
4. Microsoft Network (MSN)
5. YouTube
6. Ebay
7. Facebook
8. Craigslist.org
9. Windows Live
10. Wikipedia
11. Amazon.com
12. AOL
13. Blogger.com
14. Go
15. CNN
16. Microsoft Corporation
17. Comcast.net
18. Megaupload
19. The Internet Movie Database
20. Photobucket
21. Flickr
22. Digg
23. Mapquest
24. Weather.com
25. About
26. New York Times
27. Rapidshare.com
28. Linkedin.com
29. Orkut
30. LiveJournal.com
31. Apple Computer Inc.
32. BBC Newsline Ticker
33. StatCounter.com
34. Adult Friendfinder
35. Digital Point Solutions
36. TypePad
37. CNET.com
38. Official Site of Major League Baseball
39. Wordpress.com
40. CareerBuilder.com
41. USPS
42. Reference.com
43. Passport.net
44. Target
45. Dell
46. Ask
47. Monster.com
48. Earthlink, Inc.
49. Wal-Mart
50. Netflix

Super-Powering Google Searches

Being in the information-overload era, one of the most important skills to have these days is to be a good Googler. A few tweaks in your Google search techniques can save you multiple hours of wasted time and can bring you the best information. After all, information is power.

20 Tips For More Efficient Google Searches
http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/06/20-tips-for-more-efficient-google.html

A Complete List of Google Features:
http://www.google.com/help/features.html

Post Capitalism = Robot Communism?

So far, the world has not seen a perfect economic system. So what will be the next step after market capitalism? I imagine that the world may revert back to communism in a term I would call "robot communism." This communism will look nothing like the communism that we see today.

Robots may be controlling all forms of production and distribution, halting a need for any type of division of labor. Robots will be so "intelligent" that humans will never need to program them again. Everyone will have the goods/services that they want, and the idea of work will cease to exist.

The Economics of Blond Jokes

"If blondes are perceived as more attractive, then being blond may create valuable opportunities that do not require onerous investments in education and training. The dumb blonde stereotype may thus stem from the fact that blondes rationally choose to invest less than others in education and other forms of human capital."

Despite the Dumb Jokes, Stereotypes May Reflect Some Smart Choices
by Robert Frank
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/business/07scene.html?ex=1338868800&en=61614ad8e1e895e5&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Skyscraper Domination

This site allows you to see all the tallest buildings in the world and all the proposed buildings going up. (Click on construction & proposals.) The Middle East appears to be dominating the skyscraper scene...

http://skyscraperpage.com/

Tax Free Powder Beer

"Dutch students have developed powdered alcohol which they say can be sold legally to minors. The latest innovation in inebriation, called Booz2Go, is available in 20-gramme packets that cost 1-1.5 euros ($1.35-$2). Top it up with water and you have a bubbly, lime-colored and -flavored drink with just 3 percent alcohol content."

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSPAR64994620070606

Salaries of Drug Dealers, Sex Shop Workers, Cabbies...

Drug Dealers' Annual Revenue: $1.02 million ($813,600 is profit) with fifteen-hour workweeks and no taxes. Hmmm....

The Profit Calculator
by Michael Idov
http://nymag.com/news/features/2007/profit/?feed=rss

About 90% of Emails = Spam

"Private-sector groups estimate that total daily e-mail traffic is now close to 80 billion, and that spams may be above 90 percent of the total.

"The European-based Spamhaus Project finds the bulk of spams coming from a surprisingly small number of similar sources. Overall, the group believes that about 200 large-scale spam operations account for 80 percent of the dubious medicine, unwanted stock tips, adult entertainment, pirated software, shady bank-loans, and other commercial spams pushed upon the Internet's irritated public."

http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecID=900003&contentID=254343

More Sex Is Safer Sex

Thesis:

If prudes occasionally slept with strangers, it would slow the spread of STDs. Here's how it works. One such prude walks into a bar, and he's uninfected. If he takes home an uninfected woman, great - he distracted her from a potential disease carrier. If he gets herpes, that's also great, because he's sexually conservative and won't pass the infection along very often. Better him than someone with less self control.

Either way, society benefits when the chaste open up slightly. "Slightly" is key, because too much "openness" spreads more disease than it diverts. After studying AIDS in England, Harvard's Michael Kremer put the cutoff at 2.25 partners per year.

More Sex Is Safer Sex
by Steven Landsburg
http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/1416532218/ref=s9_asin_title_2/102-5158012-3381743?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=13KQRTF23V6AH547Z9W1&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=278240701&pf_rd_i=507846

More Sex Is Safer Sex
by Steven Landsburg
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/books/chapters/0708-1st-land.html?ex=1184558400&en=09fff5564cc07afa&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Food Politics of Eels & Crabs

"Japanese and sushi fanciers everywhere are facing the prospects of a slimmer menu. "

http://www.forbes.com/2007/06/04/crab-eel-japan-face-markets-cx_jc_0604autofacescan01.html?partner=faces_newsletter

Michelin Star Insurance

"Top chefs insure their crockery, their wine cellars and the contents of their fridges and freezers. Now they are being offered cover against the greatest trauma of all – the loss of a Michelin star. C&D Assurance, a French insurance company, is promising a €25,000 (£16,960) payout to customers that suffer the humiliation of being down-graded by the world’s most influential guide."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1878765.ece

Bringo - Avoiding Customer Service Hell

Bringo solves one of the most frustrating problems that we encounter daily: phone trees. Call a customer service phone number and end up in automated operator hell.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/15/bringo-phone-tree-killer-this-is-a-genuinely-useful-service/

Forgetfulness is a Tool of the Brain

"A note to the forgetful: be thankful you don’t remember everything. It means your brain is working properly.

"According to a new study, the brain only chooses to remember memories it thinks are most relevant, and actively suppresses those that are similar but less used, helping to lessen the cognitive load and prevent confusion."

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11983&feedId=online-news_rss20

Wine Industry Numbers

*Total US wineries according to the National Association of American Wineries: 4,280

*Number of states with wineries: All 50

http://www.americanwineries.org/newsroom/docs/Press%20Release%20-%202006%20TTB%20numbers%20show%20growth%20in%20wineries.pdf (May 25, 2006)

*Alabama: 8
*Alaska: 7
*Arizona: 20
*Arkansas: 9
*California: 1,867
*Colorado: 66
*Connecticut: 27
*Deleware: 2
*Florida: 45
*Georgia: 21
*Hawaii: 4
*Idaho: 30
*Illinois: 73
*Indiana: 39
*Iowa: 49
*Kansas: 14
*Kentucky: 39
*Louisiana: 7
*Maine: 12
*Maryland: 24
*Massachusetts: 29
*Michigan: 103
*Minnesota: 22
*Mississippi: 4
*Missouri: 75
*Montana: 11
*Nebraska: 15
*Nevada: 4
*New Hampshire: 11
*New Jersey: 38
*New Mexico: 35
*New York: 228
*North Carolina: 64
*North Dakota: 8
*Ohio: 96
*Oklahoma: 36
*Oregon: 266
*Pennsylvania: 112
*Rhode Island: 7
*South Carolina: 8
*South Dakota: 12
*Tennessee: 28
*Texas: 117
*Utah: 7
*Vermont: 10
*Virginia: 122
*Washington: 394
*West Virginia: 17
*Wisconsin: 35
*Wyoming: 2

Fundamental vs. Technical Analysis of Stocks

Simply put, technical analysis trumps fundamental analysis. To me, the chart (and thus, stock price) is the key in determining how to choose a stock. To be sure, I look at both 100% of the time before I choose a stock. It would be foolish not to. And when considering a stock in the very long term, fundamental analysis plays an even more important role. But in short-medium range investing, chart/price is 75% of my decision-making process...

DC Area's Ramen Mystery

Fact: There are no ramen restaurants in the DC area. Yes, there are restaurants that serve ramen, but no real ramen shops.

Approaching it with the economic spectacles, I tend to believe that entrepreneurs would think that ramen is not "cool" or "unique" enough to sell in DC. There is that idea along with the fact that one can't really charge too much for ramen (unless you add gold or something), and the fact that the Japanese population in the DC area is not that large (and it is very transient). Although I think many non-Japanese would keep the ramen shop quite busy (think Vietnamese pho).

For decades? one has been able to buy ramen in grocery stores, and it has the "poor man's" stigma attached to it. There is no glamour involved in ramen. It is not a novelty. It is not fashionable. Perhaps someone can do a makeover and start a pretty happening ramen business in DC...

Why so Many Suicides in Japan?

"There's no single factor, but experts point to a combination of economic woes, poor mental-health resources, lack of religious prohibition, and cultural acceptance of the practice."

Why so Many Suicides in Japan
by Christopher Beam
http://www.slate.com/id/2167295

World Health Organization (WHO) Statistics
http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suiciderates/en/

Maps & World Perception

I'd like to see a picture like this with maps categorized by country/state of origin of the artists...I'd also like to see children/adult renditions of other countries...

http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/60-united-shapes-of-america/

Learn to Swear in any Language

Not all the translations/spellings are perfect, but still quite a nice guide...

http://www.youswear.com/

Gas Price Explanation

Explanation of the three markets: How it is discovered as crude oil, traverses three markets, and is refined from crude into gas.

http://consumerist.com/consumer/features/why-is-gas-so-freakin-expensive-263887.php

Do a Background Check on Yourself

Thanks to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you're entitled to one of each report below per year for free.

http://consumerist.com/consumer/privacy/do-a-background-check-on-yourself-265223.php

Determine Your Social Class

Figure out your position in society by four factors -- education, income, occupation, and wealth.

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/20050515_CLASS_GRAPHIC/index_01.html

(NYTimes Interactive Graphic: How Class Works)

Sex: Whose the "Easiest" Religion?

"Teenagers who identify as 'evangelical' or 'born again' are highly likely to sound like the girl at the bar; 80 percent think sex should be saved for marriage. But thinking is not the same as doing. Evangelical teens are actually more likely to have lost their virginity than either mainline Protestants or Catholics. They tend to lose their virginity at a slightly younger age—16.3, compared with 16.7 for the other two faiths. And they are much more likely to have had three or more sexual partners by age 17.

"Teenagers who signed the abstinence pledge belong to a subgroup of highly motivated virgins. But even they succumb. Follow-up surveys show that at best, pledges delayed premarital sex by 18 months...

"What really matters is not which religion teenagers identify with but how strongly they identify. After controlling for all factors (family satisfaction, popularity, income), religion matters much less than religiosity...

"Here are some general guidelines: Definitely out of the question is an Asian-American who attends church weekly—84 percent of them are virgins. A Mormon is a long shot. They are unlikely to have sex and if they do, they don't tend to repeat the experience. A Catholic or a mainline Protestant teenager is a much better bet than a Jew (around 30 percent of the first two groups have had sex, compared with 17.6 percent for Jews). But a Jew could net a higher reward: Jews are more likely to say sex is pleasurable and more likely to have experienced oral sex."

http://www.slate.com/id/2167293?nav=ais

Even Evangelical Teens Do It
by Hanna Rosin

TV On The Internet is Already Here & Its Free

This site has over 320 TV channels you can watch for free in your browser.

http://www.myeasytv.com/

How Long You Brew Your Tea Matters

"...They found that volunteers who drank tea that had been brewed for five minutes had blood antioxidant levels which were 60% higher than those who consumed a one-minute infusion. Brewing for any longer than five minutes yielded no extra health benefits."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/6698539.stm

Eating Contests

"Joe Chestnut, 22, of San Jose, shattered the record held by Takeru Kobayashi of Japan by downing 59 1/2 "HBDs" — hot dogs and buns — during the Southwest Regional Hot Dog Eating Championship at the Arizona Mills Mall in suburban Tempe."

That means he ate one hot dog (with bun) roughly every 12 seconds for 12 minutes. Although that is absolutely disgusting, I am glad that an American has regained the title from Japan. We are known as pigs and this title helps us prove our point. Keep up the good work Joe.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,277414,00.html

Civilian Tank?

I have never gone tank shopping before, but this seems like something that would be fun to have around. Why buy a front-loader when you can buy a tank? Only $19,999.95. Purchase now because only two left in stock...

http://www.amazon.com/JL421-Badonkadonk-Land-Cruiser-Tank/dp/B00067F1CE/ref=pd_sbs_gf_2/103-9934747-8556602?ie=UTF8&qid=1178207885&sr=1-10

Cool Clock

I'd like to have a 3D version of this...

http://blog.pixelbreaker.com/upload/polarclock/polarclock.html

Jamaican-English

I was wondering how English has mutated on different islands, especially in the Carribbean, where there is often great Creole/French influence. Apparently, in Jamaica, there is Jamaican Creole (known as Patois) and Jamaican English...whatever the nuances are, the idioms are bound to kill you...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_English

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_Creole

Quick Fix for Energy Problems

I'm a big fan of quick fixes for our alleged energy problems. I've read that approximately 40% of energy that the US consumes is now lost as waste heat. Simple things such as replacing light bulbs with more energy-efficient ones, inflating tires to the correct level, key-card access for electricity use, proper insulation in homes and office buildings, etc...would save huge amounts of energy.

We just need the leadership willing to enact these "simple" energy standards. It seems so simple, so how come nothing is being done? The answer: Congressmen (who make our laws) would not get enough praise and support from constituents (i.e., votes).

The whole goal of a Congressmen is to stay in office (i.e., woo the voters). To do so, he/she needs immediate and tangible results. Energy and education policy are usually more long-term goals whose results cannot be seen for years and years.

China Importing Oil Through Toys

Here is something to think about:

"If you've been to the mall lately, you've probably noticed that China is making scads of plastic. As the world's secon-largest plastic producer, it is furiously turning oil and petrochemicals into everything from lobster souvenirs to sneaker soles. By embedding oil in products, China is, in effect, importing oil on behalf of US consumers - as much as 1 million barrels per day."

5 Myths About that $3.18 per gallon
by Lisa Margonelli

Sexual Activity & Shots

Amy of Ask Amy (in WPost on 6/4/07) was asked about the proposed vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV). She responded:

In my mind, the HPV vaccine promotes sexual activity the way the polio vaccine promotes swimming in affected waters.

Well said Amy...

Tax Games

IBM is slick:

"Congratulations to IBM, which has found an ingenious way to boost its share price and doge taxes all at the same time. Here's how it works:

"First, IBM creates a wholly owned subsidiary in the Netherlands and transfers all of its overseas operations to it. Then the new unit borrows $11.5 billion, which it uses, along with an additional $1 billion in cash, to buy $12.5 billion of its own shares from three investment banks that borrowed them from large institutional investors. The buyback has the immediate effect of boosting earning per share by 2 or 3 percent. And when it's time to return the shares, the banks buy them on the open market, with IBM responsible for any price difference.

"But the real genius of this plan is that because it's done through an overseas subsidiary, IBM can use its overseas profit to finance the share buyback - profit that has never been brought back into the US and therefore has never been subject to US taxes..."