10 Blessings of a Battered Economy

My favorite one may be a return to simpler times...

"Americans are starting to take up retro habits that evoke come-together moments from the past. If a car isn't available, some commuters now turn to bikes they can acquire free from Craigslist. Instead of buying new wardrobes from fast-fashion retailers, recessionistas, as they're called, swap clothes with friends or take up knitting. If restaurant meals strain the budget, more families are learning to cook--sometimes with food grown in their own backyards. The new frugality saves money, but it has other upsides. Biking and walking are obviously healthier than driving. Hand-me-downs keep old clothes out of landfills a while longer."

http://biz.yahoo.com/usnews/081126/26_10_blessings_of_a_battered_economy.html?.v=1&.pf=banking-budgeting

How Much do Celebrity Chefs Make Per Year?

Being on a broacast network (vs. cable) and having a nationally syndicated series really helps...

1. Rachael Ray: $18 million
2. Wolfgang Puck: $16 million
3. Gordon Ramsay: $7.5 million
4. Nobu Matsuhisa: $5 million
5. Alain Ducasse: $5 million
6. Mario Batali: $3 million
7. Paula Deen: $4.5 million
8. Tom Colicchio: $2 million
9. Bobby Flay: $1.5 million
10. Anthony Bourdain: $1.5 million

http://www.seriouseats.com/2008/08/top-10-celebrity-chef-earners-salary.html

Fact of the Day: Polygamy

Percent by which men in polygamous cultures live longer than those in monogamous ones: 12%

(Men's Health Magazine; University of Sheffield)

Outsourcing Lawyers

Are lawyers in India competent enough for document review? Probably so, but they can only manage certain tasks. I also imagine that you need a high level lawyer to manage all those Indians, and thus, you probably lose a lot of billable hours...

With Times Tight, Even Lawyers Get Outsourced
by Niraj Sheth and Nathan Koppel
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122765161306957779.html

What's My Tax Bracket?

Marginal Tax Rate vs. Effective Tax Rate

http://www.fool.com/personal-finance/taxes/whats-my-tax-bracket.aspx

Pork & Port

"Today, many would argue that Tràs-os-Montes is the unofficial pork capital of Portugal."

http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/diningtravel/culinarytravel/portugal_montesdouro

How Newspapers Can Survive

"One of the rules of thumb for coping with substitute technology is to narrow your focus to the area that is the least vulnerable to substitution. I still believe that a newspaper's most important product, the product least vulnerable to substitution, is community influence. It gains this influence by being the trusted source for locally produced news, analysis and investigative reporting about public affairs. This influence makes it more attractive to advertisers."

The Elite Newspaper of the Future
by Philip Meyer
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4605

Love & Hate

So is hate more rational?

"One major difference between love and hate appears to be in the fact that large parts of the cerebral cortex – associated with judgement and reasoning – become de-activated during love, whereas only a small area is deactivated in hate."

Scientists Prove It Really Is a Thin Line Between Love and Hate
by Steve Connor
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientists-prove-it-really-is-a-thin-line-between-love-and-hate-976901.html

On Genes

A very thought-provoking article...

"As modern evolutionary biologists increasingly recognize, bodies are our genes' way of projecting themselves into the future. Bodies are temporary, ephemeral, short-lived apparatuses for those genes, which are the only entities that persist over evolutionary time. No matter how much money, time, or effort is lavished on bodies, regardless of how much they are exercised, pampered, or monitored for bad cholesterol, they don't have much of a future. In the scheme of things, they are as ephemeral as a spring day, a flower's petal, a gust of wind. What does persist are genes. Bodies go the way of all flesh: ashes to ashes, and atom to atom. Genes, on the other hand, are potentially immortal."

Who Are We?
by David Barash
http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=4f3dh42qjwzwp984rkqm8jhtl7y33957

Oxford's Top 10 Most Irritating Phrases

The top ten most irritating phrases, according to Oxford University:

1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 - Absolutely
7 - It's a nightmare
8 - Shouldn't of
9 - 24/7
10 - It's not rocket science

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2008-11/19/content_7219735.htm

Fact of the Day: Greenland

"The island, 85 percent of it covered in ice, is six times as big as Germany. The harsh living conditions are extremely demanding on the population of roughly 57,000, of which 89 percent are Inuit. Fishing, mostly of halibut, cod and crabs, is Greenland's main source of revenue. Without generous subsidies from Copenhagen, the government of the former colony would have gone bankrupt long ago. The Danish government injects 3.2 billion Danish kroner (€430 million, or $550 million) into its Arctic outpost each year, or about 50 percent of the budget... Ironically, while the world worries about climate change, global warming is triggering great hopes in Greenland."

Greenland Braces For Independence and Wealth
by Manfred Ertel
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,590078,00.html

Auction House Trickery

"Contrary to what you might expect, press accounts, relying on the information released by the auction houses, don't normally measure a sale's success by comparing an object's hammer price -- the last amount announced by the auctioneer -- with the presale estimate of hammer price. Instead, they almost invariably compare the estimate of hammer price to a figure arrived at by adding hammer price to the commission that the auction house charges the buyer. The result is an apples-to-oranges comparison that makes the sale results look better than they actually are, because they've been inflated by the commission. This approach serves their interest in reporting a successful sale by producing higher totals and reducing the number of works that appear to have sold below their estimate. Yet it doesn't serve the interest of the public in getting an accurate understanding of what really took place."

Making Sales Look Stronger
by Lee Rosenbaum
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122670620372529693.html

Internet Good or Bad for Research?

I tend to agree that Internet searches tend to favor the new and the popular. The key is to make sure to extend your research beyond that.

"Perhaps the greatest boon is the sheer quantity of readily accessible knowledge [on the Internet]. A recent study, however, suggests that despite this cornucopia, the boom in online research may actually have a 'narrowing' effect on scholarship. James Evans, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, analyzed a database of 34 million articles in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, and determined that as more journal issues came online, new papers referenced a relatively smaller pool of articles, which tended to be more recent, at the expense of older and more obscure work. Overall, Evans says, published research has expanded, due to a proliferation of journals, authors, and conferences. But the paper, which appeared in July in the journal Science, concludes that the Internet's influence is to tighten consensus, posing the risk that good ideas may be ignored and lost - the opposite of the Internet's promise."

Group Think
by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/11/23/group_think/?page=full

Are Single New Yorkers Lonlier?

"Given how many New Yorkers live alone—in Manhattan, 25.6 percent of households are married, whereas the national average is 49.7—one would think we’d be at an increased risk for practically all these conditions. But Cacioppo points out that loneliness isn’t about objective matters, like whether we live alone. It’s about subjective matters, like whether we feel alone. Loneliness, it turns out, is relative. Widows are likely to feel better in a community with more widows (Boca Raton, Florida, say) than a community with only a few single elderly women. And singles are likely to feel better in a town with more singles … like New York. It’s true that marriage is still the best demographic predictor of loneliness. But Cacioppo stresses it’s a very loose predictor. People can have satisfying connections in other ways, after all, and people in bad marriages might as well be on their own: Cacioppo’s latest study, based on a sample of 225 people in the Chicago area, shows that those in unhappy marriages are no less lonely than single people, and might even be more so."

Alone Together
by Jennifer Senior
http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Alone+Together&expire=&urlID=32648542&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnymag.com%2Fnews%2Ffeatures%2F52450%2F&partnerID=73272

Some Nasty Matisyahu Beatboxing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDcCmGSR3UY&feature=related

The 15 Most Expensive Paintings in the World

Does a higher price for art mean that it is a better peice of work?

http://stylecrave.com/2008-11-24/the-15-most-expensive-paintings-in-the-world/

Why Are Cars Allowed to go so Fast?

Why does a non-racing car and non-police car need to go over 100mph? First, I imagine that we could cut down on accidents if we made it harder for cars/trucks to go so fast. Second, autos are generally more fuel efficient at lower speeds. Third, I imagine it is cheaper to build a "slower" automobile.

When do Soldiers Face Execution?

"The UCMJ lists 15 offenses that are potentially punishable by death, though the majority of the crimes must be committed during wartime in order to carry the maximum penalty."

When Do Soldiers Face Execution?
by Brendan Koerner
http://www.slate.com/id/2205183/

The Turkey Industrial Complex

How do farmers produce so many birds for Thanksgiving? Read to find the answer...

The Turkey-Industrial Complex
by Nina Shen Rastogi
http://www.slate.com/id/2205329/

On Honking

"This assessment of the horn—that it is not in fact an instrument of safety but something else entirely—has not been refuted. Most honking research has examined the relationship between horn use and aggression. People honk more when it's hot than when it's cold, more on weekdays than on weekends, more if they are male than if they are female, more at beaters than at Benzes, more if they feel they can do so anonymously, and more in the city than in the country."

Honk If You Know Why You're Honking
by Dave Johns
http://www.slate.com/id/2204988/

Why Are Music Reviews so Positive?

"When it comes to a movie, you might actually go see the movie if you read a good review. Therefore the newspaper must be careful not to mislead you too many times and that implies a certain amount of criticism. But even a well-reviewed CD you are unlikely to buy, if only because there are so many CDs out there and there are so many well-defined genre preferences."

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/11/why-are-music-r.html

What Would a Modern Depression Look Like?

One of the major predictions is that we'd watch LOTS of TV because there would be little else to do...hmmm...not bad?

"Unlike the 1930s, when food and clothing were far more expensive, today we spend much of our money on healthcare, child care, and education, and we'd see uncomfortable changes in those parts of our lives...The lines wouldn't be outside soup kitchens but at emergency rooms, and rather than itinerant farmers we could see waves of laid-off office workers leaving homes to foreclosure and heading for areas of the country where there's more work - or just a relative with a free room over the garage. Already hollowed-out manufacturing cities could be all but deserted, and suburban neighborhoods left checkerboarded, with abandoned houses next to overcrowded ones."

Depression 2009: What Would it Look Like?
by Drake Bennett
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/11/16/depression_2009_what_would_it_look_like/?page=full

Olive Oil Standards

"Many nations have standards for olive oil, and its virgin and extra virgin varieties. Extra-virgin olive oil is derived from the first pressing of the olives and has a stronger taste; it is popular to eat with salads or on bread. But U.S. standards haven't been updated since the late 1940s, making it easy for some suppliers to cut corners and quality."

Connecticut Takes on Slippery Olive Oil Standards
by Susan Haigh
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081121/ap_on_re_us/olive_oil_standards

Most Dangerous US Holidays for Driving

1. Thanksgiving
2. Independence Day
3. Memorial Day Weekend
4. Labor Day Weekend
5. New Year's Eve/Day

http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-24765735;_ylc=X3oDMTF1aG9jaGppBF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEX3MDMjcxOTQ4MQRzZWMDZnAtdG9kYXltb2QEc2xrA2RyaXZlZGFuZ2VyLTExLTIwLTA4

Fact of the Day: Toilets

In honor of World Toilet Day today...

Toilet Facts:

*The average person spends three years of their life on the “john”.
*The average person flushes a toilet about 2500 times a year, while using about eight sheets of toilet paper per day.
*On average, a person will use 22 litres of drinkable water every day flushing a toilet.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24670784-2,00.html

Whis is the Drudge Report so Amazing?

"To clarify, my definition of design goes beyond aesthetic qualities and into areas of maintenance, cost, profitability, speed, and purpose. However, I still think that the Drudge Report is an aesthetic masterpiece even though I also consider it ugly."

http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1407-why-the-drudge-report-is-one-of-the-best-designed-sites-on-the-web

Over 100 Blue Chips Now Selling for Under $10

Could this the new indicator of when to buy stocks?

"No, that's not Dalmatians but the number of stocks in the U.S. benchmark S&P 500 index now trading for less than $10 a share. In all, the group makes up the greatest number of sub-$10 stocks in the index in at least 28 years, said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at Standard & Poor's. In fact, Silverblatt said it could be the most in the post-World-War II era, though he cautioned that his data reaches only as far back as 1980."

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/081119/business_us_sp_10bucks.html

Obama Bonds?

"Japanese economists, increasingly concerned that the United States might seek to pay its enormous and growing debt obligations in a weakened US dollar, are looking to the possibility of US Treasuries being issued in yen."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/JK19Dh01.html

Harvard's Endowment Update

"But it does show that even the best, most experienced, and highly regarded long-term investors can get suckered into new-era thinking and make investments that turn out to be highly risky bets."

Harvard's Investment Errors
by Daniel Gross
http://www.slate.com/id/2204827/

Harvard's Assett Allocation
http://www.hmc.harvard.edu/investment_philosophy/policy_portfolio.php

Six Sex Myths Explained by Science

http://www.cracked.com/article_16780_6-sexual-myths-as-explained-by-science.html

The Economics of Spam

"After 26 days, and almost 350 million email messages, only 28 sales resulted," says the research paper. Yet even with this apparently abysmal response rate of less than 0.00001 per cent, the researchers still estimate that the controllers of a network the size of Storm are still bringing in about $7,000 (£4,430) a day or $3.5m (£2.21m) over a year."

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/11/1-response-per.html

Ways to Prevent Your Soda From Going Flat

Basically, prevent air from reaching the liquid and keep the can/bottle cool...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122653426748922535.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal

What is DARPA Up to These Days?

How about a new flying car project!

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/darpas-flying-c.html

Pro Basketball Players Need Resumes?

A great business could be providing pro-athletes with resume building...

"As the NBA season gets under way and the league pulls back the curtain for its brightest stars, a lot of lesser-lights get pink slips. Many of these players look to take their game overseas, where an online résumé is a requirement if you want to land an on-court job."

Cirriculum Vitale
by Elliot Hannon
http://www.slate.com/id/2204182/

A Short History of the Bagel

"But the bagel has endured through the centuries not only because of its heroic legend. It also had the advantage of lasting longer than freshly baked bread because the boiling gave the roll an outer sheen and a crunchy, protective crust."

A Short History of the Bagel
by Joan Nathan
http://www.slate.com/id/2204140/

Can You Get Kicked Out of the G20?

"If the financial crisis pushes No. 20 into a deep recession, does that mean it could get bumped off the next guest list? No. The G-20 happens to include 16 of the world's 20 largest economies, but that's not a criterion for membership. Otherwise, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden would all make the list. In fact, there are no official rules on how to add or drop a country from the group, and the list of participating countries has stayed constant since the G-20's creation in 1999."

Can Your Country Get Kicked Out of the G-20?
by Jacob Leibenluft
http://www.slate.com/id/2204584/

Selling Federal Land to Raise Money?

Check out the excellent map...

"The Federal Government owns more than half of Oregon, Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Alaska and it owns nearly half of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming. [See the map for more.] It is time for a sale. Selling even some western land could raise hundreds of billions of dollars - perhaps trillions of dollars - for the Federal government at a time when the funds are badly needed and no one want to raise taxes. At the same time, a sale of western land would improve the efficiency of land allocation."

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/11/now-is-the-time.html

Is Buying Local Really Helping the Environment?

"Food miles advocates fail to grasp the simple idea that food should be grown where it is most economically advantageous to do so. Relevant advantages consist of various combinations of soil, climate, labor, capital, and other factors. It is possible to grow bananas in Iceland, but Costa Rica really has the better climate for that activity. Transporting food is just one relatively small cost of providing modern consumers with their daily bread, meat, cheese, and veggies. Desrochers and Shimizu argue that concentrating agricultural production in the most favorable regions is the best way to minimize human impacts on the environment."

The Food Miles Mistake
by Ronald Bailey
http://www.reason.com/news/show/129855.html

New President, Different World

What this is basically saying is that the world moves rather quickly while politicians often debate things at at a glacial speed.

"Since 2000, trade has jumped from 26 percent to 32 percent of America's GDP; exports alone, meanwhile, have risen from 25 percent to 34 percent of world GDP. Why? -- Metaphorically, policy debates seem to have been the storms and waves on the surface of the ocean -- flashy and controversial, but less meaningful than the ocean currents flowing beneath. These currents, the main drivers of global integration in this first decade of the 21st century have turned out to be structural trends in communications technology, logistics industries, and demographics."

http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecID=900003&contentID=254829

Super Spy Missions

If we could create super-spies, what would we have them do? Here are some ideas...

The List: Five Real Missions for 007
by Jerome Chen
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4551

Concept of the Day: Risk Free Rate of Return

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk-free_rate

Question of the Day

Why is there mens and womans billiards? Is one sex really better than the other? Why?

How Does The President Call World Leaders?

"He has his people call their people. White House operators are known for being able to get hold of just about anyone. If Bush needs to talk to Tony Blair, his situation room operators get in touch with the staff at 10 Downing Street. They set up a time to chat and patch through the call when that time comes. White House operators have special phone numbers for some world leaders. They might use the cell-phone number of a leader's aide in one place, and call the number for a situation room in another. In some cases, they could go through the main switchboards like everybody else."

"This is Nicolas Sarkazy. Is Sarah Palin Available?"
by Daniel Engber
http://www.slate.com/id/2204245/

Artist of the Week

"A peice by Belgian conceptual artist Jan Fabre at Antwerp's MuHKA conetemporary art museum is challenging the nose as well as the eyes. The installation 'Spring Is on Its Way' consists of onions and potatoes hung from the ceiling in condoms. And the vegetables are, well, spoiling."

Organic Art Spoils the Pleasure of the Patrons
from AP
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/07/AR2008110701074.html

Is a Cyber-Attack an Act of War?

"Most governments consider espionage—the collecting of information about another country—a crime but not a casus belli. So far, no cyber-attack has ever started a war. Compared with the rules of actual warfare—which are recognized by international treaties —the rules of cyber - warfare are murky."

CyberSpace Invaders
by Chrisopher Beam
http://www.slate.com/id/2204123/

How Do You Price a Bottle of Wine?

In general, I assume that you first do some market research - see how good others think the wine is - and then slap a price on. After that, you let supply and demand dictate the price. If it is a limited production or if it was expensive to produce for some reason (elevated grape prices, etc...), you obviously have to charge more.

Question of the Day

This is from the back of a Molson Canadian beer bottle...This is one of the hardest questions yet!

Would you prefer to walk out of the bathroom with your fly down OR toilet paper on your shoe?

I think I'd prefer walking out with my zipper down because then you just look careless. But, if you walk out with TP stuck on a shoe, you look sloppy. I'd rather appear careless than sloppy, I think...

Paddy Power Offers 4-1 Odds That God Exists

"Initially the odds that proof would be found of God's existence were 20-1, and they lengthened to 33-1 when the multi-billion pound atom smasher was shut down temporarily because of a magnetic failure. But interest in the wager has increased greatly following the recent launch of a campaign to have atheist adverts placed on London buses declaring that 'there's probably no God'."

Paddy Power Offers Odds of 4-1 That God Exists
by Martin Beckford
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/3374240/Paddy-Power-offers-odds-of-4-1-that-God-exists.html

The Death of Female Rappers?

Is is just as simple as the fact that they might not sound as good as male rappers? After all, the same phenomenon can happen in sports. If you poll people, I bet much more would rather watch males playing a football game on TV than watch females playing.

"So why has female hip-hop made so few lasting inroads over 30 years? For one thing, what most of the women mentioned above have in common is that their music rebuts and responds to guy-spun gender narratives. One effect of this is to make female rap seem second class, occurring outside the 'real,' 'primary' work of hip-hop canon building, even as it argues for first-class citizenship."

Ladies! I Can't Hear You! No, Really, I Can't Hear You!
by Jonah Weiner
http://www.slate.com/id/2203360/

A Primer on Washington

Quite a refreshingly negative view of DC. If I were writing something bad about DC, I'd be even more harsh. Nevertheless, I'd like to see her positives...

Welcome to Washington
by Marjorie Williams
http://www.slate.com/id/2204096/

"Sin Stocks" in a Recession?

Some say that sex, alcohol, and tobacco are recession proof. But looking at stocks like Rick's Cabaret (RICK), that is certainly not the case (at least when measuring its stock price performance). As Caroline Waxler, author of 'Stocking Up on Sin' says, the more lowbrow the vice, the better it will do. She thinks condom sales will rise in a recession. Also, local casinos will do better than travel destinations such as Las Vegas, she says.

Looking at the Vice Fund (VICEX), however, things are certainly not looking pretty for "vice" stocks at the moment...

Pantone Color Institute

"Twice a year, Pantone holds a closed-door, highly secretive meeting in Europe, where the world's top cultural anthropologists, color psychologists, and designers from the fashion, automotive and other industries share their highly attuned thoughts on color. Their semiannual consensus, one palette for spring and one for fall, is sold in bound copies by the hundreds for $750 a pop to companies ranging from Poterry Barn and Kitchen Aid to Ford."

Purple Reign
by Kristina Zimbalist
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1855343,00.html

Facebook for Spies

In September, the federal government launched A-Space, a highly restricted Facebook-style website that's designed to enourage the sharing of ideas and information among members of the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, and other intelligence services.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_intelligence_community_A-Space

How did the Polls Do?

"While [Nate] Silver never did any of his own polling, he analyzed all the pollsters' findings and spit out every voting model possible. Ultimately, he said Obama would win by 52 percent to 46 percent. In the end, Obama won 52 percent to 46 percent in the popular vote."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl141

Here is another article on polling accuracy:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2008/11/pollsters_get_points_for_accur.asp

Networking Tip

He makes a very valid point...

"It's too late to buy Google stock. You're not going to make much money buying it at its current high price. I think the same attitude should apply when trying to meet new people. If you're a relative no-name trying to build a network it's too late to reach out to Mark Zuckerberg to talk about entrepreneurship. He's too busy, too high profile. If you're an aspiring writer and want to meet other writers, you can't reach out to an author after he's become a New York Times bestseller. Either you won't reach him, or if you do, he'll assume you have an agenda or want something from him."

http://ben.casnocha.com/2008/09/networking-its.html

Here is a link to a post about a similar conclusion he has about dating:
http://ben.casnocha.com/2008/07/to-find-good-pe.html

The iPod Nano Index

I wonder why Argentina has the most expensive iPods and Australia the cheapest...

http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2008/11/03/australia_leads.html

Which Countries Does the NYT Cover?

Nice graphic!

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/11/which-countries.html

The *Real* Presidential Indicators

The 7-Eleven Indicator, the Halloween Mask Indicator, and the Redskins Rule.

http://biz.yahoo.com/cnbc/081104/27534502.html

Are Republicans Better for the Stock Market?

The debate continues...
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/106273/Election-Rally-History-Suggests-Democrats-Better-for-Stocks?tickers=%5Edji,%5Egspc,%5Eixic,DIA,SPY,QQQQ

The Next White House Chef

Speculation is heating up about the next White House Chef. Word has it that Art Smith, Oprah's personnal chef, could get the job if Obama becomes President.

Neuroeconomics

"This was all part of my efforts to understand 'neuroeconomics,' a new, controversial, and eclectic marriage between economics, marketing, and various branches of physiology and brain science. With very different aims, economists and marketers are attempting to tap into the dramatic advances in our understanding of the brain that have taken place over the past 15 years."

Money on the Brain
by Tim Harford
http://www.slate.com/id/2203159/

How to the Amish Vote?

"Unsurprisingly enough, their über-traditional values and anti-government stances make them overwhelmingly Republican, among those Amish who choose to vote. But because they try to remain as separate as possible from modernity, few Amish actually make it to the polling place—in Lancaster in '04, just about 13 percent of the eligible adult population voted."

The Undecided Amish
by Noreen Malone
http://www.slate.com/id/2203700/

Voting From the Hospital

Can you vote if you're terribly sick/injured? Yes, through an emergency absentee ballot...

Voting From the Hospital
by Nina Shen Rastogi
http://www.slate.com/id/2203670/

Priciest US Restaurants

This list was just released by Forbes.

1. Tom: Tuesday Dinner, New York
2. L'Espalier, Boston
3. French Laundry, San Francisco Bay Area
4. Masa, New York
5. Alinea, Chicago
6. Canlis, Seattle
7. Joel Robuchon At The Mansion, Las Vegas
8. Urasawa, Los Angeles
9. Inn at Little Washington, Virginia
10. Antoine's, New Orleans

"Las Vegas ranks as the most costly U.S. city in which to dine out, with an average tab of $44.44. New York City ($40.78) is next in line, followed by Miami ($38.86) and San Francisco ($38.70)."

http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/2008/11/03/restaurants-expensive-dine-forbeslife-cx_pl_1104restaurants.html?partner=yahoobuzz

Tastiest Raw Fish?

Is it crudo, sashimi, ceviche, or tiradito? And, maybe just as important, which one is most likely to make you sick?

El Bulli Probability

This reporting puts the chances of getting into El Bulli at 1 in 250. But most people already know that it is hard to get into the restaurant. What I find most interesting from the interview is that Ferran Adria says that a "fund" was created two years ago to "ensure that El Bulli can run for the next 30 years." With a 1 in 250 chance, that is good news...

"El Bulli, open for six months out of the year, receives two million requests for the 8,000 reservations it takes each year."

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB122540113853785535-lMyQjAxMDI4MjA1MjQwMDIxWj.html

Hodo Hodo Zoku

"In a country once proud of its success-driven 'salarymen,' managers are grappling with a new phenomenon: Many young workers are shunning choice promotions -- even forgoing raises -- in favor of humdrum jobs with minimal responsibilities. Employment experts have begun to call these workers hodo-hodo zoku, or the 'so-so folks.' They say these workers, mostly in their 20s and early 30s, are sapping Japan's international competitiveness at a time when the aging country must raise its productivity to keep the economy growing."

Slacker Nation? Young Japanese Shun Promotions
by Hiroko Tabuchi
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB122548483530388957-lMyQjAxMDI4MjA1MjQwODI0Wj.html

Buying a Lighthouse

"All the lighthouses being sold are historically protected under the National Register of Historic Places and you are severely limited in what you can do. In fact, you are forbidden to change the historical character of the lighthouse and you also must abide by the respective state’s limitations as well. And even if you know what you’re getting into with the renovation requirements, you might have months, if not years in some cases, acquiring the necessary permits. Because these lighthouses are old, there are environmental considerations as well. Slap a coat of paint on after scraping the exterior? Well, you had better be prepared to spend megabucks in environmental remediation, since you’re dealing with lead paint, possibly asbestos, and other hazardous materials."

Lighthouses for Sale - The Hidden Cost
by Sue Clark
http://lighthouse-news.com/2008/09/23/lighthouses-for-sale-the-hidden-cost/

Click here to check out available lighthouses:
http://www.nps.gov/history/maritime/nhlpa/nhlpa.htm

What is "Beta"?

A stock with a beta of 1.0 is exactly as volatile as its benchmark, typically the S&P 500. So if the S&P 500 rises by 20%, a stock with a beta of 2.0 should rise 40% ... and vice versa. That would seem to make high-beta stocks a bad thing to hold when the market is declining, but a great thing to load up on as the market turns. And indeed, some investors pursue exactly this strategy as a way to juice their portfolio in anticipation of an upturn.

Proceed with caution. While high-beta stocks should theoretically rise further in an upswing, there are a few caveats to consider.

One, of course, is that beta is a measure of what the stock has done in the past, and we know that's an imperfect gauge of the future. But the second reason for caution is somewhat more complicated. Because a stock's beta actually describes a combination of its volatility and correlation to the market, the figure may give misleading information.

For instance, just because a stock has a beta of 0, that doesn't mean its price never moves -- it just means its movements have no correlation to the market. It could be very tame or incredibly volatile, but whether its gyrations were wild or docile, they would bear no relationship to the movement of the index it's compared with.

http://www.fool.com/investing/high-growth/2008/10/31/want-the-highest-growth.aspx