What are the Top Foodie States/Cities in the US?

I haven't seen a list but here is a top ten list...

http://www.tripadvisor.com/GoListDetail-i16455-Best_food_cities_in_the_U_S_and_Canada.html

and here is a Forbes list...

http://www.forbestraveler.com/food-drink/restaurant-cities-story.html

and this is from an Anholt-Gfk Roper City Brands Index...
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/worlds-best-cities-to-eat-well-507538/

Hazards at the Beach: Sand

Hazards: At the Beach, Watch Out For Dirty Sand, Too
by Eric Nagourney
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/health/research/21haza.html?_r=1&nl=health&emc=healthupdateema3

On Do-It-Yourself Auto Repair

"Rather than padding the pockets of your mechanic, you could be saving yourself money and boosting your do-it-yourself cred. Many auto parts stores will run free diagnostic tests for you. Or, you can purchase your own handheld diagnostic device at your local auto parts store starting at about $100."

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1722536

Why California is a Failed State

"California's crisis winds all the way back to 1978's Proposition 13, which cut property-tax rates 57% and forced the state to rely more heavily on income tax revenue. When Californians were wealthy, teh tactic generated a surplus, enabling politicans to cut taxes, pad budgets and bask in their popularity. But when times were lean, the state stuggled to pay its bills...California's system of governance seems designed to thwart any solution its lawmakers propose. With a two-thirds majority required to raise taxes or pass a budget, 40% of public funds earmarked for public schools and no method of overriding voter initiatives."

California's Budget Crisis
by Claire Suddath
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1910985,00.html

What Will 6.75 Billion Hybrid Drivers Do To Our Planet?

Good questions...

"If 6.75 billion people drive vehicles that get 42 miles per gallon 10,000 miles a year, what happens to oil supplies and energy prices? To roads and open space? More importantly, what happens to the atmosphere?"

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6192?emc=el&m=271066&l=5&v=bf1e6d6aca

CNAS's Big Energy Map

http://www.bigenergymap.org/bemap.php

Air Yakiniku エア焼肉

"The 'restaurant,' a Korean barbecue, works like this: once you’re on the site, you’re given an apron to print out and wear to keep 'grease' from splattering on your computer. I’m not joking. Then you’re asked to choose from slices of pork, chicken or beef, which a hand splays out on a full-screen sizzling BBQ spit. Visitors are encouraged to have (real) bowls of rice and dipping sauce on hand as they watch and listen to their beef crackle and char."

http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/now-online-air-yakiniku-food-for-thought/

The Website: http://airyakiniku.cosaji.jp/

Interactive Map: Minorities in China

http://www.nytimes.com//interactive/2009/07/10/world/20090711-xinjiang.html?ex=1263096000&en=a52fd45dfcc09d20&ei=5087&WT.mc_id=NYT-E-I-NYT-E-AT-0715-L13

World's Most Crowded Swimming Pool?

That water must be hot...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1200986/Is-worlds-crowded-swimming-pool-Thousands-try-escape-Chinas-scorching-heatwave.html

Quote of the Week: Anthony Bourdain

"Any time you hear the words 'hot-tub-related injury' clearly life is not sucking."

-Anthony Bourdain (in Chile, I believe)

Charts: Tobacco Use and Taxes

Some really good charts and maps of global tobacco use, tobacco use in the US, tax rates in different states, and where smoking is and isn't allowed in restaurants...

"In the US and other developed countries, Big Tobacco is on the run, chased to the curbs by a combination of lawsuits, smoking bans and high taxes. But the West is not the world, and elsewhere, smoking is exploding. This year tobacco companies will produce more than 5 trillion cigarettes - or about 830 for every person on the planet."

Big Tobacco's New Targets
by Jeffrey Kluger
http://www.time.com/time/interactive/1,31813,1911060,00.html

Finding Your Inner Loser

"Researchers in Canada just published a study in the journal Psychological Science that says trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply highlight how unhappy they are...when people get feedback they believe is overly positive, they actually feel worse, not better. If you tell your dim friend that he has the potential to of an Einstein, you're just underlying his faults."

Finding Your Inner Loser
by John Cloud
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1909019,00.html

On Paul Romer

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/07/paul-romer-update.html

Immigration & Attractiveness

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/07/predictions-about-immigration.html

Pic: Cool Library of the Week

The Biblioteca Vasconcelos...

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/07/biblioteca-vasconcelos.html

Everything Buffett Needs to Know He Learned Rigth Here

"I read a book, what is it, almost 60 years ago roughly, called The Intelligent Investor and I really learned all I needed to know about investing from that book, and particular chapters 8 and 20 … I haven't changed anything since."

Everything Buffett Needs to Know, He Learned Right Here
by Morgan Housel
http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2009/07/17/everything-buffett-needs-to-know-he-learned-right-.aspx

A US Design Policy?

Does the US need a national design policy?

"What does frustrate me about the whole notion of a U.S. Design Policy is that the country needs one at all. It feels weird to have to defend design’s importance, yet also completely necessary. The United Kingdom has had a policy in place since 1949; Japan since 1956. In countries like Finland, Sweden, South Korea and the Netherlands, design is a no-brainer, reflected by the impeccable elegance, usability and readability of everything in those countries from currency to airport signage. These places support strong design policies and a deep-seated understanding and engagement of the value of design by their governments."

Designs on Policy
by Allison Arieff
http://arieff.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/designs-on-policy/?th&emc=th

Why Japan's Cell Phones Haven't Gone Global

“Japan is years ahead in any innovation. But it hasn’t been able to get business out of it, said Gerhard Fasol, president of the Tokyo-based IT consulting firm, Eurotechnology Japan. The Japanese have a name for their problem: Galápagos syndrome. Japan’s cellphones are like the endemic species that Darwin encountered on the Galápagos Islands — fantastically evolved and divergent from their mainland cousins — explains Takeshi Natsuno, who teaches at Tokyo’s Keio University. Essentially Japanese make phones too advanced for most markets."

Why Japan's Cell Phones Haven't Gone Global
by Hiroko Tabuchi
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/technology/20cell.html?th&emc=th

The Pitfalls of Crowdsourcing

"A look at recent cases and new research suggests that open-innovation models succeed only when carefully designed for a particular task and when the incentives are tailored to attract the most effective collaborators. 'There is this misconception that you can sprinkle crowd wisdom on something and things will turn out for the best,' said Thomas W. Malone, director of the Center for Collective Intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'That’s not true. It’s not magic.'”

The Crowd Is Wise (When It Is Focused)
by Steve Lohr
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/technology/internet/19unboxed.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Is the NY Fed Too Powerful?

"The New York Fed sticks out as being not just very, very close to Wall Street, but to the most powerful people on Wall Street...I worry that they pay too much deference to the expertise and presumed wisdom of a sector that screwed up massively..."

At N.Y. Fed, Blending In Is Part of the Job
by Neil Irwin
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/19/AR2009071902148.html?hpid=topnews

Adultery 2.0

"AshleyMadison isn't the oly site aimed at under-the-radar relationships. But it is the most successful site openly capitalizing on extramarital affairs. The company charges $49 for a package of credits that can be used to contact as many as 20 members..."

Adultery 2.0
by Jeremy Caplan
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1907542,00.html

On Recession Investing When Young

"The stock market has never lost money over a 30-year period. Even if you had invested in 1928, before the Great Depression, you would have arened an average annual return of about 8.5 percent over the next 30 years, according to T. Rowe Price."

If You're Young, Rock the Recession
by Erin Burt

New Economic Indicator: Google Searches

"The number of people searching for the term 'economic depression' on Google is down to normal levels, Summers said. Searches for the term were up four-fold when the recession deepened in the earlier part of the year, and the recent shift goes to show consumer confidence is higher, Summers told the Peterson Institute for International Economics."

Larry Summers Cites Google Searches as Progress
by Eamon Javers
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25083.html

Fact of the Day: Federal Spending & DC

"Fifteen cents of very dollar the federal government doles out throughout hte world on goods and services is spent in the DC metro area, which, as the Census Bureau defines it, stretches far beyond the District into Virginia, Maryland and even one county in West Virginia."

Beltway Boom?
by Victoria McGrane
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25135.html

Will Global Warming Make Humans Skinnier?

First, I do not think that smaller necessarily means less fit. Second, it could be an advantage for animals/humans to be smaller because they generally don't have to east as much and can escape from danger faster than "obese" creatures...

"Global warming has made is easier for smaller, less fit Soay sheep to survive. And plenty of other species are quickly adapting to the changing climate in similar ways. It seems global warming, which by one forecast could threaten up to one-third of the world's species by midcentury if left unchecked, is emerging as Darwin's new enforcer."

Why Are Scotland's Sheep Shrinking?
by Bryan Walsh
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1908411,00.html

The Arguement for Community Colleges

"The 1,200 community colleges in the US are especially suited to helping students adapt to a changing labor market. While four-year universities have the financial resources to lure top professors and students, they are by nature slow-moving. Community colleges, on the other hand, are smaller and able to tack quickly in changing winds. They often partner with local businesses and can gin up continuing-education courses midsemester in response to industry needs, getting students in and out and read to work - fast."

Can Community Colleges Save the US Economy
by Laura Fitzatrick
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1909623,00.html

The Myth of Saving During Deflation

An exellent point. Just as $2 million became the new $1 million, 2% savings has become the new 6% savings...although I don't expect deflation to last indefinitely...

"A 2 percent interest rate with 1 percent deflation these days is worth as much as a 6 or 7 percent interest rate was under normal inflation conditions."

Bulk Up Your Savings to Build Money Muscle
by Nancy Trejos (quoting Richard Barrington of MoneyRates.com)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/15/AR2009071503709.html

Moore's Law - Tech Doubles Every 18 Months?

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

Myths of Moore's Law
http://news.cnet.com/Myths-of-Moores-Law/2010-1071_3-1014887.html

On Leases

Learn about net lease vs. gross lease, double-net leases, triple-net leases, etc...

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

Quote of the Day: Political Science

"There is no such thing as political science; politics is an art."

-Chris Matthews

The "Douro Boys"

"Portugal's Douro Valley is jaw-droppingly, thirt-inducingly gorgeous. The Douro is in one sense the world's oldest wine region and yet it is also one of the world's newest wine regions: Only within the past few decades have several wineries begun producing distinctive non-fortified wines, primarily using the same grape varieties found in port. They resemble the tempranillo-based wines of Spain's Ribera del Buero region (Duero being the Spanish name for the Douro, which begins in Spain and flows westward), but Douro reds gain added complexity from other grapes in the blend. The self-proclaimed 'Douro Boys' represent five family-owned wineries that are leading the table wine movement..."

Now Departing From Port
by Dave McIntyre
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/14/AR2009071400663.html

Fact of the Day: Guatemala

"Guatemalan politics is still treacherous. More than 50 candidates were assassinated during the generel election in 2007, the same year three visiting Salvadoran congressmen were murdered by rogue policemen."

Postcard: Guatemala City
by Tim Padgett
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1909604-2,00.html

Pic: Why the Health Care Debate is so Complicated

http://gopleader.gov/UploadedFiles/House-Democrats-Health-Plan.pdf

What is the Best Job in the World?

Of course, it all depends on how you define "best." Some really good ones I can think of are: margarita taster (not even sure if this is a real job), wine critic, food critic, adult services consultant/sex writer, art/book collector...so, basically getting paid for food and sex (but not exclusively that, of course)...

If you could have any job in the world, what would it be (you can choose a mixture of jobs)? If you won $1 billion in the lottery tomorrow, would you still work? Would you continue with what you do or try something new?

Fact of the Day: Volleyball

90 mph is the peak speed that a spiked volleyball travels during a match.

-From 7/10/09 WSJ, quoting the U. of Florida as a source

Photographer of the Week: Luis Marden

The picture he took in Positano, Italy of a fisherman about to eat a fish he just caught is stunning (I have not been able to find this online but it can now be seen at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, DC)...

Keys to a Lasting Marriage

"A couple's age, previous relationships and even whether they smoke or not are factors that influence whether their marriage is going to last, according to a study by researchers from the Australian National University."

In Love? It's Not Enought to Keep a Marriage, Study Finds
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090714/lf_nm_life/us_couples

Also check out...

"Scientists claim to have come up with a mathematical model which determines whether newlyweds are heading for a lifetime of happiness – or spiralling towards divorce.
They say the technique is 94 per cent accurate and can spot the difference long before any cracks have appeared in a relationship."

Will Your Marriage Last? Take the Test.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1164924/The-test-tell-marriage-survive.html

Want Your Wallet Returned? Carry a Baby Pic.

Wnat to Keep Your Wallet? Carry a Baby Picture
by Hannah Devlin
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article6681923.ece

Mooning Festival

This is how the "full moon" festival is performed in the US...

"For 30 years, the town of Laguna Niguel, California has played host to an affaird dubbed 'Moon Over Amtrak.' Crowds line Camino Capistrano, a road that runs along the railroad tracks, and pass the day dropping their trousers every time a train rolls by."

A Mooning Festival Is Something The Mayor Just Can't Get Behind
by Sarah McBride
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124718939724920855.html

Ballhawks

"Ballhawks go to games with the intention of grabbing any ball that goes in the stands, especially milestone home runs like a player's first or 500th. Most then refuse to give them back to the player unless he coughts up something valuable in return, from a signed bat or a jersey to up to $10,000."

Fans Play Harball After Snagging Even Obscure Milestone Home Runs
by David Biderman
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124700099868207685.html

Seeing-Eye Dogs for the Mind

"Tuesday is a so-called psychiatric-service dog, a new generation of animals trained to help people whose suffering is not physical, but emotional. They are, effectively, Seeing Eye dogs for the mind. Taught to recognize changes in a person's breathing, perspiration or scent that can indicate an imminent panic attack, Tuesday can keep Mr. Montalvan buffered from crowds or deliver a calming nuzzle. Other dogs, typically golden retrievers, Labradors or Labrador retriver blends, are trained to wake masters from debilitating nightmares and to help patients differentiate between hallucinations and reality by barking if a real person in nearby."

Sit! Stay! Snuggle!" An Iraq Vet Finds His Dog Tuesday
by Yochi Dreazen
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124727385749826169.html

Muscadet

"We've loved Muscadet for many years, but it's interesting how it has not really caught on in the US...some stores offer none at all and most just have one or two labels...When just right, Muscadet, which is dry, has a hint of seashells on the nost that immediately makes us think of seafood, especially oysters."

From France, a Refreshing Steal
by Dorthy Gaiter and John Brecher
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204261704574272552099313372.html

Quote of the Day: Too Big to Fail

"Companies like Citi aren't too big to fail, they are too big to succeed."

-Barry Ritholtz, on Morning Joe, 7/13/09

The Healing Power of Cussing

Swearing Makes Pain More Tolerable
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090712/sc_livescience/swearingmakespainmoretolerable

UMD's B School's Summer Reading List 2009

http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/news/books/

*Harvard's 2009 Reading List:
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~sica/reading.htm

*University of Chicago Reading List (General Studies):
https://grahamschool.uchicago.edu/php/basicprogram/reading-list.php

*UC Berkeley Summer Reading List:
http://reading.berkeley.edu/

*National Defense University's Reading List:
http://www.ndu.edu/Library/ReadingList/NDUPreading.pdf

*St. John's Great Books List:
http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/academic/readlist.shtml

*Thomas Aquinas College Great Books List:
http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/curriculum/

*Shimer College Great Books List:
http://www.nationalgreatbooks.com/cirriculum/shiner.asp

Don't Always Trust Amazon.com Reviews

Getting Busted for Fake Amazon.com Reviews
by Jennifer Nycz-Conner
http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/working_the_room/2009/07/getting_busted_for_fake_amazoncom_reviews.html?surround=lfn&ana=test

Ramen Robots Invade Japanese Restaurants

"Just when you thought your noodle waterslide was the height of Japanese food gadgetry, a ramen shop in Minami-Alps, Yamanashi, Japan, is gaining popularity for its robot chef."

Ramen Robots Invade Japanese Restaurants
by David Rosenberg
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10279512-62.html

Quote of the Day: Greed

"God gave us two hands to grab all we can with them."

-July 9, 2009 Politico peice written by Roger Simon

On Buying Domain Names

"Cybersquatting isn't a problem anymore."

www.thosenewdomainnames.areforsuckers (title of the article)
by Farhood Manjoo
http://www.slate.com/id/2222408/

If Senators Play Hookey Do They Still Get Paid?

"As long as a senator or representative is technically in office, he can expect full pay no matter how often he plays hooky."

If Senators Play Hookey Do They Still Get Paid
by Jeremy Singer-Vine

Sentence of the Day: Segways

"There is nothing the Segway can do that that humble 19th-century technology, the bicycle, can't—except, of course, not give its user cardiovascular exercise."

Smooth Segway
by Tom Vanderbilt
http://www.slate.com/id/2222487/pagenum/2

Documenting Celebrity Sex Tapes

http://www.manolith.com/2009/07/08/celebrity-sex-tapes-a-laughing-stock-or-a-catapult-to-fame/

Food Pic of the Day: Cheeseburger Cupcakes

http://www.flickr.com/photos/katedw/3489933430/in/set-72157617528706606

Video of the Day: Nuclear Weapons

Very worthwhile 3-minute video...see what happens if NY City is nuked...
http://www.babelgum.com/html/clip.php?clipId=3021449

How the Average US Consumer Spends Her Paycheck

http://www.visualeconomics.com/how-the-average-us-consumer-spends-their-paycheck/

Pic of the Day

Don't worry, it's just paper...

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=5923594

Defining the Swedish Soul

"An examination of the Swedish soul must begin, I’m afraid, with sex. Not Volvo, not IKEA, not Alfa Laval nor H&M. Not Strindberg nor Dagerman nor even Astrid Lindgren and Pippi Longstocking. Not the welfare state, not income equality nor criminal justice. Not the Lutheran Church nor collective bargaining. Not the Vikings nor 200 years without war. It's that three letter word—and the half-myth about Swedish promiscuity—that is our starting point."

In Search of the Swedish Soul
by Jonathan Power
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=10912

World's Worst Tourists

"French tourists are the worst in the world, coming across as bad at foreign languages, tight-fisted and arrogant, according to a survey of 4,500 hotel owners across the world. They finish in last place in the survey carried out for internet travel agency Expedia by polling company TNS Infratest, which said French holidaymakers don't speak local languages and are seen as impolite."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090709/lf_nm_life/us_france_tourists

9 Google Lab Projects to Check Out

If only there was more time...

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/9_google_labs_projects_you_must_try_out

A Changing Sex Industry

"The pornographic movie industry has long had only a casual interest in plot and dialogue. But moviemakers are focusing even less on narrative arcs these days. Instead, they are filming more short scenes that can be easily uploaded to Web sites and sold in several-minute chunks. On the Internet, the average attention span is three to five minutes, said Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of Vivid Entertainment. We have to cater to that."

Lights, Camera, Lots of Action. Forget the Script.
by Matt Richtel
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/business/media/08porn.html?_r=1&hp

Website of the Week: Do Stuff For Money

https://www.paypal-dostuffformoney.com/

BerkShares

"Issuing an alternative currency is perfectly legal, as long as it is treated as taxable income and consists of paper bills rather than coins. In the US, where local currencies were popular during the Depression, the biggest alterna-cash system is in Massachusetts' Berkshire County. Go to one of several banks there, hand a teller $95 and get back $100 worth of BerkShares, a nice little discount designed to reel in users."

Local Currencies
by Judith Schwartz
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1908421,00.html

Placenta Cuisine

"There are two things you don't argue about with a pregnant woman: what she eats and that being full of life indeed looks sexy. So when Cassandra told me that for $275, a woman could come to our house, cook Cassandra's placenta, freeze-dry it and turn it into capsules to help ward off postpartum depression and increase milk supply, I said $275 is a bargain..."

Afterbirth for Dinner
by Joel Stein
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1908194,00.html

The World in Active Nuclear Weapons

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/apr/06/north-korea-nuclear-weapons

On Starting Your Own Business

"If a business makes it past the first four years, the rate of failure starts to drop significantly, the study found — and one’s decision to escape the confines of the cubicle starts to look like a very good one."

Hope and Peril After an Escape From the Cubicle
by Phyllis Korkki
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/business/05count.html?th&emc=th

Money & Weight Loss

I'd be interested to know what amount it takes to lose weight...

"Losing weight is so hard you cannot even pay people to do it. One of the authors, John Cawley, an economist at Cornell, said that while money was ineffective in these cases, there is surely some amount of money that would persuade most people to lose weight. But no one knows what that amount is."

Behavior: Money Not a Motivator in Losing Weight
by Nicholas Bakalar
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/health/research/07beha.html?nl=health&emc=a3

On Perverse Impulses

"A vast majority of people rarely, if ever, act on such urges, and their susceptibility to rude fantasies in fact reflects the workings of a normally sensitive, social brain, argues a paper published last week in the journal Science. "

Why the Imp in Your Brain Gets Out
by Benedict Carey
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/health/07mind.html?_r=1&nl=health&emc=a1

Psychology of Good Behavior

Does that mean that people who volunteer and donate money to "good causes" are people who are the most morally inferior?

"The study shows that people who engage in immoral behavior 'cleanse' themselves with good work."

On Good Behavior
by Rachel Saslow
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/05/AR2009070502412.html

Blogossary

A glossary of blogging terms...

http://www.blogossary.com/

Does Smoking Contribute to Global Warming?

"You may find this hard to believe if you’re standing near a swarm of chain smokers, but most scientists think the trace amounts of carbon dioxide and other pollutants in cigarette smoke have, at most, a negligible effect on the climate. In fact, theorizes John M. Wallace, a professor at the University of Washington’s climate-research department, it might even counteract global warming by an equally minuscule amount, because the white particulate matter in smoke would reflect some of the sun’s energy, thereby minimizing heat. But the smoky end-product is not the entire story. Tobacco must be grown, and that process puts a serious hit on the environment."

Does Smoking Contribute to Global Warming?
by Matt Cokeley
http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2008-06/does-smoking-contribute-global-warming

10 Boilerplate Phrases That Kill Resumes

Amazing how common these phrases are and how little they actually say...

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-experts-10_boilerplate_phrases_that_kill_resumes-97

Half of Highway Fatalities Linked to Bad Roads

This story should be getting much more attention than in did...Even though the study was funded by people who can benefit from the study, it still tells an important story...

"The Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) unveiled a highway safety study on July 1 that finds that half of U.S. highway fatalities are related to deficient roadway conditions. Unsafe road conditions are a more lethal factor than drunken driving, speeding or non-use of safety belts, according to the landmark study. The report is the first of its kind in more than 20 years and examines the role and consequences of deficient roadway conditions in U.S. motor vehicle crashes."

http://www.pitandquarry.com/pitandquarry/News+Watch/Study-Half-of-highway-fatalities-linked-to-deficie/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/608493

How Fast Can You Type?

Take the test here...

http://speedtest.10-fast-fingers.com/ (Note: there is a pop-up ad)

Quote of the Day: Korean Work Ethic

"We have a saying in Korea: If you sleep three hours, you succeed; if you sleep four hours, you fail."

-Aran Park, former director of a tutoring center in South Korea (from 7/5/09 WPost)

Sushi Ambassador

If I could pick anything in the world to be, one of my picks might be Sushi Ambassador (or Sashimi Ambassador, or Special Sushi Envoy). I'm not exactly sure what I'd do, but it would involve lots of eating sushi. The position will require good health insurance because I have the potential to get mercury poisoning. But I will risk my life for this important position...

Pics: 16 Choice Cuts of Beef

From Saveur:

http://www.saveur.com/gallery/Favorite-Cuts-of-Beef/0

Toyota's Mind-Reading Wheel Chair

"The automobile company said that the wheelchair analyses brain signals, and translates it in to movement. Users must wear a special cap, hooked up to an electroencephalograph machine, which can read thoughts and relays the information to a computer mounted on the wheelchair. It means users can turn the wheelchair left or right, and move forward and back, just by thinking about travelling in that direction. Users stop the wheelchair by puffing out their cheeks. Researchers said the wheelchair responded correctly to these unspoken commands 95 per cent of the time."

Toyota Unveils 'Mind Reading' Wheelchair
by Claudine Beaumont"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/5710830/Toyota-unveils-mind-reading-wheelchair.html

Telecommuting

Great policy...

"The Consumer Electronics Association in Crystal City not only promotes telework and encourages carpooling, but one year ago, it began offering its employees $25,000 loans to buy homes in Arlington County, closer to the office...the association promotes teleworking one day a week, with the company reimbursing 50 percent of Internet costs...the company gives carpoolers free parking. And it offers $120 a month to employees who take transit. The company also provides a gym and showers for those who bike to work."

Sharing Rides With a Stranger For Fun and Games
by Brigid Schulte
http://loudounextra.washingtonpost.com/news/2009/jul/02/sharing-rides-stranger-fun-and-games/?local

How Much Does the Government Subsidize?

"One measure of the government's rising intervention is the number of programs listed in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance. The 2,205-page CFDA is an official compilation of all fedeal aid or subsidy programs, including grants, loans, insurance, scholarships, and other types of benefits. By 2008, there were 1,804 different subsidy programs in the federal budget."

Number of Federal Subsidy Programs Tops 1,800
by Chris Edwards
http://www.cato.org/pubs/tbb/tbb_56.pdf

Best Definition of Various Governmental Forms

http://www.deanlebaron.com/snippets/s40.html

On Being a Baby

"Thomas Nagel famously asked, 'What is it like to be a bat?' That question has become a staple of Philosophy 101 courses, but we might be better served asking a more basic one: What is it like to be a baby?"

To Be a Baby
by Evan Lerner
http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/to_be_a_baby/

Lard

"Wait long enough and everything bad for you is good again. Sugar? Naturally better than high-fructose corn syrup. Chocolate? A bar a day keeps the doctor away. Caffeine? Bring it on. Lard, however, has always been a ridiculously hard sell. Over at least the last 15 years, it's repeatedly been given a clean bill of health, and good cooks regularly point out how superior this totally natural fat is for frying and pastries."

Lard
by Regina Schrambling
http://www.slate.com/id/2219314/

Does Memorizing Recipes Make You a Better Cook?

"There are hundreds of thousands of recipes out there, but few of them help you to be a better cook in any substantial way, Michael Ruhlman writes in the preface to his fascinating and pompous new book, Ratio. In fact, they may hurt you as a cook by keeping you chained to recipes. He argues that once you've memorized certain 'bedrock' culinary ratios, you can cook virtually anything without resorting to a cookbook."

One Party Creativity: Zero Parts Recipe
by Jennifer Reese
http://www.slate.com/id/2219243/pagenum/all

Sandwiches = Killing French Bars/Cafes

"Bars and cafes in France have fallen from 200,000 fifty years ago to 38,600 today. Blame smoking bans and the economy, but also le sandwich..."

Le Sandwich Takes a Bite Out of French Tradition
by Edward Cody
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/25/AR2009062503940.html

On Time

"We have no time! Everyone seems so busy. Everyone is doing something...All our splendor, our comfort, takes time to pay for. And affluence wants to increase; it carries within it an unspoken command: More! So we work...The rich have time because they buy it. If you can buy time, you should buy it. This year I am going to work very hard to get some."

There Is No Time, There Will Be Time
by Peggy Noonan
http://www.peggynoonan.com/article.php?article=36

11 Health Myths That May Suprise You

Check out #7 about sex...

11 Health Myths That May Suprise You
by Tara Parker-Pope
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/11-health-myths-that-may-surprise-you/?ex=1261886400&en=4f268724af5e033e&ei=5087&WT.mc_id=NYT-E-I-NYT-E-AT-0701-L14

Aristotle & Business Writing

A very good article but hard to find online...

"If we aren't teaching persuasion, we aren't teaching business writing. As the dean of the Yale School of Business declared not long ago, 'The most importnat thing people can know is how to motivate others.'"

Aristotle and Business Writing: Why We Need to Teach Persuasion
by Mary Cross
http://bcq.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/54/1/3 (Abstract form)

Global Murder Rates

"Some good news for Washingtonians this year: the Metropolitan Police Department reports a sharp drop in murders. The 66 killings in the first six months of 2009 is the lowest murder rate recorded since 1964, and down by 75 percent from the horrific 1991 peak of 481. Not unalloyed good news, though -- the figure suggests a rate of 22.4 murders per every 100,000 people per year, still well above the 5.6-per-100,000 rate for the United States as a whole. In international perspective, both rates are distressingly high."

http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=108&subid=900003&contentid=255032

Zahavi's Handicap

"The principle holds that animals and humans alike prosper not in spite of our riskiest and most extravagant behaviors but because of them. These behaviors are the way we advertise how prosperous, how fit, how fearless we are. And because the world is a jaded, cynical place, we have to incorporate a significant cost, or handicap, in our advertising to make it persuasive...he summed up his big idea in a phrase: Something can be good because it's bad....Females seem to select males for traits that make them less likely to survive...The natural world is full of females falling hard for stupid male display behavior, including bright feathers, big antlers, and bombastic courtship rituals. Then again, male sexual slection sometimes forces irrational displays on females too. Most men prefer women with large, cumbersome breasts, for instance, though small breasts are just as good for nursing babies. It is, says Zahavi, a handicap, a cost ancestral women undertook to display greater nutritional fitness in teh form of visible body fat."

Why We Take Risks
by Richard Conniff
http://www.gametheory.net/news/Items/119.html

On London vs. Paris

"In Paris, when I strolled down the Rue de la Roquette, everybody I passed would have time to appraise me with a long, sometimes very challenging, often sexually charged, stare. The sexuality of the Parisian street is concentrated entirely in the gaze...I soon came to understand Edith Cresson's hitherto hateful observation about British men. When the former French president visited Britain, she thought all men here must be gay because none of them looked at her."

Going Nowhere With Baudelaire on the Top Deck
by Stuart Jeffries
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/dec/08/books.guardianreview1

Sex & Museums - Rubens Syndrome

"Last June [2000] the Roman Institute of Psychology released the results of a national study involving 2,000 visitors that found 20 percent of them had embarked on an 'erotic adventure' in a museum. Also according to the study, a Caravaggio painting or a Greek sculpture is more likely to lead to sex than works by Tiepolo or Veronese. The experts have ven compiled a hit parade of Italian museums, listing the institutions in order of their ability to awaken Eros. This state of emotional arousal has been called the Rubens Syndrome, a term derived from the sensuous, superannuated nuded painted by the Flemish Old Master."

Pickup Artists
by Jonathan Turner
http://www.artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1000

Canadian vs. US Book Pricing

Follow the link to read a very interesting discussion

"I know I am not the first person to wonder why the sticker prices quoted on the back of books are still significantly higher for Canadians than Americans when it has been a full year since the US and CND dollar achieved parity. So why don't books cost the same in Canada and the US?"

http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/type/home/article_ID/F84C7921-69DD-4F7F-9001E28CAE3E1034/index.cfm

Wine's Carbon Footprint: Napa vs. Bordeaux

Check out the map at the link below...

"Trucking from Napa, California, to New York City has the largest impact. Shipping from Bordeaux to NYC has the smallest. And shipping from Australia scores relatively high because of the great distance."

http://www.drvino.com/2009/04/14/the-carbon-footprint-of-wine-in-national-geographic/

Driving and Newton's Law

Q: Imagine that I'm driving along at highway speed with the air conditioner on and the windows closed. A hummingbird that was caged in the back seat gets loose, and it ends up just hovering there in mid-air. If I hit the brakes hard, does the hummingbird crash into the windshield?

A: The hummingbird is toast. He crashes into the windshield. In summarizing Newton's first law, objects in motion will stay in motion...the cabin air is part of the car. So if the hummingbird is hovering in that air while the car is in motion, the bird has the same horizontal speed as the car...That means he's in motion. And when the car stops, the hummingbird does not, and splat.

Q: What about cigar smoke?

A: Smoke too, is subject to Newton's first law, and should crash into the windshield. The only reason it doesn't is because it doesn't have enough mass. So while it's heading twoard the windshield, it bangs into nearby air molecules, and the effect is muted.

From the Post's Click & Clack; May 17, 2009

Ida - The Link

Still need to watch the video...

http://www.history.com/content/the-link

Also...
http://www.revealingthelink.com/

Why Ban Ki-Moon is the World's Most Dangerous Korean

But isn't this what the head of the UN and other international organizations always does?

"At a time when global leadership is urgently needed, when climate change and international terrorism and the biggest financial crisis in 60 years might seem to require some—any!—response, the former South Korean foreign minister has instead been trotting the globe collecting honorary degrees, issuing utterly forgettable statements, and generally frittering away any influence he might command. He has become a kind of accidental tourist, a dilettante on the international stage."

Nowhere Man
by Jacob Heilbrunn
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/19/nowhere_man

The Collapse of the World's Wall Streets

See what type of pain the global Wall Streets are having...

World Wall Streets
by Annie Lowrey
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/22/world_wall_streets

Sex Matters

"There is a well-known story about how a society stabilizes its population. As a country transitions from poverty to affluence, birthrates plunge—from six or eight children per woman to just about two. Population growth levels off. Prosperity and education, the story goes, are just about the best form of birth control there is. But this tale gets it backward. Low birthrates aren’t a consequence of national wealth; rather, they’re needed to create it."

Sex Matters
by Malcolm Potts & Martha Campbell
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/22/prime_numbers_sex_matters

2009 Failed States Index

Which failed state would you most like to live in? Least?

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/22/the_2009_failed_states_index

Here is the Map...
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/22/2009_failed_states_index_interactive_map_and_rankings

15 Bizarre Japanese Toys

http://incrediblethings.com/lists/14-bizarre-japanese-toys/

Pic: Religious Views on Sex

Which religion would you most want to join?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pseudoplacebo/2330148551/sizes/o/