Why Is It Called "The Hague"

And why is it in The Netherlands?

Blame the locals. Those who live in The Hague never stopped using an old-fashioned name that described the place according to its medieval use. We get the official name Den Haag from Des Graven Hage, which means "the counts' hedge" and refers to the fact that Dutch noblemen once used the land for hunting. Many other place names started off as descriptions with definite articles.

Why Is It Called the Hague
by Brian Palmer
http://www.slate.com/id/2233716/

The Secret Lives of Numbers

http://www.turbulence.org/Works/nums/

5 Tips to Reduce Your Cancer Risk

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthieryou/13697/5-simple-secrets-to-lower-your-risk-of-cancer/

World's Most Expensive Suit

"The world’s most expensive suit is set to be unveiled in London at the bargain price of £70,000. It has taken in excess of 80 hours to complete with over 5,000 individual stitches equating to £14 per stitch."

What Recession? £70K For A Suit
http://www.djmick.co.uk/life/what-recession-70k-for-a-suit/

When Do Markets Crash?

"When everybody is speaking with one voice, it's very possible that they're all about to be wrong. So when will the next big plunge happen? I can't say for sure, but I'll say this: When the last of the curmudgeons start to get bullish, when the gloom and doom on most of the financial blogs gives way to optimism, when guys like me start writing articles about how good things are going ... look out below."

Here's When The Crash Will Happen
by John Rosevear
http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2009/10/27/heres-when-the-crash-will-happen.aspx

The Easiest Way to Become a Millionaire

Three easy steps:

1. Find strong, long-term dividend-paying companies
2. Hold forever
3. Implement this strategy today

The Easiest Way to Become a Millionaire
by Adam Wiederman
http://www.fool.com/investing/dividends-income/2009/10/27/the-easiest-way-to-become-a-millionaire.aspx

Tullock Effect & Harberger Effect

Tullock Effect: When safety measures increase recklessness

*Bonus: What is the Harberger Effect

Should You Feel Bad for Taking Hot Showers?

I almost wish I was made to feel bad for using a hot shower because then I probably would consume less. So, a little shame (and maybe some economic incentive) could help things out...

Bathing Hot, Hot, Hot
by Nina Shen Rastogi
http://www.slate.com/id/2233527/

Are Pick-Your-Own Orchards a Scam?

"In the United States, overconsumption is encouraged as a positive good (see under: McMansions, SUVs, all-you-can-eat buffets). Add pick-your-own apples to the list. And, just as people who visit wineries end up walking away with a case instead of a bottle, it's a given that people leave pick-your-own orchards with a surfeit of apples."

Against Apple Picking
by Daniel Gross
http://www.slate.com/id/2233467/

Food, Sleep, or Sex?

Which is more important?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/humannature/archive/2009/10/26/napping-sex-and-abstinence.aspx

TED Video: The Power of Time Off

An arguement for sabbaticals...

http://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off.html

TED Video: How Food Shapes Our Cities

http://www.ted.com/talks/carolyn_steel_how_food_shapes_our_cities.html

TED Video: Life Lessons From an Ad Man

Very funny/interesting...

http://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_life_lessons_from_an_ad_man.html

Ted Video: Navigating Our Global Future

Good big-picture assessment of what the future may hold from Ian Goldin, director of the 21st Century School at Oxford...

http://www.ted.com/talks/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future.html

The Next Nostradamus: Bruce Bueno de Mesquito?

"Politics is predictable. All that is needed is a tool, like a model, that takes basic information, evaluates it by assuming people do what they think is best for them, and produces reliable assessments of what they will do and why they will do it....Certainly knowing about places and how different they might be is important, but not as important as knowing about people and how similar they are, wherever they are."

Recipe for Failure
by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/10/16/recipe_for_failure?page=0,0

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Bueno_de_Mesquita

Temple of Tempura: Rakutei

"Go to an ATM, extract roughly $200 in cash per person and make your way to Rakutei, a tempura resturant in Akasaka: 11 seats at an L-shaped counter; one chef, one assistant; one vase with one flower; one sweet, motherly waitress in kimono..."

Batter Up: A Visit to a Tokyo Tempple of Tempura
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/23/AR2009102301967.html

On Milk

Q: When buying milk, I see that the "use-by" date is typically no more than 10 days away. Yet in other countries, milk is routinely bought in unrefrigerated boxes that have a long shelf life. It tastes just fine. Why isn't this milk sold in the US?

A: In fact, ultrapasteurized or ultra-high temperature (UHT) processed milk is sold here. I buy it myself. It's a little different from pasteurized milk in two main ways: 1) It's slightly sweeter; and 2) the UHT process kills all bacteria, instead of just enough to keep you from getting sick, as with standard pasteurization. You can buy either ordinary or organic UHT milk, and it's available as whole mike, 2%, and skim, etc.

-October 24, 2009, Parade Magazine

Why Can Cockroaches Always Escape?

Q: Have you ever wondered how cockroaches achieve such consistent success in avoiding their smartest predators - us?

A: Well. A team of Italian researchers did. They studies the "escape trajectories" of American cockroaches. They already knew that cockroaches don't scrurry randomly, or we would find them heading generally toward us about half the time. Yet a predictable path - which any hungry cat could learn - would spell doom. What to do? The researchers found that roaches flee along four emergency exit routes: at a right angle (90 degrees) from the direction of the threat, at the other right angle from the threat, and at the two angles that fall about equidistant between those routes, rarely straight ahead. The angles very somewhat, and would-be squashers never know which route will be chosen.

-October 24, 2009 Parade Magzine; Marilyn vos Savant

What Keeps Scientists Up At Night?

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18041-seven-questions-that-keep-physicists-up-at-night.html#

Kanji Overhaul

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ek20091021mn.html#

InfoGraphic: Left vs. Right World

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/leftvright_world.html

Successful Government Bureaucracies?

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/10/successful-government-bureaucracies.html

Starbucks Coffee Chart

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/10/i-coffee.html

Products of the Day: Cupcake Cars

http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/sitelets/christmasbook/fantasy.jhtml?cid=CBF10_O4428&icid=NMCDpage48&r=cat24050744&rdesc=The%20Christmas%20Book&rparams=xpage%3D48

Why So Few DC Residents Are Married

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/10/20/why-so-few-dc-residents-are-married.aspx

Does Microfinancing Help Alleviate Poverty?

Brother, Can You Lend a Dime?
by Sandy Stonesifer
http://www.slate.com/id/2233017/

What Days Do People Spend the Most?

"Gallup's Daily monitoring of consumers' self-reported average daily spending in stores, restaurants, gas stations, and online finds that Americans spend the most on Saturdays, followed closely by Fridays; they spend the least on Mondays and Tuesdays."

http://www.gallup.com/poll/123839/Consumers-Spend-More-Weekends-Payday-Weeks.aspx?CSTS=alert#

What is the Best Passport to Hold?

Q: Which country's citizens can travel to the most countries and territories without a visa?

A: Denmark. Danes have the most freedom to travel - they could enter 157 countries and territories without a visa as of September 1, 2008, according to consulting firm Henly & Partners. Other nationalities facing the least red tape when traveling abroad include Finns, Irish, and Portuguese (156 visa-free countries and territories), and Americans, Belgians, Germans, and Swedes (155). Countries whose people are relatively stuck: Afghanistan (22 visa-free destinations); Iraq (23); and Iran, Pakistan, and Somalia (25).

-Foreign Policy Magazine, September/October 2009

Genetically Similar Countries Fight More?

"According to a recent study, countries are far ore likely to go to war with other countries whose populations are genetically similar to their own. Date from 1816 to 2000 show that the likelihood of conflict gereatly increases with greater genetic likeness. So why do we fight those who are most like us? 'Countries are likely to have interacted more with other countreis that are genetically similar, and therefore will have more issues over which they disagree,' UCLA economist Romain Wacziarg says."

Brother Against Brother
by Joshua Keating
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/08/13/brother_against_brother

New Japanese Verb: "Obamu"

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/10/to_obama_in_japanese.php#

Social Security & Medicare Taxes

http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10003.html#offset2

Authentic Jewish Delis?

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1790360

Map: Coal-Fired Power Plants Near You

http://projects.nytimes.com:80/toxic-waters/polluters/power-plants?WT.mc_id=NYT-E-I-NYT-E-AT-1021-L22

Can Government Rescuers Send You a Bill?

Can the government charge anyone for a search and rescue? No. As a general rule, the United States adheres to the "free public services doctrine," which states that the cost of law enforcement, fire suppression, and search and rescue should be shared by all taxpayers. However, there are some situations in which the state can demand payment for a rescue operation from a particular person.

Let's See, That's Two Choppers at $5,000 Per Hour...
by Brian Palmer
http://www.slate.com/id/2232909/

What Does "Off-The-Record" Really Mean

The professional jargon reporters use to describe sourcing ground rules is poorly understood within the profession in general and inside the Washington Post in particular, even though the Post has codified them in its stylebook. I concluded that journalists deliberately keep the applied meaning of terms like "off the record" and "background" fluid to maximize their latitude to impart information.

What Does "Off the Record" Mean
by Timothy Noah
http://www.slate.com/id/2233009/

"Zero Waste"

"Across the nation, an antigarbage strategy known as 'zero waste' is moving from the fringes to the mainstream, taking hold in school cafeterias, national parks, restaurants, stadiums and corporations."

Nudging Recycling From Less Waste to None
by Leslie Kaufman
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/science/earth/20trash.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Billable Hours

"Lawyers working in Washington, D.C., have the highest median rates at $455 an hour for partners and $295 per hour for associates in 2006, according Altman Weil’s most recent Survey of Law Firm Economics. Nationwide, the median hourly billing rate in 2006 was $305 an hour for partners and $200 for associates."

http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2008/08/25/focus4.html

*2009 Survey of Law Firm Economics
http://www.incisivesurveys.com/r5/showkiosk.asp?listing_id=3326837

Why Isn't Plane Travel Getting Faster?

http://trueslant.com/matthewsteinglass/2009/10/06/across-the-planet-in-20-hours-is-fast-enough-thanks/

Which Countries Produce the Most Beef?

http://graphs.gapminder.org/world/agriculture.php#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly=2003;lb=f;il=t;fs=11;al=67;stl=t;st=t;nsl=t;se=t$wst;tts=C$ts;sp=3.31483870967742;ti=2007$zpv;v=0$inc_x;mmid=XCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj1jiMAkmq1iMg;by=ind$inc_y;mmid=YCOORDS;iid=rLF%5Fyw13i9d2w4gZ5Y9%2DGDA;by=ind$inc_s;uniValue=20;iid=phAwcNAVuyj0XOoBL%5Fn5tAQ;by=ind$inc_c;uniValue=255;gid=CATID0;by=grp$map_x;scale=log;dataMin=273;dataMax=95395$map_y;scale=lin;dataMin=1;dataMax=12427000$map_s;sma=52;smi=1$cd;bd=0$inds=

Balloon Boy FAQ

Is it illegal to pilot a homemade balloon? How much helium do you need? Do you need permission to launch a balloon out of your backyard?

Balloon Boy FAQ
by Christopher Beam
http://www.slate.com/id/2232594/

Who Decides What to Call an Old Painting

"Who decides what to call an old artwork? Art historians."

Mona Linda? Nah. How About Mona Lisa?
by Brian Palmer
http://www.slate.com/id/2232558/

How to Get Bikers to Obey Traffic Obeys

"Bikes occupy a gray area of the law. They're neither cars nor pedestrians. Most states do carve out special laws for bikes, but not enough to avoid confusion. Take this scenario: I'm approaching a stop sign on my bike. There are clearly no cars coming from either direction. Do I come to a complete stop? Can I cautiously slide through? The traffic laws say full stop. But in practice, few bikers hit the brake, put their foot on the ground, and then start pedaling again. Are they criminals?"

Stop Means Stop
by Christopher Beam
http://www.slate.com/id/2232555/

KaChing - The Future of Stock Trading?

"In 2008, Daniel Carroll started KaChing, a Web site where 400,000 amateur and professional investors manage virtual portfolios. Others have logged on to see what the investors on the site are doing and make the same trades in their own real portfolios. On Monday, KaChing is to add a new twist. Customers can set up brokerage accounts that automatically mirror the trades of a money manager, some of them professionals."


Site Lets Investors See and Copy Experts' Trades
by Claire Cain Miller
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/technology/start-ups/19kaching.html?th&emc=th

Psychological Allergies?

Is there such a thing?

Networking Event Utility Belt

What do you pack?

http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/working_the_room/2009/10/packing_your_networking_event_utility_belt.html?ana=e_du_pub

The Facebook Global Happiness Index

"The index is an attempt to say something profound based on the reports of daily life that Facebook users impose on — um, share with — their friends. The idea, one that is generally accepted in social psychology, is that word choice can reveal a person’s mood."

Is It a Day to Be Happy? Check the Index
by Noam Cohen
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/technology/internet/12link.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

US's Six Main Taxes

"America's six main taxes in 2008: income taxes raised $1.15 trillion; payroll taxes $900 billion; corporate income tax $304 billion; excise taxes on gasoline, liquor and cigarettes $67 billion; estate and gift taxes $29 billion; tariffs $26 billion. Smallest and oldest of the main taxes, the tariff system is also the most regressive, as most tariff money comes from taxes on clothes, shoes, household goods and a few types of food."

http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=108&subid=900003&contentid=250599

NYTimes Magazine: The Food Issue

http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2009/10/11/magazine/index.html?WT.mc_id=NYT-E-I-NYT-E-AT-1014-L1

Map: Economics of Clean Energy

http://www.americanprogress.org/projects/energy_hub

Financing a Global Climate Bill

Biggest Obstacle to Global Climate Change May be How to Pay for It
by Elisabeth Rosenthal
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/science/earth/15climate.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Vision of Humanity

http://www.visionofhumanity.org/

*Also check out the Global Peace Index for 2009. It is interesting how nearly all of the peaceful countries are relatively isolated geographically: Canada, Greenland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Chile, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, etc...
http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/home.php

*Also check out the Institute for Economics & Peace
http://www.economicsandpeace.org/

*Also check out the Institute for Economics and Peace's research report on calculating the potential size of a Peace Gross World Product

Restaurant of the Week: Asador Etxebarri

Chef Victor Arguinzoniz cooks everything over a grill...

http://www.asadoretxebarri.com/

*Perhaps it might be worth stopping by the Benfumat factory in Barcelona (if they have one) to eat their boqurones anchovies...
http://www.benfumat.com/

Why do so Many Greenlanders Kill Themselves?

One reason for Greenland's high suicide rate is that people are particularly proficient at the act, employing methods that leave little chance for survival. Shootings and hangings account for 91 percent of male suicides and 70 percent of female suicides. (Almost every Greenland home has at least one rifle for the annual caribou and musk-ox hunts. Of course, any rope, fishing net, or electric cord can be fashioned into a noose, which in the Greenlandic language is called "our Lord's lasso.") "Young people in Norway and Sweden make a lot of suicide attempts with pills, but they're not successful. Here the kids are successful because it's always so violent," said Poulsen.

The Suicide Capital of the World
by Jason George
http://www.slate.com/id/2231576/

Is It a Sin to Leave Your Cell Phone or Laptop Plugged in Overnight?

You Charged Me All Night Long
by Nina Shen Rastogi
http://www.slate.com/id/2232195/

Facial Profiling

Can you tell if a man is dangerous by looking at his face? Physiognomy is making a comeback...

Facial Profiling
by Dave Johns
http://www.slate.com/id/2232409/

Rock-Climbing: The Only Truly Gender-Blind Sport?

Sports generally reward bulk, speed, strength, and, often, height—all traits in which men tend to have the physical advantage. But climbers can’t rely on brute strength alone. The typically feminine assets of balance, flexibility, and a sprinkle of grace are essential to navigating the vagaries of ancient rock and plastic gym holds. (To effortlessly “dance up the wall” is a high compliment.) Excessive bulk, be it muscle or fat, while not a showstopper, is a definite disadvantage in a sport that rewards a high strength-to-weight ratio. Height can help or hinder, depending on the contours of the rock. True, most of the top climbers are men, but in a few cases, women have accomplished what men could not...

http://www.doublex.com/section/life/rock-climbing-only-truly-gender-blind-sport#

Prizes That Help the World More Than The Nobel

"There are generally two kinds of prizes that try to improve the world. The first, like the Nobel, awards those who have made the world better in extraordinary ways. The second, like the X Prize, tries to incentivize innovation that could have enormous impact in the future."

And the Winner Is...
by Sandy Stonesifer
http://www.slate.com/id/2232416/

Is a Virus the Cause of Fatigue Syndrome?

I wonder if there is any link to mono...

Is a Virus the Cause of Fatigue Syndrome?
by Denise Grady
http://www.nytimes.com:80/2009/10/13/health/13fatigue.html?nl=health&emc=healthupdateema1

Wash Hands With Cold or Hot Water?

I still wonder which (hot water, or cold) is better for washing dishes...

"Hot water for hand washing has not been proved to remove germs better than cold water."

The Claim: Always Wash Your Hands With Hot Water, Not Cold
by Anahad O'Connor
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/health/13real.html?_r=1&nl=health&emc=healthupdateemb2

Do Sanctions Work?

"A 2007 study of 174 attempts during the 20th century found that sanctions at least partially met their stated goals just 34% of the time."

A Brief History of: Sanctions
by Alex Altman
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1926621,00.html?xid=rss-world

*PIIE on Sanctions
http://www.iie.com/publications/briefs/sanctions4075.pdf

Map: Every Space Mission From the Last 50 Years

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamcrowe/4002050596/sizes/o/

How Traffic Jams Help the Environment

I generally agree with this arguement. The only problem I have is that making people frustrated is not good for the happiness of society. Sitting in traffic may push people to use more public transportation, but it also raises their blood pressure and makes them more angry, thus hurting productivity and raising health care costs. There should be a better way to nudge people to use public transport besides frustrating them...

"Congestion pricing has dubious environmental value. Traffis jams, if they're managed well, can actually be good for the environmnet. They maintain a level of frustration that turns drivers into subway riders or predestrians...If the result of congestion pricing is simply to spread traffic out, thereby maintaining or increasing total traffic volume while also making driving more pleasant for those who continue to do it, then its putative environmental benefits are fictitious."

How Traffic James Help the Environment
by David Owen
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703746604574461572304842840.html

Mapping the Size of the Muslim World

"If you are interested in the concentrations of Muslim populations worldwide, take a look at the cool (or alarming, depending on your perspective) interactive graphic produced by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center. Using proportionate bubbles, it maps the size of Muslim communities worldwide. It's part of Pew's big demographic study of the global Muslim population, which finds that there are 1.57 billion Muslims of all ages and that one in four people living today is Muslim."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/09/AR2009100903892.html

*Pew Map of the Muslim World
http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=451

Nobel Geopolitics

"Two things must be remembered about the Nobel Peace Prize. The first is that Nobel was never clear about his intentions for it. The second is his decision to have it awarded by politicians from — and we hope the Norwegians will accept our advance apologies — a marginal country relative to the international system. This is not meant as a criticism of Norway, a country we have enjoyed in the past, but the Norwegians sometimes have an idiosyncratic way of viewing the world...The Norwegian politicians gave their prize to Obama because they believed that he would leave Europeans in their comfortable prosperity without making unreasonable demands."

http://www.stratfor.com:80/weekly/20091012_nobel_geopolitics?utm_source=GWeeklyS&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=091012&utm_content=readmore

The Rise of "Boneless Wings"

"Wholesale chicken prices have turned upside down. The once-lowly wing is selling at a premium over what has long been the gold standard of poultry parts, the skinless boneless chicken breast. The recession is the cause of the price flip-flop. Restaurants, normally big buyers of breast meat, slashed orders as millions of people cut back on eating out, and breast prices slumped. But demand for wings has remained strong, partly because people perceived them as a cheap luxury. Yet the high price of wings has also accelerated a development that bothers wing purists: that oxymoron dipped in hot sauce, the boneless wing. Boneless wings, increasingly promoted by restaurants, are not wings at all, but slices of breast meat deep-fried like wings and served with the same sauces — a bit like a spicy Chicken McNugget."

'Boneless' Wings, the Cheaper Bite
by William Neuman
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/business/economy/13wings.html?th&emc=th

Eurosclerosis

"The Europeans are the biggest losers of the economic crisis, even though the home of subprime madness was the U.S."

Crisis Leaves Europe in the Slow Lane
by Nelson Schwartz and Matthew Saltmarsh
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/business/economy/10euro.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Why are Stocks & Treasuries Both Rising?

Why Stocks and Treasurys Have Been Rising at the Same Time
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Why-Stocks-and-Treasurys-Have-cnbc-2739491172.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=

Book Awards Cheat Sheet

Learn the basics of popular book awards...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/07/AR2009100703661.html?sid=ST2009100804415

The Geography of Venture Capital Expansion

"In Buy Local? The Geography of Successful and Unsuccessful Venture Capital Expansion (NBER Working Paper No. 15102), authors Henry Chen, Paul Gompers, Anna Kovner, and Josh Lerner examine the location decisions of venture capital (VC) firms and the impact that venture capital firm geography has on investments and outcomes. They analyze data for 2,039 VC firms in the period 1975 to 2005, including their office locations and that of the businesses in their investment portfolios."

http://papers.nber.org:80/papers/w15102

Game Theory and Major League Sports

"In this paper, we explore minimax play in two high stakes, real world settings that are data rich: choice of pitch type in Major League Baseball and whether to run or pass in the National Football League. We observe more than three million pitches in baseball and 125,000 play choices for football. We find systematic deviations from minimax play in both data sets. Pitchers appear to throw too many fastballs; football teams pass less than they should. In both sports, there is negative serial correlation in play calling. Back of the envelope calculations suggest that correcting these decision making errors could be worth as many as two additional victories a year to a Major League Baseball franchise, and more than a half win per season for a professional football team."

http://papers.nber.org/papers/w15347

US Trade Policy Since 1934

http://papers.nber.org/papers/w15397

STRATFOR's George Friedman on the State of the World

Q: If you could give future leaders of this country counsel on how to deal with this, what would you advise?

A: The first would be to make sure that the rest of the world is as unstable as possible. It is much easier not to fight foreign countries by letting them fight with each other. The perfect model for this was Iraq.

Instead of trying to occupy the country, the U.S. created a civil war within Iraq. One of the outcomes was that you didn’t have to worry about another terrorist attack upon the United States. So long as your enemies are fighting with each other, they’re not fighting with you.

The second piece of advice would be to make sure that DARPA (U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has all the money it needs. The best research and technology in this country always comes out of the Defense Department. U.S. corporate research and development is pretty good at applying things that other people invent. But no one is better at research and development than the Defense Department.

The myth that the government is not good at R&D is just nonsense. It is the single institution that is better than American universities at cranking out things from the Internet to the microchip. All of these started as Defense projects.

The last thing I would advise is to make sure that the United States has the most liberal immigration policy in the world. In 20 to 30 years, all sorts of countries are going to be competing for immigrants to fill their workforces. As an example, Germany is going to be down 30 percent of its population.

We need to ensure that we maintain those institutions which allow people to come into the country, either legally or illegally. Whatever crazy way you want to do it, just make sure our workforce is filled.

http://www.sfomag.com/article.aspx?ID=1414&issueID=c

Current Trends in Population Growth

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6257?emc=el&m=297190&l=4&v=bf1e6d6aca

American's Least Happy in Their 50s & Late 80s

"A new analysis of more than 600,000 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index interviews conducted in 2008 and 2009 shows that happiness is highest among Americans who are in their early adulthood. Happiness drops among Americans in their 30s and 40s, and -- in particular -- among those in their 50s; it is higher among Americans in their 60s, drops among Americans in their late 70s and 80s, and then rises again among those older than 90. Men and women in most age groups have broadly equal happiness scores, with women scoring slightly higher than men in the middle-aged years, and notably higher after age 80."

http://www.gallup.com:80/poll/123452/Americans-Least-Happy-50s-Late-80s.aspx?CSTS=alert

Old Bay

"Old Bay Seasoning was the invention of Gustav Brunn, a German Jew who emigrated to Baltimore in 1938. An experienced spice merchant, Brunn soon landed a job at McCormick & Co., which wanted him to develop blends for meatpackers who were making products including sausages and hot dogs. It was a short gig: Two days after being hired, he was let go because he was Jewish. If it weren't for the firing, Old Bay might never have come into being..."

The Measure of Old Bay
by Jane Black
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/10/06/ST2009100603029.html

Food Safety 101

Make sure to click on the Food Safety 101 link to test your food-safety skills...

Food-Borne Illness: More Than Meets the Eye
by Jennifer LaRue Huget
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/28/AR2009092801574.html

Crusade for Economic Self-Restraint

Basically, the US has been spending itself to death. Now, it needs to save itself back to life. The problem: who wants to give up their lifestyles? Almost everyone wants to keep/increase their salaries. No group wants to pay more taxes. No group (defense, transportation, health care, agriculture, etc...) wants to lose out on earmarks. It might have to be done collectively. Simply put, we all need to get poorer.

"If there is to be a movement to restore economic values, it will have to cut across the current taxonomies. Its goal will be to make the U.S. again a producer economy, not a consumer economy. It will champion a return to financial self-restraint, large and small. It will have to take on what you might call the lobbyist ethos — the righteous conviction held by everybody from AARP to the agribusinesses that their groups are entitled to every possible appropriation, regardless of the larger public cost. It will have to take on the self-indulgent popular demand for low taxes and high spending. A crusade for economic self-restraint would have to rearrange the current alliances and embrace policies like energy taxes and spending cuts that are now deemed politically impossible."

The Next Culture War
by David Brooks
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/opinion/29brooks.html?pagewanted=print

Eating What the Last Person Ordered

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/10/markets-in-everything-ill-have-what-he-ordered.html

Spending Conundrum

I still do not understand why people go out of their way to save a few bucks on a lower-priced item when they totally ignore the costs of higher priced items and often neglect to try to save money on those more expensive things. It is weird because the savings one can get from just one large purchase (car, TV, bed, etc...) can outweigh all the savings one accrues from purchasing a host of smaller items. One theory is that it is easier for the brain to comprehend the savings on an item that is, say, $0.99 vs. $1.99 as opposed to an item that is priced in the hundred or thousand dollar price range. Is the brain hard-wired this way?

Pay-What-You-Wish Pricing

I wonder what the average percent someone gives when they are told there is pay-what-you-wish pricing. For example, at a recent pay-what-you-wish theatre night, I believe the clerk said that most people give between $4 - $9 dollars - averaging somewhere around $5. I imagine that an actual ticket is around $20 - $30, and thus, people are giving about 25% of the full cost.

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/more-news-on-the-pay-what-you-wish-front/

Business Meal Etiquette

If I could write an etiquette expert, I'd ask them how often one should take a client to lunch, and what do to if one does not have an expense account...

http://www.sideroad.com/Business_Etiquette/business-meal-etiquette.html

*More Etiquette
http://www.sideroad.com/Business_Etiquette/business-meal-etiquette.html

Green Intentions

Common myths about going green...

Best, Green Intensions...
by Pat Mertz Esswein
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.environment/browse_thread/thread/79f443998dba82cd/63d84a1bfb825323?lnk=raot&pli=1

The Olympics: Good or Bad for the Economy?

As with anything, there is the good side, and the bad...

Myths About Landing the Olympics
by Stefan Szymanski
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/01/AR2009100103891.html

On Earphones

http://gizmodo.com/5371253/giz-explains-why-you-cant-get-decent-earphones-for-less-than-100

Comic: Vacation vs. Stress

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1231

What are the Most Well-Kept Secrets in the World?

These are some fun ones, but I'm sure there are some more interesting ones out there...Can you think of any?

http://www.cracked.com/article/147_7-secrets-only-two-living-people-know-for-some-reason/

Infographic: Rise of Atheism in the US

http://www.good.is/post/transparency-the-rise-of-atheism-in-america/

*Also check out Good Magazine's other infographics...
http://www.good.is/sections/department/department.php?tname=transparency

How do Inspectors Know Whether a Nuclear Facility is Being Used for Peace or War?

"First, they check the numbers. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency keep tabs on the amount of uranium coming in and going out of a facility, the number of centrifuges being used, and the pieces of equipment purchased. Then they compare those data with the declarations made by the country that owns the site. Any discrepancies raise a red flag, and the agency conducts a further investigation. Inspectors also test the uranium at a given site to measure its enrichment level. This refers to the amount of the U-235 isotope present in the fuel as compared with the amount of heavier, less reactive U-238. Natural uranium contains only a fraction of 1 percent of U-235. Low-enrichment uranium, which is used in nuclear power plants, has about 4 percent. The highly enriched stuff that goes into nuclear weapons is something like four-fifths U-235. When inspectors find enrichment levels higher than the 4 percent required for civilian purposes, they start asking questions."

This Means War
by Christopher Beam
http://www.slate.com/id/2231162/

Putting Sex in the Dictionary

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

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

Do Women Make Better Judges?

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

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

How Doctors Decide What Form a Drug Will Take

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

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

How Nice are Humans?

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

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

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

How Do I Get in Touch With a Terrorist?

I wonder how much terrorist spokesmen get paid...

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

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

On Blue-Slipping

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

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

CIA Center on Climate Change and National Security

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

Cayman Islands - Tax Conundrum

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

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

The Transporation Lobby

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

Frat Business Guy

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

Measuring Quality of Life

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

The eight areas measured:

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

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