What Do Spies Look Like?

With the proliferation of videos/recording devices, we are getting a better picture...I wonder if there is a general "look" that spies have...

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6242440n&tag=related;photovideo

Asian Nations Paying in Yen

"The unexpectedly sharp rise in Japan's January exports despite a still-strong yen reflects a notable development in the country's trade: More shipments are heading to thriving Asian markets and being paid for in yen, buffering Japanese exporters from the currency's strength."

Asian Nations Pay in Yen, Helping Japan's Exports
by Andrew Monahan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704188104575084070171493344.html?mod=WSJ_business_AsiaNewsBucket

15 Things You Should Know About Breasts

http://www.pixlmonster.com/tully/breasts/

US Cell Phone/Texting Laws by State

http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html

Japan's Auto Apathy

Roads are crowded, narrow and dull; highway speed limits top out at 80 kilometers per hour, and the toll fees are steep - drivers on the 325-kilometer trip from Tokyo to Nagoya before the financial crisis broke last year had to pay 7,100 yen (US$77.47). Within Tokyo, a parking space costs the equivalent of US$300 a month and up. Regulations and taxes add to the pain of car ownership, helping to feed an "auto apathy" that for years has dragged down sales of new and used cars, to the extent they are now at levels seen in the 1980s, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers' Association.

Japan Beset by Auto Apathy
by Christopher Johnson
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/LB23Dh01.html

Counting Sheep Helps You Fall Asleep

The bottom line: "Don’t count sheep; instead, try picturing relaxing images."

The Claim: Counting Sheep Helps You Fall Asleep
by Anahad O'Connor
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/health/16real.html?nl=health&emc=healthupdateemb3

Can a Vegan/Vegetarian Be a Foodie?

What type of foodie are you?

This one may best describe me:

"Someone who spends free time thinking about food, and keeping up with restaurants, and trying out new restaurants, and sharing news of discoveries with friends and family."

http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=1018377657&msgid=1609805&act=5P1F&c=398209&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonian.com%2Fchats%2Frestaurants%2F14933.html

Poll of the Week: Church Attendance by State

http://www.gallup.com/poll/125999/Mississippians-Go-Church-Most-Vermonters-Least.aspx

*Also check out the Gallup Well-Being Index by Congressional District...
http://www.well-beingindex.com/stateCongresDistrictRank.asp

Spy Assassination Gets Harder

"The practice of secretly assassinating purported enemies of the state - an age-old tool of foreign policy - has run up against steadily improving international police collaboration and the global proliferation of surveillance technologies that make it harder for anyone anywhere to surreptitiously conduct a high-profiel killing on foreign soil."

*President Ronald Reagan wrote an executive order that says: "No person employed by or acting on behlaf of the USG shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination." Reagan's 1981 order is still in effect, but the CIA has interpreted other laws and presidential covert action findings since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as allowing targeted killings of individuals.

How Spy Technologies Foil Secret Assassinations
by R. Jeffrey Smith and Peter Finn
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/19/AR2010021905335.html?referrer=delicious

Fat vs. Tall

Should fat people on airplanes be treated like tall people?

Fat vs. Tall
by William Saletan
http://slate.com/id/2245115/

Does Road Salt Harm the Environment?

Salting the Earth
by Nina Shen Rastogi
http://www.slate.com/id/2244156/

Do Recalls Really Make Us Safer?

"Bad drivers are far more dangerous than bum Toyotas."

Do Recalls Really Make Us Safer?
by Tom Vanderbilt
http://www.slate.com/id/2244929/

Worst Drivers By Occupation

http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_content_landing_pages/1302/lawyers-top-worst-drivers-list/

Does Smoking Damage the Environement?

I am also suprised at the lack of awareness about the dangers of even walking outside during a code red day...

"Smoking is plenty dangerous, but it’s an indoor problem. My assistant Una found an astonishing 357 billion cigarettes are smoked each year in the U.S. Assuming an average of 14 milligrams of fine particle emissions and 200 milligrams of carbon monoxide per cigarette, U.S. smokers produce about 5,500 tons of particles and 78,500 tons of carbon monoxide annually. That sounds like a lot, but it’s roughly 0.1 percent of U.S. totals for those pollutants. The real environmental issue here? The 357 billion cigarette butts."

Bad Air: Should Exercisers Heed Air Quality Warnings?
by Cecil Adams (Febreuary 17, 2010)
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/thestraightdope/

Why Does February Only Have 28 Days?

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/442/how-come-february-has-only-28-days

Ignore Expiration Dates

Ignore Expiration Dates
by Nadia Arumugam
http://www.slate.com/id/2244249?yahoo=y

High Context vs. Low Context Cultures

http://www.via-web.de/high-context-vs-low-context/

Catfish Wars

Expecting Something Fishy
by Kimberly Kindy
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/15/AR2010021502998.html

Betting on Cherry Blossoms

"Potential savers at Ikeda Bank are being enticed to lay a bet on the precise date in March that the cherry trees in Osaka break into blossom – a moment that marks the start of spring and generally triggers a week of boozy picnics. Depositors who guess correctly – the current thinking is that blossom day will be some time between March 23 and March 28 – will receive the princely return of 0.87 per cent on their one-year fixed term deposits; for those that do not, a still generous yield of 0.39 per cent will be given as a consolation prize. The selection of the 0.87 per cent rate is a pun – the number 87 can be read as the Japanese word for 'flower'. The number 39 can be read as 'bloom'."

Japanese Urged to Bet on Cherry Blossoms
by Leo Lewis
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/japan/article7031812.ece

Japan's Beef Bowl Economics

Beef Bowl Economics
by Hiroko Tabuchi
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/business/global/30deflation.html?th&emc=th

*One Noodle at a Time in Tokyo (about Ramen)
by Matt Gross
http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/travel/31ramen.html?nl=travel&emc=tda1

Trade Facts of the Week

*Counterfeit goods are about 2.5% of trade
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=108&subid=900003&contentid=255104

*US exports typically double every ten years
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=108&subid=900003&contentid=255107

Six Meaningless Claims on Food Labels

Six Meaningless Claims on Food Labels
by Tara Parker-Pope
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/six-meaningless-claims-on-food-labels/?ex=1280638800&en=c28b32d141702ee5&ei=5087&WT.mc_id=NYT-E-I-NYT-E-AT-0203-L21

Grammar Tips for Better Business Writing

http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/working_the_room/2010/02/grammar_tips_for_better_business_writing.html?ana=e_du_pap

Poll of the Week: Asian-Americans Lean Left

"Gallup Daily tracking data reveal that Asian-Americans tend to be more Democratic and much less conservative than the general population in their political views."

http://www.gallup.com/poll/125579/Asian-Americans-Lean-Left-Politically.aspx?CSTS=alert

Can 3-D Movies Induce Headaches/Sickness?

The Claim: 3-D Movies Can Induce Headaches and Sickness
by Anahad O'Connor
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/health/09really.html?nl=health&emc=healthupdateemb2

Restaurant Ethics - Wrong Food/Drink

Arlington: There is a restaurant near me that has a wide selection of craft beer in both 12 and 22oz bottles. If I order a bottle of beer, particularly a larger one, and the waiter brings it to me open, what is the appropriate response if he brings me the wrong bottle?Its not like a bottle of wine that you can send back for them to serve by the glass. Once a bottle of beer is opened...well, it needs to be drunk :) On one hand, I feel like I should get what I ordered, particularly if I ordered it to complement my meal. On the other hand, as a beer lover, I'd hate to let a good beer go to waste.In any case, I told the waiter that he brought me the wrong beer but I kept it and paid for it. Your thoughts?

Todd Kliman: I think he should let you keep the "wrong" beer, at no charge, and bring you the beer you asked for as well. And charge you for that.It's funny how restaurants deal with this. Most of the time, if something is wrong about a dish -- even if that something wrong is a small something -- the server whisks the plate away as if it had caused offense, and must be removed from your sight at once.Why? Why not just leave it? Leave it, and bring a new, correct dish. I've seen this happen a couple of times recently with dessert. It just seems odd to me. Leave it, let the table pick at it.

-February 16, 2010 Washingtonian Resaurant Chat

Fact of the Day: Feds

It costs about $100 million in revenue and operational costs each day the federal government is closed in the Washington area because of weather, according to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Fed Loses $100 Million/Day During Snow Days

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2010/02/federal_government_closed_on_m_1.html

Map of Space Junk

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESOC/SEMN2VM5NDF_mg_1.html

CIA Moonlighting in the Corporate World

"The CIA is offering operatives a change to peddle their expertise to private companies on the side - a policy that gives financial firms and hedge funds access to the nation's top-level intelligence talent."

CIA Moonlighting in the Corporate World
by Eamon Javers
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32290.html

Subject Your Purchases to Scrutiny With Blippy

"If you want to know how I spend my money, go to Blippy.com. Each time I make a purchase on my credti card, the amount I've spent and the name of the place I've spent it automatically pop up on this weird new site."

Public Spending
by Barbara Kiviat
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1955597,00.html

*http://blippy.com/

Does Congress Do Less in Election Years?

"While it's true that Congress is in session for fewer days during election years, in fact, more laws are passed...In election years, controversial topics are often addressed first...Closer to an election, leaders focus more on bills that specifically help the people in members' districts."

http://www.parade.com/news/intelligence-report/archive/100131-does-congress-do-less-in-election-years.html

The Collapse of Japan Inc.?

"The problems that confront Toyota, Sony and JAL differ, but experts say their struggles have some common themes: the perils of global expansion, a tendency to embrace the status quo, and smugness bred from success or a too-big-to-fail mentality."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gpg3fvHzQiGFgbUoDxCoav1_Nesw

Most Democratic & Republican States

*Most Democratic = Rhode Island (if you don't include DC)
*Most Republican = Wyoming

http://www.gallup.com/poll/125450/Party-Affiliation-Despite-GOP-Gains-States-Remain-Blue.aspx?CSTS=alert