Gouldenomics: June 2010

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Monday, June 28, 2010

What Makes a Country Miserable?

I also think that boring currency generally means that a country is more stable...

"Nations with fewer flag colors, infrequent constitutional changes, and small constitutions tend to have higher well-being than others."

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/you-know-why-that-countrys-citizens-are-miser

What Qualities Get Men and Women the Most Respones in Online Dating?

"The traits that appeared to influence the hit rate for advertisements placed by males were, in order of importance, education level, age, height, and resources offered, all of which were positively correlated with the hit rate. In contrast, certain traits advertised by females such as weight, height, education, and stated age were all negatively correlated with the hit rate. Resources offered by men had only a small positive effect and the advertising of general attractiveness by women had no effect at all on the hit rate, suggesting that respondents to personal advertisements rely much more on relatively objective traits, such as achieved education, male height, and female weight, than on those traits which are more open to subjective error or manipulation."

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/what-qualities-get-men-and-women-the-most-res

Is It Better to Give Employees Gifts or Cash?

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/is-it-better-to-give-employees-gifts-or-cash

How Accurate Are Lie Detectors?

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/how-accurate-are-lie-detectors

Are People Remembered By How They Lived Their Entire Lives?

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/are-people-remembered-by-how-they-lived-their

To Look Attractive, Should Guys Be Surrounded by Girls? Should Girls Be Surrounded By Guys?

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/to-look-attractive-should-guys-be-surrounded

What Makes US Happiest: Work, Love, or Leisure?

"Individuals with high levels of flow during leisure reported the highest levels of positive affect, whereas success in the field of work and intimate relationship added little. However, lowest levels of depressive symptoms were found in respondents who fulfilled at least two criteria of success."

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/what-makes-us-happiest-work-love-or-leisure

"How We're Doing" Index

http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2010/0523_recovery_renewal.aspx

Is Making Your Bed Unhealthy?

"Research suggests that while an unmade bed may look scruffy it is also unappealing to house dust mites thought to cause asthma and other allergies."

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/is-making-your-bed-unhealthy

Why Can't Politicians Give a Straight Answer?

"Our data show that, on average, ambiguity does not repel and may, in fact, attract voters."

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/why-cant-a-politician-give-a-straight-answer

Does Money Reduce Your Ability to Enjoy Life?

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/does-money-reduce-your-ability-to-enjoy-life

Does the Size of That Gucci Logo Tell You Something About the Wearer?

"Wealthy consumers low in need for status want to associate with their own kind and pay a premium for quiet goods only they can recognize. Wealthy consumers high in need for status use loud luxury goods to signal to the less affluent that they are not one of them. Those who are high in need for status but cannot afford true luxury use loud counterfeits to emulate those they recognize to be wealthy."

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/does-the-size-of-that-gucci-logo-tell-you-som

Do The Irish Really Drink That Much?

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/do-the-irish-really-drink-that-much

Want to Reduce Drunk Driving? Raise Gas Prices.

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/a-quick-and-easy-way-to-reduce-drunk-driving

Want to Reduce Drunk Driving? Raise Gas Prices.

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/a-quick-and-easy-way-to-reduce-drunk-driving

How Much Do Street Prostitutes Earn?

$25-$30/hour

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/how-much-do-street-prostitutes-earn

Are Extraverts Smarter Than Introverts?

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/are-extraverts-smarter-than-introverts

Pay-What-You-Want Restaurants

http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/06/17/pay_what_you_can_restaurants/index.html

One Reason Why Humans Are Special

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=one-reason-why-humans-are-special-a-2010-06-22

Global Diamond Trade

http://www.duke.edu/web/soc142/team7/index.html

*And from De Beers site...What is global diamond demand by country?

*USA: 41%
*Gulf: 8%
*China: 5%
*Japan: 11%
*India: 8%
*Taiwan: 2%
*Hong Kong: 2%
(Italy: 4%
*Rest of World: 19%

http://www.debeersgroup.com/en/Global/FAQs/#faq-link1Globaldemand

*Also, here is a link to the top diamond producing countries
http://www.cheap-diamond.com/Countries/

How Things We Touch Affect Our Judgement

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2010/06/25/heavy-rough-and-hard-%E2%80%93-how-the-things-we-touch-affect-our-judgments-and-decisions/

Chart: State Median Income by Family Size

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ocs/liheap/guidance/SMI75FY09.pdf

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

FBI's Art Theft Program

It might be very interesting to work for the FBI's art theft unit...

http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/arttheft/arttheft.htm

Following is the FBI's current list of the top ten art crimes:

*Iraqi Looted and Stolen Artifacts

*Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft

*Theft of Caravaggio's Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francesco

*Theft of the Davidoff-Morini Stradivarius

*The Van Gogh Museum Robbery

*Theft of Cezanne's View of Auvers-sur-Oise

*Theft of the Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Murals, Panels 3-A and 3-B

*Theft from the Museu Chacara do Céu

*Theft of Van Mieris's A Cavalier

*Theft from E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich

Monday, June 21, 2010

On Lucky Charms

"New research suggests that a belief in good luck can affect performance."

The Power of Lucky Charms
by Carl Bialik
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703648304575212361800043460.html

Map: Spread of the Amish

http://blogs.ngm.com/blog_central/2009/07/spread-of-the-amish.html

Friday, June 18, 2010

Where Americans Are Moving

http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/04/migration-moving-wealthy-interactive-counties-map.html

Monday, June 14, 2010

The Problems With Today's Lawmaking

Some key points:

*Democrats tend to be more itneresting in legislating than in managing.

*Most bills are designed for passage, not implementation. They are stuffed with special provisions inserted by lobbyiss and predatory politicians. They are empretzeled with circuitous funding mechanmisms. It is no major, and even minro, pieces of legislation these days are blast-wall thick, running to thousands of pages.

*Three types of people tend to seek government work: idealists, those looking for sinecures, and those who want to build lucrative private-sector careers based on their knowledge of government regulations. All three types present problems.

Management 101
by Joe Klein
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1987358,00.html