Is Distance the Key to a Happy Marriage?

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/sex/is-distance-the-key-to-a-happy-marriage-2570243/

What Value Do You Put on Your Digital Assets?

McAfee values them at around $37,000.  That figure includes music libraries, family photos, and personal information.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=256&sid=2566816

Why is There More Polygnmy in West Africa?

http://www.wfu.edu/~daltonjt/PolygynySlaveTrade.pdf

Tenkara Fishing - Japanese Style

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

Who Will be the First Trillionaire?

Based on her brief predictions, the first trillionaire could come as early as 50 years from now.

As Rich Flourish, Who'll be the First Trillionaire?
by Annie Lowrey
http://www.slate.com/id/2304124/

The Ethic Dining Scene in Washington, DC

Ethnic Goes Exurban
by Tyler Cowen
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/01/AR2006090101416.html

Don't Always Buy on Down Days in the Market

On why to not always buy on down days/weeks in the market.

Think Twice Before You Buy on the Dips
By Jason Zweig
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904563904576589134168081092.html?mod=ITP_businessandfinance_0

World's Best Matzoh Ball Soup

Where is the world's best matzoh ball soup?  My guess is that it is somewhere on either on the East Coast or West Coast of the US.

Reading Speed

What should be read slowly and what should be read quickly? 

Perhpaps books, which often take longer to write (and thus are presumably more thought out) should be read more slowly to enjoy the diction as opposed to newspapers, magazines, and online articles which are often writen quickly and to sell as much as possible.

More specifically on books, perhaps poetry and classics should be read more slowly than things such as romance novels, travel tales and other types of books where comprehensive absoprtion and lingering is not necessary.

Any thoughts?

On Masskrugstemmen

"Masskrugstemmen is an enduance competition in which athletes try to hold onto an enormous beer for as long as they can.  Contestants line up, extend one arm parallel to the ground, grip a one-liter beer, and try not to pill.  Drop any brew, and you're eliminated."

A Toast to a Real Strongman
Jason Gay
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904060604576570882341095292.html

Are Alpha Males Healthy?

"...While alpha males got the best food and the most mates, they experienced far more stress than the beta males just beneath them in the hierarchy, based on the levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, in fecal samples.  The beta males had almost as many mates and got just as much grooming from others, but they didn't have to spend as much time fighting or following females around to keep other males away."

Are Alpha Males Healthy?
By Melinda Beck
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903532804576566553268698820.html

Maximize Happiness

Should the goal of everything be to maximize happiness?  (Without infringing on other people's happiness)

The Myth of Japan's Lost Decade

"If the average living Japanese person is better off now than 20 years ago (as measured by GDP per capita), then why fixate on the aggregate output of the Japanese economy? Asking the Japanese economy to produce goods at a rate that keeps pace with economies of growing populations seems unnecessary and even impossible."

http://seekingalpha.com/article/288071-the-myth-of-japan-s-lost-decade

Measuring a Storm's Fury: The Waffle House Index

"When a hurricane makes landfall, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency relies on a couple of metrics to assess its destructive power..one of them is the Waffle House Index.  Green means the restaurant is serving a full menu, a signal that damage in an area is limited and the lights are on.  Yellow means a limited menu, indicating power from a generator, at best, and low food supplies.  Red means the restaurant is closed, a sign of severe damage in the area or unsafe conditions...Waffle House Inc. has 1,600 restaurants stetching from the mid-Atlantic to Florida and across the Gulf Coast, leaving it particularly vulnerable to hurricanes."

Hose to Measure a Storm's Fury One Breakfast at a Time
by Valerie Bauerlein
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904716604576542460736605364.html

Post Vacation Syndrome (PVS)

Sounds a bit like leisure sickness...

"Post Vacation Syndrome is characterized by a combination of irritability, anxiety, lack of motivation, difficulty concentrating, and a feeling of emptiness that lasts up to a few weeks after returning to work.  Some people get a mild version every Sunday night after getting the weekend off.  Surveys suggest that 35% to 75% of workers in Spain, where many businesses close for the month of August, suffer from PVS."

The Post-Labor Day Letdown
by Melinda Beck
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903648204576552652359497910.html

Dumpling Consumption in Japan

"Utsunomiya has the highest per capita gyoza-consumption rate in Japan and spends the most on the dumplings.  Government data show the average city household spent 479 yen on ready-to-eat gyoza bought at supermarkets in December 2010.  Tokyoites spent less than half that.  Utsunomiya's unofficial mascot is a version of Botticelli's Venus, emerging not from a seashell but from a gyoza wrapper.  Last fall, the city's annual gyoza festival drew 120,000 people from around Japan."

City in Japan Tires New Tack on Old Problem
by Mariko Sanchanta
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576315324222775488.html

Spying on Embassies

"Former counterintelligence officials describe Israeli intelligence operations in the United States as quite extensive, ranking just below those of China and Russia, and F.B.I. counterintelligence agents have long kept an eye on Israeli spying."

Leak Offers Look at Efforts by the US to Spy on Israel
by Scott Shane
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/us/06leak.html?_r=1&hp