10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You

I like these ones: (The full list of 10 can be found at the link below)

6. Read obituaries. They are just like biographies, only shorter. They remind us that interesting, successful people rarely lead orderly, linear lives.

9. It's all borrowed time. You shouldn't take anything for granted, not even tomorrow. I offer you the "hit by a bus" rule. Would I regret spending my life this way if I were to get hit by a bus next week or next year? And the important corollary: Does this path lead to a life I will be happy with and proud of in 10 or 20 years if I don't get hit by a bus.

10. Don't try to be great. Being great involves luck and other circumstances beyond your control. The less you think about being great, the more likely it is to happen. And if it doesn't, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being solid.

10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You
by Charles Wheelan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304811304577366332400453796.html?mod=e2fb

Map: Biggest Breasts in the World

http://www.businessinsider.com/bild-breast-map-atlas-der-korbchengrossen-2012-4

Also:

Map: Penis Size by Country:
http://translate.google.com/translate?act=url&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=de&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://www.bild.de/ratgeber/gesund-fit/penis/weltkarte-der-penis-laengen-16975756.bild.html

Map: The 10 Companies That Control Everything

http://www.businessinsider.com/these-10-corporations-control-almost-everything-you-buy-2012-4

Law of the Day: Pareto Principle

It states that for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle

"Four Seasons Index"

An economic indicator which notes how much it costs to stay at various Four Seasons Hotels around the world.

http://pricesignals.blogspot.com/2012/04/ruchir-sharma-brics-story-is-played-out.html

Porn Jobs

I've always wondered how many people are in the porn industry around the world.

A porn lobbyist was quoted in 2003 as saying that the porn industry in California employs an excess of 12,000 people in California.
http://www.blazinggrace.org/cms/bg/pornstats

Here are some cool porn statistics:
http://www.familysafemedia.com/pornography_statistics.html

Is The "Seven Year Itch" Real?

It has been theorized that people go through a period of dissatisfaction with their lives, relationships, job, etc., about every seven years, which is how this expression originated.

 http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_seven_year_itch

According to this article, it should now be called the three-year itch.

From The Seven Year Itch to the Three Year Ditch: Why Couples Are Breaking Up Earlier Than Ever
by Robert Lefever
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2132073/From-seven-year-itch-year-ditch-Why-couples-breaking-earlier-ever.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Infographic: The World's Religions

http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-map-world-religions-2012-4

Cool Product of the Week: SushiBot

It apparently rolls out 3,600 peices per hour...
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/04/sushibot/

Average Faculty Salaries

See what professors, associate professors, assistant professors, instructors, etc... are making.

http://chronicle.com/article/Interactive-Table-Average/131433/

Happiness May be Overrated

Cheer Up: Happiness May be Overrated
by Marta Zaraska
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/too-much-happiness-can-make-you-unhappy-studies-show/2012/04/02/gIQACELLrS_story.html

Cool Map: Taxes

This article has a bunch of really cool charts tracking each states corporate/individual/property/sales taxes...

The State of State Taxes
by Andrea Ford
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2111244,00.html

Why Does Democracy Have Such a Hard Time Taking Root in the Arab World?

 As it happens, a Harvard economics professor, Eric Chaney, recently presented a rigorous paper that helps unravel that knot. Chaney asks why there is a "democracy deficit" in the Arab world and systematically tests various hypotheses against the data. He notes that such majority-Muslim nations as Turkey, Indonesia, Albania, Bangladesh and Malaysia have functioning democratic systems, so the mere presence of Islam or Islamic culture cannot be to blame. He looks at oil-rich states and finds that some with vast energy reserves lack democracy (Saudi Arabia), but so do some without (Syria). He asks whether Arab culture is the culprit, but this does not provide much clarity. Chaney points out that many countries in the Arab neighborhood seem to share in the democracy deficit — Chad, Iran, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan — yet they are not Arab.


Then Chaney constructs a persuasive hypothesis based in ancient history — and modern economics. He notes that the democracy deficit today exists in lands that were conquered by Arab armies after the death in A.D. 632 of the Prophet Muhammad. Lands that the Arabs controlled in the 12th century remain economically stunted today. This correlation is not simply a coincidence. Scholars from Montesquieu to Bernard Lewis suggest that there was something in the political development of the Arab imperial system that seemed to poison the ground against economic pluralism. Arab imperial control tended to mean centralized political authority, weak civil society, a dependent merchant class and a large role for the state in the economy. Chaney documents the latter, showing that the government's share of GDP is 7% higher on average in countries that were conquered by Arab armies than in those that were not. He also finds that countries in the first group have fewer trade unions and less access to credit, features of a vibrant civil society.

A Region at War With Its History
by Fareed Zakaria
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2111248,00.html

Quote of the Day: Humanity's Problems

"All of humanity's problems stem from a man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone."

-Blaise Pascal

Cool Map of the Week: Wind Map

Two research scientists have created an animated map of wind patterns across the continental US that changes with hourly forecasts.

http://hint.fm/wind/

Cool Pic of the Week: Kayaks

This image is from National Geographic (April 2012 edition) and is described like this:

On Fourth Lake in New York's Adirondacks, a crush of 1,902 canoes and kayaks attempts to break a 'largest raft' world record.  Rules dictate that the mega-structure float freely for at least 30 seconds, held together only by hands.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/visions-of-earth/visions-earth-2012

Quote of the Day: On Succeeding in Life

"No man is a failure who enjoys life."

-William Feather

Why Finish Books?

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/mar/13/why-finish-books/

On Culinary Intelligence

"The best tip in the book is that you get most of the value of a dessert from the first bite or two. I believe also — for most but not all meals — that 80 percent of the value of a soft drink comes in the first 10 percent of your consumption of that drink."

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/03/culinary-intelligence.html

US Government Getting on the Happiness Bandwagon

The federal government is seeking ways to measure gross national happiness...

"Funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, a panel of experts in psychology and economics, including Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, began convening in December to try to define reliable measures of 'subjective well-being.'  If successful, these could become official statistics."

More Than a Feeling
by Peter Whoriskey
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/if-youre-happy-and-you-know-it--let-the-----government-know/2012/03/29/gIQAlSL2jS_story.html

On the Runner's High

"In both canines and humans, a high-intensity treadmill workout triggered the release of neurotransmitters known as endocannabinoids that ease pain, cause pleasure and create a desire for more exercise.  But walking on a treadmill, despite its health benefits, didn't raise endocannabinoid levels in either species."

Running With Rover
by Christopher Shea
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303404704577309801852465304.html

What is America's Biggest National Security Threat?

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, it is the US debt.  But even that is not the real root of the problem - overpopulation...

America's Biggest National Security Threat: US Debt
by Morgan Korn
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/biggest-threats-u-national-security-142943020.html