How to Win an Argument - Don't Make it an Argument

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-win-an-argument-2014-7?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+businessinsider+%28Business+Insider%29

Warmest Days of the Year in all 50 States

http://www.businessinsider.com/when-is-the-hottest-day-of-the-year-2014-7

The Middle East Friendship Chart

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2014/07/17/the_middle_east_friendship_chart.html

Happiness Benchmark by Each State

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/map-happiness-benchmark_n_5592194.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

Map: Biggest Banks of Every State

http://www.businessinsider.com/this-map-shows-the-biggest-bank-in-every-state-2014-7

Happiness = Making $83K, not 75K?

http://www.businessinsider.com/happiness-benchmark-for-annual-income-2014-7

Map That Explains Every Culture in the World

http://www.businessinsider.com/inglehart-welzel-culture-map-2014-7

Cool Map of Languages

http://www.vox.com/2014/7/2/5862696/where-people-speak-what-languages

On Teeth & Mental Disorder

Theodicy and the Dentist's Chair
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303701304579547761689093426?KEYWORDS=decayed+teeth&mg=reno64-wsj

Investment Advice from Warren Buffett

"The markets are designed to transfer money from the active to the patient."


http://online.wsj.com/articles/look-whos-beating-the-market-1403888067

Advice for Graduates - Don't Fail to Notice When Your Happy

http://parade.condenast.com/297072/connieschultz/my-advice-to-new-graduates-just-breathe/

Harvard MBA Indicator

Use this to predict bubbles...it's a bad sign when Harvard grads go to Wall Street...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/05/28/want-to-spot-the-next-bubble-look-at-where-harvard-grads-work/

Hongeo: Fermented Fish from Korea

As the NYT describes it: a delicate mix of outhouse and ammonia.


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/world/asia/hongeo-south-koreas-smelliest-food.html

How to Make Someone Happy to Pay You

Dear Dan,

Early in my career, I wrote a massive Excel macro for the large bank where I worked. The macro (a set of automated commands) would take a data dump and turn it into a beautiful report. It took about two minutes to run, with an hourglass showing that it was working away. The output was very useful, but everyone complained that it was too slow.

One way to speed up a macro is to make it run in the background, invisibly, with just the hourglass left on-screen. I had done this from the start, but just for fun, I flipped the setting so that people using the macro could see it do its thing. It was like watching a video on fast forward: The macro sliced the data, changed colors, made headers and so on. The only problem: It took about three times as long to finish.

Once I made this change, however, everyone was dazzled by how fast and wonderful the algorithm was. Do you have a rational explanation for this reversal?

—Mike

I'm not sure I have a rational explanation, but I have a logical one. What you describe so nicely is a combination of two forces. First, when we are just waiting aimlessly, we feel that time is being wasted, and we feel worse about its passage. Second, when we feel that someone is working for us, particularly if they are working hard, we feel much better about waiting (and about paying them for their effort). Interestingly, this joy at having someone work hard for us holds true not just of people but of computer algorithms, too.

The life lesson should be clear: Work extra hard at describing how hard you work to those around you.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB20001424052702304349604579606111586255626