Are Elevators Environmentally Friendly?

Energy and Elevators
by Nina Shen Rastogi
http://www.slate.com/id/2215513/

How Yellowtail Destroyed Aussie Wine

"The biggest problem is that Australia has made itself synonymous in the minds of many drinkers with cut-rate, generic wines...In 2001, Filippo Casella and his son John launched a line of wines called Yellow Tail, whose colorful label featured that iconic Australian, the wallaby. The appealing packaging, combined with the decent quality of the wines and the low price ($7), proved to be a masterstroke: In just three years, Yellow Tail became the most popular imported wine in the United States, with sales of around 4 million cases annually...However, what was good for Yellow Tail wasn't so great for the Australian wines as a whole. For one thing, Yellow Tail spawned a legion of imitators, and retail shelves were soon crawling with "critter" labels featuring penguins, crocodiles, and other regional fauna. At the same time, Yellow Tail's success prompted rival Australian brands to focus even more of their efforts on the budget category. As a result, consumers came to equate Australia with wines that were flavorful but also cheap and frivolous, a perception that became a major liability when those same consumers got interested in more serious stuff; rather than looking to Oz, they turned to Spain, Italy, and France."

Not Such a G'Day
by Mike Steinberger
http://www.slate.com/id/2215153/

To Twit or not to Twit

Should you be Twittering?

"Eh, go ahead and give it a try if you like, but there's nothing lame about waiting to see whether Twitter pans out."

Do I Really Have to Join Twitter?
by Farhad Manjoo
http://www.slate.com/id/2215829/

Does an Advanced Degree Help in a Recession?

Help, My Degree is Underwater
by Emily Bazelon
http://www.slate.com/id/2215830/

Map: Real-Time Shoe Sales

From Zappos...

http://flowingdata.com/2009/04/09/zappos-maps-sales-in-real-time/

Terrorism = Healthy?

http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2009/04/threat-of-terrorism-boosts-peoples-self.html

TED Video: Dan Dennett on Cute, Sexy, and Sweet

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_dennett_cute_sexy_sweet_funny.html

TED Video: How to Grow Fresh Air

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kamal_meattle_on_how_to_grow_your_own_fresh_air.html

TED Video: Fulfilling the Dream of Flight

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ueli_gegenschatz_extreme_wingsuit_jumping.html

TED Video: Can Design Save Newspapers?

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jacek_utko_asks_can_design_save_the_newspaper.html

TED Video: John Wooden on Success

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/john_wooden_on_the_difference_between_winning_and_success.html

Cool New Things to do With a Mobile Phone

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/david_pogue_on_cool_phone_tricks.html

"Brownlining"

"Mr. Teasdable is a 'brownliner,' one of the growing ranks of fly fishermen who try to catch whatever lives in the much close to home - in drainage canals, cemented urban riverbeds and murky farm-runoff canals."

On Fly Casting's Urban Frontier, The Fish Are Big, the Water's Dirty
by Justin Scheck
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123742286341478873.html

TED Video: Predicting Iran

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita: Three Predictions on the Future of Iran, and the Math to Back It Up
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/bruce_bueno_de_mesquita_predicts_iran_s_future.html

Which are the Most Neurotic States?

Neurotic: tending to be emotionally unstable.

Can you guess the states?

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/04/which-are-the-most-neurotic-states.html

Predicting the Future? The LEI Index

The Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI)

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2009/04/07/the-crystal-ball-that-could-make-you-rich.aspx

Electricity Grid Penetrated by Spies

"Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials. The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls."

Electricity Grid in US Penetrated by Spies
by Siobhan Gorman
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123914805204099085.html

Traits That Billionaires Share

Want to become a billionaire? Be born in September, drop out of college, do a stint at Goldman Sachs, and have parents who are good at math...

*First, a significant percentage of billionaires had parents with a high aptitude for math. The ability to crunch numbers is crucial to becoming a billionaire, and mathematical prowess is hereditary. Some of the most common professions among the parents of American billionaires (for whom we could find the information) were engineer, accountant and small-business owner.

*Consistent with the rest of the population, more American billionaires were born in the fall than in any other season. However, relatively few billionaires were born in December, traditionally the month with the eighth highest birth rate.

*More than 20% of the 292 of the self-made American billionaires on the most recent list of the World's Billionaires have either never started or never completed college.

Billionaire Cluster
by Duncan Greenberg
http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/106866/Billionaire-Clusters

SOBS - The New Power

"The Consortium of Behavioral Scientists is a secret advisory grou pf 29 of the nation's leading behaviorists...the existence of this behavioral dream team - which includes best-seling authors Dan Ariely of MIT (Predictably Irrational) and Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein of the University of Chicago (Nudge) as well as Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman of Princeton - has never been publicly disclosed, even though its members gave Obama white papers on messaging, fundraising and rumor control as well as voter mobilization."

How Obama is Using the Science of Change
by Michael Grunwald
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1889153,00.html

SOBS - The New Power

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1889153,00.html

Economics of The Indian Dating Scene

"Indian parents used to think it a plus to marry off their daughters to Indian men living in wealthier countries, including the U.S. and Britain. But as India has grown more affluent in recent years, the demand for overseas Indian grooms has been fading. While India's economy is also slowing down, it is still growing, and layoffs aren't as widespread as in the West."

Ineligible Bachelors: Indian Men Living In the US Strike Out
by Shefali Anand
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123896998996190775.html#mod=todays_us_page_one

Odds of Dying in a Terrorist Attack

*You are 13 times more likely to die in a railway accident than from a terrorist attack
*You are 12,571 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack
*You are six times more likely to die from hot weather than from a terrorist attack
*You are eight times more likely to die from accidental electrocution than from a terrorist attack
*You are 11,000 times more likely to die in an airplane accident than from a terrorist plot involving an airplane
*You are 87 times more likely to drown than die in a terrorist attack
*You are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack
*You are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack
*You are 1048 times more likely to die from a car accident than from a terrorist attack
*You are 12 times more likely to die from accidental suffocation in bed than from a terrorist attack
*You are nine times more likely to choke to death on your own vomit than die in a terrorist attack
*You are eight times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist

http://eyewashstation.blogspot.com/2007/11/odds-of-dying-in-terrorist-attack.html

Pic: Cool Bookshelf

Which state is the hardest to fit a book in?

http://topcultured.com/hot-stuff/coolest-bookshelf-ever-and-10-more-that-rule/

The End of Poverty?

It looks promising...

http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecID=900003&contentID=254890

Fact of the Day: Tariffs

"Tariffs are one percent of American tax revenue, but once were half."

http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecID=900003&contentID=254924

Daunting Figures for Sushi

Prime Numbers: Sushinomics
by Daniel Pauly
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4679

Boat Dump

"Boat owners are abandoning ship. They often sandpaper over the names and file off the registry numbers, doing their best to render the boats, and themselves, untraceable. Then they casually ditch the vessels in the middle of busy harbors, beach them at low tide on the banks of creeks or occasionally scuttle them outright. The bad economy is creating a flotilla of forsaken boats."

Boats Too Costly to Keep Are Littering Coastlines
by David Streitfeld
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/business/01boats.html?_r=2&hp

On Understanding Washington

So simple yet so right:

"To understand what Washington is actually up to, you have to watch what is does, not what it says."

Outrageous Fortune
by Allan Sloan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/30/AR2009033003227.html

Peru = New Food Capital of the World?

"It's easy for Peruvians to be particular about their seafood. Fed by the icy, nutrient-rich Humboldt Current, the waters off the Peruvian coast are the most bountiful fishing grounds in the world...The prestigious Madrid Fusion culinary conference anointed Lima 'the gastronomic capital of Latin America.'... Hundreds of years of immigration have created a natural fusion of Spanish, Italian, Chinese and Japanese influences."

Marinated in the Morning or Grilled at Night
by Jane Black
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/31/AR2009033100844.html

Nigerians = World's Most Fashion Conscious?

"Lagosians, though, manage to keep their brilliantly colored clothes (traditional and Western) clean through it all. People look neat and presentable every day here, because in Lagos, you have to. Appearances matter everywhere, but Nigerians—and Lagosians in particular—are the most status- and style-conscious people I've ever been around."

Lagos, Africa's Mega City - Dapper, Dandy, and Pissed Off
by Will Connors
http://www.slate.com/id/2214412/entry/0/

Why Do The Most Totalitarian Countries Always Have the Most Democratic-Sounding Names?

"Soviet influence. After the 1917 October Revolution, the newly established Soviet regime couldn't very well keep the moniker 'Russian Empire,' which connoted czarist rule. But 'Russia' plain and simple wouldn't get at the seismic shift envisioned by the Bolsheviks. So, like the French in 1792—who tagged on the word Republic to mark the end of monarchic rule—the Bolsheviks called their new nation the 'Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic.' ...After World War II, countries influenced by the Soviets or forcibly occupied by the Red Army started adopting the 'People's Republic' tag line instead."

The Undemocratic People's Republic of Korea
by Juliet Lapidos
http://www.slate.com/id/2215156/

The End of Voicemail?

"But in an age of instant information gratification, the burden of having to hit the playback button — or worse, dial in to a mailbox and enter a pass code — and sit through 'ums' and 'ahs' can seem too much to bear...Research shows that people take longer to reply to voice messages than other types of communication. "

You've Got Voicemail, But Do You Care?
by Jill Colvin
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/fashion/02voicemail.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=you%27ve%20got%20voice%20mail&st=cse

Why Money Messes With Your Mind

"They made three discoveries: hungry volunteers were less likely to donate to charity than those who were satiated; those primed to have a high desire for money, by having imagined winning a big lottery, went on to eat the most candy in a taste test; and people whose appetites had been piqued by sitting in a room with a delicious smell, gave less money in a game situation than those who played in a normal-smelling room."

Why Money Messes With Your Mind
by Mark Buchanan
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20127001.200-why-money-messes-with-your-mind.html?full=true&print=true

Nollywood

"Nigeria is Now the World's Most Prolific Filmmaker."

http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?contentID=254935&knlgAreaID=108&subsecID=127&FREM=Y&sid=1&mid=28341

Idiot's Guide to Pakistan

"Everyone in Washington is talking about Pakistan, but few understand it. Here’s how to dazzle the crowd at your next Georgetown cocktail party."

The Idiot's Guide to Pakistan
by Nicholas Schmidle
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4782