Who Controls the Price of Commodities?

http://www.businessinsider.com/presenting-the-worlds-16-largest-commodity-traders-2011-10

On How to Look Like a Hard Worker

"Studies show that people think you'll work 30 percent harder if you carry a briefcase."

-WPost jobs section October 30, 2011

Fear of Flying

"Psychologists say phobias often take root when people are in their late 20s and typically affect those with above-average intelligence."

Flying With The Greatest of Ease
by Scott McCartney
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303970604576401860548340494.html

Porn is Ruining the Sex Lives of an Entire Generation

http://www.businessinsider.com/porn-ruining-sex-life-2011-10

Think Tank Spies

Chinese Think Tank Also Serves as Spy Arm
by Bill Gertz
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/28/chinese-think-tank-also-serves-as-spy-arm/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

On How to Have a Good Meal at a Bad Restaurant

Can You Eat Decently in an Indecent Restaurant?
by Tyler Cowen
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/10/02/magazine/29mag-food-issue.html#/restaurants

Why Do Sandwiches Taste Better When Someone Else Makes Them?

When you make your own sandwich, you anticipate its taste as you’re working on it. And when you think of a particular food for a while, you become less hungry for it later. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, for example, found that imagining eating M&Ms makes you eat fewer of them. It’s a kind of specific satiation, just as most people find room for dessert when they couldn’t have another bite of their steak. The sandwich that another person prepares is not “preconsumed” in the same way.

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/10/why-do-sandwiches-taste-better-when-someone-else-makes-them.html

Which US States are the Most/Least Promiscuous?

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/which-us-states-are-the-most-promiscuous

Is May the Best Month to Sell Your Stocks?

My colleague says sell June-August and buy November-January...

Is May the best month to sell your stocks?
http://www.bakadesuyo.com/all-other-things-being-equal-is-may-the-best

Does More Money Make You Fat?

"The relationship between obesity and economic development follows that is knows as the 'Kuznets curve,' the inverted U-shape relationship between development and inequality.  As people become richer, obesity will first increase, and then decrease, over time."

http://mitsloan.mit.edu/neudc/papers/paper_286.pdf

Txokos

On all-male cooking clubs in Spain called Txokos (CHOKE-ohs)...

Members Only (Most of the Time)
by J.S. Marcus
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204138204576603010494659344.html

5 Steps To Becoming an Expert

"Malcolm Gladwell popularized the concept of the 10,000 hour rule -- it takes about 10,000 hours of 'deliberate practice' to become an expert in a field."

Based on that figure, if one were to practice 24 hours a day, it would take about 416 days to master something, or a little over one year.  If one were to practice for 8 hours a day for five days a week for 50 weeks, it would take about 5 years to master something.

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/5-steps-to-becoming-an-expert

Quote of the Day: Economics

"Economics is common sense made difficult."

-Unkown

50 Ways to Leave Your Lawyer

On "unconventional" or "alternative" law firms...

Bargain Briefs; Economist Magazine
http://www.economist.com/node/21525907

Best Age for Making a Financial Decision?

"People seeking investment advice probably should be suspicious of anyone under 50.  A study titled 'What is the Age of Reason?' conclused that middle-aged people make fewer mistakes with finances than those who are younger or older.  The study even pegged the optimal point in life for handling money-related decisions: 53...anyone between 43 and 63 is really in their cognitive sweet spot."

Older but Wiser: Middle Age is a Prime Time for Finance
by Jonathan Burton
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204831304576594713008754264.html

But this article kind of disproves some of the points made:
http://www.bakadesuyo.com/do-older-investors-make-better-investment-dec

Also, here is an interesting and somewhat related article on choosing a surgeon/doctor based on age...

"Surgeons in their first five years of practice had a higher-than-average incidence of complications - but so did surgeons over 50.  The sweet spot of performance was ages 35 to 50."

How Old Is Your Surgeon
by Christopher Shea
http://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2012/01/12/aging-surgeons-rising-error-rates/

On Possessions

"Billionaire Nicolas Berggruen harbors a distaste for baggage, real and emotional.  At 50, Berggruen is without a house, a car or even a wristwatch.  He never married, nor does he have any children.  He hopscotches around the globe living out of hotels.  As Berggruen's wealth grew, he became disillusioend with what it could buy.  A decade ago, he began paring down his lifestyle, selling an island estate in Florida and an apartment in New York.  His somewhat limited wardrobe is now scattered across the world, stored at his favorite hotels.  He loaned his art collection to museums - a move that left him free to drift from one city to the next aboard his private jet, the one item he deems too 'practical' to discard."

Man Without a Country
by Stacy Meichtry
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904836104576556982258399652.html

Quote of the Day: Life Advice From Steve Jobs

"Stay hungry and stay foolish."

-Steve Jobs

Question of the Day: Think Tanks & the Executive Branch

Can someone who just left the executive branch and now works for a think tank have contact with the agency they just left?  Can they raise funds and gather information using those connections?  If they were a registered lobbyist, they'd have to wait two years, but as a non lobbyist at a think tank, are there any written rules?  What if the think tank is considered an advocacy group and actively lobbies the Hill on the executive branch?

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