Japan's Obsessive Train Culture

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/if-you-thought-japans-trains-were-something-else-wait-until-you-see-its-trainspotters/2017/01/05/1049fe38-c5c6-11e6-a22f-f4d703887285_story.html?utm_term=.038ac7e205ab

Moneyball for Lawyers

http://www.wsj.com/articles/data-tools-offer-hints-at-how-judges-might-rule-1481641205

Pay of Federal Workers Lags 34 Percent?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewbiggs/2016/11/01/are-federal-employees-really-underpaid-by-34-percent/#7646be4639f9

Can Houseplants be Unhealthy for Humans?

http://www.wsj.com/articles/can-houseplants-be-unhealthy-for-humans-1475515248

Quote of the Day: Revenge

"Carlson likes her revenge like other Swedes like their aquavit: icy cold."

Despite the Bloody Headlines, the World is Safer

"The homicide rate in hunter-gatherer societies was about 500 times what it is in Europe today."  (Economist)

The Many Problems of Stock Forecasters

Profits forecasts made more than a few months ahead have a dismal record of inaccuracy...Are forecasts useless?

"Stocks analysts' forecasts tend to be wrong in reassuringly predictable ways...simply taking the market's earnings figures from the previous year and multiplying by 1.07 (corresponding with a stockmarket's long-run growth rate) can be expected to yield a more accurate forecast of profits more than a year in the future."

http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21711082-reassuringly-predictable-ways-sell-side-share-analysis-wrong

The Fragility of Digital Federal Records

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/01/nyregion/harvesting-government-history-one-web-page-at-a-time.html?_r=0

Why Polls Fail

"Two decades ago, more than one-third of US households contacted for a survey agreed to answer questions, according to the Pew Research Center.  Now, that number is around 9%."

http://www.wsj.com/articles/pollsters-face-hurdles-in-changing-landscape-1478823046

Most Common Job in Your State

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/no-truck-driver-isnt-the-most-common-job-in-your-state-2015-02-12

The Continued Failure of Political Predictions

http://www.mrctv.org/blog/fail-prweek-s-survey-22-pr-pros-found-zero-predictions-trump

Mediaite's 2016 Most Influential in News Media

http://www.mediaite.com/online/__trashed-13/

Meet the Lox Masters

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/nyregion/a-high-holy-call-for-lox-and-old-hands-to-slice-it-at-zabars.html

When US Entanglements Overseas Fail

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/world/asia/tajikistan-islamic-state-isis.html

Unique World Customs - Denmark/Canada Edition

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/08/world/what-in-the-world/canada-denmark-hans-island-whisky-schnapps.html

The "Overton Window" is Shifting

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/17/technology/social-medias-globe-shaking-power.html

Policy Has Always Moved Slowly

"In December 1873, London was blanketed for a week in a yellow fog so think that people could not see their feet.  "Ladies & gentlemen," Mark Twain said in a public lecture at the time, "I hear you, & so know that you were here - & I am here, too, notwithstanding I am not visible."  Some 780 people dies and 50 prize cattle on display at the Smithfield Club panted, wheezed and eventually died of asphyxia.  Still, it took 83 more years of noxious air before the country passed the Clean Air Act of 1956.

Das Butt - Why do Germany Love Nudity?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/24/t-magazine/travel/german-nudist-culture-fkk-freikorperkultur.html

The Coolest Class at Harvard? It's Bob Dylan

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/15/arts/music/bob-dylan-101-a-harvard-professor-has-the-coolest-class-on-campus.html

A Chinese Dish with Urine?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/world/what-in-the-world/china-dongyang-eggs-urine.html?_r=0

Remote Year

http://www.wsj.com/articles/going-far-afield-yet-staying-on-the-job-1480428003

Bureaucracies Trying to Survive and Thrive

Pentagon hid study revealing $125 billion in waste:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-buries-evidence-of-125-billion-in-bureaucratic-waste/2016/12/05/e0668c76-9af6-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html

Allianz Global Wealth Report 2016

https://www.allianz.com/v_1474281539000/media/economic_research/publications/specials/en/AGWR2016e.pdf

US Engaged in Five Hot Conflicts

http://www.wsj.com/articles/obamas-tide-of-war-1476832244

US Interference in Other Countries' Democratic Elections

From 1946-2000 the US and Russia intervened in 117 elections around the world.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/13/the-long-history-of-the-u-s-interfering-with-elections-elsewhere/

Can You Name the Six Official Languages of the UN?

http://www.un.org/en/sections/about-un/official-languages/

Want to be a 'foreign agent'? Serve in Congress First.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/congress-foreign-lobbying-228982

The Power of Dentsu

https://www.ft.com/content/c0c3eed8-86fe-11e6-a75a-0c4dce033ade

Cool Job of the Week: Data Hunter

Data hunting at industry conferences:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/wall-streets-insatiable-lust-data-data-data-1473719535

Top Secret America

The Washigton Post series on the secret government buildings around the DMV:
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/

Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_sharpshooter_fallacy

Art Forgeries

50% of the art market is forged?
https://issuu.com/jerrybrinn/docs/time_usa_-_7_march_2016

Or is it 70%!?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/17/are-over-half-the-works-on-the-art-market-fakes.html

Disposition

Fifty years of empirical research in personality psychology have resulted in a scientific consensus regarding the most basic dimensions of human variability.  There are countless ways to differentiate one person from the next, but psychological scientists have settled on a relatively simple taxonomy, known widely as the Big Five:

• Extroversion: gregariousness, social dominance, enthusiasm, reward-seeking behavior
• Neuroticism: anxiety, emotional instability, depressive tendencies, negative emotions
• Conscientiousness: industriousness, discipline, rule abiding, organization
• Agreeableness: warmth, care for others, altruism, compassion, modesty
• Openness: curiosity, unconventionality, imagination, receptivity to new ideas

What Do You Call a Professor? How about an Adjunct?

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2014/03/what_should_students_call_their_college_professors.html

Quote of the Day

"The world would be a better place is verbosity and banality were fatal conditions."

-David Rothkopf