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Saturday, February 07, 2009

"Furious activity is no substitute for understanding." - H. H. Williams

***

The 10 people most responsible for the recession - "Its proximate cause was a conscious decision by the US Treasury to jeopardise the stability of the world economy in pursuit of an essentially political objective - to show that the Bush Administration was willing to act ruthlessly against at least one big Wall Street investment bank. Until that point, savers and investors around the world had assumed that financial institutions such as Lehman were "too big to fail" and would always be supported by their governments. By shattering this belief Henry Paulson triggered a run on every important bank in the world and caused the sudden implosion of consumer and business confidence seen in the past two months."
You rescue banks, you get bashed for rescuing fatcats. You don't, you get bashed for having political motives. Damned if you do...

Just what is the middle class, and other stuff - "How people view their own income status is the antithesis of Lake Wobegon: Everybody sees themselves as average. Some surveys have found that upward of 90 percent of the population considers itself middle class. But there is also a lot of variation in who professes to be middle class. A 2008 survey by the Pew Research Center found that only about half of all adults put themselves in the middle class. But four in 10 with annual family incomes below $20,000 called themselves middle class; one-third of those with incomes over $150,000 said the same. Few people report themselves to be rich."

Has Middle America Stagnated? A closer look at hourly wages - "Numerous recent commentaries conclude that it has, at least for "middle America"—the broad swath of people who live well above poverty but well below opulence. These articles are supported by statistics showing slow-growing—even falling—wages, and little growth in household income over the past 30 years. It's a pretty gloomy scenario... Microeconomic statistics showing stagnation, and macroeconomic statistics exhibiting growth, measure "wages" quite differently. When the data are adjusted so that they more closely measure the same conceptual object, the disparity between the microeconomic and macroeconomic statistics largely evaporates, and I find that labor income per hour for middle America has not stagnated. Rather, the economic compensation for work for middle Americans has risen significantly over the past 30 years."

Saudi Arabia opens its doors to tourists... just a little - "In this cool region I was for once glad of my abaya - the long, black gown that all women must wear in public, along with a hijab (headscarf). In Riyadh's 35C heat this was akin to walking around in your own personal sauna. Local men usually wear cool, white robes known as thobes; it seems that the abaya's stifling black is intended to discourage women from leaving home. Women visitors must accept that wearing an abaya is an important part of showing respect in Saudi culture. More practically, not to wear one will open you to abuse on the streets. I certainly felt more at ease when covered up, though I was frustrated by the many restrictions: women are not allowed to drive, use internet cafés or go into many restaurants."

Water is blue ... because water is blue - "The following figure shows a measurement of the absorption spectra of normal and of heavy water, taken from WHY IS WATER BLUE? by Charles L. Braun and Sergei N. Smirnov, reproduced from J. Chem. Edu. 70(8) (1993) 612."
Popular Science books conned us!

No, Nuh-Uh, No Way: The Robo-Urinal - "Allegedly this robo-urinal holds your junk while you pee."

Op-Chart - Bulls, Bears, Donkeys and Elephants - "As of Friday, a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock market index* would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only, although that would be $51,211 if we exclude Herbert Hoover’s presidency during the Great Depression. Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years."

The smell of fear is real, claim scientists - "Researchers have found that chemical signals emitted by the body in sweat when scared really can be picked up by others and can trigger fear in their brains. The discovery may help to explain why individuals with phobias such as a fear of flying can infect others who normally exhibit no such worries... Simon Wesseley, psychiatrist at King's College London, told the magazine that studies in the 1960s had shown that injecting people with adrenaline did not make them fearful until the situation became threatening. He said: "You can generate the physical symptoms of fear but people don't necessarily get scared.""

Iraqi woman had 80 women raped to recruit suicide bombers - "A WOMAN suspected of recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers has confessed to organising their rapes so she could later convince them that martyrdom was the only way to escape the shame."

'Immortal' jellyfish swarming across the world

Will daily sex cure a low libido? - "The absence of sex is a powerful yet subtle foe. It quietly corrodes the most important parts of a relationship — trust, intimacy, passion, respect — and that least analysed of all attributes, fanciability. If left untreated, the lack of sex can even destroy love. I am convinced many people split up because they forget to make love to each other, and love — along with the feelgood chemical, dopamine, that sex generates — dries up... The idea that you could enjoy sex without “wanting” it can be a revelation, but “you just have to put the canoe in the water and start paddling”... It seems, as in so many aspects of marriage, that the answer lies in compromise. The needs of both people be recognised. “Sometimes that means making love to your spouse even when you’re not in the mood,” says Spurr. “You do it because you know it’ll make the person you love happy.”"
Strangely, there're no feminists bashing men for demanding sex as if they own women's bodies in the comments

Bobbie Johnson: Why I'm finished with 'social media' - "Nobody talks about people down the pub laughing about Bale's expletive-laden bullying as a "social drinking sensation". They don't call people giggling about it on the phone as a "social telecommunications sensation". They call it joking, or they call it gossip, because that's what people do. Whether they do it online or offline, down the pub or on Facebook doesn't matter. "Social media" is mainstream - we don't need to claim any more victories for it. So, that's it. I'm sick of "social media experts"."

YouTube - WHERE ARE THE CHIPS??? - "They're big and full and bouncy. A double-breasted burger from Nando's."
They wouldn't be able to do this ad in Singapore for more than one reason.

Straight and to the point. - "I just need to do this without the drama. You know! Genuine conversation and chemistry as the only real requirements. So why craigslist? I can't bring myself to risk any of the current friendships and it's been awhile since the last time."
Two people sent me this. For all you know it's a "Your chances of getting laid through Craigslist" study

F*** My Life - FML : Your everyday life stories. - "Today, I decided to send my boyfriend a pic text of me naked. I accidently sent it to my dad and got a text back saying "You definitely take after your mom". FML.. Today, I had just gotten over the flu and thought I was better. So me and my boyfriend decided to have sex. As I was about to orgasm, I puked all over his face. He was so disgusted that he ended up throwing up on me as well. FML... Today, I was eating ice cream and I noticed some on my jeans so I wiped it off with my finger and licked it. It was bird shit. FML"
I bet half of these are fake

A shallow strategy - "This takes us rapidly to the credit crunch: stretch rules to their limits, don’t worry about systemic effects, don’t think about ethics – and measure success in Ferraris. Game theory has made the financial world in its image, and we are now trying to rescue ourselves from it. Is this book a guide to success in business? Probably not, unless you want to go into competition law, running complicated auctions, utility regulation or military micro-tactics. Is it a guide to life? The trouble lies in its shallow psychology. The games you play and the way you play them change you as a person – today’s game changes the games and pay-offs you will face tomorrow. A focus on the tactics of life squeezes out the important questions of what a good life should be. The financial crisis is also a crisis for economics: why did the discipline fail so spectacularly to predict it? Worse, did it contribute to making the meltdown possible?"

More soldiers committed suicide in January than killed by Al Qaeda

He’s not controversial, just brutally frank - "It can be a hair-raising experience talking to socio-political blogger Gabriel Seah. And we’re not talking about his views on mega-churches as being cult-like, or the fact that he blew famous blogger Dawn Yang’s plastic surgery cover. Rather, it’s the way he tosses his mane nonchalantly as he speaks... “There’s also something that I like to do to other people with my hair,” Seah explained. He tied his hair in a high ponytail, and without warning, whipped his friend’s face. She yelped in pain, and he laughed."
I'm not a socio-political blogger ><

The Psychological Consequences of Money - "Money has been said to change people’s motivation (mainly for the better) and their behavior toward others (mainly for the worse). The results of nine experiments suggest that money brings about a self-sufficient orientation in which people prefer to be free of dependency and dependents. Reminders of money, relative to nonmoney reminders, led to reduced requests for help and reduced helpfulness toward others. Relative to participants primed with neutral concepts, participants primed with money preferred to play alone, work alone, and put more physical distance between themselves and a new acquaintance"

PMSBuddy.com - The free online PMS reminder - "PMSBuddy.com is a free service created with a single goal in mind: to keep you aware of when your wife, girlfriend, mother, sister, daughter, or any other women in your life are closing in on "that time of the month" - when things can get intense for what may seem to be no reason at all."

Some guys have all the luck - "It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it. Developer Ong Jun Da spends about 20 minutes each day picking out attractive Singapore women to add to his iPhone slideshow app SG Girls (iTunes link). As a result of his tireless efforts, SG Girls (US$3.99) now has more than 2,000 pictures of attractive women. More are added each day... Currently, he gets all the pictures from Flickr but he is looking at getting pictures from other sources as well."
!@#$%^&*(). I'm quite sure he's violated some CC licenses in the process of making this application.
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