Standing-Room Only Flights

From the Daily Mail:

Ryanair wants passengers to stand during its flights so the budget airline can squeeze more people onboard.

The Irish air carrier plans to cut costs by making fliers perch on stools with seatbelts around their waists.

Interesting proposal.

The Right Aid

“For too long, our primary response [to fight hunger] has been to send emergency [food] aid when the crisis is at its worst,” Ms Clinton said last month. “This saves lives, but it doesn’t address hunger’s root causes. It is, at best, a short-term fix.”

-from FT, as G8 plans to announce new initiative to increase investment in farming to developing world

I can't say that hunger prevention is something I know much about, but what Mrs. Clinton has said above sounds logical to me. Like that Chinese proverb: "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life." I hope that this initiative will not only battle hunger, but also will also lead to economic development.

Trickling Down of Wealth?

From BW (a bit dated, but I just now came across it):

Private sector job growth was almost non-existent over the past ten years.

Between May 1999 and May 2009, employment in the private sector sector only rose by 1.1%, by far the lowest 10-year increase in the post-depression period.

Over the past 10 years, the private sector has generated roughly 1.1 million additional jobs, or about 100K per year. The public sector created about 2.4 million jobs.

But even that gives the private sector too much credit. Remember that the private sector includes health care, social assistance, and education, all areas which receive a lot of government support. I’ve been talking about the HealthEdGov sector.

The article goes on, listing industries most affected/changed in the past 10 years. Manufacturing is the industry with most job lost during the period. I guess that makes sense, considering we have been losing that battle to China and/or other low-cost countries. Job lost in the construction industry is surprising at first, but I think it's due to the fact that we've gained migrant workers who are willing to work longer hours with same pay, so pushing off higher-wage workers. The industry with the highest job growth goes to private healthcare, which is almost laughable to me considering it's one of the most problematic sectors (but that's another discussion). The numbers cited in the articles are still thought provoking enough.

It Pays to be Financially Responsible

From WSJ on how banks take your money:

Late fees, loan-origination fees, over-the-limit and overdraft charges helped generate 53% of banking-industry income in 2008, according to R.K. Hammer, up from 35% of income in 1995. The average bounced-check fee is $28.95, up about $1 from last year, says Greg McBride, senior analyst at Bankrate.com. And it's a charge that rises every year.

Like they say, the difference between banks and loan sharks is that banks don't break your legs for stiffing their loans. But are banks really that much better at this point? ...

Casual Hookups

I came across an article on NPR today about how 20-somethings were more accepting to the idea of casual hookups, as more and more people were delaying marriages. The point of the story, it seemed, was that these casual hookups may lead to loss of intimacy.

At the end of the story, there was a poll asking out of the following choices what would be best describe how you feel about hookups. So I answered the question. As of the time I voted, around 9:30am, there were 4,737 total votes. Only 5% thought hookups were "Liberating," but more people thought that they were "Degrading" or "Dangerous" (at 20% each).

I guess was quite surprise by the result, since NPR was known for much more liberal listeners...

Ira Glass on Colbert

Ira Glass is sooo dreamy. I think my love for nerds has become more apparent with the emergence of Peter Orszag.

I especially liked this interview because Colbert was funny in a non-obnoxious way. Even he laughed at himself!

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Even Wayne Enterprise Falls Victim of Recession

"A good scratch can cure an itch"

Interesting study:

That's why a new study published today in the journal Nature Neuroscience offers some hope of lasting relief. A group of neuroscientists led by Glenn Giesler at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis hypothesized that the mechanism by which scratching relieves an itch takes place not along the nerve fibers of itchy skin, but deep within the central nervous system itself — specifically, in the spinothalamic tract (STT) neurons within the spinal cord, which transmit information about pain, temperature and touch to the brain.

Giesler theorizes that the itch sensation creates an excited state in the STT neurons that scratching somehow inhibits — as if our fingernails were somehow sending a message to spinal cord neurons to cool off. Scientists are still a long way from understanding the itch-scratch phenomenon, and while Giesler's study gives them a good place to start, neuroscientists caution that in humans, the mysteries of itching and scratching may go beyond the physiological: Emotional and psychological factors are also often at play, especially in cases of unexplained, unremitting itching or itching of phantom limbs. [Time]

Not Exactly A Good Reputation to Have

...[I]n one area America is going from strength to strength—the incarceration of its population. America has less than 5% of the world’s people but almost 25% of its prisoners. It imprisons 756 people per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the world average. About one in every 31 adults is either in prison or on parole. Black men have a one-in-three chance of being imprisoned at some point in their lives. “A Leviathan unmatched in human history”, is how Glenn Loury, professor of social studies at Brown University, characterises America’s prison system.
***
No sane person would rather be locked up in Russia or China than in America. A country as large and diverse as America boasts plenty of model prisons and exemplary training programmes. But all that said, the conclusion remains stark: America’s incarceration habit is a disgrace, wasting resources at home and damaging the country abroad. [Economist]

This is not my area of expertise, but the story is very disturbing to read. Why can't something be done to improve the statistics? What are the differences between our legal system and other developed nations'? I don't know the answers, but I hope to follow the effort that Jim Webb has started and educate myself more on the subject. May be more postings on this later, after I have a chance to look for some additional statistics.

Self-image

Making the Cut for Bailout Money

First to go was Rick Wagoner, the CEO of GM. Who'd be next?

Complete Meltdown Highest at Lowe's Paint Aisle

The study, which observed a cross-section of 750 average, mentally sound Americans as they shopped at a variety of retail outlets, found that the singularly chaotic qualities of a Lowe's paint aisle, combined with its overwhelming number of product choices, make it the ideal place to completely fall apart.

"Even the most well-adjusted individual can be reduced to a feeble, trembling shell of his or her former self after a half hour of paint shopping at Lowe's," said Dr. Olivia Kang, a behavioral psychologist at the University of Texas and lead author of the study. "The pressure to make a decision between two seemingly identical shades of beige, the glaring fluorescent lights, the frantic patrons on all sides—it's too much for the human psyche to process."
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Many were later found in a disoriented, fugue-like state, clutching dozens of color samples in their sweat-soaked hands and mumbling incoherently about satin and eggshell sheens. [The Onion]

We don't shop for paints at Lowe's because there's not one nearby. However, having experienced with paint shopping, the article is particularly funny to me. People often want choices, but there are way too many shades and colors sometimes. Close substitutes is not optimal in this situation?