Category: Business

Who is Louis Bayard?

Who is Louis Bayard? | Salon Books

Thanks to Bob Bopp for this look into the world of “Jeapordy”.

In a country where half of all households don’t buy books, why should this show continue to thrive? I think the secret lies in its original design. Like its sibling show, “Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy” is crafted to make viewers at home feel smarter than the contestants on the tube. Start with the game’s rules, which require players to hold off on answering until Trebek has finished reading the question. (Ring in too early, you’re blocked out for a precious half-second.) Viewers at home are under no such obligation. If they know the answers, they can shout them out well before their counterparts on the screen, and because they’re not competing with anyone, they can cumulatively answer more questions than anyone on the show (except possibly Jennings). Watching “Jeopardy” confers, on a certain class of geek, a feeling of mastery. In our couch-potato hubris, we believe that, given a chance, we can sweep category after category, stunning our opponents into silence.

It’s an entirely American contradiction. A show that celebrates the intellect (“You don’t have to eat bugs here,” one of the contestant coordinators reassured us) really comes down to speed and muscular coordination. Brain to thumb to mouth.

Your Musical Tastes Reveal Your Life Chords

Your Musical Tastes Reveal Your Life Chords – Forbes.com
And while the research shows that most people form their lifetime musical preferences between the ages of 16 and 24, none of that is carved in stone, North added.

“Your taste can become more sophisticated as you get older,” he said, “mainly because your brain has heard more music and you are able to process more complicated stuff.”

“Still, you’re not likely to shift from liking Britney Spears to Beethoven,” he added.

An apology to slaves – from the catchers

An apology to slaves – from the catchers – World – insider.washingtontimes.com
Most books on the history of African slavery blame the trade on maritime trading countries such as Portugal and the Netherlands, and the countries where the human cargo was sold, such as the United States, Britain and Brazil.
The idea that some Africans sold their own people into slavery is mostly ignored. Ghana, however, has never shied away from it.

The project’s name is taken from the biblical story of Joseph. “Joseph was sold by his own brethren. He was betrayed by his own people, but eventually he prospered in the land of his own affliction,” said Mr. Hagan, of the Tourism Ministry. “He became prime minister in the pharaoh’s government, he became very powerful, and he went back and helped his own brethren who had cast him away.

Minimum wage laws multiply in states

USATODAY.com – Minimum wage laws multiply in states
This year’s election could bring a watershed in the nearly 70-year history of the federal minimum wage: For the first time, a majority of states could require higher pay than the federal rate of $5.15 an hour.

This year, legislatures in 10 states have enacted laws mandating a higher minimum than federal law requires, bringing 23 states and the District of Columbia above that threshold.

Cell phone makers fight resales

Cell phone makers fight resales
The middlemen indicate an apparently insatiable hunger for the phones, with profits in some cases of 100 percent for a handset that retails for as little as $20.

The phones are so cheap because TracFone and other providers of prepaid cellular service sell them at a loss to create a market for their real profit maker, selling customers more call time.

A lawsuit filed in January by Nokia Corp. accuses Pan Ocean Communications of Pompano Beach, Fla., of buying $20 cell phones from Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and Target Corp. stores, disabling their software, then reselling them for $39 as legitimate Nokia handsets. The company sold them to distributors, wholesalers, exporters and flea market booth operators, the lawsuit said.

Destinations have changed over the years, from Singapore in the past to Mexico today, said John Walls, a spokesman for CTIA, a cellular industry trade association that opposes the practice.

Ethanol E85, Disappoints

ConsumerReports.org – Ethanol E85, alternative fuels, flexible-fuel vehicles
When running on E85 there was no significant change in acceleration. Fuel economy, however, dropped across the board. In highway driving, gas mileage decreased from 21 to 15 mpg; in city driving, it dropped from 9 to 7 mpg.

You could expect a similar decrease in gas mileage in any current FFV. That’s because ethanol has a lower energy content than gasoline: 75,670 British thermal units per gallon instead of 115,400, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The FFV surge is being motivated by generous fuel-economy credits that auto-makers get for every FFV they build, even if it never runs on E85. This allows them to pump out more gas-guzzling large SUVs and pickups, which is resulting in the consumption of many times more gallons of gasoline than E85 now replaces.

Starbucks Pulls Free Coffee Promotion

Starbucks Pulls Free Coffee Promotion – Forbes.com
There’s no such thing as a free iced coffee at Starbucks – at least not anymore.

The world’s largest specialty coffee chain has pulled the plug on what was supposed to be a nearly five-week promotion after an e-mail coupon spread farther and wider than the company anticipated. Continue reading “Starbucks Pulls Free Coffee Promotion”

Fed Chief Gives Seminar on History of Globalization

Fed Chief Gives Seminar on History of Globalization – New York Times

Mr. Bernanke said.

“The emergence of China, India and the former Communist-bloc countries implies that the greater part of the earth’s population is now engaged, at least potentially, in the global economy,” “There are no historical antecedents for this development.”

Those expansions shared many common themes with trends of today, he said, including the role of new technologies in opening up trade opportunities as well as similar social and political backlashes from groups whose lives were disrupted by new competition. (Think of the Islamic return-to-roots backlash to Globalization). Continue reading “Fed Chief Gives Seminar on History of Globalization”

Palm Oil vs. Crude Oil

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide
Supplies of diesel fuel from vegetable oils soared 80 percent in 2005, the agency said in July. That outpaced a 14 percent increase in production of ethanol, a fuel derived from corn and sugar that’s used as an alternative to gasoline.

Crude oil reached a record $78.40 a barrel last month and has driven up the cost of diesel and gasoline, making biofuels more competitive. Palm oil costs $507.50 a ton in Europe, less than about $680 for a ton of crude oil-derived diesel. Governments are subsidizing biodiesel to diversify energy supply and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Vegetable oil-based diesel is made through a chemical process where the glycerin is separated from the fat, or vegetable oil. The process leaves behind two products — methyl esters, the chemical name for biodiesel, and glycerin, a byproduct usually sold for manufacturing in soaps and antifreeze.

Palm oil comes from bunches of plum-sized fruit on the tree, which becomes productive from about 30 months after planting.