It is a numeric life

2007-12-01T15:51:00.000-08:00

I have decided to cut back my efforts from blogging, and spend more time with my family and my new job (a promotion !). I plan to post only on weekends.

Do you really work out ?

2007-11-25T11:44:00.000-08:00

Experts recommend an hour of physical activity a day. For most Americans, that is a dream. We spent $4.9 billions on fitness equipment and $17.4 billion on fitness clubs in 2006, but according to the American Time Use Survey, 83% of us don't exercise at all on a given day. Workout is another one of those things we know we should do, but just don't do it (or do enough of it), reflecting the gap between hard-weired (body) apparatus and the logical reasoning.

Source: Time (Nov. 26, 2007)

Thanksgiving Day Numbers

2007-11-22T12:50:00.000-08:00

1) Because of depleted frozen-turkey supplies and rising energy prices, this year's Turkey dinner will cost you 11% more than last year.

2) Watch what we eat in the Turkey dinner. Despite clear evidence that eating vegetables can ward off heart disease, diabetes and cancer, less than 10% of Americans meet the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans published in 2005. The New dietary guidelines recommend us to eat 9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, up from 5 servings in the previous guidelines.

3) Drive safely. In 2005 for example, there were more alcohol-related traffic fatalities (628) over the Thanksgiving holiday in US, than over Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Christmas, or New Year’s Day.

Do parents love their children equally?

2007-11-18T14:36:00.000-08:00

I suspect that many parents really do like some of their kids more than others. How couldn't they? Children are simply not the same. Even so, I would expect people to say that they feel the same about all of their kids. At least in our society, you're not supposed to play favorites.

However, according to the book No Two Alike (I finished reading it yesterday), many parents admitted to favoritism:

"In two separate studies, British and American parents of two small children were asked whether they felt more affection for one than the other. More than 50% admitted that they did. The overwhelming majority of these parents - 87% of the mothers and 85% of the fathers in the American study - said they favored the younger child".

Different Inflation Perspectives of Men and Women

2007-11-17T15:14:00.000-08:00

Between society's “haves” and “have-nots”, the former are better positioned to endure cost-of-living increases. As the results, they tend to be less sensitive to price increases, and have the so called "lower inflation perceptions and expectations".

However the gender is also a factor here - study shows that sex can influence inflation expectations too: after holding income, age, education, race and marital status constant, women consistently think inflation is 1.9% points higher than men, and they expect prices to rise 2.1% points more than men.

Now you know why women love coupons and sales.

Men get their coffee earlier than women

2007-11-15T04:59:00.000-08:00

Here is an small-size survey conducted in eight coffee shops in the Boston area. Researchers want to know how long it took men and women to be served. The results:

men get their coffee 20 seconds earlier than women. (There is also evidence that black people wait longer than white people, the young wait longer than the old, and the ugly wait longer than the beautiful. But these effects are statistically not as persuasive.)

Not sure if this is because men are more decisive orderer than women, or coffee shops' staff feel more implicit psychological pressure to meet the needs of the male customers.

Where is my love ?

2007-11-11T13:04:00.000-08:00

A recent survey reveals 25% Americans think that the Internet can serve as a substitute for a significant other for some period of time, and 11% say they would be willing to safely implant a device that enabled them to use their mind to access the Internet. This survey was conducted online, so I think these numbers, although disturbing, are true and say a lot about US Internet users.

Also according to this survey, more than 25% Americans has a social networking profile on sites such as MySpace or Facebook, and 78% of 18-24 year-olds report having a social networking profile.

Numbers of the day

2007-11-07T21:04:00.000-08:00

1. Veterans are only 11% of the adult population in US, but they make up 25% homeless people, according to a report. The sad thing is that "young veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job".

2. do you agree on this? most people feel comfortable lying about their sex life. 70% of married people "hide sexual fantasies they secretly want fulfilled", and 53% admit they "fake orgasm, pretending to like a partner’s sexual skills".

World's primates are threatened with extinction

2007-11-04T22:59:00.000-08:00

The Conservation International, is releasing a report documenting the world's 25 most endangered apes, monkeys, lemurs and other primates, which are under unprecedented threat from destruction of tropical forests, illegal wildlife trade and commercial bushmeat hunting.

Today, 29% of all species in danger of going extinct, and we may soon witness the first primate extinctions in more than a century. Overall, 114 of the world’s 394 primate species are classified as threatened with extinction. On the left is the images of the possibly doomed Horton Plains slender loris.

Funny video - Barack Obama on Saturday Night Live

2007-11-04T22:56:00.000-08:00

Voting candidates based on how they makes us feel

2007-11-04T21:53:00.000-08:00

Earlier research had shown that people make judgments about someone’s trustworthiness, competence, aggressiveness and other traits in a mere 1/10 of a second, by just looking at that person's face, or in another word, how that person makes people feel.

Now, in a study published recently, reseacher goes one depressing step further: these lightning-quick facial judgments can predict real-world election results, with 70% accuracy.

Marriage is a strong deterrent to poverty

2007-11-04T20:38:00.000-08:00

What do you think distinguishes the high and low poverty populations? There are some evidence that "the only statistical distinction between both the black and white populations is marriage. There is far less poverty in married-couple families, where presumably at least one of the spouses is employed. Fully 85% of black children living in poverty reside in a female-headed household".

According to earlier Census data, only 4.0% of married couples without children are in poverty. In contrast, the poverty rate for singles without children is 8.6%. One study found that married men earn 22% more than their unmarried counterpart.

Pay Gap between men and women

2007-11-04T20:06:00.000-08:00

Sicilian asked me what are the stats on women's salaries in the Fortune 500 companies (and she bet they are much lower than the men's salaries). See below for the pay gap between men and women; the good news is that the gap is shrinking.

Top 26 Beautiful Castles Around The World

2007-10-31T19:20:00.000-07:00

Check this link out, you can see 26 most beautiful castles around the world. The Craigdarroch Castle in Canada (below) is the only one I have visited.

Women leaders Help Boost the Bottom Line

2007-10-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

A recent study showing that Fortune 500 companies with the highest proportion of female directors are more profitable and efficient, on average, than those with the lowest: an 83% higher average return on equity, 73% higher return on sales, and 112% higher return on invested capital.

Note that these correlations do not necessarily mean senior women cause superior financial performance. Rather they points to the fact that a "gender balanced" environment is more conductive to better business performance.

Do you believe in ghosts ?

2007-10-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

I don't believe in ghosts, but I am too scared to see ANY horror movies.

According to recent survey in US, about 1/3 of people believe in ghosts, and nearly 23% of people say they've actually seen a ghost or felt its presence. About 19% say they accept the existence of spells or witchcraft. Nearly 48% believe in extrasensory perception, or ESP. The most likely candidates for ghostly visits include single people, Catholics and those who never attend religious services. By 31% to 18%, more liberals than conservatives report seeing a specter.

Simple sentences spread ideas farther

2007-10-27T19:28:00.001-07:00

Taking advantage of a new Amazon feature, Steven Johnson has done some interesting (but not surprising) research on the complexity of the work of a few writers:

two stats that I found totally fascinating were "Average Words Per Sentence" and "% Complex Words," the latter defined as words with three or more syllables -- words like "ameliorate", "protoplasm" or "motherf***er." I've always thought that sentence length is a hugely determining factor in a reader's perception of a given work's complexity, and I spent quite a bit of time in my twenties actively teaching myself to write shorter sentences. So this kind of material is fascinating to me, partially because it lets me see something statistically that I've thought a great deal about intuitively as a writer, and partially because I can compare my own stats to
other writers' and see how I fare. (Perhaps there's a literary Rotisserie league lurking somewhere on those Text Stats pages.)

So I spent a few hours last week plugging in the numbers for my books, as well as a few other authors that I assembled in an entirely unscientific fashion: Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Pinker, Seth Godin, Christopher Hitchens -- and then, just to see how far I'd come, I threw in my intellectual (and, sadly, stylistic) heroes from my early twenties, the post-structuralist legends Michel Foucault and Frederic Jameson. I compiled stats for 3-4 books for each author, except Gladwell who has written two, and then plotted them on a scatter chart, with the y axis representing % complex words and the x axis representing words per sentence.

Number below are what Johnson found (click to enlarge):

Based on the popularity of authors (Malcolm Gladwell and Seth Godin), the conclusion appears that short, simple sentences sell more books, and spread ideas farther and faster.

Few workers connect to the company emotionally

2007-10-23T19:11:00.000-07:00

According to a new survey, only 21% of workers worldwide are "engaged" (HR term for 'ready to expend some extra effort at work'), while 38% are either disenchanted or disengaged. Among all nations, Japan has the lowest portion of engaged workers, only 3%, and 72% are disenchanted or disengaged (this got has something to do with the Japan's life-time employment). Below the full list of engagement levels by country:

Taxes are growing around the world

2007-10-20T21:58:00.000-07:00

So, according to this report, either the entire planet is vastly over taxed -- or we here in USA, speaking relatively, aren't shouldering such a bad tax burden after all . . .

Ovulating strippers make more money

2007-10-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

In a revealing study, University of New Mexico researchers recruited 18 subjects (professional lap dancers working in gentlemen's clubs) to log their work shifts, earnings and menstrual cycles on a Web site for two months, or about 5,300 lap dances. The naked truth: participants scored $335 per five-hour shift while ovulating, compared with $260 per shift during the luteal phase after ovulation, and $185 while menstruating. Participants using contraceptive pills showed no estrous earnings peak.

The dancers' scientifically gyrating pelvises provided the first direct evidence for human estrus in contemporary human females.

Usage determine the survival of a word

2007-10-20T19:07:00.000-07:00

New studies show the words in a language that are used infrequently are subject to change rapidly over time. Researchers determined that it would take as little as 750 years to replace less-used words, and up to 10,000 years for new words to evolve in place of the most frequently used ones. I doubt those 2 numbers are applicable to our modern time, however. I certainly hope the word 'blog' becoming part of everyday language in the next 10 years.

Yearn for our own business

2007-10-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

According to a survey of 1,000 people between the ages of 25 and 55, 72% of those surveyed said they dream of starting their own business, and 84% said that if they started their own business they would be more passionate about their work. The biggest draw to owning your own business? 40% of workers said it would enable them to "do what they love." Another 24% said they most like the idea of being their own boss and 21% said they'd favor the flexible schedule. The survey focused on people who don't already own a business.

If we can be in charge of our destiny, wouldn't that be awesome ?

The older we get, the happier we become

2007-10-14T19:30:00.000-07:00

A report (LA Time) conclude that the older people get, the happier people become. This is mainly because older people are free from many responsibilities (or 'burden') young people take, and know how to take life in a easier way. In a study published in September in Psychological Science, older adults were about 30% less reactive to the negative images compared with the younger adults. More from this report:

"only in the last decade have researchers begun to measure happiness across the life span and, in doing so, try to understand why older people tend to be so content.

The explanation doesn't appear to be biological - some chemical in the brain that mellows us just when all those plump neurons needed for thinking and memory are shriveling up. Rather, most scientists now think that experience and the mere passage of time gradually motivate people to approach life differently. The blazing-to-freezing range of emotions experienced by the young blends into something more lukewarm by later life, numerous studies show. Older people are less likely to be caught up in their emotions and more likely to focus on the positive, ignoring the negative."

Jobs have high rates of depression

2007-10-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

According to a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 7% of all full-time workers in US battled depression in the past year.

The job has the highest rate of depression is the Personal Care, almost 11% of workers-which includes child care and helping the elderly and severely disabled with their daily needs-reported depression lasting two weeks or longer.

Workers who works in restaurant industries-prepare and serve food, bartenders, waiters and waitresses-had the 2nd hest rate of depression at 10.3%.

In a tie for 3rdre health care workers and social workers at 9.6%.

The lowest rate of depression, 4.3%, occurred in the job category that covers engineers, architects and surveyors.

The news which is not depressing? just working full-time would appear to be beneficial in preventing depression. Although the overall rate of depression for full-time workers is 7%, it is 12.7% by those who are unemployed.

Number of the day

2007-10-12T06:32:00.000-07:00

This year, state of California will spend 300% as much operating its prisons than running the Univ. California system.

Picky eating is genetic

2007-10-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

A new twins study from UK suggests picky eating is 78% genetic. The remaining 22% influence is from raising genetically similar kids differently within the same household. So, if you raise genetically unrelated kids in the same household, they're no more likely to be similarly picky (or not) than if they'd been raised in different households.

I always believe my kids' pickiness is my fault for failing to shop or cook properly. Now I think my kids' pickiness is my fault for giving them picky genes.

Bad marriage raise heart disease risk

2007-10-09T06:18:00.000-07:00

Results of many research/survey often reconfirm common senses (believes), they also provide you a quantitative sense and more details. Here is another example.

A lot of us feel/believe marital troubles and other ill personal relationships can cause our health. When a group of researchers looking at this issue, they test if study participants with bad relationships have any biological evidence of stress (inflammation, stress hormones) that could contribute to heart disease. In a study of 9,011 British civil servants, most of them married, "those with the worst close relationships were 34% more likely to have heart attacks or other heart trouble during 12 years of follow-up than those with good relationships. That included partners, close relatives and friends".

Funny Video of the weekend - Vertical Soccer

2007-10-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

Another idea of how to attract attention:

Are Christian less likely to divorce ?

2007-10-07T08:58:00.000-07:00

While it's true that people who report themselves to be Christian are just as likely to divorce as the general population, it is not true if you factor religious attendance (a reasonable proxy for level of religiosity/strength of belief). Here is an excerpt from an interview (my friend pointed me to this) with University of Virginia Sociologist, W. Bradford Wilcox.

"This idea that Christians are just as likely to divorce as secular folks is not correct if we factor church attendance into our thinking. Churchgoing evangelical Protestants, churchgoing Catholics, and churchgoing mainline Protestants are all significantly less likely to divorce.
How much less likely?
I estimate between 35-50% less likely than Americans who attend church just nominally, just once or twice a year, or who don't attend church at all. It is true that people who say they've had a born-again experience are about as likely to divorce as people who are completely secular. But if you look at this through the lens of church attendance, you see a very different story".

Wilcox's research is also empirical evidence to support the traditional Christian notion that if you're religious, you will be much better off if you marry someone who shares your level of belief and religiosity. (Or as the Bible puts it: "Do not be unequally yoked.")

Genes and people's economic behavior

2007-10-03T19:24:00.000-07:00

A recent study shows genes exert influence on people's behavior in a very common experimental economic game (the so called ultimatum game, which test people's perception of what is fair and what is unfair.).

"Traditionally, social scientists have been quite hesitant to acknowledge a role for genes in explaining economic behavior. But a study by David Cesarini, a Ph.D. student in MIT's Department of Economics, and by colleagues in Sweden indicates that there is a genetic component to people's perception of what is fair and what is unfair".

Researchers found identical twins (they share the same genes) were more likely to play with the same strategy than fraternal twins. In fact, genetic influences account for as much as 40% of the people's perception of what is fair and what is unfair.

How many people are lefties ?

2007-10-02T18:29:00.000-07:00

Handedness link to people brain organization. Scientists estimate that 20% of children are born lefties. After they growing up, that rate reduce to about 11% in general population. In a recent investigation, 2 psychology professors from UK noticed that the rate of left-handedness plunged from natural 20% of children born around 1840 to a mere 3% of those born 50 years later (around 1890-1900).

The most likely reason that lefties dropped in numbers at the turn of the 20th century was possible strong social pressure brought about by universal education and the industrial revolution. These two factors would have forced lefties to change their handedness. During that period, left-handers may found it more difficult to find marriage partners, marrying later, and hence having fewer children so that fewer of the relevant genes went into the gene pool.

See my previous post about left handedness relates to higher death rate in women.

Public trust in the Government is at all time low

2007-09-29T18:47:00.000-07:00

According to this recent Gallup poll, public trust in the Federal Government is at or near all time lows.

Among the findings: Barely half trust the government to handle international problems, the lowest number ever. And less than half express faith in the government handling domestic issues, the lowest findings since 1976. Faith in the executive branch has fallen to 43% - only 3% higher than it was just before President Nixon's resignation in 1974. At the same time, trust in Congress, at 50%, is its lowest ever.

Gallup has asked about trust in government since 1972. It conducted this year's poll Sept. 14-16 and found the following:
-- Barely half of Americans, 51%, say they have a "great deal" or "fair amount" of trust in the federal government to handle international problems.
-- Less than half of Americans, 47%, now have at least a fair amount of trust in the federal government to handle domestic problems.

The apportionment of this can be debated. I put about 70% of it on the White House (Iraq, Katrina, and the bifurcated economy), and 30% on the Congress (spending taxpayer money like no tomorrow, chasing interns, or having gay sex in airport bathrooms).
Some time I think Mark Twain was right: "Why Vote? It only encourages them!"

Commuter marriages increases in US

2007-09-29T12:20:00.000-07:00

According to a report from TIME, the Commuter Marriages, in which couples live apart (dual-address) for long stretches, are increasing. From 2000 to 2005, their number jumped 30%, to 3.6 million. That is 2.9% of all marriages. About 50% of those couples are at least 100 miles away from each other, and 50% are separated for more than 9 months.

In US today, it is more often the women's career that drives the separation. I think I can live a separated life for 6 months. We can kiss each other through the webcam, pillow talk through IM, no big deal. But with 2 young childrens, 6 months is probably is the limit.

How contagious is your yawn ?

2007-09-27T18:29:00.000-07:00

We all know yawning is contagious, but can we measure how contagious is it? or can we somehow engineer a yawn to become perfectly contagious? According to this interesting NPR story, Robert Provine, a professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, try to design a 100% contagious yawn.

"A number of studies found that a medley of ordinary yawns on video played to a classroom for five minutes would induce a responsive yawn in 55% of the audience. So that was his starting point: could he design a yawn powerful enough to move from a 55% response right up to Total Yawn-ness?".

The results? no matter what the Prof. Provine tried, he could not make a yawn with more 55% response rate.

Shorter, but more marriages

2007-09-26T18:55:00.000-07:00

According to census data released last week, only about 50% married Americans ever get to celebrate their 25th year together, down from nearly 70% married in the late 1950s who made it to the quarter-century mark. The rest were widowed, divorced, or separated beforehand.

(Maybe Hallmark should cut back on the silver anniversary cards, I may add.)

The new trend data also revealed that most Americans make only one trip down the aisle during their lives. Even if they don't succeed in marriage the first time, Americans try, try again. In 2004, 12% of men and 13% of women had married twice, and 3% were hoping the 3rd time would be the charm.

Steroids as most plausible explanation for the home runs surge

2007-09-24T19:33:00.000-07:00

According to a new study by Tufts University physicist Roger Tobin, steroids is the most plausible explanation for the home runs surge in recent years. Below are his calculations:

1) from 1962 to 1997, nobody hit more than 52 homers a season.

2) since 1998, players have topped 60 homers six times, peaking at 73 (Barry Bonds).

3) since 2003, the annual maximum has fallen back to normal levels.

4)this rise and fall coincides with (a) the emergence of steroids and (b) the subsequent imposition of steroid testing.

5) steroids can increase muscle force and bat kinetic energy by 10%, thereby increasing bat speed by 5%, thereby increasing fly-ball speed by 4%, thereby increasing home-run output by 50%.

6) alternative explanations for the home-run surge -smaller ballparks, weaker pitching, more black players - don't coincide.

Under sleep is deadly

2007-09-24T18:54:00.000-07:00

According to a multi-year analysis of 10,000 government workers in UK, people who cut their sleeping from 7 hours a night to 5 or less faced a 170% fold increased risk in mortality from all causes, and more than 200% fold increased risk of cardiovascular death.

This really makes me wondering ... I sleep less because of writing blogs; and you may sleep less because of reading blogs. Should we continue ?

Michael Jordan's quote

2007-09-24T17:24:00.000-07:00

I have missed more than 9000 shots. I've lost almost 300 games. I've failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

Funny Video for the weekend - Male vs.Female

2007-09-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed this Flash animation (Male vs.Female) very mush. Funny and true.

That's gross - many men not washing hands

2007-09-20T19:12:00.000-07:00

Many cases of colds, flu, and foodborne illness are spread by unclean hands, and these diseases are responsible for billions of dollars each year in health care expenditures and productivity losses. Hand hygiene is simple routine of modern day life.

However, accoding to a recent survey, 1/3 of U.S. men doesn't wash his hands after using public bathrooms. 92% of Americans who claimed in a phone survey that they always do it, but only 77% people actually did it an observational stud. In terms of gender gap, 88% of women did it, but only 66% of men - a drop from the 75% of men who did it in a similar study two years ago.

That's gross!

Population map of the future

2007-09-20T01:56:00.000-07:00

One of the key factors in sustainability is population growth, both because of the impact on the environment and competition for resources (food, water, energy, etc.). Here is a map (a pdf file) from Population Action International that gives a picture of how many people will be on the planet 20 years from now, and where they'll be.

Numbers of the day

2007-09-18T20:05:00.000-07:00

1. the U.S. government had spent $15 billion on a program to fingerprint and photograph visitors at the border, and hadn't caught a single terrorist;

2. oldest man in the world turns 112 today.

Nobody like an angry woman

2007-09-18T17:53:00.000-07:00

Studies show men don't suffer any loss in status when they express emotion on the job, but for women, the rules are different. In a recent research, Victoria Brescoll of Yale University asked a group of men and women to watch videotaped interviews of male and female job applicants, some of whom expressed anger while describing their past work experiences. Afterward, the viewers rated the subjects' competence and suggested target salaries. When male candidates expressed emotion, viewers contributed it to a tough situation. Women's anger, though, was attributed to personality, and women were offered salaries 40% lower than those awarded to men. But when women mentioned a reason for their anger, the gender bias disappeared. Bottom line, people strongly disapprove of women expressing anger in a professional context.

Weekend video - stop the clash of civilizations

2007-09-15T20:19:00.000-07:00

From avaaz.org

World's worst day

2007-09-15T19:18:00.000-07:00

When thinking about the dinosaurs, I tend to image a rain of asteroids falling down to the Earth, which bring down the dinosaurs. Last week, I learned from a science seminar that after three decades of research, the consensus of the scientific community is now believe that it just took 1 single, asteroid to cause that destruction which ended the 161-million year reign of the dinosaurs. According to computer models, it goes something like this ....
without warning some 65 million years ago, an unnamed and unwelcome visitor from deep in space. By the time it plowed into the Earth (at Yucatan Peninsula), this six-mile-wide mass of rock and mineral was traveling as fast as 20 kilometers per second, more than 50 times the speed of sound. The asteroid's energy at touchdown would have equaled the force of 300 million nuclear weapons. This wasn't the first time the Earth had absorbed a major asteroid impact. But our planet had never experienced anything quite like this. This was the world's worst day.

Translates numbers into images

2007-09-13T17:45:00.000-07:00

Of all of the ways of conveying information to each other, statistics is the driest and least packed with any kind of meaning or feeling or emotion. Presenting numbers in the billions and trillions is even more difficult for advocates, politicians, journalists (and bloggers). Some people believe visualizing big numbers can help make them comprehensible. Other think using metaphor is probably the best way to get the information across.

Seattle-based artist Chris Jordan opened his exhibit, “Running the Numbers” in New York recently. This exhibit translates statistics about American consumption into images - for instance, a 5′ x 8′ depiction of 11,000 jet trails, equivalent to the number of commercial flights in the U.S. every eight hours. They are very unique and deserve a deep look.

Relaxed workplace

2007-09-13T05:45:00.000-07:00

Heard from NPR radio (9/12/2007):

in a recent survey, more than 40% of employee said they wear jeans, or anything they feel comfortable, go to work routinely; more than 45% employees admitted they slept at work; more than 21% employee admitted to drinking alcohol while at work.

Height is (almost) genetic

2007-09-11T19:21:00.000-07:00

Common sense tell us people's height is (almost) genetic. Recently, scientists from UK and USA identified a gene that controls height. Each copy of the "tall" allele adds 0.2 inch, so inheriting two copies makes you nearly 0.5 inch taller than if you inherit two copies of the "short" allele. Studies indicate 90% of height is genetic. Many more height-related genes are expected to be found quickly.

Viagra may promote feelings of love

2007-09-11T19:04:00.000-07:00

People used to believe Viagra promotes sex mechanically, by boosting blood flow to the penis. Now through a new study on rat, researchers found that Viagra can increase the level of oxytocin (also known as Love Hormone) by 300%. Researchers suspect it does the same to people. Earlier studies showed that "oxytocin-sensitive cells in the brain play a role in the neural control of erectile responses." It appears that Viagra can promote love, not just sex.

How free is your country

2007-09-10T21:13:00.000-07:00

According to the World Bank's Voice and Accountablity Index, which ranks countries by the amount of freedom citizens have to voice opinions and select a government, the U.S. tops out at 35th place - a drop from its rank of 22nd in 2005 because of a decreased trust in public officials and restrictions on the freedom of the press. "The U.S. is not a model," says Daniel Kaufmann, a lead author of the report, but it is far from the doghouse. To compare US with the rest of countries, you can check the index. The number 0 (Burma) is the worst, and 100 is the best (Denmark). Canana is 94.2%, US is 83.7%, Russia 24%, China is 4.8%.

Travel next 3 days

2007-09-06T21:08:00.000-07:00

I will be traveling in next 3 days. No post until 9/10/07.

Have a good weekend, everyone !

What are your life's regrets ?

2007-09-06T20:43:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting survey of 1,250 men and women in UK. When asked what are some big regrets in life, 22% married women said that if they could go back in time they would change their husband, while only 12% of married men admitted picking the wrong wife.

30% of people told researchers they would like to have chosen a different career, while over 37% wished they had saved more money. The biggest regrets are about travel, with 53% wishing they had done more globetrotting before settling down.

What are your life's big regrets ?

The secrete of a good wine

2007-09-05T18:47:00.000-07:00

In the past, one could get by on intuition and experience. Times have changed. Today, the name of the game is data and analysis. Here is an example of how to evaluate wines by the number - according to Princeton University economics professor Orley Ashenfelter,

Wine quality = 12.145 + 0.00117 x winter rainfall + 0.0614 x average growing season temperature - 0.00386 x harvest rainfall

Long TV viewing cause shorter attention span

2007-09-05T12:12:00.000-07:00

We as parents know sitting too close to the TV is bad for childrens eyes, a new study show too much television may be linked to a bad attention span. According to this large long-term study, watching television more than 2 hours a day early in life can lead to attention problems later in adolescence, an 40% increase in attention problems among heavy TV viewers (>3 hours a day). Symptoms of attention problems included short attention span, poor concentration, and being easily distracted.

The reason? Children who watch a lot of television may become less tolerant of slower-paced and more mundane tasks, such as school or House work. To make things worse, young children who watched a lot of television were more likely to continue the habit as they got older, but even if they did not, the damage was done, the study said.

Another side effect of TV watching - unlike other activities that promote participation, such as reading, games, sports and play, TV watching is inherently lack of participation which might also condition children when it comes to other activities.

Funny Videos - weekend guilty pleasure

2007-08-31T22:07:00.000-07:00

Microsoft bashing - zunePhone ad:

Dancin Dubya ( Animated Cartoon from The Economist):

The founder-knows-best phenomenon

2007-08-31T06:57:00.000-07:00

USA Today had an interesting article about how founder-led companies perform better than their non-founder-led counterparts, with a 15-year stock price appreciation of 970% vs. the S&P 500 average of 222%. Although most people will not be surprised by it, that's still a pretty powerful number, and have been studied by the investment community. From my point of view, company founders have a deep, emotional connection to the business, which make them great leaders. Other reasons explaining above numbers cited in the article include:

founders having deep industry knowledge...having a powerful presence in the company...having a huge financial stake in the success of the business...not looking for the next job so can take a long-term perspective...being street fighters early on.

Who need prenups ?

2007-08-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

Source.

"A 2003 Harvard Law School study showed that although survey subjects knew the national divorce rate is more than 50%, they estimated their own likelihood of getting divorced one day to be about 12%. It's called optimism bias, and it's one reason only 1% of married couples reported prenups in a 2002 survey by Harris Interactive for Lawyers.com".

The feminity of poverty

2007-08-29T18:56:00.000-07:00

Heard from NPR radio today: although women count for 51% of US population, 60% of people under the poverty line are women. 1/3 of households headed by women are under the poverty line. The main reason of this femininity of poverty ? women paid the major portion of ever increasing childcare cost.

Humans are terrible jurists

2007-08-29T06:15:00.000-07:00

I am on jury duty this week, this reminds me of an article I read on TIME last month. It is a truly depressing analysis of the US justice system. According to this article:

"Brandon L. Garrett, a law professor at the University of Virginia, has, for the first time, systematically examined the 200 cases, in which innocent people served an average of 12 years in prison. In each case, of course, the evidence used to convict them was at least flawed and often false --yet juries, trial judges and appellate courts failed to notice. The leading cause of the wrongful convictions was erroneous identification by eyewitnesses, which occurred 79% of the time. In a quarter of the cases, such testimony was the only direct evidence against the defendant.
Faulty forensic evidence was next, present in 55% of the cases. In some of those cases, courts put undue weight on evidence with limited value, as when a defendant's blood type matched evidence from the crime scene. In others, prosecution experts exaggerated, made honest mistakes or committed outright fraud."

My takeaway is that humans are terrible jurists. Given our imperfect mind, it's crucial that we take steps to prevent, or at least discourage, some of these mental mistakes from affecting the outcome of trials.

Why kids love McDonald's - familiarity makes favorites

2007-08-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

In psychology there is something called 'mere exposure effect', meaning if people are repeatedly exposed a subject, they begin to prefer that subject over other subjects. Many psychology experiments clearly demonstrated that our brain always prefers the familiar. This effect has a huge implications for marketers and consumers. Companies know saturating consumers sensations is a sure way to increase sales. A split second of consumers' perception is enough to generate a persuasive emotional reaction.

A recent small study (with 63 children ages 3 to 5) suggests the same hamburgers, french fries, chicken nuggets, and even milk and carrots all taste better to children if they think they came from McDonald's:

"almost 77%, for example, thought that McDonald's french fries served in a McDonald's bag tasted better, compared with 13% who liked the fries in a plain white bag. Apparently carrots, too, taste better if they are served on paper with the McDonald's name on it. More than 54% preferred them, compared with 23% each for those who liked the unbranded carrots and those who thought they tasted the same".

The world's most expensive coffee

2007-08-25T16:29:00.000-07:00

The cost of one cup of Kopi Luwak coffee at Australia's Heritage Tea Rooms is $41.67. Brewed from beans handpicked out of civet-cat droppings, it is reputedly the world's rarest and most expensive coffee.

Cell phone usage and car crashing

2007-08-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

Many earlier studies has concluded that cell phones can produce as high as 400% increase in relative crash risk - comparable to that produced by illicit levels of alcohol. A 2003 Gallup Poll found that 70% of Americans said cell-phone drivers cause accidents.

However, two economics students of UC Berkeley recently found in research published last week that while Americans are clearly calling-while-driving more, they are not more accident prone.

The average amount of time a cell phone subscriber spends on calls rose from 140 minutes to 740 minutes per month since 1993. Now about 40% of Americans use their phones while driving. However, according to the researchers equiped with better data and statistical methods, the number of fatal accidents has fallen or stayed flat in all states from 1987 to 2005, and during that period, the number of non-fatal crashes in seven states was also steady or down.

The researchers wonder if the public at large might be taking care to compensate for their talking say, for instance, by moving into the slow lane. Or, they theorized, the phone calls might be keeping otherwise tired drivers alert and awake.

I banned myself use cell phone in the car, unless my family called first; but that is just me. Some people like it, few even put a Portable Rotary Phone ( it's a GSM cell phone built inside an old rotary phone) up. See the picture below.

Gene and gender differences

2007-08-23T19:08:00.000-07:00

Dr.Baumeister, a prominent social psychologist who teaches at Florida State University, recently gave a fascinating speech at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association in San Francisco, titled “Is There Anything Good About Men?”

He has found “single most under appreciated fact about gender,” is the ratio of our male to female ancestors. While it’s true that about half of all the people who ever lived were men, the typical male was much more likely than the typical woman to die without reproducing. Citing recent DNA research, Dr. Baumeister explained that today’s human population is descended from twice as many women as men. Maybe 80% of women reproduced, whereas only 40% of men did.
In his speech, Dr.Baumeister believed these vastly different reproductive odds for men and women must produce some personality differences, and he listed and explained those tricky culture difference between men and women.

Women have shopping genes

2007-08-21T19:23:00.000-07:00

According to a new online survey of over 3,000 women, ages 18-49, by AMP Agency, how a woman approaches shopping does not change as she grows older, shifts from life stage to life stage, moves from region to region, has children, or moves income brackets. A woman's approach to shopping is very much part of who she is: "it is part of her DNA.", or personalities.

The report states that there are distinct approaches to shopping, and identified and segmented women across four distinct mind-sets or "Shopping Genes" :

1. Content Responsible (practical, loyal, efficient, neither a trendsetter nor trend spreader) - consists 20% of women surveyed.

2. Natural Hybrid (confident, balanced, classic, a cross between a social and trend-following butterfly and a grounded domestic diva) - 34%.

3. Social Catalyst (social, smart, trendy, the top of the influencer spectrum and the strongest brand advocates) - 35%.

4. Cultural Artist (creative, impulsive, adventurous, always shopping and willing to try new and different things ) - 11%.

Speaking of me, definitely the Content Responsible type.

Mom, Dad, you're my heros !

2007-08-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

When asked to name their heros, young Americans (ages 13 to 24) make their parents the collective top pick, and said family time is what makes them most happy.

20% of youths chose their mothers as heros;

21% picked their dads,

16% picked both parents,

10% chose God,

5% chose a teacher,

4% chose Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

1% chose Al Gore, Oprah Winfrey, President Bush, Tiger Woods, Hillary Clinton, and the late crocodile hunter Steve Irwin.

Good to know ... looks like kids finally appreciate our wisdom.

Impact of whiter teeth on key first impressions

2007-08-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

According to a recent report, whiter teeth can create good first impressions, which then can leads to greater success in work and love. In one study of randomly selected individuals who participated in two simulated job interviews, after participants teeth had been whitened, 58% were more likely to be hired (no change for the rest of 42%), 53% received higher salary offers; 65% were viewed to be more professional, and 61% were viewed to be more confident.

In a similar study about people involved in romantic first dates, whitening teeth led to 54% of participants (no change for the rest of 46%) became more desirable for further relationship, and 59% were viewed to be more outgoing.

Who knows? People have been told to not judge other people by the color of their skin; now teeth get in the way.

Why fingernails grow faster than toenails ?

2007-08-18T12:19:00.000-07:00

In the current issue of Popular Science (Sept. 2007), there is a Q&A for this question. (I sometime ask myself the same when cutting nails). It turned out fingernails grow about 1 tenth of an inch per month, about 2 times as fast as toenails.

There are 2 theories for this disparity in growth rate. One theory suggests that hands benefits from better blood circulation - and thus, a better supply of oxygen and nutrients - because they are physically close to your heart than your feet.

Another theories the so-called trauma theory. The persistent minor traumas, such as typing, actually stimulate fingernails growth. Whereas our toes enjoys a virtually trauma-free existence inside socks and shoes.

How do we read ?

2007-08-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

It has been long known that letters, words and sentences are all involved in humans reading process. A recent study have shown three reading processes - letter decoding, whole world recognition, and using sentence context, each make a unique, additive contribution to reading speed. The study found letter decoding account for 62% of reading speed; whole word recognition 16%; and sentence context 22%.

This study also found that among the faster readers, predicting words from sentence context made a bigger contribution to reading speed than among the slower readers.

Height, longevity, and American inferiority

2007-08-13T19:36:00.000-07:00

The U.S. is losing ground to other countries in height and longevity.

1) in 20 years, we've fallen from 11th to 42nd in longevity. We trail most European countries, Japan, Guam, and Jordan.

2) we used to be the world's tallest people but now rank 9th and 15th in male and female height, respectively. On average, we're two inches shorter than the Dutch.

There are several reasons for American's decline. Our infant mortality rate and child poverty are too high. Our adult health care is too spotty. We've gotten way too "fat and lazy."

Higher risk suicide linked breast implants

2007-08-11T05:48:00.000-07:00

Over a 19-year period, women who got cosmetic breast implants were 3 times as likely to commit suicide as women who didn't, according to a recent Swedish study. They were also 3 tmes as likely to die from alcohol or drug addiction. In this study, "There was no higher risk in the first 10 years afterward … but the risk was 4.5 times higher after 10 to 19 years and six times higher after 20 years."

To me, it looks like implants made some women happier for a while, but then the underlying disorder took over, driving suicide rate higher.

Solve all Rubik's Cubes in 26 moves

2007-08-09T18:23:00.000-07:00

I played with Rubik's Cube as a kid, all ended with giving-up except once. Rubik's Cube has approximately 43 quintillion possible configurations. Even a supercomputer can't search through every possible configuration to find the quickest way to unscramble a given starting arrangement in a reasonable amount of time.

In June 2007, Kunkle, a computer scientist at Northeastern University in Boston, reported some clever mathematical and computational strategies to make the Rubik's Cube puzzle more manageable. He (or his supercomputer, rather) now proved that 26 moves are enough to solve any Rubik's Cube, no matter how scrambled. For people like me, it always take 26 days.

Baby DVDs hinder infants' language development

2007-08-07T18:59:00.001-07:00

A study suggests "Baby Einstein" and other baby educational videos are bad for kids. Researchers found for every hour a day that babies 8 to 16 months old were shown such popular series as "Brainy Baby" or "Baby Einstein," they knew 6 to 8 fewer words than other children.

The explanation? By spending time with "DVDs and TV instead of with people," the babies lose interaction with humans who "instinctively adjust their speech, eye gaze and social signals to support language acquisition." Also, Baby DVDs are worse than educational TV shows, because the DVDs "have little dialogue, short scenes, disconnected pictures and … linguistically indescribable images."

Want to live longer ? Go south

2007-08-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

Many people move to southern states after their retirements. According a recent research paper, this is a smart move for reasons beyond what people already know. In essence, this paper found that cold kills people more than does heat. "increases in mortality caused by cold temperature are long lasting. We find evidence of a large and statistically significant permanent effect on mortality of cold waves. By contrast, the increases in mortality associated with heat waves are short lived."

In summary, "every year, 5,400 deaths are delayed by the changing exposure to cold temperature. Such effect on longevity accounts for 8%-15% of the overall increase in longevity experienced by the US population over the last 30 years."

Why humans have sex - top 10 reasons

2007-08-04T20:02:00.000-07:00

After asking nearly 2,000 people why they’d had sex, two psychologists Cindy M. Meston and David M. Buss (at University of Texas at Austin) have recently assembled and categorized a total of 237 reasons. Their list is a very thorough, interesting taxonomy of sexual motivations.

Below are the Top 10 :

1. I was “in the heat of the moment.”
2. It just happened.
3. I was bored.
4. It just seemed like “the thing to do.”
5. Someone dared me.
6. I desired emotional closeness (i.e., intimacy).
7. I wanted to feel closer to God.
8. I wanted to gain acceptance from friends.
9. It’s exciting, adventurous.
10. I wanted to make up after a fight.

I am glad to point out that "I wanted to have a child" is the reason No. 27.

Weekend Video - 500 Years of Female Portraits

2007-08-03T19:21:00.000-07:00

Please enjoy this video. It is amazing how one image is blended to the next face gradually. I saw this kind morphing technique in display at the Art Institute of Chicago few years ago, but this is much richer !

Some Iraq War Statistics

2007-08-02T19:01:00.000-07:00

8 Million of Iraqis, nearly 1/3 of the population, are without water, sanitation, food and shelter. NGO in Iraq say a humanitarian crisis there has gotten worse since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

U.S. federal funded $37.4 billion for Iraqi reconstruction. As of May 2007, nearly all of it had been spent.

Source - TIME (8/13/2007)

Is there life after death ?

2007-07-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

I don't believe there is life after death. This is just my opinion, for now. Many Americans think otherwise. See data below. (from The Now York Time)

Bad numbers of soda drinking

2007-07-30T19:35:00.000-07:00

In my typical day, a cup of green tea in the morning, a cup of coffee in the afternoon. I don't give soda to my kids because side effects of drinking soda - sweetened drinks make people fat, damage teeth and bone due to the acidity, and interfere with the body's ability to process sugar, causing diabetes.

It is sad knowing (from the report ) that average American "drinks 18 ounces, or two full glasses, of soft drinks a day. In fact, according to a study last year, soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks have become the largest source of calories in the American diet, replacing white bread. The proliferation of soda tells the story: 450 different varieties are sold in the United States. While soft drinks are still king, with sales reaching $68.1 billion in 2005, sports drinks sales have increased 19.3% over the past year to $1.5 billion".

World's Tallest buildings

2007-07-29T18:54:00.000-07:00

In case you want to know rankings of world's tallest buildings, here is a good reference from The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

Wasting time at work

2007-07-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

Working hard at job or hardly working ?

An online survey of 2,057 employees in US by online compensation company Salary.com found about 60% workers, especially who feel bored and underpaid, admit to wasting time at work with the average employee wasting 20% of their working day.

Personal internet use topped the list as the leading time-wasting activity according to 34% of respondents, with 20.3% then listing socialising with co-workers and 17% conducting personal business as taking up time.

Obesity is contagious

2007-07-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

Whether realizing it or not, our ideas about eating, exercise and body image are shaped in part by those closest to us. After tracking more than 12,000 people over 32 years, a recent study shows when one person became obese, his siblings’ risk of also becoming obese jumped by 40%, while his spouse’s risk jumped by 37%. More strikingly, if that person had been named as a “friend” by another participant, the second participant’s risk of becoming obese shot up by 57%. If the friends were of the same gender, the risk was even higher, at 71%. (The study found a man’s weight gain would have no significant effect on his female friend’s weight, and vice versa, but the study did not have many male-female friendships to examine.) If the friends were particularly close - judged in the study by the fact that they both named each other on their lists of loved ones - the risk that one’s weight would follow the others’ increased by a whopping 171%.

Procrastination formula and how to procrastinate

2007-07-21T14:56:00.000-07:00

Find this interesting definition of procrastination here -

Also, here is a video about how procrastination really works.(Unfortunately, this describes my life far better than I wish it did.) -

Casinos flourishing in Katrina-ravaged states

2007-07-20T18:41:00.000-07:00

This is just sad story from NYTimes -
"Harrah's New Orleans, the largest casino in the city, is on pace for its best year ever: gambling revenue is up 13.6 percent through the first five months of 2007 compared with the same period in 2005, pre-Katrina. The casinos in this region are generating more revenue -- from significantly fewer players -- in large part because of the extra money that many area residents have in their pockets and fewer alternatives on where to spend it, casino executives and others in the region say".

Based on a 2005 review, slot machines account for about 70% of the $48 billion spent in America on gambling each year, which means that the average American spends 5 times more on slot machines than on movie tickets. There are now 2 times as many slot machines in America as ATM's.

Men with high levels of testosterone

2007-07-19T07:19:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of the ultimatum game? It is played with two participants. The first is offered $40 and allowed to choose how much of that $40 to share with the second person. If the second person accepts the offer, the money is awarded to each as agreed. If the second person rejects the offer, neither gets any money. Economic theory predicts that the second person should always accept the offer. After all, $1 is better than nothing, but research has shown that people expect a little more fairness, and will reject lopsided offers. Now, probing further, one researcher discovered that men with high levels of testosterone are more likely to reject lowball offers.
In fact, the responders who rejected a low final offer had an average testosterone level more than 50% higher than the average of those who accepted. It looks like "what people really strive for is relative rather than absolute prosperity. They would rather accept less themselves than see a rival get ahead. That is likely to be particularly true in individuals with high testosterone levels, since that hormone is correlated with social dominance in many species".

Few kids walk or bike to school

2007-07-18T20:38:00.000-07:00

According to a recent study, "in 1969, about 90% of kids in US who lived within a mile of school walked or rode bikes to get there. In 2004, just 48% did that at least one day a week. ....the numbers have dropped as the population has grown while the number of schools has declined and the distance to get to them has grown for many families". But still.

Above could be one of the factor for the high rates of childhood obesity in recent years.

My son, a 6th grader, always take school bus to school, although we live within a mile of school. My husband and me have 2 cars, both work, we believe it’s safer and more expedient (especially in the morning) that way, and we have been trying hard to encourage him doing other physical activities after school. But I rather to have him walk to the school.

Super-sized Americans

2007-07-16T19:56:00.000-07:00

There is a interesting article on RD (August 2007) discussing issues with over-weight, super-sized Americans. Of all US women 18 and older, 50% say they buy plus-size clothing. In hospitals, the old scales topped off at 350 pounds, now the new digital scales can measure up to 1,000 pounds. In churches, 18 inches (width) chair used to be able to hold every worshiper, now most church insists 21 inches wide chair. Some people needs 60-inch arc umbrella, and ordering casket 28 inches wider than the standard model.

Lucky number 7

2007-07-15T17:54:00.000-07:00

From grooms to gambles, people here in US believe the number 7 has mystical significance. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the mecca of Superstition - the Las Vega Strip. According to this week's Barron's Magazine, July 7 (last Saturday, or the one-in-a-century 07/07/07, the game usage was up 47% when compared with July 7 of last year (which was Friday), up 28% if compared with July 8 of last year (which was also a Saturday). Those number indicate significant increase in gaming activity. I read somewhere that marriages in US was up by 30% on the July 7 weekend over a similar Saturday last year.

.What can I say? People are meaning machines. We look for hints about what the future will hold and add meaning, often where there is none.

Moms tired of working

2007-07-14T18:40:00.000-07:00

Corporations of America be aware - full-time working mother are tied of working. In the past decade, the percentage of working mothers who say full-time work is ideal dropped from 32% to 21%, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. Now, 60% of them say they'd rather work part-time, up from 48% in 1997.
Likewise, only 16% of stay-at-home moms say they'd prefer to work full-time. That's down from 24% a decade ago. Nearly 50% of at-home moms say not working at all is ideal, up from 39% in 1997. Not surprisingly, 72% of fathers prefer working full-time.
Rating themselves on a scale of 1 to 10 on how well they've done at parenting, 43% of at-home moms said 9 or 10. Only 28% of full-time working moms rated themselves so highly.
Finally, 44% of at-home moms think it's bad for society to have so many mothers away at jobs, while just 34% of working moms think that.
I can list at least 3 reasons for this major attitude change from working mother - longer commute times to work; more demanding working environments; deteriorating children care services.

Men are the weaker sex

2007-07-10T18:40:00.001-07:00

A recent article by Psychology Today tells a famous experiment:

studies demonstrate unequivocally that men are far more interested in short-term casual sex than women. In one now-classic study, 75% of undergraduate men approached by an attractive female stranger agreed to have sex with her; 0% of the women approached by an attractive male stranger did. Many men who would not date the stranger nonetheless agreed to have sex with her.

As writer Midge Decter stated in her book An Old Wive's Tale, men need sex more than women, and that gives women power over men. So no matter how strong or wealthy men are, their excess desire for sex leaves them ultimately, the weaker sex.

Most unpopular vice president in recent history

2007-07-09T19:29:00.001-07:00

Polls by The New York Times and CBS News show Dick Cheney has had a recent drop in his approval ratings that making him the most unpopular vice president in recent history:

Cheney is now viewed disapprovingly by 59% of Americans, four points less thanQuayle's high of 63% in July 1992. Meanwhile, Cheney's personal favorability is an astounding 13% - an all-time low.

Why they call Europe the Old World

2007-07-07T18:44:00.000-07:00

When I watching Europe traveling TV shows, I can't help but notice that there are many old people live there. According to a joint report by the European Commission and AARP (a U.S. lobby for the elderly), 24 of the world's 25 oldest countries are in Europe. (Japan is another one).

Using Italy' as an example - Italian life expectancy is 78.3 years for men and 84 for women. 26% of its population are older than 60 in 2005, One out of every five elderly Italians is over 80.

No wonder they call Europe the Old World.

Number of kids born out of wedlock

2007-07-07T08:35:00.000-07:00

According to TIME (July 16, 2007), 71% of people surveyed in a recent Pew Research study believe that having children out of wedlock is a "big problem" for the U.S.; 44% believe it is "always or almost always wrong" for unmarried women to have children.

But, 37% of U.S. birth in 2005 were out of wedlock. In 1960, the rate was 5.3%. Today 47% of adults in their 30s and 40s have lived in a cohabiting relationships.

Men are as talkative as women

2007-07-05T19:09:00.000-07:00

The notion that women talk more than men is widespread. But how much more? In a recent book written by a noted neuropsychiatrist, the numbers are - "a woman uses about 20,000 words a day, while a man uses only about 7,000." My personal experience tells me the difference is not that dramatic; women talk about 10 - 40% more than men.

In a latest study on this suject, scientist recorded the conversations of nearly 400 U.S. and Mexican male and female university students, for periods ranging from two to 10 days. To catch all of this chit-chat, they developed an electronically-activated recorder (with the fortuitous acronym EAR) that digitally, and unobtrusively, logged the daily conversations of those who wore the device.

The results: women in the study spoke a daily average of 16,215 words during their waking hours, versus an average of 15,669 words for men. True, the women win, but not by a statistically significant margin at all.

Employer discrimination against women with children

2007-07-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

There is a long history of records showing employer discrimination against mothers (but not fathers) when hiring and promote people - the so called 'motherhood penalty'. Mothers were often rated as less competent, less suitable for hire, and deserving of lower salaries.

In a latest study in this subject, researcher of Cornell University performed both a laboratory experiment and an audit of real employers. Their results showed significant and substantial penalties for motherhood among both white and African-American women, among them:

Childless women are 2-time more likely to be hired than equally qualified mothers.
The recommended starting salary for mothers was $11,000 less than that offered nonmothers.
Mothers were rated as less promotable and less committed.
Fathers were offered the highest starting salaries.

Baby's brand names

2007-07-01T20:29:00.000-07:00

Julia Roberts named her twins Phinnaeus and Hazel; Brad and Angelina have named their daughter Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt. Choosing names for children has apparently becomes more of 'branding' practice, and decisions have much to do with the desire of being unique, rather than family traditions or cultural values.

According to a WSJ article, "in 1880, Social Security Administration data show that the 10 most popular baby names were given to 41% of boys and 23% of girls. But in 2006, just 9.5% of boys and roughly 8% of girls were given one of the year's 10 most popular names - a combined decline of about 33% from the averages in the 1990s."

How long it takes for plastic bag to decompose ?

2007-06-29T19:32:00.000-07:00

For everyday consumers, plastic shopping bag are cheap and easy to use, but ugly to look at when they stuck on tall trees or being littered to the street. I still remember a local news (of late 80's) profiling a young business star; he was on the news because the big profits earned from the plastic bag plant he owned. There is a social revolt going on lately to stop people using traditional plastic shopping bag due to enviromental concerns. Some want to make it "as fashionable to carry plastic as it is to wear fur", others simply baned them.
The most common type of plastic shopping bag is made of polyethylene, a man-made polymer that microorganisms don't recognize as food. In another word, they are not biodegradable like newspaper and banana peel
However, plastic bag do photodegrade. When exposed to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight, polyethylene's polymer chains become brittle and start to crack, and plastic bags will eventually fragment into microscopic granules. As of yet, however, scientists aren't sure how many centuries it takes for the sun to work its magic due to many variables. That's why certain news sources cite a 500-year estimate while others prefer a more conservative 1,000-year lifespan. It feels like these figures are just another way of saying "a really, really long time."
For me, the quickest way to solve the problem is to develop plastic bags sensitive to photodegradation and biodegradation. Consumer are willing to spend a bit more money on these new bags, instead of stop using them.

It is a numeric life

Do you really work out ?

Thanksgiving Day Numbers

Do parents love their children equally?

Different Inflation Perspectives of Men and Women

Men get their coffee earlier than women

Where is my love ?

Numbers of the day

World's primates are threatened with extinction

Funny video - Barack Obama on Saturday Night Live

Voting candidates based on how they makes us feel

Marriage is a strong deterrent to poverty

Pay Gap between men and women

Top 26 Beautiful Castles Around The World

Women leaders Help Boost the Bottom Line

Do you believe in ghosts ?

Simple sentences spread ideas farther

Few workers connect to the company emotionally

Taxes are growing around the world

Ovulating strippers make more money

Usage determine the survival of a word

Yearn for our own business

The older we get, the happier we become

Jobs have high rates of depression

Number of the day

Picky eating is genetic

Bad marriage raise heart disease risk

Funny Video of the weekend - Vertical Soccer

Are Christian less likely to divorce ?

Genes and people's economic behavior

How many people are lefties ?

Top 10 posts from Sept. 2007

Public trust in the Government is at all time low

Commuter marriages increases in US

How contagious is your yawn ?

Shorter, but more marriages

Steroids as most plausible explanation for the home runs surge

Under sleep is deadly

Michael Jordan's quote

Funny Video for the weekend - Male vs.Female

That's gross - many men not washing hands

Population map of the future

Numbers of the day

Nobody like an angry woman

Weekend video - stop the clash of civilizations

World's worst day

Translates numbers into images

Relaxed workplace

Height is (almost) genetic

Viagra may promote feelings of love

How free is your country

Travel next 3 days

What are your life's regrets ?

The secrete of a good wine

Long TV viewing cause shorter attention span

Top 10 post from August, 2007

Funny Videos - weekend guilty pleasure

The founder-knows-best phenomenon

Who need prenups ?

The feminity of poverty

Humans are terrible jurists

Why kids love McDonald's - familiarity makes favorites

The world's most expensive coffee

Cell phone usage and car crashing

Gene and gender differences

Women have shopping genes

Mom, Dad, you're my heros !

Impact of whiter teeth on key first impressions

Why fingernails grow faster than toenails ?

How do we read ?

Height, longevity, and American inferiority

Higher risk suicide linked breast implants

Solve all Rubik's Cubes in 26 moves

Baby DVDs hinder infants' language development

Want to live longer ? Go south

Why humans have sex - top 10 reasons

Weekend Video - 500 Years of Female Portraits

Some Iraq War Statistics

Is there life after death ?

Top 5 posts from July, 2007