dave

"Now, Hotel Shinjuku 510’s capsules, no larger than 6 1/2 feet long by 5 feet wide, and not tall enough to stand up in, have become an affordable option for some people with nowhere else to go as Japan endures its worst recession since World War II." - dave from Bookmarklet

With the shift of wealth from West to East, somehow Japan is missing the boat. - Philip Leung

Japan is sinking in a sea of debt, aging population, no immigration -- it wouldn't be a surprise to see an economic black swan hit Japan and shock the world. One respected commentator I read recently thinks there is a chance Japan's currency could suddenly implode, triggering a hyperinflationary collapse there. - dave

"Christmas sales of online books trump physical ones for the first time ever, Kindle reader becomes retailer's hottest product" - dave from Bookmarklet

"Today, their lives unfold under the conical eaves of a Mongolian yurt, where they have lived since November 2008, high on a spruce-covered mountainside of the Kenai Peninsula in the coastal town of Seldovia (population of around 250), where Mr. Higman grew up. The remote town has no access to other parts of the state by road. Residents have to travel by boat or airplane. A recent passenger on Homer Air, the local airline, was a poodle on its way to the vet. The decision to live in a yurt has forced them to confront the same questions that many people do, but their conclusions have been far different. They decided they could live without running water, shower, bath or a working toilet, but they had to have broadband Internet access." - dave from Bookmarklet

"The truth is, though, that we have been living in an economic La La Land, induced by perhaps the biggest policy undertaken during the Labour Government's period in office: printing money, or quantitative easing, to use its economically correct but unlovely name." - dave from Bookmarklet

"Enter self-adjustable spectacles, which let untrained wearers set the right focus by themselves in less than a minute, largely precluding the need for eye care professionals, who are rarely available in Africa and many parts of Asia. Though this type of glasses cannot yet help with conditions like astigmatism, it can fix at least 80 percent of refractive errors." - dave from Bookmarklet

"He may have been dressed all in fur from his head to his foot, but this Santa was no saint. According to Metropolitan Nashville Police, a man wearing a Santa Claus suit -- including hat, beard and mustache -- and dark sunglasses robbed a SunTrust Bank on Tuesday morning, demanding money from the teller at gunpoint. After the teller complied, the man fled in a gray midsize car." - dave from Bookmarklet

"After six decades of very private painting, Ms. Herrera sold her first artwork five years ago, at 89. Now, at a small ceremony in her honor, she was basking in the realization that her career had finally, undeniably, taken off. Her good friend, the painter Tony Bechara, raised a glass. “We have a saying in Puerto Rico,” he said. “The bus — la guagua — always comes for those who wait.” And the Cuban-born Ms. Herrera, laughing gustily, responded, “Well, Tony, I’ve been at the bus stop for 94 years!”" - dave from Bookmarklet

"But the benefits of vitamin D are no longer restricted to cancer prevention: Studies have linked a shortage of the compound to such serious, chronic ailments as multiple sclerosis, diabetes, heart disease, influenza and schizophrenia." - dave from Bookmarklet

Doubly important north of the 49. - Ken Morley

"Senator Joyce told the Herald yesterday he did not mean to alarm the public but there needed to be a debate about Australia's ''contingency plan'' for a sovereign debt default by the US or even by a local state government. ''A default by the US means complete economic collapse around the world and the question we have got to ask ourselves is where are we in that,'' Senator Joyce said. His warning came as the Rudd Government ramped up its attack on Senator Joyce as an economic extremist by highlighting his strong opposition to Chinese sovereign investment in Australia. The Treasurer, Wayne Swan, said it was a cause for concern that Senator Joyce had been elevated ''from the reactionary fringe of our economic debate to the second-most senior economic policymaking job in the alternative government''." - dave from Bookmarklet

"What if breast cancer in the United States has less to do with insurance or mammograms and more to do with contaminants in our water or air -- or in certain plastic containers in our kitchens? What if the surge in asthma and childhood leukemia reflect, in part, the poisons we impose upon ourselves?" - dave from Bookmarklet

"That consensus has been shaken by hundreds of pages of messages, apparently stolen from the lab's servers, which have been interpreted as suggesting that the scientists at the CRU manipulated data to make it deliver a more dramatic message about the human contribution to global warming, destroyed data files that did not support their hypothesis, and tried to prevent critics within the scientific community from having access to their raw information and methods. Unusually, even sympathetic scientists and some activists have concluded that the credibility of climate science has been seriously harmed." - dave from Bookmarklet

The words "storm" and "teacup" spring to mind. None of the science has been invalidated by any of the emails; of course, that wouldn't be interesting though and, since deniers don't bother with little things like evidence, let's just gloss over that aspect. I hate old media. - Mark H

"Rom Houben says he was alert but unable to cry out, trapped in his paralyzed body" - dave from Bookmarklet

"So far, no other province has reported higher rates of anaphylaxis – a severe, whole-body allergic reaction that can be characterized by respiratory distress, swelling of the lips, eyelids, throat or tongue, and low blood pressure, among other symptoms." - dave from Bookmarklet

Health official dreams up a coupon system that catches on across the province - dave from Bookmarklet

"It seemed like a good idea at the time, one for the annals of great publicity gimmicks. An ambitious Internet marketing company would sponsor a double-decker London bus to drive around central Paris, throwing cash from the windows in a promotional stunt." - dave from Bookmarklet

"“It’s eminently more frugal and sustainable than milling trees,” he added. “These are weed trees, so when you take them out, you improve the forest stand and get a building out of it. You haven’t stripped an entire hillside out west to build it, or used a lot of oil to transport the lumber.” Mr. Gundersen had a rough feeling for all of this 16 years ago, when he started building a simple A-frame house here for his first wife and their son, Ian, now 15. He wanted to encourage local farmers to use materials like wood and straw from their own farms to build low-cost, energy-efficient structures. So he used small aspens that were crowding out young oaks nearby. “I would just carry them home and peel them,” said Mr. Gundersen, who later realized he could peel them while they were standing, making them “a lot lighter to haul and not so dangerous to fell.” Mr. Gundersen, who built most of the house singlehandedly, also recognized the beauty of large trees downed by disease or wind, and used the peeled trunks, shorn of their central branches a few feet from the crook, as supporting columns in the house." - dave from Bookmarklet

"So the perfectly correlated bubble across all global asset classes gets bigger by the day. But one day this bubble will burst, leading to the biggest co-ordinated asset bust ever: if factors lead the dollar to reverse and suddenly appreciate – as was seen in previous reversals, such as the yen-funded carry trade – the leveraged carry trade will have to be suddenly closed as investors cover their dollar shorts. A stampede will occur as closing long leveraged risky asset positions across all asset classes funded by dollar shorts triggers a co-ordinated collapse of all those risky assets – equities, commodities, emerging market asset classes and credit instruments." - dave from Bookmarklet

This is an important article -- it's worth memorizing this thesis for future reference a year or two from now, when it will likely come to pass. - dave

"On Aug. 19, 1989, Bella Arpad refused to obey his orders to shoot. The Hungarian border guard let thousands of East Germans storm into Austria, a defiant decision that would change history" - dave from Bookmarklet

"They live in underground colonies with a queen, her harem of favorite males, soldiers to defend the tunnel system and workers to keep excavating in search of food. But despite having the social structure of an ants’ nest or beehive, naked mole rats are mammals about the size of a mouse. And among their many peculiarities are features that could, if understood, be of great relevance to human health and longevity. Their life span is of extraordinary length for a rodent. Mice live a couple of years but mole rats can reach the venerable age of 28." - dave from Bookmarklet

What a handsome creature! lol - MicahBear78

"At 51, 5-foot-10 and an enviably lean 150 pounds, Mr. Rudnick does not square with the inevitable mental image of a man who has barely touched a vegetable other than candy corn in nearly a half-century. Apparently, one can not only live on a dessert island, but can also do it happily and long. “People always assume I’m lying,” said Mr. Rudnick earlier this month in his West Village apartment packed from ceiling to floor with Gothic ornamentation. “They always say: ‘That can’t be true. You’d be dead. Or huge.’ ”" - dave from Bookmarklet

"The early retirees – and aspiring retirees – interviewed for this article have several things in common: Most started saving early, usually in their 20s, and were inspired by a parent or friend who taught them about money management. They had a strong aversion to debt, which motivated them to pay off student loans and mortgages and avoid carrying a credit-card balance. They also took a keen interest in managing their own money, rather than turning it over to an adviser who charges for the service. This last step is crucial, they say. “You can invest yourself. In fact, you must learn to invest yourself,” says Tom Connolly, a retired teacher who publishes an investment newsletter in Kingston. “It’s your money. You alone are motivated to manage it best.”" - dave from Bookmarklet

"This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998. But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures. And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise. So what on Earth is going on?" - dave from Bookmarklet

"A year after the banking crisis brought Iceland to the brink of bankruptcy, the island nation is mired in the deepest recession among advanced economies. The stock market has lost 97 percent of its value, and more than 780 companies have buckled under the weight of foreign currency loans as the krona plunged. Consumers refuse to borrow at Europe’s highest interest rates, and international banks reject requests for new financing. Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, who took office in February, pinned hopes for a recovery on the International Monetary Fund after Kaupthing hf, Landsbanki Islands hf and Glitnir Banki hf racked up $80 billion in debt, 16 times Iceland’s economic production. Now she says the economy may implode again as a dispute over Icelandic savings accounts held by overseas depositors delays a promised $5.1 billion bailout. “It’s been a year since all hell broke loose and there hasn’t actually been much done to ease the situation,” said Almar Gudmundsson, secretary... more... - dave from Bookmarklet

"Anecdotes abound on the benefits of companion animals — whether service and therapy animals or family pets — on human health. But in-depth studies have been rare. Now the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health, is embarking on an effort to study whether these animals can have a tangible effect on children’s well-being." - dave from Bookmarklet

"Dirt and manure may be beneficial because they are swarming with bacteria, which can help an infant's immune system to mature and develop tolerance -- instead of allergies -- to environmental substances like pollen and animal dander." http://www.nytimes.com/2002... - Ken Morley

"Not famously a glass half-full kind of fellow, I am about to propose that the recovery will be a bit of a barn burner." - dave from Bookmarklet

Location: Kent Spotted by: Keith Hughes - dave from Bookmarklet

I like this sign spotted in North Van: http://www.mopo.ca/uploade... - Ken Morley

Ewe'll be caught short Spotted by: Niamh Donnellan Location: Ireland - dave from Bookmarklet

Today’s idea: The recession and rapid advance of technology are fostering a “good enough” revolution in consumer behavior: “We now favor flexibility over high fidelity, convenience over features, quick and dirty over slow and polished.”" - dave from Bookmarklet

"Such a concerted move among all of the index's components suggest an "unstoppable" recovery ECRI Managing Director Lakshman Achuthan told Reuters. Achuthan has recently said that a double-dip recession is highly unlikely, and that an economic turnaround will be stronger than many analysts project. "We have never wavered on our call precisely because at this stage of the cycle there are no relevant roadblocks," Achuthan said, adding that concerns over mounting unemployment, debt-laden consumers, and dips in a recovery are typical of recessionary times." - dave from Bookmarklet

"Enhance your blog posts and articles with interactive videos, images, Wikipedia, maps and more from 50+ sources without making readers leave the page" - dave from Bookmarklet