Thursday, February 27, 2014

Hedge Fund Managers Are the Biggest Gangsters of All


But in what sense are these billion dollar paydays "earned?" Here is what George Soros' fund did last year to earn him $4 billion: itunderperformed the S&P 500 index by 8%. In other words, Soros charged his investors fees that are well over 1000% higher than what they could have paid for a simple index fund that would have earned them more money. (Update: Soros' fund manages his own money. Typical hedge fund fees are around 2%, versus less than 0.2% for an index fund.) Likewise, Carl Icahn earned $1.7 billion just for matchingthe returns of the broader stock market last year, and Ray Dalio earned$900 million after his main fund severely underperformed "both the average hedge fund and the U.S. stock market for two straight year

---Steve

Fruit Ripening: How Does It Work? » Chemistry Blog

http://www.chemistry-blog.com/2011/10/12/fruit-ripening-how-does-it-work/


---Steve

Do you believe in treating cancer with alternative medicine?

http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/treating-cancer-alternative-medicine/


---Steve

Checking for pseudoscience in real science news

http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/checking-pseudoscience-real-science-news/


---Steve

SHH sonic hedgehog [Homo sapiens (human)] - Gene - NCBI

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/6469


---Steve

Yelp's top 100 restaurant list: Da Poke Shack is America's top-rated restaurant.


But the top restaurant of all on Yelp's list is one that probably flies even further below the average food critic's radar. It's a tiny seafood haunt wedged into a condominium complex in Kona, on Hawaii's Big Island. It's called Da Poke Shack, and in Yelpers' eyes it's pretty much perfect: an average of five stars on 612 customer reviews.

---Steve

Ted Nugent

If I was as bigoted as #TedNugent, then it would explain much of his behavior when I learned that his unwed welfare mom gave him the birth name of "Mohammed Bojangles"

What's the difference between Ted Nugent's music and a steaming pile of horse dung?
The asshole it came out of.

How is Ted Nugent's guitar like a writing desk?
The notes that come off of both are not musical.

His is a 10 point buck different than Ted Nugent?
The buck fucks only live deer.

How is Woody Allen different than Ted Nugent?
Allen is not a serial rapist and he can play listenable music.

How is Ted Nugent different than John Wayne Gacy?
The both are killer clowns, but Gacy rapes young boys and Nugent rapes young girls.



---Steve

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

American Aqueduct: The Great California Water Saga - The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/02/american-aqueduct-the-great-california-water-saga/284009/


---Steve

How much my novel cost me — Debt Ridden — Medium

https://medium.com/debt-ridden/35d7c8aec846


---Steve

How ARM Holdings Dominates the Chip World - Businessweek


While many clever and wealthy companies, including IBM (IBM) and Samsung, have tried to keep up with Intel, no one these days comes close. Intel, according to numerous analysts, has a two- to four-year lead over rivals in terms of raw manufacturing smarts and chipmaking techniques. "The other guys are simply not as good at manufacturing as Intel is," says David Kanter, a chip analyst and industry consultant. Intel is now down to two or three competitors that are willing to make the investment in similarly advanced factories, and they're all contract chip manufactures that spread their business among many customers.

---Steve

Slate: Climate Change Deniers Lose Their Cool


Mos Eisley tavern of global warming media,

---Steve

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Behind iPhone's Critical Security Bug, a Single Bad 'Goto' | Threat Level | Wired.com

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2014/02/gotofail/


---Steve

Your Ancestors, Your Fate - NYTimes.com


We came to these conclusions after examining reams of data on surnames, a surprisingly strong indicator of social status, in eight countries — Chile, China, England, India, Japan, South Korea, Sweden and the United States — going back centuries. Across all of them, rare or distinctive surnames associated with elite families many generations ago are still disproportionately represented among today's elites.

Does this imply that individuals have no control over their life outcomes? No. In modern meritocratic societies, success still depends on individual effort. Our findings suggest, however, that the compulsion to strive, the talent to prosper and the ability to overcome failure are strongly inherited. We can't know for certain what the mechanism of that inheritance is, though we know that genetics plays a surprisingly strong role. Alternative explanations that are in vogue — cultural traits, family economic resources, social networks — don't hold up to scrutiny.


---Steve

Saturday, February 22, 2014

A Simple Exercise to Increase Well-Being and Lower Depression from Martin Seligman, Founding Father of Positive Psychology | Brain Pickings

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/02/18/martin-seligman-gratitude-visit-three-blessings/


---Steve

Henry James on Aging, Memory, and What Happiness Really Means | Brain Pickings

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/01/09/henry-james-aging-memory-happiness/

I have led too serious a life; but that perhaps, after all, preserves one's youth. At all events, I have travelled too far, I have worked too hard, I have lived in brutal climates and associated with tiresome people. When a man has reached his fifty-second year without being, materially, the worse for wear — when he has fair health, a fair fortune, a tidy conscience and a complete exemption from embarrassing relatives — I suppose he is bound, in delicacy, to write himself happy.

---Steve

The War on Reason - Paul Bloom - The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/03/the-war-on-reason/357561/


---Steve

Five Vitamins and Supplements That Are Actually Worth Taking | Science | Smithsonian

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/five-vitamins-and-supplements-are-actually-worth-taking-180949735/


---Steve

Friday, February 21, 2014

Intel Shows That Every Girl Holds the Power to Change the World - The Portland Egotist

http://www.theportlandegotist.com/news/local/2014/february/5/intel-shows-every-girl-holds-power-change-world?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter


---Steve

Intel Education Programs for Girls and Women Around the Globe

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/technology-in-education/programs-for-women-and-girls.html


---Steve

jonimitchell.com - Lyrics: Woodstock

http://jonimitchell.com/music/song.cfm?id=75

Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe it's the time of man
I don't know who I am
But you know life is for learning

We are stardust
We are golden

---Steve

Gov. Brewer, veto these religious-freedom bills

http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20140221gov-brewer-veto-those-religious-freedom-bills.html


---Steve

The 5 Best Punctuation Marks in Literature -- Vulture

http://www.vulture.com/2014/01/best-punctuation-marks-literature-nabokov-eliot-dickens-levi.html


---Steve

A Journey to the Center of the World - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/magazine/a-journey-to-the-center-of-the-world.html?ref=magazine&_r=0


---Steve

Human fronto–mesolimbic networks guide decisions about charitable donation

http://www.pnas.org/content/103/42/15623.full


---Steve

A matter of science vs. religion - Las Vegas Sun News

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2014/feb/16/matter-science-vs-religion/

Huckabee and many millions like him do not agree. They want "belief" at the top of the agenda; or rather, they want their form of belief. Their belief that America can do no wrong. Belief that their God loves this country more than others. Their belief that scientific findings can be cherry-picked and denied. Their belief that parents may decide what truths their children are taught and which are inconvenient.

---Steve

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

East Valley Family Medical

East Valley Family Medical: "o better serve you, East Valley Family Medical is now open in Ahwatukee located at 11011 S. 48th street, suite 200, Phoenix, AZ 85044"



'via Blog this'

Slate: Himalayan Bath Salts Will Not Save Your Life



---Steve

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

My Way News - Europe at origin of chronic US execution dilemma

My Way News - Europe at origin of chronic US execution dilemma: "The death penalty has been abolished or suspended in all developed economies, except for the U.S. and Japan. Execution rankings have routinely shown the U.S. in the unusual company of China, Iran, Saudi-Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan."



'via Blog this'

No, GMOs Won't Harm Your Health | Mother Jones


Indeed, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the research surrounding GM food is "quite clear: crop improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology is safe."

---Steve

No, GMOs Won't Harm Your Health | Mother Jones

http://m.motherjones.com/environment/2014/02/inquiring-minds-steven-novella-gmo


---Steve

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Eathropology « Eat what you want. Get the facts.

Eathropology « Eat what you want. Get the facts.: "Vitamin C naturally found in lime juice that has been gently squeezed into a tumbler of tequila has been shown to help prevent the formation of permanent facepalms after accidently ingesting an idiot nutrition blog and can help protect you from the devastating IQ-lowering effects of blobbers who cant spll. "



'via Blog this'

“Broccoli has more protein than steak”—and other crap « Eathropology

“Broccoli has more protein than steak”—and other crap « Eathropology:



'via Blog this'

8 U.S. Code § 1324 - Bringing in and harboring certain aliens | LII / Legal Information Institute


(ii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, transports, or moves or attempts to transport or move such alien within the United States by means of transportation or otherwise, in furtherance of such violation of law;

---Steve

More Proof The Flu Vaccine Works - Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkroll/2014/02/16/more-proof-the-flu-vaccine-works/


---Steve

The Horn: Fine Wines, Craft Brews and Great Food - The Horn Restaurant

http://www.thehornsaloon.com/


---Steve

Saturday, February 15, 2014

The Shroud of Turin, pseudoscience, and journalism

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/achenblog/wp/2014/02/14/the-shroud-of-turin-pseudoscience-and-journalism/


---Steve

GMOs: Facts About Genetically Modified Food | LiveScience


By far the biggest use of GMO technology has been in large-scale agricultural crops: At least 90 percent of the soy, cotton, canola, corn and sugar beets sold in the United States have been genetically engineered.

The GMO crops that are widely used have, for the most part, been genetically engineered to control pests in one of two ways: They either produce a pesticide within their tissues, or they are resistant to a pesticide like Roundup (manufactured by Monsanto Corp.).

---Steve

US Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq to Cost $6 trillion | Global Research

http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-wars-in-afghanistan-iraq-to-cost-6-trillion/5350789


---Steve

Friday, February 14, 2014

WHO | Research

http://www.who.int/peh-emf/research/en/

Extensive research has been conducted into possible health effects of exposure to many parts of the frequency spectrum. All reviews conducted so far have indicated that exposures below the limits recommended in the ICNIRP (1998) EMF guidelines, covering the full frequency range from 0-300 GHz, do not produce any known adverse health effect. However, there are gaps in knowledge still needing to be filled before better health risk assessments can be made.

---Steve

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

In the Darkness of Dick Cheney by Mark Danner | The New York Review of Books

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/mar/06/darkness-dick-cheney/?pagination=false

Four years after the Americans had declared victory in Iraq—even as the vice-president was "strongly recommending" that the United States attack Syria—more than a hundred thousand Iraqis and nearly five thousand Americans were dead, Iraq was near anarchy, and no end was yet in sight. Not only the war's ending but its beginning had disappeared into a dark cloud of confusion and controversy, as the weapons of mass destruction that were its justification turned out not to exist. The invasion had produced not the rapid and overwhelming victory Cheney had anticipated but a quagmire in which the American military had occupied and repressed a Muslim country and, four years later, been brought to the verge of defeat. As for "authority and influence," during that time North Korea had acquired nuclear weapons and Iran and Syria had started down the road to building them.

---Steve

Another Woman Accuses Bill Cosby of Sexual Abuse

http://www.newsweek.com/another-woman-accuses-bill-cosby-sexual-abuse-228837


---Steve

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

SGI’s Long, Strange Trip: from Dinosaurs to Big Data

http://blog.smartbear.com/development/sgis-long-strange-trip-from-dinosaurs-to-big-data/

That kind of high-end computing suits SGI just fine, since it specializes in building massive, scale-out machines and supercomputers. SAP recently announced it plans to build appliances to run SAP HANA, the company's in-memory analytics platform; those appliances will use SGI's scalable shared memory architecture to build massive, petabyte-sized in-memory databases.
---Steve

Rehab the Right Way | Runner's World

http://www.runnersworld.com/workouts/rehab-the-right-way


---Steve

Howard Goodall's 20th Century Greats - The Beatles - YouTube

http://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL70D3A77A285E352E&desktop_uri=%2Fplaylist%3Flist%3DPL70D3A77A285E352E


---Steve

Friday, February 07, 2014

Woody Allen Speaks Out - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/opinion/sunday/woody-allen-speaks-out.html?_r=0


---Steve

Should Pope Francis Rethink Abortion? - NYTimes.com

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/should-pope-francis-rethink-abortion/

we realize that an early-stage embryo may be biologically human but still lack the main features — consciousness, self-awareness, an interest in the future — that underlie most moral considerations. An organism may be human by purely biological criteria, but still merely potentially human in the full moral sense. As we saw, Marquis's argument shows that killing a potential human is in itself bad, but there's no reason to think that we are obliged to preserve the life of a potential human at the price of enormous suffering by actual humans.

---Steve

Blackwater Founder Erik Prince: War on Terror Has Become Too Big - The Daily Beast

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/19/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-war-on-terror-has-become-too-big.html

America is way too quick to trade freedom for the illusion of security

---Steve

Fifty States of Fear - NYTimes.com

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/fifty-states-of-fear/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

The British philosopher Bertrand Russell, writing as World War II was drawing to a close in Europe, observed that "neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear." Russell's point was that irrational fear can propel us into counterproductive activities, ranging from unjust wars and the inhumane treatment of others to more mundane cases like our failure to seize opportunities to improve our everyday lives.

---Steve

In defense of Pigliucci | aRemonstrant'sRamblings

http://aremonstrantsramblings.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/in-defense-of-pigliucci/


---Steve

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

How Did the Media Blow It So Badly on Yesterday's CBO Report? | Mother Jones

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/02/how-did-media-blow-it-so-bad-yesterdays-cbo-report


---Steve

With Little Notice, Globalization Reduced Poverty

http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/little-notice-globalization-reduced-poverty

We are in the midst of the fastest period of poverty reduction the world has ever seen. The global poverty rate, which stood at 25 percent in 2005, is ticking downwards at one to two percentage points a year, lifting around 70 million people – the population of Turkey or Thailand – out of destitution annually.
---Steve

S98EXWG.png 500×301 pixels

http://i.imgur.com/S98EXWG.png