Category: Current Affairs

The orange juice futures market predicts Florida weather better than the Weather channel.

Markets, “information markets”, are very good predictors of the future, probably because they are able to incorporate the knowledge of a lot of people. And those people are betting real money, so they are making the best, most educated guess they can. If you want to see how it works, and try it out for yourself, The Iowa Electronic Markets run by the University of Iowa has a number of futures markets where you can buy options on different outcomes. For example you can buy a contract on who you think will win the Presidential Election in 2004. You can either try the trial version or you can open an account with real money.

I read about this in United’s inflight magazine, Hemispheres Magazine.

This business week article I’m A Bad Boss? Blame My Dad says that workplace dramas eat up 20-50% of employees’ time!

Although I’m not sure the analogy to family dynamics is the way to go, I think paying more attention to relationships at work is important, as the article says it’s an increasingly important factor of why employees stay or leave or get fired: “corporations become ever more cognizant that talented employees quit bosses, not companies, and that CEOs often get hired for their skills — and fired for their personalities.”

Posted on March 30, 2004

Editorial Observer: The Evolution of Women’s Roles, Chronicled in the Life of a Doll

For those of you like me who walk around with earbuds in your ears all day, this article will be interesting, More than just a pretty interface. Dr Michael Bull has studied how listening to your own private music (or book) can help people control their environment even in public, ad filled spaces.

I found this on Slashdot.

John Kerry said “We should abolish the CIA. Because the CIA completely and totally missed the Soviet revolution.” in this New York Times interview. I’m sure he has more reasons than that – since it’s been a long time since the Soviet revolution and the CIA has done a lot (or not) since then. I wish he’d share them. If you have links to other information, please comment.

My boyfriend made an indoor herb garden today. It’s beautiful and it smells really good. He planted sage, mint, basil, oregano, rosemary, cilantro and dill.

To learn more about herb gardens, Google for “indoor herb garden” or start with one of the following articles:

Growing, Preserving and Using Herbs
Indoor Herb Garden

A friend told me about Heifer International, a nonprofit organization that donates livestock to poor people around the world. The idea is that Heifer gives a poor family or community an animal that produces food, like a milk cow or a chicken. The family can than live off the proceeds, milk or eggs in this example, directly or sell it for other food that they need. In exchange, they agree to give at least the first offspring of their animal to another family in need.
They also have other projects. For example, they are working in the US to increase the number of young farmers.
You can read more about Hiefer International on their website. They’ve also been featured in the New York Times and Fortune magazine – the links are on their website.