The U.S. economy lost the title of “world’s biggest” to the euro zone this week as the value of the dollar slumped in currency markets. … Taking official estimates of 2007 GDP — $13,843,800 billion for the United States and 8,847,889.1 billion euros for the euro zone — the economy of the latter passed the [...]

This is the second time I’ve seen one of these calculations, and they’ve always made sense to me: according to the Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and Environment, which found that while “a person of normal weight costs on average £210,000 over their lifetime”, a smoker clocks up just £165,000 and the obese run [...]

Hardly surprising, but putting points on a person’s licence isn’t going to stop them speeding. Or at least, not the 3.7 million motorists in this study. It increased the insurance company’s profits by around $36 million, as they charge more insurance fees if you get points. The way to stop drivers from repeat speeding offences, [...]

This law firm in Amsterdam, Jeroen Zandt, insures you for unlimited judicial help, regardless of the amount of traffic violations you have, for around EUR. 200,- per month.

There’s a test people did a few times where they put different stock names at the end different exits of a maze and let a hamster ‘pick’ his favorite stock. It turns out that the hamster is no worse (and sometimes better) than real life stock brokers, showing how the market is random. The Sun-Times [...]

Welcome to the sad state of the world: here we have a possible inexpensive treatment for a variety of cancers which won’t get funded, because the molecule involved isn’t patented, so probably won’t get funded by pharmacutical companies due to ‘market forces’.

The US was looking into it, but Australia has decided – tax stuff done on-line. If there is a monetary benefit. I guess a whole load of tax boards are going to be looking at Australia to see if it can actually be done.

The Dutch Connexxion and Helinet companies are planning a helicopter public transport service between Amsterdam and Brussels, stopping in The Hague, Rotterdam and Antwerp on the way. They almost have all the necessary licences in, so it’s looking good.

It’s truly incredible how people have literally made millions of dollars using the intranets.

Apparently the nude vacationing industry has tripled in size from 1992 (when it was at $400m) catering mainly to the over 35s and luxury segment.

Not just NEC products are being rebuilt, but the WHOLE of NEC has been cloned in China! Factories, workshops and all!

To science we owe dramatic changes in our smug self-image. Astronomy taught us that our earth isn’t the center of the universe but merely one of billions of heavenly bodies. From biology we learned that we weren’t specially created by God but evolved along with millions of other species. Now archaeology is demolishing another sacred [...]

I always knew my driving habits were safe! according to an analysis of more than 12 million passenger cars insured by Progressive, the third-largest auto insurer in the United States. It found cars with more than 200 horsepower actually generate 17 per cent fewer claims than those propelled by less than 200 horsepower. From here

Google isn’t the only player to experiment – Yahoo has its own public research page. The Tech Buzz Game is a very interesting fantasy prediction market for high-tech products, concepts, and trends. In the Web Application Frameworks market, I’m betting on Rails.

I wonder if all the people who voted for Dubya are still going to like him when they’re back to tilling the soil in 2010.. THE NUMBERS are staggering — a US$43-trillion hole in America’s public finances that’s getting worse every day. And the stakes are almost inconceivable for a generation of politicians and voters [...]

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