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Friday, 13 November 2009

Stress/Vice Round-up: Cigarettes & Chocolate

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For the first time in 14 years, the percentage of smokers in the U.S. increased from 2007 to 2008. The increase was small—the current number is slightly less than 21 percent of Americans, up from 19.8 percent in 2007—but some experts believe this reversal is significant, signaling that public health officials have "hit a wall" in their battle to reduce U.S. smoking. More Here...

Thursday, 12 November 2009

Ten Ways to Pay for College
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The U.S. News & World Report published a list today of ten ways students can raise money for college. The list:
1. Money from Relatives: Grandparents, aunts, uncles, everything—they're all often willing to pony up for a loved one's future. More Here...
Funemployment: The Downside to Severance

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Maybe you've seen the movie The Full Monty, where one character, recently laid off, continues to leave his house in his work clothes so that his wife doesn't know he's out of work. He also buys her a tanning bed. Well, a new trend Gawker is calling "Funemployment" is basically the real-life equivalent, when out-of-work people maintain their old lifestyles using their severance packages, which—for many of them—are about to run out. More Here...
New Life for Old Gadgets

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I recently moved to New York, which means my apartment has room for about 25 percent of the stuff I need, and everything qualifies as essential. But whenever I go home to my Dad's house, I'm struck by the sheer amounts of stuff we've managed to hold on to, much of it tech-related. It's funny, even though I'm pretty much positive I'll never use my first iPod again—a second generation model that turns on very, very rarely—I'd feel weird throwing it out.

So, to make myself feel better (and entertain myself), I looked online for some of the coolest ways to give new life to old gadgets: More Here...
Stop Re-releasing Albums!

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Sometimes, I wonder if the major music industry enjoys jerking our hard-earned cash from our pockets or if they are simple or slow, when it comes to the power of music industry economics. By this, I mean, the terms of releasing an album.
Earlier, I went to listen to a new album, only to find that The Fray has re-released their second album with bonus versions of this and past songs and a DVD of their videos. Their album was released months ago this year. I saw this happening in the past with albums from Beyoncé, Chris Brown, Björk and Taylor Swift.
The question I have is: what person with any grip on economics is going to buy the same album twice? More Here...