So there I was sitting at Sloppy Joe's just like most other days. Through the doors walked a most interesting character. A comma. A comma walked into Sloppy Joe's. Not an actual comma. A woman whose very embodiment reminded me of a comma. Commas are the bane of my existence yet I am drawn to her like a moth to a flame. I am a married man but I cannot stop thinking about her. I have tried to rid my life of all commas but it seems that I have one more that I must address.

Bibliography Exercise

King, Stephen
1981. Cujo. New York: Viking Press.

Torre, Joe
2009. The Yankee Years. New York: Doubleday.

Grann, David
2009. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. New York: Doubleday.

Berman, Morris
2006. Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.

Roth, Phillip
1969. Portnoy’s Complaint. New York: Random House.

Unpopular conclusion of "Freakonomics"

On occasion, a book or an article decides to go against the grain and draw a conclusion that is unpopular with the common belief of people. One of my favorite books, and an example of such a technique is "Freakonomics", by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. The book draws a correlation between crime and legalized abortion. "Legalized abortion led to less unwantedness; unwantedness leads to high crime; legalized abortion, therefore, led to less crime"(Levitt 139). What I really appreciated about this book is that it attempts to back up it's wild accusations with objective proof. The book is an excellent read, and one of many that I recommend to show how school subjects (in this case economics) are applied in real life.

References

Levitt, Steven D., Dubner, Stephen J.
2005. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. New York: Harper Collins.

"Why are you Jiggling"

Where o slang terms come from? Recently my 10 year old nephew has been driving his mom, and granddad crazy with "Why are you jiggling", "Why are YOU JIGGLING". I wonder where this came from, and I actually find it quite amusing. They have learned, also, to laugh at these phrases rather than get annoyed by them. I hope this one catches on..

Anticipation, Letdown

So there I was, all set to play my new game. My friends recommended the game, and it seemed really cool. After all of the hundreds of dollars poured into the system, and games, and the connection is no good. Oh well, a few more days won't kill me. Guess I should be studying anyway.

Don't Sleep on Your Research

In this modern information age, the dissemination of information is often misunderstood, and the research methodology is often neglected. Web sites like "Wikipedia" have replaced dictionaries and encyclopedias. Many of us take this information for granted, and do not look at it critically. Look deeper into many articles, and you may find different conclusions than the article's own "conclusion". Take, for example, these articles on "sleep"

One study that was published that attempts to relate sleep habits to the likelihood of contracting the common cold.¹ Common sense would tell us as much, but what does the study actually tell us? The study had "only" 153 participants (relatively small), and exposed them to the virus after their sleep pattern was recorded. The next study we look at relates sleep duration to obesity and weight gain.² One can easily read into it that amount of sleep causes obesity or weight gain, but that is not what the study says. It actually relates the two, but does nothing to say which causes which. Obesity can cause sleeping problems such as sleep apnea, and is in fact one of the primary causes, according to helpguide.org.³ Then there is another study that follows sleep patterns of college students.⁴ All that this study can conclude is (perhaps) "Many students have sleep problems...", but it admits that the "survey may be limited by under reporting". Last but not least we have a fine study on caffeine or melatonin on sleep and sleepiness throughout travel that spans multiple time zones.⁵ Here we find a study that is very specific, controlled, and makes no assumptions.

Don't sleep on your research, and let the blogosphere/wikipedia/myspace/etc. world turn you into a machine. There is no (proof) of artificial intelligence, so use your own. (Not to say tha any of the aforementioned data is, or is not true)

References

1. Sleep Habits and Susceptibility to the common cold. Sheldon Cohen, PhD; William J Doyle, PhD; Cuneyt M. Alper, MD; Denise Janicki-Deverts, PhD; Ronald B. Turner, MD. Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 169 No. 1, January 12, 2009
2. Sleep duration, general and abdominal obesity, and weight change among te older adult population of Spain. Esther Lopez-Garcia, Raquel Faubel, Luz Leon-Munoz, Maria C Zuluaga, Jose R Banegas and Fernando Rodriguez-Artalejo. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, No. 2, 310-316, February 2008
3. Sleep Apnea, Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis and treatment. http://www.helpguide.org/life/sleep_apnea.htm
4. Sleep Patterns of College Students at a Public University. LeAnne M. Forquer, PhD; Adrian E. Camden, BS; Krista M. Gabrrau, BS; C. Merle Johnson, PhD. Journal of American College Health, Vol. 56, NO. 5
5. Caffeine or melatonin effects on sleep and sleepiness after rapid eastward transmeridian travel. M. Beaumont, D. Batejat, C. Pierard, P. Van Beers, J.B. Denis, O. Coste, P. Doireau, F. Chauffard, J. French, and D. Lagarde. Journal of Applied Physiology 96: 50-58, 2004

Math in Real Life

Wouldn't you know, math really works in real life. In my math class my professor brought up This really great article which basically explains mathematically why human nature leads to the economic crisis's we are experiencing right now. I will sum it up for you as simple as possible.

Lets assume you work at an investment bank. Lets say, for simplicity sake that you and 99 other colleagues have 10 million dollars each to invest in "a coin flip". Heads you double your money, tails you go broke. Now your coin is special. Your coin has a 3/4 chance of coming up heads. Do you bet on your coin or on theirs? If you bet on theirs it is 1/2 you will make money and get a big bonus, 1/2 you go broke. What if you bet on yours? If you win and everyone else wins you get your bonus (3/8 chance..3/4 yours*1/2 theirs). However if you lose and everyone else wins the company is bankrupt, and still no bonus for you.

Would you take the "Smarter risk" that gives you less chance of making money?
Really?