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Source: "Irrational Exuberance", 2d edition, 2006, by Robert J. Shiller

Yale economist Robert J. Shiller created an index of American housing prices going back to 1890.

Auto Racing "Athlete" Complains That Competition is "Too Tough"

The Associated Press ~

Robby Gordon accused Danica Patrick of having an unfair advantage in the Indianapolis 500 and said Saturday [that] he will not compete in the race again unless the field is equalized.
"I won't race against her until the IRL does something to take that advantage away."

Gordon contends that Patrick is at an advantage over the rest of the competitors because she only weighs 100 pounds. Because all the cars weigh the same, Patrick's is lighter on the race track.

The Indy Racing League does not consider the weight of the driver in its race specifications. The car has to weigh at least 1,525 pounds before the fuel and driver are added, and teams in Indy have estimated that Patrick will gain close to 1 mph in speed because of her small stature.

Patrick has been among the quickest drivers since rookie orientation began on the famed 2 1/2-mile oval on May 5.

**

Holy Cow, what a whiner.
Do any of the other male drivers strive to cut their weight to a minimum, like jockeys ?
If not, then obviously they don't consider it much of an advantage.

Here's an idea: Why don't we have identical robots race the cars ?
Then the playing field will be absolutely level.

Of course, then we won't need any of those unique human drivers...
Like the overweight Robby Gordon.

Would You Rather Have an Erection, or Your Vision ?

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, Associated Press AP writers Theresa Agovino in New York and Elizabeth Wolfe in Washington contributed to this story.


WASHINGTON (May 27) - Federal health officials are probing reports of blindness among dozens of men who used Viagra and other impotence drugs - but at the same time cautioning that the vision loss can be linked to the same illnesses that lead to impotence.

At issue is sudden vision loss when blood flow to the optic nerve is blocked, a condition called NAION or non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy.

The FDA has 43 reports of NAION among the impotence drug users: 38 for Viagra, four for Cialis and one for Levitra, said spokeswoman Susan Cruzan.

Those are rare numbers, given that Viagra alone has been used by 23 million men worldwide since its approval in 1998, according to maker Pfizer Inc.

Also complicating the question: NAION is considered one of the most common causes of sudden vision loss in older Americans, and estimates suggest there are anywhere from 1,000 to 6,000 cases a year. Risk factors include diabetes and heart disease, two of the leading causes of impotence.

The possibility of a link with blindness was raised publicly earlier this year, when Dr. Howard Pomeranz of the University of Minnesota reported in an ophthalmology journal seven patients who reported NAION vision loss occurring within 36 hours of a Viagra dose.

''A definite causal relationship cannot be established at this time,'' Pomeranz wrote.

**

No doubt a lot of impotent men are saying "So what ?"

We'll have to pry their ED pills from their cold, dead fingers.

Mongolian Cow Sour Sour Yogurt Super Girl Contest

By David J. Lynch, USA TODAY

CHANGSHA, China (May 27) -- The name may not roll off the tongue quite like American Idol does, but that hasn't kept the Mongolian Cow Sour Sour Yogurt Super Girl contest from sweeping China. Like Idol, which named its winner Wednesday night, China's Super Girl gives aspiring singing stars a shot at televised fame and fortune. And amid an Idol-like mania, young women all over China have lunged at the opportunity. (But only women: There's no national Super Boy show.)

Though other amateur talent programs have aired on local television stations, Super Girl is China's first nationally televised show of its kind, according to Liao Ke, its co-creator and a program designer for state-owned Hunan province satellite television.

In a country where televised fare still features military officers belting out patriotic anthems, viewers have found Super Girl irresistible. "This is the most popular entertainment program we've ever done," Liao says.

Through May 6, an estimated 30% of all television sets in the country — or 210 million viewers — had tuned in to an episode, The show drew its largest audience to date during the regional finale in the southern city of Guangzhou; more than 22 million watched. (Super Girl can be seen in the USA on the Dish Network satellite television system.)

China has a reputation for copying everything from North Face jackets to the latest Hollywood DVDs. But Liao says he was only dimly aware of American Idol's British predecessor, Pop Idol, when he developed Super Girl.

He says the program grew out of China's rising standard of living, which has spawned more "colorful" entertainment options than in the days when art and entertainment were required to serve the country's Communist revolution. "Everybody wants to express themselves, and Hunan TV just became the platform," he says. "It's like our logo says: 'If you want to sing, sing.' "

It's not just self-expression that motivates contestants. Last year's winner took homemore than $6,000 — big money in a country with an average annual income of $1,100. [ The U.S. equivalent would be about $ 175,000 ]Unlike the American Idol winner, the Chinese champion isn't guaranteed a recording contract. But she can go on to professional success. Zhang Hanyun, 16, who finished third in last year's national showdown, is now a household name. She appears in print and TV ads for Mongolian Cow drinkable yogurt, one of China's best-known brands. She expects to release an album in July. There's also talk of a television series in which she'll appear as herself.

"I feel really lucky," she says.

This is a China far removed from the political ferment that led to the massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989. Today, China is relentlessly commercial, individualistic and apolitical.

"If such a program happened five or 10 years ago, I don't think it would have been so influential. I don't think the ordinary people would have opened themselves up to participate," says An Youqi, 21, last year's Changsha winner. "People were pretty shy and pretty conservative."

Super Girl is surprisingly participatory. This remains a country where people can't elect their leaders. But they can vote for their favorite singers.

Great-Grandmother Gives Birth to Twins !

FORT PAYNE, Ala. (May 26) - A 57-year-old great-grandmother who gave birth to a set of twins last month said Thursday she danced with her husband only hours after the delivery.

Christian Kaczur Hart and Diana Rose Angelina, conceived through in vitro fertilization, were born April 20 at UAB Hospital in Birmingham four weeks premature.

"There are lots of options out there for older women like me," Rosee Swain said. "And women shouldn't give up hope without exploring all their options."

In addition to the twins and Jimmy [their 6 year old], the Swains have two grown children; two other children are deceased. They have six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Rosee Swain, a special education teacher, said she's ready to care for the twins, who will likely graduate from high school when she is 75.

In 1998, an Indiana woman gave birth to twin girls, also at age 57. And last November, a woman in New York City gave birth to twins just days before her 57th birthday.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press

*

Well...
If I had NO kids, I might do something like this, but the couple here already had five kids, plus six grandkids, plus four great-grandkids.

Now they might be forced to work until they're 80, to pay for the twins' upbringing, plus college.

It could be fun, though, for the eventually teenaged twins to introduce their friends to their middle-aged nieces and nephews.

Russia, Too Risky For the World's Most Politically Connected Venture Fund

http://www.mosnews.com/money/2005/05/13/carlyle.shtml

The Carlyle Group said on Thursday, May 12, that it abandoned efforts to raise a $300 million fund dedicated to Russian investments, its second failed foray into the market.The U.S.-based buy-out group [...] said the investment climate in Russia did not warrant a dedicated team.
Its failure to attract investor support is a blow to Russia’s fledgling private equity industry and is significant because Carlyle is regarded as one of the industry’s most sophisticated fundraising groups.An investor, who initially expressed interest in the Russia fund, said: “For western investors, Russia’s risk profile currently lacks the predictability to give us confidence in returns. The investment market [in Russia] is very volatile at the moment.”Carlyle yesterday said it had not given up and might make investments in Russia out of its European and U.S. buy-out funds. [...]

Carlyle’s decision will be seen as a setback for Russia, a market where few of the world’s large buy-out groups have so far invested. Many regard it as a high-risk destination...
It is the second time Carlyle has had to rethink its strategy for Russia. The group first set up an office in Moscow in 1998 but closed it in 2000.

**

Ouch.
Combine this with projections that the population of Russia will shrink by 10,000,000 people by 2015, and it seems that the best that Russia can hope for is to settle into semi-prosperous 2d world status, with the economy kept afloat through selling natural resources, chief among them oil.

And Now For a Report From the Lunatic Fringe

Hitler is Winning !!

Hitler’s maniacal plan for a master race did not end with World War II. It is being systematically implemented today at an accelerating pace.

In a shocking new exposé, Hitler Is Winning, author Jerry Leonard reveals that Hitler’s quest for a global eugenics empire never ended because those who brought him and his sinister movement to power were never condemned and punished. To that end, Leonard exposes the true source of Hitler’s power and plans – the leaders of some of America’s largest corporations who not only funded the global eugenics movement but aided Hitler’s attempts to implement it through direct assistance to the Nazi war machine. Hitler Is Winning reveals not only the history of these plans but how and why these plans are being implemented today.

If you’ve suspected a hidden agenda behind the importation of thousands of Nazi war criminals to the United States, abortion on demand, human chop shops [What ?!], euthanasia, bioethics, AIDS, cloning, genetic experiments, and an unending series of unethical medical testing programs conducted by the U.S. government, this book is for you.

This book will unmask this incredibly dangerous eugenics movement – still existing under various guises. In order to expose this ongoing eugenics movement, the present state and trends of the eugenics movement will be discussed along with what I believe to be the future of the eugenics movement – based on these trends. As horrible as it sounds, it is possible that a component of this alleged modern-day, applied eugenics program included the deliberate creation and unleashing of the AIDS virus. The fantastic [Exactly !] benefits that the AIDS catastrophe is quietly providing the eugenics movement will be discussed, as will be the relationship between the research that made the epidemic possible and research conducted in Nazi concentration camps.


Other Books By This Author:

AIDS: The "Perfect" Disease [Um...Right]

**

'Nuff said.

Power from the Sea - And Cheap !

http://www.wavedragon.net/technology/principles.htm

The basic idea of the Wave Dragon wave energy converter is to use well-known and well-proven principles from traditional hydropower plants in an offshore floating platform.

The Wave Dragon overtopping device elevates ocean waves to a reservoir above sea level where water is let out through a number of turbines and in this way transformed into electricity.
Wave energy converters often make use of either mechanical motion or fluid pressure and there are numerous techniques for achieving it, e.g. oscillating water/air columns, hinged rafts, gyroscopic/hydraulic devices. Wave Dragon does not have any conversion but uses the energy in the water directly.
Wave Dragon is a very simple construction and has only one kind of moving parts: the turbines. This is essential for any device bound for operating offshore where the extreme forces and fouling etc seriously affect any moving parts.
Wave Dragon is a floating device that is supposed to stay as stationary as possible. It doesn't convert wave to energy by popping up and down or by some parts being moved by the motion of the waves. It simply utilizes the potential energy in the water that overtops it.

Like a dam:
The water overtopping Wave Dragon is stored temporarily in a large reservoir creating a head, i.e. the difference between the "normal" level of the water surface and the water surface in the reservoir. This water is let out of the Wave Dragon reservoir through several turbines and thus generating electricity like in hydro power plants.
Power generation on the Wave Dragon is based on the potential energy in the water that has overtopped the ramp and is temporarily stored in the reservoir. This reservoir contains approximately 8,000 m3 water that has to be let out through the turbines in between two waves.
Wave Dragon uses traditional hydro propeller turbines with fixed gate vanes, which is a mature and well proven technology that has been used in hydro power plants for more than 80 years.

The energy in wave motions is extremely powerful. This is exactly what is exploited in a wave energy converter but is also a constant threat to any structure and mechanic device. Several critical aspects have been addressed in designing Wave Dragon.
A slack-moored system traditionally used for mooring ships will be used to absorb forces from the Wave Dragon rig resulting form the exposure to waves and wind.
Extreme waves will not be a problem. Model tests have shown that height waves simply run over the rig.
Extreme wind will not be a major problem as Wave Dragon floats relatively low and is not exposed to the wind.

As calculated by the Royal Academy of Engineering in its recent report on electricity generation costs, for most of Europe, and the Northern coasts of North America, power should be able to be generated at a cost of five cents per kwh, or less.

The American Auto Industry Is Toast

That isn't a new or unique observation, of course, but it struck me again while reading that Hyundai plans to become the world leader in auto quality.
Now, they're already a leader in low prices, and if one adds Toyota-style dependability...

The advantage that U.S. manufacturers have is in simply knowing the American market better than anyone else.
The reason that GM and Ford still exist as independent companies, (for now), is that they called the shift from passenger cars to pick-ups and SUVs better than anyone else. However, actually assembling the vehicles isn't their strong suite, and perhaps they should quit doing it.

They should design, market, and distribute the vehicles, but outsource the assembly, much like the computer industry.

One caveat: If GM's hydrogen fuel cell vehicle programme eventually comes up with something cheap enough to sell to the general public, then GM may get a big enough boost to survive cheap, high quality imports, as well as their own demographically-driven pension and health-care-cost disaster.