With Valentine’s Day around the corner, don’t trust your instincts when it comes to selecting a mate. Human decision making is seriously flawed – but it can be fixed with a few simple sums…
As described by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, by introducing tools to measure a situation, we can affect the situation itself.
The researchers discovered that feeling down triggers self-centered thinking. This egocentrism augments the likelihood that some one spend more money than usual for an item, in order to make them feel better.
Depression Leads To Egocentrism Which Augments Money Spending
Related post: The consumer paradox
Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2007
Lots of noise and bias in this article that talks about relationships and aging, but an interesting read. An excerpt:
In short, women seem to hang on to the ideal, and many get lucky. But when they start wanting to settle down, they opt for what biologists call the Hobson’s Choice Strategy. In layman’s terms, they opt for something over nothing. (I guess it applies to both genders?)
“Microsoft Corp., the world’s biggest software maker, made an unsolicited $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo! Inc. to challenge Google Inc.’s dominance in Internet search services and advertising.The $31-a-share bid of cash or Microsoft stock is 62 percent more than Yahoo’s closing price yesterday. Before today, Yahoo had dropped 18 percent this year in Nasdaq Stock Market trading, and said this week that fourth-quarter profit fell 23 percent.” – Bloomberg
People started wearing shoes around 40,000 years ago, according to a study on recently excavated small toe bones that belonged to an individual from China who apparently loved shoes.
“State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is leaning on Soma Networks to build the broadband-speed network in response to government requirement that 20 million broadband lines be in service by 2010. Soma says it’s shipping thousands of base stations to get the network operational at full speed, and that when it’s done, 400 Indian cities will be covered, with downstream speeds of 1.5 megabits per seconds.” – Engadget
“The U.S. Federal Reserve on Tuesday slashed U.S. interest rates (the overnight rate at which banks lend each other) by a hefty three-quarters of a percentage point, the biggest rate cut in more than 23 years, in an emergency bid to lend support to a U.S. economy some fear is on the verge of recession… The last time there was a rate cut of at least three-quarters of a point was in October 1984.” – Reuters
The interest rate cut has steadied the global markets which were previously in a free fall.
As a result of Fed’s rate cut, the CBOE Market Volatility Index (VIX) (so-called stock market fear gauge) spiked to its highest level seen since the end of the previous bear market before paring gains, as the major stock market indexes bounced off earlier lows.
Forbes publishes an annual list of 2000 world’s biggest companies. They are ranked according to 4 criteria – sales, profits, assets and market capitalization. The current list reflects 2007’s biggest companies, however, expect 2008’s landscape to be fairly different with companies like PetroChina making it towards the top of the list where as Citigroup and other banks probably tumbling down a few places. (List published towards the end of March.)
The Global 2000 (world’s largest public companies)
Related: PetroChina becomes world’s biggest company by market cap
