Random Thoughts

I came across an interesting article on BBC (Finger length 'key to aggression' ) today and The Economist has a similar article ( Neuroeconomics: Digitally enhanced ). They report a positive correlation between the length of mens' ring fingers and their success in high-stress securities trading. Actually, the more correct comparison s between the ratio of the ring to index finger and success/aggression. In women, the ring and index fingers are comparable, however the ring finger is significantly longer than the index finger in men. In this study, the researchers only looked at men's fingers. Apparently the level of testerone in a fetus is exposed to during pregnancy affects length of fingers as well as the level of aggression. More aggressive traders tend to have longer ring fingers and they happen to be more successful, after factoring out the effect of experience. They also reached a similar conclusion when looking at college students. Having a short ring finger...

I have been a fan of Kobe Bryant's game ever since I saw him in the 1999 playoff loss to the San Antonio Spurs. While I have always enjoyed his creativity, skill and finesse, my perception of the man has never been glamourous. He is selfish and narcisstic beyond I can defend, even though I have for many many years. Almost everything he does on the court has a certain motive which is rarely wholesome. What ticks me off about Kobe now is his latest marketing ploy for his Nike shoes. His official website claims that he wore his Nike Hyperdunks (which came out in the middle of 2008) until December 16, 2008. At that point, he switched to the new (and not-yet-released) Nike ZKIVs. Here are his stats with the Hyperdunks and ZKIVs. 24 GAMES WITH HYPERDUNK: OCTOBER 28 – DECEMBER 16 PPG: 25.0 FG%: 46.1 3-PT%: 29.5 12 GAMES WITH ZKIV: DECEMBER 19 – JANUARY 11 PPG: 30.8 FG%: 52.0 3-PT%: 48.9 They go on to say: His game has been elevated to amazing new heights over the past month, and the...

It is remarkable tha the Congressional Budget Office is projecting a federal budget deficit of $1.2 trillion without including Obama's expensive stimulus plan. Assuming Obama's stimulus plan costs $800 billion over two years, you are looking at deficits in the order of $1.6 trillion for the 2009 fiscal year!! Obama tells us that trillion dollar deficits are here to stay , for the coming years. These numbers are scary!! I like to think of the gravity of a federal budget deficit as a percentage of federal revenue (as opposed to be the GDP as everyone else does). Considering the federal tax revenue is about $2.5 - 2.7 trillion, the deficit for 2009 is going to be anywhere between 44-64% of the federal tax revenue!! Imagine if you are a household spending 44-64% more than you make. How long would you survive? Not for long!! I don't think even the money-printing Uncle Sam can pull this off for too long. This country is on an unsustainable path to a devastating nationa...

I subscribe to the RSS feeds from Lifehack and I came across some good tips. One that was of value to me was their post on procrastinaton . The writer suggests that procrastinators should persistently ask themselves this one question. “What’s the best thing you could be working on, and why aren’t you?” l could not agree more. I am already practicing that piece of advice and it might shame me into doing "the best think I could be working on right now" and that is certainly not blogging. See ye!

The death of one Wal-Mart worker on Black Friday has created quite a bit of outrage everywhere . May be the media is depicting the reaction as worse than it really is. May be the current economic struggles all over the U.S. (and the world) make the story resonate more strongly with everyone. What I want to say is that people are overreacting to this incident. They are creating storylines that are not there. This is not the first time someone has been trampled to death by crowds. Hundreds of Muslims die each year during their annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Many Hindus die under similar circumstances (even though I can't produce links right this moment). I would guess quite a few sports fans die in sports stadiums. Quite conceivably, more than a handful of people die worldwide trying to compete for bargain deals in stores. So, why people (perhaps just the media) attribute so much symbolism and significance to the death of one Black Friday shopper is beyond me.