How the Mets' season broke down and fell apart

How the Mets' season broke down and fell apart:

"The Mets have had 19 players on the DL this season (tied for the most in the majors with the Reds) and the baker's dozen now on the list is costing them roughly $87 million. That staggering sum alone is more than the entire payroll of 16 teams

"

Why Rich People Really Aren’t Happier | MintLife Blog | Personal Finance News & Advice

Why Rich People Really Aren’t Happier | MintLife Blog | Personal Finance News & Advice:

"The ability to imagine — to try to predict our future state of mind — is what sets us apart from less-evolved species. It’s also the very thing that stunts our shot at true happiness.

We assume that a sportier car, a bigger house, a better-paying job, or that dress will bring us joy because, well, they did in the past, right?

Not really, says Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard psychology professor and the author of Stumbling on Happiness. “Research reveals that memory is less like a collection of photographs than it is like a collection of impressionist paintings rendered by an artist who takes considerable license with his subject,” Gilbert writes. We forget that the new-car high deflated well before our first trip to the mechanic, and the raise came with stressful late nights at the office and a steeper tax tab."

Phys Ed: Does Exercise Reduce Your Cancer Risk? - Well Blog - NYTimes.com

Phys Ed: Does Exercise Reduce Your Cancer Risk? - Well Blog - NYTimes.com:

"...after controlling for cigarette smoking, fiber and fat intake, age, and other variables, the most physically active men were the least likely to develop cancer, particularly of the gastrointestinal tract or the lung. Even more striking, the intensity of the exercise was key. The more arduous it was, the more protective it proved. Jogging was the most strenuous activity studied, fishing among the least. The men who jogged or otherwise exercised fairly intensely for at least 30 minutes a day had “a 50 percent reduction in the risk of dying prematurely from cancer,” says Sudhir Kurl, medical director of the School of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition at the University of Kuopio in Finland and one of the study’s authors"

Basics - Brain Is a Co-Conspirator in a Vicious Stress Loop - NYTimes.com

Basics - Brain Is a Co-Conspirator in a Vicious Stress Loop - NYTimes.com:

"In other words, the rodents were now cognitively predisposed to keep doing the same things over and over, to run laps in the same dead-ended rat race rather than seek a pipeline to greener sewers. “Behaviors become habitual faster in stressed animals than in the controls, and worse, the stressed animals can’t shift back to goal-directed behaviors when that would be the better approach,” Dr. Sousa said. “I call this a vicious circle.”"

Simoleon Sense » Blog Archive » Asset Mispricing Due to Cognitive Dissonance

Simoleon Sense » Blog Archive » Asset Mispricing Due to Cognitive Dissonance:

"My favorite concept from this paper: “To alleviate cognitive dissonance, investors endogenously choose to ignore information that conflicts too much with their ex ante expectations.”"

We see what we want to see.

IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- Shovel-Ready Health Care

Wow, I did not realize how much difference there is!

IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- Shovel-Ready Health Care:

"...in the United Kingdom, where the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence ruled against the use of two drugs, Lapatinib and Sutent, that prolong the life of those with certain forms of breast and stomach cancer. It's no surprise, then, to discover that while breast cancer in America has a 25% mortality rate, in Britain it's almost double at 46%. Prostate cancer is fatal to 19% of American men who get it. In Britain, it kills 57% of those it strikes.

The health care bureaucracy is just as ugly in North America. Sally Pipes, a Canadian who heads the Pacific Research Institute, wrote in these pages on July 2 that in 2008, 'the average Canadian waited 17.3 weeks from the time his general practitioner referred him to a specialist until he actually received treatment.'"

Beware: Happiness is Contagious | Psychology Today

Beware: Happiness is Contagious | Psychology Today:

"Nicholas Christakis,... a physician and sociologist at Harvard University....he suggests that happiness, like the flu, can spread from person to person. When people who are close to us, both in terms of social ties (friends or relatives) and physical proximity, become happier, we do too. For example, when a person who lives within a mile of a good friend becomes happier, the probability that this person's good friend will also become happier increases 15%. More surprising is that the effect can transcend direct links and reach a third degree of separation: when a friend of a friend becomes happier, we become happier, even when we don't know that third person directly."

So smile. Or else! ;)

Your tools are as good as you think they are

Your tools are as good as you think they are:

"More important than the tools themselves is the belief in their effectiveness, says leading management specialist Prof. Dov Eden of TAU's Faculty of Management. His advice may spare a vulnerable company the costs of expensive technology upgrades in these tough economic times or help companies smoothly transition through mergers. His study will soon be published in the Journal of Management."

MetsBlog.com: things don't look good

MetsBlog.com:

"According to Cool Standings, a team will likely need 90 wins to take the National League Wild Card this season.

The Mets must go 40–18 in their next 58 games to win 90 games.

Cool Standings determines there is less than a one-percent chance the Mets win the Wild Card, based on pace, schedule, etc…"

msnbc.com:Paralyzed swimmer goes for gold

msnbc.com:Paralyzed swimmer goes for gold

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

StumbleUpon WebToolbar - Florida Looks at New Ideas for Battling Hurricanes - TIME

StumbleUpon WebToolbar - Florida Looks at New Ideas for Battling Hurricanes - TIME:

"Since hurricanes gather strength over tropical waters such as the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, cooling them would weaken the storms before they made landfall. The plan calls for huge ocean-going tubs that would use waves and turbines to push down the hotter surface water while sucking up the cooler water from below."