New pictures

I just uploaded a few new pictures...check out them via this slide show (put the speed up and they are pretty cool!)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/financeprofessor/show/

Need another reason to take hard classes?

Higher education my benefit brains of elderly, study finds: "More years of education were associated with more active frontal lobes, areas known to be involved in problem solving, memory and judgment, the scientists reported.
Those who treat memory loss and other maladies of the elderly have long been intrigued by evidence that an active life of the mind might 'vaccinate' the brain against Alzheimer's disease and other chronic neural disorders that may appear over time.
Learning, they suspected, might be an effective preventive medicine."

interesting, but the study is far from complete.

Scientists say there's good news on Smokies air quality

I would presume this is also true elsewhere.

Scientists say there's good news on Smokies air quality: "'Since the late 1990's, air quality on all fronts is improving. That's the great news.'
Still, Renfro says the main categories of concern, haze and visibility, obscure distant ridges on hazy summer days for a number of reasons. A big part of it has to do with coal, which creates steam to drive a turbine. That generates electricity at TVA's fossil fuel plants and helps foul the air."

Unemployed Women At Higher Risk For Cardiovascular Disease

While there may be some cause and effect relationship that is not accounted for in this (their work suffered because of unknown condition), this is more evidence that stress can be harmful to your health.

Unemployed Women At Higher Risk For Cardiovascular Disease: "Researchers found that women who had become involuntarily unemployed experienced more high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease such as heart attack, chest pain and stroke. They also faced a deterioration of mental health such as increases in stress, depression and emotional problems.

'Unemployed women who want to be employed clearly standout from the employed and homemakers as being at high risk for cardiovascular disease and poor mental health,' she said. 'We are surmising that the unemployed women have more social stress in response to being laid off and not being able to locate a job.'"

from ScienceDaily and the American Heart Association.

Imaginary Friendships Could Boost Child Development

Imaginary Friendships Could Boost Child Development

Anna Roby "a post-graduate student from The University of Manchester's School of Psychological Sciences is investigating the theory that children with imaginary companions are quicker to develop language skills and retain knowledge."

"The theory is that by chatting to an imaginary companion a child becomes more practised at using language and constructing conversation, as he or she is carrying out both sides of the interaction. Children aged 4 to 11 both with and without imaginary friends are therefore being studied, to compare their ability to communicate meaning and the complexity of their grammar.

Researchers estimate that up to 25% of children have imaginary companions, particularly only- or first-born children. They are defined as vivid, imagined characters which might be people, animals or objects, which a child believes they are interacting with in an on-going way. The friend may be `invisible' or take the form of a toy animal or doll, and is treated as if it has a personality and consciousness of its own."


I had several imaginary friends. In fact I guess they all worked in my imaginary store. SO in some ways I have been working in stores since I was 3 or 4 years old. ;)

Urban Green Space Linked To Walking, Cycling Levels

Urban Green Space Linked To Walking, Cycling Levels

While this is almost a no brainer (of course people walk more if there are better places to walk (and I would add run ;) ), it is still nice to get proof.

Of course there are costs to building parks, but as far as I see it, green space more than pays for itself in many ways!

Marginal Revolution: Why don't all chains spread nationally?

I was torn where to put this one (it could also have been on the ParkandShop Blog), but it was so good I had to include it somewhere.

It is from the Marginal Revolution Blog.
Marginal Revolution: Why don't all chains spread nationally?

There is probably no single answer but some of the answers include monitoring, fewer economies of scale than people suppose, and randomness.