eu-jin’s posterous

Stuff I'm interested in 



June 26, 2009

financial illiteracy among pro athletes

I knew that pro athletes were notoriously bad at managing their finances but I didn't know it was this bad.

"Sixty percent of the NBA's often extremely well-paid players are virtually penniless within five years of retiring, according to a recent Sports Illustrated report. The numbers are just as bad, if not worse, for the NFL, the magazine says, with 78% bankrupt two years into retirement."

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jun2009/bs20090626_130035.htm

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June 17, 2009

Positive Thinking

Turns out that saying positive/encouraging words to people with low self esteem actually makes them feel worse!

http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13815141

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May 27, 2009

Financial Penalty for taking Time off your Career

Summary of interesting research showing which professions and what degrees result in the biggest financial penalty for taking extended time off work. Apparently MD's are the most flexible careers later in life after residency. When reading about the lifestyle of the MD's given as examples in the article, I can't help but think perhaps that is part of the problem why health care costs are so high in this country; when you have highly paid MD's working so little after residency, you'd need more expensive MD's to cover the same number of hours, and hence staff costs increase. It's great if you're the MD, but not great if you actually have to pay the cost of that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/business/economy/27leonhardt.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

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May 25, 2009

Bling in the recession

This article on bling in the recession has many many hilarious quotes including

- Rapper 50 Cent has relished the chance to accuse his musical adversaries of not glittering like gold. During a radio interview, the artist, whose real name is Curtis James Jackson III, taunted rapper Rick Ross for wearing faux and rented jewelry.

- Mr. Dang's "grillz" sales also have fallen off 60% in the recession. He and his business partner, the rapper Paul Wall, helped popularize the bejeweled dental retainers earlier this decade, when diamond-laced varieties molded with platinum were selling for tens of thousands of dollars. Now the recession has so damped the extravagance that a Web site called sellyourgoldteeth.com is doing brisk business buying grillz for meltdown value

- "If you admit you wear fake jewelry, it is over for you. It's like bragging you drive a Lamborghini when you really drive a Toyota."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124329128994052323.html#mod=article-outset-box

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May 11, 2009

diamonds

I didn't realise that the Russian diamond company Alrosa is now the world's biggest producer of diamonds, overtaking De Beers. What I found interesting about the article is how the people the nytimes interviews for the article openly (a few times in the article) admit that diamonds have no real value and they have to prop up the price.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/business/global/12diamonds.html?ref=business&pagewanted=all

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April 22, 2009

El Tatio Geysers

I visited the El Tatio geyser fields back in 2005 while I waiting to cross over to Bolivia from Chile. I remember having a good time at the geyser field waiting for sunrise, and then having eggs boiled in the geysers. The hot springs were pretty nice too. Unfortunately it looks like the geysers will soon be tapped to generate geothermal energy for the nearby copper mines. Visit while you can.

http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/greenview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13522111

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April 22, 2009

MBA career changers

Some of my engineer friends from undergrad entered MBA programs a couple of years ago hoping to switch careers from computer software/hardware to business/management/i-banking/consulting after graduating. My undergrad class unfortunately graduated in the middle of the dot com bust as well. This article talks about the people who join MBA programs hoping for career changes are now being forced to return back to their original careers, possibly at the same level minus tuition fees.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124026550135236597.html

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April 21, 2009

Politicians around the world

Discussion by the Economist on why it seems that Asian politicians are generally engineers whereas US politicians are often lawyers.

http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13496638

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April 20, 2009

tea temperature

As a tea and coffee drinker, I've never liked piping hot drinks unless I'm outside and it's cold. Turns out that temperature of your favourite beverage may be linked to esophageal cancer.

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-cancer28-2009mar28,0,2309950.story

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April 20, 2009

Ponzi Schemes in Academia

A funny description of Ph.D. students in academia, more true in some fields than in others

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