Random links
- Downturn's Ugly Trademark: Steep, Lasting Drop in Wages
- "Even at times of high unemployment in the past, wages have been very slow to fall; economists describe them as 'sticky.' To an extent rarely seen in recessions since the Great Depression, wages for a swath of the labor force this time have taken a sharp and swift fall."
- An Air-Bag Wrinkle to Consider
- Would we be better off spending our resources elsewhere? "seat belts, at about $25 a pop, are one of the most cost-effective lifesaving devices ever invented... a rough estimate of $30,000 for every life saved. ... air bags cost about $1.8 million per life saved."
- Scientists Inadvertently Killing Penguins, Researchers Find
- I wonder how this will impact the use of tracking devices to determine what's happening to various critters - "The survival rate of King penguins with metal bands on their flippers was 44 percent lower than those without bands and banded birds produced far fewer chicks." The article does note that this hasn't been observed in all studies with all trackers, but I wonder if it will still cause some second guessing of this sort of thing.
- Christianity arguably the most persecuted religion in the world
- "Virtually every human rights group and Western government agency that monitors the plight of Christians worldwide arrives at more or less the same conclusion: Between 200 million and 230 million of them face daily threats of murder, beating, imprisonment and torture, and a further 350 to 400 million encounter discrimination in areas such as jobs and housing. A conservative estimate of the number of Christians killed for their faith each year is somewhere around 150,000. ... the U.S. Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life put it this way: ... 'Altogether, Christians faced some form of harassment in two-thirds of all countries' ... Muslims also face 'substantial' harassment, the Pew report found, but in fewer countries.