Rotundus.com

Some excerpts from the US Department of Labor's foreword to a report entitled An Analysis of Reasons for the Disparity in Wages Between Men and Women :

this study leads to the unambiguous conclusion that the differences in compensation of men and women are the result of a multitude of factor ... the raw wage gap continues to be used in misleading ways to advance public policy agendas

The same misleading focus seems to come into play in the Republican "war on women".

There are observable differences in the attributes of men and women that account for most of the wage gap. Statistical analysis that includes those variables has produced results that collectively account for between 65.1 and 76.4 percent of a raw gender wage gap of 20.4 percent, and thereby leave an adjusted gender wage gap that is between 4.8 and 7.1 percent.

Then adjust as well for gender preferences in the type of compensation prefered:

Research also suggests that differences not incorporated into the model due to data limitations may account for part of the remaining gap. Specifically, CONSAD’s model and much of the literature, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics Highlights of Women’s Earnings, focus on wages rather than total compensation. Research indicates that women may value non-wage benefits more than men do, and as a result prefer to take a greater portion of their compensation in the form of health insurance and other fringe benefits.

And the conclusion?

Although additional research in this area is clearly needed, this study leads to the unambiguous conclusion that the differences in the compensation of men and women are the result of a multitude of factors and that the raw wage gap should not be used as the basis to justify corrective action. Indeed, there may be nothing to correct. The differences in raw wages may be almost entirely the result of the individual choices being made by both male and female workers.

What Do Spoilers Spoil?

"In August 2011 two researchers at the University of California at San Diego reported (in the journal Psychological Science) that in a controlled experiment, 'subjects significantly preferred spoiled over unspoiled stories in the case of both … ironic twist stories and … mysteries.'"

Sharp rise reported in child abuse by women

"Some 2,142 children told ChildLine last year they had been sexually abused by a woman - nearly a quarter of all calls where the offender's gender could be identified. ... Research for the helpline found that boys were more likely to say they had been abused by a woman (1,722 cases) than by a man (1,651)." That latter bit was a bit surprising. Not too shockingly, though, where the child in question was female, the offender was far more likely to be male.

How Self-Driving Cars Could Reshape Our Cities

Interesting at least to think about although I'm a bit skeptical of at least some of it. A lot of the efficiency improvements I can see, but I suspect that people are still likely to want their own cars.

Enough to make your head swim: World's largest pool which cost $1bn and holds 66m gallons is so big you can even sail boats on it

Naturally the thing is a few feet next to the ocean. It's cleaner than the ocean water and also apparently 9 degrees warmer which seems a bit nice. Why you'd want the thing to be 115 feet deep in spots I'm not really sure...

Hayek on Serfdom and Welfare States

Frederick Hayek seems to have been a bit less libertarian than you might think. "As Matt Yglesias said Monday, lots of people, conservatives and liberals alike, say that Hayek believed that any welfare state inevitably leads to totalitarianism. Then some people who have actually read Hayek reply that he always supported social insurance, safety nets, public goods provision and many forms of regulation. Then confusion ensues."

The startup's site is advertising preorders at a cost of $70, expected to ship in December 2012 or January 2013. From their about page

Leap represents an entirely new way to interact with your computers. It’s more accurate than a mouse, as reliable as a keyboard and more sensitive than a touchscreen. For the first time, you can control a computer in three dimensions with your natural hand and finger movements.

This isn’t a game system that roughly maps your hand movements. The Leap technology is 200 times more accurate than anything else on the market — at any price point. Just about the size of a flash drive, the Leap can distinguish your individual fingers and track your movements down to a 1/100th of a millimeter.

That's a pretty impressive accuracy claim. Now the question is just how well it actually works. (If you qualify, they seem to have some free developer kits which are estimated to ship in 1-3 months. Human-computer interaction isn't really my area though).

Here a quote from H. Geman that seems worth pondering (cited from p. 131 of Electricity Markets: Pricing, Structures and Economics:

Regarding Europe the consequences of deregulation are puzzling at the present time: the two countries with the lowest cost of producing electricity in April 2004 were:

The most deregulated one, in the UK, with a cost of production of 0.048 euros per kilowatt hour.

The most centralized one, France with a cost of production of 0.052 euros per kilowatt hour.