Sundry Articles

Gross Domestic Happiness, Bike Seat Blues, Google Computer Software, Cellphone Use During Flights, I Am Exotic, Nobel Prize, Hauls Ass Sucks Gas

I mentioned this in January 2005 after I read the year-end Economist issue that Frank left at our house:

A New Measure of Well-Being From a Happy Little Kingdom
Gross Domestic Happiness in Bhutan.

Maybe biking to work isn't such a great idea...
Serious Riders, Your Bicycle Seat May Affect Your Love Life
On a positive note, I finally learned what the area between the external genitals and the anus is called: the perineum. In men, a sheath in the perineum, called Alcock's canal (all-cock, hee hee hee), contains an artery and a nerve that supply the penis with blood and sensation. The canal runs along the side of a bone and when a cyclist sits hard on a narrow saddle, the artery and the nerve are compressed. Over time, a reduction of blood flow can mean that there is not enough pressure to achieve full erection.

Google and Sun Challenge Microsoft's Office
This is big news. Google Inc. took a step toward challenging Microsoft Corp.'s dominance of computer software with the announcement Tuesday of a collaboration agreement with Sun Microsystems Inc. The move could lead to Google offering next-generation word processing, spreadsheet and collaboration tools that would take on Microsoft's industry-leading Office suite of software.

Silence Aloft Is Under Threat
Many have come to cherish the airplane as the long metal tube of silence; however, Federal regulators are reassessing the rules barring phones in the air and some international airlines are gradually introducing Internet access to their planes. The emerging debate over whether to allow phone use on planes is taking on a larger symbolism. Airplanes have become the last place where people in business do not feel obliged to be constantly and immediately available. Perhaps counterintuitively, airplane travel has become for many people a highly productive time, either because it permits uninterrupted work, or simply a reflective time that has been lost in a world of 24/7 digital stimulation.

Study Suggests Most in U.S. Will Be Fat
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm exotic.

like shoving frogs into a wheelbarrow

Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
discovery of bacterium tied to stomach ailments

Big SUVs Lag in Sales, Hindered by Gas Cost
At Ford, sales of the Explorer, Expedition and Lincoln Navigator fell more than 50 percent compared with the same month a year earlier. At G.M., sales of the Chevrolet Suburban and Tahoe fell more than 50 percent, while the GMC Yukon was down 46 percent and the Cadillac Escalade fell nearly 23 percent, with the supersize Escalade ESV falling 40 percent. Sales of the Hummer H2, made by G.M., fell 32 percent.