Hypocrisy on the Public Option

From The Street.com:

Evan Bayh, the junior senator from Indiana, is in the middle of a heated debate in the Senate on whether a public option should be included as part of President Obama's health care reforms. An organizer of a group of so-called Senate Blue Dog Democrats, to date, Bayh's been a staunch opponent of any changes to the status quo in this debate.

Bayh is at best naive and disingenuous, and at worst supremely hypocritical in pushing his views as those of his voters.

His wife, Susan Bayh, sits on the board of WellPoint HealthCare in her hometown of Indianapolis. Over the last six years, Susan Bayh has received at least $2 million in compensation from WellPoint alone for serving on its board.

Evan Bayh, Susan Bayh and WellPoint seem to share almost identical views on health care and the current public option debate. Bayh recently refused to commit to voting for cloture on a bill with a public option saying: "It's not fair to ask people to facilitate the enactment of policies with which we ultimately disagree."

WellPoint spent $2.6 million in campaign contributions in 2008 for Democrat and Republican candidates. (Evan Bayh himself received more than $500,000 in campaign contributions from the health care industry in 2008.)

http://www.thestreet.com/story/10618234/4/evan-bayh-hypocrisy-on-the-public-option.html

Economics

Slow Day at the Office

Five colleagues record themselves simultaneously singing the Backstreet Boys.

The video speaks for itself:

Prosperity Rankings

The 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index, published on Tuesday and compiled by the Legatum Institute, ranks 104 countries on a definition of prosperity that combines economic growth with the level of personal freedoms and democracy in a country as well as measures of happiness and quality of life.

1) Finland
2) Switzerland
3) Sweden
4) Denmark
5) Norway
6) Australia
7) Canada
8) Netherlands
9) United States
10) New Zealand

From: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091027/lf_nm_life/us_prosperity_index

Best Kept Secrets

The Formula for Coca-Cola

The formula for Coca-Cola is so fiercely protected that the company pulled out of India in the 1970s because they would have been legally required to divulge their ingredient list to their government.

It even managed to stall a divorce case. When one of the Coke heirs ended his marriage to his wife, she demanded some of his great-grandfather's (the founder of Coca-Cola) original notes as part of her settlement. The company had to get involved and put a stop to it out of fear the notes could contain information on the formula.

Only two Coke executives know it. Urban legend says they each only know half, but that's false--that part was invented for an old ad campaign.

The original copy of the formula is kept in an undisclosed SunTrust Bank in Atlanta. To keep SunTrust on the side, Coke gave them some 48.3 million shares of stock as well as having executives from each company sit on the other's board of directors.




KFC's 11 Herbs and Spices

The secret KFC recipe dates back to the 1930s when Harland Sanders served chicken to people who stopped at his gas station in North Corbin, Kentucky. It was an amazing success.

And while he never joined the military, in 1936, he was given the title of honorary Kentucky Colonel by the governor in recognition of his contribution to the state's cuisine.

As with Coke, only two executives have access to the recipe for KFC's 11 herbs and spices.

The recipe is at KFC's headquarters. But unless you are Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, you have no chance of getting it.

Here is security expert Bo Dietl explaining how the recipe is protected:

"The ceiling and the floor are secured with concrete bricks two feet thick. We put in motion sensors also CCTV that's hooked up to security downstairs. They have 24/7 armed guys downstairs, so in the amount of 30 seconds you'll have somebody up here. Once in here, you have to have two people with two keys and two different PIN numbers, and that's what you have to have. This safe is bolted down and there is no way anybody can get in here unauthorized without us knowing about it."

Book of Odds

The "Book of Odds" describes itself as "the missing dictionary, one filled not with words, but with numbers – the odds of everyday life."

Here are some of the random things I found out on their website today:

1 in 31.52 - The odds an NFL pass will be intercepted.

1 in 16 - The odds a person 16 years or older is unemployed

1 in 3.46 - The odds an adult in a city sleeps less than 6 hours a night

1 in 1.64 - The odds an adult usually eats breakfast

The site is vast and allows you to sign up for greater access and even allows you to suggest topics for them to investigate the relevant odds statements.

http://www.bookofodds.com/

Microsoft Retail Stores

Microsoft opened its first retail store last week to compete with the highly successful model Apple has employed in the retail space. The writers at PC World Magazine had some fun coming up with the ways Microsoft's stores will differ from Apple:

- Instead of Apple's sheer walls of glass, Microsoft's stores will have brushed steel walls dotted with holes -- reminiscent of Windows security.

- The store will have six different entrances: Starter, Basic, Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate. While all six doors will lead into the same store, the Ultimate door requires a fee of $100 for no apparent reason.

- Instead of a "Genius Bar" (as Apple provides) Microsoft will offer an Excuse Bar. It will be staffed by Microsoft employees trained in the art of evading questions, directing you to complicated and obscure fixes, and explaining it's a problem with the hardware -- not a software bug.

- Store hours are undetermined. At any given time the store mysteriously shuts down instantaneously for no apparent reason. (No word yet on what happens to customers inside).

- Stores will be named Microsoft Live Retail Store with PC Services for Digital Lifestyle Enthusiasts.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/159521/10_ways_microsofts_retail_stores_will_differ_from_apple_stores.html

The Ink Tank

Here is a roundup of some recent editorial cartoons (the last one was added for its comedic effect):

Tax on Soda

The debate over a tax on sugary soft drinks — billed as a way to fight obesity and provide billions for health care reform — is starting to fizz over.

The tax would apply to soft drinks, energy drinks, sports beverages and many juices and ice teas, but not sugar-free diet drinks.

President Obama has said it is worth considering. The chief executive of Coca-Cola calls the idea outrageous, while skeptics point to political obstacles and question how much of an impact it would really have on consumers.

But a team of prominent doctors, scientists and policy makers says it could be a powerful weapon in efforts to reduce obesity, in the same way that cigarette taxes have helped curb smoking.

The group, which includes the New York City health commissioner, Thomas Farley, and Joseph W. Thompson, Arkansas surgeon general, estimates that a tax of a penny an ounce on sugary beverages would raise $14.9 billion in its first year, which could be spent on health care initiatives.

The study cited research on price elasticity for soft drinks that has shown that for every 10 percent rise in price, consumption declines 8 to 10 percent.

The soft drink industry has adamantly resisted the notion that its products are responsible for a national increase in obesity or that a tax would help curb the problem.

What do you think????

From: http://www.cnbc.com/id/32896454/

A Billion Here, A Billion There

The website "Information is Beautiful" has created something they are calling the billion dollar gram. It is an extremely interesting visual representation of the cost of various expenditures:

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/the-billion-dollar-gram/