How do drug companies come up with their crazy brand names? This is how...

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2007-10-07-drug-names_N.htm

NAFTA's impact on U.S. employment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAFTA%27s_Impact_on_US_Employment

NAFTA's opponents attribute much of the displacement caused in the US labor market to the United States’ growing trade deficits with Mexico and Canada. According to the EPI, the widening of the deficit has caused the dislocation of domestic production to other countries with cheaper labor and supported the loss of 879,280 US jobs. Critics see the argument of the proponents of NAFTA as being one-sided because they only take into consideration export-oriented job impact instead of looking at the trade balance in aggregate. They argue that increases in imports ultimately displaced the production of goods that would have been made domestically by workers within the United States.

The export-oriented argument is also critiqued because of the discrepancy between domestically-produced exports and exports produced in foreign countries. For example, many US exports are simply being shipped to Mexican maquiladores where they are assembled, and then shipped back to the U.S. as final products. These are not products destined for consumption by Mexicans, yet they made up 61% of exports in 2002. However, only domestically-produced exports are the ones that support U.S. labor. Therefore, the measure of net impact of trade should be calculated using only domestically-produced exports as an indicator of job creation.

78% of the net job losses under NAFTA, 686,700 jobs, were relatively-high paying manufacturing jobs. Certain states with heavy emphasis on manufacturing industries like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and California were significantly affected by these job losses.

Modern Library list of 100 best 20th century novels

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Library_List_of_Best_20th-Century_Novels#The_List

theory on why Europeans are so white

All meats have some vitamin D. Fish have very high amounts. But grains have no vitamin D at all. People who eat grains do not get vitamin D from food; they must get it from sunlight. This usually works out fine because grains grow only where it is warm. And this means only in latitudes with bright sunlight, with one exception. People who live in low latitudes, where they can live off grains, get plenty of sunlight. People who live in dim sunlight cannot grow grains, and so they get vitamin D from the meat and fish that they eat. The exception? There is only one spot on the planet where grains will grow despite sub-arctic sunlight. It is where the warm waters of the Gulf Stream wash ashore. The Baltic is the only place on earth where ocean currents keep it warm enough to grow grain despite dim sunlight. When the inhabitants of this region switched to grain about 6 KYA, they suddenly got insufficient vitamin D to survive. They had stopped eating mostly meat and fish in a place where sunlight was too dim to produce vitamin D in normally pigmented skin. And so they adapted by retaining into adulthood the infantile trait of extreme paleness.


taken from: http://knol.google.com/k/why-are-europeans-white-e1#




another interesting article:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100057939

The Winter War (AKA don't mess with Finland)

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTcYo_eKGkCMUp9bP-0toI-NL1E4QG4xwBZwrsRpEkor_Vx5BJcNREDW7MBsn2CDU1uy39JELOyRUlUQz2_aTuY00Dzo4pcXRwa7bBxjEQj4-ZjUm1Xd2xKFlHUEcqax141mFGVOHhOZ8L/s800/fdccax.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTcYo_eKGkCMUp9bP-0toI-NL1E4QG4xwBZwrsRpEkor_Vx5BJcNREDW7MBsn2CDU1uy39JELOyRUlUQz2_aTuY00Dzo4pcXRwa7bBxjEQj4-ZjUm1Xd2xKFlHUEcqax141mFGVOHhOZ8L/s800/fdccax.jpg

Apple & LaLa, Microsoft & NewsCorp, Comcast & NBC

The big thing right now is to try and gain more control over the channels of distribution.

Within the past few weeks Apple has purchased LaLa, Comcast has gained control over NBC, and Microsoft supposedly offered NewsCorp some financial reward for de-listing from Google search.


I just can't believe Comcast has control of the oldest and most important television network. It doesn't seem right.