Led by Queen’s University Psychology professor Meredith Chiversk (sic), the study found that men’s reports of feeling sexually aroused tend to match their physiological responses, while women’s mind and body responses are less aligned. [link]

It’s actually Meredith Chivers – who is a bit of a celebrity, having appeared on Charlie Rose and other media outlets.

In any event, a blogger – Amit Varma – asked (as a follow up to the article above):

I wonder what academics do on vacation. [link]

The answer? Have sex, of course. But for research purposes only.

[link]

Update: Didn’t realize the image wasn’t showing.

…The Economist Group is delighted to announce the development of a public-entertainment facility that combines the magic of a theme park with the excitement of macroeconomics.

Among the thrilling experiences Econoland will offer are: The currency high-roller: Float like a butterfly with the euro and drop like a stone with the pound!Chamber of horrors: Tremble at the wailing of distressed debt! Fiscal fantasyland: Watch the economy shrivel before your very eyes as you struggle to stop growth falling!

“Econoland will appeal to the kid in everyone”, said a spokesman for The Economist Group, “although children themselves will not be admitted”. The park will open on April 1st. [link]

Below, a partial map of one of the sections – Financial Fantasyland:

A penny minted before 1982 is ninety-five per cent copper—which, at recent prices, is approximately two and a half cents’ worth. Luhrman, who had previously owned a company that refined gold and silver, devised a method of rapidly separating pre-1982 pennies from more recent ones, which are ninety-seven and a half per cent zinc, a less valuable commodity. [link]

This guy Luhrman (Walter Luhrman, a metallurgist in southern Ohio) is a true entrepreneur-arbitrageur:

His new company, Jackson Metals, bought truckloads of pennies from the Federal Reserve, turned the copper ones into ingots, and returned the zinc ones to circulation in cities where pennies were scarce. “Doing that prevented the U.S. Mint from having to make more pennies,” Luhrman told me recently. “Isn’t that neat?” The Mint didn’t think so; it issued a rule prohibiting the melting or exportation of one-cent and five-cent coins. (Nickels, despite their silvery appearance, are seventy-five per cent copper.)

And that’s not all – just when you’re getting ready to ignore the penny again, you hear of a movement to abolish the penny. Mainly because of the “time wasted from counting pennies.” It’s a jet-setting life when you can’t count your pennies, that’s for sure! From last night’s Colbert Report:

As the world grows more populous — the United Nations projects eight billion people by 2025, up from 6.6 billion today — it also is growing more prosperous. The average person is consuming more food, water, metal and power. Growing numbers of China’s 1.3 billion people and India’s 1.1 billion are stepping up to the middle class, adopting the high-protein diets, gasoline-fueled transport and electric gadgets that developed nations enjoy.

The result is that demand for resources has soared. If supplies don’t keep pace, prices are likely to climb further, economic growth in rich and poor nations alike could suffer, and some fear violent conflicts could ensue. [link]

It stands to reason. There’s no point in the past that hasn’t seen prosperity knocked down by resource constraints. Perhaps this period of time is no different and our innovations are merely procrastinating the inevitable. As Paul Krugman says,

It was only with the industrial revolution that we finally escaped from the trap (if we did — for all we know, 35th-century historians will view the period 1800-2020 or so as a temporary aberration).  [link]

And then, I read Buttonwood in the Economist who -while discussing possible safe investments in a time of financial turmoil- talks about a return to our agrarian past.

In his book “Wealth, War and Wisdom”, Barton Biggs, a Wall Street veteran, suggests that investors should own, as insurance against the apocalypse, “a farm or a ranch somewhere far off the beaten track but which you can get to quickly and easily.”

…competition from biofuels and increased demand from Asia may…mean that the era of cheap food is over. British farmland prices rose by 25% last year, according to Knight Frank, an estate agent. It would be a nice irony if the best hedge against a collapse of the post-industrial economy turned out to be a return to the agrarian past. [link]

It seems like we are returning slowly but surely to a primitive way of life. It reminds me of the Star Trek: TNG movie (can’t remember the name) where Picard and crew run into a species that is fully developed technologically (warp capabilities, etc.) but has shunned technology to lead a more holistic life. The movie probably had more to do with the New Age Nineties than anything else, but perhaps we are heading to that point. Well it’s either that, or World War III.

The third and most obvious solution is to come up with new innovations. So people – go out there and innovate. Innovate, I say!

From last night’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart, here’s Aasif Mandvi breaking down oil prices for the uninitiated, after the news that oil prices were at an all-time high.

PS: They’ve dropped a little since then, but only because of the payroll figures news.

Global index provider Dow Jones Indexes and Dharma Investments, a private investment firm, today announced the launch of the Dow Jones Dharma Indexes measuring the performance of companies selected according to the value systems and principles of dharmic religions, especially Hinduism and Buddhism.

The series includes the Dow Jones Dharma Global Index and four country Indexes for US, UK, Japan and India. The indices are designed to track financial products such as exchange-traded funds and other investable products that enable investors to participate in the performance of companies compliant with dharmic traditions. [BusinessStandard]

So what constitutes as “dharmic”? Well, it’s easier to start with what’s not dharmic:

Excluded from the index are companies from sectors that are deemed unacceptable due to the nature of their business activities and operations. Excluded are also companies that have exposure to unacceptable business practices. Some examples of unacceptable sectors are aerospace and defense, brewers, casinos and gaming, pharmaceuticals, tobacco. Some examples for unacceptable business practices are alcohol, adult entertainment, animal testing and genetic modification of agricultural products. [AlBawaba]

It seems that touting your company as “socially responsible” is a big draw for investors all around the world. I suppose that’s a good thing.

Worldwide, socially responsible investing (SRI), as it is known, has taken off in a big way with assets increasing from $639 billion in 1995 to $2.29 trillion in 2005. In the US, SRI assets represent over 10% of the total assets under management. [BusinessStandard]

So being listed on the Dharmic Index would mean that your company can adopt a holier-than-thou attitude towards the competition. The Economic Times has a quote from the CEO of Dharma Investments, with an interesting typo.

“The Down Jones Dharma Indexes bring together a combination of environmental, social, governance and traditional sin sector filters.

As such, the index is unique and will not just have appeal to the religious, but to a far broader audience as well,” Dharma Investments CEO Nitesh Gor told the media. [EconomicTimes]

What exactly is a “traditional sin” anyway? And what’s a non-traditional one, for that matter?