Someone invented clothing that hides you from drones. And an arms race ensues...
Saturday, 19 January 2013
The Island of Yap and Unmovable Currency
Today I learnt that the island of Yap (it's real - it is now part of the Federated States of Micronesia) used to have as currency carved stoned so big you couldn't move them. True story. I think.
Its coins, the rai, look like stone doughnuts. Some are fairly portable, the size of actual doughnuts, but others weigh as much as a couple of cars. The process of producing these things, 250 miles across the sea in the quarries of Palau, used to be a gigantic effort – a Victorian naturalist witnessed a tenth of Yap’s adult male population digging these things out of the ground and sailing them back to Yap.
Wednesday, 16 January 2013
If you read one article today...
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
Earnings max out at 40-ish
Whatever you earn at age 40 is likely to be the top of your earning potential. This is one of a gazillion things I've learned from talking with Al Lee, the director of quantitative analysis at PayScale.
Al’s data, which is based on the careers of college graduates, is basically that the salary curve for most people in their 20s is very steep. Then it starts to flatten in the 30s, and then you get into the land of the 3% raise. In real dollars, those 3% raises are not actually raises, they are just keeping up with inflation.
Monday, 7 January 2013
A New Way to Punish Children
From The BBC:
A man in China hired virtual "assassins" to hunt down his son in online video games and kill off his avatar, according to local media.