The Weekend Hangover

For those of you who didn’t go home after happy hour last night and pass out on the couch before making it to the bar, this is Your Weekend Hangover.

This article has particular significance for me. I’m a doctoral student with only a dissertation left to complete and will be turning in a first draft of my proposal in the very near future. An education Ph.D candidate at Kent State was recently expelled after being charged with plagiarism in the first draft of her dissertation proposal. In response, she is suing Kent State for breach of contract, negligent supervision, defamation, and unjust enrichment with the goal of being let back in, being awarded her degree, and gaining $25k in damages. She alleges that there is no plagiarism in a first draft and that she knew the citations were incomplete and was planning to fix them during the editing and revision process. To me there seems like there is more to this story than what has so far been reported, something doesn’t add up. 

Has the Boston-New York Rivalry Gone Too Far? Absolutely not- especially while the Yankees and Giants are having off seasons. I guess that New York is so bitter over Boston’s recent success in sports, they are trying to create a major natural gas pipeline that leaves Boston out in the cold.

More accounts, more problems. Couples that separate bank and financial accounts/assets experience more problems than those who don’t. Relationship factors aside, here are four financial reasons having separate assets is a bad idea.

New guidelines for cardiovascular disease were published this week and some doctors are a little distressed and feel they miss the mark. Dr. Court Vreeland starts this article by writing, “New guidelines on reducing cardiovascular disease risk have been released. They’ve called these “much anticipated,” however, I call them “inconsistent with research” and “likely to cause more harm than good.””  He goes on to illustrate how atherosclerosis occurs and why these new guidelines are off base.

I’ve got a ton of information and a strong opinion about this, so I really need to sit down and write up a post on how student loans are tantamount to predatory lending and the next big financial bubble waiting to decimate the global financial system. This piece of information is too important not to post now though. Student loans have surpassed $1 TRILLION and the delinquency rate is at an all time high of nearly 12%. Both of those numbers should shock and terrify you.

This is one of those studies that is fascinating, but I’m not sure will have any practical value. Republicans sweat and show more sympathetic nervous system activation in response to threating images than moderates. Democrats sweat less and show little to no sympathetic nervous system activation in response to threating images. Everyone understood there was a threat, but republicans showed a physiological reaction while it didn’t phase the democrats. I have no idea what to do with this information, but I’m sure both sides can spin it in their favor.

The end of Goldman Sachs as we know it. In an uncharacteristically humane move, the firm is going to start allowing associates to go home on weekends and try to have something resembling work-life balance. I wonder what the guys in the Goldman Sachs Elevator are saying about this…

Another topic I’ve been meaning to write about is the effect of Obesity on people, the economy, and organizations. Here is a new study showing that physical fit children can absorb and retain new information more effectively than children who are out of shape.  

Sex and Politics At Google: It’s a Game of Thrones in Mountain View

The Amazing Growth In College Football Revenues is climbing at an average of 9% a year. Wow, I’m glad the student athletes generating all that revenue are fairly compensated for their efforts.

7 financial decisions you make in your 30s that will haunt you in your 50s. Some topics discussed are the company you work for, your choice of partner and when you have kids, and whether you should rent or buy.

My dad sent me this article and said, “Son before you leave a job that pays over a million a year, please talk to me.”  

Johnson gets beat in a bathroom. Rudy Johnson, the star QB of NCAA DII Winston-Salem State was supposed to be playing in the CIAA Conference Championship game today against Virginia State. That is, until he was beaten up in a bathroom by five players from the opposing team, sustaining injuries that put him in the hospital. This is probably also the only time I ever suggest you read the comments section.

Researchers monitor social media posts in a bid to cut military suicide rates.

The Making of an Olympian: Shocker- it’s part genetics and part training.  

Switzerland to pay people, just for being alive.

Necessity is the mother of innovation. This is why I think many companies fail. This article looks at oil exploration, but take Apple for example (I know you’ve heard this from me before). Apple has a ton of cash and some products that are very lucrative for them. They don’t need to develop another product to sustain the company in the near term so the pressure or incentive to innovate isn’t there and therefore doesn’t happen.

Barack Obama is on pace to be the only President in the post-war era to average negative government employment growth. Since he took office in 2009, the government workforce has decreased by 706k jobs or 3.1%. In contrast, Regan created 623K government jobs or 3.8%.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will pay $39 billion to the U.S. Treasury by the end of the year. In aggregate, the two will come close to repaying their entire bailout. The government injected nearly $188 billion to keep them afloat through the housing bust. Together, the companies will have paid more than $185 billion in dividend payments by year-end.

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