Category Archives: Front Page

Unlike most cough medicine, honey actually works

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From MSN…

With many children’s cough syrups being pulled from the market because they don’t work, an old folk remedy — honey — may work just as well or better, researchers report.

In a study of kids having trouble sleeping because of cough, a research team at Penn State College of Medicine compared the effectiveness of a little bit of buckwheat honey before bedtime versus either no treatment or dextromethorphan (DM), the cough suppressant found in many over-the-counter cold medicines.

“Honey provided the greatest relief of symptoms compared with the other treatments,” concluded lead researcher Dr. Ian Paul, Penn State’s director of pediatric clinical research.

Three Links for Sunday Reading

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A long time ago as far as most people’s memory’s go, Japan had a major real estate bust that lead to a major economic downturn. To fight the down turn Japan’s government borrowed massively to pour a lout of concrete. Now Japan is starting to pay the price. Spiegel has the story.

China’s government thinks that it can set prices for all kinds things. From oil to currency, there is little of importance that trades freely in China. Now this fetish for control is beginning to have predictable economic affects. The Australian has the story.

We are all religious fundamentalists. Our values are not shaped by reason because reason has nothing to say when it comes to values. Nothing illustrates this like the argument over killing cats to save birds. New York Times has a detailed look at the problem.

Bad News From Florida

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This from Naked Capitalism…

The debacle in Florida, namely a $27 billion short-tern investment fund being frozen after the revelation it held $700 million of defaulted debt (today reported as $900 million) led to $12 billion in withdrawals, is producing a cash crisis at the government entities that hadn’t gotten their money back.

Aside from the troubles this impairment is creating in and of itself, it will feed “run on the fund” behavior if any other government-operated funds encounter similar difficulties.

Them Curious Japanese

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There is this great Japanese TV program that seeks to answer ridiculous questions. The first time I saw a clip from this program it revolved around the question of whether a Samurai sword could really deflect .50 bullets. I was sure that no sword could do that, but it turns out that they can if the bullets strike the sword on its edge. Admittedly this effect only lasts for a couple of bullets before the sword is fatally weakened. But that is still pretty impressive.

The program below seeks to answer the question of whether the world champion fast walker would run or walk if his life was in danger.

Is this funny or sad?

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From the comment section at Calculated Risk….

You know what cracks me up though (just a final word on FL vs. NY?) Forbes just listed Binghamton N.Y. as one of America’s hottest RE markets. Oh man I can’t get over THAT one.

It’s “hot” only because you won’t lose your shirt on a house you bought there last year…!

Since “Dale” is someone who is unknown to me, I had to check this out. I could not find the Forbes article that he mentioned online, but I did find this article that seems to back up his claim. It mentions a Forbes article and it shows that prices in Binghamton have gone up almost 20 percent since last year. That puts Binghamton in second place (just under Salt Lake City) in terms of real estate appreciation over the last year.

Who would have ever thought that Binghamton’s real estate market would one day do better then almost every where else in the country?