What Caught My Eye Today - Air Travel, Oil, Guantanamo Bay, Currency, Monogamy

Air Travel - British low-cost airline Ryanair says fuel has become so expensive that it makes up 47% of its total operating costs, so it is going to slow down in order to rein in those fuel costs. I'm sorry, but I think I must have read that wrong, then again this is Ryanair we're talking about, so I guess anything is possible (click here). Passengers probably won't notice since the slower speeds will only add about two minutes to every hour of flying time. Ryanair has been so desperate to save on fuel costs that it even reduced the size of its in-flight magazine and printed the in-flight menu on it as well. Just how big was that in-flight menu to begin with? If fact, one wonders why a menu is necessary for complimentary pretzels or peanuts in the first place? That move alone cut thousands of dollars off of annual fuel costs. Personally, I think they did this more for the PR than any material savings.  That 47% of total operating costs works out to just shy of 1.1 billion euros (which works out to almost 1.5 billion dollars). Let's say the airline saved $99,000 (the upper limit of "thousands of dollars"), that represents 0.00009% of its total costs. Ryanair is also moving ahead with plans to charge passengers to use the lavatory. The airline is considering charging 1 euro or 1 British pound (about $1.33 to $1.52) to use the restroom. I'm thinking if you are out of spare change, that extra two minutes could feel like an eternity.

Oil - The Saudi Arabian ruling class is worried that the Persian Gulf state, which is the world's largest oil exporter, is too dependent on petroleum and that it needs to take the threat posed by the boom in U.S. production seriously. I get the concern about having all your eggs in one basket. Diversification is never a bad thing.  But I'm not too sure about this U.S. production threat (wouldn't that be nice change of pace?).  As long as there are nations the likes of China, India and Brazil to prop up demand, I'm not sure the Saudis need to concern themselves too much over the fact that the Americans finally figured out how to build fuel-efficient cars. Although the Saudi government is trying to diversify the kingdom's economy, its dependence on oil is near absolute with it's petroleum sector accounting for roughly 80% of budget revenues, 45% of GDP and 90% of export earnings. Because of the growth in U.S. supply, the kingdom won't be able to raise its production capacity as planned to 15 million barrels of oil per day. Earlier this year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said monthly domestic oil production is forecast to exceed 8 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter of 2014, its highest level since 1988. Net crude oil imports are expected to fall below 7 million barrels during that period, the first time that has happened since 1995. The recent increase in oil production, ranks the U.S. as the third highest producer of oil (8.5 million barrels) and the tenth highest exporter of oil (1.9 million barrels). which makes no sense to me at all considering that we consume 19.2 billion barrels of the stuff. Even if we kept all that extra oil we're producing, we'd still be importing more than the next largest importer (the entire European Union).  So please explain to me what it is exactly that has Saudi Arabia so worried about declining U.S. demand for oil?

Guantanamo Bay - According to reports from a recent U.S. congressional delegation visit the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, rather than the Koran, the book that is requested most by detainees is "Fifty Shades of Grey." I can sort of empathize with the inmates. After all, they do have a lot of time on their hands and what could be better than the kinky exploits of Christian and Anastasia to take your mind off those horrible forced feedings?  Journalists are not allowed to visit that part of the detention camp but can tour the other prisons and the library that provides books, magazines and DVDs to all 166 captives. Guantanamo librarians have said in the past that they screen reading material for sexual content, even blacking out photos of scantily clad women in the advertisements in sports magazines. On one hand, I think it is laudable that the librarians are doing their due diligence to respect the religious values of the detainees.  Then again, is anyone absolutely positive that there will be a whole bunch of enthusiastic virgins will be waiting in the after-life?

Currency - Arizona Senator John McCain has re-introduced legislation to phase out dollar bill. Haven't we been down this road before? According to a consumer advocacy group, eliminating the dollar bill in favor of the coin would save $13.8 billion over 30 years. The group said printing dollar bills may be cheaper than minting coins, but they last only about four years compared with 30 years for a coin. The savings would nearly triple other recent estimates of the $1 coin’s impact. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I heard this argument too. Even though most other countries, such as Canada, Britain and Japan, have replaced smaller currency denominations with coins, Americans love their greenbacks and have never warmed to dollar coins. That's right. Never let it be said that us Americans could be deterred by common sense logic. This dislike of coins by Americans contrasts with currencies of most other developed countries, where denominations of similar value exist only in coin. These coins have largely succeeded because of a removal of their corresponding paper issues. The U.S. government has taken no action to remove the one-dollar bill, due to intensive lobbying. Being a lobbyist must be fascinating work.  And how nice must it be to have a career where good or bad, right or wrong, are mostly irrelevant. It's all about whatever position you are been paid to advocate for.

Monogamy - Only a few species of mammals are monogamous, and now dueling scientific teams think they've figured out why they got that way. This should be good. One team looked just at primates, the animal group that includes apes and monkeys. The researchers said the exclusive pairing of a male and a female evolved as a way to let fathers defend their young against being killed by other males. The other scientific team concluded that mammals became monogamous because females had spread out geographically, and so males had to stick close by to fend off the competition. Where's the love here, people?  All I get from this is a bunch of male insecurity issues. But both teams discounted a long-standing explanation for monogamy, that it provides two parents rather than one for rearing offspring. And there goes family values. Researchers said they hesitated to apply their conclusions to humans but said they wouldn't quite put humans in the monogamous category. That's scientific jibber jabber for, "it's not that we're on the same level as apes and chimps...no, we're probably much worse."

Did You Know? #35

Which nation has the least favorable view of the United States?

According to a recent global survey by the Pew Research Center (the same survey that provided the source for Did You Know? #34), Pakistan has an 11% favorable view of the United States, the lowest of the 39 countries surveyed. Here are the 10 nations with the least favorable impression of the U.S.:

1. Pakistan (11%)
2. Jordan (14%)
3. Palestinian territories (16%)
4. Egypt (16%)
5. Turkey (21%)
6. Greece (39%)
7. China (40%)
8. Argentina (41%)
9. Tunisia (42%)
10. Lebanon (47%)

Run, Fred, Run Update - July 2013

Fred's Note: Just one more eastbound segment to go (Madison, FL to Jacksonville, FL; 109 miles) and then I start working my way north up the east coast.  This part of my trip (approximately 1,265 miles) will take me through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. As of now, I'm just over a third of the way through my trip. At this rate, I should make it back to Half Moon Bay in a mere 10 years.

Total miles to date: 2,849.1
Number of marathons (26.2mi): 108.7
States visited: 8 (CA, AZ, NM, TX, LA, MS, AL, FL)
States to go: 25
Miles to go: 5606.9

What Caught My Eye Today - Royalty, China, Saudi Arabia, Potpourri

Royalty - For those of you who keep track of such things, the British monarchy has four generations of monarchs for the first time since Victoria, way back in 1894...which can mean only one thing. Will and Kate had a baby!  The son of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, was born on 22 July 2013 in London. He is the couple's first child, as well as the first grandchild of Charles, Prince of Wales.  And what might the future king have to look forward in 60 or 70 years? He is third in line to succeed his great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, to the British throne, after his grandfather and father to the thrones of the 16 Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. Not to mention endless media coverage and constant invasion of privacy by the paparazzi. No word yet on the lad's name, which has generated a lot of business for odds makers and sports books.  For my money, I'm thinking Edward and George are pretty good candidates, with Philip being my dark horse pick (nothing like a little shout out to the queen's hubby to stay on her good side).  

China - China has made it a crime for adult children to neglect their elderly parents. So much for relying on one's moral compass to do the right thing? Millions of Chinese workers now live thousands of miles away from their parents, and under a law that recently went into effect, those who fail to visit or call can be fined. You know, it wasn't that long ago when parents were wondering if their children would ever leave home. Heck in the United States, college graduates are moving back home with mom and dad in droves, unable to find jobs or weighed down with student loans. The law does not spell out how many visits are required, so it is up to disgruntled parents to lodge complaints. Wouldn't it be fun to see that law enacted in the U.S.? I can almost see a bunch of parents scheming to mess with their offspring with the threat of criminal charges as payback for being such horrible teenagers. Almost immediately, vendors began offering to send strangers on filial visits. Say what you will about China being an oppressive communist regime.  Seems to me like capitalism is alive and well, at least in this particular market.

Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry announced it will kick out any foreigner who is not observing a daytime fast for the holy month of Ramadan. Any expatriot caught eating or smoking in public from sunrise to sunset will be fired from their job and deported. As you can probably gather, "separation of church and state" has a much different meaning in the Arab world than it does in the United States. Then again, the bible belt has pretty strong feelings about many social issues, so maybe we aren't so different from the Saudis as we might think.  Saudi Arabia is home to some 8 million foreign workers, mostly from Asian countries. In the past, foreigners were asked to refrain from eating in public during Ramadan, but they were not threatened with punishment. Saudis are jailed or lashed if they are caught breaking the fast. You can sort of see where these guys are coming from. Let's say you are a Saudi sweating away in the midday sun and, to make matters worse, you haven't had anything to eat since before sunrise. Meanwhile your foreign co-workers is slammin' down a vanilla milkshake. He doesn't like the guilty feeling he starting to get, so he offers to share with you, figuring that you'll get busted and taken off for a  flogging in the public square, thereby allowing him to enjoy the rest of his milkshake in peace. Dude, that just ain't cool.

Potpourri

• Jobs - The U.S. economy is expected to generated 55 million jobs by 2020, and 65% of those jobs will require more than a high school education. If current graduation rates hold steady, the U.S. will wind up 5 million college-educated workers short. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for workers under the age of 25 is near 25%.  I'm all for job creation, but maybe some thought should be given to creating jobs that a greater percentage of the population can perform.  Let's be real, college is not for everyone, but that doesn't mean this segment of the population cannot contribute to the economy. 
• Royalties - A musician whose song gets played 1 million times on Pandora earns just $16.89 in royalties. Pandora pays artists as little as a thousandth of a cent each time it plays their songs. One wonders how content aggregators like Pandora can get away with stuff like this.  I remember when Napster was called out for basically given away musical content for free. This doesn't appear to be much of an improvement for the artists whose content is responsible for these sites to be in business in the first place.  I did the math to see how much my blog would have made me if a page view was paid at the same rate as a song.  I started tracking my blog in July, 2007 and have had just shy of 5600 page views in that item (pretty pathetic, right?), which means I would have earned less than one cent a year. 

We started out with royalty and end with royalties.  How about that for a happy coincidence?

Did You Know? #34

Which nation has the most favorable view of the United States?

According to a recent global survey by the Pew Research Center, the Philippines has an 85% favorable view of the United States, the highest of the 39 countries surveyed. here are the 10 nations with the most favorable impression of the U.S:

1. Philippines (85%)
2. Israel (83%)
3. Ghana (83%)
4. Senegal (81%)
5. Kenya (81%)
6. El Salvador (79%)
7. South Korea (78%)
8. Italy (76%)
9. Uganda (73%)
10. Brazil (73%)

What Caught My Eye Today - Sainthood, Russia, Air Travel

Sainthood - The Vatican congregation in charge of examining candidates for sainthood has recognized a second miracle by John Paul II, leaving just a papal signature necessary to authorize the former pope's canonization. One assumes this will be a mere formality. After all, we're only talking about one guy here, which is nothing for a pontiff who just canonized 800 saints in May (click here).  Vatican theologians in June had attributed a second miracle to John Paul II, which Vatican sources had said would "amaze the world". The road to sainthood requires two "confirmed" miracles, the first of which is necessary for beatification, a hurdle the Polish pope cleared just six months after his death in 2005 which was the healing of a French nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, whose recovery from Parkinson's disease after praying for the late John Paul II's "intercession" had no medical explanation. The second miracle reportedly took place on the very day that John Paul II was beatified in a lavish ceremony in St Peter's Square on May 1, 2011, and was the healing of a woman from Costa Rica. You sort of get the feeling that there won't be much pomp and circumstance for this momentous occasion; not really Pope Francis' style. But maybe just this one time, the pontiff chill out, do a little day, make a little love and, you know, get down tonight.

Russia - A Russian rocket carrying three navigation satellites worth around $200 million crashed shortly after lift-off from the  launch facility in Kazakhstan after its engines suddenly switched off. Bear in mind that, at present, the Russians are the only option for getting folks to and from the International Space Station and that, at present, the United States is paying $424 million for 6 seats to and from the space station over the next 2 years. The accident led to a large spill of heptyl, a highly toxic rocket propellant, but there were no reports of casualties or of any immediate threat to nearby settlements. No reports, huh? One cannot help but wonder if that is because it is too dangerous to check on the well being of said nearby settlements. Russia has lost 10 satellites in seven failed launches in just over a year. The latest crash, which echoes the costly loss of three navigation satellites in 2010, will further damage the reputation of Russia's once-pioneering space program, cause delays in launches and threaten its hold on some 40% of the market for space launches. If you ask me, space travel is the perfect niche market for Russia.  What other market could you have a 70% failure rate in and still have a 40% market share? Russia is increasing spending on space and plans to send a probe to the moon in 2015, but the pioneering program that put the first man in space in 1961 has been plagued in recent years by setbacks, including botched satellite launches and a failed attempt to send a probe to a moon of Mars.

Air Travel - Let's have some fun shall we?  See if you can tell which of the following schemes are the real deal and which are fake.

1. If you fly on India's budget GoAir, don't expect to see any men pushing that drink cart down the aisle; from this point on the airline will hire only members of the lighter, fairer sex for its cabin crew.
2. Turkish Airlines changed flight attendant uniforms into Ottoman-style outfits with ankle-length skirts and banned the wearing of bright lipstick and nail polish in favor of "pastel tones," for fear of damaging "visual integrity."
3. Low-cost Irish airline Ryanair asked its flight attendants to lose weight so that the airline could save on fuel costs.
4. Thai Airways gave flight attendants six months to comply with new weight restrictions—which, for women, meant a waistline of 32 inches and a BMI of 25 points, and for men, a waistline of 35 inches and a BMI of 27.5.
5. Shanghai-based Spring Airlines is aiming to make flying fun again with a dash of old-school, in-flight sexism, as it’s unveiled plans to dress its female flight attendants up like maids, and their male counterparts as butlers.

1. True. The new policy is meant to lessen weight on board, thereby saving an estimated $500,000 a year on fuel. Anyone want to bet that a gender discrimination suit is just around the corner? Yeah, neither do I.
2. False (barely). The airline tried to do both but in the end scrapped the outfit design and decided against the lipstick and nail polish ban after public outcry. They did manage to suspend 28 flight attendants without pay in 2010 demanding that they lose weight. 15 of the flight attendants were men. Ottoman-style outfits (click here)? I don't know, dude. Might be just a tad to retro.
3. True. The carrot on a stick for women was a chance to appear in the airline's annual "Girls of Ryanair" calendar, packed with images of bikini-clad cabin-crew members. Starve yourself and maybe, if you are lucky, you can have your tuckas and ba-donk-a-donks plastered all over a calendar. Some carrot.
4. True. The move was "aimed at improving the personality of flight attendants." About 40 out of 6,000 flight attendants failed. Employees filed a complaint, but were told the company's regulations were not illegal. Maybe something is getting lost in the translation, but I fail to see how, "lose some weight, you fat slob, or you're fired" is supposed to improve one's personality.
5. True. Supporters thought a flight with themed costumes could be fun, and that it was reminiscent of the many “cosplay”—costume-play—eateries that are big in Japan. According to Spring Airlines’ Facebook page, the new costumes, may just be the first in an upcoming series of themed flights. The article went on to say that the promotion generated a whooping 13 responses on the airlines Facebook page.  Really, that many?

Did You Know? #33

Which developed nation has the highest prevalence of obesity among adults?

According to a new report from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, the United States is no longer the world's fattest developed nation -- Mexico is. Nearly a third of Mexican adults (32.8%) are considered obese -- people aged 20 and older whose body mass index (BMI) is 30 and above. That edges the United States, where 31.8% of American adults are considered obese. About 12% of the world's total population is obese, according to the U.N. report. The world's fattest nation overall is Nauru, a South Pacific island where a staggering 71.1% of its 10,000 inhabitants are obese. On the other end of the scale is Japan, the thinnest developed country. Just 4.5% of Japanese adults are considered obese. Here is the complete list of the top ten:

1 - Mexico, 32.8%
2 - United States, 31.8%
3 - Syria, 31.6%
4 (tie) - Venezuela, 30.8%
4 (tie) - Libya, 30.8%
6 - Trinidad & Tobago, 30.0%
7 - Vanuatu, 29.8%
8 (tie) - Iraq, 29.4%
8 (tie) - Argentina, 29.4%
10 - Turkey, 29.3%

What Caught My Eye Today - Women, Menopause, Pandemic, Preservation, Shakespeare

Women - Most days, I buy into the notion that the world is slowly but surely becoming a better place, and then I read something like this. According to the World Health Organization's first worldwide survey on the topic, more than a third of all women around the world are victims of physical or sexual violence by their partners.  The rate of domestic violence is highest in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, where 37% of women report being abused, and lowest in North America at 23%. To be frank, I'm actually a bit more disgusted by the 23%.  North America is comprised primarily of Canada and the United States. If we abuse almost a quarter of our female population, it's sort of difficult to call out the rest of the world to treat their women with the respect and dignity that they deserve. More than 600 million women live in countries where wife-beating is not a crime.

The news continues to be rather bleak for women. And guess what, lads? This next bit does not bode well for us.

Menopause - A provocative new study  suggestion that women develop menopause because men's lust for younger women makes it pointless for them to remain fertile in old age. As if men needed another reason to get yelled at. Using a computer model to track the evolutionary consequences of mating preferences, researchers found that were it not for men's age bias in selecting a mate, women would be reproducing for their whole lives, as is the norm in the animal kingdom. So like are we supposed to compliment our spouses by comparing them to chimps?  Call me crazy, but that just doesn't sound right.The study goes on to suggest that men's preference for younger mates allows for certain genetic mutations to flourish that over time undermine the fertility of older women; meaning in evolutionary terms, menopause is reversible. By extension, one could speculate if women withheld a little ba-donk-a-donk from us guys, then we might very well experience the joys of hot flashes, mood swings and maybe some hormone replacement therapy. Gee, that sounds like fun, don't it? Yeah, I'd rather just become that creepy old guy that that makes younger women cringe, but that's just me.

Pandemic - Here's an update on an item I reported on a few weeks ago (click here). More than 60 cases of what is now called MERS, including 38 deaths, have been recorded by the World Health Organization in the past year, mostly in Saudi Arabia. So far, illnesses haven't spread as quickly as SARS did in 2003, ultimately triggering a global outbreak that killed about 800 people. That doesn't sound so bad.  An international team of doctors who investigated nearly two dozen cases in eastern Saudi Arabia found the new coronavirus has some striking similarities to SARS. I'm sensing a "but" coming... Unlike SARS, though, scientists remain baffled as to the source of MERS. And there it is. In a worrying finding, the team said MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) not only spreads easily between people, but within hospitals. Cases have continued to trickle in, and there appears to be an ongoing outbreak in Saudi Arabia. MERS cases have also been reported in Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Tunisia. Most have had a direct connection to the Middle East region.  The source of the MERS virus remains a mystery. It is most closely related to a bat virus though some experts suspect people may be getting sick from animals like camels or goats. Another hypothesis is that infected bats may be contaminating foods like dates, commonly harvested and eaten in Saudi Arabia. What's disturbing to me is the lack of coverage this deal is getting.  There is a virus out there that appears to be rather violent (38 deaths out of 60 cases is a pretty high mortality rate), and no one has a clue how it get transmitted and, more importantly, no one has the faintest idea how to cure it.

On the upside, if this MERS virus does become a legitimate threat to humankind, there are steps one can take to ensure one's survival.

Preservation - After most of the world's population is wiped off the map by a wayward meteorite or hail of nuclear missiles, the survival of the human race might just depend on a few thousand people huddled in recreational vehicles deep in the bowels of an eastern Kansas mine. Why is that the places most likely to survive a catastrophic event are located where no one wants to go?  Think about it, why couldn't there be a safe haven on the beaches of Waikiki? The Kansas caverns are 100 feet to 150 feet below the surface and have a constant natural temperature in the low 70s. They are supported by thick limestone pillars six times stronger than concrete and will have blast doors built to withstand a one-megaton nuclear explosion as close as 10 miles away. Other than being surrounded by more than a mile and a half of 6-foot-high chain-link fence topped with sharp rows of barbed wire, the land above ground isn't distinguishable from expanses of hills and trees that surround it. The proposed shelter's entrances — nondescript concrete loading docks tucked discretely into the wooded hillside — are easily defensible against any potential intruders provided there's not a full-scale military attack. One question--why? Most of the human race has been wiped off the face of the planet. Who exactly, do they think is going to be left to launch a full-scale military attack? The shelter will have enough space for more than 1,000 RVs and up to about 5,000 people. Members will be charged $1,000 for every lineal foot of their RV to purchase their space, plus $1,500 per person for food. That means a person who plans to park a 30-foot vehicle in the shelter with four people inside will pay $30,000 for the space and $6,000 for food. $36,000 to ensure your place in a world with no one in it. Sounds like a bargain, doesn't it? Then again, when I think about the sort of person willing to hunker down in an RV in a cave in Kansas, I'm thinking maybe I'll take my chances with the end of the world.

And finally, here is another entry for the "decline of civilization as we know it" file.

Shakespeare - This isn’t your parents’ Star Wars. It’s more like your ancestors from the Old World’s Star Wars. An author has reinterpreted the classic space opera into a classical play written in the majestic style of the Bard of Avon. It's not bad enough that some genius decides to translate Shakespeare into Twitter-friendly feeds. Now we're tackling Star Wars. Seriously, people. Don't you have better things to do with your time? William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope takes all of the characters you know and love and has them speaking in asides, soliloquies, and poetic verses. Even Chewbacca and R2-D2 roar and beep in iambic pentameter. The first line reads: "In time so long ago begins our play/ In star-crossed galaxy far, far away.”

I think we're done here (in more ways than one). 

Did You Know? #32

What city is the most dangerous in the United States?

Based on the FBI’s Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report, median income and poverty rates for these cities from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for 2011, and average 2012 unemployment rates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Flint Michigan is the most violent city with 2,729 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. The city of just 101,632 people had 63 total murders and 1,930 aggravated assaults, both the highest relative to the city’s population. Flint also had nationwide highs in burglary rates and arson per 100,000 people. Rounding out the top five:

2. Detroit, Michigan - Detroit’s murder rate of 54.2 per 100,000 residents was the second highest in the country last year and it's 2012 unemployment rate was a whopping 18.6%, much higher than the 8.1% across the nation last year. 
3. Oakland, California - There were 1,085.9 robberies per 100,000 residents in Oakland in 2012, higher than any other city.
4. St. Louis, Missouri - There were 1,120.6 aggravated assaults per 100,000 people in St. Louis in 2012, higher than all but three other cities. Moreover, the murder rate of 35.5 cases per 100,000 was the fifth highest of all cities.
5. Memphis, Tennessee - Memphis had the third highest rate of aggravated assault in 2012, with 1,151.9 cases per 100,000 residents. According to a recent survey, roughly 43% of Memphis area residents reported feeling unsafe walking at night, the highest percentage of all the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the country.