Steven Levitt, author of Freakonomics and economics professor at the University of Chicago, discussed his research on crack cocaine and the lives of gang members at TED2004. This is one of the rare academic seminars in which people laugh and actually enjoy the presentation.

I used to use statements like these as my email signature back in college. Unfortunately, I have gained a much more intimate understanding of the despondent cynicism underlying them from my short period (5 years...!!!) of employment.

• 
  Indecision is the key to flexibility.
  
• 
  Succeed in spite of management.
  
• 
  Doing a job right the first time gets the job done. Doing the job wrong fourteen times gives you job security.
  
• 
  The beatings will continue until morale improves.
  
• 
  It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
  
• 
  When someone says, "Do you want my opinion?" - it's always a negative one.
  

These techniques to telling if someone is lying are often used by police, and security experts. This knowledge is also useful for managers, employers, and for anyone to use in everyday situations where telling the truth from a lie can help prevent you from being a victim of fraud/scams and other deceptions.

Warning: Sometimes ignorance is bliss; after gaining this knowledge, you may be hurt when it is obvious that someone is lying to you.

The consistently serious newspaper's quirky attempt at humor:

Sep 7th 2006
From The Economist print edition

In-flight announcements are not entirely truthful. What might an honest one sound like?

“GOOD morning, ladies and gentlemen. We are delighted to welcome you aboard Veritas Airways, the airline that tells it like it is. Please ensure that your seat belt is fastened, your seat back is upright and your tray-table is stowed. At Veritas Airways, your safety is our first priority. Actually, that is not quite true: if it were, our seats would be rear-facing, like those in military aircraft, since they are safer in the event of an emergency landing. But then hardly anybody would buy our tickets and we would go bust.

The flight attendants are now pointing out the emergency exits. This is the part of the announcement that you might want to pay attention to. So stop your sudoku for a minute and listen: knowing in advance where the exits are makes a dramatic difference to your chances of survival if we have to evacuate the aircraft. Also, please keep your seat belt fastened when seated, even if the seat-belt light is not illuminated. This is to protect you from the risk of clear-air turbulence, a rare but extremely nasty form of disturbance that can cause severe injury. Imagine the heavy food trolleys jumping into the air and bashing into the overhead lockers, and you will have some idea of how nasty it can be. We don't want to scare you. Still, keep that seat belt fastened all the same.

Your life-jacket can be found under your seat, but please do not remove it now. In fact, do not bother to look for it at all. In the event of a landing on water, an unprecedented miracle will have occurred, because in the history of aviation the number of wide-bodied aircraft that have made successful landings on water is zero. This aircraft is equipped with inflatable slides that detach to form life rafts, not that it makes any difference. Please remove high-heeled shoes before using the slides. We might as well add that space helmets and anti-gravity belts should also be removed, since even to mention the use of the slides as rafts is to enter the realm of science fiction.

Please switch off all mobile phones, since they can interfere with the aircraft's navigation systems. At least, that's what you've always been told. The real reason to switch them off is because they interfere with mobile networks on the ground, but somehow that doesn't sound quite so good. On most flights a few mobile phones are left on by mistake, so if they were really dangerous we would not allow them on board at all, if you think about it. We will have to come clean about this next year, when we introduce in-flight calling across the Veritas fleet. At that point the prospect of taking a cut of the sky-high calling charges will miraculously cause our safety concerns about mobile phones to evaporate.

On channel 11 of our in-flight entertainment system you will find a video consisting of abstract imagery and a new-age soundtrack, with a voice-over explaining some exercises you can do to reduce the risk of deep-vein thrombosis. We are aware that this video is tedious, but it is not meant to be fun. It is meant to limit our liability in the event of lawsuits.

Once we have reached cruising altitude you will be offered a light meal and a choice of beverages—a word that sounds so much better than just saying ‘drinks’, don't you think? The purpose of these refreshments is partly to keep you in your seats where you cannot do yourselves or anyone else any harm. Please consume alcohol in moderate quantities so that you become mildly sedated but not rowdy. That said, we can always turn the cabin air-quality down a notch or two to help ensure that you are sufficiently drowsy.

After take-off, the most dangerous part of the flight, the captain will say a few words that will either be so quiet that you will not be able to hear them, or so loud that they could wake the dead. So please sit back, relax and enjoy the flight. We appreciate that you have a choice of airlines and we thank you for choosing Veritas, a member of an incomprehensible alliance of obscure foreign outfits, most of which you have never heard of. Cabin crew, please make sure we have remembered to close the doors. Sorry, I mean: ‘Doors to automatic and cross-check’. Thank you for flying Veritas.”

If you have ever studied your holiday snaps and wished you'd lost a few pounds before hitting the beach, then this is the camera for you.

The 'slimcam setting' on the gadget uses high-tech digital trickery to shave a few inches off its subject. Marketed at women, the feature squeezes the picture in the middle, so the main object in focus looks thinner - but its surroundings are left unchanged.

"Like many women in Britain, I am a size 16 and sometimes my holiday photos are not as flattering as I would like.
"But the slimming button certainly trimmed a bit off where it counts. If it had airbrushed me down to a size eight then no one would have believed it, but it did just enough to hide some of the evidence of a few too many good nights out."

為全球的旅遊業從業員、以至廣大的地球村村民着想，敬請國内各旅遊社積極抓緊「提升中國公民旅遊文明素質行動計劃」的工作，全力落實中央領導的批示！

中國遊客被批評犯上「七宗罪」，分別是「髒、吵、搶、粗、懶、窘、潑」。

「七宗罪」包括：
「髒」─亂扔垃圾。
「吵」─在飛機上、餐廳裏，毫無顧忌地大聲喧嘩。
「搶」─不講秩序，任何事都要搶先。
「粗」─禁煙區依然悠然自得地吞雲吐霧。
「懶」─在宴席上把腳擱在椅子上，或者盤腿而坐。
「窘」─西裝革履者蹲在街頭，或身穿睡衣在酒店串門。
「潑」─遇到糾紛時火氣大。

中國國際旅行總社出境遊總部副總經理林康近日接到總裁辦指示，就如何貫徹中共中央文明辦、國家旅遊局關於「提升中國公民旅遊文明素質行動」的通知要求，做一些具體的規劃。

與中國國際旅行總社一樣，位於北京的中國旅行總社、中青旅、首都旅遊集團也相應制訂開展貫徹「提升中國公民旅遊文明素質行動」的計劃。

中央文明辦負責人說，開展「提升中國公民旅遊文明素質行動計劃」的背景是因為中國中央領導的重要批示。

去年十一月一日，新華社「參考消息」第八版報道「台灣人擔心大陸遊客不拘小節」的文章。報道說，當日中央領導就在該文上作出批示「提高公民的文明習慣，抓緊旅行社對旅行團的全程教育。」

後來在中國中央領導對該文作出批示後不久，中國中央有關部門負責人也作出批示，要求中央文明辦商同國家旅遊局等部門研究解決措施，在八月開始推動「提升中國公民旅遊文明素質行動」。

中國國家旅遊局資料顯示，二零零五年，中國公民出國(境)人數達三千一百萬人次。世界旅遊組織預測，二零二零年中國將成為世界第一大旅遊目的地國和第四大客源輸出國。

As a follow up to my previous post.

Bags of bricks

Aug 24th 2006 | JOHANNESBURG
From The Economist print edition

A most unusual shopping spree has just taken place in Zimbabwe. At the end of July the central bank devalued the Zimbabwean dollar (Z$) by more than half and then announced that the currency would also lose three zeros. This is the bank's latest idea to fight hyperinflation hovering around 1,000% a year—the highest in the world—and to attract cash into the banking system. Zimbabweans had until August 21st to get rid of the old bearer cheques used as banknotes. Whatever they could not exchange for the new currency, they spent. Gideon Gono, the governor of the central bank, suggested that the change be called “from zero to hero”.
Banks were swamped with customers trying to hand in their cash before the deadline. Anyone willing to deposit more than Z$100m ($400) a week—Z$5 billion for businesses—had to explain where the money came from or risk having it forcibly converted into one-year bonds or confiscated. New bearer cheques could be withdrawn against what had been deposited, subject to strict ceilings. The police searched people for large amounts of cash at roadblocks. Those stuck with extra money had to spend it before it became worthless. Shoppers frantically filled trolleys before the deadline.

Spiralling inflation has forced Zimbabweans to use bags to carry cash: wallets are a distant memory. It takes time for cash machines to spit out the daily maximum of Z$250m—or Z$250,000 in new money—that people are allowed to withdraw, so queues have become common. Zimbabweans have become used to dealing in “bricks”, as piles of banknotes worth Z$10m are known. Businesses send their money by trucks to banks' special bulk-cash facilities. Computer and accounting systems have been close to collapse, struggling to cope with sums in the trillions.

It is hard to see how scrapping three zeros and forcing people to bank their cash will stop prices spiralling. The central bank is calling for stringent monetary and fiscal policy, but has no power to force the government to tighten the purse strings. It partly blames inflation on speculation in the property and parallel foreign-exchange markets, but it has shown little restraint in printing money. Zimbabwe, the region's breadbasket before the government launched a disastrous land reform in 2000, is now hobbled by shortages of food, petrol, other basic commodities and hard currency. The economy has been contracting fast, and unemployment is estimated at over 70%. Many Zimbabweans rely on support from the 3m relatives or friends thought to have left the country.

Zimbabwe's woes cast serious doubt over the integration plans of the 14-country Southern African Development Community, which held a summit in Lesotho last week. Those attending voiced concern over Zimbabwe, which used to be the region's second-largest economy after South Africa. But it ended with the usual promises to speed up integration, create a free-trade zone within two years and establish a common currency by 2018. A common market, let alone a monetary union, looks like a distant dream. Probably not for the central bank's Mr Gono though: he expects Zimbabwe to have single-digit inflation by the end of 2008.