just a quick note

The law of diminishing returns.

More and more hours I 'invest' in writing the book, less and less productive I am....

just reviewing 'The Times' article

While governments are trying to prevent the economies from falling in recession and making decisions about rescue plans, let’s have a look at some strange, but rather good consequences of the recession.

According to “The Times”, during the recession people’s, so-to-say ‘non-material’, life tends to improve!

Why does this happen?

During a downturn people work less, therefore they are less stressed and have more time to, for instance, go to the gym, visit their parents or even... cooking at home!
That reduces fast-food consumption and makes people healthier! Isnt’ that a good point?

An interesting fact: it was found out that for every 1 per cent increase in unemployment rates, the death rate decreases by 0.5 per cent!

Summarising all the benefits:

1.decrease in smoking
2.decrease in drinking
3.people become healthier and lose weight ( due to increase in activity)
4.people enrol in higher education
5.decrease in death rates
6.people drive less -> roads are less crowded
7.decrease in prices for necessities, petrol and houses

Enjoy the recession!)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4916300.ece

The market for oil

PES mind map

factor rewards mind map

philosophy courses

I'm talking about that evening courses

Was it useful? Or was it absolutely pointless? I can't tell it certainly so far.
But one thing is clear: whatever you study, it improves your English, which is the first thing we came here to do, actually.
And even though I didn't understand some things our group was talking about, I hope it's not going to be a problem in a few weeks.
The teacher even wondered where we are from and suggested to explain all unusual words, that' was very nice )). In general, the atmosphere is quite friendly there, which, of course, supports learning.

BTW,
I'm also going to attend Economics courses on Wednesday.

friday entry

Why are seatbelts mandatory in cars but not in most school buses?

Most of the children go to school by school bus and it is one of the safest ways for children to get to school. Otherwise, children have to go on foot or cycle,and they take risks(for example, of being knocked down by a car). But, at the same time, most of the buses still don't have any seatbelts. Why?

The main reason is children's health. It has been proved that shoulder seatbelts are unsafe for small children. Moreover, during different crash-tests it was found out, that seatbelts can cause more drawbacks than advantges, for example, in case of evacuation they can slow down the process.

As for me, I'd vote for mandatory seatbelts, because in some cases it can help people to survive and you can never be careful enough to avoid accidents.

wednesday question

Is it efficient for people to share the bill when they go to a restaurant?

Usually if you go to a restaurant with your friends, you agree to split the bill and you don't mind if you pay a little more than you really have to pay out of the whole bill. 

But in this case people tend to order more expensive meals, or simply eat more than they usually do. 

That can be explained by psyhology: if you pay separately, you will have to pay a lot more, but if people split the bill, you'll only have to pay a little extra.

Therefore, it's more efficient for people to share the bill, in order not to pay more, because sometimes it can also be really unfair. ( for example, if you have only had a cup of coffee and your friend have tasted 7 different meals).

tuesday question

Why do theatres discount prices on spare tickets just before the performance whereas airlines and rail companies raise prices for last minute customers?

Ok, the answer seems to be simple.  

Demand for airlane tickets is inelastic, because if a person wants to go somewhere, he has no choice and buy the ticket even though it costs double price. 

So, airlanes and rail companies administration understands that the higher the price is, the more revenue they get and raise prices for last minute customers.

Now, what's about theatres? 

The demand for theatre tickets is usually elastic ( except for world famous musicals or if you are a theatre maniac ;) ).

That's why prices on tickets become very low just before the performance in order to sell all the tickets.

Email usage

source: http://email.about.com/od/emailtrivia/f/emails_per_day.htm

Question: How Many Emails Are Sent Every Day?
Answer: Statistics, extrapolations and counting by Radicati Group from August 2008 estimate the number of emails sent per day (in 2008) to be around 210 billion.
183 billion messages per day means more than 2 million emails are sent every second. About 70% to 72% of them might be spam and viruses. The genuine emails are sent by around 1.3 billion email users.

thank you, Chris, it works

mini-bars

Why are prices in a hotel mini-bar so expensive?

So what's a mini-bar?

It's a small fridge in your hotel room, in which different drinks, peanuts, chocolate and possibly something else are kept.

Even if you eat something from mini-bar, the next day it's full again.

So it's quite easy to grab a pack of crisps from the fridge and don't worry about going to the shop.

Consequently, the demand on goods in mini-bar is usually inelastic and the administration of the hotel make prices on this goods very high so they can make a profit from it.

Mind Maps!

Recycling

Why are some countries so much more successful in recycling waste products?

Recycling is an important part of environmental progress of each country. Usually successfully recycling countries are those which have special recycling programs, such as providing incentives to recycle waste. For example, if you have to pay an extra fee for each can or plastic bag you throw away, will you carry on doing it? As for me, I find it much cheaper to recycle and, as a result, to save money and spend it on something more useful. That is how this 'environmental policy' works. And that's how some countries, using such policies, make people recycle waste products.

By the way, can anybody tell me how to post a video from YouTube ( but not to download it)?

Why are child safety seats required in cars but not in airplanes?

It's clear that the quantity of car accidents are much higher that airplane crashes, but the chance of surviving in plane crash is almost 0. That's why, I guess, there's no need to put child safety seats in the plane cabine - seat belts are quite enough ( for example, during the turbulence).