Welcome to the end of the week and another edition of Happy Hour! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy your end of the week roundup of all things interesting in the land of money.
Math Behind OJ
The best part of breakfast is more complicated than it seems. An article in Businessweek digs into the math and science behind orange juice. The amount of efficiency and sophistication Coca-Cola is putting into orange juice is mind-blowing. Though, I haven’t really stopped to think about it.
When an algorithm measures 600 different flavors that make up an orange, it makes you wonder what you’re missing. Can your tongue even pick up that many? With all the algorithms, satellites, pipelines, and mass storage, it also gives new meaning to fresh squeezed.
Saturday Mail
The Post Office announced this week it still wants to end Saturday mail delivery. Only this time it’s serious. And it’s about time. I, for one, would gladly accept one less day of junk mail to help the post office cut costs. In fact, I’d give up six days. Until then, we just have to wait till August before we start missing our Saturday mail. Which should cut a big hole out of the $15.9 billion in losses last year.
With losses that big, it’s too bad the Post Office isn’t obsolete, we could just cancel it entirely. Or start running it like a real company. Until then, here’s a few more quality budget cuts that might help.
Last Call
- Mind the Gap: Why Investors Lag Funds – a nice look at how the psych behind fear and greed limit returns.
- Dumb Money? – good reminder that there is always a skeptic and believer with the market. It’s all noise and you should do your own homework.
- Why Do People Hate Rising Stock Prices? – how opportunity loss affects your investing behavior and what to do about it.
- Establishing Your Top 10 Investment Default Settings – 10 areas every investor should focus on first.
- Credit Suisse Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2013 – It’s long, it’s a PDF file and I’m not even half way done. If you’re interested in the global economy and it’s effects on investing. I recommend it.