Google Domestic Trends

There is plenty of evidence indicating web searches are a leading indicator of economic trends (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/17/summers-economy-has-moved_0_n_237684.html and http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/11/AR2009091103771.html?hpid=topnews). There are even some boffins who make money on the conspiracy circuit with the "Web Bot Project".

Now Google has unleashed a fascinating economic prediction tool: Google Domestic Trends.

And as Fast Company mentions, this could be quite useful to the investor looking to profit from future trends.

GoogleBlog's official announcement

Another Dog Origin Hypothesis

On the heels of the Dogs In Disarray post comes a mitochondrial DNA study suggesting dogs were first domesticated in China for the same reason cows and pigs were domesticated.

See NYT: In Taming Dogs, Humans May Have Sought a Meal

Sampling the mitochondrial DNA of dogs worldwide, the team found that in every region of the world all dogs seem to belong to one lineage. That indicates a single domestication event. If wolves had been domesticated in many places, there would be more than one lineage, each leading back to a local population of wolves.

The single domestication event seems to have occurred in southern China, where the dogs have greater genetic diversity than those elsewhere. The region of highest diversity is usually the place of origin because a species tends to lose diversity as it spreads.

Another Republican Gone Wild

It is not the act(s) that are the problem, it is the hypocrisy.

See NPR: Calif. Lawmaker Quits Over Taped Sex Comments

In a recording of a legislative hearing, Duvall can be heard talking about a recent sexual escapade with a woman he says is 18 years younger.

"I'm getting into spanking her," Duvall is heard to say on the videotape.

The other man asks if she likes it, too. Duvall responds: "She goes, 'I know you like spanking me.' I said, 'Yeah, that's 'cause you're such a bad girl."'

...Duvall received a 100 percent rating from Capitol Resource Institute, a conservative advocacy group, for his votes on legislation considered pro-family during the 2007-08 legislative session.

These Are The Daves I Know

Watch at MilkAndCookies Bruce singing 'The Daves I Know'

Their movie 'Brain Candy' may have been a let down, but it appears the Kids In The Hall will be returning to the CBC for eight very special episodes.

See: Kids in the Hall to return to CBC

Geologist At Work

When I was in high school my favorite books were in the 'Winning Of America' historical fiction series by Allen Eckert. The NYT has a profile of Asbury Sallenger Jr. and his book 'Island In The Storm' which sounds like a work of geological fiction: The Geologist’s Tale: A Storm, a Survivor and a Vanishing Island

The book is “Island in a Storm.” The island is Isle Derniere (in French, “last island”), one of the barrier islands that run along the Louisiana coast. And the storm was a ferocious hurricane that roared out of the Gulf of Mexico on Aug. 10, 1856.