The Daily Show had a segment last week about a controversy about an eruv in Westhampton Beach, NY. If you have no idea what an eruv is, you were like me. Apparently, an eruv, a practice observed by orthodox or observant Jews, is an enclosure around a community that allows for the carrying of things -- as in, the transportation of objects -- on the Sabbath. Which apparently you're not supposed to do.

Canadian pop star Justin Bieber backed public health care in a Rolling Stone interview, joking that the American system makes this country "evil." He said, "Canada's the best country in the world. We go to the doctor and we don't need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you're broke because of medical bills. My bodyguard's baby was premature, and now he has to pay for it. In Canada, if your baby's premature, he stays in the hospital as long as he needs to, and then you go home."

I have a big problem with the debt snowball idea. In a nutshell it is this: If you are trying to get out of debt, start with your smallest debt and pay it off first. Then your next biggest debt, etc. The idea is that the mental benefit of making a debt go away is a greater advantage than the money savings of paying off your higher interest debt first. While I can see this point, it seems like it is encouraging a lack of financial literacy. People who are going to the debt counselors who are advocating the debt snowball are in financial trouble. If they are in trouble with debt, they probably lack some of the basic financial literacy that they need to properly manage their finances. The debt snowball doesn't fix the core problem of financial illiteracy. In fact it makes it worse because it encourages them to do things that are financially unwise. If people can't learn to get the same psychological "buzz" out of really saving money by choosing an optimal payoff strategy, I would

As we start a new year (and, some would say, a new decade) as an already reeling country now reeling even more from the shooting of a Congresswoman, I'm grappling with the state of the United States. There is no question that we are poorer than we were when I grew up, and there is much evidence that we are more divided and pessimistic than we've ever been.

EngKey (English Jockey) robots started the year in 21 schools in South Korea. This is a part of an ambitious program which hopes to " be able to replace native English speakers in 3 to 5 years." The current English education system employs over 30,000 teachers from native English speaking countries such as the US, the UK, Australia and others.

Here's something inspirational and motivational from John Carmack that I found in Jerry Pournelle's "Chaos Manor mail" a few years ago: "The power of the individual or small group today is vastly greater than it was even 50 years ago. We are far wealthier, and the resources that are at our fingertips today are, in many ways, better than what could be had at any price 50 years ago."

Patrick Roy was the heart and soul of the Montreal Canadiens throughout the '80s and '90s he made spectacular saves almost every game and gave the impression of a hockey warrior in the nets. The '86 and '93 Conn Smythe winner backstopped the Habs to their last two Stanley Cups. In October, his father Michel did his own tribute to his son, a biography entitled Patrick Roy: Winning, Nothing Else.

Let's face it: the Internet is a sexy topic these days. You can't open the New York Times without running into a story about how online news stresses journalists out or what happens to Facebook profiles when their owners die or Twitter and the World Cup.

One of the things involved with having to be on a constant, long term regime of medications over a period of many years is not so much the misery of having to take said medications (along with the realization that you wouldn't do very well at all if you didn't have them) but making sure that you don't accidently let one slip through your fingers and end up not taking it.

When you come face to face with unfamiliar data, how do you proceed? How do you avoid sending you and your shiny "speed of thought" tool slamming into a dead end? Dan Murray's got a routine -- and he's also got certain music and right-brained books to go along. Dan's first rule: "Don't pre-think."

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