Does money make you happy?  Economists think so - the concept of 'utility' assumes that economic activity represents people consuming in ways that best supports their happiness.  And yet, high sales of Backstreet Boys CDs prove that this cannot be true.  What's going on here?

Happiness is a difficult thing to study scientifically

A study in the latest JAMA using data from two nationally representative surveys indicates that hearing loss among U.S. adolescents increased by about 30 percent in a 12 year period ending 2006, with 1 in 5 adolescents having hearing loss in the 2005-2006 results.

Hearing loss is a common sensory disorder, affecting tens of millions of people in the United States. Adolescent hearing loss is not well understood but some risk factors, like loud sound exposure from listening to music, may be of particular importance to both adolescents and parents.

Arctic Ice August 2010 - Update #3

The NSIDC has just issued an update report for August -

August 17, 2010
North by Northwest

The end of summer is approaching in the Arctic; temperatures are dropping and melt is ending in the high latitudes. Yet summer is not quite over in the lower latitudes of the Arctic Ocean, where sea ice extent continues to decline. Sea ice has melted out extensively in the northern route of the Northwest Passage, but the passage is not completely open.