Private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners is working with one of its investors, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Microsoft Corp. to put together a proposal to buy Yahoo Inc., people familiar with the matter said. [WSJ]

The Utah House of Representatives has approved a bill that allowing gold and silver coins to be used as currency… Rep. Brad Galvez (R) explained: “This is a step in preparedness, a step in security that allows us to be able to help hold up our economy as the dollar continues to shrink.”

via Utah House Approves Gold And Silver As Legal Tender | TPMDC.

I love it. Start stockpiling canned food, gold, and guns, and keep your fingers crossed for the red neck apocalypse! Do Republican policy makers seriously think that gold is a viable alternative to a functional currency, or that there would be anything left to buy if it was? Who are they afraid of – the Chinese Han army? Or those crafty Japanese leaders who have been fooling the world?

Yes, all talk about “stagnation” and “malaise” to the contrary, Japan’s surplus is up more than five-fold since 1990. And, yes, far from falling against the dollar, the Japanese yen has actually boasted the strongest rise of any major currency in the last two decades… I find it hard to avoid the conclusion that the story of Japan’s stagnation is a media myth. Certainly anyone who visits Japan these days is struck by the obvious affluence even among average citizens. The cars on the roads, for instance, are generally much larger and better equipped than in the 1980s (indeed state of the art navigation devices, for instance, are more or less standard on many models) 

via The Myth of Japan’s ‘Lost Decades’ – James Fallows – International – The Atlantic.

A few weeks ago I linked to an article about China’s Han majority and their potential for resurgent, ethnic jingoistic policy. The gist of my thinking then was that there is a weird niche market for ethnic/economic scaremongering literature, wherein journalists pick an economically ascendant ethnic group to get everyone freaked out about. In the eighties it was Japan, today its China, tomorrow it will be Russia or India. But never fear, people of  Japan – your economic boogeyman status is safe and secure, thanks in part to the folks at the Atlantic. They assert that Japan’s leadership has been engaged in a grand conspiracy for 20 years to carefully manage the perception of Japan’s economic malaise – cooking their national books to make them look terrible – to create a sympathetic market for their exports. Um, wow. Really?

Forget about Afghanistan or healthcare or employment – the Japanese drive bigger cars than us and have nav systems.

What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you’re good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences. This often requires fortitude on the part of the parents because the child will resist; things are always hardest at the beginning, which is where Western parents tend to give up. But if done properly, the Chinese strategy produces a virtuous circle. Tenacious practice, practice, practice is crucial for excellence; rote repetition is underrated in America. Once a child starts to excel at something—whether it’s math, piano, pitching or ballet—he or she gets praise, admiration and satisfaction.

via Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior – WSJ.com.

I have to imagine (as a non-parent) that there other factors that contribute to a child’s “success.” The definition of “success” for example, or the peer groups that they are exposed to. Nonetheless, an interesting perspective on a key psychological difference between two societies.

Found on Wired:

“You know that old-person smell? That’s the smell of money! As Vivitar knows, there are people out there who are willing to pay fat mounds of Social Security money to buy technology from 1989.” [Wired]

I very am confused by the mixed message our government is sending. The message is that they don’t really want us to smoke because smoking is bad for us, hence the warning labels, yet they will allow the sale of this killer product. Let me use an analogy to show the absurdity of how this is being handled. A car seat is proven to be dangerous and could kill one in 1,000 babies placed in it. Would the government allow the sale of this car seat as long as there is a big warning label slapped on it? Of course not. They would pull this product from the market and ban its sale. [Calgary Herald]

The government isn’t really sending mixed messages. What they’re saying, with the heavy taxation of cigarettes and the warning labels, is that informed [warning labels] consenting adults can decide for themselves what level of risk they want to take on, provided that they’re willing to fund their future care [taxes]. Government’s role here is to enforce the “informed” part and plan for the funding part [no comment on how well that's being done in each province]. Yes, I know that this doesn’t really hold, as cigarette taxes don’t go directly to provisioning future health care for lung cancer sufferers, but the spirit of the tax is “you choose, you pay” – i.e.: making externalities concrete.

In the case of a car seat, a baby is incapable of being informed about much or consenting to anything, and the government is making a judgment on the risks (death of a child) vs. the cost (erosion of freedom of the parents). What if that carseat were allowed to be sold, but 3/4′s of its box had to be covered in a graphic image of a car accident, and a message to the effect that this car seat was more likely to cause death?

Wanted: Sneakers for Winter | Fast Company.

Here’s one reason why Arizona’s new laws aren’t any good: to those who chose not to exercise reason, the laws institutionalize bigotry, and in doing so make it passable for everyone – like this restaurant owner in Georgia:

Mulligan’s on Roswell Road in Cobb County joined the heated debate over illegal immigration.

A sign in front of the restaurant read, “Hell Yeh [ sic] Arizona. Send those [expletive] home! Anchor babies & all! If u [ sic] can’t feed um [ sic] don’t breed um [ sic]”

via Marietta Bar Hangs Controversial Sign.

“For the first time, the nation will have goals, benchmarks, and measurable outcomes that will help us tackle the childhood obesity epidemic one child, one family, and one community at a time,” Obama says in a news release.U.S. kids haven't always been obese. Only one in 20 children ages 2 to 19 was obese in the 1970s. But around 1980 child obesity began to rocket to today's stratospheric level: Nearly one in three kids is overweight or obese, and nearly one in five is frankly obese.

via Michelle Obama’s Plan to End Childhood Obesity Epidemic.

Joe Stack’s adult daughter, Samantha Bell, spoke to ABC's “Good Morning America” from her home in Norway. Asked during a phone interview broadcast Monday if she considered her father a hero, she said: “Yes. Because now maybe people will listen.”

via Daughter Calls Pilot in Texas Plane Crash a Hero – Local News | News Articles | National News | US News – FOXNews.com.