Paul's World

The study concerns several legal smoking mixtures, ‘Spice’ being the most well-known (pictured), which were recently found to contain synthetic cannabinoids.

Cannabinoids are named for their abundance in the cannabis plant, but this class of substance also naturally occurs in the nervous system as part of the normal biological signalling system. In fact, the street drug cannabis has its effect because its various cannabinoids, the most famous being THC, target one or more of the brain’s cannabinoid receptors.

Marijuana and its derivatives are illegal in most countries but the brain’s cannabinoid system is complex and so it is possible to synthesise other types of drugs in the same class as the plant’s active ingredients, which target the same receptor sites, that have similar effects, but which are completely legal.

“Of course we do business with them. We have to. It’s like the Mob who picks up the garbage. You pay their fees, because you need your garbage picked up.”

That’s what a money manager told Bethany McLean, the author of a big new Vanity Fair piece, about the empire that is Goldman Sachs. The claim is kind of funny given the news that just broke about Goldman execs stocking up on firearms.

Of course everyone does business with Goldman. But apparently, they don’t do it because they want to. McLean says word on the street is that Goldman doesn’t even have clients anymore, just “counterparties,” people on the other side of their trades (aka enemies, kind of).

The CBO released a new report today: Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output as of September 2009. Here is their estimate of the impact on GDP:

[The] CBO estimates that in the third quarter of calendar year 2009 … real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) was 1.2 percent to 3.2 percent higher, than would have been the case in the absence of ARRA. Those ranges are intended to reflect the uncertainty of such estimates and to encompass most economists’ views on the effects of fiscal stimulus.

At both extremes of the range, the economy would still be in recession without the stimulus (note: the BEA reported that GDP grew “at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the third quarter of 2009” or about 0.7% for the quarter).

I don’t know what Google has planned for Wave or Gmail, but if I were them I would continue improving Wave, and then once it’s ready for the whole world to use, integrate it into Gmail. Moving Wave into Gmail would give it a huge userbase, and partially address the “email is universal” problem. They could use MIME multi-part to send both a non-Wave, HTML version of the message, and the Wave version. Wave-enabled mail readers would display the live Wave, while older mailers would show the static version along with a link to the live Wave.

I think Paul Buchheit idea makes great sense. It needs to integrated with other Google apps including Gmail to make it more functional for what it was intended for.

… a National Retail Federation survey conducted over the weekend confirms the expected: more people spent less. According to NRF’s Black Friday shopping survey, conducted by BIGresearch, 195 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 172 million last year. However, the average spending over the weekend dropped to $343.31 per person from $372.57 a year ago. …“Shoppers proved this weekend that they were willing to open their wallets for a bargain, heading out to take advantage of great deals on less expensive items like toys, small appliances and winter clothes,” said Tracy Mullin, NRF President and CEO.
…
“During a more robust economy, people may be inclined to hit the “snooze” button on Black Friday, but high unemployment and a focus on price caused shoppers to visit stores early in anticipation of the best deals,” said Phil Rist, Executive Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, BIGresearch.

* NRF’s definition of “Black Friday weekend” includes Thursday, Friday, Saturday and projected spending for Sunday.

Researchers from Cambridge University who studied 53 traders from the City of London financial district found that several years of trading experience, the right kind of hormones and profit-sharing incentives make profitable, prudent risk-takers. The study looked at male “high-frequency” traders, who buy and sell financial products

but only hold positions for only a few seconds, and the “Sharpe ratio” performance measure — a ratio between trading profit and the level of risk taken.

The Sofia Echo, referencing other local media, quotes the eminent space brainbox as stating that “they [aliens] are here right now, among us” and that the extraterrestrials are “conducting surveillance” and - chillingly - “research” on humanity.

“They are currently all around us, and are watching us all the time. They are not hostile towards us; rather, they want to help us but we have not grown enough in order to establish direct contact with them,” said the Bulgarian boffin, according to Sofia news agency novinite.com.

“This is without a doubt the biggest fraud scandal to ever hit European football,” Peter Limacher, head of disciplinary services at the Union of European Football Associations, European football’s controlling body. “We are deeply shocked by the scale of the match-fixing.”

Mr Limacher said the investigation could have an impact on the outcome of the current championship, since all games under investigation took place this year.

Andreas Bachmann, head of the police team leading the investigation from the German city of Bochum, said the estimated criminal proceeds, the number of games involved and the circle of suspects could increase considerably over coming weeks.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “We must assume that the actual figures will be much higher.”