Links and Minifeatures 2008 03 17 Monday (My Leprechaun is 8!)

Carnival of Real Estate

The San Diego Special Edition

Science of sleep

Lack of sleep is unhealthy. After only six nights of four hours of sleep, test subjects were in a pre-diabetic state! Leptin levels were depressed, causing people to believe they were hungrier - and they ate more, gaining weight. All sorts of other issues documented at the link!

Much ado about nothing: CAN SPAM act

The fine is the largest ever imposed for a violation of the federal CAN-SPAM Act, the Federal Trade Commission said. The act, approved by Congress in 2003, bars deceptive practices in e-mail advertising.

$2.9 million? That's nothing on the scale of their revenues or income.

Shares of ValueClick fell 90 cents, or 5 percent, to $16.57 in midday trading. The company has traded between $16.24 and $36.70 in the past year.

When it gets de-listed, then we'll have made some progress.

Here's something I don't understand. Alimony, etcetera is a hold-over from the days when women were essentially property. Why isn't NOW looking to put Alimony in the past along with Jim Crow?

Mills Awarded $48.6M From McCartney

The answer, of course, is that NOW isn't an equality-seeking group. They're a power-seeking group, and alimony and asset judgments give power to women.

It appears from the story she married him in 2002. Even if divorced today, that's only six years. Paul McCartney has a large, pre-existing net worth that she made no significant sacrifices and did no significant work to help earn.

$48.6 million for six years. $8.1 million per year, not counting however long since they stopped sleeping together. Yes, they have a daughter together, but this is totally separate from child support. This is pure ex-husband to ex-wife transfer. How would he not have been better off hiring one of Elliot Spitzer's girls? $1000 per hour times 8640 hours per year equals $8.64 million per year, and you wouldn't need them more than one third of that time at most - or about $2.9 million per year. In reality, what do you think the average time per day would be? Maybe an hour every two days? With the leftover change, he could have hired a surrogate mother, and had millions left in his pocket. And women wonder why men don't want to get married? It's not like she's not much further ahead of the game than she would have been without him, simply due to the people he introduced her to and the opportunities she had because she was married to him, without any transfer payments at all.

I'm also wondering exactly how she is morally superior to a prostitute. Without some sort of "by definition" fiat (as in "religious fiat"), I'm not getting there. Quite the opposite, in fact.

The bloom is definitely off the media rose: Obama walks arrogance line

Voters won't cut Obama as much slack on the humility test because he's sold himself as something different. While rejecting the "me"-centric status quo and promising a new era of post-partisan reform, Obama has said the movement he has created is not about him; it's about what Americans can do together if their faith in government is restored.

The power of his message lies in its humility. As he told 7,000 supporters at a rally last month, "I am an imperfect vessel for your hopes and dreams."

Nobody expects Obama to be perfect. But he better never forget that he isn't.

Stunned Bear Stearns investors eye legal claims

Here's the deadly line:

Nobel said his firm has been contacted by investors who bought the stock as recently as last week. Some of these buyers, he said, took their positions after Bear CEO Alan Schwartz said in a televised interview on Wednesday that the company does not see any pressure on its liquidity and had about $17 billion in excess cash on its balance sheet.

"You have investors who are upset because they feel as though the company was not truthful in reporting its financial condition," Nobel said.

Gallows humor, realtor greet Bear's stunned staff

Actions speak more truth than words

Always, always, ask yourself "What benefit does this person derive if I believe what he tells me?" They may be telling the truth anyway. But just because you don't understand they benefit doesn't mean they aren't getting one.