Am I allowed to buy life insurance on someone else's life and also own a licence to kill him? Right. Then why am I allowed to buy a credit default swap (a form of unregulated insurance) on a company whose bonds I own that will pay me shit loads more money if the company goes bust than if I sell the bonds in the market for a profit? If you can't have your pie and eat it too when it comes to someone's life, why allow it when it comes to their money? It's lethal and deadly. Not even the Mafia could collect life insurance on someone else's life, so why are we still discussing allowing the practice on Wall Street?

In a previous post I made I took some photos of weird car parkings in Greece caused by a severe lack of parking space in the big cities. I read today that countries like the Netherlands or Japan construct artificial islands, use marine barges or build specially designed semi-floating parking storages to deal with the same problem. Since my country lacks such engineering ingenuity and sophistication, I thought a simple way to deal with the issue. For cities built close to the sea, use boats anchored to the waterfront for car parking and charge by the hour. Simple as that! (read more)

My uncle has a very busy restaurant in Spain. I think he can make more money if more people are served but almost all customers take very long time to eat so he has to turn away many new customers that want to come in. I suggested that he fix maximum stay per customer table at 30-40 minutos and tell people before they sit or when they book that they must eat within that time to allow for other customers as well. I think it's good idea but not my uncle. I believe if people are told before they sit what maximum time is they will be ok with it. The food and service is good so more people will have chance to try. Do you think it's good idea or bad idea?

What is your prediction?

Why is it that when we think about left-handed people we think they are too few in the world? They say 10% of the world population is left-handed. That is approximately 700 million people. I'm wondering why no one has yet thought to launch an online marketplace like eBay or Amazon where all kinds of products only for left-handed people are sold or traded. I think it's a big market worldwide. An online business can produce the economies of scale needed to make it profitable and the good news is no one has tried it yet.

Install machines in carpet stores that waft out the smell of new carpet in the same way food stores waft out the smell of fresh bread or luxury car seats are sprayed to waft out the smell of fresh leather

I have been doing some re-reading of a favorite book of mine "Emotional Intelligence" by Daniel Goleman. In one of the chapters it talks about John Gottman, a University of Washington psychologist who has charted the emotional ecology of marriage with such precision that, in one study, he was able to predict which couples seen in his lab would divorce within 3 years with 94% accuracy!!! This is how he does it: (read more)

Executives in the publishing industry fear eBook distributors such as Amazon (kindle) and Apple (iPad) will spell the end of their business by eating into their market share or by precipitating a devastating fall in book prices. While Amazon, Apple and their ilk are formidable enemies, the final death blow to traditional print publishing will not be given by eBook distributors. It will come from printer manufacturers. The invention of home-use printers which allow consumers to not only print but also bind books from home fast and reliably and for less than $9.99 (the cost of buying an ebook on Amazon) will spell the end of book publishing as we know it. (read more)

If you're traveling business class by plane, do your very best to avoid the last row of the cabin. That's where families with babies using skycots attached to the wall are seated on economy. Avoid that last row seat if you're headed on a long trip and you're tired or in desperate need for some rest during the flight. You will be thankful later. If you can't be seated anywhere else, perhaps it would be a good idea to ask if the airline can give you a discount.

Some politicians in Europe, including Nicholas Sarkozy of France, argue that as oil prices go up taxes on petrol should be either reduced or the money put into a special fund to be distributed to people with low income. I think that is the wrong way to deal with rising energy costs. A better solution would be to actually reduce - or eliminate some - public transport prices as oil price goes up. Why? Because that would make more people use public transport and drive down the global demand for oil so long as all governments of the biggest oil consumer countries decided to adopt this measure. (read more)