We're Number One!

The Broadband Gap: Why Is Theirs Cheaper?

Broadband is cheaper in many other countries than in the United States.

“You have a pretty uncompetitive market by European standards,” said Tim Johnson, the chief analyst at Point-Topic, a London consulting firm.

Other countries have lower costs for the same reasons their DSL service is faster. Dense urban areas reduce some of the cost of building networks. In addition, governments in some countries subsidized fiber networks.

But the big difference between the United States and most other countries is competition.

“Now hold on there,” you might say to me. Since I wrote that many countries don’t have cable systems and the bulk of broadband is run by way of DSL through existing phone wires, how can there be competition? Aren’t those owned by monopoly phone companies? Link

We're Number One!

In Japan, broadband service running at 150 megabits per second (Mbps) costs $60 a month. The fastest service available now in the United States is 50 Mbps at a price of $90 to $150 a month.

In London, $9 a month buys 8 Mbps service. In New York, broadband starts at $20 per month, for 1 Mbps. More

Papers Go Bust!

As Cities Go From Two Papers to One, Talk of Zero
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Published: March 11, 2009

The history of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer stretches back more than two decades before Washington became a state, but after 146 years of publishing, the paper is expected to print its last issue next week, perhaps surviving only in a much smaller online version. More

O! Norm! Poor Norm!

Fortunately, I didn't donate by credit card to our Coleman. So, his exposing all the info on his website doesn't affect me. Nor does his lying about it -- after all, he does that all the time.

Finger Length Predicts Speed, Aggression, Smarts, Motivation

By Robert Roy Britt, Editorial Director
posted: 12 March 2009 06:23 pm ET

Boys with ring fingers longer than their index fingers run faster, a new study finds.

Finger-length ratios have been related to a host of things good and bad, from fertility and disease vulnerability to test scores and personality traits. In fact, you'll need the digits on both hands, regardless of their length, to count all the correlations that have been made.

Researchers say exposure to testosterone in the womb is behind the speedy kids and their finger-length ratios. The scientists studied 241 boys aged 10 to 17 at a talent-spotting competition in Qatar. Those with longer ring fingers were faster at every stage of a 50-meter sprint race, according to an article in The Telegraph.

"The advantage they had was soon apparent after the start of the sprint and remained steady thereafter," said John Manning, a researcher at Southampton University who led the study.

Previous research has shown:

• * Finger length can predict the likelihood of aggression in men (but not women).


• * Kids with longer ring fingers are likely to have higher SAT math scores than literacy or verbal scores, while children whose index fingers are longer are more likely to do better at reading and writing, or verbal, rather than the math tests.


• * A 2006 study in the journal BMJ linked a certain finger ratio to women's athletic prowess and also linked the differences to hormones in the womb.


• * People whose ring finger is longer than their index finger are at higher risk of osteoarthritis, according to a study last year in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism.

You can finger other body parts as behavior predictors, too. More

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Race to Witch Mountain (2009)

From left, Alexander Ludwig, Dwayne Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb and Carla Gugino in “Race to Witch Mountain.”
March 13, 2009
Save the Cute Little Extraterrestrials! Save the Earth!
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: March 13, 2009

I took my daughter, who recently turned 10, to see “Race to Witch Mountain.” Yes, this is one of those Dad-goes-to-the-movies reviews, but surely you didn’t think I was going to see it alone. When the movie was over, as my own impressions buzzed distractingly around in my head, I asked her what she thought. “It was O.K.,” she said. “It was pretty noisy, though.” More

Tokyo Sonata (2008)

Tokyo Sonata Kôji Yakusho, left, and Kyôko Koizumi in the film which opens on Friday in New York and Los Angeles.
March 13, 2009
Upended by Downsizing
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: March 13, 2009

A genius of dread, known for his unnerving horror films and eerie thrillers, the wildly prolific Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa tends to ply his trade with spooky silences, a lived-in feel for everyday, droning life and a sense of social unease. Though his latest to hit the American big screen, “Tokyo Sonata,” looks like a family melodrama — if a distinctly eccentric variant on the typical domestic affair — there is more than a touch of horror to its story of a salaryman whose downsizing sets off a series of cataclysmic events. More