Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Why wars happen

Why wars happen

Dec 16th 2008
From Economist.com

Analysing the causes of conflicts


THERE have been nine wars and almost 130 violent conflicts across the world this year, according to an annual report released on Monday December 15th by the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research, a think-tank. The study classifies conflict broadly to include peaceful disputes over politics or borders (low intensity), as well as those involving sporadic or constant violence (medium or high intensity). In 2008 previously non-violent conflicts escalated into violence in countries such as Kenya and Yemen. Ideological change is both the most common cause of conflict and the root of most wars, but there is rarely only one cause of dispute. Congo's ongoing conflict encompasses a battle for its mineral resources and, according to some, an invasion by another state, Rwanda.

AP

What is love?

Google

What is love?

Dec 17th 2008
From Economist.com

Google offers some insights into life's big questions


THE oldest questions are still the most puzzling. According to Google's annual list of popular search terms, even in these times of economic crisis, people are most concerned with working out what love is. The nature of gout, an ailment most commonly associated with gentlemanly excess, has fallen off the list since 2007. With fewer expensive meals and bottles of wine on offer, it is likely to be less of a problem in these frugal times. Interest in the identity of the president-elect, Barack Obama, reached such a fever pitch that he has replaced God on the list. John McCain could perhaps take comfort from the fact that more interest was shown in him than in his running mate, Sarah Palin.

AFP

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Das Bausparen erlebt eine Renaissance

Das Bausparen erlebt eine Renaissance

16. Dezember 2008 Die Bausparkassen verzeichnen derzeit einen Zulauf, wie sie ihn seit fünf Jahren nicht mehr erlebt haben. „Das Bausparen erlebt derzeit eine Renaissance“, sagt Matthias Lechner, Vorstandvorsitzender der Wüstenrot Bausparkasse.

Der Marktführer Schwäbisch Hall verzeichnete unmittelbar nach dem Zusammenbruch der amerikanischen Investmentbank Lehman Brothers Mitte September ein spürbar anziehendes Neugeschäft. "Das Konservative, vermeintlich Langweilige ist wieder gefragt", sagt deren Vorstandsvorsitzender Matthias Metz.

© F.A.Z.

Zweitbeste Jahr der Geschichte im Neugeschäft deutet sich an

Genaue Zahlen über den Geschäftsverlauf in diesem Jahr liegen branchenweit zwar noch nicht vor. Vieles deutet aber darauf hin, dass die Bausparkassen im Neugeschäft auf das zweitbeste Jahr ihrer Geschichte zusteuern. Lediglich das Rekordgeschäft im Jahr 2003 dürften sich als unüberwindliche Hürde erweisen. Damals wurden kurz vor dem Wegfall der Eigenheimzulage in einer Art Schlussverkauf viele Abschlüsse vorgezogen. Die neu abgeschlossene Bausparsumme - sie setzt sich aus der vereinbarten Höhe von Bausparguthaben und Bauspardarlehen zusammen - stieg damals auf 106,5 Milliarden Euro und zum ersten und bislang einzigen Mal über 100 Milliarden Euro.

In diesem Jahr ist ein ähnlicher Schlussverkaufseffekt zu beobachten. Vom Jahr 2009 an werden die Auszahlungsbedingungen für die staatliche Wohnungsbauprämie spürbar eingeschränkt. Bislang kann der schon seit 1952 bestehende staatliche Zuschuss nach einer Sparzeit von mindestens sieben Jahren auch für andere Dinge jenseits des Wohnungsbaus verwendet werden. Künftig ist dies nur noch für junge Sparer möglich, die beim Abschluss ihres Bausparvertrags das 25. Lebensjahr noch nicht vollendet haben. Für alle anderen wird der Zuschlag nur noch gewährt, wenn die Auszahlung aus dem Bausparvertrag für den Bau, den Kauf oder die Modernisierung von Wohnraum verwendet wird.

Derzeit liegt der Fördersatz bei jährlich 45,06 Euro für Alleinstehende und 90,11 Euro für Verheiratete, wenn das zu versteuernde Jahreseinkommen bei Alleinstehenden 25.600 Euro und bei Verheirateten 51.200 Euro nicht überschreitet. Nach einer Studie des Mannheimer Zentrums für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW) ist die staatliche Prämie für drei von vier Bausparern einer der wichtigsten Gründe für den Vertragsabschluss. Deshalb rühren beispielsweise die Landesbausparkassen (LBS) im Jahresendgeschäft noch einmal kräftig die Werbetrommel: „Wer bis zum 31. Dezember 2008 einen Vertrag abschließt und mindestens eine Regelsparrate einzahlt, kann nach Ablauf von sieben Jahren frei über Guthaben und Prämie verfügen.“

Abgrenzung des Bausparsystems von den Kapitalmärkten - zugkräftiges Verkaufsargument

Zusätzlich hat sich in den vergangenen Monaten die klare Abgrenzung des Bausparsystems von den Kapitalmärkten als zugkräftiges Verkaufsargument erwiesen - trotz der im Vergleich zu Tagesgeldkonten oder Bankeinlagen deutlich niedrigeren Verzinsung. "Die Unabhängigkeit vom Kapitalmarkt stellt einen systembedingten Pluspunkt gerade in bewegten Börsenzeiten dar, der Bausparer ruhig schlafen lässt", begründet Wüstenrot-Chef Lechner diese Entwicklung. Auch die hartnäckig erstrittene Einbindung des Bausparens in die staatlich geförderte private Altersvorsorge (Wohn-Riester), die zum 1. November wirksam wurde, belebt das Neugeschäft in diesen Tagen.

Das Bausparsystem ist ein weitgehend geschlossener Kreislauf, in dem aus niedrig verzinsten Einzahlungen Darlehen innerhalb des "Bausparkollektivs" gewährt werden. Viele Bausparer schätzen an dieser Form der Geldanlage beziehungsweise Baufinanzierung, dass die Zinskonditionen schon bei Vertragsabschluss feststehen - was Überraschungen vorbeugt. Immer wieder für Ärger sorgt im Alltag jedoch der Interessenkonflikt zwischen dem Verkäufer eines Bausparvertrages und seinem Kunden. Die Provision des Verkäufers bemisst sich an der Höhe der vereinbarten Bausparsumme. Während der Vertriebs also danach strebt, die Bausparsumme möglichst hoch anzusetzen, um mehr Provision mit weniger Aufwand einzustreichen, sind für Bausparer mehrere Verträge über kleinere Summen im Normalfall sinnvoller.


Solar-powered luggage

Solar-powered luggage

Posted by: 
Economist.com | LONDON
Categories:
 
Gadgets
 
Green issues
 
Luggage

FOR those business travellers who have the money to support their environmental consciences, here’s an extraordinary new laptop bag from Voltaic Systems. It uses power generated by its solar panels to charge an internal battery, which in turn can be used to power a laptop or other electronic device. It won’t work for all computers though: in the company’s words, "brands less likely to charge include Fujitsu, Sony and Toshiba”. 

But it all sounds very useful for Dell owners and their ilk, and the bags will clearly do wonders for their owners' green credentials. There are two down sides, though. One is the (in)convenience: Voltaic Systems says that "direct sunlight" is needed to charge up the bag's battery, which takes five hours. It seems to me that if you're inside a lot, or you live in London, you may struggle to find the necessary solar energy. The second is the eye-watering price: $500. That’s a lot to pay for a charger.

TheTeaching Index


--- from phdcomics.com

Sex and the citizen

Sex and the citizen

Dec 15th 2008
From Economist.com

Where people are most, and least, promiscuous


HOW much do sexual habits vary between countries? A great deal, according to a study of 14,000 people in 48 countries. The survey asked respondents to consider seven questions related to sex. Some questions were factual: how many sexual partners have you had in the past year and how many one-night stands have you had? Other questions were about attitudes to sex: is sex without love acceptable, or sex with casual partners? From the answers, the researchers compiled an index of promiscuity for respondents from each country. The result appears to show that Finns and other Europeans are the most promiscuous, whereas respondents from more conservative countries, such as Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, are less promiscuous. Around the world men and women vary in their attitudes to casual sex. Men are more likely to seek it out in their late twenties. Women wait until their thirties when the chances of a casual encounter resulting in pregnancy are less.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Supercharged File Sharing

Monday, December 15, 2008

Supercharged File Sharing

Cooperating with file-sharing networks could avert congestion.

By Kurt Kleiner --- technologyreview.com

As Internet service providers (ISP) struggle with increasing traffic from peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, some have resorted to simply throttling this data, attracting ire from both users and regulators. Under a scheme that should be rolled out early next year, some ISPs plan to take a different approach: cooperating with file-sharing networks so that they share data more effectively.

The new scheme is called Provider Portal for Applications (P4P), and it's a voluntary, open standard that requires ISPs to share some information about how their networks are laid out. Initial tests have shown that the P4P framework can dramatically speed up download times for file sharers while also reducing the bandwidth costs for ISPs.

Peer-to-peer file sharing has exploded over the past decade, driven by increasing consumer bandwidth and growing demand for large amounts of data. Rather than serve files from a centralized location, file-sharing networks scatter pieces of among thousands of individual computers and help users find and download this data. File sharing now accounts for about 70 percent of all network traffic, and some ISPs have found it hard to deal with the increased load. In August, Comcast was rebuked by the Federal Communications Commission for trying to throttle peer-to-peer traffic on its network.

Credit: Technology Review

The new protocol reduces file-trading traffic by having ISPs reveal some internal network information to peer-to-peer "trackers"--servers that are used to locate files for downloading. Trackers can then use this network information to arrange file sharing more efficiently, by connecting computers that are nearer and sharing files at the lowest resource cost to the ISPs involved. As an example, suppose someone running a BitTorrent client tries to download an MP3. As it stands, the file might come from a computer halfway around the world, even if someone next door also happens to have a copy. By using P4P, the tracker knows to connect computers that are closer together, requiring bits to travel less distance.

"We knew, as a peer-to-peer company, that in order for peer to peer to become successfully commercialized, network operators had to be cooperative," says Robert Levitan, CEO of Pando Networks, a company that offers commercial peer-to-peer content delivery services. "Instead of blocking traffic, they had to get involved in it."

Pando is a founding member of the P4P Working Group, a consortium set up in 2007 to develop and test new technologies to make P2P more efficient. Members include ISPs like Verizon and Comcast, peer-to-peer software businesses like BitTorrent, network equipment manufacturers like Cisco Systems, and academic institutions including Yale and Washington University.

Small-scale tests conducted in March by Yale researchers, Pando, Verizon, and Telefonica Group suggest that the system could cut the average distance that data has to travel from 1,000 miles to 160 miles, and reduce the number of connections that have to be made through major hubs from 5.5 to 0.69. This would help ISPs avoid the costs incurred when information is handed between major networks. The approach could also benefit users, by increasing download speeds by an average of 20 percent, according to the same tests. 

A more recent study carried out this fall with Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T showed that peer-to-peer download speeds could increase 50 to 150 percent using the technology. And the amount of content that is delivered entirely within each ISP should increase from 14 percent to as much as 89 percent.

But the P4P approach is not without its challenges. The protocol depends on ISPs calculating and making available "p-distance values" to peer-to-peer trackers, to tell them how best to connect different file sharers. There are also legal questions. Because many files traded on peer-to-peer networks violate copyright, ISPs will want to make sure cooperating with P2P networks won't make them responsible.

Nonetheless, Richard Woundy, senior vice president for software and applications with Comcast, admits that the idea is appealing. "The ISP benefits because traffic isn't going over as much infrastructure," he says. "It's staying within a metro area, or at least staying within the ISP. It's not going over a transit link to an upstream provider."

Doug Pasko, principal member of the technical team at Verizon, says that Pandora and Verizon have plans to roll out a P4P implementation soon, possibly by the end of January. The P4P working group has also submitted an application with the Internet Engineering Task Force to seek official approval for the P4P standard. And Pasko doesn't think that legal problems are likely. "P4P itself doesn't increase our legal exposure," he says. "That's because we're offering optimization guidance. We don't have any information on what that content is."

Comcast is also interested in implementing the technology, says Barry Tishgart, vice president for Internet services for the company. "Our inclination is, we want to do it. The results of our trial are very positive," he says. But the tests carried out so far have been relatively small: the one performed this fall shared a single 21-megabyte video file, which was downloaded 15,000 times. So Tishgart wants to see what happens when larger file sizes and large swarms of peers try to download a popular file.

Finally, the success of the scheme depends on the thousand or more peer-to-peer trackers that currently exist agreeing to use the P4P protocol. Tishgart says that they tend to be suspicious of the ISP's motives. But if they see performance gains for their users and no downside, then they may be much more likely to cooperate.