10 random things to learn on September 8th

10 random things to learn today:

Would you find it more useful if I taught you how to buy your next car for the cheapest possible price or if I explained how to predict the foreign policy of South Korea? I thought so. I’ll tell you about the car.

Brain scan: Paranoid survivor | The Economist

EARLIER this year Andrew Grove taught a class at Stanford Business School. As a living legend in Silicon Valley and a former boss of Intel, the world’s leading chipmaker, Dr Grove could have simply used the opportunity to blow his own trumpet. Instead he started by displaying a headline from the Wall Street Journal heralding the recent takeover of General Motors by the American government as the start of “a new era”. He gave a potted history of his own industry’s spectacular rise, pointing out that plenty of venerable firms—with names like Digital, Wang and IBM—were nearly or completely wiped out along the way.

43 weird things said in job interviews

Maybe you were nervous, you thought the employer would appreciate your honesty, or maybe you just have no boundaries. Whatever the reason, you can be certain that you shouldn't tell an interviewer that it's probably best if they don't do a background check on you. (And yes, the hiring manager remembered you said that.)
We asked hiring managers to share the craziest things they've heard from applicants in an interview. Some are laugh-out-loud hysterical, others are jaw dropping — the majority are both. To be sure, they will relieve anyone who has ever said something unfortunate at a job interview — and simply amuse the rest of you.

Why Do Cars Have Fuel Doors on Different Sides?

"One of the most frustrating experiences of driving a rental car is to pull up at a gas pump as you would when driving your own car, only to discover that the gas tank is located on the side of the car away from the pump. Auto manufacturers could eliminate this difficulty simply by putting fuel filler doors always on the same side of the car. Why don't they?

Why Did People Become White? | LiveScience

The consensus among scientists has always been that lower levels of vitamin D at higher latitudes — where the sun is less intense — caused the lightening effect when modern humans, who began darker-skinned, first migrated north.

But other factors might be at work, a new study suggests. From the varying effects of frostbite to the sexual preferences of early men, a host of theories have been reviewed.

“Why Should We Hire You” Interview Question and Answers

When it comes to job interviews, there are several questions that are not exactly related to the work, but are one of the major reasons why your job interview does not have the results that are in your best interests. One such question is the question “why should we hire you?” Basically, this question is one of the master strokes during an interview.

Why Do We Make Bad Decisions? (And How to Avoid the Trap)

Trouble is, fear—the ancient, amygdala-driven response to threat—is literally paralyzing. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that when the brain is firing down below with hot, scurrying emotions, the prefrontal cortex—the seat of top-down “executive control”—becomes consumed with managing the anxiety. Cognitive errors abound, and there isn’t enough mental wattage left for hatching brilliant schemes, much less cutting through the daily desktop fuzz incisively. But scientists’ rapidly expanding understanding of how brains consistently botch choices also suggests a number of corrective strategies for making better, smarter, bolder decisions.

The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine

So what happened? Well, in short, technology happened. The world has sped up, become more connected and a whole lot busier. As a result, what consumers want from the products and services they buy is fundamentally changing. We now favor flexibility over high fidelity, convenience over features, quick and dirty over slow and polished. Having it here and now is more important than having it perfect. These changes run so deep and wide, they're actually altering what we mean when we describe a product as "high-quality."

What Scares Google – The Atlantic (September 2009)

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off that ole Lone Ranger—unless you’re Google. Then you feel defiant in the face of powerful forces, in this case the historical trend that has knocked previous tech colossi to their knees.

Why did Plaxico Burress hire a "prison consultant"?

Former New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress has hired a prison consultant before beginning his two-year sentence for attempted criminal possession of a weapon. What do prison consultants do?

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