Hot off the Press: Flying dead cats and long hiatus edition
"The Vikings stadium deal that Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton signed into law Monday involves plenty of public participation, but it also prevents the public from getting a look at the team's finances during their partnership to build the $975 million stadium": http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/151394475.html.
That means the public won't be entitled to find out how much the team makes on stadium naming rights or parking or how much team owners Zygi and Mark Wilf put in themselves. The list of companies that bid to build the stadium will be kept confidential until the winner is selected.
"Experts are warning that the public dangerously underestimates the health risks linked to smoking cannabis": http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18283689. Here is an interesting fact:
"...smoking one cannabis cigarette increases the chances of developing lung cancer by as much as an entire packet of 20 tobacco cigarettes..."
"With forests and fish stocks declining, water demand rising and lack of action on climate change, humanity's path is anything but sustainable, the UN warns": http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18339905.
A British study has found that exercise, combined with conventional medication, does not treat mild depression: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18335173.
The small Scottish village of Dull and the Oregon town of Boring will now become sister communities: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/06/dull-and-boring-scottish-village.
A Dutch artist has turned his dead cat into a model helicopter: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/dutch-artist-bart-jansen-turns-dead-cat-orville-into-a-helicopter-a-837029.html. Oddly, I find it both sick and amusing at the same time.
The leading German credit agency plans to mine Facebook for information to determine a person's creditworthiness: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-credit-agency-plans-to-analyze-individual-facebook-pages-a-837539.html.
UK government officials are boycotting Euro 2012, held in Poland and Ukraine, over the treatment of Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Ukrainian prime minster and opposition leader who has been jailed: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/07/euro-2012-boycott-ukraine-uk-government.
"Americans’ wealth plummeted 40 percent from 2007 to 2010, Federal Reserve says": http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/fed-americans-wealth-dropped-40-percent/2012/06/11/gJQAlIsCVV_story.html?hpid=z1. Partly like it's 1992, baby!
The recession caused the greatest upheaval among the middle class. Only roughly half of middle-class Americans remained on the same economic rung during the downturn, the Fed found. Their median net worth — the value of assets such as homes, automobiles and stocks minus any debt — suffered the biggest drops. By contrast, the wealthiest families’ median net worth rose slightly.
There is not much meat here, but this is an interesting little story. Stephan Beard of Marketplace visited five bars in five different eurozone countries to gauge opinion on the debt crisis: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/world/pub-crawl/pub-crawl-across-europe. The article also features a little interactive map, the Econ Pub Crawl: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/pub-crawl.
"To Grow A Craft Beer Business, The Secret's In The Water": http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/06/09/154574766/to-grow-a-craft-beer-business-the-secrets-in-the-water.
