What are Rum Balls?

Rum balls are like truffles made with chocolate and rum. They can be coated in chocolate sprinkles, dessicated coconut or cocoa. They are a popular Christmas snack in parts of Europe (Austria, Hungary, Denmark) as well as Australia and New Zealand.

Meet Robert Solow (Nobel Prize Winner 1987)

Robert Solow was a Brooklyn-born American economist known for his work on economic growth.

The model he conceived was called the Solow-Swan neo-classical growth model. He was famously quoted as saying: "You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics".

He also had some amusing things to say about statistics teaching at Harvard, where he studied (though he spent most time teaching at MIT afterward): "In those days, the teaching of statistics at Harvard was, to put it kindly, eccentric".

He taught statistics and econometrics (time series) at MIT. In doing so, his interests admirably shifted to macroeconomics. He is currently an Institute Professor (highest Professor title) at MIT.

International Trade: The Uruguay Round

The Uruguay Round of 1986 was the largest trade negotiation in history since the GATT agreement after the Second World War and involved 123 countries. The resort of Punta del Este also known as the St Tropez of Uruguay(on the South Eastern part of South America) the other side of Chile (very West), played host to the talks where all GATT articles were up for review! Tariffs and related subjects were discussed under the umbrella term "market access". This led to the creation of the WTO, preceded by the Marrakech Agreement of 1995. The Doha developement agenda consisted of trade talks post-Uruguay.

Sidebar: St Tropez is situated on the Cote d'Azur, also known as the French Riviera - the Mediterranean coastline of the South East corner of France. It was a favourite winter health resort for the British upper class. Officially, the Cote d'Azur is home to 163 nationalities and the towns of Marseille, Nice and Cannes.

Benefits of Chewing Gum

There is a theory that chewing gum can be an aid to concentration stimulating the hypothalamus (that part of the brain that connects the endocrine system to the nervous system) to release hormones to keep us alert. Also it burns off a small amount of energy. Also it stimulates saliva production which helps to digest carbohydrates.

Dollar is stronger than which currencies?

Assume you are USD-denominated tourist. To travel to new destinations you need foreign currency!! In some countries the dollar is stronger (like Turkey!!) and in other countries the dollar is weaker (like Eurozone and UK - GBPUSD is around 1.5 to 1.6).

Here's a currency ballpark set of rules to work out approximations to how much currency you'll get for your greenback. Once you understand BALLPARK you then need to study time series to understand VOLATILITY (one measure being 52wk range).

TRY is New Turkish Lira. 1.5 of these smackers roughly equate to a humble dollar. So if you have N lira and you change it for M dollars, then N/M is roughly 1.5.

Euro to Dollar is a different beast altogether. Why, because Euro is stronger than Dollar. So if I have N EUR and M dollar then M over N(larger quantity over smaller quantity) should roughly equate to 1.4 (or maybe below).

Quiz: which is stronger, greenback or Ozzie dollar? If I divide my Ozzies by my greenback equivalent I should get ballpark 1.12. The greenback buys around 1.12 ozzies!! Good value!! But it's a close call. It's a similar story for CADS, I can get just over 1 CAD for a greenback. Makes sense, I guess, economies are somewhat similar. Similar story for Swissies, if I divide my Swissies by my equivalent dollars, I get something just over one. So the greenback is marginally stronger than these currencies, but significantly stronger than the lira!!!

Exmouth Market

Exmouth Market is in Clerkenwell (EC1), nearest station Angel and two minutes walk from Sadler's Wells theatre (which has a history of over 300 years). Also close to Farringdon tube (600m+ walk). Head out of the tube, down Farringdon Road (A201). Walk Northwards towards King's Cross and away from Smithfield. Cross Clerkenwell Road, the road starts curving West. You will pass Pear Tree Court and Bowling Green Lane on your right. Shortly after you need to make a right turn before Roseberry Avenue (the next major road).

GPS

GPS is the Global Positioning System, a space-based satellite navigation system. But who pays for the GPS satellites? GPS satellites are owned by the US government and leased out on a time-sharing basis.