Thursday, May 22, 2003

Lifestyle Results are in:  New York City drivers are the rudest; Chicago drivers are most dangerous; Charlotte drivers are most polite and safest; and Denver drivers the sleepiest. Road Rudeness Climbs -- New York City Comes in First Nine out of ten drivers nationwide said tailgating, making rude gestures, and passing on the side of the road are the most widely considered acts of aggressive driving.  The survey reveals New York City drivers are three times as likely to flip-the-bird versus the national average. Sexes Behind the Wheel. -- When it comes to multi-tasking behind the wheel, the survey reveals that women are three times more likely than men to "put on make-up, shave or comb hair" while driving. Drowsy Driving is Common in Seattle and Denver. -- Seattle drivers rank as the country's drowsiest -- 86 percent said they sometimes feel drowsy while driving, compared with 76 percent of drivers nationwide.  Denver ranks as the sleepiest city as a shocking 45 percent of Denver motorists admitted to falling asleep, at least once, behind the wheel, which was well above the national average of 36 percent. Source: "Nerves of Steel" aggressive driving survey Lifestyle Amazon.com said on Wednesday the latest installment in the Harry Potter book series has already become its fastest-selling new product ever, with more than 500,000 copies ordered in advance of the book's publication on June 21. Source: Amazon.com Health 24 percent of doctors in their final year of training said they wouldn't go into medicine if they could start over. In 2001, just 5 percent of doctors surveyed said they wouldn't have studied medicine, and prior to the 2002 study, no more than 11 percent of doctors had said they would have avoided medicine. The survey found that 60 percent of doctors said malpractice worries were causing them a "significant level" of concern. Source: Merritt, Hawkins & Associates of Dallas 8:18:59 AM    comment []

Wednesday, May 21, 2003

Econony Economists have cut their U.S. growth forecasts for the current quarter and the whole of 2003, they expect gross domestic product to grow by 2.2 percent this year, down from their previous prediction of 2.5 percent made three months ago. "Much of the downward revision for the year comes from a cut in the projection for growth in the second quarter," which is now expected to average 1b>1.8 percent compared with the 2.7 percent forecast of the previous survey. Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Econony Washington's unemployment rate continued to rise in April, reaching 7.3 percent -- up from March's revised 7.1 percent -- and is expected to keep climbing. "It's not surprising news to hear that we are seeing an increase statewide," said Chang Mook Sohn, the state's chief economist. "I am expecting it to hit at least 7.7 percent or 7.8 percent by the end of this year." Source: Seattle Times/span> 8:54:52 AM    comment []

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

Lifestyle The 10 most popular baby names in 2002. Girls: Emily, Madison, Hannah, Emma, Alexis, Ashley, Abigail, Sarah, Samantha, Olivia. Boys: Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Matthew, Ethan, Joseph, Andrew, Christopher, Daniel, Nicholas Source: socialsecurity.gov Lifestyle About 20 percent of adolescents have had sexual intercourse before their 15th birthday. The analysis of seven studies offers a comprehensive look at the sexual activities of 12- to 14-year-olds, a group often overlooked in discussions of adolescent sexuality. Source: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy Health Genentech stock soared nearly 45 percent after a drug previously written off as a failure dramatically extended the lives of some of the sickest colon cancer patients. Source: Bloomberg 8:45:13 AM    comment []

Monday, May 19, 2003

Lifestyle Bay Area residents spend more on booze, books and just about everything else than people in other major metro areas. Households in this city and nine surrounding counties spent more than twice the national average on alcohol in one year $744 compared to $360. The New York City area placed a distant second, with an average of $450. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, bls.gov Econony Gasoline prices across the nation dropped more than two cents per gallon in the past two weeks to continue a two-month decline. The survey of 8,000 service stations nationwide found that the average price per gallon on Friday was $1.55. The high this year was $1.76 on March 21. Source: Lundberg Survey Technology The number of people with high-speed Internet connections to their homes increased 50 percent in the 12 months ended March 31, but that rate of growth shows signs of slowing. Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project. Finance In November 2000, more than 50 percent of American households belonged to the "new" investor class. Since early 2001, the size of the investor class has been steadily shrinking -- from 7 percent in early 2001 to 40 percent this month. Source: Investor's Business Daily 8:03:46 AM    comment []

Sunday, May 18, 2003

Health Singapore may be just a day away from being declared SARS-free, but 34 new infections in Taiwan took the global tally to at least 7,770, with 610 deaths. The WHO said it was still too early to say if China -- the worst hit country with 282 deaths and 5,209 cases. Source: Reuters Econony As of 2300 GMT, the euro was quoted at $1.1657/62 after hitting a four-year high of $1.1688. The single currency ended U.S. trade on Friday around $1.1600. Source: Reuters 8:38:12 AM    comment []

Technology Online sales soared 48 percent to $76 billion in 2002, US online retail sales to approach $100 billion this year. Source: Forrester Research / shop.org Technology While the personal digital assistant (PDA) market was down 11 percent in the first quarter of 2003, Microsoft's Pocket PC has quietly gained another 6 percent market share since October and passed Palm OS in terms of revenues. Source: Giga Information Group Econony Six in 10 Americans Know Someone Recently Unemployed. If laid off, four in 10 could survive only a month before experiencing financial hardship. Source: The Gallup Organization 3:14:20 AM    comment []

Saturday, May 17, 2003

Finance Matrix Loads $42,508,303 Opening Day. Total by May. 18, 2003: $137,500,000 (Estimate) Source: Box Office Mojo Econony U.S. Housing starts slowed sharply in April, falling 6.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted 1.63 million annual rate after rising a 6.6 percent in March. Source: The Commerce Department Econony The report on consumer sentiment said its preliminary estimate for May is up to 93.2, versus 86 in April and 77.6 in March. Source: University of Michigan Finance Between 1997 and 2002, women-owned businesses surged by 11%, more than 1.5 times the rate for all privately-held startups (6%). Meanwhile, their workforces increased by 18% -- more than twice the overall national average of 8%. Source: Center for Women's Business Research Technology Number of the 158 used hard drives purchased for an MIT study this year that contained recoverable data : 129 -- Minimum number of credit-card numbers the hard drives contained : 6,650 Source: Simson L. Garfinkel, MIT 7:08:00 PM    comment []

Friday, May 16, 2003

Politics Minimum number of federal lobbyists registered since 1999 whose interests cover "terror" or "security" issues : 444 Source: PoliticalMoneyLine (Washington) Econony Date on which the Bush Administration announced the cancellation of monthly federal reporting of mass layoffs : 12/24/02 Number of announcements of mass layoffs reported in 2002 : 17,799 Source: CSX Corporation (Richmond, Va.) Lifestyle Number of female characters with supernatural powers on major U.S. network-television programs last season : 20 Source: National Organization for Women (Washington) Health Number of deaths in 2001 that the Japanese government classified as having resulted from overwork : 143 Source: Embassy of Japan (Washington) Finance Minimum amount S&P 500 corporations owe in retirement benefits for which they have set aside no funds : $458,000,000,000 Source: Merrill Lynch (N.Y.C.) Lifestyle Minimum number of locals hired to act as Arabs heckling U.S. troops during an army war game in California last year : 15 Source: U.S. Army (Fort Lewis, Wash.) Lifestyle Minimum number of box cutters taken from U.S. airline passengers since last February : 34,777 Source: U.S. Transportation Security Administration 6:34:08 PM    comment []