MUST-READ: The inflated world of Internet traffic.

IT'S NOT the 1%, it's the 0.01%.

WHEN we lose antibiotics, here’s everything else we’ll lose too.

Have a nice weekend.

HOW MUCH would it cost to live a New York Times lifestyle? “There are many reasons to be annoyed with the trend pieces the New York Times runs (not the least of which is that most of these stories are apparently knowingly fabricated[1]), but chief among them is the fact that—even if these trends were actual things that actually existed in the real world, rather than just being things that some Times intern had dreamed up after a night of hard partying at the McKibbin Lofts—the lifestyle that the Times is trying to sell is really, really expensive and therefore out of the reach of most New Yorkers. But just how expensive is it? Just how rich would you need to be to live the Times lifestyle? Well, we decided to do a little bit of math and find out.”

REALITY CHECK: Mao invented traditional Chinese medicine in the 50s, because he couldn't pay the Western kind to so many people, but he personally wasn't a believer and never used it. And he got away with it, as you see.

MICHAEL BARONE: “What's the proper size of government? Here's an article from American Enterprise Institute's The American website citing a study by Canadian economist Livio De Matteo of the free-market Fraser Institute. The bottom line: The optimal government size of maximizing economic growth is 26 percent of gross domestic product. Below that, you miss out on useful services; above that, you start to plunder the private sector economy. The bad news: The current share in the United States, counting state and local as well as federal spending, is 40 percent. The good news: You can ratchet back spending quite sharply, as Canada did in the mid-1990s.”

DOG. Magician playing the 'disappearing cookie' trick. Puzzlement ensues.

NOT even security:

Three Secret Service agents responsible for protecting President Obama in Amsterdam this week were sent home and put on administrative leave Sunday after going out for a night of drinking, according to three people familiar with the incident. One of the agents was found drunk and passed out in a hotel hallway, the people said.

[…] The alleged behavior would violate Secret Service rules ­adopted in the wake of a damaging scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, in April 2012, when a dozen agents and officers had been drinking heavily and had brought prostitutes back to their hotel rooms before the president’s arrival for an economic summit.

Under the requirements, anyone on an official trip is forbidden to drink alcohol in the 10 hours leading up to an assignment. As members of the advance team for a presidential trip, the CAT members would have been called to duty sometime Sunday for a classified briefing ahead of the president’s arrival on Monday. Drinking late into the night Saturday evening and Sunday morning would have violated that rule.

Imagine the scene: one of the hulk-sized guys protecting the president (I've seen then in person and they're HUGE and intimidating), on the floor, passed away, totally waster. I'd say that's unthinkable in previous modern-era presidents.

ELEVEN nutrition lies that vegans will tell you.

100% SPOT ON: 11 Awkward Things About Email.

WHICH PROFESSIONS have the most psychopaths? And the fewest? “But first off, psychopath doesn’t just mean someone who cuts you up with a chainsaw”.

Glad you cleared that up…

TEN of the maddest scientists who ever lived.

HOW THE TRUTH IS MADE at Russia Today.

“CLEOPATRA LIVED closer to the invention of the iPhone than she did to the building of the Great Pyramid” and other of the 77 Facts That Sound Like Huge Lies But Are Actually Completely True.

Amazing, check 'em out.

MIRACLE CURE NOT SO MIRACULOUS AFTER ALL: Abenomics Crucified With Lowest GDP Since Abe, Worst Current Account Deficit On Record.

NSA SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM reaches ‘into the past’ to retrieve, replay phone calls.

THE 17 EQUATIONS that changed the course of history.

KEYWORDS: EFFORT MAXIMIZATION. “Why Clever And Lazy People Make The Best Leaders”

25 THINGS you didn't know about The Godfather.

FIVE THINGS Neil deGrasse Tyson's "Cosmos" gets wrong.

ROLLS-ROYCE considers building a plug-in hybrid.

GOOD THING it's the Obama, not the Bush administration, or we'd be deaf by the shouting by now: How CIA snooped on Senate Intel Committee’s files.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: I'm a Telemarketer. Here's How to Get Rid of Me.

I have my own techniques: one, I just leave the phone unhung on a table without saying a word. I keep on with my life, and after a few minutes they loose patience and hang up. This worsens their time spent / effectivity ratio and they generally write it on their logs so that their colleagues know my number is not a good one to call. Since I'm doing it, telemarketing calls have gone down perhaps 60 or 70 percent.

Two, taken from Seinfield, and only if it's a nice, feminine voice: I reply, “sorry, I'm having dinner right now, why don't you give me your home or cell number and I'll return your call later?”

And three, when I'm fed up or in a bad mood: I reply, “sorry, can't talk right now: I'm cutting  my grandma into pieces with a seesaw” or something like that. 9 out of 10 times they hang out immediately with no other word. The other one time, they hang up after saying “oh, sorry” embarrassedly.

MURDER MACHINES: Why Cars Will Kill 30,000 Americans This Year. The tone and angle are a bit off, though. To wit: “'Motordom,' as the collective of special interests including oil companies, auto makers, auto dealers, and auto clubs dubbed itself, launched a multi-pronged campaign to make city streets more welcoming to drivers, though not necessarily safer. Through a series of social, legal, and physical transformations, these groups reframed arguments about vehicle safety by placing blame on reckless drivers and careless pedestrians, rather than the mere presence of cars.”

Well, the mere presence of cars doesn't kill (I bet the author is pro gun control also). Nevertheless it's still a fascinating read, with great graphic art.

IN MEMORIAM, 10 YEARS AFTER

Eva Belén Abad Quijada, Spain, 30 years old

Óscar Abril Alegre, Spain, 19 years old

Liliana Guillermina Acero Ushiña, Ecuador, 26 years old

Florencio Aguado Rojano, Spain, 60 years old

Juan Alberto Alonso Rodríguez, Spain, 38 years old

María Joséfa Alvarez González, Spain, 48 years old

Juan Carlos Del Amo Aguado, Spain, 28 years old

Andriyan Asenov Andrianov, Bulgaria, 22 years old

María Nuria Aparicio Somolinos, Spain, 40 years old

Alberto Arenas Barroso, Spain, 24 years old

Neil Hebe Astocondor Masgo, Peru, 34 years old

Ana Isabel Avila Jiménez, Spain, 43 years old

Miguel Ángel Badajoz Cano, Spain, 34 years old

Susana Ballesteros Ibarra, Spain, 42 years old

Francisco Javier Barahona Imedio, Spain, 34 years old

Gonzalo Barajas Díaz, Spain, 32 years old

Gloria Inés Bedoya, Colombia, 40 years old

Sanaa Ben Salah Imadaquan, Spain, 13 years old

Esteban Martín De Benito Caboblanco, Spain, 39 years old

Rodolfo Benito Samaniego, Spain, 27 years old

Anka Valeria Bodea, Romania, 26 years old

Livia Bogdan, Romania, 27 years old

Florencio Brasero Murga, Spain, 50 years old

Trinidad Bravo Segovia, Spain, 40 years old

Alina Maria Bryk, Poland, 39 years old

Stefan Budai, Romania, 37 years old

Tibor Budi, Romania, 37 years old

María Pilar Cabrejas Burillo, Spain, 37 years old

Rodrigo Cabrero Pérez, Spain, 20 years old

Milagros Calvo García, Spain, 39 years old

Sonia Cano Campos, Spain, 24 years old

Alicia Cano Martínez, Spain, 63 years old

José María Carrilero Baeza, Spain, 39 years old

Álvaro Carrion Franco, Spain, 17 years old

Francisco Javier Casas Torresano, Spain, 28 years old

Cipriano Castillo Muñoz, Spain, 55 years old

María Inmaculada Castillo Sevillano, Spain, 39 years old

Sara Centenera Montalvo, Spain, 19 years old

Oswaldo Manuel Cisneros Villacís, Ecuador, 34 years old

Eugenia María Ciudad-Real Díaz, Spain, 26 years old

Jacqueline Contreras Ortiz, Peru, 22 years old

María Soledad Contreras Sánchez, Spain, 51 years old

María Paz Criado Pleiter, Spain, 52 years old

Nicoleta Diac, Romania, 27 years old

Beatriz Díaz Hernandez, Spain, 30 years old

Georgeta Gabriela Dima, Romania, 35 years old

Tinka Dimitrova Paunova, Bulgaria, 31 years old

Kalina Dimitrova Vasileva, Bulgaria, 31 years old

Sam Djoco, Senegal, 42 years old

María Dolores Durán Santiago, Spain, 34 years old

Osama El Amrati, Morocco, 23 years old

Sara Encinas Soriano, Spain, 26 years old

Carlos Marino Fernández Dávila, Peru, 39 years old

María Fernández del Amo, Spain, 25 years old

Rex Ferrer Reynado, Phillipines, 20 years old

Héctor Manuel Figueroa Bravo, Chile, 33 years old

Julia Frutos Rosique, Spain, 44 years old

María Dolores Fuentes Fernández, Spain, 29 years old

José Gallardo Olmo, Spain, 33 years old

José Raúl Gallego Triguero, Spain, 39 years old

María Pilar Gamiz Torres, Spain, 40 years old

Abel García Alfageme, Spain, 27 years old

Juan Luis García Arnaiz, Spain, 17 years old

Beatriz García Fernández, Spain, 27 years old

María de las Nieves García García-Moñino, Spain, 46 years old

Enrique García González, Dominican Republic, 28 years old

Cristina Aurelia García Martínez, Spain, 34 years old

Carlos Alberto García Presa, Spain, 24 years old

José García Sánchez, Spain, 45 years old

José María García Sánchez, Spain, 47 years old

Javier Garrote Plaza, Spain, 26 years old

Petrica Geneva, Romania, 34 years old

Ana Isabel Gil Pérez, Spain, 29 years old

Óscar Gómez Gudiña, Spain, 24 years old

Felix González Gago, Spain, 52 years old

Ángelica González García, Spain, 19 years old

Teresa González Grande, Spain, 38 years old

Elías González Roque, Spain, 30 years old

Juan Miguel Gracia García, Spain, 53 years old

Javier Guerrero Cabrera, Spain, 25 years old

Berta María Gutiérrez García, Spain, 39 years old

Sergio de las Heras Correa, Spain, 29 years old

Pedro Hermida Martín, Spain, 51 years old

Alejandra Iglesias López, Spain, 28 years old

Mohamed Itaiben, Morocco, 27 years old

Pablo Izquierdo Asanza, Spain, 42 years old

María Teresa Jaro Narrillos, Spain, 32 years old

Oleksandr Kladkovoy, Ukraine, 56 years old

Laura Isabel Laforga Bajón, Spain, 28 years old

María Victoria León Moyano, Spain, 30 years old

María Carmen Lominchar Alonso, Spain, 34 years old

Myriam López Díaz, Spain, 31 years old

María Carmen López Pardo, Spain, 50 years old

María Cristina López Ramos, Spain, 38 years old

José María López-Menchero Moraga, Spain, 44 years old

Miguel de Luna Ocaña, Spain, 36 years old

María Jesús Macías Rodríguez, Spain, 30 years old

Francisco Javier Mancebo Záforas, Spain, 38 years old

Ángel Manzano Pérez, Ecuador, 42 years old

Vicente Marín Chiva, Spain, 37 years old

Antonio Marín Mora, Spain, 43 years old

Begoña Martín Baeza, Spain, 25 years old

Ana Martín Fernández, Spain, 43 years old

Luis Andrés Martín Pacheco, Spain, 54 years old

María Pilar Martín Rejas, Spain, 50 years old

Alois Martinas, Romania, 27 years old

Carmen Mónica Martínez Rodríguez, Spain, 31 years old

Míriam Melguizo Martínez, Spain, 28 years old

Javier Mengíbar Jiménez, Spain, 43 years old

Álvaro de Miguel Jiménez, Spain, 26 years old

Michael Mitchell Rodríguez, Cuba, 28 years old

Stefan Modol, Romania, 45 years old

Segundo Víctor Mopocita Mopocita, Ecuador, 37 years old

Encarnación Mora Donoso, Spain, 64 years old

María Teresa Mora Valero, Spain, 37 years old

Julita Moral García, Spain, 53 years old

Francisco Moreno Aragonés, Spain, 56 years old

José Ramón Moreno Isarch, Spain, 37 years old

Eugenio Moreno Santiago, Spain, 56 years old

Juan Pablo Moris Crespo, Spain, 32 years old

Juan Muñoz Lara, Spain, 33 years old

Francisco José Narváez de la Rosa, Spain, 28 years old

Mariana Negru, Romania, 40 years old

Ismael Nogales Guerrero, Spain, 31 years old

Inés Novellón Martínez, Spain, 30 years old

Miguel Ángel Orgaz Orgaz, Spain, 34 years old

Ángel Pardillos Checa, Spain, 62 years old

Sonia Parrondo Antón, Spain, 28 years old

Juan Francisco Pastor Férez, Spain, 51 years old

Daniel Paz Manjón, Spain, 20 years old

Josefa Pedraza Pino, Spain, 41 years old

Miryam Pedraza Rivero, Spain, 25 years old

Roberto Pellicari Lopezosa, Spain, 31 years old

María del Pilar Pérez Mateo, Spain, 28 years old

Felipe Pinel Alonso, Spain, 51 years old

Martha Scarlett Plasencia Hernandez, Dominican Republic, 27 years old

Elena Ples, Romania, 33 years old

María Luisa Polo Remartinez, Spain, 50 years old

Ionut Popa, Romania, 23 years old

Emilian Popescu, Romania, 44 years old

Miguel Ángel Prieto Humanes, Spain, 37 years old

Francisco Antonio Quesada Bueno, Spain, 44 years old

John Jairo Ramírez Bedoya, Colombia, 37 years old

Laura Ramos Lozano, Honduras, 37 years old

Miguel Reyes Mateos, Spain, 37 years old

Marta del Río Menéndez, Spain, 40 years old

Nuria del Río Menéndez, Spain, 38 years old

Jorge Rodríguez Casanova, Spain, 22 years old

Luis Rodríguez Castell, Spain, 40 years old

María de la Soledad Rodríguez de la Torre, Spain, 42 years old

Ángel Luis Rodríguez Rodríguez, Spain, 34 years old

Francisco Javier Rodríguez Sánchez, Spain, 52 years old

Ambrosio Rogado Escribano, Spain, 56 years old

Cristina Romero Sánchez, Spain, 34 years old

Patricia Rzaca, Poland, 7 meses

Wieslaw Rzaca, Poland, 34 years old

Antonio Sabalete Sánchez, Spain, 36 years old

Sergio Sánchez López, Spain, 17 years old

María Isabel Sánchez Mamajón, Spain, 37 years old

Juan Antonio Sánchez Quispe, Peru, 45 years old

Balbina Sánchez-Dehesa France, Spain, 47 years old

David Santamaría García, Spain, 23 years old

Sergio dos Santos Silva, Brazil, 28 years old

Juan Carlos Sanz Morales, Spain, 33 years old

Eduardo Sanz Pérez, Spain, 31 years old

Guillermo Senent Pallarola, Spain, 23 years old

Miguel Antonio Serrano Lastra, Spain, 28 years old

Rafael Serrano López, Spain, 66 years old

Paula Mihaela Sfeatcu, Romania, 27 years old

Federico Miguel Sierra Serón, Spain, 37 years old

Domnino Simón González, Spain, 45 years old

María Susana Soler Iniesta, Spain, 46 years old

Carlos Soto Arranz, Spain, 34 years old

Mariya Ivanova Staykova, Bulgaria, 38 years old

Marion Cintia Subervielle, France, 30 years old

Alexandru Horatiu Suciu, Romania, 18 years old

Danuta Teresa Szpila, Poland, 28 years old

José Luis Tenesaca Betancourt, Ecuador, 17 years old

Iris Toribio Pascual, Spain, 20 years old

Neil Torres Mendoza, Ecuador, 38 years old

Carlos Tortosa García, Spain, 31 years old

María Teresa Tudanca Hernández, Spain, 49 years old

Jesús Utrilla Escribano, Spain, 44 years old

José Miguel Valderrama López, Spain, 25 years old

Saúl Valdez Ruiz, Honduras, 44 years old

Mercedes Vega Mingo, Spain, 45 years old

David Vilela Fernández, Spain, 23 years old

Juan Ramón Zamora Gutiérrez, Spain, 29 years old

Yaroslav Zojniuk, Ukraine, 48 years old

Csaba Olimpiu Zsigovski, Romania, 26 years old

WHY TIME feels like it passes quicker as you get older.

Perhaps, but I have another theory that seems plausible to me, though I'm no expert: as years pass, every day is proportionally bigger as compared with the expected time you've got left. For example, when you're 10, one year is only 1/70th of the time you have left (assuming an perceived life expectancy of 80 years, year more, year less). When it passes it's a relatively small piece of time. But when you're 50, 1 year is 1/3oth so, being a bigger chunk passing, it seems much faster.

I think this is plausible because it works for vacations too; for example, that'd be why you feel the 2nd of a two-week vacation going faster than the 1st one. You may say my theory works only when the duration is determined 100%, and lifespan is not determined that way. But —accidents or illnesses notwithstanding— what counts for this is perception, and we generally perceive we have a life expectancy of 80 years give or take, and we tend to live accordingly.

THE DEMISE of the American dream, in two charts.

IT'S A BIT SCARY TOO: This HD Video From Space Is Going To Change The World.

LIFE among Venezuela’s have-nots.

HOW TO CULTIVATE THE ART OF ASKING GOOD QUESTIONS:

Everyone knows about the mobile messaging app that sold for $19 billion. But have you heard about another amazing app—the one that helps you figure out what to do whenever you’re faced with a problem or a challenge? Doesn’t matter if it’s a business issue, a career decision, or a family dilemma: if you’ve mastered this app, you’re ready to tackle the problem. Did I mention it can also help you come up with brilliant ideas? Which increases your chances of success? And may lead to wealth and happiness?

Here’s the best news about this app: you don’t have to acquire it, because you were born with it. The “app” in question is our aptitude for asking questions.
You can see this natural ability on full display in the average 4-year-old—for whom questioning is as normal as breathing, and almost as important. Constant inquiry helps young kids make sense of, and successfully navigate, the strange new world around them.

Studies show we tend to hit our questioning peak around age 4 or 5, and then ask fewer questions as we get older. Not that we’ve lost the ability to question—we just don’t exercise it as much. Teachers and bosses generally want answers, not questions.

But it’s a mistake to let that inquiry “app” go unused. Questioning can do as much for adults as for kids—helping us to explore, discover, and innovate. It’s no accident that many innovators and entrepreneurs are great questioners who use thoughtful inquiry to navigate uncertainty and find their way to breakthrough ideas and big payoffs. A number of the billion dollar tech start-ups, from Instagram to Nest, sprang from insightful questions raised and tackled by the founders.

So how do you get better at questioning?

Keep reading at the link.

GOOD TO KNOW: “John Aziz: Don't worry: World War III will almost certainly never happen.”

AT LAST SOMEONE SAID IT: No, Deflation is Not a ‘Danger’.

GREAT PIECE by Marcia Angell: a review of Alison Wolf's book The XX Factor: How the Rise of Working Women Has Created a Far Less Equal World.

Make sure you read it.

PERHAPS A BIT TOO HARSH, but he's got a point: The Doomsday Cult of Bitcoin.

UPDATE. Related: The Face Behind Bitcoin. Fascinating reading.

THE ECONOMIST EXPLAINS: How North Korea's elections work.

I'M OFFICIALLY OLD: Adorably Perplexed Kids React to Rotary Phones.

GREAT PIECE BY MEGAN McARDLE: Seven Easy Steps for the Downwardly Mobile.

IT TOOK FIVE YEARS to dawn on them: “President Obama’s foreign policy is based on fantasy”.

PLEASE TAKE NOTE: How to Avoid Spreading Myths and Misinformation Online.

IMPORTANT NEWS! How To Supercharge Your Coffee To Give You Even More Energy In The Morning.

It's for brewed coffee; I wonder how this works with espresso, which is the one I usually drink. Experimenting away!