Your Other 8 Hours: The broken window fallacy and unintended consequences

By Robert Pagliarini, 
Tribune Media Services
 
Have you heard the parable of the broken window? It’s a wonderful example of unintended consequences that applies not only to businesses activity and government regulations but to individuals as well. Fans of the book “Freakonomics” are given a front row seat to watch the dramatic and always surprising (they are “unintended” after all) effects of unintended consequences. But in our haste to laugh and condemn the short-sighted thinking of others, we often don’t see the unintended consequences we are creating in our own lives.

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Top 5 Spots to Learn Something New

Cooking at the Culinary Institute of America.
Courtesy photo

 
 
Along with ecotourism and voluntourism, a growing trend in travel is edutourism, where visitors spend part of their trip engaged in a class to learn a new skill or hobby that is indicative of the place and or culture.

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Reflections of Life

Antonella Milagros Benavides and her father, Sean Paul Benavides celebrating her Sweet 16.   Courtesy photo

 

By Sean Paul Benavides

While working at the Domino’s Pizza store in East Lansing in 1985, Sundays were crazy as we would sell hundreds and hundreds of pizzas to  Michigan State University (MSU) students. One particular day an older manager named Phil (name changed), would do the routing of the pizza deliveries which meant that he would send different orders on the same delivery with one driver. 

 

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News Spotlight: Lansing Reading is Fundamental (RIF) is presenting “White Christmas”

 Lansing Reading is Fundamental (RIF) is presenting “White Christmas”, a Gala Night at the Riverwalk Theatre, Tuesday, December 3, beginning at 6:00 pm.


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Movie Review: Baggage Claim

Studio:     Fox Searchlight (96 minutes)
Plot:     A single flight attendant embarks on a thirty-thousand-mile expedition mission to find a potential suitor.
Cast:     Paula Patton, Derek Luke, Taye Diggs, Jill Scott, Boris Kodjoe, Adam Brody, Trey Songz
Rating:     PG 13
Bottom Line:     ****
 

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Excuse me, are you listening? 12-20

Dear Readers,
 
Over the past year, I have learned about several experiences with people I care about having house fires.  Please be very careful.  When you read this letter, please make yourself a note to change the batteries in your fire detectors.   Now is the time for us all to check and make sure that we inspect our homes for fire hazards before winter arrives.  You may even need to hire someone to help you especially if your house is older. 

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Get Free Asthma Help on Saturday, October 26

The Mid-Michigan Asthma Coalition’s free asthma help event for area residents, “Not One More Life (NOML)” is Saturday, October 26, 2013 at Trinity African Methodist Episcopal Church at 3500 West Holmes Road, from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. The NOML event was originally developed by Dr. LeRoy Graham of Atlanta, Georgia to help adults and children experiencing breathing difficulties gain the knowledge needed to make informed decisions about their health.

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Your Other 8 Hours: 3 steps to prepare for the next disaster

By Robert Pagliarini, 
Tribune Media Services
 
As a “sudden wealth” financial planner, I take great pride in helping others determine where they are going and how to get there. I consider myself an eternal optimist. In my mind, the glass is not half empty or half full — it is well on its way to becoming full. People are generally good and do what is right. On the other hand, I’m also a realist, looking not only at the destination but rather at all of the things that can go wrong along the way.

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Top 5 Ghost Towns

Hashima Island (also called Gunkanjima) off the coast of Nagasaki Port in Japan.
GUNKANJIMA Japan National Tourism Organizat Virtual Tourist

 
 
Halloween is synonymous with costumes, an abundance of bite-sized candy and adorable photos of children dressed as cartoon characters, superheroes and monstrous creatures. However, the spirit of Halloween can also influence your travels. Rather than focusing on haunted destinations, the members and editors of VirtualTourist.com have compiled a list of those places that have been abruptly abandoned by people, making them spooky and eerie. From an abandoned Greek village in Turkey to a former disaster site in the Ukraine, here are VirtualTourist’s “Top 5 Ghost Towns.”

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