Engineering Students Invent Simple, Elegant Anemia Test for Developing Nations

As readers of my blogs know, I am passionate about promoting the power of simplicity, minimalism, and elegance.

Today, I came across an article about two bio-engineering students who used simplicity and elegance in a way that will probably save countless lives in the developing world.

I feel excited for them: At a young age, as part of a class project, they have made an impact on the world.

These students, Rice University undergraduates Lila Kerr and Lauren Theis, were challenged to find a portable, low cost way to diagnose anemia without power.

Their solution was creative and elegantly simple: they modified a common kitchen salad spinner to create a device that separates blood samples (and diagnosis anemia) without electricity.

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Favorite Game Show: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Thanks for the post from Shad Blake

One of the best game shows to ever grace the television networks is Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. This show is truly awesome for the opportunities it gives ordinary people to earn a million dollars in a half hour or hour. The show was originally hosted by Regis Philibin and continues to be a thrill to watch.

The thrilling game show makes dreams come true for people. The show is based off of the premise that anyone in the world can win a million dollars with a bit luck and a bit of knowledge. I remember watching one of the first episodes of this show on my satallite TV and being completely astonished when a person actually won the million dollars. It was quite thrilling to see someone win the million dollars. There are also three options a person has for getting help with the answers. A person could answer a question using 50/50, phone a friend, or pass. It was fun to see some of the contestants phone some of the most famous people in the world. One person even phoned Oprah Winfrey for his question! After he lost the question, she provided him with money to compensate for his losses.

Watching "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" is a great experience that gets anyone involved. The game show makes you want to win a million dollars!

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Simple Shortcut to Calculating the Internal Rate of Return For Your Investments

If an investment (i.e. mutual fund) starts off with $20,000 and is worth $22,000 at the end of the year, then you know that you earned a 10% return.

But, what if, during the course of the year, you invested an additional $100 per month during the year (for a total of $1200)?

You can't determine your return by dividing 22,000 by 21,200 because you did not have $21,200 invested since the beginning of the year.

You need to use regression analysis to calculate the exact return but, here is a quick and dirty way to calculate the approximate return:

Adj. starting value = original starting value + amount added / 2

Adj. ending value = original ending value - amount added / 2

Approx. rate of return = Adj. ending value / Adj. starting value

So, in this case, the original starting and ending values are $20,000 and $22,000.  During this time period, we added an additional $1200.

So, the approximate internal rate of return =   (22000-600) / (20000+600) =  3.89%

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Why Personal Finance Should Be A Required Class Everywhere

When I attended high school in Illinois in the mid 1980's, it was a requirement that, to graduate, you had to take a consumer education class from the business department.

This class taught basic personal finance: i.e. understanding interest rates, creating a budget planner, how to balance a checkbook, etc.

Today, I think Illinois still requires high school students to take a consumer education class, and I'm assuming that it's been updated to include online and computer resources, such as personal finance software.

But, these kind of classes need to be beefed up. Today, more than 25 years ago, lifetime employment is a thing of the past, and people are free agents. They need entrepreneurial skills. Also, financial and consumer choices are much more varied and complex today. 25 years ago, we did not have to deal with so many monthly contracts (such as cell phone plans).

In fact, the subject of finance and entrepreneurial skills need to be required throughout high school. For example, students are required to take math throughout high school. They should have 4 years of financial education.

Of course, this should not be limited to just Illinois.

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Jewel Goes Undercover at L.A. Karaoke Bar

The website Funny or Die got the singer Jewel to wear a disguise and go to a karaoke bar and sing her songs. Watch the reactions...

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Caveat Emptor: If An Investment or Opportunity Appears Too Good To Be True, Beware!

If you are interested in business / investments, the #1 lesson to learn is that, if someone presents an opportunity that seems too good to be true, walk away, or at least get your guard up. If it is so good, why are they sharing it with you?

Here is an example: Yesterday, I got an email talking about the "world's best investment" - better than stocks, bonds, real estate, etc. The guy who sent it provided a link to a video.

So, I watched the video. He followed a predictable formula:

1. Selectively chose examples to criticize normal investments - in this case 2008, when stocks, real estate, bonds, and even TIPs (inflation protected treasuries) were all down. He also mentioned how the returns for stock indexes were negative from 2000-2009.

2. He then described his "perfect investment" - in this case, "being your own bank" by buying used mobile houses at wholesale, and re-selling them at retail with financing. Ex: buy mobile home for $7,000 and re-sell for $10,900 with a 72 month lease. So you would receive about $117 per month for 6 years. His rationale for this working is that banks don't want to finance used mobile homes.

He said that these deals can make a double digit return in any economic environment, and mobile homes are easier to sell then regular homes. They are considered to be like cars (sold through "pink slips") rather than real estate.

3. Finally, he made his pitch: his company would handle everything - locate a mobile home for you, negotiate with a trailer park, advertise the mobile home for sale, screen buyers, etc.

I quit watching at this point.

Think about it - if his company is set up to do the drudgery work, and buying/re-selling mobile homes is the "perfect investment", why would he go to all the trouble of emailing people about it and letting them make the returns, while he just collects a fee?

Clearly, he must think servicing mobile home investors has a better risk/reward than actually investing.

It's like the California Gold Rush - people rushed out there to discover gold and most failed. But Levi Strauss got rich selling jeans to them.

Does this mean that buying / re-selling mobile homes is a scam? Not necessarily. Someone might be able to generate a good return, but I doubt if it is that easy.

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How To Start Building a Stock Portfolio with $5,000

The Intelligent Speculator has a good post on building a stock portfolio with $5000.

He makes several good points:

1. The key is to avoid procrastination and get started.

2. Use a discount broker that charges $10 or less per trade.

3. Interestingly, he offers the same advice I offered in Stock Trading Riches - to keep commission costs down, own 1 stock per $2000.

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