Progress Daily

According to Andrew Smithers‘ two favourite stock market valuation measures, the q ratio (which compares share prices with the replacement cost of net assets) and the cyclically adjusted price/earnings ratio (which averages profits over ten years), the US market is still overvalued. According to these measures, Wall Street fell to merely average, not low, valuations in the recent crash.

“The end is nigh (again),” The Economist

Research by Emma Cohen (”Rowers’ high: behavioural synchrony is correlated with elevated pain thresholds“), suggests that training in a synchronised group may heighten tolerance for pain, & allow people to train longer.

The researchers got 12 members of Oxford’s heavyweight squad to row on machines in four 45-minute sessions over two weeks. In two sessions they rowed in complete isolation and in the others in groups of six, perfectly synchronised. Immediately following each session they deduced pain tolerance by gradually tightening a cuff around each rower’s arm. When he said “now” they stopped squeezing and noted the pressure.

The rowers’ pain thresholds were significantly higher following the group sessions. This was despite nearly identical power outputs in all four tests and efforts to control for possible confounding variables, such as the time of day.

“Fitter with friends,” The Economist

Girls who grow up without their fathers at home reach sexual maturity earlier than girls whose fathers live with them (and early-bloomers are more likely to suffer depression, hate their bodies, engage in risky sex and get pregnant in their teen years).

Research by Jane Mendle (”Associations Between Father Absence and Age of First Sexual Intercourse“) suggests heredity is the cause: the genes that make a dad more likely to leave his family also cause early sexual development.

The researchers analyzed data American National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data on 1,400 boys and girls, each of whom was related to at least one other subject through their mother. Most of the mothers were pairs of sisters, but some were identical twins or first cousins raised as sisters.

The more closely related the cousins were — by having mothers who were identical twins, for instance, versus cousins — the closer their age at first sexual experience, regardless of whether or not a father lived in the home.

“Daddy’s girl,” The Economist

The evidence suggests that as the number of cyclists in a city increases, the level of safety-per-cyclist increases so quickly that more bike riders leads to fewer bike accidents.

“Safety in Numbers: It’s Happening in NYC,” by Ben Fried

“Safety in Numbers,” by Matthew Yglesias