Etc...

We can always do better

From Brazil comes word of the establishment of a DNA data bank. But you shouldn't assume the new facility has anything to do with crime-solving. It doesn't. This one is devoted to ... coffee. Scientists there have mapped 200,000 sequences in the Coffee Genome Project that will be used to "improve the aroma and flavor" of the beans from which the beverage is brewed while doubling the size of each year's crop at less cost. This, in a nation that already leads the world in coffee production.

Everyone knows it costs a lot to live in New York, but that doesn't mean neighboring New Jersey is a bargain. In fact, Forbes magazine ranks the Garden State communities of Bergen/ Passaic and Middlesex higher than the Big Apple in its latest annual list of Most Overpriced Places. Forbes takes its own "150 Best Places for Business" and reassesses them on the basis of cost of living, housing affordability, and job and income growth. Thus, for example, affordable housing in Portland, Ore., where the median home price is $195,100, is offset by high unemployment and poor job growth. The cities rated as the most overpriced this year:
1. Seattle
2. Bergen/Passaic, N.J.
3. Miami
4. Portland, Ore.
5. Middlesex, N.J.
6. San Jose, Calif.
7. San Francisco
8. Chicago
9. New York
10. Jersey City, N.J.