Three Stocks for Your 'Forever Portfolio'

Part of the need for more aesthetic and cosmetic procedures is the shrinking workweek. People simply have more time on their hands to socialize. Every month, it seems, economists go into spasms over every fractional change in the average workweek. The idea is that if people work fewer hours, then the economy is going into a death spiral. In 1900, the average workweek was over 60 hours, as people (including children) regularly worked 12-hour days, five days a week.

Perhaps we should have all started shorting the market when the average workweek went down to 59 hours. Now, depending on your source of economic statistics, the average workweek is somewhere between 35 and 40 hours. For the extreme outlier, visit the National Sleep Foundation, which says the average workweek is 46 hours -- but this doesn't include coffee breaks.

Un-Tattoo You

I thank God I never got a tattoo, and apparently I'm not alone. Six million Americans want to be tattoo-free, but their problem is that they actually have a tattoo.

According to a Sunday New York Times article from June 17, 2007, some 45 million Americans have tattoos, and 17% of them regret it. And the problem is going to only get worse. More people than ever are getting tattoos, and that means that 10 years from now, more people than ever will want to remove tattoos.

When you gets a tattoo, it's really hundreds of pinpoint needle pricks in your skin, with each tiny point break in the skin being filled with pigment. To remove the tattoo, a pinpoint laser shoots into each hole and disintegrates the pigment cells.