2011 September

3rd month of the 2nd quarter of the 22nd year of the Bush-Clinton-Shrub-Obummer economic depression

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updated: 2018-10-04
 

  "Even the [Red Chinese] have learned that while it is possible to have [something akin to partial] capitalism without political liberalization, it is much harder to have capitalism without cultural liberalization." --- Robert Kagan 2009 _The Return of History and the End of Dreams_ pg82  

 
 
2011 Sep
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  "Children at every level of ability, from those lacking prepaation for learning to the intellectually gifted, benefit from exploring, dissecting, classifying, aguing, and other emotionally engaging aspects of hands-on [education]." --- Stanley I. Greenspan & Beryl Lieff Benderly 1997 _The Growth of the Mind and the Endangered Origins of Intelligence_ pg222  

 
 

 

 


captain William Scott's flag for the Republic of Texas.

2011 Sep

3rd month of the 2nd quarter of the 12th year of the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama economic depression


 
 

2011-09-01

2011-08-31 21:30 (2011-09-01 00:30EDT) (2011-09-01 04:30GMT) (07:30 Jerusalem)
Kekvin Dollear _Daily Illini_
new electrical and computer engineering building at U of IL

2011-09-01 02:00PDT (05:00EDT) (09:00GMT) (12:00 Jerusalem)
_CNN_
CNN Poll: 65% give Obummer thumbs-down on the economy

2011-09-01 03:00PDT (06:00EDT) (10:00GMT) (13:00 Jerusalem)
Tam Harbert & Tracy Mayor _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
Age bias in IT: Should you sue?
"according to figures from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the number of age discrimination charges filed with the commission rose from roughly 16K in 2000 to more than 23K in 2010...   Just this month, high-tech giant 3M agreed to pay $3M to former employees and adopt preventive measures after the EEOC filed a law-suit charging that the company laid off hundreds of employees over the age of 45 with the intention of making way for younger workers.   And consumer tech darlings Apple and Google are both currently enmeshed in age-discrimination law-suits as well...   You must be able to prove that age was a motivating factor in your dismissal.   The older you are the higher your salary is likely to be, and that gives employers a lot of cover.   'They can legally hire someone who is one-third of your price, and that's not illegal.', says Ottinger.   You must be able to demonstrate that your performance was not at issue."

2011-09-01 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT) (15:30 Jerusalem)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
DoL OPA press releases
historical data
DoL regulations
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 334,372 in the week ending August 27, a decrease of 10,498 from the previous week.   There were 383,135 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.8% during the week ending August 20, unchanged from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,462,574, a decrease of 95,108 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.3% and the volume was 4,125,414.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending August 13 was 7,336,276, an increase of 45,531 from the previous week.   Extended benefits were available in AL, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, WA, WV, and WI, during the week ending August 13.   States reported 3,118,042 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending August 13, an increase of 31,261 from the prior week.   There were 4,556,751 claimants in the comparable week in 2010.   EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.   [Note that the population used for calculating the "insured unemployment rate" (the divisor) changes
to 132,623,886 beginning 2007-10-06;
to 133,010,953 beginning 2008-01-05;
to 133,382,559 beginning 2008-04-05;
to 133,690,617 beginning 2008-07-05;
to 133,902,387 beginning 2008-10-04;
to 133,886,830 beginning 2009-01-03;
to 133,683,433 beginning 2009-04-04;
to 133,078,480 beginning 2009-07-04;
to 133,823,421 beginning 2009-10-03;
to 131,823,421 beginning 2009-10-17;
to 130,128,328 beginning 2010-01-02;
to 128,298,468 beginning 2010-04-03;
to 126,763,245 beginning 2010-07-03;
to 125,845,577 beginning 2010-09-25;
to 125,560,066 beginning 2011-01-15;
to 125,572,661 beginning 2011-04-02;
to 125,807,389 beginning 2011-07-02.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs

2011-09-01
Kathleen E. McLaughlin _Global Post_
Workers in China are world leaders in taking sick days
"According to a new global survey [by Kronos, Inc.], Chinese workers are more likely than any others in the world to fake sick in order to get out of work.   71% of the Chinese workers surveyed said they've played hooky from work by pretending to be ill, while only 62% of Indians said they had done the same.   France had the most upright work-force, with only 16% admitting to it, compared with 52% in the United States, 38% in Mexico."

2011-09-01 12:23PDT (15:23EDT) (19:23GMT) (22:23 Jerusalem)
_MarketWatch_
10 US cities with the best drivers

2011-09-01 13:01PDT (16:01EDT) (20:01GMT) (23:01 Jerusalem)
Jason Perlow _Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
10 catastrophic STEM executive decisions

2011-09-01
Chris Horner _American Spectator_
US tax-victims soaked for $479K per temporary Solyndra job

2011-09-01
Jonathon M. Seidl _InfoWars_
Gibson Guitar CEO said government told him in writing that their attacks on Gibson would go away if he off-shored the work to Madagascar and India
Ben Howe: Anti-Red State

2011-09-01
Paul Driessen _Town Hall_
Our least sustainable energy option: Wind-electric
"Arizona's Palo Verde nuclear plant generates 3.75GW of electricity from a 4K acre site.   The 600MW John Turk ultra-super-critical coal-fired power plant in Arkansas covers part of 2,900 acres; two 600MW coal-fired units in India use just 600 acres.   Gas-fired units like Calpine's 560MW Fox Energy Center in Wisconsin require several hundred acres.   All generate reliable power 90%-95% of the year.   By contrast, the 600-MW Fowler Ridge wind installation (355 turbines) spans 50K acres of farm country along Indiana's I-65 corridor.   The 782-MW Roscoe project in Texas (627 turbines) sprawls across 100K acres.   Oregon's Shepherds Flat project (338 gigantic 2.5MW turbines) covers nearly 80K wild-life and scenic acres along the Columbia River Gorge, for a 'rated capacity' of 845 MW.   The Chokecherry-Sierra Madre project will blanket some 320K acres of sage grouse habitat and BLM land in Wyoming with 1K monstrous 3MW turbines, to generate zero to 3GW of intermittent power.   That's 8 times the size of Washington, DC, to get an average annual output one-fourth of what Palo Verde generates 90% of the time.   But C-SM has already received preliminary approval from BLM.   To replace just 20% of the United States' 995GW of total installed generating capacity, we would need to blanket an area the size of Kansas with wind turbines, and then add nearly a thousand 600-MW gas-fired backup generators...and thousands of miles of new high voltage transmission lines."

2011-09-01
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
The Truth about Fascism
Bill Flax: Forbes: Obummer, Hitler and exploding the biggest lie in history

2011-09-01
Tam Harbert _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
Age bias is IT's dirty little open secret
"According to recent U.S. government data, unemployment rates for older IT professionals increased faster than they did for younger tech workers since the recession began some three years ago...   In the category of 'computer and mathematical occupations', the overall unemployment rate for people 55 and over jumped from 6% to 8.4% from 2009 to 2010, according to the data.   For those 25 to 54 years old in that job category, the unemployment rate fell from 5.1% in 2009 to 4.5% in 2010.   Those figures are particularly striking when compared to the overall population, where 55-plus workers had lower unemployment rates (7%) than the 25-to-54-year olds (8.5%) in 2010...   By those standards, RH could pass for a spring chicken.   In real-life years, she's 53, but by her own estimate has logged enough extra hours and obtained enough degrees to give younger workers a run for their money.   A senior scientist specializing in security at Harris Corp., a communications and IT company based in Melbourne, FL, Henning has earned several graduate degrees to supplement her undergraduate degree (a B.A. in English writing non-fiction and political science from the University of Pittsburgh).   She holds an MBA from the Florida Institute of Technology and an M.S. in computer science from Johns Hopkins University, and she's currently working toward a Ph.D. in information systems.   Beyond that, RH has taken care to invest in her career on her own time -- publishing and presenting papers at conferences and identifying and pursuing new business initiatives within her organization...   Systems architects and project managers, for example, are relatively safe, observers agree, as are IT employees with highly specialized skills such as scientific programming or mobile application development, provided those skills remain in demand."

2011-09-01
Rick Oltman _Examiner_
Sell-out of the USA continues

2011-09-01
_Judicial Watch_
Records show Obummer admin began to implement provisions of the NIGHTMARE Act rejected by Congress

2011-09-01
Elise Cooper _American Thinker_
Congress to hold hearings on Obummer's amnesty directive for illegal aliens

2011-09-01
Dan Schechner _Pool & Spa News_
Florida builders seek skilled pool sub-contractors
"Indeed, when the state's economy began to slide, many builders were forced to down-size their sub-contractor base.   Suddenly out of a job, a number of these subs became general contractors.   Some were able to eke out a living, but a great many more failed, and the majority likely headed north and west to states such as Alabama, North Carolina and Texas, or sought other lines of work, industry insiders said...   new-pool construction statewide remains 70% below peak levels, according to the latest permit reports..."

2011-09-01
_Dice_
Dice Report: 82,836 job ads

Total82,836
UNIXNA
WindozeNA
JavaNA
C/C++/Objective-CNA
body shop35,378
full-time temp50,659
part-time temp1,565

 
graphs

2011-09-01 (5771 Ulul 02)
Jeff Jacoby _Jewish World Review_
Religious conflict

2011-09-01 (5771 Ulul 02)
Clifford D. May _Jewish World Review_
Islamics seek UN's blessing on destruction of Israel
"In the General Assembly, however, blessings almost certainly will be bestowed through the passage of a non-binding resolution.   The G.A. has a permanent anti-Israeli (and anti-American) majority.   More than 50 U.N. members also belong to the Organization of the Islamic Conference.   Many other nations are eager to please the OIC's oil exporters -- and not displease its terrorism exporters."

2011-09-01 (5771 Ulul 02)
Mary Clayton _Jewish World Review_
Government "cybersecurity" used as pretext for phony "talent shortage" claims
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "The real ABCs come down to attention, strong relationships, and communication, all of which children must learn through interaction with adults.   Learning will also be smoother if a youngster arrives at school able to reflect on his own behavior, so that, for example, he can tell whether he understands a lesson or assignment and if not, know which part he finds confusing." --- Stanley I. Greenspan & Beryl Lieff Benderly 1997 _The Growth of the Mind and the Endangered Origins of Intelligence_ pg220  

 
 

2011-09-02

2011-09-01 21:23PDT (2011-09-02 00:23EDT) (2011-09-02 04:23GMT) (07:23 Jerusalem)
Wally Bahny _Tech Repubic_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
NSF's 20 STEMful cities
"San Jose, CA; Boulder, CO; Framingham, MA; Huntsville, AL; Durham, NC; Lowell, MA; Washington, DC; Ithaca, NY; Bethesda, MD; Seattle-Bellevue, WA; Kennewick-Richland-Pasco, WA; Austin-Round Rock, TX; Ames, IA; Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL; Boston, MA; Ann Arbor, MI; Bloomington-Normal, IL; Olympia, WA; San Francisco, CA; Fort Walton Beach-Crestview-Destin, FL...   Forbes contributor William Pentland looked into the country of origin of many of these science and engineering workers, and he points out that a large number of U.S. STEM workers are foreign-born, mostly from China and India, but native-born American geek workers are growing annually.   Also, there were about 5.5M [more like 7.5M counting the under-employed] U.S. workers in the STEM fields in 2007, which is staggering considering there were less than 200K in 1950."

2011-09-02
_PE Hub_
CincyTech backs Ilesfay Technology Group with $350K
"Ilesfay was founded in 2009 by Chris McLennan, James Taylor and Joe Kramer, who met while working for Cincinnati engineering firm Alexander & Associates.   A&A specializes in machine design, and the three saw their clients struggle with communicating changes that involved large amounts of data and many people working on it.   For instance, says McLennan, a company could have a group of engineers in India and a team of product managers in Cincinnati working to design machines that make consumer products.   The two work groups exchange terabytes of data every time a small change is made to the design specifications of the machine.   Right now, most companies share those large amounts of data by leasing space on fiber-optic lines from international telecommunications firms, which can cost up to $120K a month, or by using virtual private networking (VPN) technologies, which require expensive hardware and a large staff.   They then have to create 'point-to-point' network connections.   Ilesfay has developed a patent-pending technique it calls 'pre-emptive binary differencing' [a 30-year-old way of addressing the issue], which is a very different approach to the problem for replicating large amounts of data.   'What we do is transfer only what has changed in the specifications.   If one hole on the machine is moved, our software ferrets that out and conveys just that move.', said McLennan, Ilesfay CEO.   'You don't need to copy over the entire, huge document...'"

2011-09-02
Beryl Lieff Benderly _AAAS Science_
What is wrong with policies boosting more cheap, pliant guest-workers with flexible ethics?

2011-09-02
Carly Harrington _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
KHM won Zingo business proposal contest
"In addition to Mclain, there was Michael and Kelly Oliver, who own and operate a similar business in St. Louis and Kansas City called ScooterGuy.   The Olivers want to expand their concept nationwide.   They have developed a successful model at their two locations using a centralized reservation and dispatch system.   In St. Louis, ScooterGuy has more than 1,300 members."

2011-09-02 11:42PDT (14:42EDT) (18:42GMT) (21:42 Jerusalem)
_MarketWatch_
Job markets remain weak
Joseph Lawler: American Spectator
Greg Robb: MarketWatch: Hiring ground to a halt
Robert Schroeder: MarketWatch: Clash over jobs may reach the congress-critters when session resumes
Scott Paulson: Examiner
Mark Trumbull: Christian Science Monitor
Terry McSweeney: KGO San Francisco CA (with video)
Dirk van Dijk: Zacks Investment Research (with graph)
graphs

2011-09-02
Ross Kaminsky _American Spectator_
Obummer's Zero Economy

2011-09-02
Alfred S. Regnery _American Spectator_
The radical leftist are all in this together

2011-09-02
Jazz Shaw _Hot Air_
80% think USA is in a recession

2011-09-02
A. Barton Hinkle _Reason_
American public's opinion of Obummer continues to fall

2011-09-02
"McGruber" _SlashDot_
Mr. President, there is no US engineer shortage

2011-09-02
Ann Belser _Pittsburgh PA Post-Gazette_
Under-employment dogs PA workers
"The center reported that while unemployment in the state has been hovering around 8%, the real number of people who have been unemployed is a much higher percentage of the workforce; 14.3% of Pennsylvania workers (938,100) have been jobless at some point in the last 12 months.   The higher number is because the population of workers who are currently unemployed is not static; some people get work and others lose their jobs.   When unemployment numbers include people who have had to work part-time because full-time work is not available, then employment problems have affected 43% of the labor force in the 12 months examined in the annual Labor Day report."

2011-09-02
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
inflation wipes out the economic middle
Charles Kadlec: Forbes: The Price of Abandoning Gold
"Since Nixon killed the gold standard the unemployment rate has averaged over 6% and we have suffered the three worst recessions since the end of World War2.   The unemployment rate averaged 8.5% in 1975, almost 10% in 1982 and has been above 8.8% for more than 2 years, with little evidence of any improvement ahead.   This performance is horrendous compared with the post-World War II gold-standard era, which lasted from 1947 to 1970.   During those 21 years of economic ups and downs the unemployment rate averaged less than 5% and never rose above 7%.   Growth, too, has slowed.   Since 1971 real economic expansion has averaged 2.9% a year -- more than a full percentage point slower than the 4% growth rate during the post-World War2 gold-standard period.   When compounded over 40 years, 1% slower growth under the paper dollar system has had a mind-boggling impact on our incomes and the size of the economy.   At 3% growth the U.S. economy is about $8T smaller than it would have been had we continued to experience the average growth rate prior to Nixon severing the link between the dollar and gold.   That implies that median family income today would be about $70K, or nearly 50% higher than it is today.   It would also mean that the tax base -- for federal, state and local governments -- would be approximately 50% bigger...   During the past 40 years the dollar has fallen in value by more than 70% against the euro/German mark and the Japanese yen.   Yet U.S. net exports have fallen from a modest surplus in 1971 to a $400G-plus deficit.   a gold standard is extraordinarily good at maintaining the buying power of the dollar.     From 1948 to 1967 inflation averaged less than 2% per year.   Interest rates were low and stable, with the yield on AAA corporate bonds averaging less than 4%.   Moreover, if Nixon and his successors had maintained the promise that a dollar was worth one-thirty-fifth of an ounce of gold, a barrel of oil today would sell for less than $2.50."

2011-09-02
John Shinal _MarketWatch_
Tech job growth in India
"Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., the largest Indian IT-service provider, plans to hire a total of 60K workers this year.   Infosys Ltd., the #2, plans to add 45K, while Wipro Ltd.'s IT unit plans to expand hiring between 25% and 35%, according to the Wall Street Journal.   Wipro already employs 122K workers."
Dhanya Ann Thoppil: Wall Street Journal
Tata median salaries by city
Wipro median salaries by city
Infosys median salaries by city

2011-09-02
Adrian McMenamin
What percentage of Computer Science grads in the UK have CS jobs?
"By the winter of 2010-2011, of all graduates from full-time courses in that year, just 3.8% were unemployed.   But for computer science graduates the figure was a much higher 5.1%.   Interestingly, the survey also shows just 3.7% of computer scientists remained (or were back) in full-time further study -- compared to an average of 8.2% for all graduates.   It's not all bad news, 81.5% of computer science graduates were in full time employment 4 years [after earning] their degree, compared to just 73.2% of all graduates."
Higher Education Statistics Agency

2011-09-02
_FactReal_
Illegal aliens got $4.2G in tax credits

2011-09-02 (5771 Ulul 03)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Cliche-based foreign policy

2011-09-02 (5771 Ulul 03)
Diana West _Jewish World Review_
Muslims vs. Christians & Jews
 
Proposed Bills 2011

2011-09-02
DJIA11,240.49
S&P 500(SPX)1,173.96
NASDAQ(COMP)2,480.33
Nikkei8,950.74
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)1.99%
crude oil(CL1V)$86.45/barrel
natgas(NG11U)$3.87/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RB1U) $2.84/gal
heatingoil(HO1U)$3.00/gal
gold(GC1Z)$1,876.90/ounce
silver(SI1Z)$43.07/ounce
platinum(PL1V)$1,884.80/ounce
palladium(PA1Z)$783.20/ounce
copper(HG1U)$0.2575/ounce
soybeans$14.4575/bushel
maize$7.60/bushel
wheat$7.755/bushel
dollarindex(DXY)74.72
yenperdollar(USDYEN)76.72
dollarspereuro(EURUSD)$1.4209
dollarsperpound(GBPUSD)$1.6212
swissfrancsperdollar 0.7895
indianrupeesperdollar 45.79
mexicanpesosperdollar(USDMXN) 12.4
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex566.5

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "As Warren Weaver, a scientist and Rockefeller Foundation official, said (1967 _US Philanthropic Foundations_ pg82): 'In a perfect world an idea could be born, nourished, developed and made known to everyone, criticized and perfected, and put to good use without the crude fact of financial support ever entering into the process.   Seldom, if ever, in the practical world in which we live, does this occur.   The influence of money on ideas can be powerful; it can be good, or it can be downright vicious...   Money can be used to lure the gullible to devote their time to spiritualism, to fanatical religions, to pseudo-science, and so on.'   For Weaver, the biological questions were of the highest importance.   Writing in 1967, Weaver stated that he regarded the highly publicized particle accelerators and space exploration programs as someting akin to scientific fads.   He added: 'The opportunities not yet rigorously explored like in the understanding of the nature of living things.   It seemed clear in 1932, when the Rockefeller Foundation launched its quarter-century program in that area, that the biological and medical sciences were ready for a friendly invasion by the physical sciences...   the tools are now available for discovering, on the most disciplined and precise level of molecular actions, how man's central nervous system really operates, how he thinks, learns, remembers, and forgets...   Apart from the fascination of gaining some knowledge of the nature of the mind-brain-body relationship, the practical values in such studies are potentially enormous.   Only thus may we gain information about our behavior of the sort that can lead to wise and beneficial control.' (pg203)" --- Michael A. Cremo, Richard L. Thompson & Stephen Bernath 1993, 1998 _Forbidden Archeology_ pp533-534  

 
 

2011-09-03

2011-09-03
_Somerset county Daily American_
For every job opening, there are 7.5 unemployed or under-employed people

2011-09-03
_Town Hall_/_AP_
Rick Perry opposes fencing borders

2011-09-03
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Government control of economies has always failed to create prosperity

2011-09-03
_London Telegraph_
getting to know Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

2011-09-03
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
150 years ago today, and yesterday... another personal sesquicentennial moment
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "It's embarrassing how long it took me to see the damage regulators do.   The taxes that pay their salaries and build their offices are the least of it.   The bigger harm is the indirect cost, all the money businesses spend trying to wade through the red tape (lobbying, filling out forms, hiring lawyers), plus the damage the regulation does to the American spirit.   So much creativity goes not into inventing things, but into gaming the system, manipulating the regulatory leviathan.   It took me too long to understand that.   If you leave people alone, they will, without planning or intervention, create the system that benefits everyone most.   This is because in a free market, every exchange is voluntary: You're always trading something you have for something you want more.   It's a win-win proposition.   Otherwise, why would anyone trade? When you go to the store and trade your dollar for an ice cream cone, it's because you want the snack more than you want the money.   If you don't like it or you feel [think] it's a bad trade, you won't buy it again.   But if the store gives you what you want, you'll return.   That repeat business will benefit not just the store owner but a huge network of other people as well -- the ice-cream maker, the delivery-truck driver, the maker of the truck he drives, the oil company, and so on.   If at any point in the web, one of the parties stops benefiting from the trade or feels he's being coerced, he'll call the deal off, ceating a demand that will be filled by someone else who wants the business...   it rewards people who dream up goods and services that make life better, and punishes those who disappoint.   In a free market, adults are free to make their own decisionsas long as they respect the equal rights of others.   Such a market requires a legal framework to enforce the rules of property and contract, but the rules are pretty simple.   They boil down to what you learned in kinder-garten: Don't hit other people, don't take their stuff, and keep your promises.   To enforce those rules, we have contracts, police, and courts.   Government accomplishes this through force...   but voluntary is better than forced.   Free is better than coerced." --- John Stossel 2004 _Give Me a Break_ pp49-50  

 
 

2011-09-04

2011-09-03 21:46PDT (2011-09-04 00:46EDT) (2011-09-04 04:46GMT) (07:46 Jerusalem)
Paul Davidson _Chicago IL Sun-Times_
Business executives offer ideas on how to jump-start the USA economy
"President [Obummer] on Thursday is expected to propose more government spending on construction projects, aid to budget-strapped states and new tax credits to encourage hiring, among other strategies.   Republicans have signaled they're firmly opposed to another large economic stimulus that adds to the $1.3T deficit.   They prefer less-costly steps to promote job growth long term, such as cutting the corporate tax rate and streamlining regulations...   the government should offer a per-employee credit of $10K as well as 10% of increased wages for 2 years, says Michael Greenstone, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution."

2011-09-04 07:30PDT (10:30EDT) (14:30GMT) (17:30 Jerusalem)
Corinne Wilson _Voice of San Diego CA_
CEO vs. average compensation
"The [leftist] Institute for Policy Studies in Washington recently released its 18th annual survey of executive compensation, aptly titled 'Executive Excess'.   The report shows that 2009's 'unconscionable' 263-to-1 ratio between CEO pay and average worker pay in the U.S. grew to 325-to-1 last year.   Companies generally are doing well.   Their executives are doing extremely well.   But the people whose labor creates the products are left behind.   The national situation described in the report is familiar to San Diego as well.   Earlier this Summer, local news outlets reported that average compensation for local executives rose 21% to $1.8M (including salary, bonus, perks, stock options) in 2009.   Workers' pay rose less than 3%...   IPPro wrote: 'In 1998, 94.5% of the company was American and only 5.5% foreigners.   At that time, Qualcomm became, and continues to be, one of the biggest lobbyists for the H-1B Visa system, which allows companies to in-source (and outsource) work to foreigners.   After successfully lobbying the government for an increase in the H-1B Visa, the percentage of Americans employed in San Diego by Qualcomm dropped to 40% by 2008 and has decreased since then.   Over 7K H-1B Visas were granted to Qualcomm over the past 10 years and this for a work-force of only 12,500.'"
Institute for Policy Studies

2011-09-04 09:12PDT (12:12EDT) (16:12GMT) (19:12 Jerusalem)
Paul Wiseman _Deseret UT News_/_AP_
Part-time workers compete with unemployed for jobs

2011-09-04 09:17PDT (12:17EDT) (16:17GMT) (19:17 Jerusalem)
Moe Lane _non-Red State_
Leftist hypocrisy of DeLauro, Greenberg and Emanuel
Brian Schwarz & Thomas Lifson: Ameican Thinker

2011-09-04 01:00PDT (04:00EDT) (08:00GMT) (11:00 Jerusalem)
Tina Moore _NY Daily News_
Natarajan Venkataram imprisoned for stealing $10M from fund to identify remains of 2001-09-11 terrorist attack victims
"Ten years after the 2001 Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, ex-city worker Natarajan Venkataram says he's sorry he stole millions of dollars meant for identifying the remains of trade center victims.   He's just not sorry enough to turn over $400K sitting in his bank account in India.   The city has recovered $7M of the $10M he and an accomplice stole, but he went to court to hold onto this final portion of his ill-gotten gains...   Venkataram, then a manager dealing with the medical examiner's computer system, and his girlfriend, Rosa Abreu, siphoned off millions via shell companies and fake contract bids.   When Venkataram learned probers were on to him, he transferred $1M to his Indian bank accounts, prosecutors say.   Arrested in 2005, Venkataram pleaded guilty to embezzlement and money laundering.   He got 15 years in [prison]; Abreu got 6.   Venkataram also was ordered to pay $2.9M in restitution.   Hoping to retrieve even more, the city sued him and won an $8M judgment in 2009...   The city -- led by the Department of Investigation -- has recovered nearly $7M from the scheme, including $6M from an over-seas company...   Probers discovered a bank in India containing about $700K.   The bank froze the money in 2006, but Venkataram's sister sued in India to get the money...   In June, the bank transferred $223K to the city, records show; approximately $400K remains in the account."

2011-09-04
_Yid with Lid_
If the Palestinians want peace, why do they cheer mass murderers?

2011-09-04
James Fulford _V Dare_
No jobs for Labor Day in Obummer's America

2011-09-04
Josh Fischman _Chronicle of Higher Education_
Lost DNA provides keys to human anatomy and a new way to study evolution
"The relationship between humans and chimpanzees, thought to be pretty close in evolutionary terms, now comes down to a number: 510.   Those are the genetic elements, in key areas of the genome, that differ between the two species.   Surprisingly they aren't 510 pieces of DNA that we have and chimps don't.   It's actually the other way around...   The research, published this year in the journal Nature, is part of a recent spate of explorations into molecules and cells that is moving anthropology—the study of human evolution—beyond bones and stones and into new areas of biology...   Arnold R. Kriegstein...co-wrote an article, in the July 8 issue of Cell, that links a population explosion of particular brain cells to the large human neocortex, a process that could have evolved from other mammals.   Another article from this summer, published on-line on July 25 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, tracks changes in chimp and human brains over their life spans, showing that the bigger human brains shrink in ways not seen in our primate relatives...   Essentially, the researchers lined up DNA from humans, chimps, macaque monkeys, and mice.   Mice and monkeys went their separate ways 60M years ago, so any DNA similarities -- and most of the DNA was similar -- showed the scientists that most of the genomes had been extraordinarily stable for all that time...   The deletions were...non-coding regions [i.e. regions that aren't directly mappable to particular protein sequences]...   Such regions, in fact, control genes, turning them off, on, or cranking up their volume to produce more proteins.   So losing a control region could have a big genetic effect, even if [the rest of] the gene was still there...   One deleted control region turned out to be sitting very close to a gene called a tumor suppressor.   Tumors are unbridled lumps of growing, dividing cells; the suppressor gene stops them.   But in the womb, the gene helps to 'prune' neurons in the fetal brain, sculpting and shaping the nascent organ.   The missing control region next to it was a [brain] volume control...   Researchers announced a complete Neanderthal genome in 2010...   Pollen had already identified the missing control region in humans...   'we saw this bullet hole in the Neanderthal sequence, at the same spot where the control region was deleted in humans!'   Two big-brained animals were missing the DNA element; their small-brained relative had it...   Theories about brain enlargement, or the origins of monogamy, have been bandied about for years.   This research points to specific genetic targets that, affected by evolution and natural selection, might tip a creature's anatomy or behavior in a human direction...   Pollen's deletion, for instance, might account for 5% of brain growth, or 15%, or 50%."

2011-09-04
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Identifying more unknown soldiers: Blazer's Scouts killed in the fight against Mosby's Rangers
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "By enlarging the cortical sheet to the size of a large dinner napkin, our brains can learn a more complex model of the world and make more complex predictions.   We see deeper analogies, more structure on structure, than other mammals...   The second difference between the intelligence of humans and other mammals is that we have language...   language fits nicely into the memory-prediction frame-work without any special language sauce or dedicated language machinery.   Spoken and written words are just patterns in the world, as are melodies, cars, and houses." --- Jeff Hawkins & Sandra Blakeslee 2004 _On Intelligence_ pp180-181  

 
 

2011-09-05

2011-09-05
_Heritage Foundation_
USA #9 in 2011 economic freedom index
"World rank #9...   86.4 (down a half): The weighted average U.S. tariff rate was 1.8% in 2009.   Anti-dumping and countervailing duties laws, 'buy American' procurement rules, high out-of-quota tariffs, services market access restrictions, import licensing, restrictive labeling and standards, and export-promotion programs and subsidies add to the cost of trade.   Ten points were deducted from the U.S. trade freedom score to account for non-tariff barriers."
Top 10
economic freedom map (pdf)

2011-09-05
Beryl Lieff Benderly _AAAS Science_
Ron Hira gives answers to senator Grassley that strengthen his testimony refuting talent shortage claims
"Smith's argument, Hira wrote, depends on his assumption that economic 'full-employment occurs with an unemployment rate of 5%'...   In reality, however, data from the past 2 decades indicate that 'the unemployment rate for college graduates when the enconomy is at full-employment is approximately 2.2%, or half what it is currently.', Hira writes.   'Typically, the national unemployment rate is slightly more than twice the unemployment rate for college graduates, whether the country is in recession or in recovery.'   During the 2 years before the Great Recession began in 2008, 'when the economy was doing well, the national unemployment rates were 4.6%, whereas the rates for college graduates were 2.0%'.   This indicates an unemployment rate during full employment of 'approximately 2.2%' for college graduates, and therefore that a 'jobs recession' for degree holders currently exists, Hira concludes.   At present, 'there are too many skilled workers chasing too few jobs'.   Focusing specifically on computer and mathematical occupations...   'the largest of all STEM occupations', suffered 'unemployment rates of 5.2% in 2009 and 2010,...   more than twice the levels at full-employment' based on historical data.   In fact, in 2010, the unemployment rate for computer and mathematical workers exceeded that of all college graduates by half a percentage point.   The unemployment rates for electrical and electronic engineers and for medical scientists in 2010 were 5.4% and 4.1%, respectively, Hira writes...   'on balance' the H-1B program 'does more harm than good to the American labor market and for American workers...   The typical H-1B worker has ordinary skills, skills that are no better than American workers who are currently unemployed or under-employed...   In the worst cases American workers are being forced to train their foreign replacements as a condition of severance and eligibility for unemployment insurance.'"

2011-09-05
Edwin S. Rubenstein _V Dare_
Immigration Moratorium Now! (with graphs)

2011-09-05
Saritha Rai _Silicon_
Out-Sourcing X Factor: Why Indian IT bodyshops are sizing up the West's talent
"the bulk of Infosys' 133,560 employees are based in India, and mostly in Bangalore.   But Nandita Gurjar, its global head of HR...will over-see Infosys' expansion in the US, where it expects to hire 1K non-Indian staff over the next few quarters...   A flock of the largest Indian [bodyshopping] companies -- HCL, iGate Patni, TCS and Wipro among them -- are setting up development centres in the West and ramping up their hiring of non-Indians...   Accenture, EDS and IBM [moved] to India to set up large operations that matched the scale of the set-ups at their parent locations...   Infosys says its non-Indian employees will eventually constitute 15% of its total work-force...   Its Bangalore-based rival, Wipro, has delivery centres in Atlanta in the US, Reading in the UK, and in Kiel, Germany.   As a matter of company policy, Wipro declined to reveal the split of its employee numbers by geography.   In the past 10 months, iGate Patni has doubled its head-count in the US to 200, nearly all local hires [but no word on how many will be US citizens]."
Tata median salaries by city
Wipro median salaries by city
Infosys median salaries by city

2011-09-05
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Collectivism Examined

2011-09-05
William L. Anderson
Leftist-American paradise from 1933-1981?
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "If you study a particular set of objects over and over, your cortex re-forms memory representations for those objects down the hierarchy.   This frees up the top for learning more subtle, more complex relationships.   According to the theory, this is what makes an expert." --- Jeff Hawkins & Sandra Blakeslee 2004 _On Intelligence_ pg167  

 
 

2011-09-06

2011-09-05 21:20PDT (2011-09-06 00:20EDT) (2011-09-06 04:20GMT) (2011-09-06 07:20 Jerusalem)
Nathaniel Lash _Daily Illini_
14% increase in out-of-state enrollment; most are out-of-USA
"2006: 7,172 total freshmen, 787 non-Illinois freshmen (11%).   2011: 7,255 total freshmen; 1629 non-Illinois freshmen (22.5%)...   Incoming out-of-state under-graduates will pay more than $25K in tuition, while in-state students pay roughly $11K for their tuition.   Out-of-state tuition from this freshman class will supply the University with more than $42M, over 40% of the whole class's tuition...   Gregg Perry, associate director of under-graduate admissions.   He said programs seeking out-of-state students, including international students, are based on a desire for greater campus diversity.   He also said the University's prestige, both nationally and internationally, has been increasing the number of out-of-state applicants.   A majority of these out-of-state students hail from over-seas, most of whom are from China, India and South Korea.   This year marked a record for University applicants with 26K total, more than 8K of which were from outside of Illinois...   But most out-of-state students admitted don't end up attending.   As few as 1 out-of-state student attend per every 10 admitted, a rate much lower than in-state residents, who come to the University well over 50% of the time once admitted...   The University of Michigan reported that its incoming freshman class last Fall was more than 51% non-Michigan residents and the University of Iowa showed about 49% of their students coming from outside of its home state."
index to full report
Fall foreign enrollment
yearnon-USA
as per cent
of total
enrollment
19673.7%
19703.9%
19753.4%
19804.2%
19855.3%
19907.6%
19958.8%
20009.2%
200511.9%
201022.6%

2011-09-06
Paul Joseph Watson _InfoWars_
Napolitano is wrong about government privacy violations

2011-09-06
_Right Side News_/_FAIR US_
President Obummer's uncle Omar detained as illegal alien; IRS paid illegal aliens $4.2G in refundable tax credits in 2010; CA NIGHTMARE Act on path to governor Brown's desk; Federal judge temporarily enjoins AL illegal immigration law; NM governor continues fight against illegal immigration

2011-09-06
Rachel Toor _Chronicle of Higher Education_
Intentionally obscure academic writing
"there seems to be a general sense in academe—usually expressed only verbally—that if you write too clearly or too well, you will be punished.   You have to prove that you're a member of the club, that you've been initiated into the guild.   That can mean conforming to models, even if they're not good models.   The historian George M. Trevelyan wrote: 'The idea that histories which are delightful to read must be the work of superficial temperaments, and that a crabbed style betokens a deep thinker or conscientious worker, is the reverse of the truth.'   But adherence to a crabbed style is common in academe...   there are people who live in a universe where clarity and grace in communication are seen as failings.   And those people are perpetrating their own bad prose on the universe...   When I asked what she thought they meant, she said she thought it was too clear, not filled with enough jargon.   Again, I began to wonder if the problem wasn't that her writing was too good, but that her ideas were not good enough...   Journalistic books tend to skim the surface, to lean more toward narrative than analysis, to rely on mere description rather than work toward advancing knowledge in a field.   However well written, such books are not doing the work of scholarship."

2011-09-06
William L. Anderson
Leftists/Keynesians: Now, if government would concentrate on X, it would be better

2011-09-06 (5771 Ulul 07)
Dennis Prager _Jewish World Review_
What if the Congressional Black Caucus Were Accused of Wanting Jews Gassed?
"the left thinks in terms of race, gender and class rather than in traditional moral terms of right and wrong...   First, it is meant to create racial tension. Without racial tension -- specifically, black Americans resenting white Americans, especially conservatives -- the Democratic Party fears that it cannot survive as a national force. And it is right."

2011-09-06 (5771 Ulul 07)
Peter Hermann _Jewish World Review_
Courts grapple with privacy violation technology

2011-09-06 (5771 Ulul 07)
Newley Purnell _Jewish World Review_
Muslim terrorists in southern Thailand

2011-09-06 (5771 Ulul 07)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
2 Different Worlds part1
"Americans in general -- whether rich, poor or in between -- have one of the most remarkable records for donating not only money but time to all sorts of charitable endeavors.   Privately financed hospitals, colleges and innumerable other institutions abound in the United States, while they are rare to non-existent in many other countries, where such things are usually left to government or to religious organizations...   Judging businesses or their owners by how much wealth they give away -- rather than by how much wealth they create -- is putting the cart before the horse.   Wealth is ultimately the only thing that can reduce poverty.   The most dramatic reductions in poverty, in countries around the world, have come from increasing the amount of wealth, rather than from a redistribution of existing wealth.   What kind of world do we want -- one in which everyone works to increase wealth to whatever extent they can, or a world in which everyone will be supported by either government handouts or private philanthropy, whether they work or don't work?...   Henry Ford benefited millions of other people by creating mass production methods that cut the cost of automobiles to a fraction of what they had been before — bringing cars for the first time within the budgets of people who were not rich.   But the Ford Foundation has become a plaything of social experimenters who pay no price for creating programs that have been counterproductive or even socially disastrous.   Nor was this the only foundation created by business philanthropy with a similar history and similar social results.   Let business pioneers do what they do best.   And let the rest of us exercise more judgment as to how much charity is beneficial and how much more simply perpetuates dependency, grievances and the polarization of society."
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "Either way, your brain slowly builds sequences of patterns that belong together.   But as a region of cortex builds sequences, the input to the next region changes.   The input changes from representing mostly individual patterns to representing groups of patterns.   The input to a region changes from notes to melodies, from letters to words, from noses to facs, and so on.   Because the bottom-up inputs to a region becoem more 'object-oriented', the higher region of cortex can now learn sequences of these higher-order objects.   Where before a region built sequences of letters, it now builds sequences of words.   The unexpected result of this learning process is that, during repetitive learning, representations of objects move down the cortical hierarchy.   During the early years of your life, your memories of the world first form in higher regions of cortex, but as you learn they are re-formed in lower and lower parts of the cortical hierarchy.   It isn't that the brain moves then; it has to re-learn them ove and over.   (I am not suggesting that all memories start at the top of the cortex.   The actual formation of memories is more complex.   I believe layer 4 pattern classification starts at the bottom and moves up.   But as it does, we start forming sequences that then move down.   It is the memory of sequences I am suggesting re-form lower and lower in the cortex.)   As simple representations move down, the regions at the top are able to learn more complex and subtle patterns." --- Jeff Hawkins & Sandra Blakeslee 2004 _On Intelligence_ pp165-166  

 
 

2011-09-07

0070-09-07: Titus and the Roman army occupied and plundered Jerusalem
1599-09-07: Earl of Essex & Irish rebel Tyrone signed treaty

2011-09-07
_Hindustan Times_/_Silicon India_/_Deccan Chronicle_
insane US consul-general at Chennai says: We want more Indians to visit America
"'We do have issued tremendous amount of technical H-1B business visas.' [sic]   Replying to a question, she said there was a 22% increase in visa applications last year and over one lakh [100K] Indian students were studying in US...   Asked whether there would be a dip in the number of H-1B visas issued by United States, she replied in the negative saying India accounts for 65% of H-1B visas..."

2011-09-07
Joe Light & Alan Murray _Wall Street Journal_
Private ideas on how to create jobs
"Last Friday, the Labor Department reported that on balance no new U.S. jobs were created in August, the worst showing since last September, and well below the 125K [to 250K] needed to keep up with population growth.   The White House's own projections call for unemployment to average 9% through 2012.   According to a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, more than 70% of Americans think the economy has yet to hit bottom.   Without action from Congress, 2 economic-stimulus programs -- a pay-roll tax holiday for workers and emergency unemployment-insurance benefits -- will expire by year-end, causing a loss of 750K jobs in 2012, according to an estimate by Moody's Analytics. [!?]"

2011-09-07
Grance Burke _Taiwan News_/_AP_
Hispanics comprised 50.3% of all people sentenced so far in FY2011, blacks 19.7% and whites 26.4%
New England Cable News
Forbes
Irish Herald
Daily Mail
Washington DC Compost
Miami FL Herald
Fox

2011-09-07 08:35PDT (11:35EDT) (15:35GMT) (18:35 Jerusalem)
Christopher Rugaber _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_AP_
BLS's JOLTS report shows talent glut continues
KGO San Francisco CA
San Jose CA Mercury News
Chris Middleton: Bloomberg

2011-09-07 11:32:24PDT (14:32:24EDT) (18:32:24GMT) (21:32:24 Jerusalem)
Mark Whitehouse _Bloomberg_
link between politics and jobs (with graph)
Wall Street Journal
"Employers had jobs to offer.   The total number of job openings stood at 3.23M at the end of July, from 3.17M a month earlier, the Labor Department reported today.   But the jobs were filled at a slower pace.   Total hires fell to 3.98M, from 4.06M in June...   More likely, though, employers started dragging their feet on filling jobs.   That, at least, is the conclusion suggested by am indicator known as the recruiting intensity index.   The index -- developed by economists Steven Davis, Jason Faberman and John Haltiwanger -- captures a number of factors that influence hiring, such as how aggressively employers seek candidates and how quickly they screen applicants.   We updated the index with the latest data and found that it fell 1.4% in July.   The level was up a bit from its low point in 2009 October, but still 16% below its pre-recession average (see graph).   Given the fact that the debt-ceiling debate was reaching its apex in July, and the stock market hadn’t yet plunged, the result supports the hypothesis that political uncertainty did have a negative impact on jobs."

2011-09-07
_Information Week_/_UBM_
Electronic Health Records Face Many Insider Snoops
Nosy staff members committed most of the personal data breaches that hit more than 70% of healthcare organizations last year, survey says."

2011-09-07 11:37PDT (14:37EDT) (18:37GMT) (21:37 Jerusalem)
Patrick Thibodeau _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
Experts rebut Romney's claim that 1.25M "high skill" jobs are unfilled in U.S.A.
NetworkWorld

2011-09-07
Toby Westerman _Right Side News_
Hundreds of millions of dollars paid from Medicare to Cuban government
"In an exclusive interview with International News Analysis Today, Christopher Simmons not only ties in the Cuban dictatorship with the rampant Medicare fraud, but draws a stunning conclusion about the erosion of American sovereignty in south Florida...   In 7 out of 10 cases, he said, the perpetrators are Cuban-born individuals who have come to the United States since the 1990s and who flee back to Cuba when law enforcement uncover their fraudulent activities.   In Cuba, they enjoy every available comfort in return for funneling millions of dollars to the Cuban government.   A report issued by the University of Miami cites statements by a former high-level Cuban intelligence officer indicating that the Cuban government is either directing or assisting the perpetrators to obtain much needed hard currency...   Simmons stated that from 150 to 200 Cuban intelligence officers are active in south Florida, vastly outnumbering U.S. spy catchers."

2012-09-07
_Manchester Guardian_/_AP_
Former NASA scientist pled guilty to trying to sell top secret info to what he though was an Israeli spy
Pete Yost: Comcast/AP

2011-09-07 (5771 Ulul 08)
George Friedman _Jewish World Review_/_StratFor_
Who is winning the post-2001-09-11 war?
"War is not about bringing people to justice.   It is about destroying their ability to wage war.   The contemporary confusion between warfare and criminality creates profound confusion about the rules under which you operate.   There are the rules of war as set forth in the Geneva Conventions, and there are criminal actions [and there are rules for dealing with acts of terrorism and espionage]...   al Qaeda doesn't wear a uniform.   Under the Geneva Conventions, there is no protection for those who do not openly carry weapons or wear uniforms or at least arm-bands...   Yet there have been no further attacks.   This is not, I think, because they did not intend to carry out such attacks.   It is because the United States forced the al Qaeda leadership to flee Afghanistan during the early days of the U.S. war, disrupting command and control.   It is also because U.S. covert operations on a global scale attacked and disrupted al Qaeda's strength on the ground and penetrated its communications.   A significant number of attacks on the United States were planned and prosecuted.   They were all disrupted before they could be launched, save for the attempted and failed bombing in Times Square, the famed shoe bomber and, my favorite, the crotch bomber.   Al Qaeda has not been capable of mounting effective attacks against the United States (though it has conducted successful attacks in Spain and Britain) because the United States surged its substantial covert capabilities against it...   The initial goal of the invasion was to dislodge al Qaeda, overthrow the government that had supported it and defeat the Taliban.   The first 1 goals were accomplished quickly.   The third goal has not been accomplished to this day, nor is it likely that the United States will ever accomplish it."

2011-09-07 (5771 Ulul 08)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_/_StratFor_
Blacks and Politics
"For several decades, blacks have held significant political power, in the form of being mayors and dominant forces on city councils in our major cities, including Philadelphia, Detroit, Washington, Memphis, Atlanta, Baltimore, New Orleans, Oakland, Newark, Cincinnati and many others.   In most of these cities, blacks have served as school superintendents, school principals and chiefs of police.   Plus, there's precedent setting black political power at the national level, with 39 black congressmen and a black president...   Japanese- and Chinese-Americans faced gross discrimination in our country, but when's the last time you heard them worrying about how many mayors and congressmen they have?   Are they in a tizzy over the tea party's call for constitutional government, reduced spending and a balanced budget?   BTW, Japanese- and Chinese-Americans have median family incomes higher than white Americans despite having no political power, even in areas where they are most numerous.   Let me be clear.   I am not stating a causal link between the fact of black political power and the poor living conditions of so many blacks in our urban centers.   I'm simply offering evidence that the expectation that black political power will translate into socio-economic well-being for the ordinary black citizen is apt to be disappointing.   Political power empowers -- and even enriches -- the political elite; for them, getting out their constituent vote is the be-all and end-all.   It's the economic arena, featured by personal liberty, that best serves the ordinary person.   As long as black politicians can successfully run a rope-a-dope on their constituents by keeping them focused on allegations of white racism and telling them that salvation lies in voting for them, little good will come to their poorest constituency."

2011-09-07 (5771 Ulul 08)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_/_StratFor_
2 Different Worlds part2
"A few weeks ago, I had what seemed to me a small medical problem, so I phoned my primary physician.   However, after we discussed the problem, he directed me to a specialist.   After the specialist examined me, he directed me to a different specialist elsewhere.   When I was examined and tested in the second specialist's office, he immediately phoned a hospital, asking to have an operating room available in an hour.   No more than 5 hours elapsed between my seeing the first specialist and the time when I was on an operating table.   This was quite a contrast with what happens in countries with government-run medical systems.   In such countries, it is not uncommon to have to wait days to see a physician, weeks to see a specialist and months before you can have an operation.   It is very doubtful whether I would have lasted that long.   In the intensive care unit, where I was sent after the first of two operations, I was hooked up to high-tech machines and had a small army of people looking after me around the clock.   Would a government-run medical system have provided all this, especially for a man in his eighties?...   In those things that are crucially affected by medical care, such as cancer survival rates, the United States leads the way.   In things that doctors can do little about -- such as obesity, homicide or drug addiction -- Americans shorten their own lives, more so than people in other comparable societies."
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "'tis certain we regard with more veneration the old Chaldeans and Egyptians, than the modern Chinese and Persians [Iranians], and bestow more fruitless pains to clear up the history and chronology of the former, than it wou'd cost us to make a voyage, and be certainly inform'd of the character, learning and government of the latter." --- David Hume & Ernest C. Mossner 1735 _A Treatise of Human Nature_ pg480  

 
 

2011-09-08

1565-09-08: St.Augustine (San Agustin) Florida founded by Pedro Menéndezk, Marqués de Avilés

2011-09-07 19:09PDT (2011-09-07 22:09EDT) (2011-09-08 02:09GMT) (2011-09-08 05:09 Jerusalem)
_Daily Illini_
Questions raised about age as a factor in denial of admission

2011-09-08 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT) (15:30 Jerusalem)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
DoL OPA press releases
historical data
DoL regulations
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 346,065 in the week ending September 3, an increase of 9,355 from the previous week.   There were 381,863 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.7% during the week ending August 27, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,416,001, a decrease of 57,181 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.3% and the volume was 4,138,965.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending August 20 was 7,169,176, a decrease of 167,009 from the previous week.   Extended benefits were available in AL, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, WA, WV, and WI, during the week ending August 20.   States reported 3,060,622 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending August 20, a decrease of 57,420 from the prior week.   There were 4,507,669 claimants in the comparable week in 2010.   EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.   [Note that the population used for calculating the "insured unemployment rate" (the divisor) changes
to 132,623,886 beginning 2007-10-06;
to 133,010,953 beginning 2008-01-05;
to 133,382,559 beginning 2008-04-05;
to 133,690,617 beginning 2008-07-05;
to 133,902,387 beginning 2008-10-04;
to 133,886,830 beginning 2009-01-03;
to 133,683,433 beginning 2009-04-04;
to 133,078,480 beginning 2009-07-04;
to 133,823,421 beginning 2009-10-03;
to 131,823,421 beginning 2009-10-17;
to 130,128,328 beginning 2010-01-02;
to 128,298,468 beginning 2010-04-03;
to 126,763,245 beginning 2010-07-03;
to 125,845,577 beginning 2010-09-25;
to 125,560,066 beginning 2011-01-15;
to 125,572,661 beginning 2011-04-02;
to 125,807,389 beginning 2011-07-02.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs

2011-09-08
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring News-Letter_
"We're looking for younger engineers"
 
The [linked] transcript from the Nightly Business Report appears to be the typical industry lobbyist plant -- except for one unusually frank remark, by the CEO of SeaMicro: "We're going for younger engineers..."
 
As I've said so often, age is the core of the H-1B issue, and once in a while industry people blurt out the truth.   The above remark is one instance, and there was one from MSFT a couple of years ago.
 
ComputerWorld recently ran a set of articles on age discrimination in the tech field.
 
There are even tips as to how to sue for age discrimination in the tech area.   (In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I am serving as an expert witness in the Google case mentioned there.)
 
Unfortunately, the CW articles are not entirely accurate, in the sense that they for the most part convey the impression that age discrimination concerns people over 50.   As I've mentioned often, it actually starts as young as age 35.   I've noticed over the years that that age is the rough point at which employers really turn to hiring H-1Bs (and/or younger Americans), and interestingly, the GAO report earlier this year confirmed this 35 figure with a dramatic graph.
 
And as usual, the CW articles largely portray the problem of a lack of up-to-date skills among the older workers.   I've shown in detail before that this is a red herring:   The older workers who do have the new skills are still often shunned by employers, and any programmer worth his salt can pick up new skills on the job, without formal training, and be productive in a few weeks.
 
I will not repeat the statistical analyses here, but I will remind readers of my favorite sound bite, taken from the industry lobbyists' own report (see the details in the MSFT analysis above, though the firm involved was not MSFT):
 
The employer agreed that she could allow her present older programmers to learn up-to-date skills, but then they'd be worth more and would leave her firm!   IOW, skills were not the issue after all; instead, the issue was money, and the solution is to hire cheaper H-1Bs.   One of the CW articles highlights a programmer who experienced this.
 
The CW articles' emphasis on COBOL badly misses the mark.   Of all the programmers who subscribe to this e-news-letter, I only know of one who specializes in that language.   And as to newer languages such as Python, see my critique.
 
Many of you will probably recall that I've expressed frustration that my message on H-1B being at its core a vehicle for deliberate age discrimination seems to get lost even among those who are big critics of H-1B.   There's no better example of that than the person who pointed me this morning to that Nightly Business Report broadcast I've referred to here in this posting.   I thanked him for the tip, especially because of the broadcast's rare admission that the Silicon Valley "labor shortage" is, if it exists at all, a shortage of YOUNG people.   My reader replied that he was so upset about the obvious PR masquerading as news in the broadcast that he hadn't even noticed the blatant reference to age.
 
Norm
National Socialist Television Nightly Business Report

2011-09-08 03:48PDT (06:48EDT) (10:48GMT) (13:48 Jerusalem)
_WCVB Boston MA_
Milford MA residents call for immigration reform
"Dozens of Milford residents packed a town hall meeting Wednesday, calling for immigration reform in Massachusetts after a local man was hit and killed while riding his motorcycle, allegedly by a drunken Ecuadorean man with a criminal record who is in the U.S. illegally...   'They're here illegally.   They work illegally.   They drive illegally.   They killed 3 of our citizens so far.   Three.', said CS.   'Guaman...had previous DUIs, previously been stopped for driving without a license.', said [the victim's] brother..."

2011-09-08
John Ferri _Global Post_
As economy continues to worsen some Americans seek work in Canada
"The number of U.S. citizens working in Canada is, at least by global migration standards, relatively small with some 30K at the beginning of last year.   Still, Americans make up the second-largest group of temporary workers in Canada, behind only Filipinos, most of whom work as nannies."

2011-09-08
Jim Kouri _Examiner_
Illegal alien employees pose threats at US airports

2011-09-08
Darell Tapp _Phoenix AZ Examiner_
Jobs and income are being lost to illegal aliens

2011-09-08
_DR Kate's View_
Exposing the 16th Amendment

2011-09-08
Marco Rubio
Response to Obummer jobs speech
video

2011-09-08
"FrauTech"
engineering shortage argument digs deeper grave
"A mere 46% of 2009 UK engineering grads were actually in a job related to their degree 6 months after graduating. 20% were working in other fields or roles separate from engineering, and a shocking 24% were working in jobs that didn’t require a degree and was non-related."

2011-09-08 (5771 Elul 09)
Jeffrey Fleishman _Jewish World Review_
Turkey's prime minister to meet with Egyptian leaders to stengthen ties

2011-09-08 (5771 Elul 09)
Victor Davis Hanson _Jewish World Review_
Myth and reality after 2001-09-11
"bin Laden tried to hijack popular Arab discontent over endemic poverty and self-induced misery.   In cynical Hitlerian fashion, al Qaeda's propagandists sought to blame the mess of the Arab Middle East on Jews and foreigners, rather than seeking to address homegrown corrupt kleptocracies, inefficient statism, indigenous tribalism, gender apartheid, and religious fundamentalism and intolerance.   Past Western appeasement of terrorism only convinced the manipulative bin Laden that he might kill Westerners without much fear of retaliation, as he presented himself to the Islamic Street as the new Saladin who had humbled the Western infidel...   The Patriot Act, renditions, tribunals, preventive detention, new bothersome security measures and the use of Predator drones have all weakened al Qaeda and have made it difficult to attack Americans at home.   For all the acrimony over Afghanistan and Iraq, tens of thousands of jihadists were killed abroad, and consensual governments that fight terrorists still survive in place of dictatorships.   And where now are the likes of...the entire anti-war movement that for years dominated the news, assuring us that we had lost our freedoms at home and caused only mayhem abroad?   The truth is, they mostly dropped out of the news when Barack Obama was elected president.   Apparently these loud megaphones had all along been more interested in partisan politics than principled criticism.   In one of the strangest turn-abouts in modern political history, fierce anti-war and anti-administration critic Barack Obama, upon taking up the office of the presidency, either embraced or expanded almost all of the Bush-Cheney anti-terrorism policies."

2011-09-08 (5771 Elul 09)
Clifford D. May _Jewish World Review_
Disoriented "Leaders"
"_What went wrong?_ That was the title of Bernard Lewis' land-mark book on Islam's thousand years of global dominance followed by the decline of the caliphate between the 17th century, when Muslim armies were halted at the Gates of Vienna, and the early 20th century when the Ottoman Empire collapsed.   This fall from grace left deep scars -- grievances expressed most lethally on 2001 Sept. 11, soon after professor Lewis' book was completed...   Instead, many if not most of our political leaders fight fitfully and without conviction, uncertain about both the nature and the gravity of the threat...   Have they heard nothing that Ayatollah Ali Khameini and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have said? Let me boil it down: They are for restoring to Islam the power and glory it enjoyed a millennium ago...   their ambitions were frustrated in two historic battles.   The first was the Battle of Tours in 732 when Charles Martel, leading the Franks, stopped the powerful forces of the Umayyad Caliphate from overrunning what is now France as well as other Western European territories.   The second was the Battle of Vienna in 1683 when Jan Sobieski, King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, seeing the Turks close to breaching the walls of the city, led his outnumbered troops in a daring counter-attack...   few Muslims are likely to fight for such reform until and unless Islamic militancy is decisively defeated."
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "'Tis impossible to reason justly, without understanding perfectly the idea concerning which we reason; and 'tis impossible perfectly to understand any idea, without tracing it up to its origin, and examining that primary impression, from which it arises.   The examination of the impression bestows a clearness on the idea; and the examination fo the idea bestows a like clearness on all our reasoning." --- David Hume & Ernest C. Mossner 1735 _A Treatise of Human Nature_ pg122  

 
 

2011-09-09

2011-09-09
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring News-Letter_
We're still looking for younger engineers
 
In my last posting I reported on a rare event, in which an industry executive claiming a tech labor shortage admitted that he focuses on hiring the young.   (As usual, "young" in this context means under 35.)   I cited an instance in which someone at MSFT also blurted this out on one occasion, but for obvious reasons most executives are very careful not to say such thing.
 
Well, of course they're careful as to what they say.   Age discrimination is illegal, after all (though less illegal than many of you think, as the laws are fairly narrow).   More importantly, the industry's pushing Congress for expanded H-1B and green card programs hinges on their claims of a labor shortage.   Going to Congress and saying, "Congress, give us more young foreign workers, because we don't want to hire the older Americans" would be impolitic, to put it mildly.
 
But lo and behold, here's another one!
 
Interviewing NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, the article notes that
 
The company tends to be recruiting for recent graduates of the top engineering schools.
 
Yep.
 
And older grads of top engineering schools need not apply (to NVIDIA or elsewhere), as several MIT grad subscribers to this e-news-letter can tell you.
 
As far as I know, most large tech firms focus so much on the young that they have formal job categories, which are called New College Graduate (NCG) and Recent College Graduate (RCG) at Intel.
 
Huang also states in his article that NVIDIA is an innovative firm, a point on which I absolutely agree.   As some of you may recall, I consider most "revolutionary advances" in the computer field to be at most incremental improvements, if not outright recycling of old ideas or products, but Huang's GPU chips have indeed revolutionalized the parallel processing field.   They've given rise to the slogan, "A super-computer on your desk!", which, as slogans go, is one of the most accurate.
 
But that doesn't excuse the firm's ignoring the older workers, especially if NVIDIA is pushing for H-1Bs, such as in the Wall Street Journal 2010 April 22.   There they again speak in terms of hiring "the best and the brightest" foreign workers, which I support, but clearly that should not come at the expense of the American best and brightest.
 
Now for the second time this week I must make full disclosure and note that I served as an expert witness for the plaintiff in a law-suit against NVIDIA (eventually settled).   Since all but one of the 5 suits I've served in have involved claims of age discrimination (in the one exception, I was an expert for a Chinese immigrant plaintiff who claimed racial discrimination), it's not surprising that this was the case in the NVIDIA suit.   But it does make Huang's remarks above all the more interesting.
 
Actually, there is another blurt-out on the age issue worth mentioning.   One of the books that have been published about FB in the last year quotes CEO Mark Zuckerberg as saying that only young people are good programmers.   That statement may be of keen interest if FB is ever sued by an older worker or applicant.   (BTW, please do not contact me as a possible expert witness, as I have been turning down further cases; it's just too time consuming.)
 
I should note that Huang grew up in the U.S. (Oregon), so he's not a poster boy for H-1B or the F-1 student visa.   And he didn't graduate from a "top engineering school" that his firm prefers in its workers; his undergrad degree is from Oregon State.   (He does have an MSEE from Stanford.)
 
Once again, age is at the core of H-1B and "labor shortage" claims.
 
Norm
---30---

2011-09-09 03:00PDT (06:00EDT) (10:00GMT) (13:00 Jerusalem)
Anya Litvak _Pittsburgh PA Business Times_
SW PA firms mostly apply for H-1B visas for programmers and medical staffers in FY2009
"During fiscal year 2010, which began 2009 Oct. 1, Pittsburgh-area companies filed more than 2K Labor Condition Applications...   one potential employee can be represented by several [LCAs, and 1 LCA can be for several guest-workers]...   '(Employers are) not hiring as many Americans, not hiring as many foreigners, just not hiring in general.', she said...   At Moon-based Michael Baker Corp., there are between 100 and 125 employees in various stages of the immigration process, according to Mike Ziemianski, vice president and chief resources officer."

2011-09-09 05:03PDT (08:03EDT) (12:03GMT) (15:03 Jerusalem)
Edward Morrissey _CNN_
Obummer speech is only a repeat of 2009 porkulus, will do little to encourage job creation
Ben Feller: Business Week
Scott Baldauf: Christian Science Monitor
Loren Steffy: Houston TX Chronicle
Thomas E. Brewton: View from 1776
Larry Kudlow: Town Hall

2011-09-09
Kimberly Weisul _BNET_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
The downwardly mobile "middle class"
"Who, exactly, is the middle class? According to the researchers, it's those in the 30th to 70th income percentiles.   In 2010, this roughly translates as a family of four with two children with an income of $32,900 to $64K [but income varies for individuals and families from year to year to year]...   Those who never marry are also more likely to have trouble hanging on to middle-class status.   Women who are divorced, widowed, or separated are 31 to 36 percentage points more likely to lose middle-class status than those who are married.   Men who are divorced, widowed or separated are 13 percentage points more likely to slip down the economic ladder than those who are married.   Compared to their married peers, single women are 16 to 19 percentage points more likely to become downwardly mobile.   Single men are 6 to 10 percentage points to more likely to lose their middle class status...   Getting a college degree makes women 14 to 16 percentage points more likely to keep middle class status.   Men are up to 15 percentage points more likely to keep middle class status just by getting some additional education after high school.   For them, a bachelor's degree isn't quite as important...   Armed Forces Qualifications Test.   AFQT scores have been found to be correlated not only with military performance but with adult wages."

2011-09-09
David Frum
Rick Perry's immigration stances are an even bigger problem that it at first appears
"Why have labor laws gone so badly enforced? In very large part: because Rick Perry's donors don't want them enforced.   The National Restaurant Association does not want them enforced.   The construction industry does not want them enforced.   Meat-packers do not want them enforced.   The hotel and landscaping industries do not want them enforced.   When you hear Republican candidates complain of 'burdensome regulation', keep in mind that the regulations that many small businesses find most 'burdensome' are those intended to reserve American jobs for American legal residents."

2011-09-09
_The Economic Collapse_
10 reasons why Obummer's "jobs plan" is a bad joke

2011-09-09
Laura Walter _Environment, Health, Safety_
Disposable Work Force
"Of the 2M to 2.5M farm workers in the United States, approximately 50%-70% are [illegal alines], Goldstein said. These temporary, [illegal alien] workers do not have the option to achieve legal immigration status under the H-2A program [and yet many do toggle between legal and illegal status all the time]."

2011-09-09
William L. Anderson
Obummer's "Let's continue the depression" speech
"When I read words like 'bold' and 'passionately' and 'authoritative', I knew that I had come to a place that was just one step below the White House PR room.   Hey, Obama might be presiding over the destruction of the U.S. economy, its currency, and its social fabric, but they still love him at the NYT and Princeton."

2011-09-09 (5771 Elul 10)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
The war America fights
"The War on Terror is a broad tactical campaign to prevent Islamic terrorists from targeting America.   The War on Terror has achieved some notable successes.   These include Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan which denied al Qaida free rein in Afghanistan by overthrowing the Taliban.   They also include the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and his fascist regime in Iraq, which played a role -- albeit far less significant than the Taliban regime and others -- in supporting Islamic terrorism against the USA.   Moreover, the US has successfully prevented multiple attempts by Islamic terrorists to carry out additional mass terror attacks on US territory.   This achievement, however, is at least partially a function of luck...   The first problem is that the USA has unevenly applied its tactic of denying terrorists free rein in territory of their choosing...   And yet [the USA] feiled to apply it at all in Iran, Syria, Lebanon and [land occupied by] the Palestinian Authority...   By essentially ending its application of the counter-terror tactic of denying terrorists free rein of territory and punishing regimes that provide them shelter, the options left to the US in fighting its war on terror have been reduced to catch-as-catch can killing and capturing of terrorists, and reactive actions like arresting or detaining terrorists when they are caught on US soil.   On the positive side, these limited tactics can keep terrorists off balance if they are applied consistently and over the long term.   Taken together, the tactics of targeted killing and financial strangulation comprise a strategy of long term containment not unlike the US's strategy in the Cold War...   The second problem is that since 2001 Sept. 11, the USA has steadfastly refused to admit the identity of the enemy it seeks to defeat.   US leaders have called that enemy al Qaida, they have called it extremism or extremists, fringe elements of Islam and radicals.   But of course the enemy is jihadist Islam which seeks global leadership and the destruction of Western civilization.   Al Qaida is simply an organization that fights on the enemy's side...   their refusal to acknowledge the nature of the enemy has paralyzed their ability to confront and defeat threats as they arise...   Because the US [government] refuses to recognize radical Islam as its enemy, it fails to connect Turkey's erratic and increasingly hostile behavior to the fact that the country is ruled by an Islamist government...   The last problem intrinsic to the USA's War on Terror is the persistent and powerful strain of appeasement that guides so much of [leftist-dominated] US policy towards the Muslim world...   Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah are far stronger militarily today than they were on 2001 Sept. 11.   Hamas controls Gaza and would likely win any Palestinian elections.   Hezbollah controls Lebanon."

2011-09-09
Donald J. Boudreaux _Pittsburgh PA Tribune-Review_
spent theory
 
Proposed Bills 2011

2011-09-09
DJIA10,992.13
S&P 500(SPX)1,154.23
NASDAQ(COMP)2,467.99
Nikkei8,737.66
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)1.9217%
crude oil(CL1V)$87.24/barrel
natgas(NG11V)$3.92/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RB1V) $2.77/gal
heatingoil(HO1V)$2.99/gal
gold(GC1Z)$1,859.50/ounce
silver(SI1Z)$41.62/ounce
platinum(PL1V)$1,837.90/ounce
palladium(PA1Z)$738.60/ounce
copper(HG1Z)$0.25/ounce
soybeans$14.2675/bushel
maize$7.365/bushel
wheat$7.2975/bushel
dollarindex(DXY)77.175
yenperdollar(USDYEN)77.48
dollarspereuro(EURUSD)$1.3659
dollarsperpound(GBPUSD)$1.5877
swissfrancsperdollar 0.8833
indianrupeesperdollar 46.565
mexicanpesosperdollar(USDMXN) 12.6919
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex563.54

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything?   If it works as good as the Prohibition one did, why, in 5 years we would have the smartest race of people on earth!" --- Will Rogers (quoted in judge Andew P. Napolitano 2010 _Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History_ pp201-202)  

 
 

2011-09-10

1608-09-10: John Smith elected president of Jamestown colony council

2011-09-10
Jon Feere _Right Side News_
Obummer's DUI illegal alien uncle Omar is back on the streets
Dave Gibson: Examiner
"In a decision that seems to unnecessarily risk the lives of many people, ICE has released Onyango Obama, President Obama's 'Uncle Omar' about 2 weeks after he was detained following a drunk driving accident.   He had been ordered deported to his native Kenya back in 1992."

2011-09-10
Rosslyn Smith _American Thinker_
Ponzi Scheme Pedigree

2011-09-10
Fred N. Sauer _American Thinker_
Famous economist, Alan Blinder, inadvertently blurted out the truth about Keynesian "economics"
"our public debt had increased 71% or $4.138T in 3 years."

2011-09-10
Nick R. Brown _Big Government_
DHS says no return to pre-2001/09/11 liberty and privacy

2011-09-10
Chriss W. Street _Big Government_
The Socialist Insecurity Ponzi Scheme may be a wedge issue for young voters and old

2011-09-10
David Kocieniewski _NYTimes_
Tax breaks benefit video-game makers
"Those tax incentives -- a collection of deductions, write-offs and credits mostly devised for other industries in other eras -- now make video game production one of the most highly subsidized businesses in the United States, says Calvin H. Johnson, who has worked at the Treasury Department and is now a tax professor at the University of Texas at Austin...   All told, the federal government gave $123G in tax incentives to corporations in 2010, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, with breaks for groups and people as diverse as Nascar track owners, mohair producers, hedge fund managers, chicken farmers, auto-makers and oil companies.   Many tax policy analysts say the breaks for the video game industry -- whose domestic sales of $15G a year now exceed those of the music business...   Electronic Arts has also lobbied successfully for more tax assistance.   The architect of the company's strategies in recent years was Glen A. Kohl, a tax lawyer...   'Software and high-tech industries are the brain trust of the U.S.A.', said Shane T. Frank, COO of Alliantgroup, a consulting firm [bodyshop] that helps video game companies and other businesses take advantage of the tax credit for research and development.   'We can't afford to lose that knowledge and those high-paying jobs to India or anywhere else.'"

2011-09-10
Jennie L. Phipps _Jackson MI Citizen Patriot_
Bodyshops hiring young, pliant foreign IT workers with flexible ethics by the thousands

2011-09-10
William L. Anderson
Setting the Economy on Fire

2011-09-10
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Pardon me, general Sheridan, but did you mean "Lucy" when you called her "Susie"?
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "However, the fist name of an Irish historian which has survived to us is that of Sinlan Moccu Min (d: 607CE) who was abbot of the monastery at Bangor, which became one of the great Irish centres of education and where many European princes were sent for their learning, including some Anglo-Saxon princes and scions of wealthy families.   Sinlan had a copy of the _Chronikon_ of Eusebius (b: c. 260CE d: c. 340CE), a bishop of Caesarea in Palestine...   Sinlan made a copy of Eusebius's _Chronikon_, but, and importantly, he made a parallel text chronicling Irish events from earliest times and dating them up to his own times." --- Peter Berresford Ellis 1994 _The Druids_ pp204-205  

 
 

2011-09-11

0813-09-11: Charles the Great crowned Louis i emperor
1297-09-11: Scots under William Wallace defeated British at Stirling Bridge
1649-09-11: Oliver Cromwell and his "roundhead" protestants seized Drogheda Ireland and killed 3K
1697-09-11: prince Eugen van Savoye defeated larger Turkish force at Zenta

1777-09-11
US History: History of the Battle of the Brandywine
US History: The Philadelphia Campaign
US History: Virtual Marching Tour of the American Revolution
Jimbo Wales's Wikipedia (with map)
British Battles
Deidre G. & Billy B.: Apopka High School: Blue Darter's Guide to the American Revolution
Edward G. Lengel: War Times Journal
John B.B. Trussell & Harold L. Myers: Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission
General Atomic
History Net
History of War: Battle of Brandywne 1777-09-11
The Brandywine
Answers
about.com: Military History: American Revolution: Battle of Brandywine
John's Military History: Brandywine 1777-09-11
RevWar: events of September
Revolutionary Day: Brandywine along US202
How Stuff Works (with video)
The American Revolutionary War (maps)
Emerson Kent: History for the Relaxed Historian: Reference Maps on the American Revolution
University of South Florida: Maps
WikiPedia: 1777

1857-09-11
Luscinia Brown-Hovelt & Elizabeth J. Himelfarb: Archeological Institute of America: Mountain Meadows Massacre
more from Archeological Institute of America: Mountain Meadows Massacre
USA History
Josiah Francis Gibbs _The Mountain Meadows Massacre_
Josiah Francis Gibbs _The Mountain Meadows Massacre_
Mountain Meadows Association
resource guide
Boone County Historical & Railroad Society
UMKC: Mountain Meadows Massacre Trials of John D. Lee
University of Nebraska at Lincoln: transcripts of documents & contemporary articles
Mountain Meadows Massacre
Frank Kirkman: 1857 Massacre
Utah History to Go
History Channel discussion
Jimbo Wales's Wikipedia: Mountain Meadows Massacre [has an error: Christopher "Kit" Carson Fancher was one of the survivors and was raised by an uncle]
Gibson
Religious Tolerance
J.K., Genevieve, & Terry Fancher
Ancestry.com
Legends of America: 1889 Hubert Howe Bancroft
Richard E. Turley: LDS reprinted from Ensign: Mountain Meadows Massacre
Examiner
Examiner
review of movie "September Dawn"
IMDB entry for "September Dawn"
ProtoPhoto
video
another video
USA Today
_Massacre at Mountain Meadows_
AmericanIndian.net with links and photo album

1940-09-11: Hitler sent reinforcements into Romania

2011-09-11
Kathleen Campbell Walker _JD Supra_
US DC district judge upholds, but weakens Neufeld memo guide-lines
"'the Memorandum does not amend the Regulation by repudiating or being irreconcilable with it.'...   H-1B requests for evidence (RFE) from USCIS between FY2008 and FY2009 doubled with the Vermont Service Center (VSC) moving from 14.1% to 29.3% and the California Service Center (CSC) moving from 13.3% to 25%.   This same pattern of increased RFEs was experienced in the L-1A intracompany transferee category during the same time frame.   [It is a beautiful thing...jgo]"

2011-09-11
Jennifer Howard _Chronicle of Higher Education_
Directional graphs of citations map out hot research and "scholarship's hidden terrain"
"a team led by two biologists, Carl T. Bergstrom and Jevin D. West, and a physicist, Martin Rosvall, has set out to build just such a guidance system...   researchers have a hard time seeing a lot of scholarship that might be relevant to their work, especially if it's not published in the places they already know to look...   The work builds off the thinking behind the Eigenfactor score, a method of assessing journals' relative influence that Mr. Bergstrom and Mr. West unveiled in 2007...   Its creators have made great strides in developing visualizations of the data, working up elegant webs that capture clusters of journals and the connections among them."

2011-09-11
William L. Anderson
Shame and Politicizing Tragedies
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "The _Senchus Mor_ states that the historian or ollamh has to be specially learned in chronology, synchronism, antiquities and genealogy.   He or she had to know at least 350 historical and romance tales by heart and be able to recite them word perfect at a moment's notice.   They had to know the prerogatives, rights, duties, restrictions and tributes not only of the high king but all the provincial and petty kings.   Inded, the _Leabhar na gCeart_ (Book of Rights) states: 'The learned historian who does not know the prerogatives and prohibitions of these kings, is not entitled to visitations or to sell his compositions.'" --- Peter Berresford Ellis 1994 _The Druids_ pg201  

 
 

2011-09-12

1940-09-12: History Channel: Lascaux cave paintings discovered

2011-09-12 06:00PDT (09:00EDT) (13:00GMT) (16:00 Jerusalem)
_MarketWatch_/_UBM_
Tata launches Global Center of Evil in Milford OH in support of SAP HANA
"Raman Venkatraman, Vice President & Global Head - SAP Practice, Tata Consultancy Services...   powerful analytics on mobile devices.   Initially TCS will target five major industry clusters -- retail and consumer products, energy resources and utilities, high-tech, insurance and telecom...   A part of the Tata Group, India's largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 202K...consultants in 42 countries.   The Company generated consolidated revenues of US $8.2G for year ended 2011-03-31"
Tata median salaries by city

2011-09-12 06:01PDT (09:01EDT) (13:01GMT) (16:01 Jerusalem)
_Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
Cotton prices volatile as farmers shift acreage seeking best return
"Sure enough, in the weeks that followed, prices would top an astonishing $2 per pound.   Then in June, prices slid to around 90 cents.   As of Friday, prices had settled back to $1.22 on Cotton Outlook's 'A' Index...   In 2010, the state's farmers planted 390K acres of cotton and harvested 387K acres, producing 681K bales worth $275.5M, according to the Tennessee Agricultural Statistics Service.   This year, they planted 480K acres, but continuing near-record-high prices in corn and soybeans kept cotton fighting for acreage here, said U of TN associate professor and cotton specialist Chris Main.   But that could change after this year's harvest and a re-evaluation of the world's cotton stock...   However, the USDA has reported a slowdown in world cotton consumption that began in the spring.   The biggest reductions came from India (500K bales), Bangladesh (300K bales), Mexico (200K bales) and Turkey (100K bales), the USDA report said.   In February, the National Cotton Council predicted consumption of 121.1M bales of cotton this year.   In August, the USDA lowered its prediction for the year to 115.2M bales.   But world production estimates for the year were also down 559K bales, the USDA reported."

2011-09-12 09:02PDT (12:02EDT) (16:02GMT) (19:02 Jerusalem)
_Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
Scripps Networks has opened a lobbying office in DC
"A.B. Cruz III, the company's chief legal officer, will head the new department...   Chairman, President and CEO Ken Lowe...   Scripps Networks Interactive operates cable TV networks HGTV, Food Network, Travel Channel, DIY Network, Cooking Channel and Great American Country; and their related web-sites.   Cruz has been with Scripps Networks since 2004 when he joined E.W. Scripps Co. as senior vice president and general counsel.   Scripps Networks Interactive was spun out from E.W. Scripps in 2008."

2011-09-12
_KGO San Francisco CA_
Bank of India planning to dump 30K employees by 2013

Pallavi Gogoi: San Jose CA Mercury News/AP
Sue Chang & Greg Morcroft: MarketWatch

2011-09-12 12:11PDT (15:11EDT) (19:11GMT) (22:11 Jerusalem)
Ruth Mantell _MarketWatch_
More employers abuse "personality tests" to manufacture pretexts to reject able and willing talent

2011-09-12
Dave Gibson _Examiner_
National Day of Remembrance planned for November 6 to recall those killed by illegal aliens

2011-09-12
Dave Gibson _Examiner_
Tourism thrived in AZ despite National Council of la Racists' boycott

2011-09-12
Jack Martin _Immigration Reform_
Illfare abuse by illegal aliens rising rapidly

2011-09-12
Dan Stein _FAIR US_
the relationship between illegal immigration and other crime

2011-09-12
Kenric Ward _SunShine State News_
legal farm-workers sue FL state senator J.D. Alexander for replacing them with illegal aliens
Janet Zink: Miami FL Herald
typepad/Miami Herald
"A company controlled by Alexander -- Blue Head Farms LLC -- has been sued by 2 farm-workers who allege he violated federal law by replacing U.S. citizens and green card holders with guest workers.   Jose Luis Castro-Mata, a green card holder who picked strawberries on Alexander's Blue Head Farms in the 2009-2010 season, was fired after Alexander discovered he was not a guest-worker, Gregory Schell, of the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project, told the Times-Herald.   Alexander was instrumental in killing the Senate's E-Verify bill last session, and immigration-control activist George Fuller told Sunshine State News the powerful Senate Budget Committee chairman has a clear conflict of interest...   Colin Abbott, an attorney for Florida Rural Legal Services, represents about 100 American citizens and green card holders who say they, too, were dismissed and replaced with guest workers...   Both men say Alexander paid them $8.56 an hour, rather than the $9.08 rate set for guest workers in Florida by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2009 May."

2011-09-12
Jan Zverina _EurekAlert_/_AAAS_/_UCSD_
UCSD/SDSC, SDSU receive NSF grant to offer "computer science principles" classes at high school, under-graduate levels
"ComPASS contributes to a nationwide goal of training approximately 10K high school teachers to teach advanced placement (AP) computer science (CS) principles courses by the year 2015.   This larger national program, the CS10K, was launched in response to national studies and task force reports identifying a crisis in U.S. work-force preparedness.   The reports specifically cite a serious [alleged] shortage [not supported by the data,] of workers to fill work-place demands for trained, innovative computing experts and computational problem-solvers in every field."

2011-09-12
Mark J. Perry
US manufacturing profits set new record in 2011Q2

2011-09-12
Mark J. Perry
Maine and DC have lowest average SAT scores

2011-09-12
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Focus on the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War

2011-09-12
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Train-men

2011-09-12 18:22PDT (2011-09-12 21:22EDT) (2011-09-13 01:22GMT) (2011-09-13 04:22 Jerusalem)
Sonja Thompson _TechRep_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
Dragon Con costumes

2011-09-12 (5771 Elul 13)
Henry Chu _Jewish World Review_
In Britain, schools battle rising hem-lines by banning skirts
"Visit Nailsea School here in south-western England, and about the only skirts you'll see are those on teachers; most of the girls on campus are required to dress like the boys, in standard-issue trousers, after the school amended its uniform policy this year to become a skirt-free zone.   It's a new approach to an old problem: the fight against rising hem-lines, a perennial battle that probably brings back embarrassing memories for the mothers of many of today's school-girls."
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "[From the 5th to the 9th century] Students from Europe flocked to the long established colleges of learning in Ireland to study under Irish profesors.   There is no record of foreign scholars in Ireland during this period except as students.   Irish teachers and missionaries were also leaving Ireland during this time to establish churches, monasteries and centres of learning in Europe to educate and reconvert it to Christianity." --- Peter Berresford Ellis 1994 _The Druids_ pg188  

 
 

2011-09-13

1759-09-13: British-American troops victorious near Quebec in French & Indian/7 Years War
1847-09-13: general Winfield Scott storms Chapultepec
1940-09-13: Italy invaded Egypt

2011-09-12 21:37PDT (2011-09-13 00:37EDT) (2011-09-13 04:37GMT) (2011-09-13 07:37 Jerusalem)
John Schwada _Los Angeles CA Observer_
Solyndra: it's singing robots dazzled government officials
"On Sept. 6, after tapping into millions of dollars of tax benefits, Solyndra filed for bankruptcy.   On top of that, FBI agents raided the company's headquarters, armed with a search warrant.   That's never a good sign.   To date, the focus of the Solyndra story has been on the controversy surrounding the Obama administration's handling of the company's successful request to obtain $535M in loan guarantees."

2011-09-13 09:25PDT (12:25EDT) (16:25GMT) (19:25 Jerusalem)
Annalyn Censky _CNN_
official poverty rate up: median income down 2.3% in 2010 as government continues to drive inflation
Don Lee: Los Angeles CA Times
Donna Gehrke-White & Dana Williams: Florida Sun-Sentinel

2011-09-13
_Kaiser Health News_
CNN/"Tea Party Express" debate: partial transcript
All Your TV transcript part 1
All Your TV transcript part 2
All Your TV transcript part 3
All Your TV transcript part 4
Defence of Fort McHenry

2011-09-13
Nicolas Mendoza _American Independent_
Michele Bachmann says immigration worked very well before the 1960s perversions

2011-09-13
Sandra Hernandez _Los Angeles CA Times_
GOP split over borders, guest-workers, illegal and legal immigration

2011-09-13 16:22PDT (19:22EDT) (23:22GMT) (2011-09-14 02:22 Jerusalem)
Mark Lacter _Los Angeles CA Observer_
College/university tuition and fees are stunningly high -- and curiously about the same for the best schools

2011-09-13
_Economic Times of India_
Medium & small IT companies: Recovery in US & Europe markets key
"The medium- and small-IT firms are once again likely to suffer the most in the...   Net sales for the sample grew by 18% year-on-year, much slower than the 26% growth in aggregate sales of the top 5 players including TCS [Tata], Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra."
Tata median salaries by city
Wipro median salaries by city
Infosys median salaries by city

2011-09-13
William L. Anderson
Krugman's Fed Road Map: Print Money, Buy Government Bonds!

2011-09-13
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
"they're not strangers... and they stay as they lay..."

2011-09-13 (5771 Elul 14)
Ed Koch _Jewish World Review_
Will the US government send a message to Turkey and Egypt that an attack on Israel will be viewed as an attack on the USA?

2011-09-13 (5771 Elul 14)
Sevil Erkus _Hurriyet Daily News_
Turkey to fly surveillance balloons, surveillance drones, build fence and moat along border with Syria to defend against ISIL/ISIS/Daesh/IS/caliphate
ISIL/ISIS/Daesh/IS/caliphate took over Palmyra

2011-09-13 (5771 Elul 14)
Peter Spotts _Jewish World Review_
In search for life, more planet candidates are found, but are any just right?
One team, associated with NASA's Kepler mission, announced Monday that they have identified 1,781 planet candidates as they peer at a patch of sky covering more than 156K stars, in the constellation Cygnus.   Of those 121 appear to be orbiting in the habitable zones of their host stars...   Some of these habitable-zone objects appear to be so-called super Earths, which tip the scales at between roughly twice Earth's mass to 10 times the mass of the Earth...   27 have been confirmed as [potentially life-supporting] planets so far."

2011-09-13 (5771 Elul 14)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
lessons from the embassy take-over: Why both Israel and the USA should prepare for war

2011-09-13 (5771 Elul 14)
Scott Peterson _Jewish World Review_
War crimes of those "altruistic" Libyan rebels

2011-09-13 (5771 Elul 14)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Back to the Future? part1 of 3
Town Hall
"Are we to continue doing the same kinds of things that have failed again and again, just because Obama delivers clever words with style and energy?   Once we get past the glowing rhetoric, what is the president proposing?   More spending!   Only the words have changed -- from 'stimulus' to 'jobs' and from 'shovel-ready projects' to 'jobs for construction workers'.   If government spending were the answer, we would by now have a booming economy with plenty of jobs, after all the record trillions of dollars that have been poured down a bottomless pit.   Are we to keep on doing the same things, just because those things have been repackaged in different words?...   The fundamental fallacy in all of this is the notion that politicians can 'grow the economy' by taking money out of the private sector and spending it wherever it is politically expedient to spend it -- so long as they call spending 'investment'."

2011-09-13 (5771 Elul 14)
_Armenia News_
women's skirt, 5,900 years old (3,900BCE) discovered in cave near Areni, Armenia
2011-01-12: James Owen: National Geographic: earliest known (6,100 years ago; 4,100BCE) winery found in Armenian cave (traces of wine from 7K years ago have been found in northern Iran)
2010-06-09: Tom Watkins: CNN: leather shoe (5,500 years old; 3,500BCE) found in Armenian cave
2004-07-21: William Cocke: National Geographic: earliest known wine from 7K years ago have been found in northern Iran (and, because there is a problem with that URL...)
2004-07-22: William Cocke: Free Republic: archaeologist Patrick E. McGovern traces wine to 7K years ago in northern Iran
2011-01-14: Ancient Foods: archaeologist Patrick E. McGovern traces wine to 7K years ago in northern Iran
2011-01-14: Joshua Malin: Vine Pair wine web log: 10 ancient archaeological wine discoveries: 9K-years-ago; 7KBCE at Jiahu in the Yellow river valley of China
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "...professor Francis Shaw, in his paper 'Irish Medical men and philosophers' in _7 Centuries of Irish Learning 1000-1700_ edited by Dr. Brian O Cuiv (1971).   He points out: 'The notion that at the end of the 16th century Latin was the language of the Irish medical schools is irreconcilable with the evidence of the Irish manuscripts.'   Most medical books were written in the Irish language.   As we will discuss later, the oldest surviving medical schools in Irish date from the early 14th century and constitute the largest collection of medical manuscript literature, prior to 1800, surviving in any one language." --- Peter Berresford Ellis 1994 _The Druids_ pg160  

 
 

2011-09-14

1814-09-14: History Channel: Francis Scott Key wrote "Defence of Fort McHenry" (Defence of Fort McHenry lyrics from the Smithsonian)
1901-09-14: History Channel: president William McKinley died

2011-09-14 08:27PDT (11:27EDT) (15:27GMT) (18:27 Jerusalem)
Jack Hough _Smart Money_
In a high-tech economy, companies with happy, loyal work-forces often deliver better stock returns
"Three years ago in this space, I wrote about the Great Place to Work Institute, which scores companies on employee satisfaction.   A study at the time showed shares of companies with top scores had returned 14% a year from 1998 through 2005, versus 6% a year for the broader market.   The 6 employee-friendly companies I listed in that column have since returned an average of 31%, compared with 1% for the S&P Composite 1500 index of large, mid-size and small companies..."

2011-09-14 09:40PDT (12:40EDT) (16:40GMT) (19:40 Jerusalem)
_Columbus IN Republic_
WV SAT scores top US averages in reading and writing, NJ scores up: US participation up 3.1%, average scores slightly down
Zinie Chen Sampson: Houston Chronicle
KY Forward
Kansas City MO InfoZine
Allison Ross: Palm Beach FL Post
Baltimore MD Sun
Carla Rivera: Los Angeles CA Times
Carla Rivera: Los Angeles CA: scores decline in every aspect
Syracuse NY Post-Standard
Scott McCaffrey: Sun Gazette
Jack Cafferty: CNN
Week
NY Times
Des Moines IA Register
Charlotte NC Observer
Karen Horton: NJ Star-Ledger
Sue Loughlin: Terre Haute IN Tribune-Star
News-Press/Gannett
Inside Higher Education
College Board
graphs of US education statistics

2011-09-14
Mark J. Perry
SAT math gender disparity persists

2011-09-14 Michelle H. Daino _Central NJ_
young siblings [Louis 15 & Ross 12] off to head-start at Rutgers
"Since he was young, Louis decided that he wanted to pursue a doctorate in mathematics.   He was studying pre-algebra in the fifth grade, having skipped past third and fourth grades that year.   Louis was 10 when he got his 700 math SAT and joined the Study of Exceptional Talent (SET) at Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth.   At 12, he earned an 800 SAT score for math.   He has a 750 writing score and 680 reading score.   However, he will be taking the test one last time in October."

2011-09-14 10:21PDT (13:21EDT) (17:21GMT) (20:21 Jerusalem)
_Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_AP_
Alcoa and China Power plan joint venture to make aluminum in Red China

2011-09-14
Jennifer Howard _Chronicle of Higher Education_
Authors sue HathiTrust and U libraries over scanned works
"The law-suit was brought in the U.S. District Court in New York by the guild, the Australian Society of Authors, the Quebec writers' union, and 8 individual authors...   The suit says that the defendants have engaged in 'the systematic, concerted, widespread, and unauthorized reproduction and distribution' of some 7M copyrighted works, a handful of which are listed in the brief.   It says that the plaintiffs and Google, which has provided most of the digital scans at issue, did not seek permission to digitize those works.   It asks the court to impound and lock up 'all unauthorized digital copies' of copyright-protected works in the defendants' possession, pending some appropriate action by Congress...   The plaintiffs expressed concerns about the security of the digitized files in HathiTrust's possession, saying that their copyright value would vanish if the scans were distributed widely and without authorization on the Internet...   In 2005, the Authors Guild and other plaintiffs sued Google over its Book Search project.   A federal judge shot down a settlement deal that would have cleared the way for Google and academic libraries to make much greater use of those millions of digitized works."

2011-09-14
Christine Keeling _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Area companies donate labor, machinery to replace unsafe bridge

2011-09-14
David Skolnick _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Most recent gerrymandering plan strengthens Mahoning Valley as leftist stronghold
maps

2011-09-14
Mark Matthews _KGO San Francisco CA_
House sub-committee held hearing on Solyndra debacle

2011-09-14
Katie Kuba _Cumberland PA Sentinel_
Mechanicsburg school board worried over increasing standards for progress in reading and math
"For school year 2010-2011, the AYP target was a 72% proficiency in reading and a 67% proficiency in math.   Targets for the next school year will rise to a proficiency of 81% in reading and 78% in math...   'In general, we're in the high 80s in math and the low 80s in reading...   The closer we get to 90%, the harder it is going to be.'...   According to the No Child Left Behind Act, students are required to be 100% proficient in math and reading by 2014."

2011-09-14
Joshua Philipp _Epoch Times_
"Full-Duplex" wireless digital technology could double band-width
"Bandwidth is running out, and although it hasn’t made much buzz yet, companies are scrambling for solutions.   In Canada, AT&T DSL has already set a 250GB monthly cap and charge $10 for each additional 50GB.   To cope with this, Netflix had to cut its video sizes for Canadian users, meaning they get lower quality picture and video, even with HD."

2011-09-14
Michael D. Tanner _Cincinnati Enquirer_
At least Ponzi didn't force people to give him their money
"Imagine that someone comes to you with a new plan to save for your retirement.   They take your money, but they spend it.   Then, they find new investors.   They take money from those new investors and give it to you, then go looking for still more investors so that they can give their money to the people whose money they gave to you.   That is exactly what Charles Ponzi did in 1916 with the original Ponzi scheme.   And that pretty well describes what [Socialist Insecurity] does today."

2011-09-14
Mark J. Perry
The truth about the Socialist Insecurity Abomination

2011-09-14
Mark J. Perry
College degrees by field, and biggest employers

2011-09-14
Mark J. Perry
Time is money

2011-09-14
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
In 3 minutes, sum up the history of your county in the Civil War

2011-09-14 (5771 Elul 15)
Paul Greenberg _Jewish World Review_
MindStream
"What took me back this time was the resignation of a university president here in Arkansas.   It was precipitated by his having accepted a 'gift' to the school that had just one little ol' condition attached -- that the donor's contract with the university be extended.   Uh oh.   When that provision came to light, he decided the best thing to do was resign.   But not before he'd explained that such extras are the norm in his business.   He was just fitting in with the culture, you see.   And if the culture is corrupt, well, at least he had adjusted to it well.   Isn't that what we all want to be -- happy, productive, well-adjusted members of our society?   Our university president was just doing business as usual."

2011-09-14 (5771 Elul 15)
Warren Richey _Jewish World Review_
"God bless America"? not in HS math class rules 9th circus judges
"A 3-judge panel of the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously on Tuesday that the Poway Unified School District in San Diego County did not violate the teacher's free speech or religious expression rights when it ordered him to remove the posters.   Bradley Johnson, a 30-year teacher in the school district, had argued that other teachers at Westview High School adorn their classrooms with quasi-religious messages, including Tibetan prayer flags, a Mahatma Gandi poster, a Dalai Lama poster, and a Malcolm X poster.   He said by directing the removal of his posters but not other religious posters, school officials were conveying a government-sponsored message of hostility toward the Christian religion and the nation's Judeo-Christian heritage...   One poster in Johnson's classroom displayed the phrases: 'IN GOD WE TRUST' [the national motto], 'ONE NATION UNDER GOD' [from the 1950s version of the pledge of allegiance], 'GOD BLESS AMERICA' [from, among other things, the song] and 'GOD SHED HIS GRACE ON THEE' [from the song].   A second poster proclaimed: 'All men are created equal, they are endowed by their CREATOR' [from the Declaration of Independence].   School officials objected to the display, saying it appeared to be an attempt by Johnson to use his influence as a teacher to promote a religious viewpoint."

2011-09-14 (5771 Elul 15)
Phil Willon _Jewish World Review_
Girl slain, 2 wounded in apparent retaliation for good deed
"The series of events in San Bernardino began Monday evening when a Good Samaritan who lived in the house -- police won't say who for fear of tainting possible eyewitness accounts -- saw a man beating a woman down the street, charged in and broke up the fight, allowing the woman to escape.   An hour later, the woman's attacker came to the male Good Samaritan's home and opened fire."

2011-09-14 (5771 Elul 15)
Melissa Healy _Jewish World Review_
Insulin may slow Alzheimer's
"Inhaling a concentrated cloud of insulin through the nose twice a day appears to slow -- and in some cases reverse -- symptoms of memory loss in people with early signs of Alzheimer's disease, a new pilot study has found...   The results were published on-line Monday by the journal _Archives of Neurology_...   people with diabetes and prediabetes are at heightened risk of developing Alzheimer's, and autopsies have shown that diabetics whose condition was tightly managed had fewer of the brain tangles and plaques that are the hallmark of disease.   Studies involving animals have suggested that insulin deficiency in the brain may be a key factor in the progression of Alzheimer's...   An estimated 5.4M Americans are believed to have Alzheimer's, according to the Alzheimer's Association."

2011-09-14 (5771 Elul 15)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Back to the Future? part2 of 3
Town Hall
"almost nobody seems at all interested in looking at the hard facts about what happens when the government leaves the economy alone, compared to what happens when politicians intervene...   there was no Great Depression until AFTER politicians started intervening in the economy...   An economic down-turn in 1920-1921 sent unemployment up to 12%.   President Warren Harding did nothing, except for cutting government spending.   The economy quickly rebounded on its own.   In 1987, when the stock market declined more in one day than it had in any day in 1929, Ronald Reagan did nothing.   There were outcries and outrage in the media.   But Reagan still did nothing.   That down-turn not only rebounded, it was followed by 20 years of economic growth, marked by low inflation and low unemployment [with falling labor force participation rates among men and increasing LFPR among women]."

2011-09-14 (5771 Elul 15)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Too Much Higher Education
"Too much of anything is just as much a misallocation of resources as it is too little, and that applies to higher education just as it applies to everything else.   A recent study from The Center for College Affordability and Productivity titled 'From Wall Street to Wal-Mart', by Richard Vedder, Christopher Denhart, Matthew Denhart, Christopher Matgouranis and Jonathan Robe, explains that college education for many is a waste of time and money.   More than one-third of currently working college graduates are in jobs that do not require a degree.   An essay by Vedder that complements the CCAP study reports that there are 'one-third of a million waiters and waitresses with college degrees'...   According to Education Next, an August Harvard University study titled 'Globally Challenged: Are U.S. Students Ready to Compete?' found that only 32% of U.S. students achieved proficiency in math, compared with '75% of students in Shanghai, 58% in Korea, and 56% in Finland.   Countries in which a majority -- or near majority -- of students performed at or above the proficiency level in math include Switzerland, Japan, Canada, and the Netherlands'.   Results from the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment international test show that U.S. students rank 32nd among industrialized nations in proficiency in math and 17th in reading.   Much of American education is in shambles.   Part of a solution is for colleges to refuse to admit students who are unprepared to do real college work."
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "By the 15th century these Bardic schools were being run by certain families such as the O Clearigh (O'Clery) family, who were diven out of onnacht, and the O Conratha (Mulconry) families of Roscommon and Clare.   The O Cleirigh family ran 3 famous schools in Donegal renowned for studies in history, literature and poetry.   According to Edward Campion's _Historie of Ireland_ (1571) there were still native colleges specializing in law and medicine in his day:   'They speake Latin like a vulgar tongue [like Romans], learned in their common schools of leach-craft and law, whereat they begin (as) children, and go on 16 or 20 yeares, conning by roate the Aphorismes of Hypocrates and the Civill Institutions, and a few other parings of these 2 faculties.'" --- Peter Berresford Ellis 1994 _The Druids_ pp159-160  

 
 

2011-09-15

1950-09-15: US troops land at Inchon, Korea

2011-09-15 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT) (15:30 Jerusalem)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
DoL OPA press releases
historical data
DoL regulations
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 325,999 in the week ending September 10, a decrease of 22,495 from the previous week.   There were 341,791 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6% during the week ending September 3, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,267,684, a decrease of 167,359 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.1% and the volume was 3,933,895.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending August 27 was 7,144,143, a decrease of 25,033 from the previous week.   Extended benefits were available in AL, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, WA, WV, and WI, during the week ending August 27.   States reported 3,066,671 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending August 27, an increase of 6,049 from the prior week.   There were 4,105,555 claimants in the comparable week in 2010.   EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.   [Note that the population used for calculating the "insured unemployment rate" (the divisor) changes
to 132,623,886 beginning 2007-10-06;
to 133,010,953 beginning 2008-01-05;
to 133,382,559 beginning 2008-04-05;
to 133,690,617 beginning 2008-07-05;
to 133,902,387 beginning 2008-10-04;
to 133,886,830 beginning 2009-01-03;
to 133,683,433 beginning 2009-04-04;
to 133,078,480 beginning 2009-07-04;
to 133,823,421 beginning 2009-10-03;
to 131,823,421 beginning 2009-10-17;
to 130,128,328 beginning 2010-01-02;
to 128,298,468 beginning 2010-04-03;
to 126,763,245 beginning 2010-07-03;
to 125,845,577 beginning 2010-09-25;
to 125,560,066 beginning 2011-01-15;
to 125,572,661 beginning 2011-04-02;
to 125,807,389 beginning 2011-07-02.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs

2011-09-15
_CNBC India_/_Reuters_
Asia IT bodyshops concerned by USA and Europe
"While the U.S.A. and Europe markets are too big to ignore, Infosys Ltd and Wipro Ltd, India's #2 and #3 software services exporters, were hiring hundreds more staff in [Red China], executives said on the side-lines of the World Economic Forum in Dalian, China...   Infosys and Wipro, which compete with larger rival Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, derive more than two-thirds of their revenue from the United States and Europe, where debt problems are hampering IT spending...   India's $76G software [bodyshopping] sector.   The United States alone accounts for about half of the revenue of India's IT [bodyshopping] industry...   Infosys' Gopalakrishman said the company planned to roughly triple its staff head-count to 10K in 2-3 years.   Earlier in the week, Wipro said it planned to double staff levels in [Red China] over the same period from 800 now."
Tata median salaries by city
Wipro median salaries by city
Infosys median salaries by city

2011-09-15 08:59PDT (11:59EDT) (15:59GMT) (18:59 Jerusalem)
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols _Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
Opt out of Google wireless snooping
"You did know those cars and trikes Google uses to take photos for Google Street View were also collecting your Wi-Fi Access Point (AP) information and location too right? Well, they have been since 2009, and now, thanks to complaints from privacy advocates in Europe, you'll be able to opt out of this 'service'...   Of course, as Paul Ducklin, the Head of Technology, Asia Pacific, for a Sophos, a security firm, notes, 'This is a Catch-22.   Google pretty much has to keep you on file, simply in order to know that you didn't want to be on file in the first place.   Otherwise they'd just add you back in next time the Street View Wi-Fi scanner came round -- and then you'd have to opt out again.   Sadly, you can't opt out of the Street View collection process proactively.'   Google says it collects this information so that its location services will work better."

2011-09-15 12:06PDT (15:06EDT) (19:06GMT) (22:06 Jerusalem)
Amy Hollyfield _KGO San Francisco CA_
U of CA system regents weigh possible 16% every year tuition hikes... again

2011-09-15
William Gheen _MMD News Wire_/_ALIPAC_
Obummer's Illegal Amnesty and the Death of a Nation

2011-09-15
_Rasmussen_
Poll: 59% say US government encourages illegal immigration

2011-09-15
Quin Hillyer _American Spectator_
Deep corruption in the Obummer injustice department

2011-09-15
Mark J. Perry
Balance of trade

2011-09-15
Mark J. Perry/Peter Schiff
Peter Schiff's congressional testimony
"Government stimulus will never grow this economy.   It will never create jobs.   It is the equivalent of trying to put out a fire by pouring gasoline on it.   We have to understand that the housing bubble, the financial crisis of 2008, were the consequences of government stimulus.   We stimulated our way into this problem, we're not going to stimulate our way out.   In fact, the stimulus is actually a sedative.   The stimulus is preventing the free market from unraveling the problems that years of bad fiscal and monetary policies have created."

2011-09-15
Mark J. Perry
Government health-care bureaucracy gone wild: codes increased from 18K to 140K

2011-09-15
Cory Nealon _Hampton Roads VA Daily Press_
NASA Langley research center director Lesa Roe on NASA's new rocket and Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV)

2011-09-15 (5771 Elul 16)
Clifford D. May _Jewish World Review_
Will the Caliphate take over Europe any time soon?
"For more than 30 years, Bat Ye'or, a refugee from Egypt, has been writing about dhimmis -- Christians and Jews living under oppression in Muslim lands.   Now, she has a new book, _Europe, Globalization and the Coming Universal Caliphate_, that looks at Muslims living in lands that once were Christian but today call themselves multi-cultural.   She predicts Europe will not remain multicultural for long.   She is convinced that Europe, sooner rather than later, will be dominated by Islamic extremists and transformed into 'Eurabia' -- a term first used in the mid-1970s by a French publication pressing for common European-Arab policies.   Immigrants can enrich a nation.   But there is a difference between immigrants and colonists [and occupation forces]."

2011-09-15 (5771 Elul 16)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Back to the Future? part3 of 3
Town Hall
"90 years ago -- in 1921 -- federal income tax policies reached an absurdity that many people today seem to want to repeat.   Those who believe in high taxes on 'the rich' got their way.   The tax rate on people in the top income bracket was 73% in 1921.   On the other hand, the rich also got their way: They didn't actually pay those taxes.   The number of people with taxable incomes of $300K a year and up -- equivalent to far more than $1M in today's money -- declined from more than 1K people in 1916 to less than 300 in 1921.   Were the rich all going broke? It might look that way.   More than four-fifths of the total taxable income earned by people making $300K a year and up vanished into thin air.   So did the tax revenues that the government hoped to collect with high tax rates on the top incomes.   What happened was no mystery to Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon.   He pointed out that vast amounts of money that might have been invested in the economy were instead being invested in tax-exempt securities, such as municipal bonds...   What makes all this history so relevant today is that the same economic assumptions and political arguments which produced the absurdities of 1921 are still going strong in 2011...   As for the 1920s, Mellon eventually got his way, getting Congress to bring the top tax rate down from 73% to 24%.   Vast sums of money that had seemingly vanished into thin air suddenly reappeared in the economy, creating far more jobs and far more tax revenue for the government."
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "We learn that the Children of Danu have come from 4 fabulous cities, Falias, Gorias, Finias and Murias, and brought with them special treasures from each of these cities.   The Lia Fail (Stone of Destiny) from Falias; a sword from Gorias (the fore-runner of the famous ExCalibur), the spear of victory from Finias and The Dagda's 'cauldron of plenty' from Murias...   Morias dwelt in Falias; Urias 'of the noble nature' lived in Gorias; Arias the poet resided in Finias and Senias had his abode in Murias.   Were these 'cities' real places along the banks of the Danube from which the Celts began their first migration at the start of the first millennium BCE?" --- Peter Berresford Ellis 1994 _The Druids_ pg124  

 
 

2011-09-16

1620-09-16: "Mayflower" (with Ashley Judd's umpty-great grand-father aboard) departed from England

2011-09-16
Alice Lipowicz _Federal Computer Week_
18% of H-1B recipients may have committed fraud
John Miano: Center for Immigration Studies
"About 18% of the foreign workers allowed employment in the United States under H-1B visa programs may have committed fraud or abused the program, according to a new report from the [Socialist Insecurity Abomination's] Office of Inspector General...   The [SIA] provides [Socialist Insecurity Numbers, SINs] to the workers to be reported as wages in approved work-places.   However, many H-1B workers did not fulfill those conditions.   The [SIA] IG found that 18% of the H-1B workers who were assigned [SINs] for work in 2007 did not fulfill the assigned purpose, according to the report released September 7.   The review said that finding applied to 7,131 H-1B recipients of a total of 38,546 H-1B recipients evaluated.   Of the total cases reviewed, 11% worked for an employer other than the one approved by DHS, while 7% posted no wages during the 2-year period studied, the report states...   O'Carroll recommended that the [SIA] work with DHS to offer to establish a data match agreement to better identify the H-1B visa holders who do use their [SINs] for purposes other than approved work."

2011-09-16
Alex Alvarez _Mediaite_
general William Shelton testified he was "asked to say things I didn't agree with" on leftist donor's company, LightSquared
"Solyndra II? At a classified briefing, head of the Air Force Space Command general William Shelton informed House members that he he had been pressured to change prepared congressional testimony in order to better compliment a Virginia-based satellite and communications company funded by major Democratic donor Philip Falcone.   The GOP has been wondering for some time now whether work done by that company, LightSquared, has been 'unduly expedited' by the Obama administration in its push for nation-wide wireless network upgrades.   As Shelton sees it, the company's plans for its national 4G phone network would seriously compromise the effectiveness of high-precision GPS receiver systems used by the military, given that its spectrum would be about 5G times stronger than the military's GPS system."

2011-09-16 07:44PDT (10:44EDT) (14:44GMT) (17:44 Jerusalem)
Ruth Mantell _MarketWatch_
UMich consumer sentiment index rose from 55.7 in August to 57.8 in early September
Federal Reserve Board St. Louis

2011-09-16 10:41PDT (13:41EDT) (17:44GMT) (20:41 Jerusalem)
Steve Goldstein _MarketWatch_
household debt declined for 12th straight quarter

2011-09-16 11:05:23PDT (14:05:23EDT) (18:05:23GMT) (21:05:23 Jerusalem)
Pete Carey _San Jose CA Mercury News_
Sili Valley job recovery
"The South Bay added 500 jobs from July to August, the state Employment Development Department reported, after gaining 1,900 jobs in July.   But economists noted it's only one month in a year that has seen the valley add 30K jobs, about half of those in tech-heavy industries...   Santa Clara county's unemployment rate dropped to 9.9% from 10.3% in July, and the rate fell to 8.3% in San Mateo county from 8.8%.   The decline reflects that fewer people are actively looking for work.   California's jobless rate rose slightly to 12.1%, the second highest in the U.S.A., behind Nevada's 13.4%.   The valley's manufacturing employers added 1,600 jobs -- triple the rate for an average August.   Much of those gains were in computers and electronics.   Semiconductor-makers added 400 jobs.   The tech-heavy professional and business services [bodyshopping] sector added 1,300 professional, scientific and technical jobs, while losing 1K computer systems design jobs...   Nearly a third of the 30K jobs gained over the year have been in the information and professional and business sectors, and a quarter were in manufacturing.   San Benito county's unemployment rate is 12.9%."

2011-09-16
Mark J. Perry
job growth since 2007 December: USA vs. ND

2011-09-16
Mark J. Perry/Lisa Benson
Obummer jobs bill cartoon

2011-09-16
William L. Anderson
New Moralizing

2011-09-16 (5771 Elul 17)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Palestinian obsession
"If nothing else, the Palestinians' UN statehood gambit goes a long way towards revealing the deep-seated European and US pathologies that enable and prolong the Palestinian conflict with Israel."
 
Proposed Bills 2011

2011-09-16
DJIA11,509.09
S&P 500(SPX)1,216.01
NASDAQ(COMP)2,622.31
Nikkei8,864.16
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)2.07%
crude oil(CL1V)$87.96/barrel
natgas(NG11V)$3.81/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RB1V) $2.7908/gal
heatingoil(HO1V)$3.0214/gal
gold(GC1Z)$1,814.70/ounce
silver(SI1Z)$40.83/ounce
platinum(PL1V)$1,813.90/ounce
palladium(PA1Z)$732.95/ounce
copper(HG1Z)$0.24625/ounce
soybeans$13.555/bushel
maize$6.92/bushel
wheat$6.8825/bushel
dollarindex (DXY)76.614
yenperdollar (USDYEN)76.88
dollarspereuro (EURUSD)$1.3793
dollarsperpound (GBPUSD)$1.5781
swissfrancsperdollar (USDCHF) 0.8767
indianrupeesperdollar (USDINR) 47.195
mexicanpesosperdollar (USDMXN) 13.0364
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex602.18

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "One of the most important lessons I have learned in 35 years of designing and installing equipment is that transferring new knowledge and technology from the university to industry often takes more work than researching and creating the design in the first place.   The field of diffusion research has many examples of good technologies that failed at some stage of the transfer to the market." --- Temple Grandin & Catherine Johnson 2000 _Animals Make Us Human_ pg202  

 
 

2011-09-17

Constitution Day
1787-09-17: History Channel: US constitution signed
1862-09-17: Battle of Antietam in MD History Channel

2011-09-17
Damien Scott _Complex_
Verizon will start taming bandwidth hogs
David Murphy: PC Magazine/IDG
Josh Ong: Apple Insider

2011-09-17
Aaron Goldstein _American Spectator_
Rick Perry: Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state and withdraw their occupation forces

2011-09-17
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Leftists and "democracy" vs. liberty

2011-09-17
Mark J. Perry
Average home price in Detroit vs. average car price, 1994-2011

2011-09-17
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
149 years ago today, but, what about a snap-shot of 150 years ago today? Life one year before THE battle
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "Acording to [Dr. Jeffrey Gray], who is at the Institute of Psychology at King's College in London, fears fall into 1 of 5 categories: high-intensity stimuli, special 'evolutionary dangers', socially learned fears, learned fears that are acquired when a neutral person, thing, or situation is associated with something bad, novel stimuli." --- Temple Grandin & Catherine Johnson 2000 _Animals Make Us Human_ pg142  

 
 

2011-09-18

2011-09-18
Caoline Hailey _Caroll county MD Times_
STEM careers require problem solvers

2011-09-18
Tom Lutey & David Grubbs _Billings MT Gazette_
Farmers are still coping with effects of Spring's wet chill

2011-09-18
_Chronicle of Higher Education_
Fear of Government Repression Spurs Scholars and Activists to Build Alternate Internets
"Using an approach called a 'mesh network', the system would set up an informal wireless network connecting users with other nearby computers, which in turn would pass along the signals.   The mesh network could tie back into the Internet if one of the users found a way to plug into an unblocked route.   The developers recently tested an early version of their software at George Washington University (though without the official involvement of campus officials)."

2011-09-18
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Obummer and Bernanke aiming at wrong target WRT the economy
Robert Higgs: Ludwig von Mises Institute

2011-09-18
Mark J. Perry
US oil imports as percentage of consumption 1973-2011

2011-09-18
Gunnar de Winter _Science 2.0_
Epigenetic code evolves rapidly
Bradley J. Fikes: North San Diego CA county Times
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "What was the mistake of the authoritarians?   Why must their 'wisdom' be rejected?   I believe that there are 3 elements in our free world which have successfully replaced the dethroned authority.   The first is our respect for the authority of truth: of an impersonal, inter-personal, objective truth which it is our task to find, and which it is not in our power to change, or to interpret to our liking.   The second is a lesson learnt in the religious wars.   For I think that in these wars we did learn our lesson: we did learn from our mistakes (though in the social and political field this seems a rare and difficult thing).   We learnt that religous faith and other convictions can only be of value when they are freely and sincerely held, and that the attempt to force men to conform was pointless because those who resisted were the best, and indeed the only ones whose assent was worth having.   Thus we learnt not only to tolerate beliefs that differ from ours, but to respect them and the men who sincerely held them...   And we learnt that we must not draw authoritarian conclusions from this great truth but, on the contrary, suspect all those who claim they are authorized to teach the truth." --- Karl Raimund Popper 1962 _Conjectures and Refutations_ pg504  

 
 

2011-09-19

2011-09-19
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring News-Letter_
Obama administration most proactive on foreign tech workers
 
The Dept. of Homeland Security just announced a new initiative, whose [declared] goal is to encourage foreign students to "remain here following their studies and apply their new skills here in our country".
 
The component of the initiative detailed here, Study in the States, seems harmless enough, stream-lining visa access and so on.   But given this administration's track record on bypassing Congress and "enacting" its own laws, this announcement has me waiting for the other shoe to drop, and wondering what will be in it.   I'll give you my guess on that later in this posting.
 
As many of you know, the George W. Bush administration extended the Optional Practical Training [OPT] component of the F-1 student visa, so that foreign STEM students could stay 29 months after graduation, rather than just the 12 months specified by the statute.   This further disadvantaged U.S. citizens and permanent residents in the tech fields.   And oh yes, there is also the matter of the administration's blatantly bypassing Congress by, in essence, unilaterally changing the statute.
 
The Programmers Guild sued to block measure.   The suit extended into the Obama administration, which vigorously defended Bush's action, and ultimately prevailed.
 
Earlier this year, when some in Congress were considering legislation to facilitate the immigration of would-be tech entrepreneurs, DHS also got into the act, and found that it could take unilateral action here too.
 
In this case it wasn't so blatant as creating de facto legislation, and I'm not sure how much adverse impact it will have on American tech workers.   My sense is that the impact is very unlikely to be positive, as immigrant start-ups tend to hire from their own countries, but in any case the point is that again it was an initiative to promote immigration of tech workers.
 
This new initiative to help foreign students stay and work in the U.S.A. after graduation is arguably at least the third action taken in that direction by the Obama administration in favor of expanding the foreign tech workforce in the U.S.A.   I believe that this is a more proactive stance than any previous administration.
 
Rep. Zoe Lofgren has introduced legislation that would create "Good Guys" and "Bad Guys" among firms that wish to hire foreign tech workers.   As I've explaned before, this "reform" would actually make things worse, because the putative "Good Guys" abuse H-1B just as much as the others do, so that "streamlining" (read "making more lax") the visa processes for the "Good Guys" would simply result in even more abuse.
 
At any rate, my guess is that part of this new initiative will be action in the direction of Lofgren's bill, once again bypassing the legislative process.
 
All this is rationalized by the administration as aimed at bringing in "geniuses" who will invigorate our economy via innovation.   I've explained in detail before why these are false premises, yet Obama seems to hear only from advisers who are presenting just one side of the story.
 
Norm
---30---

2011-09-19 12:01PDT (15:01EDT) (19:01GMT) (22:01 Jerusalem)
Thomas Beaumont _Forbes_
Michele Bachmann criticized Rick Perry on border security

2011-09-19
William L. Anderson
Krugman versus Volker: Will Krugman now attack him?
"it is interesting to see the difference between the last Fed Chairman to really get inflation under control and an "economist" who today claims that inflation is the answer."

2011-09-19
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Leftists fail to denounce violence by labor union thugs

2011-09-19 14:00PDT (17:00EDT) (21:00GMT) (2011-09-20 00:00 Jerusalem)
Tom Krisher & Bree Fowler _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_AP_
GM to re-open former Saturn plant in Spring Hill TN
"GM pays around $56 per hour including wages and benefits, which is less than what Ford pays but far higher than other companies like Chrysler and Hyundai Motor Company."

2011-09-19
Mark J. Perry
Average federal extortion rates by income

2011-09-19
Mark J. Perry
U of San Diego school of Nursing and Health Science is 96.5% female but got $600K in tax-victim funding to increase female STEM professors

2011-09-19 (5771 Elul 20)
Jonathan Tobin _Jewish World Review_
The UN disaster is Obummer's fault

2011-09-19 (5771 Elul 20)
Diane Dimond _Jewish World Review_
Accidental incest
"One woman found her IVF baby had more than 150 brothers and sisters!   Others discover more than 50 offspring in their child's donor group.   The sudden realization that they have half-siblings or several dozens of half-siblings has to be confusing to many of the estimated 30K to 60K IVF babies born in the United States each year.   Some families decide to try to meet their IVF relatives.   Others choose never to tell their children about their biological beginnings."

2011-09-19 (5771 Elul 20)
Matea Gold & Tom Hamburger _Jewish World Review_
Sili Valley gives conservative Christians a boost, as privacy violations take yet another turn
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "it is only in searching for refutations that science can hope to learn and to advance.   It is only in considering how its various theories stand up to tests that it can distinguish between better and worse theories and so find a criterion of progress." --- Karl Raimund Popper 1962 _Conjectures and Refutations_ pg152  

 
 

2011-09-20

2011-09-20
_abc_/_AP_
MacArthur "Genius Grants"

2011-09-20
Peter A. Schulkin _Center for Immigration Studies_
Illegal aliens net billions from tax credits
Michelle Hirsch: Fiscal Times

2011-09-20
_WHP TV_
Dynanoba Kendre sentenced for visa fraud and money laundering
"According to United States Attorney Peter J. Smith, Dynanoba 'Ken' Kendre, 43, of Mechanicsburg, was sentenced yesterday to 21 months' imprisonment and ordered to pay $100,112 in restitution following his guilty plea to visa fraud and money laundering charges.   The sentence was imposed by Senior United States District Judge Sylvia H. Rambo in Harrisburg, Smith said.   The charges to which Kendre pleaded guilty stemmed from an investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General; the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation; the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations; and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Fraud Detection and National Security.   The investigation revealed that Kendre, owner of Global Empire, d/b/a Global Healthcare Group and Fortune 500 Systems, defrauded the H1-b, Temporary Foreign Worker Visa Program, as well as the Permanent Labor Certification Program, by submitting Labor Condition Applications containing false and misleading information.   Kendre accepted cash payments from foreign workers, who were not employed, in order to produce false pay-roll checks and W-2 wage and tax statements indicating the foreign worker was so employed.   The fake pay-roll checks and W-2 wage and tax statements were submitted in support of H1-b Visa renewals or for adjustments of alien status by way of the Permanent Labor Certification Program.   Foreign workers also paid Kendre a $5K 'Annual Maintenance Fee' for keeping a Visa active with the company as well as a 25% fee for each pay-roll check processed by the company...   few of the individuals for whom he submitted petitions actually performed work for his company.   When there was no work at his company for them, Kendre instructed the foreign workers to secure cash-paying jobs in other locations."

2011-09-20 07:10PDT (10:10EDT) (14:10GMT) (17:10 Jerusalem)
Tuan C. Nguyen _Smart Planet_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
flexible implantable GaN LEDs detect cancer

2011-09-20
Dave Gibson _Examiner_
Fox's Andrea Tantaros parroted myth that illegal aliens only do jobs US citizens don't want to do
"A recent Rasmussen Reports poll found that 61% of Americans believe that if immigration laws were enforced, a result would be less poverty in this country.   (The telephone survey of 1K Adults was conducted on 2011 April 2-3 by Rasmussen Reports, with a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.)   In 2007 July, Rasmussen asked the same question and found that only 45% of Americans held that belief.   The large increase may indicate that Americans are becoming more aware of the impact illegal aliens are having on the high rate of unemployment in this country.   A 2010 study by the Pew Hispanic Center found that while every demographic of native-born workers has lost millions of jobs during this deep recession, foreign-born workers have actually increased their employment numbers."

2011-09-20
Mark J. Perry
Export containers leaving Los Angeles increased in August

2011-09-20
Mark J. Perry
Architecture billings showed highest increase in 4 years

2012-09-20
Robert Zubrin _Washington Times_
Crushing America's inventors: new law will worsen pilfering of intellectual property

2011-09-20 (5771 Elul 21)
Cal Thomas _Jewish World Review_
If Israel is eliminated

2011-09-20 (5771 Elul 21)
Frank J. Gaffney ii _Jewish World Review_
_Diplomacy of September_

2011-09-20 (5771 Elul 21)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Funding the enemy

2011-09-20 (5771 Elul 21)
Warren Richey _Jewish World Review_
11th circuit appeals court says Jose Padilla's sentence was too lenient
"the sentencing judge -- US district judge Marcia Cooke -- had not given enough weight to Padilla's prior criminal history...   'Padilla poses a heightened risk of future dangerousness due to his Al Qaeda training.', Dubina said.   'He is far more sophisticated than an individual convicted of an ordinary street crime.'"

2011-09-20 (5771 Elul 21)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
The Socialist Insecurity Ponzi scheme
"What is at issue is the particular mechanism through which people can be provided for in their retirement years...   The fundamental problem of Social Security is that the irresponsible way its finances are set up, and the changing demographics of the country, mean that there is simply not going to be enough money in its trust fund to pay today's young people what they are legally entitled to, when time comes for them to retire.   The money is just not there, some of it having been spent for unrelated purposes.   Making up a growing shortfall, as baby boomers stop paying into the system as they retire, and start drawing money out of the system, would mean ever-increasing burdens on the [tax-victims] that the [tax-victims] are unlikely to put up with...   finances, which are based on having the first generation's pensions paid with money [extorted] from the second generation -- and the second generation's pensions [extorted from] the next generation, etc.   Any private financial scheme set up in a similar way would be illegal.   That is why Charles Ponzi went to prison."
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "But I shall let the little I have learnt go forth into the day in order that someone better than I may guess the truth, and in his hard work may prove and rebuke my error.   At this I shall rejoice that I was yet a cause whereby such truth has come to light." --- Albrecht Duerer (quoted in Karl Raimund Popper 1962 _Conjectures and Refutations_ pg2)  

 
 

2011-09-21

2011-09-21
_KGO San Francisco CA_
Restaurant workers in SF bay area and Seattle get lowest tips in the USA
"On average, we tip 18.6% -- which may seem like a good amount, but it's tied for lowest with Seattle.   The national average is 19.2%.   BTW, the average meal in San Francisco cost $38.88 -- that's fifth highest in the country."

2011-09-21 05:49PDT (08:49EDT) (12:49GMT) (15:49 Jerusalem)
Toni Bowers _Tech Republic_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
How to deliver criticism effectively

2011-09-21 16:00PDT (19:00EDT) (23:00GMT) (2011-09-22 02:00 Jerusalem)
_Tech Republic_/_CNET_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
Mimes dramatize Google privacy violations

2011-09-21 16:55:15PDT (19:55:15EDT) (23:55:15GMT) (2011-09-22 02:55:15 Jerusalem)
_San Jose Mercury News_
Sili Valley economic indicators for July

2011-09-21
Thomas E. Brewton
Today's leftist hypocrisy

2011-09-21
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Obummer can you spare a dime's worth of common sense?: Discouraging charity
Liz Peek: Fiscal Times
"Specifically, the proposed legislation would reduce to 28% from 35% the amount of donations that someone earning more than $200K (or a family making better than $250K) can deduct from his taxes."

2011-09-21 (5771 Elul 22)
Yossi Klein HaLevi _Jewish World Review_
The non-hawk's case against a forced Palestinian state

2011-09-21 (5771 Elul 22)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
governor Perry's correct about Socialist Insecurity
Town Hall
"In a U.S. Supreme Court case, Helvering v. Davis (1937), the court held that [Socialist Insecurity] is not an insurance program, saying, 'The proceeds of both (employee and employer) taxes are to be paid into the treasury like internal revenue taxes generally, and are not earmarked in any way.'   In a later Supreme Court case, Flemming v. Nestor (1960), the court said, 'To engraft upon the [Socialist Insecurity] system a concept of accrued property rights would deprive it of the flexibility and boldness in adjustment to ever-changing conditions which it demands.'"

2011-09-21 (5771 Elul 22)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Unsound Bites
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "What has been, what ever must be, the consequences of such a sudden and prodgious inflation of the currency?   Business stimulated to the most unhealthy activity;  a vast amount of over production in the mechanic arts;  a vast amount of speculation in property of every kind and name, at fictitious values;  and finally, a vast and terrific crash, when the treacherous and unsustainable basis crumbles beneath the stupendous fabric of credit, and the structure falls to the ground, burying it its ruins thousands who exulted in the fancied security of their elevation.   Men, nowadays, to to bed deeming themselves rich, and wake in the morning to find themselves stripped of even the little they really had.   They count, deluded creatures! on the continued liberality of the banks, whose persuasive entreaties seduced them into the slippery paths of speculation.   But they have now to learn that the banks cannot help them if they would, and would not if they could.   They were free enough to lend their aid when assistance is not needed; but now, when it is indispensable to carry out the projects which would not have been undertaken but for the temptations they held forth, no further resources can be supplied." --- William Leggett & Lawrence H. White 1984 _Democratick Editorials: Essays in Jacksonian Political Economy_ pg93 (quoted in Thomas E. Woods 2009 _Melt-Down_ pp90-91)  

 
 

2011-09-22

2011-09-22 03:53PDT (06:53EDT) (10:53GMT) (13:53 Jerusalem)
Toni Bowers _Tech Republic_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
Employers need new tactics to recruit IT pros

2011-09-22 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT) (15:30 Jerusalem)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
DoL OPA press releases
historical data
DoL regulations
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 350,176 in the week ending September 17, an increase of 21,308 from the previous week.   There were 382,341 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6% during the week ending September 10, unchanged from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,286,967, a decrease of 6,138 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.1% and the volume was 3,930,908.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending September 3 was 6,889,058, a decrease of 256,256 from the previous week.   Extended benefits were available in AL, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, WA, WV, and WI during the week ending September 3.   States reported 2,996,662 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending September 3, a decrease of 70,009 from the prior week.   There were 4,219,465 claimants in the comparable week in 2010.   EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.   [Note that the population used for calculating the "insured unemployment rate" (the divisor) changes
to 132,623,886 beginning 2007-10-06;
to 133,010,953 beginning 2008-01-05;
to 133,382,559 beginning 2008-04-05;
to 133,690,617 beginning 2008-07-05;
to 133,902,387 beginning 2008-10-04;
to 133,886,830 beginning 2009-01-03;
to 133,683,433 beginning 2009-04-04;
to 133,078,480 beginning 2009-07-04;
to 133,823,421 beginning 2009-10-03;
to 131,823,421 beginning 2009-10-17;
to 130,128,328 beginning 2010-01-02;
to 128,298,468 beginning 2010-04-03;
to 126,763,245 beginning 2010-07-03;
to 125,845,577 beginning 2010-09-25;
to 125,560,066 beginning 2011-01-15;
to 125,572,661 beginning 2011-04-02;
to 125,807,389 beginning 2011-07-02.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs

2011-09-22
Stephanie Overby _CIO_/_IDG_
scrutiny of H-1B and B-1 visas is scaring IT bodyshoppers
IT World
"'We have anecdotal evidence from numerous IT [bodyshops] that an increased level of scrutiny on—and rejection rates for—B-1 visas is hindering their ability to conduct internal meetings and training for foreign employees in the U.S.A.', says Peter Bendor-Samuel, CEO of [bodyshop] Everest Group."
But if they have to be brought to the USA for training, that suggests they lack the necessary skills; skills which US citizens do have in order to train them, so the whole H-1B scam is a total fraud.

2011-09-22
Byron York _Washington Examiner_
81% of new jobs in Texas went to newly arrived legal immigrants and illegal aliens
Gus Lubin: Business Insider
Seven A. Camarota & Ashley Monique Webser; Center for Immigration Studies
"'Of jobs created in Texas since 2007, 81% were taken by newly arrived immigrant workers (legal and illegal).', says the report from the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates reduced levels of both legal and illegal immigration.   The report estimates that about 40% of the new jobs were taken by illegal immigrants, while 40% were taken by legal immigrants.   The vast majority of both groups, legal and illegal, were not American citizens.   Native-born Americans filled just 20% of the new jobs in Texas, the report says, even though 'the native born accounted for 69% of the growth in Texas' working-age population'...   56% of newly-arrived immigrants in Texas since 2007 have had a high-school degree or less...   56.8% of newly arrived immigrants had no more than a high school education [and] more than 3M native-born workers in Texas...have no more than a high school education...   43.2% (97K) of newly arrived immigrants who took a job in Texas had at least some college."

2011-09-22 08:06PST (11:06EDT) (15:06GMT) (18:06 Jerusalem)
_Numbers USA_
81% of jobs recently added in TX went to new immigrants

2011-09-22 12:16PDT (15:16EDT) (19:16GMT) (22:16 Jerusalem)
Josh Lederman _The Hill_
Numbers USA plans to air ad targeting excessive and lax immigration, during GOP candidate debate
"'Should Congress give work permits to 1M new legal immigrants again this year, when 20M Americans of all colors, national origins and religions are having trouble finding jobs?', ask the speakers in the ad."

2011-09-22
Alex Campbell _Chronicle of Higher Education_
U of TX to get $27.5M to $50M of tax-victim funding via NSF for new super-computer
U of TX Advanced Computing Center

2011-09-22
Robert Arnold _KPRC Click 2 Houston TX_
Who controls US borders?
"MV's ranch is 60 miles from Texas' border with Mexico in Brooks county.   The trails and brush on the property are well-traveled territory for drug and human smugglers...   MV is the chairman of Texas Border Volunteers, a 300-member organization that helps law enforcement spot drugs and illegal immigrants crossing through the farms and ranches lining the border...   OB said water district employees were fired on while working to repair an intake line at the pumping station on the Rio Grande River.   OB said the shots came from Mexico's side of the border...   The day after the attack, Brand gave his workers permission to carry guns [on the job]...   PH said his workers have also been attacked at a rural pump station helping irrigate farms...   Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples said stories like these are threatening an industry producing $700M worth of fruits, vegetables and beef every year...   there were 978 agricultural thefts last year for a total of $3.6M worth of stolen property...   During his opening remarks, Poe quoted a recent U.S. Border Patrol report citing that '44% of our southern border is under the operational control of the United States'.   'Who controls the other 56%?', asked T.J. Bonner, a retired border patrol agent and retired president of the National Border Patrol Council...   Arizona, New Mexico and California have 14 Border Patrol agents per border mile, while Texas only has 6 agents per border mile."

2011-09-22
Mark J. Perry
Women Outnumber Men for Doctoral Degrees, 142 Women Enrolled in Grad School Per 100 Men, and Women Outnumber Men in 7 Out Of 11 Fields

2011-09-22 (5771 Elul 23)
Victor Davis Hanson _Jewish World Review_
Can Israel survive in the current political climate?
"In the past, wars broke out when the Arab states thought they could win them and stopped when they conceded they could not.   But now a new array of factors -- ever more Islamist enemies of Israel such as Turkey and Iran, ever more likelihood of frontline Arab Islamist governments, ever more fear of Islamic terrorism, ever more unabashed anti-Semitism, ever more petrodollars flowing into the Middle East, ever more chance of nuclear Islamist states, and ever more indifference by Europe and the United States -- has probably convinced Israel's enemies that finally they can win what they could not in 1947, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982 and 2006.   So brace yourself.   The next war against Israel is no longer a matter of if, only when.   And it will be far more deadly than any we've witnessed in quite some time."
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "James Watt, for example, grew up in Grenock, with no formal education, but surrounded by the paraphernalia of sea-going Glasgow, since his father supplied nautical equipment to local ship-builders.   Out of this environment of ships' stores, ropes, pulleys, sextants, quadrants, and compasses, he developed in interest in mathematical and mechanical devices...   but when the university [at Glasgow] found itself heir to a collection of sophisticated astronomical instruments assembled by a local West Indies merchant, it hired him to recalibrate them.   Then he met Joseph Black, and began learning chemistry...   the 2 began exploring a problem that perplexed Black most, the question of what happens to the heat after objects are heated and cooled, or what he called 'latent heat'." --- Arthur Herman 2001 _How the Scots Invented the Modern World_ pp272-273  

 
 

2011-09-23

2011-09-23
Lisa Mascaro _Los Angeles CA Times_
House approved extra funding for FEMA, may not pass in senate

2011-09-23
Karl Henkel _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
OH-PA job expo drew 3,500
"Eric Munnell, operations supervisor at V&M, which is building a $650M mill for pipes used in shale drilling..."

2011-09-23
Heather M. Whitney _Chronicle of Higher Education_
Recommendations for Working with Journalists
"try asking to see only the quotes and important information attributed to you, explaining that you simply want to confirm that it is accurate.   During interviews, don't forget that while you're an expert in your field, the journalist probably is not.   Talk slowly.   Try to avoid jargon.   Pause while the person takes notes.   Make analogies.   An interview with a journalist who is not an expert in your field is more like teaching an intro class on your subject than it is like presenting at a conference.   Send relevant background documents to the journalist ahead of the interview.   This will help the journalist prepare more in-depth questions, give the journalist a chance to identify and ask for more clarification on items that don't make sense to him/her, and will help your answers make more sense during the interview.   Background documents can also save time during interviews.   For example, the journalist can spend less time asking where you earned your Ph.D. and more time clarifying the fine points of the topic at hand...   Make yourself available for follow-up after the interview.   Make sure the journalist knows how to contact you on short notice."

2011-09-23
David North _Center for Immigration Studies_
Students at visa mils were not innocent

2011-09-23
William L. Anderson
Krugman & Warren vs. the Little Red Hen

2011-09-23 (5771 Elul 24)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Israel's path to victory
 
Proposed Bills 2011

2011-09-23
DJIA10,771.48
S&P 500(SPX)1,136.43
NASDAQ(COMP)2,483.23
Nikkei8,741.16
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)1.83%
crude oil(CL1X)$79.85/barrel
natgas(NG11V)$3.70/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RB1V) $2.55/gal
heatingoil(HO1V)$2.80/gal
gold(GC1Z)$1,653.50/ounce
silver(SI1Z)$30.101/ounce
platinum(PL1V)$1,613.20/ounce
palladium(PA1Z)$642.50/ounce
copper(HG1Z)$0.205/ounce
soybeans$12.58/bushel
maize$6.385/bushel
wheat$6.4075/bushel
dollarindex (DXY)78.378
yenperdollar (USDYEN)76.675
dollarspereuro (EURUSD)$1.3503
dollarsperpound (GBPUSD)$1.548
swissfrancsperdollar (USDCHF) 0.9056
indianrupeesperdollar (USDINR) 49.3505
mexicanpesosperdollar (USDMXN) 13.565
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex567.41

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "[John Witherspoon] did chart his students' intellectual progress in other ways.   He encouraged them to reorganize Princeton's 2 student clubs along Scottish lines, as places for intellectual discussion as well as conviviality.   Two of his best students, James Madison, who was just 18, and Arron Burr, stepped in to help.   Witherspoon also organized debates and speeches almost every evening in Nassau Hall, so that Princeton students, as he put it, 'may learn, by early habit, presence of mind and proper pronunciation and gesture in public speaking'.   On those evenings Witherspoon threw the doors open to the public, encouraging Madison, Burr, and the rest to sharpen their wits and loosen their tongues before a large audience on a wide variety of subjects, including political topics -- topics so volatile and controversial (this was at the time of the Boston Massacre) that locals began to get alarmed." --- Arthur Herman 2001 _How the Scots Invented the Modern World_ pg208  

 
 

2011-09-24

2011-09-24
Mark J. Perry
Leading economic indicators increasing

2011-09-24
Mark J. Perry
Household debt ratios have fallen to 1990s levels
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "To Adam Smith, belief in a free market was not an intellectual dogma, but a basic lesson of history.   It was time for rulers to learn from their mistakes, and let commercial society follow its own course." --- Arthur Herman 2001 _How the Scots Invented the Modern World_ pg184  

 
 

2011-09-25

1789-09-25: Bill of Rights proposed by congress to the states

2011-09-24 18:15PDT (2011-09-24 21:15EDT) (2011-09-25 01:15GMT) (2011-09-25 04:15 Jerusalem)
Patrick O'Connor _Wall Street Journal_
Florida straw poll:
Herman Cain 37%
Perry 15%
Romney 14%
Santorum 11%
Paul 10.01%
Gingrich 8.01%
Huntsman 2.01%
Bachmann 1.5%

2011-09-25 07:40PDT (10:40EDT) (14:40GMT) (17:40 Jerusalem)
Kent Faulk _Birmingham AL News_
Charges for illegal re-entry are on the rise in Alabama
"Meraz-Martinez is part of the growing number of people in Alabama and the nation charged with illegal re-entry by an alien previously deported -- a crime that now represents nearly a quarter of all federal criminal prosecutions in the United States.   In Alabama, the number of cases filed by federal prosecutors has more than doubled in the past five years -- from 33 cases during fiscal year 2005-2006 to 78 so far this fiscal year, which ends September 30.   Alabama's numbers, however, are just a tiny fraction of the 35,836 illegal re-entry charges filed nationwide in fiscal year 2010, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.   So far 18,552 new prosecutions have been filed in the first 6 months of the fiscal year, and if the trend continues, that number will eclipse last year's, according to a clearinghouse report...   Since 2000, Meraz-Martinez has been arrested for DUI 5 times by sheriff's deputies in Shelby and Butler counties, and by police in Gardendale, Alabaster and Hueytown.   He also pleaded guilty to theft of property charges in Shelby county in 2000, and later was arrested for probation violations, according to an affidavit by an immigration agent...   More than 40% of the people in Mexico live under that country's poverty level, Threatt said.   'It's (the re-entry charge is) not acting as a deterrent.', he said."

2011-09-25
Josh Flory _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
Local utility districts' perquisites add up

2011-09-25
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
"The Civil War Monitor"... its content and presentation
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "Henry Home was the son of a landed gentleman from Kames, in BerwickShire.   His mother was the grand-daughter of doctor Robert Baillie, principal of Glasgow University and an enthusiastic Covenanter in the 1640s...   Home, who later took the title lord Kames [when he was appointed a judge], may have inherited his ancestor's fire and spirit, but the Kirk's legacy of pessimistic moral austerity left no discenible trace." --- Arthur Herman 2001 _How the Scots Invented the Modern World_ pp73-74  

 
 

2011-09-26

2011-09-26
Brian McLaughlin _Wired_
Neutrinos appear to be travelling faster than light in CERN study
Eryn Brown & Amina Khan: Jewish World Review
"Unlike religion or politics, science is ultimately decided by experiments, done repeatedly in every form.   There are no sacred cows.   In science, 100 authorities count for nothing.   Experiment counts for everything."

2011-09-26 04:57PDT (07:57EDT) (11:57GMT) (14:57 Jerusalem)
Toni Bowers _Tech Republic_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
4 of 10 most disliked jobs are in "IT"

2011-09-26 05:17PDT (08:17EDT) (12:17GMT) (15:17 Jerusalem)
David Gewirtz _Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
Challenge to Amazon: Show the world that the USA values workers

2011-09-26 11:35PDT (14:35EDT) (18:35GMT) (21:35 Jerusalem)
_Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
carbon fiber firm Toho Tenax America dumping another 47 employees

2011-09-26
Michael Cooper _NYTimes_
Latest wave of recession in Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obummer depression most harmful in the South
"Several Southern states -- including South Carolina, whose 11.1% unemployment rate is the fourth highest in the nation -- have higher unemployment rates than they did a year ago.   Unemployment in the South is now higher than it is in the NorthEast and the MidWest, which include Rust Belt states that were struggling even before the recession."

2011-09-26 12:00PDT (15:00EDT) (19:00GMT) (22:00 Jerusalem)
Dorothy Lepkowska _Manchester Guardian_
In the UK newly qualified teachers are finding that there are up to 40% fewer jobs this year. Are we simply turning out too many?

2011-09-26 13:51PDT (16:51EDT) (20:51GMT) (23:51 Jerusalem)
Patrick Thibodeau _Computer World_/_IDG_
Dem, GOP politicians united against US STEM workers
"Among those who asked questions of Obama was Robert Hawley of Charlotte, NC, who told the president that he has had a 22-year career in IT management, 'but I find myself displaced'."

2011-09-26
Phyllis Schlafly _World Net Daily_
US citizenship should not be sold cheaply: Abuse of EB visas
"[Off-shore out-sourcing] is not the only way we are losing American jobs to Communist China.   The Chinese have figured out how to capture jobs inside the U.S.A. by [abusing] our EB-5 visas (employment-based, fifth priority).   Most Americans have never heard of this visa, but the Chinese are now planning to use it to build and run a casino labeled Maryland Live! near the Baltimore airport.   Boasting 3,750 slot machines, this $440M casino will be one of the largest in the country.   Failing to attract enough U.S. investors for this big-time gambling center, the promoters went to Shanghai in September and made a sales pitch to 50 rich Chinese to invest $500K each in this Maryland casino, which seems to offer a profitable return.   The sweetest part of the deal, however, is that the investor's entire family will be rewarded with a set of U.S. green cards valid for life, a system called 'investment immigration'...   Skillful gerrymandering produced a map to label a parking lot in the huge Arundel Mills Mall a 'targeted unemployment area'.   Don't count on the Maryland casino to produce good jobs for Americans.   If the Chinese follow the pattern they used in building the San-Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, low-paid Chinese workers will be imported to build and staff the casino.   To qualify for EB-5 visas, each investor need create only 10 jobs, and they can be 'indirectly created', whatever that means.   And the investment can be withdrawn after only 24 months.   Another EB-5 case involved a dairy farm in South Dakota.   It created some jobs, but 16 of the 17 regular employees turned out to be illegal aliens."

2011-09-26
Carla Marinucci _San Francisco CA Chronicle_
Obummer Bay Area campaign fund-raising tour greeted by protesters
"The groups have expressed deep concern that the wealthy heads of tech firms in Silicon Valley -- many of whom are writing checks to Obama -- are lobbying hard for more H-1B visas to bring in [under-]qualified [guest-workers].   But those executives have not made significant investments in job training programs or created an appreciable number of jobs here at home, said Yolanda Lewis, chief deputy of the Black Business Council.   And, she added, they have failed to integrate their firms by hiring from minority communities, which are under-represented in high tech."

2011-09-26
Robert Stacy McCain _American Spectator_
Herman Cain's magic moment

2011-09-26
Mark J. Perry
Drill, drill, drill = jobs, jobs, jobs in MI
"The Michigan Basin is believed to hold more than 282M barrels of oil, 2T cubic feet of natural gas, and 83M barrels of natural gas liquids."

2011-09-26
William L. Anderson
Krugman: "Save" the euro by inflating it to death

2011-09-26
Harold L. Cole & Lee E. Ohanian _Wall Street Journal_
END of New Deal, and increased productivity spurred recovery
"The economy began to recover following the New Deal because policy changed for the better.   In a 1938 speech President Roosevelt acknowledged that some administration policies were retarding recovery.   Economic policy shifted considerably around this time, and the economy boomed.   Anti-trust enforcement resumed.   The fiercely controversial undistributed profits tax, which was retarding investment, was drastically reduced and then eliminated in 1939.   The sit-down strike was declared illegal, and employers could fire sit-down strikers.   The policy changes in the late 1930s benefited the economy by increasing competition, by bringing wages more in line with productivity, and by improving the incentives for investing.   Many assume that World War II spending single-handedly brought the economy out of the Depression, but nearly half of the increase in non-military hours worked between 1939 and the peak of the war already had occurred by 1941, well before the major war-time spending took place."

2011-09-26
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Contrast between science and warmism

2011-09-26 (5771 Elul 27)
G. Jeffrey MacDonald _Jewish World Review_
Does government do too much? The wrong things? That could depend on your view of the Divine
"The remarkable rise of the tea party's small government agenda, as well as the early success of Republican presidential candidates like Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann, could have their roots -- at least in part -- in the evolving way that religious conservatives in the USA see faith and economics, according to a new survey.   People who strongly believe in an engaged G0d who 'has a plan for me', were much more likely to agree that 'the government does too much' and 'able-bodied people who are out of work shouldn't receive unemployment checks', according to a just-released Baylor University survey.   By contrast, those who believe that G0d is more removed from day-to-day affairs -- or who don't believe in G0d at all -- are more likely to reject small government and economic conservatism."

2011-09-26 (5771 Elul 27)
Arnold Ahlert _Jewish World Review_
No recognition of Israel? No more money
"Speaking to an assembly of 200 senior representatives of the Palestinian community in the United States, Abbas laid his cards on the table.   'They talk to us about the Jewish state, but I respond to them with a final answer: We shall not recognize a Jewish state.', he proclaimed.   It is worth remembering that Abbas doesn't represent all of the Palestinian people.   He represents Fatah, which in this case might be euphemistically referred to as the 'moderate' half of the Palestinian equation.   The not-so-moderate other half? That would be Hamas, a terrorist organization masquerading as a government in the Gaza Strip.   That would be the same Gaza Strip Ariel Sharon gave to the Palestinians in 2006 in return for peace."

2011-09-26 (5771 Elul 27)
Diane Dimond _Jewish World Review_
Is non-government photography a crime?
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "An official national survey in 1795 showed that out of a total population of 1.5M, nearly 20K Scots depended for their livelihood on writing and publishing -- and 10,500 on teaching.   All this meant that despite its relative poverty and small population, Scottish culture had a built-in bias toward reading, learning, and education in general.   In no other European country did education count for so much, or enjoy so broad a base." --- Arthur Herman 2001 _How the Scots Invented the Modern World_ pg21  

 
 

2011-09-27

2011-09-27
Matt Scuffham & Rosalba O'Brien _Fox_/_Reuters_
BAE Systems to dump 3K employees in the UK
"BAE Systems, which has already axed around 15K employees worldwide over the last two years, reported a decline in first half pretax profit in July."

2011-09-27
_USA Today_/_Gannett_/_AP_
Violent Islamics attacked pumping station of natural gas pipe-line from Egypt to Israel and Jordan

2011-09-27 03:24PDT (06:24EDT) (10:24GMT) (13:24 Jerusalem)
Kim Hughes _Treasure Coast FL Palm_
Palm City teen recycles computers
"While volunteering at the Blake Library in Stuart this summer, 15-year-old Alex Forman had a bit of an epiphany: Not everyone has a computer.   For Alex, who has several computers and has run a computer repair and troubleshooting business from his Palm City home for the past 3 years, the idea never occurred to him...   Knowing that a lot of people had computers at home they no longer used, Alex came up with the idea of taking those computers, rehabbing them and donating them to those in need.   He credits his grandfather with coming up with a name for his plan: the Computer Phoenix Project."

2011-09-27
Rachael Rettner _MSFTNBC_
Coffee cuts depression risk in women: Reduces urge to smoke
Melissa Healy: Jewish World Review

2011-09-27
_Fox_/_Live Science_
Why berry makes sour foods taste sweet
"The researchers found that this little berry contains a special protein, called miraculin, which attaches to sweet-sensing taste buds.   It seems to hold on tighter to these receptors when there are acids, which give foods a sour taste, in the mouth as well.   'Miraculin itself is flat in taste.', study researcher Keiko Abe, of the University of Tokyo, told LiveScience in an e-mail.   'Under acidic conditions, MCL [miraculin] changes its molecular structure so that the binding gets much stronger.'...   The miracle fruit, which goes by the scientific names Richardella dulcifica or Synsepalum dulcificum, was [brought to Europe from] tropical West Africa in 1725 by [an explorer who] noticed that the locals chewed the berries before meals."

2011-09-27
Tyler Durden _Zero Hedge_
"Jobs Hard To Get" index highest since 1983 May (with graph)
Anne d'Innocenzio: Boston MA Globe
Lucia Mutikani: Reuters

2011-09-27
Mark J. Perry
American Bodyshopping Association weekly bodyshopping index, 2007 January to 2011 September

2011-09-27
William L. Anderson
Keynesianism: the 75 year old fallacy

2011-09-27
John Steele Gordon _Wall Street Journal_
A short history of income extortion

2011-09-27 (5771 Elul 28)
Tevi Troy _Jewish World Review_
What the White House is telling your Rabbi
"As has become its annual practice, the Obama administration on Thursday convened a conference call with several hundred rabbis and Jewish leaders.   According to a participant on the call, president Obama promoted his jobs bill -- noting that those who have been more blessed should pay their fair share -- and briefed the rabbis on U.S. efforts to counter the push for a declaration of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations [UN].   I was on another such call recently, the purpose of which -- according to the Jewish rabbinical group that invited me -- was to help listeners 'understand the current state of the economy; learn about the impact of the proposed budget cuts on the poor and disenfranchised; consider the consequences of the increasing gap between the rich and poor in America; and, glean homiletic and textual background to help prepare their High Holiday sermons on this timely topic'.   The agenda of the call organizers was clear.   Two speakers, one of whom was a (non-Jewish) Democratic senator, spoke of our country's need for 'raising revenue', the new code phrase for tax increases.   When I suggested that we separate politics from spirituality, a third participant pushed back, saying 'the Torah is a political document'.   A curious assertion in a crowd that would quickly denounce any invocation of the Bible in political discussions...   The mandate of religious leaders is to convey to their communities spiritual encouragement and the wisdom of the ages.   For the other stuff, there's cable news."

2011-09-27 (5771 Elul 28)
Dennis Prager _Jewish World Review_
The Palestinians want peace... just not with Israel

2011-09-27 (5771 Elul 28)
Mark Clayton _Jewish World Review_
Stuxnet attacked US utilities: Why is the warning being ignored?

2011-09-27 (5771 Elul 28)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Superman vs. Warm Body
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "[There is] nothing sinister in so arranging one's affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible.   Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the laws demand [or even that much]." --- judge Learned Hand in Helvering v. Gregory (quoted in Amity Shlaes 2007 _The Forgotten Man_ pg206)  

 
 

2011-09-28

2011-09-28
Eric Berridge _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
Want to roll back off-shoring? Create jobs. Train our folks

2011-09-28
Ben Baden _US News & World Report_
15 stunning employment indicators
graphs

2011-09-28 01:00PDT (04:00EDT) (08:00GMT) (11:00 Jerusalem)
Carly Harrington _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
Personal private patient data stolen
"The information, which did include Summit account numbers, dates of birth, primary physician's names, names of hospitals and dates of discharges, pertained to those who see Knox County physicians at Emory Family Practice, Summit Medical Group at Deane Hill and Northshore Drive, Fountain City Family Physicians and Dr. Kenneth Reese...   The medical group has 220 physicians who care for 300K patients in 10 East Tennessee counties."

2011-09-28
Denise Dick _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Taft Elementary school's improvement attributed to teachers, family atmosphere... and gimmicks
"In Buds and Blossoms, older students read to younger ones.   In Relay for Learning, children race to be the first to answer a question correctly.   They also focused on atten-dance, said Lois Thornton, behavioral specialist.   The school offered incentives to get students to come to school such as lunch at an area restaurant...   If a student is chronically absent, the principal visits the home to determine the reason...   Children need to know that school is a safe place, that someone there cares about them and wants them to do well, she said."

2011-09-28
_Cumberland PA Sentinel_
Army Heritage and Education Center to host Civil War winter camp
AHEC
Heritage Trail

2011-09-28
Quin Hillyer _Center for Individual Freedom_
Federal government trying to criminalize rightful activities

2011-09-28
David Catron _American Spectator_
Herman Cain, cancer, and Obummercare

2011-09-28
_PipeLine News_
Broward county FL GOP rejects application of CAIR stooge Nezar Hamze for membership
Christian Post
Miami FL Herald
Clarion Project: Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Investigative Project: CAIR-Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood links
Discover the Networks: Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
anti-CAIR
Discover the Networks: Muslim Brotherhood (MB)

2011-09-28
Howie Carr _Boston MA Herald_
Same old song ignoring/condoning illegal alien invasion

2011-09-28 16:11PDT (19:11EDT) (23:11GMT) (2011-09-29 02:11 Jerusalem)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
Bernanke says unemployment is a national crisis

2011-09-28
Mark J. Perry
Canadian vs. US home prices

2011-09-28
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
"Green" companies are not evergreens

2011-09-28 (5771 Elul 29)
R' David Aaron _Jewish World Review_
Rosh Ha Shanah and Yom Kippur: Who is the Divine to Judge?

2011-09-28 (5771 Elul 29)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
For the New Year... secular Jewry must learn to embrace true friends and fiercely fight enemies
"at the UN...Abbas [tried to erase] Jewish history from the Land of Israel, denied Israel's right to exist and pledged his commitment to establish a racist Palestinian state ethnically cleansed of all Jews.   Many of Abbas's supporters in Ramallah held posters of US President Barack Obama.   On them Obama was portrayed as a monkey.   The caption read, 'The First Jewish President of the United States'.   The fact that the Palestinians from Fatah and Hamas alike are Jew hating racists should surprise no one who has been paying a modicum of attention to the Palestinian media and general culture.   Since the PA was established in 1994 in the framework of the peace process between Israel and the PLO, it has used the media organs, schools and mosques it controls to spew out a constant flow of anti-Semitic propaganda.   Much of the Jew hating bile is indistinguishable from anti-Jewish propaganda published by the Nazis."

2011-09-28 (5771 Elul 29)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
The financial mess in the USA and Europe
"If European governments and the U.S. congress ceased the practice of giving people what they have not earned, budgets would be more than balanced.   For government to guarantee a person a right to goods and services he has not earned, it must diminish someone else's right to what he has earned, simply because governments have no resources of their very own.   The first order of business in reaching a solution to the financial mess in Europe and the U.S.A. must be the recognition that governments have been doing a class of unsustainable things, mostly giving people special privileges and things that they have not earned...   It turns out that if Congress taxed away our entire $14T 2011 GDP and put it in the bank, it would just barely cover [Socialist Insecurity] and Medicare liabilities."

2011-09-28 (5771 Elul 29)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Politics vs. Economics
"They say 'all politics is local'.   But economic decisions impact the whole economy and reverberate internationally.   That is why politicians' meddling with the economy creates so many disasters.   The time horizon of politics seldom reaches beyond the next election.   But, in economics, when an oil company invests in oil explorations today, the oil they eventually find and process may not make its way to market and earn a profit until it is sold as gasoline a decade from now."
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "Few merchant fortunes seem to have survived many generations; more permanent were the families with a tradition of religious learning.   They were an important class numerically: in Cairo by the 18th century, 'ulama in the broadest sense, including all those who exercised functions in law, education or worship, are estimated to have numbered as man as 4K out of an active male population of 50K.   In the Arab cities they had a character different from those of Istanbul.   The higher 'ulama of Istanbul were very much a part of the machine of government, trained in imperial schools, appointed into the imperial service and hoping to rise to high positions in it.   Those of the Arab cities were of local provenance, however.   Many of them were of ancient lineage, going back to Mamluk or even earlier times, and some of them claiming (not always with reason) to be sayyids, descendants of the Prophet." --- Albert Hourani 1992 April _An History of the Arab Peoples_ pp 236-237  

 
 

2011-09-29

2011-09-29 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT) (15:30 Jerusalem)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
DoL OPA press releases
historical data
DoL regulations
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 324,940 in the week ending September 24, a decrease of 28,880 from the previous week.   There were 372,551 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5% during the week ending September 17, a decrease of 0.1 percetage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,187,921, a decrease of 118,799 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.0% and the volume was 3,810,921.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending September 10 was 6,984,897, an increase of 95,242 from the previous week.   Extended benefits were available in AL, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, WA, WV, and WI during the week ending September 10.   States reported 3,036,635 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending September 10, an increase of 39,376 from the prior week.   There were 3,965,778 claimants in the comparable week in 2010.   EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.   [Note that the population used for calculating the "insured unemployment rate" (the divisor) changes
to 132,623,886 beginning 2007-10-06;
to 133,010,953 beginning 2008-01-05;
to 133,382,559 beginning 2008-04-05;
to 133,690,617 beginning 2008-07-05;
to 133,902,387 beginning 2008-10-04;
to 133,886,830 beginning 2009-01-03;
to 133,683,433 beginning 2009-04-04;
to 133,078,480 beginning 2009-07-04;
to 133,823,421 beginning 2009-10-03;
to 131,823,421 beginning 2009-10-17;
to 130,128,328 beginning 2010-01-02;
to 128,298,468 beginning 2010-04-03;
to 126,763,245 beginning 2010-07-03;
to 125,845,577 beginning 2010-09-25;
to 125,560,066 beginning 2011-01-15;
to 125,572,661 beginning 2011-04-02;
to 125,807,389 beginning 2011-07-02.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs

2011-09-29
_Bidness Software Alliance_
2011 "IT industry" competitiveness index: USA is #1

2011-09-29 12:43:45PDT (15:43:45EDT) (19:43:45GMT) (22:43:45 Jerusalem)
Peter Svensson _San Jose CA Mercury News_/_AP_
4 largest cellular phone firms regularly engage in massive privacy violations
David Kravets: Wired

2011-09-29
Jay D. Homnick _American Spectator_
Come Judgment Day: Rosh Ha Shanah this year puts recent crime news in rare perspective

2011-09-29
Reid Smith _American Spectator_
10 greatest threats to USA security

2011-09-29
Mark Levin _The Right Scoop_
Obummer lacks leftist votes in senate for his "jobs" bill
Bill Cameron: WLS

2011-09-29
_World Net Daily_
Herman Cain: If I win, I'll prosecute CAIR: We can't do business with terrorists
Clarion Project: Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Investigative Project: CAIR-Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood links
Discover the Networks: Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
anti-CAIR
Discover the Networks: Muslim Brotherhood (MB)

2011-09-29
"Everett"
bio of Herman Cain
" He's also a computer guy, a banker guy, and a rocket scientist guy.   Here's his bio: Bachelors degree in Mathematics.   Masters degree in Computer Science.   Mathematician for the Navy, where he worked on missile ballistics (making him a rocket scientist).   Computer systems analyst for Coca-Cola.   VP of Corporate Data Systems and Services for Pillsbury... before reaching the age of 35...   Took charge of Pillsbury's 400 Burger King restaurants in the Philadelphia area, which were the company's poorest performers in the country.   Spent the first 9 months learning the business from the ground up, cooking hamburger and yes, cleaning toilets.   After 3 years he had turned them into the company's best performers.   Godfather's Pizza CEO.   Was asked by Pillsbury to take charge of their Godfather's Pizza chain (which was on the verge of bankruptcy).   He made it profitable in 14 months.   In 1988 he led a buy-out of the Godfather's Pizza chain from Pillsbury..."

2011-09-29
Terence P. Jeffrey _Cybercast News Service_
pres. Obummer says ethics was never his favorite subject

2011-09-29
Mark J. Perry
Rare earth mineral prices fell 41% as mining companies and buyers switch to alternatives

2011-09-29
Mark J. Perry
Effective extortion rates on $100K gross income

2011-09-29
Mark J. Perry
Crazy airline-ticket pricing

2011-09-29
Mark J. Perry
USA weekly inter-modal cargo transportation

2011-09-29
Mark J. Perry
20 countries that have the most debt

2011-09-29
Mark J. Perry
New petroleum extraction technologies are reshaping international markets

2011-09-29
Mark J. Perry
Oil Companies Indicted for Bird Deaths While Wind Companies Get a Pass

2011-09-29
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Leftist pols attempted to falsify federal government debt increases
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "I commend you not to learn your sciences from books unaided, even though you may trust your ability to understand.   Resort to professors for each science you seek to acquire; and should your professor be limited in his knowledge take all that he can offer, until you find another more accomplished than he.   You must venerate and respect him...   One should read histories, study biographies and the experiences of nations...   He who has not endured the stress of study will not taste the joy of knowledge..." --- 'Abd al-Latif (a legal and medical scholar of Baghdad, 1162 or 1163 to 1231; Albert Hourani 1992 April _An History of the Arab Peoples_ pg 165)  

 
 

2011-09-30

2011-09-29 19:58PDT (22:58EDT) (02:58GMT) (05:58 Jerusalem)
Ann Keil _WXIN_
US Dept. of Injustice considering suit against Indiana law to enforce immigration laws
"A spokesman with Washington, DC-based Federation for American Immigration Reform [FAIR] said the new Indiana law is a step in the right direction.   'It makes it difficult to live, work, travel, access benefits, get in-state tuition and, or drivers' licenses for illegal aliens so that means there will be less incentive for those coming.', said Bob Dane, a FAIR spokesman."

2011-09-30
Pamela Geller _Human Events_
Victory for truth and free speech over Islamic attempts at supremacism

2011-09-30
Liz Klimas _The Blaze_
Argonne National Lab shows Diebold/Sequoia voting machines still easily hacked

2011-09-30
Liz Klimas _The Blaze_/_AP_
DHS says cyber-attacks on USA are on the rise

2011-09-30 08:44PDT (11:44EDT) (15:44GMT) (18:44 Jerusalem)
Ruth Mantell _MarketWatch_
UMich consumer sentiment index rising from 55.7 in August to 57.8 in early September to 59.4 in late September
Federal Reserve Board St. Louis

2011-09-30 08:45PDT (11:45EDT) (15:45GMT) (18:45 Jerusalem)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
Incomes, savings down in USA

2011-09-30 10:17PDT (13:17EDT) (17:17GMT) (20:17 Jerusalem)
Ed Marcum _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_
computer hardware recycling firm expanding, hiring
"Scott Recycling recycles computers, hard drives, monitors, TV sets, electric cable and various home electronics.   In addition to Knoxville, TN the company has locations in Chattanooga, TN; Pulaski, VA; and Chillicothe, OH."

2011-09-30 11:01PDT (14:01EDT) (18:01GMT) (21:01 Jerusalem)
Tyler Treadway _Treasure Coast FL Palm_
Foreign snails attacking Florida
"While Miami's giant African land snails grab headlines for eating everything in sight, including houses, and possibly transmitting diseases to humans, the Treasure Coast has its own slimy-trailed slitherer to contend with: channeled apple snails.   On Friday, state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and other state and federal officials toured areas in Coral Gables where giant African land snails, which can damage plaster and stucco on houses and often carry a parasitic worm that can lead to meningitis in humans, have been found despite a 10-year, $1M slugfest to eradicate the pest.   The Treasure Coast's channeled apple snails may not be as attention-grabbing as their cousins to the south because they live in water in rural areas, but they're menacing mollusks nonetheless.   The non-native channeled apple snails, which can grow to the size of a softball, are causing serious problems for their much smaller (about the size of a quarter) native cousins, Florida apple snails; and that's causing problems right up the food chain to the already-endangered snail kite."

2011-09-30 14:22:34PDT (17:22:34EDT) (21:22:34GMT) (2011-10-01 00:22:34 Jerusalem)
Matthew Daly _San Jose CA Mercury News_/_AP_
Bankrupt corrupt federal government approved $5G more in unconstitutional solar power loans which could cost tax-victims as much as $6G

2011-09-30 15:25PDT (18:25EDT) (22:25GMT) (2011-10-01 01:25 Jerusalem)
Mark Steyn _Investor's Business Daily_
What could they be thinking!?!?
"Hard statism is usually murmured in soft, soothing, beguiling terms: Regulation is about cleaner air, healthier restaurants, safer children's toys.   Sounds so nice.   But federal regulation alone sucks up 10% of GDP.   That's to say, Americans take the equivalent of the Canadian economy and toss it down the toilet just in complying with federal paper-work.   Obama and the great toxic alphabet soup of federal regulation -- EPA, OSHA, SEC, DHSS -- want to take that 10% and crank it up to 12%, 14%, 15%."

2011-09-30
_Technology Digital_
TechCompanyPay reveals, compares pay of tech firms
TechCompanyPay

2011-09-30
_abc_/_AP_
Hispanic students vanishing from Alabama schools
USA Today/Gannett
NY NewsDay

2011-09-30
Robert McGarvey _InternetEvolution_/_UBM_
UN trying to get strangle-hold on Internet
 
Proposed Bills 2011

2011-09-30
DJIA10,913.38
S&P 500(SPX)1,131.42
NASDAQ(COMP)2,415.40
Nikkei8,700.29
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)1.94%
crude oil(CL1X)$79.20/barrel
natgas(NG11X)$3.67/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RB1V) $2.63/gal
heatingoil(HO1V)$2.79/gal
gold(GC1Z)$1,622.30/ounce
silver(SI1Z)$30.08/ounce
platinum(PL1V)$1,519.40/ounce
palladium(PA1Z)$614.55/ounce
copper(HG1Z)$0.196875/ounce
soybeans$11.80/bushel
maize$5.93/bushel
wheat$6.09/bushel
dollarindex (DXY)78.412
yenperdollar (USDYEN)77.105
dollarspereuro (EURUSD)$1.3395
dollarsperpound (GBPUSD)$1.5588
swissfrancsperdollar (USDCHF) 0.9068
indianrupeesperdollar (USDINR) 49.085
mexicanpesosperdollar (USDMXN) 13.9055
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex557.26

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

  "In the United States, the states regulated abuses (as early as 1847 in NY), but the federal government operated only to slow down the movement and ultimately to turn it off.   In Europe it is under continuous government surveillance and control...   When a man did stay 5 years [in the USA], and learned the language, he was eligible to become an American citizen and to vote on a par with the native born.   This was the expectation.   In Europe it is the exception." --- C.P. Kindleberger "Mass Migrations Then and Now" _Foreign Affairs_ vol43 #4 pp 647-658 (quoted in in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 151)  

 
 



 
Proposed Bills 2011


Congressional candidate fund-raising, expenditures, and debt
 

USA Over-Population Clock
World + USA Over-Population Clocks
Jimbo Wales's WikiPedia on World Over-Population
 

  "Their system of training was far from merely local or provincial.   It rested on practices of Islamic learning that were centuries old.   F.H. El Masri has described it: 'After having attained a basic knowledge of the religion, reading and writing in boyhood, the aspirant scholar (talib) would then travel about to learned men and stay with them till he had perfected with each the particular science in which that scholar had gained his fame; having completed his studies to the satisfaction of a master, he would then be given a license (ijaza) to teach the subject he had been taught, on the authority of the master.   In this way the talib would go round to collect ijazas and thus establish fame as a recognized scholar." --- Basil Davidson 1991 _Africa in History_ pg 252  

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