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updated: 2018-04-18
 

"The north of Scotland and the Isles produced families of professional soldiery of Norse-Gaelic stock and these the Irish chiefs imported and settled on their lands.   Highly specialized and heavily armed, they were known as 'galloglasses' ('galloglaigh', or 'foreign troops').   Another and even grimmer ally fought on the Irish side; in 1348-1349 the Black Death struck Ireland and decimated the colony.   By the early years of the 15th century the king's writ ran only in the walled towns and in the English 'Pale', a narrow strip about 30 miles long by 20 deep along the east coast, immediately surrounding Dublin." --- Maire O'Brien & Conor Cruise O'Brien 1972 _A Concise History of Ireland_ pg47

 
  need to do the calendar

2011 Dec

U	M	T	W	R	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

 

"John Bouvier, a prestigious lawyer in Philadelpha during the Jacksonian era, was the 'legal protege' of the equally eminent John Kennedy!" --- Edward Pessen 1986 _The Log Cabin Myth: The Social Backgrounds of the Presidents_ pg123

 
 
 

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

2011-12-01

2011-12-01
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring News-Letter_
worker quality matters -- a lot
 
Some years ago, career adviser Marty Nemko had me as a guest on his radio show, to discuss H-1B.   He was friendly enough, but also seemed to harbor a pro-employer bias, odd in view of the fact that he makes his living by advising workers who typically are having trouble finding a good job.   Well, it turned out that his bias was against me, due to my support of Affirmative Action.   (For the record, my support of that concept is middling, not dogmatic.)   Nemko viewed my criticism of H-1B as amounting to advocating hiring preference for mediocre and lazy Americans over brilliant and ambitious foreigners.   A huge leap of reasoning, of course, but he seemed to see me that way.   (See my account of my exchange with Nemko.)
 
I sometimes hear others mention such a view, so I thought of that when reading DT's November 27 blog where he praises me for calling for high standards to be upheld in STEM education.   In reading DT's statement, "Matloff is absolutely right to keep the bar high", I couldn't help but wonder if he was saying, "EVEN Matloff says we should keep the bar high".   Probably not, but some see me that way.
 
Yet contrary to Nemko's perception, and those of some others, I've always called for high standards.   I've decried, for instance, America's current trend of slipping toward a rote memory style of "education", like [Red China's] (ironically while [Red China] is trying to move away from that kind of thing).   In the work-place, I've often cited studies that find that there is a 10-to-1 ratio in productivity between the best programmers and the weakest (some studies have found an even higher figure), as opposed to the "commodities" image many employers have of programmers.
 
Most importantly, I've argued that the H-1B program is resulting in a LOWERING of standards.   When employers hire on price rather than on quality, that is the inevitable consequence.   I've repeatedly bemoaned the fact that many of our most talented American students in STEM, our own "best and brightest", see that career prospects are dim in STEM fields, and move to where the money is -- Wall Street, medicine, law, etc. -- leaving STEM to the less-talented in many cases.   (And I've also shown statistically that the foreign workers in STEM are no more talented on average than the Americans in the field, though I strongly support the immigration of those workers who really are outstanding talents.)
 
The problem with people like Nemko is that they've drunk the Koolaid brewed for them by the PR people in industry and others with vested interests in painting this image that "Johnnie can't do math".   Thus it's easy to believe that H-1B critics like me are out to protect weak, slothful, innumerate Americans from losing their jobs to foreign geniuses.   The PR people know that this sells, whether it's true or not.
 
But as noted above, employers prefer the cheap (H-1Bs or young Americans) to the talented anyway.   Consider this passage in a November 28 blog in JavaWorld.
 
Ask any project manager and they'll say there's not enough talent from top-tier computer science departments.   They may go so far as to say they would hire a new CS major from a top school without reading the résumé.   But ask this same desperate project manager about a middle-aged programmer with a degree from the same school, and they'll hesitate and start mumbling about getting back to you later.
 
Indeed, it isn't unheard of to find [executives and lobbyists of] major technology companies complaining to congress that they can't find Americans capable of programming, all while defending themselves in age-discrimination law-suits from older programmers with stellar résumés and degrees from top universities.
 
Well, praise to the Koolaid-free of the world!   The author here is right on the mark.   I personally know of 4 MIT grads, all middle-aged, people of proven track records in the work-place, yet who are either unemployed or under-employed.   I once wrote of an engineer with degrees from Penn and Cornell, but who was rejected from Texas Instruments several times.   When I asked a TI recruiter how that could happen, she said matter of factly, with no hint of irony or even cynicism in her voice, "TI doesn't like people who are that smart."
 
And NO, it's not because the middle-aged Americans "don't have the latest skills", one of the industry lobbyists' favorite lines.   See my University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform article (pdf) for the long answer on that; see the Americans forced to train their foreign replacements for the short answer.   And as I've pointed out often, if an engineer is not capable of becoming productive in a new skill, say a new programming language, in a couple of weeks through self learning, you shouldn't hire that person, with or without the skills you want; talent matters that much.
 
Finally, see the recent essay, by Richard Vedder on maintaining high standards in STEM education (prompted by the same NYT article I had commented on, leading to DT's remark).
 
In addition to a theme similar to mine -- he notes aptly, "[STEM courses] take a lot of thinking, a lot of time to master concepts, occasionally a good bit of frustration, etc." -- Vedder discusses the "shortage claims" that seemed to be the point of that NYT piece:
 
...for well over half of a century, STEM advocates have cried "shortages of key personnel": and "crisis": when none really existed, showing a lamentable lack of scientific objectivity and intellectual honesty in the process...
 
Ever since I entered college 2 score and 13 years ago, I have heard about shortages in what are now termed the STEM disciplines and how this imperils American economic growth and/or national security.   About the time of Sputnik (1957), Nobel prize winning economist George Stigler and David Blank wrote a monograph for the National Bureau of Economic Research [NBER] on The Demand and Supply of Scientific Personnel that dared to say that, based on wage data, there was no shortage of scientific personnel.   The Princeton University Press on the urging of an engineering professor demanded the offending statement be removed, and Stigler and Blank refused, forcing them to produce the book elsewhere (see Stigler's _Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist_ pp.172-73 for more details).   BTW, the "shortage" of the 1950s did not keep America from continuing to achieve economic and scientific preeminence (ever hear of immigration?).   Using a similar approach, my reading of the data today is that the alleged shortage is, at the minimum, highly exaggerated.
 
There may be a slight misstep in there regarding immigration, but that anecdote about Stigler and his coathor is wonderful.   Of course, that occurred back in the days when "Koolaid" simply meant a kids' summer drink.   Things are far worse nowadays.
 
Norm
---30---

2011-12-01
Michael Lind _USA Prospect_
the cost of pseudo-free trade: every president asserts that the next non-constitutional executive agreement will turn the USA into an export power-house, but that is just not true
"Any renaissance of [USA] manufacturing must begin by fundamentally reversing our trade policies -- both in general and in particular toward [Red China]. Over the past 2 decades, leading USA manufacturers, both the venerable (like General Electric/GE) and the new (like Apple), have off-shored millions of jobs -- by one recent estimate 2.9M -- to [Red China] to take advantage of the cheap labor, generous state subsidies, [lighter environmental regulation] and low currency valuation that are linch-pins of [Red China's] mercantilist development strategy..."

2011-12-01 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (13:30GMT) (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 370,616 in the week ending November 26, a decrease of 69,665 from the previous week.   There were 412,922 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5% during the week ending November 19, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points from the prior week's unrevised rate.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,152,577, a decrease of 222,737 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 2.9% and the volume was 3,665,787.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending November 12 was 7,005,495, an increase of 276,832 from the previous week.   Extended benefits were available in AL, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, WA, WV, and WI during the week ending November 12.   States reported 2,972,894 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending November 12, an increase of 76,254 from the prior week.   There were 3,944,168 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;
to 126,188,733 beginning 2011-10-01.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs

2011-12-01
Peter H. Milliken _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Amish gang suspects remain in jail after Youngstown hearing
"A U.S. magistrate has ordered that 4 Ohio Amish men charged with committing and conspiring to commit religiously motivated beard-cutting assaults remain jailed pending trial...   The offenses, in which Amish men's beards were forcibly cut, were described by the U.S. attorney as hate crimes.   In the Amish religion, a man's beard and head hair are sacred.   The attacks, suspected to have stemmed from a religious dispute, occurred between September and November in Mesopotamia Township in northern Trumbull county, and in Holmes, Carroll and Jefferson counties, the FBI said."

2011-12-01
Karl Henkel _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
YSU & VAM put wham in Natural Gas Conference and Expo (with map, videos)

2011-12-01
Douglas Stanglin _USA Today_/_Gannett_
Strippers have easy access to federal maximum security prison in Miami
Free Republic
Michael E. Miller: Miami New Times
London Daily Mail
NY Daily News
FindLaw
ClearChannel
"Multiple attorneys interviewed by Riptide say the FDC visitor rooms have been taken over by South American pole dancers posing as paralegals for wealthy drug lords inside.   Lawyers hired by the accused narco dons allegedly list the scantily clad women as 'legal assistants', and the FDC lets them in."

2011-12-01
_Staffing Industry Analysts_
Wages for STEM bodies shopped are up 6.85% in 2011Q3: no word on total compensation

2011-12-01 08:27PST (11:27EST) (16:27GMT) (18:27 Jerusalem)
Jason de Bruyn _Dallas TX Business Journal_
CGC: 42,474 lay-offs announced
Cincinnati OH Business Courier
James O'Toole & Aaron Smith: CNN
Click On Detroit
Ron Paul forums
MSFT NBC
KFOR Oklahoma City
Central CA Valley Business Times
Linda Young: Gant Daily/AHN
Challenger at Work
18,508 government, 13,500 from USAF (180,881 year-to-date)
1,681 financial (56,191 ytd)
2,285 retail (48,338 ytd)

2011-12-01
_Billings MT Gazette_/_AP_
Federal and Montana agencies dead-locked as bison continue to roam, spreading brucellosis
"The park's proposal comes after government agencies and hunters killed or removed more than 3,600 bison over the past decade under a federal-state agreement intended to prevent brucellosis transmission to cattle.   The disease causes pregnant animals to miscarry.   Largely eradicated across the U.S.A., brucellosis persists in Yellowstone-area wildlife including elk and bison.   Federal sanctions against states that have infected livestock have eased in recent years, paving the way for changes in how bison are managed.   Allowing bison into Montana's 75K-acre Gardiner Basin, just north of Yellowstone, is considered key to the park's proposal to more closely manage the animals through hunting.   Yellowstone officials also want to ship some diseased bison to slaughter to reduce the prevalence of brucellosis among the park's 2 herds."

2011-12-01
Christopher Lowery _Daily Illini_
major MCAT revision is in the works
"The Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT, will see in 2015 some of the most significant revisions in a generation, including additional content that will lengthen the exam by 2 hours...   Koetje said since the last major change to the exam in 1991, medicine has changed significantly in the areas of medical science, medical education and its socio-cultural aspects...   Additions to the test include questions in the areas of upper level science, social and behavioral sciences, and critical analysis and reasoning, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges' web-site."

2011-12-01
David North _Center for Immigration Studies_
Yet another tunnel under the border at Otay Mesa

2011-12-01
Quin Hillyer _American Spectator_
The ever-worse establishment media

2011-12-01
W. James Antle iii _American Spectator_
Liberty and national security

2011-12-01
Kevin Mooney _American Spectator_
Obummer injustice department favors voting fraud

2011-12-01
Mark J. Perry
November car sales showing signs of jittery recovery

2011-12-01 (5772 Kislev 05)
Elliot B. Gertel _Jewish World Review_
Albom's "Have a Little Faith" has stirrings of response to new-age-spirituality
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-12-02

2011-12-02
Ross Kaminsky _American Spectator_
Stern idiocy

2011-12-02
Rishawn Biddle _Amercan Spectator_
Taking over lousy schools
"It's not just families in such epicenters of school failure such as Detroit that are up in arms.   28% of fourth-graders in suburban districts are functionally illiterate, as are 1 in every 5 12th-grade young white men from college-educated households.   As the George W. Bush Institute noted in its comparison of America's public schools against those in the rest of the world, only 30% of kids attending the tony schools in suburban Fairfax County, VA, outside of DC, would score higher in math than counterparts in Singapore.   Meanwhile parents, regardless of wealth or where they live, find that they are often treated like afterthoughts and worse in the very schools their kids attend (and they subsidize for a pretty penny).   Parents at Leesburg Elementary School in Virginia's Loudoun County, for example, found themselves in a fracas with the school's principal after he refused to provide them better accounting of the funds they helped raise and tell them what the school was doing to improve student achievement."

2011-12-02
Doug Bandow _American Spectator_
Out-foxing the San Francisco nanny-state

2011-12-02
George H. Wittman _American Spectator_
Flickers of progress

2011-12-02
Joe Guzzardi _Californians for Population Stabilization_
US House sells American workers down the river... again
"HR3012 would eliminate the current law that limits employment-based visas to any one country to 7% of the total number of such visas given out...   HR3012 represents the worst of all worlds.   Not only does it put added pressure on unemployed Americans, especially in the high tech sector, but it opens up the door for something else America doesn't need -- increased population via the family visa categories.   Senator Charles Schumer, D-NY, who heads the Senate Judiciary immigration panel and is one of Congress' biggest immigration enthusiasts, promised to move Chaffetz's bill as quickly as possible in the Senate."

2011-12-02
Nannette Miranda _KGO San Francisco CA_
price for California's NIGHTMARE act going up with tuition
"The non-partisan Legislative Analyst now pegs the cost to taxpayers at $65M a year when fully-implemented -- nearly 3 times the original low-end estimate.   It's difficult to pin-point an actual number because [U of CA and CA State U system] tuition rates keep rising."

2011-12-02
Frank Donoghue _Chronicle of Higher Education_
Plagiarism
"1) plagiarism has gotten much easier to commit in the age of the Internet; and 2) students currently in the under-graduate pipe-line either understand intellectual property imperfectly or they simply don't care about it [let alone respect it]."

2011-12-02
Robert J. Samuelson _Washington DC Post_
The illfare state's day of reckoning

2011-12-02
Mark J. Perry
Red China's currency policy

2011-12-02
Mark J. Perry
Toygaroo, the Netflix of toys

2011-12-02
Mark J. Perry
Friday night gallimaufry

2011-12-02
William L. Anderson
Keynesian nut-cases still insist we can "save" the euro through inflation and financial fraud

2011-12-02 (5772 Kislev 06)
R' David Aaron _Jewish World Review_
Real love means embracing conflict
"Clearly, this was no mere wrestling match, but a holy struggle.   The Talmud states that the dust they kicked up, while fighting, ascended to the Holy Throne.   IOW, Jacob was willing to wrestle with the forces of evil, knowing that the struggle itself is a Divine mission meant to augment his love for G-d and reveal G-d's oneness.   Although it entailed having to roll around in the dust of the earth, soiling himself with the dirt of this world and risking casualties, Jacob knew that ultimately he was kicking up the dust for the sake of the Holy Throne.   Although Jacob defeated the forces of evil, he did not escape unharmed.   The angel dislocated Jacob's hip in the course of his struggle, but this was a price he was willing to pay for the ultimate victory.   His injury teaches us that engaging in war with evil indeed causes damages, but the final victory of love makes the battle worth fighting.   The Kabbalah teaches that evil is really working for the G-d.   Its job is to try and seduce us, but it purpose is only to help us reach an even greater awareness of our inseparable love for G-d.   The purpose of evil is to awaken within in us a greater consciousness of our loving bond with G-d by tempting us to stray from G-d.   Only by struggling with that temptation do we truly appreciate the profound connection and love we share with G-d.   Jacob could have remained pure and uncomplicated.   He could have sat in his tent unblemished by the struggles of the outside world.   However, Jacob accepted the challenge as an integral part of serving and loving G-d.   He knew that the risk of sin is the price of serving G-d with love.   Angels cannot sin, since they have no urge to do wrong and, therefore, no free choice.   But we can violate G-d's will, and, therefore, we can also experience fulfilling G-d's will with love.   Love is a choice and in order for there to be a choice there has to be a challenge."

2011-12-02 (5772 Kislev 06)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
The real war in Iran
"Thankfully, [Obummer's] abandonment of the traditional US role as the leader of the free world has not prevented Western governments and regional forces for freedom from acting in their common interests...   this week's blast in Isfahan.   The article referred to the bombed installation as a 'uranium enrichment facility'.   But there is no uranium enrichment facility at Isfahan.   Rather there is a uranium conversion facility.   As the news analysis web-site 'The Missing Peace', explained, a UCF is an installation where yellowcake is converted into uranium hexafluoride, or UF6.   In Iran, the UF6 from Isfahan is sent to Natanz, where it is enriched.   While Isfahan's UCF may be a reasonable target in an all-out attack on Iran's nuclear program, it is not a vital installation.   According to American military analyst J.E. Dyer, it would not be a priority target for Western governments whose primary goal is to neutralize Iran's nuclear weapons program."

2011-12-02 (5772 Kislev 06)
Diana West _Jewish World Review_
latrine direction directive is another step on the path to Islamification of the USA

2011-12-02 (5772 Kislev 06)
Hannah Allam _Jewish World Review_
Egypt's parliament isn't Muslim Brotherhood's first win this year

2011-12-02
Neal Karlinsky & Mary-Rose Abraham _abc_
those penny jars could be worth something: 3 cents per copper penny (as opposed to those new zinc slugs)
 
Proposed Bills 2011

2011-12-02

DJIA	12,019.42
S&P 500(SPX)	1,244.28
NASDAQ(COMP)	2,626.93
Nikkei	8,643.75
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)	2.05%
crude oil(CL2F)	$100.96/barrel
natgas(NG12F)	$3.59/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RB2F)	$2.60/gal
heatingoil(HO2F)	$2.99/gal
gold(GC1Z)	$1,751.30/ounce
silver(SI1Z)	$32.22/ounce
platinum(PL2F)	$1,555.55/ounce
palladium(PA1Z)	$577.77/ounce
copper(HG1Z)	$0.2222/ounce
soybeans	$11.3975/bushel
maize	$5.995/bushel
wheat	$6.2525/bushel
dollarindex (DXY)	78.609
yenperdollar (USDYEN)	78.03
dollarspereuro (EURUSD)	$1.3409
dollarsperpound (GBPUSD)	$1.5596
swissfrancsperdollar (USDCHF)	0.9204
indianrupeesperdollar (USDINR)	51.075
mexicanpesosperdollar (USDMXN)	13.5911
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	613.84

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-12-03

2011-12-03
Michael Cutler _CAPS_
Federal legislative houses of ill repute
"investigations have shown that many aliens who are granted H-1B visas often are less qualified than their American counterparts.   Fraud permeates the entire visa process."
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-12-04

2011-12-04
David North _Center for Immigration Studies_
Yet another employer admits he makes an additional $1K per month per H-1B guest-worker because they're that cheap
One Old Vet
"A provider of physical therapy services, Greater Missouri Medical Pro-Care Providers, Inc. (GMMPCPI), had been charged by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division with five different violations regarding financial arrangements with H-1B physical therapists, all from the Philippines.   Wage and Hour said that the employer had: (1) not paid salaries to 41 of these workers for several months after their arrival in America, as they studied to qualify for the physical therapist license in Missouri; (2) inappropriately confiscated the final pay-checks from 4 of them; (3) deducted moneys from its workers to pay certain H-1B expenses that are supposed to be borne by the employer; and (4) failed to pay cumulative interest to the workers on the sums involved in the first three counts.   During the period between arrival and the passage of the license test the workers had been housed in company-provided apartments and given $50 a week 'for their groceries'.   Actual salaries did not start until the day that the test was passed [so they had no specialized'skills' but were given the H-1B visas, anyway]."

2011-12-04
Tom Lutey _Billings MT Gazette_
Farm lobby
"That everyone seems eager to cut farm subsidies has left economists like Vincent Smith with seeds of doubt.   Smith, the resident farm policy expert at Montana State University, suspects [tax-victims] might be in for an even bigger bill for farm programs as new programs are swapped for the ones being cut.   He's become one of the loudest voices in a growing chorus of critics who say that while Congress insists true cuts are ahead, it risks playing subsidy Whack-A-Mole, with new programs popping up for every one cut...   'The biggest farms get the biggest subsidies and very little trickles down to the poorest farmers who are often used as the poster children for continuing these programs.'...   [Tax-victims] supply $18G a year in federal support to farmers, including more than $255M to Montanans, according to USDA.   The argument for the subsidy is that volatile markets and unpredictable weather make farming a very risky business.   Recent farm income has cast doubt on the need for so much federal bounce in the farm safety net.   Net farm income this year surpassed $100G, for the first time in history the USDA reported last week.   That's a 28% increase from the previous year, which had also produced considerably higher profits than the year before.   The mean farm household income in 2010 was $84,440, nearly double the average household income of a Montana family in 2010, according to USDA and Census data...   House Budget Committee chairman representative Paul Ryan, R-WI, proposed a $30G cut to farm subsidies over the next decade.   Democratic president Barack Obama's deficit plan, released earlier this year, included a $33G farm subsidy cut over 10 years...   Crop insurance companies now collect nearly as much in administrative fees as the programs they manage pay out, Smith said.   [Tax-victims] cover 60% of the farmer's cost of the insurance, then pay $3G a year in administration fees to the insurance companies."

2011-12-04
Mark J. Perry
MIT billion prices project index trending downward
10 year treasuries prediction falls below 2% inflation

2011-12-04
Mark J. Perry
big oil redraws energy map and heads back home: USA is at forefront of unconventionals revolution

2011-12-04
Mark J. Perry
New cars: Why not report unit sales AND prices? Inflation marches on
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-12-23
Roger Kaplan _American Spectator_
The weapons of the spirit

2011-12-23
Paul Johnson _American Spetator_
_Norman Rockwell's America_ wowed England this year
"He showed how ordinary Americans lived, worked, laughed, and worried, had fun and argued, learned and enjoyed themselves, in peace and war, in the second quarter of the 20th century, in authentic detail and with dazzling accuracy in hundreds of covers for the Saturday Evening Post.   His was perhaps the most sustained and successful exercise in social realism in the whole history of art, remarkable alike for superb craftsmanship, unflinching honesty, and invariable consistency.   Of course the art critics hated him, and still do."

2011-12-23
Anthony Watts
AFP reports on hollow metallic spheres falling from space

2011-12-23
Anthony Watts
NOAA's new Cray XK6 super-computer at ORNL revealed

2011-12-23
Dave Gibson _Examiner_
National Border Patrol Council declare they have no confidence in new U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner David Aguilar
"[Aguilar] has consistently voiced his support for a guest worker program for illegal aliens as well as concentrating his agency's resources only on drug traffickers and OTMs (other than Mexicans) [and failed to back rank and file border agents]."

2011-12-23 (5772 Kislev 27)
R' Nathan Lopes Cardozo _Jewish World Review_
Authentic religiosity: reality or dream?

2011-12-23 (5772 Kislev 27)
Mark Clayton _Jewish World Review_
Bradley Manning case signals US vulnerability to "insider" cyber-attacks
 
Proposed Bills 2011

2011-12-23

DJIA	12,294.00
S&P 500(SPX)	1,265.33
NASDAQ(COMP)	2,618.64
Nikkei	8,395.16
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)	2.03
crude oil(CL2G)	$99.68/barrel
natgas(NG12F)	$3.11/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RB2F)	$2.69/gal
heatingoil(HO2F)	$2.89/gal
gold(GC2G)	$1,608.70/ounce
silver(S12H)	$29.11/ounce
platinum(PL2F)	$1,430.20/ounce
palladium(PA2H)	$659.55/ounce
copper(HG2G)	$0.216875/ounce
soybeans	$11.635/bushel
maize	$6.205/bushel
wheat	$6.215/bushel
dollarindex (DXY)	79.99
yenperdollar (USDYEN)	78.06
dollarspereuro (EURUSD)	$1.3037
dollarsperpound (GBPUSD)	$1.5597
swissfrancsperdollar (USDCHF)	0.9367
indianrupeesperdollar (USDINR)	52.735
mexicanpesosperdollar (USDMXN)	13.8551
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	593.09

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-12-24

2011-12-24
Ashley Luthern _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
North Lima, OH, inventor, John Garver, recalls heyday of his whirling ornament
"Since the twirler heyday, Garver, a physicist, has invented numerous other products, ranging from tennis racket improvements to handles for jump stretch bands, and taught science in Boardman for 30 years.   Still, he may best be remembered for the twirler ornaments."

2011-12-24
William L. Anderson
Krugman, Keynesianism and pos-truth pseudo-economics
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-12-25

2011-12-25
Robert Moore _Cenantua_
Christmas in Hagerstown MD 1861

2011-12-25
John Rosemond _Charlotte NC Observer_/_Youngstown OH Vindicator_/_McClatchy_
Failure to teach rationality, patience and responsibility
"When I began writing this column in 1976, I never thought parents would ever ask me for advice concerning problems with young adult children, and for many years they did not.   Over the past 10 years or so, however, as the pigeons of what I call Post-modern Psychological Parenting have come home to roost, more and more parents have asked me what to do about children (and they are most definitely still children) in their twenties and even thirties still living at home, still expecting their parents to solve their problems, and still acting irresponsibly.   For 40 years and counting, American parents have raised children in a manner that emphasizes feelings over rational thought and good citizenship.   With rare exception, post-1960s 'experts' encouraged parents to focus on the 'inner child', allow their children to express feelings freely, and cultivate high self-esteem.   In the home and America's public schools, training children to think straight and prepare them for responsible adulthoods took a back seat to helping them feel good about themselves and protecting them from failure and disappointment...   When feelings are not bridled by rational thinking, they drive behavior that is often irresponsible, self-dramatic, and destructive (of self and others).   When the goal of parenting was to teach the child to think properly and act responsibly, that description rarely applied to a child above age 12, which is why coming-of-age rituals like the Jewish Bar Mitzvah took place around a child's 13th birthday."

2011-12-25
Karl Henkel _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
2.4 earth-quake was area's 9th since March
"A magnitude 2.4 earth-quake -- the ninth since March with an epicenter in Mahoning county -- shook Youngstown at 01:24 Saturday...   The preliminary determination from USGS was that the depth was 4 kilometers or 2.4 miles below the ground. All of the other shakes registered depths of about 5 kilometers or 3.1 miles...   The approximate depth of the latest quake is about 7K feet below the bottom of the D&L Energy Inc. brine-injection well.   About 300 feet of the D&L injection well reaches the depth of the Precambrian, a nearly impermeable formation, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources."

2011-12-25
Dinesh Ramde _Knoxville TN News Sentinel_/_AP_
More young Americans are finding opportunities in farming

2011-12-25
Devvy Kidd _rense_
Anchor babies -- Florida can make history

2011-12-25
Mark J. Perry
What those earning the average can afford: 1966 vs. 2011, and ignoring quality and durability
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-12-26

2011-12-26
Dave Gibson _Examiner_
Repeat offender employer of illegal aliens in San Diego sentenced to small fine, no prison time
"he admitted to hiring at least 91 illegal aliens between 2005 and 2008.   Malecot also admitted to re-hiring many illegal aliens even after discovering they had used bogus [Socialist Insecurity numbers, SINs]...   Of course, if the federal government would implement mandatory prison sentences for CEOs who hire illegal aliens, the practice of hiring illegal aliens would be nearly eradicated in rather short order."

2011-12-26 04:00PST (07:00EST) (12:00GMT) (14:00 Jerusalem)
Phillip Brownlee _Wichita KS Eagle_/_McClatchy_
Enforcing laws conscientiously enough to make life difficult for illegal aliens is necessary to get them to leave

2011-12-26
Reed Coray
Black-body radiation and earth minus GHGs

2011-12-26
Craig Rucker
Shutting down power plants: Imaginary benefits, extensive harm

2011-12-26
Anthony Watts
Sea cucumbers are gobbling up great barrier reef's calcium carbonate

2011-12-26
Edith Miller _Washington DC Times_
Obummer signed expenditure bill, then announced he will violate it

2011-12-26
Joe Guzzardi _Californians for Population Stabilization_
Max Marty and Blueseed plan to park ship off-shore to take advantage of US markets, but avoid extremely loose guest-work laws

2011-12-26 04:36PST (07:36EST) (12:36GMT) (14:36 Jerusalem)
Scott Robinson _Tech Republic_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
Watch what you say around non-STEM people... especially users... and B-school bozos
"It would be very, very interesting to conduct an experiment along these lines, to measure just how much our IT brain-storms can screw up a project: put 2 or 3 of us in a room with half a dozen client users, and give them all 2 or 3 possible solutions apiece; then turn them loose, and follow up with everybody they talk to afterwards, and find out just what they said we said.   We'd probably be horrified."

2011-12-26
John Fauber _Milwaukee WI Journal Sentinel_
relationship between Medtronic and U of WI profs Anderson & Zdeblick under increasing oversight
"In the letter to U.S. Senate investigators, university officials acknowledged Zdeblick had implanted 4 kinds of Medtronic devices that he invented or had a role in inventing a total of 179 times in the previous 3 years."

2011-12-26
Peter Morici _Baltimore MD Sun_
4 reasons for concern over economy
"[Red China] and other nations have abused freer trade through export subsidies and import barriers to boost their economies at the expense of others...   Second, oil is rising above $100/barrel...   Third, European leaders, to tackle their sovereign debt crisis, are cutting spending and raising taxes but not dealing with flaws in the Eurozone architecture..."

2011-12-26 09:30PST (12:30EST) (17:30GMT) (19:30 Jerusalem)
Nick Allen _London Telegraph_
Tohono O'odham and Lakota Amerindians track illegal aliens along US border
"The smugglers have already fled.   Inside, a small amount of marijuana remains but the main cargo has gone...   Disappointed, [he] indicates a hill a few hundred yards away where one of the drug cartel spotters may be hiding.   He explains that the spotters sit on peaks all the way from the border to Phoenix.   They out-number the Shadow Wolves and are equipped with night vision goggles, mobile phones and radios that deliver encrypted messages to drug mules on the ground. Other spotters work for people smuggling gangs and are in touch with the 'coyotes' who guide groups of illegal immigrants across the desert."

2011-12-26
William L. Anderson
Krugman's toxic environmentalism

2011-12-26
Mark J. Perry
USA #1 in charitability

2011-12-26
Mark J. Perry
NY home-owners switching to natural gas for heating

2011-12-26
Mark J. Perry
paint-on solar-electric power panel

2011-12-26
Mark J. Perry
new oil and gas finds/ extraction methods reducing dependence on foreign oil
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-12-27

2011-12-27
Anne d'Inocenzio _Fox_/_AP_
Conference Board's consumer confidence index rose from revised 55.2 in November to 64.5
Los Angeles CA Times
Jeffry Bartash: MarketWatch
Washington DC Times

2011-12-27 10:09PST (13:09EST) (18:09GMT) (20:09 Jerusalem)
Joe Harris _CourtHouse News_
forced labor, human trafficking, RICO violations, and H-1B visa fraud charged in class action suit
justia Texas northern district
"A federal class action alleging forced labor, human trafficking and RICO violations claims a financial services tech company uses bait-and-switch tactics to lure foreign workers, whom it defrauds and underpays in violation of their employment agreements and of visa rules.   Lead plaintiff Venkata Sudhakar Amerineni sued Maruthi Technologies dba Anblicks, 3 Maruthi officers, and Gavs Information Services dba Gavs Technologies.   Maruthi's home page on the Internet claim it offers 'innovative solutions for moving forward and navigat[ing] the road to recovery for financial sector'.   The class claims Maruthi uses bait-and-switch tactics to recruit foreign workers, then does not pay the full, legally required prevailing wages to workers with H-1B visas.   Defendant Vamsi Kadiyala is described as a U.S. citizen and resident of India, who travels to the United States to do business for Maruthi and himself.   'At all material times, Vamsi Kadiyala has been an owner of Maruthi.   Vamsi Kadiyala was responsible for directing fraudulent operations and making false representations and attestations on behalf of Maruthi with regard to H-1B workers, including representations made regarding the plaintiff's H-1B visa application.', the complaint states.   Defendant Padmaja Kadiyala also is described as a U.S. citizen who lives in India and travels to the United States for business.   She is accused of being 'responsible for directing fraudulent operations and making false representations and attestations on behalf of Maruthi with regard to H-1B workers as discussed herein, including representations made regarding the plaintiff's H-1B visa application'.   Defendant Kumar Tirumal, of Irving, TX, 'has been the operations director of Maruthi', the complaint states.   'Tirumal was responsible for directing fraudulent operations and making false representations and attestations on behalf of Maruthi with regard to H-1B workers as discussed herein.'..."

2011-12-27
David Skolnick _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Friendly neighborhood disagreement over candidates for president

2011-12-27
Anthony Watts
NRDC's ridiculous weather IS climate "sound the general alarm" map

2011-12-27
Brett French _Billings MT Gazette_
Arctic snowy owls are moving south into contiguous 48 states this winter

2011-12-27
Anthony Watts
BBC coordinating propaganda efforts with warmists

2011-12-27
Dave Gibson _Examiner_
Bob Clark, director of "Christmas Story" was killed by DUI illegal alien in 2007

2011-12-27
Gary Nelms _Springfield MO News-Leader_/_Gannett_
renegotiation of trade deals is crucial to economic survival

2011-12-27
Anthony Watts
Stop the presses: North American mammals have been adapting and evolving over the last 65M years

2011-12-27
Mark J. Perry
Economics of diamonds, cocaine and coffee

2011-12-27
Mark J. Perry
questions from an econ professor
Don Boudreaux: Pittsburgh PA Tribune-Review: And the answer is?
"Why do so many Americans today wax nostalgic about lost manufacturing jobs while they send their children to college to study medicine, nursing, law, computer science and many other disciplines for the service sector [where ever more US workers are being displaced]?"

2011-12-27
Mark J. Perry
updates on the shale oil and gas revolution

2011-12-27
Mark J. Perry
Markets in everything; RedNek Wine Glasses

2011-12-27 (5772 Tevet 01)
Gloria Goodale _Jewish World Review_
Religiously active people are also more civically involved
"Religious activism is good for civic life in America, according to a new study out from the Pew Research Center Project on the Internet and American Life released on Friday.   The report finds that some 40% of Americans engage in some form of religious activity.   And in turn, they feel better all around about their place in the larger civic community."

2011-12-27 (5772 Tevet 01)
Hudson Sangree _Jewish World Review_
Left coast judges trying to re-define "parent"

2011-12-27 (5772 Tevet 01)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Random thoughts
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-12-28

2011-12-28
_US News & World Report_
Should H-1B visa applicants have to meet higher standards?
Norm Matloff
John Miano
"Over the previous year, the United States lost 19,740 computer jobs, 107,200 engineering jobs, and 243,870 science jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.   In spite of massive job losses, industry has managed to use up the entire quota of H-1B visas, most of which went to foreign workers in these fields.   It is likely over 100K H-1B visas were given out this year [as has been the practice for the last decade]...   the statute redefines the term 'prevailing wage' in such a manner that an employer can legally pay a software engineer in Edison, NJ, $34,133 a year less than the median wage."
Ron Hira
"Employers have told the U.S. Government Accountability Office that they use the H-1B program because they are able to pay H-1Bs less than an Americans.   The practice of exploiting the H-1B program for cheaper labor appears to be widespread.   The GAO found that 54% of the H-1B visa applications were for the lowest wage level, approximately the 17th percentile.   The wage differentials can be very significant, providing up to a 60% discount over American workers in some cases...   Second, employers do not have to search for American workers before hiring an H-1B or L-1 and can even replace American workers with H-1Bs and L-1s.   News reports indicate that American workers are being replaced by H-1Bs at companies such as Wachovia, A.C. Nielsen, and Pfizer.   In a well-known case that captured Congress's attention, Siemens forced its American workers to train their L-1 replacements.   The third flaw is that the employer, rather than the worker, holds the visa...   employers are using the program to off-shore tens of thousands of high-wage, high-skilled American jobs...   most of the largest H-1B employers sponsor very few of their H-1Bs for permanent residency."
Jason Dzubow
Daniel Stein
"In 2006, the National Science Foundation estimated that there were at most 5.8M U.S. jobs in STEM fields and 16.6M workers with degrees in these professions."
John Feinblatt
Tamar Jacoby
Bruce A. Morrison
Having hundreds of thousands of US citizen STEM workers unemployed reduces US productivity and innovation...jgo

2011-12-28 06:00PST (09:00EST) (14:00GMT) (16:00 Jerusalem)
Wil Limoges _Tech Republic_/_Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
Great resources for polishing your tech skills

2011-12-28
Ann Coulter
Grading the candidates on immigration and Obummercare

2011-12-28
Anthony Watts
30 years of federal subsidies for maize-to-ethanol projects have ended

2011-12-28
Anthony Watts
CO₂ bubbled through reef shows no harm to coral or fish

2011-12-28
William L. Anderson
space aliens and other Keynesian delusions

2011-12-28
Mark J. Perry
Crony socialism closes India's doors to WM

2011-12-28
Mark J. Perry
Obummercare has shifted plans from "hire and grow" to "cut and survive"

2011-12-28
Mark J. Perry
Energy graphs of the year

2011-12-28
John Miano _Center for Immigration Studies_
excessive H-1B visas are a sympton of corrupt influence in DC
"Over the previous year, the United States lost 19,740 computer jobs, 107,200 engineering jobs, and 243,870 science jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.   In spite of massive job losses, industry has managed to use up the entire quota of H-1B visas, most of which went to foreign workers in these fields.   [Over 100K H-1B visas have been given out each year over the last decade.]...   the statute redefines the term 'prevailing wage' in such a manner that an employer can legally pay a software engineer in Edison, NJ, $34,133 a year less than the median wage."

2011-12-28
_Judicial Watch_
DoL's Solis more concerned that illegal aliens be paid minimum wage than that they and their employers be jailed for the illegal employment relationship

2011-12-28 (5772 Tevet 02)
Howard LaFranchi _Jewish World Review_
Has Obummer's "let's talk" approach improved or worsened the international situation?

2011-12-28 (5772 Tevet 02)
Habiba Salihu & Kate Thomas _Jewish World Review_
Christians flee after jihadists bomb Nigerian churches on Christmas

2011-12-28 (5772 Tevet 02)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Gullible Americans
"During the legislative debate before enactment of the 16th Amendment, Republican President William Taft and congressional supporters argued that only the rich would ever pay federal income taxes.   In fact, in 1913, only 0.5% of income earners were affected.   Those earning $250K a year in today's dollars paid 1%, and those earning $6M in today's dollars paid 7%.   The 16th Amendment never would have been enacted had Americans not been duped into believing that only the rich would pay income taxes.   It was simply a lie to exploit American gullibility and envy...   At its beginning, in 1966, Medicare cost $3G.   The House Ways and Means Committee, along with President Lyndon Johnson, estimated that Medicare would cost an inflation-adjusted $12G by 1990.   In 1990, Medicare topped $107G.   That's 9 times Congress' prediction.   Today's Medicare tab comes to $523G and shows no signs of leveling off.   The 2009 Medicare trustees report put the unfunded Medicare liability at $89T.   The 1966 Medicare cost estimate was simply a congressional and White House lie to get the American people to buy into their agenda."
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-12-29

2011-12-29 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (13:30GMT) (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 490,364 in the week ending December 24, an increase of 69,261 from the previous week.   There were 525,710 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.9% during the week ending December 17, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,597,548, a decrease of 30,448 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 3.3% and the volume was 4,116,684.   The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending December 10 was 7,231,514, an increase of 79,385 from the previous week.   Extended benefits were available in AL, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, WA, WV, and WI during the week ending December 10.   States reported 2,926,135 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending December 10, a decrease of 15,022 from the prior week.   There were 3,711,288 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;
to 126,188,733 beginning 2011-10-01.]
EUC (Excel)
EB
graphs
more graphs

2011-12-29
Karen M. Kroll _CFO World_/_IDG_
SOME of the curses of the H-1B visa program
Norway
Germany
Singapore
"Rochester Institute of Technology public-policy associate professor Ron Hira, claimed H1-B and other guest worker programs 'have made it too easy to bring in cheaper foreign workers, with ordinary skills, who directly substitute for, rather than complement, workers already in America'.   And if the 21-year-old program -- which has produced more than 1M petitions or visa extensions from fiscal 2006 to 2010 -- is sometimes berated by the companies who use it, and the experts who see its policy shortcomings, H1-B just as often is vilified for the frustrations it creates for the employees in the system."

2011-12-29
Mark J. Perry
October production of natural gas set new record

2011-12-29
Mark Krikorian _Center for Immigration Studies_
Bipartisanship in worsening immigration law and its enforcement

2011-12-29 (5772 Tevet 03)
Ruth Walker _Jewish World Review_
Russia is Europe's most religious nation

2011-12-29 (5772 Tevet 03)
Taylor Luck _Jewish World Review_
one year after Tunisian revolt began, little has changed

2011-12-29 (5772 Tevet 03)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Republican voters' choices
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-12-30

2011-12-30
Charles S. Johnson _Billings MT Gazette_
Montana supremes uphold state ban on diect spending by corporations for or against political candidates
"The justices ruled 5-2 in favor of the state attorney general's office and commissioner of political practices to uphold the initiative passed by Montana voters in 1912...   '...the Montana law at issue in this case cannot be understood outside the context of the time and place in was enacted, during the early 20th century.   (Montana became a state in 1889.)   Those tumultuous years were marked by rough contests for political and economic domination primarily in the mining center of Butte, between mining and industrial enterprises controlled by foreign trusts or corporations.   These disputes had profound long-term impacts on the entire state, including issues regarding the judiciary, the location of the state capitol, the procedure for election of U.S. senators, and the ownership and control of virtually all media outlets in the state.' --- chief justice Miek McGrath"

2011-12-30 03:13PST (06:13EST) (11:13GMT) (13:13 Jerusalem)
_Cumberland PA Sentinel_/_AP_
Plasma dental tool speeds cleaning & disinfecting of cavities

2011-12-30
Anthony Watts
"We need more hurricanes like Irene to save the coral reefs"

2011-12-30
William L. Anderson
Keynes is still wrong

2011-12-30
Mark J. Perry
restaurant sales have recovered to 2007 August level

2011-12-30
Mark J. Perry
petroleum may be #1 US export in 2012

2011-12-30
David North _Center for Immigration Studies_
3 developments in non-immigrant guest-work visa programs
"an affiliate of Harvard University and the U.S. Department of Labor had ganged up to use an obscure part of the law to lower the wages of an H-1B worker hired to design software for a Boston-area hospital...   not only did the law in question, the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1998 (ACWIA), make it easier for certain institutions to pay lower wages to their H-1B workers, it also allowed them access to such workers outside the normal numerical ceilings, simply because of an affiliation with a university...   Congress made a somewhat more straightforward decision to delay a wage increase for another bunch of nonimmigrant workers, the unskilled non-agricultural ones that labor in the H-2B program...   a tiny band of employers [including, as I recall, relatives of Nancy Pelosi], of a certain class of nonimmigrant workers in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), are protesting loudly that they will have to pay FICA taxes on the wages of their alien workers.   (People in these islands, just north of Guam, are probably unaware that Mainland users of the H-1B and the H-2B program have been paying such taxes for decades.)   The workers in question had been brought to the islands in the bad old days when local politicians ran the islands' immigration policy, rather than the federal government.   The once-jailed Jack Abramoff, as the islands' well-paid lobbyist in Washington, kept Congress from correcting the situation for years.   After federal control over immigration was established, DHS made a series of interim arrangements (criticized in a web log of mine headed 'Obama Caves to Ghosts of DeLay, Abramoff on CNMI Migrant Rules') which created a CNMI-only temporary legal status for these workers."

2011-12-30
Ross Kaminsky _American Spectator_
Obummer is no friend of the middle class

2011-12-30 (5772 Tevet 04)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Obummer's foreign policy failures

2011-12-30 (5772 Tevet 04)
Ruth Walker _Jewish World Review_
looking under teh "eves" at the holidays
"Even, from the Old English 'fen', originally meant 'evening', as in the opposite of morning.   Sometime before the year 1200, the 'n' got broken off somehow -- people thought it was an 'inflexion' (inflection) of some sort, according to the Online Etymological Dictionary, evidently quoting the Oxford English Dictionary.   Evening came into the language in the mid-15th century, a 'verbal noun' meaning 'to become evening, grow toward evening'.   The new word crowded outeven, which, minus its 'n', had acquired its "evening before" or 'day before' meaning...   And so it would seem that not only did the Almighty create the heaven and the earth in 7 days, He did it while working the swing shift.   (And, as the techies' old joke has it, the reason He was able to do it was that He didn't have any legacy software to deal with.)"
 
Proposed Bills 2011

2011-12-30

DJIA	12,217.56
S&P 500(SPX)	1,257.60
NASDAQ(COMP)	2,605.15
Nikkei	8,455.35
10-year US T-Bond(UST10Y)	1.87
crude oil(CL2G)	$98.83/barrel
natgas(NG12G)	$2.99/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline(RB2F)	$2.69/gal
heatingoil(HO2F)	$2.91/gal
gold(GC2G)	$1,566.80/ounce
silver(S12H)	$27.92/ounce
platinum(PL2J)	$1,404.90/ounce
palladium(PA2H)	$656.125/ounce
copper(HG2G)	$0.215/ounce
soybeans	$12.05/bushel
maize	$6.4275/bushel
wheat	$6.5150/bushel
dollarindex (DXY)	80.289
yenperdollar (USDYEN)	77.14
dollarspereuro (EURUSD)	$1.2975
dollarsperpound (GBPUSD)	$1.5523
swissfrancsperdollar (USDCHF)	0.9365
indianrupeesperdollar (USDINR)	53.015
mexicanpesosperdollar (USDMXN)	13.951
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	588.88

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

2011-12-31

2011-12-31 10:51PST (13:51EST) (18:51GMT) (20:51 Jerusalem)
Neil Munro _Daily Caller_
Obummer admin refusing to deport illegal aliens charged with crimes
"An administration December 29 memo declares that [deportation proceedings against illegal aliens charged with other crimes will not be carried out until and only if they've been convicted of a major crime].   The declaration 'means lots of criminal aliens will be released if the locals don't have the resources or inclination to prosecute, or if the [defendant] is found not guilty because of a technicality', said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies...   President Barack Obama's campaign aides frequently say they're seeking Hispanic support to win crucial states, such as North Carolina and Arizona...   Janet Napolitano...has ordered immigration officials to largely ignore illegals who have not been convicted of major crimes.   She also released the new memo on Dec. 29.   The Dec. 29 memo also announced a new 24-hour legal-aid hot-line for illegal immigrants and a revised check-list for federal immigration officers...   the public and Congress oppose any amnesty that would bring more low-skilled workers into an economy where unemployment is above 10% among low-skilled workers, Hispanics and African-Americans.   Unemployment is so high that fewer than 50% of African-American males aged between 20 and 30 have a full-time job."

2011-12-31
Anthony Watts
SSTs cooler now than in Medieval warming period
billions may die in 2012

2011-12-31
Mark J. Perry
abundant natural gas has led to lower prices

2011-12-31
Mark J. Perry
animated map/graph of Bakken shale oil production

2011-12-31
Mark J. Perry
Marcellus shale natural gas production resulting in falling prices in OH and PA

2011
Lorri Freifel _Training Magazine_
2011 training industry report: 13% increase in expenditures; average $800 more pay to trainers from 2010
Nathalie Gosset: Chronicle of Higher Education
 
Proposed Bills 2011
 
 

 
Proposed Bills 2011

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

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